Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

The two lances exploded behind Asura with a massive explosion, clearing the clouds from the sky, filling it with darkness.

Asura couldn't hold back his irritation.

This monster waited for him and Seere to fight, all so he could turn the former monarch into his puppet. Though, thanks to the abundant vital energy in his chest constantly pumping, Asura would never tire of something so minor.

He could still hear the ring of cannons firing in the distance, shouts from Lorem and Helliana fighting against the undead ships.

'Well, it appears that their forces started to collapse with the fall of Seere. Mortis turned his attention away from the other undead and focused on his new toy.'

"Let's fight, you damned corpse!"

Asura grasped his sword, holding it close to his chest, while observing the abyssal Monarch Seere, who flicked his wrist and sent the undead Seere at him with his silver spear.

Woosh!

Seere's speed was like a bullet; he was at the faraway one moment, and right next to him the next, the tip of his silver spear aiming at Asura's heart.

Asura, however, easily caught his spear and tossed him into the sky.

He didn't even look at him. His mind was focused on the abyssal Monarch Mortis in front of him, whose hands cracked with a dark green and black energy.

"Mortis!"

Asura roared and charged forward with his blade.

The dark energy from Mortis's palm crackled and formed an arc, a crescent-shaped blade made of pure darkness. Its sharpness could even be felt in the surrounding air, slicing the air around the undead Monarch with his movement.

Mortis swung the blade at Asura's head, forcing him to halt and block the blow.

Wooom!

Instantly a black light burst from the joined blades, as a sonic boom echoed with the sword shattering into dark energy that flooded behind Asura, once again staining the sky with darkness. His shoulder spurt blood from a deep wound.

"Tsk!"

In retaliation, Asura let go of his sword with one hand, and punched out at Mortis.

The moment his fist smashed the undead in the face, slamming the lich into the ground, Seere's spear pierced the air just beside Asura almost penetrating his chest.

Seere's blade sliced across Asura, forcing him to pull back and give Mortis space to breathe.

"Damn it!"

Asura could feel a coldness spreading through his chest from the wound, while he stared at the silver-haired youth in front of him, eyes lacking any life, protecting the lich like a silent guardian.

"Hahaha! See you cannot win against me." Mortis stood from the ground, his jaw missing two teeth and the slight skin remaining now torn and oozing black goo.

He held out his arms and laughed. "The Monarchs shall rise to claim this world, and your kind will become our cattle."

Asura ignored the words, but in his heart, his rage boiled.

This Mortis had become an absolute eyesore.

But before Asura could move, he heard the clanking sound of chains. The air warped in front of him, chains snaked around him, almost wrapping his body, forcing him back.

The fingers of mortis snapped, and the chains vanished.

'I have to make an opening somehow.'

Asura flapped his wings, watching the pair in silence, before coming up with a plan as he rushed towards them in the sky.

Mortis and Seere came at him. Mortis held a dark blade made of his magic, and Seere grasped his spear.

'If this attack doesn't work then I'm not sure if I can hold this place alone, but it should be enough.'

Asura pulled back his blade and swung it at Seere.

Seere's spear moved instantly to intercept it.

However, inside his mouth, Asura sucked magic into his mouth slowly, forming a flickering black and white flame, one of destruction and rebirth.

He believed that since Seere was no longer an Abyssal Monarch but a reanimated corpse, his fire should be able to send him off. Thus, as he clashed with the silver knight, his body flung back with each blow, causing Mortis to cackle while flinging black sword beams towards him.

'Now!'

The next clash between Seere's blade and his, as they both were flung apart from each other, the black and white flames erupted in his throat.

He opened his mouth and let out a roar of flames that consumed the undead.

However, Mortis didn't seem to fear this attack. He only lifted his hand, creating a barrier of bone, blocking the flame.

"Good." Experience more on empire

That's what Asura wanted because the moment Mortis defended, he focused the breath onto the silver knight lunging towards him to protect his undead master.

Zoooon

A massive explosion of light and flames rocked the sky, as Asura blocked the tip of Seere's spear using his sword, pressed along his chest, while he spewed the deadly flames that engulfed the former monarch.

The light from the flame shone, blinding all in the vicinity.

Seere's body immediately started to crumble from the phoenix fire of rebirth and destruction combined, overwhelming him and turning him to dust.

"Good!"

Asura roared and turned his head to face the undead lich.

"MORTIS! PREPARE TO DIE."

Asura shouted with glee. But the flames faded, and a shadow appeared from behind them.

Seere, who should have been burnt to dust, remained.

His body was half charred, the right side of his body vanished. However, a green light pulsed inside his chest where a black crystal lived.

The black crystal flared a green light and rapidly began pulsating, while his spear continued to push towards Asura, forcing him back. The undead didn't seem to even feel any pain at the lost arm and body.

Asura looked at the sight, and couldn't help but chuckle to himself, their blades colliding with beautiful arcs of silver and black aura clashing together. He pushed back and lunged forward again, his sword cutting through Seere and piercing his chest.

He ripped out the beating crystal heart from inside the corpse and crushed it. With black flames enveloping his fist, the undead puppet spasmed.

The body went limp and fell, turning into ash as it dropped from the sky. But the black heart crystal remained floating in the air. It lingered for a moment, Asura confused how to react.

Maybe he could seal this crystal.

But while he watched it, the aura suddenly started to suck into the crystal and flow in reverse. Like a bomb going off, it exploded in a wave of darkness.

The black and white flame was sucked back into the crystal. And it expanded like a dark star forming.

"What?" Asura felt his body weaken.

He had used the flames in such a dangerous way that now his power was sucked from his body into the crystal as the skeleton shield Mortis created crumbled. His wounds, once only painful cuts and slashes, now opened and poured out blood.

The dark star in front of him shifted and transformed, revealing a dull crystal filled with cracks. He couldn't think of anything else to do apart from hitting it towards Mortis.

Asura smashed his sword against it, and the dark star flew back, piercing through the skull of the lich.

"ARGHHH!"

A loud scream shook the air as a beam of dark energy erupted into the sky from his body, consuming everything around it.

Asura covered his face and tried to fly back, but the light grew and consumed his world.

Suddenly, his wings vanished disintegrated, as his body received an intense impact, as if hit by a rock giant in the stomach. His body slammed towards the ground, meanwhile he couldn't see what happened to Mortis.

The ground rushed up at him, the black flames that usually surrounded his body weakened to mere flickering candles.

He slammed into the ground, smashing it, before bouncing twice, his body rolling onto his back and gazing up at the pitch-black sky devoid of light and stars.

"Damn… it."

He could feel the black flames within him, his vision fading to black. His strength sucked into that crystal and turned into a bomb, and a wave of weakness took over his body.

The only thing he noticed was that the entire castle of Ulvar vanished, with half the port devastated.

"Where is that bastard…"

Asura could only speak with a weak voice, his eyes looking into the distance, with the vague image of two women flying towards him with vivid expressions of worry.

They seemed to shout at him with pale faces.