Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

"Clarice, forgive my weakness in letting you die."

Asura turned to find that most of the students who came with them were now outside.

Akkrum's armour seemed to have the light element imbued in its silver metal, stopping him from succumbing to the charming effect of the abyss tentacles using void magic.

"He saved everyone. Maybe he is worth befriending for real."

Void magic wasn't something Asura could use because its entire existence was abstract. Some void magic would control the temperature and weather in the Abyss.

Others could change reality itself like they became gods.

Yet it wasn't perfect, and the only thing the abyss fiend below could do was attack within a certain area remotely while secreting a powerful mental interference.

'No wonder Barbatos and Lorem didn't approach.'

The tentacles, which take the form of humans, exhaust the most powerful fighters by keeping them away until they are tired after fighting and protecting the students.

'Like a giant catfish.'

'They don't feel real.'

However, Asura's eyes were now different, able to see in the void's darkness, different from the usual dark. It was like a solid colour blocking vision and all light.

Thanks to his bloodlines and the complete liberación form, with both eyes now transformed, he could see clearly, as if shrouded in light.

"Asura, where are you going?" Akkrum asked, following behind Asura in confusion. He couldn't see because of the darkness but noticed Asura's back from the distance. "Shouldn't we warn Knight commander?"

"Akkrum, the things that killed that girl are likely down here. You go back to the top and keep everyone safe. I can trust your abilities. You saved most of our friends earlier. I don't want to lose anyone else because of these monsters, so can you trust me this once?"

"A-Asura! I can. Let me tell the commander!"

He felt a little guilty for using the boy's pure admiration so easily, but Asura knew these tunnels would be a certain death for anyone else.

Even Lorem and Barbatos weren't ready for an Abyss Fiend, and they were the second weakest existence from the Abyss!

Asura didn't want Akkrum to see his current state fully; his left eye was black with a golden pupil, while the right eye had a red pupil.

Both eyes proudly reflected his bloodlines.

'Thankfully, my body's changes hide in this darkness.'

"Okay, but if you are in danger, please shout, okay?"

"Of course, after we finish, let's grab a beer together."

However, as Akkrum and Asura separated ways, he felt a gaze watching him in the darkness.

He stopped, unable to sense anything in front of him, yet the presence in front of him didn't disappear.

Asura even felt the gaze was coming from an entity other than a human, causing him to unsheathe his black blade and hold it close.

In this transformed state, the blade became a claymore, rather than the Eastern style, as it suited his more power-heavy physique with a long blade of 195cm long with a wide and thick blade compared to the thin Eastern blade, which felt over five times heavier despite the edges still being razor sharp.

'I'll this form Devil's Blade.'

Asura didn't know what his void magic would create or produce. Even Azoth couldn't know. In fact, he might even have various types because of his eight rebirths and their linked souls.

'The enemy is trying to locate me, but the runes of my Devil armour seem to alter its ability to scan the abyss.'

He didn't understand this reaction, but the Fiend's reaction told him everything he needed to know.

The Fiend was moving half of its tentacles around underground while also scanning for movement. Its inability to find him wasn't because it was dumb but because of his armour and rune defence, which blocked all auras and signs of life.

Asura, who realised this, started dashing down the dungeon passages, which had twisted and bent, becoming longer and wider thanks to the distortion of the growing Abyss Fiend.

'I can feel the miasma, which would kill any human below Stage Five in minutes, but that doesn't bother me. Thanks to this sweet transformation and shroud.'

Asura rushed through the tunnels, his body able to sense the distance and amount of tentacles moving towards him.

The tentacles could move at an extraordinary speed, with their tips oozing a deadly poison that would make the victim lose all sense of pain while affecting their mental functions, but that wasn't all.

Along the tentacles were sharp spines which carried a paralytic venom that would cling to creatures, as the small barbs on the spines made it difficult to escape them once impaled.

'So, now they are trying to attack all tunnels to find me? However, you won't catch me that easily.'

Asura's sword slashed through the incoming tentacles, which were also leaking miasma and toxins.

A flash of black light flickered and tore through the Abyss, causing even the void to tremble. The heavy sword easily tore the thick tentacles apart, its sharp edge never dulling, even with the potent Abyss miasma.

However, soon, his sword ran across a mass of tentacles, with numbers close to one hundred or more, which would have overwhelmed any normal warrior.

"I haven't lost the ability to use magic, you know?"

Asura held the gigantic sword with his right hand and placed it over his shoulder while pushing out his black palm calmly.

The moment he urged his Animus, the green liquid flooded the location he desired more easily than ever before, forming a huge crackling black arc of lightning.

'Nothing too crazy, Asura. Show him how powerful a condensed Lightning storm can be.'

Asura recalled a new magic Azoth taught him, the spell Storm Break.

It wasn't a mighty spell capable of destroying mountains like an Imperial Scorch or Earth Buster.

This spell was useful in a pinch or tight space by controlling the amount of Animus and condensing it into a tiny sphere of lightning. Well, other elements could work, but mainly lightning.

Hundreds of tentacles closed in as the black lighting cracked.

The sheer force of this spell caused Asura's body to flicker with small arcs of lightning, and his hair stood on its ends. The spell's genuine danger came from its insane concentration of lightning.

"Ravage!"

With a single shout, he flicked his finger forward. The bolt of lightning travelled through the abyss tunnel, cracking and bursting with wild lightning as it struck the many tentacles in the way.

It easily penetrated through the Abyss miasma, disintegrating the tentacles in seconds before tearing a hole in the passage.

"That was awesome! So, I can use the Animus in a better way."

Asura's body swirled with the wind as he shot through the tunnel, following his lightning bolt.

The bolt broke the solid matter apart and weakened the surviving tentacles, which he tore apart with his blade.

Asura burst into the centre of the Fiend's current safe zone, a massive room almost twenty metres long and wide, where he felt an insane amount of pressure and weight from its aura before he saw its size.

"The handsome Duke Aldric ended up like this? A swollen lump of flesh, how lamentable."

Its head was bulbous, with tentacles sticking out the top and back. Two deep fangs shot out its lower mouth as purple liquid dripped out. However, in the centre of its stomach, where countless people had already lost their lives, the image of Duke Aldric of Romantica, shown during briefings, had become fused to the Fiend.

"You won't escape. Now I can see you! Divine Son Asura Fenix!"

Duke Aldric's distorted voice echoed through the area as Asura spun his sword in his hand. He felt the vast mass of tentacles move under the ground as they gathered their forces to attack him.

'So the cult is involved in this too? I thought that woman said I lost my candidacy.'

Asura recalled the words of that woman who called him a failure and lost the mature Helliana, now trapped in bird form and back at the mansion. He felt anger towards the arrogant upper realm and the ignorant cult who followed their process to create a mutant existence like himself.

"Come then, you sad lump of flesh."

Asura grinned, ready to enjoy the coming battle.

He wouldn't stop fighting until he reached the summit or died. He never liked this cult, nor did he value his second chance at life.

Although he said he did, the feeling in his heart never changed. Asura just wanted to live his life how he wanted. If that meant he died early, then so be it.

'At least I will die going down on my own terms!'

Animus began swirling and dancing around Asura's body, eager to listen to his will.

In others' eyes, this would appear as if his magic was running wild. In fact, Asura's transformation and lack of humanity might scare his allies and the kingdom. Yet, in reality, he was in complete control.

It was just that his mind and body had fused. The state he reached wasn't anything remarkable and common among old beings. Yet the potential, hidden in him by Azoth over many lifetimes, was unlocked.

The void combat style of his Asura bloodline and the Abyss King's combat skills, using his Devil bloodline, had fused in perfect unity.

Why?

Because Muru was also born human, Azoth supported Asura because of how he treated Mu Xue. Azoth seemed to have chosen whom to give his legacy to because of his minor act of kindness to the deformed Mu Xue.

However, it might be different this time because, unlike Muru, Mu Xue seemed to have a devil bloodline instead of a human bloodline.

The purplish-black tentacles started rising from the ground, hissing and releasing toxins as the Fiend's mind crashed down on Asura, trying to influence him.

However, that was useless against him now.

"A pathetic Fiend dares bare its fangs against an Abyss Monarch?"

Asura felt it for a moment. His connection with Azoth increased, and their feelings, memories and desires aligned. He felt a unique connection to Azoth, like a kind old man or grandfather, rather than a mere past self. A strange thought, yet it seemed Azoth felt the same.

A half-devil - half-human. Maybe Azoth's ideal future would have seen his son born with Muru.

That's why Asura accepted and didn't deny the feelings of his past self's soul and embraced the current situation with pride.

"Awaken, my abyssal arm."

A flash of crimson light emitted from the blade as black chains rose from the ground, wrapping around the black blade and attaching to the pommel. The chains moved as if alive.

"Devour and feed!"

The chains, which resembled living beasts, slammed into the ground as if to claim territory, only to sink into the void. They pierced through the barriers with strange dragon heads at the end with sharp teeth, and like the head of a hydra, they moved around the enormous room.

His form was no longer just a transformation; Asura finally synchronised completely with his former life and the devil's bloodline.

"You insignificant mortal! I will crush you and steal that power!" The Fiend Aldric screamed as it lunged forward.