Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

Upon Asura's arrival at the area, the knights separated his unit. Vela seemed to get special treatment after Cynthia took her away with the huge royal knight Barbatos. However, the higher-ups ignored Asura. It seemed he wasn't important enough. So, while he had nothing to do, he listened to the students and rumours.

Of course, his primary goal was to meet Mu Xue and Xavida, but this rumour about the forest caused him to become interested. Asura didn't know why, but he felt something drawing him to the forest from the moment he arrived at the camp.

'What is hiding in that forest?'

Asura sat with the young man, who seemed devastated. At first, it was just to boost his spirits. However, the moment he learned what had happened, his thoughts changed. This forest felt strange, and there was something that made him feel dangerous.

"So, your friend Jackson entered the forest and a white monster killed him?"

"Y-Yes! Lord Asura, the monster's arm extended like slime with claws like a wolverine!"

"Understood. Does it appear at night, or is there a specific day?"

"Ah, it will normally howl and somehow students become confused and stumble into the forest, which signals its hunt."

He couldn't accept them treating students like food makes Asura feel strange. In his last life, they were only enemies or people who hindered his success, but now things have changed. He wants to put an end to this monster so no one else will lose their friends and family.

"Lord Asura, are you going to help Clarice?"

"I intend to enter the forest myself."

"Wh-what, by yourself? Don't you know it will be dangerous?"

Asura could only curl his lips into a smirk, peeking at the voice that came from behind him. Akkrum Sveta followed him when he searched around. The young man seemed to want to make it up to him, which Asura found quite amusing.

'I will give him a second chance. He never went too far. He just felt threatened.'

"Will you join me then, Akkrum?"

"A-Ah, well. S-Sure! I can't leave a teammate alone!"

Akkrum panicked, with visible sweat pooling down his forehead and shaky eyes. Yet he joined Asura.

"We will need to prepare. Make sure your weapons are sharp and you have some healing potions or something."

"I will come too!" Clarice said with a determined face, his hand clasping the sword of Jackson.

Thirty minutes later, the three regroup at the wall. Asura is with Nova and his silver blade on both sides of his waist, while he wears a simple black tunic under his chain mail armour.

The other two people wore a makeshift leather chest piece and a chain mail skirt over their linen pants.

*HOWL*

It seemed on queue. The beast's howl sounded strange, eerie, yet charming as if beckoning whoever heard it into the forest. Which it did; two female students who were guarding the wall descended the wooden barricades and stepped towards the forest.

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"Asura, we have to go!"

"Hurry, those girls are far too weak."

"Ah, let's go."

Clarice and Akkrum became excited and worried about the women, while Asura felt an aversion to the forest. It didn't feel the same to the others, but that howl felt like it rejected him personally.

A howl that made him feel disgusted, like a certain person he murdered.

'This has the cult's fingerprints all over it.'

With the two rushing ahead, Asura slowly followed. There was no rush. Although the women were in danger, they weren't deep in the forest yet, so Asura still had time.

He snapped his fingers and allowed the magic to flutter around his arms, ready to attack at a moment's notice. The magic formed black spears with immense power.

Suddenly, Akkrum and Clarice tripped and fell before hitting one girl, causing her to cry on the floor.

"What happened?" Asura asked, looking at the trio on the floor. The first girl vanished ahead without waiting with her unsteady steps.

"Sorry, my leg just suddenly got caught on something."

"Me too! I-it's like someone tripped me on purpose!"

"Shut up, you two. Stop slacking, and let's go after her!"

The girl seemed to have snapped out of the strange, illusory voice and shouted at the two boys while Asura's speed picked up. His feet fluttered with green light as he used wind magic to increase his speed, rushing towards the girl who remained in his vision from the moment they entered the forest.

*HOWL*

Asura felt the monster howl and become more anxious.

*Slash* *Slash*

Something flashed through his eyes as he dodged the sudden claw slashes by his side. His senses focused on the left and right as he continued forward while seeing the girl ahead, and he saw two pairs of golden eyes open in the bushes beside her.

'Two monsters?'

"OH, this, this, this is our enemy!"

"Ahhhsssuraaaa!!!!"

The monster's shadowy figures smashed the girl away, her body floating before crashing into a tree with a fleshy thud—then the two monsters crept through the bushes, wrapping around Asura's sides with their figures obscured.

'Where did these things come from?'

"Damn it, Akkrum and Clarice are idiots. These monsters aren't something first years could handle. Why the fuck didn't the knights assign stronger guards!?"

"Hahahaha!"

A stranger's laugh echoed in his ears, causing Asura to scowl as he leapt back. He noticed the monster's shadowy hands crawling out of the bushes on both sides. One had long claws, making a fleshy sound as they stretched towards him. The other seemed different, with a solid body but a brutal nature hidden behind the eyes of the second monster.

'I was wrong. One of them had red eyes, while the other had golden!'

"They are easy prey. These students are just the tip of the iceberg to gather strong candidates. No, these monsters are after a certain target!"

"Hohohoh, smart little bastards, heheheh!" The dark monster mocked Asura with a deep, reverberating voice if you could call this strange sound a voice.

"Now, now brother, our murderer finally came~ all those tasty snacks for this inferior no-mag!"

"YOU DARE!?,"

Asura became angry, feeling a strange rage taking over him.

'Tasty snacks?'

'These bastards!'

"Ohohoh, did we touch a nerve? A-S-U-R-A?"

"Hehehe, where is your maid? The bitch who killed Emma~ we must tear her flesh off piece by piece."

"Die!"

Asura's anger exploded, pooling energy in his legs as he sprinted towards the two monsters. The gold-eyed monster cackled, while the one with red eyes seemed to read his actions and shot forward with a speed even greater than Asura. The words of these beasts finally brought his dormant madness to the surface.

The beast's claw hand raised for Asura's death blow, aiming to tear through his chain mail.

Asura's magic rippled across his arms. At his command, the magic formed black spears and floated around his arm before unloading into the monster's abdomen.

His right leg smashed the monster's claws, a brutal explosion sounding as the beast's natural magic resistance seemed high. However, Asura's raw magic was only growing, causing his black spears to pierce its chest like several spears.

*Boom* *Boom*

The black monster's claws missed Asura, creating a deep crevice in the ground despite the kick to its face and four spears penetrating its chest. It slammed out with a wild swipe, hitting Asura's body and smashing him away.

*Hahaha*

The shadow monster laughed again as if Asura's attacks meant nothing to these strange creatures. However, the white monster noticed something and supported its twin.

"Dirty Asura, when did you become a monster like us? Hehehehe!" The white monster spoke with a more elegant voice, a strange hat on his head that resembled a crown.

"You are Prince Valos, right?"

"Ohohohohoho! ASuRa!" The white monster wrapped its arms. They seemed like elastic curling and coiling as they writhed, almost seeming to climax while repeating Asura's name with the strange annotation, never once closing their gold eyes focused on his body.

"Why don't you tell us where the maid is, or shall we use one of these humans instead?"

The monsters ignored Asura and spoke to him as if trying to convince him.

A sinister expression flashed over the monster's face at this question.

The next moment, the black demon appeared as if teleporting while holding the necks of both Akkrum and Clarice, their faces bloody and arms broken. Asura felt a sudden sense of danger.

'These monsters could never be the prince, and they are just using the prince as a front!'

Asura wanted to move. However, his parallel thoughts told him to wait. If he moved now, then the two people who followed him might die, a sense of anger building up inside his chest.

'Shit.'

'Fuck!'

'I hate being weak.'

Asura was confident that he could kill one of them. Yet if he killed the black monster, the unpredictable white one would probably strike him in the back with a deadly blow. If he killed the white monster, the black monster would end his two allies.

"Hehehe~ what will it be, Fenix Fenix?" The white monster danced as it spoke.

Asura felt the corner of his lips turn up.

"What do you have in mind, you impotent trash?"

"Hehehe!"

The monster giggled like a small girl while Asura's body shivered and prepared for a deadly fight.

Suddenly, it tossed something towards him, and Asura's body reacted, causing his palm to catch something. The next moment, the white monster, like an elastic band overstretched, snapped and shot towards him with two sharp hands aimed at his chest.

Asura couldn't dodge the attack; instead, drawing his blades, he sliced across his body with both swords, waiting for the attack to fall.

The white monster's hands slashed him, but Asura's twin blades cut through its fleshy claws and carved into a bloody arc. However, its second arm twisted naturally and bent around his guard before thrusting towards his heart.

*Hahaha!*

The black monster erupted into laughter as the white monster's attacks flew in the sharp claws penetrating Asura's armour, tunic and dragon scales like tofu.

'Ah, these are the fucking monsters.'

Asura felt his frustration building as the golden claws pierced his chest.

His parallel thoughts turned the pain off so he could ignore it. Asura's body trembled as the claws twisted and tore his flesh before yanking away at an inhuman speed, causing the claws to rip flesh from the wound, leaving his blood pouring onto the forest floor.

"Gyahaahahah!"

"Gyyoyoyoyo!"

Both monsters were celebrating, but they missed the violent glint in Asura's eye; before his body vanished like a shadow, it faded.

Then the blood became a dark goo that soon vanished as a silver blade sliced off the arms of the black monster while his other arm reached to save his two allies. Asura hopped back to avoid the white monster's revenge while the black monster's body trembled to step back; although its arms could regrow, the sudden damage seemed to shock it.

"Well, it seems you're as stupid as ever. Prince!"