Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

"I wonder what she left..." Lorem looked over Asura’s shoulder, curious, while Helliana snorted with a huff. "We should throw it away! Peh... good riddance."

Asura leaned down and lifted the book. On the cover was a picture of a male standing with both arms crossed.

’What a peculiar book... no title, just the word ’Supreme.’ I can’t help but wonder what it signifies.’ Asura mused. He turned to the first page, only to be confronted by a series of intricate symbols, a language he somehow recognised as that of the deities.

How is this possible?’ Asura’s head throbbed, a dull ache forming as he attempted to decipher the enigmatic text.

"Ouch..." Asura frowned, rubbing his temples. "I get the feeling reading this might kill me." He dropped the book onto the table and slumped into the chair behind him. "So, where were we?"

"Asura... you’re bleeding!" Lorem’s concerned voice sounded as she pressed a cloth to his nose that flooded with fresh blood.

"S-Strange... I felt lightheaded, but now my nose is bleeding."

"Please, don’t read that strange book if it makes you sick. I don’t want you to die!" Helliana added, her hands gently massaging his shoulders.

"Die? Why would I die from reading?" Asura picked the book up, running his fingers along the binding, tracing the stitching. He then entered a strange state of focus. The first page he observed before seemed to contain information about the second phase of the Monolith project. How did he understand this? It was thanks to devouring the soul of that elderly phoenix before he destroyed the monoliths.

"The monoliths were born in the void, nurtured by chaos and blood..."

Asura’s monotone voice echoed. Each word seemed to cause the air to vibrate, as his skin showed various patterns and black runes. These runes were being written into his flesh and bones by the monoliths as he continued to speak of what he read on the first page. "The gods wanted to use the power of the monoliths they found—however, they failed...

Their bodies and spirits couldn’t fuse with the monoliths. No matter how hard they tried..."

Drip!

Drip!

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He experienced a heavy nosebleed, leaving Lorem astonished by the words he uttered, which were not familiar but a strange gibberish that she and Helliana, thanks to being connected to the monoliths and Asura deeply, struggled to comprehend. The words caused great pain in their heads.

Though they didn’t suffer a nosebleed or other damage, they started understanding more about the monoliths that Asura mentioned.

Helliana snapped out of her shock first, dabbing Asura’s other nostril with the bloody towel.

"A group obsessed with the monoliths formed; their leader, the deity of a sun, tried to fuse his body with the monoliths. However, he failed. His body shattered and his spirit fractured; in desperation, that group formed a religion named the Cult of the Divine Sun, and they desired to bring back their beloved deity and make the monoliths bow down to his power."

Asura’s eyes turned black; his flesh was almost full of strange runes and patterns as if there was still some kind of defence mechanism inside the monoliths.

"Asura... please stop...!" Lorem tried to help him, her hands stroking his cheeks while Helliana gripped his hand and placed it on her chest, hoping it would awaken him... but they failed.

Asura continued reciting the first page. "To do this they began experimenting with countless different races, trying to create the perfect vessel... using their lower word influence creating the Cult of the fallen sun to highlight their failures."

"This is inhumane!" Lorem was both angry and anxious. What beings were the gods? To fuse their bodies with the monoliths, creating experiments after experimenting with so many races. It was at that moment that Helliana remembered the day she and Lorem gave Asura to the strange church, which swore to help.

"It was our fault. We made Asura suffer this fate..." Helliana spoke. Lorem didn’t want to listen. Her hands continued stroking his cheeks, desperate to wake him up.

Asura read through the entire first page, the contents continuing onto the second page, something he couldn’t read yet, it seemed, but at the end of the first page, an eerie sentence followed.

"The one fused with the monoliths would never know peace or happiness." The moment Asura spoke these words, his eyes became normal before he started choking, coughing with intense pain visible on his face before he vomited blood, dark, decrepit and disgusting blood... as if it spent years fermenting inside his body, rotting him from the inside.

The moment the ooze left his throat, Asura lost consciousness.

Lorem was in a panic, her tears running down her cheeks while she checked Asura’s body, noticing all the strange runes and patterns, only to find them fading, turning red, but they left a slight imprint on his skin for a few moments, she could barely make out their meaning thanks to the books text and their strange connection...

"Suitable Host confirmed?" Lorem whispered, looking at Helliana. "What does this mean?"

"I don’t know... maybe we should ask someone from the church... like that white snake? She seems to hold affection for Asura—if he might die, she could help..." Helliana murmured. She looked at Asura, her heart hurting from seeing him in such a state. "Or Freyja, she knows for sure...

This book is definitely important."

"Eh... Helia... his magic, its aura is beyond Stage Seven... How?" Lorem seemed shocked, and though she knew his strength was thriving, he wasn’t at this stage a few days ago and mentioned to her that he would take time to breakthrough over the next few days.

Helliana shook her head with a sigh. "I’m not sure, but maybe this book isn’t just a manual or history book, but it prepares the so-called host... but what happens when he reaches Stage Ten? Will it somehow... summon that deity down, or do the monoliths hold a different goal?"

"Let’s get him to a bed and prepare some healthy tonics and soup. His face is pale, and he won’t wake up." Lorem nodded to Helliana’s advice while they carried him to the first-floor guest room, not wanting to drag him too far.

Meanwhile, standing in the distance looking through the window, Freyja sat with a bowl of alcohol with her legs crossed. However, despite Asura succeeding, she didn’t show a smile or joy but a sense of loss and sorrow.

"As I thought, you were accepted. If things continue this way, then those bastards above will sense you... I have to find a way to hide your aura."

Helliana was correct; Freyja knew everything in that booklet, but because she wasn’t suitable as a host, the meaning and hidden secrets would never reveal themselves to her. ’Well, killing a bishop from the upper realm of that shitty cult seemed to help Asura grow again... I swear.’

Her eyes looked towards the sun, beaming with light as it hid the small moon in the distance. ’I swear on my divinity that I will save him from whatever fate those bastards have in store... the same for the monoliths. They will serve my Asura, or I will destroy them and the void that spawned them!’

Though she seemed to be heartless and cared nothing for Asura and his surroundings, it seemed she actually cared more than her actions portrayed.

The one who helped Lorem and Helliana endure the pain so they could read parts of the book and support him was thankful to Freyja.

"Goddamn it, this is all their fault! Now I need to hide my Asura’s energy signature from those shitty bastards... Peh! Maybe if I go on a rampage and slaughter their cults, they might forget about my Asura..." Freyja shook her head and gave a defeated look, her eyes closing as she tossed the alcohol away, instead standing and taking a deep breath.

"No, if that kind of child’s play could distract them, I wouldn’t have it so hard. Their new goddess seems to be young and growing, but I worry... Why do the rumours say she carries a single white phoenix wing?"

She knew of only one other that carried a single phoenix wing... The woman beside Asura, Helliana.

"I can only pray that she and Asura do not meet..."

With one final look at Asura’s face, she disappeared into the air, leaving behind her black pipe.

Asura felt a strange sense of weight pressing down on his soul. He realised this was a dream, but the huge towering monoliths all surrounded him, their aura vibrating, and it felt as if they were alive...

’Alive? These monoliths aren’t alive but sentient...’ Asura wanted to speak these words, but he could not move his lips or do anything. He could only observe and learn...

[Incubating suitable host confirmed. Beginning procedure...] A monotonous voice echoed around Asura, sending waves of nausea into his mind as he experienced the changes...

’What is this?!’

"C-Can you hear me?" Lorem’s voice echoed in his dream. It felt like she might be trying to wake him up, but Asura held on to the dream. He felt something important was happening.

[Monolith Phase 2 Fully synchronised- The Supreme Project has begun...]

Asura observed his skin changing, black marks and runes covering his entire body, forcing him to absorb large quantities of energy to nourish himself, an act that drew his soul close to the monoliths in this dream.

However, before he could touch that thin veil that stopped him from understanding everything, his body flew in the air, and he woke up with two beautiful faces looking at him with concern.

"You’re awake!"

"Asura, you were suffocating in your sleep!"

"Don’t you ever do that again! If you try to read that book again, I will... I will stop having sex with you!" Lorem shouted in a huff, her cheeks puffed out.

"No, no... I didn’t read it. I don’t want to die just yet, you know?" Asura tried to calm Lorem down. "This... this happened because I broke through to the next stage, and it caused a backlash..." He then snapped his fingertips to create a ball of black fire that seemed more stable than ever but with almost triple the explosive power compared to before. "See, I am fine?"

"..."

"..."

Lorem took the book and hid it inside her item storage, "I will keep this safe for now... Okay?"

"Sure... that’s fine with me."

However, the two didn’t realise, even if they took away that book... Another copy, with all the hidden information, remained inside his mind already and lay on the throne beside the Devouring monolith in his spirit palace.