Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

"How am I supposed to fill her void?"

He sat on the grand throne in front of the black monolith in silence.

With both eyes closed, breathing slowly. A sudden, peaceful feeling filled his body and mind. He felt healed and relaxed as if lay in the ocean. The cool water flowing along his body soothing him.

Asura liked that the scent of Helliana lingered in this part of the citadel. His hand stroking the silky feathers of the resting bird on his shoulders. The black flames wrapping around her felt cool to the touch.

However, he felt these flames might burn the flesh of others who might try the same thing.

"Phew... let's return to reality."

He exhaled the beautiful scene of the grand black citadel fading along with the red skies and magnificent world.

Now greeted by a wasteland, the ground void of moisture, cracked with withered flowers and plants along the path leading to a familiar sight.

"The phoenix glade."

Chirp~

To his surprise, the black phoenix remained on his shoulder. Her sharp golden beak, feathers black like the void and the aura of a queen, remained.

'It seems her rebirth wasn't just a spiritual one.'

A smile etched across his face, lifting his spirits to a pleasant surprise that she achieved her goal so soon.

'There's so much I must learn from this bird.'

Asura closed his eyes, trying to assess the damage from that unbelievably powerful existence that could stop him with just a glance or words. He then realised that because of Helliana's actions, the damage dealt to him was almost zero.

"I just need to wait a little until my anima restores itself. Not just that." He could feel what he believed to be two of his parallel thoughts being destroyed. "The moment that thing tried to tear my soul and existence into pieces. Something went wrong, because now there are five voices inside my head."

That's right, Asura benefitted from the woman's attack. If Helliana hadn't sacrificed her former self, she would have obliterated him with no flesh or soul remaining. However, that existence doesn't know that, to her, his existence vanished.

'I feel even crazier than before...' Asura thought, but then realised that his five minds shared different levels of cognition.

One seemed to carry the knowledge and lifetime experience of Auros, the other his first life as Asura and then the other with an improved intelligence and thought process—it was Sura!

The other two seemed a little weaker or felt like diluted versions of his current self that existed before this change.

The minds functioned independently, giving Asura five ways to view reality. He could access each of them when needed, and they would follow his lead without resistance and lacked their own will; they just had the tone, memories, and skills of their past lives.

Asura stood for over an hour before his anima restored itself.

He felt a sense of imbalance as if something had misaligned his bloodlines.

'Could it be? Has Helliana been adjusting my monoliths to keep them in an optimal state? Could this have been why they seemed a little disproportionate?'

Asura remembered how Helliana seemed to struggle with controlling them sometimes.

"Does her abilities differ from mine? Can she perfectly control her monoliths, but not me?"

Like a crazed doctor, he walked on the spot, rubbing his chin and kicking a single stone in a circle, for he fell into a state of concentration, trying to understand why he couldn't do it.

'How does she adjust them?' Before a sudden thought occurred to him, he wondered if he gained five parallel thoughts might not be an accident but Helliana's plan.

'Her reincarnation was her plan. So she knew I would lose this support, then did she calculate this would happen?'

"I need to see what exactly happened when I try to use my parallel thoughts to manage the monoliths in my spiritual palace."

Asura stopped moving, and the feeling of eureka hit him. He had to hold back his urge to burst out in laughter.

He sat down on the spot, the harsh dirt a little painful, but his mind focused on the spiritual domain now, trying to split itself apart like a banana peel; he chose the strongest in his mind first, Auros.

The amusing thing was that several of the monoliths gave resistance when he tried to push him onto them. The Phoenix Monolith rejected him, as did the Asura and Dragon Monoliths.

Asura felt frustrated, but he realised something from this: What was Auros in his lifetime? What bloodline did he improve the most?

'The Devouring Bloodline.'

Asura found the monolith in his mind, a body filled with stars and unique orbs with galaxy-like textures and colours.

"Could it be this bloodline?" He struggled to control the Devouring Monolith because consciousness rejected him, but in that instant, something occurred when he pushed the part of his mind that contained the memories of Auros.

The monolith rumbled, much like the black monolith before, as its damaged slate cracked before snapping open, the inside similar to the phoenix totem.

Suddenly, a ghostly image of Auros floated out of Asura's body, giving him a strange look before it climbed into the monolith. The door slammed shut, and the once-damaged slate looked pristine and like an undiscovered obsidian treasure.

"That's what Helliana was doing; she was helping me refine my mind... my soul. Can I do this one day without her?" Asura understood he could now split his mind apart and send it into the monoliths to ensure it was in peak condition. "How did she know how to do this?"

It seemed impossible, yet he felt excited because the devouring monolith became more active than ever with a slight silver shade instead of black, the feeling of it working inside him like a rusty machine that wanted oil and a bit of care. Now a new part thanks to the high-level mechanic who adjusted it.

'This must be why my growth seemed strange. No wonder Helliana struggled... did she suffer, splitting her powerful will between all five?'

The next moment, he brought out Sura, and like a child who saw his parents after getting lost, his soul rushed to the dragon monolith. The same scene happened, with a brilliant red dragon's flame bathing the monolith as it turned a crimson shade.

After Sura merged with the monolith, he spent hours looking at his old self's visage. The spirit of his past sat at the base of the monoliths and read books, not speaking, giving Asura a sense of nostalgia.

'The other two were easy to figure out, but what monolith would my past self take?'

"I must say, although you have become a splendid mage, why have you neglected your studies and theoretical improvements?" The elegant voice of his other self finally spoke, looking up from the book like a pale-skinned scholar, his hair cascading over his shoulder; it was a very effeminate beauty compared to the masculine Asura of today with his muscles and changed in the aura.

"Of course, there is only one path for us. Our beloved mother gave us this bloodline, and even if I couldn't use magic in the past, now I am part of you. So look."

It was a shocking moment for Asura...

The past caused him anguish and feelings of inferiority. Even now, deep down, he felt those feelings until he saw them. The spirit body of his past life used magic—magic without chanting or taking time to build a spell rune! "You... how!?"

"Well, when you think about it logically, why would I remain the same as before when I am you... and you are me?" The haughty scholar was nothing like the pathetic man in his memories; he felt a change. "Thank you for allowing me to see this world, where we could use magic and learn the truth. Asura."

He felt confused, the feeling of his past thanking him. However, he didn't wait in the past and just climbed into the Asura Monolith without a word. The beautiful pillar became the same colour as his raven hair, shimmering with a glossy finish.

A sudden word sounded, causing him to smirk. "By the way, do not refer to me as the coward or cuckold anymore because me and Verana were always together, and I have a more fitting title, no?"

The voice became silent, but Asura whispered in his stead. "The Scholar... Asura Fenix."

Asura then noticed that the moment they entered the monoliths. At the bottom, in gold, something etched each person's title and name into the monolith. He checked the Devouring Totem and saw "The Traitor... and The Sacrifice" for Sura and Auros.

'Can I change them?'

When he thought that his body entered a strange state as he tried to rewrite the two titles, it hurt his mind but he struggled... Then changed Auros to The Silver Prince and Sura to The Dragon Prince.

"Somehow... they feel more accurate. Phew..." He didn't realise that the spirits inside watched him do this, and their eyes became softer before their existence fused with the monolith, completely accepting with pride the way the main body viewed them.

"Well, let's go... I should be ready now, although not completely recovered. It should be okay."

Chirp~

When he returned from the spirit palace, he noticed that the small phoenix looked at him with her golden eyes and nodded before curling up into a ball and sleeping again.