Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

Inside the Royal Academy, Mu Xue and her beautiful ice blue hair stood in line with over two hundred students armed with light armour and carrying their weapons in the Academy Arena, listening to the announcement from both the principal and their instructors.

'Xavida seems to have recovered—her eyes are much better today.'

Mu Xue remembered a month earlier when the Tower suddenly ejected the princess and future duchess from inside, stunned everyone who waited outside.

She didn't hear firsthand and only learned the truth from an envoy from Drakkur a few days later...

It surprised her they disclosed every detail of Asura's journey and visit, and the usual arrogance displayed by the Drakkur nobles and duchess was completely absent—instead, they gave a solemn apology.

'Only twenty days seemed to have passed for them, but it was only two days for everyone else.'

Soon after, the current duchess summoned several high-rank mages and forced them to survey the tower.

Normally, when people were inside, there would be a small signature, a pulse of life...

'However, there was no signal after they tried several times... The duchess even killed one of them after accusing him of being an enemy spy!'

However, that man did work for the cult of the fallen sun, so it seemed she was correct...

Because of this, they announced he vanished in another plane of existence. After that, Mu Xue and the others met with a female diplomat and Verana, who apologised and announced her joining the academy in a month.

'She wasn't as bad as Asura said... Her tears and sorrow were real.'

Mu Xue changed quite a deal after learning about his death. At first, her heart almost burst. She felt the desire to rampage, to kill every person who ever insulted him or tried to put Asura down, before it was Xavida of all people who made her wake up.

***

⁜ Two Weeks Earlier

"I'll kill them..." Mu Xue whispered, her body already in her ice devil manifestation as her hand covered in blood tore the heart of a cultist from his chest because he didn't have any information on Asura and kept blabbering about the Divine Son to her.

Mu Xue signed up for a mission at the academy that asked the students to survey the southern lands as people spotted monsters and armed forces slowly moving north.

After arriving, learning the cult started the attack. The cult of the Fallen Son.

"Oh dear, it seems a filthy demonic whore has entered our holy lands." A male with short blonde hair, a sharp angular face that was rather handsome, with piercing grey eyes stared at her with a violent glare, his stance regal, wearing silver armour with a golden cape.

"Who!?" Mu Xue felt the man's sword's power, and his eyes seemed strange. Somehow, containing some kind of magical power.

"Tsk, this vile heathen cannot even give her name first, alas. I must teach the Silvaran barbarians who their new masters shall be. I, Aldric Cavallio, Duke of Romantica!"

The moment he spoke as if by magic, dozens of armed knights with spears and shields amassed behind him as support while another male appeared.

One that Mu Xue knew was the strongest knight. A man whom she used to idolise before becoming a knight herself and losing her family.

Siegfried Verhelst, the strongest blade master in Romantica.

"!!!"

She faced certain death because of her anger because of Asura's disappearance and nobody even speaking of him. After a few days, she felt disgusted.

The man she adored and loved, a noble who fought up from the trash being called a no-mag to one of the brightest at the academy, and his name seemed to vanish.

'Even Lorem!'

Mu Xue's anger resurfaced, and her sense of hopelessness faded with her growing anger.

With icicles gathering around her body, she prepared to fight the enemy with all her might.

These enemies, even the weakest, might be close to her in power.

***

⁜ Present Day - Southern Task Force Announcement Rally.

'It was when I thought everything ended... That she appeared, my rival in love and the girl I treated so badly when I became powerful.'

Her eyes closed, and she remembered how it wasn't Asura who saved her, but she felt like his guidance caused it.

Xavida, Vela, six royal knights, and Sigurd—all of them and a unit of fifty Silvarian Knights rode the back of that annoying dragon girl. She flew the entire force as they shot arrows, spears, and ballistas at her dragon form.

'Later, I learned she went to the princess herself, spoke about finding my letter written to Asura should he return and how I would face the enemy who trapped him.'

"You may not survive this battle." Suddenly, Lorem took over the speech as the boring old man's waffling of honour and standing ended.

Mu Xue's ears twitched upon hearing that voice, a person she doubted but never... The anger and rage she showed in battle when clashing momentarily with Siegfried Verhelst proved her feelings of frustration towards Asura's loss.

"I will not promise to protect or save you all. The enemy is powerful, far stronger than we ever expected, and they are attacking from several fronts." Lorem's fiery hair and vibrant eyes shone with power as she watched the entire crowd, several of whom left scared by her words.

"But those of you who fight beside me will no longer be mere students... but my brothers and sisters in arms. I will fight so that you do not suffer an ill fate, and upon my crimson name, I will crush our enemy!"

Lorem's hands then glowed, and everyone watched as their arms glowed with a golden light, and their bodies seemed to buzz with strength.

"!!!" Everyone's eyes widened upon seeing the blessing; it was the pure flame of a phoenix, and the golden flames enveloped each person, slowly sinking into their chests.

"This flame may not allow you to revive upon death, but your wounds and injuries for the next week will heal faster than any tonic or potion can do for you. My dear students, comrades, we take the fight to the south so that our beloved country can gain time to prepare for the future!"

From this speech, Mu Xue realised Lorem acted like a master and tutor for Asura.

There was no chance she felt nothing and saw her reflection from weeks ago in Lorem's current eyes and voice.

'She is suffering too...'

At that moment, Lorem suddenly froze; her face looked towards the north...

'What? Why does she look so strange!?'

Not long after, Mu Xue felt a tingle in her spine, then a strange feeling as if someone held her heart gently. Her body felt warmth and love... before a whisper sounded in her mind.

"My lovely maid, forgive me for being away for too long. I will return to you when my wings carry me, Xue'er. I hope you didn't cry."

Asura's voice sounded in her mind... then her body tingled as the things he gifted her filled with life again. The severed connections rejoined!

Mu Xue almost collapsed at that moment, her heart and body trembling as Lorem walked forward. The beautiful phoenix smiled kindly at the students before a massive flame exploded from her back. She closed her eyes as if looking at something far away.

However, Mu Xue didn't see; she and many others focused too much on the message they had just received to notice the minor details of their instructor's tears as the excess flames evaporated them.

***

⁜ Xavida POV

Xavida didn't change; her face seemed peaceful, but it was the same even when she came here. Her eyes looked over at Amalia, Vela, who stood at the front in her silver Valkyrie armour, and Lorem, who cried with a look as if she had reunited with a childhood sweetheart and Mu Xue.

However, for Xavida, nothing changed. Her hand stroked her stomach as she smiled to herself.

'Your father couldn't die so easily, I told you. His heart and mine are bound so tight even in another dimension, I can feel him trying his best to become stronger.'

Xavida's eyes narrowed as the past month she spent fighting, training and following the things Asura used to ask her to do, but she was more interested in playing or kissing him.

"I was too foolish before. Your father knew something we didn't. That's why he tried preparing us, but we took him too lightly." Her hands rubbed her stomach, and her lips curled into a wry smile.

'You didn't take him lightly. You were confident, just like him. Asura isn't some mighty demon or angel—he is our darling, a jealous and selfish man who loved us and struggled to admit it and I failed to notice until now. Cheeky girls, trying to steal your papa from mommy.'

While she focused on her small thoughts and feelings, Xavida's anima billowed more potent and thicker on the surface.

She no longer slacked when duelling, sparring, or training. Each day since she learned of his disappearance, she rushed to Amalia and fought against Sigurd. The two hated each other, like rivals, but she learned they were perfect training partners.

'However... his sister feels weird. Those eyes are not the love of family...'

****

⁜ Lorem POV

"When did my cute little phoenix become a royal knight? At first, you were so shy, cute, and lovable that you could not tell Helliana we planned to marry. Yet you've grown into a splendid young lady—my lovely crimson librarian."

The moment she heard the tone and style of speaking, Lorem's heart stopped.

Hearing Asura's voice gave Lorem a rush of relief, but then the words registered, and she realised what Helliana had said in the past: that Asura was Sura and needed time to deal with this truth...

Lorem didn't need to wonder why Asura called her a Crimson Phoenix or how he teased her by mentioning marriage because she knew he was the reincarnation of Sura or, rather, his Rebirth.

As a phoenix, the concept of Nirvana is common, but she refused to perform it because sometimes you can lose memories and other important things if they become distant. She hadn't seen Sura and Helliana for thousands of years when she realised they had never reached the planet.

Now, if she performed Rebirth, when she awakened, only information about this world—her life here—might remain, and it terrified her.

'So you were him after all... No wonder you caught my attention so fast, but this old bird is cursed and dying. You fool... Let me show at least one last beautiful display of my crimson flames for you to remember. I don't want you to remember a sickly, weak librarian but the strong and grown-up me... no longer a bookworm who cannot fight!'

Thus, her body began to burn brightly, her tears evaporating as she felt no sorrow, only exhilaration.

Slowly, with confidence, she stepped forward and continued speaking passionately because, after all these years—He came back to her!