Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

Asura spent several hours collecting anything helpful or fascinating from the goblin settlement. Their items were at a high stage, meaning their items and weapons were of a higher grade than trash goblins.

As a result, he collected anything he wanted before returning to the princess, who finally recovered.

"How are you doing, Celine?"

"I-I am well..."

The princess smiled while replying; however, her pale and thin face said otherwise.

Asura noticed the fundamental problem: despite having a powerful engine, her body seemed to lack the strength to endure it.

He felt she reminded him of himself in the past. As Helliana described, the Asura in his past life could not endure the power of the Phoenix Monolith, and it damaged his core at birth.

However, his ability allowed him to improve her body, even if it only helped a little. If she kept receiving his treatment, eventually, her body would be of a higher level.

'Does she even wish for this, though?'

Asura watched her shakily stand; her legs lost like jelly while thick sweat oozed from her forehead. Despite this horrid sight, she kept her beauty and grace. The moment her eyes locked onto him, he felt a strange feeling.

"Are you able to walk? Or would you prefer me to carry you?"

Asura felt his new abilities to analyse mana flow and spiritual energy had developed so far he could now tell if someone desired something, as well as reading their thoughts.

The moment someone lies, the mana around their faces and lips distorts or makes strange shapes, as if drawing attention to their lies. 'Is this how mothers know a child is lying?!' he joked in his mind.

Meanwhile, he thought she might lie and say no. It actually stunned him that the princess could be honest.

"C-carry me... please?"

Asura could not read the young maiden's thoughts, nor could he read her feelings for a moment, as if her mana became masked or hidden by something foreign. He wondered if it was his monoliths acting up again and causing strange fluctuations to occur in her mana.

"Well, I did promise to help you... So why not?"

He knelt before the princess with his back facing her, his tone friendly.

"Not like that... the front."

"Pardon?"

"W-wait, no! I didn't mean it that way... just wrap your arm around my chest..."

"Now that's a way to ask."

Asura turned his head, but his face remained serious.

He lifted her tired body in a princess carry, his arms under her knees and armpit while she comfortably wrapped both arms around his neck.

'Her breath is hot, and her cheeks are red... We should rush back to that small cave since I only have a few more hours before this place spits me out. The princess is the same too. Let's hope I can help her recover before them.'

"Um... It's embarrassing if you start at me so intensely." Celine whispered while burning her face into his chest, her breath tickling him.

"I apologise, Celine. You seem cute when you blush."

Asura spoke in a casual tone while looking at her slender and frail body.

Yet, as he thought about the significant changes to his body and bloodline, he thought about the future and allowed his anima to seep into her body, covering her entirely from head to toe, from bones to muscle, skin to organs he didn't rush.

So the pleasure became more of a warmth as if millions of gentle hands were massaging Celine.

"Who is Celine... call me princess. Hmph!"

'If I was to estimate her body, it's not even at the level of a stage one knight. No wonder she needed that Stage Eight knight to protect her.'

"Did something happen?"

Celine's eyes widened when she saw Asura's complexion change slightly. Although it lasted less than a second, his expression seemed filled with anger and frustration, as if his mind turned darker.

"Nothing, don't worry."

"Then why are you looking at me in such a weird way?"

"Look at you? How can you tell?"

"Your eyes look cold..."

'Oh dear... This girl can notice even this much?'

Asura had forgotten to control his emotions and trained his gaze on Celine as if peering at her soul, although he knew the bad feelings Azoth held towards elves.

It wasn't until spending more time he realised she must share a bloodline with that foul woman in his visions.

However, what Asura couldn't understand was why Azoth didn't fight back with his full power. He could have slaughtered the elves, but he allowed that woman to kill him.

'I know I'm the type to forget things, but there are so many holes in Azoth's past, making no sense at all.'

Then there was that woman in the vision who was killing Azoth and looked so similar to Celine. In contrast, Muru was most likely Mu Xue's past fetters.

'Is this fate, or does the cultivation technique bind me to those involved with my past lives and force them to suffer my death and their despair?'

Asura tried to smile and reassure the princess, but his feelings became shaken each time her beautiful blue eyes seemed to see into his depths.

"D-don't stare at me like that!"

"Celine... let's return to the cave first."

He struggled to deal with her after realising she both captivated and worried him.

The past of Azoth held feelings more intense than even Auros because, thanks to the cult, Auros didn't feel things while on their strange medication that drove him into madness, and he only felt great regret at the moment of his death.

"Nn."

***

The pair arrived at the small cave not long after leaving the goblin outpost, which Asura burned to the ground, leaving nothing should their pursuers find traces of their magic.

"For someone with weaker magic than me, you have a monstrous body," Celine said after Asura placed her gently on the ground.

"My family has a good genes."

"Hmmm, really?"

Since returning, Asura has not let the princess leave his side, telling her it was for treatment and using the warm feeling as a sign that it was working. Instead, he feels she could soon reach a Stage One body, and he wants her to reach that level before he leaves.

"So you can meet me again tomorrow?" Celine asked with a bright voice. Her feet kicked two stones while resting against Asura's chest.

"I wish I could stay here longer, but there are responsibilities I have to take care of."

"Will you become stronger?"

"That's my goal."

"Then when will we meet again...?"

"Sorry, I cannot answer that."

Asura felt the young princess's lips quiver slightly against his chest as she leaned against him again. Yet he could only stroke her head gently and rub her shoulders.

"Don't worry, we'll meet again in the future. If you can find a device that lets us communicate over the distance before tomorrow evening, then it won't be so hard."

Asura stroked her hair slowly; in the darkness, her blue eyes seemed to glow even brighter. He tried to cheer her up by saying that they would see each other again.

However, his words overstimulated the princess, along with the warm feeling she only received from her grandmother and the physical strength she felt each moment she spent around him.

The idea of finding a device wasn't impossible, and she remembered some elves travelled to various continents and used them.

'Why doesn't she seem sad anymore? Did she get over it already?'

Asura stroked her hair but struggled to understand the sudden mood change as his actions seemed to give the opposite effect than what he intended.

'Well, I can't win them all.' He thought it was a breath of fresh air to fail and enjoyed the last moments as a hunk of boar meat roasted in various spices and paste on a wooden spit roast while the princess suffered.

"Asura... it hurts. My insides hurt so bad!"

"Here it is. You're going to evolve like a butterfly from the cocoon."

The next moment, she leaned forward; Asura, sensing the intense movement of mana from her stomach to her throat, pushed her further and leaned over the cavern entrance as she vomited a vile, black liquid.

'What?!'

He felt confused; the liquid almost seemed identical to the curse that plagued both Xavida and Lorem, but he couldn't absorb it.

That was the instinct that came from his body.

This black liquid smelt like rotting carcasses and eggs while the hiss of its acidic properties shocked Asura as it melted the rocks at the bottom of the vast mountain, forming an almost endless hole.

'No, this isn't like them. It's like the poison that plagued me, as Asura in the past life... the one that limited me to being a no-mag! This beautiful Elven princess kept such vile things within her body for so many years!'

Asura couldn't help but click his tongue at the sight, having forgotten how cruel this world could be. He would have never imagined someone would curse this girl the same way.

No, he felt a sense of regret at the bitter and dark feelings inside him. He knew this curse, but his mind refused to accept what those memories were trying to tell him.

"Asura... it hurts.... help me."

"Ah, I will let it all out; this will let you become stronger and able to protect yourself. You won't suffer anymore."

He patted her back while her face turned green, and more black sludge spewed out of her mouth.

"Sob, you said it would feel warm!"

"It feels like warm sunshine, right?"

He created a gentle white flame, placing it against her back, letting the flame of rebirth help her ruined organs heal faster while his eyes trembled from this disgusting and strange black liquid that filled her tiny body.

'How didn't I see it before!?'

Asura could feel the female elf's mana mixing with this cursed black liquid.

However, each time his anima flooded her body, it pulled the black liquid away, removing it from her core and allowing her body to function like an average person's.

It felt strange that rather than fusing with her mana, his anima merged with the curse, and he felt his instincts scream as his devil bloodline shied away from its presence.

"Yuck... it stinks so bad." The princess gasped before she burped, her face a lot more colourful and filled with a vibrance that never existed before. Though her body remained corrupted, now her mana core, lungs and heart were completely free from the black-coloured liquid.

"You did well. Well done for holding on this long; just remember to eat healthily, train your body, and feel the difference soon."

"Nn, i feel so light and my chest isn't heavy when breathing. Thank you Asura!"

'Don't thank me... this curse is something I created. I am the one that corrupted your entire body and almost killed you.'

Asura could not explain the mixed feelings he felt at that moment.

For a moment, he struggled to understand the feeling of the unknown, which caused him to want to make it up to her, yet that black liquid returned to the devil monolith within him as happy to come home.

"I will help you, as long as I can."

"Hmmm, I will hold you to that!"