Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

Her face seemed solemn, with countless scars on her body.

"I heard you wish to have my Asura marry your daughter." The woman\'s face was glamorous and heroic as she watched the woman sitting on the throne.

"Is there a problem, Freyja? You should have left for the middle realms long ago with that power. Why are you here?" The queen\'s face turned a little serious, her black hair reaching her waist, giving off an extremely regal appearance.

The woman, Freyja, had a wide back that exuded a sense of nobility while shrouded in a layer of darkness.

"Your Majesty, I was here to reunite with you since we haven\'t met for almost twenty years, but it seems you\'re more concerned about the Asura Project."

"Oh, please. Don\'t pretend you don\'t care about the Asura project," the queen scoffed. "I was sure you would\'ve married a middle realm male or higher, yet you didn\'t, and instead, came back like a beaten dog!"

The atmosphere turned tense, Freyja\'s dark silver hair fluttering as an overwhelming pressure suddenly burst out from her body.

"Since it\'s that important to you, I\'ll tell you. That happened. Probably right now, there is a Freyja who traversed the boundary, thinking everything would be fine, oblivious to the truth that her son is being targeted by those worms from the upper realms using the cult as their lackeys!"

The queen frowned at the change in the atmosphere. She sighed as she looked at Freyja, one of her most promising subjects, and said, "So what? That shouldn\'t concern you."

These two women spent a long time together, Freyja like an older sister to the queen, the only woman she trusted to help her complete the ritual to create her heir.

\'What does Freyja mean? This woman feels too different from the woman I knew. Even twenty years couldn\'t change her this much... I cannot even fathom her power, as if she has become something I cannot compare to.\'

The queen\'s eyes shifted slightly as she watched the woman before her, an invisible force leaking out and making her tremble in fright.

\'She\'s... more powerful than me... no! That can\'t be! I have the power of each queen before me imbued into my body and soul!\'

Despite Freyja standing still, her perfect muscles and cold gaze didn\'t seem to change, yet the pressure the queen endured caused her to sweat profusely, her bones feeling sore. "F-Freyja..."

"I will stay in this realm and only leave once those bastards from the upper realms are gone. I won\'t allow anyone to interfere with him... Don\'t interfere with my plans," Freyja said coldly.

\'Why? This woman showed no attachment to her children before... Especially Asura because he was weak and powerless!\'

Thus, the queen challenged her former sister, wanting to understand her motives. A being this powerful in her kingdom could be a benefit or a curse if she didn\'t remain friendly with her.

"Why go through all this trouble, Freyja? I remember you didn\'t care about him when he was useless."

"What do you know!?"

Freyja snapped, the pressure inside the palace skyrocketing to the point the queen felt like she was being suffocated. The Valkyrie guards outside the door, shaking in fear and unable to approach the hall.

"I stayed beside him for countless years, watching his growth and witnessing his trauma and failures! I fought tooth and nail to break that seal, hoping he could have a chance! Yet when I found the method, he was already dead! Abused and betrayed by all that he loved and cared for!"

The queen\'s heart raced. The words coming from Freyja sounded insane. What the hell did she mean he died? Asura was one of the kingdom\'s brightest beacons of light!

However, she held the knowledge of thousands of monarchs from the beginning of time in this world—a small chapter from a dark tome once worshipped by the cult of the falling sun.

This caused her to tremble before she looked at her old friend\'s changed features. "Freyja, you, when did we last meet?"

Freyja paused before saying, "Twenty years ago. You were pregnant and nearing the end of your ritual."

The queen shook her head, "Do not lie!"

"Then why ask?!"

"Because with the truth, I better understand what is happening." For the first time, the queen\'s power also exploded. The power of stage ten was nothing to underestimate, while Freyja\'s face showed a strange look as if relieved... before her aura faded.

"My dear little sister, the last time I saw you was over five thousand years ago. Though that version of you had long since perished."

"W-What!?" The queen\'s eyes widened as Freyja pulled open her robes, revealing a huge sigil and marking across her chest... dark and gruesome magic surged from her heart. "No... that isn\'t magic we should use! It is the void\'s way!"

The Queen\'s former anger dissolved. She knew what that spell marking and the changes to her beloved sister were. Even the meaning of her words about her being dead... She climbed from the throne, tears slowly spilling from her eyes like gemstones as she stumbled towards Freyja.

"You... all alone, suffering so much to use this foul magic... Sister..."

"You can\'t help me with this." Freyja\'s expression became sombre, and her eyes filled with endless sadness as she took the queen into her arms.

"If we reverse this, then—"

"I won\'t, not until I can repay my debt to him... I only wished to protect my beloved son from their hands..."

Freyja interrupted and then spoke of her past, what happened and the consequences of using the seal on Asura so he could become the conduit for the ritual to birth Vela and Amalia.

"They... why are they after our cute little Asura?" The queen asked with a weak voice.

"Because he will become their god and destroy all existence, then recreate it in their vision..."

****

⁜ ????? POV

In an unknown time and realm, the skies filled with fire and beautiful shades of red.

Inside an enormous palace, donned with beautiful golden artefacts similar to a human kingdom, the worship images seemed to be of a giant bird controlling flames.

The carpets were crimson red with golden patterns forming regal birds while their drapes and other banners all contained imagery to show these people or this kingdom worshipped a bird of fire.

A woman sat upon the throne, her aura filled with great fluctuations that created small birds of fire that flocked around her beautiful existence as if she were divine. Her eyes fluttered with a dark golden fire, and with long red hair draped over her shoulders as her long, delicate fingertips tapped the desk.

"Now then, baroness Villia... You said that our test subject perished?"

"Your Highness.... that... He..."

"How disappointing. After all the time and effort I put in to create that thing, it fails," the woman sighed, her tone and atmosphere almost as if she didn\'t care, yet the baroness\'s body trembled even more. "Or did you perhaps get too carried away, Villia?"

The woman\'s gaze looked to the side, and there was an odd air about her as she gazed at the wall before her.

Villia felt like an ant in the presence of a god.

"I remember you stating that after nine rebirths, his body and soul finally took shape, able to house the spirit of our goddess."

Villia\'s mouth quivered.

"Please, have mercy, Your Highness! I didn\'t want to, but there was no other way."

"Other way?" the woman asked with a raised brow.

The next moment, Villia tossed a broken corpse to the ground, with broken black wings and a bloody body filled with immense wounds, before the female coughed, her eyes opening, revealing her dull golden iris.

"Villia, who is this lower-world insect?" The queen\'s power suddenly rippled, trembling the palace and their entire area.

"She is from the lower realms. That... she somehow meddled in our affairs, and I caught her by luck, Your Highness," Villia answered nervously. "Her blood is remarkable; she partially fused with the monoliths... She guided and helped that boy adapt over the many rebirths; her compatibility rate with them is over 42 percent! After the boys 86...

she is a miracle!"

"Ah... so she is from the lower realm?" the Queen\'s golden eyes paused as they locked onto this bloody figure. "Goddess... if you\'re truly present, please tell me who she is."

A mysterious tremble filled the void, a serene and fearsome power instantly shattering the queen\'s aura as a voice sounded from the huge bird statue above.

—A divine bird descendant, the last of her kind, a suitable host... broken, but not lost.

—The mate of the originator, he will come and find her, their meeting will shatter the universe, all existence will end, and from the ashes, I shall be reborn in the image of the divine bird of flame with him at my side.

—Do not chase him—seek him not, and he will return! Prepare for the great rebirth!

After that, a small golden flame dropped from the heavens and slipped into the wounded Helliana\'s body.

The flame enveloped her body as her wounds rejuvenated, her body returning to the state of a child, and her hair turning white before she dropped again and fell into a slumber, this time upon the queen\'s lap.

"Asura.... I love you."

Her lips whispered a name before silence.

"!!!"

The tremble faded from the simple words, but the prophecy of their goddess was something their people believed without doubt.

"Impossible!" Villia shouted. "How could he return? I killed him... Is the goddess not confused!?"

"Baroness Villia, calm down and accept the divine premonition. Since it seems you acted in a way that benefited our divine mother, I will forgive your sins but banish you to the abyss wastes! Never to return to the capital."

"Impossible!"

"Also, Baroness, remember: You only have one chance, one shot. If you fail, we will move on to the next. You are not important to me... or the Divine mother."

The queen seemed enthralled, stroking the soft white hair of the small girl on her lap; however... she didn\'t see the rage and hatred in the eyes of the baroness who vanished from the palace.

****

"I will kill him... kill them all, the divine mother? Hahahahahahahah hAHAHAHAHAha! You take everything from me. I will crush your great rebirth!"

The baroness who attacked Asura and was cast aside by her people lost all semblance of beauty and sanity as she stood in the darkness. Her eyes glowed with malice as she opened a strange tool and spoke to someone on the other end, dressed in a strange priestess outfit with the image of a falling sun on the chest.