Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

"Haa..."

\'I guess it\'s only proper etiquette to keep Vela and me apart because of our wedding. They want to avoid people gossiping, but that also means they keep the others away from me.

For the first time, he felt lonely, with all the Royal knights staying in the south until the last minute to help finish the construction of a teleportation device from Silvara to the new fort constructed from the ruins of Romantica\'s former city northwest of their capital.

\'To think the queen is that sly and intelligent.\'

"Lorem, Lucia, are you both alright?"

While leaning against the soft backrest, Asura felt a sense of change in himself for the first time. Since he broke away from the other shards and the previous monolith\'s control, he felt more desires and wanted to have more.

In the past, he didn\'t care about his rank or title, but now he wanted to stand above all. To have the power to control Silvara or the world to protect those he felt dear.

"I should have stayed with the princess."

"Oh, which princess?"

"Celine, the third princess of the elves... Hmmm?"

The voice seemed strange, but it was almost familiar, like someone he must have met before. However, Asura\'s mind didn\'t register the person before she appeared beside him, wearing a black and silver robe and long silver hair tied in a messy ponytail.

"So you\'ve even tempted an elf princess into your bed? That\'s my Asura for you."

A pair of powerful golden eyes narrowed while gazing down at his face. The woman seemed to be taller than him, with an erotic yet muscular build.

"Hmmm, who are you, and when did I become your Asura?"

"I\'m the one you love and care for the most."

"Is that so?.."

The woman was full of confidence, and the sight of her smile reminded Asura of something, but it wasn\'t until the woman grabbed his head, easily overpowering any resistance he tried to give and placed it atop her amazing thighs while stroking his hair.

\'I should know this woman, yet a thick fog fills my mind.\'

Despite using multiple lines of thought and engaging in his entire parallel thought process, his mind still returned with nothing.

"Mmmm, mother knows best."

\'Mother? This woman? That\'s impossible.\'

"Who are you? And what do you want from me? I can tell you\'re not human or demon."

Asura found himself still calm, though he didn\'t resist and fell into the woman\'s embrace. He wanted to believe, but this woman, her face and body, were too young and attractive as if created to suit his desires perfectly.

This woman could never be his mother. His heart and mind screamed in unison while resisting the conflicted thoughts and feelings inside.

"What kind of son forgets his beloved mother? Do you not recognise my face?.."

A pair of eyes stared into his own with a fierce and intense gaze, yet Asura could only feel both his hearts throbbing, their beating irregularly as their noses touched. He felt deep embarrassment and confusion.

\'Never has a woman done this to me!\'

"Enough with the games! I won\'t listen to a single word you say unless you prove you\'re my mother!"

"Hehe, you were always like that, not believing in words and following your desires. Ignoring other people\'s judgment and creating a path when you couldn\'t even use magic."

"That\'s who I am! Of course, I didn\'t give up..."

\'How does she know!?\'

"In the end, you became a human and enslaved by the monolith. The disgusting sub-humans that enslaved you made you do things that would have killed an ordinary person\'s mind. My poor Asura."

Asura couldn\'t resist her gentle hands that brushed his hair and caressed his cheeks. Even without using force, his head and body moved along with the woman\'s will.

"The one who died then accepted their fate but was no longer a slave of the monoliths. You truly amaze me, Asura."

"What do you mean?"

"Haven\'t you realised? The monoliths and their connections to the untold amount of universes out there were used to grant powers. Many beings desire such power, but that same power brings disaster and ruin. In the long history of them being used, nobody has ever achieved the second phase like you."

The woman\'s lips were dangerously close, her sweet breath already dancing along on his face and giving Asura the shivers as a deep instinct urged him to bite her.

"Aren\'t you confused? How do I know? Fufu, my lovely Asura, I have lived so many years and lives to find you."

"Who are you!..?"

His voice trembled at the intensity of the woman\'s golden eyes. It wasn\'t the same as Vela or Celine. Those eyes were full of life and an inhuman gleam that he knew were no ordinary eyes.

"Some call me the detestable fallen divine, others Freyja, the avatar of the moon; people love attaching titles to people."

Asura wanted to struggle and break free. Despite sensing no hostility, he felt uncomfortable about where he didn\'t know how to react. His brain could not process her words nor figure out the intentions behind those mesmerising golden eyes.

"If you don\'t tell me who you are, I\'ll stop speaking to you."

"Hmmm, well, Asura, for the sake of our first meeting in thousands of years, let me introduce myself properly."

His eyes focused on her face, the beauty surpassing any existence or imagination he ever conceived. She was perfect in every way, a being who shouldn\'t exist and stood at the peak of perfection.

"I am Freyja, a fallen divine, forbidden to enter the upper realms, daughter of the thunder primordial Odin, she who destroyed the world of dragons Neo-Earth of the Beatrice Galaxy and ravaged 70 Abyssal realms all for a single reason and goal. I am the one who put the Helliana inside the monolith, destroyed the kingdom of Auros, and made the cultists attack Azoth, all for you."

\'The world of dragons... Neo-Earth of the Beatrice Galaxy, Sura\'s planet!? All the untimely deaths of those who inherited the monoliths...\'

"Y... You\'re my mother!? No, that\'s impossible! If you are my mother, why didn\'t you save me earlier? Why did you let me suffer?!"

"Because I needed to test you. To see if you are worthy of carrying out bloodline, rather... Nevermind." Asura noticed her face showed a look of self-hatred. Her eyes narrowed, and her lips trembled when she mentioned testing him as if it was a mere programmed answer.

"Then what about dad?"

"Hmmm? What about him? Though we made a contractual marriage, I have never touched him physically—that\'s why Ophelia exists."

"What!?"

Freyja\'s hands stroked Asura\'s cheek gently, yet he could sense a deep desire in her touch, as if she craved more. "Well, he can\'t help it, as if a mortal could impregnate me, so I used another method. If you can guess how, I\'ll kiss you."

"You used your anima and the source of the monoliths, the black and white phoenixes?"

"You\'re so smart! There\'s no doubt you\'re my son."

His blood boiled at her seductive tone and expression. To be so close to such a godly creature sent shivers down his spine.

Yet he resisted, although he had failed each test until now. He gritted his teeth, able to taste the sweet, coppery flavour. Her eyes shone before narrowing with a radiant smile.

"Although it wasn\'t just those two, I milked all the monoliths to create you."

"Wait... the Asura is a human bloodline. How do you have it?"

"How silly of you. My mother was a purely human, not just any human, but the first queen of this planet who ascended and caught the eye of a thunder primal despite her weak power."

\'The timelines make no sense!\'

"But the times between my lives... It makes little sense!"

"The moment I left Neo-Earth was over a hundred thousand years ago, though there are things those in the upper realm can do that you might have not even dreamed of yet."

\'No, that cannot be; Lorem and Helliana wouldn\'t have waited so long; they seem to remember only a few thousand...\'

"Silly boy, the pair of them don\'t know everything. One slept within the monolith until that garbage stole your first chance to be born, and that lovely girl with red hair slept at the centre of this world for longer than you realise. Not to mention, each universe doesn\'t have the same concept of time, and they don\'t run along the same time axis either."

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe if you went to another universe, then returned. You might meet yourself as a baby again?"

"No! That\'s impossible... Or is it?"

"Does it matter?" Freyja brushed his cheeks gently, her lips almost touching his own. "Tell me, Asura, do you love me?"

\'What is love? And why do I feel so confused but attracted to her?\'

"I-I don\'t even know you, suddenly coming out of nowhere as my mother..."

"Haaa..." The disappointment in her eyes was as clear as day. He noticed how her arms circled his neck.

"I gave you so much, and you refuse to give me an answer... But it\'s okay Asura~ you don\'t have a choice. You will love me, or I will destroy another world and watch you grow from a baby once again until you accept me."

Asura froze, his two hearts beating in unison. \'If she does that, I would lose Mu Xue and everyone I care for!.\'

"Very good." A pair of hands caressed his chest and moved lower down his stomach. "You understand what\'s at stake, right? Your mother loves you enough to shatter planets and wipe out entire races."

"Why?.."

"Because I\'ve seen who you will become and need you to become the being that will transcend the tyranny of the upper realm. To end the cycle and madness, even if you become the god of destruction and kill me too~ at least I will forever live as part of you."

\'She\'s insane, more than Mu Xue in the past... this woman is sick!.\'

"Why do you speak like that!?\'

"Like what?"

"You talk as if you have lost your mind."

"Silly boy, haven\'t you realised? I\'m desperate, desperate enough to use your world, universe, even the deities themselves to bring you to my side and get what I want."

"And what is that? Love and devotion? From a child that barely remembers his past and the pain you put me through?"

"Perhaps."

Asura sensed the madness inside the woman. Her grip and lustful smile while staring at his face were enough to make him shiver.

"But most of all..." Her lips leaned close to his ear, whispering the most horrific words a mother could say, before the carriage door suddenly opened, with Mu Xue rushing inside in her lovely black nightgown.

Freyja\'s figure as if a ghost, vanished, while Mu Xue lept into Asura\'s chest.

"I felt you were crying out in fear that you didn\'t know where to turn."

Asura held her tightly, not realising how she felt his true feelings, only knowing that his first meeting with his so-called mother led him to feel such intense feelings of all types and too much to consider it made him feel sick.

\'What kind of twisted mother says she will destroy universes for their son? No... to have their son become theirs.\'

Asura shook his head, instead wrapping his arms around Mu Xue tightly; he felt a comfort that had long escaped his grasp, those cold nights in the past, where Mu Xue would hold him gently in the night.

"Asura?"

Mu Xue\'s hands rested on Asura\'s chest while he calmed down. He no longer felt fear and found the desire to become even more powerful inside his chest.

\'She cannot control me!.\'

\'I won\'t let anyone control me like that. Not even as her son!\'

"Asura? Are you alright? Did something happen?"

"Just a crazy woman who wants me too much, nothing important."

***

Outside the carriage, hundreds of miles away in the capital, a beautiful woman\'s eyes opened, and with a flicker of light, she awakened from her momentary dream.

"A crazy woman, fufu. My lovely Asura, you just know how to make your mother more determined."