Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

His body launched across the room like a storm. Asura\'s lance was a deadly typhoon of silver and red, piercing the air in a rain of savage, penetrating blows towards Shang Luo\'s chest. The black flames of destruction empowered each thrust of the lance.

Shang Luo didn\'t have time to dodge, using his sword and body to block the attacks. The sheer force behind Asura\'s attacks penetrated his flesh, cracked his blade, and tore the green-robed cultivator\'s feet into the floor, creating a crater with each step.

"Ugh... you fucking half-breed!" Shang Luo screamed, the flames burning through his flesh and muscle as his skin peeled away and reformed in an endless cycle of torture.

\'This is how to use rebirth and destruction... Endless pain, suffering and revenge!\'

With a second to think, Shang Luo formed a spell. The surrounding air shivered with the weight of his spiritual energy, but Asura didn\'t care. His left hand reached out, the black flames fluttering as a resounding crack echoed through the room.

His black-tipped fingers snapped through the air and pierced straight into Shang Luo\'s chest, his spell broken as blood spurt from the wound. His left arm passed through the cultivator\'s chest like a hot knife through butter, holding his heart on the other side. "You are nothing."

"That is enough, Asura. Shang Luo lost." A weak and slightly pitying voice echoed in the room, but neither seemed to care as Asura\'s right hand swept across, decapitating the injured youth\'s head from his shoulders.

"Tell me your real name, fake." Asura turned around as Shang Luo\'s lifeless body slipped from his arm, blood and flesh spluttering everywhere as he held the man\'s heart out to the woman. "Tell me, or I crush his heart."

There were many spells to revive someone if you had their heart.

The woman didn\'t look affected by Asura\'s actions in the slightest. She was used to this sort of bloody spectacle. She only looked at him with slight surprise and mild amusement. "Do it."

"Sure."

Asura squeezed Shang Luo\'s heart, crushing it without a hint of hesitation or guilt. The dead cultivator\'s blood flowed down his fingers, dropping to the floor as he crushed the heart into a paste.

A sound echoed in his mind, telling him several things, but shaking his head, he ignored them and focused on the women.

"Tell me your real name, fake."

He was angry, and his killing intent was on the verge of becoming uncontrollable. If she didn\'t answer... he was ready to kill her, too. Despite knowing in his head, he wished for this thing to admit it. These things couldn\'t tell lies about their origins. It was some kind of law or rule set by the tower.

The woman just chuckled softly, leaning forward to grab the hand that crushed the heart. Her bloody hand then extended to her lips as she sucked the blood, licking it from her fingertips. "I am Verena, the younger twin of that useless bitch you loved. Hmm... I wish it were your blood."

Asura laughed bitterly, pulling his arm away as the remains of Shang Luo\'s corpse exploded into black flames the moment he clicked his fingers. "What happened to the original Verana? Tell me, and I won\'t torture you."

Verena could only stare at him with her one eye and shrug. "It\'s quite simple, really, Asura. I killed her the moment it seemed you would propose. I watched your little dates for two years in secret. Like this!" Her body turned into shadows before vanishing completely. A moment later, she emerged from Asura\'s shadow with a bloody nose...

"Fuck, who is the bitch in your shadow!?"

"So... the first Verana, my Verana, died before even meeting me that day?" Asura chuckled with a wry smile, thinking about how stupid and overconfident he had been. \'Why... for so many years my anger... hatred and desire for revenge were they mistaken!?\'

"Yes... I slit her throat, so she may never speak again unless I ordered and made her into a living doll... Unlike my bitch sister, I cannot make shadow clones, although I can make me crazy about me, hehe."

"Why?"

Asura only looked at her with a weak smile.

His heart returned to the volatile husk of anguish and frustration it had once been because of her answer.

"You know why."

"..."

He didn\'t, and nothing in his mind could come up with an answer.

"The treasure of your family, the ability to be reborn and protection from flames... Our family is a little strange, weak to flames, and our enemy is a master of fire! I wanted to be the duchess, mother, sister. None of them believed in me. I refused to be her double! A damn spare for if she died!"

"The order..."

Asura remembered something the Verana once muttered when drunk... duchess "I wish my sister could be free..." It made no sense to him, but now. He realised what it meant and felt stupid for not listening.

"The head is a sucker for family, but she would never agree with my position... Forcing me to do such things as dirty work. So, I took everything and made the entire Drakkur my thing!"

"Tell me something, Verena..."

Asura walked closer, looking at her messy features with a scoff.

"Are you sorry?"

Verena lifted her hand before she showed an evil smirk. "Why would I be? You are still my husband, right? I have such a powerful husband with divine blood... Who would be sorry?"

—Manifestation Vampire Queens Descent!

A red light shined from her forehead and her single eye, blinding Asura as a massive amount of mana shifted and whirled around her body.

.

Asura covered his eyes, feeling like he was about to lose sight. When it vanished, the pressure in the room dropped. The force threw Asura back, causing his head to crack through it. Blood poured from his face, staining his clothes as he wiped the back of his hand against his mouth. "What is this?"

"No longer will I be your little girl."

Verena\'s body rose into the air, her arms lifting in opposite directions as the light shifted and revealed two black wings on her back, resembling a bat. Her skin was pale, and she had strange tattoos that were eerie yet beautiful on her face, dark red eyes and alluring lips... with two long fangs peeking from the gap.

The true boss of the twentieth floor was not Shang, but Verena, the Stage Five vampire queen!

"Now, let me drink your blood for eternity, and I\'ll let you sleep with me in return!" Verena\'s eyes shone with a strange magic spell as Asura felt his heart tempted for a moment before the sound of glass breaking echoed in his mind.

"Sleep? Don\'t make me laugh." Asura clicked his fingers, and the flames ignited the entire room. The pair are now locked in an arena of flames. His eyes narrowed as he felt a sense of pleasure from this battle. "I am the profane phoenix of Destruction of Rebirth. What can a mere leech do to me?"

"Curse you, half-breed! What have you done?!" Verena roared in pain as her skin burned and her mana became uncontrollable.

The room was burning. Asura\'s flames were like hellfire. The very air itself burned. His black flames devoured her red eyes in a deep crimson tone as the heat twisted everything in its path.

Asura approached her, looking up at the vampire queen with a slight smile.

"Don\'t act. I know this is just a trick." His lance swiped across the air, clearing the black flames to reveal nothing. Verana vanished, the flames dissipated, and the illusion disappeared. "Show yourself, vampire."

Asura glanced around, trying to locate her. He couldn\'t hear her movements or sense her.

\'Is she stronger than I am?\' He thought, perplexed, as he created a protective shield of black flames to cover his body. \'She might not be weaker, but she is more skilled at using her strength.\'

Asura could feel it.

Verena didn\'t just mess around and sleep with men... She probably killed many, those who didn\'t get the hint or tried to contain her... He couldn\'t sense her, but he knew she was close... Too close.

Suddenly, Asura\'s ears twitched, and he turned around and swung his spear as fast as possible. His weapon impacted into the air in front of him.

The pole knocked away Verana as her teeth sank into his neck, a strange feeling of fear as she drank his blood in that split second. Despite floating back with a cut abdomen, her face looked orgasmic...

"Ah... this blood of yours is pure bliss. Divine."

"Fuck, that hurts," Asura muttered as he realised his wound wasn\'t healing as quickly as it should, and a strange feeling came from his blood.

\'Shit, vampire blood drinking.\'

"One cannot resist the sweet taste of divine blood. You should feel honoured that I will take you as my mate! In the end, all of heaven will worship our children!" She snapped her fingers, and several strange-looking red portals opened around the room.

From each portal, a massive pillar of light broke through, and the many corpses and bodies of the Drakkur and Shang he had slaughtered earlier stood.

They were like dried husks... zombies or creatures created by her magic.

"You damn monster!" Asura snarled, his black flames unable to burn them. They seemed immune to fire, and then he remembered this Verena stole his family\'s treasure. That made a person immune to most flames, especially phoenix fire!

"Hehe, try fighting them and me at the same time. It should be fun."

\'Shit. I wish I could hurt her!\' Asura gripped his lance tightly, turning around and swinging the spear in a circle as he bisected the dozen undead coming at him in one clean sweep.

His spear was a twister of silver destruction as the blade ate through their bodies. He jumped, flipping into the air to pierce one undead straight through its head as his flames erupted in a wave around him, creating a momentary shield, forcing them to back away.

However, that was when he felt it.

Verena was behind him.

With a thud, she slammed into his back with enough force to break his bones; wrapping herself around him and pressing against his phoenix wings, she kissed the back of his neck, a disgusting feeling... as a chill shot down his spine. "Fight my love; give me your best."

Asura felt something corrupt entering his blood.

It was like acid burning away his blood and flowing through him. "GET OFF ME!"

His anger exploded.

The floor shook as his energy exploded in a sea of flames, eating away at Verana\'s mana before he impaled himself with the spear, penetrating her stomach as her fangs burrowed into his neck, her disgustingly slimy tongue licking him.

He knew he was being played with like a puppet, his strength being reduced with every passing second. \'What can I do... I don\'t even have the strength to fly.\'

[Get rid of her!]

\'How? My body is so weak and heavy...\'

[Idiot... use your flames to burn the poison within your bloodstream!]

[I will teach you how to fight as a phoenix... how to survive, so do as I say! Asura]