Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

Then he gained the glue that bound them together, his Elven bloodline and the strange world tree-shaped monolith within his body.

This monolith did nothing special apart from purifying, combining and synchronising all his bloodlines together using its form to take them in, forming a beautiful tree with multitudes of different shaded leaves, all relating to Asura's powers and bloodlines.

Everything became concentrated in one place.

***

In the skies, a giant bird appeared with the most beautiful, silky feathers of three colours: the beautiful raven black like Asura's hair, pure white plumes as beautiful as an angel with his sharp claws and beak a dull grey empowered with the force of devouring.

His wingspan grew over ten metres. A huge phoenix with hybrid bloodlines looked down at the massive white snake that leered up towards him with a look of anger, obsession and insanity.

This form feels so good like I'm finally free to do as I wish.

Asura's thoughts became clear as his beak opened with a powerful shockwave from his cry.

The black and white flames burst out from his body, and a spiral of blazing grey feathers formed around him as the flames fused with them, creating a vortex of burning plumes in the air.

With the violent flap of his wings, these sharp plumes launched towards the white snake, their edges shining in a vicious light.

The snake looked at the flaming feathers approaching her. The grey energies they were emitting were so familiar and seemed to want to devour everything, but more importantly, she could see how that power was so much stronger than her defence.

The beast hissed as it wiggled its long body in the air and dodged some feathers, letting them hit the city beneath her, a single plume causing a house to explode and shatter into dust.

"Weak. Weak. So weak."

Bang!

The snake sneered at the feathers that kept coming towards her and also dodged more, unable to dodge all of them as three grey plumes made their way towards her, cutting into her scales, blood pouring out in streams and hitting the ground with the sounds of rain. The explosive force of Asura's grey plumes caused Abaddon's body to crush half the city.

"You little-" The snake glared at Asura. "I'll make you pay. I'll devour you. I'll shred your soul and mind!"

"Shut up. You talk too much."

He didn't want to waste too much time; swooping down, he twirled away from the serpent that snapped at him with a deadly bite, his bladed talons tearing through her armoured scales before latching onto her neck, lifting her into the sky, as his wings fluttered with all his strength. The heavy serpent thrashed and flailed, being lifted into the skies.

Abaddon let out a terrifying screech that resounded across the entire city. The screams of countless creatures resounded in Asura's ears as he soared towards the skies.

"Let me go, you damned bird!"

"What? I thought you wanted me to be inside you. My claws are so deep in your flesh. Isn't it good?"

"Don't pretend like you don't know what I meant." The snake hissed, struggling with all her might, her tail twisting, slamming and coiling around Asura, squeezing his wings and body, but to no avail, and the strength that her constriction released could not harm Asura.

"It's too late anyway. Enjoy the ride!"

Asura's body suddenly began to rotate horizontally in the sky rapidly, swinging the snake round and round and round. The snake's head soon became dizzy, and its vision blurred, and it didn't help that Asura was higher and higher in the skies.

"Stop...stop....st....sto....!"

Each rotation was faster than the previous; a loud howl sounded as the pair rotated in the air until Asura slammed the serpent down into a rough mountain beside the city with a jagged and sharp rock face.

Slam!

The snake crashed into the mountain, and rocks and debris blasted apart and were flung into the air, slowly raining down, crushing anything unfortunate to be underneath as a huge crater formed on the mountain. The snake's body lay there as blood seeped from its scales, dripping off the rock and pooling at the base.

"Haa... you need to lose weight....Ha....." Asura's voice resounded over the mountain, his muscles aching from tossing the snake that must have weighed at least a dozen tonnes.

However, Abaddon's counterattack came instantly. Her mouth opened, and a beam of purple miasma shot at the winded Asura.

Bang!

The serpent expected the beam to hit Asura, but it crashed into the side of a mountain; a massive explosion tore open a cliff face and a thousand-metre-deep canyon formed in the process.

"Shit. It was just a distraction," Asura muttered, spreading his wings and flapping them, sending his body into the air and dodging the snake's attack.

Asura knew that his draconic, demon, and Elven bloodlines would protect him from the serpent's poison, but he still had to avoid her breath.

Abaddon rose into the air, staring at Asura as her forked tongue flickered in and out of her mouth. "You can't keep up with me anymore. Soon, I'll devour you. You can't escape."

She followed him, and their speed was fast, nearing the clouds when a black light flashed beneath her.

"Huh?"

Boom!

Asura's beak crashed into the white snake's head as if he had teleported beneath her, and the impact made Abaddon's skull vibrate.

Her eyes shook as she tried to open her mouth and hit Asura with a miasma blast, but his second blow, his talons, sliced her across the cheek, dazing her.

A third attack followed; he aimed to grasp the snake once more and slam her into the ground. However...

"Cough!"

Abaddon spat out a mouthful of blood, and the serpent's head swayed as she spat her blood in the eyes of Asura, causing him to cry out before his huge tail snapped like a whip and smashed his body into the same mountain, like a meteor landing.

Bang!

Massive clumps of dust were kicked up, and the earth trembled with an earthquake-like power. A five-hundred-metre crater was dug into the side of the mountain. Asura's feathers and talons were buried in the rock. His beak cracked as he heaved, breathing in deep breaths, and his consciousness was blurry.

"You need more experience when fighting in your true form, Asura." The serpent slammed down once again with her tail while her mouth sucked in the surrounding energy to create a huge beam of dark light. "Now die!"

A bright white flame floated around Asura as his beak opened and released a shockwave.

"Hisssss." The serpent's attack was halted as Asura's gaze stared into her eyes with the glare of a predator. His claws grasped the rock and shattered it in his grip as he rose, his wings and plumes aflame.

The moment he saw her actions, Asura's beak began to absorb the surrounding Animus from the world at an alarming rate; flowers and trees around him died almost instantly while the black beam in the serpent's mouth almost reached completion. The more energy Asura drew in, the more beautifully his wings shone with a black and white flame alternating.

"I...can't die. Not like this," Asura hissed.

The air seemed to tremble with his words, and Asura's plumes released a blinding black light. Abaddon's snake body also seemed to transform as she prepared to release her attack, the soldiers underneath barely able to tell what was happening.

Abaddon released her attack, and Asura released his in response.

The air seemed to become tranquil for a moment before their beams shot towards each other.

Both beams collided, their shockwave destroying half the mountainside, city and ground below. Abaddon's beam melting, corroding and destroying life, while Asura burned, erased and annihilated everything it touched.

"You want to devour me. Impossible!" Asura's attack raged towards Abaddon's.

Abaddon was so surprised at this result that she did not respond at first until a strange smile came across her face as her attack started to push through Asura's.

"Pitiful!" Abaddon's lips seemed to be moving, but Asura didn't hear a sound.

The world around them seemed to have slowed, and Abaddon's speed of absorbing energy to shoot the beam increased at an alarming rate. Asura's wings were fading as the black and white flames became duller.

"Devour!" The snake hissed.

"NO!"

Asura's eyes became bloodshot; the flames around his wings began to burn brighter again, the shockwave that surrounded his body from the air becoming more violent as it resisted the advance of Abaddon's corrosive beam. He didn't want to kill her...

but now he couldn't hold back as the black flame of Asura changed colour; both white and grey began to swirl, forming a spiralling beam that seemed to devour her attack when the grey light collided with it.

Abaddon's pupils constricted at this scene; it was the first time she had seen grey flames, so she was utterly terrified as she felt her attack being devoured and the strange force from it entering her body, eating her life force and magic...

The black and white fire reversed the energy in her attack, destroying the strange miasma and using it to make their flame stronger as the flame attacked her beam and rapidly began to reverse the flow towards her.

"Not possible! You aren't supposed to be this complete! They lied to me!"

Her scream entered Asura's ears and made him feel relieved. His dragon bloodline was awakened now, and it was his victory.

Asura's flame destroyed her attack, but the flames shot through her beam, leaving only a tiny portion left before crashing into her mouth and corroding her insides.

"Ahhh! Stop! Stop! Please! I'll do anything. I'll become your slave.

I'll worship you."

The serpent's cries echoed throughout the city and over the mountain as Asura's grey flames devoured her body, melting her flesh and bones and causing her to thrash around in agony and misery.

"Never again will you bother us. This is the end." Asura's voice was cold, his mind finally free as he let out a screech, his voice sounding like thousands of voices as his grey flames completely devoured Abaddon.

"NO! I WON'T LET YOU WIN!" Abaddon's eyes flashed, insanity and desperation as she suddenly began to swell, a huge energy aura growing from her abdomen. Before she exploded, a bright light blinded the entire area, with only the loud explosion following.

BANG!

A crater remained in the centre of the city, and only dust, rock, debris and a scorched land where Abaddon had been remained.

"That could have gone better."

Asura's body was exhausted, but he could feel it inside his chest as if something had broken free from its cage. He looked at the ashes and crater that remained of the woman who claimed to be his fate, the saintess of the fallen sun... He killed her rather than accepting her.
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"Was this the right choice..." His voice was lonely as the darkness took him in.

Exhausted after rushing here, after helping kill the monsters near Ar'soleil, and now after accepting the bottom seat of the Abyss, he let down his guard, unaware of her last attack.

A hundred lightning bolts from her explosion struck his body from the ground like laser beams, a last salvo from Abaddon, turning his feathers and armour to ash, before he returned to his human form, dropping to the ground like a comet across the horizon, void of all power after giving everything to end the battle quickly.