Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

Xavida's dual hearts trembled. The thought that her failure might cause Asura to endure more pain and suffering alone caused her to feel agony worse than any wound that this man inflicted upon her flesh.

Her gaze leaned over to Mu Xue, whose face became dark, her former ice blue hair and eyes becoming dark, tainted, forming black ice—with narrow eyes and pale lips as she pressed them together.

Xavida understood her feelings completely.

'I must kill him, not for the kingdom or safety, but because he is a threat to Asura!'

Xavida took the lead, using her daggers, a beautiful light fluttering before deadly lightning illuminated the night sky, causing Aldric to turn her way, his sword primed for a deadly thrust.

"Mu Xue! Do not lose your calm!"

⟪Dragon Magic Arts⟫

∟ Dual thunder Lance

Two streaks of electricity seemed to dance in Xavida's grip. She launched forward in a frantic pattern before throwing the daggers towards the blonde human. Each tip sparked with the energy released in a deadly arc of lightning as both blades followed Xavida's movements, avoiding his blade with her agile movements.

"How annoying."

Aldric's eye twitched as he moved the sword to protect his neck, but the lightning spears disintegrated on impact with the holy sword.

However, Xavida didn't give up—she continued her dance around his body, adding a third and fourth bolt of lightning as her wings fluttered, sending her into the air to avoid his counterattacks.

"Mu Xue!" Xavida's voice pierced into the ice beauty's mind.

A woman who seemed to be a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment, suddenly sucked in the cold air, her feet parting to shoulder length with a slight bed as she grasped Hyouka by the hilt and grip at her waist while re-sheathing the blade.

'Good! Now let me beat the bad guy up and make an opening.'

"Filthy dragon, shall I sheer your wings like the fly you are!?" A golden light wrapped around Aldric as the air vibrated. His focus was entirely on Xavida, who continued to attack him with her lightning daggers, slicing his cheek, cutting his arms and causing the arrogant noble to grow furious.

However, at that moment, Mu Xue's feet flickered as if an illusion.

Suddenly, Mu Xue appeared before Aldric's face with the rapidly unsheathed blade raised above her head, swinging down in a perfect arc, flashing with a blue light.

"You devil bitch!"

Aldric grasped his holy sword—however, the moment he attempted to fend off Mu Xue's blow, two daggers collided with his hand, causing his grip and balance to fail.

'It's not enough!'

⟪White Dragon Arts⟫

—Vanquishing Lighting Storm

"Bad Guy!"

Xavida's shout transformed into a roar as white lightning began swirling above her angry roar. The lightning shook the heavens, and a massive storm of purple lightning rained down, with white flames pouring upon Aldric.

"Aahh!!" Aldric's scream filled the night sky as his flesh burned despite protecting himself with the holy sword.

His armour failed to protect him as the golden shield of light shattered into pieces, causing his face to change; his eyes widened, a look of shock and fear covering his face as he saw Mu Xue, who glowed a vibrant blue.

'Let's finish this.'

Mu Xue's blade swung down upon Aldric's head. The attack was beautiful and without faults, as her ice element followed the tip in a beautiful arc of frost, ice, and cold wind.

"How can this be?! It cannot end here?" Aldric's last words sounded more like a desperate plea rather than a question as Mu Xue's blade struck his skull with the momentum of a rushing river.

The tip sliced across his left eye, tore through his cheek, and cleaved his shoulder with a devastating force, the ice freezing his wounds instantly before healing them to prevent reparative surgery from a light element user.

"Aaaaahhh!?" Aldric screamed, his body falling towards the ground after Mu Xue's last swing left him immobilised.

The attack didn't cut through his bones or cause lethal damage to his flesh. However, the lack of life-threatening wounds only meant he would live to experience more agony and suffering.

It wasn't because she wished to stop or somehow forgive him.

Mu Xue's arm flew across the air, landing near the forest and cracking into pieces.

A tall male suddenly stood beside Aldric, his sword not even drawn.

Yet his gaze froze her on the spot, a power that caused her to remember absolute power. The memories of her clan's destruction replaying in her mind, a little girl trying to heal her mother's wounds with her immature ice magic.

"You are weak, Mu Xue," Asura said to her as if to remind her of this. "Winning a battle means nothing if you can't save a single person."

Mu Xue stared at the Asura in her mind, the young boy much weaker and pathetic compared to her deformed self. Yet he extended a hand. "So until you become strong enough, rest at my side. I am weaker and need saving from the world."

The memory suddenly ended, and she saw her arm flying away after slashing the annoying noble, only a millisecond passing during her moment of recollection.

"W-Who are you!!"

She resisted the desire to cry or scream from the pain, refusing to give the enemy such satisfaction, as she created an arm of pure ice, beautiful and immaculate but different.

The old man with an eyepatch just shrugged before looking at Aldric, who was rolling around screaming and shouting in pain.

"Young girl, you are strong and hold a powerful will. Out of respect for that, I shall not slay you both here. This oath I swear on the name Siegfried Verheist, Bladmaster of Romanica."

'S-Siegfried Verheist!? The strongest blade master on the continent after the saintess!?'

Xavida suddenly dropped beside Mu Xue, her wings shredded, and all the beautiful scales of her body cracked and bloody. She then held out the other's damaged arm.

"Mu Xue, your arm, take it."

"Thanks, Xavi."

Mu Xue never removed her eyes from the duo—Seigfried's sheer gaze locked her in place and stopped her from gathering magic even inside her body.

He told her this man was more dangerous than she could handle, even sacrificing her life instead of a mere limb. Next time, there would be only death.

Her flesh arm could never be the same, and the strange magic swirling within Sigfried's attack stopped healing and regeneration.

Instead, she fused the arm with her magic. Slowly, the ice arm melted like a strange, inhumane magic. Her damaged flesh fused with the beautiful ice, forming an arm formed of both flesh and magic.

"Ugh..."

Her lips released an agonising pain as the nerves and flesh reconnected at her shoulder, a feeling like tiny knives poking her nerves caused a pain that directly assaulted her brain; while the enemy carried Aldric over his shoulder, he watched Mu Xue's actions, and his old eye shone with admiration.

"We may be enemies. However, I respect the strong, unbreaking and those with talent. Let me help you before that arm becomes useless."

Siegfried extended his arm, strange black magic flickering from his fingertips. Strange runes and sigils were inscribed into his entire body, which neither Xavida nor Mu Xue recognised.

"What are those runes? They are like the elvish excerpts from the academy library but different."

"Ah, it looks like Dad's doodles!"

Both women spoke to each other without thinking as Seigfried sighed. "Those are devil runes. A forbidden technique only a few people in this world know."

However, before they could question him, his magic faded along with his figure, leaving only a few words as Mu Xue collapsed to the ground before her arm truly transformed into something magical and beautiful.

"Next time we meet, make sure you bring stronger allies. This boy may be egotistical, but there is more than just him awaiting you."

As his voice faded, only the sounds of their hearts remained as Xavida hugged Mu Xue's convulsing body, her wounds worsening by the second.

'Sorry, Asura, I promise when we meet again, I'll be stronger than before.'

Mu Xue only thought of these words as the process forced her to endure the reconstruction of every fibre of her arm. The devil's bloodline, her magic, and Siegfried's strange darkness all fused, tiny runes and sigils etched under her flesh into the muscle and bone itself.

'This pain is worth it for the future. I hope Asura can forgive me.'

She slowly closed her eyes to enter a dream of healing before she suddenly noticed the shape of two figures: a handsome devil with cruel eyes, dark gold pupils, and a black sclera.

Suddenly, her view changed, and she saw from the person beside him a woman with blue skin and strange black ice enveloping her arms, forming beautiful gloves and a long spike from her elbow; this ice seemed to be part of her body rather than magic.

The woman also had two horns curling from the top of her head in the reflection upon the throne.

'Who... Where?'

"Muru, one day I will take you to the world above. We will laugh and enjoy the warmth of the sun together."

Mu Xue felt strange.

The man's name seemed a little different from hers, as did his voice and atmosphere.

Why did it feel so nostalgic and warm to her?

Her lips then spoke with a beautiful and mature voice, much like hers in devil form.

"Azoth, even if we spent an eternity trapped in darkness with nothing but each other. I would be delighted just to have you beside me."

The dream then faded rapidly, yet Mu Xue's heart wouldn't stop racing. The words and feelings she knew were precisely the feelings she felt towards Asura from the moment he saved him.

In his dream, the man named Azoth saves Muru from a fate worse than death, even if it means he will lose his ability to use the ice element for life!

***

"Wait!!"

Suddenly, Mu Xue shouted, her left arm now identical to the Muru from her dream reaching out. However, she was lying on a bed, and around her were the voices of hundreds of people.

"Doctor, she's finally awake!"

"Mu Xue!?" Xavida rushed over, holding a small plate of fruits and meat before placing them on the table.

"Ah?"

Mu Xue was confused—The dream was so unmistakable that she could have sworn she was experiencing another life. Her heart skipped a beat as Xavida hugged her tightly, causing her ice to feel a sense of familial love that she lost many years ago.

"Mumu, I thought you might die. The bad guy just left, and you kept bleeding and groaning in your sleep. Even my blood didn't heal the wounds!"

"Where am I?"

"You're safe now," Xavida sniffed, "They came an hour ago, it's the instructors and other students who were delayed! Ehehe."

"I see, my arm feels strange. Though magic seems to move faster when using my left hand," Mu Xue whispered while trying to adjust to her arm. She still tried to grasp the tiny shards of that dream and worried if Asura would be angry about her losing an arm.