"Eh?"
Shang Mei started to panic, but Asura's right hand grabbed her throat and tightened around it like a snake suffocating his prey, watching her pretty face transforming from the act she was performing to a ferocious and twisted visage.
As Asura's deep voice whispered in her ear a second time.
⟪Devil Arts⟫
—Liberación - La Primera Forma
The moment his arm began to transform, his left eye turned black, causing Shang Mei's eyes widened before she tried to use her mana to break free, only to find it constantly devoured and fading before she could manifest something.
Her eyes became crazed as she shouted with a hoarse voice.
"Little boy, do you think Amalia will forgive you should I die here!"
"I am that pathetic bitches only friend, hahaha, the only one she trusts!"
Ah... I love it, just like your brother... Please, keep talking.
"Amalia will curse you and never forgive you for as long as you live! Hahaha!"
Asura smiled at her as the huge amount of mana inside her was being mercilessly devoured, nothing like what he did with Mu Xue or Xavida.
Instead, he was preying upon her with a ferocious gaze as his eyes seemed to be blazing with dark red flames.
"Is that all, you filthy Shang family slut?"
"I am used to that feeling. As long as she lives, even if she hates me to the core."
"To save my cute little sister, I will stain these very hands black with your vile, poisonous blood, you snake!"
"As if a little boy like you has the guts-- ugh!?"
He didn't want to hear her voice anymore, the feelings he felt upon dying reborn.
The true reason he was given a second chance was not just to make Mu Xue happy or live a happy life. It was to crush the enemies of his father and family and those who broke his pride and treated him like a foolish dog!
The next moment, his right hand clenched around her soft neck, snapping the bones with his powerful grasp, watching as her eyes dilated and mouth gasped before penetrating her chest with his black demonic arm.
Its devilish spines pierced her flesh and cracked open her ribs as blood and flesh began to flood and ooze from the deep cavity. Her arms grasped his with a last effort to save her life before his hand smothered her screaming voice that sounded like a dying cat.
As the light in her eyes faded, he leaned over her and whispered.
"Ah... what a shame, hahaha."
"You might have been able to trick my sister into his bed if you worked a little more."
"Sadly, your brother will be forever waiting for your message and guide on how to deal with Amalia and Xavida, and I will kill your pathetic coward of a brother in a year."
Her eyes flooded with tears, filled with panic, terror and agony as Asura devoured her while still living, sucking the mana from her body as she turned into ashes before completely vanishing from existence as if Shang Mei never visited him in the first place.
The next moment, Asura began to feel a sense of intense pleasure, forced to bite down on his arm until it began bleeding as all the monoliths in his body began to go berserk.
'Damn... all my monoliths are about to reach the first stage, and some are more than halfway to the second... damn it feels so amazing!'
'Eh?'
'Why are they draining? Where is it going!?'
[For you to evolve and adapt, part of your life essence will be spent while the rest will be balanced between your monoliths.]
'Ugh... it's burning me as it fades... Brian... Why is it taking so much!??'
[Calm down... Leave it to me I will reduce the amount you lose.]
Asura's heart was throbbing wildly as his veins bulged from his skin, writhing as the mana and Anima in his blood surged like a tsunami.
'Too much power...'
His body rolled from the bed, staggering to the shower as dirt and filth started leaking from everywhere on his body while experiencing extreme cramps and pain in his bones and organs tightened.
"Argh.... what's happening...!"
[You finally completed the first stage on all monoliths but the hidden one.]
"Ueeh....!"
Asura found himself in the shower, slapping his arm against the bar to turn it on as the freezing water cooled the burning inside his body and leaned against the stone wall.
Suddenly, he began feeling nauseous, the sensation of her insides, her sticky blood not leaving his mind as he suffered from killing her in such a brutal and inhumane manner and was the closest he came to murder in human in both lives.
His mind seemed to view the bandits as different, likely due to how they vanished so quickly. But he was forced to watch Shang Mei slowly withering, which caused him to be deeply affected.
[Let it out, and you will be reborn.]
"Ueeh!"
He couldn't speak from the pain in his body improving to the feelings in his mind and the moment of her death repeating in his mind as he began to vomit heavily, collapsing to his knees with his raven hair covering his face under the icy water cascaded on his body.
'Why do I feel sick...'
'There will be so much more blood on my hands in the future...'
'Asura...'
'This is enough.'
As if resonating with his thoughts and desire to strengthen his mind, the Devil and Asura Monolith began to glow slowly as his head leaned back, reflecting in the glistening silver of the showerhead as the eyes of Asura began to change.
Becoming fierce and devilish...
[That's it]
He covered his face, hiding his eyes, which suddenly caused his heart to tremble as a strange black and red liquid oozed from his eyes, a sense of glee and excitement.
He covers his face, hiding the eyes that caused his heart to tremble.
[Congratulations.]
[Whatever stopped you from activating the Asura monoliths benefits is gone...]
[But why... does it feel like something else was taken away...]
Asura slowly rose to his feet, even with his muscles convulsing and filled with cramps and strange movements.
He bit his lower lip and stood, enduring the pain as if to etch the moment and this determination into his heart.
'This is the path I swore to take.'
'I cannot step back now, and I have no time to be sentimental about the death of a mere enemy.'
'Asura Fenix, will you save those you love and reach great heights...'
'Or Fail, causing many to die from your failure!'
He looked into the silver shower, turning the hot tap to the maximum before taking a deep breath, seeming to adjust himself completely.
"Many will die. My path is one of blood, one of chaos and domination."
"My enemy a kingdom, an empire and a world."
'I will take these final moments to embrace these fleeing emotions and entrust myself to the Devil and Asura's blood within my veins.'
After he took a moment to breathe, his face gradually returned to the normal Asura, no longer fierce and devilish.
His beautiful face with wet raven hair looked serene in the silver showerhead. However, in the depths of his eyes were flames swirling around each other, dark red, blue and black, the flames flickering as if waiting for the right moment to detonate.
By the time Asura left the shower, his body was completely repaired from both instances of using his liberation technique.
Now, he sat on the windowsill wearing his black uniform, watching a small red bird flying towards the Fenix territory from his hand with a small letter tied to its feet. Asura himself held a small blade in his hand while stabbing into the stone below his window.
Dad should be able to prepare, knowing the enemy is the Shang clan and many spies who are related to them in his inner court.
"The arena is so excitable it seems that Mu Xue just crushed another enemy..."
"After all, Mu Xue, you are the beacon of light guiding me on this path of darkness..."
The loud chants of his cute maid's name resounded even at the window he sat as he closed his eyes, almost able to envision her current movements and actions, the former misery and shock from murder gone.
'I lost quite a lot of progress, but now my body has improved beyond a normal human, and all my monoliths are balanced, ready to awaken the final one...'
[Remember there is always a price to pay for progress—ensure you have excess amounts of Anima stored when you reach the Second Stage in the future.]
Now, only a faint smile and calm demeanour surrounded him.
'Soon, my sister will come to find Shang Mei, and I will become her enemy once again.'
'At least this time, it's not because I am a pathetic disgrace to the Fenix name.'