Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

"Alistair~ you promised to protect me!" Her voice, filled with desperation, echoed through the empty halls.

Her cries might even sound pitiful to those who didn't know her. No maids or knights waited outside the door. Now, an abandoned and empty castle inside a fragile fort.

"Those monsters are going to destroy my city and ravish my body, yet you do not act."

Maria didn't expect the speed at which the orcs would use their victory, taking Westrin to build momentum and bright another tribe of monsters. Normally, the different tribes hated each other, but someone brought them together.

She looked out of her window.

A mass of monsters stood only a hundred metres from her walls, armoured to the limits—a wall of green muscle and ferocity.

'Everyone I love betrays me, daddy. Why didn't I listen to you?'

Maria lamented as she stumbled from her room wearing a thin nightdress, the walls empty with less than fifty knights who couldn't flee because of their sickly families or loved ones.

Nobody stayed for the countess.

"Why do they not attack? Surely they can see we cannot resist them?" A knight whispered in his trembling voice.

"They want us to feel fear, to tremble so that our morale collapses."

"Capitan... Why did you stay? You could have escaped!" Another knight, this group of twenty knights, seemed to be from the same unit from before the mutiny and mass evacuation.

"It's simple: I lost my wife many years ago. The family I loved died within these walls, and you are all staying here like idiots. How could I leave you to die alone?"

"Captain..."

"Captain!"

"Together, as one man, we stand or fall united. However, the country has changed in the past few years. Do not forget the good she did when she first took over!"

It might have meant nothing to the countess would her knights remained, and the castle remained standing.

The voice of a single captain would mean nothing to the countess, one of the twelve lords who ruled Romantica.

'That man stays to fight because of me?'

Maria felt like a frozen cloth slapped her face, the feeling of hangover and minor intoxication fading faster than her betrayal at the hands of Alistair. No... she felt something crack inside her as if a misty fog suddenly dispersed.

'Why did I promise Alistair my father's divine weapon?'

Her legs trembled, a dreadful thought filling her chest as she realised as a high-tier mage.

"Someone charmed me and controlled my mind?!"

'No, it's obvious who, a man who isn't my type, suddenly became the reason for my existence? I handed over all the secrets of my father's legacy and his powerful magic tools!'

She collapsed to her knees and couldn't stop the flood of tears from her swollen eyes, as if everything came crashing down on her heart, finally reaching reality and rock bottom.

"Father, beloved father... your useless daughter has betrayed our family name and lost everything. Even your beloved city will soon fall."

Her words were difficult to hear as she sniffled and coughed, the tears finally unleashed like a storm trapped inside for years. She no longer cared about appearances, and she didn't care how she looked in front of the knights.

She had been stripped bare and broken, left naked with nothing but a nightgown on an icy day.

'My pride... what does it matter?'

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Her frustration grew as she couldn't stop her despair from clouding her mind.

However, not long after her feelings calmed, a ferocity and light of resilience shone in the depths of her dull eyes, reviving their beauty.

She stood without care for the wind blowing her gown, revealing her body to the world. Instead, she stepped forward, ignoring the whispers of the knights while standing at the centre of the gate, focusing her gaze on the enemy army.

"Toy soldiers, fall and serve your queen, or never be born again."

"?!"

A blue fireball erupted within the sky, descending upon the 10,000-strong army with its damage far above what the countess should be capable of, proving the rumours true.

No, the countess never stopped training. This memory of her father is a subconscious protective measure the countess might have degraded if her father had not prepared a failsafe, knowing something may happen to a single countess with no support in the kingdom.

After ten years of being a puppet, Maria Svesta did not lose strength. Instead, she revealed her true power, that of a Stage 10 Mage.

The blue fireball crashed into the goblin army like a meteor, collapsing the shields and burning flesh. It even killed hundreds before the commander, an ogre, swung his giant axe to dissipate the flames and stood proud among his burned and decimated army.

"INFANTRY, FORWARD!" He ordered and ordered as more monsters flooded through the forests from the south and north.

Maria didn't falter; her forehead filled with sweat; she looked back at her knights.

"Forgive me, for I have finally awoken from my nightmares."

"Lady of ice, queen of the tundra, grant me the magic to stall my enemies!" Maria didn't stop to chat; the immense army charged anger and fury at her sudden attack. Yet she had nothing to lose as the ground rumbled, a powerful feeling of suction draining her body of mana.

For the first time in thirty years, the beautiful fort city awakened. Ice walls covered the existing walls before sharp spikes erupted from the ground, forming a deadly, impassable terrain for the monsters.

The ice fortress protected the people who watched the walls, a nostalgic memory for the old and weak. Their former lord stood in the same place as the current countess, performing the same action in their darkest moments.

Maria used a drop of her blood on a scroll; the action ignited a flame before a runic circle appeared and engraved itself into the earth.

"Create 50 golems... protect this gate, and defeat my enemies."

Hundreds of orcs died to the spikes of ice while a single shaman in the distance swirled his staff; in the sky, darkness stirred, forming a massive cloud of lightning, and large balls of fire appeared before raining down upon the castle.

'They know of Father's defensive spell and its weakness. Father's defensive spell and its Do not falter. Do not retreat!' a knight shouted, his gaze turning to the citizens, who suddenly moved.

Maria no longer cared if she lived or died. If they died, they'd die heroes. If she lived, she would regain her power and her home and find the man who deceived her mind.

Amid Maria's thoughts, an explosion of ice suddenly erupted from the ground, forming huge hands that intercepted many of the blazing balls of fire.

"Eh!?" Maria's face became confused. This wasn't her doing, and the only ones able to support the system were...

She turned to see the several thousand people who remained, all standing in the centre of the city, their hands placed on the ground with shining blue lights. Old, young, wounded, disabled, all of them were giving their bodies mana, no matter how little, to support the spell.

'I see... You all, you were my father's people.'

"Forgive me, I betrayed your expectations..." Her voice echoed because of the spell, allowing all people within to communicate easily. Her sincere feelings and voice reached the ones who remained, and they could only feel of.

Finally.

The countess they all loved and doted on growing up returned home.

****

"It seems she reconsidered and fought." A knight in the Westrin colours muttered from a distant hilltop.

He turned to look back at the two hundred brothers and sisters who sat atop their warhorses; when they left, they only escorted the commoners and non-combatants away; whether they would fight depended on the countess.

"I feel shame our lord cannot see the return of his beloved from whatever curse ailed her mind."

Maria and most of the Lords didn't realise, but the Westrin, Alan Nelphim and Maria Stvesta were once engaged to be wed until her father died in a strange situation, and the young Maria changed almost immediately, drifting them apart.

"Those who wish to leave, you may leave. However, I do not wish to see the woman our lord adored to his last moments fall here alone."

Nobody answered.

Nobody moved.

They all remained.

"Excellent... We will wait for the right moment to attack the goblins in the flanks before assisting the countess in the defence. Destroy their shaman, and our countess of fire and ice will guide us to victory."

As one, the two hundred knights, including the lady knight at the forefront, prepared to charge towards the Goblin army.

Maria attacked with another huge spell. The devastation of the raging blizzard killed hundreds, and in the blink of an eye, the orcs could no longer take things easy.

****

"Grom'Gaius, you must attack." A voice sounded from the void, a human voice filled with arrogance and mockery. "That's if you don't want me to seed your wife while you are gone. Hahahaha."

The laughter caused Grom'Gaius to feel an intense rage, and yet he could not unleash it.

The death of his son and subordinates pushed him to this point. To survive the monster kingdom's fierce rules, he accepted a deal with the cult of the fallen sun, and in return, he lost many important things.

Grom planned to take this attack and split from the monster kingdom and cult, but the man responsible appeared and stopped them from loading their women and children onto the boats.

"Y-yes, I shall attack!" He gave a command and swore an oath to himself.

It didn't matter if he died. However, he could not let the humans touch his tribe.

"Advance the war, ogres and trolls! Destroy those weak walls!" He commanded his men before leaping forward.

His gigantic swords smashed the ice spikes into dust while he approached the wall himself, using his overwhelming strength to resist the icy cold. The shards of ice raining down and slicing his flesh only empowered his desire to win.

"Shaman, kill that woman!" Grom pointed to the wall, where a tired-looking Maria cast firebolts into the vast army of orcs.

"Yes, my lord!"

Maria felt an intense presence aimed at her, and the threat caused her instincts to scream; a split second before the shaman jumped into the air, a cloak of shadows and purple flames enveloped his body. His staff howled as the sound of the wind cut through the air.

A beam of pure dark energy nearly struck the countess before it exploded into deadly shards of mana, cutting down dozens of her knights and turning the earth into corrupted dust.