The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"Aria Schreiner, I will have to disappoint you,"

On that day, not a single spot of her fair skin was devoid of bruises and blood. Her messy black hair covered her face as she kept looking at the faces of her former 'comrades', even if it made her wounds even worse.

The pain was nothing compared to the anguish.

'Unbelievable.'

That was the only thing she wanted to say.

Stupid would not be enough to describe what these foolish humans did to her.

They were on the verge of discovering the True Unity!

They were only one step behind. The result they struggled tens of years for was right in front of them.

They only had to clear one more level. One more. That damned tower was pushed to the brink of destruction by them.

They had all the key elements!

Just one more and they would be able to receive the 'chance', just like how the late prophecy described.

The chance to enter the higher realms. To ascend.

She felt only bitterness as she gritted her teeth at the familiar faces in front of her.

If she could, she would have used all the spells at her disposal, letting her summons rampage and seeing them writhe in pain as they taste the full agony. If possible, she wanted to engulf everything in a sea of flames, leaving nothing but ashes.

She was filled to the brim with anger!

At her wits end, she couldn't help but secretly struggled to conjure mana. Instead of gaining the energy she wanted, she was met with an excruciating pain that left no part of her body intact.

Aria couldn't hold back the scream and let out a deafening shriek.

"Curse... you!" Aria muttered, her face scratching against the rough soil.

"The Unity's Bind. When used on a living being, it restricts their mana core and prevents the outflow of mana. If the being persisted on conjuring mana, it would unleash a drawback, accompanied by a severe pain," Azef softly spoke as he twirled an azure blue string on his palm.

"You discovered and polished it all by yourself. How does it feel? The product of your research being used against yourself?" He pinched the string with his fingers are swayed it in front of her. "Truly a mystical thing this is. Sadly, you always refused to utilize it,"

"AZEF! Cease this stupid act! You will never be able to open the Unity's Door without me!" She wailed, tears of blood sprouting out of her eyes as a result of overexertion.

"I'm afraid that my name would be soiled if it was called by a lowly one like you... Didn't you realize? Or are you really that stupid? Did you never question why we- no, 'you' always ended up being on the verge of death in every single mission?" Azef yanked her black hair and released his grip.

He was thrilled in the thought of seeing the untouchable summoner in such a bad state.

"On every single expedition you were on, I personally asked my people to make trouble right in the direst moment. After all, only then would the monsters pose trouble to our beloved greatest summoner, Aria Schreiner,"

"Azef Harkan, I will never forgive you,"

"Unfortunately, I don't need your forgiveness," Azef snapped his fingers and as a response, a bullet was shot.

"Unity Bullet. Ahh, you really loved naming everything after that shitty word, don't you? Unity, unity, unity. When will you ever stop?" With another snap of his fingers, two bullets were lodged into her stomach, penetrating her silk satin robe with ease.

The previous shock had dulled her pain receptors. The bullet made her bleeding even worse, but the pain didn't go through.

She felt nothing at this point.

Of all things, she hated futile resistance the most.

She used to look down on those who were already rolling on the ground after losing everything, but still tried to latch onto her for another chance to live.

But now, her will to live surpassed any other second she spent living this cursed life.

Even if she was able to conjure the energy needed to summon her entourage, she wouldn't be able to materialize them.

They had long been sealed by Azef's people.

She kept staring at the crowd with burning rage inside of her.

Then, she suddenly broke into laughter.

Her delirious act made the people feel nothing but an ominous wind. A chill against their back.

Azef clicked his tongue before signalling something to his men. His objective had been completed.

The way Aria still acted like she was a winner irked him. He no longer wanted to deal with the woman.

One individual came forward with a spherical container in his hands.

"Aria Schreiner, you of all people know the best, what this little flame signifies,"

Aria couldn't wait for everything to be over, for her life to be ended. For everything to turn into naught. Her head was forcefully grabbed and raised so that the sparkling blue flame entered her line of sight.

Flame of Unity.

The last piece of the puzzle. The flame that never stops burning. The key to transcend to the higher realms mentioned in the prophecy.

"You know I hate flames, but you still want me to burn forever?" Aria knew the potency of the flame. Of course, it was purely because she had personally tested it against one of her enemies.

The flame engulfed that person until his entire body was charred black, and yet he was still alive.

Only until she had created a storage medium that could contain and suppress the flame did she free the man out of agony. It was somewhat of a tribute to her enemy who had helped her in testing out the flames, she wasted quite a large amount of pure, undiluted Unitium just to weaken the flame to the point of naught.

"Wouldn't it be an amazing spectacle? A glorious end to your journey. You won't ever have to stress about the Unity anymore, just leave it to us and embrace the flame forever. Of course, I won't relieve you of the pain,"

Azef did not directly pour the flame on her, he signaled for another action and waited instead.

This time, it was a dark-skinned woman with jet - black hair that spanned to her waist that came forward. The dark elf, Lorelei Rozenthal. One of her fixed teammates. Lorelei carried a decent-sized coffin with one hand as she roughly laid the coffin down to the ground.

She dragged Aria by her hair and tossed her into the coffin with ease. Lorelei possessed immense strength.

Devoid of power to resist, Aria could do nothing but close her eyes and reflect on her mistakes.

Yes, it was her mistake to trust others apart from her and her summons.

'I'm sorry, my friends. We won't be able to reach our desires.' The 'friends' she referred to was of course, not the outrageous ones who committed treachery to her, but the summons who were loyal and forever supportive of her goals. She apologized to them, who worked just as hard as her to accomplish the mission they will now never get to complete.

Azef showed a twisted smile as he unhesitatingly released the flame onto the roots of her long hair.

The blue flame blazed and roared. It ate up Aria's hair in a hot second before exponentially spreading up to her face, her neck, her limbs... In less than 5 minutes, her whole body was burning.

"Goodbye, Aria Schreiner. I shall make great use of your discoveries. Perhaps, once I ascend, you would also be able to witness my greatness," Azef closed the coffin lid, showing her one last smile.

Oh, how she wanted to rip that annoying face to shreds.

How many hours had passed?

The coffin was specially made for containing the Unity Flame. Of course, they would want to keep this incident a secret. After all, if she was left alone just like that, there would eventually be someone who would end her life.

She did not just trigger huge advancements to the prophecy's deciphering progress, but also influenced the entire world.

The Summoner, Aria Schreiner. A legendary figure renowned to mankind.

If only she could be found, the chances of Azef being obstructed by the mass was high. A lot of people were indebted to her.

She saved many throughout her journey. But all of that was now nothing.

The coffin was made with the same material she used to make the spherical container. Even so, the flame that engulfed her was not weakened at all. She once used this same element to make the flame die out, but now it was being used to preserve the flame for eternity.

Unitium worked in two different ways, as a counter for the flame, but also as the preserver. To make it as a counter, you needed one more special ingredient, but their purpose was not to end the flame's life, but to let it last forever.

Unitium. She wanted to laugh. Indeed, she was obsessed with the word Unity. Even this newfound material was based on that word.

Getting their hands on this much material would not be an easy task. In addition, they did it behind her back.

She had discovered this material's potential 2 years ago. In that two years, they managed to gather so much Unitium?

Pain wasn't important. The blue flame charred her body but still kept its shape intact.

Compared to the first few hours where her core was being forcefully eroded by the flames, the current pain wasn't that bad.

As a researcher and a slave to new knowledge and discoveries, she truly wondered.

Was there an end to the flames? If so, what would it take?

Hundreds or even thousands of years?

If that was the case, she was more than willing to wait every single second.

The moment she got out, she would.. what would she do?