The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Xenos' roars kept on being a sound hazard for all the parties involved. The Serpent's desperation couldn't overcome Reina's control over it.

It was angered. Filled with anguish. It didn't want to accept its fate just like this, but it wasn't given a chance to resist. The woman in front of him, the one who bravely stood her ground against it, didn't let him get such a chance in the slightest.

After another stretch or two, with two clashing powers tugging on each other to gain the upper hand, Reina ended up winning.

The Serpent, who had just finished molting, was once again consumed by Reina's shadows.

Reina let out a few pained whimpers, gritting her teeth and biting her lips in order to muffle the sounds as much as possible.

Aria, who heard the noises immediately calculated their current situation.

'It should be enough for the likes of Xenos. Or should I be worried about anything else?' Aria tried to think about any possibilities that she might've missed.

The result was none. This battle should be theirs to conquer.

..Right?

"Good work, Reina. Rest now. I will take care of the rest. Elgin, I'm leaving her to you. I need to check something about the Serpent."

The quest she received hadn't been marked as clear yet despite Xenos no longer showing any signs of life.

Aria, who had experience in handling the System could only interpret this kind of development to be the result of there being something 'unfinished' regarding Xenos that she could do, apart from taking its life.

Aria was a bit confused and filled with hesitation, but she marched forwards anyway.

The box that contained Xenos was in front of her now. She reached down to grab it and scrutinized it with keen eyes.

Then, she suddenly felt a strange sensation. A spark that was ignited between her and the creature inside the box.

"This is a.. resonation?" Aria frowned, murmuring in a low voice.

A resonation. A connection formed between two entities' souls, be it because of positive or negative reasons.

As for this one.. It could be positive. Xenos was dead, or at least on the verge of death.

Suddenly having a resonation like this out of nowhere when Aria had personally came in contact with it multiple times during her own battle earlier led her to believe that this resonation was the type born from Xenos' will to be subdued.

It wasn't her first time coming in contact with this sort of reaction. Rather, she had came across multiple entities who ended up joining her through this way before. After their defeat, those who desperately wanted to live managed to emit a spark through their soul, sending it to Aria as a form of communication.

A way to tell that they longed to live, and would do anything if that wish was granted.

'If I could obtain Xenos..' Aria gulped.

It would be a very desirable thing.

Xenos was strong. Not that strong in her past standards, but strong enough to overpower her current level.

She was only able to beat Xenos because of her cooperation with all the other folks. The fact that they were able to drag the fight on until this long, and the fact that she taught Reina the skill that shouldn't have existed as of now.

Xenos was a great asset of destruction.

'However.. In front of everybody, I'm not sure if I want to create a connection right here.' Aria debated with herself.

'If there was a way for me to mask my actions with Xenos, then...'

[Why not just jump into the cage along with it? You are not bound by Reina's shadows, so it should be fine, right? Make it up to be an accident. Pretend to be sucked in or something.] Rallaka gave his input out of nowhere.

'..Oh God, you're actually right for once.'

Aria let that type of solution slip out of her mind.

[What the hell does that mean?! I'm a very helpful spirit, alright?! Do you think any stray spirit would have the same capabilities like I do?? I'm your most precious spirit!!]

'Dianthe is far better than you. Silence, please. I'll try to make my way inside the cage now.'

Even though Rallaka said it as if the act was not that big of a deal, it wasn't simple.

The cage was sealed by Reina's collective power.

'I'll have to tamper with it.. Which, in turn, could possibly damage Reina even more.'

The shadows were materialized from Reina's element, so it could be counted as a part of her. This spell in particular took everything she could muster up to cast. Unlike Shanatos, the original user of this spell, Reina was far weaker than the correct requirements to sustain this dastardly spell.

Breaking the spell was a piece of cake to Aria because she knew how to work her way around it.

The problem was that Reina would be put in more danger.

Aria had a little fight with her morals.

Reina had suffered so much, and she was the prime cause of it. Teaching her this skill and making her use it even though Aria knew she wasn't fully ready. And now, she was about to hurt her with her own selfish actions.

'I'm sorry.' After thinking for some time, that turned out to be all Aria could say.

Even though she did grow to like Reina quite well after getting acquainted with her, she couldn't just throw away this golden opportunity of getting a new comrade under her rule, after all. Her utmost priority was still getting as strong as she could, and Xenos was a prime candidate for that goal.

Aria took a deep breath in before beginning to manipulate her mana stealthily and mess with the settings of the cage. On the other side, Reina already began to feel disturbances, but did not connect the reaction with Aria's doings yet. She still though that it was part of the price she had to pay for overexerting herself that much fighting Xenos and maintaining the troublesome spell.

Meanwhile, Aria continued to do her thing and finally managed to trigger the locks open after fiddling with it for some time. She ignored the strange stares that she received during the time that she speedrunned the task.

'I did it.' Aria acknowledged, feeling like she had just solved a great puzzle.

Aria looked back at Reina one last time.

She knew that once she totally inserted herself into the shadow cage, Reina would receive a quite lethal blow, and it wouldn't be pretty for her condition.

Her conscience almost shook, but she was reminded of the power she could obtain. The power of poison, one that she particularly liked in the past for its proficiency and attributes.

'..I need to just jump in without thinking further.'

'Again, sorry.' Aria repeated inside her mind before jumping into the cage for good.

Before she was fully absorbed in the space, she captured the sights of many people going into a series of panicked expressions after witnessing her warp, but she merely closed her eyes and didn't bother to think much of them.

She had a much higher priority task to do.

Try to capture Xenos, the troublesome Serpent that could come in handy for her.