The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 162: Not an Ending

Aria couldn't recover her calm even after the shards from Lucas' dead body had floated upwards and left nothing in her hands. The lingering warmth of the child Lucas in the alternate world transitioning into the pale, cold hands of the man formed an excruciating pain inside her.

She stayed in silence, as she felt like going further than this was going to be as hard as it could be.

Several System notifications rang in her head, but none of it was able to steal away Aria's attention. She was focused on the ground, letting her tears drop down as she had to witness the death of another one of her comrades. She was crushed by the outcome that she produced by herself.

"Take it away.. take it away! Take them all out in front of me! There's no need to stall this long, you have wasted years and years of time letting me live inside the coffin just to let me out and for what purpose?? To make me realize that I was a shit person back in the days? Then, I have already realized it, so take me away.. Please." Aria bit her own tongue and banged her fists on the ground as she kept repeating her words, begging for the System to take her away as well.

Just as she had regained the spirit to continue living, she had to keep being crushed like this. Did they think that she would just be able to continue forward?

Then, just like a silly joke, a sound rang inside her mind and her condition was fully recovered. The wound that she purposely made on her tongue was no longer there, it was replaced by a vague blue light. The System had healed her.

Was this her punishment? For not realizing the problems circulating around her much earlier and ending up having to have the consequences in form of living? Her conscience shook.

How could she atone? By having to continue on, suffering until she witnessed every single story that made her heart bleed, and make her want to cry a river of tears?

It didn't take much for her to realize that she was changing. Exponentially. Not just in terms of power, but also emotionally. She was way more affected with these situations than she would've been in the past. And it wasn't great at all, the feeling was trash.

Like she was torn apart, like a thousand bugs were eating her from inside out. A burning fire was lit inside of her, a fire that was much more painful than the pain she had to face when she was burned by the Unity Flame. Of course, the truth was that the flame was much more potent, but Aria felt like the current state she was in rivaled the events of that time.

Aria forced herself to get back up. With lifeless eyes, she checked the System's notifications and received her rewards. Even though she heard continuous pings of congratulations, she couldn't feel happy. There was not a shred of joy inside her.

"I want to get out." Aria said in a low tone. The System transported her back to the real world, and she stood in the training ground as a stronger version of herself.

Alena was also there, having finished her Tower scaling and was just preparing to go back until Aria returned.

However, when she saw Aria show back up, the woman was unlike before. She was dispirited, and looked like there was no longer any life inside her.

"Big sister?" With worry, Alena asked.

However, Aria did not respond in any sort or form as she continued to walk past the little girl and march towards her own room.

From then on, Aria shut herself inside her room. Day and night, she stayed inside there. Sometimes, she would just lay on her bed doing nothing, contemplating the events that she had to encounter. Was it such a bad thing that she wanted to seek the Unity, until she was pushed to this point? How much bad karma did she pile up in order for her to be put through this ordeal?

Other times, she would sit down and meditate, try to sort her body out. She was feeling extremely chaotic deep within, so there needed to be a refurnishing process. Rallaka was always there to support her every time she felt empty, which she appreciated greatly.

If not for the spirit's great help, perhaps Aria wouldn't be here anymore. Going forward with the principle that she needed to appreciate everything a lot more, and that humanity was starting to grow back inside her after she failed long long ago, she thanked the spirit many times.

Aria constantly battled against the mental issues she had. The feeling of wanting to give up, but not being able to. She was rotting inside.

It was only after three days passed that Aria successfully got herself back together. She also remembered that the dungeon subjugation was going to be due in a few days. Although she was still a bit disturbed, she tried her best to keep herself together.

She got out of the room. Within one minute, Alena was somehow in front of her with a worried expression.

"Big sister.. You have recovered?" Alena questioned, wanting to approach Aria but was a bit scared to do so because she didn't know what exactly Aria was going through. All that she knew was that it had something to do with the Tower, since Aria descended into this state right after she got out and maintained it until now.

Aria shrugged, not knowing how to fully answer the little girl. She just simply went ahead and approached the girl, giving her a tight hug. She mumbled words of apology that weren't needed in the first place, but she knew that the girl worried about her. Since she knew how Alena was, and how sincere she was in the middle of the other people she had in her life. 

"Yeah.. I've sorted everything out. And I've also.. gotten stronger from the second stage. I unlocked more Summoner paths now. I should be able to form stronger contracts with creatures I meet in the future. Not only just by blind choosing from the fate's wheel." Aria explained with a tired smile.

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Floor 20 ended up with a disastrous ending, but what it did give was more Summoner related powers. Although the System did not list exactly what it gave her, Aria could feel that she could do higher leveled skills, and that she really was slowly progressing into a real Summoner.

To not forget about a single thing that she has experienced, and to clarify what she knew and what she wanted to do, she started to write a book out of her own mind. She documented each and every single encounter she could remember, and listed what the System's patterns were. She wrote down the pivotal information that she needed to go through, and the documents slowly stacked up and up until she was tired of writing in her mother tongue so that nobody would be able to read it, and the secret would be well kept.

That was the book that she was currently holding. A book that is going to be divided into a series of arcs. She was doing this sort of thing not just because she wanted to honor the events and benefit herself, but also because she wanted to console herself.

She finished writing the second volume and laid down on the bed. Her back was tired. Her entire body ached. It had been three days since she holed herself inside the room, and there was already two books that were filled with words. She did not go into detail for some chapters, but she made sure that the events were vividly described with eloquent words.

As she held the two books, she realized that she hadn't written the title of them yet.

She thought for a while, and finally decided upon a name. The first book was named 'The Summoner's Rebirth', because it depicted her tale rising up from the coffin to start her journey, climb back up as a <Player> and regain her powers.

As for the second book, she carefully wrote six words on the cover.

To get to where she was right now, she had to face several turmoils and tribulations that did not only test her fighting power, but also how she dealt with situations, and matters regarding her memories. It was very strange and mystical, making her feel like she was the main character of a nonsensical novel where there would constantly be new things being introduced to her life each day, with each one being worse than the previous ones.

Thus, she came to a title that she felt was very fitting to the story she wrote. A guide. It was a guide for a Summoner by the name of Aria Schreiner. Obviously, it was not meant to be followed by normal people, but it was meant for her.

A Guide to Becoming a Summoner.

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Volume 2 end :DDDD