"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.
Her stoic expression was kept throughout her actions. It was her characteristic. One that Aria knew well.
She dragged Aria by her hair and tossed her into the coffin with ease. Lorelei possessed immense strength.
The woman proceeded through the things like she was just casually throwing out trash.
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.
Her various companions.
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, I will give you a chance to also be able to witness my greatness. That is, if I still remember about you by then." 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. Her identity.
If only she could be found, the chances of Azef being obstructed by the masses were high. A lot of people were indebted to her. Quite a lot of important figures have even promised their lives to her.
She saved many throughout her journey. But all of that now amounted to nothing.
The coffin was made with the same material she used to make the spherical container for the Unity Flame.
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, as Azef had said, 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?
She wondered how she failed to notice the underlying schemes they ran.
She was gullible, yeah?
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? They always said that the flames were undying. But that statement was nothing more than a theory, since they didn't have the correct facts to prove it completely.
Their theory could be false. A small chance to hold on to for Aria.
If so, what would it take?
Hundreds, or even thousands of years for the flames to perish?
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?
Aria's one and only rejoice was that she knew about a certain fact.
Azef Harkan would not be able to succeed. She had never told anybody about the last part of the prophecy. Thank her instincts.
The last complementary element to the Unity Flame.
Something that worked to contrast the undying flame.
'That particular element strangely belonged to my very first summon.'
The unique water elemental spirit, Dianthe.
Summons were typically incapable of increasing their strength, but Dianthe was different.
She had the capability to evolve.
Aria vividly recalled the first time she succeeded in summoning Dianthe.
She was only a lesser ranked spirit at that time, but as she went on more and more trips with her, Dianthe's power actually grew, shocking her.
'As of now.. She could be considered a EX-Higher ranked spirit.'
EX-rank was the title conferred to those who surpassed the realms of common sense. It could only be achieved by attaining power that multiplied those of higher-ranked creatures by nonsensical amounts.
'Dianthe, my dear..'