The capital of the Ariana Empire was besieged by an unexpected downpour that lasted for two relentless days. The heavens seemed to be in turmoil, filled with rage and resentment. The thunder roared, shaking the earth, and lightning split the sky as if opposing the arrival of a formidable entity from the underworld.
In the heart of the capital, nestled amidst the city's hustle and bustle, stood a grand mansion. Within its walls, a woman of unparalleled beauty was caught in a grimace. Her face was a canvas of raw emotions - pain, fear, resentment, and defiance. She suddenly opened her eyes, gasping for breath as if she had just surfaced from the depths of a tumultuous sea. Her heart ached like a sword had been driven through it with brute force.
As the pain subsided, she regained her senses and surveyed the room she was in. Every detail was both familiar and foreign to her. A splitting headache and the sensation of thousands of weights pressing on her head made her feel disoriented. Yet, amidst the chaos, she slowly began to recall her past life.
Time seemed to stand still as Serena gradually regained her clarity. Her eyes once filled with confusion, now shone with a vicious brilliance that was incongruous with her image and age. "Even with all your efforts, I still crawled out from Hell," Serena declared arrogantly, looking out the window at the stormy sky. As if in response to Serena's provocative remarks, a loud roar, reminiscent of a majestic dragon, echoed from the sky.
Serena sat in the dimly lit room, the events of her past life playing in a loop inside her mind, each moment etching itself into her heart. "Serena Leia Winterson," she murmured, the name given to her by her mother who had abandoned her at the gates of the duke's mansion. Her father, William Fred Winterson, was one of the two dukes of the empire, and her mother was a noblewoman from the eastern country. Her parents had met in a foreign country, and their passionate affair had resulted in Serena's birth. Once the romantic and lustful feelings had faded, only the innocent child remained. Fearing the scornful eyes and words of the world, her mother had resolutely left her with her father and disappeared.
When the entire dukedom, including her biological father, refused to accept her, only her stepmother took her in against everyone's opposition and raised her with motherly care and love. Despite her husband's infidelity, she did not blame the child, unlike other stepmothers. She believed that when all the blame and faults lay with the adults, there was no reason to torment an innocent life.
Serena's life could be described as full of rainbows and sunshine until her eighteenth birthday when her stepmother died due to illness. Without even the time to mourn her stepmother's loss, she debuted in the social circle and was tested for her power.
In the Ariana Empire, everyone must test for their power attribute when they reach eighteen years old. Most of the empire's people were born with magic powers blessed by the gods, the majority being nobles. Mainly five attributes are recognized by the empire with many branching power attributes from these main power attributes: the ability to control fire, wind, water, earth, and light. However, this does not mean that there are no other godly powers, for example, the power to control darkness.
If there is holiness, there must be darkness to balance the world. The power of darkness and practices related to it are all banned in the empire as they are against the Gods' will, with the death sentence as punishment.
Remembering her power attributes, Serena tried to manipulate the mana inside her body out of curiosity. In a flash, her hand shone with black energy interspersed with white sparks, like the night sky filled with twinkling stars. Seeing the change, Serena couldn't control her laughter and smiled mockingly, her eyes filled with many complicated thoughts.
"At least something worth having as a power," she mused. In her last life, when she was tested, she presented with a white holy power with a huge mana pool. Because of this, she was selected as the saintess. Perhaps because she had recently lost her mother, she thought of it as a gift from the gods to help people like her from experiencing the loss of loved ones.
She gladly accepted the immense responsibility of power and worked selflessly for the sake of the people without regard for praise and political power. The reward she received for her devotion was being replaced by God's favorite child from another world and being labeled as a witch for stealing the saintess position.
The people who had once worshipped and fawned over her turned into enemies in the blink of an eye, driven by their greed for wealth and power. Just when she thought that she was left all alone in life, a man extended his hand for her to hold during the lowest period of her life, only to send her to hell.
Thinking of the man, her eyes shone with uncontrolled rage and a thirst for revenge, leaving a horrible taste in her heart. Just because her blood and flesh could cure any injuries, her own family and so-called fiancé drained her blood until the last drop, offering it to the saintess who was injured before her very own eyes, being stabbed in the heart with a sword by her head knight. Serena touched her heart, feeling the agonizing pain of her heart being stabbed.
"I will repay you all for all your efforts," she vowed, her eyes promising revenge to avenge herself. She didn't know who she was thinking of, but her eyes suddenly lost all their dark thoughts and shone with overflowing gentleness, love, and longing.
"I want to see you terribly," she whispered. "I miss you so much."