The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 103: Fighting Ilyin

"Pain, pain, and more pain. How great," Aria rubbed her temples in distress as she grumbled. "Is this all we could do...? I mean, further than this, everything will be up to Alena, right? Whether she's able to handle this ordeal or not, we can't help much,"

"Right. So.. the decision is up to her. If she wants to try it out, then we will help and guide her through the process. If she wants to back out.. then it would be a natural thing," Rallaka said, heaving a sigh.

"..Alright,"

_______

Remembering the previous scene, Aria began to look at Alena with saddened eyes as she tightened her grip around the child's hand, comforting her. "If you have made your decision up, then I could do nothing other than help you from start to finish. Let's go,"

"..En," Although Alena still had a lot of fear inside her eyes, she was rather relaxed. She hugged Aria tight, as if it was an act of saying goodbye, that this would be the last chance she has to hug the older person. Alena's eyes misted. She pursed her lips and took a deep breath.

She had gone through large surgeries and operations before, but this kind of life threatening ones where she was weak and unable to get out was suffocating to handle.

"Alright, so here is how we are going to do this," Aria began to explain slowly. "You are going to visualize your soul going inside your Ice Spirit, Ilyin. Do you know where your puppetry space is?"

"..I think I know, but I'm not too sure." Alena replied.

"It should be the place where you feel the most power coming out of. It should be easy for you to figure out, just think of the first thing that comes to mind when you want to discover the space,"

"Yep, I think I got it. It's somewhere around my right hand... Towards the veins. This is also the place that hurts the most when Ilyin's struggles come to life," Alena answered, clenching her right side.

"Then, I want you to first grasp the feeling of connecting with that space. If you need to, you can try and fake summon the Silver Slime for practice. As you summon the creature, there should be a brief opening in the space that you're able to peek into,"

Alena did as said, trying to figure out the meaning of those words by her own means. She summoned the SIlver Slime and canceled it right away. Within a few tries, she began to feel like she understood what was supposed to be done. With some more tries, she was able to catch a glimpse of the insides of her summoning space.

"..I see Ilyin!" Alena exclaimed, covering her mouth as she began to have a stronger bond with this space of hers.

Aria broke into a pained smile. She felt relieved. This process normally had to cost a practitioner quite the large share of time. Alena was indeed a little genius. She had high awareness of herself and could bring herself to picture the orders she gave with ease.

"Good. Calm down first, we will proceed after you get used to this feeling. It must be dizzying, right?" Aria consoled.

Alena nodded, closing her eyes and scrunching her eyebrows as she began to concentrate on this repeated process and slowly, but surely get accustomed to it. After one or two minutes, Alena shook her hand and opened her eyes, gesturing that she was ready for whatever step comes next.

"Is Ilyin asleep? Or did she sense your intrusion?"

"I think she's.. unresponsive right now. But I'm in this.. dark corner. Ilyin is on the opposite side of me.. I don't know if I can approach her,"

"Slowly, try to approach. It should be fine. Alena, remember this. You are the puppeteer. You have control over this spirit, even in the puppet space. Even if you don't use your puppetry skills. Ilyin is a puppet, albeit half of her can't be controlled. You should be mindful,"

"Okay, I'll try right now," Alena replied, as she huffed a long breath. After over a minute passed, she finally released her tight breath. Her eyes were still shut, but she spoke up. "It's done. I'm near her. I feel.. cold,"

Sensation. Alena was already on that stage where she could sense the atmosphere inside her puppeteer space. This was a great sign. This meant that her communication with Ilyin will be much more conducive and smooth.

"Great. Perfect. So, what I want you to do is.. Basically combine yourself with Ilyin. In coarser words- subdue her. I don't care what ways you use, but your end goal should be to merge with Ilyin so that you could control her to a certain point, and disperse your intact consciousness from your main body. Remember, it's the consciousness that you need to separate. As for your soul, you have to escape to the space and merge with that spirit of yours,"

"..Will this hurt her?" Alena asked before going to the space and trying.

"Yes, it will. It will hurt both you and your spirit. When the process starts, my spirits are going to come and assist you as well. As both kindred spirits, their essences will have to penetrate your space as well. During this time, you will feel additional pain due to you not being used to their elements,"

"Essences?" Alena asked.

Aria remembered that the girl wasn't all that clear yet on the topic of essences.

Aria began to slowly explain what Rallaka had explained to her in addition to her experience and the knowledge she possessed, the concept behind it, and how their progress should move along with. Alena listened attentively, her face cringing whenever she heard pain being mentioned. Both for her and the ice spirit.

She followed Aria's instructions strictly, relaxing herself and trusting the elder with her every step. When it finally got down to the final sessions, where she was supposed to perform the actual Possession, was where it became a mountain of doom.

Ilyin naturally raged as a result of Alena's invasive actions. Dianthe and Rallaka both cooperated to soothe this angered spirit down, which amplified the pain Alena was feeling to the point where she screamed until she felt like her throat was going to be ripped apart. Ilyin, on the other hand, sensed the spirit and created a resonating effect between them.

Aria also had to suffer as part of it, but she withstood the pain her ears were having because she knew that the girl was going through so much more.

The place Alena mentioned earlier, which was her right hand- the place where her summoning space was supposed to be located emitted a light layer of frosting. After several internal battles, Alena's hand began to freeze, and her teeth chattered as the cold bit her hard.

Aria supported her by dispelling the frozen parts, but every time she defrosted it, the ice would come back immediately. It caused Alena more pain because of the returning shocking sensation every time, so Aria ceased her efforts and watched as the girl's hands froze, the ice spreading through the entire arm and even starting to grow towards her neck and chest.

This was the point where Aria knew that it would get too dangerous. Her neck and her head. If those were frozen as well, then Alena would be in a much deeper trouble.

Aria bit her lips as she watched the scene unfold, unable to help. The only one who could help this child's case was herself. SHe could only be in the position of someone who guided the process. This made it very frustrating. She saw the girl's eyes slowly become emotionless.

After going through the soul breaking process, Alena felt like the pain was starting to feel numbing. As if she wasn't able to feel anything anymore. However, she still felt cold. Very cold. Freezing.

Her consciousness dissipated, and she dropped down. The freezing bits also began to settle down as it no longer expanded. She wasn't dead, but her breathing was extremely shallow.

"..The freezing stopped. I don't know what's happening inside of her, but something must've started. We can only pray from now on until she overcomes.. that damned spirit. For God's sake, that was scary. I almost thought that I was going to get affected too... Haah," Rallaka complained. "I really don't know how this child was even able to bear direct contact with that spirit. As expected of a high ranked spirit, I suppose,"

Aria frowned upon hearing Rallaka's words, thinking that the girl was temporarily safe until another change occurs within her. She wanted to tell Dianthe to continue giving her soothing treatments, but Rallaka quickly stopped her from doing so.

"No. This time, don't interfere. Prodding into Alena's space right now would do more bad than good. She's battling a high ranked ice spirit, so the soothing would do nothing as Ilyin is already set on opposing her. It would only hurt Alena," Rallaka said.