Reborn as an Extra Chapter 576: One more Final Gamble, Both or None! Part-1.

"By fusing yourself with this isolated fragment of the spirit realm... wouldn't that mean you'd suffer corruption indirectly if this area gets hit by it as well?"

Rio's query made Ellie pause for a moment before she replied,

"Centuries back when I discovered this spot, the miasma wasn't nearly as lively near it... yet after I bound myself to this location, the miasma grew intensely active all around."

"It's relentlessly attempting to taint the grand seal, only to be cleansed repeatedly... and the same cycle applies to me... I'm trapped in endless corruption followed by purification..."

Ellie appeared to be concealing quite a few secrets, yet Rio refrained from probing further, aware that it could stir up the agony she was striving so hard to bury.

It's common knowledge that miasma possesses a semi-aware nature; it probably singled out Ellie as its plaything right from her birth in this spirit realm during her initial corruption.

The greater her defiance against the miasma, the more it would methodically seek to erode and shatter her, intensifying its torments.

The miasma had inflicted the identical ordeal on Alverto and Aurora, just as it did to the original Lia, who gradually succumbed to corruption and endured suffering right up to her final moments.

Miasma acts like that unrelenting stalker, persisting in schemes against you regardless of how vigilant, resilient, or mighty you strive to be in opposition.

After selecting you as prey, an unhappy fate is virtually guaranteed.

Even the mightiest awakener in history, King Allen Von Reinhart, apparently fell short in his ultimate clash with it, vanishing after venturing into the boundless miasma sea without ever coming back.

Clearly, Ellie—targeted since her very birth—couldn't evade its clutches without a fierce struggle.

Though the grand seal's purification enchantment aided Ellie in recovering and cleansing the miasma's influence on her, she remained perpetually locked in cycles of tainting and cleansing.

That not only placed immense strain on her spirit and psyche, but the repeated internal purging by such potent purification spells brought excruciating pain.

Magic of purification at this caliber can even touch upon one's soul, and since it's operating on autopilot without a healer's guidance, any minor error might erase Ellie's complete recollections from her essence.

Under those circumstances, the most favorable outcome could involve wiping out every memory and leaving her as an empty vessel.

The direst possibility entailed the collapse of her consciousness sea, rendering her mentally vacant.

Should that occur, she'd linger as an undead shell that defies decay.

'Maybe getting summoned serves as her method to venture beyond, since she can't leave herself...'

'For her, it's essentially a flight from her harsh existence...'

All entities originating within the spirit realm are deemed 'Spirits' by it, allowing summoners from the outer world to call them forth as vital projections.

That's why, upon the death of a summoned creature or being, its projection vanishes completely, requiring fresh contact with the source to resummon it—or else you'll never retrieve the identical entity.

Similar to Neo, contemporary summoners largely avoid forming deep ties with their summons, knowing that their demise makes reunion or recall exceedingly rare.

Moreover, amid grueling fights and endless dungeon assaults, numerous summoned allies can perish and fade away.

Building warm connections with all your summons would shatter your heart each time one dies and dissolves.

Conversely, Liam falls into the uncommon group of summoners who genuinely value their summoned companions.

Truth be told, Liam hasn't suffered the loss of any summoned ally to date, despite enduring countless dungeon incursions and fierce combats.

He's clashed against foes such as Rio and Link, and still, his summoned forces persist unbroken.

The primary factor behind this lies in the sheer vastness and dominance of Liam's mana reserves.

The inaugural summon of Liam turned out to be the top-tier S-rank shadow dragon known as Ellie!

Back when he wasn't yet awakened, Liam possessed such abundant mana that he could invoke an S-rank dragon and retain surplus to forge a binding pact with her.

With Ellie's assistance afterward, he expanded his mana storage using her as an external reservoir, and subsequently acquired 'Mana Field,' enhancing his mana utilization to the point of inexhaustibility.

Armed with these layered benefits, Liam's summoned allies receive tremendous empowerment from him, growing formidable enough to withstand even adversaries like Rio and Link without falling.

This explains why Liam has preserved every one of his summoned companions; his innate gifts make it incredibly tough to sever those links.

His present predicament stems solely from the treachery of his father, who schemed against him since the instant of his arrival into the world.

'The father of the original Rio wasn't nearly as vile, even as a total failure of a parent...'

Rio's dad, despite forsaking his wife's devotion and being an utter slacker, never stooped to murdering his offspring or plotting against his kin.

The perilous path he set for Rio was crafted under the belief that his boy would possess the skills to navigate it somehow.

'Actually... he met his end; if not, he wouldn't have passed that path to the original Rio upon realizing the boy's feeble aptitude... he designed it expecting talent in his son...'

'For all his status as the supreme assassin globally, he lacked the ruthlessness of Neo...'

'Neo was capable of nearly any atrocity to advance his agendas... without Ashtel Rex's interference, Neo might have tyrannized over humanity entirely...'

Neo excelled in intellect and plotting; furthermore, his prowess as a summoner was unmatched.

Absent Ashtel Rex's presence, Neo would have dominated as the paramount figure in the human realm, deploying his formidable summons to oversee every urban center directly.

Governing the whole realm would have come as naturally to him as drawing breath, free of any hitches.

"Come on. No one knows this area like I do; allow me to guide you through it..."

With a warm smile, Ellie guided Rio towards the massive portal far off.

Having dwelled here for ages, she was intimately familiar with its every nook, and the thrill of revealing it to Rio filled her with joy.

For the first occasion in hundreds of years, she was encountering someone face-to-face, and though her initial guest proved a stoic, blank-faced individual, she remained delighted to give him the tour.