Ellie showed around the entire area to Rio; it was like a big garden spread in a massive area, and she was a princess stuck inside this magical garden forever.
There was nothing to eat, no air to breathe, and no water to drink; it was all just a decorated illusion.
Without the illusion, it was just a barren land with nothing in sight.
Rio found it really amazing that Ellie could keep her sanity even after being confined to this cage for a thousand years; her mental fortitude was really quite strong.
’Even I might not have that powerful of a mental fortitude despite boosting myself with sword intent...’
Perhaps this was the reason why Ellie was immediately able to react when Liam’s body was seized by his father.
"It’s a good thing that summoners and summoned beasts have contracts that bind them with their souls... if it wasn’t so, Neo Aldif might have taken control of all of Liam’s summoned beasts, including you too..."
Hearing the name of Neo, a deep frown and anger appeared on Ellie’s face.
"That man was a horrible person! He’s been killed by Ashtel Rex; otherwise, I would have surely not let him go! Ugh..."
"Just remembering his face makes me want to torture him to death! If not for him, Liam’s life wouldn’t have been put in such a critical situation..."
Rio nodded his head at Ellie’s words and replied,
"Yeah, I would have definitely helped for sure... one day or another Liam would have surely become an SS-ranker, and then that d*mned old fox’s plans would have never worked again..."
"Unfortunately, he died and we can’t give him his due punishment anymore..."
Ashtel not only shattered the body of Liam that Neo had seized, but even Neo’s soul was erased from existence and completely destroyed by that final move.
The only reason Liam’s soul survived that catastrophic attack was because Ellie reverse-summoned his soul back to herself inside the spirit realm; otherwise, even he would not have survived that destructive attack.
"By the way... I wanted to ask... is it possible that, just like how you saved Liam’s soul... Neo would have made some backup plans to save his own soul?"
Hearing Rio’s question, Ellie shook her head.
"What I did is very unique actually..."
"For a summoned beast to reverse-summon his master to the spirit realm, first of all the contract between the summoner and the summoned beast must be equal... and I doubt Neo could have made such a contract..."
Neo considered all of his summoned beasts as his tools; there’s no way he would have signed an equal contract with his summoned beasts.
"Moreover, even if an equal contract was signed, the beast doing the reverse-summoning must be stronger than their summoner or it will not succeed..."
"I could summon Liam’s soul because his body and soul belong to the rank A category... he’s much weaker than my real body inside the spirit realm..."
"But the same is impossible for Neo Aldif... he himself is an SS-ranker, and when he seized Liam’s body and forcefully enhanced himself... his soul became stronger too..."
A smirk appeared on Ellie’s face as she said,
"Which means it’s impossible for his soul to be summoned by any of his summoned beasts, as he’s too strong for them to summon..."
"The spirit realm is affected by miasma a lot and thus you need to be stronger than your summoner so that you can establish a stronger connection; otherwise, it’s impossible to do the reverse-summoning..."
Hearing Ellie’s words Rio nodded his head.
"That’s good then; we don’t need to worry about him coming back and causing trouble for us later on..."
Ellie sighed at Rio’s words and spoke with an uncertain tone,
"I don’t know about that; he was a very cunning person. Perhaps he might have had created some other backup plan which uses some other method than I used to save Liam..."
"If he’s dead then it’s all good and nice, but if he’s still surviving somewhere somehow, I would prefer that he comes back when you reach rank SS, Rio... only you are able to use miasma among us all, after all..."
"I am sure you will be able to give him a lot of trouble..."
Rio titled his head in confusion at Ellie’s words and asked,
"But Liam is also just as talented... he might reach rank SS someday too. Do you not believe in him? You seem quite uncertain of the future..."
Ellie smiled slightly, but that smile seemed to carry many hidden emotions and regrets in it.
"I believe in him a lot... but he has been betrayed by his father at his weakest state... he wanted to visit me once at least..."
Ellie told Liam that she got caught in a trap while wandering in the spirit realm and ended up in an underground place where she was already on the brink of death.
That was actually partially true; she didn’t fall into the trap, she willingly jumped into it, and she jumped into this cage of confinement out of her own free will!
To escape the pursuit of miasmic rot, she placed herself in a constant state of miasmic decay and continuous purification!
Every single second miasma attacks this purified cage and tries to break the seal of the giant door leading to the sea of miasma and in turn corrupts her too from inside out, as she has merged herself with this grand seal.
Her lifespan is now equal to this grand seal; if it’s broken or corrupted, she would also suffer the same fate.
If someday someone succeeds in opening this door and undoes the seal, she will also die and disappear from existence.
"The main reason why I never wanted Liam to visit me... the main reason why I lied to him, was because I knew that it was near impossible for him to ever come here..."
"He would have had to go through the entire corrupted spirit realm just to reach me... and only someone as weird as you can do something like that Rio Flash..."
"I couldn’t bear to ask him go through this hell just for my sake..."