1.1. Prologue: Rose In The Fire

In a cozy-looking sunroom that was transformed into an art studio was a girl with shoulder-length emerald green hair. She was humming a rhythm while painting a portrait, as she was doing this her attention was drawn to a ringing phone on the small table at her side.

Picking it up and clicking the green button she put the phone between her ear and shoulder and continued painting.

"Heyo."

"Hey, Oxy! Jay and I added a character reference for you in the story, check out the new chapters!"

"Wait really?! Thank you, I'll be sure to check it out right away."

After clicking off the call, Oxy stopped painting and began scrolling through an app on her phone picking on an image depicting fire and roses.

The Novel we were referring to is a Novel written by my two friends, "A Rose In The Fire". Yeah, I know, a pretty nice title that most likely doesn't have anything to do with the story, or contains very vague connotations.

I happen to be the artist for the novel's adaptation into a comic, or whatever it's called. So the entire thing is like a friend project of sorts.

A Rose In The Fire is a pretty basic story in itself, a young country noble girl, who happens to be a godlike beauty comes to the capital, meets a ton of hot guys, meets the prince, falls in love, yadda yadda.

The prince has a fiance who soon became his wife by the way, so as usual, the heroine is a homewrecker.

"So they added me in, let's see... the hell is this?"

Making sure she read it correctly, Oxy read over the chapters a few times.

"I'm a maid of the Villainess? Something about the crown prince, that's not important. The Villainess, are you serious! If I was her maid I would have never allowed her to marry the crown prince, or at least get caught messing with that trashy heroine."

Oxy was practically seething with this total lack of character representation. Sure, the character has the same name and looks like her, but the personality and thought process is totally different!

Sighing, she looked at the canvas. Painted on it was a beautiful woman who had sharp golden eyes, vibrant vermilion hair, and a smile of great beauty.

Smiling at the portrait Oxy began to clean up the studio, placing the canvas somewhere safe.

"I'll be sure to make you the most beautiful piece of art."

Speaking in a whisper Oxy lightly traced her hand across it before leaving the studio, cutting the lights off and closing the curtains.

In the lightless room, a yellow light shined around the portrait, illuminating the room, after a few moments the light disappeared without a trace as if it never happened.

Unknown to the happenings of her studio Oxy was heating something in a microwave, humming a tune while continuing her read of the novel.

There was a strained expression on her face as she read after It morphed into a disgusted and annoyed one.

"It's always irritating how they treat this girl, why is everyone such a cunt, and for no reason as well? I wish I could just give all these main characters a good slap."

Venting out her frustrations with the characters, the microwave began to beep. Taking the cup of noodles out of the microwave she grabbed a fork before sitting at the counter and digging in.

After she finished her food she sat there staring off into space, her mind going, while doing so she failed to notice that her previously quiet home went deftly so.

Yellow light and a fresh scent blew by her face, blinking out of her daze. Oxy was surprised and confused. She dragged her eyes around the kitchen, yet there was no sign of that light.

"What the..."

As her eyes followed the strange lights she began to hear strange whispers, hushed voices, beckoning her. The voices themselves were soothing to the mind, she felt them calming her mind, causing her eyelids to slowly shut. While her eyes were shutting she was feeling a pull on her entire being as an even harder tug that further cemented her body losing consciousness.

At the same time, in a cloud-piercing tower surrounded by fire and erected in the middle of a vast desert was a young girl drawing with a red chalk stick on the floor of the highest room.

Her long, vibrant, vermillion hair cascades down in front of her face, getting in the way of her sharp golden eyes making her out to be a great beauty considering her age. Her eyes held a great sense of purity and innocence as she had been locked in this tower since young.

Brushing her hair behind her ear she tossed the chalk aside as she let out a voice that seemed to proliferate her beauty to even greater heights.

"Do you think this is good enough for the summoning?"

She asked out, which was strange, especially when considering that she was the only presence that existed within the room, no, the entire tower.

"Mmm, right. I need to offer some mana and divine energy to it! Luckily I was never truly abandoned by that god."

She exclaimed in slight excitement and anticipation as she continued holding a conversation seemingly to herself. She sat on her knees for a moment while placing her hands together in a praying position.

After sitting in place for around thirty minutes a gold and vermillion energy, one calm and serene, and the other violent and threatening. They exuded themselves from her, slowly making their way towards the now clearer magic circle.

Once they made contact with the chalk all the energy was sucked into it as the chalk shone with an emerald green light that shrouded the entire room in its splendor.

Her eyes shone in wonder as she gazed straight at the light's source. The magic circle was crackling with the presence of the calm divine and the violent mana. It was a sight that many scholars would deem as impossible due to the two's different nature, but the girl wouldn't know that, she just knew that the summoning was likely a success.

She waited for a few minutes, waiting for another reaction. But nothing happened, she turned to her right as she began speaking to the air once again questioning it.

"Why hasn't anything happened yet? I drew the magic circle correctly, am I supposed to wait for longer?"

The girl questioned the air she continued seemingly looking at the wall while nodding continuously as if she were listening to someone or something. If an outsider were to see how she was acting they'd most likely claim her to be mentally ill.

"Right, yes. You said I needed blood, that's kinda weird, am I a cultist now? The church often said cultists did such things."

The little girl laughed to herself as she got up and grabbed a knife off of a nearby desk, she once more went to the magic circle, but this time to its center.

"I don't really like pain. So if this doesn't work the first time, I'm not trying it ever again, you got that?"

She made her limits clear as she pressed the blade against the palm of her hand, halting for a second, she doesn't really like pain. After a short bout of hesitation, she finally pulled the blade across her palm and blood began to splatter on the magic circling, bringing it to life even more.

The emerald green magic circle hummed a melodious tune as a hymn rang out, something that gave a shock to the girl who initiated the summoning. She stared at the circle, her curiosity peaked and she turned to the air once more.

"This is the presence of a holy spirit. What's going on? Is it because I used divine energy?"

She questioned the air a couple of times before looking back at the magic circle than at the nearby table that held a small stack of books. She put her hand on her chin.

"My body isn't that strong, so the summoning of a holy spirit shouldn't work at least that's what the books said. What's going on?"

Speaking under her breath and questioning the situation, she continued to gaze at the magic circle while she racked her brain. The book on summoning that she read stated that if you were not strong enough if your body couldn't handle the summoning contract then you wouldn't be able to summon the summon or you would be crippled and possibly die.

The summoning contract was a contract in name only. When summoning, the summon would sap out an equivalent amount of mana from the Summoner depending on the level of the summon, that was the contract.

She didn't know if she was prepared to die or be crippled for the rest of her life so she wanted to ask if there was any way to stop it, turning to the air once more her mouth fluttered open.

"Hey, how can I stop the summon- wait. You're saying the summoning is a success?!"

Forgetting her wish to stop the summoning she swerved her head back to the magic circle, her eyes full of expectation. Something was coming out of the magic circle and it continued to rise, but it was something out of her expectations.

"A sword?"

With a sword coming out of the summoning magic circle followed by its disappearance, the girl's expectations were slightly dimmed out. Deciding to test the waters she stepped into the now lightless magic circle and reached out to the sword.

Gripping its hilt she attempted to lift it, but she couldn't, the sword weighed almost as much like a whale, she couldn't even attempt to lift it without almost hurting herself.

She looked at the sword. Even though it came through a magic circle it looked like a rather plain sword, so its weight was a jarring surprise and it upset her. She thought she would get a new friend to talk to in the tower.

After she tried to lift it once more the weird sword exuded a mighty presence and great divine energy, almost suffocating the girl, and at the same time, a voice shrouded in mystery entered her ears.

"You... are not my master."