Arion had no idea why he was able to connect with Prana after all these years. He wondered if it was because of the mysterious Origin Blood of Aldress or some other factor.
Still, he wondered if that was the case since Aldress' Origin Blood was taken in by the body in his previous life. Now, he was in a different body. So, technically, his present body may not have Aldress' Origin Blood.
Either way, he was happy about finally connecting with Prana and wanted to break the news to Mei. However, he thought that it could wait till he finished taking a bath since his clothes and skin were dirtied after crawling on the ground.
However, seeing Mei rolling his wheelchair towards the bathroom, Arion hid his embarrassment as he said, "Sister Mei, I can take a bath myself. You don't have to really help me."
Mei pouted and pressed her fists against her hips, "So, now you don't want my help thinking that you are all grown up?"
Arion cleared his throat and waved his hand, "No, of course not. It's just that you have been taking care of me for all these years, and I feel like I might be a burden for you." His voice became low towards the end.
Mei sighed and crouched before him. She caressed his cheeks and lovingly looked at him, making Arion flustered.
"You will never be a burden to me. In fact, helping and spending time with you is my only source of happiness. So, never, ever tell me that you are a burden to me, okay? No matter how old you are or even if you are able to stand on your feet one day, don't be shy to ask for my help," Mei said with a graceful smile and continued to drag him towards the bathroom.
'Ahh, she's truly an angel. Sigh...compared to my previous girlfriends, they wouldn't be worthy of being mentioned in the same line as her,' Arion remembered how his last girlfriend in his previous life dumped him after learning that he had lost his riches and status.
But here, a talented and beautiful woman like Mei was telling him that she was only happy to take care of his needs. He could even feel the sincerity in her words and knew that her words weren't superficial.
Although Mei had previously bathed him, this was like the first time for him, and even in his memories, he could see that he got shy every time she washed him.
He wondered if he had some kind of feelings for her even before, or maybe his previous self just didn't know it yet.
Mei carried him and put him in a bathtub, and helped him take off his clothes. And when she was about to remove his underwear, Arion tightened his body since he didn't want to show off his impotence.
Since he was paralyzed waist down, his manhood was basically no different than a crippled one.
A normal man like him wouldn't surely want a beauty like Mei to see his impotence.
But thinking that she had already seen it all, he didn't resist.
"Ari, your thing still looks so cute, hehe," Mei teased as she washed his body and reached out for his crippled dragon.
'Sigh...there goes my pride...'
Even though he couldn't feel anything, seeing her wrap her hand around it and moving it up and down, he couldn't help but feel his blood flow increasing just by having too many ridiculous thoughts.
'Damn, these stupid hormones…' Arion blamed it all on the hormones of this young body for making him think about stimulating things just because Mei was bathing him.
'Peaceful thoughts, come on…'
Somehow he suppressed his shame and came out of the bathroom with neat clothes. He then grabbed Mei's wrist and said, "Sister Mei, I finally did it!"
Mei had a blinking expression and asked, "Did what?"
"I was able to connect with Prana!"
"You...what? Really?!" Mei asked as her mouth fell open with surprise. Tears formed in her eyes as she gripped his shoulders and asked, "You really were able to feel it? What did you feel? Tell me!"
Seeing Mei becoming so happy and emotional, Arion couldn't help but share the same sentiments since his excitement was no less as well.
"I felt my senses and thoughts fading away to the point that I felt nothing and felt as if my mind was floating away. My whole body tingled, and there was this strange and scary darkness that seemed to engulf my whole body. And before I could feel anything more, everything disappeared and came back to normal," Arion recounted.
Mei touched her parted lips with her fingers as she mumbled, "Oh my god, you...you already awakened your Aspect!"
She continued, "You have not even entered the Purification Stage but you have already awakened an Aspect with Supreme Affinity! That should be impossible without going through the previous stages…" Mei drifted into her thoughts as if trying to make sense of things.
She then snapped out of her thoughts and smiled, "But who cares as long as you are a genius!"
Arion suppressed his excitement and asked, "I really awakened an Aspect? That too with Supreme Affinity?"
The words 'Supreme Affinity' meant that he had a very high affinity towards his Aspect, and that meant that his talent in controlling his Aspect would be excellent, and his future potential in developing that Aspect would be way easier.
Arion knew that Affinities were ranked as follows, Lesser Affinity, Greater Affinity, Supreme Affinity, and the legendary Absolute Affinity.
Common Affinity was ranked the lowest, and the majority of the Defiers had only this level of affinity with their Aspects. And this meant that their control over their Aspect would be sub-par compared to the Defiers who had a higher level of affinity towards their Aspect.
And if they wanted to increase their affinity level, then they would have to work really hard, but even then, sometimes they would be stuck with the same affinity level for their entire life.
Increasing one's affinity requires various factors like hard work, talent, fortune or lucky encounters, and so on. Thus it was as difficult as a featherless bird trying to fly if they were unlucky.
This was why even awakening an Aspect with Greater Affinity was a big deal, and such people would be seen as geniuses by everyone. They were very rare in numbers as well, and such Defiers were highly valued and nurtured.
As for Defiers with Supreme Affinity, they were the heaven-defying geniuses who only appeared once in centuries. These Defiers, if nurtured well, would surely turn out to be powerhouses that could shake the world in the future.
As for one's with Absolute Affinity, it was just a myth told in legends.
These occurrences were only natural ones without taking into account their parent's talents or special characteristics.
Mei nodded and confirmed, "Yes, you have awakened the Darkness Aspect!"