( Hours After. )
" Thanks for everything today, Circe! " Ragna expresses his gratitude over her.
" Oh, don't mention it, boy. " Circe counters with her own gratitude while remembering Ragna's revelation.
" You've been helping me a lot, I wonder that the things you discussed with me... " Ragna pauses.
" Comes with a cost? " Ragna asks, for he too realized that things had been flowing off so well, the trade of information, Circe gives him with such pleasure as if she didn't mind to even 'sharing' things with him.
" Surely all of these come with a cost, right? " Ragna asks again which made Circe smirk.
" Cost... of course they are... " Circe says for she then closes every ventilation in her chamber.
" Oh my... " Ragna says as he sees it.
Circe then moves her fingers, chanting a word Ragna couldn't understand immediately, a black purple red mist appears and surrounds Ragna's body.
" Mist? " Ragna wondered what she just did, he tries to move but can't, he sees the System to see what kind of thing he was affected by which the System explains.
< The Player has been stunned by [Immaterial Bind], an Aether Magic Skill. >
" Immaterial...? "
" This mists of mind is made from the Aether after all... " Circe interrupts.
" Sorry to break it to you, but like our Soul, the Aether's energy is 'immaterial', it works with something that we couldn't physically touch. " Circe explains, she tells Ragna that she's been hiding this fact from him while approaching his very body.
" By the way, regarding the Aether... " Circe approaches as her hand lands on Ragna's abs.
" Did you know that since a Soul is a primary fuel to operate our very physical vessel, our body... "
" Once it was affected by something, our body will be on pause, which is what I did to you now fufu... " Circe tells Ragna.
" I see, so this is my cost for hearing your knowledge, wasn't it, Circe? " Ragna asks while Circe replied by hugging him and cuddling him.
" Hey, what are you? "
" You possess such a lovely Soul, it is so warm like the Sun itself. " Circe tells as she felt the heat of Ragna's Soul, she placed her head on Ragna's chest, feeling its warmth from there.
" No wonder the Aether is so strong in you, in fact, both of its components, the Soul and Mana are made from the 'First Sun' hence why the combined power is called the 'Aether' in the first place.
" The 'First Sun' wow... " Ragna sarcastically replied.
" You mean our sun, the sun that we know is just a replacement or something? " he sarcastically asks.
" Well, it is what the legends said, based on what I've researched regarding it. " Circe tells, being the 'Aether Enchantress' herself, she researched even its history.
While cuddling over Ragna, she cherished the very warmth he provides, she hugged him, feeling happy to ever feel this from him Ragna.
" I had twice felt this warmth before... " Circe tells.
" In a some 'time'... " Circe says it while hugging Ragna even more, tightening her head to his chest.
" Whoa... " Ragna sees it, still feeling uneasy for someone to get this close to him after Indura and Aphrodite.
" I felt it, Ragna Kent. " Circe says to him.
" Hmmm...? " Ragna responds.
" You had multiple Souls in your body, didn't you? " Circe asks which made Ragna surprised, for a bit.
"( This is expected, I've seen this part before the Twelve Eye is wounded... )"
"( But, I wonder what they would think... ) " Ragna thinks about it, for inside the System Space, Ragna Twelve, Ragna 69, Ragna Hundred, and the Battle Maiden all looked at each other from there.
" She felt our presence? " Hundred asks as he witnesses this from the System Space.
" She noticed our souls as she placed her head on Ragna Current's chest, for there is the System's Core, the Connector between the Real World with the System Space resides. " Ragna 69 answers.
" So what should we do, shall we come out? " Ragna Hundred asks while pummeling his fists and sparking his thunder.
" Hold it! " Ragna Twelve stops Hundred from preparing his fists, he looks at 69 and asks.
" Do you have a solution for this? " he questioned Ragna 69 about it which 69 tells him.
" I do, I'm going out, don't follow me. " Ragna 69 decides to leave the System because he thinks that this is the better solution.
< Ragna 69 Logged Out >
As that happened inside the System, Ragna Current is still trying to move his body, wondering how could this happen, was this an ability that he never thought the 'Aether' could do?
" It's no use, my dear... " Circe says to Ragna while her index pokes his nose.
" You are bound to me now and yet you haven't answered my last question. "
" Now, would you answer it...? " Circe asks Ragna but before Ragna could say anything, he received a message within his mind.
"( Oh, ok then... )" Ragna smirks which made Circe wonder what's funny.
" Circe. " Ragna calls her.
" Yes? "
" You could feel Souls, right? " Ragna asks which was replied with silence by the Aether Enchantress.
" If you really could feel Souls and use the Aether... "
" Then that means, you could see any Spiritual Manifestations, right? " Ragna immediately asks Circe as Ragna 69 comes out from the System using his spiritual form in front of Circe's eyes.
" Ah! " Circe witnessed it, he sees 69's face.
" I wondered why some of the Souls felt familiar," she says as she looks at 69, smirking.
" It's been so long, enchantress... " Ragna 69 says as he saw her face, he knows from her expression that she still recognizes him.
" I assure you that before I appear, I was in the assumption that you might've forgotten me after so many Timelines. "
" But it seems you are invulnerable to it (the Universal Reboot), thanks to your 'genes' perhaps? " Ragna 69 wonders which made Circe chuckle.
" Oh please, you knew the answer, wouldn't you? " Circe replied while laughing, she teases 69 for his question.
Hearing that, Ragna then looks at 69, they talked with their mind for Ragna here is wondering what he meant by 'genes' which 69 explained with...
"( She is part Diviners... )" 69 tells him.
"( Demigod? )" Ragna asks him back.
"( No, her mother made her with something... 'older'... )" 69 explains the two then looked at Circe, especially Ragna who's been thinking about it.
"( So she's some rebel huh, guess the Diviners really had troubles within their own members as well... )" Ragna thinks about it.
"( Especially the Greeks, Olympus. )"