Countless nerve tendrils burst from beneath her shriveled eyelids. Seemingly possessed of their own will, they thrashed wildly through the air, clawing at Priestess Phylira's eye sockets as they stretched desperately outward. Even though her eyeballs and optic nerves had escaped her body's control, Priestess Phylira herself had not completely lost control. She seemed to have acquired some supernatural form of sight. Those optic nerves had, to some extent, transformed into tendrils that human biology could not yet explain, capable of detecting Aether Energy. All of them extended toward the portal, yearning to plunge into it.
"She doesn't feel pain at all." Tita watched Priestess Phylira solemnly. The latter's expression was filled with intoxication and bliss; the mutation of her body had brought no change to her emotions or thoughts. "Is it because the portal is right in front of her?" Tita asked. "Can she still hear us?"
"She has no eyes."
Regent Victor von Doom made a small joke. Of everyone present, only the knights and Catherine could sense his sense of humor. Tita glared at him as though he had said something unforgivable and disrupted the solemn atmosphere. "I think she can still hear us, but I cannot be certain whether she can understand the meaning of our words." The Regent raised a finger. "She has undergone a rebirth. I can tell that her soul has experienced a resurrection ritual. Her soul is completely immersed in Aether Energy. She has seen the truth Behind the Curtain and understood all the knowledge she can comprehend as a mortal. She will eventually cast herself into the Aether and return her soul Behind the Curtain. That is why I did this. Whether you believe in the concept of a soul or regard it merely as a special term for consciousness projected