(AN: Managed to push this one out at the last minute.)

---

She couldn't recall anything substantial, yet as she looked at Aiden, Number 3 felt an overwhelming sensation of grief and sorrow. The pain of loss was causing a sharp twisting pain right in her heart.

Her face twitched, turning sour, she too was battling against her own tears as she looked at the youth.

Just like Aiden, both of them were lost in their own emotions, unable to reach out to the other.

Still, after what felt like an eternity, the young boy finally called out, still not responding directly to her inquiries, but instead fired questions of his own, whilst making sure to stay with his back facing the woman and not to peek.

"Master… How do you feel?"

Aiden's question fired up Number 3's desire to explore all the uncanny and peculiar features of her new physique.

Ignoring the fact that she was completely and utterly naked, Number 3 pushed herself up from the ground, slowly taking her stand.

As she did, she felt the numbing, uncomfortable pain stretching across her legs. The feeling of using her legs to support her modest weight was proving to be a greater challenge than she expected.

Feeling that her stance wasn't stable, she darted her eyes from left to right, searching for something to rely on in the small underground chamber. After a moment, her eyes rested on one of the nearby supporting pillars.

Her right arm raised, she reached out for it, taking an uncertain first step towards its direction, hoping to at least be strong enough to wobble that couple of steps required to reach for it.

However, then something peculiar happened. Her gaze focused on the goal ahead, her perception suddenly shifted. In between two blinks, she suddenly found herself, crashed into the pillar that, just an instant ago, was still a couple of steps away.

Pushing herself off from the column, she looked behind herself with an utterly befuddled gaze. How did she get here? What happened? Did she blink out, faint for a few seconds?

She was certain that she didn't utilize any of the techniques she knew. There was no usage of anything that she was aware of, yet she somehow blinked or flashed forward. Heck, even if she wanted to, she couldn't use any of them, as she had no mana, and she didn't know if they would have worked with whatever source she currently had!

Her gaze shifted towards the back of her disciple once again. She needed his eyes, his focus to understand what was going on.

Number 3 sighed at the sight of Aiden's embarrassing state. A small smile, a gentle curve appeared on her lips, as she unknowingly raised her left hand only for yet another shocking revelation to meet her already unstable state.

Her finger was clear, there was no sight of the ring! Yet, at the same time, she could still feel its connection, she could still feel its negligible weight as the small object clasped itself around her ring finger.

She could still 'feel' it, yet there was no sight of it anywhere. What was even more baffling is that even as she reached for the spot, and touched it with her other hand, she could not find anything on it. Why could she still feel it then?

Inclined to test further, she focused on the connection she had with the skull-faced insignia, surprising herself for the umpteenth time in short succession when she discovered that she was successful!

Though she couldn't feel or notice the ring, somehow it seemed to be still present in her body, feeding off from her life force as it retained its connection with her. She could reach into its sub-dimension, she could sense all of her stored items without missing anything.

Confused by what was going on, this only just added to the seemingly endless list of questions that she felt the need to investigate.

'One step at a time…' She sighed inwardly, taking a set of clean clothes and with a flash dressing up. Once she was sure that everything that needed to be covered was indeed done so, and that she was decent and presentable, she turned towards the young man who was by now fidgeting with nervousness, still holding his back towards her.

She watched for a short moment longer, enjoying the sight of the usually calm and aloof boy acting nervous and embarrassed before she called out.

"Aiden… You… You can turn around now."

As she focused on the youngster in front of him, yet another shocking revelation greeted her.

—

** At the same time… **

As he was waiting for her Master to get her bearings, Aiden shifted his attention towards his system and his guide, Enya.

'So…' He called for her mentally. 'Is she now considered a Minion by the system? Do we have the same mental connection, the same channel like with everyone else?'

He asked with an uncertain mental tone, not sure if that was really the case, or perhaps something was amiss.

As Number 3 got out from the evolutionary egg and started to analyze her new body, Aiden took a look at the System only to be surprised to not see her name listed anywhere. There was no increase in her servants, nor were any detail about her stats available for him to check up on. The usual connection, the usual link he could see in the system after he successfully evolves a creature into his influence, was not present.

There was absolutely no trace in the system about Number 3. In fact, even her tooltip in the system was just a mass of undecipherable symbols. It was as if she was out of the capabilities of the system to process, outside of its influence.

Number 3 was an existence that the system had absolutely no grasp over. Something outside of its grand database!

'[That's…]' Enya also found it hard to respond to Aiden's inquiry. '[The system has no information about her anymore… There's a barrier, a sort of spiritual block around her now, that just doesn't allow inspection of any kind. The system cannot manage her at all, so you will find no trace of her. Whatever she is now, one thing is certain: She is completely outside of the system.]' She confirmed the shocking theory Aiden didn't dare to believe, causing Aiden to tremble at the thought.

However, Aiden still wasn't completely certain… As he focused, he could somewhat feel her presence, even without using his abilities, Aiden felt (albeit not certain at all), that perhaps they were still connected in a way.

Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but Aiden felt that if he focused intently enough, he could feel her emotions, that chaotic confusing mess, as she was trying to make sense of everything that was going on.

He could actually feel her confusion just kept rising as new and new baffling mysteries appeared.

His theory was somewhat confirmed when suddenly he sensed an emotional spike coming from her direction. He could feel her fear, the dread of something unimaginable. Yet, a few seconds later, before he could have the chance to speak up and ask, she felt her calming down.

Then, she felt her motions calming, her mind relaxing, even going as far as feeling a slight sensation of enjoyment, before suddenly he felt the connection, the channel between them activate.

A moment later, her voice resounded in his mind.

"Aiden… You… You can turn around now."

---

AN: Hey there Readers!

Just a friendly reminder, that from wherever you are reading (although I wholeheartedly thank you if you are reading and enjoying the story through Webnovel), you can reach out to me using any of the below methods!

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