*I* still have faith that Ciel is trustworthy.

HO.
LY.
SHIT.

My interpretation is that this is the real form of the Pandy spirit behind Noah's power and the Ciel we knew was just the tutorial inspired by the original and as a result of a wish

Ah Ciel? You looking a little, "Eldritch" there, are you feeling alright?

Joke aside, I wonder if Ciel is being affected by a nightmare here, or maybe going in between a dream and reality has put her in a place of expanded consciousness, as she was already a being just inside of Noah's mind, just a guess.

Completely normal pandemonium spirit stuff going on here folks, carry on

Eldridge horrors beyond comprehension

You're looking a little Final Fantasy Boss-y there, Ciel. Have you been eating all your carbs? Consuming all your veggies? Devouring all your souls?

well Damn thats a shock

No.

No no.

NO.

PLEASE NO.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I wonder if Noah accidentally ate Chernyl...

Oh Shit!
I only wonder if there was a way to avoid this.

I like how 'Pandemonium Spirit Ciel' has a design that can best be described as 'Extremely Eldritch... gossipy teenage girl'.

She emerges with seven mouths that sing across lines of reality to say 'C'mooooon, invade their brainspace, let's learn all their secrets.'

Least it’s not at monstrous as Infinite’s spirit (rip).

Honestly, kinda cute.

Get this man inside a cow ASAP

It's ok Ciel did some mining off screen.

I was wondering why Ciel looked so normal compared to the other pandemonium spirit. This makes perfect sense!

Wh... what do you understand, Ciel?

...Well now...this has taken a turn!

A turn to what though remains to be seen.

Biblically accurate Ciel

love this for her, honestly.

still not explicitly malevolent, either..

I mean, she did inherit a little cow from the cow, so probably she's inherited a little nightmare now...

So, on the right of large-Ciel, there is the tree from the dream plane Noah just came from, but on the left, there is a lava-looking plane we haven't seen before (IIRC).
Next destination for Noah?

I'm torn as to whether to attribute this new look of Ciel's to being a pandemonium spirit or to the latest mind Noah's visited being the source of all the nightmares we've seen thus far, considering that the minds have been sort of 'modifying' her on every exit.

Well, she did say entering a stronger mind would increase her abilities...

3 things:
1, I'm almost surprised she didn't call him Minori again.
2, Why appear like this now? Was it a deliberate deception before, now discarded? Is it simply a consequence of Noah using his power on such a strong magic user as Chernyl?
3, NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.

@Pyro winning comment of the year.

You know.

Noel has been stating that Ciel is basically just another pandemonium spirit as with everyone else, just one that can communicate with the magic user. Given that Noel has truesight, I wonder if THIS is what he has been seeing the entire time.

@Mohegan: pretty sure Infinite's spirit is well and alive and inhabiting Infinite's corpse. ^^

Now the real question is: where is Chernyl? Did she really escape her dream? Will she be alright if she gets out in the real world while Noah is busy discussing stuff with eldritch Ciel?

(because the previous uses of Noah's power made it quite clear it does not stop/slow time in the outside world)

Chernyl's nightmare may have ended, but Noahs has only just begun...

I'm reaaaaaally hoping that Ciel is still "good".

Since the cow somewhat diminished ciel I imagine this is what happens when going into a way too powerful mind.

@Ahiru

My guess is that that's the Elf guy's on-fire mindscape. Kinda looks like trees in the background.

OMG HIIIIIIIIIIIIII CIEL

Hmmm, by wishing Chernyl's nightmares away, did Noah take on her powers (and burden)?

Ah, well. No longer getting vibes of Fi from Skyward Sword.

Well, whatever she got from Chernyl, fashion sense is not it.

And that body plan looks a bit silly to be honest.

Poor Ciel. Six arms, still only two visible hands. Bit of a rip off for her, I'd say.

You understand, whatsoever? Great! Please enlighten us! Thank you.

Anybody noticed that Up till now Ciel took form of the most scary image she could find in Noah's thoughts? Concidence?

So this is almost certainly a fully-powered Ciel. Honestly, while she's in this state, Noah's magic is probably strengthened as well. Which probably means his cow-level of power was probably great for training, and terrible for the events he just went through.

@ Orange: What do you mean she inherited from the cow? I checked pages 313, where Ciel was first introduced, and page 1056, a full-body image of Ciel after the visit to the Cow's Mind, and saw nothing notably different. I mean, her sprite was updated between those two times, but it was still obviously of the same person with no notable changes.

@ megahellreaper: The minds have only really affected how much power Ciel has access to upon exit, and potentially Noah as well.

@ Guest: Probably not. We haven't actually seen Noah's Pandemonium Powers do anything, beyond his mind-entry, that wasn't a direct effect onto Ciel. Though one way to get Chernyl's Powers under control IS to link Chernyl to Noah & Ciel to operate as an external flow control.

@ Flairina: Better than having two arms and no visible hands. I think this might be the first time we have seen Ciel's hands, actually.

I forsee that Ciel and Noah are going to be even more besties-better-than-the-resties from now on. As for her new sartorial, dimensional and seemingly intellectual changes, she's probably still invested in Noah's wellbeing as it relates to her own, but with an addition of some new tactics to convince Noah to let her spread her metaphorical wings. I'm guessing her being through Chernyl's mind and Noah making a wish supercharged her and has put her several levels in power above where she previously was. Maybe other spirits from now on will accord Noah an inordinate amount of respect and/or caution due to him being 'the one who delved Chernyl's mind'? Maybe spirits will try to protect and guide him in a similar manner to Tobi? Maybe the spirits will start shipping him WITH Tobi!?

This is scary and exciting all at once.

Good point, @Melany
And yeah, @Zyzyzyryxy, I thought the same thing

that's one hell of a haircut

Coming back to this, I still wonder what *specifically* this moment means. Noel hinted while they were trapped in the purple fog that Noah's "wishes" likely don't affect *anything* he wants, they just modify his own spirit/Ciel to be as capable of what he's asking for as possible, influenced by the strength of the mind he entered. Noah seemingly didn't directly wish to shut down Chernyl's power, instead he wanted to "give her the agency her power took from her". Meaning he likely wished for Chernyl to simply be able to choose whether or not to use her magic. That in turn implies that this new, upgraded Ciel is likely now capable of... directly modifying the parameters of other magical abilities? Depending on the wording Noah used/how he specifically envisioned Chernyl gaining control, it's possible Ciel has also gained "self-agency" of her own from this, which. Could be a nightmare in and of itself, frankly. We'll find out eventually, I suppose...

Ah, right, the wording of the wish was also given to Noah by the Grey Child. Clearly it wasn't phrased in such a way that he hesitated to make it/thought it wouldn't work (unless he completely ignored it, but given he was told that he'd die if he messed it up, I imagine Noah erred on the side of "caution" - though then again, he didn't tell her the Grey Child said hello), but there was definitely a specific objective here. Whether that specificity was intended to preserve Chernyl's nightmares, or to obtain *this* specific outcome for Ciel (or both?) is still unclear...

It's been almost a year, when are we getting more Noah content? :*(

As I recall, the Grey Child never did say what his first gift to the Dead Kid was did he? Maybe this Ciel change is related to that? https://www.neorice.com/hoh_noah_2740

On another note, given the amount of magic related trauma Windows 'Dead Kid' Radar has suffered during this whole nightmare sequence... could esperhood be on the cards?

Whispers the first gift was a ton of magic power, which was used on the massive shield