After returning from Natsu's spiritual world, a good half of Shane's mind still lingered on his meeting with Igneel.
He sank into the memory, carefully turning over the strange stirring he'd felt deep within his inner sea.
"That feeling…"
Thoughtfully, Shane began to look inward. He focused on the "lock" inside his heart—the one restraining the Lancer noble phantasm's second release.
The moment he checked, his heart jolted.
That lock—once seemingly unbreakable, with no clue when it might open—now had tiny cracks in it. Visible, unmistakable, and loosened by a small margin.
"Just spending that little bit of time near Igneel… and it's already this obvious?"
Shane could hardly believe it.
"How tightly connected is this Lancer to dragons?!"
A surge of amazement quickly turned into a sharp regret. He almost wished he could be dragged back into that magma world again.
If he could stay there longer, maybe it wouldn't just be the lock loosening—maybe even the "second vision" that would reveal Lancer's true-name clues would be within reach.
With that thought—
His gaze drifted to Natsu beside him, still buzzing with excitement after hearing "Igneel is thinking about you."
"If Natsu is Igneel's 'son,' then staying close to him… would it have a similar effect?"
Shane tested the idea.
"Even if it's weaker, it's better than nothing."
With that mindset, Shane grabbed Natsu by the arm, shut his eyes, and poured all his focus into sensing changes in his inner sea.
But hope collapsed almost immediately.
The inner sea stayed calm. The response was faint.
The lock's loosening sped up by so little it might as well have been nothing.
Relying on Natsu's weak "resonance" to accelerate the unlock was about as realistic as waiting for the tide to stop, the wind to stand still, and time to run backward—
comically, absurdly wishful.
"Tch." Shane opened his eyes in disappointment and let go.
"Hey! You just grabbed me and went quiet—what the heck was that for?"
Natsu got the creeps from the sudden pull, and then from Shane's totally unfiltered disappointed look.
Even if Shane had helped him, after seeing Shane's "likes messing with people" side, Natsu was instantly on guard.
"It's nothing." Shane waved him off, completely uninterested. "Go play."
Natsu blinked, about to start yelling—
when a clear voice cut in.
"What's wrong?"
Erza, who'd been watching for a while, walked over. She'd caught the look on Shane's face, and there was a faint concern in her tone.
"Nothing—" Shane started to answer, but the words barely reached his lips when—
Bzz.
His calm inner sea suddenly ticked.
Like a pebble dropped into still water, a small but distinct ripple spread outward.
That "lock" binding the twin spears reacted—just like it had near Igneel.
The loosening… visibly sped up.
Shane froze, eyes widening in shock.
"What…? Why is Erza getting closer triggering Lancer's heartlight resonance? Does she have some connection to dragons too?"
Questions flooded his mind.
"And why didn't I notice this last night? Was it because I wasn't actively sensing it, so I just overlooked it?"
Erza, seeing Shane stare at her without answering, touched her cheek in confusion.
"Is there… something on my face?"
Shane didn't answer. Instead, he reached out, took Erza's hand, and gently pulled her closer.
He needed to confirm whether that ripple had been a fluke.
"Shane?" Erza looked even more confused.
"Don't move." Shane pulled her a little closer still.
Then—
in front of Erza's slightly widened eyes, he gently pressed his forehead to hers.
They were close enough to hear each other breathe.
In the next instant, Shane's eyes lit up with uncontrollable brilliance.
It was real. It was actually real.
The inner sea's "tremor" was unmistakable. The lock's loosening speed—while still not as wild as when he'd been near Igneel—
was easily ten times Natsu's.
If he could keep it at this pace, cracking the twin-spears' lock might genuinely not take long.
"Yes!" Shane clenched his fist in his head.
After all, he and Erza lived under the same roof. Being near her constantly had basically zero barrier.
"Um—Shane, you—" Erza was starting to get flustered.
The warmth of forehead-to-forehead contact, and Shane's breath so close, steadily eroded her earlier composure.
A rare trace of panic rose into her expression, and her ears tinted faintly red.
Nearby, Natsu was staring with his jaw hanging open.
He looked like he'd witnessed the impossible and muttered without thinking:
"Th-the 'Monster Erza'… is making that face…?"
Only Cana looked unimpressed.
Because everyone in the guild already knew Shane and Erza were close.
She wandered up to the stone-stiff Natsu, nudged him lightly with her elbow, and said in a darkly cheerful voice:
"Hey, Natsu… you just called Erza 'monster' again, didn't you?"
Natsu went rigid and turned like a robot, forcing calm.
"I—I didn't say that!"
Cana smiled leisurely.
"Oh, I'm sure. And you know perfectly well—after Erza explicitly warned you—if you pull that kind of provocation again…"
She let the threat hang.
Erza was serious and generally patient with guildmates, so most people had never really seen her "methods."
But Natsu happened to be one of the very few who had.
Natsu's voice instantly softened.
"Cana! Please! Don't tell Erza!"
"Of course I won't." Cana smiled sweetly.
Her tone was relaxed, but the look in her eyes made Natsu's spine go cold.
Meanwhile, having confirmed the "portable charger" effect, Shane was already itching to move.
He grabbed Erza's hand again, excitement like someone discovering a new continent.
"Erza, let's go home."
First he wanted to test it properly—at what distance could he stay close enough to maximize the heartlight acceleration without disrupting normal daily life?
Erza didn't understand what was happening, but seeing how brightly excited Shane looked, she nodded and let him pull her along.
But plans never survive reality.
Just as Shane was mentally mapping out "distance testing" scenarios—and even thinking about how to explain all this naturally to Erza—
a line of golden text, something he'd seen many times before, formed out of nowhere in his vision.
[Long-Chain Trial II: Path of the Sacred Flame]
[With your wisdom and strength, choose five companions and guide their magic to the top ranks of the world.]
~~~
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