With their thoughts still tangled, the two of them pushed open the guild doors.
New Year had just passed. Shane was about to greet everyone properly, but before he could even open his mouth—
"Boooom—"
Along with a scalp-prickling surge of magic, a white-haired figure wreathed in mania shot up in an instant, stopping right in front of them.
It was Mira.
She had clearly activated the "Full-body Take-Over" she'd just mastered—claws out, wings flared wide.
Her demonic traits were similar to before, but now her face and figure had shed some of their youthful softness, giving her a wild, dangerous kind of beauty.
But even before her looks could register, a sweet, dizzying scent hit them like a wave.
Like a mandrake blooming on a corpse—seductive, poisonous, and lethal.
"Cough… toxic?"
Shane reflexively covered his mouth and nose.
Thanks to the experience granted by [Assassin], he instantly identified it: the perfume-like gas carried a neurotoxin that could numb the nerves.
"This girl… has she lost her mind?"
Shane's eye twitched.
Pulling this in the guild? Was she really not afraid of giving the old man a heart attack?
Watching the white-haired girl spread her limbs like a queen descending upon her court, Shane quietly took one step back—placing the still-dazed Erza in front of him like a shield.
At this rate, Mira had clearly decided her "divine technique is complete" and was here to "test her hand" on Erza again.
Naturally, Shane wanted the best possible seat for the show.
But to his surprise, Mira ignored Erza completely and walked straight up to Shane.
"Come on. I'm healed. We start training again—now."
Shane blinked, genuinely confused. "You switched personalities?"
By all logic, with Mira's competitiveness, the moment she felt stronger she should've charged Erza first.
Why was she suddenly acting so steady?
It didn't make sense.
In truth, Mira's thinking was very simple: Erza was the finale, the main course—something you saved for last.
And in this form, her emotions felt amplified. For some reason, she was… oddly aware of Shane.
Feeling that blunt stare, Shane was curious too—but he still shook his head and refused.
"Give it a couple days." He waved her off. "I just got back. I've got some things to handle—"
Mira's reaction, however, was explosively intense.
"Hah?"
Her features—made sharper and more dangerous by the Satan form—narrowed.
"Didn't you promise me… that once I recovered, we'd start training again?"
"Or… were you lying to me?"
"…???"
Shane honestly didn't understand why she was blowing up like this.
He had zero intention of brushing her off. He just wanted to sort out the Book of Heroes' new mechanics first, then build a training plan that actually fit.
But as Mira's emotions spiked—
That sweet, poisonous haze spread even more, blooming like purple fog, and started creeping outward through the guild hall.
A few nearby guild members were already clutching their heads, swaying as they muttered, "So dizzy…"
"Tone it down!"
No time to think—Shane frowned. "Your scent is poisonous. You'll hurt people!"
"It's just mild paralysis. At worst they sleep it off. No big deal."
Mira said it flatly, her eyes chillingly cold.
"Well, that explains it."
Hearing an answer that didn't match Mira's usual personality at all, Shane actually relaxed a little.
"So it's the demon soul messing with her head again."
If that was the case, the solution was simple—
Beat her up until she sobered up.
He swept his gaze around the hall to make sure Elfman and Lisanna weren't here.
"Good."
Shane nodded in satisfaction.
Beating up someone's sister in front of her siblings—yeah, even he would feel a little awkward.
Even if he'd done it once already.
"All right."
Once confirmed, Shane's expression turned instantly "kind and gentle"—the kind of gentle that belonged in court testimony.
"Since you're so insistent, we'll go to the usual spot."
Then he turned to Erza. "I'm taking Mira out to… 'play' for a bit."
"Oh."
Erza seemed lost in her own head, still tangled up about Kagura, and just answered absentmindedly.
Shane mentally logged it:
Erza's weird possessiveness had zero reaction to anyone else—it really only triggered around Ultear.
"Exactly what I wanted!"
Mira didn't catch the "I'm about to ruin your life" subtext at all. She flared her wings excitedly.
The two of them turned into streaks of light and shot out the doors in an instant.
…
A short while later, deep in the eastern forest, beside that familiar stream—
The place they'd trained most often months ago.
"Show me a training plan that won't disappoint me, Shane."
After landing, Mira didn't attack right away.
She stretched her demonic wings elegantly, and her sharp fingertips traced along her left forearm, which was wrapped in scales.
"Training like a little kids' game… won't even warm me up anymore."
"Full Take-Over really is making you more and more demon-like."
Shane looked up at the girl overflowing with feral arrogance and couldn't help sighing internally.
Not just her appearance—her personality too had turned far more aggressive, far more untouchable.
Take-Over magic in this world really did look like "easy power," but the risk was just as huge.
The deeper the Take-Over, the easier it was for the absorbed entity to affect your mind.
According to Makarov, there were even cases in history where weak-willed users were completely overtaken, their bodies stolen, reduced to monsters.
"Looks like I need to knock some sense into you—fast."
Shane didn't waste time. He couldn't risk the negative influence deepening.
"Whoosh—"
Crimson Heartflame surged up from beneath his feet, instantly dispersing the purple haze around Mira.
"Want real combat?"
Feeling that familiar heat, Mira didn't retreat—she lit up with anticipation.
She beat her wings and shot into the air, looking down at him as she crooked a finger in blatant provocation.
"Come on!"
…
Three minutes later—
Thud!
With a dull impact and a burst of dust, the "demon queen" from moments ago lay sprawled on the grass by the stream like a dead fish.
Those wings that had looked so wicked and majestic now drooped uselessly at her sides, like a bat with broken bones.
And Shane—
In absolute domination, he had her arms pinned behind her back and was sitting squarely on the rigid line of her spine, completely unbothered.
"Let… let go of me!"
Mira writhed, but after the several hundred merciless "loving punches" Shane had just delivered, she was already out of strength.
"Your mistakes are three."
Shane ignored her struggle. His voice was cold as iron.
"First!"
He increased the pressure in his grip—Mira sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.
"You used power you haven't fully mastered—without supervision."
"Second!"
Another brutal increase. Mira let out a muffled groan.
"You got stronger and immediately got arrogant and swollen-headed. If that poison had seriously hurt a guildmate, what would you do when you came to your senses?"
"Third—and most important!"
Shane leaned down, lips near her trembling pointed ear, speaking slowly and distinctly:
"You showed your teacher zero respect."
"Who do you think you are—Queen Satan?"
This wasn't just physical suppression—it was psychological humiliation.
It was a posture Shane had only ever used on Ultear back when she still had rocks where her brain should be.
Which meant: this time, he was genuinely angry.
He was furious in that "I taught you for months and you learned nothing" way.
But before he could continue—
He felt the magic under him destabilize. Mira's demonic traits flickered. They were starting to recede.
Shane's gaze sharpened.
"Don't you dare cancel it."
He didn't get up. He pressed down harder.
"I told you how important magic reserves are. You can't even hold it for a few minutes?"
"Keep it."
"If you drop the transformation, I'm throwing you into the stream."
"Y-you…!"
Mira gritted her teeth, fury blazing in her eyes—tears shimmering at the edges.
She had never felt this humiliated.
Never felt this powerless.
But under Shane's unquestionable pressure, she could only force down the aches in her body and the exhaustion in her mind, squeeze what little magic she had left out of the well, and keep the Satan Soul form alive.
As her strength burned away, that terrifying demonic aura finally began to drain from her face.
In its place, her eyes slowly cleared—still stubborn, still resentful, but no longer drowned in manic cruelty.
"Fine…"
She lay facedown on the grass, voice thin as a mosquito.
"I'll keep it… okay…"
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 120 Chapters Ahead of Others!
Patreon.com/Bleam
– Gifting Patreon Membership in my Patreon Page! Check it out!