Kyoka's soul had long since given up struggling, and the book of sera just lay there quietly. Since neither had any will to resist, Mirajane's Take Over process proceeded naturally.
Dark purple and silver-white light intertwined as they surged into her body, and two vastly different yet strangely complementary demonic powers gradually merged into her own.
The entire process lasted about ten minutes.
After completely taking over the new powers, Mirajane canceled her Take Over state and looked at her hands in a bit of a daze. "They... actually cared about each other."
She could feel that within that cold demonic power, there were hidden emotions similar to those of humans.
Hope shrugged indifferently. "After all, the creator of Kyoka and Sera was human. It's not strange for Zeref to add a little something to give them human emotions. That doesn't stop them from needing to die when it's time for them to die."
"Tsk, a guy with no maidenly heart."
"Why would a grown man like me need a maidenly heart?"
After bickering for a bit, Hope suddenly noticed someone approaching them and turned to look toward the nearby woods.
A few seconds later, Mystogan appeared dressed in black. He held a pink-haired little girl, about the same age as Wendy, in his arms, while a magic-sealing chain in his other hand led two captives.
"Yo~ Mystogan, quite a harvest you've got there."
Hope glanced at the sleeping pink-haired girl in Mystogan's arms and couldn't help but snark, "First Wendy, and now you've picked up another little girl. You're not a lolicon, are you?"
Mystogan's mouth twitched; he really wanted to say his sexual orientation was perfectly normal.
Before he could explain, Hope was slapped aside by the arriving Mirajane. "Honestly, one look at this girl and you can tell she's an enemy. Look at the pattern on her clothes."
Hope leaned back in and discovered that the pink-haired girl's clothes actually bore the Grimoire Heart guild emblem.
"And they call themselves the strongest Dark Guild, yet they even send out children this small to fight," Hope remarked with disdain.
Mystogan shook his head. "You're really underestimating people. This girl, and those two captives, are all executives of Grimoire Heart."
The pink-haired girl was named Meredy, one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory of Grimoire Heart. She mastered the Lost Magic 'Maguilty Sense,' which could connect the magic, emotions, pain, and sensations between people. She was a troublesome Mage.
However, she had run into Mystogan.
Against enemies who primarily deal indirect damage, Mystogan could handle them with ease. He didn't give Meredy any chance to establish a magical connection; he put her to sleep the moment they met, and she hadn't woken up since.
Because Meredy was still a child and about the same age as Wendy, Mystogan, feeling a bit of compassion, didn't use the magic-sealing chains on her.
"What about them?"
Hope pointed at the two captives. Not only were they tied up tightly, but their mouths were also gagged. For fellow members of the Seven Kin of Purgatory, this was some serious double standard.
Among these two, the youth with messy long blonde hair was named Zancrow, and he mastered the Lost Magic 'Inferno Slayer Magic'.
The other, a silver-haired show-off in glasses named Rustyrose, also mastered a Lost Magic—'Manifestation Arc.' This magic could turn anything imagined into reality, though it had certain limits and conditions, and required intense concentration.
As the main force of Grimoire Heart, the Seven Kin of Purgatory all mastered Lost Magic. With so many Mages of Lost Magic, even Mildian Magic Academy couldn't produce so many talents.
It truly lived up to being called the'strongest' Dark Guild.
It's just that the executives of the strongest Dark Guild couldn't even beat the non-S-Class Mages of Fairy Tail.
According to Mystogan, after defeating Meredy, he went to support nearby comrades. By the time he arrived, Zancrow had already been beaten by Natsu until he was lying on the ground with his mouth open and eyes rolled back.
With the second magic source plus Dragon Force, unless there's an absolute crushing difference in magic power, very few people could actually go head-to-head with the current Natsu.
Rustyrose was defeated by the combined efforts of the Thunder God Tribe and Elfman.
Fried, Bickslow, and Evergreen were already quite strong, and as long-time teammates, the three of them had excellent chemistry.
Add in an Elfman who could be tanky enough to serve as the main vanguard, and Rustyrose's disappointing imagination was no match for them at all, suffering a crushing defeat under the four-man beatdown.
After dealing with their respective enemies, Natsu and the others rushed off to other battlefields, leaving the honest Mystogan to do the miserable job of packing up the captives.
But now that Hope had arrived, Mystogan knew he could take it a bit easier.
Hope pulled three blank cards from his Requip space, but before imprisoning the three Kin, he didn't forget to record their magic.
[Recorded Extraordinary Power—Lost Magic 'Maguilty Sense', estimated time to crack: 45 days]
[Recorded Extraordinary Power—Lost Magic 'Incomplete Flame God Slayer Magic', estimated time to crack: 40 days]
[Recorded Extraordinary Power—Lost Magic 'Manifestation Arc', estimated time to crack: 50 days]
The long-lost system notification sounds rang out in his mind one after another, making Hope feel a bit nostalgic for the days when he went around leeching magic.
Since reaping a huge harvest at Mildian Magic Academy, plus the knowledge gained from Rogue Cheney later, his magic library had exploded, and he rarely collected magic anymore. Only something as precious as Lost Magic would catch his eye.
He'd archive 'Maguilty Sense' for now. Knowing too much could lead to choice paralysis when the skill list gets too long during a fight, resulting in brain overload.
Hope took a fancy to 'Manifestation Arc.' As long as one had strong enough magic power and mental strength, supplemented by concentration, one could turn imagination into reality.
He really couldn't pull off the supreme technique 'War God of Hell' from Magnetic Field Rotation right now, but taking an alternative path to create a Stand through 'Manifestation Arc' shouldn't be a problem, right?
A magic with such a high ceiling was truly wasted in Rustyrose's hands; no wonder he got stomped by the Thunder God Tribe's 3+1 combo.
Being this much of a scrub, I'd say he's not qualified to be one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory.
As for the last one, 'Incomplete Flame God Slayer Magic,' one could tell from the 'Incomplete' prefix that the God Slaying magic Zancrow mastered was not whole, and certainly couldn't compare to the complete 'God-Slaying Magic of the Moon'.
It was unclear whether there was a problem from the start or if the person who taught him the magic had held back.
After sealing Meredy, Zancrow, and Rustyrose into the blank cards, just as Hope pulled a magic crystal from his Requip space intending to unlock 'Manifestation Arc' on the spot...
The Sky suddenly turned dark, and a golden halo magic containing the power of the sun, moon, and stars abruptly erupted from deep within Tenrou Island.
Hope's movements paused. He raised his head to look in that direction, his brow arching. "This magic power is... Cana?"
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