It had to be said, Irene had a reason for taking interest in Wendy's talent for Enchantment.
Or perhaps Wendy's own Enchantment Magic allowed her to understand High Enchantment Magic almost instantly after receiving guidance.
The entire enchantment process went extremely smoothly.
Wendy's movements flowed naturally from start to finish, and the process of separating the demon factor before enchanting it onto the Claws was very quick.
"That will do."
Seeing Wendy look toward her, Irene nodded in approval.
After watching Mira Take Over the Claws into her body and summon them again...
Mira even tried out Satan Soul + Underworld King Etherious form + Demon Claws.
After experiencing it, Mira murmured to herself, "What a pity..."
Wendy tilted her little head, still a little nervous.
"What's a pity? Is there something about them that doesn't work well?"
Mira shook her head with a smile.
"No, no, Wendy. These are very good. It's my own problem."
What she found unfortunate was that there were no dragons available for her to test the claws on.
Although Irene and Selene were right in front of her...
Leaving aside the fact that she would never do that, if she really swung a claw at Irene or Selene, that would simply mean she thought her life was too long.
Watching from the side as Mira successfully completed the Take Over, Raizel secretly nodded.
'Who would've thought this could actually work?'
There were native demons in Ishgar.
It was not that Raizel had never considered letting Mira Take Over native demons, but not a single native demon he had encountered had been worth his attention.
Even the strongest among them was far inferior to the Underworld King, let alone Larcade.
If Mira could only follow the normal path of taking over demons step by step, then Larcade Dragneel, one of the upper-tier Shields, would basically be her limit.
A sudden thought flashed through Raizel's mind.
'I wonder if Mira could Take Over Natsu's Book of E.N.D. after it's modified. If she can, that would be another path. A Flame Demon, the strongest demon... If she can Take Over that, it would definitely be the best.'
But now, a new path had appeared.
It did not necessarily have to be weapons.
As long as a demon factor was infused into something Mira wanted to Take Over, she would be able to do it.
In that case, Mira's upper limit would be far beyond merely the upper-tier Shields.
On the other side, Erza also stored the Ink Dragon Armor and Fangtian Halberd into her Requip space.
With a flash of golden light, Erza appeared before everyone fully armed, holding the crimson Halberd.
She wore the golden crown, the red pheasant plumes rising above her head, and the full armor left only her eyes exposed.
The two sharp crimson fangs on either side of her cheeks, resembling the open lower jaw of a tiger, added even more force to her presence.
"Thank you."
Erza looked at Irene and thanked her solemnly.
Irene's expression remained calm, and she merely nodded faintly.
Mira bowed slightly to Irene, then looked toward Wendy.
"Me too. Thank you, Wendy."
Irene calmly accepted the thanks.
Only then did Raizel remember that Erza had also undergone a complete equipment upgrade.
He snapped his fingers.
"Perfect. You two should go test your new forms."
On the eastern plains, the skies once again changed color.
High above, Erza and Mira turned into two streaks of black light and collided in midair.
After clashing together, halberd met BlackWarGreymon Claws, and the two of them fought to their hearts' content.
Raizel glanced at the time.
They had already been fighting for more than twenty minutes. In the sky, the constant clang of weapons colliding rang out again and again.
In the end, the demon Claws locked against the Halberd as it came chopping down, and the two of them landed while still holding that posture.
Mira and Erza each released their Take Over and Requip, then looked at one another and smiled.
"It's been a long time since I've had such a satisfying fight with you, Mira."
"Same here."
Erza's use of the halberd was not especially smooth yet. She still needed more practice.
Mira had also noticed this, so she had accompanied Erza in fighting for more than half an hour.
As for Mira herself, there was no issue of needing to adapt.
Twin claws were already her weapon to begin with.
...
X786, June.
Today, there was good news.
Bisca had given birth to a daughter.
Alzack combined his and Bisca's names and gave the child the name Asuka, full name Asuka Connell.
During this period, the guild members had not gone out on many missions. Most of them were focusing mainly on training.
As for the development of the Second Origin, Ultear had already succeeded.
She had helped Ur, Mira, Cana, Lucy, Wendy, Kagura, and the others awaken their Second Origins.
But Ultear suddenly discovered that, for some unknown reason, Erza had already developed her Second Origin on her own long ago.
It was just that even Erza herself had not known about it, so she had never used it normally.
That was why Erza felt no pain at all when activating her Second Origin.
Second Origin was not something everyone could open.
At the very least, one's Magic Power had to reach a certain level.
In addition, one's will had to be firm enough, or else the intense pain during the development process would be enough to make life worse than death.
For that reason, Ultear did not help second-line members like Levy, whose Magic Power was still insufficient, develop their Second Origins.
Now, Erza could freely use the Nakagami Armor and the Ink Dragon Armor.
Her other important training content was spear and halberd techniques.
Fortunately, most of the two were largely similar. It was just that using a halberd was more complicated.
Then there were the two dragon-slaying swords, Altron and Astron.
Kagura had tested them on Kurnugi, and Selene had not been wrong.
Those two swords really were effective against dragons, and their killing power was no weaker than theHalberd enchanted with four types of dragon Magic.
Kurnugi now avoided Kagura whenever he saw her.
Who would dare provoke someone carrying dragon-slaying swords at her waist?
As for Raizel...
His Second Origin had been developed, but its effect was not very significant.
It could only be called better than nothing.
Then there was Gray, who was still lying low inside the Avatar cult.
"When can I turn on them already?! I've already climbed into the upper ranks! If I keep blending in for another year or so, won't I end up becoming the leader of the Avatar cult?"
In response, Raizel said,
"The organization will not treat you unfairly. Continue lying low. Keep investigating and keep reporting."
'Cough, cough.'
In truth, Raizel did not know how the Magic Council had replied.
This mission had been issued by the Magic Council, and Raizel had only heard about the mission details from Ur.
Lucy rested her cheeks in both hands, looking utterly lifeless.
"Natsu's been gone for almost a year now, hasn't he?"
Although she was very angry that Natsu and Happy had run off after leaving only a letter behind, she had to admit that she missed them a little.
Fortunately, Raizel often allowed her to run around with him.
Otherwise, she would have been bored to death this year.
Her daily routine consisted of meditation, training Star Dress, and guiding Yukino in Celestial Spirit Magic.
During the Grand Magic Games, because of her outstanding performance, Makarov had given her a bonus of 1.2 million Jewels.
In truth, aside from Raizel and Laxus, every participating member had received 1.2 million Jewels.
On top of that, Selene had paid her 500,000 Jewels in rent.
Originally, it only needed to be 35,000 times 12, for a total of 420,000 Jewels, but Selene had casually given her 500,000 Jewels. She had not even stayed long before running off to live in the castle with Irene.
Lucy had wanted to return the money to Selene, but Selene said to consider it her tuition fee, so Lucy did not have to worry about rent this year.
Lucy suddenly realized something.
"Looking at it this way, not going on missions with Natsu actually helped me gather enough rent?!"
Raizel looked at her with a confused expression.
"You only realized that now??"
Wendy had already more or less learned High Enchantment Magic.
Especially after developing her Second Origin, she could now use High Enchantment Magic with ease.
Because of that, Irene had already allowed her to move back to the girls' dormitory.
She only said that if Wendy encountered any problems in her training, she could come ask her at any time.
Of course, that excluded Irene's afternoon nap and any time after ten at night.
She had to sleep!
With four hundred years of accumulated Magic Power, Irene's strength had basically already reached its peak.
Unless some major opportunity appeared, things like meditation and training would no longer be of much use to her.
The same went for Selene.
That was why Selene sought external help to seal the Five Dragon Gods, rather than relying on self-training.