Mira naturally knew nothing about all the twists and turns in Shane's mind.
She simply assumed he was angry, so she shrank her neck guiltily, then pretended to stay calm and turned her attention back to Cecilia, who was still wriggling in her grip.
The little girl was unbelievably stubborn. Even while the two of them were talking right beside her, she still twisted her thin arms and legs like a slippery little loach, desperately trying to break free.
What a brat… Mira thought with a headache.
Ever since they were little, Elfman and Lisanna had had their mischievous moments too, but most of the time they were obedient and sensible. Rarely had they ever made her work this hard.
Faced with a kid who wouldn't respond to either soft words or hard ones, Mira was briefly at a loss. Her face stiffened, and she scolded,
"Your mother was so worried just now she was nearly crying. She kept telling you this place is dangerous right now. Why do you insist on running up there?"
"If you're just curious about the glowing rock, you can come look at it after this whole 'tax' business dies down in a few days," Shane added from the side.
"I'm not going to look at the rock!" Cecilia shouted back, her little face flushed red. "I have to look at it while it's brightest! Let me go!"
"Why?" both of them asked, puzzled.
"Because…" Cecilia bit her lip, her eyes reddening. "Because all the adults in town say that if you make a wish to the big crystal at this time, you can borrow the amazing magic inside it!"
She sniffled once, but her childish voice was unusually firm.
"Ever since Papa got sick and disappeared, Mama's been sad all the time… I want to use magic to bring Papa back!"
"…"
Hearing that reason, Shane and Mira both fell silent.
It was a wish far too fitting for a child's innocent view of the world.
That enormous Lacrima really did contain a massive amount of gathered magic.
For this girl who yearned for a miracle, perhaps it truly was the only hope she knew of that could change reality.
But reality was always cruel.
Magic was not omnipotent. Even the powerful mages who stood at the peak of Earth-land had things they simply could not do.
Though Shane knew it was cruel to personally shatter a child's obsession, he also didn't want her clinging to an impossible fantasy in the future. So he spoke calmly, without softening the truth.
"Sorry. Magic really is amazing, but that stone can't bring your father back to life."
At that, Shane thought of Zeref, and of the curse he himself had once suffered. His voice grew a little heavier.
"And people who try to play with life and death never meet good endings."
"You're lying!" Cecilia froze for half a second, then widened her eyes and shouted at Shane.
"I'm not your mother. I don't have any obligation to coax you."
Shane answered without mercy, then gave Mira a look.
"Take her away from here. Children crying and making a fuss is something her mother should deal with."
"What about you?" Mira asked while holding onto Cecilia, who had started struggling violently again.
Shane looked up toward the platform.
"The branch of Lisanna's causal line points to the top of that stone platform. I want to go over and take a closer look. You take this kid and move farther away first."
After all, that woman had just warned them that the Black Dragon could descend at any time. Being cautious never hurt.
"The stone platform?"
Mira's face instantly changed.
There was nothing on that platform except the huge Lacrima used as an offering.
If the causal line pointed there… Mira's heart trembled slightly, and she immediately thought of the possibility Mystogan had mentioned before.
"Don't overthink it."
Seeing her panic, Shane spoke in a low voice to reassure her.
"If she had really turned into a Lacrima, that causal line wouldn't be a 'branch'—it would be the 'end.'"
"Most likely, Lisanna once came to this city, and when the crystal was collecting the tax, it accidentally absorbed some residual trace of her magic."
"…I understand."
Fortunately, after the tempering of these four years, Mira was far steadier now than she had once been.
She took a deep breath, forced down the nauseating panic rising inside her, and understood that the most urgent thing right now was to get this defenseless child away.
Mira bent down and forcefully scooped up Cecilia, who was still kicking and punching.
But just as she turned and was about to leave the plaza—
the bright sunlight was swallowed without warning by a suffocating shadow.
The whole plaza seemed to plunge into an ice cellar in an instant, and the air became thick and oppressive.
"Roar—!"
A deep, indifferent, terrifying dragon roar that seemed capable of piercing the soul exploded like rolling thunder from high above, stabbing brutally into their eardrums.
Mira looked up in horror.
The clouds were violently torn apart.
An enormous black dragon, so massive it blotted out the sky, lowered its head from the clouds.
Unlike the dragons of legend covered in flesh and scales, the surface of this black dragon's body gleamed with a cold, almost mechanical metallic sheen.
"Run first!"
Shane's pupils shrank sharply. He reacted immediately and shouted the warning.
He hadn't expected the timing to be this absurd. They had only just heard about the "tax offering," and now the actual collector had descended right on their heels.
No longer caring about investigating the Lacrima on the platform, he spun around, and the dragon wings on his back instinctively began to spread, ready to forcefully take Mira and the girl away.
But at the instant magic was about to burst out—
some sudden intuition made him forcibly stop himself.
Shane's mind raced.
Since this black dragon had come to plunder magic and treated the entire world as its livestock farm—
then if Shane suddenly released the full magic of the [Dragon Reactor Core] without restraint…
wouldn't that be no different from turning on a searchlight in the dark?
The only reason he had risked coming to Edolas was to find Lisanna.
If he exposed his magic before finding her and got targeted by his dragon counterpart, then the rest of the plan would absolutely turn into a disaster.
That brief weighing of options happened in a flash.
Shane clenched his teeth and, with a thought, shut down the constantly roaring [Dragon Reactor Core] in his chest.
As the source of magic fell silent, there was no longer anything abnormal about his aura. He became indistinguishable from any ordinary person in this world.
"Roar!"
The black dragon did not notice the few people below, who were no more than ants to it.
It let out another low roar, its massive body carrying overwhelming momentum as it dove toward the platform.
Rumble—
An enormous dragon claw covered in dark red markings reached out and roughly seized the Lacrima.
With a thunderous crash that shook the earth, the sturdy stone platform collapsed and shattered like fragile tofu before absolute power.
The violent tremor made Mirajane stumble.
And in that instant when she lost her balance, Cecilia somehow found a burst of astonishing strength. She struggled free from Mira's arms and landed heavily on the ground.
"Give the Lacrima back! Give back the magic that can bring Papa back!"
The little girl stumbled forward a few steps, lifted her head, and stared at the terrifying beast about to take flight. Instead of showing fear, she cried out with all her strength.
That childish cry, so tiny it could barely overpower even the wind around them, seemed unbearably small and ridiculous before the colossal black dragon.
And yet, something unexpected happened.
Standing not far away, Shane clearly saw it.
After hearing that cry, the black dragon's head—huge as a mountain—seemed to tilt downward ever so slightly.
Those cold, merciless vertical pupils pierced through the clouds of dust and landed unerringly on the little girl below, who was waving her limbs in fury.
No.
Rather… they looked in this direction.
"It heard her?"
Following that gaze, Shane finally saw the details of the dragon's head clearly.
At the very center of the black dragon's forehead, there was a faint outline of a human face.
In that hazy instant, he seemed to see a cold human figure standing with its back to him.
An indescribable pull unique to counterparts suddenly spread through Shane's heart.
He stared blankly at the enormous dragon body hanging in midair, his eyes growing especially complicated.
"The color and texture of those scales… they're so much like my dragonized form."
Shane murmured inwardly.
"So that 'me' is hiding inside there? He really has… abandoned his identity as a human completely."
Fortunately, that suffocating stare did not last for long.
Perhaps after confirming that there was no magic below worth coveting, the black dragon indifferently withdrew its gaze.
Its enormous metallic wings beat hard, and with its prize in its grasp, it shot straight into the sky, vanishing into the thick clouds in the blink of an eye.