I have to admit, even though every last one of them was trembling like leaves and looked like nothing more than low-level punks, the lines of sin wrapped around their bodies were so dense in Shane's crimson-burning eyes that they were almost black with redness. It was a horrifying sight.
Especially that scrawny man in the corner, whose face was as pale as paper.
He looked like he wished he could crawl straight into a crack in the floor.
Shane thought the figure looked familiar. After a brief moment of recollection, he recognized him as the same "Rat" from the hotel earlier.
At that moment, the man was covering his mouth tightly, his terrified eyes darting between Mira and Erza. He was obviously scared to death that his earlier disgusting comments about the "pretty little girls" had been heard.
"..."
Shane swept his gaze around the room. There were more than twenty people inside. Most of them were holding swords, daggers, or knives, and a few even had magic tools in hand.
And yet, faced with him alone, not a single one of them even dared think about resisting.
"So obedient?"
Shane touched his face with amusement and let out a quiet laugh.
"I had no idea my reputation had gotten this big without me noticing."
But what Shane didn't know was this:
When ordinary strong mages faced normal people, they usually either looked down on them with contempt or acted kindly out of a sense of status.
Neither type would terrify these hardened criminals this much.
But Shane was different.
His feat of defeating one of the Ten Wizard Saints came with the prefix Fairy Tail.
And that made it far more terrifying.
No one knew whether Shane might suddenly go crazy in the next second and blow up the entire block along with them.
Without even sparing the half-fainting Rat a glance, Shane let his gaze fall directly on the man at the front. His expression remained warm, like he was chatting with an old friend.
"Since you've heard of me, that makes things easier."
"That saves me the trouble of explaining."
"Do you… know about Eisenwald?"
"..."
The moment they heard the question, all the henchmen around them shrank their necks.
Shane's calm and friendly attitude didn't relax them in the slightest. If anything, it made them even more terrified.
After all, only a few minutes ago, they had been enthusiastically discussing how to kidnap these "fat sheep."
And now the target himself was standing there smiling and asking questions.
That kind of calm before the storm was far more torturous than being attacked outright.
No one dared speak.
In the deathly silence, the gang leader had no choice but to step forward and brace himself.
"I-it's… that group the Council recently classified as a dark guild, right…?"
He wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, his voice dry.
"I… I know a little."
"As expected of the boss."
Shane praised him, his tone layered with meaning.
"Your information really is good."
"..."
The underground leader's expression stiffened. He forced out a smile uglier than crying, with no idea how to respond.
Shane paid no attention to his discomfort.
He slowly paced through the room. The sharp crunch of wood splinters under his feet sounded unnaturally loud in the silence, putting enormous psychological pressure on everyone present.
Only when the leader looked like he was on the verge of breaking down did Shane finally stop and get to the point.
"Since you know I'm from a legal guild, I won't waste time beating around the bush."
"We accepted a job this time. They're the target."
"Tell me where Eisenwald's base is now."
"..."
The leader clenched his teeth. His eyes flickered once before he cautiously asked,
"Azurefall-sama… if I tell you… what will you do with us?"
Hearing that, Shane raised a brow.
He lifted a hand and pointed at his flame-burning eyes, his tone calm.
"I'll act according to what I 'see.'"
"According to what you see?"
The leader stared at the flickering red light for a moment, then visibly relaxed.
Most mages from legal guilds had what he considered "moral shackles," along with the constraints of the Magic Council. Generally, they wouldn't wipe out people who had already surrendered and cooperated.
To him, Shane's meaning was obvious:
As long as they cooperated, there was a chance they'd be spared.
"Alright! I'll talk!"
Having convinced himself of that, the leader latched onto it like a lifeline and immediately poured everything out.
"Our men saw them two days ago!"
"At an underground bar in the outskirts called Nightshade! It's a gathering place for unaffiliated mages and bounty hunters. Eisenwald's people have been showing up there a lot lately. Looks like they're recruiting."
No threats. No torture. No bribery.
Just for the sake of obtaining leniency that didn't actually exist, the leader spilled everything he knew—locations, identifying traits, even the times they usually appeared.
"I see…"
Shane stroked his chin and fell into thought.
He hadn't expected them to be so blatant, not even trying to hide. If even local thugs could find them so easily…
Were they that confident in their own strength, so unconcerned about legal guild mages coming after them?
Or was there some kind of trap?
Seeing Shane fall silent, the leader's heart skipped a beat.
Thinking the information still wasn't enough to buy his life, his mind raced, and suddenly he thought of something else.
"Oh! Azurefall-sama! There's one more thing that might interest you!"
"What?" Shane looked up.
"Recently… another force has been quietly trying to bring together the underworld of Onibus."
The leader lowered his voice.
"Oh?"
Now Shane was interested.
"They contacted you too?"
"No."
The leader shook his head, looking slightly embarrassed.
"They don't think much of little groups like us… I heard that force has pretty high standards. They only take in elite dark guilds made up entirely of mages."
"Only mage guilds…"
Shane narrowed his eyes in thought.
In a place like Onibus, there probably weren't many groups that met that standard.
Aside from Eisenwald, maybe hardly any.
"So what you're saying is… they're very likely in contact with Eisenwald too? Maybe they've already formed some kind of alliance?"
"Very likely!" the leader said, nodding hard.
"Interesting…"
Shane narrowed his eyes.
He hadn't expected pulling up one weed to drag up a whole clump of dirt with it.
This job looked like it might be more complicated than he first thought.
Still… that wasn't something he needed to worry about yet.
There was no guarantee they'd run into that other force at all. The immediate problem came first.
With that in mind, Shane nodded and smiled again, warm and pleasant as spring sunlight.
"Alright, I understand."
"Your information was useful. Thanks for the trouble."
The moment he heard those words of thanks, the leader was overjoyed. The huge stone hanging over his heart finally fell away.
The henchmen around him, who hadn't even dared breathe, all collapsed to the floor in relief.
"So he's letting us go…"
"Thank god, we're alive…"
"Thank you, Azurefall-sama! Thank you for your mercy!"
The leader hurriedly bent at the waist, smiling in a greasy, flattering way.
"No, no, not at all! It's our honor to be of help to someone like you!"
"Please, if you ever need information in Onibus again, you can always come to us!"
"We may not be very strong, but we have a lot of people and a lot of eyes. Our information is definitely reliable!"
He was already fantasizing about grabbing onto "Azurefall" as a backer and using that connection to bully others in the underworld.
"That won't be necessary."
Shane waved a hand. His smile remained, but the warmth in his eyes was fading by the second.
"I don't think… there'll ever be another chance for me to trouble you."
"Huh?"
The leader froze, not understanding what he meant.
Before he could process it, Shane suddenly asked a question that seemed completely unrelated.
"By the way, is this everyone?"
"Uh… aside from a few brothers gathering information outside, this is all of us."
The leader answered instinctively.
For some reason, even though Shane's expression hadn't changed, a chill suddenly rose in his heart.
"So this is everyone…"
Shane nodded, sounding almost regretful.
"Alright then. I can't be bothered to wait anymore. The ones who slipped through the net… other people can deal with them later."
"Azurefall-sama… w-what do you mean by that?"
The smile on the leader's face froze completely. His voice started shaking.
"You said… if we cooperated, you'd let us go, didn't you?"
What a cliché line…
Shane mocked inwardly. It sounded exactly like something a stock villain in a story would say.
So he decided to answer with something equally formulaic.
"When did I ever promise that?"
Shane gave him a puzzled look.
"Didn't I already say it? I'd act according to what these eyes of mine see."
His tone was light, but the flames in his pupils burned even brighter.
In that red world of sight—
Every single person in the room was wrapped in dense, disgusting red-black lines.
That was the physical manifestation of sin.
Trafficking women. Threatening children. Kidnapping for ransom. Breaking into homes to kill.
One crime after another screamed silently through those lines.
"Not a single one of you deserves to live."
Shane murmured softly.
"Sorry."
The smile vanished from his face in an instant, replaced by endless coldness and judgment.
"What my eyes see… can only give you this answer."
Boom—!!
Before the words had even finished—
A terrifying crimson fire erupted from Shane's body without warning, so intense it made the room feel suffocating!
This was no ordinary flame.
It was Heart Flame—born from the soul itself, filled with the lifelong obsession of Senji Muramasa!
In an instant—
The dark, damp underground room became a furnace from hell.
Waves of heat rolled out. The air twisted from the temperature.
The trash piled in the corners, the wooden tables and chairs, even the shattered wooden door—all carbonized in the blink of an eye, cracking loudly as they failed under the heat.
Whether by intention or instinct, the first person the flames swallowed was Rat—the one who had been trying so hard to disappear.
"AAAAAH!!"
"Fire! Help!!"
"My hand! My hand's on fire!!"
Rat rolled madly on the ground, watching in horror as his body blackened and cracked apart in the flames.
And one after another, the rest of the thugs—who had still been clinging to hope just seconds earlier—were mercilessly consumed as well.
"It hurts! It hurts!"
"Why does it hurt this much?! Why won't it go out?!"
Screams rose and fell like the wails of demons.
But that still wasn't the worst part.
The thugs quickly discovered, in terror, that the fire seemed almost alive.
It did not immediately burn them to ash.
Instead, it clung to every inch of their bodies, licking them slowly and relentlessly.
Like punishment. Like judgment.
"You damned fairy!!"
With begging clearly useless, and Shane's fire leaving no path to survival, the leader—being the only mage present—ignored the scorching heat around him and desperately gathered earth-yellow magic in his palm, letting out a hysterical roar:
"Die!!"
Several sharp brown stone spikes formed out of thin air and shot through the air with a howl, aimed straight at Shane's crimson eyes—the eyes that filled him with terror and hatred.
He might have been nothing more than a third-rate underground mage, but at the brink of death, his last desperate attack was surprisingly dangerous.
"Do you think I'm just decoration?!"
Before Shane even moved, Mira acted first.
Bzz—
Dark purple-black, ominous magic wrapped around her right arm.
Her pale arm instantly swelled and warped under the surge of power, transforming into a scaled demonic limb tipped with vicious claws.
Taking one step forward, the girl slashed savagely through the air.
"Get lost!!"
The black claw-shadow shredded the incoming stone spikes as easily as a blade cutting mud.
Then, without slowing at all, it raked straight across the leader's chest.
Pff!
Blood sprayed into the air as the man was blasted backward by the force and hurled into the sea of flames.
"Hm?"
Shane let out a faint sound of surprise.
"That's new… you really did train something, huh?"
"So you weren't lying?"
"Of course I wasn't!"
Mira didn't even turn back. There was a trace of pride in her voice.
Rumble—
At that moment, the entire underground room began shaking violently.
After being baked by the heat and further damaged by the fight, the fragile support structure finally gave way. The ceiling above them began collapsing on a large scale.
"Out first—talk later!"
Without sparing even one more glance at the thugs screaming and writhing in the fire, Shane called out, and the three of them shot out of the crumbling ruin like lightning.
Outside the alley—
Shane looked up.
The abandoned warehouse was now completely consumed by crimson fire, and a thick column of smoke rose straight into the sky, staining half the night red.
"I didn't overdo it… right?"
Watching the spectacular blaze, Shane felt slightly unsure.
But then he thought about it.
He hadn't harmed any bystanders, and he'd thoughtfully cleaned up some human garbage from the city.
Compared to someone like Gildarts, who could accidentally demolish half a city without trying, he was basically a model citizen.
"Yeah. I'm a hardworking role model."
Having finished hypnotizing himself into feeling better, he still turned to Erza just to be safe.
"Erza, go contact the city law enforcement or the local security force."
"And tell them there are still a few fish outside who slipped through the net. Let them handle the cleanup."
"Understood."
Erza nodded, her expression serious.
She was very used to this process.
Master Makarov had lectured her about it plenty of times in the guild:
Use light force. Don't damage the city. Contact the authorities afterward and help clean things up. And once in a while, help the adults write apology reports too…
Shane's attack this time hadn't been "light" at all, but at least it had achieved a world where only the bad people got hurt.
"So?"
While Erza went off to handle that, Mira suddenly hopped in front of Shane.
She had already released the demonic arm transformation. Lifting her delicate chin, she looked radiant and smug.
"Well? Did you see it?!"
"That move just now!"
Shane looked at her proud expression and felt speechless.
So the reason she had rushed over so eagerly just now wasn't because she was worried he might get sneak-attacked?
She had just wanted a chance to show off her new ability and prove she hadn't lied.
"Yeah, yeah. I saw it."
Shane nodded perfunctorily, then asked,
"Was that a derivative ability that comes with Satan Soul? Or did you… figure it out yourself by using that thing's mutated magic power?"
"Both, I guess."
Mira put her hands behind her back and kicked at the roadside stones with her soft little feet, clearly trying to show off.
"So? Pretty amazing, right?"
"It's definitely interesting."
Shane nodded first in acknowledgment, but then immediately switched into strict-teacher mode.
"But… you're still not proficient with it, are you?"
"That attack just now had decent power, but the magic leakage was way too severe. And…"
He pointed at the arm that had already returned to normal.
"After that strike, your magic flow clearly stalled."
"This can't be used as a proper system for prolonged combat."
"Mm…"
Mira choked, and the smile on her face stiffened.
The feeling of having her real level seen through at a glance deflated her like a punctured balloon.
She opened her mouth to argue, only to realize she had nothing she could actually say.
Because Shane was exactly right.
Aside from the Book of Heroes not recognizing any actual rise in her strength, that attack—even if powerful—had still just been a crude burst of magic. It wasn't any real transformation in quality.
"Still! I wasn't lying!"
Embarrassed and irritated, Mira waved a fist stubbornly.
"Even if it's only a little, I did get stronger!"
"Alright, alright."
Seeing how stubbornly she refused to back down, Shane didn't feel like crushing her any further.
"At least… you've found the right direction."
"So from here on, the focus of your special training will be perfecting your Satan Soul magic, until you completely master that style of combat."
This time, instead of grabbing at her hair, he simply reached out and lightly patted her narrow shoulder.
~~~
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