An eerie green light illuminated the Evil Crow King's body, and the dark green glow gradually detached, finally coalescing above its physical form into a phantom Evil Crow King.
The phantom Evil Crow King, made of an eerie green light, widened its eyes and scanned left and right. Then, seeing its own prone body, it immediately flapped its wings, opened its mouth, and let out a silent roar at the three of them.
"This… this is the Evil Crow King's soul?" Marcus's eyes widened, his face filled with disbelief.
Ezreal gave Marcus a confirming look, and with a gesture of his left hand, the phantom Evil Crow King slowly compressed and condensed until it was the size of a watermelon, resting in Ezreal's left palm.
"Soul Magic?" Cana was also stunned. She stared intently at the soul in Ezreal's hand and asked, "What exactly are you trying to do?"
Ezreal's lips curved slightly into a confident smile: "I'm going to reshape its soul."
With that, Ezreal withdrew his left hand, and the green orb of the Evil Crow King's soul floated quietly in the air.
His pupils had, at some point, also turned an eerie green, and he began to form complex hand seals. Streaks of eerie green light shot from his fingertips, intertwining around the soul orb.
The originally calm soul orb suddenly began to struggle violently under the 束縛 of the light, emitting a wild and ferocious aura.
Ezreal was fully concentrated, and beads of sweat gradually appeared on his forehead.
As the light grew more intense, the Evil Crow King's soul orb gradually quieted down and began to shrink slowly.
After a while, the eerie green light surrounding the soul orb was gradually absorbed, and a soul orb one-third smaller than before appeared in Ezreal's hand.
"It's done!" Ezreal let out a long sigh.
Cana leaned closer, curiously looking at the soul orb: "Will this really make the Evil Crow King obedient?"
Ezreal nodded and said, "I extracted the Evil Crow King's soul, erased unimportant memories, and rewrote its soul. It now believes itself to be a loyal and obedient Summoned Beast, and will forever be loyal to its master."
Marcus was shocked, "That's possible?"
"Altering a soul…" Cana looked at Ezreal, her expression one of disbelief, and said, "What an astonishing mastery of Soul Magic. I've never heard you mention it."
Ezreal smiled, not responding.
He gently tossed the soul orb in his hand, and the soul orb, glowing with an eerie green light, naturally flew into the Evil Crow King's body, which lay on the ground.
The Evil Crow King, whose breathing had been faint, trembled slightly after its soul returned. Its breathing gradually stabilized, its eyelids twitched, and its limbs trembled, showing signs of awakening.
"Cana, try it. Use your Magic to seal this Evil Crow King into a card and make it your first fairy card."
Ezreal looked at Cana, and said seriously: "Marcus told me that he joined this mission simply to help me. He doesn't care about the amount of the mission reward; ten thousand jewels from the commission fee is enough as a token."
"I'll give you the B-rank flying Magical Beast."
"This Evil Crow King is your reward, which I'm paying you in advance. This will also increase our safety in the upcoming exploration."
"Marcus…" Cana couldn't help but turn to look at Marcus, her eyes slightly red.
The green-haired young man scratched his head, revealing a shy smile, and said: "Ezreal mentioned it a while ago, Gaara's Magic of using sand to create clouds for flying, I'm almost done with it. A flying Magical Beast wouldn't help me that much."
"If you really want to thank me, buy me a drink when we get back." Marcus smiled shyly.
Cana gave Marcus a thumbs up and said loudly: "Of course, no problem, Marcus!"
Cana's personality was already straightforward and decisive. After hearing the two of them, she didn't hesitate at all. With a flick of her right hand, a card appeared between her index and middle fingers.
The front was blank, and the back was black with a red Fairy Tail emblem in the center.
"Well, 'Cana card' doesn't sound good at all. Let's just call it a fairy card! When a Magical Beast in the wild is subdued by a Fairy Tail Guild Mage, sealed, and then transformed into a Fairy that can be commanded by people!"
As Cana spoke, she flicked the card in her hand. The card grew with the wind, expanding to four meters tall in the blink of an eye. The blank side faced the Evil Crow King lying on the ground and covered it.
"Boom!"
A sound similar to a balloon exploding rang out. The card shrank back to its original size, and the Evil Crow King on the ground had vanished.
On the previously blank card, a black forest pattern had appeared. In the very center of the black forest was a humanoid Raven with vast wings spread, two horns on its head, and four limbs, staring out with blood-red eyes.
Cana gestured, and the card with the Evil Crow King's image automatically flew back into her hand. After examining it carefully, she contentedly put it back in her bag, then said to the two: "With the Evil Crow King's help, our upcoming mission will be much easier."
Ezreal nodded in agreement, then turned to look at Marcus.
Marcus met Ezreal's gaze, paused for a second, then quickly waved his hands, saying: "You don't need to pay me the cash now. We can talk about it when we get back."
Ezreal chuckled and said, "No, that's not it. Cana's Raven's strength is close to A-rank, and its actual value is quite a bit higher. So, your cash is gone."
Marcus waved his hand dismissively, saying, "That kind of thing doesn't matter."
Cana's expression changed slightly, and she reached into her bag to pull out money.
Ezreal tapped on the table, attracting their attention. He then changed his tone, smiling as he said: "So, I've decided to take you to find gold sand to settle your mission reward."
Marcus and Cana both paused slightly.
Marcus asked confusedly, "gold sand?"
Ezreal nodded and continued, "I recalled last night before bed that sand Magic is one of the variations of Earth Magic, and Earth element Magic materials are the most documented. Among those directly related to sand, there are probably over 200 types."
"Among these, there are a few that are very compatible with you. However, some are too precious and hard to find, and their scarcity makes them not very useful."
"The Magic material that is compatible with your Magic, easiest to find, and can be obtained in large quantities is called — gold sand!"
"This is a relatively precious Magic sand, usually found at the bottom of large rivers. It possesses extremely high hardness, is incredibly heavy, has excellent magical conductivity, contains abundant Earth-attribute Magic power, and naturally possesses the ability to attract Earth Magic from the air."