Granny An asked, "As long as I master this magic, I can recover?"
Mira said, "Yes, so you must study diligently with me."
Granny An looked at the blue stream of light around her, "What is this?"
Mira replied, "This... is magic to assist you in learning magic."
In reality, Granny An's situation was not so optimistic.
Her Devil Hand would automatically release when her Magic Power was exhausted, but at her age and physical condition, exhausting her Magic Power was almost like stepping one foot into the gates of hell.
Therefore, she must master Receiving Magic before her Magic Power is exhausted, to gain full control over it.
And even though Receiving partially consumes less Magic Power, Granny An's Magic Power won't last long.
Given her age and physical condition, even with the Crown of Insight and the Broken Ghost Crown provided by Rhode, she could only hold on for two more hours at most.
Back then, the reason young Mira survived was purely because of her great talent.
She maintained a partially received state continuously for 24 hours, not only living in the village for some time but also traveling long distances to find the guild...
If it weren't for strong Magic Power, she would have exhausted herself to death long ago.
Clearly, Granny An did not have Mira's talent; if they don't solve the problem in two hours, she would really die.
And in this situation, neither dared to tell her directly.
If it were the guys from the guild, they might progress rapidly under the pressure of death, but this old lady... it would likely have the opposite effect.
Mira was extremely anxious inside but pretended to be calm as she carefully explained the secrets of Receiving Magic.
However, Granny An was an ordinary person without any knowledge of magic, and with her age and poor memory, she had already forgotten half of what was said ten minutes ago...
The learning process could only be described as a snail crawling uphill, sliding down as it climbed.
Twenty more minutes passed, and Granny An rubbed her forehead, "Let's stop for now, Mirajane. My brain isn't of much use."
Mira encouraged, "Hang in there a bit more? You'll be able to learn it soon."
Granny An said somewhat dejectedly, "This magic is so complex that it's probably impossible for someone my age to learn, right?
"Why not just leave it as is, it's no big deal to stay here, there's no one in the village, no need to worry about being seen."
Ordinary elderly people are prone to negative thoughts, 'No pain, no itch, just let it be, and even if it hurts, it won't last for many years.'
Mira said urgently, "No, you must learn it!"
Granny An looked at her with some confusion.
Mira quickly returned to her usual tone, advising, "You see, such a hand is not flexible enough, it's inconvenient even for cooking, and it's pitch black and not nice to look at. Occasionally, you need to take a ride to the town, right? Then..."
She tried hard to spark the old lady's desire to learn.
Granny An was silent for a while; indeed, having such a hand was troublesome.
But what Magic Power, and what control, was like a riddle to her, she couldn't understand at all.
She asked pleadingly, "Isn't there another way?"
Yes, there was.
Rhode had a way to bring her back to the guild, stamp her with the Fairy Tail emblem, and then send her to Celestial Wolf Island to rely on the Celestial Wolf Tree to keep her alive.
As long as they used the Hex Flying Gate to go back, stamped the emblem, and then asked the Cloud Sub-Dragon to help with the transport, there was definitely enough time.
After bringing her over, let her slowly learn on Celestial Wolf Island, if she learned, she could leave, if not, she could stay to keep the First Generation company.
But this was the last resort, someone like Granny An surely did not wish to have such big changes in her life.
Rhode asked, "Is there a way to 'receive' it over?"
"Impossible," Mira said, "If it were a Demon, I could figure out a way to receive it. But Granny An is a person, even just receiving this hand would harm her."
Rhode thought for a moment, then sighed, "Let's try another way, if Granny An can't learn, then I'll do it."
"You're going to learn?"
"I mean learning this," Rhode tapped on the Magic Book given by the Second Generation.
As expected, when facing tricky problems, you have to rely on the Second Generation.
Mira asked, "Does it have a solution in there?"
"Yes, when I skimmed the contents, I saw a magic called 'Addition Technique', with a subcategory named 'Separation Attachment."
While speaking, Rhode had already opened the book and put on Wind's Glasses.
He had to quickly go through the details of this magic, just in case he needed to slip back to the guild for reference materials.
Precht's research on Addition Techniques wasn't that intensive.
This was one of the many magics he delved into to save Mebius back then.
Mebius was in an odd state between life and death back then, Precht suspected some special power was at work within her, so he specifically researched and tested Separation Attachment.
After finding it ineffective, he boldly speculated whether Mebius's soul or body had a problem and considered trying to separate her soul, resolve the issue, and then reattach it.
Unfortunately, the problem still wasn't solved.
But thanks to his bold hypotheses and careful tests, Mebius ended up in her current, unique state of being physically alive while her soul wandered around outside.
What Rhode needed to do now wasn't to separate Granny An's soul but to separate the Demon Soul she had accidentally acquired, which should be easier than soul separation.
Learning solo wasn't entirely secure, so the two had Granny An take a good rest first, then studied this magic together.
Half an hour later, Rhode took off the glasses and rubbed his eyes, "This magic..."
The effect seemed terribly strong.
Someone skilled could even strip away others' Magic Power to attach it to someone else — the book called it 'High-level Addition Technique', far beyond ordinary Addition Techniques in difficulty.
Thankfully, Rhode currently didn't need to worry about that; all he needed to focus on was how to 'separate'.
Luckily, his reserve of magic knowledge had kept pace, otherwise, let alone learning, just the terminology would be a headache.
Moreover, he and Mira's duo had a unique advantage.
— The magic 'Separation Attachment', when the other party doesn't actively cooperate, it takes a very long time to complete.
Without surprise, Granny An would surely be willing to cooperate, but the not fully tamed Demon Soul might not be.
After all, at the moment of Granny An's death or during the next loss of control, it has the chance to seize control.
But with Mira present, even if it's unwilling, it must cooperate.
It's like Rhode playing tug-of-war with the Demon Soul, with Mira giving the demon a hard kick from behind.
After spending another half hour, the two confirmed the details of casting the magic and their cooperation before approaching Granny An.