Finals are a month later... But fret not! I will not be defeated by this attempt from the dark reunion!

Anyways, please do write down your thoughts and suggestions, and as always, thank you for reading!

~ Capital Marth, Stadium of Artemis University

The entire stadium was in a complete standstill.

All the loud cheers and excitement from before now seemed to have never happened.

A few moments before, a bright flash of light and huge explosion that shook the earth just happened without warning. It was of a magnitude that was simply bone-chilling.

Some thought it was the awakening of the demon king; a sign, out to warn us. And their fears might just be true.

It was only a few hours ago since I visited the Royal Palace to warn the King of the prophecy… but I have never expected it to happen so quickly…

*ROOOAAARRR*

The deep, deafening cry shook me back from my thoughts. It was as if this entire thing was a nightmare. The explosion of the dungeon, the emergence of the dungeon boss… an incredible dragon, clad in mortifying black scales of impenetrable armour. Its raging red eyes, that seemed to cut through my soul, rending my entire body in immense fear.

Against the power of Void Dragon, we helpless, powerless civilians could do nothing but submit to its immense power. Even though the monster was far away from all of us, a mere look into its deep, red eyes was enough disable most people.

The sky turned red. Screams and shouts were muffled. People collapsed around me. My body felt weak and heavy. Everything just… happened. Things are blackening…

…

“...hey. HEY! WAKE UP, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!” I… I was shaken awake by somebody… large. My senses started to revive as the screaming and shouting returned to my ears.

“HEY! Looks like you’re fine! Turn and face away from the dragon, and don’t turn back! We need to evacuate everyone out of this place, to somewhere safe!” A large figure… an orge. My saviour! He pushed me to the crowd where people are leaving the stadium quickly and… surprisingly orderly. My mind felt calmed and soothed by the magical tune of the wonderful music the musicians were playing.

People worked together, students and even duelists who are able to resist the magic of the monster.

As I was walking along with the crowd away from the direction of the monster, I noticed that a number of people were looking at the sky… at something flying from the direction of the first explosion. No, it’s… somebody!

He is flying at great speed, his obvious white coat fluttering in the sky as quickly he zoomed past over our heads in a blink of an eye, followed by a deafening sound… and that was the second time in this day I almost went deaf!

Wait… who is that? Heading straight towards the monster and at an incredible speed like that… could he be one of the heroes? But… that couldn’t be possible… the summoning ritual at the very least, takes a year to prepare and activate, there couldn’t be any hero summoned by Marth since I just notified them this morning unless they have known beforehand, but even so they can’t summon without the approval of Master… Ahh, whatever. I need to make sure I’m safe first, so that I can continue to carry out the important mission of notifying all the other nations as well.

---

“SALTY! Are you alright?! Can you hear me!” I shouted in my mind to check on Salty, but to no avail. No reply, no answer. Ugh, I can’t even check on her right now, I need to fix this annoying turn of events first.

I flew straight towards the stupid dragon that have disrupted my plan to enjoy the tournament and festival, that made Salty go unconscious, and also to pay for making the dungeon a ruin and for being a serious threat to the existence of this capital. That is enough reasons to justify the need for the extermination of this dragon.

However, I do recognize the strength of this boss monster. He is not an easy foe. Comparisons of pure power strength between me and the dragon show that I have absolutely no chance of winning. I only have a mana capacity of the First Order, and the dragon has something like the Two-Hundredth Order according to the standard of measure here, which is approximately two hundred times larger than mine. Usually, that would mean it would take a full raid team of sixteen people to defeat it.

But of course, such things like pure fighting power do not matter in my eyes.

As I flew across the capital, I could see people everywhere frozen in fear by the dragon’s intimidation. I looked up and met eyes with the dragon again. The sky turned red as he tried to invade my mind. So this little lizard wants to play the battle of the mind eh? Sure, I’ll play with you.

Such weak and feeble attempt to instill fear in me. I stared back at it, right into its soul. I flew even faster than before, not breaking the eye contact at all. The dragon, full of pride, did not look away a single bit, and focused on me instead. I bet it didn’t think that a mere human like me could withstand his intimidation. Good. All its attention is on me.

Maintaining the eye contact, I flew and landed on the roof of one of the buildings that is still standing, near the dungeon ruins. Resisting its intimidation was easy, after all, it is but a mere lizard. Sure, he may be huge and powerful on the surface, but in my eyes, he is just a prey to be hunted and put down.

Now that I’m closer, it’s time to go on the offensive, something that I doubt the dragon would expect I was able to do. In one shot, I gathered all my processing power and aimed straight beyond the dragon’s eyes in a single powerful mind attack to invade the dragon’s mind. However, the dragon was fast to react and closed his eyes before I could do any real damage to its mind. With the few tens of milliseconds I had, I only managed messed up his current state of mind, leaving him stunned for a couple of seconds. Tch, just a few hundred milliseconds more and he would become an empty shell.

“Hey, Earth, what’s going on here? Why is the Void Dragon out of the dungeon?” Grandma… or is it Master, has arrived.

“I have no idea!” I gave my honest reply. “But, if anything, I know that this is a threat that needs to be exterminated.”

I saw a few other people arriving at this place, some want to protect the capital, some simply wanted to fight the dragon. Some people tried to attack the dragon, but the deep black scales almost seems to absorb the magic and even melee attacks seem to do no damage even with powerful-looking weapons the people wield.

Grandma, or Master, engaged in a full-out battle with the dragon. Now I can truly see the extent of her powers. She took the small flames from the collapsed buildings, and amplified it until it was the size of the dragon itself, which was easily forty metres long. The flames swirled around the dragon, completely engulfing it. She also controlled the air and fed it to the fire, making it glow even brighter, a bright blue flame. While she was doing that, she also controlled large debris by the sides and brought the debris above the dragon and releasing it, intending to crush the dragon.

Triple casting, and such large-scale magic without voice incantations, that is, according to most people’s standards, a feat. All the other people could only watch in awe at this display of pure power. For a moment, it seemed as if the dragon was losing. I know Master wouldn’t be able to best the dragon in pure strength. She knows it better than me. That’s why she’s trying to buy time and delay the dragon. She might have a mana capacity ten times larger than me, but I could see the triple mana-casting eating up all her mana like it was nothing.

The dragon, of course, retaliated. It opened its mouth and created a black orb of unknown energy, or should I say… void energy. The orb sucked up all of the flames and magic but it didn’t stop the debris from falling onto it. As the debris fell onto the dragon, Master casted Earth Spikes underneath the dragon to crush it from both directions. An unexpected move, the underbelly of the dragon was punctured and the heavy debris that fell on the dragon pushed the spikes further in.

At this point, I could feel Master’s mana level being dangerously low. The dragon looked and aimed the orb at Master, intending to finish her. As soon as the orb left the dragon’s mouth, I lifted a large piece of debris and threw it at the orb, which forced it to explode in the dragon’s face.

I could feel it. The dragon is trying to attempt something stupid. It opened his mouth again, but this time I could feel him pouring everything into a single black orb. I tried to throw the debris again, but this time, the debris simply crumbled upon contact.

The spikes under the dragon crumbled as well and it started to take flight. Not intending for it to get away, I flew and jumped onto it. It flew straight up into the sky. Still supplying all of its mana to that one black orb.

Every second of contact with its scales drains mana from me like it was nothing, while my mana organ tries to absorb mana from the surroundings as much as it could. As I climbed towards its head, I could feel the orb that the dragon was making getting ever stronger that even light started to bend around it, and my mana was instead sucked into the orb instead…

I can feel my body getting weaker… Maybe I had underestimated this dragon…

It continued flying until we were so high I could see the stars, then it turned around. A divebomb eh?... Just a little bit more… it’s getting a tad bit hotter…

It's flying downwards, and the wind is getting stronger... and stronger... At this rate, it's probably not thinking of staying alive... why?

I grabbed one of its protruding horns... and I reached its head. I need to keep my head clear... I looked into its large, red… lifeless, glowing eyes… INVADE.

…

I’m in… A black void… but I feel a sense of familiarity… somewhere… somewhat… it’s similar to me…

Execute wipe and destroy, and absolute control. Success.

Disperse black orb. Error. Black orb cannot be overridden.

Warning, black orb is showing signs of instability. Space-time anomaly detected.

ERr0rr……

“...you CANNOT ESCAPE… CORRUPTION… EXTERMinate…”

*FLASH*

I’ve… I’ve been forcefully disconnected from the dragon… what… was that… and what is… this… everything is… black…

I can’t see myself… but I can feel… but who cares… sleep… I feel… tired…

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