In a dimly lit room.
A man sat at a desk, using the faint light of a candle to read a book of magic.
*TING-TONG!*
The sound of the bell he usually used as an alarm rang in the room. After marking the page of his spellbook with a bookmark, the man stood up and instinctively looked behind him: "My servant, blood for today, eh? Where is he?"
Normally, when the bell rang, his only servant should have already been ready, standing behind him prepared to give him blood.
"Late? Could it be that he's become arrogant because I haven't punished him in a while?"
Grabbing the staff leaning against the corner of the desk, the man picked up the candle lamp and walked to the other side of the room. After lighting the lamps on the walls, he stood on the magic circle drawn at the edge of the wall, then faced the mirror hanging on the wall.
"Let's see where that experiment went."
As he spoke, the man tapped the floor with his staff. The magic circle beneath his feet immediately emitted a strange red glow. A red line extended from the edge of the magic circle, crawling up the wall until it reached the height of the mirror. The surface of the mirror turned red, spreading ripples before calming down again.
Seeing this scene, the man paused for a moment before—
*KREKKKKKK!*
Suddenly, he crushed his staff into two pieces!
He had just used Blood Resonance Magecraft to check the condition of the other party who carried his blood. Since the vampire was the result of his own experiment, he intentionally left some of his blood in the vampire's body to always monitor its condition.
But the spell failed.
This definitely wasn't his mistake. That trash vampire couldn't possibly have a way to escape this spell. The possibility of the spell being blocked by a magical barrier or something like that was entirely impossible—there was only one possibility: the creature had been exterminated.
"Completely useless. Even though I allowed it to move freely outside of experiments and feeding times, it still got killed... From the start, I should have directly used its hands and legs as offerings to summon fairies. What a piece of garbage."
Returning to the desk where his spellbook lay, the man picked up the book, retrieved a spare staff from the shelf beside him, and took a severed arm from a cabinet filled with magical mediums.
"It's nighttime, the location is by the river, and tonight's weather... Hmm, the season is right; I didn't even realize it's almost winter. Water and wind elements are very active, so it should be possible to create a good fairy mutation."
"As for the medium…"
Placing the severed arm at the center of the magic circle, the man stabbed it into the ground with the tip of his staff, then began chanting a spell he had mastered long ago.
"Fairies dwelling in the other world, in the name of Aleister Crowley, I invite you to come to this side of the world and have some fun."
"The first element, water. The second element, wind. The third element, winter."
"Let's play in the snow together, let's have a snowball fight together—fairy summoning!"
As Mana flowed through the staff into the severed arm, a sudden greenish-blue light bloomed from the arm, instantly illuminating the entire room. At the same time, the ground enclosed by the magic circle transformed into a clear water surface, like a corridor leading to another world.
In reality, that's exactly what it was.
"Hahaha!"
Light laughter echoed from beneath the water's surface, resembling the sound of children laughing or wind chimes. Many blue points of light rose from beneath the water, gathering into a pair of transparent hands that gently held the severed arm, then—
*DORRRRRRRRRRRR!*
A loud roar echoed across the night sky of Paris. Everyone in several districts near the Seine River immediately turned toward the sound, and when they saw it, everyone witnessed an unbelievable scene, so absurd that they felt they might be dreaming!
A blue dragon with glowing red eyes and a blue crystal embedded in its chest was flying in the air.
"GAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
Flying under the night sky and moon, the fantastical creature let out a thunderous roar!
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
"Uwaaa, WHAT IS THAT!"
Seeing the giant dragon flying in the sky, Dawn immediately panicked and fell flat on the ground, stuttering as he spoke.
"A dragon? Is that a dragon? Could it really be a dragon?!"
"By appearance, it seems so, but whether it's truly a dragon is unknown. Moreover, it reacted."
Ciel glanced at the cross in her hand, which moved several times before finally pointing toward the giant dragon in the sky.
'Mana Anomaly, could it be a dragon?'
Putting away the cross, Ciel kicked Dawn: "Don't just sit there, hurry up and do your disguise work. Just say it's a hologram or special fireworks or something, just calm down the ordinary people."
"Yes! Got it!"
Dawn immediately rushed off with hands and feet scrambling.
After checking the number of Black Keys remaining under her coat, Ciel let out a deep sigh: "Over two hundred Black Keys, it should be enough. But who knows if they'll be effective against a dragon. By the way, that bastard boss said the opponent was just a Dead Apostle, so why the hell is there a dragon too?!"
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
Lying by the window, Naoki and his friends were already stunned by the sight in the sky.
They had just been about to search for any possible Dead Apostles when suddenly a dragon appeared out of nowhere. And for some reason, Naoki felt the dragon looked familiar, almost exactly like the cards he often used when playing Yu-Gi-Oh.
"This, this can't be possible?!"
Riddell's face and eyes were already filled with fear.
"A dragon appearing here? Didn't all kinds of dragons migrate to the Reverse Side of the World after the Age of the Gods ended? Why would one appear in the modern era?!"
"Could someone have opened the gate to the Reverse Side of the World and pulled the dragon out?" Naoki laughed bitterly, then slapped his face and stepped to the edge of the window. However, before he could jump out, Gray and Riddell immediately grabbed his hands from the right and left.
"What are you planning to do?"
"Big Brother, don't go!"
Riddell didn't know, but Gray vaguely guessed something.
The people below had already started panicking because of the dragon's appearance, and with such a large crowd, a stampede was very likely to occur. Moreover, the dragon didn't seem to be a benevolent creature.
[Providing assistance within reach] It was clear what Naoki intended to do.
"Humans can't possibly defeat a dragon, Big Brother." Gray tightly held onto Naoki's hand. "Even if Big Brother..."
"Enough, leave it to me."
Cutting off her words, Naoki ruffled her hair: "Just stay here and wait for me to return. Miss Archelot, please watch over Gray. As a Lord like you, surely you have the ability to do this, right?"
"Hey! Don't tell me you're really—"
Before Riddell could finish her sentence, Naoki had already freed himself from their grasp and leapt out the window with great force. At that moment, a massive flow of Mana exploded outward—
*WHOOSH!*
A shadow like a meteor shot straight into the sky.
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
London, apartment.
Watching the live broadcast of the situation in Paris on TV, Merlin, who had been prepared since the beginning, enthusiastically opened a cola and chips.
"It's finally starting, pretty quick too. I thought I'd have to wait until the concert day. This will be a classic hero story of saving a girl."
"But this works too, the special effects are better. Watching movies really is all about the special effects."
Grabbing a handful of chips and popping them into her mouth, Merlin focused her gaze on the dragon.
"A mutation created from the combination of fairies and elemental crystals, hahaha, those damn fairies finally got their karma, but this power... hmm, it seems there's no need to send Avalon either."
"In that case, good luck, Your Majesty."