A minute might not seem like much, and honestly, it really isn't.
But for Alice in that moment, every single second was agony.
The Black Dragon's strength was an overwhelming, fundamental superiority.
Alice's own power lay almost entirely in her immense mana and magical prowess, yet now, her mana reserves were completely drained from fending off the Dragon's assaults.
The power furnace within the Gap had been destroyed by the Dragon's breath, a consequence of using the Gap to counterattack.
Her mana recovery now relied solely on her natural regeneration. While still fast by any normal standard, it was nearly half the speed compared to when she had the furnace.
And really, how much mana could she possibly recover in just one minute?
The truth was, if the Black Dragon attacked again within that minute, Alice simply wouldn't have the mana left to defend herself.
As for dodging?
Like she'd acknowledged before, her strength was magic and mana. Using those, she could manage to block the Dragon's attacks.
But in every other aspect, she was utterly outmatched by the Dragon.
For starters, she couldn't hope to match its speed. If it closed in for melee, she'd have no way to evade.
If that weren't the case, it never would have managed to grab her earlier.
Now, faced with the Dragon that clearly wouldn't let this chance pass, Alice felt a surge of panic. Shanghai and Hourai were equally frantic.
Throughout the fight, Alice hadn't deployed her dolls. The enemy was too powerful; it seemed pointless. The only exception was once, to block a Dragon's breath aimed at the city below, she'd controlled a doll to put up a defense.
After that, she hadn't used them.
But now, Shanghai and Hourai—the very dolls that had intercepted that breath attack and now hovered near the ground—exchanged a glance and opened a Gap.
Their cores were powered by magic crystals, allowing them to operate even without Alice's direct mana supply.
And similarly, they too could open Gaps.
Just as Alice was desperately trying to figure out how to use Photosynthesis to accelerate her mana recovery, her eyes widened. She stared at a point in the air not far away.
Two Gaps slid open.
Shanghai and Hourai emerged abruptly. Shanghai was enveloped in a shimmering, prismatic light, while Hourai continuously cast reinforcing magic upon her.
Finally, after channeling a massive amount of supportive magic, the mana within Hourai's core crystal was completely exhausted. Deprived of power, her functions ceased, and she began to fall from the sky.
Meanwhile, Shanghai, now bolstered by countless magical enhancements, held a tiny lance and fixed her gaze on the Black Dragon's massive eye.
To the Black Dragon, Alice was but a handful. Shanghai, a doll, was to it no more than a speck of dust.
Perhaps that was precisely why.
Shanghai appeared right before the Dragon's eye, yet it went completely unnoticed. Seizing the opportunity, Shanghai raised her miniature lance and charged.
In the next instant, the Black Dragon's blood sprayed forth once more.
Shanghai's tiny lance, sharp as a needle, plunged deep into the Dragon's gigantic eyeball.
After landing the blow, Shanghai didn't retreat. Instead, she overdrived her internal magic circuits, pushing them far beyond what her small doll body could withstand.
Using mana as a propellant, she burrowed deeper into the Dragon's eyeball.
Then, a small, fiery explosion erupted from within the Dragon's eye socket. Shanghai had self-destructed.
ROOOAR!!!
However formidable the Dragon's scales, its eyes were ultimately vulnerable. Having already lost one eye, its sole remaining one was grievously wounded by Shanghai's attack.
The Dragon hadn't even cried out in pain when Alice severed its claw, but Shanghai had managed to elicit a roar of agony.
Alice could hear the raw pain mixed with the fury in its cry.
But more than the Dragon's injury, Alice's mind was fixed on Shanghai.
"Shanghai..." Alice stared blankly at the roaring Dragon, her mind reeling. She never imagined that Shanghai and Hourai, without her mana support, would throw themselves into an attack against the Dragon.
That Shanghai would resort to a self-destructive blast...
A bitter, aching feeling twisted inside her.
But...
Now wasn't the time for grief.
Alice took a deep breath, watching the Black Dragon, now blinded completely by Shanghai's sacrifice, as it thrashed and roared in pain and rage. She bit her lip.
For the first time, a look of pure hatred flashed in Alice's eyes as she stared at the creature.
Since arriving in this world, Alice had never truly intended to kill any being. She rarely felt the urge to kill.
The first time that murderous intent surfaced was in the Dungeon, after being betrayed by Lilly, when she encountered those three vile adventurers. But they were insignificant, mere specks of dust.
The second time was with Apollo, though outright killing him wasn't really the goal; in the end, she'd just sent him back to heaven.
And this was the third time.
Now, Alice's heart swelled with a killing intent directed squarely at the Black Dragon, mixed with a sense of urgency.
Shanghai and Hourai were different. Completely different from her other dolls.
If they had thought it through carefully, they could have left themselves an escape route. Ever since gaining control over the Gap, Alice had planned for this very scenario for them.
Built within Shanghai and Hourai was the ability to open a Gap.
Once their core crystals were depleted, Alice could still supply a spark of mana to activate them, open a Gap directly, and pull them to safety inside.
As Hourai fell, Alice had done just that—activated her core and pulled her into the Gap.
But with Shanghai, the self-destruction happened too fast. Alice hadn't had time to initiate the escape sequence.
And now, the Dragon's overwhelming magical interference made it impossible for Alice to sense Shanghai's core crystal.
But if she could just sense it—if even a fragment of that core crystal remained—Alice could rebuild Shanghai.
So, in this moment, Alice, who had been stalling for time, waiting for Orario's adventurers to arrive, decided it was time to fight with everything she had.
Even though, by now, the main forces of the Loki Familia and Freya Familia must have reached the city walls, preparing to challenge the Black Dragon, Alice no longer had any thoughts of retreating to rest.
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