The sun blazed overhead.
Sunflowers stretched towards the sky, vibrant and full of life.
A golden-haired doll-like maiden danced amidst the sea of sunflowers, a scene of breathtaking beauty. But with the Black Dragon looming, it seemed no one had a moment to spare for Alice's enchanting display.
A gentle breeze swept by, causing the sunflowers to tremble slightly.
In the next instant, Alice slipped through a gap in space and reappeared at Lefiya's side. She grasped Lefiya's hand, once again channeling magical power into the ritual circle.
"Riveria, it's alright. You can leave the rest to me," Alice said.
Patchouli's Photosynthesis was a construct of Seven Luminaries magic, and the Satellite Sunflowers were the same—by absorbing solar energy, they could provide Alice with a substantial amount of mana.
And just moments ago…
Alice had caused an entire hillside in the distance to erupt into a field of sunflowers in an instant.
These were pure, natural sunflowers.
A power Alice had only recently acquired, a gift from the Master of the Four Seasons of Flowers.
Making a whole hillside of sunflowers bloom instantly also required a vast amount of magical energy, an unexpected expenditure in their current mana-starved state.
But the returns on this unexpected expenditure were equally staggering.
Before, only a few Satellite Sunflowers, crafted through Seven Luminaries magic, had been supplying Alice with mana. Now, an entire field of sunflowers was performing photosynthesis, fueling her with power.
And what the sunflowers provided wasn't just the mana from photosynthesis; they also drew nutrients from the earth below, and could even offer up their own life force to Alice.
If she had possessed this ability from the start…
…things would never have gotten so dire against the Black Dragon. At the very least, Shanghai wouldn't have had to self-destruct outright.
But now wasn't too late, either.
With the support of the sunflower field, Alice could easily sustain the magic circle's operation for an extended period, even against a foe like the Black Dragon.
However…
Something utterly unforeseen happened then.
The Black Dragon, trapped within the gravity magic circle, began to rise. Facing the onslaught of the adventurers' magic swords, it stood up, straining against the crushing weight of gravity, and rose to its feet within the circle.
"Alice! What's going on?!" The most shocked by the dragon's rise was Finn.
He had been directing everyone, their magic sword attacks proceeding smoothly, when suddenly the Black Dragon stood up.
Its crimson eyes radiated a chilling menace.
Alice swiftly turned to Lefiya. "Lefiya, is the magic circle still active?"
"Yes!" Lefiya hurriedly checked the circle's operation. "The circle is functioning normally, but… it doesn't seem to be holding the target right now!"
Lefiya's face was ashen. If the magic circle failed at this critical juncture, the casualties would be immense.
But the fact that the circle was still active, yet ineffective, was the greater problem.
"Magic immunity?" Riveria's expression was also grim. As a Level 6 mage and a seventy-year-old elf, her experience was vast, allowing her to instantly assess the probable situation.
However, no creature truly possessed complete immunity to magic. At most, they could resist spells below a certain tier.
"My name is Alf, Surtr's blade, become conflagrant flames, incinerate all! Rea Laevateinn!"
A chant that had taken Lefiya half a day to grasp conceptually, Riveria had understood how to use almost immediately upon hearing the theory.
Now, Riveria could compress the chant and unleash a spell of tremendous power, further amplified by her skill that increased a spell's might the longer the chant.
Under identical conditions, Riveria's full-chant spells now boasted over three times their former power.
As Riveria's incantation concluded, fissures cracked open in the ground beneath the Black Dragon.
Seeing this, Finn instantly recognized it as Riveria's doing and immediately ordered everyone to retreat from the area.
Just after Finn and the others cleared the attack zone…torrents of flame erupted from the fissures, completely engulfing the Black Dragon.
At that moment, Finn's eyes lit up with an idea.
"All mages! Pour everything you have into your chants! Unleash your most powerful spells upon the Black Dragon, now!"
Following Finn's command, every mage in the magical corps began their incantations.
It was then.
Alice's pupils contracted sharply. A terrible premonition surged within her.
"No!!"
"That's not it!!"
"Don't use attack magic! Everyone, switch to defensive spells! Defend, now! The Black Dragon is about to attack!!"
The atmosphere grew thick with mana, a palpable, oppressive weight filling the air.
With so many mages present before, Alice hadn't sensed the mana within the Black Dragon itself.
But now she felt it—the trembling mana in the air, the overwhelming, destructive magical fluctuations radiating from the dragon.
There was no doubt. This Black Dragon could use magic.
The moment Alice realized the Black Dragon's spell was fully prepared, she cried out.
But her warning came just a little too late.
A crimson magic circle materialized beneath the Black Dragon, completely overwriting even the gravity magic circle.
Flickers of red flame were already visible, leaking from the dragon's maw.
Though Alice had shouted her warning, she lacked Finn's commanding authority. Everyone had already prepared their attack spells; hearing Alice's voice now and trying to switch to defensive magic…
…was a fraction too late.
However. Riveria reacted with swift precision, immediately raising her staff and beginning an incantation.
"Spirits of the atmosphere, Masters of Light, I beseech you in the name of Alf, become a wall of sylvan radiance, and protect us!"
"Defensive Magic, Via Shilheim!"
A pure white barrier erupted from Riveria, instantly enveloping and protecting Alice and Lefiya within.
At the same time, the spells chanted by the mage corps were unleashed, a myriad of magical attacks shooting towards the Black Dragon.
And at that very moment, the Black Dragon threw back its head and opened its colossal maw towards the sky.
A red fireball shot instantly into the heavens.
BOOOOM!!!!
A multitude of spells crashed into the Black Dragon's body.
And in the next moment, red rain began to fall from the sky.
Like a volcanic eruption, a meteor shower of fire descended from the heavens, crashing directly into the gathered adventurers. In an instant, the battlefield was shrouded in smoke and fumes.
The lower-level adventurers were completely engulfed by the raining magma in that single, catastrophic moment.
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