635,

Elsewhere, amid a pile of enormous rubble.

Someone kicked the rubble aside, and a tiny foot stuck out.

"Seriously~ Seriously!!"

With an explosion, the rubble went flying, and a girl blasted her way out from within.

She picked up a large hat from the ground and dusted it off. A laughing face emerged from the fabric.

"Cough, cough! I'm not dead, I'm not dead!"

"Yeah, yeah~"

The girl answered casually, then put on the hat.

"As expected of my Babe~ Now this is fun~"

She spun around once on the spot, then opened a small hole in the air with a flourish.

A magic wand poked through it. She spun with it and pulled the wand out in the same motion.

The Great Archmage Marcina had made a perfect comeback.

Looking at the Great Dragon in the distance and the warriors fighting desperately below, Marcina wore a displeased expression.

"This is bad! I can't let them hurt my Babe!!"

With that, Marcina broke into a run, then accelerated and leaped from in front of a huge boulder.

With a single leap, she flew straight into the air.

She flew to the center of the battlefield, where the fighting was exceptionally fierce.

Countless shield-bearing warriors desperately held the front line, allowing the mages behind them to unleash attack after attack.

Large numbers of archers were concealed among the buildings, filling the sky with arrows that kept raining down on the Great Dragon.

But the Great Dragon's body was incredibly tough. Ordinary arrows couldn't pierce it at all.

Even so, being attacked one-sidedly like this was enough to make the dragon unhappy.

To turn the tide, the Great Dragon swept its tail and prepared to rise into the sky.

At that moment, a figure shot upward. A child arrived directly above the Great Dragon.

Two forces of magic clashed above and below, and in that instant, a powerful pressure spread across the entire battlefield.

"Ha! You think a mere vampire can seal this dragon?!"

"Is that so? It's true that, in your eyes, I may be no match for those seniors who've lived for thousands, even tens of thousands, of years!!"

The leader of the Water Shrine severed one of his own arms and used his blood as a medium to unfold a gigantic magic circle.

"But my faith!!!! Is not something you can look down on!!!!"

The powerful magic circle forced the Great Dragon back to the ground, and the forces below continued their fierce assault.

At that moment, a beam of light shot out and blasted straight through the shrine leader's magic circle.

"Wh-why..."

"Nothing personal. You'll hurt Babe like this."

Marcina descended from the sky and returned to the center of the battlefield.

"Babe? No, wait! What are you doing?! If we don't stop the Great Dragon now, it'll..."

Faced with the shrine leader's question, Marcina answered frankly.

"If you didn't want this to happen, you shouldn't have provoked Babe in the first place."

Marcina's words struck the heart of the matter—a blow that even the shrine leader present, and even Alexander, couldn't refute.

"Calling someone here for your own purposes, then throwing them away once you're done with them... That's not right."

"Even so..."

The shrine leader bit down on his remaining left arm and answered Marcina's challenge with a resolute gaze.

"Even so, I should be the one it takes its anger out on! Even if it costs me my life, I will seal it!"

As he spoke, the shrine leader tore off his own left arm.

"Seal it? In the end, you're only hiding the problem. When the seal is broken someday, Babe will still turn this place into a sea of fire."

"If it's planned properly?"

Ignoring their conversation, the Great Dragon had already taken flight into the sky.

Marcina raised her right hand and lightly pressed down on her magic hat. She no longer looked at the shrine leader, focusing her entire gaze on the Great Dragon instead.

"Why does it have to be sealed? Wouldn't it be better if everyone became good friends?"

Shocked by Marcina's words, the shrine leader accidentally let the left arm he was biting fall from his mouth.

"You don't mean to..."

At that moment, the Great Dragon let out a roar.

"You again... Among humanity, you're the first creature to take one of my attacks head-on and survive..."

High above, the Great Dragon looked down upon the earth.

At that moment, a gigantic magic circle flashed into existence across the area where Marcina was standing.

"Damn it! When did it set up this magic circle?!"

"Find cover!!!!"

While the shrine leader was still stunned, Alexander had already ordered everyone to find cover.

"Tell me your name, mage!"

The Great Dragon stared at the tiny figure on the ground, while Marcina wore a confident smile.

"Willful yet charming, I am the strongest and cutest Great Archmage in the world..."

Marcina brandished her magic wand and drove it forcefully into the ground.

"Marcina!!!!!!!"

At that moment, a blinding light gathered in the Great Dragon's mouth.

Then, in the next instant, that light transformed into the most terrifying force in the world and shot straight toward Marcina.