Chapter 251 [Super-Circle Spellcasting: Maximize]

A massive shadow enveloped the sky as the sun-blotting crimson wings slowly folded inward, descending from above like a falling scarlet curtain.

The tearing, compressed air whipped into a violent hurricane. Invisible currents scoured away the surrounding rain and scorching mist, violently thrashing the clothes and hair of everyone present.

Feeling the ground tremble beneath his feet like a mild earthquake, Xia Nan raised his head, his dark eyes reflecting the behemoth before him.

He had never truly grasped this creature's size. After all, when it soared through the sky, the sheer distance made it look no larger than his hand.

When it descended to unleash its Dragon Breath just moments ago, his attention had been entirely consumed by the dangerous, explosive flames, leaving no room to focus on anything else.

Only now, as this adult red dragon descended from the sky and landed right in front of them, did Xia Nan truly grasp the reality of this mighty creature at the pinnacle of this world's food chain.

He couldn't estimate the red dragon's exact size. He only knew that despite the ten-plus meters separating it from the party, he still had to crane his neck all the way back just to take in its full form.

A single forelimb was as thick as a fortress tower. Its broad chest resembled a burning furnace, and with every slow, deep heave of its breath, he could clearly feel the turbulent air currents laden with the scorching scent of sulfur.

At such a close distance, Xia Nan could even make out the fine details on the crimson scales covering the red dragon's body.

They weren't as smooth as one might imagine; the scales were actually quite rough, their surfaces covered in scorch marks and dense scratches. Yet, much like a warrior's medals, these very scars only added to its aura of sheer ferocity.

Dragon wings, stretched with thick, tough membranes, were folded securely at its sides. The tip of its long, powerful tail curled upward slightly, gently sweeping across the ground nearby. Beneath its scales, streamlined muscular contours rose and fell faintly with its breathing. Curved horns resembling a crown sat atop its thick neck, while its vertical pupils glowed like magma, overflowing with tangible, explosive rage and impatience.

The red dragon had completed its descent.

It didn't stand fully upright. Instead, it leaned forward slightly in a condescending posture unique to apex predators, glaring down at the five tiny ants before it with an imposing, aggressively violent presence.

No one dared to move. Or rather, no one was physically able to.

Being this close was like standing next to a massive, roaring furnace. The profound Dragon Might made the very air feel as though it had frozen solid.

This suppression had already surpassed a conventional mental shock, projecting a tangible influence upon the material world itself.

Xia Nan had no doubt that the terrifying Dragon Might currently pressing down on them would be enough to instantly render anyone with a weak mind or frail constitution unconscious.

The air fell into a dead silence.

On one side stood an escort party made up of adventurers no higher than class level five; on the other was an adult red dragon with a terrifying Challenge Rating of "17."

It was no exaggeration to say that even if one added up the class levels of all five people on Xia Nan's side, the total still might not surpass the dragon's Challenge Rating.

If a fight truly broke out, the escort party would face the most suspense-free total wipeout in history.

There wasn't even a sliver of a chance for a comeback.

Obviously, the red dragon Kraugbari also knew clearly that these lowly bugs couldn't even scratch its scales.

Therefore, ever since landing, it hadn't paid them any real attention.

It moved with a haughty, casual grace.

It took a step.

A dragon claw raised and lowered right in front of the group. A second later, an oval-shaped Metal Block appeared in its crimson-scaled palm.

"Where did you find this?"

What echoed through the air was a deep, resonant voice laden with guttural sounds, palatal clicks, and chest vibrations. Woven from stacked syllables, its rhythm felt like a heavy aria.

Without a doubt, this was the dragon language.

Kraugbari certainly knew the Common tongue prevalent across the continent. In fact, it could even be considered fluent.

This wasn't the result of active study driven by personal interest, but rather inherited memory passed down through the dragon race—an innate instinct.

But clearly, these little bugs that could be eradicated with a single breath of fire weren't worthy enough for it to lower itself to converse in Common.

No one answered.

As for the reason—on one hand, under the terrifying suppression of the Dragon Might, everyone's minds had grown sluggish and they could barely command their bodies. On the other hand, aside from Verol, no one else in the party could actually understand this foreign language.

Because of his sharp Perception, Xia Nan was affected by the Dragon Might the most deeply. However, perhaps due to the resistance granted by his [Gaze into the Abyss] Feat, along with his experiences in the Nym Evil God Secret Realm, he had developed a degree of adaptation to such situations.

By the time the red dragon before him spat the last syllable from its ferocious maw, he had already broken free from the suppression of its Dragon Might.

His expression remained unchanged, but his mind raced furiously.

First of all, there was absolutely no chance of winning a head-on fight.

Factoring in all of his equipment and combat techniques, the only thing capable of dealing effective damage was "Gravity Etching", the innate combat technique of his [Meteor Blade Hunter] class.

If his longsword could actually strike the beast, he should be able to rely on the combat technique's defense-ignoring forcefield damage to wound the red dragon.

Of course, considering the current power output of "Gravity Etching" and its usage limit of "3" times in a short window, even if he landed every strike in the exact same spot, it would only amount to a mosquito bite against the dragon's massive frame—barely breaking its defenses.

So, was running an option?

That was even more impossible.

The mountain terrain was rugged and sparse in vegetation, lacking the dense trees that hindered movement in the forest. He could unleash [Fang Hunt] without any reservations.

But the red dragon controlled the skies. No matter how fast he ran, the beast would catch up with a single flap of its wings.

It wouldn't even need to land; a single blast of Dragon Breath from above would probably reduce him to ashes.

Winning a fight was highly unlikely, and escaping was entirely impossible.

Xia Nan had already fallen into a dead end.

Yet he didn't give up hope. Instead, he thought calmly and rapidly, searching for any possible chance of survival.

While pondering, his eyes—hollow of emotion due to his intense concentration—inadvertently locked onto Verol's.

'Hm?'

The girl's amber eyes were lively, completely lacking the dullness one would expect under the suppression of Dragon Might. Evidently, just like him, she had regained her senses.

Noticing Xia Nan's gaze, Verol also visibly paused, seemingly surprised that he had recovered so quickly.

She gave a faint, almost imperceptible nod.

Then, right in front of everyone, she took a step forward.

Ever since joining the escort party, Verol had rarely interfered with the members' decisions, aside from providing necessary support during combat based on the situation.

This was naturally to minimize her impact on the original timeline now that she had joined the team.

But right now, the situation seemed to have spiraled into an irreversible dead end.

If that silver-white, oval-shaped metal was truly the critical catalyst for the dragonborn Sava's rise to power in the original timeline, she couldn't fathom how things were supposed to play out. Given the deep-seated racial hatred between pure dragons and dragonborn, how was Sava ever meant to obtain this treasure from the red dragon's claws in this current predicament when it didn't even belong to her?

Perhaps the timeline had already shifted the moment she joined the party, or even earlier—back at the doorway of the cabin in Rivervale Town, when she first laid eyes on the black-haired young man standing behind Wood.

Verol desperately wanted to figure out exactly what had gone wrong.

But the situation had now reached a critical juncture. If she didn't intervene now, the entire escort party would likely die here today.

She had to do something.

Thus, the girl raised her head and looked directly into the lantern-sized, molten-red dragon eyes looming above. She answered in flawless dragon language:

"We found this item in Molten Scale Town."

"Its origins might be connected to a knight from the Morton Family named 'Trevelyan.'"

Verol naturally didn't know the exact relationship between the silver-white metal, the red dragon, and Trevelyan.

But combining the commission posted on the Association's quest board by the Morton Family, the red dragon that plundered the Duke's heirloom, the young knight from Sticky-Tree Territory residing in Molten Scale Town, and a few rumors she remembered from her past life, she had managed to cobble together a rough guess about the underlying secret.

If the red dragon before her truly just wanted to know the metal's origins, her answer should suffice.

It would be even better if her answer piqued its interest enough to ask for more details. After all, that would mean their group still had some use to it, sparing them from dying today.

Conversely, if the red dragon didn't care about this at all... A moment later, Verol saw the look in the red dragon's eyes—a completely apathetic gaze that treated them like nothing but ants.

It was as if its earlier question in dragon language had merely been a casual display of its own existence.

The red dragon didn't even lift its head at Verol's answer; it simply kept its eyes locked on the recovered secret treasure in its palm.

For Class Holders of their level, trying to reason with a red dragon was completely pointless.

Given their temperament, even if the world were ending tomorrow, they wouldn't care about the incessant chattering of a bug they could crush on a whim.

And an escort party that had survived its Dragon Breath using items absolutely wouldn't be allowed to leave alive after drawing its attention—especially since the giant dragon before them was a red dragon, the most violently temperamental and irritable of all the chromatic dragons.

Her memories from her past life gave Verol a crystal-clear understanding of these giant reptiles' arrogant natures.

Seeing no response, she discarded any thoughts of a peaceful resolution.

She turned her head toward the party members behind her—mainly Xia Nan, who had also regained his senses from the Dragon Might.

In an unnaturally calm, almost clinical tone, she instructed rapidly, "I am going to cast a spell next. It requires absolute concentration."

"An attack from any creature will interrupt this process. Please stand guard for me. To be safe, don't let a single flying insect get close."

"During this time, this red dragon will also be locked in a controlled state, unable to move. Please, do not launch any form of attack against it while I am casting, as this will also break my concentration."

Meeting her amber eyes, Xia Nan was internally shocked by the girl's sudden, uncharacteristic behavior. However, her deadly serious expression made him subconsciously focus, searing her instructions into his mind.

Verol hadn't bothered to mask her voice, so the red dragon behind her heard every word of her instructions to the escort party.

The ferocious, massive dragon head involuntarily paused when the girl mentioned that "the red dragon will also be locked in a controlled state."

Its gaze subconsciously shifted away from the Metal Block in its palm. It glared at the fragile mage before it with extreme arrogance and disdain, wearing an expression that seemed to say, 'Such big words. I'll just have to see what you can actually do.'

Acting as if the creature behind her wasn't an adult red dragon capable of wiping out a town, but rather a harmless statue, Verol continued speaking without pause:

"This entire channeling process will last roughly three to five minutes. Once the spell is successfully cast, the red dragon will be banished beyond the Material Plane, and I will simultaneously vanish from this spot."

"Please don't worry, this is a necessary condition for the spell. Also, you must not leave. Please wait right here for at least thirty minutes."

"If I haven't returned after two hours, feel free to leave on your own. But if I do return, there's a high probability I'll be in a weakened or even comatose state. When that happens, please take the pale blue potion marked with 'VI' from my pocket and help me drink it."

"I will explain everything else to you later. For now, you must trust me."

"This is the only way—the only way all of us can survive."

Verol naturally wouldn't expose her defenseless, weakened body to a group of people she didn't fully trust yet. She had contingencies in place, and backups for those contingencies.

However, if the members of the escort party acted exactly as she had instructed, it would greatly mitigate her losses.

Her amber eyes locked onto the black-haired young man in the party. She clearly saw an expression of understanding on the face of this man—a man who would reach extraordinary heights in the future, and who was already displaying qualities far exceeding those of adventurers at his current level.

Only then did Verol turn back around to face the red dragon head-on, gripping her staff tightly with both hands.

Standing her ground, her lips moved rapidly. Mysterious ripples expanded silently outward from the crystal atop her staff.

Kraugbari recognized this little parlor trick known as magic. Over its long lifespan, it had encountered similar situations more than once.

It was just that the vast majority of those attempts had failed to even scratch the crimson scales on its body.

Even so, the inherited memories regarding magic still instilled a sense of vigilance within it.

It didn't truly believe that this insignificant little mage with her lack of presence—who had barely even survived its Dragon Breath—could actually banish it beyond the Material Plane like she claimed.

Nevertheless, Kraugbari abandoned its arrogant initial thought of simply waiting to see what she could do to it.

The instant the magical particles rippled, it raised its left claw, fully intending to completely crush this boastful ant.

But then, it realized something.

At some unknown point, it had already lost all control over its physical body.

Invisible chains forged from the void had coiled tightly around every part of the red dragon's body the moment the girl took her first step forward, using the inherently mystical properties of the spoken dragon language as the casting trigger.

Brought back from the river of time, a single-use trump card from Verol's past life had finally been played for the first time since her rebirth all those years ago, triggered by the unexpected arrival of the red dragon.

[Super-Circle Spellcasting: Maximize]

[Vieror's Extradimensional Banishment]

An unprecedented magical radiance erupted into the air!