Ch.156Surpass – 2

“Truly, this is a most pitiful affair.”

Charlotte, who had just emerged from the transfer gate, sneered as she looked at the dark blue dimensional door that remained open behind her. Her gaze soon dropped to the old ring on her left ring finger.

The Dragon’s Ring.

It was the very ring that Charlotte had desperately tried to make her own, shutting herself in her room for well over a week.

Just as people don’t give much thought or ceremony to the act of breathing, wearing this ring on her left ring finger felt so natural that it didn’t warrant any special consideration.

She was merely contemplating the shape and color of the ring she would have made for her husband in return.

Charlotte extended her ringed left hand and closed the transfer gate. The dark blue distorted space dissolved and scattered at her single gesture.

Charlotte’s previous mana manipulation abilities had been unrivaled in the kingdom, but compared to her current state, they were laughably crude and amateurish.

Compared to Charlotte after donning the Dragon’s Ring, her former self was like an infant who couldn’t even take its first steps. The very comparison was humiliating.

The magical mastery she had achieved in just days after gaining some control over the Dragon’s Ring far surpassed what she had built up over nearly 150 years of life.

When she realized this fact, she felt a flash of irritation at how insignificant all her previous efforts seemed.

‘…However, my past actions have not been in vain, and that is enough.’

It wasn’t that all her previous efforts had been wasted. Without them, she would have died instantly from the mana backlash upon wearing the Dragon’s Ring.

Moreover, her abilities hadn’t improved immediately just by wearing the ring.

To fully master the Dragon’s Ring, Charlotte had to endure a period of suffering that was beyond words.

She had coughed up so much blood that pools of it formed on the floor of her room, and her brain, overwhelmed by an incomprehensible amount of information far beyond what a human could process, had threatened to shut down.

Next, her eyes were affected. Having witnessed a world completely different from human vision, her eyeballs themselves had to be reconstructed, nearly bursting her pupils in the process.

Her entire musculoskeletal system had twisted, and she had lain sick with an endless fever that made her feel as though her body was being cooked from within.

It was enough to make even Charlotte wonder if she might simply die.

But Charlotte endured.

Because she knew her husband must be suffering far more.

Because he must be agonizing in the pain of being forcibly separated from his loved one.

Compared to the hardships her husband was enduring, this level of suffering was hardly difficult. With this thought, Charlotte gritted her teeth and endured the entire process.

After dispelling the transfer gate and looking around, Charlotte muttered softly.

“So this is the world those lizards see.”

Her blood-red eyes emitted a threatening glow. At their center were not round pupils but vertically elongated slits, resembling those of a reptile.

This change had occurred after she gained substantial control over the Dragon’s Ring.

Normally, her eyes appeared no different from before, but whenever she attempted to use magic in any form, these dragon-like pupils would invariably appear.

Perhaps if she gained more control over the power contained in the ring, she would be able to completely conceal the dragon eyes. But there wasn’t enough time for that.

She needed to rescue her husband as soon as possible.

Besides, having these eyes wasn’t a bad thing, as they served as a measure of how much her magical prowess had grown.

Being able to see the world through a dragon’s eyes rather than human ones—what did a mere change to her eyeballs matter?

If anyone found it strange, she would simply cut off their heads and display them in the marketplace.

“Now, preparations are complete.”

Charlotte stretched her left hand forward. She opened her palm and gathered mana in it. A pure, untransformed mass of mana formed, soft and billowing.

The mana gathered in her palm took no specific shape. At times it flickered like flames, and the next moment it rippled like water.

However, it showed no intention of leaving Charlotte’s palm.

The gathering mana was endless. Though the blue sphere was roughly the size of a human eyeball, the amount of mana contained within was far greater.

This feat was only possible for Charlotte, who had reached a level where she could handle the Dragon’s Ring.

For any other mage to attempt such a thing would be impossible alone—they would need to gather the combined power of an entire city’s worth of mages, and only those skilled enough to enter a magic tower at that.

“By the name of Charlotte de Gargantua, I command.”

The mana gathered in her palm began to surge. Though it appeared to be a simple ripple on the surface, the destructive power contained within was fundamentally different.

The ground split from a mere wave, and the sky rippled from a slight tremor. This happened despite Charlotte doing her utmost to contain the power and preserve the surroundings.

The identity of what she held in her hand was simple.

Breath.

A dazzlingly pure concentration of mana that, among all living beings in this world, only dragons could wield and use.

Though it had failed to kill her husband, what did that matter?

If her husband had truly died from that breath without being able to regenerate, Charlotte would not have stood idly by either.

The flow of the wind changed. As the air currents twisted arbitrarily, the blowing wind naturally changed accordingly.

It wasn’t just the wind that was distorted.

The earth, the sky, all existing matter, even light and darkness, and the laws of nature themselves repeatedly attempted to flee from the terrible destruction about to unfold in her hand.

The world creaked. They say that even in the strongest typhoon, the eye remains perfectly calm without a single hair being disturbed—Charlotte’s surroundings perfectly embodied this saying.

Everything except Charlotte began to evaporate. Or rather, it was closer to returning to nothingness, unable to withstand the pure mana.

Even the mere air could not remain.

“Reveal yourself.”

With Charlotte’s command, accompanied by a slight upward flick of her wrist, the pure mana concentration created a majestic torrent.

At first, it was just a small stream. But that small ripple soon grew large enough to devour everything in its path.

A storm raged. The crystallized pure mana surged toward the sky, returning everything it touched to nothingness.

Its color was intensely dark.

More precisely, the pure mana was as blue as the midday sea, but the torrent of mana had swallowed even light itself, causing this change.

The pillar of mana rose endlessly into the sky. The shockwave that occurred upon contact with the clouds blew away the entire area, revealing a clear sky.

The wind no longer blew. Not a single natural element had the courage to approach this purest mana that burned all creation.

Only when the torrent of mana had extended so far that even she could no longer see its end, as if about to touch the sun, did Charlotte withdraw her extended arm.

The breath, which had manifested the very concept of destruction in the world, gradually subsided, and only then did the wind cautiously peek out again, brushing past Charlotte’s body.

Sunlight, having met its world after the clouds disappeared, shone vigorously upon the land that had died from the mere aftermath of the breath.

It was far more powerful than the real dragon’s breath her husband had reportedly experienced.

That was natural. From a dragon’s perspective, a boy who invaded its volcano was just an annoying insect that disturbed its sleep.

Just as humans don’t need to use their full strength to crush a bug that crawls into their home, a dragon didn’t need to use its full power to kill a human who crawled into its volcano.

Although that “bug” could regenerate infinitely, so the dragon eventually grew tired, gave up, and left.

When the sky remained calm even after the breath had swept through all creation, Charlotte’s voice took on a murderous tone.

“I gave the order for you to come out.”

Her vertically slit left eye flashed with a cold light.

“I know you heard my command. If you refuse to appear, I will personally burn down your dwelling.”

As if truly intending to do so, Charlotte once again stretched out her left hand that she had withdrawn.

Just as the pure mana was about to reconverge in her palm, Charlotte withdrew her hand upon noticing that the sun had been obscured by something massive.

Despite being at least ten kilometers away, the pressure felt as if it were right beside her.

A body of visibly enormous size.

Wings that could plow the ground just by flapping in the air.

Scales covering its skin with a hardness and strength that rivaled adamantium.

It was a dragon.

The massive shadow drew closer to the ground. The creature opened its mouth wide. Charlotte was clearly the dragon’s target.

—How dare a lower species…

In that gaping mouth, a torrent of pure mana formed.

At first glance, it might seem identical to the breath Charlotte had created, but the reality was somewhat different.

—Seek me out!

Dragon speech.

Just as humans recite incantations to wield magic, dragons communicate by infusing their roars with mana, like a boiling volcano.

That speech now crashed down toward Charlotte.