In life, everyone faces moments where their mind spins like a top.
For me, having lived a rather tumultuous life, those moments were more frequent.
For example,
because I casually played a game, I ended up spending my childhood in a landfill, or suddenly found myself with seven fiancées, or occasionally had Drake popping up in my dreams shouting, “Just don’t do it, you piece of trash!”
Anyway, there were plenty of those experiences.
But I can say with certainty that I’ve never been as flustered and dizzy as I am today.
A dragon.
That bizarre creature that screams with a weird sound like “Krawrwrwrwa-”.
No matter how absurd this cyberpunk world is, this definitely crossed a line.
As far as I know, the only races that exist in this world are humans, orcs, dwarves, and elves.
Sure, there are occasionally new VTubers popping up with weird concepts like “A Black Dragon awakened after 24,000 years of slumber (virgin),” but calling her (or him) an actual dragon would be a stretch.
Dragons can be easily found in Net Space, but most of the images involve them plowing through cars (which is not normal).
Dragons are just remnants of legends.
Until this very moment.
The palpable presence was off the charts.
The overwhelming pressure made my breath hitch instinctively.
This facility was deep underground. The ventilation system should have been working well, yet for some reason, I felt hot air blowing towards me.
Slowly, a wave of anxiety crawled up my spine.
“Hehehe… A dragon, it’s been ages since I last saw one in this middle realm…”
I pondered while hearing the trivial voice of the great wizard in my heart.
What should I do now?
Was the wizard who looked after Teddy or Dal truly the one in front of me? Escaping didn’t sound like a bad idea. Maybe taking the sewage pipeline to get out would be safer than moving through the elevator.
My mind buzzed with all sorts of thoughts.
Then, breaking the silence of the quiet control room, the little one muttered innocently,
“Argentinosaurs?”
“…?”
Huh? What’s an Argentinosaurs?
The little one’s eyes sparkled.
In many ways, it did not match the atmosphere in here.
Maybe it was just my feeling, but I thought the dragon’s eyes curved a bit.
Probably just my imagination.
How could a reptile smile?
—
I raised my palm towards the front.
Cautiously, I looked back.
Catherine, Eve, and the little one were still wide-eyed, staring blankly at the dragon (or so it seemed) before them.
The dragon was lying down with its head flat on the ground, yet its eyes were still much higher than our heads.
How huge is it?
I glanced at Eve and Catherine and subtly gestured.
“……”
We weren’t here to play with the little one.
If the kid made any noise, it might annoy the dragon, whose identity we hadn’t even figured out yet.
It was a signal to keep the little one quiet.
“…?”
Seeing my gaze, Eve tilted her head.
Then, as if she realized something,
“Ah.”
She murmured monotonously,
“Argentinosaurs. It’s presumed to be a land-dwelling animal from the late Cretaceous period. Its scientific name means ‘dinosaur of Argentina’ with an estimated body length of 35m and weight ranging from 65 to 80 tons. This is the largest in the world─.”
I waved my hand.
“No, that’s not what I asked.”
Nevertheless, my curiosity was piqued.
My knowledge increased!
If I had a status window, I’d suppose my wisdom stat would have risen by about 3 points!
Anyway,
I lightly shook my head and turned my gaze back forward.
I began to observe the dragon’s overall figure slowly, which I hadn’t seen earlier.
The dragon was currently in a ‘bound’ state.
Something that looked like massive chains was tightly entwined around its whole body.
It was trapped in a space that seemed to have been carved from rock.
Flames like lava surged here and there from the pipes nestled within. It looked very close to the incinerator.
And every time those flames touched the dragon’s scales, I felt the air grow clearer and clearer.
Not that the air was actually getting clearer.
“…Mana.”
“What?”
“Nothing… just talking to myself.”
Mana was being released everywhere.
The dragon itself appeared to be a gigantic mass of mana. It was assumed to release a steady amount of mana while retaining a certain degree of heat.
And the mana emitted was flowing somewhere due to those machines whose purpose I couldn’t decipher, located here and there.
What I thought was an abundance of mana was merely the residual echoes of it being siphoned away.
A Mana Research Institute and a Mana Power Plant…
I couldn’t help but wonder who the crazy person was that first thought to spin a ‘mana turbine’ using a dragon.
Truly, the world is vast and the crazy types are diverse.
It seemed almost like a place linked with DLC.
Of course, there was no way to know for sure.
Also, at this point of my fall into this world, it was tough to attach deep meaning to the ‘game’.
“…Cough, cough. It’s all over, it’s finished!”
The research institute director was still laughing like a lunatic.
“This city is finished now─, cough, hack.”
In that moment, the director clutched his throat.
His face, previously reddened from alcohol, began to fade to white. The tears and mucus that fell left his beard all messy.
His eyes bulged out as if they were going to pop, and he waved his arms pitifully, writhing in pain.
“What’s happening?”
“…!”
Catherine and Eve were shocked by the scene.
They might not have known, but as a wizard, I could tell. I remembered receiving property lectures on magic from Merlin.
Right above the director’s head, ‘air itself’ was gone.
It was a truly exquisite control.
Gradually, the director’s movements slowed down too. He collapsed and everything on the desk toppled to the ground.
“……”
He seemed to be trying to say something, but no one could speak without air.
It didn’t take long for the director to exhaust all the air from his lungs and stop moving.
For someone who tormented and experimented on countless children, his end was a bit dull.
But it turned out, revenge was the victim’s right.
Knowing who had used this magic, I calmly gazed at the glass wall.
Golden eyes were looking down at us.
【Using magic in this state consumes a massive amount of mana, but… it should be fine. I have no kids to protect anymore.】
The voice was ambiguous, not clearly male or female.
It seemed to blend both together.
I expected it, but hearing the dragon start to speak truly was overwhelming.
The little one’s eyes widened at that voice.
“Is that a ghost?”
【Yes, child. The being you referred to as a ghost is indeed me.】
“Not an Argentinosaurs?”
【…….】
Could this be the first time in this world a child managed to silence a dragon?
After a brief pause, the dragon turned its gaze toward us.
【I wish to thank you. I couldn’t use my magic fully due to the chains binding my body. But if I were to rise, the entire facility could collapse.】
Well, it seemed like we could have a conversation.
I decided to ask about why we were here first.
“Do you know someone named Teddy or Dal?”
【…You can’t mean the ones in the incinerator─.】
Suddenly, the dragon’s voice cut off.
“-Krrr…”
The dragon let out a groan as if in pain.
What was that about?
In that instant, the chains binding the dragon’s body shook violently.
“-Ting, ting, ting─!”
The taut chains snapped one after another.
It didn’t look like the dragon was the one doing that.
The flames from the incinerator grew fiercer, and the amount of mana wrapping around us began thickening more than I could imagine.
Could it be that the pressure was rising? Tiny cracks began to appear on the glass wall separating the dragon from us.
I instinctively took a step back.
Just as I was about to ask Doraemon, who seemed to know all the answers, what was going on,
the alert sound came through even faster.
《The death of the primary rights holder has been confirmed. The set protocol, ‘Destruction,’ is commencing. All employees in the facility are to evacuate.》
I glanced at the collapsed director.
His eyes, hazy as he gazed blankly at the ceiling, reflected the echoes of death.
“…What is this?”
“Currently, substances ‘hallucinogens’, ‘central nervous system stimulants’, and ‘psychoactive drugs’ are being rapidly administered to the entity ‘Argentinosaurs.’ I am hacking the system. …Complete. Additional input halted. However, the quantity already administered has reached a lethal dose by standard human measures.”
The urgency of the situation seemed to have spurred Eve to speak rapidly.
It appeared the director had programmed the system to stop giving ‘nerve stabilizers’ and instead inject ‘psychoactive drugs’ once he died.
What a true lunatic.
Regretting that I couldn’t grab the director by the collar any longer, I quickly opened my mouth.
“What’s the current situation?”
“I was about to try administering nerve stabilizers again, but the line has been physically severed.”
In other words, it meant we had to take down that ‘drugged dragon’ by ourselves.
“…Ha, I thought things might get easier.”
Catherine muttered softly while holding the child close.
“Completed hacking of the city’s neural networks. Stopped the operation of the waste heat power plant. The security cooling system is operating now.”
Amidst Eve’s words, I could hear the screams of the city citizens. Yet, our lives took precedence over the city’s power.
Sweat trickled down my forehead as I watched the dragon’s figure beyond the cracked glass wall.
That massive creature began to stir slowly.
Even at this moment, the chains were breaking.
The dragon had said it couldn’t use magic due to the chains. So what would happen once they all broke?
Unless a school building transformed into a robot, no one could physically stop that massive dragon.
Of course, it was clear that neither Catherine nor Andrea would stand a chance against its sheer force.
In a sudden rush, a freezing wind began to sweep inside; it appeared to be the cooling system Eve activated. In the midst of that blizzard, the dragon’s eyes shone.
…This is bad.
Others might not realize it, but the little one, who has talent in magic, might.
The mana swirling throughout this space was rampaging uncontrollably.
What would happen if that gathered ‘mana’ turned into ‘magic’? I couldn’t even imagine.
What’s more, as each chain broke, the presence of the mana grew stronger.
With the director’s death, all the locks that had been binding the dragon’s movements were undone.
Slowly, the dragon lifted its head.
The cooling system had ceased functioning long ago.
The dragon’s golden eyes shrunk sharply like a wild beast.
Well, it didn’t seem to see much.
It looked like the drugs had kicked in effectively.
All the mana nearby swirled in a flash towards the dragon’s mouth.
Wait a minute.
The way it was using mana…
I unconsciously seized the mana surrounding the dragon. It was a method I had used since ancient times before learning magic from Merlin.
I extracted the mana from within the dragon’s mouth.
【Krawrwrwrwrwr─, Huh?】
The ear-splitting roar threatened to burst the space slowly faded.
Even the drugged dragon seemed to wake up with that.
The vacant gaze turned towards us, specifically focusing on ‘me’.
I looked at the dragon and muttered softly.
“Are you truly the wizard of the machine age?”
【?】
