At dusk.
Sunset Mountains.
A medium-sized village with a population of over six hundred.
At some unknown point.
It had become filled with traces of battle—or rather, slaughter.
More than a dozen unidentified figures clad in black robes had gathered there.
At their very center was a ritual site littered with corpses.
There was no need to ask whose corpses they were. Naturally, the local residents had enthusiastically played the part.
Beyond that.
All manner of exceedingly precious offerings had been placed in every corner of the ritual.
There was even one fresh corpse each of a Young Chromatic Dragon, a Red Dragon, a Black Dragon, a White Dragon, a Blue Dragon, and a Green Dragon.
As the evening wind blew.
The fresh scent of blood.
Soon drew a large flock of crows, circling continuously through the sky overhead.
Their eyes were full of appetite and greed.
Yet the black-robed figures surrounding the corpses kept them from acting rashly.
They could only caw anxiously.
Disturbing the black-robed figures below as they chanted their incantations.
No one knew how long passed.
As the lengthy Summoning Ritual gradually neared its end.
A faint scent of sulfur appeared in the surrounding air.
It was pungent and instinctively unpleasant.
Yet upon smelling it, the black-robed figures felt no discomfort whatsoever.
They were filled only with excitement.
Even their gazes became more fervent.
At last, as a mass of black radiance appeared at the center of the ritual.
A vast will finally crossed countless barriers, arriving here from the other side of time and space.
"...The scent of the Material World..."
"It has been some time since I last smelled it..."
Merely hearing a few words.
The Blasphemous Magic Power contained within them made the eyes of the many black-robed figures turn red, as though