13 Magius
A short (very long, from Alexander's perspective) five minutes later, Aleyria gave one last sob before standing up. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
Buccephalas sighed. "She should have taken more time to cry. It's too big a pain to keep bottled up in so small a body."
"What do you know about pain? You're an AI." Alexander scoffed lightly at Buccephalas.
"Who said I am an AI?" Buccephalas immediately retorted. "YOU are the AI. Your mom is an AI. Your dad is an AI. Your whole family is an AI!"
Alexander couldn't help but laugh internally. This little girly Buccephalas was too cute.
"Alexander. I need to know everything. Please." Aleyria said softly.
Alexander looked at Aleyria gently. Even with puffy eyes and and tear-stained cheeks, Aleyria still looked amazing. In fact, her slightly dishevelled hair gave her a rather roguish look that is extremely pleasant to the eyes.
He knew she needed to know everything in detail so that she could have closure. At the same time, Alexander also needed her. His journey would be an extremely long one, and he needed to form a team. At this moment, Aleyria was his first and only candidate.
"Very well, Aleyria. I will tell you what little I know. I may not be able to answer all your questions as I have many questions myself. But I can assure you that I will tell you everything I know about what happened to King Aloxandros."
"Thank you. That is all I am asking for." Aleyria whispered.
"My name is Alexander the Third." He began. "King of Macedon. Pharaoh of Egypt. King of Persia. Lord of Asia. I am from a planet called Earth. And right before I started my Arabian Campaign, I got kidnapped by aliens."
*-*-*
"Unbelievable." Aleyria murmured after listening to Alexander's story. Subconsciously, she sat down on the bench again, deep in thought.
"So the poison killed my teacher's soul and caused his body's magical capacity to shrink drastically. But somehow, Alexander's soul had an unknown power that healed his body and increased his magical affinity. And you are from Earth."
"Yes, excellent summary. Well done." Alexander glanced at the Testing Pillar. He was not feeling impatient. Not yet. But it wouldn't be wrong either to say that he was moving in that general direction.
"And that unknown power got triggered when you felt like fighting?" Aleyria asked dubiously.
"I'm not asking you to believe me." Alexander said testily.
"Show me." Aleyria said.
Alexander hesitated. He was about to say that he was not some street clown performing circus tricks when he realized that he had yet to test this unknown power to see if he could somehow control it. Might as well try it now.
He closed his eyes. Visions of his conquests back on Earth appeared in his mind. Alexander could feel his heart begin to pump faster.
Greece.
Persia.
Asia Minor.
And the failed Indian Campaign.
Unbeknownst to him, a white glow appeared around his body.
Then he started to visualize what he would do in Arcanus 26. Marshalling the forces of Rin-Turah. Launching a full scale campaign against the entire continent. Outnumbered once more.
The glow around his body grew brighter.
Beside him, Aleyria watched quietly. She was shocked. So it was true.
Battle intent, he called it.
Battle intent could trigger the unknown power.
Earlier in the Royal Court, Alexander had displayed a different sort of intent. Killing intent. But it did not trigger the unknown power. Battle intent, however, did so.
What was the difference and why did it trigger the power?
Most importantly, WHAT was that power?
Aleyria glanced at the Testing Pillar and thought about its roots.
Legend had it that in the beginning, an Almighty God reigned over the universe. This God created countless stars, planets, asteroid rivers and countless other wonders. But as the aeons passed, he had grown lonely and thus created Lesser Gods. His children.
He imbued each Lesser God with unique manifestations of his power and allowed them free reign over the entire universe. He then disappeared.
Initially, there were 5 Lesser Gods – Gods, now that the Almighty God had disappeared.
God of Life Paladinos was the Eldest. He created the spark of life that started it all. He created order amongst the living beings, the beautiful ecosystem of interdependence.
God of Magic Magius was Second. He saw what his elder sibling had done, and a desire to do better was born within him. He granted the superior races power over Nature.
God of Death Zegaro was the youngest. He hated being the youngest, and hated his eldest brother most of all. He created death so as to corrode all things once more into dust.
Among all living beings, each God championed a race.
God of Life Paladinos favored humanity and gave them the power of life. They bred so fast and lived so powerfully that they number the most among all the races in the Universe.
God of Magic Magius favored dragons and gave them power OVER nature. They are able to absorb the energies of nature and weave them into powerful spells.
God of Death Zegaro favored undead and gave them unbridled bloodlust. They hungered for the deaths of the entire universe.
And thus the 3 Gods populated and ruled over the Universe in relative peace and balance. Until of course, the balance was tipped.
The Almighty God created another God.
Perses – God of War.
Perses saw the fragile balance and immediately worked to smash that balance into pieces. He allied with Zegaro to launch an ambush on Paladinos and Magius, heavily wounding both of them in the process.
With the two Gods weakened, Perses and Zegaro began to wage war upon the universe. Perses empowered an elite group of Zegaro's Undead with his unique power – one that enhanced bloodthristy and almost mindless undead into fearsome generals.
They had swept across the planets in a fearsome and unstoppable tide of horror. Planet after planet fell to the powerful undead led by their devilishly cunning generals.
Although they did not have the best of relationships, Paladinos and Magius had no choice but to work together to resist the evil duo or risk complete annihilation. They mustered their forces and combined their strength.
Magius gave the humans power over nature. Archmages were born.
Magius also sent his dragons to join the human armies. And thus the incomparably powerful Dragon Knights were born. Although they had to fight without their Gods, the Archmages and Dragon Knights gave them the power to resist the undead onslaught.
They raised vast armies and engaged the Undead Horde in a bloody and brutal war that ravaged half the known universe. For thousands of years, the war raged on unabated.
At long last, Paladinos and Magius recovered fully. With them joining the war, the tides turned.
Zegaro and Perses were sent into fighting retreats across all fronts until finally, they were pushed to their final star system.
The tragic final battle was joined in a green-blue planet.
It was called Earth.
Magius, driven half mad in his great hunger for revenge, had rallied thousands of his Dragon Kings and launched a terrifying all out offensive against Perses.
An immense storm of destructive lightning and fire had fallen unceasingly upon Perses. From the beginning till the end, Perses had no chance to even say a single word. He was buried under the avalanche of lightning and fire, and never surfaced.
Seeing his partner die, Zegaro knew he had lost and would not live to see another day. And so, he too went after his most hated enemy, Paladinos, and set his own God Essence ablaze. The resulting explosion killed Paladinos and left Magius heavily wounded.
Magius was, however, the only God left alive.
He was Magius, God of the Universe.
