Chapter 43: Magus

Alexander arrived at the realm gate and saw that his orders of preparing the best defences against any intruders were carried out. Alexander tried to sense what his people had done and was impressed.

The realm gate was inside the center of a maze spanning in a radius of 20 kilometers. There were 13 sections with each deadlier and confusing than last, heading from outside to interior. This made it increasingly difficult for any intruders to reach the kingdom's mainland. All the sections had doors at different locations to make it more difficult for any intruder to reach the next section. The whole mage was magically enforced and covered with all the wards that his people knew. The sadistic minds of his subjects had turned the pranking charms and wards into deadly traps. Alexander was not going to able to see some spells with same eyes ever again. Alexander thought, " Now, only the presence of dementors are needed to make this maze complete. After I return, I am going to conquer Azkaban prison in order to acquire dementors. Also, the various slaughter and evil formations present in the cultivation worlds will also make this maze deadlier."

Alexander ordered his men to bring all the dragon blood stockpiled by goblins to him. The goblins used the dragon blood to strengthen their warriors by using a ritual. The preservation charms kept the blood intact. Alexander had liberated 500 dragons from the goblins. Majority of this dragons were blind due to being kept in the underground caves for hundreds of years. Alexander had acquired 1,000 litres of dragon's blood from the goblins. Dragon blood loses it's magic after 3 years and the dragons don't easily let the goblins take their blood so the amount of blood was less when compared to the amount of dragons the goblins had in their captivity.

Alexander created a pool and poured all the blood into it. The magic in the air increased considerably due to the presence of the blood. As all the present dragons were the descendents of a single moon level dragon, Alexander hoped that he would be able to gather enough ancient blood to advance his bloodline. Alexander wanted to achieve his peak magical strength before advancing to the magus realm. Alexander purified the blood and got 400 litres of purified blood. Alexander then stored the purified blood in a tank imbued with powerful preservation charms and prepared the magic increasing ritual for the last time as it is effective only for the Magi. Alexander performed the ritual and felt his magical power increasing from 180,000 to 210,000 MP. It took Alexander 3 days to reach the peak of crystal stage.

Alexander then moved towards the tank containing the purified dragon blood and divided the blood into 10 portions each containing 40 litres of blood. Alexander planned to individually awakened the dormant blood residing in the purified blood. It took Alexander one week to awaken all the dormant blood hidden in the purified blood. Alexander obtained 42 litres of moon-level dragon's blood. Alexander remembering the pain he experienced and his condition after his transformation, called the best doctors and healers he had to him. Alexander explained all the procedure to them and asked the elves to put up the wards so that no one disturbs the transformation.

Alexander let out a sigh and prepared himself mentally for the pain to come. Alexander focused on his dragon bloodline's instinct in order to gauge how much blood would be needed to consumed by him to advance. Alexander could vaguely sense that he would need 10-12 litres to reach 50 percent mark of his bloodline. Alexander had a hunch that each advancement would be more painful than the last as his human genes would be consumed by the dragon genes. Alexander transformed into his dragon form and had the elves prepare another pool to house the blood required for his advancement. Alexander quickly drank all the blood, lied down on the ground and waited for the pain to appear.

Alexander like last time felt nothing at first then the pain hit him suddenly and viciously, the pain from initial transformation was nothing before this. Alexander just focused on his soul arts to distract himself from the pain. Alexander did not know for how long he remained in that semi lucid state but it was the prodding of one of the worried elves that brought Alexander back to conciousness. Alexander assured the little fellow that he was alright now and had the doctors check him over for any hidden injuries. After hours of probing and prodding the doctors finally announced him as completely healthy. Alexander during this time was simply resting as it was quite tiring to advance his bloodline.

Alexander started to examine his body and magic. Alexander felt that the changes were similar to the first transformation and his body had been strengthened by 10 times in all areas and his magical power became 3 times more. Now, his magical power stood at 630,000 MP. Alexander became excited at the thought of having this much magical power but once again deflated when he thought of the god and goddesses of magic present in the multiverse, compared to them, Alexander was like a brute, all power and no finesse. Alexander examined his magical core and found that his core was surrounded by tiny globes of colourful gases. Alexander was confused at their presence but a previously inherited information from his bloodline came to the forefront of his mind. These globes were his elemental cores and they behaved similar to the magical core. Now, since it was not a cultivation world, Alexander simply has to gather the elemental particles present in their respective environments and absorb them in his elemental core. There was no ritual to increase the size of elemental core.

Alexander stored the remaining awakened blood and ordered his elves to collect the blood from the dragons captured by them. It would take weeks to collect the blood as the dragons were all very weak and needed time to recover from the treatment of the goblins. Alexander theorised that collecting blood from physically and magically healthy dragons would reduce the cost of purifying and awakening of the dormant blood. Moreover, the advancement would increase his strength and he didn't matter at what stage he advances.

Alexander then started to prepare for the ritual to advance into a magus. The ritual was a failsafe that prevents the magi from dying if he fails his advancement. In ancient times, magi exploded on failure of advancement but after the development of this ritual, they only became a cripple. Alexander knew that it was not exactly a failsafe but it was better than dying. The process of advancement to magus from magi was very simple. The magi has to take in so much magic in his core that his core cannot contain it anymore and explodes due to pressure. The magic then would rampage throughout the body of the magi, if he survives the onslaught, he evolves into a magus and if he fails, he dies.

This process was same as the one undergone by the animals and humans of the ancient times in order to become magi and magical animals but was much more violent and painful. Alexander didn't want to experience this process with a tired mind and body, rested for 3 days. After 3 days, Alexander sat inside the ritual circle, surrounded by team of doctors. The doctors were even more tensed than Alexander himself. Alexander assured them and started to rapidly absorb magic from his surroundings.

Alexander could feel the pressure building inside his core. Alexander didn't try to measure how much magic he had absorbed but he knew that his magical core was very strong due to him being a half dragon. It would require much more pressure to break when compared to ancient magi. Generally, the core of an ancient magi broke after accumulating more than half of his magic inside his already filled magical core but in Alexander's case, it would require much more magic. Alexander continued to absorb more and after unknown amount of time, his core finally broke.

The massive amount of magic started to destroy his body inside out. Alexander quickly transformed into his dragon form in order to stop the rapid destruction of his body as the increase in size would decrease the overall concentration of magic in his body. As expected, magic started to disperse to all the parts of his body. It did not decreased the pain as now his magic was still harming his body but the rapid destruction had stopped. This saved Alexander's life but also destroyed the ritual circle so there was not any failsafe if something happens. As during the transformation, no external magic or agent could be introduced, Alexander could not take healing potions or non medical medicines to decrease his pain and injuries. Alexander continued to lie down and focused on his soul arts in order to distract him.

Alexander thought, " It was a good decision to practice soul arts as it has helped me in combating my many painful experiences." Alexander felt his magic stop it's rampaging and settle down in his blood and body.

Alexander smiled, " Finally, I advanced to magus realm."

Alexander could not do nothing more as his body and mind due to the strain of advancement were very tired and he lost his conciousness.

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