章節 2: Awakening

Chapter 2

Alexander was in a dilema. It had been an entire day since he came into this world and took over this body. 24 whole hours. And apart from somehow triggering his 'Unknown Power' to rise violently in level one more time, he had achieved nothing. Well, not exactly nothing.

He had grilled Buccephalas for hours on the situation of the Arcanus 26. Apparently, he was in a country called Rin-Turah, situated in a small continent somewhere in the corner of Arcane 26.

There were 12 Kingdoms in this continent and they were at peace. The 12 Kings were gathered into a conclave with a very boring name called The Conclave of the 12 Kings.

There were many races in this small continent, and the human kingdom called Lea led the Conclave due to its overwhelming prosperity and power.

Rin-Turah was Prince Flario's little plaything and it was the starting point of his mission to take over Arcanus 26.

Additionally, Alexander was told that he had a 17-year old genius disciple. A White Archmage. Damn. Alexander felt threatened already. As someone at the extreme top of the foodchain, finding out some little girl was vastly more powerful than him was rather unacceptable. General or not, Alexander was kind of nervous about meeting his new, genius 'disciple'.

"I really hope King Aloxandros had a good relationship with her." Alexander thought.

"Damn, I hope it wasn't her who poisoned me!" Alexander suddenly thought with a rising sense of horror.

Scenes of highly imaginative teacher-disciple intrigue and conspiracy flashed through his mind. "What a horrible, horrible disciple!" Alexander moaned.

At that moment, Alexander could hear his room door softly open. The moment he was dreading had arrived. His genius disciple, Princess Aleyria, Pinnacle White Archmage, had arrived.

*-*-*

A beautiful young girl of around 17 summers dressed in white mage robes sat by a large, golden bed in the middle of a luxurious room. At almost 1.7 meters tall, she was both beautiful and elegant. Her luxurious white hair fell loosely around her shoulders.

The large windows facing the Royal Lake were open, and the room was airy and fresh. Rare songbirds of all kinds flew around the palace grounds and their lifesongs filled the air.

Princess Aleyria sat by her teacher's side, her expression gentle as she lightly held on to his hand.

"The Zantrolls invade, teacher." She whispered. "Such exquisite timing." She smiled sadly and tenderly lifted her teacher's hand to her lips before putting it back down again.

"You were always so gentle and so kind. You should have let Prince Albert become King. He could have dealt with those scheming nobles and ministers. They think now that you're King, their time has come." Princess Aleyria sighed deeply and stood up.

Suddenly, a burst of blinding green light flashed. Verdant magic energy flowed out of Princess Aleyria's body and an overflowing sense of life permeated the room. King Aloxandros's pale complexion began to show signs of slight improvement. Although it did not make King Aloxandros recover, the massive amount of verdant magic energy will at least preserve his life. Princess Aleyria gave her teacher one last lingering glance before stepping out of the room.

As the door to the Royal Chamber closed, her eyes grew cold and a vast magical pressure descended savagely upon the entire palace. Princess Aleyria clenched her fists and she hissed out in anger. "But I am not gentle. And I am not kind. They are mistaken"

The palace began to rumble strongly under her magical pressure and faint screams could be heard. "Convene the Royal Court." Princess Aleyria's voice sounded coldly across the entire palace. "I expect every minister to be present in 10 minutes."

*-*-*

Within the palace, in the Ministerial Wing Boardroom, a handsome young man dressed in Royal Red robes was sitting in a large room with four others who were dressed similarly. He sat reclined in a mini throne before the rest, occassionally sipping from the glass of expensive red wine on his hand. His red robes indicated his near-hegemonic arcane prowess and the gold trim on his robes indicated his Royal status.

"Aldrian, how much longer should we wait?" A burly man spoke up. He was so huge and muscular that the red robes looked rather out of place on him. Yet, being one of the elite red robes, none had ever dared to give voice to this issue.

"It has been a full day since King Aloxandros went into coma. Let us strike while the iron is hot!" He shouted passionately. "We should stir up the citizens now while they are still highly emotional over this issue. You're the Minister of Justice, it would be easy to blame the 11 Kings for the deed and demand the court to go to war against.."

"Enough." said the handsome young man softly.

The burly man immediately went silent.

"It is not yet our turn to make a move." Aldrian continued.

"Indeed, the Minister of Justice Aldrian is right." chuckled an old man with stringy green hair and a rather dirty looking green beard that went down to his belt.

"It is not good to make so many moves at one go. We have poisoned the King. It is enough. Let us see what the Royal Family, especially that brat Aleyria, will do.

"Haha, Minister of War Rimett, it is rare to see you so calm and collected. Are you getting old and cowardly?" mocked a ravishingly beautiful young lady. She was twirling a few tendrils of fire around the glass of red wine she was holding in her hand. The glass of wine on her hand remained ice cold even as it was wrapped in fire.

Aldrian noticed this and was silently surprised. I didn't realize her control over fire had reached such high levels! She is probably at the pinnacle of red robes. Aldrian mused. Another useful pawn has emerged.

"Minister of Personnel Lilian, as always, you are straightfoward and crude. No wonder you are Flame Lord Dukapo's disciple. Birds of the same feather do indeed flock together!" Minister of War Rimett scorned.

"What did you say?!" Minister of Personnel Lilian screeched loudly. Her shrill voice was in stark contrast with her elegant bearing.

"Old man, I dare you say that one more time!" she raged. The tendrils of fire under her control suddenly flared powerfully and burnt the entire glass into ash.

Aldrian raised his eyes in surprise. This Lilian is truly extraordinarily powerful. Not only was her control over fire exquisite, the power of her flames were shocking too. It must be known that glass melts at 1600 degrees celcius. But to break down glass into ash, how high must the temperature be? And to do it in such a controlled manner with no heat spilling out, this indicated the tremendous levels of power and control Lilian had.

The Minister of War Rimett was stunned into silence. He had not expected this little girl to be so powerful. He opened his mouth to say something, but awkwardly, no words came out.

Suddenly, a powerful surge of magical pressure came down upon them. All the glasses on their hands burst into pieces and red wine splashed out. Aldrian frowned as he caused the red wine threatening to dirty his robes to freeze with but a single thought.

"Convene the Royal Court. I expect every minister to be present in 10 minutes." Aleyria's voice sounded out coldly.

Minister of Justice Aldrian stood up with a wide smile on his face as waves of ice elemental power rolled off him, dispelling the magical pressure that was crushing down upon them. "My friends, fellow ministers, put aside your differences. The brat Aleyria has made her move. Let us go and show her that she is merely a little upstart disciple with no real power whatsover in court!"

"Hmph." Minister of Personnel Lilian stood up and glared at Minister of War Rimett before turning around and walking out of the room after Minister of Justice Aldrian.

"Phew." Minister of War Rimett sighed in relief. These younglings. They get more and more powerful every generation. Old guys like me have to do everything to cling to power, yet all they have to do is display their magical prowess and they get ministerial positions! Minister of War Rimett sighed again before leaving the room.

Behind him, the Minister of Commerce, the burly man who previously spoke out, and the Minister of Agriculture, a thin, quiet young man with startling blue hair exchanged a glance silently. Then they followed Minister of War Rimett out. The show was about to begin.

*-*-*

Alexander gave an internal sigh of relief as his disciple left the room. "So she is fully on my side. And she is extremely powerful too! The spell she cast on me is extremely powerful. I can feel my body functions operating at maximum efficiency. Too bad this poison is so mysterious and so darned difficult to cure!"

At that, Alexander began to get angry again. But this time, Alexander was filled with battle intent. He desired deeply to fight! His brain went into overdrive as he thought of countless methods to clean up Rin-Turah and burst forth into war with the other 11 Kingdoms. He was Alexander the Great. War was in his blood.

And as he did so, he fell into a familiar trance. It was a battle state that he used to fall into back on Earth as he led his small army from victory to victory over much larger forces. Greeks. Persians. Asians. All had fallen before his incredible genius in battle tactics and his ferocious power in the battlefield.

[Ding! Status change detected. Updating Status Page.

Name : Aloxandros Arcanus

Age : 25

Arcane Power : Black Archmage (Strength of 13 Earthling Men)

Martial Power : Nil

Technological Power : Nil

Psychic Power : Nil

Condition : Poisoned

AI note : Unknown Power detected.

Unknown Power level rising.]

[Unknown Power level reaching saturation!]

[Warning! Unknown Power activating!]

[Warning! Unknown Power spreading!]

[Warning! Unkno...]

A series of warnings from Buccephalas arrived in quick succession before it was cut off. It was so fast that Alexander was unable to react. But well, even if it was slower, what could he do?

"ARGHH!!" Alexander screamed. Pain from the very fabric of his being burst forth. Alexander could feel his soul crumbling and reforming, crumbling and reforming over and over again. "GAGHHHHH!!" The pain was horrendous!

"GARRRRRRR!" Any other man would have fallen into mindlessness. But not Alexander. Instead of giving up, he used the pain to fuel his anger. "GAHH!!! I! WILL! NOT! YIELD!!"

After what seemed like hours of struggling with the pain in his soul, it slowly subsided. But it was not the end. At that moment, he felt a formidable stream of power coursing through his veins. His entire body began to ache, and then slowly, the pain began to increase exponentially.

Pain!

Blinding pain!

His body felt like it was being ripped into pieces!

"NGGRAAAHHH!!" However, somehow the pain in his body was much more tolerable. His soul felt very much strengthened and he was able to forcefully raise his consciousness above the pain. He gritted his teeth angrily as he tried his best to withstand the pain. It felt as though his body was being ruthlessly pinched by countless tiny fingers from within. His body began to spasm uncontrollably.

Brown, gooey pus began to leave his body through his skin.

And when that happened, the pain suddenly stopped and a wonderful feeling of bliss permeated his body.

Alexander gasped. The bliss was as shocking to him as the pain was. It felt supremely wonderful.

And to his surprise, he realized that he could move! Alexander sat up and and removed the covers as he inspected his body. It was disgusting. Horrid smelling goo covered his skin. But he also felt extremely strong.

Alexander leapt out of bed. First things first. I need to get myself cleaned up.

He noticed a bathroom at the corner of his room. He swiftly entered it and began to vigorously scrub himself using a combination of water and the weird chemicals and tools he found in the bathroom. It was pretty effective.

Very soon, a weirdly pleasant smelling Alexander garbed in yellow robes stood by the window, gazing out at the view, deep in thought.

"Buccephalas. What happened?"

Silence greeted him.

"Buccephalas?"

"Alexander?" A weirdly human voice that sounded like a little girl rang out in his mind.

"Buccephalas? What happened to you? Why do you sound like a little girl?" Alexander felt that he was actually being incredibly patient. So many weird things had happened, one after the other, and it felt like he was in a fast moving opera. Very fast moving. And a badly written one at that, in his humble opinion. No author would put his MC through such a gruelling beginning! Or is there?

Silence greeted him again.

"Buccephalas, hello?"

"I am here. I am sorry, I am very confused. I know so many things about you, and I know so many things about Symphonia, but I can't seem remember anything about me." Buccephalas said rather quietly.

"What? You said you're an AI! An Artificial Intelligence! Did you just... gain sentience?" Seriously, this is getting absurd! Alexander thought to himself.

"AI? Yes, Artificial Intelligence. It was here, but I am not it. But... I seem to know so many things about it. Too many things... And you! I know you very, very well! I can remember EVERYTHING about you! Your battles, your victories, your personal life, your...EEEK!!" A shrill and panicked scream echoed in Alexander's mind.

"What?? What's wrong with my personal life?" Alexander asked irritably.

"Silence!! I do not want to speak to you. I need to think!" An equally irritable voice rang out in Alexander's mind.

"What do you mean silence. This is my brain! I am free to talk as much as I want. THIS IS MY BRAIN!" Alexander yelled out.

Once again, silence greeted him.

"Buccephalas? Fine! Stay silent! I'll figure things out on my own." Alexander was furious. Of course, there was nothing much he could do at this point. This was, afterall, merely the beginning of his epic journey.