Alexander The Great Mage

Aleyria's eyes fluttered lightly. Wave after wave of dark energy rippled out from her as the mysterious energy within her circulated in strange patterns. However, Aleyria remained unconscious.

Fluff-fluff and Magius stopped their argument and stared at Aleyria in mild amazement. Mild, because they were transcendent beings and nothing could really surprise them that much. Amazement, because they had never seen energy circulate in such a strange pattern within the body of a living being before.

"Isn't that circulation pattern…" Fluff-fluff frowned and said hesitantly.

Magius nodded silently and waved his hand. An invisible barrier formed around them and everything outside the barrier slowed to a crawl. The dark waves Aleyria was producing also bounced back when they hit Magius's barrier.

"Time barrier? Whatever for?" Fluff-fluff asked..

"To ensure complete secrecy, of course." Magius said in an as-a-matter-of-fact voice.

"Ensure complete secrecy? Why?" Fluff-fluff's curiosity deepened.

"You've been wandering around and wasting your time too much." Magius sighed with a tinge of exasperation in his voice. "If you are more responsible with the powers that you have…"

"I know, I know. Stop nagging at me. Aren't I about to recruit a disciple now? I'll teach her everything and give her a huge chunk of my power so she can be responsible for me. Happy?" Fluff-fluff grumbled.

"Teach her your powers and let her be my disciple as well once you're done. I promise I'll stop bothering you once you do that." Magius immediately said.

"Why are you still negotiating like an old grandpa shopping for vegetables? Especially in a moment like this where even you have to set up a time barrier? Why have you set up a time barrier anyway?"

"Don't worry. This time barrier speeds us up a thousand times and completely prevents any form of energy from leaking out." Magius chuckled. "We'll definitely finish everything we need to finish before they arrive."

"They? Who?" Fluff-fluff asked once more. "Stop dropping random hints everywhere and be clear with your words! You truly are like an old grandpa!" Fluff-fluff complained.

"Let me be her teacher as well, and I'll explain everything to you." Magius smiled. He could sense that victory was near, very near indeed.

"Uhh… FINE! But I'll only let her follow you once she's completely finished with what I want to teach her, however long that may take." Fluff-fluff gave in reluctantly.

"Ten years maximum." Magius countered.

"Ten? Pooh! You think she's a little girl learning how to read? A hundred!" Fluff-fluff replied incredulously.

"Fifty!" Magius countered once more.

"A hundred. Take it or leave it." Fluff-fluff said stubbornly.

"Fine. Deal." Magius said with a victorious laugh.

Fluff-fluff glared at him, feeling slightly cheated.

"As I was saying, if you have not been living irresponsibly, you would have known that the barriers within the realms are starting to weaken." Magius explained.

"Which realms?" Fluff-fluff frowned deeply. Indeed, it was an extremely disturbing piece of news.

"All of them." Magius said simply. "The barriers in the highest realms have deteriorated the most, while the barriers in the lower realms are almost fully untouched. As it stands now, the barrier between our realm and the realm directly above us, the Realm of Light, or as they call themselves, The Ascendant Realm, has only weakened very slightly, less than a single percentage point. Even so, I have already detected at least one, possibly two or three hundred of their denizens crossing over to our realm."

"The Ascendant Realm." Fluff-fluff's kitty face curled up in disgust. "Bunch of hypocritical fools."

"Fool or not, the fact remains that they are more powerful than us." Magius warned. "Their Gods are still very much alive and outpower me by an unbridgeable margin."

"If the Almighty God was still around, he should be able to wallop those ascendant asses and put them in their proper place. Where is he anyway?" Fluff-fluff grumbled lightly.

Magius sighed and shook his head lightly. "I have not sensed anything ever since the final war. I could feel his sadness profoundly when Paladinos, Zegaro and Perses died. But that was it…"

"If he's not around, and the barriers are weakening, then we need to prepare." Fluff-fluff said softly. "The Ascendants view us as corrupted versions of themselves, and would not rest until our realm is completely under their control."

"I know. That is why I am working so hard to weed out these pesky Scions of Zegaro and Perses. Once I've gathered enough of their essences, I would be able to finally attempt creating The Staff of the Almighty. With that, I would have a fighting chance against their gods…" Magius said heavily.

Fluff-fluff looked at Magius and realized that an extremely heavy load of responsibility was resting on his shoulders. The fate of the entire realm rested in his hands! Without the Almighty, they were extremely vulnerable against the gods of the ascendant realm.

At that moment, Magius looked extremely tired and lonely. His brothers were all dead. His father missing. And the Ascendant Realm, with their ridiculous number of Gods, was probably preparing their legions to invade.

If nothing significant happened, Magius was doomed to die. And along with him, the lives of trillions upon trillions in the realm.

Fluff-fluff sighed. Now that the situation had deteriorated to such a degree, her days of freedom and lazing around were over. With such dire news, she could no longer rest and laze around with a clean and clear conscience.

"Why the time barrier then?" Fluff-fluff asked.

"If my guesses are on point, then she would be our secret weapon." Magius pointed at the unconscious Aleyria. "She, and any others like her we can train up. And if so, then I intend to make sure that she remains a complete secret from the Ascendant scouts which have entered our realm."

"I see. You're such a paranoid old man." Fluff-fluff rolled her eyes at Magius. "Our realm is the main realm, and is an incredibly vast place, you of all beings should know that clearly. We are the only realm with multiple adjacent realms as well. We have the fire, ice and lightning realms around us. Those Ascendant gophers from the Realm of Light could have dispersed into those other realms instead of staying here. They might even have gone down and checked out the Realm of Darkness too!

What are the chances of an Ascendant scout being here and even if they are here, what are the chances of them avoiding our detection, and even if they can avoid our detection, what can they learn without actually being close enough to Aleyria to the point that escaping our detection is absolutely, and I mean absolutely, impossible?"

At her words, Magius gave Fluff-fluff a strange smile and casually snapped his fingers.

Poof!

A strange creature suddenly appeared next to Fluff-fluff.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it was beautiful, as most of its strangeness was derived from how beautiful it was. Although it had a familiar shape, it was strangely and extremely attractive.

It was shaped like a werewolf, but looked much better than a werewolf. It was like an enhanced and upgraded version of a werewolf. Its fur was thick and glossy, and its muscles was perfectly proportioned. Most attractive about it was its incredibly kind and beautiful eyes which radiated an intelligence that was astounding, to say the least.

"EEEKK!!" Fluff-fluff squealed in shock!

"Did you just say… "Absolutely, and I mean absolutely, impossible" to escape 'our' detection?" Magius said with a laugh.

"You… You got an Ascendant underling?" Fluff-fluff asked in surprise. It was not a mild surprise this time.

"Yes. I caught one, and made it sign a Grade 12 slave contract with me. It's completely under my control now." Magius nodded.

"Any important information?" Fluff-fluff asked as she studied the Ascendant werewolf critically. "It sure is pretty though. What a waste that it's just a hypocritical and dumb Ascendant."

"This particular Ascendant is a pretty low ranking member of their Wolf Empire, so I did not get any critical information from him. Still, even their 'normal' news are already incredible news to us. They have noticed the weakening barriers between the realms, obviously. Just like us, they are also facing a potential invasion from the realm above them, Holy Empire Realm. And in turn, many of their smaller empires, like his Wolf Empire, are gearing up to launch an invasion into our realm." Magius explained.

"So, going by that train of thought, wouldn't the top few realms be embroiled in war already?"

"I am afraid so." Magius said.

"And when the victors of the top realms are decided, wouldn't they slowly expand downwards?"

"It is pure conjecture at this moment. But if the weakening of the barriers are natural in cause, then yes. The realm wars would eventually spread to our realm." Magius said.

"Then let us bring the war to them instead of waiting for them to bring war to us." A deep voice sounded from somewhere behind them.

"Alexander!" Blackfire shouted in shock. "You're awake?!"