Alexander The Great Mage

Chapter 75

Alexander stood up and cast a barrier around Princess Anastasia who was eating her chunk of meat with great gusto. "She must be really hungry." Alexander thought. He looked at her thin frame. "That's no way how a Princess of a Universe Empire should look. I should feed her more." He decided.

"Wait her for me, alright? I'll see what Dubaza found this time." Alexander said.

"Wait!" Chomp. Chomp. Gulp. "I'll go with you!" Princess Anastasia stood up as well and raised both hands up once more.

Alexander blinked a few times, before sighing and picking her up. She quickly made her way up to his shoulders happily. "Nobody back on earth will believe it if I tell them." He grumbled to Flamewing.

"Tell them what?"

"That I go around everywhere now with a cat on my head and a girl on my shoulders." Alexander said.

"BAHAHAHA!!" Only laughter greeted Alexander in response.

Alexander shook his head and quickly teleported to where Dubaza was.

"What is it?" Alexander said immediately upon appearing.

"A secret cave, Your Majesty." Dubaza said with great excitement. "And a skeleton within it."

Alexander frowned. "A skeleton? Is there anything special about it?" Alexander was rather unwilling to enter the cave because well, as things would have it, he happened to have a six year old sitting on his shoulders, and he thought that skeletons were definitely in the "Things not to show a six year old" list.

"It is very special, Your Majesty." Dubaza said with shining eyes. "I went in to check just now, and saw a peerless sword, still gripped in the skeleton's hands."

A peerless sword? Alexander was definitely intrigued. He may be a powerful mage, but deep in his core, Alexander still saw himself as the sword-leading, world-renowned general that took the earth by storm and almost conquered it whole. Having a peerless sword might be a great idea. He mused.

"Hey, are you going to just stand there or what? Let's go into the cave and check that peerless sword the old man mentioned!" Princess Anastasian kicked her legs on Alexander's chest impatiently.

"You're not afraid of skeletons?" Alexander asked in surprise.

"Of course not! I've seen lots of dead people before. In fact I just saw a few thousand die a few days ago." Princess Anastasia said somewhat proudly. But her face quickly fell. Among the fallen were her personal guards, and her nanny. She was the one who had managed to bring her safely into the escape pod and send her out of the battleship.

Alexander saw her face fall and immediately knew what she was thinking about.

"Don't worry, I'll lead you back to Symphonia one day, and you can exact your revenge then." He said softly.

Princess Anastasia nodded bravely. "I will get back and imprison all my brothers, especially Flario!" She declared.

"Flario?" Alexander said with a start.

"Yes, Flario. He was the one who invited me to visit him. My nanny had warned me that in the race for the throne, everything is possible, even brothers turning against sisters! I didn't believe her. I… I insisted on accepting his invitation. Thankfully I listened to her and came on a battleship instead of the usual light convoy. The battleship defences bought the time I needed to escape."

"When did Magius tell you that I would be saving you?" Alexander asked curiously.

"A few days ago, actually. I had no idea why he did that then, but apparently he already knew that I would accept the invitation and that I would be ambushed near Arcanus 26. I wonder why he didn't just tell me about it." Princess Anastasia grumbled. "What a weird old man. Still, he's a God and Gods are weird. I should just be thankful that I'm alive."

"Yeah, he really is a weird old man." Fluff-fluff's voice suddenly sounded.

"Hey, you can talk!" Princess Anastasia squealed in delight. "How cute!!" She immediately took Fluff-fluff into her arms and hugged her.

Apparently, Fluff-fluff liked being hugged by cute little girls, she merely purred happily and allowed a junior thousands of years younger than her to hug her and pet her like a… cat.

"What's the story between you and Magius?" Alexander asked Fluff-fluff. "How did you two know each other?"

"It's nothing much." Fluff-fluff said. "I merely healed his and another old man's wounds. They would have healed themselves without me, I merely sped up the process."

"Ah, I see." Alexander nodded. No wonder Magius treated Fluff-fluff as an equal.

"That weird old man is forever talking about destinies and allowing each mortal to reach their destinies with minimal intervention from Gods. What a bunch of crap." Fluff-fluff yawned a giant yawn.

"Why are you always so sleepy?" Alexander suddenly asked. He just realized that Fluff-fluff seemed to spend most of her time asleep.

"It's this planet. It's luck is so thin. I've I fully unleash myself here, I'll probably destroy it under an avalanche of good luck. Too much of anything is bad, you know that right? I'm heavily restraining my soul here…" YAWN. "You better claim that final stroke of good luck before it slips you by. It'll be the last one you'll have for a few days…" At that, Fluff-fluff curled up once more and promptly fell asleep.

Alexander turned his eyes towards the secret cave. "You heard the cat, let's go claim that peerless sword!"

He quickly entered the cave, with Dubaza following behind him closely.

Alexander noticed the skeleton almost immediately. Tattered pieces of cloth still covered certain parts of the skeleton. But most of it was gone. Time had corroded most of the things the skeleton had when he or she was alive. The only thing that remained intact was the sword. And what a sword it was.

Time did not touch it at all. It was still shiny and sharp. Not a single speck of dust blemished its perfect beauty. It's blade was crystalline blue, clear and wonderfully keen. Its guard and pommel were the colour of brushed metal and it had a navy blue grip.

Alexander loved it.

"Crystal Sword?" Flamewing said with a slight laugh. "That lucky cat truly is incredible. Go, go take that sword and just have all your dreams come true. I am absolutely speechless."

"What a pretty sword!" Princess Anastasia said. "But it's too big for me now. I know! Why don't you use it for a few years first? It'll be such a waste for me to just keep it without using it."

Alexander laughed. Trust a Princess to conclude that everything she laid her eyes on is automatically hers.

"That would be my honor and privilege, Princess Anastasia." Alexander said smilingly.

"Be careful with it! Don't you dare break it before I am old enough to wield it." Princess Anastasia warned Alexander sternly.

"Rest assured, I will take extremely good care of it." Alexander said solemnly. He bent down and gently released the skeleton's grip upon the sword.

Upon touching the sword, however, a bright light suddenly shined from the sword.

It shot out and hit the cave wall opposite the skeleton. Immediately, a hologram of a beautiful woman appeared.

"These are the final words of Princess Yessica of Symphonia. Send word back home that I was ambushed by Prince Jared…"

"Prince Jared! That's my great grandfather!" Princess Anastasia exclaimed.

"Shhh." Alexander shushed here so he could listen to the hologram's words.

"... accepted an invitation from him to discuss an alliance against our mutual enemy, Crown Prince Harold. I did not expect that he would make a move against me, his blood sister. My convoy was attacked just outside Arcanus 26. I managed to escape into the planet, but was seriously injured and under heavy pursuit. I hid in this cave and managed to evade capture. But apparently I could not evade my fate… Send word back home… Tell them… Tell them that…"

At that, the hologram disappeared, and the Crystal Sword stopped shining.

"The fight for the throne of Symphonia is always bloody, huh?" Alexander remarked lightly after a short silence.

"I can't believe that Great Grandpa Jared would do such a thing!" Princess Anastasia exclaimed loudly. "He's always so nice and gentle!"

"To you, his beloved great granddaughter, he's nice and gentle. But to those in his way… Apparently your brother Flario takes after him."

Alexander bent down and took the Crystal Sword in his hand. It began to resonate strongly with his magic power.

"What's happening?" Alexander asked Flamewing in surprise.

"It's a Crystal Sword. A powerful sword designed for mages. Only Symphonian royalty are allowed to wield Crystal Swords, and only those Royalty who had proven themselves to be worthy. In the history of Symphonia, less than fifty of these swords were made. This Princess Yessica must be an extremely powerful mage and was also very highly favored by the King of Symphonia then." Flamewing explained.

"You're not answering my question." Alexander said in slight exasperation. The resonance was growing stronger and the Crystal Sword was beginning to glow slightly.

"It's resonating with your arcane signature. Every Crystal Sword must have an owner. And it is only usable by its owner. So once a Crystal Sword has found an owner, it will not be usable by anyone except its owner. Until the owner dies, of course. Then the Crystal Sword will be ownerless, and will be bound to the next Mage who holds it. Which in this case is… you. So congratulations." Flamewing said.