Alexander The Great Mage

"Very good. Very good indeed. What is your name, boy?" Dubaza smiled warmly. He liked cooperative little kids with lots of exciting new information.

"Darius." the little boy replied cautiously.

"I\'m called Jane, grandpa!" the little runner girl piped in rather recklessly.

"Jane. That\'s a nice name! And yours?" Dubaza looked at the third boy.

"I\'m Brian, sir!" the third boy shouted nervously.

"Very well, Darius, Jane and Brian. Three of you are officially my servants. Serve me well and you will be rewarded. Betray me and die. Are we clear?" Dubaza said very simply.

"Yes sir!" the three of them shouted in unison, their eyes gleaming with an emotion which they thought had died forever. Hope.

*-*-*-*-*

"It\'s right over there! At the foot of that mountain, near the river!" Darius pointed at a large mountain that loomed in front of them. They had entered the Forest of Tamaro an hour ago and were speeding steadily inwards.

The Forest of Tamaro was an exceedingly large forest, much larger than the Forest of Elgar where Alexander had raised his Wyvern army. And as such, there was no lack of large and powerful beast overlords living and dominating different parts of the forest.

However, none blocked their path anymore.

One self-proclaimed Overlord of the Forest of Tamaro had challenged them earlier. It was a disgustingly large Demon Gorilla standing at close to seventy meters tall, much larger than even Vernie\'s old body.

However, Alexander was feeling rather antsy for some reason, and was in foul mood. He had no interest in fighting a prolonged battle here in the Forest of Tamaro, and had immediately sent space blades at the Demon Gorilla, just as it was rearing up and about to pound its chest with a magnificent roar.

SLASH!

The spinning space blades hit the Demon Gorilla accurately on its neck and a giant Demon Gorilla\'s head went flying.

"Get it!" Dubaza commanded Vernie.

Vernie immediately swooped in and grabbed the Demon Gorilla\'s head with his claws.

GRAHH!! Vernie roared as he quickly made his body bigger.

The Demon Gorilla\'s head was so big that even after Vernie had doubled his size, it was still only as large as the head. It was a very creepy sight.

And apparently it worked wonders in keeping all the other \'Overlords\' at bay. With the Demon Gorilla\'s head in Vernie\'s claws, the group reached the interior of the Forest of Tamaro very quickly.

Alexander sent a powerful scan forward to the mountain in front of him. He had no intention to sneak about and hide. His mood was so bad that not even Flamewing could elicit any response from him.

"You said you\'ll not let them harm my body, right? Are you sure that by charging in you won\'t make them to exactly that? Flamewing finally asked nervously.

"Don\'t worry. All we need to do is to find your body. Once we know where it is, this mission is over." Alexander replied curtly. A deep feeling of unease had settled in his heart, and he was extremely worried. He wanted to get back home to Aleyria as soon as possible. He knew that he would not be at peace until he sees Aleyria safe and sound with his own two eyes.

"There." Alexander pointed at a spot somewhere in the Western side of the mountain. "Six dragons, just like the boy said. And there." Alexander pointed at another spot near it. "Powerful enemies."

Alexander had only finished saying that when two figures rose quietly into the sky at the spot he had just pointed.

"Just two, Your Majesty?" Dubaza asked.

"Three. One more is on the ground, moving very rapidly towards us." Alexander said and waved his hand, creating a glow in the distance that was approaching them with great speed. "And a bunch of other insignificant red robes, but I\'m sure we don\'t have to worry about them."

Dubaza nodded. "I\'ll take the sneaky bastard then, Your Majesty."

"Go for it. And be quick!" Alexander instructed.

Dubaza bowed formally and then… CRACK! BOOOM!!!

A massive lightning bolt slammed into the moving and glowing light.

The light stopped abruptly and suddenly disappeared.

Dubaza frowned and commanded Vernie to fly toward the spot they last saw the glow.

Behind him, Princess Anastasia and the three little kids sat down quietly on Vernie\'s broad back, not daring to make any noise lest they distracted Dubaza.

CRACK! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! He launched lightning bolt after lightning bolt in the area, trying to make the person reveal himself/herself.

WHOOSH!! Hundreds of black coloured wind blades suddenly flew out from beneath the treeline and flew towards Dubaza at high speed.

Dubaza smiled and said very simply. "There you are."

A bright yellow barrier appeared and blocked the black wind blades.

"My turn!" With a thought, all the plants in the area where the black wind blades had come from quickly mutated and grew astonishingly fast in many different directions.

Poof! Poof! Poof! Countless poisonous fruits and plants exploded, completely covering the area with dangerous poison.

"EAAAAAAAAAAAAKKK!!" A shrill scream sounded and stopped abruptly.

"Thank goodness there are many poisonous plants in this part of the forest." Dubaza chuckled to himself.

"I\'m done, Your Majesty." Dubaza said as he returned to Alexander\'s side who merely nodded in response.

Alexander stared at the two figures who were still in the sky.

One was a plain looking young man with plain white robes. The other was a plain looking young woman in slightly fancier white robes with golden embroidery around it.

The woman was standing slightly ahead, and Alexander figured her as the leader of the trio. However, it was the plain looking young man that gave him the chills. He was definitely not a simple person.

"I\'m here for the dragons. Would you like to release them to me willingly, or should I kill you both as well to get them?" Alexander called out to them out loud in an unfriendly tone.

There was silence for a moment before finally BZZZZZZ! A buzzing sound could be heard around them as black coloured rods of steel materialized out of nowhere and formed a spherical cage around Alexander and Dubaza.

"Darkness energy combined with space energy." Dubaza observed lightly. "It would be pretty difficult for me to escape from this prison."

"We\'ll let them come closer first before we make a move." Alexander said softly to Dubaza.

Dubaza nodded in understanding.

Indeed, after confirming that the Dark Spatial prison was firmly in place, the two figures flickered and disappeared. The young woman appeared once more just outside of the prison, while the young man appeared somewhere in the forest, probably searching for their team mate.

The young woman stood there quietly, observing them with her round eyes, studying them and their Wyverns intently.

Alexander stared back at her quietly as well, patiently waiting for the young man to return before making a move.

"You three kids will be skinned alive." The woman finally said. "Healing magic will be cast upon you so that you will not die. You will feel excruciating pain from your entire body. Every single day until you go mad with pain."

Darius and Brian paled at her words and began to tremble in fear.

Jane, however, simply snickered and said. "Not if we do that to you first, Emma."

Dubaza laughed out loudly and heartily. He turned around and gave Jane a wink and a thumbs up.

Emma frowned slightly when she heard her name being used so casually by a mere servant girl. "You, girl, will suffer the most. I will make sure of that." She said softly with sharp killing intent.

Jane finally flinched as she felt that killing intent land upon her with devastating power. Her eyes went wide as a deep, primal fear seeped into her little heart. However, that killing intent disappeared as quickly as it came.

Jane gasped and slumped weakly down on Vernie\'s back. She laid there quietly for a few seconds to catch her breath before finally sitting up once more to look at Lady Emma.

And what she saw left her extremely surprised.

Lady Emma was standing there, with HER eyes opened wide in fear. She was visibly trembling in terror and… could it be?

Jane squinted and focused her eyes on Lady Emma\'s lower legs which were visible. "Is that… Did she just… Pee herself?" She mumbled.

She glanced at Alexander who was staring at Lady Emma ferociously. When she saw Alexander\'s fierce expression, Jane gulped and quickly looked away.

Alexander had released his magnificent killing intent at Lady Emma. And apparently, Lady Emma wasn\'t faring too well under Alexander\'s withering glare.

The space behind Lady Emma flickered for a moment and the plain looking young man appeared. In his arms was a disgusting purble and bloated body full of pock marks and pus. Very strangely, that person was still alive.

However, as he noticed Alexander\'s powerful killing intent on Lady Emma, he almost dropped his comrade, so great was his shock.

"Scion of Zegaro?!" He cried out.