Alexander the Great Mage

Alexander turned to Aleyria, who smiled at him. "It's true. I will tell you all about it later. Let's hear Caerose out first."

Alexander nodded and motioned for Caerose to continue.

"I couldn't believe it as well. She had broken free of the prison, and had laid countless traps around her. The moment I opened the pocket dimension, those traps were sprung and she immediately teleported out. I was disabled and was at her mercy.

Long story short, we got to talking, and I let slip that I am an exiled princess of Symphonia."

"WHAT?!" Alexander exclaimed once more in shock. 

"My full name is Caerose Symphonia, Seventh Princess of the cursed Emperor of Symphonia." Caerose said softly. 

"My entire purpose of helping the Lich King was to take revenge for my beloved who was murdered by my own father." Caerose's voice turned cold. "By any means, at all costs, I will sever my father's head from his shoulders to appease my… my…" At this, her voice cracked a little bit. "My dead fiance's soul." 

Aleyria stood up and put her arms around Caerose, who was fighting down her tears. After so many years, the pain was still so acute, the memories of his smiling face as he died in her arms still so agonizingly vivid. 

"Anyway, once Aleyria found out my intention, she started to recruit me. She told me that if revenge is what I was looking for, then I should stick with you." Caerose rested her cold gaze at Alexander. 

Alexander nodded. 

"I am not out for the Emperor of Symphonia's blood. But I am very much interested in ruling everything he owns. Symphonia will be mine. And if this Emperor is as evil as you say he is, then once I depose of him, his head is yours." Alexander spoke simply. 

Caerose couldn't help but feel her goosebumps rise at Alexander's words. Bold words spoken with the confidence of a powerful Scion Lord who wielded immeasurable power had a certain appeal to her. 

"You are confident that you can do what you said?" Caerose pressed on, desperate for a stronger affirmation that she had made the right choice in betraying the Lich King.

Alexander simply stretched out his upturned hand in reply. "Watch."

Whoosh!

A fireball appeared. It was small, but extremely compressed, very much capable of exploding with great force sufficient to level any respectable farmhouse. 

"The blessings of Magius." He said softly.

Whoosh!

The fireball turned a bright crimson shade tinged with a touch of gold.

Caerose trembled slightly at the power she sensed from that tiny fireball. If the previous one was capable of levelling a farmhouse with ease, then this particular one could easily level a villa. A Royal Villa.

"The blessings of Magius, infused with the blessings of Perses." Alexander said.

"What?! Perses? Not Zegaro??" Caerose exclaimed in shock. "Doesn't that mean…"

Whoosh!

All light disappeared from the farmhouse for a moment, leaving only the fireball. But this time, it emitted a greyish light. 

Caerose began to tremble visibly. The power that the tiny grey fireball emitted was now multiplied countless times over. It could easily level the Royal Palace of Rin-Turah now. If not for the barrier that Alexander had put in place, she was sure that all light from many kilometers around them would disappear too. 

Puff. 

The fireball disappeared. 

"The blessings of Magius, infused with the blessings of Perses, and wrapped by the blessings of Zegaro." Alexander said softly.

"That's… the curse of the Almighty God!" Caerose said with great alarm. 

"What? What curse?" Aleyria asked, shocked by the sudden mention of a curse.

Alexander merely frowned slightly. "Please explain yourself." 

"The curse of the Almighty God." Caerose repeated herself. "Let me start from the beginning.

As you know, Symphonia is a Universe Empire. What you probably don't know is that we are the weakest Universe Empire among all the other Universe Empires we know. Symphonia could hold its own simply because we have the technology to build our Galaxy Class Starships. These Galaxy Class Starships could wreak absolute havoc on the other Universe Empires if we let them loose, and because of that, the other Universe Empires steer clear of us. 

Another reason why we are the weakest Empire is because coincidentally, our Universe Empire is the area where the Lesser Gods had their final battle." At this Caerose glanced at Alexander, whose eyes were gleaming slightly. 

"Why is that significant to Symphonia's situation?" Aleyria asked in confusion.

"The preparation for a final battle does not happen overnight." Caerose explained. "The troop build up, and industries that had to be created to support the troop build up had to begin thousands of years before. And although each side probably had their ace in the holes which they brought in from various exotic galaxies, most of the power had to be built up right here within the Symphonian Universe Empire."

Aleyria frowned deeply. "Shouldn't that lead to Symphonia being the strongest empire then, instead of the weakest? Considering that we have so many resources?"

Caerose chuckled. "Of course not. It is the exact opposite. Like the preparation for the final battle, the final battle itself did not happen overnight as well. The final battle was a drawn out affair, each side attacked and destroyed many strategic resources and planets before finally meeting in one great battle on a planet called Earth. 

After the war was over, Symphonia was nothing more than clusters of destroyed planets. Although we eventually recovered, our progress and development as a Universe Empire was lagging behind the others. 

Still, we managed to salvage an ancient technology that allowed us to build the Galaxy Class Starships, so everything turned out fine for us in the end. 

Being the place where the final battle took place, Symphonia is beyond rich in terms of inheritances left behind by powerful warriors. Thousands of years have passed since that last battle, and we have discovered millions of inheritances. Among those inheritances were usually records, diaries and all sorts of documents which allowed us to compile an extremely clear picture of history. Our Royal Library has billions of books in it. 

And I… I am a certified bookworm. I love reading, and I love reading about that ancient history the most. It was in my reading that I came across this extremely unique book. It was extremely old, and it was almost falling apart. " Caerose paused here for effect.

Gullibly and predictably, Aleyria, who was already leaning forward and listening to Caerose intently, asked the follow up question. "What? What book is that?"

"It was the diary of Dragostan, Scion Lord of Paladinos and Magius." Caerose said triumphantly.

"Wheeewww…" Aleyria gave the exact response that Caerose was waiting for. 

"There was no name on it, and it was in the 'Anonymous Auto-biographies' section. I picked it up simply because it was old and tattered, and I thought it might contain interesting information. I never imagined that it would be Dragostan's diary. You can imagine my shock, when I flipped a page after hundreds of boring pages, and read the words, "Today, I, Dragostan of Dragonos, is officially a Scion of Magius!" 

"Incredible!" Aleyria said rather excitedly. She was completely drawn in by Caerose's story.

Alexander chuckled and patted her head lovingly.

"It was in that diary where I came across the "Curse of the Almighty God." It's a very dangerous thought, one that could not be spoken about casually. In fact, before today, I had never spoken of this to anyone. Not even my… my fiance." 

Caerose took a deep breath. 

"I am just going to lay it all out for you. Dragostan was a Scion Lord, and legends had it that he died in the final battle against Zegaro and Perses. But the legends lie. Dragostan died by the hand of Paladinos. Symphonia had found extremely rare eyewitness accounts of Paladinos slaying Dragostan mere days before the final battle. However, no one knew the reason why Paladinos did that. And Symphonia never officially released that information, so the legend version of Dragostan circulated rampantly throughout the Universe.

However, I know why Paladinos slew Dragostan!" Caerose paused here once more for effect as she glanced at Aleyria. 

"Why? Why did he do that?" Aleyria cried out, totally oblivious that her responses were completely driven by Caerose.

"Dragostan betrayed Paladinos and Magius!" Caerose shouted dramatically.

"WHAT? NO!" Aleyria moaned.

"Yes he did. He got enticed by Zegaro, and he finally accepted his offer to be the only being in the Universe to receive the blessings of THREE Gods. He actually wrote it down in his diary! In exchange, Zegaro wanted Dragostan to betray Paladinos and Magius at a critical moment during their fight. 

Dragostan managed to live for a few days before Paladinos somehow found out about the betrayal and slew Dragostan without a single word. In those few days, Dragostan only made a single entry in his diary. 

He wrote, and I am quoting it word for word, "I am cursed. Cursed by the Almighty God! The Almighty God never intended for the two sides to be at peace. My act of receiving three blessings from the Gods had triggered the curse… Damn it. Damnt it all! I am dying…"