Alexander The Great Mage

It was a heady moment for Aleyria. She had blown past the various stages of power with astounding speed. From a mere White Archmage, to the strongest entity in the entire Universe?

Insanity.

But it was exactly what she had desperately and fervently wished for.

And so, with grace and deep resolution shining in her eyes, she calmly said, "I am ready."

Magius took a deep breath and affirmed his resolve as well.

"Very well, if that's the case, then before you absorb the Power of Paladinos, please accept this gift from your future subordinate." Magius said with a smile. He stretched out his hand and touched Aleyria's forehead gingerly. "It might help if you close your eyes. Also take a deep breath… that's it…"

Crack.

A soft cracking sound could be heard. Magius's face contorted wildly in pain, but he ruthlessly suppressed the pain and forced himself to proceed. A soft silver stream of energy slowly ran down his hand and made its way into Aleyria's forehead.

"Ah… It's really hot." Aleyria gasped lightly.

"Bear with it." Fluff-fluff immediately responded. "It'll be over soon."

"What is he doing?" Alexander whispered to Fluff-fluff. He could not see what was happening within Magius's body, but he was sure that Fluff-fluff could.

"He… He is splitting apart a portion of his Godly essense... " Fluff-fluff said in a dumbstruck voice.

"Godly essence? What is that? And how will it affect both of them?" Alexander asked.

"For Aleyria, considering that she had the dark energy which could devour it, it would bring absolutely nothing but benefits. The Godly essence is not only a source of highly concentrated Godly power, it contains the basic essence of who Magius is as a God. His understanding, skill, memories… All of it would be passed on to Aleyria. However, for Magius, losing a portion of his God essence would directly impact his strength. Depending on how much of the whole he gives to Aleyria, he would correspondingly lose that much strength."

"It is a heavy price to pay…" Alexander said heavily.

"Worth it, if we can gain an overlord of the Universe who could resist the upcoming Realm war." Fluff-fluff said. "Besides, with the new technique we just learnt, I doubt he would even fall in strength overall. In fact, he might still become slightly stronger than before."

Alexander nodded in understanding. Essentially, Magius was gifting any benefits he gained from Aleyria's unintentional revelation on energy circulation, back to her.

The transfer of Godly essence went on much faster than Alexander expected. It was over within a few short seconds. However, the impact that the few short seconds had on Aleyria was almost beyond words.

The first marked change was the aura that surrounded Aleyria. Previously, it was merely a formless and shapeless mass of energy that overflowed from within her. However, after absorbing Magius's Godly essence, it took on a vast and primal quality, giving even Magius and Fluff-fluff a mild shock.

"That… fearsome and ancient aura… It's not yours." Fluff-fluff noted grimly.

"It isn't." Magius nodded slightly numbly. "I think… My Godly essence finally awakened whatever ancient bloodline potential was slumbering within her…"

Apart from the fearsomeness of the primal aura that was billowing out from Aleyria, it was also taking form. An avian creature of some sort.

"Phoenix!" Magius and Fluff-fluff cried out at the same time. "How could it be possible?!" Magius exclaimed. "It's impossible! Impossible!!"

Alexander raised his eyebrow and looked at Fluff-fluff questioningly, who was fidgeting uncomfortably. She was staring at Aleyria and a full-blown frown was upon her cute kitty face. Apparently she was extremely flustered and totally did not notice Alexander's questioning look.

The revelation that Aleyria's primal aura came from a Phoenix bloodline shocked the two apex powers of the realm very considerably. But it was not the only change that was taking place.

As the shape of the phoenix gradually took form, the area around Aleyria began to grow incredibly hot. Magius waved his hand to create a barrier for them, but to his surprise, the heat did not dissipate at all.

"My powers are not effective in repelling this heat?" He cried out in shock.

"She is beyond any of us now. After absorbing Alexander's, yours and my powers, her own power had taken on a very unique quality. Even if you can resist the elemental energy, you have no way to resist the luck energy, Perses's battle intent and her own unique power. Qualitatively, you're totally outclassed. And quantitatively… You're… Oh there you go. She just passed your power level." Fluff-fluff said.

Aleyria opened her eyes and frowned deeply as she struggled to gain control of her skyrocketing powers.

"Don't fight it!" Magius shouted urgently. "Just go with it and let it soar. It's still in the evolution phase, let it reach its highest potential! We can deal with the heat."

Aleyria nodded and closed her eyes once more.

The primal and ancient aura around her slowly deepened and tiny gouts of flames began to appear around her. Within a few moments, her skin started to crack open and catch fire! She gritted her teeth and tried to endure through the pain that her body was experiencing.

"Flamewing!" Alexander cried out. "She needs the power of Paladinos now!"

"I'm on it!" Flamewing said. She took a step forward and bravely slashed her wrist. Dragon blood infused with both the Power of Paladinos and the Power of Magius immediately dripped on Aleyria's skin. The blood seeped through the cracks and immediately disappeared.

As if pouring out highly flammable fuel on her, the tiny gouts of fire exploded and became a raging inferno that enveloped Aleyria!

However, Aleyria's life force also began to rise explosively, matching the strength of the inferno that was raging around her. With Flamewing's generous infusion of the Power of Paladinos, Aleyria could feel the vitality of her body rising at an incredible rate.

"Ah!" After a few more seconds, Flamewing couldn't resist the flames anymore and cried out in pain. Alexander immediately pulled her back.

She looked extremely weak and the hand that was dripping out all the blood on Aleyria was scorched black.

"Thank you." Alexander said gently even as he released a golden stream of healing energy into Flamewing's body.

"Don't worry about it. It's just a minor superficial pain. Just like a small scratch." Flamewing smiled. True enough, her body healed itself at a very visible pace, and she was as good as new within a few short seconds.

Their attention quickly turned back to Aleyria who was still covered in an ever-strengthening inferno that was blazing in full fury.

Slowly, the deep and primal aura around her began to take on a majestic and eternal quality. It felt as though Aleyria could live forever, so strong and formidable her vitality had become. Everyone present could feel a deep sense of reverence rising up from the very bottom of their hearts and souls.

A strong desire to worship her and to glorify her bloomed in their hearts.

However, for all its glory and majesty, everyone present could also feel that it still hungered and thirsted for something.

"KYOOOOOO!"

A deeply powerful phoenix cry resounded from Aleyria. It was like an imperial decree, demanding its subjects to obey its commands.

At that moment, Alexander felt as though his blood was boiling. The Power of Zegaro which he had barely awakened began to circulate around his body madly, as if looking for a way out.

Alexander immediately knew what to do. He released his killing intent and a dark wave of energy immediately left his body and leapt into Aleyria's body! The devouring power of the dark energy had grown so powerful that it could devour energy from outside of Aleyria's body!

"KYOOOOOOOOO!!!"

The dark energy practically sucked dry all of Alexander's Power of Zegaro. Although he was a renowned general and had killed thousands upon thousands of his enemies and had formed a powerful killing intent that caused the Power of Zegaro to stir within him, that power was still in its infancy.

However, the dark energy seemed to be satisfied with whatever it had managed to suck out of Alexander.

The deeply primal and majestic aura around Aleyria began to change slowly. A sense of darkness and grief seemed to emanate from her. Even the inferno around her began to slowly change in colour. From bright yellow, slowly turning red, and then maroon, and then to everyone's surprise, it slowly turned black.

Magius's eyes bulged out so much that they almost popped out from their sockets. "IMPOSSIBLE!!!" He roared out.

"Meow!" Fluff-fluff was so shocked as well that she meowed instead of saying a word!

"KYOOOOOO!!!!" The primal aura around Aleyria finally took form.

It truly was a Phoenix. However, it was not just a normal Phoenix.

It's resplendent feathers were black.

A vast and eternal aura shrouded it and exuded a sense of righteousness but at the same time, anger and bloodthirst.

The ancient and majestic aura around it was tinged with darkness and gloom.

It was a Black Phoenix.