全城危机

Isabella turned and looked tersely at the direction from whence the sound came. She motioned for Grent to remain with her, and for the rest of the King's guard to go on ahead to the King's side. She also motioned to Liz'An to continue on their search for the evacuating civilians. The undead may be dead once more, but the living might need their help.

They promptly obeyed her commands and shot out towards the City of Rin and the City of Turah respectively.

Isabella spurred her Wyvern forward towards the North. She would meet the danger head on and buy her comrades some time. However, her Wyvern couldn't stop trembling. And after flying for a few short meters, it stopped altogether. It chose to hover midair, trembling like a little lamb before a ferocious lion.

Isabella gulped. What she was seeing was not at all unfamiliar to her. She had seen Wyverns tremble this way before the 3rd Generation Wyverns which the three girls were riding on. But it was always the 6th Generation ones who trembled violently, and even then, NEVER as violently as her 4th Generation Wyvern was trembling at that moment.

This could only mean one thing. A powerful 2nd Generation Wyvern was approaching. Either that or…

GROAAAAARRRRRR!!!!

A devastating roar sounded! And her Wyvern actually whimpered in fear.

Isabella took a deep breath. "Grent, full offensive mode."

"Acknowledged." Grent said emotionlessly. He was a laid back person, and he faced the incoming threat calmly.

Thousands of vines and plants began to sprout from beneath them and a frozen wind began to blow. Very soon, a wall of ice spears and sharp vines was formed, ready to resist the incoming threat.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" A familiar voice sounded from behind them.

"Dubaza!!" Isabella cried out with relief as she turned around to face him.

"Lord Dubaza." Grent said with a smile as he turned around too. However, that smile quickly froze as he took in the incredible sight before him.

Dubaza sat upon a mid-sized orange Wyvern. Next to him were four little kids, the youngest looked like she was barely six years old. A tall and handsome middle-aged man garbed in pure black robes sat on his other side.

And it was to this middle aged man that Isabella's and Grent's gaze were focused on. He had this penetrating gaze that seemed to be able to see their deepest and darkest secrets, and an absolutely fearsome and bloodthirsty aura that demanded and held all of their attention in an iron grip. Both Isabella and Grent felt like if they were to look away for a moment, the man would immediately pounce and gobble them up.

Dubaza grinned. "Lord Blackfire, please meet Isabella and Grent, my fellow King's Guard."

Blackfire nodded and his lips broke into a smile which did little to lift the heavy mood that his murderous aura was creating. "Well met, Isabella and Grent. We shall be comrade in arms from now on."

"Isabella, Grent, Lord Blackfire is King Aloxandros's personal guard. He will be assuming primary security for the King." Dubaza said.

Just as Isabella and Grent were feeling a slight sense of relief and nodding in acknowledgement, Dubaza continued in a mild voice, "He is a powerful Fire Dragon."

Isabella's and Grent's jaw dropped.

Dubaza smiled. He finally got to see that damned Isabella shocked to the bone. However, he quickly brushed all useless thoughts aside as he surveyed the surroundings. He had flown in with Blackfire so quickly that he didn't get to see the situation on the ground. And for the final stretch, he had teleported to surprise Isabella, so he definitely hadn't noticed the massive mess on the ground.

He frowned deeply. He had immediately seen the remains of the countless undead on the ground, and quickly sensed that the lingering aura that remained belonged to his King. A thousand questions had immediately exploded in his mind. But chief among them were "How did King Alexander do this? And where is he now?"

"I will go on ahead to look for the King." Blackfire said after surveying his surroundings for a moment.

Blink. He disappeared.

"Let's go as well. You can fill me in on the details as we go." Dubaza commanded.

*-*-*-*-*

"Speed up." Prince Flario said softly.

"Sir, we are at maximum Warp Speed. The only way to speed up is to engage the Planetary Teleportation Drive. It will exhaust forty percent of our energy reserves, and destroy anything that is within our point-of-appearance." A powerfully built but stocky man standing next to him reminded him smartly. He was Special Advisor Gareth, also known as Prince Flario's Spymaster. He handles all of the information that Prince Flario needed and wanted to receive, as well as all the information/misinformation that Prince Flario needed and wanted others to receive.

At that moment, he was discussing Princess Anastasia's rescue mission with Prince Flario.

They had come to the conclusion that if Princess Anastasia were to fall into enemy hands, Prince Flario's chances of winning the throne would plummet by a significant margin. He would lose the confidence of the supporters that were barely hanging on right now, and would definitely fail to attract the ones that were still undecided.

Princess Anastasia had to be rescued at all costs, for her sake, as well as for the sake of Prince Flario's fight for the throne.

"Engage the PTD, but limit energy consumption to twenty five percent of our reserves." Prince Flario instructed. "That would save us five days, and put us three days away from her final known location. Far enough that she wouldn't be within the vicinity even if she was being transported at full warp speed in our direction."

"As you command, Prince." Special Advisor Gareth quickly relayed the Prince's instructions to the Starship's captain.

Within minutes, the Star of Symphonia exited warp speed. An absolutely powerful wave of space energy erupted from the Starship and neatly opened up a hole in space. The Starship entered the hole, and immediately appeared at their target location, a mere three days away from Arcanus 26.

*-*-*-*-*

Blink.

Blackfire appeared before a startled Caerose and Aleyria, who were sitting next to an unconscious Alexander.

Just one glance at Blackfire and both women knew that they were hopelessly outmatched. But white barriers still shimmered into place and Caerose, as testament to her vast experience in battles and life-death struggles, had immediately leapt at Blackfire and unleashed her strongest darkness attribute attack.

Blackfire raised his left hand casually and received Caerose's punch without breaking a sweat. He then raised his right arm and blocked Caerose's follow up kick as well. His right arm did not tremble in the slightest even as Caerose rebounded from her kick and fell back into the barriers heavily.

"He's strong! Very strong! Can you teleport out with Alexander?" Caerose whispered urgently to Aleyria even as she quickly casted several more barriers.

"I can." Aleyria whispered back lightly.

"I will hold him ba-" Caerose began.

WHOOSH!

Space locked down at a mere thought from Blackfire.

"My name is Blackfire, and I can hear you very clearly." Blackfire said wryly as he lowered his arms. "Thankfully for you both, you don't seem hostile to Alexander because I serve Alexander. I will give you three seconds to explain why you're here and why he's unconscious before I disable you and hold you captive until he awakens."

Aleyria had a temper which matched her beauty. However, she was also wise and knew how to read situations clearly. And at that moment, she knew that there was nothing she could do. The fires of indignance within her heart that exploded after being threatened in her own Kingdom were quickly smothered and put out by realistic and very urgent needs.

Alexander must be protected at all costs, and…

Did this gorgeous middle-aged man say he served Alexander? What was that about? And weird as it sounds, Aleyria felt a resonance of some sort between this man and Alexander. A link, or a connection of some sort. She decided that she would cooperate... for now.

"My name is Aleyria. And I am Alexander's…" Aleyria blushed slightly. "Partner."

"I am Caerose." Caerose said simply while staring at Blackfire and keeping the highest vigilance against him.

"What happened to him?" Blackfire asked warmly. He had guessed that one of them would be Alexander's beloved, and thus he had stayed his hand. However, as usual, his warm voice did little to dispel the murderous aura that dragons had. And Blackfire was not your ordinary run-of-the-mill dragon. In dragon circles, he was royalty. His aura was thicker, stronger and much more powerful than other dragons.

"You are not human, are you?" Aleyria asked, evading his question entirely.

Blackfire looked at Aleyria and studied her slowly. If everything was as he suspected, then this woman would be his master for the next six hundred years. He sighed and decided to reign in his temper. He had never brooked anybody treating him the way this little woman was treating him. Evading his question and asking him her own question instead? Back in the clan, he would have snarled at the… criminal! who dared to do such a thing.

Blackfire released his aura a little bit more. And immediately, a silhouette of a magnificent dragon appeared around him. Although it was a mere silhouette, the power and majesty it radiated was not diminished one bit. It was as though a real dragon was standing there. Well, of course that was because a real dragon WAS standing there.

The silhouette was a beautiful black in colour with glimmering yellow eyes. Its snout was elegantly long and a fearsome pair of horns curved forward gracefully.

A deep, otherworldly growl emanated from the silhouette.

Caerose gasped slightly. She immediately understood. Aleyria, however, frowned slightly.

"What does it mean?" She asked Caerose in confusion.

"He's a dragon! That silhouette is the projection of his power." Caerose whispered, not knowing why she was whispering so much when she was perfectly clear that Blackfire could hear everything clearly.

"Really? I saw Alexander with such a silhouette before as well. A much more powerful one at that. Does that mean he is a dragon too?" Aleyria asked.

"WHAT?!" Caerose shouted. "Impossible!"

"I saw it with my own two eyes. It was when he was er... receiving the Blessing of Magius. A dragon silhouette formed then, and it was absolutely breathtaking." Aleyria asserted.

Blackfire chuckled lightly. "This girl is definitely in love with Alexander. That dragon silhouette probably came from Flamewing. How could that be stronger than mine?" He thought to himself.

"Did Magius turn him into a dragon? Impossible!" Caerose muttered to herself as she tried to make sense of Aleyria's words.

"Of course not. Alexander is still a man. And maybe this man is a man too." Aleyria narrowed her eyes slightly as she scrutinized Blackfire.

"No, he is definitely a dragon. Only dragons are able to manifest dragon silhouettes. There is no other explanation for the existence of such a silhouette." Caerose said stubbornly. "For Alexander's case, you either saw the wrong image, or Alexander is a dragon."

"I did not see anything wrongly. It was a dragon silhouette, and that is a fact." Aleyria said stubbornly as well.

"Then Alexander is a dragon!" Caerose glared at Aleyria. "Are you telling me that he is a dragon?"

"He's not a dragon!" Aleyria began to speak slightly louder.

"Then it was not a dragon silhouette you saw!" Caerose replied with a slightly louder tone herself.

"It was!" Aleyria asserted loudly.

"Grrrr..." Caerose was really annoyed.

"Grrrrr...." Aleyria was really annoyed too!