Alexander The Great Mage

"What's wrong?" Aleyria asked in surprise.

"You got in touch with a Devil King?!" Caerose asked Aleyria in shock. "When?"

"When I was still stuck in your prison. I accessed the realm of darkness and Regis Darkbane was the first being I saw. Apparently I opened a portal in his palace. Right in the middle of his audience hall, in fact." Aleyria chuckled as she recalled the situation.

"And he didn't attack you?" Caerose pressed on with her questions.

"No he didn't. In fact, he was rather happy to see me. Apparently he was being sieged by a rather large coalition of Kings.. He desperately needed my help. Any help, for that matter, and mine happened to be the only help he could find. He agreed to allow his elite soldiers to be summoned in exchange for my help." Aleyria explained.

"What did you do to help him?" Caerose asked in disbelief.

"I simply opened up a portal in one of the besieger's camp and controlled a general to lead his army to attack the other armies of the coalition. The coalition disintegrated almost immediately and began attacking each other. Regis Darkbane simply rode out after a while and wiped them out. Technically, he owes me his life. But…" Aleyria hesitated.

"Yes, Devil Kings are not to be trusted." Blackfire said. "A member of my clan once got into a partnership with a Devil King. Long story short, that clan member is now the Devil King's mount."

"Yes. That's why I am hesitating. Can you deal with his Darkbane Arcanists if they break free, Blackfire?" Aleyria asked.

"A Devil King is extremely powerful, but not as powerful as me. I am not afraid of his power, much less his little soldiers. But a Devil King is also extremely resourceful and cunning. Summoning his soldiers would carry a lot of risk. But still, I believe that it would be a good experience for you. I will destroy them if they try anything funny." Blackfire assured Aleyria.

"Good." Aleyria said in relief. "Because I need to summon them now if we want to resist those mechas."

"Go ahead." Blackfire said.

"Be careful. Protect your mind and be ready for anything." Caerose warned Aleyria.

Aleyria nodded, took a deep breath, and began her spell.

RIPPPPPP!!

A giant portal, almost a hundred meters tall, appeared in front of them.

Aleyria sent a seal through it and within seconds, a vast and terrifying force descended upon the land. Shimmering waves of heat shot out from the portal and caused the air around the portal to spontaneously combust. At the same time, a bleak and desolate feeling creeped into everybody's heart.

Life suddenly seemed very pointless, and death began to look like a very welcoming escape from the painful burden that is life.

"Guard your heart and your thoughts." Blackfire's voice rang out in everyone's minds. At the same time, most of the desolate feeling was dispelled from around them.

At that moment, a slim humanoid figure stepped out of the portal. He looked pitifully small coming out of such a humongous portal. But as his body fully entered the world, the heat around them suddenly intensified and everything within a hundred meters around him burst into flames.

The bleak and desolate feeling returned in full force into everybody's hearts.

Blackfire frowned and released a little bit more of his power, and immediately, the bleak and desolate feeling lifted once more.

Regis Darkbane turned his head lazily to look down at the direction from whence the power that alleviated his aura came.

His eyes immediately widened when he spotted Blackfire.

"A Black Fire Dragon!" Regis cried out in shock. Immediately, he made his way down to where Aleyria and the rest were standing.

"Princess." Regis bowed elegantly at Aleyria.

"King Regis." Aleyria frowned and nodded at him. "Why have you come? I thought the deal was for me to summon your Darkbane Arcanists?"

"I've come to personally repay you for your assistance!" Regis announced loudly. "With me around, you don't need any of my Darkbane Arcanists."

He gave Aleyria a charming smile. "Are you surprised by my generosity?"

Aleyria sighed and shook her head helplessly.

What Alexander had taught her previously was true. Plans were mere castles in the clouds. You can plan and plan and plan the best plan to reap maximum benefit, and then reality will come and just shred those plans to pieces like a meat grinder grinding meat. With King Regis around, how was she supposed to train?

"I see. You must be overwhelmed and speechless. Do not worry, Princess Aleyria! For a beautiful and kind soul like you, receiving my personal help is very well deserved! But I wonder what it is that you require of me, that even a mighty Black Fire Dragon such as this esteemed elder could not accomplish using his power alone?" King Regis asked.

"Oh, you misunderstand. It's not that Blackfire here cannot accomplish what I seek to do. Rather, it is I who wanted to get this done using my own power. That was why I thought of summoning those Darkbane Arcanists and see what they could do… As a form of training and practice. " Aleyria smiled at him.

"Ah I see." Regis nodded as though he understood. "Now that I am here, you do not need to trouble yourself and do such a meaningless and tiresome thing such as training! I will clear away your obstacles! And they shall disappear like snow before a conflagaration! So tell me, Princess, what can I do for you?"

Aleyria simply pointed to the mechas and said, "I need you to destroy those mechas. However, I need you to do that using the LEAST amount of power. And you cannot destroy them faster than fifteen minutes."

Regis squinted and studied the mechas. "Just these ones? Or do you want me to take out those magnificent giant ones over there, the one that's fighting with an equally large dragon?"

"What?" Aleyria asked in surprise.

"Don't worry. That's Alexander. He's doing fine." Blackfire cut in before Aleyria got too worried.

"Oh. Okay." Aleyria said.

"So it's just these bunch of incoming mechas? And I suppose that other dragon and three dragonlings are on your side too?" Regis asked.

Aleyria glanced at Blackfire.

"That's Flamewing and the three girls. Alexander probably sent them back to reinforce us when those giant mechas showed up and the other mechas made their way down towards us." Blackfire said.

"Alright! I shall sweep them away with a wave of my ha-" Regis began. However, Aleyria, Caerose and Isabella cut him short.

"DON'T DO THAT!" They shouted in unison.

Aleyria sighed deeply. She wondered how this bumbling fool could be a King.

"THIRTY MINUTES." Aleyria doubled the time limit. "You must SLOWLY destroy them and they can only lose after THIRTY MINUTES. Can you do that?"

"Ah okay. I understand! You do not want the enemy to know what a powerful ally you have! If they know, they might try and steal me away! Do not worry, Princess. They will never steal me away from you! Relax! Be at ease! I will sweep them away with a wave of my ha-"

Whoosh! Aleyria cancelled her summon and sent him back into the portal.

"I had to do it." Aleyria said with a laugh as she looked at the stares of surprise that the rest were giving her. "He would totally mess up our plans."

Blackfire chuckled as well. "He is rather dumb for a Devil King. However, what do you plan to do about the incoming wave of mechas? They should be here within five minutes."

"I'll try and summon Darkbane Arcanists for real this time." Aleyria said.

Thankfully, she succeeded this time.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

One after another, horrifyingly beautiful women stepped out of the portals. They were dressed completely in white armor, and had very pale skin. Their hair was white as well, and were silky smooth and long. Everything was white, except their eyes, which glowed a fearsome red.

"Attack the mechas." Aleyria whispered. However, her instruction sounded in the minds of all ten Darkbane Arcanists. They glanced down at her for a moment before quickly obeying her instructions. Their glorious King, Regis Darkbane, had instructed them prior to fully obey her commands whenever she called. And so they would do exactly that.

As one, the Darkbane Arcanists pointed at the incoming wave of mechas which filled the horizon before them.

Streams of dark energy shot out from their finger tips continuously like machine guns.

PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!

Within seconds, the Darkbane Arcanists had released hundreds of dark energy streams at the incoming mechas.

"What in the world are they doing?" Are those attacks even going to deal any dama-" Isabella started to complain. However, before she could say much more…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!! The streams of darkness exploded when they neared the mechas!

Immediately, the sky around them turned dark and was filled with highly corrosive dark energy.

"Excellent." Blackfire said approvingly. "First law of battle. Blind the enemy! I wonder what else they can do?"