Alexander The Great Mage

Chapter 51 - Undead

Silence reigned in the room as Alexander, Aleyria and Magos stared at each other wordlessly. Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that they would be able to meet with a God. And they didn't expect Magius would seem so… Normal.

"We're done here then." Alexander finally said. "High Priest Magos, thank you very much for your help." Alexander nodded appreciatively at Magos, who was still staring blankly at the spot where Magius disappeared.

Magos was still very affected at finally being able to meet the God whom he had been serving and worshipping his entire life. In fact, he probably wouldn't be able to live normally after this.

It would be ridiculous for a man to say that he left an encounter with a fifty thousand kilogram rock smashing into him, totally unchanged. Which was bigger, Magius or the rock? In the same way, Magos was absolutely and totally floored.

"Leave him be. He'll probably remain in shock for a few more hours. Let's just tell his underlings to take care of him on our way out." Aleyria told him.

"More like a few days." Flamewing muttered. "Look, his hands are still trembling slightly. He's still in shock."

Alexander grinned widely and said to Aleyria, "What way out? We aren't going back the way we came." He stretched out his hand and beckoned Aleyria to hold it.

Aleyria raised an eyebrow, but she still held Alexander's hand. When she felt Alexander's smooth hand, her heart started to beat slightly faster and her ears turned slightly red.

"Here we go!" Alexander exclaimed, not feeling anything at all about holding Aleyria's hand. He was too excited to think about such things. He had more exciting things in mind. Far, far more exciting.

Things like testing out his new powers.

With a WHOOSH! Space fluctuated violently around them and they disappeared from the room.

And appeared just a few hundred meters away from the Orc Army. Only that it was no longer a pure Orc Army. Over a hundred thousand undead were massed in front of the orcs, a vast majority of them the very trolls Aleyria had massacred only days before. There were a smattering of various other undead, a cluster of humans and all sorts beasts.

The thing that stuck out the most about a few hundred thousand undead massing together wasn't the fact that they gave out a mighty and fearsome aura of death. It wasn't even the cacophony of jarring howls and moans and groans that filled the air like a vast, creepy choir of hell harmonizing constantly.

It was the smell. The thick, unbearably disgusting smell of rotting flesh permeated the air and seemed to aggressively attack their lungs even as Alexander and Aleyria took the smallest of breaths.

Almost immediately, Alexander and Aleyria gagged and retched. Alexander quickly summoned a massive gale to blow the smell back towards the Orc-Undead army.

Aleyria gasped for breath, taking in big gulps of fresh air to cleanse the incredibly pungent smell that had filled her lungs just a moment ago. "Alexander! What have you done?!"

"Errr… Ooops." Alexander said with a laugh, as he too breathed deeply to clear his lungs.

Flamewing laughed out loud hysterically within Alexander's mind. Her mood seemed to be much improved after her meeting with Magius.

"Well done, O Great Warlord. That was an amazing feat, teleporting so far in one go. I see a great future ahead of you!" Flamewing's pronouncement came with the certainty of a prophet.

However, her cheerful assurance transformed instantly into one of extreme gloom.

"A great future indeed lasting for a glorious five, no, three minutes! Thereafter, of course, you'll be dealing with a few hundred thousand enemy soldiers in impeccable formation. Most of them undead! And undead trolls at that! Hungry for vengeance against the vicious female Archmage who slew them by the thousands! You and Aleyria would probably die a horrible death! Eaten alive by the undead trolls!" Flamewing said with great satisfaction.

"Undeads don't remember their past lives, nor do they eat people." Alexander commented mildly. "Plus, it's a great opportunity to try out my new powers. I remember distinctly that Aloxandros knew a forbidden spell called "White Memory" which I really want to try…"

Flamewing was not mollified at all. "New powers? Forbidden spell? If you insist on remaining here and fighting with them, mark my words, we're destined for an early grave."

Alexander grinned. For all her grousing, he could sense a deep underlying sense of joy in her words. She seemed pretty happy and confident about their chances of survival.

Aleyria, on the other hand, wasn't feeling so great. She was affected by the gloomy atmosphere and the prospect of fighting hundreds of thousands of enemies, most of them hungry for her blood.

The first elements of the undead trolls had already noticed them and were charging towards them. Thousands of them across the entire line of at least a kilometer wide howled and shook the very ground as they thundered forward in a mighty air.

Behind them, far, far away in the horizon, Alexander's heightened sense of hearing could make out sharp bursts of trumpet calls as the orcs received orders from their commanders. Judging by the cavalry that started to peel to the left and right, the order was 'Surround and Capture'. Or something to that effect.

Thankfully for Alexander and Aleyria, or rather, thankfully for these orcs, because they were too far away, and because they were blocked by the undead, it would be many long minutes before these cavalry would reach them.

As powerful as Aleyria was, in a situation like this, her best option was still to escape. And she had come to that conclusion many seconds ago. "Let's just go!" She urged Alexander with a slight tinge of fear in her voice. "It would be bad if we get surrounded by them."

However, Alexander was no longer the weak-but-wily King he was before. His hands itched to cast a humongous, earth-shaking, sky-splitting spell.

He stared hungrily at the mass of enemies that filled his entire vision, stretching far into the horizon. A demon tiger would definitely recognize Alexander's gaze should one happen to see him this way. It was a gaze that it had used itself often enough when staring at an unsuspecting prey.

"Hungry. Need food. Food is right there."

"Have no fear, I could simply teleport us away anytime we feel like we could no longer handle them." Alexander said without turning around to look at Aleyria. "Let me cast a few spells first."

Grimly, Aleyria could only assent to Alexander's wishes. She was, afterall, just a passenger now. She stared at the incoming undead trolls who were howling with reckless abandon. There were no lines in the undead army. Just a gigantic mass of undead seeking to trample every target into smithereens.

Alexander raised both hands and began his incantation. Immediately, the skies rumbled in response. Huge rolls of dark clouds began to appear in the horizon and raced toward the skies above Alexander, reaching him much faster than the undead trolls could ever dream of.

So powerful was Alexander's magic that the forbidden spell which would take many long minutes to cast was almost completed within seconds.

Aleyria couldn't help but to marvel at his strength. The elements responded to him the way highly trained soldiers would respond to every single command from their general. Swiftly, accurately and with great efficiency. Whatever Alexander willed came to be almost the instant his magical seals were completed.

She waved her hands and summoned a barrier around them to keep out the growing cold.

The temperature continued to plummet and the atmosphere grew extremely heavy. Slight rain began to fall which quickly turned into a horrendous sleet. The wet and lush grassland immediately became slick with ice.

The effect on the trolls was almost immediate. Undead trolls charging forward at maximum sprint pay no attention to their footing, that was a pretty well known fact.

A few hundred trolls slipped and fell to begin the opening act. These trolls tripped many others who were charging blindly ahead, causing them to crash and fall, leading to an almost comical domino effect where the entire troll army eventually rolled to a stand still.

However, Alexander wasn't aware of these things. He was still deep in the throes of spellcasting, his eyes closed as he became one with his magic. The clouds continued to gather, and within seconds, the sleet turned into a mighty blizzard. Snow fell down in giant clumps, rapidly covering the land and turning it into a white paradise.

But that was only the beginning. At that moment, strong icy winds began to blow from almost every direction towards the middle of the troll army. The winds came fast and powerful, slamming into the enemy like massive sledgehammers and catching many undead trolls by surprise. Thousands more fell to the ground.

Impossibly, the powerful winds surged in strength once more, creating a giant vortex that surged upwards. The winds began to blow faster and faster, reaching close to a thousand kilometers per hour.