Alexander The Great Mage

"Sir, if I may make an additional report." The aide said hesitantly.

"Go on." Prince Jolto said, feeling mildly surprised. In the many years he had operated the Starship, he had never received an additional request for a report from his aide before.

"The people in this bridge… are acting very strangely." The aide said.

"Strangely? Elaborate! Don't waste my time." Prince Jolto said in irritation.

"They're not responding to any form of communication. They are doing what they're supposed to do according to protocol… But that's it. If we ask them questions apart from protocol, they just give you a blank stare. " The aide said.

Prince Jolto stared at him as his heart skipped a bit. It couldn't be…

"Ready the secondary cannons." Prince Jolto said loudly as he turned his head to look at the person in charge of the secondary cannons. True enough, he immediately responded appropriately.

"How many cannons do we have on our starboard?" Prince Jolto asked a non-procedural question.

Silence.

"Soldier, I asked you, how many cannons do we have on our starboard?" Prince Jolto repeated his question with a frown, a deeply ominous feeling creeping up in his heart.

Silence.

"My bridge is compromised." He thought to himself grimly. "The damn wisps are just too fast."

"Dismiss everyone in this bridge and get the next shift to come in." Prince Jolto ordered his aide.

Silence.

Prince Jolto whirled around and looked at his aide who was giving him a blank stare.

"I think he's the one." A deep, otherworldly voice rang out.

"I agree." A more normal voice replied.

"Should we kill him and possess him as well?" A hint of excitement could be heard from the deep, otherworldly voice.

"No. I want to talk to him first." The normal voice said firmly.

Prince Jolto turned around and faced the two intruders who had somehow infiltrated his Starship and gained full control over his bridge.

A tall and handsome young man in simple yet obviously excellently made black leather armor stood casually with a beautiful crystal sword hanging on his left hip. Next to him was a strange man fully garbed in outrageous colours from head to toe, standing a full head shorter than the first.

Both had rather ordinary faces. But the aura both were emitting were anything but ordinary.

Prince Jolto immediately realized that the fight was over for him. His only strength is in his Starship. With it fully compromised, and with two insanely powerful men in his bridge, he had nothing left.

"You're the Universe Level Threat." Prince Jolto said calmly as he walked towards his captain seat and sat down.

The two men let him do that. The strange man had a rather indignant look on his face, but the first one merely gave him an amused look.

Prince Jolto despaired.

The first man was definitely not simple. He had purposely done that to provoke them, to see if they could be manipulated emotionally. Apparently the second man was a fool and could be manipulated easily. But the first one did not fall into his trap at all. He had an impressive control over his emotions.

"As you might have guessed. We have taken full control of your ship. You better cooperate with us. If not, we will blow this ship up with a wave of our hands! You don't want us to do that, do you?" The second man asked with a weird flourish.

Prince Jolto remained silent, choosing not to grace the weird man with a response.

The weird man frowned, and was about to speak up when the first man silenced him with a single hand motion.

"I have some questions for you." he said. "You can choose to provide me with answers voluntarily out of your own free will, or you can provide me with those answers voluntarily, but with a different spirit within you. You know, like the rest of your soldiers here." The first man said mildly.

Prince Jolto sighed. "Why bother?" He thought to himself. "I am dealing with a completely unknown power that can bypass every single defensive barrier in place and control thousands of people at the same time. I might as well cooperate and see where this brings me to."

"I will answer your questions. But first you must answer one of mine." Prince Jolto said.

"Sure. Let's do that." The first man nodded agreeably.

"Are you supporting Prince Flario?" Prince Jolto asked.

The first man laughed out loud. "And here I was expecting a more difficult question like, who are you? How are you so powerful?" He chuckled.

"No, I am not supporting Prince Flario. That's the answer to your question. Now answer mine and answer them truthfully. If I detect any falsehood, I'll immediately inject a spirit to take over your body and get the answers myself. Do you have any sort of connection to the Scions of Zegaro?" The first man asked.

Prince Jolto raised his eyebrows in surprise. He was not expecting that question at all. "No, of course not. The Scions of Zegaro are Symphonia's enemies. In fact, they are every empire's enemies. We will kill Scions of Zegaro on sight, no questions asked."

*-*-*-*-*

Alexander nodded in satisfaction. He did not detect any falsehood in his words.

"Excellent." Alexander thought. "If that's the case, I should be able to co-operate with him to deal with Flario."

"Next question, do you know of anyone within Symphonia who has that connection?" Alexander asked.

Prince Jolto frowned slightly as his mind raced. "Well, we do suspect that there are some people who might have connections to them…" He began slowly while thinking hard. "But we do not have conclusive evidence."

"Tell me." Alexander commanded.

"We suspect Prince Flario and many of his followers to have connections with the Scions of Zegaro." Prince Jolto said calmly. "I am not trying to rile you up against Prince Jolto, but it is simply the whole truth. His soldiers are very, very powerful and his elite soldiers are even rumoured to be unkillable. That, and many other rumours point to the possibility that he has connections with Scions of Zegaro."

"What of Princess Anastasia?" Alexander asked.

"Princess Anastasia? She's just a little girl. She's only useful because Prince Flario loves her so much." Prince Jolto said dismissively. "I assume that she's in your hands?"

"You've asked your question, and I've answered. You don't get to ask any more questions." Alexander replied. "Who are you and what's your situation in relation to the fight for the throne?"

"I am Prince Jolto. I support Prince Marius. After Prince Jolto, Prince Marius has the highest chance to claim the Symphonian Throne."

"Good. What is your plan to deal with Prince Flario now?" Alexander asked.

"Destroy Arcanus 26. We'll kill Princess Anastasia and get Prince Flario into a burning rage. An angry Prince Flario is much easier to deal with than a cold and scheming Prince Flario. The planet is destroyed, I will attack him together with Princess Hilda." Prince Jolto said.

SMACK!

Alexander smacked his head very suddenly.

POOOFFTTTT!!

Prince Jolto's head smashed onto the side of the captain seat. Thank goodness it was heavily cushioned. If not, his head would probably burst from the impact.

"That is my planet you're planning to destroy." Alexander glowered. Thank goodness he decided to infiltrate the Starship! If he hadn't things would have been really bad. Really, really bad. The Starship's main cannon would simply obliterate the planet into nothing.

Prince Jolto shook his head to clear it and wiped the blood on his mouth with his arm's voluminous sleeves.

He glared angrily at Alexander for a moment before sighing once more.

"Do what you will. I am a defeated general in this battle. But if you want me to work for you, you better start treating me with respect." Prince Jolto said.

Alexander nodded. This Prince Jolto was pretty smart. He must have known that the only reason why he didn't send a spirit to possess him was because he was still useful. And indeed, Alexander was planning on having Prince Jolto work for him secretly. That way, it would make the fight for the throne of Symphonia much easier for him.

Afterall, he still needed to put Princess Anastasia on the throne, and then join up with Magius. He wanted to play with the big boys.

"Now that you're no longer destroying Arcanus 26, what do you plan to do?" Alexander asked.

"Same thing. Even without Arcanus 26 destroyed and with my Starship damaged, Princess Hilda and I still overpower him by a large margin. We will attack him and kill him right here." Prince Jolto said with a slight tinge of viciousness in his voice.

"With you and your friend, killing him is all but assured. This is a rare chance, a once in a lifetime opportunity. Join us and kill him! Even if he is a Scion of Zegaro and has several Scions in his employ, we can still take him on!" Prince Jolto urged him passionately.