Alexander's boots let off an explosion which propelled him towards the enemy with great speed. Using the momentum, Alexander drew his sword and sliced the shadow mage across their chest. At the same time the mage shot Alexander with one final magic arrow. The arrow shot straight pasted his shoulder and they both crash landed somewhere on the academy grounds.
While that was happening Katherine and the others looked on. Katherine crouched down and began to form a huge magic circle.
"What are doing, girly?" Quincy asked her.
"It's not over yet." She replied as tree roots began to grow and headed towards the academy grounds.
The roots finally trapped the shadow mage. Moments later Katherine headed for the academy using the roots she created. Quincy carried Heather and run across the air, using magic circles as platforms to move around.
"ALEXANDER!" Katherine screamed when she saw him.
Quincy was amazed and shocked at the sight. 'This… t-this is madness. I-I don't believe it. Who are you? No what are you? The academy was 20 KM away from where we were, no mage has that much range. I mean projectile spells maybe, but she caught the shadow mage from that far away. Not to mention the other one, he deflected the full force of that magic arrow. It took everything I had for me just to block two of them. Heather who are these people?' Quincy thought to himself.
All three reached the academy just as Alexander collapsed. Katherine ran to him with panic in her face. She was in tears when she saw the hole on Alexander's body and the loss of blood. Katherine felt dizzy all of a sudden, and she lost her footing. She tried to cast a healing spell but her magic was weak to do anything.
"Please… you can't die on me." Katherine mumbled. Quincy watched her break down before collapsing to the ground. "Please… help him… I beg… you. Please… help him." Katherine whispered before passing out herself.
…
A few moments later some of the Valentian mages showed up. Chris was also there and he immediately went to Heather. He got one of the mages to heal Heater's leg, which got injured during the fight.
"Care to explain why you didn't call us soon, my Queen?" He asked.
"I told why." She replied tapping her foot after it got healed. "I wanted to see what they are capable off."
"And, what are the results?"
"They need more training, but they did good."
Chris shook his head. "I don't understand why you went so far for them? I don't trust them, but they did risk their lives to stop them, so if they can play nice they can stay."
"Wise words but what are your true thoughts?"
Heather thanked him, before heading towards Alexander and Katherine who were both being treated to with magic. Six mages were using healing magic but nothing was happening. Alexander was badly injured and Katherine lost a huge amount of mana during the fight.
"Nothing is happening. We can't heal them!" one of the Valentian mages cried out.
"What do you mean you can't heal them?" Heather asked with confusion.
"It's like we healing them but nothing is happening. I understand physical injuries but the hole is not closing, and she is not Physically injured but she is in the same state as him."
"Let's get them out of here, call in the Saint tell her we have a real situation on our hands."
Alexander and Katherine were brought to a building just outside the academy. The Saint managed to heal both of them, but they remained in a coma. It's been three weeks since the battle and finally Alexander woke up to find Katherine next to him. Katherine on the other hand kept waking up and falling asleep for two weeks, but she was too exhausted to do anything, her mana was completely drain. When she finally got enough mana, she cast a recovery spell and fell into a deep sleep.
…
The rays from the suns shined brightly filling the room with a radiant golden light. The room they were in was really big, and had a glass sliding door to the outside. Nothing filled the room except of the bed and a huge magic circle on the floor. Opposite the bed was a table and chairs filled with flowers and fruits. After three weeks they managed to heal Alexander's wounds, but he needed a few more days before he could completely heal. The so called Saint kept visiting Alexander to help heal him, but after two weeks they managed to keep him alive for the recovery magic to start working.
"Good morning, sleeping Princess." He said with a smile.
Katherine didn't respond, more like she couldn't respond. Her emotions were all over the place. She smiled, cried and could help but be happy and sad at the same time. After running through so many emotions she embraced Alexander, squeezing and holding him tightly. Alexander wrapped his arms around her as he began to let out a few tears.
"It's okay now… everything is going to alright now. I'm here."
It was a touching moment for the two of them, so how they managed to survive the battle. They were so happy they didn't question anything at that moment, until Heather walked in with Chris. She was shocked and happy to see them finally awake. She was not expecting them to wake up so soon. Chris excused himself and waited outside, he wanted the three of them too caught up. Even though Chris suggested to excuse himself, he was not happy and gave Alexander a dirty look that faded away into a little grin. Alexander noticed it but brushed it off as nothing. Heather jumped into a conversation, she couldn't help herself that she hugged the both of them, she was really worried about the two. She rambled on about how she was worried because of how the healing spells weren't working on them. She pulled a chair and sat beside them, she had a few things with her like food; clothes and other necessities. Those were just normal things but the most important item she had was Alexander's sword.
"I think this belongs to you. One of my mages found it at the academy." Heather explained handing over the sword to Alexander.
"Thank you Heather. Please also thank the person who found it." He replied feeling grateful. He held the sword and placed his forehead on it closing his eyes.
"What are you doing Alexander?" Heather asked curiously.
"His praying, sort of. That sword is precious to him." Katherine answered instead. "He always had it ever since we met."
"I'm curious about the rose design on the blade. Is it your favorite flower, or is there more behind it?"
Alexander opened his eyes and handed it back to Heather. She was confused at first but Alexander asked her to lean it against the wall, since he was still injured. Heather played the Queen card and accused him of being to friend. "You're your place peasant, I am the Queen." She said before busting into laughter. She explained she was making a joke and gladly help him.
"If you must know, it's a legend." Alexander began his explanation. "Someone once told me that there was a rose on top of a huge mountain. They told me the rose that bloomed there was the source of all magic. Maybe that's why it can cut down magic. There might be more behind it… but I don't know."
"I doubt that's why. Maybe you should ask the creator of the sword.?" Heather interrupted. "Or maybe it was created by the Grand Master."
"I don't know about that, but I found the sword… well it's more like it found me. It was weird, I felt like I was connected with the sword."
"What do you mean?" Katherine asked jumping in the conversation.
"Aside from cancelling magic, I can control it at will." He explained leaving the women clueless.
Alexander placed his hand out, pointing toward his sword which was leaning a few meters away. "Come to me" he said, but since he was still in bad shape he managed to move the sword just enough to explain his point. The women were impressed and they began asking more questions that before, but there was one question that stuck out the most.
"Where did you find this sword?" Heather asked, peaking Katherine's interest as well.
"I don't think you told me that story." Katherine began to show interest.
Alexander's expression changed when he heard those questions. You could tell he was getting angry by the way he was clinching his fists. Katherine and Heather tried to apologize because they felt that they may have touched on a very sensitive topic.
"I found it when I was living at the orphanage, 16 years ago… when they took everything I loved."