"No. It's not mind but my heart! I lost my heart… I'm in love, Luc!" Levy literally had hearts flying out of his eyes that Luc rolled his eyes hard.
Luc lifted his hand, wanting so bad to slap his frustrating comrade, but he stopped midway and just sighed like an old man so done watching a stupid man wasting his youth.
'Whatever! Might as well let him be happy in his own delusions.' Luc thought as he rolled his eyes again.
…
Meanwhile, at the farthest side of the battle…
"Sweetie!!!" Azrael's loud shout echoed as he rallied his dragon. "Hurry!"
As if the dragon was annoyed at her loud and aggravating rider, her pace doubled that Azrael nearly got blown away.
"Oh damn! That's sick Sweetie! Yeah! That's my girl!!" he continued with loud yells. He was oblivious to the fact that such a grown and big man like himself yelling 'Sweetie this' and 'Sweetie that' was just a scene that brought goosebumps – the bad kind – to any listeners. Thank goodness there were not many who could hear it.
After the many hours Azrael had fought the battle with his dragon, he was finally used to calling his dragon its ridiculous name. Well, right now, it no longer sounded as ridiculous to him anymore. In fact, he now found the name quite adorable for this cute dragon of his. The two of them had been working together so incredibly in sync and Azrael was just over the moon about it. In fact, he was more ecstatic about him being able to work seamlessly with Sweetie than compared to his previous accomplishments in war.
Of course, it had been quite challenging at the beginning, but as the battle went on, they eventually grew more in sync with each other and worked together faster than any other dragon-rider pairs. Except of course for the tandem of Vera and Azure, which was to be expected.
Azure truly was a one-of-a-kind dragon. He knew what exactly he was doing just like the Light Queen's Onyx. Having Azure paired up with Vera had actually made Azrael feel more at ease. He had seen multiple times how Azure had easily avoided dangers that otherwise would have been disastrous for Vera.
Azrael also noticed that Azure was definitely acting like an overly cautious old man. It really shocked him at first, but he later realized that it was because the dragon must have known that Vera was the last ice dragon master left in this world. And that was why he was taking the extra precautions in making sure that she would not get hurt in the slightest. And up till now, it still seemed to be the case.
Sweetie reached Vera and Azure in just seconds.
They were finally advancing. After they received the message on how to defeat the level-five monsters, they immediately executed it and had been met with success after success.
Now it was time to reach what they all thought as the final stage in this battle.
Ahead of them was an even thicker wall of darkness. This one looked as black as ink and all of them could feel the even more ominous aura oozing out from it. Just being this far away from it was enough to cause their skins to crawl with an incomprehensible feeling – as though that the moment they come into contact with that chilling black wall, something dreadful would happen to them.
Azrael had felt this before. It was similar to whenever they got near the heart of the abyss, they would feel this feeling crawl under their skin.
This was also how the well of darkness looked like, an inky and dark half circle that seemed to be planted on the ground. No… it was more apt to say that it originated from an unknown depth and had emerged out at ground level.
He could not help but think that this was actually 'the well' and it had grown so large! It was like the well had turned into a lake now. And if his theory was true and that this was indeed the well, they should not go into it no matter what!
Because… he had a feeling that they might never return once they crossed over into it.
Gideon was the only one who had managed to come out of 'the well' after he had jumped into it. The others who tried or accidentally fell into it had never once returned.
"What are we going to do?" Azrael asked Vera. His loud voice echoing out that even Leon and Zanya who were riding on Silver, that was on Vera's left side heard his voice.
Vera stared at the inky black wall of darkness. Her heart was racing, and blood was rushing loudly in her ears.
She had already heard about Azrael's theory, and she understood this would be dangerous – more than dangerous, in fact.
But all the monsters had already been annihilated. At least on their side. She had not yet received any news from Evie yet if they had finally killed all the monsters on their side.
According to Gideon's words before they separated, all monsters must be killed and not a single one must be left, even the lowest rank of all. And after that… she did not know what would happen next, but she believed in Evie. That Gideon will be saved after that.
But was this truly the final stage? How could they know that there were no more monsters inside this other wall of darkness? What if there were more of these walls further in? What would their strategy be then?
"We should test… just to be safe. I'll lead a team and go on ahead first." Azrael said. "We can't have you going in without knowing what's in there, right?"
Vera looked over at Azrael. Worry was etched on her face.
"Don't worry. I won't die." He smirked confidently. He knew what she was thinking even without her saying anything at all. "And since we still have yet to find Gideon, I believe he must be in there. Waiting for us to get to him. I'll just go in first to check out the situation."
___
A/N: Update status is 3 chapters/week so i am discouraging everyone from buying higher tier privilege.