SPELLBOUND

However reluctant she was with this suggestion Vera knew that this was the only way forward for now. They need to know what was waiting in there first before jumping in. Thus, having Azrael going in as their scout was the best option at the moment. But...

"I will be sending a signal to the dark fae commander using my magic." Azrael explained his plan. And after discussing further about their strategy and gathering a small team to enter the second wall of darkness, Azrael was finally prepared to go.

Vera approached him. She could feel a lump forming in her throat at the thought that she would be sending him ahead – as though she was sending him into an uncertain fate.

"Please take care." She said solemnly and Azrael smiled.

"I will. I'm going to return alive, I promise. And I'm really confident I will be able to keep my promise because well..." he touched Sweetie's snout and caressed it. "I have my sweet dragon now." The dragon made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort. If she was a person, she would have said 'hmph!' as she faced away from her annoying rider.

Vera giggled at the cute interactions with each other. She honestly had not expected Sweetie to get attached to Azrael that quickly. But this was good too.

Vera then approached Sweetie and whispered to her. "Take care of him and come back to me, okay Sweetie?"

The dragon made another sound and Vera considered that as a yes. She then put her forehead on Sweetie's snout as she said a short prayer in her heart for this scouting party, that they would return safe and sound, especially for Sweetie and Azrael.

Soon, they finally watched Azrael and Sweetie lead a small team and entered the inky dark wall.

...

Contrary to what Azrael was expecting, the inside of the inky dark wall was not 'the well' yet. If it was the well, there should not be any ground that they could step on, right?

Gideon had mentioned before that if you enter the heart of the abyss, you will feel like you are falling into a void of darkness. This was not it, though. They were still all walking on relatively firm ground.

He was of course, thankful. But... this only meant that this was not to be over yet. They all assumed Gideon must be in the heart of the abyss, waiting for them there. And he was quite certain that they were already close to that well.

The darkness was so thick and heavy that it was hard for even him to see more than a few feet ahead of him. But they still had no choice but to moved forward, just being more careful and alert.

Azrael's suspicion that the battle with the monsters were not over yet seemed to be true. However, he had a feeling that this would be the final obstacle they must cross before they could reach to where Gideon was.

"Sweetie!!!" Azrael yelled as his dragon breathed out her ice breath ahead of them. The bright blue ice formed, and he saw something with wings got frozen inside before it fell heavily and shattered as it hit the ground.

Wide-eyed, Azrael gritted his teeth. What the hell?!! The enemy was a flying creature this time!!! It seemed that the enemy had upped their game.

From the broken up form on the ground, Azrael could see that they were smaller than the dragons. But if they were many in numbers that came attacking them at once...

Sweetie shrieked, breathing out her ice breath again. Another flying creature zoomed quickly above Azrael, and he used his magic to hit it. Shit! These ones were similar to bats. Bigger in size and also troublesome in number.

Looking closer, Azrael concluded that four of these flying creature was equivalent to one average ice dragon in size. They were also powerful, enough to grab a rider from the back of the dragons and the sickest part was that they also have pointed snouts as sharp as a blade. That would be fatal if it actually pierced through the dragons!

"Retreat!!!" Azrael yelled out his commands at his men who were all now on the ground as some men had already been taken by those flying creatures while they were still in the air. He had noticed that the flying creatures did not go after the men who were on the ground. They only targeted the ones who were in the air!

The men started to retreat.

"Sweetie!!! Retreat!!! Now!!!" Azrael yelled and he roared out in anger when he turned and saw his dragon's wings got pierced by the flying monster's blade-like snout. His eyes reddened as his murderous aura flared out. How dare these bugs hurt his precious Sweetie!

"F*ck!!!" He immediately called up a barrier, furious to the point that he had wanted to tear the monster into a hundred strips with his own blade. But he clenched his jaws and held back, knowing he had to prioritize his actions now and had to urge Sweetie to return before their casualties increased.

The dragon immediately listened to him, but it was obvious that she was having a hard time due to the cut in her wing.

"You can do it, Sweetie..." he coaxed her as she flapped her wings and struggled to reach the wall.

Azrael kept looking back, constantly on the lookout for the flying creatures. The flying monsters relentlessly tried to pierce his shield and now with their growing numbers and increasingly stronger attack, the shield started to crack a little.

"Sh*t!!!" he cursed, gritting his teeth as he tried to summon more magic to strengthen the shield. He could still escape by teleporting but... Sweetie could not be brought along. She would die! He could not teleport her. No one could teleport a dragon.

"There's no way I will leave my Sweetie! Damned you, monsters!!!" he yelled and his dark magic surged wildly through him, exploding out of his body and mending the broken cracks.