SPELLBOUND

Evie looked at the core and gritted her teeth. It seemed as though what she had been afraid of had happened. She mourned at how accurate sometimes her instincts and gut feeling could be. It was almost prophetic to a degree. And now even Zolan was advising her to call the troops to withdraw.

"RETREAT!" she shouted out using her magic to amplify her voice so it could reach the ears of all the members of their allied forces. Everyone was swift and immediately moved to retreat as per the orders given by Queen Evie, even as they did not understand what was going on. In their minds, they had already secured the victory as all the monsters had been slain. They were just delaying the victory celebration until Vera and Azure returns with Prince Gideon. Thus, even as they were running back, retreating as they had already determined on if they ever needed to retreat, their minds were still in chaos and confusion.

The soldiers on the ground flew back as they tried to get as far away as possible from the core. Since their leader had already spoken, they only needed to obey and follow.

Just as everyone was trying to retreat, the core once again, acted strangely. The tentacles that had been dormant after all the monsters had been killed off, now lengthened at will, as if it did not have any intentions on allowing anyone to escape.

Many were caught and could not escape. The dark tentacles' movements were just too quick and swift that even with the orderly retreat from the armies, one after another were caught and fell prey to the clutches of these long appendages. Frightened screams and panicked shouts rang out across the battlefield that was only for a short moment earlier, quiet and calm.

Evie could only turn around, shooting out light beams in order to free everyone. Her brilliant light magic lighted up small sections of areas in the darkness, along with Onyx's horizontal columns of fire that was being breathed out and controlled in cylindrical, concentrated streaks. Everywhere that Evie's light and Onyx's fire shoots out at, their allies were released from the entrapment of those wicked dark tentacles. However, there were only the two of them, but numerous tentacles had shot out to take their people captive. Still, Evie and Onyx did not stop, and the other fire dragons and their riders also tried to help by emulating Queen Evie and Onyx in helping their own people who were caught.

Queen Beatrice had already gone berserk, after watching how the armies were being toyed with by the tentacles. She zipped around, tearing up the tentacles using her sword like a deranged warrior with just one strike. She continued on that way, flashing from left to right, from the front to the back, freeing up as many dragons and soldiers as she could with each strike and slash of her sharp blade.

The soldiers kept yelling at Evie to leave and escape, to not bother about them. Even Zolan had expressed his wish for the queen to just go, but of course, Evie did not listen to them. How could she?! Could she just up and leave these fellow comrades whom she had fought alongside with and shed blood and tears for in this bloody war? No way! She could not... No, she did not have the heart to leave anyone behind, and from what she saw of her mother-in-law, so does Beatrice. They both had zero intentions of running off and just saving themselves.

Evie was at ease and wasn't afraid for her and her child. Se was confident that her protective shield was able to withstand this impending explosion. She is the Queen of Light. She would withstand this! She should! But the others. The dragons and soldiers couldn't.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Laiza kept looking up, trying to keep track of Queen Evie's situation, as she started to escape along with everyone else.

She couldn't quite see what was going on up there as she was flying low but she could still her light and the fires. She could tell the queen was not retreating.

A dragon flying a little lower than the usual height it would be at caught her attention. Immediately realizing that it was the dragon that Levy had been on, she could not help but stop and looked up at it for a longer time. Her eyes scanned from the head of the dragon to its tail, trying to identify that familiar figure that she was looking for. This dragon had turned back to free an ice dragon that had been caught and trapped by a dark tentacle. But now, it was the one that was caught. And there was no one near who was there to help them out of their predicament.

Laiza could see that the dragon was really struggling. Three tentacles had wrapped around it. It was three tentacles too many. Three tentacles were just too much for it to fight against.

She gritted her teeth and flew closer to where the dragon was visibly struggling. The tentacles that were holding the dragon down had emerged from below them and she noticed that the tentacle was thinner when it was near the ground, compared to when it was up there and wrapping itself around their prey. They have multiplied in size! She could slash at that with just her sword!

Without any hesitation, Laiza headed towards it by herself. At the back of her mind, she kept asking what the hell was she doing? And alone, at that. But she could not make herself return and run away. With a disbelieving smile on her face, she went forward at full speed ahead.

Up above, Levy and Luc were cursing. "Shit!!! We're not going make it at this rate!!!" Luc yelled as the two of them kept on slicing desperately at the thick tentacles. They were both already weakened from the long and fierce battle earlier on. And Levy had also lost his damned sword!

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A/N: please cast your Golden Tickets on Hellbound Heart. Thank you so much! <3

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