Chapter 651-660

Chapter 651 Take care

　　Just as Evie had predicted, the monsters came at them with almost the same pattern of attack as what she had seen in her vision.

　　The smallest and weakest monsters rushed at them first then slowly followed by the bigger ones as they pushed forward as they tried to overwhelm the invading armies. She had thought Gideon – who was now the commander that was ordering and sending the monster troops out – might surprise them with a different approach, the approach that she was dreading the most. That he would unleash all the most powerful monsters at them all in one go to surprise them. But… thankfully, that did not happen. She was not sure what was happening on his end, but she was thankful for small miracles.

　　This attack he used heavily favoured Evie and her army. Because with this, everyone will have the time to adjust themselves from entering into the wall of darkness. Evie had planned that if Gideon had gone all out on them right off the bat, she would have to use herself to light up the abyss.

　　So, when she realised that Gideon had employed this rather kind attack on them, it was such a relief. With this, she could use her power later on in the war, once they were up fighting against the deadliest monsters. For now, the light faes’ light coupled with the dragon’s fires were more than enough to deal with these small fries.

　　The fact that Gideon used the exact same tactics he had used two days ago gave her an even stronger hope in this plan of hers on succeeding. Because there was no way that Gideon who was so experienced in fighting and war, only know one pattern of attack. He was the dark fae crown prince and he had participated in multiple wars against the monsters before, though it might not be a war this large.

　　For Evie, this only meant one thing. Gideon was not being fully consumed by the darkness of the abyss. At least up till now. There must still be some consciousness left in him. And if they were to be optimistic in their thinking, this same strategy he was using again now, was his way to help them defeat the monsters. Perhaps, she could even think that he might be sending them a message through this. By using the exact same tactics, he might be telling them that he did not intend to fight them but was being forced to.

　　It was true that this tactic could exhaust them before they could even reach the deadlier monsters. However, this was so much better than having all the deadly monsters attacking them all at once right at the very start in her opinion. Her soldiers needed all the time they can get to be able to adjust to fighting in the dark first and foremost. Even she and her dragons needed it as this was all their first time fighting in pitch black darkness.

　　The battle went on much better than she had expected. Klauz’s soldiers were no doubt truly strong, she had to give them that. The ice dragons also seemed to know exactly what they were doing. It was clear that they were experienced when it comes to battles and wars. Which was another great relief to Evie. They seemed to be really well trained in destroying monsters.

　　Vera had yet to learn how to cast the ice that her dragons had generated to trap the monsters by just her clenching her fists. So the battlefield was now covered with spikes of ice crystals.

　　But despite all these good news so far, Evie knew there was no time for them to relax. War was war. Sooner or later, just like in her vision, everything will become much harder.

　　And she was right. The farther they pushed in, the fiercer they would need to fight. And soon, the blood of their soldiers begun to dye the dark ground red.

　　”Evie…” Queen Beatrice spoke up for the first time in hours. “I’m going down to fight alongside them.”

　　Evie threw a quick glance over her shoulder at her mother-in-law before she focused her gaze forward again. She knew she could not stop the queen from going forward to fight. She somehow expected she would ask to go to the ground soon.

　　”I understand, mother.” Evie nodded, understanding how hard it felt to just sit back there and watch. “But please, be careful.”

　　Beatrice smiled. “Send me over to your vampire men. I’ll fight alongside them.” She said and Evie secretly felt relieved inside. Even though she would not stop her mother-in-law from fighting, she could not help but still be worried for her. But with this arrangement, it allowed her to feel a little more reassured.

　　Having Queen Beatrice stay with her men would be a good idea. Because she knew that her men would be able to protect her and vice versa.

　　”But first, I need you to pick that wounded light fae to replace me. I know you are very perceptive to your surroundings. But someone needs to be here as a backup, my dear. Just at least to be an eye behind your back.” Beatrice added and Evie once again nodded obediently.

　　She asked Onyx to head towards the light fae who had her leg heavily injured first. Once they got her, Queen Beatrice instructed her to watch over Evie’s back while she was healing. The light fae understood the assignment and swore to watch over her queen’s back. Her leg was poisoned from one of the monster’s bites. So it was going to take a long while for her magic to heal herself. She was certain she would have died within a few moments as she was unable to stand anymore and even one of her wings were already torn. So the queen picking her had just literally saved her life. She swore to stay vigilant and made sure to protect her even just by spotting threats that could threaten the queen’s safety.

　　Once the light fae was settled, Onyx moved to where the vampires were, incinerating monsters along its way there.

　　”Please take care,” Evie told Beatrice and the queen smiled.

　　”You too, my dear.” And then she jumped down and gracefully landed on a certain higher level monster. Her blade had cleanly sliced the monster into half as her feet touched the ground.

Chapter 652 Speechless

　　A few moments ago, Evie’s elite vampires were engaged in a fierce fight against a giant monster.

　　Samuel, Reed and Luc had decided to team up together to go against the giant while Levy fought on his own against the low-level monsters that came to aim at his comrades back. He actually held on his own quite well. He had zipped around, only after images of him that could be seen as his sword flashed intermittently, the only hints of where he was at that moment. They found themselves more superior than the dark faes now that they were fighting in the dark. They were vampires after all. They were a part of the dark.

　　Their red eyes gave them such an advantage and since the war started, the rampage and even taking on bigger monsters right off the bat while the dark faes were still adjusting from the darkness, were like a stroll in the park for them.

　　With all the strategies and killing methods Samuel had learned from the previous wars, Levy, Luc and Reed did not have much of a hard time like what Samuel, Leon and Zolan had gone through the very first time when they had been fighting with these monsters.

　　”Now come on you little nasty mutts!” Levy roared and taunted those monsters, laughing. And when the three lowest level monsters came at him, he jumped, moved like a blur and when he landed coolly on the ground, the monsters suddenly crumbled all at once behind him.

　　He peered through his tussled hair and smirked when suddenly a yell echoed out behind him.

　　”Why the hell are you smirking down there you, dumbass?!” the yell was from Luc. “Who the hell are you showing off to?!”

　　Levy’s gaze flew towards where Laiza was. To his delight, she coincidentally turned over to look at him and her gaze coincidentally met his. Laiza had also just brought down two monsters at once.

　　He flashed a flirtatious wink at her before he turned over to look at Luc, his grin growing wider than ever.

　　”The f*ck! What’s wrong with you grinning so creepily like that?!” Luc yelled. He did not want to admit that Levy was successful in showing off.

　　”Shut up man.” Levy smugly replied. “Just pay attention to your foe. Stop looking out for me like you’re in love with me.” Levy could not help but tease Luc back.

　　”Dumbass!!! You’re the one who should be paying attention to your foes! Stop showing off like an idi – Levy, look out!!! Behind you!!!” Luc screamed out halfway through his insulting Levy.

　　Levy turned and he cursed at the sight of a higher level monster approaching him at an impossible speed. Before the war, the king had already released an official statement about categorising the levels of the monsters that had appeared in the war two days ago. They had discussed and ended up classifying the monsters into five different levels. The smallest and slowest monsters, which was also the most common and largest in number was the level 1 monsters while the more aggressive, faster and slightly larger ones were labelled as level 2 monsters. The giants were labelled level 4 and the massive, blowing up monsters, were the level 5 ones.

　　The one that was approaching Levy was currently identified as a level three one. That monster seemed to be flying over the ground and had three heads and deadly dragon-like tails was headed straight for Levy.

　　Levy knew it was too late for him to escape the attack. Thus, he could only grit his teeth, bear down and defend from the upcoming blow as he cursed under his breath. But holy shit! This was a level three monster attacking him at full force! Would his sword be even enough to hold up against those massive dragon-like claws?! Damn it… of all times that he had to be fooling around, it had to be today when his inattention would cost him. Oh well, he would just have to rise to the occasion and ensure he would survive this with the least possible wounds.

　　He had a feeling that this attack would totally shatter his sword. Triple shit, Levy! You cannot just die off like this!!

　　Just as the monster’s claws smashed against his sword, something bluish and black came shooting in from the side and hit against the monster’s claw, changing its course in an instant.

　　Levy instantly grabbed that opportunity to back off. When he landed on the ground, far enough from the level 3 monster, he turned and looked back at the source of that dark magic that had somewhat saved him from an impending doom.

　　He caught sight of Laiza. She only threw him a quick glance like she was calling him what Luc had just called him. ‘Dumbass.’

　　Then she spread out her wings before shooting forward and attacked the monster.

　　Levy admired her every move for a moment before he too moved to the same monster to help her out.

　　The two of them somehow ended up coordinating surprisingly well. Laiza was aiming all her attacks at the monster’s head while Levy was busy focussing his attacks on its lower parts.

　　The attacks were coordinated such until the monster lost one of its feet due to Levy’s relentless attack.

　　When it finally crumpled into an unmoving heap on the ground, Laiza delivered the finishing blow that ensured it remained unmoving forever. The monster’s dark blood splashed all over her at her quick slash.

　　Levy was clapping his hands, grinning in amazement while watching her pull her sword that was lodged deep, out of the monster’s throat.

　　”Amazing!” he said enthusiastically, eyes twinkling as he clapped his hands, an ovation to her astonishing fighting skills. “You’re so amazing that I think I’m in love!” Levy declared as if he could not help himself but express his overflowing admiration for Laiza.

　　”…” Laiza only raised a brow in silence as she looked at Levy, speechless.

Chapter 653 Romantic?

　　Laiza raised her brow and remained silent for a moment at Levy’s words, but she then looked away and jumped off the monster’s body agilely.

　　”Dumbass.” She muttered just loud enough for him to hear as she walked past him, lifting her gaze again to look out for the Light Queen’s whereabouts. This was her main duty, to watch over her but even she could feel that the queen really did not need any help from her.

　　Aside from the fact that she was up there, being protected by a massive and majestic fire dragon, the queen also had an unfathomable amount of magic in her. She would probably only be in need of any help if her dragon falls – if he ever does – and that was something near impossible. She just could not imagine that black dragon falling. Ever.

　　Suddenly, she saw the queen’s dragon suddenly diving to the ground. That worried her immensely. What was going on? It must not approach the ground that low! The giants will be able to jump at it and take it down!

　　Distracted from the sudden and bizarre action, Laiza failed to notice that there was another monster that had crept forward and was coming at her from behind.

　　She finally noticed it, but she knew that it was a little too late for her to escape.

　　Before she could move, an arm was already wrapped around her waist and the next instant, she could immediately tell who it was just by the unique male scent of that annoying male vampire that had wrapped around her.

　　Levy and Laiza tumbled onto the ground.

　　When Laiza lifted her gaze, that annoying vampire was grinning down at her. “Isn’t this romantic?” he asked, looking happy rather than sarcastic.

　　For goodness’ sake. What’s wrong with this vampire?! She could not believe that he was still able to flirt and play around when they were in such a dangerous situation. Was his brain damaged from the fight earlier? Perhaps he had hit it on something?

　　She grabbed him and rolled him over before she immediately rose and regained her fighting stance as the monster was coming at them again.

　　He joined her, lifting his sword towards the monster as well.

　　”Shall we do that exciting collab again?” he asked with a grin.

　　”I’m fine with it.” she agreed readily, and they both went for that same pattern of attack.

　　The monster was downed by them just within a few moments. And Levy knew it was mostly because of Laiza’s incredible sword skills. She was actually on par with Leon in terms of speed! And she seemed to be so incredibly experienced. He could not help but wonder at how old she actually was, knowing that the skill she had must have been something that could only be acquired after years and years of actual combat.

　　He could not help but whistle once again in appreciation as he watched her deliver another finishing blow on their unfortunate victim.

　　”Terrific! Damn, girl! You fierce!” he commented, eyes shining in admiration.

　　”Are all vampires really as strong as you?” she finally asked about him this time, causing him to be over the moon!

　　”I’m stronger than most, but of course there are still others who are stronger than me.” Levy replied rather humbly as the two of them returned to where their comrades were. The three vampires had finally taken that giant down, but they were now mobbed by a number of level 3 monsters. It was evident that they were needing some help from their comrades.

　　”That’s amazing. Considering you guys don’t wield any magic at all.” Laiza’s comment made Levy grin. “I think your comrades should team up with the other dark faes too. It’s more effective that way. The vampire’s raw strength could be utilized to the maximum if we plan it that way.”

　　”Hmm… You’re right. Okay, I’ll let the leader know if there’s a chance to do that. It’d really be amazing if they all could find a romantic partner like you cause those guys are being so boring. Haha.” Levy jabbered on, all happy on his own.

　　Laiza almost tripped hearing the words ‘romantic partner’ coming from Levy’s mouth.

　　”Stop romanticizing everything will you?” Laiza could not help but comment rather sharply at his remark.

　　”What’s wrong with that? I think it’s more fun that way, don’t you think?” he beamed at her, not at all bothered that she was frowning at him.

　　She was speechless at his cheery disposition and way of thinking. This was the very first time she ever met a man smiling so genuinely in the midst of a war. And it was not because he was happy about the killings or the situation, or that he was not serious with his duties. She could really tell he was just simply being positive over everything that was going on around him. What a rare creature… and that caused her to look at him in a more positive light.

　　When they were finally reunited with the group, the five of them fought fiercely against the monsters that had been surrounding them.

　　They were slowly getting overwhelmed. They seriously needed reinforcements as the monsters were suddenly focusing their attacks on them as if they had gotten angered that they had killed that giant. It was as though they were taking revenge for their fallen comrade.

　　”Shit!” Reed was stabbed deep in his abdomen and fell to the ground.

　　”Reed!” Samuel ran over to shield him before grabbing and pulling him towards the middle.

　　”Don’t mind me –”

　　”Shut up and heal yourself!” Samuel commanded and he fixed his attention back to the monster that was before them.

　　The four of them, including Laiza surrounded Reed in the middle while the monsters in turn surrounded them on the outside.

　　”Damn! We need a plan! And we need one fast!” Luc said despite knowing that at this moment, the only thing they could do was fight on and see if they could find an opening to escape the entrapment of these monsters.

　　”We can only keep on fighting.” Samuel spoke with a firm voice. They all knew he was right.

　　And just when the monsters were about to attack them all at once, a woman dropped down from above, killing one of the monsters as soon as she swiftly landed on the ground.

　　Queen Beatrice!

Chapter 654 So cool

　　The instant Queen Beatrice made her epic entrance, she flashed a badass smile at the vampires who were all having their mouths agape and staring her. In the next second, she catapulted from the ground again as another monster came hurtling at her from behind. The vampires who were looking on were amazed at the queen’s fighting skills. Queen Beatrice was so cool!

　　She did not even turn to look back, but it already seemed as though she had already known what was coming even without looking. It was as though she had 360 degrees vision and could tell whenever an enemy was approaching her no matter where they came from and could execute a perfect counterattack on them.

　　Like a dark lightning bolt, Queen Beatrice moved in a zigzag pattern that the monsters did not even know where to look at. Then seemingly out of nowhere, she appeared right before the level two monster. One powerful kick was delivered and landed squarely on its head, sending the monster soaring away before landing on the ground and continued rolling away like a large stone, eventually hitting the other level one monsters that were crowding around along its path.

　　”Whoaaa!!! Daaaaamn!!! She’s definitely way stronger than you, leader!!!!” Levy exclaimed loudly and dramatically, breaking the rest out of their trance. Watching the queen fight had rendered them all speechless and awestruck. Even Laiza could not quite believe what her eyes were witnessing. It truly was an exceptionally rare occasion to see the queen fight.

　　She had heard that this woman, the female vampire who became the queen of the dark faes, was one of the strongest among the females in the entire Under Lands, if not the strongest. But at that time, she did not pay much attention to it. She had truly thought what she had heard was a little bit of an exaggeration as it was news about the queen. She had suspected at that time that perhaps to give the queen some face, the news that was being spread about was a little more flattering to the ears. She never thought that it was real! She was truly the strongest woman she had ever seen!! And to think that this was her attacking without any magic at all!! How awesome was that?! She had never seen anything like this! No man in the Under Lands could passively possess such raw power!

　　”You really are a dumbass,” Luc elbowed Levy, “of course she is. Queen Beatrice is the last pure blue-blooded vampire there is!”

　　”Oh, right! Haha. I had actually forgotten about that for a moment.” Levy scratched his head rather sheepishly.

　　”Enough you two. Stop chatting. Let’s go back Her Majesty up. Remember… she’s the mother of our King.” Samuel reminded them and those words had everyone’s face turning incredibly serious. Even Levy lost his usual playfulness in that instant where Samuel had made mention of their king. “Let’s go!”

　　The vampires roared their agreement. Then they finally jumped into the fray and joined the queen.

　　”Hello there, my boys… nice of you all to join me. Is everything alright now?” she asked rather casually while fighting off the monsters.

　　”Yes, Your Majesty!” the elite vampires chorused out their response to her question.

　　”Well, then… let’s put an end to these little nasty things, shall we, boys?” Beatrice threw them a quick but fierce smile. It was a challenging smile of a warrior. And everyone felt their spirits burn and soar within their hearts, inciting the desire to fight and do well for their king, queen and fellow allies.

　　They shouted once again as they attacked the monsters and fought with a newfound valour alongside the queen.

　　The vampires’ fighting was fierce, brute power and speed. It was Laiza’s first time watching an all-out attack without any magic being involved. It was just purely based on their raw strength, speed, and sheer skill. And she found it to be utterly fascinating because she had always adored this kind of fighting style. Because her magic was not that powerful. She grew up as one of the weakest dark faes because her magic was just that weak.

　　And that was why she had trained the hardest and focused on other things as well, like her skill and speed, rather than just purely on her magic. To her delight, she had fallen in love with her newfound fighting style more than magic. And now she was recognised as one of the strongest – in fact she was the fastest among the soldiers in Lord Klauz’s army. She had also been hailed as the best female assassin in the Under Lands.

　　Her skills were already considered incredible but now as she watched these vampires fighting, she knew she was still had more to achieve according to their standards. Her blood rushed within her vessels as she joined them. She usually liked to fight alone. But now, it was the first time she had ever felt this thrilled fighting in a group.

　　And before she knew it, she felt like she was a part of them. Like she was dancing to the same beat of music with them. For the first time, she felt like she belonged to this group of people.

　　”You’re fast. I’ve never seen a dark fae move quite as fast as you do.” Queen Beatrice noticed her, and she could not help but blush at the attention. Her idol had noticed her! She used to hate on royals but… but… this queen was so nice… and just so cool…

　　She could not reply. She was totally tongue-tied. She had never spoken to any royals before. And she was not supposed to… so why was she so nervous? She had never been this flustered before in her entire life!

　　”Right? Your Majesty! I was surprised too at first when I noticed how she moved. She really moves like a vampire.” Levy butted in, grinning proudly as he replied to the queen in her stead. He was so proud as though it was him that Queen Beatrice was praising instead of Laiza.

　　The queen nodded at Levy’s comment and smiled at Laiza kindly.

　　”What’s your name, dear?” Beatrice asked, and Laiza did not know why she turned to look at the annoying male vampire first. He met her gaze, and his eyes gleamed with encouragement, as though telling her it was alright to answer to the queen’s questions.

　　Laiza returned her gaze to the queen and as though Levy’s encouraging gaze had worked, she managed to reply to the queen. “I… My name is Laiza.”

　　”Laiza…? That’s a beautiful name. I’m Beatrice.”

Chapter 655 Sea of flames

　　”I… I know!” she was flustered at the queen’s self-introduction. She was not expecting the queen to introduce herself to a nobody like her. “I know you’re the queen, Your… Your Majesty.”

　　Beatrice flashed a soft smile at her again. “A pleasure to meet you, Laiza.”

　　”I-it was… n-nice to meet your acquaintance too, Q-queen Beatrice.” She glanced over at Levy again. The man was giving her a thumbs up as he winked at her, obviously telling her that she had done a ‘good job’. She could not help but bite down a smile looking at his playful face. This guy just could not stay serious for longer than is necessary, could he?

　　”Alright, I think we should go help them in there.” Queen Beatrice fixed her gaze ahead of them. She turned to look towards the group of dark faes that was led by one of Klauz’s commanders.

　　Everyone nodded. Laiza included.

　　”Laiza and Levy, you both should continue working together. I noticed that you both are so effective when working together using that pattern of attack you carried out a while ago.” The queen complimented them and as expected, Levy beamed brighter than any star that shone in the night sky.

　　Then he leaned against Laiza and said in a stage whisper. “See? Even the queen acknowledges that we are perfect together.” And he wiggled his brows at her.

　　Laiza: “. . .” she was so tempted to slap this guy up the head!! If only Queen Beatrice was not looking at them right now!

　　”Stop flirting you, dumbass!” Luc’s feet came flying over and delivered a timely kick onto Levy’s behind before he ran up and caught up to the queen who had already walked on ahead.

　　 …

　　Somewhere along the right wing of the army, the fight had escalated and was going on so intensely that Evie was forced to send Vera and most of her dragons over there to support their soldiers who were fighting on the ground.

　　She did not want to send Vera too far away from her sight, but there really was no other choice with how things are proceeding at the moment. They were getting deeper and further into the abyss now and just as she had expected, the difficulty was escalating fast.

　　Vera herself was not even hesitating to go. She actually even volunteered herself for the task, that Evie could only relent somewhat helplessly, knowing that it was either her or Vera who had to go over. Thankfully, Azrael was there to reassure her that he would be on the look out for Vera.

　　After watching them disappear from her view, Evie focused herself on the battle ahead again. Her gaze fixed resolutely at the thicker and darker place that was ahead of them. They were getting there. Slowly but surely.

　　She prayed deep within her that they would reach Gideon sooner rather later. They needed to get rid of all of these monsters as soon as possible.

　　Onyx made a sudden turn and Evie saw that he had just narrowly evaded another catapulting giant. She breathed deep in awe at Onyx’s incredible reflex. She noticed that he would never make any extra moves, always only avoiding just enough to not get hit. And in the process, annoying the hell out of those monsters that were constantly targeting them. Evie could not help but laugh a little at how teasingly evil Onyx can be. Her dragon could actually see much better than her in the darkness!

　　And she found that she did not even need to order him anymore. Onyx knew exactly what he was doing. He could recognize which targets that he needed to incinerate and even the exactly right timing to attack. It was as though he was already used to this. Like he had done this for thousands of times before.

　　At first, Evie was surprised. But then she remembered that Onyx was an ancient being himself. That he had been through so many wars thousands of years ago. This dragon did not need her orders for him to act. And with the dark magic that he had acquired from mad king, his power seemed to be limitless right now.

　　Evie’s lingering worry that something might happen to Onyx was heightened as they got closer to the heart of the abyss due to the darkness that was transferred to him. But so far, as she was watching him, she could not feel or notice anything unusual that was going on with him as they moved deeper and further in.

　　It was honestly surprising, because this power he is having right now, used to belong to a royal mad king. Meaning, this power was the same as what Gav and Gideon possessed. And that was why it should not be too surprising if he was to be affected by the darkness. Yet he was not. At all.

　　Evie had tried to observe him during the last two days and then now that they were here, she was still keeping her eyes on him. Even concentrating on communicating with him. Onyx was still the same Onyx she remembered and was behaving very much the same as before, making her feel really relieved and thankful for that.

　　She reasoned out that perhaps, Onyx had the power to completely own the magic that he consumed and that no amount of darkness could corrupt him.

　　Another blast of fire from him incinerated the horde of monsters below, lighting up the darkness brilliantly with his dragon fire. When she saw the giants coming at them, a beam of light magic effortlessly blasted forth from her palm, hitting the giants’ faces and burning their eyes, rendering them blind and directionless.

　　She protected Onyx with her magic as the dragon continued breathing fire to the masses of their enemies below, killing more and more monsters, turning them into a sea of flames.

　　”Your Majesty! Two are coming from the right!” the light fae behind her yelled and Evie stretched out her other hand. Her magic then blasted out from her palms and hitting those oncoming monsters down. “More are coming our way!!!”

Chapter 656 King of all dragons

　　”More are coming our way!!!”

　　Before Evie got overwhelmed, Onyx flew upwards again, high up above where the giants’ range could not reach him. Unfortunately, at the same time, it was high enough that his flame would not be able to reach and kill anything.

　　”Thank you, Onyx.” Evie patted the dragon’s back fondly as she breathed in deeply and rested for a while. She was thankful at how attentive he had been the entire time. It was as if he had sensed the danger and immediately pulled away. “You’re really amazing. This must also be how you always fought in the past?!”

　　Now Evie understood why Onyx was the only surviving ancient fire dragon after the destruction of the light faes. This dragon was incomparable. He was simply majestic – the king of all the dragons.

　　The dragon spiralled above the battlefield for a long while as Evie set her attention to the situation below. Her attention looked for her own people first. The vampires, the light faes, and Queen Beatrice.

　　When she saw that they were holding out pretty well, she moved her attention to where Klauz was. With the help of the ice dragons, and his strong army, they were steadily pushing forward. He was really showing her the calibre that he truly possessed as a fine general. And Evie started to remember the man that he was in the future. The one she had seen in her vision.

　　She really had forgotten about that because of her still strong anger and hatred towards him and his actions of kidnapping her in the hopes of mating her.

　　Quickly, Evie changed her focus. She did not like to think about Klauz at all because she would only get angered and reminded of Gav’s situation now and what she was forced to do to him. Right now, she must focus on nothing else but this war.

　　She shifted her mind over to Vera. They were too far over at the right side that the thick darkness had completely obscured that area from her vision.

　　They had yet to send any message or signal to her too. She could not help but worry for her, so she called for Zanya and Leon to go and check up on them.

　　She could only trust these two and not send just any dark fae out, just in case they needed some reinforcements. Silver, Leon and Zanya were a force to be reckoned with – only if it were just the three of them – so she felt more reassured if it was them who went over to check on Vera.

　　The trio immediately flew away and headed to the place where Vera and the rest were fighting at.

　　Time passed. The war continued relentlessly. Fire, blood and death began to foul up the air the more they pushed farther into the depths of the abyss.

　　And soon, the inevitable came. The hardest part of the battle, which was also the indication that they were finally getting closer to their end goal. The level five monsters started to appear one after another, blasting themselves and killing tens and even hundreds of them.

　　Evie ordered Onyx and the ice dragon riders to focus their attention on those monsters. Their aim was to have them all killed off before they could take the chance to blast themselves up amongst the ranks of the soldiers.

　　But they soon found a massive problem. The level five monsters would self-destruct the moment the dragons’ breath reached them. Thus, they would end up exploding even before the dragon’s fire could incinerate them.

　　Evie gritted her teeth in irritation. This was bad!!! Something must be done to deal with these monsters, or they would just take too many of her people’s lives with them!!

　　Evie ordered the dragons to back off in an instant, realizing that attacking them recklessly right now would only bring more disaster to their ranks. How? How could they deal with this new move from the enemy?!

　　This dilemma had Evie clenching her fists. What must be done to defeat them? What were their weaknesses?! Did they even have one?

　　She asked Onyx to approach the monster, still high up above at a safe distance but near enough for her to observe the massive monster clearly.

　　The monster kind of looked like the hippos back in the human realms. But they were dark-green skinned like the orcs in the Middle Lands and extremely massive. She needed to find their weakness! Or else… or else many will die, and they did not know how many of them there still were in numbers! But how? How could she even find out about this monster’s weakness?!

　　’Gav…’ she called his name in her heart as she kept her eyes on the monster rampaging below.

　　But no matter how hard she looked and observed the monster, she could not find anything useful. What should she do?

　　Suddenly, she thought of Zolan… that she should take him along with her and have him observe their enemies because that guy could certainly see and catch something that everyone else usually do not even notice. Then she bit down on her lip hard to hold back her tears as she was reminded that he was already gone. Zolan, that smart-ass blonde vampire was no more.

　　”Your Majesty, I don’t think you should be moving on ahead too much.” The light fae behind her hesitantly spoke up.

　　Evie understood her warning. She was actually way ahead of the army now. She knew it was unwise to go even farther ahead. She needed to return to her troops and assist everyone else in moving forward and kill the lower levelled monsters instead, rather than just observing here without any sure possibility that she would find any answers to her questions. But then, if she just ignored these monsters, they would just end up killing everyone!

　　She could go back and cast a protective shield around her troops, but she needed to go lower to the ground in order to do that. Meaning, she would need to risk herself and Onyx against those leaping giants that were dead set on aiming at them.

　　Damn. What should she do? Someone… something… please…

　　Suddenly, Evie’s eyes caught sight of something up ahead. There was something that seemed to be moving behind the massive monsters. It seemed to be walking and was too small in size to be a monster.

　　Evie narrowed her eyes as she strained to see what it actually was. She had never seen a monster that was in human size before this. Wait a minute… a flash of something gold caught her attention when she created a beam of light to see that moving human-like figure in the dark. And her eyes slowly widened in surprise. That seemed to be a very familiar flash of someone’s golden earing.

　　Golden earing… she only knew one person who wore that thing… and it was…

　　Her eyes stretched even wider… “Zolan?! Impossible… He is still… alive? Is that him?!!”

Chapter 657: Flames of hope

This chapter is dedicated to @Sacogun!

    Left without a choice, Evie spread out her wings and jumped off Onyx’s back. A powerful beam of light immediately shot out of her palm, hitting the giant’s head right in the temple, just as it was about to attempt to bite Onyx’s leg.

    The giant fell with that one strike and Onyx instantly took that opportunity flew upwards again after grabbing Evie with his other claw. As if he had known all along that her wings would not be able to flap fast enough in order to get away.

    Evie was breathing hard as she watched the giants jumping and leaping, still trying to reach them even when they were already high enough to avoid the giants. Her heartbeat was thudding loudly in her ears. They did it. They actually did it!

    Klauz, Queen Beatrice and the vampires were so shocked at what they had just seen. They all felt like they had nearly gotten a heart attack watching their queen pull off that dangerous stunt.

    They all held their breaths while watching, knowing that none of them could go in and fight. For goodness’ sakes!!!

    “I didn’t know that the Light Queen is such a daredevil! Holy!!!” one of the generals yelled once they saw that the queen and her dragon were finally in a safe place and now returning behind them.

    “What in the…” Klauz was gritting his teeth. “What the freaking lord was she doing?! That’s just too damned dangerous!!!” he could only curse and curse as he killed the monsters that were gathered before him, as if venting out his anger, knowing that he could not even go to give the dare devil queen a good scolding. He was burning to tell her that if she had died there, everything would be over!!! “You better not do that freaking stunt again, Light Queen, or else I swear…!!!” Klauz constantly grumbled and muttered just under his breath.

    He sent one of his men to go forward his message to the queen before he focused his attention back to his own battle again.

    The vampires on the other hand, were literally clasping their hands over their chests and only let out the breaths that they were holding in once they saw the giant fell off from clinging onto Onyx’s claw.

    Damn!!! That scared the hell out of their very core!!!

    Even though they trusted wholeheartedly in their Queen, seeing her put herself in such a dangerous situation where none of them could possibly reach her on time, was just a little too much for their hearts to take in. What had happened? Their queen would not have risked herself foolishly like that without a vital reason. But still…

    “I’ll go check on her. Focus on the battle and don’t worry about Evie!” Queen Beatrice commanded as they saw Onyx now landing a bit farther behind them where there were no more threats of monsters. Those areas that they had passed were already cleared of any threats to their own people, making it ideal for those who were injured to stop and see to their wounds or for those that were too exhausted and needed to take a short rest.

    The vampires could only nod, knowing that they cannot leave their post at the moment as they needed to support those wounded and resting behind them, making sure that no other monsters get past them and to their comrades at their back. Also, they trusted in the vampire Queen. So far, she had not led them astray yet.

    They refocused their attention on their enemies once again, and the fierce battle continued. Without the powerful vampire Queen with them, they knew they had to give more than their all – one hundred and one percent of their efforts. Any slight distraction would be enough to cost them their lives. They rallied themselves and encouraged each other to stay alert and fight bravely. They still needed to meet up and report to their queen later on. They also needed to stay alive to meet again with their king.

    And with that thought in the minds of the vampires, they roared their battle cries to the heavens and marched on ahead, eyes glinting with killing intents and hearts burning with the flames of hope.

    …

    “Evie!” Beatrice rushed over and reached Evie as soon as Onyx landed, worry was plastered all over her face. Though she had kept up a calm and strong façade in front of the troops earlier, only God knew how her heart had trembled as she thought of the danger her dear daughter-in-law had faced and also the well-being of her grandchild that was growing in her womb.

    Upon seeing the troubled expression on Queen Beatrice’s face, Evie immediately felt guilty. She knew she must have scared the hell out of everyone, most especially her husband’s mother.

    “Mother.” Evie called out softly as she extended out her arms to greet Beatrice.

    “Are you okay?” Beatrice hugged her first before pushing her back to do a quick survey on her, wanting to make sure that Evie was not hurt at all.

    “Yes. I am not hurt at all.” Evie reassured her anxious mother-in-law.

    Beatrice let out a long and relieved breath. “Why did you attempt such a dangerous move? What did you…” the vampire queen suddenly trailed off at the sight of a man covered with dark green and viscous fluid all over his body.

    Evie rushed towards the man. Using her magic, she melted the ice chunks that were nearby and directed the water to be poured all over the man, attempting to clean him off. The light fae quickly assisted Evie in washing off the filth they believed was the monsters’ blood.

    Once the thick filth was removed, Evie finally confirmed that the man was no other than Zolan.

    She knelt on the ground, holding the man’s face in both her hands.

    “Zolan?!” Evie called his name. He was limp and so weak it seemed hard for him to even open his eyes. But the most important thing was… he was still breathing. “Zolan… can you hear me?!”

    “My Queen… his arm.” The light fae beside her spoke and it was then that Evie noticed that Zolan had lost his right arm.

Chapter 658: Toughest

Gritting her teeth, Evie quickly ordered the light fae to remove the bandages that were wrapped around his wound. It was filthy and was obviously done while being on the run. Not that she could blame him. Since he was behind enemy lines, it must have been hard – impossible even – for him to find a place to hide and rest while tending to his wound. One look and she knew it was him who had done that rough wrapping to save himself. Once the bandages were removed, Evie place her palms over it and her healing magic flowed over and into him.

As the healing slowly took effect, Evie quickly explained everything to Beatrice.

“He has been here for more than two days. He must’ve also been starving since there would not be anything that are edible for him in this place.” Queen Beatrice said as she squatted next to Evie, speaking softly. “He needs blood. That way, he can heal faster.”

Evie glanced over at Beatrice. She was right. Zolan must have been weakened to this extent because of that as well.

“I’ll give him some.” Beatrice said without any hesitation, pulling up the sleeves to expose her wrist.

Evie did not expect her to offer Zolan her own blood. “But… mother… are you –”

“It’s fine, dear. My blood would cure him fast and return his strength even faster than anyone else’s blood. And I know what you are worried about. There is no need to worry, I will only give him just the amount that is needed.”

And while Evie was still frowning and had not reacted yet, Beatrice bit down on her wrist before placing her now bleeding wrist over Zolan’s mouth.

The blood that dripped down onto his pale lips seemed to have awaken his senses in an instant. And just like an animal dying of thirst, he jumped and grabbed onto the queen’s hand and drank hungrily from her wrist.

After just a few seconds, Beatrice pulled her hand from his lips, causing Zolan to groan out, still wanting more. His eyes flew open, vivid red, as he was about to attack the Queen for more blood.

“Zolan!!!” Evie’s voice rang out sharply and he froze in his tracks.

His eyes suddenly widening and cleared up as he recognized the woman he was about to attack.

“Zolan.” Evie called his name again, this time more calmly and he slowly turned his gaze to her. He looked so shocked. As if he could not believe what his eyes were looking at.

“Your… Majesty…?” his voice was hoarse as he croaked out.

Evie could not h

elp but be emotional as she flashed a small smile at him.

“Yes, Zolan. You’re with us again. You’re finally back with us, Zolan.” She said as she reached out for his hand and squeezed it, letting him know that all of this was real and not a figment of his imagination. She could not even imagine what he must have gone through for the past two days, all alone in the dark with all those monsters swarming around.

He lowered his gaze to her hand that was holding onto his, then to his now missing other arm. That seemed to be enough to pull him back to reality.

“You really came and saved me…” he muttered, smiling disbelievingly.

“You were waiting…” Evie felt her heart squeezing tight. Then she enveloped him in a tight hug. “Thank you for holding on, Zolan. Thank you for waiting for us to come to you!” She said with heartfelt emotions.

“I promised you that I will not die.” Zolan replied, quickly regaining his wits. “And I feel I am not allowed to die yet. Because I know you still need me. I can’t leave you alone with those muscle-heads, can I?” Zolan joked as he laugh soundlessly. Evie knew he’s trying hard to look and sound fine to reassure her. All her men always does this.

Evie could not help but laugh at his comment despite how emotional she was at the moment. It was amazing at how quick Zolan was to accept his current reality. She knew he must have been traumatized just by seeing that look in his eyes just a while ago. Not to mention his now missing arm. But this was Zolan. He’s the toughest, mentally.

“What happened, Zolan?” Evie asked. She knew she should give Zolan a little more time to adjust, but every second that passes now were costing them lives. The lives of their comrades and allies. “How were you able to survive?”

Zolan looked around and Evie knew that was all he needed to understand what was currently going on right now.

“Evie… I think I should head back. They seem to be in a pinch.” Queen Beatrice interrupted after focusing her gaze to the direction of the men she had left earlier.

Evie nodded at her and Beatrice surveyed Zolan one last time before she too nodded and finally left.

“I think we should keep on moving while we talk, Zolan. Can you manage it now? I’ll have you ride along with me on Onyx.” Evie told him.

Zolan tried to stand. His balance was bad now that his right hand was gone. But he felt much better now after Queen Evie’s healing and having some of Queen Beatrice’s blood.  &nbs

p;

Evie supported him. “I also want to show you how the war is going on so far.” Evie continued as she helped him climbed onto Onyx. He was still a little weak. “I’m sorry I couldn’t even give you a moment to rest.” Evie told him a little guiltily. But she knew that one needed to sacrifice in the short term in order to gain in the long term.

“This is already considered a rest, Your Majesty.” He said with a grin as he sat on Onyx’s back. “I don’t know anyone else among the guys who are as lucky as I am to be able to sit on Onyx.” Then he chuckled lightly.

As Onyx finally pushed up and lifted off into the sky, Zolan immediately briefed Evie on what had happened to him.

Chapter 659: Details

“I was able to survive, I believe because of a certain monster’s blood that I had managed to kill while it devoured my arm. We both fell and it covered me entirely with its blood. I must have passed out due to exhaustion and blood loss for a few hours. So, when I woke up, I found myself alone in the darkness. Of course, I did not stay still and got moving. After quickly tending to my wound and observing my surrounding, I found a couple of dark fae bodies that still had some blood left in them for me to drink.” After Zolan said that, he looked a little guilty, knowing that he had capitalised from the misfortune of his fellow allies. But in that situation, there truly was no other choice for him and Evie understood completely. Thus, she nodded kindly and only hummed her understanding. Only then, Zolan continued with his recollection.

“I had to drink their blood to last… but that was all I could find. I tried to get out, but I found out later that the exit had already been blocked by so many monsters. They were gathered there like soldiers waiting to be released. I had no choice but to stay and hide where I was. Then I eventually learned that the monsters were actually ignoring me. Well… at least the higher-level monsters like the giants and that big fat green hippo. The lower-levelled ones, however, could detect me. I believe that the lower-levelled ones have a sense of smell while the higher levels don’t have it. I had tested it out a few times and I was right.” Zolan narrated as Evie listened. And as he recounted all these, his eyes were already observing the battle down below as they flew over on Onyx.

“I was able to survive by clinging on to the giants and the hippos. The monsters couldn’t tell at all. Those were the type of monsters I’m talking about.” He then pointed to a group of monsters.

“The level three monsters.” Evie said. Zolan was not there when the king had declared the new division of levels for the monsters, so Evie updated him on that way of categorisation. “You’re saying that if one gets covered with the blood of a level three monster, the level four and five ones will ignore you?”

“Yes. I’ve proven that.” Zolan confirmed.

That was a huge and important information! Evie was sure that they could make use of this detail in their next strategy meeting on how to deal with the monsters.

Evie was about to bring up the dilemma about the level five monsters when they were interrupted by the sight of a certain troop that was terribly being pushed back and was urgently needing back-up.

Evie had no choice but to help out first or that particular troop would be slaughtered.

Onyx spiralled down. His fire blazed in a steady stream as Evie used her powerful magic to hit the leaping giants down before they could even enter into their defence radius.

Zolan had served as her third eye and was like an extension of her brain. He was quick to make the right decision every time. Giving Evie all the time she needed to focus on her attacks and less time being spent in decision making and brainstorming on the finer details of the attacks and directions they should be coming from.

Once they were back up above and soaring over their troops again, Zolan continued telling her more when Evie told him about the level five monsters.

“There is a way to kill them. But the danger with those monsters is their ability to self-destruct, and very quickly at that. It seemed as though that they do not need any cooling off time to explode. The moment they sensed any danger nearby, they would just self-destruct and kill everyone around them.” Zolan started. “When I found that it was impossible for me to get out, I decided to go deeper into the abyss instead. I was telling myself I might as well go find some useful information rather than just wait around to die. I also believed you’d come to save me. But as I get more starved and weaker, I started to lose focus and felt as though I was losing my mind. That was when I ended up attempting to kill the green hippo I was stuck with. I’ve managed to climb into its back then to its head. I can’t tell exactly what made me aim for its big ass lone eye due to my failing consciousness. But as luck would have it, that is its one and only weakness. And I had hit the jackpot!”

Evie was speechless for a moment. Earlier during the discussion, Evie, the king and the leaders had actually come up with a theory that the level-five monster’s weakness must be their lone big eye. The problem with that was that before any weapon could even reach it, they would have already self-destruct.

“I believe the only way to kill that monster is to disguise oneself and then have the monster stay unsuspecting. Once one has reached its head, they then can stab the eye before it could initiate their self-destruct mechanism.” Zolan added.

“So after someone coated themselves with the level three monster’s blood, the monsters will not be able to sense danger? I noticed that the monsters have the ability to sense danger. It self-destructs before mine or the dragon’s magic or any of our weapons could even reach them.” Evie reasoned.

Zolan was quiet for a moment. “Could it be… that it’s because I was too weak at that time that the monster could not sense any danger at all? That must be right… that must explain it!” Zolan looked like he was pretty confident he was right in his assumption.

“You’re saying that we need to send the weakest soldiers to kill the largest and deadliest monsters…” Evie stated in in disbelief.

“I believe so.” Zolan looked certain. “We will be needing the injured. Better to have the weakest ones do it.”

“Alright. We need everyone to know about this now. We don’t have much time to waste.”

Chapter 660: Small reprieve

The moment Klauz received the queen’s message, he immediately took action. He was more than a bit skeptical about this seemingly untrustworthy information, at how easy it seemingly was. But he did not hesitate to have it done anyway. Since the queen has spoken, he would follow her commands.

His soldiers were being annihilated by those level-five monsters like how flies were killed by a fly-zapper. Thus, if they were not able to find a way to kill them, they would not be winning this war anytime soon! There was no more time for them to be cautious.

Their situation was actually getting quite hopeless, but with this new information, if it does truly work and they could kill those massive monsters with less of sacrifices on their own troops, they might even win! In fact, if everything goes on well, they will definitely win!

And thus, he immediately formed a team. He had three of his non-combatant soldiers – his strategists – to do the job. They were among those who had joined in the battle with the sole purpose of searching and digging for information. They could somewhat be considered the brains of the party. Though they were weak to begin with, rendering them useless in the society. Dark faes had a label for individuals such as these and called them the invalids because of their inability to use even the weakest of magic spells.

Though most of these invalids later on experience an awakening after countless of years, these individuals had long since learned to focus on their non-magic related skills to survive and to be useful. Many of them turned out to be quite incredible at their skills.

He had more of these invalids in his army, but these three were his personal choice. They were intelligent and were the right individuals for the current mission.

After giving them the instructions, the trio enthusiastically accepted the job with sparkling eyes full of vigor. One look and anyone could tell how determined they were to carry out the mission until they were successfully. They had finally been given the chance to do and contribute to something instead of just watching from the sidelines while their comrades fall.

Soon, the trio were drenched with thick blood all over them. Buckets after buckets, layer after layer of that thick viscous blood covered them that there was not even a single clear spot on them left.

Their next dilemma was how to get the three safely across the wave of the level one to three monsters before them. These are the ones that would still be able to sniff them out.

They had considered the dragons, but that would just be too obvious. The message from the queen had said they needed to sneak over there, unnoticed.

Now there was only one choice left to them and that was to forcefully clear a path for them.

Up there, Evie and Zolan received the message from Klauz, informing them about the plan.

Evie looked at Zolan and the man nodded. Both of them knew that this was the best way.

And when they saw the signal, Evie had Onyx give them aerial support as they started to push their way in with an all-out battle.

Fire and blood continued painting the ground and soon they managed to have those three dark faes sneaking past the level three monsters.

The ice dragons then came and built walls of ice to block the level four giants in order for the soldiers to be able to catch even a moment of rest. They knew that the giant monsters would soon destroy the thick ice walls. But nevertheless, it was already a huge deal to give them the time to breathe and recuperate for a bit. They did not know why the level four monster did not destroy the ice walls before this war when they actually could just advance by them attacking the ice walls multiple times with their fists for the ice to crumble.

“I think we might need another team… just in case the first team fails, Your Majesty.” Zolan told Evie.

“Do you have any ideas?”

He was staring down at the battlefield. Looking at the injured and exhausted soldiers.

“This might sound heartless, but we should send a small group of weak and injured ones this time for our second wave. We need to see which one works best.” He replied, clearly the strategist in him was working overtime.

Evie knew he was right. This was war. They could not just think that the very first group they sent in would be enough to cinch the deal for them. They need to always think about the worst-case scenarios and prepare a counter for it.

“I also can’t help but think that it worked for me because I wasn’t a dark fae. And that the monsters could only sense danger from individuals with magic.” Zolan added, his expression extremely thoughtful.

As he said that, Evie could already tell what idea he was playing with in his mind.

Her gaze fell to where the vampires were gathered, and she realized everyone had not found out about Zolan’s return to them yet.

The battle had quietened a bit after the remaining monsters outside the walls were being annihilated.

Evie lifted her gaze towards the thick and still standing strong walls of ice. This small reprieve could be their last chance to get to see each other before another intense battle commenced. It was something that all of them were expecting.

Once they managed to get rid of the level-five monsters, there was only one move left and that was to push forward to reach into the heart of the abyss. That was where Gideon was most likely positioned at.

She honestly did not know what was waiting for them in there, but she could only think of another worse-case scenario. A final battle might be waiting for them there and she knew it could be the bloodiest yet.

“Let’s meet up with the others now, Zolan.” Evie said to the man who was seated behind her, and she smiled at the sight of him looking at her with gratitude. Of course, he has been dying to meet up with his comrades again. Evie also could not wait to see how everyone’s reactions were like once they see Zolan.