Harsh wind scraped against their faces, perched atop Sparky's back were Alan, Julia, Iris and Lucian, they were forced into a desperate struggle of gripping onto Sparky's scales to withstand the g-force pushing them back.
"What is going on?!" Julia's voice was almost lost to the wind, she looked down at the sprawling labyrinth of the imperial castle, the once familiar place was being devoured by shadows.
"How would anyone know?!" Alan yelled back, tensely facing forward.
They weren't in the clear yet, the group only escaped the ballroom, which was merely a small section of the royal castle that spanned across miles.
Sparky glided over the inner bastions, passing by different sectors of the castle, his wings casting a large silhouette down below, but the grounds beneath were no longer as flat and smooth as before.
RUMBLE
The nearby stone walls collapsed into a pile of broken debris, underneath the rubble, the very soil began to quake with an uncontrollable pulse.
Then the earth caved in and burst open.
Long fissures raced through the ground and soil, swallowing the earth, before engorged, pitch-black tentacles erupted from the depths.
They were as large as the one in the ballroom, but its true size was now fully visible, one limb lashed out, obliterating a watchtower with a single swipe, and another toppled over the walls.
"Sparky! On the left!" Julia screamed.
Obeying her words, Sparky tucked his wings, dropping to a dive, a dark tentacle cut through the air where they were just moments ago.
"Where are the knights?!" Alan shouted, what he couldn't understand was why the castle was in such mayhem, without a single knight protecting the place.
"How would we know?!" Iris shouted back, pretty much the same answer Alan gave before.
"Damn it!" Alan clenched his jaws, truthfully his mind was still thinking of Alden, the last thing he saw was the entire ballroom collapsing.
Surely he would be fine, right? There may not have been many strong people there, but some of the nobles were certainly stronger than Alan, they could definitely protect everyone from the collapse, right?
SPURT
Not even a second after Alan fell into his thoughts, an approaching tentacle erupted into an explosion of dark blood, drowning the walls in utter darkness.
Just before the blood splashed onto Sparky, Lucian raised one of his hand.
Psst
A sphere of crystal-clear glacier surrounded the airborne Sparky, protecting him from every drop of blood.
"Not this shit again..." Alan muttered, raising his upper body for a better view.
Lucian tossed aside the ice shielding them, once again revealing their location, tentacles still rampaged across different parts of the castle, but the one beside them had exploded into a dark mess.
Then Alan noticed something strange, large grotesque remains of the tentacle squirmed in the black blood, wriggling until moving closer to one another, eventually the pieces fused together.
Before he could observe the process more, a blue light blitzed through the area.
Spurt
And exploded the writhing remains, standing in the centre of the mess was a figure, someone Alan vaguely recognised.
He had short vivid blue hair, his eyes looking at the flying group with cerulean eyes, the man was Vane, the commander of the first battalion of the Zevril knight order.
"Oh?" Vane tilted his head, then flashed through the air, instantly appearing on top of Sparky. "A dragon?"
Sparky halted mid-air, silently hovering in the air despite the turmoil swirling around them, the entire group on Sparky's back jumped to their feet, getting into defensive stances, especially Julia, who was glaring at Vane with open hostility.
"Vane?" Alan called out, he gestured with his hands to the group, telling them to relax.
"Oh, Alan?" Vane lifted his head, turning to Alan. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Yeah, real fancy..." Alan replied with a blank face, he didn't even need to mention the environment, the explosions and tumbling walls did it for him.
"I, uh, guess it's not so fancy, huh..." Vane scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Yeah, never mind all that, what the fuck is going on?" Alan jumped to the point. "Where are the knights?"
"Hmm." Vane hummed, rubbing his chin. "Well, I'm the only one from the battalion here right now."
"What does that even—"
"Occupied." Vane interrupted before Alan could finish speaking. "The royal castle isn't the only place under attack."
Alan paused, his eyes widening instantly, so did Julia's, Iris's and Lucian's eyes, all coming to the same realisation.
"Why didn't I think of that..." Alan whispered. "...Iris, how long did you say the underground was?"
"Enough to cover the districts of the capital..." Iris practically mumbled her response, her expression became increasingly troubled.
"Vane..." Alan had to confirm his suspicions. "Is the entire capital under attack...?"
"Yes." Vane nodded. "I'm assuming you're planning to escape the castle for safety?
"No, we're leaving the continent."
"Is that so..." Vane tapped his cheek. "Right, Alaric told me something about that."
Alan lifted a brow, but before he could question, Vane spun around, looking into the distance with an awfully grim expression.
"Yeah..." Vane whispered, his tone much lower than before. "Leave, I'll protect you as you go."
"What...?"
Vane didn't answer as mana fluctuated around him, he stepped off the edge of Sparky's back, for a brief moment he hung in the air, utterly defying gravity itself, then his figure blurred, in a blink of an eye, Vane vanished.
Julia knit her brows and immediately lowered herself. "Everyone, get back!"
However, Sparky didn't wait, he beat his wings, a crackle of blue lightning arcing between his horns as he surged forward.
"Hold on!" Julia screamed, gripping onto Sparky's back with one hand, stretching her other out in the air, moments away from summoning her soul weapon.
A black tentacle, the size of a cathedral, rapidly descended upon the group.
Suddenly, a blue streak of light cut across their vision.
SPURT
The towering tentacle erupted in a familiar pattern, spewing dark blood in huge quantities.
Numerous other limbs directed its attention to the flying dragon, but all of them suddenly burst open before it could even reach the group, a wave of blue energy tore through another tentacle, exploding it into a mist of black vapour.
"He's insane..." Iris muttered blankly.
"He's the commander for a reason." Lucian shrugged, the only one who was yet to lose his cool, seriously, throughout the entire event, Lucian never had a change in expression.
BOOM
Sparky burst through the last castle wall, finally plunging the four out of the royal castle.
Alan glanced back just as they were leaving, his face tightened against his own will, and countless tentacles as high as towers erupted in different areas, toppling over the structures.
In the centre of it all was a man, his posture leaked confidence, he never once hesitated, every tentacle detonated before even reaching him.
"They'll be fine..." With those last words, they left the castle.
...
By the time they left, the sky had already surrendered to the night, however, the stars were gone, choked out by the rising plumes of smoke.
They didn't feel the excitement or thrill they might've expected, hovering high in the air granted them an exclusive view of the whole capital, over every district.
The sight wasn't pleasant.
It was pure chaos.
Consecutive flares of explosions and light lit up the first and second districts, signs of battles occurring in numberless places.
But from the third district onwards, a sea of flames engulfed the district, swallowed by the colour orange.
"Oh no..." Alan was horrified, his eyes wide open, taking it all in, his voice breaking to a ragged whisper.
He was staring into the far distance, towards a specific location where a humble church was built, the church of God, the very same place where he had left four girls behind, promising them a better future.
"Lucian..." Alan's voice was grave, and he didn't need to finish.
Lucian's face had already hardened to a cold mask, he understood what Alan was thinking.
"You two... uh, what are you two doing...?" Alan snapped his head to Julia and Iris, only to recoil back with confusion.
Iris was leaning over Julia, her hands dug into Julia's dress from behind, seemingly tugging at something.
"She's undoing my corset!" Julia grinned, a little too bright for the current situation.
"Why now?!"
"Your reasoning is stupid." Alan felt the corner of his mouth twitch as he spoke. "But I like it."
"Yeah!" Julia cheered, ripping out her corset and chucking it into the chaos below.
"Oh, wait." Alan suddenly paused, tapping his necklace he popped out a familiar black ribbon. "You all got your blindfolds with you?"
The three others nodded in unison, one by one, they reached for their own individual artifacts, and brought out their own blindfolds.
Lucian unfurled a white band.
Iris held a scarlet silk.
Julia gripped a golden ribbon.
"Nice." Alan tied the piece of silk over his eyes, placing a familiar negligible weight on his nose. "We wouldn't want our identities to be exposed now, would we?"
"Good catch!" Julia spoke up, immediately wrapping her golden blindfold over her eyes.
Beside her, Lucian and Iris did the same, placing the white and red silk to cover their eyelids.
"Alright, Sparky!" Julia pointed to the sea of orange. "To the third district!"
The blue dragon let out a roar, his scales crackling with azure lighting, he beat his wings once and soared through the wind.