The Crown's Entrapment

786  Destroy His Soul and Spirit

Mona jolted awake as she quickly sat up from where she lay. Looking around, the last thing she remembered was their convoy being attacked. She remembered her son Amon rallying the guards around him, only for all of them to fall as he took it upon himself to defend her. She then heard some yelling, then darkness took her. Still, where was everyone?

"Oh, you're awake, Queen Mother."

She blinked in surprise as she saw Lera sitting by her bedside. The woman was still on edge, and she could only assume that it was caused by their current situation.

"Where's Amon?" Mona immediately asked. "Is everything alright?"

Hearing her questions, Lera let out a weary sigh before she responded. "In terms of things being alright, unfortunately, that's a word I wouldn't use to describe the current situation," she lamented. "As for His Majesty, King Amon ran off to find Queen Bella and those that abducted her. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop him in time."

Mona could only hold in her tears as she did her best to stop the worry within her from bubbling up. While she was no longer the reigning monarch, she was still a leader in their people's eyes, and it wouldn't do for her to show weakness now while their King was unavailable.

"Have we sent people to find him?" she asked.

"Lord Bartos and Lady Jayra arrived not a while ago. They gave chase," Lera replied. "As for our own men, we're stretched too thin at the moment. We've lost too much…"

"Ah… I understand," Mona nodded. "Very well. Let me know if things happen."

"Of course, Queen Mother."

With a nod, Lera left her vicinity, and Mona could only sigh as she prayed for her son's safety. If anything else, she could only hope that he'd at least live through this disaster.

*****

Meanwhile, Amon felt like he was floating in the vast expanse of the void as he came to. He didn't know where he was, but what he did know was that something was wrong. Still, all of that fell by the wayside as he remembered the one reason why he was so stressed in the first place.

"Bella!?"

Shouting into the void, Amon could only hold his anger and worry as nothing came to him in response. He didn't know what was happening. Was he under some kind of spell? An enemy attack of some sort?

Shaking his head, he flexed his demon power to try to get out of this supposed spell, only for his hands to fizzle out as nothing more than faint sparkles came out from his fingertips.

"What the hell is happening?!" he screamed out. "Whoever you are that's doing this, show yourself!"

"Well, since you insist, then I might as well show myself."

Amon's eyes widened as the darkness around him seemingly transformed. To his surprise, a familiar visage of a man appeared before him. Immediately, his anger increased tenfold as Devon's damnable image casually walked into view.

"Devon?! What the-"

"Let me guess, aren't I supposed to be dead?" Devon scoffed as he mocked him. "Well, clearly I'm not, seeing as I'm right here with you."

Amon growled as all the pieces finally clicked in his head. "You… You're the cause of all this!" he accused him. "Where's Bella?!"

"Oh? Is that any way to talk to me right now?" Devon cackled. "I'm the one in charge right now, and you shouldn't be making too many accusations when you don't even know what's happening."

"I know exactly what's happening!" Amon screamed. "You won't get away with this!"

"I think I will, however," Devon mocked him with a grin. "You can't even move! What are you going to do to me? Shout at me to death?! I don't even think you have it in you to kill me right now!"

Amon growled with fury as Devon's words taunted him into a rage. Unable to move, all he could do was to give the demon in front of him as much of his anger and killing intent in the hopes that he'd at least show him how much he wanted to kill him. "Oh… Is that all you've got?" Devon taunted him. "I can barely feel your rage right now! Maybe if I went and took this Bella for myself, then maybe-"

"Don't you dare lay a hand on my wife!"

*****

Back in the real world, Bella was getting worried as she watched Amon sweating and mumbling in his sleep. Thankfully, Bartos and Jayra managed to move them to a safer location, but the fact still stood that they were far from solving the situation just yet. Currently, she could only stay by Amon's side as Bartos stood guard just a few paces away from them.

"What's happening to him?" Bella weakly asked Jayra as her sister-in-law checked over Amon. "Why isn't he waking up?"

"Devon's bloodthread's trying to destroy his soul and spirit, I think," Jayra grumbled in frustration as she did her best to help Amon. "It's making him dream things. What those dreams are, I don't know. But what I do know is that it isn't anything good."

"Is there anything you can do to help?" Bella pleaded.

"Beyond basic first aid, I'm afraid I'm limited right now," Jayra apologetically sighed. "I can remove the bloodthread on my own, but I'd rather not do that in my current state."

Bella couldn't help but wince at Jayra's words. She knew that her sister-in-law was pregnant, and while she knew that it was for the safety of her future niece or nephew, she couldn't help but feel a bit bitter that Jayra couldn't even try to rescue Amon.

"I… understand," Bella grumbled.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I just don't know what might happen with me being like this," Jayra miserably frowned. "I know… that it's selfish of me, but I just can't take the risk right now. I'm not strong enough for such a move."

"It's alright, Sister," Bella reassured her. "I understand. Really. You did your best, alright?"

Jayra felt a tear prick in her eye even as she smiled at Bella. "Thank you. I just hope that Queen Mineah can get her fast enough. She'll probably be the only one capable of helping Amon now."