Chương 42: My Nightmare

What I had been fighting this entire time—the powerful final boss I struggled against and slowly overcame—was nothing but a decoy, a fake puppet crafted to distract me. All so the true boss could buy time… and eventually do this. RUMBLE! BOOOM! The Nightmare Nest exploded. Most would have thought it was their end, but it was the opposite. The explosion meant the monsters had finally broken free of containment. Now only one true monster remained: a giant emerging from a pit of miasma and flames.

A colossal skeleton hundreds of meters tall, forged from orange, red, and golden crystals, crowned with long demonic horns and wielding a massive sword. His flames heralded the beginning of the end, incinerating all the snow for kilometers around him. The freezing temperatures this realm required for the ice dragon race began to melt away, warming drastically and plunging everything into chaos. As I continued healing, I felt that terrifying presence and gazed into the creature's eyes.

They gazed back, locking onto me.

"You have proven yourself worthy of praise, my child. You are a strong opposer, a powerful warrior, an almighty adversary. Your potential is as limitless as it is boundless. And you are the perfect vessel to harbor and control their power. You have been well nurtured, my child—awakening and welcoming the nightmare within you."

"But oh… you were too late to stop me. What you fought, what you struggled so desperately against, was merely a small piece of my true self. A discarded fragment created solely to test you and buy me time. Enough time to finally awaken… as a Nightmare!"

"By merging with the Nightmare Nest Core and absorbing its essence, I have gained the power to warp this reality and bring doom to all. And you, my child, are the herald of that doom. Celebrate! For it is you who has doomed your kind!"

"No…! This can't be!" My breathing grew heavier as an overwhelming wave of dread consumed me. The nightmare essence inside me writhed and surged, as if suddenly coming alive, trying to tear me apart from within.

"Aaaaaggghh!"

"Master!!!" Mongrel screamed, rushing to help, only to cry out in agony and collapse into the snow.

"T-This can't be! Wait! It's me, the Nightmare Tree! Spare me!" Dryad cried.

"I can—AAAAGGHH!" She was not spared. All three of us lay on the ground, unable to move, as the giant rose from the depths of the dungeon and looked down at us with almighty, judgmental eyes.

"W-What are you doing… to me?!" I screamed. Fighting through the pain, I forced myself to stand, injecting venom into my bloodstream and reversing it into an endless elixir to keep myself fighting.

"All of you already harbor the Nightmare Curse. I have simply awakened it and set it free. In seconds, you will all bloom into beautiful True Nightmares. You are mere cocoons now, waiting to break open and reveal your true, magnificent forms. Soon every dragon here will suffer the same fate. There is no point in resisting, my child. Accept your true self as a Nightmare and join me in this endless celebration! There will be plenty of souls for all of us to savor!"

"Ungh?!" A sharp pain exploded in my chest as a black hand tore through it from the inside. My entire body began to crack and crumble, as if I had become nothing more than an eggshell.

"T-This is…?" It felt so bizarre, so agonizing, and yet strangely liberating. My eyes rolled back. I nearly lost consciousness. My whole body trembled, hardened, and dried out. I was dying… and something inside me was emerging. Something that was also part of me. A black creature born from blood, flesh, soul, and darkness. CRACK! Another hand burst through my body. Half of me crumbled away as I gasped, hyperventilating at the horrifying sight beneath my broken shell. Love what you're reading?

Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The creature stood there, staring back at me, slowly emerging with sharp red eyes, a bug-like body, and long butterfly wings. It broke free. CRAAASH!

"ELIZABETH!!!" I heard Mongrel's voice one last time as I shattered into pieces. What remained of my consciousness stared in horror at what had been born from me. My Nightmare. And… in a way, my child. A child born from my own darkness, my own pain. A beautiful black butterfly with gleaming red eyes, a pair of giant purple wings, and a pitch-black body like polished obsidian, armed with long scythe-like limbs.

"Beautiful! Magnificent! What a wonderful creature!" the giant roared.

"I shall nurture it! I shall raise it! Thank you, my child, for this precious gift!"

"KRIEEEEEEGGGHH!" The creature's roar plunged the world into pitch blackness. Chaos consumed everything as my scattered pieces watched in my final moments while reality decayed, space warped, and giant obsidian claws tore open the fabric of the realm.

"THEY HAVE ARRIVED! REJOICE! THE KINGS OF THE NIGHTMARE DIMENSION WILL SOON GRACE YOU WITH THEIR PRESENCE!!!" It's over. There's nothing I can do now. There's… No. Wait. This is a Soul Realm. What shattered wasn't my true physical body… but my soul? I had been beaten, bled, and regenerated so much here that I had completely forgotten my real body was still sleeping safely in bed. Then these pieces, and everything I lost in that nightmare—it was all me.

"Matter Restructuration…" I closed my eyes and let my Psychic Power guide me. It was too weak at first. So I turned my focus toward the Nightmare. The butterfly glared at me, advancing with drooling jaws, and began devouring my scattered pieces one by one.

"Thank you." In that instant, I understood. This butterfly wasn't evil. It was me. Once I accepted that truth, it stepped back and consumed the rest of me, pulling us back together.

"Harmonious Chaos Reversal." I used the skill on myself, restructuring my being with Psychic Power and reversing my shattered, divided form through my Soul Trait. The butterfly melted into my broken shell, and we became one once more. My appearance shifted instantly. I was no longer a dragon in this realm. The butterfly traits remained.

"This is…?" My eyes widened as my skin turned gray and my body grew taller, as if I had aged more than ten years. I now had long black-and-red hair like my mother's, sharp red-and-gold eyes, a pair of giant black horns, a smaller pair of red horns, long pointed tails, and massive butterfly-like wings. Two extra pairs of arms had emerged, and sharp black scales and horns covered parts of my body. A veil of shadows, darkness, and nightmares wrapped tightly around my naked form, glowing with countless red eyes.

All this time I had convinced myself I was only a dragon. But I was far more. The other races I once thought merely granted "elements" were actually different species.

"Chaos Demon…" This was my Chaos Demon form, and it looked almost identical to my mother's—just as my dragon form resembled my father's.

"E-Elizabeth?!" Mongrel gasped, already half-transformed.

"Y-You're… that form!" Dryad exclaimed.

"A Demon…! A real Demon?! But also… a Chaos Spirit?!"

"It's my mother's species—Chaos Demon," I said, touching them both.

"Chaos." FLAAASH! They were engulfed by my power, rapidly regenerating before transforming into colossal forms. Mongrel became a writhing mass of tentacles and eyes, while Dryad grew into a giant black tree with roots and branches stretching endlessly. I gripped my shapeshifting weapon and infused it with my power. It responded wildly, transforming into a gigantic sword of darkness. Then I reversed it—no, I reversed myself completely. From a Chaos Demon, I became… FLUOSH! My demonic traits reversed.

My skin turned pale, my wings became feathered, and my dark powers turned holy.

"Even if it's a species I don't naturally possess, by reversing it… even this is possible." I marveled at my new appearance. I had become the opposite of a Chaos Demon. A Celestial of Harmony. The blade in my hands glowed with blinding intensity, shining so powerfully that the shapeshifting weapon strained under the pressure. At that moment, Paragon responded. His body exploded into metallic plates that covered my entire form, leaving me speechless. A new skill? A transformation?

Whatever it was, it granted us the power we needed.

"THEY'RE COMING! ALMOST… ALMOST!" the Nightmare Beast King laughed as the obsidian claws drew closer. In that moment, I stood against them—as Nightmare, Dragon, and Demon.

"I defy you, Nightmare Kings!" With my sword blazing with the power to vanquish them, I reached as high as I could and cleaved the heavens apart.

"Eternal Blade Arts – Third Form: Sky Severing Star." Blinding golden and white light consumed everything—the warped portal, the obsidian hand, all of it was severed in a single strike.

Nightmare Beast King: Elizabeth's Nightmare Form: Elizabeth's Chaos Demon Form: Elizabeth's Celestial of Harmony form: