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Elayne quickly conjured healing magic on the girls, who were now freed, but still too weakened. The dreams and nightmares sapping at their strength, life force, and whatever mana they had even without awakening.
Covering their heads with the same bubble of holy light that she used on her daughter and her friends, she told Blackie to hold them within his little Shadow Realm, no bigger than the classroom where the girls came from.
However, right after she finished that, Dorothea snapped. Her plans were easily destroyed by Elayne's abilities, and on her desperation of facing foes whose strength she couldn't easily gauge, she panicked and decided to unleash all her magical power at once.
"[Nightmare World Manifestation]!"
FLAAAASH!
The world around everyone stared to distort, the walls in the hall quickly disappeared, as they found themselves floating above a near-endless landscape of purple and black clouds, stars shining across a night sky, and several other floating islands covered on bright jewels.
The Nightmare World she created and Reality merged into one, a single, strange, and distorted reality that mixed both the fantastical powers she held within Nightmares with the real world itself!
"T-This…! Are we falling into a dream again?!" Rita cried.
"No! This is different…" Mark said. "It is as if… reality itself is distorting?! She could do such a thing?!"
"She is merging her Nightmare World with the Real World!" Lily said.
"So this is your power…" Elayne sighed, quickly joining her friends. "I doubt dealing with us was all you wanted… What's your endgame?"
"Fufufu… Hahahaha! Do you want to know so badly~?!" Dorothea laughed, hugging Monica from behind.
Elayne had already realized that Dorothea's existence was bound to Monica. It was as if she was some sort of ghostly entity, a specter similar to Phantasmos, bound to Monica's soul.
The reason why Monica was with her was because without her, Dorothea would never be able to manifest all these powers, it was her vessel.
And that's why Monica was floating in midair, while Dorothea seemed to be "coming out" of her own body.
"Well, it is pretty easy." Dorothea gently caressed Monica's unconscious face. "I'll open more Gates to my Dungeon and fill your entire city with my Nightmare World! Both worlds will merge, and your entire city will be submerged in chaos as countless monsters devour everyone! With thousands- no, perhaps millions of souls offered, my lord will surely grow even stronger, and the wounds you've left behind on his body will be healed in no time!"
"I guessed you would do such a thing…" Elayne sighed. "But you're really just going to kill innocent people, despite them not having anything to do with your revenge? Then what's the point of your revenge if you are not even avenging anybody?!"
"You just don't understand, don't you?" Dorothea smiled back at Elayne, her surroundings quickly distorting as enormous Nightmarish Tentacles covered on red eyes emerged from within the void of the Nightmare World. "This is all part of our greater plans, we know you love life, Yggdrasil. So our revenge will be to take away all the life you love so much. We will make of this world, a world of Undead where my lord shall govern supreme!"
After her words finished, the tentacles moved, immediately attempting to crush Dorothea's rivals as soon as possible, their enormous size reminded everyone of Ephiales, the Nightmare side of Laplace's existence.
"Those tentacles… Is that Ephiales?!" Rita cried.
"But didn't he died?!" Lily wondered.
"No, it is not HIM, but something similar… After all, he was merely a creation of Dorothea, the creator most likely has the same power as their creations." Mark added.
"GRUOOOHHH!"
The countless tentacles roared furiously, shaking the entire Dungeon, now slowly merging with the Nightmare World of Dorothea. The girl sat down over the abomination, controlling the dozens of tentacles.
"Don't even think about getting out of here alive!" She roared.
The tentacle' tips quickly materialized into metallic, black spikes, swiftly descending towards everyone else with tremendous speed and precision.
"We have to evade those, there's no way we can take them head-on!"
Elayne quickly spread out her roots, grabbing her friends and swiftly springing out of the floor by transforming her legs into spring-like plant roots.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRAAASH!
The tentacles followed them very closely from, as the group swiftly mounted Falco once more, and with Elayne's Wind Spirits imbued into his body through Spirit Infusion, he became much nimbler and faster!
FLAAASH!
The huge bird evaded the attacks one after another, as everyone quickly conjured their strongest magic spells, bombarding the tentacles with destructive elemental explosions.
However, be it fireballs, shadow bullets, or stone bullets, the damage was very small, if they didn't wanted to empty all their Mana, they had to strike down the tentacles with the might of their weapons.
And for that, they had to let them get close enough.
CRAAAASH!
One of the tentacles managed to just do that, appearing from below, and trying to pierce Falco's belly to kill the bird instantly and take away the method of transportation of the party.
"[Nightmare Absorption]!" However, Elayne was waiting for this moment, leaping towards the tentacle head-on and hitting it with Morpheus' blade, while through Irene, she charged another attack.
SLAAAASH!
The Tentacle suddenly felt its energy being sapped away, slightly weakening, giving Elayne enough time for Irene to quickly transform, absorbing both Land and Light Spirits and changing her form into a huge golden hammer.
"[Spirit Fusion]!"
Through Spirit Fusion, these Spirits once more temporarily transformed Irene's shape from a shovel into a huge hammer. Elayne charged her weapon with Mana and then, while the tentacle was weakened…
"[Holy Light Spirit Smite]!"
CRAAAASSH!
Accompanied by a piercing holy light, the powerful strike hit the weakened Nightmare Tentacle and instantly sent countless cracks across its body, where holy light erupted from.
Crack, crack… CRACK!
BOOOOOOMMM!!!
The Nightmare Tentacle quickly exploded into pieces. Dorothea tried to heal it back, but she suddenly realized such a thing was impossible, Elayne's holy light covered the wounded areas of the void-like beast, inhibiting its regeneration.
And that wasn't all… her Nightmare Absorption and her Holy Light Spirit Smite generated powerful shockwaves, the nearby Nightmare Tentacles weakened just in time for everyone else to strike as well!
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Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om