As soon as I stepped into the realm of sleep and nightmares, the lord of the realm instantly noticed me.
It would have been shocking if he hadn't, despite how his attention was split a million million ways, there was no way he could miss something like me. Even the walls of Camelot, conjured by Galahad's Noble Phantasm, were but a firefly compared to me.
Not in size, not in scale, but in presence.
I was, after all, still under the effect of Torrent of Light, causing my aura to spike like a sun in the sky.
Camelot's walls were a star, but no matter how beautiful a star is, it is completely overshadowed by the sun.
"Another intruder into the realms of dreams, I assume you are to blame for the fate of Mephisto?" Nightmare asked as he stopped his assault on Camelot, his attention now firmly on me. He knew he couldn't afford to focus on Galahad's group, not when I was here.
"He was a fool who thought he could bargain with me, a king," I said, my voice a cold, clear note in the chaos, a final judgment. "He paid the price for his arrogance."
Nightmare was maybe the most honest of the Lords, or at least the one closest to the very nature of his realm. He was someone who very rarely targeted Earth because he cared little for the world of those awake.
His domain was dreams, and that was where he was strongest.
Something that could be seen from the few times he did target Earth, he would either target someone in particular, trapping them in dreams and nightmares, or he would try to trap many people in eternal sleep.
While others wanted to bring death and destruction, Nightmare wanted people to sleep forever.
In some ways, I felt he was something close to a Beast, a being who would bring about the end of the world, or at least the end of humanity, not out of hatred, but out of love, someone who wanted to save humanity, in a way that didn't fit with humanity.
A very divine way of being.
Just like me, who wanted to save humanity, but in doing so, would have doomed them, for anyone not human wouldn't understand what it meant to be human.
Yet he wasn't a Beast, he had no such grand goal to save humanity, his dreams of eternal sleep were not to save humanity, he wouldn't trap them in peaceful sleep, letting them live in paradise forever, no... that was something a Beast might do, but Nightmare was more cruel than that, for while he would spare humanity the pains of being awake, he would in turn trap them in nightmares from where there was no waking.
He wanted to trap everyone in a hell of their own making. To him, that was paradise. That was the ultimate expression of his power.
He was also, after all, a demon lord, so some level of cruelty was to be expected.
But despite that, he was also, in a way, the most gentle of the lords. He didn't kill, he didn't murder, didn't enslave, didn't torture, he didn't want to be evil, he just was.
He was Nightmare, and as such, he turned dreams into Nightmares, causing people to fear, to despair. That was his fuel. Even while doing nothing, he was still fed.
For humanity would always feel fear, and that would always lead to nightmares, not all the time, maybe not even often, but enough.
That was why he rarely bothered to target Earth, he had the least need to, and in some ways, the least to get.
Not knowing my thoughts, Nightmare swelled in size, growing bigger and bigger, a towering giant as he attempted to intimidate me. "You might have managed to defeat Mephisto, but do not think that you can do the same to me. I am the lord of dreams, the master of nightmares. I am the fear that lurks in the darkest corners of your mind."
I couldn't help but laugh, a genuine, amused laugh. He thought this was a battle of strength? "Nightmare, you are a fool. You think you can defeat me with fear? You think you can defeat a goddess, a being who has faced down the end of the world, with something as petty as a nightmare?" I asked, my voice a low growl.
"I am not a being of flesh and blood, of fragile emotions and easily broken minds. I am a concept, a force of nature. I am the King of Knights, the Goddess Rhongomyniad. And in the face of my divine might, your nightmares are but fleeting illusions, cheap tricks that will not work."
I wasn't lying, I had no need to lie here, and I didn't fear him in the slightest.
For me, a nightmare was but a dream, and as a goddess, I didn't have to sleep, and while sleeping, I could still control my dreams, so while all mortals had some weakness to Nightmare, I had none; he had no way to reach my heart. Not through dreams or nightmares.
So what was he to do? He couldn't bargain, he couldn't threaten, and he couldn't intimidate me.
"You talk a big game, King of Knights," Nightmare snarled, the swirling vortex of shadow and pure fear that composed his form seeming to intensify, the very air around him crackling with psychic energy. "But you are still just a mortal. You still have fears, you still have doubts, you still have regrets. And I am the master of those things. I will find your fears, your doubts, your regrets, and I will use them to destroy you."
He raised a hand, and a phantom figure appeared before me, a ghost from my past.
It was a child, a small, fragile boy with blond hair and green eyes, a look of innocent confusion on his face. He was wearing a simple tunic, a toy sword in his hand.
But no sooner had it taken form than it imploded onto itself. The light from my lance, the Torrent of Light, washed over it, the divine power burning it away before it could even speak.
"Fool," I said, shaking my head. "I know my past. I know my sins. I know my regrets. I do not run from them. I accept them. I embrace them. They are a part of me. And in the face of my divine will, they have no power over me."
Nightmare's form faltered, a look of genuine confusion on his face. He had never encountered a being like me, a being who was immune to his power, a being who could face her own fears and not be broken by them.
"This... this is impossible," he stammered, a hint of fear in his voice. "No one is immune to my power. No one is immune to the fear."
"Indeed," I replied with a sad sigh. "No human can escape their fear... it is part of being human, but I am a flawed being, someone without a human heart, and as such, what no human can do, I still can." I couldn't help but feel a little sorrow at my own words.
Arthuria Pendragon had no human heart; this was the truth, this was the cause of the rebellion, something even Bedivere, my most loyal, had called me out on, and while my rebirth into this universe had given me a human heart,
It was not enough to make me truly human.
For while I had one part human girl from the normal universe, I had many parts Arthuria from the Moon Light world.
And that was the source of my strength, the source of my power, and the source of my sorrow.
"So this is your secret," Nightmare whispered, a look of dawning comprehension on his face. "This is the source of your power. You are not just a goddess, you are an empty vessel, a hollow shell that can be filled with the power of the divine."
He looked at me, a calculating look in his eyes, a predator who had just identified a new weakness. "You may be immune to my power, but you are also alone. You have no heart, no soul, no humanity. You are a cold, unfeeling machine, a tool for a power that you do not understand. And in the end, you will be nothing but a forgotten memory, a legend that will fade away with the passage of time."
"Be that what it may, I shall still stand guard for my people and my kingdom, I shall follow my heart, I shall follow the path of a King, of a Goddess, I shall lead my people to what I think is right, that is my selfishness, my promise, and those." I said, pointing Rhongomyniad towards my three knights off in the distance, "Those are my people, and you will release them!"
He didn't respond right away, his form, endless swirling dreams and nightmares, fear and doubt, just continued as he considered the situation.
He did hate them, yes, he wanted them gone... because they had brought something that shouldn't exist into his realm, a dream, a paradise where there should be only nightmares. It was a wound upon the rules of this place.
A foreign concept.
Something he couldn't just erase, but to let them go... would wound his pride.
Still, he was smart enough to understand that killing them wasn't an option; he had tried and tried hard, but failed.
Just as one day, Dormammu would try and fail to destroy one mortal man, who brought time into his realm.
More so, with me here, and with the knowledge of what I had done to Mephisto, he had to consider that I could do the same to him.
To risk losing a piece of his realm for this? For the sake of his pride? That was a foolish trade.
"Fine," he finally spat, "Take them, take them and go, take them and never come back here. If you do, I shall never release you, and you will forever be trapped in the deepest darkest nightmare in your hearts," he cursed as his realm churned.
A great wave rose up and struck the walls of Camelot, not to drown them, not to destroy them, instead the wave carried the shining city over towards the entrance. He was returning my knights to me, throwing them out as he had promised.
I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief; this was, after all, the best outcome I could have hoped for. I hadn't wanted to fight him, not truly.
And so, I turned around and walked towards the exit, ignoring the curses and angry mutterings of Nightmare, who had been left fuming.
I walked through the swirling portal, back to the open battlefield.
The sight that greeted me was a mixed one. The battle was clearly turning in our favor; the knights were pushing back the demonic hordes, the Enforcement Knights were cutting down the lesser demons with cold, unfeeling efficiency, and the remaining Knights of the Round Table were holding their own against the few remaining greater demons.
But it was also clear that the battle had taken its toll. The knights were tired, their armor battered and dented, their faces grim and determined. They had been fighting for hours, and the strain was beginning to show.
The only demon lords still fighting were Satannish, who was still locked in a duel with Mordred, Lionel, and Gawain, and Dormammu, who was still locked in a duel with the Ancient One, a battle that was taking place in a realm beyond my sight.
But the conflict was coming to an end, and I would end it.
(End of chapter)
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