While Ace was trapped in the illusion, Raldin's sword had been taken and thrown aside by one of the bigger monstrosities, leaving him with no way of stopping them.
"DAMNIT!"
Florian too had been apprehended by them, being taken into the realm of illusion. However, Raldin wasn't even slightly induced into them.
This attracted more and more Creatures of larger proportion that grappled onto a part of his body each, attempting to combine their efforts but it showed no result. Apart from pissing off the Captain.
Meanwhile, Raten and Nalia traced their steps back to the route the Fire Mage had taken in a rush. They eventually arrived at the building, going up to the room where more creatures had gathered, surrounding the female.
"Oh, no!" Nalia worried but the other's next actions put her mind at ease as he gave her a 'don't worry'.
"I got it." Whilst touching the ground with his palm, he evoked the seeping of liquefied metal, willing it to swirl through the floor before it solidifed around it's targets, chaining them down by their legs. The duo then moved cautiously to the biggest one that held onto Annie, seemingly feeding off her pain while the others that had been chained vanished into the air.
"Annie, are you in there?" They asked the unmoving girl that had curled herself up on the floor. After receiving no response, Nalia shook the girl's shoulder, the free one but she just sat there stationery.
"She can't break out of it."
"What?" He questioned before she explained how she had recently gone through the same experience, the one that twisted her past experiences into demented nightmares."Well then, how did you get out if she can't?" His brutal honesty reminded her of the fact that she was significantly weaker than everyone else in the group, both in terms of combat ability and her Power.
But she was already aware of it and that was why she focused her efforts on what she could do well: Research. But for some reason, it stinged when he said it. 'I'm gonna ignore that.' She said to herself before responding. "I don't think it has anything to do with physical prowess. I mean, it's not actually fighting me physically but attacking me mentally and emotionally."
Raten gave it a thought with a finger on his chin. What she was basically saying was that her mental fortitude was higher than the Fire Mage which could be very true. No, he believed it and he wondered in veiled amazement how mentally tough Nalia was. "I see," he said, unaware that his astonishment had slipped into his words, prompting a short blush of the girl's cheeks.
"If she doesn't have the emotional strength to break out, the only real solution is to find the source of it all." The girl nodded to his words before he decided that they regrouped with the others and soon after, they had sped off although reluctant to leave the blond all by herself.
Moments later, Raten jumped and placed his hand on the ground, utilizing the same technique as before and trapping the other entities in chains. At that same time, Ace had broken out of his nightmare.
"Raten! What happened? Where's Annie?" Raldin asked all at once.
He replied just as fast. "She couldn't break out of her nightmare." His gaze shifted away from the Vice and unto someone else. "And from the looks of it, neither can he." He pointed to Florian before showcasing the White Devil that continued to pulse, as if picking up some kind of energy frequency.
"What's it doing?" Ace asked, curiously.
"I don't know but it started around when we came here so it must be these Nightmare Creatures."
"Can you track it?" Nalia looked to the Vice-Captain, accidentally slipping out the urgency she meant in her words. The whole situation just didn't sit right with her but who could say it did with any of them?
Raldin took a few steps until he was before the White Devil, touching the Sword before looking to the teenage boy in suspicion.
'It's like this thing's alive.' He theorized after taking in the feeling that went through his fingertips after touching it. 'But that can't be right. No, not just that. It doesn't even make sense.'
'He's a Zen Wielder, not a Taikon Host.' Raten's body cringed at the prolonged eye contact the Vice made with him. Unable to find even a sliver of deception of any sort, he concluded that he had no idea either.
"Energy Creation:..." He declared, channeling the power within him into a Spell. "Beacon of Light!" A white and orange light beam shot out into the sky, stopping for a microsecond before steering in a certain direction. Raten, Ace, Raldin and Nalia, they all looked at each other in conviction before nodding. "Let's go!"
They were on the move and it seemed that the Creatures were aware of this as well and we're ready to stop them if the need came.
One of the aerial ones swooped from above, nearly grasping Nalia. 'Nice try but I've done that dance before and it wasn't pleasant.' She swerved to the side, putting herself out of danger. After that, a large herd of them tried intercepting Ace.
"Hover Disc!" He made them float in the air with his energy creation, going at twice their initial speed as more and more of the Nightmare Creatures began to catch up, most of them being more flyers. "Any chance we've arrived at our destination?!"
"Look at that!" The only girl and the weakest amongst them at the moment pointed to an area up ahead where masses of the Creatures almost in scores originated from. In the middle of the area stood -or floated- a structure made entirely of circular black and white light that gave it a warped, unnatural look. They all landed as the Energy User released the Hover Disc.
Raten drawed out the hammers, weapons he had obtained from the Force Soldier, bashing them against the ground and generating a tremor that caused the Creatures a few metres ahead to dissipate. Raldin capitalized on the opportunity the other had created, casting another Spell that far outclassed anything Ace or Florian could do in terms of potency.
"Energy Sphere!" The words were simple but enough to conjure up a forcefield that covered the black-and-white portal, preventing other dark creatures from getting out.
'Now, the question remains. How are we meant to diffuse this?' The Vice Captain refused to let his uneasiness show. He didn't want them to know that he had no idea how to stop it.
However, they were on limited time and if they didn't figure it out soon, they would be overwhelmed by numbers as practically every single Nightmare Creature closed in on them.