Utilizing the presences of Elena, Elisa, and Anna that Elayne could sense through her powers, everyone flew across the Castle of Dreams over the swift Falco, faster than even their flying broom.
"I can sense them, we're getting closer!" Elayne said, pointing to the left. "Falco! Through that corridor!"
The swift Magic Bird flapped his wings, swiftly changing trajectories and rushing across the left corridor. The end of the corridor had a huge door sealed with black colored chains.
"There! They're THERE!" Elayne cried.
"Alright!" Mark nodded. "Once we secure the girls, should we run away from the dungeon and then come back? Securing their lives should be our priority."
"But can we even find the entrance again so easily?" Rita asked. "Also the rest of the girls inside the dungeon…"
"We're saving everyone!" Said Elayne. "We'll secure the girls and then everyone else. And then, we'll beat the Boss and blow this dungeon to smithereens!"
"I guess that's what we'll do then!" Lily giggled. "Elayne seems decided."
However, before Falco could move any further, several shadows materialized around the floor, gathering, and transforming into over twenty black knights, Nightmare Puppet Knights!
"T-That power… C Rank monsters?!" The Great Spirit panicked. "H-Hold on!"
SLASH! SLASH! SLAAASH!
All the Nightmare Puppet Knights coordinated their attacks at once, swinging their huge black swords. Their combination of attacks generated a storm of Nightmare Attribute Slashes, which sent Falco and everyone else flying away!
"C-Crahh…!" Falco was wounded, quickly going back to his smaller size.
"Falco, hang in there!" Mark said, using his healing magic, as phoenix flames covered the beast and slowly healed his wounds.
"The dreams of the children…"
"You cannot interrupt them!"
The knights instantly charged against them without them even being able to prepare for battle. Their huge swords swung, releasing sparks of black lightning that not only dealt huge damage, but also hurt people's psyche, filling their minds with nightmares.
CLASH! CLASH! CRAAASH!
Mark had ran in front of Elayne to tank the hits, covered on his blazing wooden armor, but even then, his body was seriously hut as several pieces of his body flew away, and his mind felt electrified, as if someone had punched his brain.
"Urgh… Fuck! My head…!" Mark groaned, desperately swinging his knife against the Nightmare Puppet Knights, quadruple slashes of fire dragon flames were unleashed.
SLAASH! SLAASH! SLAASH! SLAASH! BOOOM!
Several knights were attacked at once, the explosions blowing them into pieces. Their pieces suddenly turning into a liquid, nightmarish goo, and merging together until it suddenly summoned… the exact amount of nightmare knights that were killed!
"They can revive?!" Elayne was shocked, standing up after wrapping Falco on her roots and putting him on the safety of Blackie's shadows.
"It seems like they're made of that strange… nightmarish thing!" Mark said. "Don't let their attacks reach you, or you'll end up getting hit in the head, as if a hundred nightmares hit you in a single second. It hurts!"
"Got it." Said Rita. "We'll use you as our shield if you don't mind then!" She giggled, shooting at the nightmare knights with her gun.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Charged with the holy light element of her little holy light mouse, Whitey, the magic bullets blew the knights heads into pieces, making the rest of their bodies fall into the floor.
And then the same process happened again! They slowly melted into black goo and merged together, summoning the knights once more.
"This is ridiculous! How can we kill them?!" Rita complained.
"Watch out!" Elayne rushed in front of Rita, putting her shield in front of her. "{Spiritual Scale Fortress}! {Wooden Shield}!"
Combining her shield's Ability with the Wooden Shield Spell created a huge fortress of wooden dragon scales around them, which tanked the powerful Nightmare Slashes of the knights.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CRAAASH!
However, even this powerful barrier didn't hold on for much longer, taking ten hits before beginning to crumble down into pieces.
"They're not C Rank for nothing. They might be weaker than the Death Generals you've fought, but they're right below them in terms of power, and there's tons, and they're pretty much immortal! Was the boss in charge of this dungeon preparing this damn thing for all of you?" The Great Spirit complained.
"I'm not sure, but all this nightmarish energy is sure giving me a lot of Malice Energy." Rita already had summoned her Malice Orb, a spell she created imitating the one from her Avatar in BNLO. "I'm gonna prepare a blast to turn them to ashes and blast that door, cover me!"
Rita decided to go all-out, as she started absorbing as much energy as possible, gathering a tremendous quantity of darkness and nightmarish energy into a huge sphere.
"Okay!" Everyone agreed.
"{Earth Domain}! {Earth Manipulation}! {Earth Golems}!"
Lily hit the ground with her hands as she fused with it, spreading out a thick layer of pure ground and earth, which quickly turned into mud and by fusing with Earth Spirits she brought out, several huge golems emerged.
"Earth Golems, attack them!" Lily commanded, as a dozen golems, each one as huge as three meters charged forwards.
Their huge fists constantly pushed the nightmare knights away. But the knights numbers were much higher, they started ganging on the golems, slowly tearing them down one after another.
Lily continuously summoned more, regaining some of her Mana through her Domain and that of Elayne, which also brought tiny lesser spirits to help, while also summoning crystal spears and earth walls.
"{Beast Spirit Totem Summon}: {Blazing Falcon Totem Spirit}! {Holy Light Lion Totem Spirit}! {Freezing Frost Bear Totem Spirit}!"
Mark decided to go for a long-ranged approach, as he expanded his wooden body and summoned out of his own blazing wood three huge Beast Spirits made of wood and different elements. A huge falcon covered on flames, a lion emanating holy light, and a giant bear covered on frost.
All three of these powerful spirits were as strong as ten earth golems, rushing to fight the nightmare knights!
Meanwhile, Elayne was preparing a mightier magic.
"{Light Spirit Call}!"