With tears flowing from her eyes, Elayne grabbed her daughter, dragging her out of this dream world she had been trapped into. At the same time, her consciousness traveled across two other dreams, where Elise and Anna's souls were trapped.
All three dreams had the same thing in common, Elayne saw Elise happily living with her two parents, who had left her behind to live alone from a young age.
And Anna dreamed of her mother finally getting along with her father, who had divorced her many years ago, living together as a family.
The dream world targeted the children's most deepest, emotional desires related to their own family traumas. Elayne felt terrible every time she had to drag these girls out of their ideal worlds.
Worlds that weren't real, and perhaps, that's why they didn't want to leave, no matter what…
The moment she emerged out of the dreams and her consciousness moved back to her body, all three of the girls suddenly lost the pillows below their heads, however, they remained asleep even now.
"T-They're still asleep?!" Elayne cried, glancing at the girls.
"Yeah, but don't worry, they're not trapped within any dream now!" Said Morpheus. "For now, cover their heads with a bubble made of holy light, that'll stop any monster from trying to drag them into a dream or nightmare again."
"A bubble made of holy light?! G-Gotcha!" Elayne desperately conjured her light magic, shaping it into a bright, golden-colored transparent bubble, and gently placing it around all three of the girl's heads. They looked like astronauts now.
"Blackie! I'll be leaving them in your care!" Elayne called Blackie once more, as the black cat emerged out of her shadows and quickly wrapped the girls on his darkness.
"Meow!" He quickly dived into Elayne's shadows again, sabing his energy for now and using it to protect the girls instead of fighting.
His ability to travel through shadows, hide in them, and create a shadow pocket space was quite useful now. Of course, it didn't had oxygen inside, but Elayne easily resolved that problem by placing a few dozen Lesser Wind Spirits inside, which could fill the shadow world with enough air to last a whole week.
"Alright!" Elayne said. "The girls are safe!"
Elayne quickly glanced around her surroundings, the barrier protecting her already had several large cracks, and her friends looked desperate and exhausted, fighting an endless army of toy monsters.
"You're done?! Oh thank god!" Rita cried, shooting down a dozen black colored teddy bears.
"This damn army never stops coming! We have to run away or somehow destroy the magic circles summoning them!" Mark said, burning over twenty small toy monsters with his flames and quadruple slashes.
"Do you have any idea? The magic circles seem very well hidden, we haven't been able to find them yet!" Lily said, swinging her pickaxe against a large wooden knight over a wooden horse.
"Magic Circles of Summoning, right?" Elayne joined the battle as the barrier shattered into pieces, while holding both Irene and Morpheus in her two hands.
She spread out her Spiritual Senses and activated her Spirit Gaze, yet just like her friends, she couldn't find the source of the endless summoning of Toy Monsters.
Suddenly, Morpheus pointed at an empty space. Elayne was confused at first, before Morpheus conjured a beam of pink light, revealing something that nobody had detected before.
It was a large cloud of illusory dream energy, which held several magic circles where the Toy Monsters kept popping out from.
"So it was within a small Dream Cloud?! That's why we couldn't find them!" Mark said. "Can we destroy that?"
"Not with mere magic, dreams can only be fought with dreams." Morpheus said. "Boss!"
"Alright! {Summon Nightmarish Skeleton Knights}!" Elayne roared. She quickly infused Mana into Morpheus as the Dream Scythe Weapon Spirit spread out a large quantity of Nightmare Essence.
The essence spread out like a black liquid, quickly giving birth to dozens of black skeletons that solidified out of this nightmarish substance, gaining tattered black armor and black swords, spears, or axes.
Each Nightmarish Skeleton Knights were as strong as D Rank monsters, and quickly rushed into battle, swinging their weapons and defeating dozens of Toy Monsters, while a trio of them, holding the minds of the souls that created Morpheus, pierced the Dream Cloud with their swords.
"Take this you damn cloud!"
"First time I ever stab a cloud…!"
"Feels weird, isn't it?"
Their Nightmare-made weapons distorted the Dream Cloud's composition, making it explode in an instant, and with its destruction, the summoning magic circles disappeared as well.
The surroundings were filled with a pink colored smoke, as all the monsters stopped being summoned, and whoever was left behind was quickly taken care by the skeletons.
"Phew… I can't believe it… That was tough, I need a break." Rita sighed, sitting over the floor.
"Well, it wasn't without great rewards either." Mark said. "The girls are now safe and look at all the Magic Crystals around!"
"So many…" Lily was surprised.
"They'll come in handy, let's quickly collect them and keep moving." Elayne said.
As she was dragged out of her dream, Elena realized it was all just a farse, something that wasn't real. Her father wasn't back with her, and her mother was the one to wake her up.
Thinking that she was simply sleeping in her bed, she felt slightly awake, yet at the same time too drowsy to completely open her eyes.
However, in those seconds she was freed, she felt her warmth. Surrounding by a strange world, a fantastical dungeon, someone was holding her with her strong arms.
The warmth of her arms, her voice filled with love, and her strong, energetic aura that always wanted to protect her.
Despite looking slightly different, covered on woods and a mask, Elena… unmistakably recognized her.
However, before she could even find out more about what was happening, she quickly fell asleep. Not because a dream dragged her into their illusions, but because her body and mind felt too exhausted.
It wouldn't be until much later that she would learn the truth, as she was now fast asleep, within a realm of shadows, where a small and brave feline guardian watched over Elena and her friends.