Nightmare roared, and fear from all around started gathering toward it. "You think you can use my power to beat me? Quit daydreaming!"
The fear in this mental space turned into something solid. It became a huge black ball, just like what Fang Xiu had made, but this time it was even bigger because of all the fear coming together.
"Is that all you've got?" Fang Xiu mocked. "Pain, more pain! The pain from everyone in Greenvine City, come to me!"
With those words, pain from all over the city rushed toward him like waves.
Suddenly, something strange happened in Greenvine City.
People who were hurt or who had lost loved ones felt their pain fading away. It was like something was being pulled out of them, and their screams of pain stopped.
Everyone started to feel a bit more at peace.
All this pain was going to Fang Xiu. He was taking on the pain of the whole city by himself.
In his mind, Fang Xiu saw countless people in pain, crying over their loved ones, surrounded by blood and fire.
The black mist around him increasingly thicker until he was completely hidden inside it, except for his fierce, pale face.
Fang Xiu seemed to be in a similar state as Nightmare now.
Nightmare had blood-red eyes in the black smoke, and Fang Xiu had his face showing through the black mist.
"Die!" Nightmare, feeling more uneasy, launched a massive ball of fear at Fang Xiu.
The black ball was huge and swallowed Fang Xiu completely.
But a second later, it exploded, and Fang Xiu walked out without a scratch, looking like a demon.
"Damn it!" Nightmare panicked and started throwing more and more fear balls at Fang Xiu.
But no matter how many he threw, the black mist around Fang Xiu would get hit and then heal back up, as if nothing had happened.
Fang Xiu's laugh, twisted and scary, echoed from the mist. His eyes, one black and one red, were fixed on Nightmare.
"Feel the pain you've caused to millions in Greenvine City!" Fang Xiu's laughter grew louder and started to overlap, as if many people in pain were standing behind him, laughing with him.
Seeing the situation, Nightmare panicked and unleashed all its power, with black smoke billowing out.
Just then, countless shadows of people drowning in fear appeared behind it.
Nightmare yelled, "Fang Xiu, you have the pain of the entire Greenvine City, but I have fear! You don't scare me!"
Fang Xiu suddenly stopped laughing. His eyes turned cold and indifferent.
"Kneel!" he commanded.
The whole space shook uncontrollably, as if billions were screaming together, their voices like a tsunami.
A giant hand made of pain appeared, and the painful shadows merged into it, slamming down hard.
"What!" Nightmare was shocked, its face changing rapidly, frantically resisting.
Countless shadows of fear raised their hands as if to stop the giant hand from above. But it was all in vain.
BOOM!
All the shadows vanished after getting hit, and Nightmare's black smoke churned up, almost dispersing its form.
It fell to its knees, its blood-red eyes full of fear. "This is impossible! Why are you so powerful?"
"Because my pain is far greater than you can imagine! Fear may disappear with a happy song, but the pain that remains in one's body and soul does not. For the sake of the pain of the entire Greenvine City, go to hell, Nightmare!"
The hand of pain kept slamming down, like a human swatting a worthless ant.
"Argh!" Nightmare's screams of twisted pain kept coming. Its black smoke thinned, unable to even maintain a human shape.
Finally, it reverted to its original state in Green Mountain Mental Hospital.
As the attacks continued, Fang Xiu's power of pain also wore down, and soon, the giant hand of pain dissolved. Only Nightmare, barely alive, remained on its knees.
Fang Xiu used the last of his pain power to form a huge cage, locking Nightmare up.
Nightmare looked very pathetic, like a drowned dog, but when it saw Fang Xiu's power of pain fading, it sneered.
"Fang Xiu, it looks like your pain is almost spent. You can't kill me. I've planted fear in the hearts of everyone in Greenvine City. As long as they feel fear and have nightmares, I will be reborn in their nightmares. Haha! Unless you kill everyone in Greenvine City, I will never die!"
Watching the arrogant Nightmare, Fang Xiu's eyes suddenly lit up with excitement, as if he had found a toy that could never be broken.
Fang Xiu's sinister laugh cut through Nightmare's laughter.
Nightmare felt something was off. "What are you laughing at?"
"It's wonderful, a Specter that can't die?"
"What do you want to do!"
"What? Of course, I want to trap you in my dreams and torment you forever!" Fang Xiu was more excited than ever. He had found a way to vent his frustrations.
Every day he had to pretend not to see the Specters around him; he had to act like nothing was wrong, and closed off his heart like a living dead.
But now, with Nightmare, he could at least sleep well, entering sweet nightmares to torture Nightmare over and over, venting his daytime frustrations.
He desperately needed such a Specter.
"Join me! Merge into my dreams completely!" Fang Xiu laughed menacingly and approached Nightmare.
Nightmare was terrified, "Don't come any closer!"
But Fang Xiu lunged at him, crazily biting and tearing at Nightmare.
He wanted to merge Nightmare into himself, to imprison it in his dreams forever, so he could see Nightmare every time he slept."