Before entering the manor I had asked Beatriz if she sensed Sofia.
"Yeah I can sense her, she's pretty close," she said. "Inside... Definitely in the last floor."
"Should we try breaking through the walls, maybe fly all the way up there?" I wondered.
"I wouldn't recomnd that, this manor is the core of the Nightmare Realm," Beatriz said. "If you destroy it or try to forcefully climb it from outside you might shatter the Nightmare Realm and speed up the Nightmare Decaying process."
"Ah dammit..." I sighed. "Then it's the old-fashioned way... Three floors, right? It shouldn't be that hard."
"You're a monster so definitely, it won't be hard, but you have to hurry!" Beatriz said. "Unless you want to see that girl becoming a monster, hehe."
I ignored that last remark.
"Alright then! Let's go! Beatriz can sense Sofia very close," I said. "We have to find her as quickly as possible!"
"Yeah let's go!" Emily nodded.
"We're closer, let's keep up the pace please!" Alma said.
As I opened the door, the interior of the manor's first floor was revealed to us, it was surprisingly clean black manor, with red colored tapestry here and there. It wasn't gigantic or overly extended in size, it actually had the size of a normal three-floor manor.
There were three stairs leading to the second floor, and from the stairs, there were several corridors and other rooms, as far as I could see.
However, once we entered the manor, we weren't alone there, no, sothing was already waiting for us as we entered.
And what greeted us inside was...
"Heheh... Welco!"
"Hiiii!"
"Let's play!"
"Heheh!"
Falling from the ceiling, dozens of dolls shaped like Sofia appeared, hanging on threads. They around the sa shape as the other ghostly Sofias we fought before.
They were holding knives covered on a purple liquid, most likely poison. These dolls didn't look strong, but they were dozens after dozens, and more kept coming from the ceiling.
When I looked at the ceiling, the only thing I saw was darkness, a veil of shadows where they erged.
Yeah, that's definitely not sothing normal manors have.
"Dolls?!" Emily panicked, covering her body with her armor.
"There are so many!" Alma said.
"Careful, their knives are poisoned!" I said. "Alma! You need more protection! Here!"
I waved my hand, conjuring the Blood Dragon Bones and covering Alma's body with a full- body armor. It looked a bit scary and didn't really fit her appearance, but it was necessary.
"Uwaah! Armor?! You can do this too, Maria?"
"Yeah! Now let's advance!"
As I tried to lead them to the stairs, the dolls naturally tried to get on our way, giggling maliciously, they hanged around the ceiling above us, moving through their threads while trying to stab us constantly.
"Where do you think you're going!"
"Let's play so more pleaseeee!"
"Hehehe! Hahahah!"
"Pretty pleaseeeee!"
Dozens after dozens of dolls chased after us, going left and right as they balanced around with their threads, Emily and Alma ducked as they ca, but when ever Emily tried to punch them, they were already out of range.
"Play with us please!"
"We want to play gas!"
"Mama and papa doesn't play with us!"
"Pleaseee let's play gaees!"
"We are so boreeed!"
Their voices were those of Sofia when she was a child, most likely, and their intentions, although malicious as Nightmares, carried the innocence and past of Sofia.
"Those damn dolls are so creepy, ugh!" Emily groaned.
"Yeah but they're also... I pity them," sighed Alma. "They just want to play..."
"To play by cutting us into bits!" Emily scread angrily, managing to punch one of them away, a single punch made them explode into black smoke, they weren't strong.
POOF!
"But think about it, so far we're faced Nightmares that were all actually born from Sofia's own Nightmare Heart, it ans every single monster is intrinsically connected to her Traumas, Fears, and Frustrations," I said, swinging my sword and my axe, and releasing a slash of darkness and phantasmal flas.
SLAAASH!
The Dolls were consud by the wave of shadows and burned through the phantom flas, disappearing into explosions of black smoke, leaving tiny Nightmare Core jewels behind. I gathered them with my shadows.
"Does this an her parents neglected to such an extent they didn't even play with her?" I asked. "This would explain why these dolls exist..."
"M-Maybe..." sighed Alma. "Hmm, Sof never talked too much about her past, didn't she?"
"She doesn't even like to talk about her family," said Emily. "Now I see why's that the case..."
"Perhaps what happened to her wasn't Maria's fault, after all, we have yet to even find a Nightmare thed after her or sothing," said Alma. "If anything... It's her family that fills her nightmares."
"Her mom and her dad..." Emily nodded. "Damn it, why did we never ask her these things? I feel so bad now... Maybe she wasn't wrong, we are bad friends. We were disinterested in her past, in why she was the way she was... Maybe she wasn't just angry at Maria, it was just all her frustrations together."
"Yes, she reached a "breaking point", perhaps the accumulation of traumas, frustrations, and fears slowly fills the Dream Heart with Nightmare Essence," I explained. "Until they beco extrely unstable emotionally, anything that ultimately causes the person to beco emotionally shaken or impacted will trigger their Dream Heart... and transform it, all while creating a Nightmare Lord out of it."
"T-That sounds so horrible..." Alma sighed. "Will it happen to us too?"
"If it really can happen to anybody..." Emily said.
"I don't really know, but I'll do everything I can so that doesn't happen," I smiled to them. "Don't worry... Beatriz! Where's Sofia? Can you lead us?"
"reow!"
Beatriz nodded, rushing upstairs as we quickly followed her. The manor interior was too small to ride her, and she turned into her much smaller form to guide us through it.
Eventually, we reached a room full of mannequins with a sealed door with black chains at the
other side.
"I can feel her presence through that door!" Beatriz told . "But you'll have to pass through
these guys, they're Nightmares."
Just as she said that the mannequins started moving on their own.
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