The trio flew through the flaming portal and suddenly are a few miles in front of a glowing crystal slab.
"Whoa..." Sonia thought to herself, "You think that'll get us out of here?"
"Let's hope so," Matthew stated as he ran forth to check it out. However, the dog is suddenly bounced back by an invisible wall and fell on his behind. Sonia and Scruffles' eyebrows raise in shock and they head over to Matthew's aid.
"You alright?" Sonia asked.
"It seems like someone misplaced a bloody wall in front of us," Matthew complained. The dog shakes it off, but also begins to ponder on how are they able to get to the crystal. Without warning, the trio are suddenly grabbed by a dark ring, squeezing them tightly and slowly crushing their bones.
"Ack! If I didn't know any better.... I'd say our friend is back..." Scruffles exasperated. Sonia then yells and Mystica's red crystal blasts away the crushing ring. She then holds her stance and waits as the Nightmare Demon charges forth. Sonia swings at it and chops the demon in half, but it then splits into twins, both of which with equal power as the other. The demon twins thrust Sonia and her pets into the air and a hard force knocks them down harshly onto the ground. The trio begin to run and the demon sends up spikes in their path with each step they take. Sonia and the other narrowly dodge each death spike albeit having a one-too-many near misses as well.
"Doesn't that thing have a shield or something?!" Scruffles yelled out.
"I'm new at this ok?!" Sonia yelled back at her cat. The demon then reshaped back into one and dashed to Sonia at quick speed. Unable to properly judge its movements, Sonia takes a few swipes to the arms and chest, and the pets get knocked over with a few facial cuts of their own. Sonia begins to feel pain and frustration, but then Feliferi's words began to play in her mind, "You must be swift, quiet like the wind. Sense your target before it catches you." Sonia then took a deep breath, held her sword close, and closed her eyes and began to concentration deeply. With that, her amulet glowed and it was if time had slowed down. Sonia could then see in herself a red aura, sensing the good energy of her pets and sees a shield invisible to them yet protecting them, but the glowing power of the crystal as well.
Suddenly, the Nightmare Demon came into view from behind, and without even opening an eyelid for a flinch of a second, Sonia swung her sword behind her and the blade cut a deep gash upon the Nightmare Demon's disgusting face as purple "blood" was released from the impact. The Nightmare Demon roared in pain, but shook it off and then caused its claws to be engulfed in flame. Sonia opened her eyes and readied her stance, and the two stood still, ready to properly face off. The Demon roared and made the first charge while Sonia yelled and followed suit. The two clashed while knocking each other back a little from impact.
Sonia parried as the demon blocked each attack with its flaming claws, but then the demon also shot flames from within its eyes, causing Sonia to jump back fast. Sonia ran forth and thrusted at the demon, to which it catches the sword and then proceeds to burn Sonia's hands. Sonia cries out in pain, but doesn't give up. She angrily kicked the demon in the chest, stunning it, and then began to slash and cut the Nightmare Demon to size. The Nightmare Demon had been cut up, but it then its pieces disintegrate into the ground and begin to reshape into something new. Sonia jumps at the reformation to strike, but is immediately knocked down by a hard punch by the demon's chamber. A voice is then heard from the beast, but this voice was emulated to be Sonia's voice as it speaks, "Do you know what a nightmare really is...?"
"What the..." Sonia spoke in a shocked tone.
"Is it fighting your loved ones?" The demon taunted as it formed into Matthew and Scruffles. It also began to charge at them, but instead of using her sword, she kicks them away. The demon then morphs into Sonia's father as it continues, "OR maybe it's the thought of losing the only part that's left of your miserable family who ever loved you." The demon cackles as it catches Sonia off-guard and punches her square in the stomach, making her drop her sword.
"No...." was the only word Sonia could say through the pain. The demon then forms into Sonia's mother, Katrina, and proceeds to kick Sonia while she's down, and then pull her up by her hair so she can see her "mother's" face.
"No?" the demon spoke in Katrina's voice, "Well we'll have to take care of that." The demon then morphed "Katrina's" arm into a spike and proceeded to make cut marks on Sonia's stomach and then jabbing her enough to not kill her, but weaken her. Sonia throws a punch at the demon, but because she was weakening, the punch was not enough to cause much damage.
"I'm ashamed," The demon taunted, "Solaria warned me about you. But all I see is a frightened, disgusting, sorry excuse for a human being with a soul." The demon made one last transformation, but this transformation was then formed as the demon spoke one more sentence, "The only true nightmare that you could ever face.... Is yourself." The Nightmare Demon takes its last morph and becomes Sonia herself, voice and everything but with flaming blue eyes as the major difference. Demon Sonia then grabbed Sonia and proceeded to deliver a few tough blows, making any effort for Sonia to counter useless. But as the demon was about to make the final blow, KRAK!! The demon is then knocked straight into the head, and then it falls over unconscious. The object thrown turns out to be Scruffles, whom of which Matthew had thrown just in time before Sonia could have been killed.
"Aright..." Scruffles groaned, "I'm gonna feel that tomorrow... Ughh..." Matthew and Scruffles then tend to Sonia's wounds whereas Sonia's brain is slowly falling asleep due to the multiple blows she received as she slowly comments, "So... if I die now... do I die yet be still alive or..."
"Relax Sonia, relax," Matthew said as he licks her bloody cuts, "You'll be fine. You'll be fine." However, the Nightmare Demon regains consciousness and then slithers over behind Matthew and Scruffles with claws sharp and ready to penetrate their bodies. In a split second as the vicious being was ready to strike, the beaten-down Sonia raises her arm fast and her sword, reacting to her and the amulet flies to her but also impales the Nightmare Demon voraciously while the swords glowing light shimmers from within. The demon roared and cried out in serious pain. It then explodes from a physical form and thrusts itself into the black sky. The Nightmare Demon suddenly formed into a giant, fog-like form as the only thing visible was the demon's flaming blue eyes. The demon then begins to chant as energy balls colored in black, gray, and purple begin to enter its black smoke.
"What's it doing?!" Scruffles screamed. The demon then created a large fireball with power that can destroy any lifeform including souls. Not knowing any other plan, Scruffles and Matthew grabbed the amulet and rubbed it while saying, "Please work, please work, please work!" When the fireball grew wider, Sonia began to plead the same thing to the amulet. The amulet began to glow just as the demon blasted his death ball, and a laser from the amulet caught the deadly fireball and reversed its polarity, causing the ball the head straightforward to the demon, obliterating it on contact, tearing it to shreds. The last sound heard from the beast was a fatal scream. Sonia, Matthew and Scruffles lay down in exhaustion, sighing as the entire ordeal is over.
"You know... this is only our second outing... And already you look beaten and battered and almost dead..." Scruffles exhaustively commented, "...but... Good job, Sonia... Good job..." The cat proceeds to gently pat Sonia's tummy with her paw as everyone slowly comes at ease. Once the trio gained enough strength, they limped over to the glowing crystal and the mystical object glowed around them, bringing the trio back home and back into Sonia's bedroom. Sonia's dad crashes in the room through the door yelling, "SONIA! I HEARD A NOISE! ARE YOU OK?!" Sonia, Matthew and Scruffles perk up, and the trio are still bruised. Sonia had the urge to cop out and tell her father that she was fine, but her emotions began to speak otherwise as tears watered up her eyes and a silent sob escaped her lips. Matthew and Scruffles look at their owner and gently nudge her to go to David. The ginger then ran out of bed and held onto her father tightly and held on with no intent to let go.
"I-I had a dream.... And you were in it... And mom was in it too...." Sonia spoke through the sobbing, "But then it tu-turned into a nightmare....." Sonia pressed her face in her dad's shirt in order to muffle her crying. Without questioning why she was bruised, David simply hugged Sonia close to comfort her.
"Shhh... Don't worry, little one. I got you," David spoke softly to her daughter, "I got you."