The battle was winding down. Svilran was still blasting the remaining demons while Dorthaunzee caught her breath in the fountain. Elma and Dehlia, collectively, had cut down 136 demons. They still had a few to defeat, but their victory was close at hand.

The team kept fighting--they were so close to the end. They had regrouped at the fountain and had efficiently taken down the mindless demons.

"We're almost there!" Svilran called.

"Don't let up, girls," Fainn said, ready to activate his power at any moment.

"Wow, I haven't gotten this much exercise since I died!" Dehlia said, a confident grin on her face.

"Ha! Funny one, Dehl," Elma followed as she stuck her dagger in a demon's chest.

Then, Svilran and Fainn's senses screamed. They both looked toward the sky.

"Oh. Did Dominguez die?"

The silver-haired demon child had reappeared, a strange silver sword-like weapon in his hand.

Narlivs reacted first. ["Fainn! Be careful. Something feels strange about that weapon... It has an aura in the Inverse."]

"Sounds dangerous," topside Fainn muttered. Fainn put his fingers together. "Girls, be ready. If he does something, I'll negate it. Then you jump in as soon as the dome comes down."

The Heroines of the Hero Hub whispered their affirmative. Kanae took a position behind Elma and Dehlia, using her flames to eliminate the remaining lesser demons while Elma and Dehlia trained their eyes on the child.

Up above, the child sighed. "That's a pretty good defensive formation... You owe me for this if I get skewered a little..." The child sneered and pulled out a black and green orb. "Imaginal Magic, huh? Let's see how this works!" He crushed the orb, and green magic flowed out. It wrapped around his arm and traveled toward his back. There, green lines burst out, tracing the shape of geometric wings. In the next moment, vicious green tornados burst out from the wings.

"Evolved Imaginal Magic: Gale Wings Principle," the silver-haired child said, the name serving as an incantation stabilizing and anchoring the magic in their reality.

The child blasted toward the group with unimaginable speed, leaving a storm of green and black winds behind him.

"Brace for impact!" Svilran screamed.

"No way am I losing to a kid with such mouthfuls for attack names!" Fainn yelled.

Dorthaunzee sent her tentacles out, those tentacles terrified of Fainn eating them if they were too slow or ineffective.

The child had a choice to make. Try to break through the tentacles or avoid them. He grinned. Now wasn't the time to risk losing time.

"I put on wings; let's use wings!"

One tentacle shot out at him, stretching further than it ever had before. The child slipped by that spear-like tentacle and flew along it. Another tentacle shot out, he avoided it, and then another came, and he avoided it again.

"Come on!" he screamed, his eyes determined.

One more tentacle shot out. He dodged it, only for one to grab his ankle from below. It whipped him back, but the tornados behind his back did not let him get repelled so far.

Then, another tentacle shot out and struck his face.

"Gah!"

Blood was in the water now, and the tentacles were the sharks. A tentacle came down like a whip and severed the child's right arm. He yelped in pain and saw the shadow of another tentacle. He quickly reoriented himself so that his wings faced the tentacle. The tornados were strong, but the tentacle was stronger. It struck him and sent him toward the floor like a comet.

"Good job, Dorth!" Fainn roared, with the other Heroines congratulating her.

Dorthaunzee, meanwhile, holding herself up with her staff and sweating, shot her team a shaky thumbs up.

"Dorth..." Fainn said. "Just a little more--"

"FAINN! ENEMY!" Svilran screamed.

Fainn faced forward to see the child burst out from the dust cloud, faster than before. He was covered in black flames--he looked like a comet leaving a black and green storm of wind and fire in its wake.

"You owe me, Marelia!" the child roared. 

Dorthaunzee's tentacles whipped out toward the child. He tried to avoid them, but one struck him in the face, destroying the right side and sending cracks all throughout the rest of his head.

"Not yet!" the child roared as he still propelled himself past it. The winds and flames--this time, they pushed the tentacle away once he got past.

Another tentacle shot out--it got his leg, tearing it apart. The child hit the ground headfirst, bounced, and--

"Not yet!"

--resumed his flight toward the group.

"What the heck's with this kid?!" Fainn yelled.

He flew toward the group. The tentacles were unable to restrain him--he was too slippery--but they managed to further whip away parts of his body.

"Not yet!" he yelled.

"Shut it!"

Kanae's flames cut in, coming from an angle the child wasn't expecting.

The child's expression--he looked at peace moments before disaster.

"Heh... So it goes..." he whispered.

The child shot the strange weapon toward the group moments before Kanae's flames consumed him, and a tentacle swatted him. That weapon--the only thing left of him--wasn't going to travel very far. The force behind the throw was already waning--

"She'll definitely owe us."

It was the most unexpected thing. The child suddenly reappeared. He appeared from the sword, hand first, and then the rest of his body.

No one was ready for it--he looked perfectly healthy.

"That's a different one!" Kanae screamed.

The team couldn't react in time. The new child spread his wings and finished the first child's journey. He didn't have the Gale Wings anymore, but it didn't matter. The sword the previous child threw had gotten close enough.

With one flap of the wings, he was in front of his target--the one he had been aiming for the entire time.

"Got you," the child sang moments before impact.

The sound of a snap echoed.

"Yeah? Bring it, brat," Fainn replied, staring right into the child's eyes, mere inches apart.

+Nightmares ARE Fiction's+ dome expanded. The sword pierced Fainn's body.

Fainn's eyes widened as he felt his body violated in indescribable ways. "H-Huh?!"

"It's my victory!" the child screamed.

Then a shadow obstructed his face.

"The nightmare's over, kid," Fainn said as he grabbed the child's face. Fainn's eyes regained their focus, and he stared at the child. His form started to shift once more as his grip on the child's head tightened.

The child roared as Fainn's hand extended outward, growing ashy and gray. His fingers dug into the child's head, slipping beneath the skin and severing nerves.

The child's roar turned into a cry as the sword fell to the ground.

"Like I said, the nightmare's over."

Fainn canceled +Nightmares ARE Fiction+ of his own volition, and as soon as he did, Elma and Dehlia rushed out.

"We've got this!"

"The sweetest payback!"

They zoomed through the child, cutting him apart and severing his neck. His body fell to the ground with his head remaining in Fainn's grip.

"Heh." Fainn tossed the head into the air, and a tentacle whipped out, pulverizing it. "Don't mess with the Hero Hub," Fainn said, panting but triumphant.

The fight had been won, and the child's last desperate attempt had been thwarted.