One night, there was a full moon. Many stars could be seen in the sky, but there were a few clouds. Despite that, there were lightning coming from the few clouds. About a minute later, a dark cloud covered the moon. Below the sky was a huge castle surrounded by a lake of lava. But there was a bridge that led to the castle's entrance. On top of the castle was a statue of Nightmare, the evil knight who wields Soul Edge, the evil blade which possesses it's wielder. In the top middle window of the tallest tower of the castle, there's a Lizardman running. Running up some stairs in pitch black darkness. There were no light whatsoever besides the light occasionally given by the lightning outside. Whenever lightning flashed outside, some statues and paintings of Nightmare hanging on the castle's wall can be seen. When the Lizardman stopped running, he was directly beside a window, and in front of him was nothing but a pair of red eyes surrounded by pitch black darkness. Then the cloud which covered the full moon moved away, and now the moonlight shined through the window next to the Lizardman, revealing the owner of the red eyes. It was a knight in azure armor holding a fleshy sword with an eyeball on it. The knight had a huge brown demon arm. He is Nightmare. Nightmare was sitting on his high chair. On both sides of his high chair were Nightmare statues, and behind the high chair was a huge, gold-frame portrait of Nightmare.
"Nightmare! Nightmare! Three intruders had entered our castle!" the Lizardman yelled, jumping up and down.
"Who are they?" Nightmare asked, looking down at the Lizardman from his high chair.
"Well, one's a young Asian girl around the age of 20 wielding a sword. She's cute, but we still need to deal with that intruder. The second is another young Asian person. He...well, wields a rod..." the Lizardman explained. Nightmare almost jumped back when he heard about those two. He thought back about what happened to him four years ago, when he was knocked into a void. These two people the Lizardman described seemed to be the exact same people who defeated Nightmare. But then Nightmare silently comforted himself in his mind. He told himself that he was defeated only because he was weakened when he had the dream about his father. But now he knew the intruders would stand no chance against him. The Lizardman stopped talking when he saw Nightmare's reaction.
"Are you okay?" the Lizardman asked.
"Yeah, who's the third?" Nightmare answered and asked.
"He's...well, some guy with a nunchaku..." the Lizardman said.
"Hmmm...okay..." Nightmare said calmly. He then whistled. Many Lizardmen and golems, including Astaroth and Aeon Calcos heard Nightmare's distinct whistle. Immediately after hearing it, they entered Nightmare's chamber. They waited for Nightmare's order.
"Three intruders have entered our castle" Nightmare said. "Attack!"
All the Lizardmen and golems left and went around the castle, looking for the intruders.
Meanwhile, Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua were making their way through the Schwartztrom Castle. They were the three intruders.
"This place is scary..." Xianghua commented. "When will we get out?"
"When we defeat Nightmare, just like we did four years ago!" Kilik answered. Suddenly, a laser beam shot out of the eyes of a statue of Nightmare at Kilik. Kilik jumped back and avoided it.
"Wha?" Maxi asked in confusion. "What was that?"
"These statues seem to sense human activity, and when they do, they shoot out lasers. I don't think any human being lives in this castle, so the statue's probably here as a trap for intruders?" Kilik asked.
"Whooaaartua!" Maxi screamed, smashing the statue into pieces with his nunchaku. "We better be careful. I'm sure there's more of these statues"
The three companions continued walking. After a while, they looked at the ground and saw a shadow. It was getting bigger and bigger.
"Run!" Kilik shouted. They ran forward and dived onto the ground to avoid getting crushed by whatever that was falling down. They turned around and saw a statue of Astaroth.
"It's a statue of Astaroth!" Maxi said. "Where could that stupid golem be?" he asked.
They continued, until they reached a room filled with lava. But there were many pillars in the middle of the lava, and there's also a platform, which is somewhat like an arena, in the middle of the lava. Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua jumped from pillar and pillar. Xianghua told her two friends to be careful. After they crosses the lava, they reached a platform. They saw a door gaurded by a golem holding a giant scythe. When Maxi saw the golem, he asked it, "Hey, you know Astaroth?"
"Yes. Who are you?" the golem asked.
"I'm Maxi. Where's Astaroth?"
"Why?"
"Where's Astaroth?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"I need to kill that dumb golem!" Maxi shouted in an impatient manner.
"I'll tell you if you can defeat me!" the golem shouted as he swung his scythe at Maxi, who did a backflip and avoided the hit. He then ran at the golem and hit it on the head.
"Begone, you fool!" the golem shouted as it did a vertical slash with it's scythe. But Maxi sidestepped the hit, then he hit the golem's chest with his nunchaku. The golem then slashed Maxi again, but Maxi blocked with his weapon. But the golem kept spinning, swinging Maxi around. It then tossed Maxi to the platform surrounded by lava. Maxi got up, and the golem jumped onto the platform with him. Maxi jumped and kicked the golem on the nose, making it fall down next to the edge of the platform. The golem got up, but Maxi held both ends of his nunchaku and put it against the golem's chest.
"All I need to do to finish you off is to simply push" Maxi said. "Now, tell me where Astaroth is!"
"He's...just...well, see the door behind me? Go there and you'll know!" the golem said. "Let me live!"
"Goodbye!" Maxi said, knocking the golem off the platform and into the lava. He then jumped to the platform where Kilik and Xianghua were. Xianghua asked if he's okay. Maxi said he was fine. Kilik opened the door the golem was previoudly gaurding and then the three companions walked through it. They were now outside the castle. They're walking on a bridge which takes from one tower of the castle to another. Below the bridge is nothing but lava. The three companions could see a door on the other side of the bridge that leads to the inside of the castle. But before they reached it, the door seemed to open by itself. Inside was nothing but darkness at first, but then they see many Lizardmen and golem coming out of the door. The Lizardmen and golems were all carrying weapons. Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua stopped walking at the sight of the huge army of monsters. Maxi studied the army a bit to see if Astaroth was in there, but he wasn't. The three ran back at the door they came from when they saw the huge army of Lizardmen and golems. They thought they wouldn't stand a chance against them. But the door they came from suddenly closed and locked by itself. They turned around and saw the army of monsters getting closer and closer. They had no choice but to face the monsters. They charged at them and fought. Xianghua killed many monsters with her sword, while Kilik and Maxi knocked some more into the lava. After a long battle, Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua had successfully defeated all the monsters. Maxi looked into the lava, and then at the bloody corpses of the Lizardmen and golems Xianghua had slayed in anger that Astaroth wasn't part of the army. The three then entered the door, and into the tallest tower of the castle.
Inside, they starting making their way to find Nightmare (or Astaroth, for Maxi), while avoiding many dangerous traps on their way. They also gazed at some statues and portraits of Nightmare hanging on the castle's wall. Eventually, they entered a chamber. There are two doors, one of which was the one they entered with. However, as soon as they walked to the middle of the room, both doors shut and locked by itself. Then a Lizardman appeared. This one looked different than all the other Lizardmen the three companions had seen. This one was much bigger, and it held a sword and a shield. It is Aeon Calcos, the leader of the Lizardmen. It jumped at Xianghua, knocked her down and it was about to bite her when Kilik hit the Lizardman, knocking it off Xianghua.
"You okay?" Kilik asked, helping her up. While he did that, Maxi jumped on Aeon, kicked it a few times and then hit it on the head with his nunchaku.
"Take this!" Kilik shouted, poking Aeon's mouth with his rod. The dinosaur then got angry, roared and tried to slash Maxi with it's sword.
"Too easy!" Maxi said as he sidestepped the hit. "Eat this!" he said, holding both ends of his nunchaku and started hitting Aeon repeatly as if it was a drum. Xianghua then stabbed it on the back, but as soon as she did that, the Lizardman headbutted her, sending her flying before Kilik caught her in the air. Maxi then stomped on Aeon's face.
"Hey!" Xianghua shouted, slashing the Lizardman's face.
"This is...goodbye!" Maxi said as he smacked the Lizardman's right on the head with his nunchaku. Kilik then finished the Lizardman off by slaming it's face with his rod. The three then ran towards the door on the other end of the room, opened it and walked through.
Eventually, they made their way into a corridor. At the end of it was a door with a picture of Nightmare painted on it. They opened the door and found themselves in a huge room full of nothing but a platform surrounded by lava. The three jumped onto the platform. It was a huge platform which looked like it was an arena for fighting. A picture of Nightmare's Soul Edge was painted on the arena. This was one big arena, but compared to the size of the room, it was nothing. And the arena was the only place they could stand on in the room as the rest were all lava. Around the walls of the room were many candles, and on each wall was a huge, gold frame portrait of Nightmare. Each portrait of Nightmare were different.
Suddenly, Nightmare jumped out of nowhere and landed on the platform.
"So it's you two again?" Nightmare said, looking at Kilik and Xianghua with his red eyes. "And this time with a new friend too?" he said, looking over at Maxi. "But guess what? Your sword is gone, and now I'm invincible! Bwahahahaha...you weaklings! Begone!" he said, walking over at Xianghua and tried to hit her with a horizontal slash with his Soul Edge, but Xianghua ducked and avoided the hit.
"Begone!" Nightmare said, stabbing diagonally download at Xianghua's feet. She jumped and avoided the hit, but the attack was about to hit Maxi. Maxi ducked the blocked the hit. Kilik then poked Nightmare's face with his rod. Nightmare slammed his sword at Kilik, but Kilik did a backflip and avoided the hit. Maxi took this opportunity to run up to Nightmare and started hitting him repeatly until he was next to the edge.
"Goodbye!" Maxi said, holding both ends of his nunchaku and thrusting it at Nightmare, but Nightmare caught the hit with his demon arm.
"Suffer!" Nightmare said, throwing Maxi at the door he came into the room from. He went flying through the corridor, and at the other end of it he hit a window and destroyed it. He flew out of the tower of the castle, hit a window of a different tower, destroyed it and then he fell into it. Miraculously, he landed on his feet and saw a golem. But this golem was different to all the other ones he had seen. It held a huge ax, had brown skin and it's heart was sticking out of it's chest. It was Astaroth, the golem Maxi was after all the time. He then ran at Astaroth and started beating it up with his nunchaku until he got a blow that knocked Astaroth far away enough.
"Do you remember me, you freak?" Maxi asked.
"Arghh! Pretentious little bug!" Astaroth said, and then it got in a fighting position.
"Whoaartah!" Maxi screamed, running up to Astaroth and smasked it hard.
"Take this!" Astaroth yelled, swinging it's ax at Maxi. Maxi ducked, but Astaroth did a vertical slash. Maxi rolled and avoided the hit, but Astaroth ran at Maxi and hit him with it's shoulder, sending him flying a bit.
"Revenge is mine!" said Maxi as he jumped at Astaroth and kicked it's face, knocking it down.
"What? Can't get up?" Maxi asked. He then smashed Astaroth's heart hard with his nunchaku.
"Begone!" Astaroth said, kicking Maxi into a wall. Astaroth then slammed it's ax at Maxi, who moved out of the way. Astaroth then ran at Maxi, but Maxi did a sweep kick, tripping Astaroth over. Astaroth then hit a window, destroyed it and fell outside. Maxi looked out the window and saw Astaroth falling off the tower and into the lava that surrounded the castle.
"This time, my revenge is complete!" Maxi said, looking at the spot Astaroth was last seen.
Meanwhile, Kilik and Xianghua were still fighting against Nightmare.
"Massacre!" Nightmare shouted, trying to kill Kilik and Xianghua at the same time with one powerful horizontal swing of his legendary Soul Edge, but Kilik and Xianghua both blocked the hit. "This is it!" Nightmare said as he slammed his sword at Xianghua, who blocked. But then Nightmare hit Xianghua with the blunt side of Soul Edge, sending her flying, and she almost fell off the edge of the platform and into the lava.
"Kali-Yuga, show me the path!" Kilik said as he swung his rod around, winding up for a powerful hit. He then poked Nightmare, making him slide across the arena and almost fell off the edge.
"Got you!" Nightmare shouted as he poked Kilik with his gigantic sword. Kilik blocked, but the force of the attack knocked him down.
"Die, you pathetic soul!" Nightmare said to Kilik as he was about to finish Kilik off, but then Maxi, who just returned from killing Astaroth, jumped onto the platform and knocked Nightmare down with a powerful hit on the head. Then Xianghua, who had recovered from her previous hit, stabbed Nightmare's demon arm, causing him to bleed badly.
"Rargghhhh!" Nightmare roared in pain. He then grabbed Xianghua with his claw as he got up. "Annihilate!" Nightmare screamed with his face in front of Xianghua. Xianghua was frightened.
"Help!" she cried. Kilik then poked Nightmare's demon arm on the spot Xianghua had stabbed, making Nightmare drop Xianghua.
"This is the end!" Nightmare said angrily as he grabbed Kilik and threw him off the platform. Kilik hit a wall and almost fell into the lava, but luckily, he landed on the gold frame of a portrait of Nightmare. Then Nightmare, who assumed Kilik to be dead, walked over at Xianghua. "Offer your soul!" he said as he poked her with his Soul Edge. She blocked, but she went flying. She fell off the edge, but she just grabbed onto the edge. Nightmare then punched Maxi with his demon claw, knocking him down. He then walked over at Xianghua, who was grabbing onto the edge. "Enjoy your nightmare!" Nightmare said. Then he was about to stomp Xianghua's fingers when Kilik, who was still on the frame of the Nightmare portrait, reached out to a candle on the wall. He grabbed it and threw the candle at Nightmare and hit him. Nightmare then ran around on fire and roared in pain. He then fell off the edge of the platform and into the lava. Kilik then jumped off the portrait's frame and onto the platform. He helped Xianghua up, and then he helped Maxi up.
"You two okay?" Kilik asked.
"We're fine..." Maxi and Xianghua answered.
"I even killed Astaroth again!" Maxi added.
"Lets get out of here..." Xianghua said. The three companions turned around, but they saw an evil crow flying from the door they entered from, carrying another Soul Edge sword. It then dropped the sword into the lava, and then left the room.
"What was that?" Kilik asked. Suddenly, they heard a noise. They turned around and saw Nightmare jumping out of the lava. This time, his Soul Edge looked more coomplete than before.
"You foolish scums thought you had defeated me? Hahaha, hm, hahahahahahahahaha!" How pathetic! Now beware, for the greatest nightmare is here! Rargghhh!" Nightmare said, then he started laughing.
"What the...how could...how can anything survive in molten lava?" Xianghua said, stepping backward. Kilik then stopped her by putting his hand on her back.
"Sword, give me strength!" Nightmare shouted as he raised his sword up above his head. "Souls...come unto me!". Then Nightmare and his Soul Edge started growing bigger and bigger. As he grew, the armor of his left arm broke, and his left arm became a demon arm just like his right arm. Then he grew a big, brown, muscular tail, pitch black wings and his eye color changed to green. After a minute, Nightmare was five times the size he was before, and he stopped growing bigger. "Prepare to face your ultimate nightmare!" Nightmare shouted and then his helmet started cracking. It was then destroyed, revealing Nightmare's head. His head was that of a brown reptilian head with green eyes and sharp fangs that curved inward. Nightmare then roared and jumped up to the ceiling, made a hole through it and landed on the roof of his castle. Then the platform Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua were standing on exploded, and they all went flying up to the roof of the castle next to the feet of the giant statue of Nightmare. As soon as they got on their feet, it started raining heavily and a thunderstorm started. Nightmare then breathed in air and blasted a fireball out of his mouth at Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua, but they avoided the fireball easily. Nightmare then tried to crush them with his giant, near-complete Soul Edge, but they also avoided the hit. Nightmare then tried to kick them, but he missed and hit the giant Nightmare statue on the roof, making the top half of the statue fall off the castle's roof and into the lava that surrounded the castle. Nightmare then started swinging his sword around mercilessly, but Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua were blocking the huge hits with their weapons. Nightmare then fell on his knees in an attempt to crush one of them, but they all ran behind Nightmare. Knowing they couldn't fight such a giant, the three companions knew they had no choice but to run, but they didn't know where they should run.
"There's...no turning back!" Nightmare said. He then stabbed Kilik with his gigantic sword, sending Maxi sliding across the castle's roof. He fell off the roof, but just managed to grab the edge of a lower tower of the castle. He went on the top of that tower, and he had no way to come back up. Nightmare then roared and summoned a blizzard that blew Maxi off the tower and he dissapeared into the horizon in one second. Kilik and Xianghua were safe as they hid behind the lower half of the giant Nightmare statue.
"Maxi...!" Kilik and Xianghua cried as they looked at the last spot Maxi was seen.
"Those who came after Soul Edge wished they hadn't!" Nightmare said. He tried to stomp Kilik, but Kilik rolled and avoided being crushed. Nightmare then roared and summoned thunder. A lightning striked the bottom half of the Nightmare statue, shattering it into huge pieces of rocks. The rocks went flying at Kilik and Xianghua, but they hit the rocks away with their weapons. While they were busy doing that, Nightmare kicked them and made them almost fall off the edge of the castle. Nightmare then breathed in air and blasted a bright beam of gold energy out of his mouth at Kilik and Xianghua. The beam sent Kilik and Xianghua flying over the horizon in less than a tenth of a second. Nightmare then laughed evily for a long time. As he laughed, the rain stopped, and the dark clouds around the sky faded away, revealing the full mean of the night. Nightmare then flew high up into the sky at the moon, until it seemed like he dissapeared into the moon.
On the next day, Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua woke up and found themselves on a peaceful beach. They were all wet when they woke up. The thing that happened last night all seemed to be nothing but the greatest nightmare. But when Xianghua asked her two friends what they remembered happening last night, they said they did recall fighting Nightmare in his castle. Maxi even recalled defeating Astaroth. Although they couldn't believe it, what had happened wasn't just a nightmare afterall. They did fight Nightmare, but they had failed to defeat the evil knight who lived up to his name. Nightmare's attacks had sent them flying into the ocean, they were washed up on this shore and they miraculously survived. The three then laughed together for a while.
Then when night came, Nightmare appeared in London. He flew down from the sky and stood on top of a huge clock tower under the full moon. Behind him were many Lizardmen and golem (the ones Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua didn't kill. Some of them survived).
THE END
What happens next? You won't know yet.