Chapter 27: We Will Defeat The Nightmare Mistress!

Around the world where the sky was still dark without the sun or the moon. Starting with the town of StarLily, Nick, his girlfriend Serenity, Lorelei, and Darren, who was Lorelei's boyfriend, were all staring at the strange sky. None of them had any idea of what's going on, but the only thing they knew was something was about to happen sooner or later. Several moments later, all the animal villagers had turned into the nightmare zombies. They were all targeting the humans who were unaffected by this phenomenon. Nick, Serenity, Lorelei, and Darren screamed in terror and ran away from the zombies. They were all heading to Nick's house and quickly closed the door before the zombies came in. Nick and Darren put some heavy furniture to block the door while Lorelei and Serenity shuddered in fear and began embracing each other.

At the island of Soma, Sammy and Jimmy had arrived here safe and sound. What they hadn't notice was the sky was getting darker and darker until they got off the plane. They found it very strange at first, but now they thought it was creepy because it didn't turn out to be the ordinary night sky. Claire and Sonia rushed to the twins while they were looking at the abnormal sky. Few moments later, they sensed the nightmare zombies creeping right behind them. When they turned around, they began to panic. They all screamed and ran away as far as they could. Neither of them had any idea of what's going on or what just happened. There was one thing they had in mind was the environment had turned this peaceful life into a nightmare reality.

In the shadow realm, Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster were in a hurry to stop Noelle before it's too late. They finally found her floating in the air and absorbing all the dream life forces to gain more power. Masked Swordmaster used his cannon to fire her from absorbing the remaining dream life forces. But Noelle avoided his attack and blasted him away, especially knocking his cannon down from his hands. Phantom Angel used her microphone echo attack, but the nightmare mistress blocked it with her own barrier. As soon as she completed absorbing the rest of the dream life forces into her body, Noelle finally felt the power surging herself.

"At long last, all the dream life forces are mine now!" Noelle cackled. "Too bad for you, Duo of Justice, you lose! When all of the dream life forces are inside of me, guess what's going to happen to your own world! This includes the ones who you deeply care!"

"No way, this can't be happening!" Phantom Angel exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm afraid this would've happened sooner or later!" Masked Swordmaster exclaimed.

The Duo of Justice's minds were flashing, and they saw the visuals of the animals turned into nightmare zombies. There was more, the people, who were around them, were now in grave danger. Their siblings, their friends...They were being ambushed by the zombies and were afraid to fight back because they were still innocent animals on the inside, even though they were turned into nightmare zombies on the outside. After seeing the horrible current events, the Duo of Justice shook it off when they had no time to hesitate and focused on stopping Noelle. Suddenly, the nightmare mistress transformed into a ferocious dragon.

"Oh man, I didn't expect her to do something like that!" said Phantom Angel.

"Neither did I!" Masked Swordmaster agreed.

"Thanks to all the dream life forces, I can transform into something powerful like this one!" said Noelle, in her monstrous tone. "How would you two like to stop me in this form? I bet you can't!"

"Ha! I've heard one of the stories about the brave knight who slayed the dragon very easily!" Phantom Angel pointed out.

"Hold on, what do you mean by 'very easily?'" Masked Swordmaster asked. "Just to be clear, this is reality, not a fairytale."

"I know that, but you won't know 'til you try."

"That's a fair point alright."

After the conversation was over, the Duo of Justice were facing off against the powerful villainess. Noelle, in her dragon form, started to spew fire at them. Phantom Angel quickly took Masked Swordmaster and flew away from the fire blast. She dodged every fireball Noelle launched. Then, the dragon whipped her tail at the dynamic duo, but she missed her target.

"Phantom Angel, we can't run away from her forever!" said Masked Swordmaster. "We have to attack her somehow or somewhere!"

"I know, Masked Swordmaster!" said Phantom Angel. "I need to search for an area, so she won't attack us! That way, we can attack her!"

The Duo of Justice were looking for a spot that Noelle couldn't reach them. Until Masked Swordmaster found the solution, he pointed the dragon's back and showed Phantom Angel of where they could land, so she could fly over there. Once they were landed, the white knight took out his sword and stabbed the dragon's back. Noelle screeched and roared in pain that she quickly shook the dynamic duo off her back. Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster held on to each other while the sword was pierced in the back of the dragon. Suddenly, a few of the dream life forces started to scatter when Masked Swordmaster's sword cut Noelle's back too deeply.

"Oh my gosh, it's working!" said Phantom Angel excitedly. "The dream life forces are free from Noelle's grasp! If we keep this up, then all the dream life forces will return to all the dreamers in no time!"

"You two can do better than that to defeat me if you want to save all the dream life forces that is!" Noelle roared. "Although, I may have lost a few of them, but I am still unbeatable!"

"Oh, we will see about that!" said Masked Swordmaster, as he suddenly sensed the incoming attack. "Phantom Angel, look out!"

After Phantom Angel saw Noelle's dragon tail attack, she quickly summoned the teleportation portal, so she and Masked Swordmaster could escape. When the portal vanished, Noelle struck her own back with her tail and began to roar in misery. The dynamic duo exited the portal and arrived at the safe place. Phantom Angel summoned her ice pillars and aimed at the nightmare dragon. Noelle quickly used her fireball attack at the ice pillars. The more ice pillars came, the more fireballs countered. Until one of the ice pillars wounded one of her hind legs, fewer dream life forces were released.

"Ha! Your attacks didn't faze me a bit, little miss magical girl!" Noelle screeched, while she didn't feel the pain at all.

"Haven't we mentioned we wouldn't know 'til we tried?" Phantom Angel asked.

"Do whatever you wish, you puny humans! You can't hurt me at least one bit!"

"Talk all you want!" said Masked Swordmaster angrily. "Even if our attacks didn't harm you a bit, we're still releasing all the dream life forces from you!"

That was part of the Duo of Justice's plan from the start! Although, Noelle, in her dragon form, didn't take damage from their attacks and was still standing. Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster attacked the nightmare dragon with all their might. The more cuts and wounds Noelle got; the more dream life forces scattered away from her. Until her power was drained in half, she was panting and gasping for air.

"W-what?! That wasn't supposed to happen!" Noelle bellowed. "I'm supposed to be more powerful and unbeatable! Why did it turn out to be this way?! How?!"

"Didn't we try to tell you?" Masked Swordmaster grinned. "The more damage you receive, the more dream life forces escape from your body!"

"Say what?!" Noelle looked around her entire body and was now covered with cuts and wounds. Some dream life forces were scattered away and returned to their dreamers. "No, that's impossible! Get back here this instant!"

"It's no use, Noelle," Phantom Angel smiled. "The dream life forces went back to their owners, and they stay that way!"

"But there's no way you two can defeat me! I'm still here, you know?"

"That may be true, but we're not done with you yet!" said the familiar voice, as the Duo of Justice and Noelle saw of whose voice was coming from.

"Luna?! How can this be? You survive?"

"That's right! I am still standing, thanks to the Duo of Justice who saved my life!"

The Duo of Justice were very glad that Luna was back in full strength. But she wasn't alone, the other guardians, Serena, Neon, and Wisp, were joining her side. She explained to the dynamic duo that her magical energy has finally returned to her when the dream life forces returned to their own dreamers. They were very relieved to hear that.

"Everyone, don't relax just yet," said Luna in determination. "We still need to defeat Noelle!"

"She's right, we're on a final step to defeat her!" said Wisp. "You guys know the drill!"

Everyone nodded at a same time as they prepared themselves. Luna and Serena combined their powers and spirits and fused them into Phantom Angel's dream rescue staff. Wisp and Neon did the same and transferred theirs into Masked Swordmaster's dream rescue sword. Noelle growled and raised her dragon claw at the dynamic duo. Suddenly, they summoned their both shield and magical barrier to protect themselves from her attack. Her claw didn't penetrate the barrier or the shield.

"What's this? My attack didn't even leave a scratch?" Noelle asked shockingly. "How is that possible?"

"In case if you haven't realized, Noelle, you're not strong enough to defeat the Duo of Justice with your own nightmare powers alone, now that the dream life forces have left you!" Luna explained, in her spirit form. "What you have done is to steal all the dream life forces for yourself! That makes you all greedy and hungry for power!"

"Oh, like, you know everything that I don't, guardian of dream!"

"Then, that makes you the nightmare mistress!" Luna turned to Phantom Angel who was standing right beside her while she was in her spirit form. "Phantom Angel, why not sing to this greedy, nightmare dragon? With Serena's and my powers and your voice combined, Noelle will be much weaker if she listens to your song."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea!" Phantom Angel agreed, as she took out her microphone and started to sing.

"AH, NO, STOP IT!" Noelle roared, as her body started to writhe and grow numb while the angel was singing. "Enough with your singing! Now, my whole body is starting to feel heavy; and I'm going to have a giant-sized headache!"

Noelle was now immobilized by Phantom Angel's song, Masked Swordmaster readied his blade. With the powers of Neon and Wisp combined, he began to thrust his sword and obliterated the dragon. Once Noelle got stabbed, she screamed and roared in rage as her body continued to writhe in pain. When she was fallen, she returned back to her human form and got turned into ashes. Finally, the rest of the remaining dream life forces had escape from the shadow realm and returned to their dreamers.

"I'm very glad that it's finally over!" Phantom Angel sighed in relief.

"Yeah, all the dream life forces are going back to their dreamers safe and sound!" said Masked Swordmaster calmly, as he and Phantom Angel watched the dream life forces floating upward and into their world.

Serena, Neon, Wisp, and Luna separated from the Duo of Justice's weapons and watched all the dream life forces go. Then, the four guardians formed a square, with the dynamic duo in the center, and readied to teleport them all back to their world. None of them would ever dare step into the shadow realm ever again; now that Noelle and her allies were dead.

Back in the world, starting with the town of StarLily, the nightmare zombies were trying to break down the door and entered the house, where Nick and the others were. Few moments later, all the dream life forces entered the zombies' bodies and returned them back to normal animals. None of them had any idea of what's going on or what just happened. They all looked up at the sky and saw the sun shone very brightly. This could only mean that the light blue sky was back to normal. Nick and the others believed that the Duo of Justice saved the world again.

At the island of Soma, Claire, Sonia, and the Slapjack brothers were surrounded by the nightmare zombies. While they were trying to defend themselves, the dream life forces returned to the possessed dreamers and turned them back to normal from becoming zombies. The animals looked very confused as they didn't know of what they were doing, and so did the four people. They all looked at the sky, which it turned from abnormal black to normal light blue once again, and the sun was finally visible. Sammy, Jimmy, Claire, and Sonia had no clue of what just happened recently, but they were all relieved that the nightmare was finally over.