Happy new year everyone! Sorry for the delay, I was busy with finals then with Christmas. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 25: The Nightmare

"You should go back to your dorm, it's already very late."

Palladium says to me as he brushes through my hair while I'm resting my head on his chest, sitting on a couch in his room. He also lives on campus, so it's difficult to come here unnoticed. However, once I am here, it's so relaxing, since we don't have to keep watching our back or keep hiding.

"Can't I spend the night here?"

I ask him, knowing full well what he'll answer.

"You know that's risky… for various reasons. One of them being that when everyone will wake up and won't find you, they'll ask questions and be suspicious of where you are."

"And what's the other reason?"

I look up at him.

"The… The other reason…"

He then cups my face in his hand and kisses me passionately. When he breaks it off, he looks longingly into my eyes. He then whispers to me.

"The other reason being that I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of you…"

I feel my face burn up.

"Then… you don't have to keep them off…"

What am I saying…?!

"No, Onyx… This is not the time for that. You should really go back."

He gets up and takes a deep breath.

"Hmph. Alright, I'll go."

I say nonchalantly as I also get up and head for the window.

"Onyx…"

Palladium calls out to me. I turn my head to him.

"I love you."

I feel my cheeks heating up. A smile forms on my face.

"I love you too…"

I whisper, too shy to say it too loud. I then transform and fly out through the window. I fly to Stella and my room's window, making sure I make as little noise as possible. As soon as I go in, I notice a silhouette hunched over Stella's body.

"Get off her!"

I shout at it as I try to zap it with a dark beam, but it quickly slips away. I quickly go to Stella who was whimpering in her sleep.

"Stella, are you okay?"

I shake her a bit and she wakes up.

"Ah! Onyx…!"

She then bursts into tears and hugs me. Taken by surprise, it takes me a moment before I finally return the hug. I pat her on the back trying to calm her down.

"There, there… What's wrong?"

"I… I had the most horrible nightmare…"

"Nightmare…?"

She sniffles and calms down. She then backs away from the hug.

"It's alright… It was just a nightmare. I'm all good now."

Nightmare… Now that I think about it, the creature that was hunched over Stella looked awfully similar to a nightmare monster in its second form, a four-legged creature with a spiky mane. If it absorbs more nightmares from the other girls, it'll be tough to beat, even for me.

"The other girls…! Stella, everyone's in danger!"

"What do you mean?"

"There's a nightmare gargoyle on the loose."

Without waiting for Stella to ask any more questions, I run out and went to the closest room to ours, Musa and Tecna's room.

"Oh no… It's already at its final form…"

It already absorbed both Musa and Tecna's nightmares. It looks like a rock golem.

"What is that?!"

Stella screams behind me.

"Hey, Stella, can you wake up Tecna and Musa? I'll take care of the monster."

I shoot the monster with a dark beam, but…

"It's not working?!"

It's as if it's invulnerable to my attacks! Is it because it's a monster made out of pure darkness?

It swings its bulky arm at me, but I dodge it. Glancing behind it, I see Stella has Musa and Tecna awake.

"Get out of here! I don't want to accidentally hurt you guys. Go make sure Flora and Bloom are okay."

They all nod and get out of the room while I keep the monster busy.

"You're going to be a nightmare to deal with…"

I smile a bit at my horrible pun. I don't think I'll get anywhere in my current form.

"Time to transform!"

A dark light envelops my whole being as I transform into my Ankelon form. My black angel wings spring out of my back.

I shoot a dark beam straight at the monster. Surprisingly this time, the monster doesn't dodge and my beam collides with it head on.

Before I can celebrate, however, I realize that it seems completely unharmed. Did it evolve so much that it is immune to dark magic? It swipes at me again. I barely dodge it, but find my back sticking to the wall behind me. There's no more places to run…! It swings its arm at me a third time.

"Dark beam!"

I direct my dark beam at the floor under it, causing it to break and making the creature lose balance. Its arm misses most of me, but its claws do tear up some of the skin on my right arm.

"Ah…!"

I wince in pain,

"Onyx!"

A familiar voice calls out to me. Palladium! He's come to rescue me.

"Headmistress Faragonda, we have to act before it's too late!"

"I know, Professor Palladium, but one wrong move and Onyx could suffer serious damage, considering how light magic is her weakness…"

"Don't worry, I'll shield her from the attack."

Palladium then came into the room and put his arms around me. A dome of light then surrounds us. I close my eyes and let Palladium's warmth envelop me. I hear Miss Faragonda recite some high level spells, which will be more than enough to banish the creature.

Once it was all over, the girls all came running to see how I was.

"Onyx! You're hurt!"

Bloom exclaims.

"It's nothing too serious."

"We better get that checked out immediately."

Palladium says as he carries me into his arms.

"Please take care of her, Professor…"

Flora softly asks.

"You don't need to worry; she's in good hands."

Palladium answers as he takes me away. He brings me to the infirmary where he gently places me on one of the beds. Without saying anything, he immediately starts working on healing my wound.

After my cut completely disappears, Palladium lets out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you…"

I say timidly as I look up to him. He then gives me a warm smile and pats my head.

"Anything for my beautiful girlfriend."

I feel my cheeks heat up at being called his girlfriend. I really hope that one day I'll be able to share my happiness with other people.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! I wish you all happiness and health for the new year to come!