Chapter 37:The Infiltration of Castle Nightmare

It had been about a half hour since the duo reached the castle, and they were having trouble navigating the large palace. They were currently hiding in the shadows of a corridor, staying alert for anything dangerous. Fortunately, the castle had very high ceilings, most likely to accomodate the flying residents, so they had no trouble staying out of sight.

"This place is bigger than the Smash Mansion,"G&W remarked.

"And that's saying alot,"Leon muttered."Where do you thinking they're keeping her?"

"Either the dungeons, where they would obviously keep most prisoners,"G&W started, then hesitated to finish. He took a deep breath."Or in the throne room, where he may be torturing her personally."Leon clenched his teeth, shaking violently.

"I'm going to tear those spikes off his head and shove them through his eyes!"he growled.

"I share your concerns, Leon, but we don't know how to navigate this place,"G&W said reasonably, trying to defuse the insane teen's anger."If only we had a map or something..."It was then that a rippling blue portal appeared next to them. They both blinked at it in surprise, then watched as a strange creature came through it. The thing had a bright orange cape, two orange, clawed hands, and orange boots, but the strangest part about it was that it had no body. At the top of the cape was a hood with striped horns pointed forward. A fanged grin could be seen in the shadow of the cap, but there was no actual head.

"What's that?"Leon asked, still very angry.

"Wait a minute, you're the assist trophy that came when NiGHTS joined us,"G&W remarked as the portal disappeared."You're Jackle!"No sooner did he finish his sentence that a pair of manic blue eyes opened above the fanged grin.

"Hi!"the orange Nightmaren said cheerily."The big glove thingy and the robot dude brought me here to help you out!"

"Master Hand and ROB,"G&W corrected.

"Yeah, those guys,"Jackle said."C'mon! I'll get ya to the dungeons."He started to fly down the corridor, then the two others quickly followed him.

"So, NiGHTS is in the dungeon, huh?"G&W asked. Jackle shrugged his non-existant shoulders as continued to fly.

"Heck, I dunno,"he muttered."They said their big screen thingamajig was being blocked by something, so if NiGHTS wasn't in the dungeon, I was supposed to bring you to Wizeman's throne room."After sneaking through a few more corridors, they eventually reached the door. Jackle swung it open and they entered the dank area. They began to walk down the hall of prison cells, seeing many scared children staring back at them with fear. Leon was looking through the cells at high speed, not seeing NiGHTS anywhere while G&W calmly stared after him. When Leon realized NiGHTS wasn't there, he howled in frustration. He stomped back over to Jackle.

"Take me to the throne room!"he said in a rage."Now!" The bodiless maren blinked.

"Don't you wanna free these visitors?"he asked. Leon sighed in frustration, then turned to G&W, who was pulling out his key.

"Can you take care of that?"he asked.

"Already on it,"G&W said, putting his key in a door and opening it. They blinked at him as the child happily ran out."This thing is for more than just beating people with. Go."Nodding, they quickly headed out, leaving G&W to free the rest of the children.

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NiGHTS screamed in pain as another beam was shot through her. She was tied up in chains around her arms and legs that held her in place. If Wizeman had a mouth, a sadistic smirk would have been on his face.

"This is your punishment, traitor,"he sneered, all eyes narrowed."I will make you beg for death."NiGHTS slowly raised her head, her face a bit bruised.

"My friends...are coming, Wizeman..."she said weakly."L-Leon will destroy you when he gets here..."Wizeman responded by charging another energy beam, but before he could unleash the attack, a loud boom was heard from the double doors, interrupting him. His eyes shifted to the doors, which shook with another boom.

"It would appear that Leonok-"he didn't get the chance to finish, as the two massive doors were blasted apart with the force of a tank firing. When the dust settled, Leon could be seen standing there, a pitch black aura around his body as before and a scowl on his face. His eyes were totally black as well, instead of blood red like before. He walked forward and stood next to NiGHTS. He then looked at the jester, who stared back in shock, somewhat fearful of his appearance. He reached for the shackles holding her right arm and yanked it apart."And what do you-?"Without warning, Leon instantly swung his arm back and fired a blackened distortion sphere.

Wizeman, not believing it would hurt him, did nothing, which was a bad idea. The sphere of dark space energy actually made him recoil in both pain and shock."Urgh!"Leon quickly ripped apart the rest of the shackles holding NiGHTS. Before she could fall, he caught her in his arms, then slowly let her down. He then turned his attention to Wizeman, who was glaring at him angrily.

"How dare you!"the Nightmare King growled, his anger evident in his eyes. Leon formed his hammer in his hand, and just as before, it was black and covered with runic markings. A demonic and distorted howl escaped his lips, then he lunged at the dark god, who started to glow with energy. NiGHTS watched the scene unfold with awe and terror, the two powerful creatures throwing attack after attack at each other, neither side relenting in the slightest. Leon threw his hammer up, then fired multiple distortion spheres from both hands, creating many explosions across the dark god's body. He caught his hammer again, then flew forward.

Wizeman responded by grabbing Leon and squeezing him tightly. But this proved to be useless, as he warped out of Wizeman's grip. Wizeman's six eyes looked around quickly, but he didn't see Leon falling towards his head. The teen flew around the spikes on his head, and then slammed his hammer into it. Wizeman shouted as pain rippled through his entire body. He then fired three beams above his head, only one of them actually catching Leon and ripping through him.

"REEEEAAAAAAHH!"he screeched, his voice heavily distorted like before. He eventually broke away from the attack, but not without some scathing burns across his body. Flying in front of the Nightmare God, the demonic teen snarled at Wizeman. G&W and Jackle then entered the room as Leon flew forward again for another attack. They quickly went up to NiGHTS, who was still staring at the fight with wide eyes and a trembling lip, terrified of what Leon had become.

"NiGHTS, are you alright?"G&W asked. She slowly shook her head.

"That's not Leon..."she said softly. G&W and Jackle looked at each other worriedly, then back to the purple jester. Even though Jackle was nearly as insane as Leon, he still cared for NiGHTS like a brother would, since in a way, they were siblings.

"I freed the children in the dungeons..."G&W said, hoping to cheer her up, but he received no response. They looked back at the fight, seeing that both were actually wearing down. Leon was panting and slouching over. Wizeman's hands and the eyes inside them were drooping slightly. Leon flew forward again, and Wizeman threw a punch that sent him falling to the ground. His black aura began to twist around his body in strange ways. He slowly rose to his feet, eye twitching and an even bigger scowl than before. Soon, he began to convulse as if having a seizure. Demonic growling could be heard from him.

NiGHTS couldn't take it anymore. Though she was still weak, she stood up and started running to Leon, shocking G&W and Jackle.

"NiGHTS, what are you doing!"G&W shouted."Stay away from him!"

"C'mon, sis! Even I'M not that nuts!"Jackle screamed. Their words fell on deaf ears. NiGHTS ran faster when she noticed him holding his head in pain. When she finally reached him, she grabbed him from behind in a tight hug. Leon looked over his shoulder, ready to kill whoever it was, but when he saw that it was NiGHTS, he froze. Slowly, his convulsions began to stop, and the black aura started to dissipate. NiGHTS slowly looked up at him, watching his eyes return to normal.

"...NiGHTS...?"he asked softly. She smiled as Leon turned and hugged her back in a comforting way, ignoring the pain from the burns. Then, for the first time in her life, NiGHTS actually cried. Leon continued to hug her, silent as she cried on his shoulder. Wizeman, trying to take advantage of their vulnerable condition, reached a hand towards them to grab them both. But suddenly, a card flew over their heads and nailed Wizeman's eye, making his hand recoil. Still holding each other, they both looked at Wizeman, then in the other direction, seeing Jackle with four cards in both hands. He and G&W both went up to them as NiGHTS wiped away her tears.

"Can you dualize?"G&W asked them, looking at Wizeman.

NiGHTS nodded."Yes, but I'm hurt and he's tired,"she said. True to her words, Leon was now panting, fatigue from the fight quickly catching up with him.

"He's both,"G&W said, addressing Wizeman."You have to try. We'll work together to defeat him."

"Yeah! He's going down!"Jackle said, his grin a bit wider than usual.

Wizeman's eyes narrowed."I will not be defeated by worms like yourselves,"the dark god boomed. All four stared up at him with determination in their eyes. NiGHTS and Leon looked at each other, then grabbed each others hands. A bright light engulfed them, and the being left standing there was different than before. It still looked mostly like NiGHTS, except that it looked like a mature version of her. It was taller, the pink vest was a bit darker, and space around the being was constantly distorting. Neon looked at themselves curiously.

"Nice,"Leon remarked.

"This power is incredible!"NiGHTS exclaimed, then they looked at their two companions. G&W nodded at them while Jackle gave a thumbs up.

"Now, it's my turn,"G&W said. With a grunt, his body then started to grow and morph, his head growing to an enormous size and his limbs becoming long and pointed. When he was done, G&W was in his octopus form.

Jackle grinned widely."YAY! MY TURN!"the bodiless creature said happily, then closed his eyes and clenched his fists."Hrrrrrrmmmmm! Eeeeeeee!"

"Jackle, you can't transform, remember?"NiGHTS asked calmly.

"HRRRRRRGH! Oh, wait, I can't? Darn,"Jackle muttered.

"Enough of this!"Wizeman shouted angrily."Prepare to die!"They all prepared to attack, ready to end it all here and now.

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End of chapter

Yep, another cliffhanger. Sorry. But think of it this way. The next chapter is the last one of this arc, and you know what that means.

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