PHASE 84 - A NIGHTMARE-FILLED REALITY

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I had a dream once again.

It’s not what I have dreamt for the past nights. Most of it involves the shadow, but now that the shadow is no more, I’m up to a different sleep adventure.

When I opened my eyes, I saw myself falling from the skies. It was a dark night, but there are millions of colorful stars. The milky white moon gave out light as if it’s generously giving happiness to everyone that sees it.

I find myself riding in a unicorn that has angel-like wings. I’m wearing my high school uniform. Magical fairies danced around me as they playfully sing a cheerful pop song that my Idol Club always performs.

I looked below, and I saw a big city and a huge castle. The city is joyful as it was filled with festival lights. There are paper lanterns flying towards the skies that make it look like giant fireflies. The castle also looks so cheerful as there are cannons that fired fireworks launching up in the heavens. Colorful sparks fly as the loud noise engulfed the surroundings.

“Wooooow…”

My eyes are filled with amazement. I have never seen this place before, and I pretty much know that I’m dreaming. I don’t want to wake up as I wanted to enjoy this wonderful experience. I have been experiencing nightmares for the past nights that this dream is a blessing for me.

When my unicorn pegasus landed, it popped into tiny specks of fairy dust. The fairies started to revolve in a roundabout on top of my head as they dance in midair. They look so happy and cheerful that I wanted to sing and dance too. So as I walk, I decided to join them with a hum behind my lips.

“Hmmm hmmm hmmm~”

As I entered the festival city, I was greeted by an explosion of confetti! Apparently, all the people here in this city looked like stuffed toys. There are walking teddy bears, toy elephants, adorable lion plushies, and even awesome robots. If only Rikkun is here in my dream, I’m sure he’ll have fun too.

Plop, plop, plop.

The squeaky noise whenever the stuffed toys walk is as adorable as it sounds. One of the teddy bears gave me a bacon burger. The second lion plushy gave me a strawberry-vanilla quiche. Then another teddy bear gave me a barbecue stick.

“Whoaaa! Thanks, mister teddy bears~” I said as I took the food and chomped all of it in one go.

The stuffed animals looked happy when they saw me enjoying myself. After letting me eat, the stuffed animals pointed at one direction- towards the castle.

I march on forward, and most of the stuffed animals followed me as if we’re doing a parade. The stuffed animals magically materialized musical instruments such as trombones, triangles, guitar, flute, ukelele, and others. One of the bears gave me a mic which I happily accepted.

I sang a song for the stuffed animals to enjoy as we marched towards the castle. As I skipped on every step, the joyful dance and the happy song I voiced convinced all other animal toys to join my parade. They would salute to me and fire fireworks first before falling in line.

I find myself in front of a short bridge that leads to the entrance of the castle. Underneath the bridge is a river that has crystal clear waters that reflect the lights of the stars, the moon, the flying lanterns, and the fireworks.

The gate of the castle opened when it felt that I was already entering the place. The fairies around me started to poke unto my body, converting my high school uniform into a magical girl’s dress. I now have pink bridal gauntlets, pink fairy dress, a beautiful starry tiara (All tiaras are beautiful, like me! Ehehe~), a set of dragonfly-like wings, and a magical stick.

Suddenly, a horde of black teddy bears barricaded the entrance. The cute bears are wielding cartoon-like weapons such as toy laser swords, water guns, styrofoam-loaded bows, and soft maces. Some of them even have adorable pillow shields. The black bears jumped and made squeaky noise as if they want to play a mock battle with me.

“Oh, you want it?” I smiled with glitters on my eyes. “Magical Idol Tiara, ready for battle!”

I spun around, waving my magical stick. My magical stick left pink streak in the air as I turn, which formed into a spiral light. Then I pointed the magical stick to one of the bears.

“Explode! Boom!” I cried out loud like a child. In an instant, my magical stick unleashed a pink orb that rushed to the teddy bear. The teddy bear exploded, and then candy bacon strips flew up in the air!

Seeing that one of the teddy bears exploded, the other teddy bears jumped in joy. They seem like enjoying this as if they wanted to turn into bacon showers with my magical stick. It’s like their only goal is to be of service to me by becoming a glorious meal! They all charged forward, with adorable smiles on their faces.

I returned the smile that they have given to me, and I spun once again. This time, I unleashed a barrage of pink orbs that chased the rushing bears, immediately converting them into a confetti of candy bacon!

Pop! Pop! Pop! Each time the bears get hit, they pop like a pinata. There are hundreds of bacon strips showering off whenever I hit them, so the place was eventually turned into honey bacon shower!

This is heaven!

All of a sudden, the castle in front of me moved. It mechanically transformed its platforms, its towers, and its main walls into a giant teddy bear robot of about a hundred meters in height! It is equipped with quadruple missile cannons, and its mouth is also geared with a photon blaster!

“GAAAAAAOOOOOOOHHH!!!” The gigantic castle-sized Robo-bear roared adorably.

“Eh!? The boss has appeared already!?” I was shocked at first but I know the bear is too adorable to be a threat. With such an enemy, I know that I have to use my trump card in this fight!

I drew a heart using my magical stick in midair and then I touched it with my left hand. I was able to activate my power-up when the heart glowed and transformed my body into an adorable existence!

I am now wearing a white princess gown, with ten wings behind my back. The magical stick completely disappeared, but I know it has now been a part of me. I can feel its magical energy inside my heart.

I used my ten wings to fly and press myself closer to the giant mecha-bear. When I was finally close enough, I touched the snout of the enemy boss with an adorable sound.

Boop!

Upon touching the bear's nose, the bear exploded. It showered triple quarterpounder burgers on its wake, which made me drool! I want to eat it all, seriously!

"That looked delicious!” I cheerfully cried.

When I looked down below, I saw the stuffed animals waving, jumping, and giggling for me. They are cheering for me who had just won the battle. The bears started picking up candy bacon strips and greasy burgers for their dinner.

“This is so much fun!” I cried to myself.

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“It looks like you’re having so much fun, Tiara.”

A familiar voice echoed, which very much ruined my dream. The joyful dream I had slowly become a nightmare...

...A nightmare-filled reality.

The festival village slowly converted into houses of fire.

The crystal-clear river slowly converted to a pool of blood.

The colorful skies that are filled with stars and the milky-white moon were converted to a dark void with the crimson moon.

The stuffed toys who are celebrating and eating the food turned into shadows, the same ones that killed most of the people dear to me. But instead of only one, there are dozens of them.

The candied bacon and the triple-stack burgers that were filled with cheese, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, and sesame seeds are turned out to be dead bodies of Gate Guardians lying around. The toy weapons they used turned out to be their Weapon Gems.

Ah, it’s such a waste that my dream has disappeared. All dreams disappear when the dreamer wakes, so now I’m back with this reality I couldn’t bear.

I find myself not in a princess’s dress, but on a nightgown that reveals my cleavage and thighs. I have this furry black mane covering the nape of my neck. My hands are also equipped with pitch-black bridal gloves. With this appearance, I look more like a villain witch rather than a charming magical idol.

“You’re finally awake.” The familiar voice said once again. When I focused my vision forward, I saw the woman who has helped me more than once; Erylle Fontaine.