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After having their little feast, the girls woke up several hours later while panicking they might've slept too much. Thankfully they didn't have weird or bad dreams at all, and the guardians outside were enough for any Nightmare Beast to not even get close to them.
When they woke up though, after such a refreshing sleep, they panicked because it had been way too long! Nyx thought they were supposed to get out of here in just an hour or two, but this had become way too long.
"W-We have to get going, there's still someone trapped here, uwaaah!" Nyx screamed, quickly storing everything in the room. "Girls! Please wake up!"
"A-Ah!" Fran gasped. "Oh right… Y-Yeah, let's hurry!"
Fran nodded, quickly leaping out from bed, as she freed herself from Alma's arms wrapped around her little body, she put back on her little shoes.
"Hmm? Fran…?" Alma wondered; she wanted to cuddle with her some more. "I-Is it morning already?"
"Yeah we can't sleep for too long, we're still technically inside a Nightmare Realm!" Nyx said. "We should go find the other girl; I can feel she's not that far away."
"M-My bad, I slept too much! I'm so sorryyyyy!" Alma began to panic as she stood up, putting back on her shoes. "Uugh… I need some cold water to wash my face."
The girls quickly cleaned the place as much as they could and then got ready to depart. Most of the trash was still left behind, such as bones and such, Nyx didn't seem to have been negatively affected by the Nightmare Beast meat either.
"You're feeling alright Nyx? You ate the ugly monsters…" Fran asked curiously.
"Yeah I'm fine," Nyx nodded. "I didn't feel bad or anything after eating them either. See? I'm immune to toxic things! If anything I feel stronger."
"A-Alright then, we should get going then…" Alma nodded. "So where to Nyx?"
"Hmm…"
The three girls walked out of the "room" where they were, as Nyx lifted and pushed out the stone, the Snowdragon and the Snowdad were there.
"Snowdad! Are you ok? Your body looks a bit smaller…"
Fran ran towards her Snowman, noticing the damage it had taken, she was unable to heal him because there wasn't snow anywhere.
"…"
The Snowman petted her head gently, he had become at least half as small as before, but it didn't seem to bother him.
"Will you be okay?" Fran asked. "Once we're done here, will you come back home and talk with mom? Would you two reconcile?"
"…"
The Snowman didn't say a word, he couldn't talk after all, but he continued petting her head, as if trying to calm her down and make her feel better.
"You will right?"
"…!"
The Snowman felt a bit pressured, but then ended nodding, making her happy.
"Yaaay!"
Fran smiled happily, hugging her "father" made of snow, feeling happy and fulfilled.
Nyx sighed, glancing at Fran made her feel sad, she still didn't truly believe this entity was her father.
But perhaps the embodiment of her dreams of having her father back.
And well, she wasn't wrong.
The same applied for her Snowdragon.
But at the same time, could she even say something? She didn't want to break Fran's heart.
Even if the child lived in a lie, she was happier with it than with the truth.
But where could someone place the line between what was acceptable and what could be detrimental to them.
Perhaps with Sofia, Nyx's mama went through this very problem, and also questioned herself.
"For now… We should go, Fran. I'm sure your dad… will come with you."
Nyx smiled slightly bitterly, although Fran didn't realize.
"Yeah!"
Fran walked by the side of her Snowdad, while several flying Phantom Dragons floated around them for extra protection.
The girls walked through the labyrinthian sewer swamps for various minutes, from one place to another, sometimes walking in circles.
"N-Nyx, are we there yet or not?" Alma wondered, looking visibly exhausted.
"I'm sorry, it might seem close but the walls and everything get in the way," Nyx explained. "And it's not like we could crush the walls, or everything is coming down so…"
"Hmm, if only we could be like ghosts and pass-through walls!" Said Fran, sighing. "Well, at least we could-"
"Wait, no you're not wrong!" Nyx's eyes beamed with light. "You're right! I could do that! Why didn't I try?! I am also a Ghost after all!"
FLUOSH!
Fran and Alma gasped as they saw Nyx suddenly transform, looking completely phantasmal! Her physical body simply dissolved into pure ethereal, phantasmal energies taking a faint shape of her physical form.
"Y-You're a ghost?!"
"G-G-GHOST?!"
Alma was more scared than Fran, it seemed she didn't quite like ghosts that much! She stepped back in horror, her eyes almost coming out of her face.
"Yep! Papa is a dragon and mama is a ghost, didn't you know?" Nyx giggled. "A-Ah! I shouldn't be saying that… Well, just keep it a secret! Anyway, I can turn into a cute ghost too! I sometimes forget because I'm more used to my normal form… but yeah I am a spectral being and I can pass through matter! Although when they are spatial and magical constructs, it becomes much harder so I don't know if it could work! But we can try!" 𝑛𝘰𝘷𝑝𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝘮
"A-Ah… I guess we could yeah," nodded Fran. "But how will we get through ourselves? We aren't ghosts…"
"Yeah…" Alma nodded, calming down a bit after finding Nyx was too cute to be a scary ghost.
"Hehehe, I got that covered, get in!"
Nyx opened her Little Shadow Realm, as both little girls once more panicked, seeing a completely pitch black, spiraling black hole in front of them.
It didn't look at all friendly or safe in there! Children were always naturally afraid of darkness, so jumping into a black hole wasn't… something they would do happily.
"It looks scary Nyx!" Fran cried.
"A-Ah, well… your Snowdad can accompany you," Nyx nodded. "Alma please you too!"
"D-Do I have to…?" Alma muttered, sweating a lot.
"Yep! Now get in!"
Nyx ended up forcing them a bit, but ultimately once everyone was packaged inside her Shadow Realm, she quickly started moving through the walls.
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
"It's working! I'm getting closer!"
However, the closer she got to the girl, the stronger the nightmare essence became…
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