Nightmare’s hooves rung against the indistinct surface of Fu Xuan’s dream. The flames burning behind his crimson eyes flickered, acknowledging the unusual state of what should have been a terrifying nightmare. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Around him was nothing but darkness. Not the kind that spoke of an absence of light, but one that resembled the absence... of everything. Just as there was no light, there were no shadows. There wasn’t any True Darkness, either.

This was an abnormal situation for Nightmare. Usually, when invading a slumbering being’s dream after planting a nightmare within their heart, there should be some kind of structure. For a few brief moments, Nightmare wondered if the lack of anything around him was what he was meant to conquer in the first place... until he heard a chillingly calm voice.

"Hm? What a strange Echo."

The pink-haired Saint stood effortlessly within the formless dream, as if she wasn’t under the mind hex of an Ascended Terror. She curiously gazed at then tenebrous steed for a few moments, before her eyes trailed away.

"Ah, I see. You have no Fate of your own. Rather, it is bound to... a master? Yes, that seems to be the case. You must be the black horse people have been seeing in their dreams. You’re fortunate that nobody has been hurt, otherwise, I would have exterminated you already."

Nightmare let out a humorless neigh. Who did this puny being think she was? Fu Xuan ignored him for a moment, eyes trailing off into the distance... before suddenly widening.

She shut her eyes and looked away, but it was too late. Blood leaked out of every orifice, dying her pristine skin red with her own lifeblood. As for Nightmare, the black horse was alarmed... but for an entirely different reason.

The dream around them... began to distort. Terrible images flooded the nightmare, causing it to break down — no, something even worse than that.

What was meant to be one nightmare... was splitting off into thousands.

"TheSevenUniquenessWeavesIsSpreadRedAcrossHerringDaemonicTheCitadelsFoolShadowIsHasNotUsurpedWhatTheTheyThroneSeemOfNetherMysteriesAndAndWeaverPeaceAreTheStillNineAliveOrchestratedSeventhDoomGod."

Mad ravings flooded the nightmare, causing the dark destrier to become startled. Just as he was about to escape the crumbling mind headed towards disaster, Fu Xuan, who still had her eyes shut, glared at him.

"You’re lucky, pony. I’m not strong enough for my mind to create anything too powerful to stop... but it looks like I may actually die in the real world if I am slain here. Who knows what will happen to you then?"

All around them, the terrifying images began to shatter one by one, collapsing the beings too harrowing for her mind to properly form. The burning flames in Nightmare’s eyes intensified.

A knight with auburn hair and a kind smile.

A headless deity with four mechanical arms, a tower of pages formed behind ’It.’

A great moth peering over a frozen mountain, ’Its’ gaze peering inquisitively into the dream.

An entity formed of countless masks, THEIR laughter spreading across the Universe.

A man who’s body seemed to be made of stars, standing at the bow of a ship the size of a city, riding tumultuous waves.

Each of those images shattered, unable to be held in place by a puny Transcendent mind. Despite that, Fu Xuan grimaced...

And that was because there was still plenty of nightmares still forming.

Fu Xuan sat down, an expression of intense concentration appearing on her face.

"I’ll force myself awake before that bird realizes I dreamed about it, so go hold them off. Just so you know, that bird will definitely come for your master first."

Nightmare had half the mind to simply escape the tapestry of nightmares and leave her to her own devices. Why should the tenebrous steed suffer for her terrible imagination? Seriously, how was she even able to imagine all those horrific abominations in the first place? He would usually boast about having no concept of fear...

But... whatever he was seeing was simply unimaginable.

The Terror who fed on fear felt it for the first time.

And what could be more horrifying than the one who created these harrowing images in the first place?

In any case, he didn’t even want to imagine how she would retaliate if he didn’t comply. What if she survived this and came to hunt him down later? That wouldn’t do him any good.

It was definitely not because Nightmare was concerned about what this ’bird’ would do to his master. No, definitely not.

As a silver tiger appeared before him, lightning cascading across its fur as it bared its teeth at Nightmare, he could only wonder...

Who in the world managed to convince him that this was worth it? Only an idiot would try to enter a Saint’s nightmare simply because he was offended—

...Oh.

***

"Inside pink human, small nightmares formed stronger ones. By beating the tiger, many small nightmares were conquered with it. After she woke up, Nightmare ran and never looked back."

Sunny blinked at his trusty steed’s words. Then, he made a face.

’...Did this idiot really try to take over Fu Xuan’s nightmare?’

It ended horribly, really. Or really well, depending on who you asked. Nightmare managed to make the tiger submit, somehow, granting him a Transcendent nightmare along with hundreds of weaker nightmares, and came out... relatively unscathed. Though, it looked like he was electrocuted a few times, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle.

On the other hand, Nightmare antagonized the Master Diviner of the Xianzhou Luofu. That may have placed a target on his back, though, he doubted anything too extreme would happen to him. At most, she might suplex him like she did to Qingque. And that was assuming she realized who Nightmare’s master was.

He wiped some drool off his face, before looking towards Nightmare with a stern expression.

"Next time, think very deeply about whose nightmares you’re infiltrating. Let me tell you, all diviners have some wacky stuff going on in their heads."