Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!

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"{Aura of the Heavenly Nightmare Demon Venerable}"

Maria readied herself, unleashing the power of her strongest Martial Arts skill, as her aura erupted from her body, taking the form of a huge ghostly, muscular, multi-armed being made of shadows, with long tentacle-like air and crimson eyes.

"This shouldn't be as freaky as completely transforming to them…" Maria thought, as she felt a huge power boost coming her way by activating that ability.

Ding!

[By channeling both Ki, Mana, and other Essences, it is possible to unleash these techniques fully through the power of the {Aura of the Heavenly Nightmare Demon Venerable}, which will emerge as a powerful guardian behind the user and will be capable of imitating any of their movements and techniques, while also being able to materialize weapons through its Aura alone and give support, attack power, defense, and stamina to the user when summoning its powers. The Power of the Aura and all of its Effects are based on 50% of all the user's Stats, with an additional 1% with each Skill Level.]

FLUOSH!

As the description stated, this Aura was strong as fifty percent of Maria's total stats, which was already a lot considering everything else!

"{Phantom Dragon Fusion}: {Chimeric Phantom Dragon Aura}!"

Meanwhile, Nyx unleashed the power of her Phantom Dragon Fusion Skill, summoning and fusing phantom dragons into her aura and transforming them into a massive, multi-armed, multi-headed, and multi-limbed aura.

"To think you would end up burning my body this much, this is unbelievable! I only came here to kill you, dammit! I thought it would be easy but you're stronger than I imagined!" The Nightmare Demon kept whining. "It's so damn annoying!"

The Nightmare Demon swung his fists down, shockwaves and slashing waves were unleashed, Nyx and Maria intercepted them, their fists and Dream weapons clashing against his claws.

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Explosions of darkness and nightmares erupted everywhere, covering the surroundings with nether and black flames of death, the Nightmare Demon boy grew frustrated as he was pushed back by mother and daughter.

"Dammit!"

He screamed angrily, swinging his legs and kicking Nyx away, while Maria came from the left, swinging her sword at the same time as her Aura did, two sword techniques reached him, as blinding holy light cut through his legs!

SLAAASH!

"Uuuaaagh!"

As he screamed in agony, Nyx jumped back into action, hitting him with her big, thick tail in the head, and then swinging her halberd down towards his chest, although failing to do so and ending up slicing through his stomach instead.

SLAAASH!

"Aaaarrrggh!"

As the Nightmare Demon cried again, he grew furious, his Nightmare blood coming from his wounds, as he manipulated it into countless of black bullets, fired at his foes.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Bullets made out of Nightmare Blood exploded upon contact, generating massive shockwaves of Nightmare Void that pushed them back again, destroying their defensive barriers or armor.

"I am not… weak…!" he kept screaming. "I am a strong Nightmare Demon…! Stop…! Stop looking down on me, you bastards!"

As he screamed, his Aura erupted with even more power than before, his legs had yet to regenerate, so he couldn't even move from his position properly, but he simply floated in midair.

FLUOOOSH!

The Nightmare Aura constantly flickered, turning into strange images, images of children playing games together, of happy times, of beautiful memories, it wasn't malicious at all.

Or so it seemed, but it rapidly twisted, the children grew up, becoming monsters, they cried in agony as they left behind their beautiful memories and childhoods behind.

They wanted to go back, they wanted to become children once more, but they couldn't.

They were afraid of adulthood, of facing challenges and responsibilities, of taking care of themselves and of life.

They were afraid of growing up, and of losing their childhood innocence and happiness.

"I am a Nightmare Demon born from one of humanity's greatest fears!"

RUMBLE!

His Aura only became stronger, releasing countless ripples through space.

Maria quickly realized what he was trying to do!

"I embody the fear of all of you, to leave behind your childhoods, to grow up, to accept adulthood's responsibilities and challenges…!" laughed the Nightmare Demon, his Aura continuing to grow larger. "I represent your broken and forgotten childhood memories! I represent the happiness and innocence of what you have left behind… and the fear that comes with it!"

"He's growing stronger, mama! What's going on?!" asked Nyx, confused.

"I see, he's unleashing his Nightmare Fear Authority," Maria said.

"The what?!" asked Emily from behind.

"Yes, that's right," Beatriz nodded, appearing besides Maria. "And he's… he's my brother, Bell! I was barely able to ever interact with him, but he's really strong! You see, we Nightmare Demons are born from Fears of Humanity, the strongest and more shared the fear is, the stronger we become as a result!"

Only Maria, through their connection as master and familiar, could hear her words, but they brought her with great enlightenment about the current situation.

"He's about to open a Nightmare Realm!" she said. "If you're trapped inside, you'll be completely absorbed by his own Nightmare Fear Authority, you have to stop him before it's too late!"

"So he's desperate, gotcha," Maria nodded. "Let's go, Nyx! We'll break through!"

"Yeah!" Nyx nodded, her Draconic Appearance surging through her body even more, her eyes glowing brightly, as flames came from her little jaws.

"RAAARRRHHH!"

"RAAAAHH!"

Mother and daughter charged forwards, swinging their weapons and unleashing countless techniques as they did! Nyx's powerful halberd was swung vertically, horizontally, and upwards and then downwards, cutting through the barriers of nightmare clouds around the Bell.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Then Maria leaped through them, with her own sword and axe, and by condensing the power of her Aura, she changed stances, concentrating the blinding light of Yang within her.

"{Enlightened Stance: Brilliance of Yang}"

FLAAASH!

Pure golden light surged from her body, as her two weapons absorbed it and unleashed it through a barrage of powerful techniques.

"[Fallen's Angel Divine Ascension]!"

SLAAASH!

An ascending attack that manifested as Maria gained black feathered wings for a second.

Her Aura Guardian moved alongside her, adding even more attacks!

"G-Guggh?!"

Bell gasped for air, before he could complete his Domain Creation…

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

He was cut into pieces.

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