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

Chapter 1229: The Crying Mannequin



The mannequins started moving on their own, startling Emily and Alma a little bit, only a little, I could tell they were already guessing those would be Nightmares.

However, unlike previous Nightmares, they had no faces, no clothes, and no weapons either, it seemed they had no relation to Sofia's traumas.

So, going on with the theme, it would be easy to think they weren't Nightmares if they weren't about Sofia...

Well, maybe they are about Sofia, and we simply couldn't tell yet.

Until they started moving, and they began whispering.

"M-Mas... ter..."

"Why do you... why do you cry?"

"Master..."

"Why?"

"I cannot... make you happy?"

"Master Sofia... Don't I bring you company?"

As they started to move, suddenly, small wings made of light appeared on the white mannequins, and small golden lines surged.

Their hands suddenly became sharp needles, and they glared at us with their faceless faces, with a small, broken halo hovering over their heads.

"A-Are those...?!" Alma gasped. "Sofia's Dream Weapon?"

"Wait, the Automata?!" asked Emily.

"Most likely, yeah," I nodded. "It seems that this is what happened to it... I thought it would be simply gone, but it ended merging with the Nightmare Realm, ultimately... becoming part of it."

And there were dozens of them, although they seemed much weaker than Sofia's original [Six-Winged Archangel Automata]. For instance, they weren't made of metal, and they only had a single pair of small wings, their halos were destroyed, and they seemed to emanate a much weaker aura.

"They're weaker though," I said. "We should take care of them quickly! Beatriz, go crazy." "Mereow!"

Beatriz was the first to charge against the mannequins right after we reached here, the mannequins, in response, also charged against us, a dozen attacked Beatriz, which were quickly torn to pieces and eaten by her.

However, several more of them ignored her, rushing towards us instead. Emily greeted them with her electrified punches, managing to break one of them into pieces.

CRASH!

However, three more surrounded her, resisting her blows and then sliding through her arms, aiming at the small crevices in between her armor with their sharp needle-like arms.

A single piercing strike from them on a vital spot, and Emily would die almost instantly! "Don't you dare think you can easily get through me!"

However, I didn't need to help her, as she quickly transformed her armor's form, growing long, electrified spikes, piercing through the mannequins' bodies and killing them all.

CRASH!

At the same time, I greeted over five of them on my own, swinging my sword to release a wave of compressed void, slashing them apart.

"{Void Blade}"

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

As they exploded into pieces, I noticed that Alma was firing her ice spears and trying to freeze them, but they were too fast for her, she was being surrounded.

"Go help her!"

I activated the [Demonic Farm and Abyssal Mine Of Blood Dragon Bones] Skill, opening the Domain of the Demonic Farm and the Abyssal Mine of Blood Dragon Bones, which quickly summoned both Blood Bone Dragons to assist Alma.

At the same time, they managed to break her armor.

Crack, crack...!

CRASH!

"Ah! No! Maria's armor is already destroyed?!"

As she panicked and the mannequins were about to attack, I didn't ho help her, because I knew that armor had another effect.

FLUOSH!

"ROOOAARR!"

The moment her Blood Bone Dragon Armor broke, the remaining essence materialized, summoning large dragons made of blood red phantasmal energies, these were Phantom Blood Dragons, which inherited the armor's stats x5 and would last 5 minutes protecting their

wearer.

Any attack that targeted Alma was reflected by this; while also firing breath attacks that consumed and destroyed the mannequins, this gave Alma enough time to fight on her own before my Blood Bone Dragons were to help her.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Eventually, only one mannequin was left behind, standing near the door, in silence. The other mannequins, even when destroyed, didn't turn into black smoke and disappeared though.

They remained as countless shattered pieces. Were they actually not nightmares but actual mannequins infused with life?

Or... fragments of a Nightmare.

"I think I know what's going to happen..." I sighed.

"Y-You... You want to harm her... my... master?" he wondered, looking sad. "You want to harm her... Master Sofia..."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Wait! No, we don't want to harm her!" I tried to reason with him. "We've come to save her! If you're really her guardian, then you must understand she's suffering here, right?"

"My lady is happy..." he muttered. "My dear master So... fia... who has suffered so much... you were... her friends, yet you did such... awful things to her... everyone always makes her suffer... I just want to see her happy... I want to make her... smile."

"Y-You're...?!" I gasped. "Wait, are you the Nightmare Lord?"

Emily and Alma glanced at me, gasping.

It made sense, if it was Sofia's Dream Weapon, then it could have simply evolved into a Nightmare Lord upon the corruption of her Dream Heart!

But... it was only an assumption.

"No..." he muttered. "I cannot make her happy... I am... a failure... but he can make her happy... My heart... I've given it to her... I've... given her everything to her... So she'll be happy... fo... fo...

forever."

"Your heart?!" Emily asked. "What do you mean by your heart-"

RUMBLE!

As Emily tried to ask the mannequin questions, its entire body started twitching, shattering and falling into pieces, suddenly, every piece of the mannequins we destroyed exploded and also released light from within.

The sparkling golden light gathered together, suddenly forming something. The mannequin parts melted into miasma, fusing together into something resembling Sofia's Familiar.

But also much more bizarre, twisted.

It now had a huge hole on its chest, shattered, and constantly bleeding a black miasmic goo. The rest of its body was pitch black, with cracks of golden color.

His head had the mask of a smiling man and a crying woman, and it had six wings, made of purple light at the left, and golden light at the right.

His halo was strange too, only one half was gold, the other half, red, broken and slowly

bleeding red liquid.

"For... her... I would do... anything... do you understand?" he muttered, while his entire body quivered. "For master Sofia's happiness... I will... kill all of you."