Blessed by Night

Chapter 110  What Is A Nightmare?

"Oh my gods..." n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Are they..."

"She sure snapped him up.."

In the hallways of the Immortal Moon guild building, there was one spectacle that had thoroughly captured the attention of all of the members. Walking arm in arm through the hallway were Malachi and Luna, who seemed to be completely unaware of all of the stares they were receiving. They were so used to being in close proximity to each other, and so engrossed in their conversation, that they instinctively grabbed each other as soon as they exited the car. They never even thought for a second about the fact that they were about to enter a public setting and they hadn't come out as a couple yet. "What else did Erebus want?" Luna asked. "Nothing. It seemed like he genuinely wasn't going to give me my powers back until he saw Shear."

Luna thought hard for a minute before prodding her younger boyfriend in the ribs. "Maybe he was jealous of your relationship with your new mother."

Malachi rolled his newly purple eyes.

Luna thought hard for a minute before prodding her younger boyfriend in the ribs. "Maybe he was jealous of your relationship with your new mother."

Malachi rolled his newly purple eyes.

"I doubt it. He didn't strike me as the kind of guy whose desperate for a mother's attention. Besides, he didn't seem to know she adopted me."

Luna suddenly paused and gave Mal a look like he was missing something important. "Erebus isn't just her son, you know? He is also her consort."

Malachi's eyes widened as he pictured his sweet mother entangled in the arms of that enormous demon-like being he saw last night. He suddenly felt like a young child who had caught his parents 'wrestling' in the middle of the night. He wasn't sure if he would ever survive the trauma. Luna found the look on his face to be terribly amusing, and she misread his thoughts as something much darker. "Don't worry, I am sure that she's not planning to 'eat' her youngest son as well. Good thing too, because I would hate to give you up to her. "

"Wait.. what?"

Visions of his beautiful mother beckoning him in very un-motherly positions began to play within his mind, and he quickly became more uncomfortable.

Eventually, he lifted Luna's legs out from under her while biting her softly on the cheek. "You're trying to traumatize me, huh? How am I supposed to look at her again after hearing that?"

"Fufufu~ Put me down! We're...."

Finally, Luna seemed to realize that they'd been in the guild building for quite a while, and had been so openly walking arm in arm together. Glancing over her shoulder, she found a small crowd of girls led by Nina and Opal, all of them with their phones out recording. Her cheeks quickly turned pink as she tapped Mal on the shoulder and gestured behind them.

Turning around, Mal didn't seem to be nearly as embarrassed as Luna and greeted his guild mates with an aloof smile. "What's with the entourage? You guys act like you've never seen a loving couple before."

"You really don't have any shame, do you?" Opal asked.

"Not in this moment, no." He admitted. Though that was clearly evident judging by the fact that he had yet to put Luna down. "D-Don't all of you have something better to do?" She questioned with a red face. "No?"

"My schedule is completely free."

"Is there something better than this?"

Luna had thoroughly underestimated the interest that her guild members had in drama. Eventually, she wiggled her way out of Malachi's arms while fixing up her kimono so as to appear more professional. And immediately wished that she hadn't. As soon as Luna's feet touched the ground and she was out of her boyfriend's grasp, she watched as he was besieged by other women. "We heard you were pretty banged up, everyone was really worried about you." "You aren't still hurting anywhere, right?"

"I heard about you and Alex, that guy was a real creep."

"I hope you fucked his face up."

"You look.. different... Are you satisfied with just the boss lady?"

Malachi was met with warm hugs, well wishes, and more than a few flirtatious remarks about his new eyes. Luna had never wanted to cut the contracts of any of her girls until right this moment.

"I'm alright girls, really." Mal said.

For some reason, he could feel an instinctive sense of danger shooting down the back of his neck that made him want to get out of here as quickly as possible. When he was finally able to escape from the friendly mob, he turned around to find Luna waiting for him with her arms folded and an annoyed look on her face. Without waiting, Mal scooped her back into his arms and carried her to the training room.

"....Manwhore."

"I think you know that's not true." Mal said without even looking at her.

"I like the girls a lot, but they are just my friends. I would never disrespect you, Anna, or Sei by throwing myself at every pretty girl I see."

Luna's heart warmed at his words, but she wouldn't allow herself to be so easily swayed. "...So you think they're pretty?"

Malachi chuckled in defeat and gave his girlfriend a small kiss on the forehead.

"You're cute all so cute when you're like this. Feel like I should try to make you girls jealous more often."

"Do it and you die."

"Yes ma'am." (He was still going to do it from time to time.)

-

As Malachi and Luna prepared to enter their selected training room, they ran into the pairing of Bianca and Aisha. Both girls were elated to see Malachi awake and in fair condition, forcing Luna to come down from his arms once again so that they could hug him. She didn't seem to mind quite as much this time though. "B, you cut your hair." Mal realized. "A-Ah, yea well I kinda didn't have a choice." She said shyly. The truth was that she and Morgan had gotten a bit too fired up in one of their exercises and her hair kind of caught on fire. While that normally wouldn't have been too much of an issue for her, her body was only equipped to handle heat of her own level, not Morgan's.

As a result, Bianca was now rocking a much shorter look, with cute bangs and a lightly shaved design just above the nape of her neck.

In this moment, Mal realized that he may need to add girls with short hair to his list of fetishes. "You look beautiful, I think it really suits you." He said honestly. "A-Ah, thank you..." Bianca's glasses had started to fog up, and the temperature around her became noticeably warmer. Aisha merely rolled her eyes.

When did this motherfucker start smooth talking girls?

He was scared to even look at them when they were in middle school!

After conversing a bit more, it was decided that both girls would stick around to watch Mal's training with Shear, both out of curiosity and potential amusement. It was well known that training with contracted beasts was exceedingly difficult, and they were sure that training with a one of a kind creature was going to be nothing short of hilarious. Once inside, Bianca and Aisha leaned against the wall while Luna and Mal went to the center of the room. "Alright darling, call out the little monster."

As instructed, Shear materialized in the room right beside Malachi, at her full height of nine feet and with all of her pointy appendages exposed. "What the fuck..." Aisha muttered. "She.. did not look like that last night." Luna realized. Malachi merely shrugged and pet her anyway as if he still found her cute regardless. "Okay then... let's see what she can do first. If she has any special abilities or anything then you should also be able to use them as your own given enough time."

Malachi nodded and gave Shear a simple order. "Alright, little nightmare. Show me what you can do."

For a moment it seemed like Shear did not quite understand what was being asked of her, but then she finally sprung into action. Right before Mal's eyes, she disappeared from view for a literal millisecond, and returned carrying Bianca and Luna like they were prized gifts. "What..?"

"When did she even...?"

Malachi graciously accepted the offering of the two beautiful women and smiled at her gratefully. "Just what I always wanted, pretty girls."

"Why didn't it grab me then?!" Aisha yelled from the wall.

"I said pretty, not bitchy."

"Fuck you!"

"Right there, do you see the difference?"

While Aisha was still fuming over the blatant disrespect, Shear was not done with her demonstration. The nightmare's body flickered, and she split herself into two completely identical copies. "Damn..."

"So cool!"

"I'm actually a little jealous."

Malachi carefully inspected Shear's clone, and as soon as he poked it, it disappeared in a shower of white light. "I wonder if I can do something similar..." Mal said out loud. "What do you mean?" Bianca asked. Malachi looked down at his own shadow and gave it a simple mental command. Like a scene from a horror movie, his own shadow rose up from the ground like a loyal soldier. As when he was in his avatar of night state, the shadow had no identifiable features except for his very long dreadlocks. "Have you always been able to do something like that?" Aisha asked. "Nah... I guess I can thank my brother father for this one."

""Your what??""

Luna seemed to be the only one who was in on the joke, and it took all she could to suppress a snicker. Malachi returned his shadowy clone to an unanimated state, with his mind still running with thoughts about Erebus. The primordial god hadn't just given him permission to delve into the darkness, he had expedited his understanding of it. And even given him a little something extra as well.

'Don't know why you did all that but... I won't let it go to waste.' He thought gratefully. "Can I ask you girls for a favor?" Mal suddenly said. The girls all stopped and paused, while awaiting Malachi's next words. Placing his hands back into his pockets, he gave the girls his best ' you can't say no to this face' smile that he could muster. "Mind sparring with me for a bit? Got some things I want to try."

I waana add that Shear will more than likely have a lot more abilities in the future, but remember shes still a baby so she can only do so much right now.