Blessed by Night

As Melanie allowed the full weight Aubrey's words to sink in, she couldn't help but feel a slightly sickened feeling spreading though her chest.

"My... mom? Are you kidding me??"

Since it was already too late to back out, Aubrey had no choice but to keep her story going.

And pray that it was not ruined by Serana and Rose's snickering.

"W-Well you see him with Joanne, right? He has this thing for older women and your mom is kind of like his exact type soo.."

Finally, Mal and Joanne chose that moment to descend from the sky and rejoin their friends below.

However, they easily noticed how weird the mood had become.

""...Did we miss something?""

Red faced, Melanie pointed a trembling finger at the unsuspecting Malachi like he was her most hated enemy.

"Y-You... How could you cheat on me with my mother?!"

Dumbstruck and blindsided, only two words could fall out of Mal's mouth "...Excuse me?"

"I already know everything! E-Even if I don't exactly remember, how could you cheat on me!? Scumbag!"

"...What?"

"I don't know why I would date you anyways since you aren't even my type! Anyone who looks at you can tell you're a total manwhore!"

"...Que?"

"I-I like shy and medium ugly guys who are sweet and soft spoken! You are the last person I would ever want to be with!"

For some reason, that last comment really ended up sending Malachi over the edge.

A vein bulged in his forehead and he finally let the truth fly free from his lips.

"You were the one who cheated on me, Mel!"

Suddenly all of the animosity left Melanie's face and was instead replaced with palpable confusion. "I... what?"

*Rumble*

In the next moment, the earth around the group started to tremble furiously as if the entire world was about to come undone.

Nearby ruined buildings and structures that had already fallen were now crumbling into even smaller pieces and falling from the sky like hail.

The group immediately forgot all about whatever useless spat they may have been having and instead circled around each other with their weapons drawn.

From underground, large centipede-like creatures came tunneling up around the group.

Instead of the usual mandibles and beady eyes, these creatures had dark grey desiccated faces of different human individuals.

The group wasted no time in guessing their classes and instead focused on neutralizing the threat in front of them.

"Partner up, do not stray!" Aubrey said authoritatively.

Her eyes started to glow with a strange green light and out of nowhere multiple tornadoes started to form in the air.

They touched down on top of the creatures themselves and either knocked them onto the ground or sent them flying into disarray.

It did not take very long for the group to spring into action, and surprisingly Melanie was the first to rush towards a flailing centipede.

The mark on her forehead appeared soon after she started running, but it was a bit different than the last time Mal had seen it.

It was a lot darker, and now coursed with a red light that did seem slightly ominous.

With a loud roar that seemed to be driven by more than just the enemy in front of her, Melanie let out a burst of destructive power from her little body.

The energy took the form of an outward moving force field of energy.

However, as soon as it struck two of the creatures, their very flesh started to burn as they were tossed back into the air.

With two of the creatures airborne, Ryo and Serana got into a simple back to back formation as they revealed the weapons tucked on their waist bands.

Both of them were in possession of a set of gleaming black daggers that contained unparalleled sharpness.

'...Copycats.' Mal thought as he turned his head away.

The couple drew their weapons at exactly the same time, and threw them precisely at the airborne centipedes.

Just as they'd seen someone close to them do a thousand times before, they used their combined telekinetic force to cut through the creatures cleanly and with little pushback.

In no more than twenty seconds, pieces of cubed nightmare were raining down onto the ground.

Meanwhile, Aubrey hadn't exactly stopped at summoning tornadoes.

From out of nowhere, she pulled our a large black scythe that seemed like it was too big for her body.

Right beside her, Rose pulled out a large black spear that seemed to be every bit as dangerous as the woman wielding it.

Completely in sync, the two women rushed at two of the closest nightmares to them without any fear on their faces.

Aubrey performed a massive leap and started running up the underbelly of the centipede.

Letting her scythe trail behind her, she carved up the softer underbelly and didn't stop until she reached the head at the top.

With great ease and a little too relaxed of a smile, she performed a somersault in the air.

Once she was in striking distance, she buried the blade of her scythe between the creature's eyes, leaving only the wooden handle still visible.

There clearly seemed to be something special about the weapon, as the nightmare centipede did not even make a sound as it fell over and died; nearly flattening the rest of the group in the process.

Rose finished off her opponent in similar fashion, and soon it fell right on top of Aubrey's kill in comedic fashion.

Rose hurriedly put away her weapon and caught her girlfriend out of the air before giving her a warm smile.

"You did great!"

"You weren't so bad yourself~" Aubrey replied slyly.

As Mal watched his sister become a gushy maiden that he didn't recognize, he gave Joanne a small nudge.

"Hey.. exactly when and how did that happen?"

As a response, Joanne only shrugged. "Like three months after you disappeared. We were all hurting, and all looking for ways to ease the pain. Rose was there for your sister when she needed her the most and things just sort of happened I guess."

"Huh.. How about that. Maybe my disappearing was good for a few things."

"Go missing again and I'll kill you."

"What if we go missing together?"

"...Shut up and watch your back." Joanne muttered with red cheeks.

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

The bladed appendage of a centipede came flying at Mal out of nowhere, but he easily caught it with one and and held it above his head.

Other than the fact that his feet had been buried a few feet in the ground, he seemed to be totally fine.

"Thanks for the warning, love!"

"...Whatever."

Mal laughed and prepared to respond when suddenly a change occurred in the area.

He could not see where exactly it had come from.

He only blinked and it was suddenly there.

But standing right beside Joanne and staring at him very intently was a child, seemingly no older than eight.

However, a single glance was all that one would need to confirm that this was far from a normal child.

It was a nightmare, and an intelligent one at that.