Amara’s eyes lit up, reverting to their natural amber color. “Heh. Not bad for a lowly human.”

In shock, Palesa leapt to her feet and began backing away. “You would do well not to underestimate me, demon!”

To keep up appearances, Amara floated into the air and surrounded herself in bright purple hellfire. She laughed as her appearance began to change, her form warping and twisting as she pretended to revert to her true form. She knew she couldn’t give away her real identity, and instead took some creative liberties with herself. Her skin quickly turned to a deep, rich shade of burgundy as the rest of her demonic features appeared, all of them altered in shape and coloration. Her clothes burnt away, replaced only with a thin, chitinous bikini much like what she wore during the Ritual. The final touch, the one she was most proud of, was when she replaced her feet with thick, cloven hooves.

“I assure you, Palesa, you have no idea how powerful I am here!” Amara hissed as she started cackling again.

“That’s precisely the point, demon. So long as I’m in here with you, I don’t stand a chance.” Palesa held out a hand, her body tensed as she tried to focus, and a moment later she managed to manifest a small yellow device. “Did you honestly think that Liz wouldn’t teach me how to survive in the Dreamscape?”

“What are you planning, girl?” Amara asked with a scowl.

Palesa held the small device up, flicked a switch, then grinned as electricity began dancing between two metal prongs at the tip. “Better luck next time, demon!” She turned the stun gun inwards, then jabbed herself in the side.

The entire clearing convulsed as Palesa attempted to shock herself awake. Amara hadn’t expected her to be this proficient, and grit her teeth as she saw the dream begin to deteriorate.

Fuck, she’s waking up!

In a panic, Amara threw caution to the wind and reached for the edges of the dream. This was her realm, her domain, and she wasn’t about to allow some backstabbing Coven Head to pull one over on her. Through sheer force of willpower, she forcefully pulled the dream together, refusing to let Palesa wake up. The immense electrical current from Palesa’s stun gun began to course through her as well, and with one last glare, Amara forcefully ripped the item from the witch’s hands.

Palesa fell to the ground, gasping in pain as she looked up at Amara. “How?! How are you keeping me asleep?!”

Amara landed in front of Palesa, the flowers under her feet wilting and turning to ash as she walked closer. “I told you once already, witch.You have no idea how powerful I am. I’m going to make you regret that.”

From the side of the clearing, a large vine sprang forth and tried to bludgeon Amara. She knocked it away with a simple glance, but Palesa’s defiance continued. She backed away from Amara, digging her heels into the ground as she prepared to fight. Tattoos across her body began to light up, which brought a twisted smile to Amara’s face. Her magic held no power here, but the tattoos acting this way likely hinted that Palesa’s belief in her magic was providing her the will to fight back. If Amara could find a way to break down that belief, she might be able to assert more control.

More vines reached towards Amara, reaching from the canopy above and the ground below. They all turned to ash before they could reach Amara, but as she focused on burning them away, Palesa summoned a torrent of water and launched it towards Amara. While she was able to evaporate the water just as easily, the resulting vapor made it harder to notice the dozens of icicles that now raced towards her. She managed to melt some, but others she was forced to manually knock away.

Nothing that Palesa created hurt Amara, who was merely playing along. She walked towards the witch, slowly shrinking the clearing around them by reaching for the dream and pulling it close. No matter what illusory magic Palesa threw at her, she merely smirked and knocked it aside. Seconds later, as Palesa began to panic and sweat, Amara closed the distance entirely and wrapped a clawed hand around the Coven Head’s neck. Lifting her up, Amara pinned her to a nearby tree, itself starting to crumble and burn away from the hellfire that had overtaken the clearing.

“Enough!” Amara shouted, gripping Palesa tight. “You’re merely prolonging the inevitable!”

Palesa gasped and tried helplessly to pull Amara’s hand off her neck. “T-there’s nothing you can do to me here! I know how your kind work!”

“You know nothing!” Amara growled. She raised a hand, cloaked it in hellfire, and brought it close to Palesa’s face. “We don’t play by the rules, Palesa. I’m going to give you a little lesson about just how powerful we really are.”

“No! Please!” Palesa shouted, her voice thin and weak under Amara’s grasp.

As she struggled, Amara felt the dream shift around her. Before, she had merely been a tiny splinter in the fabric of the dream, masking her presence with illusion while trying to keep Palesa in control. Now the dream was hers; she’d wrested it from Palesa and made it her own.

Before she could do anything else, however, a bolt of magnificent, radiant lightning flew down from the canopy above them. The powerful energy of this bolt reeked of Enochian, but Amara knew it was simply a facsimile, an illusion powered by belief. Even still, Amara dropped Palesa and leapt back to prevent the bolt from hitting her. The thick jungle that surrounded them both, which Amara had been shrinking, began to grow back to its usual size. The fires started to dissipate, and another bolt of illusory lightning struck at Amara, who again stepped back to evade it.

A figure appeared from the thick underbrush, one with long, elegant brown hair and a collection of runic tattoos across her body. She wielded the dream around her as if it were second nature, and with another step forward, she threw a third bolt of radiant lightning at Amara.

“Sweet Pea! I’m here!” Elizabeth shouted.

Palesa, still coughing and choking, quickly rose from the ground to run to Elizabeth’s side. “Liz, thank god! This thing is too strong, it wouldn’t let me wake up!”

“You’re safe now,” Elizabeth whispered. “I’d never let anything happen to you.”

“Bah!” Amara hissed. “You think you can defeat me? The fabric of the Dreamscape is woven into my very being! You can’t possibly hope to rival my power!”

The entirety of Elizabeth’s body lit up, not just her tattoos, and she began to float into the air. A complex pattern of Enochian runes appeared behind her, all while she guided her hands in a series of rigid, practiced patterns. Amara tried to charge the two women again, a burst of hellfire catapulting her across the field, but it seemed to grow longer as she traveled across it. Amara began conjuring a torrent of hellfire to counter Elizabeth’s, letting it swirl and billow behind her as she raced closer. Seconds before she made contact, however, Elizabeth released a blast of magic that far surpassed Amara’s.

A brilliant column of angelic energy eclipsed Amara’s, dispelling the entirety of her hellfire while inflicting horrible, searing burns on her body. She screamed in horror as the energy overpowered her, and when Elizabeth’s spell faded, Amara was nowhere to be seen.

At least, from Palesa’s perspective. Unfortunately for her, Elizabeth was not actually present; the figure that had seemingly banished Amara was but another extension of Amara’s control over the dream. Now that her horrid, demonic visage had been destroyed, Amara invisibly slipped into Elizabeth’s body, gasping with exertion as if she’d just finished casting an incredibly powerful spell. She turned to Palesa, who immediately leapt forward and squeezed her tight.

“Liz! Thank you, thank you! I didn’t know what to do, she was so powerful and she wouldn’t let me wake up, even though I manifested a stun gun just like you taught me!” Palesa buried her face in Amara’s shoulder, softly crying as she recovered the stress of the attack.

“Shhh, it’s okay, Sweet Pea. I’m here, everything is okay now,” Amara whispered. While she softly rubbed Palesa’s back, she looked around the clearing and began to restore it to its former glory. The fires disappeared, the damage healed, and gentle bioluminescence returned to illuminate the night. Thousands of vibrant, multicolored flowers bloomed once more, their petals suffusing the area with a rich, comforting aroma.

The dream was entirely under Amara’s control now.

She held Palesa close, letting her cry away her stress and recover from the attack. With everything now hers to manipulate as she pleased, she began to play around with Palesa’s sense of time. Over the course of a few minutes, Palesa began to believe that nearly an hour had passed, and that Elizabeth had been happily comforting her the entire time. Palesa slowly began to recover, color returning to her face as she looked up at Amara.

“What happened, Liz?” Palesa asked.

“She was so powerful I felt shockwaves,” Amara whispered, caressing the side of Palesa’s face once more. “I got here as soon as I could. I’m only sorry it took so long.”

“No, you saved me! I-I knew demons were terrifying, but I never thought… oh, Liz, it was terrible!”

“Shhh, it’s okay. I’m here, take as long as you need.”

They spent another hour cuddling together, though again it only took a few minutes from Amara’s perspective. Once Palesa seemed more put together, Amara felt confident enough to pull her closer, pressing their lips together and slightly turning up the heat in the clearing.

“I was so worried, Sweet Pea,” Amara whispered.

Palesa looked deep into Amara’s eyes, the stress of the ordeal more than obvious. However, in that moment, as they passionately kissed and held each other closer, Amara felt Palesa’s aura begin to stir. She played her cards carefully, making sure not to push too fast, as she continued to mess with the flow of time in the dream. Before long, as their loving embrace grew more heated, Amara had successfully coaxed Palesa’s libido to where she needed it.

Holding Palesa tight, Amara manipulated the hammock underneath them to make it easier for them both to readjust. Palesa shifted to her side, one leg resting over Amara’s hips, and the two began rubbing their bodies together in pursuit of pleasure. Palesa’s lips traveled down Amara’s neck, kissing and nibbling as her core tensed in excitement. As she kept exploring, Amara adjusted the elasticity of the dream to respond to Palesa’s thoughts and desires. Her current form, just another expression of her dreamwalking, subtly changed to reflect what Palesa expected; slight blemishes on her shoulder, small patterns of freckles atop her breasts.

Amara reached down, dispelling Palesa’s clothes with her fingers before tracing down her body. She caressed the dip of Palesa’s waist, the ample curves of her hips, and finally moved her hand towards the source of her desire. Their lips met once more, Amara holding her tight as her tongue explored Palesa’s, and she held back a smile as her fingers began circling Palesa’s entrance, slick with desire after her perceived hours of comfort and safety.

With total control over Palesa’s dream, as well as her supernatural talents for reading arousal, Amara brought the Coven Head to orgasm in a manner of minutes. Her body tensed and shook as she came, and with her climax Amara gained access to the depths of her aura. She reached deep into Palesa’s arousal, quickly finding the core of her being, and gripped it tight. Just like last time, when she’d overpowered the three cultists the night of the ritual, it felt like grabbing a lightning rod in the middle of a storm. Rich, delicious ambrosia poured into her, and she took advantage of this connection to pull more strength from Palesa, her own senses expanding even further than she’d even felt before.

Palesa’s eyes shot open, and she gasped as a second round of pleasure caught her by surprise. In the midst of this orgasm, she managed to look at Amara and whisper, “You’re… you’re not…” Her body shook again, wave after wave of pleasure overpowering her ability to fight back.

So powerful were Amara’s senses that she was able to detect another layer of Palesa’s arousal, one she’d never felt before. Currently, she was feeding as deep as she ever had, but now she stood on the edge of a cliff, one that promised a level of strength impossible to imagine. All she needed to do was reach down, grab tight, and take what she was owed. Deep down, some instinctual part of Amara knew that drawing from this well would pull something vitally important from Palesa, possibly something irrecoverable.

No. I need her alive. For now.

Stepping back from that edge, Amara instead cut off her connection once she was sure that Palesa no longer had the strength to fight back. Had Amara not been in total control of the Dream, the Coven Head would likely have woken up already. Amara held tightly to that connection, then left Palesa alone in the clearing as she began to float towards the edge of the dream. Her demonic senses, as sharp as they’d ever been, quickly found the barrier between Palesa’s dream and the Dreamscape, but that wasn’t her destination. Amara released her hold on the dream, letting Palesa finally wake up, and she paid careful attention to Palesa’s presence as she crossed into the realm of the living.

Inside the magnificent, swirling green mass that was Palesa’s dream, Amara began to see glimpses of reality. She saw a dark room, illuminated only by faint moonlight that poured through a large window on the far wall. It was a window Amara recognized, and she knew exactly how to get there. With one last grin, Amara finally let Palesa wake up, then quickly returned to her own body in the realm of the waking.

She took a deep breath as she opened her eyes, then looked towards the Coven’s manor.

Gotcha.