Inducing infighting is always such great fun! When, instead of having to fight your enemies yourself, you just turn them against each other and then watch them fight while eating popcorns (or, like, skulls or something, I don't know what nightmares like to munch on during a show) before you finish off the survivor...

Hey guys, remember Noah? I'm sure he can find a diplomatic solution!

Assuming he's still alive.

Time for the hero vs “hero” fight, oh nice. Wonder if the big nightmare will keep itself word.

Pretty confident it is Noel's win if they legitimately fight.

Child who survived both a literal nightmare, and years of being hunted by an evil empire? Pretty sure he has more practical skills than Gaston, who at most has higher physical strength & "standard" hand to hand combat training from school that Noel also likely received. Once Gaston uses magic, he's done as well.

Not that I expect them to just start duking it out.

Noah is here only to watch and develop trauma. Cool Beans.

Yet Again, Noah Lives By Doing Absolutely Nothing.

assuming Noah actually *does* do something, Noah may *be* the third path, with the goal of keeping Gaston alive, which conflicts with both NightMare and Gaston's goals.
if Noah is the Victor would NightMare stand in Noah's way or would that be valid?

Noel fights for humanity; Gaston fights for his friends, which I guess includes some girls but that isn't "simply for the girl". So yeah, the nightmare isn't reporting the situation accurately.

I doubt Noel will be fooled; it's obvious that Gaston isn't fighting "for the girl". I suppose Gaston could be convinced to attack Noel, but I don't see him putting all that much trust in what a nightmare tells him.

I have no idea at all what Burk or Tobi would do here. I mean, I am sure that it would be impressive, but the specifics? Not so much as the faintest hint...

@Brilland
I'd interpreted it as Noel "fighting for the girl" because he's committed to not killing her, and Gaston "fighting for humanity" because he'd be willing to sacrifice Chernyl to save his friends.
To be fair, this nightmare doesn't seem a great judge of character (or is intentionally pretending not to be) - I'm pretty sure neither are on board with the idea of the Empire giving Chernyl a round-the-world trip so the nightmares can commit genocide.

@Brilliand
I think you misunderstood, the girl refers to chernyl, this Nightmare has consistently called her that.
Noel fights for chernyl, Gaston for humanity.
We also do not know how fixated Noel is on keeping Chernyl alive. If agreeing to help killing millions for her is really an option for him, Gaston has to be careful with what he says.

The dark figure that saved Noah from the Dentist mentioned two wishes...

I predict Noah will prevent fight between Noel and Gaston by entering their minds, getting the wishes in the process.

I thought we had agreed to put these kinda squabbles on hold until we actually reached Chernyl? Because, you know, they don't exactly improve your chances of reaching her, which is your main objective atm. What to do with her, by necessity, comes after.

@Zed Gaston's advanced spells are too chaotic, Noel tried to block them and failed few chapters ago, when the Malhart kids captured Noah. It doesn't seem like Noel learnt anything about Gaston's weird surgebleed magic by this moment, but he might have been and it would be a brutal surprise, which could also allow him to interact with more nightmare magic as well?..

Noah's down there like 'boy I sure do wish I had input on this situation that wasn't bleeeeding with my jaw unable to move.'

Then again maybe he can use spirit projection to dope slap the two of them.

@Maiker
I suspect that Gaston could best Noel in fisticuffs. Noel's powers only seem to function against magic, so if he can't find a source of active magic, then I expect that it comes to fisticuffs. So yes, Gaston's magic likely resists Noel's, but I am not convinced that Gaston needs to test that...

@Guest

Burk: Punches the nightmare in the face, while somehow ignoring its magic.

Tobi: Has a friendly chat with the pandemonium spirit controlling the nightmares, who assures her it would never hurt her because she's "King" whatever that means. (Either that or she sics Three on it, and Three proceeds to do almost exactly what Burk would do.)