Nightcrawler is trapped in Nightmare’s realm after a battle with Vermin leaves him in a coma. His adventures in dream land include most of the major events of his past: Being a circus freak, his early X-Men days, his time with Excalibur, etc. While in dreamland, there is an unopened box that haunts him but before Kurt can open it, Emma Frost brings him back to reality.
This leads Kurt to want to find the box. He and a few X-Men return to his circus roots, only to find the circus on fire and many performers dead. The circus was attacked by Vermin and other Marvel monsters like Man-Thing, Carrion, Gator Grant, and some random zombies.
While this is happening, Nightmare—having lost Nightcrawler—attacks Amanda Sefton.
It turns out that Nightmare, Vermin, and the others were all under the spell of a demon called Hive. The villain wants the Soulsword. Amanda Sefton was the last keeper of the blade, but it turns out that she hid it inside of Nightcrawler—without him knowing it—and that’s the reason for all the attacks.
Hive is a bunch of bees working for Mephisto. They can possess people, like Nightcrawler, Vermin, and also Wolverine gets possessed for a bit. The Hive dies in the end, quite unspectacularly,
Before it dies, it tells Kurt some things about his past. If you’re an avid Nightcrawler nerd, you probably want to find these issues and read up on them. These aren’t bad issues, I just don’t find all the magic/Soulsword stuff that interesting. Never have. Personal preference.