Whisper [Undertale Multiverse]

Ch1 - The Final Battle

A startled gasp escaped from the king of negativity as the glowing teal arrow struck his chest, the crunch of broken bone muted beneath the sickening crackle that came from the soul beneath. Nightmare's expression contorted into an instant soundless agony, legs buckling from beneath him. The tendrils that had once been striking at his sibling were now limp and idle, not even retaining enough strength to hold the guardian upright.

The air became still and tense, and everybody who had been fighting came to a halt. They all felt it, the moment that arrow struck. That undeniable shift, the weight of a multiverse teetering to collapse. There was no recovery this time; it had been pushed too far, always too positive due to a naive Dream, too full of worlds due to a selfish Ink.

All gazes turned towards Nightmare, to the dust beginning to slowly fall from his form. This was not an injury he would be capable of recovering from ; the positivity imbued arrow had struck the king directly in the soul. The negativity that coated him rippled with toxic gold, the lethal amount of positivity that had been forced into his soul moving through the black like mould, tainting it, tainting him. His tendrils were the first to begin crumpling away, but it soon moved to his fingers, the broken bones of his chest.

The negativity guardian was dying. In a way, he was already dead ; once a monster begins to dust to this degree, there was nothing that could be done to save them. No amount of healing magic, no amount of monster candies, no amount of hoping could undo the damage that had been caused. And somehow, in these moments, those who knew nothing of the balance suddenly understood. They should never have interfered. Nightmare was never meant to die. They had caused the end of all things by their refusal to listen.

Ink cackled with laughter absolutely manic with its intensity. It was cruel and mocking, just like the soulless husk who it came from. Even fuelled by the paints that sat upon his sash, the creator had never truly felt any care for the multiverse or its inhabitants, only his own selfish curiosity. Oh, how entertaining it was to him, finally managing to push the multiverse to its end! He laughed so hard that he almost dropped his Broomie, and it was the only sound that remained as the battlefield descended into a dreadful silence.

Dream let out a choked cry, features falling into instant regret as the bow slipped from his hands and dissipated back into magic. Gold tears streamed down his face, but he was silent, too far in shock to react beyond falling to his knees. Never had he actually expected the arrow to have landed, let alone be enough to kill the guardian. He couldn't think, couldn't breathe. The balance had been real all this time? Why hadn't he just listened to Nightmare? The laughter of the one he had thought was his friend only made it feel worse, like he was experiencing a nightmare instead of reality.

Error was moving before he even fully processed what had happened, abandoning everybody in the fight to instead wrap Nightmare in his strings and retreat to a place of safety. His eyes were filled with desperation, but also determination, and he moved so quickly that nobody had even a chance to interrupt before he disappeared through a staticy portal, the fallen king tight within his multicolor strings.

The antivoid was the only place in the entire multiverse that Ink was incapable of accessing, and Error found more comfort now in the endless rolling expanse of white than he ever had previously. He typically loathed this place, the isolation and the screaming voices, the lack of anything to ground his sanity. But it being inaccessible to Ink made it feel like a safe haven in this moments of distress.

"NiGhT...?" Error let out in a shaky murmur as he lowered the barrely-corrupted form of Nightmare to the dusty blue bean bag that sat upon the white floors. His orbs watched them, waiting for any sign of life, the dread in his chest worsening with every moment that passed. The other did not stir. They were not moving, not speaking, just still.