The caverns grew a little brighter as Nightmare and the Giant Spider Lady walked to what he assumed was her house, seeing the growing presence of cobwebs
If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't feel any sense of malice, at least not towards him, Nightmare would have already run in the opposite direction as soon as the Spider turned around after motioning for him to follow her.
It was strange to be relying on that particular ability again, he had grown used to never trusted it, Ink never felt like they want to hurt him or his brothers aside from Error, but the scars under his goop say otherwise.
And he never knew and not really care what intentions Dream had in mind other than to turn him back into that naive, idiotic kid he once was.
The ability that his former creator give to him was never useful before but for the moment it was the only thing he could rely on until he found his new...should he call him 'dad' now? till his new God give him his powers back, or maybe he would give him new ones, he don't understands how this works yet.
(But it was a mercy that this new Void God were a 'he', he didn't think he could force himself to call anyone else 'mom' anymore, he just had one true mom his whole life and it was not the one the give him life).
Perhaps it was strange that he was accepting all this change so easily, but Nightmare liked to believe that he was adaptable, this was not the first time that his body changed and it was not the first time that he had to start a new life in a new place, except this time it was just a new universe and not a whole multiverse.
And it's not like he was completely alone in this, his brothers were out there along with the promise of a new protector, the promise that Ink could never hurt Error again or try to turn him and the others into something they were no longer.
Looking around, Nightmare could almost swear that the place looked less scary and dark than it did a moment ago, maybe it was the reminder of everything this universe had to offer or maybe it was the thousands of cobwebs that gave it a glow silver to the tunnels.
He notice that the number of spiders had increased as well, none nearly as large as the one leading him, but none seemed smaller than his skull either.
Maybe it was just that Nightmare had a soft spot for spiders.
Way back when he still trusted that Dream would always be by his side no matter what, when he still innocently believed that the villagers might grow to love him, even just a little, if he just put more effort showed them that he wasn't the kind of monster they thought he was.
He remembers children's books describing them as Machiavellian beings that lead with lies and caught innocent insects in their webs and devoured them wildly, he remembers the books telling how poisonous these were and all the advents that said flee from them or kill them before they grew too big.
(He remembers all those nights trying to ignore the fact that the villagers saw Nightmare the same way they saw spiders).
Until the day the villagers started locking him in sheds and cupboards so he wouldn't "get in Dream's way", there were so many spiders in there...
But the spiders never hurt him, if he didn't do anything to them, they didn't even react to his presence, his aura didn't affect them or it just wasn't noticeable if it did.
The sheds became his safe place after a while, the spiders became his confidants, and at least for a while, they made his life more bearable.
Ha! how sad that is, that those were the best memories he had of his 'home' universe, a bunch of spiders keeping him company where his so-called brother never was.
He had never dared to approach a Spider Monster, but he knew that they definitely didn't look like the spider in front of him, which might well be another good reason to trust her.
(And the feeling on the back of his head telling him the he was safe with her could also be factor on all of this).
The sound of hundreds of feet moving brought him back to his current situation, the first thing that caught his attention was the huge web in front of him, or should I call it a town? He could distinguish streets, houses, and what he guessed were stores spread throughout the entire mega web.
It looked so full of life and happiness that he couldn't help but think that even Dream would have loved it even when it was standing in the middle of these dark caves.
He then remembers who he was talking about and decided to focus on more important things, like the Spider Lady who seemed to be talking to him.
And he still didn't understand a word.
So, there is a language barrier and it wasn't just her having a weird accent.
This could be a problem.
...
Not an insurmountable problem, but it would definitely be a hassle even if he manage to get a pen and paper, if there was such a thing here, who knew if certain symbols meant the same thing here as where he came from.
The Spider Lady seemed to be thinking the same thing as him as she had started to make a figure out of the soft earth at her feet.
Nightmare... didn't really understand what she drew, it looked like a horned figure surrounded by smaller horned creatures, to the side she drew what seemed to be him, but his head was similar to that giant creature.
So, his feet weren't the only thing that changed drastically, if he could trust the drawing, now he had horns, but he still didn't want to check that out for himself.
She proceeded to draw arrows that went from him to the creature.
So either she was telling him that he was going to become that thing or that he was supposed to go with that thing.
Was this his new parent, this is how it looked? Or was she telling him that this being would help find his way through this new world?
A look around him showed that no, at least here, there was nothing that looked the least bit like what the Spider Lady had drawn.
The sand drawings continued for a while, Nightmare discovered that the spider in front of him was someone of great rank among the spiders, perhaps a queen of some sort if he could trust the crown-like symbol she pointed at herself.
He tried to tell her that his brothers might also be lost in the tunnels, he wasn't sure if she fully understood him, but she seemed to send other spiders to look for them so that was good he supposed.
Their little attempt at communication was interrupted by a roar, Nightmare braced himself for an attack, the Spider Lady answered the roar with one of her own.
And the roar answered...
Oh, they were talking, okay, good.
Although something must not have gone right with the talk because Lady Spider quickly panicked, she began to mobilize all the spiders that could hear her, were they under attack or something?
The collective panic lasted for a while, the Spider Lady didn't seem to decide between staying with him or going to deal with whatever was going on, and she didn't seem to calm down enough to try to explain it with drawings.
If being honest, Nightmare was starting to get worked up too when a shriek came from a tunnel above them.
Everything went suddenly silent at that, the Spider Lady answered with a shriek that sounded angry and hysterical, the answer she received sounded almost embarrassed, then almost proud.
It wasn't long before several figures peered out of the tunnel entrance.
Two of these figures looked very similar to the first drawing that the Spider Lady did.
The smaller figure descent and quickly went to hug the Spider Lady, they began to speak but Nightmare didn't even pay attention to them or the other three who looked like some kind of knights, no, his eyes were fixed on the horned creature that was cautiously approaching to him.
They looked like nothing he has ever seen before and still, a part of him feels like he should know what they were.
They approached him slowly, as if they believed that any sudden movement would make him flee or attack, and in other circumstances maybe he would, but right now, the only thing he felt with his presence was calm and security.
They weren't going to hurt him.
It didn't take them long to close the distance between them and when was close enough to him, they reached up and cupped Nightmare's face with a gentleness that almost brought tears to his eyes.
It felt so right, as if his Soul had filled a emptiness he didn't know it had.
Their foreheads came together, then they spoke, and for the first time since he woke up in this world, Nightmare understood what they said.
Ẃ̴̡̠̖͙̥͚̩̗̙̪̫̮̣̹̺͛̌̓̈́̀̓̋̔͊͘͝ę̶̨̼͎̹̲̙̞͚̘͕̹̞̮͈͚̰̿ ̴̧̡̢̖͖̯̙̳̯̫̀͛f̶̲̿̎͑̆̂̉̾͋́͑͆̈̆͐͊̍̚͘ͅo̷̤͉̔́̈̔̀̃̈́̃͆̅̈́͊̕͠͠u̸̩̯͖̠͖͈̩͐̋͒̆́̍̈̍̓̈͜͝n̷̠͉͖̭̈́̏́̾̍̏̾͊̀̊̋̇̌̿̀͘͝d̵͍̮̜̗̳̝̜̱̼̘̤̰̺̩̹̏͜ ̷͙̌̋́̈͋̎̎͋̔y̸͔̻̋́͒̽́̒̀̌̈̉̕̚ȯ̴̜̩̩̘̪̤̜̞̪̗͔̘͍̪̺͚̓̏̃͘͜u̸̘͗̿͂͠
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
...
Ignore that it took me 3 moths to update, school, work, a little brainrot and that little flashback of Nightmare were slowing me down.
I swear there were like 4 versions of that flashback, there was a grandma spider on one of them, poor lady, she dead and her death doesn't even got into the final cut, F in the chat.
Also, a little side note here, please, this story is not getting discontinued or anything, I know I sometimes take a while on update, but I have a life outside Wattpad and as much as I want to update every week, I have other things to take care of, including my own health.
That aside, I really hope y'all enjoy the update, next one is Error-Killer arriving to the Abyss and a little sneak into what the Voidverse think of the destruction of AUs now that Error ins't there to be blamed!