......
"...What?..."
The word almost didn't leave His mouth when he opened His eyes. The fact that He even could open His eyes was weird enough. For He was supposed to be dead.
Unlike His first death, where He deliberately left His old body and took the form of a small bug. His second death was supposed to be His last. Like for any other God, it was supposed to be His eternal slumber, one where He would never awake. And for a time He felt like He was dead. But not now.
With His eyes open He looked around, unsure of what was happening. However He didn't need to see much, for He was in a place that was constantly haunting his mind.
He was in the Abyss.
'...Why?...' He tried to understand. For but a moment ago He was in His throne room, dying from the poison He unleashed on Himself.
After everything that He has done, all the people He has doomed, He fled. A small part of Him said it was the last thing He could do. That maybe without Him there She would stop Her infection. But He knew why He was fleeing.
He was hiding from shame, anger and fear. He fled because He couldn't deal with all of His mistakes. He fled to die alone, isolated from everything and everyone.
He just so happened to speed up the process when, in a fit of rage at himself, destroyed the kingsmoulds nearby, letting the Void inside of them spill and corrupt the once pristine throne room and himself. He deserved to die.
...
So why was He here? Why was He in the metal platform that lead to the Abyss? Why was the door to the Abyss at His back, completely open?
As if to answer all His questions He hears it. The pitter-patter of small footsteps. His heart sunk.
'A nightmare.' He knows why now. The answer was so obvious.
He knew the stories of the The Nightmare King and His Grimm Troupe, so why He didn't think of the answer before he didn't know. He was having a nightmare. He was having a nightmare because The Grimm Troupe finally came to... His... kingdom...
...
...His kingdom... fell...
...
The Pale King fell to His knees. In fact He was barely holding back tears. He scraped his claws in the metal beneath him.
'Even after everything... It was all for nothing?... After all the disgrace I caused...' In His mind was the image of His Root leaving the White Palace, along with the image of-
The pitter-patter stepped in front of Him. He hesitated, but ultimately raised His head to see what He knew He would see. But even then, all He could do was start crying.
In front of Him was His child. The one titled Hollow Knight. The one He raised to be a perfect vessel. The one who He deprived of a childhood in hopes to use them as a tool. The one He abandoned like everyone else. The one who is either dead or being tortured by Her. The one who He forsaken.
Even in death He couldn't have peace of mind. He deserved it, He understood it, but He thought after dying He could be put to rest and stop feeling guilty.
He remembers what happened after the vessel ascended and presented themselves to Him. He started speaking those danmed phrases that He trained just so He could say them now.
'No cost too g-'
His thoughts were cut short when, from the Abyss, raised a shadow. A giant shadow made of Void, with many horns and tendrils. It had eyes too, eight of them, looking, glaring at Him.
The shadow grabbed the platform with three arms, lifting a fourth one, revealing claws bigger than Him. It's intention was clear, It would kill Him.
His heartbeat peaked. Of course something like this would happen, it is a nightmare after all. He should have run. He should have... He looked at the child near Him. The child He once abandoned was now looking at the shadow.
'No!' He wouldn't run. He was already dead. What good would running do. So instead He pulled the child into an embrace. With His own four arms he pulled the child closer to Him. Even His tail, normally coiled and hidden beneath His robes, revealed itself to cover more the child.
At least here! Even if it doesn't matter anymore!
He hadn't stopped crying earlier. Now His pale tears were falling down his face only to fall on His child shell.
Ghost stopped.
Not moments before They had awoken it the sea of Void in the Abyss. They would be confused if not for a whisper in the back of Their mind.
Back
They had truly come back in time. Just like they wished. They were ecstatic. They could do things right. Do better than before. They just knew that now They could make sure everyone survived and was happy. It didn't matter that now They were in a different, unfamiliar form. It didn't matter the hollow feeling in their Void, like something was supposed to be there and now isn't. They could deal with that later.
All Their excitement died once they stepped outside the sea. What greeted Their eyes were a scene that They only remembered recently. Their siblings falling from above, cracking their shells when they reached the ground.
'I'm back here!?' They thought with anger.
They didn't know how but They could feel every single sibling, alive or not. Even now there wasn't many left alive. Many were stillborns.
Suddenly, a thought creeped out of the back of Their mind, as the memory of what... of who was at the top of the Abyss right now.
Revenge
They shot up, ascending at a rapid pace. They ignored everything else, temporarily losing Their peripheral vision almost completely.
When They reached the metal platform they saw it. Him. The one who forsook all His children. The one He chose was used, left to rot alive in a prison He made.
Their anger was bubbling in Their void. When they smacked His corpse in the White Palace it was simply to get His half of the Kingsoul, after all, they still didn't have Their memory back. This time would be different. Their mind didn't even needed to whisper for them to take action.
Kill
They grabbed the platform with three arms and raised Their fourth. They would kill Him like They killed Her.
And They stopped when They saw Him, the Pale King, the one who condemned almost all His children to die in the Abyss, hug the child who They hadn't noticed was there.
...
'...What?...'
'He is hugging them?' They noticed how He is pulling them towards Him, how His eyes are fixed on Them, how He is putting Himself in between Them and the vessel. 'He is protecting them... from me?'
A memory. In the White Palace they found a secret passage named Path of Pain. Their stubbornness made Them continue even after dozens of tries. After all there might have had something useful, a charm, an item, or even a spell.
What They found was a memory, sealed away so that no one could see it. A memory of Their twin with the Pale King. Both were silent, but there was a raw emotion in that memory. It was-
Their thoughts were cut short when they felt it. A new presence, so familiar yet... not. They looked to Their left and saw... themselves hanging from the edge.
Ghost froze. The familiar feeling explained as themselves in an all too similar situation. Just like they remembered. They couldn't process seeing themselves, so when their hands slipped They couldn't do much but watch.
Watch as the Pale King pratically jumped and held their hand, not letting them fall like They did. He pulled them up to the platform, returning His gaze to Them.
An idea circled around Ghost's head. Something that would contradict Their actions just now. The whisper in their mind also disapproved.
Untrustworthy
They really didn't had any reason to trust Him with what They had in mind. But the memory was still in Their mind. His memory that He sealed away.
They thought. For every wrong and right that He did. He thought about Their siblings, about Hornet, about the Five Great Knights, about all of Hallownest. They knew He did this because of Her. That didn't excuse Him. Both were at fault. But at least They could sense something from Him, something like... guilt... regret...
...
It had stopped moving. I was surprised just a second ago, after all, there was another. Another vessel, another of His children that ascended the Abyss. He never even saw this child, why were they in His nightmare then?
The giant shadow had stopped moving when this child almost fell. He had grabbed the child. He couldn't do this anymore, He didn't want to hear another shell cracking if He could help it.
The shadow returned moving. It retreated it's arms from the platform. It pointed, with one of it's clawed fingers, at Him. And it Spoke.
"Stay." It's voice was both a scream of anger and a soothing whisper.
After that it returned to the Abyss, leaving the three of us alone for a moment.
'It's a God' He thought. He wasn't sure before, but after hearing It's voice, it was obvious. It's voice carried the same weight all Gods carry.
'It's a God made of Void. Could it be the God of the Abyss? What is It doing here? Was It always here?'
Now that He thought about it, it made sense why It was attacking Him. He had intruded It's domain. Sullied it's territory. Thrown His unborn children in It's home. He deserved it's anger. It should have attacked Him. He deserved it.
Unbeknownst to Him, He was now embracing both of His children in a hug. The tears finally had stopped falling, now being dammed in His eyes.
It returned after a while. It was carrying something. When It got closer to the platform He could see what it was carrying. Or rather, who. In It's hands was another five children. He couldn't believe it.
It let the children in the platform and again, spoke.
"Some costs too great.
A mind to think.
A will to strengthen.
No voice but still expressive.
Born of God and Void.
You shall not be used as a tool to seal Her light.
You are no vessel.
You are not hollow."
'How does It knows those danmed phrases?' The Pale King was in shock. The only people that were supposed to know of those words were Him and His child.
Ghost watched Their siblings. That was it, Their idea. To get every surviving sibling and let them choose between staying with Them or going with their father. Ghost was sad to see that only five others survived.
Untrustworthy
The whisper in Their mind never stopped, constantly reminding Them that this was stupid. They knew it was stupid, but They really wanted to at least let Their siblings know they could stay if they wanted.
Their siblings were staring at Them. All seven of them were not doing anything, until...
"I wanna go with father." Their twin said through the Void.
"I wanna go explore." Their other self said.
"Me too, I wanna go." The once broken vessel spoke.
"It's scary here." The one with four horns stated.
"Wanna go." The one who looked like their twin added simply.
"Only if twin also goes." The one with downwards horns looked at their twin.
"Then we go too." The one with upwards horns confirmed.
Ghost knew it would come to this. Their siblings didn't know better. Ghost didn't know any better. They could only try Their best. So to make sure they had the best They approached the Pale King and asked.
"What are they?"
It asked Him directly, glaring at Him, It's intentions clear. In the past He would say a terrible thing. He would call these children vessels. Tools to seal the light away from His kingdom. Now He didn't believe that lie anymore.
"They are my children."
It continued to glare, but He wasn't afraid of answering wrong, for that was the only answer.
It closed It's eyes, and after a moment retreated back to the Abyss.
Was this truly a nightmare? He didn't know anymore. But for the time being He decided that was a question for later. For now...
"Follow me." He gathered the attention of the children... His children."... please."
They left the Abyss.