Chapter Text
The dark oozy monster had watched intently during the whole battle- Ink, the Guardian of the Multiverse, had cornered the ERROR, the Destroyer of Worlds, in a barren universe.
Nightmare now stares in shock and horror as Ink forms a giant Gaster Blaster out of some strange paints and attacked the ERROR.
It seemed that the Artist had levelled up and gained a new skill in the form of an attack...
It had been an equal FIGHT up until this point.
Now, the ERROR was drowning in the blasting of both liquid paint and raw power.
The scales of power had been tipped.
Nightmare melts into the shadows, daring to go closer.
The dark creature appears close to the battlefield where the ERROR now lay on his back, panting heavily and staring up at the purple sky above, clearly not seeing anything since his sockets were filled with ERROR signs.
Ink was standing above, fairly slightly better than the mega-glitch but still looking ready to keen over and die.
The SOULless creature was laughing, giving the ERROR a speech that no doubt went unheard over the static and laboured breathing coming from the fallen skeleton.
When the Guardian notices his own hand melting into ink he laughs and declares this battle a drew- then he opens a portal with yellow paint and leaps through.
As soon as he felt that the Guardian had gone, Nightmare rushes over to the fallen glitch and kneels down.
Just as he reaches for his best friend, Error starts to dust; strange black and white dust raises from his bones, causing the wounded to slowly fade away.
Nightmare felt something was wrong.
Whenever his friend died before, there had been 'ones' and 'zeroes' coming off of him too, which lead to the ERROR be RESPAWN into the Anti-Void.
Suddenly he felt a new presence, spinning around he came face to face with Death.
"*what are you doing here?" Nightmare growls at the Grim Reaper, who was living up to his name since he appeared very 'grim' at the moment.
Nightmare's highly intelligent mind put two and two together and even when the answer came back as 'four' it made no sense- the ERROR was never meant to die.
"*no." Nightmare growls darkly stepping in front of the ERROR's dusting form, his tentacles whipping around wildly.
"*sorry. but do ya really not want ya friend to reach the other side?" Reaper sad voice spoke to him, "if i don't guide him. he'll become a lost soul."
"*but the multiverse needs the error." Nightmare slaps back in anger, yet his tentacles lowered slightly.
"*if the multiverse was able to form one destroyer." Reaper told him softly, "what makes ya think it can't make another?"
Suddenly the creature of darkness lowers his tentacle in defend, there was nothing he could do, his friend had already dusted- turning around he witnesses the ERROR's final moments.
Error no longer had ERROR signs in his red sockets, nor was that deafening static filling the air- instead he was looking at Nightmare, an insane grin spread across his yellow teeth.
Nightmare did not need to have the ability to sense other emotions to know that his best friend was happy, truly happy that his miserable life was coming to an end.
"*thank you night'." Error gasps out his grin turning into a soft sweet smile.
Then Error's skull dusts and the only thing left was a small glitching piece of SOUL which was burning brightly with DETERMINATION, the light was fading, becoming dim.
Death now overshadowed the SOUL piece reaching for it.
Nightmare lashes out with three of his four tentacles, causing Reaper to go sailing through the air and crashing into a wall.
Nightmare grabs the SOUL piece with both hands and brought it close to himself.
Then he melts into the shadows, he hears Death coming for him, yet he did not care.
Nightmare reappears in his library- it was a monumental tower that went deep underground and high into the heavens, with 658 levels filled with books from all over the multiverse.
Some universes had the same books, except the rare few that came with different books.
Error once explained it had something to do with the Voices. If a Voice was aware of books they would be made within the universe even if they had not read the book themselves, that was why books like 'Alice in Wonderland' was in almost every universe, most of the Voices had heard of this book.
If the Voice knew more about robots rather than flowers, then books on robots that the Voice had read in their realm would appear into that universe.
And Nightmare went around collecting any and all books he had not already got- he even had the ERROR made a programme for him, to keep an inventory on the computer, giving him a list of every book that had passed through these doors.
The dark creature rushes towards some shelves, grabbing a large thick leather skin book that had a gold lock, which had been broken.
A loud crack filled the air, gazing down he stares at his only true friend's SOUL. It had a large break down the middle.
With the book in one hand, he throws it down onto the table he had set up in every room, he had no time to worry about being careful of the old book.
Quickly turning the pages, he finds what he was looking for- something he read long ago about SOULs. There had to be something here to keep his SOUL here. Perhaps restore Error's body.
This book was from a universe that had SOUL bonds, bounds, and mates. There were also forbidden casts where one could take control of a SOUL.
The only problem with this, the caster had to be stronger than the victim.
And the ERROR was so much stronger than Nightmare.
Nightmare's visible eye fell upon a strange cast.
"*immortal jellyfish'?" Nightmare utters slowly as he blocks reads through the pages, his eye widening as he continues on.
A slow insane grin spreads across his jaws.
The casting was about forcing a SOUL into a souling, then linking them up to a willing SOUL for them to rebirth them.
The requirements had to be that the SOUL loved the subject deeply.
Nightmare knew that he loved Error dearly. Almost like a brother.
The ERROR was the only real friend he had ever known- his followers really did not treat him as a friend, they left him out during their game nights and their shopping trips. They respected him, viewed him as too high for them to have a friendship with,
"*let the casting begin." Nightmare growls to the universe.