Chapter Text
Small-minded: ‘Having or showing rigid opinions or a narrow outlook; petty.’
Everything was going wrong. Why was everything going wrong? He had his most trusted prophet deliver his prophecy, everyone should have read it by now, including him. So, why did he destroy them?
There was a flash of light blue, and the triangle of the hour appeared, but, unlike usual when Frilly summoned him, his eye carried a smirk.
The huge pink Salamander immediately turned to him, clenching his giant claw, with pure rage twisting his chubby, usually cheerful face.
“Cipher, what have you done?” The Axolotl’s voice thundered.
The clouds that were usually peach and fluffy suddenly turned sharp and ruinous, letting out booming thunder. The shade of pink that shaded the sky turned a calamitous shade of red, and the stars that usually gently glittered across the sky turned so bright and sharp that it hurt to look directly at them. It precisely complimented the salamander’s furious mood.
Bill, who had never seen this emotion in the powerful god before, instinctively shrunk back in fear, like prey being cornered by a predator. Anger was never really something you could imagine on the Axolotl, nor was it something Bill ever saw. He had always had either a happy or disappointed expression. Heck, he had even seen him sad before. But angry? He never knew the Axolotl was capable of such a feeling.
His smirk instantly vanished, and his eye widened at the being that was about one hundred times bigger than him and about that much more powerful too. Bill may be a dream demon, but this being in front of him was a god. Seeing the salamander like this was a terrifying reminder of his place.
Quickly regaining his cheekiness, the smaller, lesser being ignored his trembling and spoke, waving his quivering hand around, “Oh, you know, I just destroyed the one destined to ‘conquer’ me.”
“WHY?”
Bill flinched, floated away from the Axolotl a little, and, summoning his last bit of courage, he managed to say sassily, “What? Did you think I would wait around for them to kill me?”
All at once the sky went utterly quiet, as silent as an anechoic chamber, as if it was holding its breath in confusion.
“Kill… you?”
Now that the wacko weather was in control, the small triangle gained back some of his confidence. “Uh, yeah. The almighty chosen one you gave power to and destined them to destroy me!”
The sky around the two started to twist and swirl, perplexity clearly stated in the way greys, yellows, browns, greens, and purples blurred together as if the heavens weren’t sure what to do or think.
“Destroy you?” the Axolotl repeated, black beady eyes squinted, observing and trying to understand.
“Yes!” Bill exclaimed, now back into his element, voice clearly stating his frustration. “The one everyone in the whole multiverse is worshiping and calling the ‘Demon Conqueror’!”
Though he was no longer afraid, his hands were still trembling, and he clenched them into hard fists. He knew he never seemed to listen to the salamander and he had done so many terrible, horrifying things, but… he never expected the cheerful god to just… give up on him. He never expected him to secretly go behind his back and make a knife to perforate him with (really he should congratulate the salamander for successfully manipulating the finest manipulator anyone across the multiverse has ever seen).
But… he knew he deserved it. Why wouldn’t he? Ha ha! What was he talking about? He never wanted his help or his pity that felt that venom in his now none-existing veins (which was that blasted salamander’s fault; though he supposes Frilly would never have had to do that if it hadn’t been for his own actions, so it was, in fact, his fault, which he knew, as it always was). He should be celebrating that he was finally rid of that fake mercy. Or maybe killing him was mercy. He could understand that point.
Then why… why does he feel so… betrayed? Like his long-gone heart (his fault, always his fault) was being tossed around, ravaged by dragon-vipers, and shredded and smashed into nihility. It just doesn’t make sense. Bill hates the Axolotl, and this isn’t a secret. He hates the second chance he didn’t ask for and that the god just thrust upon him. He hates the way the deity thinks that he can actually change. He hates the way the amphibian immediately sees past his mask and false malice. He absolutely despises the way Frilly doesn’t hate him like everyone else, including himself, does. So why does he feel this way?
“Don’t act like you don’t know them!” the dream demon snapped, eye dropping with fury and pointing a shaking finger at the ginormous god in front of him. His voice betrayed a hint of the deception he felt he had been dealt in.
The Axolotl was quiet after Bill’s outburst, obsidian eyes betraying none of the thoughts no doubt racing through his labyrinthine mind velociously. No one could quite correctly guess what this entity thought at times. Bill thought, thinking that he knew him so well, he could do this incredible feat, but that was fallacious. It’s simply impossible. This powerful god that is the Axolotl has always peacefully watched everyone and everything in his realm which is the time and space between time and space. And as Bill likes to call him, he’s a “frilly know-it-all”. As much as Bill likes and wants to think so, he doesn’t know everything. The Axolotl does; and so how would you be able to guess the thoughts of an all-seeing being who must be thinking things that no one even knows?
He finally fractured the silence, having spent the last unnerving minutes observing the small dream demon in front of him with an amused expression, “So that’s what they’re calling them?”
Bill, so, so tired and full of loathing (mostly aimed at himself) that he just wanted something other than words so vague that not even his fully awake and functioning mind (mind you, his mind is normally never functioning and is almost always having a mental breakdown) could comprehend what he’s saying.
He just wanted to scream at the amphibian, “Look, you know that being sleepy and tired isn’t the same thing, you know I just killed someone, why don’t we just wrap this up AND STOP BEING SO DAMN VAGUE SO THAT I CAN ESCAPE BEFORE MY MIND FULLY COMPREHENDS THAT I KILLED SOMEONE ON PURPOSE!? IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?”
But he would never do that because he’s a coward, and he knows this. Also, it’s far too late to escape; his mind has finally wrapped around the fact that he killed someone deliberately and was now constricting and tightening so much due to guilt, anxiety, stress, and, of course, the cherry on top, being reminded of his past which always sent him into spirals of absolute, total panic.
It was self-defense, he has been trying to convince himself. They were literally created to kill you. You had to kill them or they would kill you.
But it didn’t work. He had seen the fascination on their face as they admired the world around them; it was like they had never seen the multiverse before. And then they must have heard something or felt something as he had because they turned around. He still remembered the way their eyes brightened at seeing him (why did it look like they were excited to see him? No one ever was, and with good reason too). At that point, he hesitated. Throughout his mind, he had a line running through his head that he had to do this, that it was self-defense. But when they smiled, eyes shining, looking at him like he was the only one in the multiverse they ever wanted to see (in a good way, not like others that wanted to see him and kill him), that line he told himself was completely obliviated. And then they opened their mouth and he destroyed them because he couldn’t bear to hear what they were going to say; because he was a coward, because he is a coward, and he didn’t want their voice to haunt him as their face so terribly does.
“Yes,” he finally said, exasperated and trembling with the effort of keeping himself together.
The Axolotl’s eyes narrowed, looking Bill up and down. “What happened to the prophecy I gave? Did they not read what was written?”
The yellow triangle let out an unhinged laugh, feeling his mind starting to crumble despite his best efforts to keep it together. “Oh, they read it. Everyone read it! They read the whole blasted thing, all the way up to ‘And this being will come and conquer this demon’!”
He didn’t care that he sounded mad. He didn’t care. Everyone else thought he was insane, why would it matter if he actually acted like it? He was starting to fall apart, arms wrapped around himself protectively, breathing starting to sound loud and uneven (not like he actually breathed), eye wide with panic, and he was letting out a laugh so deranged that it would even put Dagur to shame.
He didn’t care about his image right now, at this moment. Not when he was so close to completely breaking down, having to lay on a floor (there is no floor in the Axolotl’s realm; you’re just floating in the time and space between time and space) to stop his trembling and stop feeling like he was being squeezed to death. He hadn’t had to do that for so, so long now. But, he supposes destroying a living creature on purpose really brought that out again.
“This demon…” Frilly gestured with his sharp paw to go on, as if waiting for him to continue.
He’s really not helping with all of this.
“What?” Bill snapped, eye starting to twitch in anger. He gestured his hands to himself and went on, “This demon; me! What more do you want? That’s all it said!”
The sky let out a very faint hint of thunder, barely noticeable in the silence, as if hinting at a new emotion, while the area around the dream demon continued to twist and swirl, obviously still confused.
“What about the beginning part about you? Did anyone read it?”
He snorted, waving a still trembling hand around and answering, “Of course, I read it, but how do you expect anyone else to when it’s written in a language there’s no record of anymore?!”
The Axolotl stared at the yellow triangle, eyes starting to get wider and wider. “What?” he asked quietly as the clouds started to darken around him.
“What do you mean wha–?”
“Where did she put my prophecy?” the huge salamander asked, eyes narrowing. Now normally, when the amphibian started ordering Bill around like this, he would stubbornly snap something defiant back at him. But today was different. Never had he heard Frilly sound so serious until now.
And so he answered obediently in a slightly worried and irritated tone, “The Grey Temple, but–”
The change in the landscape interrupted him. One moment they were in the normal, though somewhat odd, realm of the Axolotl, and then a second later they were in a dark, damp-smelling place that Bill could barely make out even with his yellow glow (before his night vision kicked in). Frilly swept his very long tail around, also producing a faint glow from himself (though his was a little more bright than Bill’s) illuminating each torch on the wall.
“Do you mind, FWMVRHXXNAAFWMWFHXXNAAPNQHLXMQKZSDGGNNIYYDQZHXGKRNIJIFLHVWQGLIFSUSUWXAFLVBRMRKMULKUWLOZCVCJYRWIJHUGOEGNCXFRFGRICLPFOPQPDSIITEPLYVNFLLZMZ (his true name)?” the amphibian asked, gesturing to the torches his tail’s glow lit up.
Bill scowled at him, eye twitching with the effort of not losing it (both in anger and painful memories).
“Ah,” the Axolotl spoke, giving the triangle a look of pity that he hated. “My apologies, Cipher, I forgot that name brings unwanted memories.”
“So nice of you to remember after you said it,” Bill growled at him, now in an incredibly dreadful mood. This was twice he was reminded of his past, and twice they were agonizingly shoved into his brain. This day was really not going that well for him.
“Cipher, may you light the torches with your fire, please? I’m sorry for calling you that name. I know you hate it and shouldn’t have called you that even if I’m… distracted.”
He mumbled under his breath, low enough of a frequency that he knew that frilly know-it-all couldn’t hear him. Mostly he just mumbled curses at the Axolotl with how polite he was and how he couldn’t see in the dark (actually he could see in the dark and hear Bill’s muttering if he really wanted to, but sometimes he likes to let Bill think that there are some things that he can’t do), but occasionally a sentence came out cursing his fire and how maybe he hated his fire too. But, he still lit the torches for him, despite his muttering.
“Thank you.”
Bill just grunted a response, not really wanting to actually say something in reply to his thanks, and asked moodily, “Now that you can see we’re clearly in The Grey Temple, why don’t you tell me why you–”
“Hush a moment, Cipher,” the deity said in a tone that was clearly trying to seem as polite as it could while still being a little rude. However, Bill let it slide with just more grumbling because he could also hear and see how serious the Axolotl had become, turning to the walls of the temple.
His giant, pink claw brushed the wall underneath the text, incomprehensible squiggles and shapes that made up a language that no one had any record of in trillions of years (meaning that nearly no one knows how to read it). After his claw came to the end of that language and the start of the language that everyone in the multiverse knew, he frowned, dropping his claw away and turning back to Bill.
“Why did she do that part in that language?” he asked the smart demon, frown deepening. “Doesn’t she know that only you, her, and I can read it?” (actually there is one other who can read it)
Bill held up a hand to his eye, examining it with disinterest in the blue firelight. “I think that was her point.”
Frilly gave him a befuddled look, making the triangle sigh.
He gestured to the text with his large black hand, putting his other hand on his angle, and saying in an annoyed and smug I know something you don’t but it’s so obvious that I shouldn’t have to explain it tone, “Well she obviously didn’t like what you said about me, everyone, and the choice you made for the Demon Conqueror, so she didn’t want anyone to read it. And so, viola! She decided to put it in a language no one knows.”
The salamander turned away from him, looking at the part of the prophecy that everyone could actually read.
“It’s quite genius in fact,” Bill continued, paying the god’s actions no mind. “This way she can’t actually get in trouble for not writing the whole prophecy, but no one can read the part she didn’t want them to read.”
“No,” the Axolotl said gently, claw softly grazing over a small line that hinted at its incompleteness.
“What?” the triangle asked, startled by his sudden gentleness despite how serious he had been a second ago.
The amphibian god didn’t answer, but instead just stared intently at the prophecy. The silence lengthened, however, Bill didn’t have it in him to interrupt it, the anger in the amphibian still fresh in his mind.
Then, after a few minutes, the Axolotl turned to the dream demon behind him, the one called the Nightmare King:
“She didn’t write the whole prophecy.”
Bill looked at him and then peered at the thing that the deity had been carefully staring at, the line that his claw had grazed. His eye flicked toward the salamander, curious and cautious. “What’s the rest of it?”
Again he didn’t answer, instead, he started gazing at something beyond the dream demon, and commented to himself not seeming surprised at all, “I guess the Oracle really didn’t like the ending.”
“What was the ending?!” the yellow shape shouted, hands balled into fists. He was sick of his vague “answers” that weren’t really answers at all but impossible-to-understand riddles.
His black, so very black, deep eyes turned to rest on the triangle, whispering under his breath so he had to strain to hear it, “Maybe it’ll be better this way.”
“What will be better!?” the demon yelled, voice shrill with irritating confusion.
The Axolotl sighed a deep, rumbling sigh that swept through and within his whole being, from the tip of his fluffy frills to the end of his long, flowy tail. Then a bubble appeared in his left claw, small enough that it perfectly fit in his palm, but big and wide enough to fit something in there… or someone.
“What’s that?” Bill asked, floating a little away, clear nervousness present in his demeanor.
His answer was pushing Bill into it. The triangle came into it easily, the bubble growing around him. However, he didn’t come out of it easily; it didn’t pop when he started hopelessly throwing himself against it.
The dream demon looked up at the salamander, hands now aflame with his incredibly warm, light blue fire and pressed against the bubble. His eye was wide with complete, utter panic, and the god’s eyes drooped sadly as he observed him slamming his fists against the bubble in desperation.
“What are you doing?!” the demon almost screamed at him, trying to dig his fingers into the bubble.
The Axolotl just frowned at him and answered, “Making sure you don’t do anything more obtuse.”
He glared up at the deity, looking as if he wanted to kill him with his murderous gaze. “What is this?”
“Your new realm.”
He let out an unhinged laugh, hands trembling again. His knees buckled under him, and he fell to the floor of his bubble, quivering hands now on the ground. He turned his gaze to the floor, trying to hide the small drops of water that started to appear on the floor of the bubble.
“You mean my new prison,” Bill spoke, voice cracking and breaking with such emotion. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had finally crumbled.
Frilly only watched, eyes and face betraying none of his thoughts, none of his plans. “Make it into anything you want.”
For a minute, the god just silently watched Bill shake and tremble, trying to battle the sobs that threatened to break through the air. Tears rushed down his eye and dripped onto the bubble, but he didn’t have the strength to wipe them away. He was focusing all his energy on not falling into a hyperventilating, blubbering, trembling mess in front of this complicated supreme immortal. He refused to show that much weakness in front of the amphibian. And, he was afraid if he loosened his grip on the battle just to wipe those tears away, he would lose.
But then the salamander spoke, deciding to grant him the mercy of sending him away to be alone:
“Remember, I’ll keep in touch,” softly uttered the Axolotl. And then he pressed his other claw to the top of the bubble, teleporting it and the breaking Nightmare King away.