Chap 19 – An exotic dream

The desire to build a group that would help him conquer the multiverse is something many guardians of negativity share, in a multiverse where those responsible for maintaining balance are humans, things are no different. But the standard script that many groups run by Nightmare would follow would be changed due to a choice made by the leader himself, which would eventually lead to his downfall.

After Dream's betrayal, Nightmare consumed the forbidden fruit and gained his corrupted form and murdered all the inhabitants from DreamTale, and as a consequence his brother turned to stone and was left alone until Ink found him and then undid this state. But in this multiverse composed mainly of humans, Dream was a girl who after petrifying herself, was eventually taken by her brother to his castle, or more specifically to the deepest floor where she was locked away never to see the sunlight again.

The reason was ambiguous, maybe her brother regretted what he had done and kept her with the intention of bringing her back someday. Maybe he wanted to make sure that no one would be able to revive her and he hid her for this purpose. Or maybe he himself didn't know exactly what to feel and just decided to keep it around until he thought of something. But what he didn't expect or wish for, was that someone would find her.

As an adventurous child, Killer liked to explore the darkest corners of the castle in the hope of finding a secret passage and discovering some embarrassing secret of his boss, but he never thought he would find something like this.

The place was lit only by candles, but even the lack of light could not hide the beauty of the statue in front of him. The immediate charm of such a sight would eventually become fascination and finally obsession. Who was that figure? Who did it represent? Why was Nightmare guarding it so secretly? Consumed by such questions Killer took courage and asked his boss, even though he knew that exposing the fact that he had discovered a secret could earn him a beating. And this did indeed happen, but not in the way he expected.

Several times Nightmare had beaten his subordinates with the intention of disciplining them, but this time it was different, Killer understood this at the first blow. His boss was trying to kill him. A battle of life and death against the one he had sworn loyalty to was taking place, and as desperate as it was, in the end there was a winner.

Clusters can be interpreted as a group of twin multiverses, usually with few differences between them, and among these many differences, various events can have the same, similar, or different outcomes. This particular fight had several.

In some multiverses Killer was simply killed, in others Nightmare came to his senses and stopped the fight, in others something occurred that interrupted the fight. But in one multiverse in particular, the unexpected happened, Killer emerged victorious and murdered his former king, becoming a regicide.

Much time had passed since then, the remaining members of the group, now without a leader, simply took their own course, since Killer had no interest in commanding them. And after much research in the books and records of his former boss, Killer finally found the answers he sought.

To his surprise, the statue did not exactly represent someone, the statue was someone. And once a certain artist was convinced to help bring the statue back to life, Killer finally had the supposed love of his life to himself. Or so he wished.

Upon discovering what centuries had passed, that his brother was dead, as was her entire AU, Dream fell into a great depression. Any attempt to cheer her up was in vain, and although a certain relationship did emerge between the two, it was not enough to alleviate all the sadness Dream felt. Until the day the girl took her own life due to regret and the desire to be reunited with her only family.

Alone and not knowing what to do, Killer just watched his multiverse crumble on its own due to the fact that without the balance of negativity and positivity, many AU's begin to fall one after the other in a proportion that not even the guardian of the AU's can do anything about. The next thing he knew, he was in Zero Infinity.

Hearing the whole story, the skeleton monster couldn't believe what he had just heard.

- So you are telling me that your multiverse ceased to exist because you fell in love with a piece of cold stone? - Said Killer with disgust in his voice.

- Yes, just as your multiverse ceased to exist because of the insatiable thirst for power that you and your king had, you megalomaniac. You have no right to criticize Chara when you are even worse than that child. - Rising from the punch taken, the human Killer continued. - Or haven't you noticed yet? The balance of creation and destruction, positivity and negativity, life and death must be kept, if it tilts too much to one side the multiverse may cease to exist on its own or receive a visit from your friend Nothing. So the desire for achievement that your Nightmare possesses, like many others is nothing more than something that would eventually bring about its own destruction. In other words, your life goal of fulfilling that selfish jerk's wish was impossible from the start.

Being shot by such facts, Killer was unresponsive for a moment as his vision began to spin. For first his family and quiet life was taken from him due to the demonic child, then a new purpose was given by finding someone to serve, but the goal he sought to achieve was unattainable from the start. And with these thoughts Killer came to a simple question.

- Why am I alive? - Asked Killer in a whisper as an emptiness took over his soul and his will to live left his body as nothing else seemed to matter, suddenly the words of Ink from his multiverse no longer seemed so meaningless. But before anything else could happen a punch knocked him to the ground and brought him back to reality.

- First of all, this was revenge, secondly... NEVER! Do you hear me? NEVER have those kinds of thoughts or act like that again while you are here in Zero Infinity. Remember our lumberjack friend from back there? That's how he became a bot, unless you wanted to end like him, got your shit together, you're making all the Killers look bad with this pathetic view. - Extending his hand, the monster one grabbed the human's hand and stood up again. - Now come on, we're almost there.

- Where exactly are we going? - Ashamed of his moment of weakness, Killer just wanted to change the subject soon.

- You don't think that Zero Infinity boils down to a tropical region like this, do you? There are many other very different areas, and this is just one safe zone, there are others with even more different regions, but you would need a Pathlighter to get there. Unless you wanted to bet your luck with our friend from a thousand faces out there. - His unfortunate comment was followed by a sadistic laugh.

- I'll pass. But tell me, why did you decide to hang out with that strange group?

- I hate all kinds of Nightmares. - His comment that clearly had anger in its voice caught Killer off guard, but this time he managed to control himself and just listened in silence. - These so called King of Nightmares use others as tools and then discard them like dirt, I refuse to work for someone like them. But she ... is a different Nightmare, she cares for her own, and protects them tooth and nail, she reminds me ... -

- Dream... she's a Nightmare that reminds you of the Dream you loved so much. - An awkward silence followed for a few seconds until it was broken by a sarcastic comment. - Be honest... have you two ever had sex?

As they finally left the forest, urban civilization could be found ahead with a few individuals walking near the trees. When they heard a loud laugh all eyes turned to the source of the sound, but when they saw to whom the voice belonged, they simply looked away and the people went back to doing what they were doing.

- I knew we would get along well. But that's it, my friend, end of the line, I am not your private guide, if you want to continue with us you are more than welcome, but otherwise you will have to continue alone. There are still things about this place that you don't know and people so dangerous that they would make even the worst monster in your universe an angel in comparison.

- I appreciate the concern, but I'm not going back. That sounds like a therapy group for losers, you may have found someone to care about there, but I'm not like that. I need to organize my thoughts and decide what to do.

- I understand, but since I like you I will give you some direction, someone who might be able to help you. That pink thing wouldn't want me to recommend you see that guy, but fuck it, she's not here. Look for a certain Dream.

- Unlike you I'm not in love with a twinkle twinkle little star.

- Funny, now listen asshole because this might actually help you. This Dream is unlike anything you have ever seen, you could say exotic. He likes to stay alone in an old house on the outskirts of this area doing whatever, I heard that he got rid of the last residents of that place in a way that you can imagine. I met him when his multiverse was destroyed, but like you he refused to stay with us. But let's say, I think your interests align, so maybe he can help you... or maybe not, and this is a big waste of time. Do what you want, I've already done too much for you.

As he turned around and walked back to the forest, a stab wound landed in his back, but with keen senses the human Killer was quick enough to dodge and counterattack his attacker, who also managed to avoid the blow.

- What kind of idiot turns his back to a killer? - With a silly grin that only those who shared a similar origin story could understand, they both turned their backs on each other simultaneously and set off on their respective paths.

To Killer's surprise, Zero Infinity had its own functioning society within each zone composed of all sorts of inhabitants, mostly Sans but there were also some residents who diverged from skeletons.

There was no need for food, sleep or any other basic necessities in this place, so much of what was found were forms of entertainment among the survivors. From the simplest, such as games of chance or betting on fights, fights that Killer was tempted to participate in, but managed to resist the temptation because he wanted to find the Dream he was warned about. But what most caught his attention was the wildest and most primitive behavior possible.

There were some monsters and even humans having sex in the open, while some looked like just bots being used as sex dolls, others even looked like they still had some sense about what they were doing, but that didn't make the action any less degenerate and pitiful. For Killer, it was acceptable to be overcome by his wildest impulses when it came to combat, but the same for lust when it came to being seen was just being a loser. And he was determined to stab anyone who disagreed.

It was difficult to mark time in this place since there was no night and it was always day, as the light that protected them from the darkness outside was always visible in the sky. It was in the midst of these attempts to calculate time that Killer discovered a new type of resident in Zero Infinity that Mad Sans affectionately nicknamed scavengers.

These individuals approached in a friendly manner, sometimes even offering favors and serving as a friendly shoulder to lament. Once the victim opened up, they would happily listen to the tales that led to the end of their multiverse and then argue as if they were talking about a movie, all to satisfy their daily dose of entertainment with the misfortune of others.

But Killer knew very well how to deal with this guys, it was only necessary to use one of them as an example to the others. Immobilizing it, the poor soul was dragged to the edge of the safe zone and thrown out, which as a consequence soon became food for the giant amalgamate that surprisingly, almost looked cute as it devoured and assimilated the victim's body to itself. As a consequence of such an act, rumors began to spread that two Killer, one human and one monster, liked to feed the amalgamate to those they didn't like.

And finally, after an unknown amount of time had passed, the surroundings began to change as it became increasingly difficult to spot anyone nearby, until a damaged old house became visible to Killer's eyes. Due to the fact that it was a deserted location, this clearly showed that the owner of the place didn't like visitors, but since being a nuisance to others was Killer's specialty, this didn't stop him from moving on.

However, only one step needed to be taken for an arrow made of a black substance to be shot right in front of him, an arrow that pierced the ground as if it were made of paper. The shot was followed by a warning from a familiar but at the same time unknown voice.

- Take another step and the next one will go through your skull. - The origin of the voice was clearly coming from inside the house, but the darkness of the house made it impossible to see who was inside.

- Would you shoot at someone unarmed? - Killer raised his arms as a sign of peace, but he couldn't help but notice that the clasp was made of the same substance that covered Nightmare's body. And this hardening technique had been used against him one of the times his boss had punished him for his insubordination.

- Yes, and you are not unarmed. - Said the sinister voice again, and without further ado a new shot was fired as a new arrow flew out of one of the windows of the house.

Even though death was not an issue, Killer was not in the mood to be impaled by a stranger, so he skillfully pulled his knife from his blouse pocket and blocked the arrow shot. Then he started to run towards the building.

New shots were fired, but Killer was skillful enough to avoid them all and with one strong kick, the door of the house was knocked down. At this point Killer didn't think he would be able to be surprised by anything else, but Zero Infinity once again proved him wrong.

For in front of him stood a Dream, but just as the human version of him said, this Dream was unlike anything he had ever seen. For just like his brother, this supposed guardian of positivity had his body covered in a black substance generated by the consumption of the black apple. This was a corrupted Dream.

- You are more agile than the useless bag of bones that was my Killer.

Notes:

To find out who this new character is, please read my one-shot "Corrupted Positivity".