Thanks go to XelaZagity, GMLxAwesome, Wingah, EpicSlayerGuy99, Zillowzest, TiredWhiteMayge, DoctahSawbones, Kds147y, Acoolnamme, Zack Frost, stclog000, Tbone8454, 10burgers, Night4099, Cyrus67, and sansdust!
In the infinitely wise words of Bobby Caldwell, "I guess you wonder where I've been." And to explain that, I will use the even more infinite and even more wise words of even more Bobby Caldwell: "I searched to find a love within." But I came back to let you know, I've got a thing for this insane fanfiction, and I can't let it go.
So, DoubleTale's back baby and it ain't goin' nowhere! It was a long Summer full of big changes and advancements in my silly little life, and I can't guarantee I'll be able to hop right back into an update every two weeks again. So, I'm shooting for three weeks from Thursday. Next chapter should be up by Thursday, October 5th! But before that, we gotta read this bad boy. I think you'll love it, and I hope you tell me all your thoughts and feelings in the reviews.
Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale.
"... Would you mind letting go of my hair?" Killer spoke after a long pause. His eyes glossed from where my hand remained by his head and back to my face, arching an ivory eyebrow. He was unmoved by the twitch of my eye or my grinding teeth, but he finally reacted when I let go of his hair and instead grabbed him by the throat with both hands. "Ack-!"
"Goddamnit Killer, was it you the whole time?!" I demanded to know while I strangled the Ivory Ghoul, my face twisting with wrath. I throttled him, his head shook back and forth while I snarled my questions. "Every time I thought I was consulting some, innocent manifestation of my own conscience or something, was ALL OF THAT really just one of your tricks?!"
"I mean I would call it a debate tactic before I would call it a tri- gack!" My hands squeezed tighter before The Killer could finish his response; of course he wouldn't accept responsibility and he certainly wouldn't apologize. Still I throttled him harder in an attempt to strangle a satisfying answer out of him, but all I got were more excuses. "It's not, my fault that it..! Took you three years to remember what your childhood, b-best friend looked like..!"
"But it IS your fault that you deliberately impersonated him to..! To what?!" With a shove, I released the neck I was wringing. Killer fell back onto that swing he'd been sitting in, and the chains rattled while I spun around. I put a hand on my face and pinched the bridge of my nose while I took a few steps away from that dirty Granny killer, before look over my shoulder and angrily gesturing back towards him. "What did you even have to gain from this?! Was it all just to fuck with me?!"
"If you'll recall, little Angel, you've got a big ol' scar on your chest from a wound that was supposed to kill you." Slouching on that swing and using one hand to hold onto the chain, Killer pointed an accusatory finger at me with the other. I turned my head forward and away from him then, let my eyes gloss down to the scar Chara carved in my chest three long years ago. I hated to admit it, but Killer wasn't wrong. He must've known that, because he went on to say. "I tried to convince you to do things the right way - my way - but you refused to trust me. So, I tried another option."
"I can't believe you." I shook my head, but I didn't turn to face The Killer. One hand on my hip and the other over my face, I stood there and tried to make peace with this revelation. My perception of my happy place was warped around me, something in me that I believed represented something good and pure turned out to be another lie from another murderer. Still, instead of strangling that murderer with the swing set's chains, I took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. Now was hardly the time to be irrational...
"Hey, you should be thanking me!" Killer's counter argument made rationality hard though, or at least his opener did. He gestured out towards me and shook his head, raising his eyebrows at my turned back. "If I hadn't taken that other route, you'd be long dead and so would all your happy playhouse pals back in Ebott City. But because I heard you out when you couldn't trust anyone else to, and because I offered you assistance even after you dedicated your new life to spitting in my face, you survived."
"..." My eyes opened underneath my hand, remaining narrowed. I looked through the spaces between my fingers and down to the woodchips at my feet, and I listened closely while The Killer went on.
"Not just survived, you got your wings! You got your Char-bear." Killer smiled in his wicked way, slouching some on his swing and resting his palm on his knee. He casually prattled on, singing his own praises without a care. "You got the happy ending that you were salivating over because I believed in you. Trust me, I didn't want to pretend to be a child either, but you never would have listened to an adult Killer."
My hand gripped my face a little tighter, my jaw clenched. I could hardly believe this asshole, preaching like he helped me out! Like he did something..! Something... Nice? My expression relaxed some, and my eyebrows rose a little. His methods were twisted, sure, but he had quite literally offered me a hand when I was at the lowest point in my life up to that moment. Thinking back, he'd hardly been too happy about me risking my life to save Chara. I guess I was his prime investment at the time, he had no idea Anny was still alive. And he would have died with me, presumably... Still, he could have brute forced things and tried to make me do things his way like he tried to do at the end of the timeloop. But instead... I took my hand off my face, slowly looking over my shoulder and back at the albino on the swing as I came to my conclusion. "... You did things my way."
"... What?" That wiped the smile off'a the Ghoul's face. Instead of that smug look, Killer appeared confused. He tilted his head, cocking a brow at me and waiting for me to elaborate.
"You did things my way." I repeated, turning back around to face the Ivory Ghoul with a slight smirk on my face. He squinted at me and leaned back like I was accusing him of something truly awful, craning his neck and even starting to shake his head as I gradually lifted my finger to point at him. "You saw that your way wasn't going to work, so instead you were gentle and you were nice and you were patient and you were friendly and it paid off."
"... No, I was manipulative and deceitful to get the outcome that I wanted." Killer retorted, lifting his own finger to point back at me. I wasn't sure I'd ever seen him on the backfoot like this, and that thought kept me smirking while he diligently denied. "Any perceived 'friendliness' was just me assuming the role of my bright eyed son so that I could manipulate you into fighting on, thus giving me more time to make you the proper Killer that you were supposed to be."
"Just admit you were nice to me." I crossed my arms and shrugged my shoulders like it was no big deal, but Killer's frown made it very apparent that it was in fact a big deal.
"Niceness is weakness. I haven't been nice a single time in my life." To emphasis this point, Killer removed his hand from the swing chain and pointed the dahlia flower he was carefully holding in said hand aggressively towards me. My eyes glossed over to that Miss Delilah flower he was holding, and I arched a brow. His eyes glossed over to it too... Before he hastily pulled it back. He sat up straight and shot me a glare, holding that flower carefully in his lap between the both of his hands. "So no, I was not 'nice to you'."
"... Okay, then what are we doing here?" My smirk faded as I called Killer's bluff, narrowing my eyes at him and keeping my arms crossed. I took a few steps across the woodchips back towards those swings, staring interrogatively down at that Ghoul while I went on. "World's ending, me and the rest'a your potential proteges are probably gonna die, and you n' me are standing in your take on my happy place. So, did'ja bring me here to 'manipulate and deceive' me, or are you going to do something nice?"
"..." Killer stared up at me with those narrowed crimson eyes for a few long moments, but I didn't flinch. I wasn't scared of him anymore. This staring contest went on and on... Until he cracked a crooked smile and nodded his head towards the swing beside him.
"Take a seat, little Angel. It's time you and I had a very important talk."
Of all the people to defy him, Errorphim found Mako The Skeleton to be the most insulting. A skeleton of all things, coming out of the woodwork to... To do what? Stand behind The Anarchist like a frightened child? The corner of Errorphim's mouth lifted. He thought Mako was a good metaphor for all the glitches in that case. The stretched disease of this multiverse was, in a way not dissimilar from Mako, huddled behind Anthony in fear. The Anarchist was a scourge on this reality sure, but one crowbar couldn't beat infinity to death. The Killer's Darkness could, sure, but clearly that rotten albino had swallowed his black ocean again. And with miss Mako holding his hand, Errorphim was certain he had no intention of puking it back up.
"An emotional support skeleton. Really?" Errorphim crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes glossed back up to Anthony The Anarchist. Scarlet eyes peered back over that sapphire shield, the white Deltarune branded on it glimmered with the red of The Anarchist's soul. Errorphim's grin fell hastily into a frown, he scowled at Anarchy while he went on. "You're a pathetic excuse for a god."
"He said, shitwhipping a stone while standing in his glass house." Anarchy narrated, lowering his shield enough to flash Errorphim his crooked smile. This retort deepened the frown of the mad god, and may have even brought about the rumbling of the glitching sand dunes behind him. The wasteland blew open in the next instant, sands were sent launching forward but were caught in the swirling updraft of Anthony's DETERMINATION.
Mako flinched at all this sudden motion, her knees bent and she ducked down while she lifted her hand to guard her face. Still, even as she watched massive white shapes rise through the whipping red winds and swirling grey sands, she kept a tight hold on Anthony's hand and he kept a tight hold on hers. Her entire life Mako had known she was small, but as twin Skeleton Wyrms rose out of the earth and set the glowing white fury of their eye sockets on herself and The Anarchist she felt especially little. It was kinda like looking up at a big building or a mountain or even the stars in the sky, if those things were glaring back down at you.
Regardless of Mako's apprehension, the fight was starting. Those skeleton abominations unhinged their jaws and prepared to breathe down boiling hot Light, only for the scaled Wyrms that had risen from the black lake behind her to unhinge their own jaws and fire geysers of crashing Darkness right into those lasers. Again Mako was wincing and lowering her head, but her eyes did not remove themselves from the flashing power overhead. Far to her left and far to her right, bone soldiers were tearing their way out of the earth to meet the worms that were slithering out of the water. Fish out of water? Mako felt like a fish on Normandy Beach!
Anthony squeezed her hand again, it was his way of assuring her that he would be back and that she would be safe in the mean time. Then, though he didn't want to, he let go of her hand. Mako's wide sockets darted to their fingers and the space that was growing between them, she watched the magenta light of her own hopes and dreams crackle and shine so briefly in that empty space before dissipating. Anarchy's knees bent, and in the next instant he was firing forward like a god-seeking missile.
Errorphim lurched forward, his jaws snapped open and a laser of white hot death fired out of his maw. That blast careened through the air at hyper speed, and still Anarchy was able to yank up his shield and catch the boiling heat at the center of his sapphire guard. He winced, his momentum was forced to a near immediate stop under the pressure of that laser. A cone of searing power blasted out around the shield that he huddled behind, obliterating the crumbling sands around him and shoving The Anarchist slowly back towards the pitch black lake that he'd ran from.
Anarchy's fangs ground together, his red soul flared and its updraft of power carried the glitching code and grains of sand up around him. With this unyielding DETERMINATION, he forced his arm to move under the pressing force of a god's might. He shoved his shield out to the side, and that laser skated across its surface, being redirected and blasting off to the side. It shot across the ground until it blew a hole in the coiled spine of a Skelewyrm, making the beast recoil and screech and giving the Wyrm it faced the opportunity to lurch forward and snap its jaws shut around the construct's neck.
Errorphim's jaws closed and he hastily yanked his shoulders back to stand at his full height, just in time for Anthony to launch forward and slam his knee into the mad god's chin. At the same time, Anarchy's Wyrm smashed its skeletal competition into the ground so harshly that the dying earth trembled and waves of sand exploded into the black sky. Cracks spiderwebbed out across the battlefield, they opened into canyons of varying sizes and swallowed buckets of sand and the corpses of soldiers, worms, Ghoulings and skeletons alike.
Errorphim's head was shoved back and his back was forced to arch under the force of Anarchy's impact, but still he yanked back his hand and jabbed his pointed fingers up into the abdomen of The Anarchist. He grinned with that knee shoving into his chin as his fingers ripped through flesh and muscle, making Anarchy's brow twitch with pain. The mad god's phalanges quickly discovered a rib and snapped shut around it in an iron grip, blood pouring down Errorphim's wrist from the body his hand was jammed into. "God or not, your body is fragile like a mortal's!"
Anarchy's eyes widened then, he could feel pain receptors screaming all throughout his body. Muscles were ripping around bones that were shattering out of place on Errorphim's command, his very skeleton was being used against him. Still, his teeth clenched and his lips peeled back in a smile while his ribs snapped open like a bear trap, ripping out through his sides and splattering his blood down onto Errorphim's onyx body.
Anthony tried to snatch ahold of the hand buried in his guts, but his arms couldn't move. Red mist was pouring out of his flesh, putting bones and muscle back together just so they could rip each other apart again. And Errorphim was laughing at the futility of The Anarchist's efforts, until black chitin tore up out of his tailbone and the point of The Scorpion's stinger was swinging down over Anarchy's shoulder at Errorphim's face.
"Ack-!" The mad god cried out, wincing his sockets shut as that poisonous point drove right down into his eyebrow. His head reeled back and so did Anarchy's stinger, only to drive down again into the mad god's cheek bone. Large as the appendage was, it jolted up and down at astounding speed, poking hole after hole into Errorphim's skull before finally his free hand launched up and he blocked the next sting with his forearm. Snarling, that mad god clenched his blood drenched fist inside Anarchy's abdomen and commanded a burning white flare to explode out of it. "Die already..!"
This time, it was Anthony who cried out in pain. His eyes went wide as ivory flashed under his skin, Errorphim's light was blasting through his organs and burning out of the skin in his midsection. Something exploded, and the blast sent The Anarchist flying back off of Errorphim's fist. Grey and red smoke sizzled off of his flesh as he struck the ground back first, flipping over his own head and shoulders once or twice before finally skidding to a stop flat on his stomach.
Errorphim trembled as he lowered his now steaming fist. Anarchy's blood was already burning off of his body with the help of his aura, and he carefully lifted his opposite arm to inspect the brutal sting that had pierced his forearm. He expected the world to start spinning and going Dark any second, but when he looked into that hole... There was no Darkness trying to infect him. The Scorpion that The Anarchist was had in fact stung him, but there was no venom behind its point. Errorphim's mouth slowly curled into a grin while green Light effortlessly sealed those little holes that had been punched in his arm and face, and when he lifted his head to smile at The Anarchist, he found that he was still fumbling in the dirt. "... No venom. No Darkness, ha... Hahaha!"
"N-nng..!" Anarchy growled through grinding teeth, his brow twitching and cold sweat starting to drip down his face. He'd planted his crowbar in the sand in front of him so that his hand would be free to grab desperately at the hole that had been blown in his solar plexus. A hole that was hardly healing fast enough. Blood poured between his fingers while he struggled to prop himself up on the elbow of his shield bearing arm, it overflowed from between his grinding teeth. "W-what... What's goin' on..?!"
Errorphim's laughter only got louder while Anarchy's body got heavier. Red steam was pouring out of that gruesome wound, but it still burned. Burned, like the awful stinging sunburns he'd experienced in his youth. Knocked the wind out of him, like the brutal strikes he'd received so many times from his mother. Anarchy's arm slipped in the growing pool of his blood, and he face planted in the sand while Errorphim's laughter hit a new pitch. He was only able to gasp for air for a few seconds before violently hacking up a half pint of his own blood. His eyes, now strained and bloodshot, snapped open to glare at Order's Mad God from where he lay in the dirt.
"All the power of a god and half the intelligence of a mortal! HAHAHAHA!" Errorphim pointed while he laughed, Anthony was really remembering what the boys who used to bully him sounded like then. "Don't you get it, Killer? Your body burns in my Light, and you just renounced the Dark that could heal those burns! It doesn't matter if you wanna be 'good', you can't fight me without being who you truly are!"
"Do you know what my earliest memory is, Angel?" The Killer inquired as I begrudgingly took a seat beside him. He turned his head to arch a brow at me, and I furrowed my own brows while I took careful hold of the chains connected to the swing I was now seated in.
"I dunno, strangling a cat with one hand and beating off with the other when you were like eight?" I gave my dry answer with a shrug of my shoulders, and even though I wasn't smiling or really even joking, Killer still laughed pretty hard.
"No, no. You need both hands for a cat. They'll claw your wrist right open." He dismissed with a wave of his hand, and I leaned my head back and scowled with disgust. Killer either didn't notice or didn't care though, he just smiled with some nostalgia while he went on. "I was sitting on the front lawn of that orphanage up the hill, staring up at the sun. I knew I was supposed to be ten years old, but I also knew that nothing had came before that very moment."
"... What are you talking about?" I stared in confusion for a moment or two before I posed my question. My eyes narrowed and I shook my head before refuting, "There had to have been something before that. You don't start life ten years in - you definitely don't start a day already awake and in the middle of doing something."
"And yet, that's how it started all the same." The Killer turned his head forward then, he let those old red eyes stare out across the playground. Down the path, up the hill, to the orphanage that loomed over Dead Street. He tilted his head a little, narrowed his eyes with thoughts that he didn't care to share. "I didn't have a name. The director of the orphanage didn't know what it was, none of the kids knew it. I didn't have a name."
I remained quiet. Hardly seemed like there was much point in objecting, even if what he was saying sounded like nonsense. After all, much of my own life had been beyond unbelievable, so I figured it'd be better to keep my stones to myself inside my glass house. The Killer smiled a little to himself while he rambled on, "The first thing I ever did was find a dictionary, flip through it, and pick out my own name."
"... Why are we talking about this?" I finally asked, squinting at The Killer while he stared straight ahead. So he didn't know his own name, but he already knew how to read? I began to demand, "What does this have to do with-"
"Do you know why Fortune City was so afraid of me, Angel?" Killer's head whipped around as he cut me off, his wide red eyes locked onto my confused green ones.
I recoiled a little, furrowing my brows at him. I paused for a moment, kept my guard up in case he tried to lunge at me. After a moment of quiet and not much thought on my part, I had an easy answer. "Because you were a serial killer."
"A serial killer that was mortally wounded every other week." Killer corrected, that smile curling into a little grin. His gaze drifted down to that flower between his fingers then, he spun it gently while he gladly recalled. "Rumors spread so fast... "I saw him pull a knife out of his chest and use it to slit three people's throats!" "I saw him get shot seven times in the back! He didn't even stumble!" "The sniper hit him in the head, I swear he survived a bullet to the head!" There was just enough evidence to go along with every exaggerated story to convince people that I really wasn't human."
"So you got lucky." I surmised skeptically, not taking my narrowed eyes off The Killer while I relaxed some into my seat.
"Lucky? No, no. I really was getting shot and stabbed plenty often. Of course, that sniper only grazed the side of my head, but..." Killer chuckled a little at that memory, lifting his free hand and using it to brush back the long white hair that fell down the side of his head. When he did, he revealed to me the straight line scarred across his dome, right above his ear. "The point is, I would take punishment that should have crippled me for months, years even. Some wounds that would have killed a regular person without a hospital. And then, a few days later... There I was again. Killing another cop. Hanging another gang leader. Good as new."
"You seemed pretty effected by bullets when I tried it." I contested, a frown clear on my face. Disgruntled as I was by Killer's fond retelling of his horrific crimes, I did understand that there was truth to his words. When I tried to stop him from killing Granny, I blasted him right in the jaw with a baseball bat as hard as I could and he smiled at me for it. I didn't linger long in Fortune Manor's basement, but I'd seen enough files laid out down there to know that there was record of what Killer was saying. Newspapers, statements on record from police, political figures, and citizens alike all assured that he was dead semi-frequently. There was no record of him, either. They scanned the blood he spilled a hundred times, and they'd never found a single file on him. It was, for all intensive purposes, as though The Killer had just appeared in Fortune City one day. But, I'd seen him die. At least, in a physical sense. After all, I was sitting on a swing talking to the guy...
"... Do you know what a crowbar does to a child, Angel?" Killer asked so suddenly and with such a genuine smile that I was taken aback. All the scars on Anny's back were quick to flash in my mind, and I grimaced. I was going to answer with something along the lines of "I have an idea, yeah." but Killer's question must have been rhetorical, because he spoke first.
"I'll tell you what it does; it kills them." Killer leaned forward a little, his eyes widened right with his smile. That look on his face made me sick - I was immediately certain he'd figured that one out with hands on experiments. Despite this, he felt the need to explain. "The first people I massacred were children. The very first one I killed I really wasn't even trying to, I just cracked him in the back and his spine gave out. He tried to scream, but I think something I broke punctured-"
"Okay, okay, I get it!" I threw my hands up while I cut that sick freak off, my eyes wide in disgust. My mouth hung open for a moment while I shook my head; the casualness with which he recalled brutally murdering a little kid made my skin crawl. For just a moment I let my eyes settle on that orphanage looming ahead, and I thought of how many children had died overnight behind those walls. If I could, I would have shot Killer dead a second time in their name this time around. Unfortunately, there was a more massive genocide knocking at my door and an even more vile man that I needed to kill. So I looked back to Killer and demanded to know, "Why are you talking about this?!"
"Well, Angel, as you might recall, Anthony was hit with a crowbar many, many times." Killer kept his composure in spite of my frantic shouting. He lifted that Miss Delilah flower in his hand and wagged it at me to emphasize his words, and I squinted painfully. Once again I remembered the scars on Anthony's back. I remembered watching through that window as he screamed and cried. As his mother beat him, and beat him, and I was powerless to stop it... Killer's voice dragged me back to the present. "My son, with a body near identical to mine, could not be killed by metal, even as a child. Bullets, knives, starvation, dehydration, sickness, infection. All these things tried and failed to kill Anthony long before any of you could ever see that red and black soul on his chest."
"..." Again, I was silent. I looked to that flower in his hand, and then back to his face. Then, back to the playground that surrounded us. My gaze traveled up the path, back to the orphanage where all this started. I couldn't see it from where I was sitting, but somewhere at the front of that building was a plaque. "Established by William Fortune". My stare drifted back to The Killer, a man born at ten. A man who named himself, a man who did despicable and impossible things in the name of his design. His Plan, his Will. Carefully, skeptically I asked that man... "Killer. What are you?"
The Ivory Ghoul smiled at that. He grinned, he even started to giggle. He looked pleased, both with my question and himself. His red eyes glowed when he looked at me, they reflected lives I hadn't known and deaths I hadn't seen and reasons I couldn't understand. And he answered, "It took me a long time, but I've finally remembered.
I am god, and I am the devil."
"Anthony!" Mako cried out, her pupils trembling in their sockets. Her jaw clenched tight, her hands trembled while she watched her friend force himself up to a knee. Errorphim ignored her, she was insignificant in comparison to The Anarchist. Instead, the mad god floated forward towards Anarchy, who was gasping for air and clutching one hand over the slowly healing burn in his core. He didn't look at Mako either, Errorphim required his attention.
Mako, however, wasn't about to stand by and be ignored. So, with Wyrms and Skelewyrms crashing into one another in the sky overhead and with worms and bone soldiers ripping each other to shreds to her left and right, Mako forced her trembling legs to move. One foot, then another in front of the first, and then the first back in front of the second. In spite of the pressure crashing down on the whole world and in spite of the war roaring around her, Mako forced herself to start running towards the mad god and The Anarchist.
She pulled her right arm out to the side and opened her left hand, and magenta light glimmered in her grasp. From that magenta light a microphone manifested in Mako's right hand, and from its bottom a long pink cord ran down and coiled around Mako's left hand. Then, sweat on her browbone but certainty in her eye, Mako whipped her hand forward and sent that microphone firing through the air and right at Errorphim's head. "Leave him alone, you big creep!"
Dink!
Errorphim's browbones rose a little when that microphone bounced off the side of his head. Anarchy's eyes went wide, they followed the magenta handle of that mic and the glowing white star on its front through the air as it rebounded uselessly off the skull of Order's Mad God. Mako yanked on that cord, and her microphone flew back through the air to be recaptured in her hand. She was really sweating bullets by the time Errorphim's heartless eyes slowly glossed over to her, glaring at her from the corner of their sockets. Mako gulped before she stammered, "Y-... Yeah..! A-and there's more where that came from!"
"No there's not." Errorphim assured without an ounce of animation in his tone, just before a bone spike appeared already in motion. It fired down at mach speed, faster than the appalled Anarchist could launch from the dirt. He reached out with his blood soaked hand and screamed his objection as Mako recoiled, it was all either of them had time to do.
"MAKOOOO!"
THUNK!
Mako's body flew back through the air. Her wide eyes watched as that spike plunged itself down, right through the back of the worm that had shoved her out of the way. It was an ugly creature, but it still yelped and bled when its long body was pinned to the sand. Anthony didn't bother breathing a sigh of relief, he instead turned his furious red gaze to Errorphim, and by the time Mako had hit the ground and was skidding back The Anarchist was firing off the ground at Order's Mad God.
The earth trembled while Chaos and Order collided, but Mako's stare was focused on the eyeless face of that worm as she hit the dirt and skidded back for another foot or two. The creature's perpetual smile was wavering now, cold blood was running out over its jagged teeth. It groaned and whimpered as it tried to wriggle its long body, only to clench its teeth in pain. Mako sat up slowly, her pupils turned to mortified tear drops while she forced her shaky body to crawl closer to the beast that had saved her. "... George..?"
The worm perked up just a little, it heard her say its name even over the sound of war raging around the two of them. Its jaws forced a smile while Mako crawled closer to it, was it happy to be reunited with the one that had given it a name? A name... Not even Anarchy's Scorpion had one of those. A little act of kindness, a special care that Mako had offered to The Dark when she hadn't needed to. She even recognized George, though it was no different from its trillion siblings and its life had no more value than theirs. So why on earth was Mako tearing up?
"T-this is the second time you've had to save me..." Mako realized aloud, now kneeling beside George The Worm. George tried to giggle like it was no big deal, but that just made Mako sniffle. Tears were starting to trickle down from her eye sockets and run down her cheek bones as she carefully reached out one shaky hand. Her warm fingers ran softly over the cold and slimy flesh of George The Worm, caressing the creature in an attempt to comfort it was all Mako had the power to do. Mako choked on a sob while her Light shined on that pitch black creature, "I'm s-sorry..!"
George, who was smiling and relaxing as though it understood this death was far more peaceful than any death its kin would receive, suddenly flinched. Mako's browbones furrowed with confusion as the resting body of that worm suddenly went stiff. Her eyes widened when its jaws opened, it made some sort of noise and she had no idea what caused it. Frightened, Mako placed her other hand on George's cold body and frantically asked, "George..?!"
George's broken body curled, the worm wrapped itself into a tight coil around its punctured core. Mako shook her head, she was terrified to think that this creature was dying a slow and painful death. But... Then the flesh under her fingers changed. What was slimy and cold was growing warm, it was hardening into a rougher surface. Mako's teary eyes went wide, her pupils changed from mourning tears to amazed stars as a grey shell rapidly built itself over George's dying body. In seconds, that worm was entirely cocooned in Light and Dark... And then, the top of that cocoon cracked.
Mako fell back onto her butt when another crack split that cocoon, this time sending a grey shard flinging into the air. She scooted back but continued to watch in awe as one large, thin, bug-like arm reached up and out of that cocoon and planted itself atop the hollowing shell. More and more cracks spread, the grey sphere split wide open at its top... And four clear-white insect wings reached out from within. Hastily wiping her tears away on her sleeve, Mako was smiling now as she watched the long, black body of George The Dragonfly climb up and out of its chrysalis. Its head rose into the air, and it looked out at the dying world with eyes for the very first time in all its life. Then, it turned those bulbous dragonfly eyes to Mako, and she started to laugh with relief when - much like her own eye sockets - twin shapes appeared in George's eyes. Two bright white stars glowed on the black bulb eyes of George The Dragonfly, identical to the magenta stars in Mako's eye sockets.
"George!" Mako exclaimed with joy and relief as she fearlessly lunged forward, wrapping her arms around the short neck between the dragonfly's thorax and head. George made a quiet buzzing sound that Mako likened to a cat's purring, and that made her giggle through her relieved tears. After a moment though, Mako's eyebrows rose as she felt one of those black legs push underneath her, lifting her up to George's back. With no other option, Mako only somewhat hesitantly started to settle into a space on George's thorax right in front of his four pure white wings. What was that thing she said to Max once? Life's more fun if you don't ask questions when weird stuff happens? "Whoa, okay!"
As soon as Mako was safe on his back, George The Dragonfly turned his head towards the mad god in the distance. The star shape of his pupils morphed into bright white crosshairs, his head lowered and his wings tensed. His long tail lifted and curled, pointing out at Errorphim with the very same spike of bone he had tried to slay George with. Now that spike was a permanent addition to George's new body, a brutal stinger made of unbreakable bone. And that dragonfly knew exactly where he was gonna stick it.
"You really can't quit, can you?" Errorphim questioned as he weaved between rabid crowbar swings, floating backwards steadily all the while. Burning with DETERMINED light, Anarchy remained in hot pursuit. He swung viciously up at Errorphim's head, only for the mad god to lean back out of his range and launch his own fist forward at the Ghoul's abdomen. Anarchy dragged his shield up into the path of that punch just in time, and a cone of force blasted out around the unbreakable sapphire, shredding the earth to Anarchy's sides and sending him skidding back on his heels while Errorphim prattled on. "You can't trust your comrades to keep up with you, you can't trust your little friend to stay alive, and you can't trust yourself with your own power! How do you expect to destroy a true god as a mortal man?"
"The same way I've destroyed everything else!" Anarchy roared his response as soon as he skidded to a stop, bending at the knees and firing up into the air with an incredible leap. He launched right at Errorphim, yanking his crowbar high up over his head as he dropped down towards the mad god. His jaw clenched and his eyes winced however as Errorphim flicked his finger inward, manifesting another bone in mid motion and sending it shooting up through Anarchy's side and out his back. This made The Anarchist's body tense and pause in air, giving Errorphim just enough time to manifest a skeletal fist out of BRAVE Light and crash it down into Anarchy's spine, smashing the Ivory Ghoul back into the dirt from whence he came.
"Pitiful." Errorphim stated simply, watching dust explode up from Anarchy's brutal impact with the earth. In the next instant that scorpion stinger fired out at the mad god's head, but he merely tilted his skull to one side and let it sail over his shoulder. He pulled back his hand and opened his long, boney fingers while Anarchy's tail stabbed into the earth behind him and launched The Anarchist forward at Order's Mad God. An orb of golden Light appeared in that drawn back hand before Errorphim threw it forward, launching a bolt of JUSTICE through the air and blasting it right into Anthony's abdomen. It instantly exploded, sending him flinging right back through the clearing dust of his previous impact.
"Oof..!" Anarchy grunted as he crashed into the glassy sands, rolling and flipping over his own body once or twice before finally catching himself on his hand and knees. He skidded to a stop, gasping red mist through grinding teeth and resting the hand of his shield-bearing arm over his now Light-burned abdomen. His stinger receded back into his tail bone, without Killer venom on its stinger it was hardly doing him any good. Rising to one knee, Anarchy lifted his shield just in time to guard against the searing white laser that fired through the wall of smoke before him. He snarled while he huddled behind his shield, "Fuckin' A, is this how people feel when they fight me..?!"
"You're just a shell, Anarchy. A vessel for The Killer." Errorphim's voice boomed over the roar of his Light while he floated forward through the smokescreen. His outstretched hand didn't stop firing that laser, and Anarchy continued to grunt and growl while that scorching ray only grew more intense the closer Order's Mad God floated. "Whatever identity you think you have is meaningless! You are The Darkness, nothing more!"
"Slobber..! My! Knobber!" Anarchy roared through gritting teeth as his knees began to straighten. Under a god's divine wrath The Bastard Son forced his body to rise, even as Errorphim loomed above him. He shoved the shield that Mako had delivered onto him up with both hands, huddled underneath its shadow while malevolent Light rained down around him. Errorphim's browbones furrowed with aggravation, he watched the sapphire shine of that shield resist his brutal Light. The Deltarune in Anarchy's shield shoved all the way up, until there were mere inches between it and Errorphim's open palm. Ever defiant, The Anarchist continued to shout. "I'm not, just a Killer..! I'm a friend, and a brother..! And after I kill your stupid ass, I'M GONNA BE THE GUY WHO SAVED THE MULTIVERSE!"
"Great speech!" Errorphim snarled, suddenly shifting his extended palm. While the glow in his hand suddenly lessened, he grabbed the corner of Anarchy's shield, ripping it to the side and revealing the wretched Ghoul beneath. He reached down to smite that pale beast with his bare hands, but the Ivory Ghoul's hands shot up and caught Errorphim's. Anarchy's knee was forced to bend, he winced and grit his teeth while Errorphim's might poured down on top of him. The mad god promised, "I'll put it on your tombstone!"
Though Anarchy grunted and growled, still he was forced down towards the dirt. Errorphim's hands burned with Light, his touch scorched Anarchy's Darkborn skin and forced brutal burns slowly down his hands and up his forearms. Still The Anarchist didn't relent, pushing and pushing in vain. His scarlet aura flared bright, but it was totally eclipsed by the tower of white Light that had exploded up around the two of them. His thoughts raced while veins bulged on his forehead, C-c'mon, Anny..! You can't lose! You never lose!
Though Anarchy hated to admit it, he couldn't win. Not at this rate. If he didn't let his Darkness in, he couldn't properly regenerate from Errorphim's onslaught and he couldn't poison the mad god with shadows. But he couldn't let The Dark in, or else it might run out of control. Errorphim was a rock leaning over him and his shadow stretching across the dirt beneath was a hard place. Anarchy's scarlet eyes darted from one arm to the other, watching those ivory burns sear further up his flesh. Then his eyes darted back to Errorphim, and his snarl dug deeper into his face at the sight of the mad god's malevolent grin.
"I wonder what'll be left after I melt off this mortal flesh!" Errorphim voiced his curiosity with manic glee. This glee only grew when Anarchy's knee finally hit the dirt and those burns crossed over his elbows. His fingers gripped Errorphim's relentlessly, even though they were turning to ash. Red flares jolted up those white burns here and there, but were always overcame and engulfed in the burning white Light of Order's Mad God. Errorphim cackled while he went on, "This is the punishment for your dishonesty, Killer! You're gonna burn for rejecting your true identity!"
"Nngg..! Gahh..!" Anarchy snarled from where he knelt. Red lightning cracked off of his body, scarlet flames were pouring out of the soul on his chest and curling up over his collar bone. But it wasn't enough, he was still outshined by Errorphim's Light. He found himself wishing he had somebody to back him up, but Errorphim was right. Angel, Xander, and Lexi couldn't keep up with him. Mako had spirit, but her body was fragile and her power was in her gentleness, not in physical might. Even still, Anthony valued all their lives over his own. That's why he wouldn't let that Darkness pour out of his soul again, he refused to risk hurting any of them again. But that..! Doesn't matter..! When Errorphim is gonna kill all of them anyway..! So what the fuck do I do..?!
Under Errorphim's bright Light, a deep shadow was being cast. Anthony didn't want to die, and more importantly he didn't want any of his friends to die. But, whether he liked it or not, he could only see one card left to play. Become The Killer again, hope he can control it this time... But how could he? he wasn't strong enough to fight the Light, he wasn't strong enough to fight The Dark. The flesh on his biceps was starting to burn under Errorphim's power, The Light was creeping in at all sides and he no longer had an umbrella to hide under. With tears starting to well in his scarlet eyes, Anthony could only come to one conclusion.
I can't..! Do this alone..!
The ground cracked. Anthony sunk deeper and those shadows spread farther. He clenched his eyes shut tight and lowered his head, trying to keep any Darkness from seeping into the tears in his eyes. His teeth ground and all his muscles clenched, his mortal body fought as hard as it could and that just wasn't good enough. He could feel the void, writhing under the red of his soul, trying to get out..! Please! Someone, anyone..! Help me..!
BBBZZZZZZ!
THUNK!
Anarchy's head lifted suddenly, his eyes went wide and those tears were lifted from his cheeks and blow into the air by the gust of power shooting by. From the side and out of nowhere, a spike of Errorphim's own bone launched in, and it stabbed right into the side of his skull. Cracks split across Errorphim's head from the brutal impact of George's stinger, before all six of the dragonfly's legs crashed into him. Mako jumped off George's back just as his momentum dragged him and Errorphim through the air, pulling the mad god off The Anarchist.
"Yeah, get him George!" Mako cheered from where she now stood beside her kneeling friend, pumping her fist in the air. Anarchy didn't exactly share in her enthusiasm, he was too busy blinking his confused eyes and looking between her and the massive dragonfly that was swarming Errorphim. He furrowed his brows, squinting as he watched George smash Errorphim into the sand with his legs and drag him across it with the rapid beating of his four wings. All the while that tail swung down again and again, driving its point into Errorphim's body and stinging him over and over.
"That's, George..?" Anarchy finally choked, blinking his eyes once or twice. His arms were laying limp at his sides, red steam was smoking off of white burns and gradually healing the gruesome wounds Errorphim had covered the limbs in.
"Isn't it amazing? I thought he was gonna die, but then when I touched him he just... Changed!" Mako shrugged her shoulders as she looked to Anthony, a small smile on her face. Her browbones furrowed at the sight of his arms though, and she dropped to one knee to get a closer look at his injuries. "I'm sorry it took so long! Will this, heal..?"
"... You weaponized my Darkness..." Anarchy hardly heard Mako's question, he was too busy squinting at the scorched sands underneath the both of them and trying to make sense of what he'd just learned. His thoughts drifted back to the little larvae that Mako had poked in his hand the day they met, the dragonfly it had evolved into... He couldn't trust himself with his own Darkness, but if someone else could use it on Errorphim..! A lightbulb ignited over the head of The Anarchist, and he was grinning by the time he lifted his head and looked back up at Mako. His charred fingers opened, and Darkness began to pour up out of his shadow and into his hand. It was shaping into, an ax? Or, maybe a scythe?
"Take this gift from your jester, Chaos Incarnate. And when years pass, and twilight washes over you, you will have aid against Order's Mad God."
Anarchy was grinning from ear to ear as he clutched Devilsknife in his hand, and new flares of DETERMINATION jolted through his burns.
"And you're not the only one!"
"... What do you mean by that?" I squinted at The Killer, even more skeptical of every word. If this were any other day, I would write his words off as more insane babbling. He was a mad man with nonsense beliefs, and his statement was only further evidence of his total disillusion. But the fact of the matter was, The Ivory Ghoul was something beyond human. And his son, through his own Will, commanded reality. The Killer's son was immortal, and he didn't inherit that from his mom. He didn't get it out of a Magic Insertion Machine, it wasn't a side effect of an item he ate. Anthony woke up in this reality as something far beyond a mortal man with power beyond comprehension, and he knew how to use it immediately. Like it was instinct. Like it was in his DNA...
"I mean exactly what I said." Killer was smiling, but this smile was new. It was proud and certain, like he'd uncovered some truth that he always believed. Like his faith had been rewarded. "I am a higher being from a higher plane of existence with power over reality."
I stared at The Killer from under my eyebrows for several long moments. Blinked two, three, four times. It was such a nonsensical statement, I almost wanted to laugh. But there was a pit in my stomach that I couldn't fill, no matter how many times I told myself Killer's statement was ludicrous. I even voiced my denial out loud, "... That, is... The most insane shit I've ever heard."
"I know, right?" Killer's lips curled deeper inward and his smile became a grin. Then, he shrugged, and looked forward. Back to that old orphanage on Dead Street. "But, the more I've seen through your eyes, the more clear it's become. Especially after seeing that skeleton force his way into divinity with seven stolen souls. And then, seeing Anthony..."
"Anthony? What about Anthony?" My eyes narrowed then, there was newfound urgency in my voice. I turned my body towards The Killer and gripped the chains of my swing tighter, like I was ready to spring out any moment. I'd been so busy trying to figure out what's been going on inside my own head, I'd almost forgotten that war was being waged outside my own body. And Anny was the last man standing. "If you know something, you better get to talking!"
"I mean, you saw it too, didn't you? His shadow cut off a god's arm to free you." Killer was smiling with such calm, and beyond that there was joy. Peace, that's what he had found in chaos and desolation. My jaw tightened while he went on, "And after you passed out, hoo! What a sight! The world was dying around him! The very existence of Anthony The Killer was warping reality to fit his design! That's godhood!"
"Anthony... The Killer..?!" My heart dropped into my stomach and my stomach dropped into my shoes and I wasn't even wearing shoes. I'd never dared imagine such a combination of words and I'd certainly never pondered what type of being could be given that title. My memory had been so hazy, I could barely recall how I had passed out in the first place. I fired my Massive Beat Dome, and then... Errorphim, came out. But Anny was hurt, right? I thought he was dead. But... Then there was the geyser. The sky was, laughing. Cackling at... Me? No, Errorphim. Or, maybe everyone... My eyes glossed back up to Killer, my shrunken pupils examined his straight hair and his heartless eyes. Anny really did look like his dad when he walked out of that geyser.
"Oh to hear him recite all the things I had dreamed for Fortune City, and to say he wanted them for the entire multiverse?" Killer looked so happy as his eyes drifted down to the flower between his fingers. He shook his head slowly, before lifting his stare back to the orphanage where this all began. Then, he looked back over to me, and that peaceful smile twisted into something far more wicked. His pupils shrunk with manic joy while he proclaimed, "He fit into my shoes better than I did! Oh, I was just so proud to see him come around!"
My hands latched onto Killer's throat again, I didn't even have to think it to make it happen. My fingers squeezed his esophagus shut of their own volition, the swing chains rattled while my horrified eyes twitched and I snarled, "Anny! Is not! You!"
"N-no, you're right..! He's even more dangerous!" Killer giddily agreed even while his white face started to turn purple. I objected by shouting a frantic "No!", but still he choked out a laugh through my squeeze. "My son is a god, and he's a god because he's my son..!"
"My vision for this reality is cold and Dark."
My eyes widened further when I heard his voice, so suddenly on the playground where I never thought I would hear him again. With trembling pupils, I turned my head slowly to the tear that had opened in the space behind us. Between that swing set and the rest of the playground, a screen showed a frantic Errorphim surrounded by creeping Darkness. And in that Darkness, Anthony's voice - more cold and more heartless than I had ever heard it - continued to speak.
"No kings, no gods... Just strong, and weak. Put out the Light and see who lives and who dies in The Dark. Strength... That's what's real, Errorphim. A simple world with simple lives and simple deaths. No more lies, no more promises, no more pain. Just the inevitability of death and limitless fun before it gets here."
"A-... Anny..?" I stood from my swing. I took slow, shaky steps towards that screen. Woodchips crunched under my feet, the same woodchips Anny and I had spent our childhood running across. The same woodchips The Killer had walked years before I was born... I reached out towards that screen, I watched it change to a different moment in the battle I had slept through. Order's Mad God, brought to a knee with Chaos Incarnate and an ocean of Darkness bearing down upon him. Anthony The Killer screamed,
"I don't need to keep promises, I don't need to be honest ever again! I'm the one who's free of his strings, Errorphim! YOUR SUBJEGATION HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!"
No, this... This, this isn't right... My shaky hand forced its way further through the air, closer to that screen... Before it fell limp at my side. Anny was out there, fighting my battle. I couldn't reach him, not from these damn woodchips. I was taking quick, panicked breaths while I watched The Killer's evil flare in Anthony's eyes, it was the first time I'd feared I would puke over anxiety in quite a long time. This isn't right..!
"... Anthony was conceived on a night that I wholeheartedly believed would be my last." Killer's voice cut in, more calm than before. That screen in front of me went black, but still I stared into it with my mortified emerald eyes. My KIND soul ached, my DETERMINED body was paralyzed. And behind me, The Killer sat on his swing. Leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, he stared at the Deltarune on my back with distant eyes while he went on. "I'd reached my goal, Fortune City was plunged into Darkness... But I got cut and shot so many times in the process. Too many times, even for me."
"Delilah was pulling bullets out of my chest with tweezers, she was turning white rags red trying to stop the bleeding... And I could only think one thing." The Killer stared down at the flower in his grasp. He reached out to its petals with his free hand, and gently he let his finger run over the sad blue color. Then, he lifted his head, and shadow slithered across his face. His long hair falling and covering his right eye, the left burned with malevolent DETERMINATION as he stared at me. "I don't want to die."
I stared right back at him from over my left shoulder, my green eye was wide and its pupil was shrunken with a horrible understanding. I remembered the backyard I'd laid broken in, and the resolve I had to resist death's creeping chill. The terrible, evil basement where Anny had been left to die, and the brutal way he clawed his way out of it... The Killer smiled just a little while he stared into my mortified green eyes with his cold red ones. "But with my body broken beyond repair... There was only one way I knew I could continue on."
"Delilah slapped my hand away a few times, told me I needed to focus on healing up. I thought she was delusional; I was gonna die and there was no changing that." Killer sat up some, he shrugged his shoulders and looked at me with a half smirk. "But, hey, raw dogging the girl'a your dreams is a helluva way to go out."
It beat bleeding out in a sand dune at the end'a the world, I reckoned. I turned my head forward again, let my narrowed eyes gloss down. I looked at my shoes and I tried to accept this new perspective Killer was forcing onto me, but he didn't care to give me time to think about it, instead continuing on. "But, I said something - I don't even remember what - and I guess she thought it was romantic. My wish was granted, I would survive my death through my son."
"... But you didn't die." I pointed out, lifting my head. I glanced over my shoulder at The Killer then, narrowed my eyes at him and wondered what point he was getting at.
"Yeah, and looking back that fucked a lotta things up for me." Killer smiled without joy, sitting up some and wrapping one hand around his swing chain so he could lean back a little. He shook his head, "Apparently Delilah was a better nurse than I thought. Y'know she wanted to be a surgeon? Quit medschool to help my Will be done. Too bad, she really knew what she was doin'."
"..." I was quietly disgusted by that fun fact. I turned my head and looked away from Killer, I could hardly stand to look at him. He made me sick. Honestly, everything new I learned about Delilah made me sick. A woman with hopes and dreams, promised a wedding by a liar and a murderer and abandoned with his kid and god knows how many people's blood on her hands. The Killer really was a blight on Fortune City, he was a blight on all those around him. The image of that mutilated corpse in that abandoned basement flashed before my eyes...
"I spent the next nine months laying on her couch and waiting to die in spite of my healing injuries. Delilah spent those months carrying Anthony." Killer looked back to the flower in his hand after I turned my back on him, any smile he wore faded away. He just stared quietly at the tainted blue petals on that flower. His eyes narrowed in thought, and he went on. "She never complained, even quit drugs and alcohol through the pregnancy because I told her how important it was that my kid be born healthy. Told her she was special for being the one who carried him... I don't think that was a lie."
"... When did you leave?" I asked, even though I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I didn't turn around and I didn't look over my shoulder, I couldn't. I was disgusted, but I don't think Killer cared. That black screen in front of me flickered, and I furrowed my brows at it.
"I don't think Anthony knows, but I was right next to his mother the night she birthed him in that bathtub. Held her hand the whole time. Terrible blizzard was going on, it knocked the power out. Winter is a shit season and February is a shit month; it was the perfect time for Anthony to be born." Killer smiled fondly, but I didn't see it. He just caressed that flower he held so tenderly while he went on. "It was pitch black when he was born, and it was cold. All I could hear was that crying. And then, suddenly..."
I watched that screen while Killer trailed off, but it remained totally dark. Or, at least I thought it was totally dark, until I spotted the shining red dots staring right at me through the screen. Then my eyebrows rose, my tense expression relaxed. I wasn't seeing something I'd already seen through my own eyes, and I wasn't seeing something Killer had witnessed as a specter looking over me... I was seeing through the Ivory Ghoul's own two eyes, Killer was sharing a memory of his own with me. My eyes widened then, when sound came through. It was a voice I'd heard before, but never a tone I'd heard it use. Delilah's tired giggle echoed across the playground, followed immediately by her words. "Well... He's got your eyes."
The screen went totally Dark again. All sound disappeared. And once again, I was standing there in the wake of this new truth. A new perspective on that horrible withered woman who beat my best friend and the terrible sadistic man who killed my Granny... Killer lifted his head behind me, he looked back at the Deltarune branded onto my skin with something in his eyes few had ever seen. His voice was the only noise that could have followed that dead woman's laugh, "... September 21st, 2000."
"... What?" Finally I turned my head, and again I glanced over my shoulder at The Ivory Ghoul. He sat leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees again, and he flashed me a joyless smile while I stared, bewildered.
"You asked me when I left." Killer explained, that soulless smile never fading. "September 21st, 2000. I woke up that morning and felt certain I had to leave. I was gone by midnight."
"..." Quietly, I turned my head forward. Let my stare drop down to the woodchips at my feet again, and shook my head. After a moment of hesitation, I lifted my head and looked back over my shoulder at him. "... I was born that morning."
"Then I guess it was fate, little Angel." Killer's eyes narrowed but his smile widened. His lips parted just enough to reveal those fangs; in spite of their whiteness, no light reflected on his teeth. I frowned at the sight of his smile, dots connected in my head. Of Anny, Xander, Lexi and I, I was the youngest and Anny was the oldest. All of us were born in 2000: Anny in the Winter, Xander in the Spring, Lexi in the Summer, and me in the Fall. And after all four players in his game were born... "My wish was granted, I would live on in Anthony. My Darkness, my power, my Divine Will... All passed to him. But, like you said, I didn't die."
"If you believed you would be reborn in Anny, then why the Game?" Finally, I turned around to face The Killer. I shook my head, holding my arms out to my sides to display my confusion. "Why did you involve us all in some convoluted scheme for a successor when you had already "wished" one into existence?"
"Because he wasn't just me!" Killer snapped so suddenly that I recoiled. His free hand gripped his knee tightly, his grin peeled back into a snarl and he glared up at me from under his eyebrows. Underneath him, his shadow was wriggling and slithering furiously atop the woodchips. I stared at him, skeptical and pensive... And then light shined from that screen behind me. It stretched my shadow out towards him and drew my attention over my shoulder at the scene being displayed. Killer lowered his eyes to the flower clenched carefully between his powerful fingers, and he grumbled. "... He was her, too."
I turned around slowly, looking into the dull blue light of that screen. Moonlight, from a clear sky that Fortune City wouldn't see again for decades. It shined down through a window that looked newer than I remembered it, down into an empty crib that I had never seen before. What I had seen before were the pale arms, the powerful hands that so carefully held a seven month old baby with bright white hair. That baby was smiling in his sleep, totally relaxed. As though he somehow felt safe in the arms of The Killer...
I didn't understand. Surely this was a lie, another elaborate scheme to... To do what? Tug on my heart strings? Make me feel sympathy for a man I shot dead years ago? I took a step closer to that screen, squinted my eyes and tried to catch a clue. A sign that would reveal the truth about this mirage before me. But, all I saw was Killer carefully shift baby Anny's weight into his left arm. He held his son against his chest, and with his now free right hand he slowly brought his fingers towards the kid's face. I winced; I was certain I was about to witness something horrible. That The Killer would use one of the fingers he reached out to leave Anthony with his very first scar... But then, baby Anny's little hands reached up. And without his eyes opening, the Bastard Son wrapped all ten of his tiny, fat fingers around his father's index finger. And The Killer, The Ivory Ghoul, the bane of Fortune City stopped. He stopped, and he stared, as his son's matching red eyes opened just a little and stared up at him.
"... Honesty, loyalty, a strong sense of 'right' and 'wrong'..." The Killer's voice echoed from behind me, and my brows furrowed as that screen flickered just a little. The lighting shifted, the camera flashed black because the eyes I was seeing through blinked. And when they opened again, my own eyes went wide. For just a moment, dim in The Dark, there was a heart shaped glow on little Anthony's chest. A bright, DETERMINED red on the right and a deep, pure Darkness on the left... But, in between, there was something new. A sliver of color I had never seen in that all powerful soul, and it took my breath away. "These are symptoms of his mother's INTEGRITY."
Between the black and the red, baby Anthony's soul had the slightest glimmer of a deep blue. It reflected, for only a moment, in the green of my wide eyes. And for reasons I wasn't sure I could totally explain, the corners of my mouth lifted. Just a little, but enough. I was smiling, even as the eyes I was seeing through blinked again and that tri-colored soul disappeared. Those pale arms carefully set baby Anny back in his crib, and his little red eyes closed while relief washed over me. I was right, Anthony was not The Killer. Delilah, as terrible as she came to be, had left him with whatever good she may have had in her once upon a time. My best friend, Anthony The Anarchist, was not an evil man.
I breathed a quiet sigh of relief, let my shoulders relax while that screen vanished from the thin air it had occupied. All there was left to look out at was the playground now, and I kept that small smile while I pondered: ... What would Anny think if he knew all this? Behind me, The Killer wasn't bothering himself with such thoughts. Instead, he shook his head and blinked those tired, old, red eyes. Then, he looked back up to me and explained. "But, regardless of all that, my power was fading and I could feel it. Whatever it was that I knew made me "special", all the power that was locked inside my mortal body was slowly being transferred to him. And that left me with very few options."
"If the little sliver of good in that baby were to take hold, then all the power I used to plunge the world around me into chaos could be used to restore order when he came of age. I couldn't have that." Killer frowned when he said those words, his eyes narrowed and I could see true purpose in them. Something that was real, something that none of his lies and none of his fake expressions could hide. The Ivory Ghoul existed in the name of chaos, and nothing could change or hide that. But, as quickly as it came, that honest expression disappeared behind a lying grin, and Killer shrugged. "So, I put a plan together. A competition, a Game."
My eyes drifted down to my feet, and they narrowed as I watched my shadow stretch underneath me. Branching shapes and lines, they all stretched out like black paint on the woodchips. Lines curled and stretched, until I found myself looking down at four separate symbols in The Dark. An encircled A, the symbol for Anarchy. Then, a pointed tiara identical to the one The Ice Queen wore. A shield with a serpent engraved on its front, the crest of The Gatherer. And, finally... A Deltarune. The mark of The Angel.
"Feeling my life fading out, I knew someone had to spread Chaos in my absence. So, I picked three kids with potential and set them on the right path." I'd hardly call it "the right path" personally, but there was no point in trying to convince Killer of that. So, instead I stood there, staring down at my shadow and the symbols it showed me while The Killer went on. "You three weren't picked because I thought you could destroy Fortune City, you were picked because I thought you could destroy Anthony. That was the real game, Angel; either my son was going to be pushed over the edge and abandon that INTEGRITY Delilah left him with or he would be surpassed and eliminated by one of you."
"And honestly, Hacker, what you did to win made my skin crawl." I lifted my head when Killer said that. Turned and looked over my shoulder, narrowed one cold green eye at him. I was a lot of things, and whether I liked it or not, The Hacker was one of them. But that didn't hurt me anymore, not even as Killer smiled and widened his eyes at me. "Setting the perfect trap, using his loyalty and sense of right to trap him and assure his death... I'm still so proud."
"... Why didn't you kill him?" I spoke when Killer finally paused, and it wiped that sneer off his face. His brows furrowed, and my stoic expression remained unmoved while I waited on an answer.
"What?" Killer asked, incredulous. He leaned his head forward, tilted it to one side and squinted at me like I was talking stupid.
"Why didn't you kill Anthony?" I reiterated more clearly and in the same unmoved tone. My cold green eye glared back at The Killer, I watched him scowl and try to hide it. Just to be sure he got what I was getting at, I went on. "You had him in your arms when he was a helpless baby. You could have killed him; maybe it would have stopped the transferring of your power. Then you wouldn't have ever had to worry about a successor. So why didn't you kill him?"
"What, do you really need me to say it?" Killer squinted at me, his aggravation was clear in his voice. But my glare didn't give, and I didn't offer any words for him to try to twist and change the subject. So, he growled under his breath and rolled his eyes before offering up an answer. "Fine! It's because he's me. And..."
Killer hesitated, his lips sunk deeper into his scowl and he avoided eye contact. A few seconds passed, and then he shut his eyes. I listened to him sigh... Before he looked back at me with those heartless red eyes, and I watched him smile with those vicious teeth. Shadows slithered over his face, and he stared at me from under his eyebrows as he finished his answer. "... Because he's my son, and I love him."
"..." I didn't scold that behavior, but I didn't reward it either. Really, I had no idea if The Killer was telling the truth. I doubted that he felt love, and if he did it couldn't have been in the same way that me and the rest of humanity did. But, I didn't call him a liar, because he was still clutching that Miss Delilah flower between his fingers. I just turned my head forward, and I let my expression relax. I drew in a long, deep breath... And then I let it out slowly. Another moment passed, and then finally I turned around. My body faced The Ivory Ghoul, and I put my hands on my hips as I looked at him and he looked at me. I thought for a moment... Before deciding to cut back to the point. "Alright, Killer. So, lets say I believe all this destiny and divinity shit. If you really are or were a god, then where'd ya come from and why'd you go to Fortune City?"
Killer laughed when he heard that question. His chest rumbled and he hunched forward, shaking his head and resting his free hand on his forehead. Disgruntled, I frowned at his laughter but that didn't stop him from laughing. This went on for a few seconds, before finally his giggling died down, and he looked back to me with a shrug. "Honestly, Angel? I've been wondering the same thing for a long time."
"But, unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever remember who I was before Fortune City, if there really was a me before that. Learning what I know now, it took me my entire life and three years of my death to put together..." Killer slouched forward again, resting his elbows back on his knees. He shook his head again when he looked back up to me, and I thought there was something honest about his expression. Maybe. "Whatever me existed before The Ivory Ghoul and whatever his machinations might have been, they're far beyond me now."
I frowned at this answer, but I didn't glare and I didn't grill for an answer I might have liked better. Honestly, it might've been better not to know. It was enough to comprehend my life now in what I thought was a video game and nothing more once upon a time, maybe I didn't need to peel back anymore layers. God forbid I find out that all of my life and reality is actually just contained in some video game or something for an even higher plain of existence, like some kinda... Reality holding Russian nesting doll. Or something. Just thinking about it was starting to give me a headache...
"He gave up power I can't comprehend, stepped down from a higher state of being..." Killer mumbled more to himself than to me, but I could hear him. I arched a brow at him while he stared at the woodchips and his own writhing shadow atop them, before he moved that flower to be at the center of his vision. He squinted at its petals, slowly spinning its stem between his fingers... "All in search of something that he must not have been able to find otherwise."
My eyes drifted down to that flower too. I furrowed my brows at it, tried my hand at comprehending whatever The Killer may have been comprehending. I don't know if I did a good job or not, but I do know that I looked back to him and asked carefully. "... Do you, think you found it for him?"
"Ha. If I did I probably smashed it with a crowbar. Not that it matters now." Killer smiled and closed his eyes, I thought it was a bittersweet expression. Some sort of acceptance that I wouldn't ever understand. He sat up straight on that swing after that, tilted his head back and opened those cruel crimson eyes. He stared up at the unnatural blue sky looming over this memory of Fortune City, and that smile faded away for an expression that appeared a little more thoughtful while he went on. "He's gone, and I don't think I'm too far behind."
I mulled that statement over for a few moments. Narrowed my eyes at Killer and tried to see the truth in him, but he was a liar so it couldn't be done. Still, I let his words hang in the air and I gave him a few moments silence to think about whatever he may have been thinking about. In that time, I thought about how I got into this situation. A rampaging god of Light pitted against an out of control god of The Dark, a world ending around us and a multiverse to be obliterated outside that world. So why on earth was I standing on woodchips listening to the life story of the dickhead who killed my Granny? "... Why are we having this conversation, Killer?"
Those scarlet eyes darted down to me. Killer looked down that pointed nose at me, didn't bother tilting his head down. And after taking a moment to examine my stern expression, he cracked a smirk and got to the point.
"Because when you won my game you won a prize, Angel. And I think it's your one way out of this mess."
"Get..! Off!" Errorphim snarled as he planted his hand against one of George's massive eyes, shoving those snapping mandibles away from his own face. The mad god was flat on his back, skidding even still across the cruel desert sands while George The Dragonfly tried to gnaw his head off. With green light shining in the cracks that first sting had put in his skull, Errorphim cocked back his free fist and let BRAVE power shine over his knuckles, just before blasting them up and slamming an electric punch into the thorax of that chaotic bug.
George's crosshair pupils changed immediately to exclamation points as that orange shockwave exploded out from the impact rocking his body, before he was fired straight into the sky on with a trail of orange sparks following him up. The moment George was off him, a shockwave crashed over the ground beneath Errorphim and launched him off the dirt and into an upright position. Immediately his shining eyes locked onto The Anarchist, before glossing over to the skeleton helping him stand. His sockets narrowed irritably...
"All the power of a god and still nailing yourself onto a cross." Errorphim scowled as his glare darted back to Anarchy. The Anarchist's scarlet eyes glared right back at him, one of his charred arms laid across Mako's shoulders. Mako had both her hands on Anthony's abdomen, trying to keep him steady. Her concerned eyes drifted from Errorphim and then back up to Anthony, and The Anarchist wrapped his blackened and bleeding fingers tighter around the Dark weapon he was holding behind his back. Errorphim growled as he tilted his head towards Mako and went on, "What do you gain by playing hero for them? They can't understand you, they're afraid of you! So why would you put your eternal life on the line for their sake?!"
Anthony didn't answer at first. Instead, he stared at Order's Mad God, and he wondered why he would ask such a question. What did it matter to Errorphim why Anarchy fought? Why would Errorphim care if Anthony kept The Killer buried and died on this hill? But, then Anarchy got to thinking that Errorphim was young, his fourth life had only just began. Anthony might end up being the only other god that Errorphim ever meets, and he was directly opposed to what Order's Mad God believed more than anything. Eternity could be a long time to wonder if you picked the right side. So, even though he wanted to tell Errorphim that it didn't matter or that he wouldn't understand no matter what he said, Anthony lifted his head. With his still healing arm he pulled Mako just a little closer, and she looked up to him with surprise in her eyes. He was certain of the answer he gave. "Because. It's the right thing to do."
"Why would those ants have any say on what's right and what's wrong?!" Errorphim demanded to know, throwing up one of his hands and gesturing to Mako The Skeleton. Far behind the two of them, worms devoured bone soldiers and bone soldiers decapitated worms. the screams of Wyrms and Skelewyrms echoed across the Dark Lake and the Burned Plains. Errorphim's furious pupils burned in his narrowed eye sockets while he tried to understand, "Who are they to decide-?!"
"They didn't decide, Error!" Anarchy barked so suddenly that it made Order's Mad God recoil. He pulled his free hand off of Mako's shoulders, and he limped forward out of her grasp. He brought that arm behind his back, handed Devilsknife off to it and let his shield bearing right arm straighten at his side. Behind him, George carefully landed beside Mako, shadows slithering over the burn in his thorax and healing it. Anarchy's jaw tightened, his glare intensified and scarlet flames ignited around the both of his eyes. "I did!"
Errorphim's teeth grit, his brow bones furrowed and his eye twitched. For just a moment, he remembered the golden hall where his first life ended and the power hungry child he'd lost that life to. He'd been an ant to them, just like he was an ant to the antivoid that ended his second life and an ant to the fusion that ended his third life. All those beings that had been greater than him had decided their cruelty and his suffering was right. So now that he had the power, now that he was no longer the ant, who was Anarchy to tell him what he was doing was wrong?!
"You're right about one thing, Error. I can't trust myself with my own power." Anarchy took another step closer to that mad god. Behind him, Mako climbed back on top of George after carefully inspecting him for any injury. Somewhere in the distance, half buried in sand and beyond The Anarchist's sight, shaky hands were starting to reach for a scythe covered in Dark ice. Black smoke was starting to burn off of pointed finger nails. And Anthony smiled, suddenly yanking Devilsknife back behind himself. Its blade seethed with shadow, a pulsing Darkness and a crackling freedom. "So I'll have to trust my friends with it instead."
Anarchy whipped his arm forward then, releasing his grip and firing Devilsknife through the air right at Order's Mad God. It spun like a buzz-saw, cutting through the air at mach speed only for Errorphim to tilt his head to one side and let it launch over his shoulder. The chaos of that weapon sailed for another few yards, before suddenly flashing black shadows across the sand. From within Devilsknife, the mad prophet of Chaos Incarnate had appeared. Suddenly, Jevil was flying back through the air with the momentum of Anarchy's throw, clutching his scythe tight in his hands and cranking it back over his shoulder with all his might and a giddy smile.
"Hm?" Errorphim's browbones furrowed the moment Jevil manifested, his head whipped around to spot that mad clown grinning back at him. Errorphim's eyes locked on to the black energy crackling on Devilsknife and he snarled irritably as he lifted one shining white palm out towards that Dark jester. "A clown? What a jo-!"
Wham!
"Ack-!" Errorphim cried out involuntarily when Anarchy's shield whizzed through the air next, its edge smashing right into the back of his neck at the base of his skull. This forced his shoulders to scrunch upwards and his head to tilt back, sending that laser of Light off course and blasting across the sand. Jevil let out a gleeful "Uee hee hee!" at the sight of the face Order's Mad God was making. Then, he dragged Devilsknife through the air and slashed with all his might!
A wave of pitch black Darkness exploded off of Jevil's blade, the wall of shadow that was Jevil's Final Chaos exploded across the wasteland at Errorphim like a black tsunami. And Errorphim, still reeling from that brutal strike to the base of his skull, hardly had time to react before the crashing blast of Chaos slammed into him and engulfed him in its Darkness. His own shout was drowned out in the crackling freedom, and Jevil's voice came through clearly: "Bye bye!"
For just a moment, a blanket of shadow covered the world. The anti-flash of Jevil's Final Chaos made the whole world go Dark, and for just a moment Errorphim feared that somehow his fourth life had already ended. But, then the Lights flashed back on, and he found himself exploding back through the air. His bones burned, his wincing eyes looked over his own body and examined the shadows slithering over the arms he'd thrown up to guard against that wretched attack. His aura had been snuffed out once again, he was forced to feel that burning Darkness and he was not happy about it.
Order's Mad God lifted his head as he launched back across the desert wasteland of his own creation, his eyes gleamed with death as he glared into the wall of black smoke swirling before him. His jaws snapped opened, revealing a crackling orb of burning Light. And Errorphim lurched forward, looking to fire that beam of white hot death into the wall of smog before him, only for a hole to be punched out of the smoke to his side in the wake of a burning red aura.
Anarchy shot through the air like a scarlet missile, and before that beam could get two inches out of Errorphim's mouth he had closed the distance and was smashing the burning fist of his once more shield bearing arm into the mad god's jaw. Errorphim's eye sockets went entirely white for just a moment as his head was shoved to the side. That laser exploded out on its redirected course; it fired in a straight line across the dead sands and over the horizon while Anthony cranked back his crowbar. Red sparks flickered on its dark metal just before he sent that malevolent Inheritance blasting into Errorphim's sternum.
A red shockwave blasted sand up into the air and launched Errorphim back through the air with increased velocity. That laser had faded from his manic maw, his teeth were clenched shut and gritting by the time he flipped back in air, landing on both feet and one hand. Errorphim continued to skid backwards, and his furious eyes darted up to the peak of that smoke wave, which blasted open around the shape of George The Dragonfly.
Mako stood on the back of that buzzing beast, and once more she held out her open hand for magenta light to manifest in. Her magic rapidly shaped into the neck of a guitar clutched between her fingers, reaching up to form a shining magenta star as the headstock. Sparkly pinks and blues detailed the body of that guitar, and the strings shined a bright white before Mako's phalanges raked across them in an aggressive strum.
From that strum, magic vibrated through the air. Purple-pink rings fell down through the air and towards Order's Mad God, small and weak as they were. Basic monster magic, and Mako hardly knew much about attacks. So Errorphim sneered at the futility of this attack, standing to his full height and skidding to a stop on his heels. A thin wall of green power appeared over him, it was all he'd need to stop such a pathetic attack. She'd have better luck throwing another microphone at me. He thought, and that was true, until George's jaws snapped open wide.
A screech ripped through the air from the maw of that Dragonfly. A horrible, not-quite-beast and not-quiet-human scream that made Errorphim's skin crawl. And the noise of that scream collided with the soundwaves of Mako's pitiful attack, making those magenta rings instantly triple in size and speed. Errorphim barely had time to widen his eye sockets before the first of three black and purple rings exploded down into his KIND defense, blowing it to smithereens and crashing down on him with enough force to smash the ground into a crater beneath him. Then, the second sound wave hit, and Errorphim's shoulders were forced to lower, his head was pushed into a forward lean. The third exploded down on top of him, and his knees bent some while the crater he now stood in crushed deeper into the sand.
After that crushing force dissipated, Errorphim lifted his head once more and glared up from under his browbones at the shining red ghoul standing across from him. George The Dragonfly buzzed down from the sky to hover to Anarchy's right, and from his left his jester jumped from the smoke, cackling and swinging Devilsknife once more, this time firing a Chaos Bomb off its blade at Errorphim.
Errorphim's wings flexed, and he lifted out of the sand and above the crater he'd been mashed down into. Effortlessly he waved his hand, and the black magic of that Chaos Bomb shattered apart on the back of his hand, sending club shards sticking into the sand before him. With the same hand Errorphim had used to decimate that attack, the mad god opened his palm and summoned red Light. A DETERMINED sword glimmered in his hand as he snarled at The Anarchist, the clown, and the musician. "You'll need a lot more firepower if you wanna stop me!"
"MORE FIREPOWER?"
A new and unbearably loud voice boomed over the desert then, causing Errorphim's eye sockets to widen some. Slowly, the mad god turned his head and looked over his shoulder. It dawned on him in that moment that he'd been driven back towards the Dark Lake, it was just a few yards behind him. And the surface of that lake was rumbling, its once still waters were crashing up in huge waves in the wake of some enormous construct rising from within. Thick clouds of Dark mist fell over the black lake, shrouding the huge, rigid, humanoid shape that had risen from within... And then two ultraviolet spotlights crashed down from the glasses on that construct's face, and they landed right on Order's Mad God.
"[[Did you mean...]]" The mist rapidly peeled away, and the Dark metal of Fortunate Spamton's massive upper body was revealed. On his blocky shoulders, huge speakers boomed to project his loud voice. On his chest, where once was The Gatherer's insignia, was now the encircled A that symbolized anarchy. His long neck sprung out of huge shoulders and held up his big head, the long nose of which had those Dealmaker glasses resting on it. But, instead of their usual pink and yellow glow, those huge shades were now shining ultraviolet spotlights down on Errorphim. Blacklights. Fortunate Spamton grinned, "A BIGGER SHOT?"
For about three uninterrupted seconds, Errorphim stood in silence. His jaw just slightly ajar, his eye sockets squinting up into the blacklight. Then, he shook his head like he was disappointed. By this reality, by the ridiculous bastardization it all was of the true reality. This level of glitching was repulsive. It was appalling, so much so that Errorphim didn't really move when Fortunate Spamton's chest panels slid apart, revealing dozens of missile silos hidden within.
"WELL THEN YOU ARE ONE [[lucky costumer]]!" Spamton assured with a gleam on his huge teeth and a thumbs up, just before the crashing of rocket flames echoed out of his chest. The only noise louder than missiles igniting was the symphony of cackling those missiles carried. In the next instant, a tidal wave of giggling Spamton warheads blasted out of Fortunate Spamton's chest and rained down towards Errorphim. All the while Spamton's voice boomed, "BECAUSE THE SHOTS DON'T GET MUCH BIGGER THAN THIS! EAHAEHAEHAEHAEHAE!"
Errorphim's teeth pushed back together in a frown, and he shook his head as he watched those [[deal]]-seeking missiles barrel towards him. He lifted his hand without haste, and in an instant green energy flared to life over his head. A massive disc of KINDNESS manifested between Errorphim and those Spamton-faced warheads, and in the next instant those pale puppet faces were crashing into its surface. They exploded apart in black flames and released shadowy smoke. One after another, again and again they boomed and crashed uselessly into Errorphim's unbreakable defense. The glassy sands all around him were exploding apart under the force of the barrage, the air was hastily filled with smoke, dust and fire.
When the barrage was done, not even Fortunate Spamton's blacklights could cut through the vantablack shroud. Errorphim stood in the center of the wreckage unharmed, looking from one side to the other while he watched devastation settle once more around him. Should he fly out the top of the smoke, or wait right where he was to show them all the futility of their resistance? Perhaps he could launch out and punch a hole right through that ugly robot; such a wretched glitch should be ERASED hastily.
CRACK!
Before he could make a decision however, sound pierced the blackened sandstorm. Errorphim's head whipped to his right and his brows furrowed furiously when he spotted a bolt of lightning pierce through the twisting wall of Darkness. On instinct he lifted his right hand, looking to catch lightning in his hand once again. But, it dawned on him moments before that incredible voltage struck his divine body, the lightning wasn't magenta. It wasn't blue, it wasn't gold. His eyes widened in pain, his body jolted and flinched when a pitch black bolt of lightning crashed into his palm.
Errorphim cried out in agony as Dark electricity exploded across his aura-less form. It made his body jolt and tense and seize, it streaked over his bones in jagged black streams for seconds that lasted hours. When the lightning faded, Errorphim's shocked nervous system couldn't keep his body from dropping to one knee. His teeth ground and chattered while he winced at his right hand, now half buried in the filthy sand to keep him from dropping flat on his face. Shadows slithered up his arm from that bolt's impact, a Dark scar in his Lightborn body. "Grnn..! What, is this..?!"
"Having trouble holding lightning in your hand?" A voice all too familiar drew Errorphim's attention upwards. He lifted his head, and glared from under his browbones into the settling smoke. In that now grey mist, a shape was beginning to take form. A shadow was wading through the valley of shadow and death, horned and flickering with electricity. Xander The Gatherer emerged from that wall of black, stained with filth in torn up clothes. His right horn had snapped off at the halfway point, his eyes were purple again, and in the right side of his mouth he clenched a smoking cigarette between his teeth. "Maybe use a bottle next time."
"You really don't know when to quit, do you?" Errorphim's jittering slowed to a stop, and searing white light flickered across those shadows Xander had burned into his flesh, melting them away slowly. The mad god's jaw clenched with disgust as he looked upon the Fortunate Son, he could see shadows in the young man's skin. Pouring out in streams from a hole scarred in the core of Xander's body, Darkness left behind from when Anthony stung him in DoubleScramble. Now it trailed across his skin in different paths, reaching up his chest and to his shoulders. There, it poured into the snakes tattooed on his arms and made their flames burn black.
"You just don't know how to kill." Xander assured, lifting the corners of his mouth into a ruthless smile. Shadows smoked off of his finger tips, black sparks jumped around on his hands. Then, effortlessly he threw up his left hand and took aim on Errorphim with his open palm. Two of the pitch black serpents slithering on his arm understood and heeded this order. They fired down his arm, lunging at Errorphim with a wicked hiss while their master snarled, "Allow us to teach you!"
Errorphim's wings pulled up high and slammed down, firing him up into the air. He exploded up out of the smog and his wings spread wide, bringing his rapid ascent to an instant stop. His hand clenched into a fist, and gold light blared out from between his fingers before his hand snapped back open, revealing a crackling orb of JUST energy. At the same time twin onyx snakes launched up and out of the smoke with their mouths open wide, so Errorphim whipped his hand down and shot that crashing sphere of JUSTICE into the twisting scales of the twin serpents.
A yellow blast blew twisting smoke stacks apart and cleared the air around Errorphim, obliterating the heads of those black snakes in the process. As the sky cleared, the eyes of Order's Mad God gleamed with golden accuracy and he scanned the smog beneath for signs of The Gatherer. Unfortunately, all he spotted was the shadow of The Predator. Sockets snapping open wide, Errorphim spun around, and immediately he spotted Lexi dropping down from a rail of ice.
"If you're gonna hit the Queen," Lexi snarled as she yanked her scythe back over her shoulder like a baseball bat. Its blade was incased in pitch black ice, water stolen and frozen from Anthony's Lake of Darkness. Errorphim scowled at this, and green light started to twinkle into existence to block the brutal arch of Predator's Ghoul Scythe, only for her to swing that blade and cleave through the KINDNESS before it ever had the chance to form a proper wall. "You better kill the Queen!"
"Gah-!" Errorphim grunted through grinding teeth while the shadowy slash of that wicked scythe cleaved across his abdomen, sending pain spiderwebbing through his divine body. A black scar dug itself from his right shoulder to the left side of his hip, and the force of Predator's swing sent him firing down into the smoke.
Errorphim's body blasted through shadowy smog and blew it apart before he crashed into the earth once more. He skidded through the sand, leaving a trench in the wake of his impact. But, after a moment of skidding, the mad god's eyes snapped back open and his hands clenched tight. On this command a sphere of white Light exploded out around him, obliterating the ground at his feet and stopping his backwards momentum. When the Light faded, Errorphim floated inches above the smoldering earth once more, and the festering black slash in his chest was all but healed. "You brats must have a death wish."
Predator landed across from Errorphim, at the edge of the settling smoke. She stood tall there, resting the long body of her scythe over her shoulders and putting her free hand on her hip while she flashed Errorphim her madwoman grin. Chunks of her tiara had broken and melted off, and her eyes were their original cyan once more. Her hair no longer had that ethereal, icy glimmer to it, but some of the frozen patterns remained like war paint on her face. Her shirt had been obliterated by Errorphim's Godly Gaster Blaster, but the white wrapping that kept her chest bound and covered remained. Gatherer stepped through the wall of smoke to her right, cigarette smoldering between his lips while Lexi corrected Errorphim. "We got a kill wish, bitch."
To Lexi's left, Jevil burst from the smoke next. He was perched on the body of his Devilsknife, riding it through the air like a surf board. He stopped at the same line that Lexi and Xander stopped at and remained floating there. Lexi glanced over at him from the corner of her eye, and she arched a brow at the way he admired her own Dark scythe. Coulda swore Anthony killed this guy...
The buzzing of George's wings drew Gatherer's eyes to his right, where he watched the dragonfly hover down to the ground and land. Xander couldn't help but stare with a jaw slightly dropped at not only the winged creature of Darkness but at the little skeleton on his back. Mako was so focused gripping her guitar and staring ahead at Errorphim, she only spared Xander a short glance from the corner of her eye socket before looking back ahead. Xander couldn't help but wonder, When and why did she show up? And what's with the dragonfly?
Errorphim's teeth tightened into a scowl and holy might crackled on his finger tips as his glowing eyes glossed up and down the line of resistance before him. Before he could speak again or throw another attack however, those blacklight spotlights crashed down atop him. Errorphim growled at this, lifting his head and glaring from the corner of his eye up at the smiling shadow-mech looming in that Lake to his side.
His attention was drawn forward immediately after by a surge of power, however. A pillar of red light exploded out from within that black smoke, and the whipping scarlet winds sent the shroud flying away into nothingness. From within that crackling red walked Anthony The Anarchist, shield on his right arm and crowbar clutched in his left hand. The skin on his forearms had healed, his hair lifted in the updraft of his soul's heat and tinted red. And he walked forward, keeping his eyes straight ahead and his glare on Order's Mad God as he stepped between Lexi and Xander. He stopped only a pace or two ahead of them, taking up his spot at the head of the group.
"Motley crew you've got here, Anthony." Xander spoke up when the crashing winds quieted around them. The corner of his lips lifted in a small smirk, and Anthony returned that smirk when he glanced back at The Gatherer from over his shoulder.
"Who's the punk rock bug tamer?" Lexi asked, leaning her head back to glance past Anthony and Xander. Mako looked over at The Predator and instinctively curled her middle and ring fingers inward while lifting her pinky and index fingers, flashing Lexi the rock n' roll hand-horns and grinning from ear to ear. Lexi smiled a little wider at this, looking back to Anthony. "She's super cute."
"She's the reason we're all alive and the reason I have to kill this asshole." Anarchy answered honestly, tilting his head to one side until his neck popped.
"I can think of several other reasons why we have to kill this asshole." Xander stated dryly, looking over to Anthony from the corner of his eye.
"Those are your reasons for stopping Errorphim." Anarchy rolled his shoulders two or three times, before lifting his shield and holding his crowbar out to his side. "She's mine."
"'She's the reason I have to kill this asshole' sounds like Anthony-speak for 'make sure nothing bad happens to my girlfriend'." Lexi surmised aloud, flashing a teasing smile even though Anthony didn't turn around to see it. She could see that his pale ears turned a little red though, and that was enough. "We read'ja loud and clear, big guy."
"Your devouts won't save you from me, Killer." Errorphim's voice boomed over the friendly conversation that he so despised, drawing all attention back to him. He floated a few feet over the sand now, and as a scarlet blade flashed into existence in each of his hands, a Godly Gaster Blaster appeared to his left and right. "It doesn't matter how many boons you give them."
"What's the plan of attack, Anthony?" Lexi asked quietly, disregarding Errorphim's threat. Her eyes darted from Order's Mad God and over to Chaos Incarnate.
"I don't think we can talk him to death." Xander offered his two cents, black sparks dancing on his finger tips.
Anarchy's lips peeled up into a wicked grin, and he took another daring step forward. Lowering his shield, he pointed the twisted metal of his Inheritance right at the mad god glaring back at him. And he ordered loud and clear, "Dust this bitch!"
He didn't have to tell Lexi twice. The Predator dove forward, ripping her scythe through the air. The wave of that frozen blade commanded a wave of black ice to explode into existence, crashing towards Errorphim at a breakneck speed. Errorphim was hardly intimidated by this tidal wave; he yanked back the both of his stolen sabers and slashed forward in an X, cleaving right through that frozen Darkness. It split apart before his might, scarlet splinters blew that wall apart and left a haze of Dark mist obscuring Errorphim's vision.
Hardly willing to play this game again, Errorphim commanded the both of his Godly Gaster Blasters to open fire. The maws on those holy dragon skulls snapped open, and immediately beams of brilliant white flames blasted out from between their jaws and spired with almighty force through the shroud. The lasers blew by Errorphim's left and right, and the power that came with them sent that mist blowing apart into nothing. Unfortunately, when it did, he found that the group of anarchists before him had disappeared with it.
CRACK!
Errorphim spun around, waving one arm through the air behind himself in the same motion and manifesting a wall of emerald. That KINDNESS forced the bolt of black lightning careening towards him to an immediate stop, and its Dark voltage obliterated his Godly Gaster Blasters and spiderwebbed across the shield but failed to make it through. Errorphim only had a moment to shoot a glare at The Gatherer on the opposite side of that lightning, before a guitar screamed and a Dragonfly roared, drawing his attention up to the three black rings of brutal vibration raining down towards him.
The mad god's wings beat, yanking him back across the sand and out of the range of that sonic assault. It crashed into the ground he'd just hovered over and sent a wall of glassy sand exploding up into the air, and Errorphim's head snapped upwards. His eyes locked onto Mako The Skeleton and George The Dragonfly hovering high above, and his maw opened to reveal a crackling orb of condensed Light.
Anarchy fired through that wall of dust at lightning speed. In the blink of an eye he crossed the distance, blasting both feet into Errorphim's sternum. His shotgun dropkick was so brutal that it forced Errorphim to lurch forward and snap his jaws shut once more. His hands opened, releasing those DETERMINED swords and letting them disappear to nothing as he was sent launching back over the sand.
Quickly the mad god back flipped, planting the both of his feet and one hand in the sand to slow his backwards momentum. His digits left a trail of glass raked across the sand in their wake, and the moment he stopped skidding back Errorphim threw his head back and forced himself up to his full height. he reached out with the sand he'd just had jammed in the earth and he snatched the sapphire shield that Anthony had whipped at him from the air.
The moment Errorphim caught that shield though, Anarchy launched up from under his extended arm, and the mad god hardly had the time to widen his eyes before that crowbar smashed up into his chin with enough force to send a shockwave blasting up into the air over the two of them. Errorphim was carried by this force a few yards into the air, only to immediately throw his had back down and let his jaws snap open again.
Anarchy threw up his shield the moment that scorching ray of Light blasted out of Errorphim's maw, and as soon as it hit his shield the impact made him drop to one knee in the sand. The cone of Light that poured out around his shield surrounded him, blinding him and trapping him in place. This hardly lasted long; Predator skated by Anarchy's left on a moving rail of black ice and Jevil flew by his right.
The two scythe wielding maniacs crossed over each other as they launched up at Errorphim, cleaving by his sides with twin black slashes. Their brutal cleaves into his sides made Errorphim recoil back through the air and cry out in pain, bringing his laser beam to a near immediate stop.
With his head now thrown back and his blurry vision focusing back in, Errorphim spotted Xander The Gatherer launching up into the air above him. Gatherer clenched his crackling fists at his sides and inhaled a chestful of air, his teeth clenched tight as a blacklight flame burned up his chest into his throat. Then, he whipped his head down, and with a furious scream he sent a beam of Dark flames crashing down through the air at Errorphim.
That furious Dark laser exploded into Order's Mad God, launching him back down into the earth with a brutal explosion of dust. Mako watched the plume of smoke rise, and though she smiled some at the sight of Anthony, Predator, Gatherer, and Jevil all gathering around the dust in wait for further assault, she also felt worry twisting under her sternum. George could amplify her attacks to do something worthwhile, but Mako was no fighter and she knew that. Her magic and her music were not made for harming others, but in a situation of this scale she didn't know how she could possibly be loud enough to help her friend...
"THAT'S IT EVERY ! GIVE HIM THE OL' ONE [[for the price of]] TWO!" Fortunate Spamton's voice boomed so loud that it drowned out the whipping winds and crackling power. It surprised Mako, made her jump and wince a little. But, then she looked over to the massive mech. One hand on her guitar, she glanced over the enormous speakers on Spamton's shoulders...
"George, you've done a really great job helping me out!" She assured The Dragonfly, resting one hand on his back. George turned his head, looking up at Mako with a star shape on his screen-like eyes. Mako smiled at this, before lifting her hand off George's thorax. He followed her finger as she pointed, and his eyes turned to crosshairs when they landed on Fortunate Spamton. "But, I need a bigger sound system!"
George The Dragonfly nodded his head, and immediately his four wings shifted and picked up their pace. Mako was pulled back some by the sudden influx of wind resistance, having to tighten her grip on her stead as he launched the both of them towards the mech standing in a Lake of Darkness. In a matter of seconds they had crossed through the broken sky, George was buzzing beside Spamton's massive head before Mako had any idea what she was going to say.
"IS THAT A [[ringing]] IN MY EAR?" Fortunate Spamton piped up so suddenly that Mako jumped, and she couldn't help but shrink when his enormous head spun on that long neck to look at her. George had to fly up some to keep from being swatted by Spamton's long nose, and Mako flashed a nervous smile from under those blacklight spotlights. Spamton's metal eyebrows rose, "OH, HEY THERE LITTLE [[Mamacita]]! HOW MAY I HELP YOU?"
"O-oh, well, uhm..!" Mako had to swallow her nerves in the face of those massive, prying eyes. This entire insane situation had her so shaken up, it was hardly an easy task keeping a clear train of thought. What had she come to ask of this huge, Dark machine again? Spamton kept a polite smile on his massive face while he waited for her big pitch. Finally, Mako clenched her eyes shut and shook her head, wrapping her fingers tight around the neck of her guitar when she suddenly shouted. "I need your speakers to play a song!"
"MY SPEAKERS? ARE YOU SAYING [[such a little sponge]] WANTS TO BE AS BIG! AND AS LOUD! AS ME?" As Spamton emphasized his size and volume, he crept forward more and more, narrowing his huge eyes behind those shades at Mako while he loomed over her.
"That's exactly what I'm saying!" Mako shouted right back without any hesitation. She jumped up on George's back, clenching her guitar in both hands and standing as tall as she possibly could before that massive mech. "It's the only way I can help! So are you gonna help me or not?!"
"EAHAEHAEHAEHAE! THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!" Spamton grinned even wider after Mako's outburst. Suddenly, his head launched even higher on that long noodle neck, freeing up a flat surface on his shoulders and atop his chest. One of his hands patted the space at the center of that stage invitingly while he giddily went on. "I CAN SEE THE POSTERS NOW! SPAMTON G. SPAMTON LIVE [[or dead!]] AT THE END OF THE WORLD! [[Featuring Makocita]]! AND WE'VE GOT THE BIGGEST AUDIENCE OF ALL TIME!"
"Biggest audience..?" Mako repeated with some confusion. Her eyes glossed down to the settling dust beneath and the few brave enough to surround it while George flew her down to the stage on Spamton's collar. After her Dragonfly landed, Mako stepped skeptically off of him and onto the gently vibrating metal surface of Spamton's stage. She looked over it for a few seconds, before spotting an audio jack right in the floor at the front of the chest-stage. The surrounding floor was painted to look like Spamton's face, and the jack jutting out was in the center of that face, as though it was his nose.
"WHOLE MULTIVERSE IS WATCHING, BIG SHOT!" Fortunate Spamton confirmed Mako's anxieties, and she suddenly felt a few drops of cold sweat on her brow bone. She reached down and grabbed that audio jack, pulling it up with the long cord connecting it to the floor. Then, she stood there, high in the sky above a Dark Lake and a dead world. Everything was empty and desolate for as far as she could see... But, she also understand that an unfathomable amount of people could see her. And, if she plugged in that jack, they'd be able to hear her, too. "BETTER MAKE IT [[calculate]]!"
"..." Silently, Mako stared at the plug in her one hand and the guitar in her other. She thought for a moment, and then her guitar ignited in magenta light. It transformed back into energy, and its shape shrunk down into the familiar form of her microphone. Then, she plugged that jack into the bottom of the microphone. And she gulped, before bringing it up to her mouth.
"... Uhm, hi, entire world..! You don't know me, but, my name's Mako! And, just like all of you... I'm, I'm scared." Again Mako swallowed hard, but she still managed to straighten her shoulders and lift her head. She looked straight ahead, across the desolate world to the horizon, where dead sand met a broken sky. She didn't stutter again. "I'm scared for me, I'm scared for the people that I care about, I'm scared for all of you and all the things you all care about."
It was right about then that the smoke below finally blew open, and from it the shining form of Order's Mad God rose. Errorphim launched into the sky unscathed, and Mako's hands tightened around that microphone as she watched him fly right into the path of the horizon that she was staring out into. His cold, megalomaniac eyes settled right back on her, but she didn't stop speaking.
"But, just because we're afraid, doesn't mean we can give up hope!" Mako took a daring step forward, despite the massive drop just another step in front of her. The whipping winds pulled at the blue hair of her wig, but her star shaped pupils shined on in that dying world. She glared right at Errorphim, keeping one hand wrapped tight around her mic and letting the other clench into a DETERMINED fist at her side. And, with two gods as her witness, she made her decree. "So, if nobody's said it to you yet, then let me be the first one! We're all gonna make it out of this together! Because together, we can do anything!"
Errorphim scowled at her defiance. At the lies that she dared to tell right in his face. He lifted his own hand, his palm opened to reveal the shining white Light of his ERASURE. Mako's microphone changed in magenta light, an impure Light that dared shine in the same presence as Errorphim's ERASURE. That Light rapidly expanded back into the shape of her guitar before taking on a physical form once more, and the moment it did Mako caught it and positioned her fingers over its strings. Then, with her own voice, as a beam of ERASURE blasted from the hand of Order's Mad God, she shouted loud enough for all to hear. "NOW LETS ROCK!"
Mako raked her fingers down over those strings, and the guitar's roar blasted out from Spamton's supermassive speakers with such force that a wall of Dark soundwaves fired out across the sky. Those vibrating black rings crashed into that beam of ERASURE, The Dark consumed Errorphim's Light and brought his assault to a screeching halt. There was no death this time, just music.
The World Revolving Metal Cover by RichaadEB began booming through Spamton's speakers.
Errorphim scowled as he watched his Light be devoured by the vibrating wave of Darkness hurdling towards him, and with the wave of his outstretched hand he summoned a wall of emerald in his path. Those lethal sound waves crashed into his defense, making it tremor and splinter but not shatter. But, the moment that guard was secured, Errorphim heard a Jevil's giddy giggle behind him. He looked over his shoulder and threw out his hand, summoning another wall of KINDNESS just in time to stop the slash of black energy that Anarchy's Prophet had fired off the blade of Devilsknife.
Again Dark smashed against the Light, and again Errorphim's defenses held. He floated there with one hand outstretched towards Spamton's assault and the other towards Jevil's, and this left him wide open to the black ice glacier that was rapidly manifesting high above. By the time Errorphim heard the wind currents whipping around that island of ice and looked up, it was already upon him. He yanked his hands up just in time to slam his palms into that glacier, but its bitter cold gnawed at his fingers and sent shadows slithering around his palms.
Order's Mad God tried to uphold the incredible weight of Anarchy's Darkness frozen by Predator's cold, but soon he found himself plummeting down towards the earth under its mass. He slammed his knees up into the ice, his wings spread wide at his sides, but as more shadows slithered over his bones from that brutal chill he knew he could not stop the downward momentum of that glacier. So, his jaws snapped open, and from within he released a horrific laser of Hell Light up into that black ice.
Errorphim's laser exploded up through the frost, sending cracks splitting the glacier and grey smoke firing out of the cracks. Crunches and hisses echoed out through the shattered sky, before finally Errorphim's Light exploded up out the other end of that glacier and fired like a beacon into the twisted stratosphere. In the next instant, that glacier exploded to pieces, and huge chunks of black ice steamed as they rained down onto the desert below.
Errorphim flipped back up right, and with the beat of his wings he stopped his feet from ever touching the ground. His glowing eyes looked out over the world around him and all the boulders and pillars of ice that had crashed down in every direction... And then he realized they were spinning. The world underneath him was revolving, the battlefield was on top of Jevil's carousel.
Errorphim scowled at that, his glare landed upon one of the huge chunks of dark glass that twisted in front of him. But, when he looked into that black ice, he did not see his own reflection. He did not see a god staring back at him. Instead, he saw a short skeleton in a blue hoodie, grinning in a way that was far more genuine than Errorphim's own grin. Disgusted, the mad god immediately whipped his hand out towards that reflection, but with the revolving world it was attached to it was pulled out of the way of the PERSERVERANCE whips that fired off of Errorphim's fingers and tried to smash it.
Errorphim snarled at this, and his eyes darted from side to side, mirror to mirror. In each reflection, he saw something ugly. His past lives, whether it be as that smiling sentry, that half melted corpse or that glitching abomination! Errorphim's fists clenched tight, his teeth ground together. The world revolved and those horrific reflections spun with it, but Errorphim remained in place. Stationary, resistant to the lives passing him by and infuriated by their spinning. He floated above the revolving world, and he glared down upon it.
"Killer! What is this?!" The mad god demanded to know, his head whipping from side to side in attempts to spot a pair of glowing red eyes somewhere in the twisting shadows. But there was nothing, nothing but a revolving world and the terrible mirrors that spun upon it for as far as Errorphim could see. Still he shouted, "What do you think you're gonna prove by showing me these lies?!"
Errorphim waited for a response, and the longer it took the harder his fists clenched and his teeth grit. Finally, when his patience ran out, the mad god threw his hands down and roared his frustration. On this command, the earth below exploded apart. Towers of pointed bone blasted high into the sky all around him, destroying the already decimated terrain and shattering those foul reflections in The Dark.
Errorphim's wings beat, firing him up and away from the surface of the planet. In a matter of seconds he had risen up to the high peaks of his bone towers, and he scowled at the way they continued to spin. It was as if the entire world was built on top of Jevil's carousel. This warping of reality disgusted Errorphim, it was the business of a god and no one else to mold the world however they liked. That wretched clown had no business dirtying the world with whatever wicked magic it was he used, and Errorphim was itching to clean him and all the other Dark stains away.
His eyes lifted from the twisting world beneath then, and when his gaze settled forward his scowl sunk deeper into his face. There, across from Errorphim, Anthony The Anarchist stood at the peak of one of those massive bone towers. Quickly Errorphim's eyes darted left and then right, and he spotted Lexi The Predator to one side and Xander The Gatherer to the other. The three of them were spinning with the world, circling him without trying on the pillars that he had built them.
"BYE BYE!"
The terrible and familiar voice of The Anarchist's prophet was wretched noise in Errorphim's ears. His head whipped around, and he spotted another tidal wave of Darkness slashing down off of Jevil's Devilsknife towards him. Immediately the mad god threw his hand up, and a dome of shining KIND Light manifested over his head. Jevil's Final Chaos crashed down into Errorphim's defenses, it pushed with all its might and all its madness into that stolen KINDNESS. Its efforts only earned a few cracks and splinters.
Errorphim hardly had time to admire his impeccable defenses before he got struck by another bolt of Dark lightning. Black voltage fired from Gatherer's finger tips as he circled behind Errorphim on his revolving pillar, it crashed into the mad god's spine and made him throw his head back and his arms out to his sides. His entire body vibrated with electricity, shadows snapped and jerked into place across his bones. For just a moment he was paralyzed there, crying out in agony.
That moment proved to be all that Lexi needed. The Predator launched forward off her spire at Errorphim, cranking her scythe back over her shoulder. She cleaved across Errorphim's chest as she darted by, making him lurch forward while his shining pupils flickered in and out of Dark sockets. Lexi launched right past Errorphim after slicing a black scar into his sternum. She flipped in air, landing perched on another one of the spinning towers beneath the mad god and resting her scythe across her shoulders once more.
Errorphim's teeth grinded together, his eye sockets twitched while he clasped his hand over the slash carved in his sternum. Grey steam rose from his body as his Light burned The Darkness slowly out of his body, but his healing was hardly fast enough. Order's Mad God lifted his head and his glare just in time to watch The Anarchist explode forward off his own spinning tower. Encased in scarlet energy, the Bastard Son crossed the distance between them in the blink of the eye. His lips peeled back in a snarl, and he cranked back his crowbar, before blasting it up into Errorphim's chin with all his might.
Crack! BOOM!
The impact of Anthony's Inheritance launched Errorphim's head up into the air and dragged the rest of his body with it. A red shockwave blasted out across the peaks of all those supermassive bones as Errorphim fired straight up into the KINDNESS wall of his own creation. His body blasted right through that already splintered wall, and green shards rained down when the dome broke apart, only to immediately be sent firing away at rocket speed when Jevil's Final Chaos blasted down into the mad god.
Anarchy winced into the flashing Light and flickering Dark that shined and shadowed across the shattered skyline when Errorphim was engulfed in that wall of black energy. He was launched faster downward by the shockwave, and figured he'd backflip and try to land on the side of one of the bone towers. But, before he got the chance, a bolt of blinding white Light exploded down from that crashing Darkness, making The Anarchist recoil with surprise.
Errorphim, stained with shadow and wearing and fury twisted expression, crashed his hand down onto Anarchy's throat and kept firing downward. Now dragging Anarchy's body in front of him, he blasted down right through one of those massive bone towers. They were in one side and out the other in a split second, splitting the tower in two with their impact and sending bone shards raining down to the sand beneath.
Errorphim was a spear firing down towards the earth and Anarchy was his spearhead. They cracked through one bone tower, then another, and another, before finally the mad god slammed the son of The Killer head first into the sand and used him to dig a trench the length of a football field. When the two finally stopped skidding through glass bits and sand grains, Errorphim loomed over a bloody Anthony. His fingers left burns on The Anarchist's neck as he strangled him, white hairs were stained red and stuck to Anthony's face as he glared up at Errorphim.
"Your mother should have finished the job long before you ever made it here, Killer!" Errorphim snarled as his hand squeezed Anthony's throat tighter. He leaned in closer to make sure The Anarchist could see all the rage in his grinding teeth and flickering pupils, and when Anarchy smiled in response the mad god pulled up his free hand and clenched it into a shining white fist. "But apparently the only thing she was good at was getting creamp-!"
Before Errorphim could finish his gruesome dig several of those black burning flame serpents wrapped around his raised arm. His head snapped around, his aura flared bright with rage as his eyes locked onto The Gatherer standing a ways behind him. Xander had the both of his hands wrapped around the black flame whips that were burning Errorphim's arm, and he planted his feet in the sand while he sneered at the mad god. "Bringing the man's mother into this? I may have created you Errorphim, but you clearly didn't inherit my refinement."
Anarchy may have been in the middle of getting strangled, but he still found it in him to sigh and shake his head at that. Errorphim was more than exhausted with Gatherer too it seemed, because he released Anarchy's throat and stood, twisting in the same motion and yanking his arm back behind himself as he spun to face Xander. The force of that pull proved too much for Xander, who was pulled right off his feet and sent flinging through the air towards Errorphim.
Xander was quick to pull his arms out to his sides, severing his connection to the serpents he'd ensnared Errorphim's arm with. Then, he flipped forward, and a blast of flames fired out from his feet, stopping his forward momentum and launching him a few yards into the air. Immediately he lifted his hand and pointed two electric fingers at Errorphim, but before he could fire his lightning, the red soul on his chest turned to blue and Errorphim merely flicked his finger to his right.
On that command, The Gatherer was yanked from the air at mach speed. He shot to the side, and before he even had time to register what was happening his body was smashing into the base of one of those bone pillars. Calcium dust exploded out around his impact and cracks spiderwebbed up that ivory tower as Xander's prone body disappeared into the smoke... Before Errorphim flicked his finger to the left, and The Gatherer was sent flying out of the smoke. He crashed chest first into the sand and tumbled ass over tea kettle for at least fifteen yards before finally turning enough to land on his side and skid to a stop.
"Mediocre." Errorphim assured, reaching out his glowing blue hand towards the prone Gatherer. Xander winced up at him, his hand pushed into the trail of red stained sand he'd left behind himself in a desperate attempt to resist the mad god's gravity. But it was for nothing, the weight of this dead world was pouring down upon Xander and there was nothing he could do to resist it.
Suddenly, arms shot up underneath Errorphim's. Anarchy launched up from beneath the mad god and grabbed him, looping his elbows under Errorphim's shoulders and clasping his hands together behind the mad god's head, trapping him in a full nelson and freeing Xander from the weight of his INTEGRITY. Errorphim hardly liked this hold however, and he voiced that displeasure by kicking one leg back and up between the both of Anarchy's legs.
"Hrrnngg..!" Anarchy's eyes went wide and his pupils shrunk when Errorphim's heel drove into his groin. He lurched forward and his grip released, giving the mad god the opportunity to reach back and grab ahold of his hair. Errorphim yanked Anarchy forward and in front of himself, cocking back one white shining fist while he spun the Bastard Son around to face him. Anarchy hardly had time to look up at Errorphim before that fist hammered into his jaw. The impact of Errorphim's punch sent Anarchy firing back across the sand for a few yards, before he dropped down into it and skidded across the harsh terrain on his back for a few more yards.
Errorphim whipped his head to the right then, his eyes locked onto The Predator dropping down towards him. The heaved her scythe down over her head in a gruesome slash at him, but his hand shot up and snatched ahold of the handle just beneath the blade, bringing her slash to an abrupt stop and making her legs swing down with the whiplash. Errorphim's free hand pulled back and snapped open, manifesting an orb of crackling gold before he shoved that hand upward. He smashed that crackling JUSTICE right into Lexi's abdomen, making her jaws snap open wide and forcing the wind out of her. Then, that orb exploded, and The Predator was sent shooting back through the air.
Errorphim watched Lexi smashed back first into another of the circling pillars, her limbs flinging back into it next. After leaving a Predator shaped dent in the bone, Lexi plummeted off it and landed face first in the sand, kicking up a small plume of dust with her impact. Errorphim smiled at this, before turning his head to look back at The Anarchist laying in the dirt before him. He was standing in the sand now, spinning right with all the ants he'd knocked aside. This made Errorphim's skin crawl, but he went on revolving with them regardless. He lifted his head and looked down on The Anarchist, "Go on, get up. Keep trying so I can make you fail again."
Anarchy squinted up at Errorphim. He knew the mad god was speaking, but he could hardly hear him over the music playing. It wasn't really so loud that it blurred out voices, but it drew his focus. It drowned out the harshness of Errorphim's words. It made Anthony's heavy limbs feel lighter. So, The Anarchist shoved his hands back into the sand, and it launched him right back up onto his feet. The moment he landed, his fists clenched at his sides, and DETERMINATION exploded to life around him.
Errorphim's browbones drew near, his sockets narrowed irritably as he watched red energy flare up into a tower of soul power. Then, his pupils darted to his left, and he watched another DETERMINED pillar of swirling red light blast up into the air. The Gatherer had climbed to his feet, and his soul burned with similar resolve. Then, another flare of red, and Errorphim's glare darted over to The Predator, who had risen out of the sand all the same.
Three pillars of scarlet DETERMINATION raged. They spun around Errorphim, surrounded him as his feet lifted out of the sand and he once more rose above the revolving world. It was futile resistance, and Errorphim knew that. Still, his teeth ground with disgust when a new color launched up around each of those pillars. Rings of grey, a mix of Dark and Light fired up again and again around the twisting towers of DETERMINATION. They reinforced the might of their souls, supported the Fortunate three in their blasphemy...
Errorphim turned his head, his eyes locked onto the massive Dark mech in the distance. More specifically, on The Skeleton shredding on a guitar on Spamton's stage. A simple and - by Errorphim's scale - weak support magic, now amplified by Anthony The Killer's Darkness. Something meant to add just a little ATK and DEF to all those meant to hear it, a pitiful little song. Meaningless noise was all it was meant to be, and yet... Errorphim's glare glossed back to the shining lights circling him. How could one weak little glitch have such an impact?
"What a ride, ride!" Jevil's mad cackle drew Errorphim's eyes upwards; when he spotted the jester floating overhead he wondered how such a tiny thing could dare fly over a being as perfect as him. Jevil stood on the handle of Devilsknife, and he threw his hand up over his while he giggled. Orbs of Darkness twisted into existence around him, each one with a different card suit branded onto it. The insane clown's eyes shined with delight as he laughed down at Order's Mad God, "Such a fantastic carousel calls for fireworks! Uee hee hee!"
"Piss off, wretch!" Errorphim snarled up at Jevil when those Chaos Bombs began raining down, and the mad jester answered with more giggling. Immediately another KIND dome manifested overhead to slow the rain of Chaotic explosions, and the moment it did Anthony fired forward. Errorphim lowered his head just in time to have it smashed back up with a hellacious uppercut from The Anarchist, the impact was so brutal that it sent a red shockwave exploding out around the two of them.
Anarchy cocked back his left fist with his right still buried in the mad god's chin. His lips peeled back to bare his grinding fangs, and The Anarchist shot his fist down into the space between Errorphim's eyes. Another red shockwave blasted out around the two of them, and Anarchy pulled his right hand away from Errorphim's chin, holding it out to his side and summoning his crowbar back from his inventory to swing it at the mad god's skull. Unfortunately, before he could, his entire body was encased in a PATIENT Light, and he was stopped in place.
Errorphim snatched ahold of Anarchy's ankles and ripped him down out of that PATIENT prison. Shards of cyan glass rained down around The Anarchist as he was smashed shoulders first into the ground. Errorphim pivoted then, he dragged Anarchy's body across the ground beneath him before shitwhipping him away from himself. The moment Errorphim's hands released Anarchy and sent him flinging away, Xander fired in from the side, his knee crashing right into the mad god's jaw with an electric shockwave.
The impact of Xander's sudden strike caught Errorphim off guard, forcing his larger body to recoil. Still suspended in air in front of the mad god, Xander spun, extending his leg and sending a kick hammering right into Errorphim's collar bone with another electric crash. Wincing his sockets shut, Errorphim was forced to fire back into the sand, which he skidded back through on his heels. Xander finished his rotation, landing crouched in the sand in front of Order's Mad God. Immediately he lurched forward, spitting the smoldering cigarette butt he'd had in the corner of his mouth right at Errorphim.
Errorphim's eyes snapped open just in time to see that cigarette flinging at him. Black flames were just starting to explode out of the cancer twig when the mad god reached out, and his powerful hand snapped shut around it before it could explode into an inferno. Still, he winced and shadows fired up his arm when black flames exploded out of the spaces between his fingers in his clenched fist.
Suddenly, Lexi The Predator launched through those four streams of onyx flames, her scythe already cocked back over her shoulder and her eyes burning with DETERMINATION. Errorphim threw his head back to keep from being decapitated by her vicious swing, but her Dark blade still cleaved across his chest and left a brutal black scar in its wake.
Errorphim hissed at the pain stinging in his body from this new wound while the frosty shockwave of Lexi's assault forced him to skid further back on his heels. Lexi dropped from above, landing crouched in the sand and leaving room in the air for Anarchy to fire down from above. The Anarchist slammed the both of his feet right into Errorphim's chest with such force that the mad god was knocked back off his feet and planted flat on his back in the sand, which crushed into a crater beneath him. The red shockwave of his impact blew Anarchy's hair back, and he back flipped off of Errorphim's now flattened body, landing beside Predator.
In the next instant, ivory power exploded up around Errorphim's body, and Lexi and Anthony watched his body rise effortlessly out of the dirt while they jumped back out of the blast range. As soon as his body had risen in that brutal shine, the Light faded back into the aura once more crackling around the mad god's bones. He was floating above the earth again, three out of four of the FC4 revolved around him with the rest of the world. Jevil's Chaos Bombs were breaking through the shield now, they were starting to fall around the four of them at random and explode into hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds.
High above, Mako ground her teeth with frustration and anxiety as she watched Errorphim effortlessly rise once more. There was sweat on her browbone now, but her fingers continued to frantically play while she looked over her shoulder and up at the giant head looming over her. "Can't you attack him, too?!"
"NOT WITHOUT BLOWING OUR ALLIES INTO [[99 easy payments!]]" Fortunate Spamton gave a shrug while he answered, and Mako groaned loudly before turning her focus back to her music.
Errorphim smiled up at the mech and the musician, before turning his glare back down to The Anarchist and his devout. He watched for a moment... Before suddenly blasting forward at mach speed, sand blasting up behind him. Order's Mad God shot at Anarchy fist first, but The Bastard Son held up his arm and summoned his shield on it just in time to catch Errorphim's knuckles against the deltarune symbol of his sapphire shield.
Anarchy grit his teeth and dug in his heels, but the force of Errorphim's punch carried through, and it blasted him right back off his feet. Anthony back flipped as he shot back through the air, landing crouched and skidding back through the sand at high speed. He jammed his crowbar into the sand to try and slow his momentum, before Errorphim's wings beat again, shooting him right past Lexi and Xander in pursuit of The Anarchist.
Anarchy's head whipped back when Errorphim suddenly slammed knee first into his chin, but before The Anarchist could launch back again Order's Mad God fully extended his leg, slamming his foot down into Anarchy's chest and planting him in the dirt with such power that the sands around his impact turned to glass and shattered apart.
Errorphim rose his hand over his head while he scowled down at Anthony, who was still gagging on blood from the sternum shattering stomp that had followed that jaw breaking knee. Scarlet steam was rising indefinitely from his shattered body, but Errorphim still thought he should give that red soul something else to heal. DETERMINATION shined in his raised hand, and a stolen scarlet saber appeared in his grasp, pulled back and ready to cleave Anarchy's head off his shoulders.
Before Errorphim could swing, however, he suddenly pivoted back around on the foot that he had planted in Anthony's sternum. he slashed that red sword through the air just in time to cleave through the black ice boulder that was flinging at his back, its two chucks split to his left and right and crashed across the sands. But the moment that they were out of the way The Gatherer was revealed diving forward right behind the ice, and Errorphim's eyes snapped open wide as Xander lurched forward and let his jaws snap open.
Black flames screamed out of The Gatherer's maw, they blasted into Order's Mad God and engulfed him in their heat. Xander landed in the sand in front of Errorphim, he planted his feet and continued to scream that Dark fire into the face of a god. But, mere seconds later Errorphim's hand fired out of the fire and it clamped shut on The Gatherer's face, slamming his jaws shut and stopping the flow of that infernal Darkness.
Xander's eyes widened with shock as he was so suddenly snatched, before being yanked up off his feet by his head. As the flames faded from Errorphim his free fist fired upwards, and a spear of white energy blasted skyward when his knuckles crashed up into The Gatherer's abdomen. Xander's body crumpled around Errorphim's fist, he spat saliva and blood alike into the hand that held him by the face before he was tossed aside and sent tumbling through the dirt like worthless garbage.
In the next instant the sand around Errorphim exploded upward to reveal a pyramid of ice spikes gunning for his head, but unfortunately a shockwave of BRAVE power blew that ice to smithereens before it ever got close to the mad god, electrocuting The Anarchist under his heel in the process. Immediately after that crackling orange Light faded Errorphim had to lean back out of the path of Predator's Ghoul Scythe slash. Lexi - who had dove at Errorphim to try and cut him - spun in air, kicking out one foot and planting it in the mad god's jaw.
A frigid shockwave capitalized Lexi's kick, and Errorphim was sent sliding back a few feet, freeing Anthony from under his foot. The moment the mad god stopped sliding back and the moment Lexi landed beside her prone friend, Errorphim's jaws snapped open and he lurched forward. The Predator's eyes snapped open wide as that all encompassing white Light exploded in a laser from the maw of Order's Mad God, he was far too close for her to dodge.
But, just before the blast crashed into Lexi, Anthony arms reached up from beneath and wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her down to kneel with him behind the sapphire shield he lifted. A cone of boiling ivory death exploded out around them, and Anthony winced as his arm trembled and struggled to keep his shield up and keep the both of them shaded from that lethal Light. Hastily Lexi reached out and planted her own hands on the shield, grunting and growling right with Anthony to keep it in place.
Errorphim kept his feet planted and he kept that beam blasting, even as Chaos Bombs exploded apart on his back. He lifted one foot and stomped closer to the two of them, angling his beam further down at the both of them and then taking another stomp forward. It wasn't long before he was looming right over the both of them, firing his laser straight down into Anthony's shield. The Anarchist and The Predator both knelt there as the sand underneath them turned to glass, pushing with all their might up into the death downpour.
CRACK!
A bolt of Dark lightning crashed into the side of Errorphim's skull with such force that it knocked the lights out in his eye sockets for a second. The mad god's head was shoved to the side and the laser firing out of his maw dwindled to nothing by the time another lightning bolt cracked through the air, this one blasting into his shoulder and making him pivot. The third bolt smashed into his chest, and the mad god was stumbling back by the time the forth bolt exploded right between his eyes.
"If I'm not allowed to burn Lexi alive than neither are you!" Xander snarled as he whipped his hand forward, sending another quick blast of lightning into the mad god. There was still blood on his lip as he took another step forward and threw more Dark voltage Errorphim's way, forcing him further back and punching another shadowed hole in his shining aura. The mad god's furious eyes locked onto The Gatherer, his teeth ground with the searing pain of those shadows slithering over his bones while Xander raved on. "The audacity! The nerve! Did one of those souls I fed you turn you into a prick or were you always this way?!"
Errorphim took a step forward, but then another bolt of lightning forced him to step back. Chaos Bombs kept making him wince, exploding against his back over and over. Chunks of black ice were starting to fly in from all directions, exploding apart on his unbreakable bones and splattering more shadow across his perfect form. Darkness was pouring over him and it burned. It hurt, like knives. Like melting. Like glitching, like dusting...
Errorphim's sockets clenched shut tight and his fists clenched tighter. He stood there, unmoving as more and more pain splashed across his body. Over and over, forcing him back further and further. Anthony and Lexi were standing from that scorched glass crater now, Jevil was floating beside Xander and mimicking his arm movements as he sent more Chaos Bombs flinging at Order's Mad God. And Anthony looked on as more and more Darkness poured over Errorphim's body. As his bones trembled and his teeth grit, as the world revolved and the music blared... Suddenly, Anarchy's eyes snapped open wide, and he shouted out. "MOVE! NOW!"
Lexi only had a split second to furrow her brows at The Anarchist's demand before he'd spun and ducked under her extended arm, grabbing her and throwing her over his shoulder. The moment Anarchy's feet kicked off the glass floor they stood upon, Errorphim's body moved. The mad god whipped his head back, he threw his arms out to his sides and he spread his wings wide while he screamed. In the next blink, another tidal wave of white Light was exploding out around Order's Mad God.
Xander recoiled at this sudden blast, but Jevil was hardly effected. The jester was still smiling as he grabbed Xander under his arms and immediately launched backwards on his Devilsknife. Beside them Anarchy was lunging with Lexi tossed over his shoulder, and behind them that massive dome of Light was expanding wider and higher. Anthony looked over his shoulder with wide eyes and shrunken pupils, he remembered full well what the last massive dome of Light did. Lexi and Xander stared in awe of that explosion of ivory power, it was as though they were running from an atom bomb's blast radius.
Mako was forced to stop playing her guitar when the crashing winds struck her. She dropped to a knee for fear of being blown off the stage, and she watched in horror as that expanding wave of ERASURE barreled up towards her. Before she could accept death however, George launched over her, snatching her up in his legs and firing back through the sky and away from that doomsday blast.
"UH OH, [[factory reset]]!" Fortunate Spamton leaned back, lifting up his arms in a feeble defense. Hastily he swung his head back and opened his mouth wide, and just as that ERASURE started to burn through the Dark Lake that he stood in, a massive black egg fired out from his throat. The Dark pipis shot past Mako and off towards safety, but the skeleton girl was too busy watching in horror as that all encompassing blast devoured the enormous mech she'd once found so imposing.
George kept flying. His wings buzzed faster and faster as Light crept further and further in... Until suddenly, a single sheet of shadow appeared before him, and he flew right through it with Mako. And Mako watched, shocked and confused, as the world around her so suddenly changed. That black sheet was a window into the wasteland now behind her, and the moment it snapped shut George crashed down into the stone path now beneath them. The Dragonfly wrapped his body around her to protect her from the impact, and Mako clenched her eyes shut and curled in as much as she could while everything shook and crashed around her.
And then, finally... The skidding stopped. And Mako, still trembling with fear and confusion, peeked an eye socket open. When she did, she found a few dozen equally confused and worried faces staring back at her. The new residents of the evacuation center, as well as Clover, Susie, Future, and Melanie all stared with dropped jaws at Mako as she skeptically climbed out of George's cradling limbs. She stumbled a little when her feet hit solid ground, and her head turned left and right to look over the pirates and the king that stood in front of her... Before she lifted her hand, and gave a skeptical wave. "Uhm... Am I dead?"
"... Not yet ya ain't." Clover found words before any of the other astounded onlookers. He crossed his arms under his chest and frowned, nodding his head up towards the screen looming above. George managed to straighten himself out and stand behind Mako, who carefully rested her hand on his head while she looked up.
Mako The Skeleton stared with all others up at that ungodly blast. Once again, she was looking through a screen at a battle that Anthony had to fight. Her free hand clenched into a fist against her skirt, and she tried to accept that there was nothing else she could do.
"It's not expanding anymore!" Lexi called back to Anthony, her hair still flying in the wind as the two of them launched through the air. On her word, The Anarchist planted his feet the moment he crashed back to the ground, skidding on his soles and spinning around to face the shining dome of death in the distance. After he slid to a stop, he lowered his shoulder and let Lexi slide out of his grasp onto her feet. She blinked a few times while she regained her footing on solid ground, before reaching over and thoughtlessly giving Anarchy's bicep a squeeze. He frowned at her for that, and she smiled in return.
Jevil flew to a stop beside the both of them, dropping Xander back onto his feet. The mad clown flexed one of his tiny arms in case Xander wanted to feel his muscle, and The Gatherer glared at him for it. After that, he looked out to the crashing white death in the distance and put his hands on his hips. He nodded slowly a few times, before glancing back over to Lexi and Anthony. "Anyone else starting to feel like Sisyphus here?"
"Angel said earlier that the longer this fight goes on, the more powerful Errorphim could get. Something about him gaining more and more understanding of godhood..." Lexi grimaced after that moment of thought. Her eyes drifted back out to the crashing explosion before the bunch of them, and she felt a few drops of cold sweat on her brow when she glanced over to Anarchy from the corner of her eye. "... Uh, where, is Angel, by the way?"
It was at that moment that Lexi's shadow - which was plenty stretched by the flashing light in front of all of them - rippled and darkened. The Predator turned around and watched as one of Anarchy's worms slithered out of her shadow, and she cocked a confused and disgusted brow when it opened its mouth and leaned over. Its body rippled upwards a few times, before it vomited up Angel's unconscious body onto the sand. Lexi and Xander both grimaced at the slimy sheen Angel was now covered in, So Jevil bopped the end of Devilsknife on The Angel's unconscious head and that spite disappeared off his body in the blink of an eye. After that Lexi looked slowly up to Anarchy, who thought to add. "Oh, and George took Mako to the evacuation zone."
"Great!" Lexi said, offering a thumbs up and a smile. Her chipper expression didn't change when she added, "Who's Mako?"
"Who's George?" Xander tacked his question onto Lexi's, squinting with irritation and confusion.
Before Anarchy could answer, however, a crash made all three of them jump. They all spun and looked over their shoulders, spotting the massive black egg that had crash landed behind them. Jevil clapped his hands with glee and pipped up, "Gang's all here, here!"
"Wonderful." Xander stated dryly, before whipping his hand out towards the slowly shrinking blast radius shining before all of them. "Now what do we do about that?"
"So you thought up a plan to rule infinity but you can't think up a plan to kill this dickhead?" Lexi snipped at Xander, turning her tired glare his way.
"I had the resources to rule infinity, but as you can see those are all long gone now!" Xander threw up his arms, furiously gesturing towards the empty desert around them. Errorphim's attack had eaten all those bone pillars, it had eaten the waring bone soldiers, worms, Wyrms, and Skelewyrms. It had eaten Anthony's Lake of Darkness and Fortunate Spamton's massive body. The sky was a glitching mess of those Dark faces and pure white holes that surely lead into nothing but antivoid. Any vegetation and any life had been totally obliterated, they were standing on grey sand. Code was peeling off the dirt, it was breaking away and dragging what remained of this broken reality with it. The world wasn't revolving anymore, it was ending. And all Xander could think to do was snap at Lexi. "What about you, miss space pirate? I haven't heard you offer up an idea!"
Anthony was silent while The Predator and The Gatherer argued. He stared down at Angel, his frown dug deeper into his face as he examined the peaceful expression on his face. If he was awake, Anthony was certain Angel would be able to put something together. Reach out to Chara, figure out a combo move, utilize some knowledge of this world and its mechanics that Anthony had never bothered to learn. He'd never had to learn! Everything before this he could just punch a hole in, but now Anthony was stuck here between a fist-proof rock and fist-proof hard place.
Anthony's eyes drifted down to his fist, which clenched and trembled and was ultimately useless now. Then... He lifted his eyes, and he looked out to his shadow, stretching far ahead of him with Errorphim's burning Light at his back. His shadow, which was far darker than those cast by Lexi and Xander. His fist dropped to his side, and Anthony The Anarchist felt despair twisting in his gut as he stared into The Darkness that clung to him. Killing was all Anthony knew how to do, and there was only one way Anthony could Kill Errorphim.
"... You two need to leave." Anthony's voice returned just in time to bring Lexi and Xander's argument to a screeching halt. The both of their angry expressions turned to those of confusion, and their heads swiveled to look back at Anthony. he looked over his shoulder at them with lightless eyes while he gave further instruction. "Take Angel and escape back to the evacuation zone."
"Don't hate that part of the plan." Xander admitted honestly. But, then he crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side. "But, what about you?"
"... If I let my soul turn totally black, I'll have the power to kill Errorphim." As Anarchy spoke, he lifted his hand to The Gatherer and The Predator. The both of them recoiled a little at his words, and they both watched as his scarlet soul manifested in his grasp. Anarchy's frown dug deeper into his face as they looked upon his soul, and he added on. "Only problem is I'm gonna wanna kill everybody else too, and I'm not gonna wanna change back."
"... Are you certain?" Xander spoke first, his voice was hushed and deathly serious. It made sense, Xander was a Fortune and a Fortune knew how horrific a world with an immoral Ghoul could be. In Xander's eyes, Anthony could see the countless news reports and newspapers the last Fortune had watched and read. In Anthony's eyes, Xander could see The Killer, and it terrified him.
"I tried to do it earlier while you two were out, but I couldn't control myself. If Mako hadn't talked me down when she did..." Anthony trailed off. His scarlet eyes glossed back to the soul in his hand; it was heavy. Anthony's eyes narrowed like something inside him stung, and then he forced out a few more words of explanation. "When I'm The Killer, its like everything I was before that starts to disappear. Like... Like I was never supposed to be me. Like I've been reset back to whatever awful path my dad had in mind for me when he conceived me."
"But Mako got you back to normal, and I'd bet Angel could do the same!" Lexi finally spoke up. There was a certain franticness and a certain desperation in her voice, and Anthony hated hearing it. She forced a smile and shook her head, "So stop being so dramatic! I bet you won't even need anybody to pull you out of it this time, I know you Anthony and I know you-"
"You also know the Ivory Ghoul." Anthony cut her off so suddenly that Lexi flinched. That fake, carefree expression melted as Lexi stared into Anarchy's stern stare. And his expression remained like stone for a second or two... Before he sighed quietly and relented. "Look, I'm hoping you'll all be able to drag me back too, that's why I need you to get out of here."
"So we hop out of the timeline, let you kill Errorphim, slap Angel awake, and hop back in to get you to relax." Xander shrugged his shoulders casually, frowning at both Anthony and Lexi. "Seems like a pretty easy plan to me. I'm not sure why we're still standing here talking about it."
"You need to understand, there's a very real possibility that I can't be talked down. Mako caught me off guard before, The Killer will be ready for it this time." Anthony looked back over his shining red soul to Xander, narrowing his eyes in a deathly serious glare. "And the damage that The Killer can do to this multiverse is on the same level as what Errorphim can do to it."
Xander and Lexi were both silent then. They stood there, and they stared skeptically, but Anthony knew that they understood. He wasn't a liar, he wouldn't say that he could cause that much destruction if it wasn't true. So, The Predator and The Gatherer stood and stared and tried to comprehend this new knowledge. How could it be that Anthony was that strong? How could another Fortune City kid hold the power to kill a god and destroy this multiverse, and how could he have had it the entire time? Anthony settled his eyes forward, his soul disappeared from his grasp and he stepped past the both of them while he explained.
"... My entire life, I've felt a disconnect. I wasn't like any other human in Fortune City, and I'm not like any of the monsters here. The only time I've felt like I was with someone who's like me..." Anthony paused, a few paces in front of his comrades. He stood and he stared into the fading shine of Errorphim's ERASURE, wind was blowing in from behind him. Air was pouring into that dead space left behind when Order's Mad God ERASED everything in his blast radius. Anthony The Anarchist frowned deeper. He narrowed his eyes, and his hands crackled with red electricity when he clenched them at his sides. "Was when I was fighting him."
Anarchy didn't look back at his friends after he said that, and he didn't hear them say anything either. So, after letting his words hang in the air for another moment... Anthony took another step forward. His scarlet soul appeared burning on his chest, and he took a deep breath. The Anarchist tried to enjoy what he knew could be his very last breath, and then the left side of his soul began to Darken... Before Lexi grabbed him by the hand, yanked him back around, and slapped him so hard across the face that the sound echoed through the desert. Xander and Jevil both winced.
"Listen to me you melodramatic muscle martyr!" Lexi's finger jabbed incessantly into the chest of The Anarchist, who slowly reached up to rub the scalding red hand print on his cheek. He gradually turned his head back from where Lexi had slapped it to look down at The Predator. He was shocked, staring wide eyed down into the furious expression of his friend as she snarled up at him. "Of all the stupid shit I've done, the only thing I regret is leaving you to die in that warehouse!"
"Lexi..." Anthony's brows furrowed sadly, and he shook his head to try and dismiss her regrets. He lifted his hand and opened his mouth to say more, but she slapped his hand back down and cut him off.
"Don't 'Lexi' me! I ran away and left you to die and now that I've got you back I am NEVER doing it again!" Lexi went right back to jabbing her finger into Anarchy's chest. She stomped forward with such force that The Anarchist found himself taking a step back. Her teeth grit and her lips peeled back in a snarl and a vein popped out on her forehead while she made a furious declaration. "I don't care if you're a human or a monster or a god, you're my friend and I am NEVER leaving you behind! Got it?!"
"Ack-!" Anthony's head was dragged down some when Lexi snatched ahold of his ear to make sure he was listening. After she started to twist and tug on his ear, he finally relented, frantically waving his arms for mercy. "Okay, okay! I get it!"
"Good!" Lexi released Anthony's ear and took a step back, letting him lift his head back up and rub his earlobe, which was steaming just a little with healing DETERMINATION. Lexi put her hands on her hips and looked over to Xander, who'd crossed his arms over his chest. He was smirking at this interaction though; she knew he wouldn't admit it, but Lexi thought Xander looked glad to stay by Anthony's side. Smiling at that, The Predator held her head high and got to barking orders. "Alrighty then! Here's the plan! First, we-!"
Pain shot through Anthony's right shoulder. It fired straight through his shoulder blade and out of his pectoral muscle, a white Light death beam fired at incomprehensible speed through his body. And, to Anthony's horror, it continued on its arch, barreling towards the space between Lexi's eyes. It was moving too fast, Anarchy could barely even see it let alone move to stop it. In that instant, with all his might and all his reach, The Anarchist couldn't do anything. But Jevil could.
Lexi hardly had the time to register anything. She was in the middle of talking, and then suddenly there was a bright flash. And she'd hardly even had time to wince her eyes before suddenly something was slamming into the side of her head. Jevil's smaller body crashed into her head and shoulder with so much force that she was thrown off balance and out of the way of the laser.
There was no sound. No noise, no warning and no objection. Anthony's pupils shrunk in shock and horror as he watched that beam of Light fire clean through Jevil's Dark body, blasting in the mad jester's chest and out his back. The force of the blast made his small body lurch forward, and the moment the burning Light beam disappeared, Anthony's prophet plummeted from the air.
"Jevil!" Finally, motor function returned. Anarchy darted forward, and with his one good arm he reached out and caught Jevil, dropping to a knee in the sand. To his right Lexi propped herself up on her elbows, staring with wide eyes and shrunken pupils at the one that was dying in her place. Over Anthony's left shoulder Xander could only spare Jevil a glance before turning his eyes in the direction that beam had fired from.
"Uee hee hee..! T-the switcheroo..!" Anarchy's mad clown giggled in spite of the Light burning hole in his solar plexus. Anthony's mouth hung open for words, and when none came he just shook his head in disbelief and dismay. Jevil was hardly as lost though, giddily going on through his wincing. "Oldest trick in the book, book..!"
"I-! But-! Why did..?! What?!" Anthony stumbled and stammered over words. He was trying to make sense of his prophet's actions, but it didn't add up. Jevil had always been on Anarchy's team, sure, but he wasn't a 'good guy' and Anarchy knew that. So what reason did he have to take a bullet for some woman he didn't even know? It was all Anarchy could do to demand, "Jevil, explain!"
"Live, don't live... Doesn't really matter to me, me..!" Jevil found the strength to lift his arms and shrug, even as his yellow eyes sunk a little more into his face. His shaky hands had dropped Devilsknife, it laid useless in the sand. His entire body was covered by Anthony's shadow. "I've had my fun, my game is done... But hers has just begun."
"..." Anthony furrowed his brows at Jevil's words. His frantic expression turned to something more contemplative, and he turned his head to look over towards Lexi. She lifted her shoulders in a slow shrug and shook her head; she must not have had a clue what Jevil was talking about either. Anthony turned his head to look back to the dying clown in his arm, and his eyes relaxed to show emotions a little more gentle. Jevil's features were getting harder to make out, he was blending in more and more with Anarchy's shadow. His body was getting lighter... So Anthony spoke mercifully. "Thank you for all your help, Jevil. You're free now."
"Free, free..?" Jevil's heavy eyelids lifted just a little to look upon the face of his master, and his tired lips curled just a little higher in their smile while his body relaxed. As he dissipated into Anarchy's shadow, his voice echoed out of The Dark one last time. "Chaos Incarnate, you're too kind..! Uee hee hee..."
Anthony's kind expression tensed when he felt Jevil's weight disappear from his grasp. His eyes narrowed, his pupils trembled when they landed upon a single playing card left in his open palm. A joker card, set aside and left behind from the rest of the deck. There was a hole burned in its center.
"It's too bad, really." Anarchy didn't react when he heard Errorphim's voice. He remained knelt there, shadow dripping over his eyes as he stared down into the hole punched card in his grasp. By his sides Lexi and Xander were both standing at the ready; they watched anxiously as the shape of Order's Mad God became clear in the fading shine of his ERASURE. That dome of Light fully vanished, revealing Errorphim's malevolent smile. The mad god held his arms out to his sides, floating across the decimated wasteland and ever closer to the glitches he sought to destroy. "I was hoping to make his death slower and more painful. Now I'll have to torture one of you twice as long."
"That plan'a yours didn't happen to include Jevil, did it?" Gatherer tilted his head towards Predator while he asked his question. Like her, he stood with his knees bent, spring loaded and ready to move. Black electricity crackled on his smoking finger tips.
"Hinged on him, actually." Lexi responded, leaning in towards Xander some but also not taking her eyes off Errorphim. This news was so terrible that it made Xander laugh.
Anthony still didn't speak and didn't move. He was a statue there, looking through the hole punched card. As though he was hoping for one last hint, one last bit of wisdom, one last gift from his prophet. But all he could see through that burnt lens was Angel, face down and unconscious. Anthony's eyes narrowed... And then he heard Errorphim taunting him. "What's the matter, Killer? If you're sad about the circus freak, don't worry. You'll be with him soon enough."
The air pressurized. Lexi looked over at Anthony, and she grimaced some at the way his shadow wriggled and writhed beneath him. The Anarchist stood then, his body lifted without a moment's strain back to its feet. His head still hung though; with his back to Errorphim, he continued to stare through the hole in that joker card and at the back of Angel's head. Errorphim squinted irritably at this defiance, and the fact that the hole his Light had burned in Anthony's shoulder was rapidly closing.
Suddenly, Anthony turned his body and looked over his shoulder at Errorphim. When he did, the shadows slipping over his face were washed away by the mad god's radiance, and the black iris of his right eye was revealed. The joker card in his hand vanished into his inventory, and in its place his crowbar appeared. His lips peeled back into a snarl, and his shield reappeared on his right arm.
You better wake your ass up quick, Angel. I said if Xander made a god we'd kill him together, and I'm no liar.
"A prize..?" I repeated back to The Killer, squinting suspiciously down at him. I shook my head to show my lack of trust in his words, "What could you have possibly given me that would'a followed me to Undertale? Y'know, other than trauma."
"Isn't it obvious?" The Ghoul on the swing arched a brow at me and gave his own disbelieving shake of his head. When I didn't have the apparently obvious answer he groaned dramatically, and then held up his open palm. Over his hand, a shining red heart with a green outline and another white outline around the first appeared. Killer stated what I already knew, "This is your soul."
"Ya don't say?" I crossed my arms and tilted my head with my sarcastic question. Killer smiled without an ounce of amusement, before flicking two fingers out towards the soul in his hand. On this command, the white outline split off from the mass of my soul, taking on the shape of a smaller upside down heart floating just behind the red and green culmination.
"This is the sum of everything monsterkind gave you when you first got here. All the magic and Asgore's soul melded together into this magic battery, which if you couldn't guess is what gives you your wide range of magic ability." Killer explained in a bored and matter-of-fact tone, and though I'd started incredulous I was now watching with some intrigue as he broke down the layers of my soul. He flicked his fingers in the opposite direction then, and the red of my soul pulled forward and away from the central mass, taking on the shape of a burning red heart. "This is your DETERMINATION. A secondary trait that I taught you - you're welcome - that masks your KINDNESS and gives you a lot of your physical ability. It also handles most'a your regeneration."
"Okay... And, the middle part?" I tilted my head and arched a brow as I asked, keeping my arms crossed over my chest. The red heart in the diagram pulled to the right and the white heart pulled to the left when Killer split his two extended fingers apart, revealing the emerald heart between them. But, I furrowed my brows with some confusion. I'd expected the center heart to be totally green, but...
"This is your original soul, the one you were born with. Without any magic or any new trait taught to you, this is the baseline of everything that you are." After Killer explained that, he leaned forward some, peaking his head around the soul diagram. He pointed with one finger at that green heart. Or, more specifically, at the jagged, out of place, bright red shard that made up the soul's center. He grinned from ear to ear and asked sarcastically, "Wanna guess what that is?"
"... Oh shit." I reached up with one of my crossed arms and pinched the bridge of my nose, clenching my eyes shut tight. Giddily, Killer threw his arms back into the air and explained.
"That's right! It's me!" Killer exclaimed with excitement. He was plenty amused by how disturbed I looked, and he kept his chipper tone as he went on with details. "What, did'ja think I was just some manifestation of your conscience too? Not a chance, little Angel! You've got a piece of my soul at the center of yours!"
"Eww..." I grumbled, absentmindedly placing one hand over my chest and scratching at it anxiously. I winced some while I leaned in, getting a closer look at that diagram and not getting any relief from it. After looking for a moment and only finding more discomfort, I looked past it to The Killer. "How is that possible? What did you do?"
"Like I said, there was a reward for winning my game." Killer calmed down some, his grin returned to a slimy smirk as he relaxed back into his seat. "You killed me before everything I am could be given to Anthony, Angel. You killed me before he could get my entire soul. So, naturally..."
Killer lowered his head then, shadows slithered across his face. They covered all but his shining red eyes and the gleaming fangs that made up his smile. My frown dug deeper into my face, my brow trembled some as I scowled at him. And underneath us, the both of our shadows were slithering and giggling at Killer's words. "That last piece went to you, little Angel. Congratulations."
"..." I remained quiet, my eyes laid on the shadows under our feet. Silently I contemplated, turning my back on Killer and taking a few thoughtful paces to try and make sense of this news. I stopped after just a few steps though, glancing back over my shoulder at him with a deathly serious expression and asking. "Do all Angels have a piece of your soul?"
"How do you think you woke up to fight Errorphim in the first place?" Killer tilted his head and arched a brow, continuing to smirk in his devilish way. The soul diagram vanished, and he gladly explained. "Errorphim wished for you, Lexi, Xander and even Anthony to be in suspended animation when he released that huge blast that engulfed you all. His Divine Will killed your bodies, but your souls persisted. If Character hadn't wished for the four of you to wake up, you would all still be laying lifeless where he left you."
"So people other than you can... 'Make a wish'?" I looked forward again. One hand on my hip, I used the other to scratch my head. Here I'd thought Killer had ran out of surprises for me... I grumbled quietly, frustrated by my own lack of understanding. Looking back over my shoulder at Killer I demanded to know, "How does any of this Divine Will shit even work?"
"It's really not so different from the way the red souls in this reality can play with time and refuse death, it just has a lot more potential." Killer stated, as though somehow bending reality was more simple than it sounded. "To make a wish, you have to want something more than anything. You have to demand that reality change louder than the entire universe demands reality stay the same. That's Divine Will, Angel."
I looked forward again, lowering my head and staring down at the woodchips. It sounded like whatever Killer was talking about required an incredible focus...
"I wanted Anthony to be born more than Fate wanted me to disappear. Anthony wanted a second chance to destroy you more than space and time wanted our home reality to stay separate from the one we're in now." That last sentence got me to whip my head back around and give Killer a shocked look. I wanted to immediately grill him for answers on what he meant; was he implying that all of us were here because Anny made a wish that punched a hole in space time?! Unfortunately, Killer had more to say and didn't feel like being side tracked. "Errorphim wanted the Fortune City Four to remain frozen more than this multiverse wanted you to stop him, and Character wanted the four of you to wake up and stop Errorphim more than he wanted you to stay buried."
"To mold the rigid shape of reality, to change a hopeless dream into an irrefutable truth." Killer's smile sunk into an intense frown. He leaned forward in his seat, rested his elbows on his knees and stared at me with eyes that had seen beyond what I knew and understood. "That is the power of a god."
"..." I stood there in the wake of Killer's words, unable to find my own to respond with. I had turned to face him, but my head was lowered. I lifted my left hand, and I stared into the red cracks burned into my skin. The pain I suffered, because I used a power that my body couldn't handle... I lifted my head enough to look at Killer from under my eyebrows, and I asked quietly. "... Have I, made a wish?"
"You wanna know something funny, Angel? You've come real close twice now." Killer narrowed his eyes and offered a small smirk, lifting his hand to show that he'd brought his index finger and thumb just a centimeter apart. Then, he lowered his hand and sat up some, his smile widening with a knowing edge. "And both times, you wanted to make the same wish:"
Suddenly, two separate screens appeared. One to my right, the other to my left. I looked to my right first, and my brows furrowed. My lips were slightly parted, but no words left me as I looked at myself through that screen. I was floating on Mount Ebott, back before its peak was flattened. Encased in red light, with two wings spread wide behind me. The Archangel... I turned my head to my left, and my pupils shrunk when I saw myself floating over a courtyard, a scarlet tornado whipping around me. The red energy had formed into the face of a man at the front of that tornado, and I now recognized that face as the same one the man sitting on the swing before me wore. Inside that tornado, I loomed with four wings spread wide. The Cherub... While I stared into my past, Killer leaned forward and whispered the wish I had so desperately wanted to make in those times.
"Save Chara."
My lips closed, my trembling brow became rigid. My expression grew more tense, and I watched those screens until they vanished back into thin air. Then, I turned my eyes back to Killer, and he shrugged his shoulders with a smile. "Both times you managed to get things under control; I never had to let you use my soul. You always found a way to just barely slide by, whether it be through luck or your own resolve. But now?"
Another screen opened behind me, it was massive. The white Light that shined through it washed over me, and I watched my own shadow stretch out to collide with the shadow that was under The Killer. I lowered my head and clenched my fists, my eyes were covered by The Dark of my shadow. I didn't have to turn around to know that on that screen was Errorphim, and in each of his hands were burning red sabers made from Chara's DETERMINATION.
"You're all outta luck, Angel. And you're just one mortal man, you can't stop a god." My body tensed further when I heard those words, my eyes clenched shut tight under their veil of shadow. For just a moment, that massive screen looming behind me flickered. For just a moment, instead of Errorphim holding Chara's blades, it displayed The Killer looming over Granny's broken body. It flickered again, showing instead of Granny's death the view through that basement window. The sight of little Anny on the basement floor, screaming and crying for mercy as his mother raised that crowbar up over her head. The screen changed back to Errorphim, and Killer's voice returned solemnly. "If you really wanna be the hero, there's only one way to make it happen."
"... What's the catch?" I lifted my head just enough for Killer to see the emerald glow of my eyes in my shadowed expression. Surprisingly, The Ivory Ghoul frowned some. It even looked like he winced, and he hesitated before answering...
"... You've got a piece of my soul, but you don't have a Ghoul's body." Killer finally managed to say. His eyes narrowed some, I wondered if a man as awful as him could feel pity or remorse. He shook his head slowly, "To activate the power you'd need to rip a soul out of a god, to overwrite all of Errorphim's Divinity with your own Will... Angel, you'd basically be detonating my soul shard like a bomb. A bomb, that's lodged right in the center of your own soul."
My eyes continued to stare from my shadow, unmoved by those words. The rest of my face was masked in the shadow of Errorphim's Light, all that was visible was the KIND light of my eyes...
"I'm not sure how Character survived making their wish. Maybe it's because they were fused together and the burden was split between them, maybe its because their wish was on a much smaller scale than yours would be, maybe its a combination of both." Killer gave a small shrug of his shoulders, shaking his head again. His expression didn't lighten up in the slightest, but he gave the bad news regardless. "But you? You'll use up all of my soul shard, I'll disappear and you'll be punching a hole in the center of your soul. Without my soul shard, you won't have the power to heal something like that."
"Not to mention all the damage it'll do to your body..." Killer's eyes glossed over to my already cracked left arm for just a moment. Then, he looked back to me, and his scarlet stare narrowed with deathly certainty. "You'll die if you make that wish, Angel."
I had a feeling that was coming, but it didn't make it much easier to hear. I lifted my head, and I looked straight up. The shadows washed off my face, revealing the gentle expression underneath. I thought about Future as I stared up into the same sky I'd spent my whole childhood wishing for. What was that thing he'd said? "It didn't work against Killer, it didn't work against Anarchy, it's not gonna work this time." I guess that made sense now, they were all gods and I was just a mortal man. Errorphim's Light was blindingly bright on my back, but still my Deltarune gleamed through.
"... This isn't your only option, Angel. You don't have to do this." Killer's words drew my attention back to him. He sat in my shadow, protected from the Light shining over my shoulders as he stared up at me with those glowing red eyes. "Anthony won't lose to Errorphim. He was talked back to normal, but if he runs out of options, he will turn back into Anthony The Killer and Anthony The Killer will destroy Errorphim. But, he'll destroy Chara with him, and there's a good chance you won't ever get 'Anny' back."
"... What are you saying?" I narrowed my eyes at Killer, a small frown tugging at my lips.
"I'm saying you can survive. I'm saying that if you want to live to see the peaceful, happy life you wanted you'll have to abandon your best friend and assure the death of the person you love." The corner of Killer's mouth lifted a little when he said that; I don't think that fact made him happy, I think he just appreciated the irony. "Nothing you haven't done before, right?"
I probably should have taken that as a jab, but I didn't. Repeat the worst mistake I ever made to live a lie, or die protecting the happy life that I was willing to kill to get. I huffed with some amusement, the corner of my mouth lifted. I appreciated the irony, too. "... Yeah, but you know I'm not gonna do that."
"Yeahhh, I know..." Killer agreed with a resigned shrug, letting his smile fade. His eyes glossed back to that Miss Delilah flower in his hand. His stare was gentle, and he didn't look back at me when he admitted. "Gotta say, Angel, I'm not sure I would have made the same call. Maybe you and I are more different than I thought."
"... You didn't have to help me out here, you could have just let me lay unconscious until Anny destroyed Errorphim and himself. But, you helped me anyway." As I spoke, that screen vanished from behind me. The blinding Light and the crushing weight of that easy decision was gone, and Killer and I were alone on the playground. Standing there in the woodchips in front of the man that killed my Granny, I cracked a small smile and offered him a hand. "We might be more alike than I thought, Killer."
"It's Genesis." The Ivory Ghoul answered as he reached up from his swing. He took my hand, and I pulled him up out of his seat. When we stood eye to eye on those woodchips, he returned my contemplative smile. "That's the name I gave myself when I woke up in your world. That's... Who I really am."
"Thanks for the help, Genesis." I didn't hesitate to say as I shook the hand of Genesis The Killer. With my free hand in my pocket and my posture relaxed, I gave my usual smirk. "Goodbye."
"It's been a fun ride Angel, so don't mention it." Genesis didn't hesitate to say as he shook the hand of Angel The Hacker. With his free hand holding that sad blue flower and his posture relaxed, he gave his usual grin.
"See you on the other side."
Behind the Fortune City Four, that black egg sunk back into its own shadow and disappeared into The Dark on Anarchy's command. Spamton wasn't going to be of anymore help; truthfully, Anarchy didn't think Lexi and Xander would be either. No matter how he resisted, no matter what he wanted, it was starting to sink in that The Killer was his only way out of this. Even so...
Anthony looked to his left and he looked to his right. Lexi The Predator and Xander The Gatherer. Two people that couldn't heal like he could, couldn't hit like he could. Human beings, friends that were willing to stand with him at the end of the world in spite of the Ghoul blood in his veins. Anthony wished he could trust himself not to forget that. Really, he wished he could get both halves of his heart to agree on one thing to wish for. Then, maybe he could stop the abomination floating closer.
But, he couldn't. The Dark half of his soul wanted destruction and the red half wanted salvation. So there Anthony was, on the thin line between. A razor's edge... He coulda swore Jevil said something about that to him once. Devilsknife sunk into its own shadow, too. Anthony's frown deepened, his knees bent. And the moment he launched off the ground at Errorphim, Lexi and Xander shot forward right with him.
Errorphim watched those three shoot towards him. One left a trail of ice, one a trail of flames, and one a long heavy shadow. It didn't matter now, their time was over. The marks they could leave would be painted over, rewritten and put back on the correct track. This multiverse would be made pure, the glitches would all be destroyed. Order's Mad God waved his hand out towards The Anarchist, The Predator, and The Gatherer, and with his word their bodies grew heavy. "Fall."
Anthony's eyes snapped open wide, his pupils shrunk. Impossible weight crashed down upon him, and his momentum came to a near immediate stop. Lexi and Xander made similar grunts of surprise and of pain to his sides, crashing to the earth on their hands and knees. Anthony landed on his feet, but his knees bent. His shoulders pulled forward, even lifting his head felt impossible. He grunted and growled, struggled and fought... Before dropping to a knee in the sand. His lips peeled back into a snarl, and he forced his head up to shoot Errorphim a glare. "What did you do..?!"
"I wanted you to fall more than any of you wanted to stand." Errorphim tilted his head up just so that he could look down on The Anarchist. His body levitated above the earth that he forced all of them down into, the sand broke away into shards of code as he floated over it. He only paused when he was just a few paces ahead of the three of them. His scowl only grew more harsh as he stared down into all of their pitiful, weakened glares. "You can't defy me. I am a monument to your sins."
"You're an overgrown lab rat..!" Xander refuted, even though lifting his head alone was enough to make another few drops of cold sweat break out on his forehead. Even on his hands and knees he found the strength to bark insults at the god lording over him. "And if I'd..! Known you'd be so hard on the eyes..! I would've left you in that fuckin' test tube..!"
Errorphim' was silent as his glare slowly pivoted over to The Gatherer. Then, he lifted his hand, and violet strings fired off of his finger tips. Whips of pure PERSERVERANCE snatched Xander from the earth, they wrapped around his arms, legs, chest, and especially tight around his throat to assure no more scathing remarks made their way out of his mouth. In the place of those harsh words were agonized grunts and cries, the Light of Errorphim's PERSEVERANCE burned Xander's heat resistance skin. Errorphim reiterated over Xander's cries, "I am a monument to your sins, and the four of you are a shining example of everything disgusting and wrong in this god forsaken multiverse!"
"Let him go..!" Lexi The Predator so boldly demanded of Order's Mad God. She shoved up with all her might, and she even managed to get a knee under herself. But then Errorphim reached out towards her with his free hand, and cyan Light flashed on his finger tips. Immediately Lexi was yanked from the earth, her body was flattened to be stiff as a board. Everything below her neck was trapped in a coffin of PATIENT energy, and it squeezed so tight that she could feel her bones and joints creak under the pressure. "Augh!"
"DETERMINED souls with PATIENT and PERSEVERANT eyes!" Errorphim hissed furiously as his shining glare darted between Lexi and Xander. The both of them had to clench their eyes shut and tilt their head back, they were gritting their teeth to keep from screaming out in agony. Errorphim's fingers tensed, and The Gatherer and The Predator muffled their screams with their teeth. "You're wrong, both of you! An affront to what you were supposed to be!"
"A man born to be unshakeable, someone who was supposed to PERSEVERE through his struggles without ever giving up on what he believed." Errorphim turned his head towards Xander, who managed to peak one violet eye open. Those violet strings pulled him closer to Errorphim so that the mad god could better berate him. "Instead you are a greedy, paranoid, power hungry, insecure tyrant! You gave up on your people, you turned your back on all your beliefs and you were willing to sacrifice everyone who ever believed in you so long as it meant you were in control."
"I mean, I remember it..! A little differently-! Ack!" The wire around Xander's neck squeezed tighter to shut him up. He struggled to wheeze down a breath while Errorphim turned his glare towards Lexi The Predator.
"A woman born to be thoughtful and calculating, someone who was supposed to have the PATIENCE to wade through her struggles without losing hope." Xander was yanked back away from Errorphim and Lexi was pulled closer in her PATIENT prison. If she'd had the strength, she would have spat in Errorphim's face. But she didn't, so all she did was grit her teeth and glare as he went on. "But look at you! A stubborn, hard-headed, impulsive adrenaline junky! You couldn't set your feelings aside and you couldn't make the decisions that needed to be made time and time again, and now you and all those glitches you call friends are going to die because of it."
"That..! Isn't..! True..!" Lexi stubbornly refuted, but just like Xander, Errorphim flicked his wrist and dragged her suspended body back away from himself. Then, his glare carried forward. He looked right over The Anarchist, and when his eyes settled on the body laying motionless in the distance his teeth ground together.
"And him." Hatred boiled in Errorphim's voice, it bubbled up out of his mouth in a low growl. Xander and Lexi both managed to peak an eye open and look back to Angel, who had not moved from his place in the sand. His eyes hadn't opened. He was sleeping through the end of the world.
"Angel The Hacker, you were supposed to be KIND! You were supposed to be friendly, forgiving, merciful, HONEST!" Errorphim roared across the valley of shadow and death, but even the words of a god couldn't reach The Angel laying in the dirt. The mad god's teeth ground into each other, just like Character had ground their heel into his shattered ribs in his last life. His eyes darted back down to Anthony, who was sweating and panting and glaring up at him as he went on. "But instead, we are all standing here because of HIM! Because he lied, betrayed, killed, and tortured! Because he is the worst among all of you wretches! Because he is GLITCHED AND WRONG!"
For just a moment, Lexi, Xander, and Anthony glanced back to The Angel. They knew the pain he'd caused them all, they knew it better than the ever knowing god that loomed and lorded over them all. And even with that knowledge, they did not forsake The Angel, because they knew he was laying broken there because he tried to save them. Anthony The Anarchist turned his head back to Errorphim, and he pushed desperately into the sand. He fought and he fought against the overbearing gravity, he resisted Errorphim's Divine Will...
"So, before I destroy you all, I'll do you a favor!" Above The Angel laying flat on his face, a shining spike of bone manifested. Lexi and Xander both went wide eyed when they spotted it looming high over Angel, they struggled to no avail. Errorphim grinned wickedly, and he gave his order. That bone drilled downwards, and Errorphim cackled. "I'll kill the man that ruined you all first!"
THUNK!
Blood splattered down beside Angel's head, a drop or two dripped onto his cheek. And Anthony grit his teeth as he stared down at the unconscious body of his best friend beneath him, he tried to keep the blood in his mouth from spilling out past his teeth and onto Angel. The blood dripping out around the bone that stabbed clean through his back and out his abdomen though, there wasn't much he could do for. He was on his hands and knees, his body huddled above Angel's to provide him with a shield for that spike that'd tried to skewer him. His pupils were shrunken and trembling, his body was shaking...
"... But most egregious of all is you, Anthony." Errorphim's smile faded as he looked at Chaos Incarnate, using his own body to shield his abuser. His eyes narrowed with nothing short of hate, and he shook his head in disgust as he went on. "You were born with Divine Will. You are a higher being, and you waste your time playing with lower life forms."
Anthony didn't say anything. He gasped for breath, and he spat up a few globs of blood as he slowly sat back into a kneeling position in front of Angel's body. His back was to Errorphim, and his somewhat shaky vision focused in on the spike jutting out of his guts. Its Light burned...
"More than that, you were born for destruction. Your creation was meant to spell devastation for any and all life..." Errorphim's browbones drew near, his eye sockets trembled with fury as he watched The Anarchist slowly rise to his feet with that bone still stuck in his core. Errorphim hissed at this display, "But instead you're here. Rejecting everything you are and sacrificing your infinite life for the same mortals that rejected you! You're a coward, a liar, a glitch and a disgrace!"
"... Yeah..?" Anarchy turned his body some. He looked over his shoulder at Errorphim, the mad god could see the blood running down his chin and the cold red in his eyes. Anthony reached up with one hand, he wrapped his fingers around the blood soaked bone jutting out of his abdomen. And he didn't wince, he didn't flinch as he pulled it forward. Errorphim scowled as he dragged that bone all the way through his body, before he tossed it aside and pivoted to fully face the mad god. "And what about you?"
"What?" Errorphim growled with immediate aggravation. He could see the red mist pouring out of the hole he'd punched in The Anarchist, he hated that he was still standing.
"Ain't you supposed to be a jolly fat skeleton?" Anthony's eyes squinted and Errorphim's widened. The Anarchist lifted his foot, he started taking effortless steps towards Order's Mad God while asking incredulously. "Shouldn't you be sittin' at a bar somewhere crackin' jokes and harassing your brother?"
"Don't you talk about my brother!" Errorphim hissed, his wings shifting. His aura crackled furiously around him, but still the beaten and bloodied Anarchist walked fearlessly closer.
"What brother? You don't have a brother, dwarf. You aren't fat, you aren't jolly, and if you are makin' jokes they fuckin' suck." Anarchy's frown cracked deeper into his stony expression, his teeth grit furiously. He marched right up to Order's Mad God, he stood right in front of him and he glared up into the infinite power of Errorphim's Light with nothing but a crowbar and a shield. He didn't need his Scorpion tail to sting Errorphim. "Even if you kill everybody, this multiverse still won't be clean. Because you'll still be here, and you're a glitch too."
For just a second, the entire multiverse was quiet. Anthony The Anarchist snarled up at Order's Mad God like he wasn't any different from the weak morons he cannibalized back in Fortune City and like he could eat the mad god just like he ate them. Errorphim stared back, wide eyed and mortified by Chaos Incarnate's stinging words. His eye socket twitched, the very same eye socket that was melted in a past life. He frowned and grit his teeth with a mouth that was only ever supposed to smile. The wings he was never meant to have trembled... And then, Errorphim screamed.
Anarchy winced into the pillar of Light that blasted up around Order's Mad God. The force of its eruption made him to skid back a few steps, but he kept his eyes on the roaring Errorphim. The sound was deafening, his scream made the entire world shake around them. Waves of color fired out of that pillar, tinting everything in their Light before being replaced by the next color. First cyan, then orange, then blue, then purple, then green, then gold, and finally red. All throughout, Anarchy watched the shadow of Errorphim's form in that pillar grab his head and hunch forward. Anthony gladly threw more fuel onto the fire, roaring up into that deafening scream, "You're a coward! And a liar! And a glitch! And a disgrace!"
Finally, the glowing red eyes of Errorphim's shadow in that shining Light refocused on Anthony The Anarchist. And as all that overflowing power suddenly sucked back into its epicenter, that roar reached a new pitch. Order's Mad God screamed, frantic and enraged like some lowly animal. He fired down from above, pulled back his crackling left fist and wished with all that he was to smite The Anarchist. "SHUT! UUUUUPPPP!"
Anarchy's eyes widened, Errorphim was cracking down towards him like lightning. It was all he could do to lift his shield and brace himself, and the moment he finished doing that Errorphim's fist hammered into the Deltarune painted on that sapphire guard. The power of his strike was so intense that a shockwave blasted across the wasteland, tearing sand into code shards in an instant. More impressive than that, however, was the crack it sent running through Anthony's shield.
Anthony's eyes widened in shock as he watched his shield crack, and Errorphim didn't relent. Planting his feet in the same filth that all lower lifeforms walked upon, Errorphim pulled back his other fist and sent his knuckles crashing down into Anthony's shield. Another white flash decimated layer after layer of code, and Anarchy's teeth ground together as he watched another crack slither through his shield. His heels dug deeper into the sand, he didn't have time to move before Errorphim's fist hammered back into his shield.
The layer of sand Anarchy had dug his heels into was obliterated in another shockwave, and the Deltarune branded on the front of his shield was splintered by another crack. His knees threatened to buckle when another punch hammered down, and they did by the time the fifth fist struck. Even still, he resisted. Errorphim wished death upon him time and time again, and each time the Will of The Anarchist proved indominable. Another punch, and another. Flakes of skin were burning off of Anarchy's arms, a spiderweb of cracks defaced the Deltarune on his shield. It's sapphire color was turning to a boiling hot white.
Another punch, and another. Anarchy huddled for dear life under his shield, his Darkborn skin was burning and his chest was heaving for air. He remembered how gruesome some of the Summers were when he was a boy. The endless burn, the sun shined even through the clouds. The heat sweltered even in the night, he couldn't escape the burning... Errorphim pulled back his fist, and he screamed once more as he brought it crashing down into the very center of The Anarchist's shield.
CRASH!
Anarchy's wincing eyes widened, his pupils shrunk in horror. Errorphim's fist blasted right through that Deltarune, and the shards of Anthony's shield were sent flinging uselessly in all directions. Errorphim's knuckles barreled through Anarchy's defenses, and they scorched his face when they blasted into his chin. Another white shockwave blew apart the desert, and Anthony was sent skidding on his back across the brutal sand. He fired through the valley of shadow and death, digging a trench with his flesh.
Anthony skidded for a ways, before finally he slowed to a stop merely a foot or two from The Angel's prone body. White steam was rising off of his burning flesh, blood dripped down his bottom lip and streamed down his forehead from his hairline. It even trickled out of one of his nostrils. With those knuckle burns on his jaw, The Anarchist let his head fall back limp. His body aching and burning, his vision struggled to focus in on the face of his brother, also laid out in the sand. But, when it finally did... He realized my eyes were starting to open.
As soon as consciousness returned to me I felt pain. My Deltarune was still burning on my back, my left arm was numb and my right was screaming about the multiple breaks and dislocations. Still I lifted my heavy eyelids, and when I did I saw Anny's stunned red eyes staring back at me. They were a welcome change over Genesis's malevolent stare. And in spite of my dry and aching throat, I opened my mouth and tried to speak. "A-Anny..?"
Anthony's lips curled upwards a little, and he opened his mouth to respond. But, before any sound could come, the red soul on his chest flashed to blue. In an instant Anthony was ripped out of the sand. I watched, mortified, as he was dragged through the air until his throat slammed into Errorphim's grasp. The mad god's glowing white fingers snapped closed around his throat, and my pupils shrunk in horror when I heard him cry out in pain. I struggled in the sand, tried desperately to drag one of my dead arms up to reach out for Anny. "W-wait..!"
"You stupid, arrogant little brat!" Errorphim berated as he strangled Anny with one hand. The blue Light of Errorphim's stolen INTEGRITY kept its grip tight on The Anarchist, forcing his arms tight to his sides while Order's Mad God pulled back his free hand and clenched it into a burning white fist. His eye sockets flashed eight different mad colors while he frothed, "For a being as wretched and wrong as you to call ME glitched..! How dare you?! HOW DARE YOU?!"
"Eat a dick, ya brotherless freak..!" Anny winced an eye open and hawked a shard from one of his broken teeth into Errorphim's face. It dinked off his forehead, and immediately the mad god's eyes opened wider and his snarl pulled back further. Without another moment's hesitation his fist fired downward.
WHAM!
I winced into the violent flash of white Light that came from the impact. For just a split second, I could see through that basement window again. I could see what was happening inside..! I blinked my eyes, my shaky vision returned to normal and my left hand twitched with feeling while I choked out. "A-Anny..!"
"Disgusting hellspawn from another world, that's all you are!" Errorphim told Anny as he pulled his fist back again. Anny's head was still tilted to the side from his last punch, but even with that burn back on his face his eyes still gave Errorphim a lethal glare. But, then that fist blasted into his face again, releasing another blinding flash while Errorphim demanded to know. "Who are you to talk back to me?!"
"I-I'm a glitch..! Just like YOU!" Anarchy's head immediately leaned forward towards Errorphim after being knocked back by that punch, and Errorphim hissed at his harsh truths. He pulled back his fist again, this time to slam it into Anny's gut. He hoped The Anarchist would puke up whatever gave him the gall to backtalk a god, and when he didn't, Errorphim punched him in the gut again. "Agh..!"
My vision flickered and changed in those two flashes of Light, I kept seeing back into that basement whether I wanted to or not. I blinked and shook my head, but I could hear that kid screaming out for help in my ringing ears. My heavy legs started to shift and kick in the sand. My numb, shaking, bloody fingers curled into the dirt. "P-please... Don't..!"
"All those beatings from your mother must have turned you into a glutton for punishment!" Errorphim grabbed ahold of Anny's face. His hand squeezed his head, his boney digits dug into his skin and cut it open. Then, his palm started to glow. Its shine burned Anny's face; he writhed and struggled, but he couldn't break out of Errorphim's cruel grasp. All he could do was scream out in pain, and that made Errorphim grin. "That's it, Killer! Sing for me!"
"No..! No no no..!" My vision flashed and flickered as that Light flared out from Errorphim's hand. I would see the bright, burning shine one second, and then I'd see the twisting Dark of the basement the next. I would see Anarchy writhing and screaming in agony, and then I would see Anthony crying and begging for help. But, I was scared. I wasn't strong enough. My body wouldn't move, I-I couldn't..! "S-... Stop..!"
Errorphim forced Anny down to the ground with that burning grip. The mad god forced him to kneel, kept him restrained under crushing INTEGRITY and mutilated him with his cruel Light. Errorphim loomed over Anarchy, Delilah loomed over Anthony. Tears built in Cter's eyes, they over flowed from Angel's. And as my arms pushed into the sand, and a dim red soul started to appear on my chest, Errorphim kept squeezing his hand and Delilah kept swinging her crowbar.
"I-I can't..! Let you..!" My left iris flickered red under that unforgiving white flare. A few red sparks crackled around my left eye, but they were all blown away in the harsh winds whipping out from where Errorphim and Delilah abused Anarchy and Anthony. Small streams of red steam were starting to trail off my broken arms, and I straightened them against the earth in spite of their many breaks. My body trembled and shook, tears overflowed from my eyes and my teeth grit. "I-I won't let you..! Hurt him..! Anymore..!"
"You lose, Killer! You always lose!" Errorphim snarled over Anarchy's agonized screams. A pillar of Light poured down from the heavens above, and it burned Anny's skin. He remembered every terrible sunburn he got as a kid and he knew he'd trade this horrible searing pain for any of them. This world didn't want him, it never would. Errorphim was a tool for reality, and he existed to cleanse this world of The Anarchist just as the sun existed to cleanse Fortune City of Anthony. No one wanted him, no one was coming to save him, and no one would miss him when he was gone. "You should have just curled up and DIED in that basement like your mommy always wanted!"
"HEY!"
credits song for my death but im the final boss. by Astron started playing.
Over all the hissing Light and over all the giggling Dark, one voice shouted out. And my flickering, changing vision watched as, against all odds, Errorphim and Delilah paused. Their eyes lifted from the one they were abusing, and they saw me. I stood at the end of the world, I reached down through the basement window. Stained with blood, red steam exploding out of the burning cracks in my left arm and light streaming out of the Deltarune on my back. My wide and teary red and green eyes trembled with rage, my lips peeled back to reveal my grinding teeth. My hands clenched into fists, and I made a demand so powerful nothing in this life could hope to deny it.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY BROTHER!"
A shockwave of power ripped across the desert. It tore apart the sand, it crossed the entire wasteland in the blink of an eye, it snuffed out Errorphim's Light and it sent the mad god skidding back a few inches on his heels. A tower of DETERMINATION rocketed into the sky, it was so bright that the whole world turned red. And Errorphim stared, wide eyed and frozen. He had to lift his arm to guard his face from the whipping winds, and he had to come to terms with the fact that he'd released Anny because I commanded him to let my brother go, and he wasn't strong enough to resist.
That shockwave hit Lexi's PATIENT coffin and blew it apart. It hit Xander's PERSEVERANT strings and tore them to nothing. The both of them landed flat on their asses in the sand, and they stared in awe at the twisting tower of red flaring before their eyes. Anny, gasping for breath and steaming scarlet off his burned body, had fallen back onto his elbows after being released from Errorphim's grasp. And as scarlet winds raged around that tower, his eyes focused in on the shadow of my body. His mouth hung open in shock for a few moments, before he managed to whisper. "Angel..?"
Errorphim was shaking. He didn't realize it, but his knees were bending. His shoulders were lowering, his wings were folding in. He was making himself look small. He could feel the pulse of my raging soul, something he hadn't felt since Character ripped him apart at the end of his last life. He felt a pang of fear, it echoed through his souls. And that made his teeth grit, it made his trembling brow steady itself into a furious crease. He pulled his hand back over his shoulder, and a shining white spike of bone appeared in his grasp. He screamed into the raging winds while he launched it like a javelin. "Your tricks won't work on me, Hacker! Not this time!"
That Light javelin blasted through the air at sonic speed. Anthony, Lexi, and Xander all watched in horror as it boomed towards me. It was locked on, aimed right at the flaring red soul on my chest. It closed in, shining with death..! Before a hand caught it just under its point and stopped it dead in its tracks.
"So this is what passes off as a god these days?" A voice spoke clearly through the soul torrent. One hand had appeared in the whipping red winds, and it was pale. Through the shining red, a shape was becoming more and more clear. Some of the energy racing by was catching and stopping, building a body. And Errorphim watched right with the rest of the Fortune City Four and the entire multiverse, as Genesis The Killer appeared in the typhoon of our DETERMINATION. He smiled wickedly, his malevolent scarlet eyes narrowed and his hand clenched around that bone. His grip sent black cracks instantly exploding through the javelin, it broke down into burning black shards and was blown away in the wind while Genesis looked Order's Mad God in the eye and said: "Pathetic."
Another horribly malevolent soul pulse; Errorphim was shaking again. He leaned back, he kept his arms raised to defend against the raging storm as Genesis took a step closer. The Killer wiggled his fingers to let the remaining flakes of Errorphim's attack blow away, and then he stuffed his hand in his pocket just like its opposite hand. And Anthony stared, eyes wide and pupils shrunk just like Lexi and Xander. The Killer didn't look at him though, Errorphim was his focus and that knowledge would have made the mad god's skin crawl if he had any. Genesis tilted his head and narrowed those shining red eyes while the pulse of his vile soul shook the world around him. "You should have spat up Chara's soul like a good dog when you had the chance."
"What is this?!" Errorphim snarled, but his voice - unlike The Killer's - was muffled in the crashing storm. He took a daring step forward, his frantic eyes darted between The Ghoul laid out before him and The Ghoul walking closer. Genesis's smile crept further up his face.
"You're not familiar with divine intervention?" The Killer furrowed his brows, he tilted his head to the other side and feigned confusion. He took another step closer and that wicked pulse made Errorphim flinch. "You spent so much time claiming to be a god, I just figured you'd have some idea of what we're capable of."
"We..? A god..?! You're no god! You're not even real!" Errorphim barked uselessly into that scarlet typhoon. Light flickered over his fingers, but a wave of red blew by and ripped it away from him. Still Errorphim denied, "Just some apparition! Another one of The Hacker's lies!"
"Oh I'm very real, Errorphim." The smile instantly disappeared from the face of The Killer, his glowing eyes went wide and they peered through all seven of Errorphim's souls. Then he lifted one hand from his pocket, and his lips curled once more into a cruel grin as he gestured towards the three humans laid out around Order's Mad God. "Just ask any of my Four; they all know how real I am."
Errorphim's eye sockets twitched as his glare dropped first to Anthony The Anarchist. Anny didn't look back at Errorphim, he just remained there in the dirt. His head turned, his wide eyes were focused on the other albino standing at the end of the earth. He was paralyzed, and when Errorphim looked over his shoulders at The Predator and The Gatherer he found the both of them in the same way. Their eyes wide, their pupils shrunk, and their faces pale. All of these upstart children, who had been nothing but defiant and disrespectful to Errorphim, now refused to move a muscle or say a word in the presence of true evil.
"I am the god of Fortune City, and I HATE false idols." When Errorphim turned his head back to The Killer, he found that grin had peeled back into a ferocious snarl. Staring into those wrathful red eyes, the entire world went black to Errorphim. There was no more desert, there was no more Anarchist, Predator, or Gatherer. He was alone in that instant. Alone in The Dark. Alone with those hungry glowing eyes and the crashing tower of red that loomed just behind their glare. Genesis lifted one hand, and he pointed through that infinite Darkness at Order's Mad God while his voice boomed, "Errorphim, you have blasphemed, and now you will be obliterated!"
Errorphim's body trembled, his eye sockets twitched. The world flickered between reality and that Dark abyss. All that remained the same were those glowing red eyes and the tower of death. In that instant, Errorphim felt small again. Just a short skeleton with one HP, one ATK, and one DEF. The souls trapped inside him were screaming louder with every LOVE filled shockwave, Errorphim felt like he was going to be sick..!
"You interfered in my game, you insulted the mother of my child!" That pulse was a never ending pressure pouring down now. Errorphim placed a hand on his head, he winced and tried to shake away that pitch black hallucination. But it was so hard to tell what was real and what was illusion, even when he wasn't in that abyss he felt like he was under an the pressure of a pitch black ocean. Before him, The Killer's face twisted and warped with wrath. His eyes wide, his pupils shrunk, his lips peeled back and his fangs grinding with holy fury. His straight hair was bristling and standing on end, it reminded Errorphim of The Anarchist. And when Genesis next spoke, when his voice next boomed, that crashing pressure forced Errorphim down onto one knee. "AND YOU PUT YOUR HANDS ON MY BOY!"
Errorphim winced, it was a struggle even to lift his head under the malevolent pressure raining down on him. His fingers clawed furiously at the sand he was being forced to kneel in, and he screamed uselessly into the red tornado that Genesis The Killer loomed in. "What are you?!"
"I AM GENESIS THE KILLER! I AM THE BEGINNING!" The Killer's voice boomed from all sides. Those crashing winds were only getting faster, bolts of scarlet lightning were crashing down at random across the valley of shadow and death. And Errorphim watched right with Anny, Lexi, and Xander as The Killer threw his arms out to his sides and tilted his head back, glaring down his nose at the seven souled god far beneath him. Just as it had came, his body was beginning to break away back into the crimson power swirling behind him. The shape of The Angel behind him was trembling with power, and that pillar was shifting and expanding. Just before he faded back into unyielding soul power, his voice boomed across all the multiverse. "AND THIS! IS! THE END!"
As Genesis broke back down into twisting DETERMINATION, my roar capitalized his statement. Both hands grabbing my head, I straightened my back at ripcord speed and screamed to the shattered sky above. When I did, another world shaking blast of DETERMINATION released, and the tornado of red that surrounded me doubled in size in the blink of an eye. Onyx feathers burst out from my shoulder blades, they spread open wide in the form of twin ink wings. My DETERMINATION poured into the glitched sky over our heads, and I began to float within that quaking scarlet tower.
Errorphim's head tilted upwards after the crushing gravity of The Killer's presence lightened, and his appalled eyes watched as the sky - formerly a glitched mess of broken code clouds and giggling faces - was colored over with red. A crimson sheet spread across the sky in the wake of my DETERMINATION hurricane. It washed over glitching clouds, void holes, and broken faces alike. The scarlet shine of my DETERMINATION blotted out everything above. My very soul was raining down upon this horrible dead world.
In a matter of seconds, the entire sky was red. It vibrated with power, scarlet lightning streaked down in dozens. Those bolts smashed into the sand and ripped across it in whatever direction they felt like, obliterating all in their path. Errorphim's shoulders sunk at his sides, he shook his skull slowly and he tried to comprehend what he was seeing. It looked like hell on earth, and when a white light suddenly flared in that burning sky Errorphim was certain that hell was on earth for him and him alone.
I levitated high in that twisting red storm now, my shadowed form was above all those left in the sand at my feet. I gripped my head with both hands while I roared, lightning blasted off of my body in random directions. But then, finally, I pulled my hands away from myself, threw my arms out to my sides, and I released the wave of power that my grip had been keeping contained. From the center of my back more onyx feathers sprouted, before exploding out of my flesh in the form of two more ink wings.
That white blob of light was molding into a shape over our heads, I knew because I was staring up at it with wide eyes and shrunken pupils. My teeth were grinding, my face muscles were just as tense as every other muscle in my body. So, as green energy flared to life over my head in the shape of a halo, my uppermost wings folded inward. They fell carefully in front of my face, blocking out my strained expression and hiding my red and green eyes from the world.
*Seraph
*ser·aph
*/ˈserəf/
*Plural: Seraphim
*Meaning: "Burning one"
Another shockwave of scarlet energy came, and with it rose another wall of twisting scarlet flames in my DETERMINATION hurricane. My back was arched, my arms out to my sides. My head was tilted back, but my wings hid my face from the world. And as that white light began to take on the final edges of its shape, and more waves of soulfire crashed to the earth, the skin on my lower back shifted. It bubbled and squirmed, before a few black feathers broke through. Then a few more, and a few more after that... Before something gave. A glowing white Deltarune stretched across the burning red sky overhead, and another pair of ink wings fired out from my back and spread wide.
*Placed in the highest rank of the angelic hierarchy, the Seraphim are described as the six winged caretakers of God's throne.
My third set of wings remained stationary for just a moment, spread wide like the wings in the center of my back. But, then, as if they had minds of their own, they folded downward. My back straightened, I could feel my muscles relaxing. Suddenly, it no longer felt like divine power was erupting violently out of my soul. Instead, it was flowing in a controlled and powerful stream. My uppermost wings shielded my face, my center wings remained spread wide so that I could fly, and my lowermost wings shielded my feet. I levitated there effortlessly, face and feet covered with an emerald halo atop my head.
*"... I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly." (Isaiah 6:1–3)
Anny sat there in the sand. He stared up into that red sky, he winced and he perceived the Deltarune that had once adorned his shield now shining across the atmosphere. Then, his eyes laid upon me, floating high above with four more wings than I'd wanted. And Anny frowned with understanding. He narrowed his eyes some, he exhaled quietly, and he yearned for the playground.
Gradually, that tower of flames began to lighten. The sky remained red and its Deltarune brand persevered, but the incredible storm of soulfire that entombed me was calming. As it did, more green energy manifested within the red. Three large rings of light, one perfectly horizontal and two on opposing diagonal axes. All three of those KIND rings were interconnected, and upon each of them the same word was inscribed in a burning red color three times. "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY"
Finally, my body came into view within that crashing tower of DETERMINED embers. The shine of those flames was less blinding then it had been, and Errorphim could watch with his horrified eyes as I began slowly lowering down to the same earth that he'd had to drag himself out of so many times. In another few moments, I was floating just a few inches above the ground. My face and feet covered, my arms held out to my sides and relaxed, my palms facing the sky that I had made holy. The green of my halos reflected in the eyes of Anny, Lexi, and Xander, and the red of my fire reflected in the eyes of Errorphim.
*A Seraph has had the knowledge of God revealed to them...
Gradually, Errorphim forced his body to rise out of the dirt. His legs were shaky, every soul inside him was squirming including the one he was born with. And he stared with shrunken, trembling pupils at the soul shining bright on my bare chest. An unyielding emerald heart with a shining white outline... And a jagged ruby core.
*And that makes a Seraph Divine.
Suddenly, my wings launched back. They pulled away from my face, they pulled away from my feet, and they spread wide behind me. This sudden jerking motion sent ink flying back off of their feathers, it splattered that ink in streaks across the sands behind me. And with that ink thrown off, six shining white wings were revealed. Real wings with real feathers were protruding from my back now. They'd opened with such incredible force that it sent a shockwave blasting forward in a straight line. That shockwave blew past Anny and crashed right into Errorphim, sending the appalled glitch skidding back through the dirt on his heels while he threw up his arms and tried to guard his face from the burning winds.
With my wings now spread wide behind me, my body was revealed. Flames rose out of those shining cracks in my left arm, they encased the limb in their slow but eternal burn. The multicolored soul on my chest was shining bright, its scarlet core was vibrating with intensity. My halo gleamed with KINDNESS, but my eyes were neither red nor green. Instead, they were a vibrant, shining white. And from the both of those eyes, streams of tears gently overflowed. The streams made it about halfway down my stoic expression, before being lifted off of my face and into the air by the updraft of my power.
And as I floated there, suddenly, something shifted at the center of both my uppermost wings. Feathers moved, skin split, and a large eye slowly opened at the center of both wings. Those eyes stared straight forward at Errorphim, and their green irises gleamed with KINDNESS. ... The wings of my dreams.
Then, lower down, my middle wings shifted in the same way. Their centers gradually opened into another pair of eyes. But, these eyes were different from the first. Though they stared ahead at Errorphim in the same way, their irises were red, and they burned with DETERMINATION. ... The wings of my nightmares.
Finally, the centers of my lowermost wings parted. A third pair of eyes were revealed, but these eyes were different from both pairs before them. Their irises did not gleam with KINDNESS and they did not burn with DETERMINATION. Instead, they glowed a gentle white. A white shine far more gentle than Errorphim's. A white shine that reminded him of the hopeful, loving eyes that the many monsters he'd killed had. ... The wings of my reality.
Errorphim took a step back when I started to lower further from the air, his twitching eyes narrowed and tried to understand why I wouldn't float above and lord over all those trapped on the earth. My foot touched the ground, and the moment that it did, the sand turned to glass. All of it, in nearly an instant. A wave of glass raced across the entire wasteland, and my foot was the epicenter.
Xander jumped some as the ground beneath him so suddenly became glass, Lexi's bewildered eyes watched the reflective surface stretch all the way over the sandy horizon. But Anny didn't move and he didn't look away. He just sat there, staring as I planted the both of my feet on the now totally smooth and totally level floor. Then... I lifted my foot, and I took a step forward.
Anny's brows furrowed as he watched me walk across the supermassive mirror now beneath us. His stare drifted to the glass beneath my feet, and in it he saw a reflection of me. A me that was always me but would never be me again. On the other side of the mirror, little Angel walked upside down. His every step was in perfect sync with mine. He too marched right with me towards Order's Mad God.
I passed Anthony; I had to get between him and Errorphim and I had to keep him safe. Lexi and Xander turned their heads slowly as I walked forward, their exhausted eyes squinted with the very same bewilderment. Their mouths hung open, but there just weren't any words to say. So they stared at me, and they looked down to the mirror that I walked upon.
In that mirror, Lexi could see The Hacker. The scrawny nerd, gentle and harmless. The boy she'd loved once upon a time. A me that was always me but would never be me again. He walked with me, his steps were in sync with mine. He too marched right with me towards The Puppeteer.
In that mirror, Xander could see The Cherub. The looming beast, powerful and cruel. The man who had ripped his love away from him. A me that was always me but would never be me again. He walked with me, his steps were in perfect sync with mine. He too marched right with me towards The Judge.
My eyes laid upon Errorphim, who was taking a few shaky steps backwards against his own will. His terrified eyes darted to meet my stone stare. But he couldn't understand the tears that overflowed from my eyes and he couldn't bare the weight of my gaze, so his eyes darted down to the floor. He looked into the mirror, and he saw Character. The wretched fusion, glitched and ruthless. The being that had brought his last life to a terrible and humiliating end. A we that was always us but would never be us again. They walked with me, their steps were in perfect sync with mine. They marched right with me into the unknown.
Eventually, Errorphim stopped stumbling backwards and I walked close enough. I stopped right in front of the looming, winged skeleton. I tilted my head up to look him in the eye. But, then I tilted my head down. I let my stare look over his form in its entirety, and then I looked into his reflection in the mirror. There, he wasn't so imposing. He wasn't so twisted. Sans The Skeleton was in that mirror, upside down and standing so regretfully with Order's Mad God. Their steps, in sync. Because Sans was Errorphim but Errorphim would never be Sans again.
"W-... Why..?!" Errorphim's frantic voice slowly, fearfully crept out of him. My head tilted back up, and I looked into the mad eyes that trembled as they stared back down at me. Errorphim didn't dare move a muscle, he was frozen in place no matter how badly his bones shook. His teeth grit furiously, his eye socket twitched, and he demanded to know. "Why are you crying..?!"
I blinked slowly when Errorphim asked me that, but my wings didn't. My expression didn't change. Those tears didn't stop flowing, and they didn't stop lifting off my face. When I answered Errorphim, my voice was quiet and it was gentle. "... Because I know what I have to do to you."
Errorphim recoiled when he heard that, another sharp jolt of fear rattled his bones. His wide eyes stared down at me, his pupils vibrated and I could see sweat on his brow. Then, suddenly, he roared with frantic emotion and yanked his fist back. White Light burned on his knuckles, and he sent those knuckles blasting down towards my face... Only for them to be caught effortlessly in my left hand's grip.
"Sans, if you really are in there somewhere, I want you to know that I forgive you." I stated with a perfect calm. There was no tremble in my voice, the only emotion present in my words was forgiveness and regret. Errorphim's eyes twitched, his jaw clenched, his fist was burning from the red flames that surrounded my grip. In spite of the nasty look he was giving me, I offered a gentle smile, and the tears stopped overflowing from my eyes.
"And, Chara..." Errorphim's own eyes once more darted down to the glass under my feet, and his pupils flickered red when he saw the reflection there. Grinning happily, Cter The Archangel stood with me in that glass. His steps in sync with mine. A me that was always me... Errorphim's right eye twitched a little, before he blinked. When he did, he realized a single tear had overflown from his own eye. I released his hand, and he stumbled back another step or two while his unburnt hand reached up and wiped that tear off his cheek bone. While he looked at the tear on his phalange and tried to understand, my eyes glossed down to his reflection again, and in it I saw Chara. Standing there with us at the end of the world, their steps lined up with Errorphim's but not for much longer. The person who made me who I am and the person that I love more than life itself. We were always us, and that would never change.
"You're going to be free."
Chapter 102: Whatever It Takes
Or: Angel's Super Power
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