Nightmare quietly accompanied Eragon and Saphira as they strode through the hellish aftermath of the recent clash of armies. Wailing carried across the battlefield as women mourned their dead family and friends. Saphira picked her way through the mangled bodies, enemy and ally alike. The King of Negativity was slightly disturbed by it all, having never seen quite this much blood and entrails. He was used to monster dust.

Cross and Fresh were behind them, both silent as they took in the morbid and greyed scene, blood the only color on the ground, vivid and disturbing. Funeral pyres burned at the far wall in Farthen Dûr, the dead Urgals given no respect for dying in battle. Dust, Killer and Horror were doing their best to pay their respects to them, believing even Urgals deserved respect in death. After all, they could be misunderstood for all everyone knew.

Error had been doing what he could in the cleanup efforts, having more than enough power and magic to do so. Chaos mostly stayed with Error, helping out where she could. Blue had stayed with GB, acting as his translator while the dragonic skeleton was getting acquainted with those in power, learning more about the 'Bad Guys' and the Varden. This had been happening over the course of three days.

Eragon had tried helping during that time, but he always burst into fits of agony, spasming as he collapsed on the floor. Nightmare had done his best to mute the pain after the healers and Angela explained they didn't see anything wrong.
Now, they trudged through the massacre, silence between them as all were lost in thought.

Eragon had been left fragile and hollow by his experience with killing Durza. Everyone in the Wyrdaí Islingrya had been a little extra kind to him, knowing that he'd been through much and didn't want to be treated childishly, so they just chose friendliness over being gentle. It was what they felt he needed, having been through situations somewhat like his own. Nightmare had often checked on Eragon in his own way, asking the human's thoughts and opinions on the regular about random things, never leaving his side unless asked to.

But right now all of them had chosen introspective silence. The small group looped back towards Tronjhiem, spotting Jörmundur and Geno heading over. Upon arriving, Ajihad's second in command bowed at Nightmare, Error, and Eragon. Geno crossed his arms, raising a non-existent eyebrow at the action, as where the monsters came from that was not used so often.
"I'm glad we found you in time, Lord Nightmare, Error and Eragon." Jörmundur began, gripping a paper in one hand. "Ajihad is returning, and he wants you to be there when he arrives."

The trio nodded, following the newcomers around the edge of Tronjhiem, seeing a few of the others by the gate.
Ajihad had been gone most of the time, hunting down Urgals in the network of tunnels under the Beor Mountains. Murtaugh and the Twins often joined him, the wicked pair because they were to guard the Varden's leader, Murtaugh because he wanted to prove he wasn't an enemy. Eragon and the Wyrdaí Islingrya definitely missed him, they all planned on catching up soon.

Orik, Arya, GB and Blue were waiting on them as the group arrived. "Where will Ajihad come from?" Eragon asked. Blueberry pointed at a well lit tunnel entrance a few miles off. "He'll be here soon."
They settled down, talking quietly amongst themselves and leaving Eragon to converse with Saphira. Cross started up a conversation with GB, the Blaster Sans still uncomfortable with him as he was still used to seeing the monochrome and his friends as remorseless murderers. Thankfully, Berry helped him warm up a little more, at last hearing Cross's story from back in the Multiverse. It left the animalistic skeleton with a few tears in his sockets.

Eventually, a group was emerging from the hole in the distance, forming ranks and beginning to march forward. Their group paid no heed, as they were far away anyway. It was only when Saphira and Eragon tensed and exclaimed "Urgals!" that they stood up in alarm.
It was so quick, no one understood what was happening. The distant team of humans and dwarves were lost in a whirlwind of Urgals and movement. Nightmare was the first to act, teleporting across the space and engaging an Urgal with his tentacles.

But to his surprise, another one gave him a strange look, throwing a glowing red scythe with wisps of black smoke trailing at him.
The aim was true; it struck the King of Negativity, piercing his ribcage and impaling his Soul.

Nightmare froze, his sockets wide as his vision blurred. He choked on his own black blood, stained with purple magic as it dribbled from his mouth. His tentacles spasmed before dropping uselessly to the ground. He had time to stare in disbelief as a screaming Murtaugh was dragged down into the depths of the earth, the human staring in equal disbelief at the skeleton's plight before disappearing entirely, his cries echoing from the tunnel as they faded.

Nightmare had been silent this whole time, rendered helpless as he felt his energy drain from the cursed Multiverse weapon protruding from his chest. He coughed out more of his blood, then recognized a body amidst the wreckage, dragging his now-bloodied self over to Ajihad as the sounds of teleportation and a dragon echoed behind him. There were a few cries of shock and dispair as Nightmare was grabbed by Cross. He angrily shook the hands off, arriving next to Ajihad.
"Human." He wheezed, blood and goop staining the already bloody dirt. He grasped Ajihad's hand in his own.
"Lord.. Nightmare.... You are hurt.."
"I will live.. when I recover." The human's eyes glazed for a moment, then refocused. "Where is Eragon?" He wheezed.
"I am here." The Rider said softly, tears already wetting his face.

"Listen to me, Eragon. Lord... Nightmare, I have one last wish.." Eragon leaned closer, the rest of the team panicking as Nightmare's tentacles began dissolving. "Promise me something." Ajihad hacked. "Promise that you... won't let the Varden fall into chaos. They are the only hope for resisting the Empire... They must be kept strong. You must promise me."
"I promise."
"I give you my word, Lord Nightstalker. Have peace..."
"Then peace be with you, Lord Nightmare.. and Eragon Shadeslayer..."
The noble leader of the Varden slipped into the dreamless sleep of death, the King of Negativity slumping away, the dark red cursed scythe sliding out of his ribs with a muted clatter.
"Stydja unin mor'ranr, Dwerva.." He couldn't finish his sentence, instead sighing..
"Wait for me, boys... I will be.. right.. back..."

And with that, Nightmare's body dissolved into black slime, leaving a cluster of bluish ethereal apples crowding around a slightly brighter purple Soul, the Soul in the shape of an apple itself.
The Soul and Apples faded out of view.

Then Chaos screamed.

......

Nightmare drifted between realms, watching the scene unfold before him. He couldn't die, at the very least, not now. He simply lost his physical form. He was a small galaxy of darkness in the realm of energy and the spirit, a place too far to be seen from the physical plane.

𝔇𝔞𝔪𝔫𝔦𝔱, 𝔴𝔥𝔶 𝔡𝔦𝔡 ℑ 𝔩𝔢𝔱 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔭𝔢𝔫? He pondered to himself as Blue hugged a screaming Chaos, sobbing. Cross was still on his kneecaps, looking shell-shocked. Fresh was trying to calm down GB, the skeleblaster freaking out at Nightmare's 'death'. Eragon was just quiet, wholly disconnected from reality. The human asked Arya to find Murtaugh, having figured out that he wasn't among the dead. She vanished into the tunnel. Then GB's bones cracked loudly, changing into his Blaster form and howling mournfully for the loss of one of his saviours.

𝔚𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝔈𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔯? ℌ𝔢 𝔨𝔫𝔬𝔴𝔰 ℑ 𝔠𝔞𝔫𝔫𝔬𝔱 𝔡𝔦𝔢! The invisible spirit grumbled.
As if summoned, the glitch appeared in their midst, confused.
"What happened?"
"Ajihad is-" "NIGHTMARE DIED!" Chaos shrieked, throwing herself at her father in a sobbing mess. Error huffed upon her crushing hug, processing what she said as Blue joined in, hiccuping.

"Oh come on, you babybones. He's a god. Nightmare can't die." He explained gently. Cross suddenly jumped up, eyelights still gone.
"He dusted. Right here." He said in a dark, heavy voice. Error furrowed his non-existent eyebrows.

"Did he turn into dust?" He asked matter-of-factly. Fresh turned around as the monochrome blinked. "H-he turned into goop. There right there." He pointed at the blackened, bluish puddle, not noticing it had stained some of his clothes. Error regarded it, using strings to pick out some black stained clothes from it. They dripped.
"Ew. But again, he's not like you. Nightmare can 'dust', but he's not dead. I don't know what it's like, but this has happened before. Only one person is capable of doing that to him, and it's not Dream."

Silence fell as everyone took in what he said.
"Then what happened to him?" Fresh asked, forsaking his lingo for once.
"Who is able to do that?" Chaos added, voice wobbly.
Error shrugged. "Someone you don't want to meet. As for what happened, he just lost enough magic to fade from our plane of existence. I'm willing to bet he's just throwing a fit right next to us for letting this happen. Didn't he try to explain it before actually.. melting?"
"He was too busy talking to Ajihad." Fresh said flatly, indicating the body.
"OH- oh no. He's.. dead." Error sighed.

Orik was kneeling by the human, paying respect to the leader. Jörmundur was approaching, guards waiting outside the circle of dead.
"Barzúln, this makes things complicated." He turned to face them to ask if any heard his last words.
Nightmare, unseen, edged closer to Eragon as he answered. "They must wait for the right person before I'll repeat them."

Jörmundur arrived as Orik swore. He touched Ajihad's shoulder sadly. "How can fate be this cruel, my old friend? I would have been here sooner if not for the size of this cursed mountain, and then you might have been saved. Instead, we are wounded at the height of our triumph."
Dust, Horror, Killer, Red and Geno entered their circle, eyelights either shrinking or vanishing upon seeing what happened, save for Killer, who just blankly dropped to his kneecaps before the pool.

"He's not dead." Error assured them. "This has happened before, back when he didn't have you guys. He's just recovering."
"Who did this?" Dust and Horror demanded.
"What did this?" Killer questioned, voice hollow.
Red picked up the scythe. "This is from the Multiverse." He spoke slowly.

Error snatched it from him, studying it as Geno gasped. Both glitches huddled together to peer at the glowing blade.
"It feels somewhat like Reaper's scythe.." Error mumbled worryingly. "No." Geno grabbed onto it. "I know that Determination anywhere. That's a Chara."
Chaos tried to peer at the scythe too, only to wince and cradle her left arm, hoping that no one had noticed that. She tilted her head to the side.
"Does Reaper have a Chara?" She asked.
"He comes from an AU like most others, so he must." Error responded, not looking up from the blade.
"If a Chara is capable of doing this to Night.." Geno trailed, thinking. "Error have you ever encountered a Chara with a scythe?"
"No, I only deal with scapegoat Charas. Some really are bad people for some reason."
"So we could be dealing with... an evil god on Galbatorix's side. That can take out Nightmare." Geno wrung his hands. "Damnit, this really does make things difficult."

"Chaos, what's wrong with your arms?" Blue suddenly asked. The Temmie meeped as the two glitches glanced up in concern. Then Geno's socket widened. "Your arms!"
Error impaled the ground with the blade and grabbed Chaos's wrist. "They changed color?" The Temmie winced. "Daddy, that hurts!"
"What?" He let go, and she cradled her left arm. "I kinda tripped over and hurt it running over here." She mumbled.
Error glared at her. "You didn't tell me." He grumbled, pulling out strings as they wrapped up her arm. "You hurt yourself and didn't tell me. How am I supposed to feel?" He chatisized her, the cast glowing with a green aura as it healed. "And then there's your arms. They're black. Why are they black?"

She held up her free hand. "I don't know, it happened during the battle. It won't wash off. I think it's my fur. And it's not just black." She used her teeth to pull down the right sleeve of her jumper, revealing that the fur up to her elbow was still white, but the fur on her elbow was grey. Her arm after that was just pure black with a few strands of white fur dotted throughout it. The black fur was also present on the palm of her hand as well, but several strands of yellow fur could be seen on her fingers. "It kinda reminds me of your hands Daddy."
The multicolored eyelights in Error's sockets winked out, leaving just the red background behind.
Then he chuckled softly.
"I kinda.. like that." He muttered.

Geno smiled a little, then faced the others. "This is a bit much to process right now. Let's just... deal with one thing at a time."
"Like Ajihad." A quiet voice spoke up. They all turned. Horror was staring blankly at the fallen soldier. "We should honor this one. He was a good man." His worn voice rattled.
"Yes. Yes." Jörmundur said, still weary. Then he raised his voice. "Look. Ajihad died a warrior's death! He slew five Urgals where a lesser man might have been overwhelmed by one. We will give him every honor and hope his spirit pleases our gods. Bear him and our companions back to Tronjhiem on your shields, any who carry them.... and do not be ashamed to let your tears be seen, for this is a day of sorrow that all will remember. May we soon have the privilege of sheathing our blades in the beasts who have slain our leader!"

The human warriors knelt, removing their hats in respect to Ajihad, then picked him up, placing his body on their shields between their shoulders, many weeping. The Wyrdaí Islingrya then joined them solemnly, glancing back at the motionless puddle Nightmare had left behind before surrounding Saphira and Eragon in a procession towards the helm of giants, Tronjhiem.
Nightmare hovered near them, hidden in his incorporeal form.
𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔡𝔞𝔶 𝔦𝔰 𝔱𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔢𝔡 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔩𝔬𝔰𝔰, 𝔟𝔲𝔱 𝔦𝔱 𝔦𝔰 𝔫𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔞𝔯𝔶 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔚𝔶𝔯𝔡𝔞 𝔬𝔣 𝔄𝔩𝔞𝔤𝔞ë𝔰𝔦𝔞.
...

ℑ 𝔨𝔫𝔬𝔴 𝔴𝔥𝔬 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔩 𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔡 𝔲𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢.