Nightmare had always been proud to be the one who knew best how to navigate through dark places of everyone in the Gang.

Because even when the others were children of his mother and dark places don't bother them and even could calm them, they just could walk through them without hitting anything, but they didn't really see what was in the dark.

But he was the 'Void guardian', he remember his Mother explain to him how the pure negativity of the black apples were similar enough to the void that it was easy to fuse both of it even before Nightmare ate them, the Goddess of Feelings was just Dream's mother by the time he take that first bite.

So yeah, the darkness of the tunnels was hardly a problem after a while of wandering around where he fell, he no longer needed the useless 'light plants' that the cave had.

Yet... he was lost.

THIS PLACE WAS EVEN HARDER TO TRAVEL THAN WATERFALL!

He could swear that he had passed the site where he woke up at least 3 times despite having taken different paths each time!

But he kept walking, taking what hopefully would be a path that actually lead him somewhere else, he killed the bugs that were trying to attack him without problems, and the fact that there were again a greater number of these told him that he had finally reached another area.

(He was still incredibly lost, but at least now he was lost in another area).

He needed to get out this place, his brothers could maybe not be in any kind of danger, Mother could not let them in a place where they could be, but they could still get in trouble just by being themselves and he would prefer have a place to stay before make any enemy

(Or find his new Parent, that would be great too).

Entering the new tunnels quickly led him to a pile of cobwebs that reminded him of what Error's room in the castle looked like.

But these weren't the former destroyer's threads, these actually seemed to come from the silk of a real spider, and from the size of these, they were probably equal to or larger than a Muffet.

Great.

Now... where those spiders could be? He hasn't seen a single one in all he time he has been walking trough the tunnels and those cobwebs didn't seem to have too long?

(Although he could almost swear that he would hear sometimes whispers in the far away, but for the life of him couldn't understand a damn thing and he really hoped it was just noises from a bug that sounded like speech and not that he have to deal with a fucking language barrier.)

So, he followed the path of cobwebs and prayed that they were heading him somewhere out of here and not towards some kind of trap.

...

Yeah sure, as if he was so lucky.

----------------------------------------------------------

"VOID CHILD, THERE'S A VOID CHILD IN DEEPNEST! CALL THE QUEEN!"

Arai ran as fast as her legs allowed towards the Nest, she had to warn her queen of the approaching danger.

Who knew how long they had before the Void Lord came for his wayward child, because there was no doubt that this being was his, the creature basically drip void from its body, the only thing not black in its appearance was the mask on its head!

'A mask that had clearly already been partially broken by some creature who got a stroke of luck on the younger void' and that only made her run faster as she listened to the rest of her companions begin to extend the warn to the rest of the colony of the approaching danger.

They had already seen what the Void Lord was capable of when he effortlessly brought the Nosk to the brink of extinction once he discovered that they had killed several of the Vessels that had strayed into Deepnest.

The Nest had been saved from their wrath just because they had only locked up those little creatures and nothing else, Queen Herrah even fed them even though the Vessels did not need the food. but who knew if that would save them a second time, especially if the child had already been hurt by one of the beasts that haunted the caverns.

The Weaver could have wept with relief the instant her beloved Nest appeared before her, the queen would know what to do, she would keep them safe from any tragedy that the arrival of that child might bring.

----------------------------------------------------------

The queen of Deepnest was having a not so good day.

Since the death of the Old Light and the resurgence of the Void Lord things had gone... calm, as calm as these lands could be.

The Void Lord strikes the fear in everyone's souls like never the Old Light could with her Infection, she was trapped in the dream's realm and the only image that existed of her was an old and crumbly statue on Crystal Peak, she was just a threat against the weak-minded subjects of the Pale Wyrm.

The Void Lord on the other hand... he was a MAJOR THEAT to literally everyone, from the littlest crawling to the two resident Pale Beings of the land

Deepnest has fairly earned the title of the "most dangerous place in all Hallownest" (although anyone who lived there would deny being part of Hallownest), it was not only infested by wild creatures that only thought of feeding, but also because its others inhabitants, Spiders and Weavers weren't necessarily friendly to strangers.

But Herrah never saw a problem with that, in fact, she was proud of the hostile environment that made her people strong in body and mind, not a single one of her people became infected before the Void Lord took it upon himself to eradicate the Infection from the root!

The birth of her little Hornet only made that pride grow more when she saw that her daughter, at her young age, show that she was more prepared to deal with the dangers of the world than any of the larvae that the Pale Wyrm's kingdom has spawned.

But in this moment? In this moment she wished that her beloved Deepnest were as boring and ultra-safe as the White Capital, because as powerful as the Void Lord was, the shells of his children were too easy to destroy and most of them didn't know how to fight properly even against the soft creatures of Hallownest even with their capacity to fall through all Crystal Peak and survive, if the stories that those idiots from that Coliseum of Fools where near to be trusted.

She just hoped that this one were capable enough for her to reach them and returned them to the Abyss safe and sound or even better, left them with the Pale Wyrm so he would have to deal with the rage of the other Higher Being.

And that could not be a problem, she had already make sure that her spiders and weavers knew to maintain the way safe for the child and she just had to go herself to meet them

There was just a problem.

"No, Hornet, you can't come with me, you stay here with Midwife"

"But if that is Hallow's sibling then is my sibling, so I have to prove their value!"

Wisely, Herrah did not mention that the only siblings who had been proven "worthy" by her daughter were only 3 of the hundreds that she actually had from Wyrm and Root, and the she just stab them without warning nor explanation.

She loved her daughter, really, but she was at that age where self-preservation was nil and believed that stabbing her siblings was the right thing to do.

Harrah blamed the Wyrm's genetic for that, he and his obsession for those dammed buzz-saws and his complicated family history had brought this trouble upon her.

"No, you are not coming"

"Why not?". Demand her child, trying to look intimating, but just manage to look adorable on The Beast eyes.

"You are going to stab that child if you do". At this point she wasn't paying attention to her daughter, trusting that Midwife would take care of her, after all get resolved she would deal with the fit that her little spider would throw.

"And? If they die is their fault". She said, like if die wasn't a big deal.

"And that's why you can't come with me Hornet, now stay here, I'll be back in before you realize, I just have to take your sibling with their father". She really hoped her daughter understood that this was important and not like the other times, like Hallow first visit or when they had the other Vessels in the dungeons almost a year ago.

And something in her voice must have reached her little girl, because she thought for a bit before saying another thing.

"If don't stab them now..., can I stab them later?"

And that was the best Herrah was going to get in this situation, she had already wasted a lot of time with this discussion and had to hurry to find that child.

"Yes, we can arrange something with his father later, now, your sibling must go home to his family, okay?"

"Ok"

And with that, Herrah ran.

She followed the trail her spiders had left and soon stopped needing it when the feeling of void began to show itself.

Which was somewhat concerning when almost a minute passed before she arrived to her destiny, the void Hallow and the other Vessels hadn't felt this intense when she met them...

And then she saw them, and the mother in her saw red.

That was definitely not a Vessel she has knew before, the structure of their body was more mantis-looking than wyrm, the horns and the broken "mask" (but it was healed and clearly still broken, someone prevented that Vessel from heal properly that injury) were one the few things that resemble a Vessel.

The tendrils swinging menacingly around the boy, clearly waiting to be attacked by her, reminded Oomas more that Monomon loved so much, corrupted and combined with what had clearly been void, stolen and perhaps combined with the egg of some clueless mantis, not by Wyrm, no, the king was maybe a fool but not someone who made the same mistake twice.

But the void, oh gods, the void was leaking everywhere from their body, almost as if their body could not completely handle lethal substance, her ow spiders had moved away from the place as soon as she arrived, unable to bear being in the presence of the void anymore, she herself could only bear it for an hour, two maximum before it end up being too much, so she had to be fast in making this child, clearly abused by whoever created him, understand that she was not a threat to them.

(And once they were where belonged, she would offer herself to find whoever made this child look so broken, and she would show them why she gain the name of The Beast of Deepnest).

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Hello! Has been a while, sorry, the Colege had me on a chokehold, but here we are again!

IMPORTANT: I change City of Tears name to White Capital, bc the name of the place didn't change until the Blue Lake begin to flitrer onto the city, and I wanted to respect that, so I made myself a name for it.

I don't think that Pale King/Pale Wyrn or Pale Lady/Root are their true names but until I can think on how called them I'm gonna use their titles

Hornet has around 5-6 years so I apologize for the balant ooc I'm gonna do with her character, but she's baby right now and not the fierce warrior we know

Any gramatical error, feel free to correct me!