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The black skeleton sighed deeply, looking into the mirror.
Others saw him as a God - as something closer to a force of nature than a single, living creature. Once upon a time he thought he’d be pleased at having such a reputation - at being respected, at everyone understanding that what he did was unstoppable and sometimes just… necessary.
He knew better now.
Being above everyone else didn’t bring him any rewards - just more responsibilities and a deeply ingrained sense of loneliness.
At least he had his husband to depend on - but for centuries now it felt like the only things they shared were their worries, not love. Admittedly, there were a lot of things to worry about - Stardust League and Moonlight Alliance have been in active war with each other for over fifteen thousand years now. Their friends, loyal subjects and their timelines kept falling one after the other - and still, after millenia of conflict and countless peace propositions, negotiations and inescapable breaking of agreed upon treaties, there was no end to it all in sight.
Well. Maybe apart from the end of Vilverse. Death of their whole world was, at this rate, a lot more probable than them escaping this senseless circle of violence.
There were only a few dozen timelines still left standing. The untouchable ones - original Undertale, Anti-Void, Dreamtale and Doodle Sphere - had shrunk to the size of a single house. All of those timelines were extremely well protected, each of them booming with life and innovation despite all the difficulties - in a world led by four immortal beings, knowledge didn’t get lost nearly as easily as it normally would.
And now, Error had to delete another one of the precious few hubs of life they had left. One of Stardust’s scientists had been experimenting with viruses again, and if the broken code wasn’t squashed immediately, it could eat through the roots of the Tree Of Worlds in a matter of weeks, killing the multiverse prematurely.
He had to act fast, but couldn’t come unprepared - the fact that monsters viewed him as a force of nature didn’t mean they wouldn’t try to stop him. They wouldn’t succeed, of course - the Architect’s control over his powers was absolute and immaculate - but everyone who was willing to go down without a fight had already died long ago.
“I’m heading out, Dove. I won’t be back until morning.”
Nightmare didn’t even spare a glance in his direction, merely nodding in acknowledgement, fully absorbed by taking in the new data from recent raports and adjusting their strategies accordingly.
~~~~~
One moment, life in Reapertale was running along as it usually did - stressed out monsters hurried to carry out their jobs, the sun was shining brightly and the Council of their world debated on how to proceed with trade negotiations with Underfell.
The next second, deafening sirens blared out all across the planet, and the sky above the Council headquarters turned into a darker, more intense shade of blue.
After another second, thirty blasters the size of a small moon fired all at once, wiping out 95% of the planet’s population.
Just like that, most of their world was gone. Their passive force shields, slowly and painstakingly developed by dozens generations of smartest and brightest monsters in their timeline, did not survive the final test - the only one that really counted. Most of life was already wiped out, having fallen within a single second, the air filled with silence and shock.
When the gigantic blue web of harder than diamond strings fell upon the capital city, cutting skyscrapers into million pieces, someone managed to teleport into the emergency control room hidden deep underground, from which the whole planet could be shut down and put under a magical barrier.
Error crouched on his strings high up in the sky, taking a deep breath. He was almost completely covered in strings - they swam in his eyes, tightened around his ribs, flowed rapidly out of the crack in his skull, tangled along his legs and arms. And although his eyelights were as nonexistent as usual, at that moment he was the farthest from blind he could be, for he felt everything his strings touched.
Right then, hung high up in the sky, his bones were only the centre of the hive mind and body that had the power to swallow the whole planet in one bite.
However, if he wanted to finish this job without breaking his oath, he had to be not only quick, but also precise. No unnecessary pain. No cruelty. Make it so that in this merciless world, at least their death could be kind.
He looked through the barrier’s code briefly. It was tougher than most - only two hundred years ago, breaking it would take him at least a week. Now he could get it done in three hours tops.
He got down to work, sneaking his thinnest strings into the labs located on one of the two moons orbiting the planet to get the data necessary to break the barrier, quickly breaking through the security measures put in place there.
During his work, an impressive total of four hundred and sixty seven weapons of varying parameters were fired at him in hopes of at least driving him away. Messy atomic bombs, far more precise positron jets and quark lasers, the shows of wealth and firepower that were the black hole seeds developed by Underfell… But all those things meant nothing for a being connected to the Void.
Still, Error took his time avoiding and dodging the ‘potential threats’ to his immortal existence, letting the hope that there are some kinds of damages he couldn’t afford to sustain fester further. Without it, the innovative spirit of the remaining universes would waver greatly, maybe even turn completely into nihilistic despair, and the balance could not take that hit.
He broke the barrier. It was easier than he thought it would be.
He was about to launch his final attack, but he held himself back when he felt Reaper teleporting to a spot right behind Error’s back.
“You do know that I don’t have any blind spots, right?” A few millennia ago, maybe he would go for a more arrogant, pretentious tone, but he was too tired for putting on that much of a show, so his voice was perfectly flat instead, coming from the magic of countless randomly chosen strings.
The synchronised echos coming from different directions definitely threw Reaper for a loop, but the god of death did not bow to his fears and remained standing still, only his chest moving with his rapid breath.
“Why now? Why us? After all this time, Error?”
The Architect winced internally. Back on the surface of the planet, one of the survivors went for a dust route and started killing their companions for exp in hopes of defeating him. He had to make this quick.
On the outside, he remained perfectly stoic, not moving a single string. “The latest Stardust’s experiment created a virus in the core code of your world. It would have infected the whole Holy Tree within days, and all residents of Reapertale would have glitched into a subspace of the Void within the next two weeks. And that’s an awfully painful death. My genocide is a mercy to all your subordinates and yourself..”
The other skeleton had seemingly hit his limit, since his reaction amounted to screaming bloody murder at Error and firing a hate-loaded blaster in every direction.
Error shielded the planet from those blaster’s impact, but it went unnoticed by his former friend.
“AND WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO DECIDE WHICH DEATH IS BETTER OR WORSE, O DESTROYER OF WORLDS?!”
The Grim Reaper fumed with chilling magic, but couldn’t even feel his own aura, enveloped by the otherworldly magic of his superior’s strings.
Error really, really wanted to take a deep sigh in response to the usage of his false title, but opted to give an emotionless response instead.
“If you want to, I can put you into the Void. Speaking from personal experience though, I wouldn’t recommend it, and I won’t offer the same for anyone who doesn’t have enough power to teleport into this space here. I wouldn’t be able to take them out when they regret their decision.”
Reaper looked as if someone blasted him right in the face.
“You- you’ve been in the Void? You could take someone out of it? ”
Error wanted to hurry, but Reaper was his friend. When confronted directly like that, he owed him at least a few minutes worth of explanations for closure.
“Would you destroy the lingering hope of people who think I can’t, Master of Death?”
That seemed to have done the job of finally shaking Reaper out of his frenzy. The other skeleton collapsed onto his knees, caught lightly and caressed by the Architect’s softest strings.
“Thought so. Will you take that offer, then? Once you enter the Void, you could survive with your home timeline gone, but everyone else would be long gone.”
Scarlet tears rolled down the white bone beneath the empty eyes of Reaper.
“N-No, I… Please, just…”
The strings holding Reaper up tightened around him just enough to feel like a hug.
“May your soul be blessed and reborn in a brighter time and place.”
Right before his strings sliced the whole planet apart, tangling themselves in its centre, he heard a quiet whisper. The last words of his brother in oath.
“You too, Ruby… You too.”
And so, Reapertale fell down.
Nobody but Error would know that in their last seconds, its surviving residents would bear witness to the unthinkable phenomenon of all the Architect’s strings suddenly turning into salty, transparent liquid that flooded their world and drowned their screams for all eternities to come.