¡~The Nightmare that will never End~! An Empireverse AU Story

Chapter 12: Hopes Withering Away

A/N: And we are back with Another Chapter. This one is going to be focused more on Dustberry as promised. Some Nightkiller as well since that's the main ship.

T / W:
-Blood and Gore
-Heavy Angst
-Toxic relationship
-Manipulation
-Suicidal thoughts
Be warned. If you're uncomfortable with the trigger warnings above, it would be best if you skip this chapter.

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About a week had passed since the last chapter.

Dust, Horror, Cross and Error were training. Error was mostly watching, keeping a track of the times and scores.
Cross filled in for Killer since he would mostly 'train' on his own. Wonder why. And it's no surprise either that Killer wasn't here. After what happened, I doubt he's in anything but a good state.

Currently, Horror and Dust were duelling each other. Both launching multiple bone attacks, blocking them off and cancelling their magic out. However, Dust wasn't doing the best he could, thinking about a certain skeleton that's stuck in his mind.
And you readers are right to guess that the certain skeleton is Swap/Blue.

Horror noticed how the power with Dust's attacks was decreasing, and that he didn't look as focused. Error and Cross noticed as well, while they were watching from the sidelines. The skull cracked skeleton, decided to take advantage of this, lining up his attacks to distract Dust with his magic at the start. Dust, he dodged them, naturally, but one of those attacks caught him off guard, shielding his vision field for a moment and within that moment, he found himself on the floor with Horror standing over him, having the summoned axe by his neck.

Dust snapped out of his thoughts and found himself in this situation with Horror having his singular eyelight narrowed at him.
"Alright, spill it Powder Face, what's up with you today? You haven't been focussing at all." Horror stated, clearly annoyed that Dust isn't telling him something.
"He's right, you know. We could see the difference in your performance." Error added, joining in on the conversation.

Dust looked up at them, with a slightly confused expression. "What the fuck are you two talking about?" he asked them, half pretending to not know. He didn't realise he had been dozing off but he was aware he wasn't fully focused.
"You were pretty much zoned out this whole time. Tell us what's going on." Cross stated, curious about what's up with Dust.

Dust stared at his companions before pulling his hood down a little more, covering his face and turning away. "It's nothing.." he mumbled, which his friends rose a non-existent eyebrow to. But Error was the one that surprisingly knew what's going on.

"It's to do with that royal knight captain, isn't it? What's his name? Blue?" Error mentioned, learning his name thanks to Ink. If you go on long enough, when Ink's comfortable with either someone or the place, you can let him talk for ages. Surprisingly, or not, Error listened to every word he said. It did have some connection with the sun empire, after all.

Dust noticeably tensed up by hearing Blue's name. Error had somehow figured him out. But what he looked past, is how Error knows his name, because he was sure that he was the only one that knew Blue's name. He tsked, pushing aside Horror's axe from his neck and stood up. "I'm ending our training here. And I'm leaving." he then said, shoving his hands in his pockets, turning around and began walking.

Phantom appeared in his sight, floating beside him. "Seems like you're so interested in this enemy of yours, hm?"
((Headcannon in this Timeline. Phantom is a ghost that haunts Dust, telling him to always kill. Pretty much an asshole-))

"Shut it. I do not want to hear what you have to say." he snapped, turning to Phantom.
Phantom snickered. "You do know you'll have to kill him. Earn more EXecution Points. Don't hold back, brother. You can't fight your urges~"
Dust glared at the ghost, which taunted him, his mismatched pinpricks following along to wherever his 'brother' floated to. "Your opinion wasn't asked for. Now leave me the fuck alone for a minute and let me think."
Phantom hummed in the satisfaction that his taunting was working. His red glowing eyes lighting up as he 'innocently' smiled and disappeared. Dust just grumbled and then teleported.