The Death That Follows

The Final Battle

TW: Mentions of Gore, WNF, DNF, Mentions of Death

Dream

I lunged forward, planning to drive my blade deep into whatever XD had instead of a heart, but he summoned his own luminous, inky black blade and knocked me away.

"Weak." He chided, like a disappointed parent, only fueling my anger. Biting back a retorting comment, I struck again, and my sword hit his with a ping.

He parried my blade easily, hiding a fake yawn behind his hand, and I hissed as his blade cut a shallow scratch on my cheek, a taunt.

Over and over I ran at him, adrenaline fueling my moves, but he just kept going.

This time, as I ducked a swing to my head, I went for his legs, nicking the smallest bit of his pant leg, but no blood came from the tiny cut. He couldn't bleed.

"Do you give up yet, little boy?" XD asked while I panted, my anger wearing down to frustration.

"Never." I said, raising my head to him. Again, I sprang forward, but, this time, he was done with the games. He aimed too low for me to parry, and he cut clean through my thigh, muscle and sinew slicing painfully.

"Ahh!" I yelled, stumbling, but I would not fall. I had to keep going. It didn't seem bad enough that I would bleed out, and I could limp, so I did. I kept fighting.

"I will give you this, Dreamie. You aren't a —---." XD said, but his face was screwed up in a malicious smile. "But this game is mine."

He kicked me, hard, and I gasped for air, my leg giving out under me as I fell to the ground.

With a pop, XD and I suddenly weren't alone in the room.

Everyone was there.

Tom and Charlie, both looking ready to vomit, Niki, tears streaming down her face, Sap, Quackity, and Karl, running to each other and falling into an embrace, Phil finding Tom and hugging him tightly to his chest, using his wings to bring in Tubbo, who was openly sobbing.

But then we all saw Wil and Ranboo. They were on the other side of the room, Ranboo standing like a guard in front of Wilbur. I had seen the damage done to my old war partner, but in person, it was so much worse. I realized that what I had thought were just cuts on his skin were burns, and etched words, and infected, inflamed skin. The stump where his arm used to be was still bloody, and oozing some sort of yellow puss. One side of his face was so bruised and inflamed that it was the size of a balloon. I imagined Pennywise, the clown from IT, taking a bag of helium and pumping his face full of chemicals to make it like that.

But I quickly shook my head and looked at everyone else. Karl, and Sapnap looked sick, while Slime was turning green and translucent out of anger.

"Wil!" George suddenly screamed, getting over the shock.

"Son!" Phil yelled, trying to dash to Wilbur's broken, unconscious form.

"Wilbur!" Niki gasped, falling to her knees.

"Wilby!!!" Tom screeched. They all tried running to him, but Ranboo stopped them, teleporting to where they were and pushing them back.

"Ranboo." Tubbo gasped and I saw the first flicker of emotion on Ran's face as he turned to look at his husband. But it quickly dissipated when XD started talking.

"So you are the band of. . . . heroes that think they can beat me." XD tutted, and everyone looked at him, undiluted hatred in their gazes.

"You —--- ------------ --------- -------- -------- —-----." Tom screamed, pushing against Ranboo's control.