The repairs to the castle were going well, there was still much to do on the other side since most of it had been demolished during the attack. Ink made himself useful and kept at it with his paintbrush, making sure that everything turned out the same as it was before. He fixed everything down to every gold pillar to the cracks within the walls. He didn't worry about being seen by anyone, there was noone nearby thanks to a certain glitchy skeleton.

The attack here was the worst Ink's seen in a while, well, as far as he could remember. He had came too late when Error managed to come in and obliterate the entire place. Ink was disappointed, Error just went after a not well known AU so most of the guardians wouldn't have be alerted instantly, that was low, even for the destroyer.

The AU in question was RoyalTale. One where everyone was some sort of royalty, it was a mostly cliche story. One where arranged marriages where taken place, run away princesses, and so on. Ink found the place interesting though, the creator might not had branched out in story-telling wise, but he could tell with the amount of detail in this world that  they cared.

This world didn't have resets, so any damage Error did to it wouldn't have been fixed at all. So the least he could have done was help with repairs since this was caused by a traveler, and not someone in the AU. Hours passed before Ink was done with everything, the castle stood there perfectly without a scratch that couldn't have told anyone that an attack took place. Ink would have branched out to the villages but he knew there would be at least a couple of people there, and he preferred not to be seen.

Ink walked down the marble stairs to the open courtyard of the castle and swung his brush down, opening a portal. He's done what he can for these people, so they're on their own for now unless something else happened. Ink took one last look to his work before turning his back to it, he walked through the portal and it closed up as soon as he was through. Once it was closed it splashed down onto the courtyard, leaving a stain of black ink onto the ground.

Ink walked into a different AU that was pretty calm compared to others, the world was made of mostly clouds that all the monsters lived in, the humans probably banish them to the skies, ink didn't remember. 

Ink made his way to a pretty tall, but isolated tower. It was a library he and the other guardians agreed to meet at from time to time to talk about epidemics or threats around the multiverse. The building was more than a few stories tall and shaped as a cylinder, it had multiple windows on every single level and Ink could see above him the room he was supposed to go too.

Ink just made another portal, no way he was walking up THAT many stairs.

As he made it in he saw two skeletons talking among themselves near the desks by the shelves that held the library books. Dream and Blue seemed too engrossed in their conversation to realize who appeared in the room.

Isn't this a perfect moment to scare the absolute shit out of these two.

Ink carefully inched his way behind the two guardians and stood right behind them. He glanced at blue who started to pull out a makeshift map and to Dream who cleared the area to make room for it.

Ink counted to three in his head and opened his mouth, letting out the most horrifying and blood curdling shriek he could muster.

In 00.01 seconds both Dream and Blue yelled in surprise and turned to Ink. Dream summoned his bow and arrow and instantly pointed it at Inks neck while Blue summoned two bones and did some sort of makeshift karate pose.

Ink stumbled back into a bookcase and erupted into a fit of laughter at the other guardians reaction. Luckily no one else but them was up this level of the library or else someone might have found the strength to straight up chuck Ink out of the window for how loud he was being.

It took a moment but after their shock Dream and Blue recognize their friend and put their weapons down, giving Ink a sour look.

"Not cool!! I thought some weird thing was gonna eat us!!" Blue whined at Ink, pointing one of the bones he summoned at him, who was currently still dying of laughter.

Dream despond his weapon and put his hands on his hips, giving Ink a small glare.

"You know, coming up to us like a normal person would have worked." He scoffed, picking up the makeshift map Blue dropped on the floor.

Ink laughed for a couple of more moments before calming down and wiping the small tears that formed in the corner of his eye sockets. He gave them a grin which was returned with unenthusiastic looks.

"You know if there's an opportunity to do something stupid to you two, I will do it." Ink hummed as he FINALLY composed himself for the others.

Dream wasn't amused but brushed it off, setting the map down, "How did the fight with Error go?" He asked, briefly glancing over Ink for any injuries he might have forgotten to fix.

"Didn't get a chance to fight him," Ink explained, "He left before I got there."

Dream and Blue gave each other a look but didn't question it, Error didn't do that often, but it wasn't unusual.

"Guess he didn't want to fight today..?" Blue suggested with a slight shrug, "Did you at least repair some things?"

Dream nodded, "I heard that AU doesn't do resets."

Ink shrugged, "I fixed what I could but everything else they have to do on their own- what's that?" 

Ink abruptly snatched the map he was curious about and looked to it, the "map" was just drawn circles with lines connected them, inside them were the names of AUs in the multiverse.

Dream carefully took back the map from the Artist's hands before he could possibly draw over it to make it look better.

"It's something I made for us!" Blue said with a proud look on his face, he grabbed the map and waited for the others to get comfortable so they could listen in on what he had to say.

"I, the magnificent Blue! Had been scouting around the multiverse for any unusual activity!-"

"Just by Chance or?" Dream questioned as he leaned back against a chair.

Blue gave him a "well of COURSE" look, "If I did it in 'order' it'd never end!" Blue set it down in an open table nearby so they could all see it, "But, I decided to look at the ones not many travelers went to."

"Ooh! Like the one Error attacked?" Ink questioned as he looked at the map, now realizing the names in the circles were some of the not well known.

Blue nodded, "Yeah, I found one which didn't seem like a lot was going on, in the AU I mean."

"So it was in progress?" Dream questioned.

Blue nodded, "Yeah but...usually creators finish some things around this time but this had no activity on the inside." Blue thought for a few moments on how to explain the rest.

"It was more like…….activity around it…?" Blue said, rubbing the back of his neck, hoping the others understood him.

"As in...travelers or..?" Ink asked but was quickly cut off by Blue shaking his head at the artist.

"No, no, more like ...a feeling wise..?" Blue shrugged, "I don't know how to explain it but the others that seem to be in the same "progress" phase felt the same." Blue mentioned and pointed to the rest.

"So...you're going off on this as a feeling?" Dream stated, a bit too sarcastically.

"Hey! You're all about sunshine and feelings! Don't judge!" Blue pouted, Dream raised his hands slightly in defense and let Blue continue.

"Still. I think it's weird, I was thinking maybe you could check it out?" 

Ink blinked once he realized that the question was directed towards him and stood up straight, "Me?"

Blue nodded, "You know more about this than anyone right? It's only fair you check it out!"

Ink shrugged and grinned at him, "Alright, I can do that." He said and grabbed the Map from the table, folding it up and shoving it into his pocket.

"What are you two going to do?" Ink asked.

"We're going to hunt more of nightmares." Dream sighed and crossed his arms, "Besides the weird activity in the less known AUs, the nightmares have been infecting the more bigger ones."

"That sounds fun!" Ink hummed brightly but quickly cleared his throat when Dream gave him a hard glare.

"Anyways…" Blue quickly said before Dream felt the need to rip Ink's head right off his shoulders, "Meet back here in two days time?"

Both Dream and Ink nodded as both prepared to leave. Ink quickly wrote it down on his arm so he wouldn't forget and grabbed his paintbrush, "Alright, seeya guys."

The two said brief goodbyes and they all left to their respective places, leaving that level of the library empty. Ink walked through his portal to an empty white void so he can think over what he should do first.

Ink took out Blues map and opened it up, looking to the notes and the names of the AUs he had written down on there. 

So far, one AU called ____Tale had more notes about the "activity" feeling around it then the rest on the page. From there ink decided to check out that one first. Usually when he would go to certain AUs on his free time, he would use his "room". This room he has was an empty void filled with glass shards of different AUs he could visit or simply watch through it. But, since Blue didn't have access to that sort of thing he would have to go to it personally to see what Blue ment.

Ink opened a portal again, deciding first he would check what was actually inside the AU before the "outside". Just in case anything in there affected what was out there.

Once ink was through he was instantly met with a "concept". Everything was as white as the void he was inside of, the only difference was that this place had buildings in forms of sketches, just like most of his drawings in his own artbook.

Ink walked through the unfinished town, it only went on for a few yards before everything was white again. It really wasn't unusual, this was simply the way the AU was slowly being born.

"Hmmm…" Ink softly hummed and made himself small platforms in the air to walk on, he made it up a couple of feet above the buildings and looked around for anything usual.

Nothing out of the blue was really there to take notice of but Ink did spot a small section with the characters all standing in.

Excited, Ink quickly went to them, wanting to see what type of concept design the artist had for them at the moment. 

Once he got there he noticed that only a few characters had been done, Undyne, Gaster, Papyrus and Sans.

Ink started at Undyne, he saw that this version of her had these robotic like goggles over her eyes and her left arm seemed to have a robot like one replacing it. Gaster here seemed to have the same idea as well, he floated over Undyne and seemed to have had wires and tubes sticking out of his side that went to nowhere.

Papyrus seemed like he was barely worked on, only a simple changes to his clothing style and one robotic hand, maybe the artist got a bit lazy with him. Finally Ink made his way to Sans, just like Papyrus he was barely worked on, he was a far more faded sketch and much more sloppy. 

The one thing Ink found himself staring at was his eyes, they were white and cold. Seemingly staring into Inks very being. He stood there for a few moments before turning his head and walking away, something about those eyes made him feel uneasy. The way everyone stood motionless made them seem like they were dead.

"Jeez, I hope this one makes progress soon." Ink said as he opened another portal to the outside. Nothing seemed off in here, so the problem would have to be on the outside like Blue said.

The portal to the outside took a bit more concentration but Ink managed, what he stepped into was a dark and gloomy void. Even though the artist was light on his feet, his footsteps echoed including the closing of the portal behind him.

It was dark, but ink could see his hands easily, as if the dark didn't dare to touch him. Ink stayed quiet and looked around, he didn't venture to the outside of the AUs often, but he was excited to see how the creator saw their AU in their own eyes.

Ink turned to what seemed to be light in the dark void and walked to the right, every step he took echoes and the light only got brighter.

After a moment or two Ink finally stood in front of the AU. He looked at it in slight amazement, it was just a ball of white light, it was quite dull and even though it was simple, the Artist still found it amazing every time.

Ink stared at in awe for a small while before snapping back into his thoughts, he was here for whatever unusual feeling this place gave blue. Looking around Ink gave his focus to the ball of light, carefully walking around it an observing it, never touching it though. Ink would never touch it, Ink didn't have a right to touch something like this.

Ink waited, and waited, and waited.

Nothing, Ink didn't feel anything wrong or weird about this other then awe of the small dull light. Ink started to chalk it up to Blue getting creeped out by the outside of the AU. Rarely anyone got to see the outside of one, so Blue must have not been used to it.

Ink waited for a few more moments or so before deciding to head back, he grabbed his brush and started walking off away from the orb.

Just before ink got the chance to make a portal, the echoes of footsteps could be heard from behind him, causing chills to go up his spine. Ink immediately turned back, his eyes darting from place to place in the outside.

Not many people could come here, and those who do Ink didn't know of other then Blue and Dream. Ink gripped his paintbrush firmly and wondered if he should rush forward and protect the AU, but since the way the void was whoever was there could see his footsteps easily. 

Ink decided not to move, he could still see the orb from where he was standing and watched, hearing as the echoes of the footsteps got louder and louder then….

Ink froze. 

As if time stopped on him, and only him, he stood lifless, staring ahead.

A creator is what a lot of the travelers believe to be gods, yes, some travelers, and even characters in AUs, have the ability to make things, but nothing like the things a Creator can.

And Ink had finally came to see one.

They stood there, right in front of the orb, it had seemed to have gotten duller the moment the creator walked in on it, they held their hands to it and inspected it, not taking notice that Ink was there.

The Artist had so many questions, he wanted to go to them, to talk to them to ask them so many questions.

But he couldn't find himself to move, only watch from where he stood.

The Creator gave their AU a distasteful look, which confused Ink, usually you could see by how the AU turned out is how much the Creator cared for it. But this one seemed so ...disappointed.

The Creator themself backed away from the orb, seeing as the longer they stared at it the more dull it got, and the more their expression changed.

They stood there for a few moments, as if thinking things over. Then slowly, they reached their hands out to the orb, in a way someone would reach out to strangle someone.

Ink was confused for a few moments as their hands got closer and closer until…

Dread was the last thing Ink felt before breaking free from his frozen state, holding his hand out and calling out to the creator, "WAIT!! DONT!!-"

It was too late, the Creator's hands met harshly with each other and shattered the entire AU. Blinding and harsh light filled Inks entire body and like an explosion Ink was blasted away.

Everything became dark.

He couldn't see nor move his body.

All he felt was pain.

Burning agonizing pain.