Chapter 68 - NM Cataclysm - Characters - Part 2

🩸 NIGHTMARE MANIFESTATIONS ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE – EXPANDED CASE FILES

🜏 SwapDust Frisk – "The Kindness That Killed"

In this altered SwapDust timeline, Frisk was the one who took up the dusting path—not out of cruelty, but misguided mercy. They believed eliminating suffering was salvation. The NM force didn't infect Frisk like a plague—it resonated with their fractured sense of justice. Now, Nightmare Frisk (NM-Frisk) wanders between timelines with a crimson soul shaped like a broken wing, whispering to others that "Mercy is pain relief." Their attacks involve mercy buttons that, when pressed, erase the monster's memory before turning them to dust.

☠ Underlust Papyrus – "The Hollow Flame"

Papyrus, in a timeline already distorted by extremes of affection and manipulation, was consumed by emotional burnout. The NM force didn't corrupt his desires—it stripped them away. Now devoid of purpose, NM-Lust Papyrus wears black and gold armor, cold and commanding. His soul is shaped like a rose with thorns curling inward, bleeding red with every word he speaks. His magic, once flamboyant, is now eerie—chains of silk that constrict the will of others.

🌌 OuterSwap Alphys – "Star Eater"

This version of Alphys was researching dimensional boundaries in the cold reaches of space-time. When she discovered NM energy in dark matter samples, her curiosity became obsession. NM didn't transform her—it answered her call. Now she drifts in a gravity-sealed suit, glowing violet eyes behind a cracked visor. Her soul pulses like a dying star. NM-Alphys collapses realities into singularities, feeding on the dying breath of collapsing timelines.

🧬 EchoTale Temmie – "Mother of Voices"

You wouldn't expect it—but in EchoTale, where time loops back through speech and memory, Temmie was the perfect vessel. NM didn't change her—it made her remember. Every loop, every loss. Now NM-Temmie speaks in endless echoes, her voice overlapping with infinite alternate selves. Her body is mostly silhouette, shifting between forms. Her attacks? Reality-breaking phrases that force others to relive their worst moment—on loop.

🪞 FellTale Undyne – "The Mirror Knight"

Fell Undyne resisted NM longer than most. But resistance gave it form. Now, NM-Undyne is a shattered reflection of herself—literally. Her armor is made of mirror-shards, and her magic duplicates her in refracted forms, each reflecting a different aspect of her fury, her regret, her failure. Her soul is jagged and silver, never still. Her power: to force others to fight versions of themselves they never dared become.

🧠 Underswap Chara – "The Smiling God"

This Chara was sweet, curious, optimistic. NM offered knowledge. They accepted. Now NM-Chara is a being of paradox—smiling like an angel, speaking like a prophet, acting like a god. Their soul is golden but cracked with veins of black. They don't kill. They convince. With a smile and the right words, they convince others to destroy themselves or serve the Nightmare Web. They see timelines like threads and cut them without blinking.

⛓ The Lost Timelines

These are not whole AUs, but fragments—broken echoes of timelines that never stabilized.

RebootTale Grillby – a bartender turned soul-forger, now fused with NM flame, serving drinks that bind the drinker to a cursed fate.

Negatale Muffet – her web spans timelines, and NM has given her dominion over "fear debt"—once you fear her, she owns your name.

DarkMultiverse Blooky – once harmless, now a being of collapsed empathy. Wherever they float, music dies and hope fades.

🪓 HORRORTALE – NM-Sans: "The Surgeon's Smile"

NM-Horror Sans wears his apron like a priest's vestment. His cleaver is polished to a shine that reflects souls. He no longer eats to survive—he butchers to "perfect." His eye glows with violet NM-fire, marking his precision.

He leads other NM-Horror monsters like a twisted field medic, conducting experiments. Not out of cruelty—out of clarity. "The only clean world is an emptied one."

💀 HORRORTALE – NM-Toriel: "Ash-Mother"

Toriel burned her kitchen down in a moment of NM clarity.

She now resides in a flame-scorched cathedral, built from the bones of fallen monsters. She cooks not food, but souls—and speaks in soft, reassuring tones while reducing survivors to "pure ingredients."

Her soul is a hollowed-out shell glowing pale ash. Her fire magic is white-hot, always hungry. And she remembers every child. Every one.

🧿 OMEGA TIMELINE – NM-Asgore: "The Broken Gatekeeper"

In the Omega Timeline, where everything that could happen does, Asgore saw it all—and it broke him.

The NM force didn't infect his body—it shattered his moral compass.

He melted his throne into a massive blade made of "failed timelines," and now patrols the edge of Omega like a knight guarding nothing. He calls himself "The First Error of Mercy."

His soul is split into three: one red, one gray, one black, spinning like a wheel. He cuts without looking. Because there's always a reason to kill—if you've seen enough.

NM!Aliza (Horrortale)

Corruption Type: Post-madness Lucidity

Why: In ACT II, Horrortale was twisted further by NM into clear-minded cruelty. Aliza—once the survivor—becomes its cold arbiter. No longer afraid. No longer running.

Role: She hunts, but not out of fear or desperation. She now conducts surgical purges of "unsalvageable" minds.

Power: Words of Ruin — her voice alone can fracture the mental state of those who hear it, drawing out their darkest logic.

NM!Papyrus (Handplates AU)

Corruption Type: Fractured Obedience

Why: His trauma from Gaster's experiments made him vulnerable. NM turned his loyalty into a tool—he obeys because he must, but it's not Gaster he serves anymore.

Role: Enforcer. Hunts traitors to the new reality. Keeps others "in line" with a twisted sense of purpose.

Power: "Bonebound" — his magic can imprison souls in their own memories, trapping them in psychological loops where disobedience never ends well.

NM!Goner Kid (No AU, Timeline-stranded)

Corruption Type: Isolated Voidling

Why: Goner Kid always existed on the edge of existence. Nightmare didn't find him—he heard it. And he answered.

Role: Observer turned Harbinger. Spreads NM signals through fractured code in timelines that thought themselves untouched.

Power: "Echo Inversion" — can overwrite SAVE points into corrupt NM beacons, subtly infecting timeline logic without altering events... until it's too late.

NM!Toriel (Disbelief Timeline)

Corruption Type: Grief Distorted

Why: In a timeline where she kills out of desperation, Nightmare doesn't need to twist much. He offers her clarity. A reason. A plan.

Role: Executioner. Believes removing potential threats is "mercy."

Power: "Ash Judgment" — a flame that does not burn, but calcifies. Victims freeze in a moment of their own worst failure.

NM!Frisk (Genocidal Timeline Variant)

Corruption Type: Choice Nullified

Why: Not because of genocide—but because they wanted to stop and couldn't. Nightmare turns that inability into command.

Role: Vector. A walking override. Not killing for fun—killing because they are told to. By something they can't argue with anymore.

Power: "Mandate" — can forcibly lock decisions of others, removing options like Mercy or Act mid-fight. The UI breaks under their gaze.

NM!Entity-000 ("The Watcher")

Corruption Type: Passive Collapse

Why: Was never in an AU. Watched multiverse from static space. Became curious. Nightmare seeped in through the cracks of its interest. Now it watches with purpose.

Role: Recorder of corruption. Its records replace memories in the minds of characters.

Power: "Overwrite Sight" — just being observed by it begins to subtly rewrite who you thought you were.