True Infinity

Eggman grinned as he brought the various canisters towards a series of tubes connected to the pedestal the blue Chaos Emerald rested upon. As he did so, he ran various calculations to ensure this went as perfectly as possible. Not that he really needed to do so, his genius was never wrong after all.

Finally he placed the Master Emerald shard on a small pedestal near the Chaos Emerald. It had been a very interesting story about how he had gotten that. In order to prevent those incorrigible rodents from ruining his plans during the early days of the war, he had made sure that any type of super form would be unavailable.

This meant putting both the Chaos Emeralds and The Master Emerald out of commission. Some of the emeralds were destroyed, others drained of their power and two had been lost. Well one anyway, since he had the other right in front of him.

As for The Master Emerald, his great Eggfleet had besieged Angel Island for roughly a week while fighting G.U.N. 's own air-fleet. In the end both The Master Emerald and G.U.N.'s armada had been destroyed. This act would ensure the planet's capitulation in the following months.

Various shards of The Master Emerald were scattered across the planet, several of which he procured. Mainly to prevent The Master Emerald from being restored, the thing had a will of its own after all. He ran various tests on the shards, one of which involved the Phantom Ruby.

It had been that test in particular that produced this shard, a perfect copy of the original shard in every way power included. He didn't need the Master Emerald itself to complete his plan, only the energy of it. The thousands of rings would make up for the power differential, of that he was certain.

Besides if he was right about this, not that there was a need to say it since he always was. Then using the copy produced by the Phantom Ruby would result in the Super Emerald having a direct connection to it. Allowing him to possess both a permanent Super Emerald and getting knowledge of the ruby's whereabouts. It was genius, true genius that only the likes of he, Eggman, could ever have imagined.

"Now to finally begin my plan, activating power stabilizers. Completing analysis of shard and emerald make-up. Starting up energy transfer cables, there we go. Finally with this act, I shall gain all that I need and more to ensure this universe belongs to me and me alone." Eggman said to himself while performing various actions.

As the process began the shard glowed brightly while the rings were slowly absorbed by the rapidly growing Chaos Emerald. Eggman cackled in delight as he saw this, it was working. Soon he would have a Super Emerald that wasn't beholden to the Master Emerald in any way.

"Yes, YES! These energy readings are off the charts, now I will-. Wait, these readings are. No, wait, stop- NO!" Eggman panicked as electricity began to arc off of the Super Emerald before a massive explosion wrecked his base causing water to flood in as the doctor was swept away.

(A few days later)

A few mobian children from a nearby village had been playing near the beach when a strange man washed ashore covered in cuts and bruises while bleeding rather badly from his bald forehead.

At first they had approached the human with concern, not recognizing him. But as they got closer they finally realized who that was, Doctor Eggman. The children panicked as they saw the megalomaniacal tyrant, running away as their nearby parents walked to them in concern.

As they saw Eggman however they felt scared and began to get their children while one of them went to warn the village. The doctor groaned as he awoke, his head throbbing. "Ughh, where am I? And who are all of you? Actually, if you wouldn't mind, could I ask you what my name is?"

Unbeknownst to anyone of that universe a small, practically microscopic crack appeared in outer space. It glowed faintly with a magenta light. The consequences of this act would have far reaching effects for many.

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(Nightmare's Palace)

Nightmare approached the training grounds where Infinite and Horror had been fighting. Both Killer and Dust had arrived not too long ago, good all four of them would be needed for this next mission.

As Infinite went to train more with Horror, Nightmare arrived. "Enough, both of you. I have a mission for all four of you this time around. So be in my throne-room within a minute for a mission briefing."

The four were surprised at this while Nightmare teleported away. "A mission briefing, huh? Interesting~, the boss only does that when we go after big targets. And he wants you to come with us, Infinite. How fun~."

Infinite scowled at Killer before thinking to himself. He wants all four of us? What kind of mission is this that it requires so many alongside a briefing, instead of just dropping us off with no explanation?

As the three skeletons and jackal arrived in the throne-room they saw Nightmare sitting upon his throne with Cross nearby waiting. "It certainly took you long enough, why didn't you just teleport?"

Killer grinned while sticking out his tongue. "You're always such a spoilsport ya know, Crossy~? Besides it's not like the boss actually minds, he's giving a briefing after all. So what big, juicy~ catch do you have for us today bossman?"

Nightmare sighed in annoyance. "Cool it with the flirting Killer, otherwise I'll rip your arms off. As for your target, that would be Glitchtale. A rather new AU, it formed from an Alternate Timeline that branched off of Undertale. Ink took a rather big interest in it a few months ago and began to alter it while it was still forming. As of now it's currently one of the more positive AU's in the multiverse while also being among one of the strongest due to Ink's alterations."

Dust raised a non-existent eyebrow at that. "One of the strongest? Really? Isn't that a bit much, especially for an AU that hasn't even existed for a year?"

"I'm aware that's hard to believe but it's true. Normally this wouldn't be the case but Ink added all sorts of things to it. Giving the human's magic, making the monster's magic more special, upping the level of magic, even increasing the power ceiling and altering the story. Even for the Creator, he's seriously stretching the rules of what he's allowed to do. I want to know why Ink took such an interest in this AU and what it's capable of." Nightmare explained while relaxing on his throne.

Cross was surprised by that. He knew that as the Creator Ink had a lot more leeway to get involved and mess with things than nearly any other god in the multiverse. But to think he would alter an AU to that extent just to make it interesting.

Nightmare continued onward, uncaring to their surprise. "Killer, Horror, Dust, and Infinite, you will be working together. Your mission is to investigate this AU and to find out what its rules and capabilities are. Do this as discreetly as possible and try not to make too much of a scene. If you believe that you're able to handle the AU's inhabitants, rough it up a little. Kill some of the humans there or maybe destroy one of the major monsters, I don't care."

"However, if you feel that the people there might be more than you can handle, you are to retreat and regroup immediately. Relay any gathered information back to Cross and wait for my return. I'll be going to Omega Timeline for a while to fulfill a deal I made with Core. Cross will be in charge while I'm gone. Consider his words mine and his order's to come straight from me." Nightmare ordered with absolute seriousness.

Cross and the others were surprised by that. The boss was putting Cross in charge? And he made a deal with Core!Frisk? When did that happen and why? Cross bowed slightly to Nightmare. "Thanks for your trust, Boss. I won't let you down."

Nightmare huffed at that. "You better not, you know what will happen if you fail me. Finally, if any of the natives suspect your true nature or attempt anything untoward you have permission to retaliate. That is all. Also, Infinite I noticed what you did against Horror during your training. It would appear you've begun to access the ruby's true power. Good, perhaps this mission will allow you to improve on that so that you may be of further use to me."

As Nightmare left in a swirl of darkness, Infinite gritted his teeth while gripping his hands tightly. Arrogant bastard, acting as if he's completely in control of everything. Now that he had discovered what the Phantom Ruby could really do it was only a matter of time before he'd be strong enough to challenge the dark god. Yet, he acted as if that power wasn't a threat to him at all.

Cross sighed as he stared at Infinite, he'd have to nip that in the bud. He had gone through something similar to the jackal, so he knew that feeling well. But he also knew defying Nightmare was a horrible idea. After all despite appearances, the god was the furthest thing from arrogant. He was cold and calculating at heart and only raised that mask of overconfidence to portray a weakness he didn't actually have. He had fallen for the same trick a while back and it hadn't ended well for him.

Infinite just sighed as he calmed down, he wouldn't be able to do anything right now. He had to wait and grow before trying anything against the dark god. He turned towards the others, the question clear despite his face being covered by his metal mask.

Cross said nothing as he took his massive butcher knife off his back. The knife turned a deep purple before he swung it twice in the air creating a glowing purple X-shaped cut. "There, that will lead you straight to Glitchtale. It should drop you off somewhere in the wilderness surrounding Mount Ebbot. Try to be discreet, okay?"

Killer just grinned at that. "Heh, like you even need to say that. You know how good I am at sneaking up on people and Horror can be surprisingly stealthy when he wants to be. It's these two you should be telling that to."

Infinite scowled before entering the portal, he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. The others quickly followed suit, while Cross looked on with a strange sense of unease. Insanity had been secretly watching the entire meeting. The mad skeleton began giggling to himself quietly, those fools had no idea what that jackal's presence here really meant.

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(Glitchtale)

The four appeared in a swirl of purple which quickly disappeared. As they took notice of their surroundings, they realized they were in a small forest near the base of a mountain. Further away they noticed the lights of a relatively small city, the moon shining above them.

Infinite walked around while the three skeletons felt the magic in the air. Normally magic on the surface is extremely weak or outright non-existent in most AU's. But here there was just as much magical energy on the surface as there is in the Core, maybe even more.

Killer whistled at this revelation. "Man the boss wasn't kidding, Ink seriously messed with this universe something fierce. I haven't felt this much magic energy since that time I got stuck in Reapertale."

Infinite's ears perked up upon hearing that, Reapertale wouldn't that be where the God of Death is? Interesting, and also how unfortunate that he didn't die there. Dust turned towards the city as he walked in its general direction. But he didn't get far before Horror stopped him.

"We....shouldn't.....go...there..first,..the...underground." Horror said slowly. Dust sighed but nodded at that. It would be a good place to start and would give them an idea of what has changed in this AU's timeline. Once they did that, they could start investigating what happened after the barrier broke.

Killer grinned as he nudged Infinite. "See what did I tell ya, Horror's smarter than he looks. Anyway, good thinking about investigating the underground first. We've got no idea what actually happened in this AU, only that the timeline diverged enough from the Original Universe to become its own universe. Meaning something big had to go down before, during, or after the barrier broke."

Infinite scoffed at that but agreed with the sound logic. All four of them teleported near the top of the mountain. Upon which sat a small cave with a somewhat large hole in it. Killer grinned as he saw the famous hole which the humans usually fell into.

Killer jumped into the hole while laughing, the others followed suit immediately after. Killer teleported onto the ground, while Infinite floated down gently. Dust created a gaster blaster which he stood on before stepping off once he hit the ground.

Infinite was a bit confused however, where was Horror? He was right behind them so-. A massive sound echoed throughout the chamber as a large cloud of dust rose into the air. Inside a large crater was Horror, he walked out of the crater without a scratch to show for it.

Infinite stared at the silent skeleton, that must have been at least 1000-foot drop. No injuries at all not even a scratch, he shouldn't be surprised by this, but he still was. Well, it doesn't matter they had stuff to do and more importantly there was something he noticed the moment they touched the ground.

The energy in this place was incredibly dense, almost suffocatingly so. "Is the magic in the underground supposed to be this strong?"

Dust frowned as he and the other two skeletons reacted more intensely to the massive spike in energy. "No, it isn't. It must have been quite a while since the barrier was broken in this AU, maybe a month or two. Then again the Core could also be more advanced here as well. We'll have to check it out during our investigation."

Infinite was confused at that, so something called the Core was responsible for this? And apparently this happened as a result of some barrier being destroyed. Killer grinned at the jackal's confusion, he looked almost cute like that. Well he assumed he did anyway, but that stupid mask kept getting in the way of his handsome face.

"Well if you want to know, the Core is this giant magical reactor above a lake of lava. It produces massive amounts of magic energy, enough to power a grand ritual-class spell every single second. Which is roughly comparable to a 15-kiloton nuclear bomb. It's Doctor Gaster's greatest work and mistake." Killer explained while approaching Infinite.

Killer wrapped an arm around Infinite's shoulder as he continued his explanation. "The barrier was a seriously powerful magic seal placed around the whole mountain by seven human wizards a super long time ago. You'd need to be strong enough to destroy an entire universe to break it, not sure how those crazy wizards did it though. When the barrier gets broken, the Core no longer has to fulfill any of its prime directives so it just starts producing a bunch of magical energy without anything to do with it. Which builds up over time, filling the underground with massive amounts of magical energy."

Killer grinned as he lightly touched the glowing gem in Infinite's chest. Infinite snapped the moment that happened swiping his claws at the skeleton, who easily dodged the attack. He created a sword and swung it at the offender, who just kept dodging with that smug look on his face.

"Seems I touched quite the nerve, huh? Man didn't think you'd get this pissy about me touching your chest, Infinite~." Killer cackled to himself while dodging Infinite's strikes. He loved screwing with people, especially this guy.

Dust scowled at this. "Enough, both of you, we have work to do. Killer don't touch the ruby, you know it's a sensitive everything for him. And Infinite just ignore him, he does that to everyone he meets for the first time."

Infinite snarled at Killer, who noticed the jackal's hackles were raised. Dang guess I pissed him off more than I thought. Also is space distorting around him? Cool~

Horror tapped Infinite's back, who turned towards him. Horror shook his head before pointing towards the entrance Dust was heading to. Infinite scowled but decided to relent, he swears he's going to kill that smug bastard one day.

As they entered the ruins, Infinite noticed the complete lack of any inhabitants. If what he had discovered was true, nearly all AU's had monsters living here and yet there were none to be seen. This place was big enough to house at least a couple thousand people, surely not all of them had left right? Though he supposed that made things easier, since he'd have to kill them if they were discovered.

They continued through the ruins not finding anything of note. As they walked through a long corridor they arrived at a large door which led into a snowy area filled with trees. Dust frowned deeply while Killer's smile became a bit strained, Snowdin. Hopefully they could get through here quickly enough.

They continued onward as they arrived at a long narrow wooden rope bridge, Infinite noticed a small wooden cabin in the distance. The lights were on and he could feel someone's presence in the building. But it shouldn't be a problem, they were too far away for them to notice them at all.

As they arrived in a small town, Infinite couldn't help but notice how the skeletons were getting increasingly more tense. Interesting, perhaps he could use this somehow. As they passed by a large house near the end of the town is when things got interesting.

For once, Killer had stopped smiling and had a carefully blank look on his face. Horror was gripping his axe rather tightly and was scratching at his head wound. But Dust was taking it by far the worst. He was gripping his scarf tightly and mumbling to himself. No, not himself, it seemed like he was speaking to someone instead. Infinite knew trauma when he saw it, he wasn't so cruel as to bring that up. Mostly.

Infinite sighed as he teleported all three of them away into a new area filled with water and glowing plants. He didn't like being nice to them, but they'd be no use to anyone in that state. "I will be going on ahead to find anything of note. You all stay here until you feel like you can continue."

Killer and Horror just nodded at that while Dust didn't seem like he heard him. Infinite just sighed as he walked through, waterfall? Yes, apparently that was its name. How uncreative, speaking of creativity though. This new ability he devised would be quite useful in figuring out new information.

It allowed him to view past events and information by messing with time a bit. It wasn't perfect by any means, the information gained could be vague or incomplete. But for a newly developed technique it was performing rather well despite that.

Most of what he saw however was just useless day-to-day things. He didn't care about these people's personal lives or feelings, he just needed-. What was that?

Infinite felt a strange feeling of nervousness and despair wash over him as he saw a child covered in dust. They had a rather creepy grin on their face as they struck down a weird muscular horse-fish thing, which turned to dust as a white upside-down heart appeared before quickly shattering.

Why was he feeling these emotions? Killing didn't phase him. Oh, I see. These aren't my emotions but those of the other monsters who perished here. How annoying, figures the technique would have a weakness like this.

And yet despite perishing, the most recent event was of the very same monster greeting the human as if nothing had happened. A RESET then? He had been told about those during one of his training sessions with Dust. Some sort of temporal rewind ability that those with high levels of DT could perform. It sounded like a massive pain, especially since it could bypass even those who had time resistance.

But from what he could see there was only one instance of fear and multiple instances of varying degrees of happiness. Only one Genocide Route then, interesting. He continued through the area as the temperature began to slowly rise. Before long he ended up in hotland, with blistering heat and plumes of magma surrounding him.

He felt a brief distortion in space as the three skeletons appeared near him. "Well you're looking better. Also, I was able to uncover that this universe only went through a single Genocide Route. Not quite sure if that's anything special, but from what you told me it's unusual for there to be only one."

"Only one huh? Yeah that's pretty unusual, in most AU's if the kid does it once it's pretty likely they'll do it at least a few more times before they get bored." Killer explained not quite grinning anymore but no longer looking out of it.

The magic levels had gotten more intense as they moved through hotland. Eventually they could see the Core in the distance, where all that magical energy came from in the first place. To build such a thing was incredible honestly, akin to one of Eggman's great works. Though Infinite felt a bad taste in his mouth even thinking that.

As they came upon the lab however, Infinite felt a sharp spike of pain as he gripped his head. "Something massive happened here, agh. A big change in the timeline, one that apparently wasn't supposed to happen. Damn this hurts."

He quickly turned off the ability as the pain quickly faded. That had been deeply unpleasant but at least they knew something big had gone down here. Hopefully that wouldn't happen again, but it likely would.

Infinite followed the others who had already entered the lab. Dust and Killer could feel it, the faint traces of HATE alongside a remnant tear in space-time. Infinite grit his teeth as he used his retro-cognition ability which caused that pain to return. It would appear extreme temporal anomalies caused the ability to go haywire, how irritating.

"Strange flashes, a human with a red knife, a skull-shaped machine, a golden flower, and Sans. They were fighting together against the human, to help another one trapped in the machine. Something was taken out, the one with the knife took it and escaped." Infinite was brought to his knees as he panted in pain while relaying what he saw. That was not easy at all.

"Flowey and Sans fighting together? Against Chara? To save Frisk? Not only that but the DT extractor was used. How the hell did any of that even happen?" Dust questioned the relayed information. That should be impossible but he trusted Infinite, he had no reason to lie especially with the pain he was in. That and it explained the HATE at least.

There wasn't much more that could be gathered here so they would have to go onwards. They continued through both the Core and the rest of hotland, where the magic energy levels had risen to being almost straining for Infinite.

Soon they arrived at the capital, which was a rather large town. Thousands of monsters could live here easily, likely even more than that. Finally they arrived in a golden corridor, Judgement Hall. Killer and Dust began sweating and shivering slightly, they HATED this place. They had died here far too many times for them to ever be comfortable being here again.

Infinite used his power and saw something truly shocking. Two somethings.