AN: No reviews? Well then, no AN, I guess. :P

Once again.

Once again, I walked forward through the golden hallway. I wasn't sure how many times I've done this before – I'd lost track a long, long time ago. The first time, I admit I was nervous. It didn't make much sense for me to be – after all, I could always just try again if I died. But there was still this undeniable feeling of dread – an irrational fear of what was about to happen.

That was then. Now, this hallway held no terrors for me. There was just my last victim.

As I approached the figure standing in the shadow, a very familiar voice said something very familiar.

"…that expression you're wearing… you're really kind of a freak, huh? … ready?"

I leapt into the air as bones rose up from the floor below me and easily weaved through the wave he sent afterwards. Then, as he summoned his blasters, I simply moved into their blind spot, and did it again, and again, and again.

"here we go."

There was a time when I found that first attack incredibly challenging to dodge. A time when I'd almost never get past it without being hit with the full force of one of his bones or being burned by the lasers his odd skulls fired.

Now, though, it was trivial.

I ran up to the one standing in front of me and slashed with my knife. He dodged out of the way, as I knew he would.

"what? you think i'm just gonna stand there and take it?"

I didn't, and he knew I didn't. He was merely mocking me. The first few times I'd heard him do that, I'd snapped at him, shouting about how he of all people should know I'd know what he'd do. Afterwards, it still annoyed me for a while, but I'd learned by then that saying anything would just be wasting my breath. Now, I didn't care one way or the other. It was just more white noise to me.

From then on it was all the same as usual. Every time the skeleton began an attack, I knew exactly what to do to avoid it from the moment I saw it. Every time he said something, it was always the same thing he always said – and every time he attacked, I would always emerge unscathed.

After a while of him dodging over and over, he stood in front of me, sweat on his forehead, and began his long-winded speech where he asked me to stop fighting. He said we could've been friends in another timeline… rubbish. Perhaps that weak, pathetic child who fell down here once considered this monster a "friend", in some timeline…

But that child was no longer here. It was just me, Chara.

I slashed again, and again, the skeleton dodged.

Of course, I knew what happened next.

By now, I was able to avoid almost everything he could do to me. Even after so many resets, that was one thing that still felt amazing. With how much trouble he gave me the first few times he fought, I suspected I'd never get tired of making a fool of him.

And yet almost everything isn't the same as everything. I braced myself, preparing for one of the few things that still got me every so often.

For a moment, reality itself seemed to blink out of existence. Then everything came back… Only now, there was a large wave of bones heading my way. I jumped as high into the air as I could, barely avoiding the attack. As I fell down, the tall bones gave way to much shorter ones – and just before I landed on them, reality disappeared again. When it reappeared, a completely different attack was heading my way. Even after all this time, I still found it disorienting.

But after all these resets, I could dodge even this. Even as he attacked over and over – sometimes with the reality-shifting, sometimes with those odd blasters of his – he never hit me once.

Just one thing left, now. His desperate last stand.

It was far, far from the first time I'd experienced it. Yet even so, it was dangerous. Very dangerous…

The flurry of attacks came as soon as his speech ended. Dodging the first few was relatively easy, but that didn't last long. As they progressed, avoiding them became harder and harder. I felt my heart pumping in my chest, adrenaline rushing through my veins as I barely evaded a group of bones. With how often I'd done this, I knew the correct course of action to dodge all of this instinctively, but that didn't make it easy to actually do…

As the rapid-fire attacks moved into their final stage – the circling blasters – I felt a rush of adrenaline and excitement as I realized he hadn't even scratched me so far. For a while, it had been my goal to beat this bastard flawlessly. Now, that goal was finally within my reach!

Don't get overconfident, though. That was the fastest way to get myself hit. Still, it was hard to remember that as I ran ahead of the lasers, silently praying they'd stop soon…

And then they did.

I'd done it. For the first time, I'd fought him and I'd won without a single mark on me.

I began laughing. The skeleton's telekinesis picked me up and slammed me, repeatedly, against the walls – for some reason, I always forgot he did that at the end. Still, it didn't matter. It could hardly be considered an attack, anyway.

As my body smashed into the marble walls over and over again, I felt pain. Not in the same way I did the first few times this happened, though. Back then, it was unbearable. Every wave of his hand, every slamming sound was punctuated by a scream as agony filled me. Yet now, though I still felt the pain, I was used to it by now. Now, it hardly even bothered me. It almost felt distant, in a way – like it was something I knew existed and was happening, but didn't affect me.

So I just kept laughing, both to mock him for his failure and out of genuine joy for my accomplishment.

Finally, he tired out and stopped, dropping me on the ground. Then, he used what he called his "special attack".

This was nothing new to me by now, but it was rather boring. While I waited for him to fall asleep, I set my knife on the floor and sat down, contemplating my next action.

My main goal was now complete. What would I do next? Nothing came to mind, not immediately. The fish was the only other real challenge I had, but I'd already beaten her without a scratch several times. Other than her, there was nothing that could challenge me, or that was even remotely interesting. Nothing in the Underground, at least…

With the goats' souls, I could cross the barrier. Then, I'd have all of humanity to figure out how to get past. It would be rather entertaining, I imagined. The monsters were naïve and weak; that was why only two of them even put up a decent fight. Humans, on the other hand…

Yes, I'd enjoy killing them. And not just because it'd be hard.

Looking up, I noticed that the skeleton had fallen asleep by now. I picked up my knife and walked towards him, slicing him almost as an afterthought as I passed.

Next was the throne room. The king of monsters fell easily. All it took was a single strike.

The flower didn't show up. After I did this a few times, he just stopped appearing. He was terrified, of course. I didn't really bother looking for him in my previous attempts. Defeating that comedian flawlessly was all I really cared about. If I decided I really wanted to hunt him down, I had all the time in the world to do so. Really, though, he wasn't worth the time. Although…

I remembered his pleas for mercy, remembered how good it felt to have someone beg to me. Perhaps finding him would be worthwhile after all.

That, though, was something I'd consider later. For now, I just walked on until I reached the barrier.

Just as I was about to pass through it, I heard a voice I didn't know from behind me.

"Hm. You've finally accomplished what you wanted to do," said the voice. Whatever it was spoke in a very casual – even smug – tone, almost as if it was unaware of what I'd done. "You're quite the killer, aren't you? Well, child… I've got an offer for you."

I turned around.

Standing there, looking straight at me, I saw a monster.

His appearance was that of a humanoid bird wearing a robe. More concerning than that, however, was the fact that I'd apparently missed one…

He looked directly at me and said "My name's Par, and I believe hearing me out would be in your best interest."

It didn't make sense to me. How could there still be a monster alive? I've done this time and time again – there shouldn't be any way for someone to avoid me every time. And if someone did, why would they be standing here? He knew what I'd done – there was no way he didn't. So why come to me, of his own free will?

Not that it mattered. If he saw it fit to throw away his life, I would oblige.

With a grin on my face, I pulled out my knife.

He sighed and shook his head slowly, as if he was expecting this. "I can't say I'm particularly surprised, Chara…"

I paused for a moment.

At this point in time, I supposed it wasn't COMPLETELY impossible for a monster to know who I was. After all, I'd been in control of the child's body and soul for a long, LONG time – and with that came certain changes. In particular, by now, the child's physical appearance had altered to match mine, and not just in terms of their actual appearance – even their clothing had turned into what I usually wore.

But… I'd never seen this bird before. He shouldn't have any idea what I even looked like, so how did he know?

It hardly mattered, but curiosity overcame logic. "How do you know who I am?" I asked, approaching him while meaningfully pointing my knife in his direction.

"Watch where you're pointing that," he said, glancing at the weapon in my hand. "And do you really think I'd te-"

His condescending speech was interrupted by my knife slamming into him. He grunted in pain and recoiled.

Yet he didn't turn to dust, nor did he seem like he was about to. It was like when I was fighting the fish – the blow had clearly hurt him, but, it seemed, not lethally.

In a way, I expected that. Here was a monster who had somehow avoided me in all my runs so far, and who had now intentionally sought me out. Clearly, there was something special about him. Hell, I'd be disappointed if there wasn't.

"You bastard!" he spat, stepping away from me. The calm confidence in his voice was gone, replaced by simple fury. He clutched the spot where I'd stabbed him. "You'll pay for that!"

Whatever it was he was trying to talk to me about before seemed to be completely forgotten. That suited me just fine.

A blob of something transparent and yellow appeared above his outstretched hand. So, this was his magic? Alright, then. I readied my knife and settled into a stance.

Time for one last fight.