Sounds of fighting echoed from inside the temple, the clanging of Guts' sword and the various blasts of Joseph's weapons forming a discordant melody. The two undead were distracted only a little but decided not to worry since they couldn't hear demon screeches. Carmina and Sam were sitting in the middle of a large flow of argent energy, siphoning and storing the energy while also turning progressively darker shades of red.

"I'm beginning to wonder if there really is a limit to how much argent we can take in," Carmina signed. "I almost feel full now, like I'm not hungry anymore. It's strange, every time I think I've reached the brim, I discover that I really had more room all along."

"I'm not quite there yet, but I'm taking in this stuff until I get the same way," Sam replied. "Of course, you have all of those souls to take up space too, right?"

"Not really," Carmina signed. "In the past, no matter how many souls I claimed, I never got any fuller, or any more human. Even now, with all of the souls I have, if I were to die I would still look hollow." They were quiet for a time, the sound of Guts and Joseph's battle filling the silence. Carmina had now gotten so red that her hair looked almost blonde by comparison, and Samantha wasn't far behind.

"Tell me more about the people you met," Samantha asked. "I get the feeling that they're all very interesting." Carmina smiled and pretended to think about it for a moment.

"To start off, one man that you must know about is Solaire, the man who sought his very own sun. He had an unshakeable faith in his own quest and even seemed thankful to become hollow, if only for an excuse to wander into Lordran…"

Back with Guts and Joseph, the two were still fighting as ferociously now as when they'd begun. Guts used a maneuverability that Joseph couldn't match to bound from walls, pillars, and even run along the ceiling. Joseph was bound to the ground, and so ran around firing at Guts when he sat still, trying to make himself less of a target at the same time. Guts regularly leaped close enough to Joseph to get in a proper swing at the demon slayer, already marring the surface of his armor in three or four places with deep trenches in the green metal. Guts was also marked in places, with a still glowing plasma burn on his thigh and a few bullet holes in his right arm. They'd agreed to not heal unless it was life-threatening, at which point the one who'd 'killed' the other would be the victor.

Up to now, it had seemed like Joseph had had the upper hand, but with Guts most recent hit-and-run leaving a deep, blood-gushing slash across the slayer's stomach the tide had turned. Joseph kept getting dizzier as he lost more blood, making it easier to lose concentration and harder to hit the now stalling Guts. Finally, he just fell onto the ground with a grunt.

"I yield, you win," he said, making Guts stop his running around and jump over to Joseph to stand beside him as he turned on his suit's healing, him doing the same. Their armor closed up and got shiny again, while their wounds stitched themselves together, in Guts case pushing out buckshot from his arm. "That was a good fight."

"It was my pleasure to kick your ass," Guts said, grinning. "I'd happily do it again." They both laughed for a minute, and then went out to check on Carmina and Sam. They found them in the middle of a stream of argent, as red as they could possibly be, and talking like old friends.

"Ziegmeyer sounds like a great friend, maybe I'll get to meet him someday," Sam said, then noticed that the two slayers were done fighting. "Who won?"

"I did, by blood loss," Guts said, using his hand to indicate a slash across the stomach. "I thought it was deep enough to make his entrails fall out, but I'll take this."

"I'll get you next time," Joseph promised, pointing at Guts' face.

"What are you going to do, bleed on me?" Guts taunted, laughing at Joseph. "You fought good, don't worry about it."

"I'm glad you got it all figured out," Carmina signed, "but maybe we should get moving."

"Probably," Guts agreed. "Does everyone have everything?" After a quick item check, they got moving again. Sam repaired her helmet with argent as they traveled, but they all mostly thought quietly. It was the sort of wandering walk you take when your mind is everywhere and nowhere. The occasional demon ambush was easily dealt with by the four of them together, Sam and Carmina trying out using their control over argent energy to fight, but then it was back to wandering and walking.

"Why are we walking around like this?" Sam asked. "We're not going anywhere specific, and we just seem to be attracting more attention like this than when we were sitting around." Before Guts or Joseph could answer, Carmina got Sam's attention and explained something very important.

"Undead are in grave danger when they lose hope or go on without a goal," she signed, her face grave. "When an Undead does this, they go mad, become Hollows. I've seen friends go hollow before: Solaire when he couldn't find the sun, the crestfallen knight in Firelink, people with hope snatched away and their sanity with it. We tried to find a goal earlier, and we came up with finding more warriors, like you, like me, like them, to join the fight against hell, to protect those that can't defend themselves. Such a noble undertaking is enough, I think, to keep us both sane, and be worth a little walking when we're not traveling. Not every battle is won by those that only know how to fight. You must learn to rest, to 'take a breather,' so to speak. If you don't, you'll be worn out ever quicker, worked to the bone, your will ground to dust and your dreams vanishing before your eyes, hollow in every sense." Sam nodded to Carmina, thankful for what she'd said. They kept walking.

They found a new temple to rest at and decided that it was a good place to enter another portal. Carmina let Sam make this portal (her only instructions were to try and find a world with a noble and strong warrior in it) for practice and wondered where this portal would lead them. The mist curled out from Sam's hands like smoke from a frozen fire, swirling on the ground before rising into a disk and slowly falling through itself. For a moment there was the barest glimpse of void through the red fumes, but light replaced the dark, and soon enough a dirt road winding through a jungle could be seen.

A man in a wingsuit landed a few feet away, covered in weapons and wearing a grappling hook on his left arm. He looked into the portal for a few seconds, expression unchanged.

"Nope," he said simply, hooking into a tree and flying off. "Nope, nope, nope, nope…"

"Well that was weird," Joseph remarked as Sam closed the portal and tried again.

"He certainly seemed strong, but it looks as though his world had beliefs of some sort to prevent him from joining," Carmina signed, as confused as everyone else. "What does 'nope' mean by the way?"

"It's a sort of reaction to situation's someone can't handle," Sam said. "If you were to come upon one of those lords of cinder when you were weak, where you might do your best to kill them and would likely succeed, someone weaker in some way might panic immediately and be killed all the faster. The other end of that panic is a lack of reaction. You might say it's just a shutdown, or them being in the middle of processing what they're seeing."

"Decent enough explanation," Joseph shrugged, watching Sam's newest portal. "I guess it just tells us to prepare for anything." This time the view on the other side was odd, to say the least, different from previous portals. A bed of golden flowers was in the middle of a tall cave and looked well taken care of. They all walked through to get a better look at the place, but the sound of a faint scuffing had all of them shoot their gazes upwards. A very short human in a striped sweater had just tripped near the hole far above and was falling right towards them. Guts reacted first, jumping between the walls of the cave to gain height and catch the human before they hit the ground, surprising them and keeping them silent as Guts slid back down the rock to the floor of the cave. Carmina was glancing around confusedly but drew her gaze to the human as Guts set them on their feet.

"You alright, kid?" Guts asked, kneeling down to get closer to the human's level. Their eyes were red, and their face was both angry and surprised. A strange clicking sound accompanied the world going dark, and everyone turning black and white. The human kid drew a weird looking red kitchen knife, and they all enter a FIGHT.

*These four are more powerful than you can imagine.

It starts off as the kid's turn, and nobody is able to move when-

*CHECK

*Guts – ATK ? DEF ?

*You're in my way.

*Samantha – ATK ? DEF ?

*The second hyper-lethal vector.

*Joseph – ATK ? DEF ?

*Rip and tear, until it is done.

*Carmina – ATK ? DEF ?

*Prepare to die.

The child hesitates for only a moment but shakes it off and runs to cut at Guts. He blocks the strike with his sword, and then everyone collectively FIGHTs the human. Their dodging skill is a sight to behold, simultaneously moving through four different attacks.

"Think this is who we're here for?" Guts asked, preparing for the next attack.

"Who else?" Sam replies. "Have you seen anyone else that can fight like this? But why are they hostile?"

"Let me try something," Carmina said, readying her Dark Hand. The kid attacks the undead next but gets parried by her, and suddenly has her SOUL pulled from her chest. The dark red heart looks almost sick, covered in webs of black sludge and beating irregularly.

*CHECK

*Frisk/Chara – ATK 99 DEF 99

*They are not yet too far gone to SAVE.

The child snarls and yanks her SOUL back, jumping away as her turn ends.

"Anything we can do, Carmina?" Sam asked, preparing her combat knife.

"Keep them distracted for a minute, I need to get something ready," Carmina said as she rummaged through her pouch. While everyone else kept up the attack, the undead woman retrieved her most powerful talisman and began reciting a prayer. Finally, her fist glowed with power, spell prepared and waiting to be unleashed. She slaps one gauntlet against the other, making a loud clang. Samantha, Guts, and Joseph all jump aside, leaving the child stuck mid-dodge as Carmina ACTed. She ran to the human child and embraced them as the blue lights of Caressing Tears floated around them. They struggled hard, twisting in Carmina's hold, but eventually went still as a dark mist ran from their mouth and eyes. The vapor condensed into a human shape, and a furious carbon copy of the human was made in a few moments.

"Just who do you all think you are?!" they shouted, summoning their red knife from the human's limp grasp. "I'm the demon that comes when people call its name! I'm the destroyer of timelines and worlds! I'm-"

"Gonna have to hold that thought," Guts interrupted, walking to where Carmina was trying to use a few miracles to get the human responsive again. "They good?"

"Exhausted, but yes," she signed as she stood, human held in one arm. "Can someone else take care of the other one in a timely manner? My hands are full."

"No problem," Joseph said from behind the copycat, clocking them over the head while they were still caught unaware. They crumpled to the ground and the FIGHT ended, returning the world around them back to normal. "Now what?"

"Howdy!" a flower greeted cheerfully, sprouting from the ground. "I'm Flowey, Flowey the Flower!" He shut up right after his introduction thanks to the freshly-pumped shotgun suddenly pointed in his face. The human came to a moment later, opening bright blue eyes, and saw Flowey's situation. They leaped away from Carmina to block Joseph's line of fire.

"Don't! He may be awful, but don't kill him!" they said quickly. "He's a… sort of friend – my friend, and I want him alive, okay?" Joseph was frozen for a moment, gun still pointed down at the kid and the flower, but it didn't take long to put it away and back off.

"Hello? Is someone there?" a kind voice asked from deeper in the cave. Footsteps came closer, and soon the owner of those feet came into the light. A tall, fluffy, and white goat-like monster stepped forward. "I heard something… going… on… what has happened here?"

"Long story," Guts growled. "We'll talk in a minute."

"Don't mind him. He's rough around the edges but means well," Sam explained, walking in front of the monster to say hello. "I hate to be suspicious, but you don't intend to cause trouble, right? We only got here ten minutes ago and already had a fight."

"A fight? Goodness!" Toriel said, putting a paw up to her face. "Was anyone hurt? Do you need help?"

"Truly, the embodiment of danger," Carmina deadpanned with her fingers, rolling her eyes. "Calm down, Samantha."

"Everyone stop," Joseph said, putting away his shotgun. "Introductions? I'm Joseph, that's Guts, Sam, and Carmina. Now, who is everyone else?" There was a short silence, and then the human got to their feet.

"My name is Frisk," she said, introducing herself. "Flowey has already introduced himself, and what's your name?"

"I… am Toriel, the caretaker of the ruins," the goat monster said, still very confused. "Could someone please explain what is going on?"

"Alright," Sam said. "Here's the quick version: the four of us in armor are from different dimensions and came to this one to find another fighter to join up with us. The long version will have to wait until everything here is figured out." Toriel nodded at the quick explanation, hoping that it would be added onto later. She attempted to dig up Flowey and place him in a pot, but he just hissed at her and uprooted himself, wrapping his vines in a snug fit around Frisk's left arm.

Toriel guided them through the puzzles at a leisurely pace while Guts carried "Chara", still unconscious. They reached the caretaker's home in minutes, and those that couldn't claim a chair found spots leaning against the wall or on the floor. Toriel offered some of her freshly baked butterscotch-cinnamon pie, but everyone politely declined. Finally, everyone began to spin their tales again.

"I took my first breaths without a mother…"

"I was trained to protect my home…"

"I woke up in a cell without knowing who I was…"

"I was taken from my home when I was only a child…"

Each story was dark by any standard and left hardly any mysteries surrounding the people they were about. Toriel was wide-eyed with a lot of emotions: shock, horror, revulsion, fear. As a mother who'd lost her child, she could barely stand to keep listening to what they were all saying. Demons, wars, monsters that had no trace of kindness, and entire planets being wiped clean because of a religion. She shuddered to so much as think of any of it, and yet the four humans before her had lived through all of it if they were to be believed. Chara had woken up when they'd reached the house, but even they were struck dumb by the backstories of the four most dangerous humans she'd ever seen. When they were done, silence filled the air. Then, Frisk began to speak.

"A long, long time ago, a human climbed Mount Ebott, and fell into the ruins below…"

Hi everybody. I'm really sorry about the wait for this chapter, but my motivation and inspiration has plummeted recently, and I've been vegging out for a few weeks. Once school starts back up I'll get into the groove of things again hopefully, but I'll try my best to get more chapters out. I'll be honest, things are stable in my life in a way I don't like, probably why I've had such a problem writing. I'll see all of you in my next chapter, and try my hardest to deliver quality content.