Hello, everyone, and welcome back to this particular fanfiction! As usual, if there are any reviews by the time I finish this chapter, I will mention them at the end. Special shoutout to linkthetoaoftime for my first favourite! Thank you so much. Also, just wanted to mention, while the first 5 chapters of this story will have been uploaded consecutively, after that I will only be updating once a week (Or twice a week, depending on how much spare time I have). This is to make sure the story won't end too soon, and make people more likely to catch a glance of it. Now, ON WITH THE STORY! And strap yourselves in, cause this is gonna be the longest chapter yet!
"Now, Frisk, I know you must be very confused about what's going on right now, but I promise, there is a good explanation." Frisk looked down at the view below. In the distance, he could see the moonlight glimmering in the ocean's water.
"This story begins a long time ago. A VERY long time ago, back when the seven sorcerers first constructed the barrier. It is not documented in many history books, but the seven sorcerers were all from the same bloodline. Magic ran through their veins. Also not documented was that the war itself, while started on the human side, would never have gone ahead were it not for the human's king. He was a despicable man, whom was favoured by none. But in those times, rulers also ran in bloodlines, and could not be changed. When the king ordered the barrier to be constructed, one of the sorcerers protested against locking us underground."
"His name was Ballos. The king refused to listen to the kind man, so Ballos instead made a different point: That the wild, feral Monsters could not be contained with the rest of us as they were indigenous to certain habitats. The king didn't care about the well being of any of us, so Ballos tried to make a point he knew would appeal to the king: That the wild Monsters could be used for hunting. That caught the king's attention, and so he ordered for those Monsters to be moved to a floating island within his kingdom, so he could hunt them with ease in his spare time. He truly was a terrible man. Also moved to the island were the Gaudi, a cockroach-like Monster species that was tribal in nature. They were carnivorous, and so they were kept on the island to cull the other Monsters. With all that done, Ballos finally sealed the barrier with a heavy heart. I would not have liked to be him: That king was a cruel man, and later punished Ballos for his impertinence... But I am getting ahead of myself."
"You would expect that to be the end of our contact with the outside world, but no. You see, another of the sorcerers, Misery, had powerful control over teleportation magic. She was also against the imprisonment of the monsters, and promised that one day, when the king was dead, she would break the barrier herself with her magic. She was a nice child, though she was quite passionate about everything she did. All that changed, however, when one day she burst into the throne room, bawling crying..."
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"Dum dee dum," Asgore hummed to himself as he watered the tree outside his house. It didn't appear to be doing so well; all of its leaves had fallen off, and each year it produced fewer and fewer of them. Still, he supposed that couldn't be helped, given he was growing it underground.
"Hello, my dearest," Toriel said, nuzzling his nose as she approached him. "How's the gardening going?"
"Not too well. This poor tree seems to want to give up. Tree, you have to stay DETERMINED!" he chuckled, pretending to scold the tree. Toriel burst out laughing. She always loved his sense of humour.
Suddenly, Misery burst into the room from nowhere, her usually perfect mascara dripping down her face, her usually pale white cheeks red with emotion. Toriel, seeing her distress, picked her up in an embrace, and asked her what was wrong.
"It's that horrible KING, and my stupid MOTHER, and my poor UNCLE, and everything is terrible, Terrible, TERRIBLE!" she bawled out, sobs in between each word. Toriel patted her on the back, and told her everything would be alright. Asgore excused himself inside to make her a cup of tea, and to get her a slice of butterscotch-cinnamon pie. She was still crying when he returned. When she finally calmed down, Toriel asked her once again what was wrong.
"The king… He came to our house in the middle of the night, with a pack of soldiers. They said they had an arrest warrant for my uncle. When he asked what he was guilty of, the king said: Being more popular than I am. He then smiled evilly. I warned him. I warned Ballos not to go. But he said that not going would set a bad precedent. That he would prove himself to be the better man. That was when the king spat in his face. Later that night, while I was wrapped up in my bed in worry, I heard a wailing sound. It was so loud, that it must have been heard all across the kingdom. The king was torturing him, and I had to stop it. But when I went to help my uncle, you know what happened? MY STUPID MOTHER," she yelled, as if hoping her mother could hear, "Locked me in my room with magic, and said I shouldn't help him. Said that I couldn't go against my uncle's wishes, despite the fact she has FUNCTIONING EARS and could HEAR uncle Ballos' pain just as much as I could. Two hours later, a loud explosion boomed across the kingdom. It was my uncle. The pain had driven him insane, and he went on a rampage, killing everyone in sight, even… even his wife, Persephone, and my best friend and cousin, Joy. We were only protected by my mother's force field around our cottage. When she finally got control of him, she locked him underground on that floating island, far from civilisation, with a spell similar to the barrier spell."
She sniffled, "I could have saved him. I could have saved all of them. But I didn't..." The tears rolled down her face. She sighed, and seemed to come to some revelation within herself.
"I may have lost a lot," she began, "but I can at least begin to make amends. Starting with you guys. I have a friend; he's one of these new-fangled mechanical devices, but when he proved useless for his purpose, I used some of my magic to give him sentience. With his help, perhaps we can finally work on using some of my poor uncle's magic to break the barrier. I… I'll see you soon. And hopefully, when we next meet, it will be in sunlight." And with that she teleported away.
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"Hey!" Balrog exclaimed, "I was mentioned in your story! I was that mechanical device Misery brought to life."
"Really? But you look so modern, not in any way medieval." Toriel replied. She seemed surprised, but after all that had happened in such a short amount of time, she was pretty much at her limit of how surprised someone could get.
"Well..." Balrog said, blushing, "I have had a few upgrades over the years. The transition from wood to metal was probably the one that took most getting used to. Thanks for noticing though."
"You're rubbing off too much on her," Chara thought, "Soon she'll be flirting with a clump of grass."
"It was around a hundred years til we saw Misery again. Those with magic in them don't tend to age unless they want to, or until they have children. Still, despite not growing a day older, she had changed dramatically..."
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It was a beautiful day in the hall of judgement. It was the closest thing to a church or religion the Monsters had, and so it was considered sacred. Toriel was washing one of the windows, when Asgore came up beside her.
"How's my beautiful, gorgeous wife and the little baby in her tummy doing today" he said cheerfully. She smiled at him. They were so in love at this time, that they would have given the world for each other. All of a sudden, a familiar sound of magic was heard behind them. Toriel turned around to see a face she hadn't seen in a long time.
"Misery!" she cried out, rushing towards the girl. She wasn't the same as before, though. No longer did a fierce smile charm her face. Instead, she seemed despondent and bitter, as if she'd given up on the world.
"Toriel," Misery said quietly, giving her the weakest smile she had ever seen, "I'm sorry to say, but our meeting is not a happy one. The attempt I made to harness my uncle's power was foolish, and now I bear chains to a new master every few centuries." Toriel looked at her, confused and concerned.
"The newest of my masters has given me a dreadful task," she continued. "He is a scientist, crossed between the feral Monsters on the island and a man. He was studying the monsters who were imprisoned down here, and he wishes to use one of the species as a weapon of mass destruction. He wants me to use his power, and to summon all of the Mimiga related Monsters to the floating island for testing." The poor girl looked like she would have cried, but she was all out of tears. The couple were on the verge of collapsing. They had no idea how bad the effects of this would be. What would this do to morale, which was bad enough as it was? How would friends of the families react? And, most importantly, what would happen to the Mimiga when they were taken to the island?
"I will make this quick," she said, snapping her fingers. Suddenly, the entire Underground seemed… Quieter. Something was wrong. Desperately wrong. Asgore was on the brink of tears.
"I teleported their belongings up to the island as well, so at least they can live as comfortably as I can possibly make it for them." Misery looked back towards the couple. "Please forget me. I have done nothing to anyone except bring my namesake, and I am truly sorry. It would be better for you just to forget I existed. Goodbye."
"Wait!" Toriel screamed as the girl teleported away. "Come back!" But there was nothing but silence in the Underground. Asgore and Toriel lied on the ground together, crying. They stayed like that for a while.
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"No-one was happy for the months following that incident. Then, just as the pain was starting to ebb away, my son was born. Things returned basically normal for a long time after that. Asriel didn't want to age much, not until Chara came by centuries later. And you know the story from there." Toriel glanced up after finishing her tale. A dark shape obscured the moon's light above them. They had finally arrived at the island.