This is the last stage of the siege, which as you can see, has been failing HORRIBLY. While these guys succeeded in taking quite a bit of innocent lives, the monsters are letting them know just how much they tolerate that nonsense. Which is very little, if at all. The Pack has certainly made that very clear that they don't take kindly to those who attack their territory.
Unfortunately, Papyrus was severely injured in the process of stopping half of the leaders of this attack. What will happen with the other half...?
Only one way to see...
Chapter Start!
[Perseverance: Vetrom Remix]
Muffet had to admit: Magic tomes were definitely dangerous, whether it's within the hands of someone would have wanted to cause harm to their opponent or not. And Lisa was definitely proving that point right this moment. It was quite obvious that outsmarting the girl when she's so analytical abut the situation. It was quite clear that Lisa would have many magic spells prepped in her little New Notebook, and thus would have numerous spells that could possibly down Muffet in one shot if she wasn't careful. So Muffet was going to have to use Lisa's hesitation to her advantage, and hope that Frisk can talk her down or she herself gets tired. Either option sounded pretty good to the spider girl, to be perfectly honest. She has no compunctions against either of them.
Lisa waved her hand as her notebook flipped through many pages, and Muffet could see that another trap was being activated; another blue blast of energy formed from a Delta Rune symbol above her, which Muffet nimbly dodged by jumping back, landing on her feet with ease, lightly picking up dirt. Another barrage of magic blue orbs fired towards her, and each of them she nimbly dodged. Though she felt a slight singe in her hair from one of them just barely missing her. She sighed while lightly smoothing said hair, before retaining the focus of her five eyes on her targets.
"Come now, Dearie. Let's not do this, okay? It's quite obvious that you're the most reluctant to follow through with all of this trouble." Muffet offered while she's taken a swift break once Lisa has stopped attacking for a few moments. "Just close the book, Dearie? What do you have to lose just giving up something you obviously want nothing to do with?"
"I can't, Muffet. I really wish I could, but I can't." Lisa affirmed, shaking her head and mentally chanting another spell read from her notebook. Muffet noticed the ground beginning to rupture under her, then eventually open outwards. Noticing how she was beginning to fall, she swiftly shoots a web towards a lamppost to pull herself up and out of the dangers of the earth. The rupture closed by itself, despite the caster's wishes.
"You don't have to keep wishing to step away from this course of action. You can simply do it." Frisk offered, grunting as he was still stuck in his tight purple chains. There must be something he can say that would help Lisa break away from the mental chains trapping her psyche into doing all of this. She was so smart and composed when they first truly met in the Underground with Asriel being the one to summon their consciousness forth. Now they were all back, but as their enemies. Why? Who would do this to them?
"I tried, Frisk! I really tried to think of a way out of this. But their hold on us was tighter than we thought it would be. Me and Verena are the only ones who are at least trying to resist...but the others have fully given into the influence." Lisa shook her head as more pages flipped around in her notebook as she stared ahead towards Muffet. "I'm the soul of Pertinacity. I've been commanded to do many horrible things, and this is among the worst. And no matter how much I want to disobey, I can't!" Lisa shouted as another spell was mentally chanted. Muffet blinked and yelped as a bolt of lightning struck from under the ground beneath her, which she barely avoided by jumping back.
She needed to focus.
Good grief; she has enough free will to vocally reject her actions, yet her body won't listen to that resistance at all? That's some dangerous puppetry... She slowly turned her head towards Zevia, all five of her eyes blinking at the sight of the human mage. Though it doesn't look like these human mages are behind that. It's like they're simply providing supervision. If they're not responsible for this puppetry, then who is...? I'm sure Alphys will be able to provide a proper analysis, but she's busy at the moment. Ooooh...this is quite an unfortunate situation...
The one known as Zevia stares at Muffet quite condescendingly, her eyes narrowed with annoyance. "Lisa. You shouldn't be stalling for time like that. Hurry up and kill her."
"What?! No, DON'T hurry up! Slow down!" Frisk frantically stated, though his pleas were obviously ignored as yet another swarm of chains attempted to catch the spider and trap her; she simply jumped sideways, landing gracefully as she sighed and brushed off her skirt.
"Goodness, you're pretty bloodthirsty, aren't you? Or would it be dust-hungry...?" Muffet pondered, genuinely curious. "...Hm. I suppose it doesn't matter. Good thing I have these boots. My other shoes wouldn't handle this kind of strain...whew~"
Zevia rolled her eyes, her robe flowing about from all the wind being kicked up from the chaos. "You're an awfully casual bug, aren't you?"
Muffet pouted. "Now that's just rude! Spiders are arachnids!" She didn't have time to further argue, as a large slab of earth erupted beneath her, causing her to jump off to safety. She landed gracefully on her feet again, her boots likely picking up dirt. She blinked as she sensed a shadow looming over her, she looked up and saw that the same slab of earth was coming down on her. "Oh...!" Was her only reaction before it abruptly crashes onto her...though it slowed considerably as all six of her hands raised up and stopped it with a well-placed catch. "Yet another 'whew...' from me...this is quite a troublesome bother indeed.."
Lisa blinked in astonishment, not expecting her attack to fail in such a manner. "Did...did she really catch something so heavy...?"
"Spiders are much stronger than we usually give them credit for. And Muffet obviously isn't an exception." Frisk added.
Muffet sighed as she sets the slab of earth to the side, lightly stretching her arms. "That was a bit surprising, luckily I was able to sense it before it was too late..." She blinked a bit owlishly as Lisa conjures yet another spell form her book, causing Muffet's eyes to narrow so she could prepare herself. Three Delta Runes appeared over Lisa's head once again, and each of them have begun firing a barrage of purple blasts towards her. Muffet takes a deep breath, and avoids most of them accordingly by watching the runes very closely before they fired the blast. Hence what follows, dodging a majority of the blasts with grace, never letting any of them get close. It helps that her impressive flexibility allowed her to dodge these attacks with accurate efficiency.
Zevia frowned a bit, seeing how Muffet was countering most of her spells with slight trouble but not to the point in which she couldn't handle it. The bug has obviously been underestimated...you'd better not allow this to slip you up, Lisa! She thought disdainfully...though she then sees Lisa panting softly, though refusing to let her hidden fatigue show.
Though it didn't escape Muffet's notice.
"Ahuhu! I think I've figured out what balances you out when it comes to spell-casting." Muffet says while landing on her feet once again. "You can use the same spell more than twice...but that seems to be very stamina-costly, doesn't it? Or the spells slowly grow more and more unstable...you're not a full mage yet, are you? Even when your true form has been turned into that of a monster, they can be a bit contradictory if it's not managed carefully...of course you knew this, didn't you...? Then why do you persist in exhausting yourself just to restrain Frisk and try to kill me...?" The playful tone she started with soon turned to concern, and for good reason.
Lisa didn't say anything. She swiftly waved her hand as purple chains coated with purple flames, they all proceeded to lash out and attempt to wrap around Muffet and burn her. Though she still wasn't that easy to catch, almost seeming to bounce away from the chains strikes with almost bubbly ease, though it was much more serious than that, given the circumstances. It was true, too much spell-casting without proper thought into stamina was draining Lisa quite rapidly, despite her illusion holding her up as a human. But she was not going to let up. She couldn't let up, both literally and figuratively. She feels she has to go on regardless of her disagreements, and she also wasn't being given a choice on the matter.
Frisk took notice of this.
Lisa...how far are they pushing you...? Frisk wondered. Perseverance turning into Pertinacity...you're going to keep going no matter what happens to you, no matter how tired you get. They aren't letting you rest...they won't let you stop. When Frisk thought about it, Perseverance and Determination are very closely related. To push on no matter how hard things get, or what damage comes to them. Though unlike Perseverance, Determination could at least continue on over and over again. Perseverance, however, wasn't on the same scale. Frisk could see how hard Lisa was trying to kill Muffet regardless of how exhausted her mind, emotions, and body would get.
"...It doesn't matter how hard I've been pushed...it doesn't matter what I think...I need to keep going...I must continue on. I must stay...Pertinacious..." Lisa's eyes glowed purple as the purple flames intensifies and the chains began lashing out even faster. Muffet slowly narrowed her eyes as she took more care in avoiding the chains, though a few of them managed to slash at her, burning her sides slightly. She winced, closing her right two eyes while holding her side slightly. Lisa didn't let up; she mentally chanted yet another spell as the ground swelled up and turned into a wave of earth attempting to crash down on her and crush her. Muffet leaps upwards slightly to avoid it; one bundle of purple flames swung upwards and began to swing downwards on her. Muffet yelped a bit as she crashed into the ground, the cracks splintering out slightly.
Okay...that's painful...and burning. Muffet groaned as she slowly lifts her head, lightly clenching her gloved fists.
Zevia turned to Lisa again, eyes narrowed. "Kill it. Kill it now!"
"Don't, Lisa! You're better than this!" Frisk pleaded with Lisa, who was genuinely doing her best to resist the order, but it was in vain. She swiped her hand across as purple lightning shot out from the runes towards Muffet. She jumped upwards to avoid it. Disregarding how she was on the verge of collapse from her forced carelessness of her magic output, Lisa continues with her attacks. Though her eyes widened as she felt her notebook snatched out of her hands from a nearby semi-large spider attached to a wall. It webs up the notebook and crawls away with it. Zevia reacted to the sight with heavy revulsion.
"Well Dearie, there goes your magic tome privileges! Let's see how well you do without them!" Muffet called out as she lands in front of Lisa, then kicks her into a wall, cracking it heavily. Lisa gasped softly, before she falls forward, her glasses falling in front of her. Her illusion finally falls, and what was left behind was a purple fox monster with a human soul...but it's still Lisa. The monster still pushed herself up, however. Having her human illusion cloak disabled didn't see to deter her in the slightest, she was inconvenienced at most and annoyed at worst. Muffet pouted at this. "Lisa...you don't have to keep going with this."
"Yes, Lisa! Let us help you!" Frisk shouted, still wrapped in purple chains, which only seemed to tighten as a reaction to his words.
"None of you can help me! None of you can help us! We're not worth it!" She shouted as the purple chains shot out, forcing Muffet to dodge again, this time having to constantly be on alert since Lisa didn't let up. "We should have never come back to life in the fist place, yet we did! We weren't given a choice in the matter, it jut happened! We have o other purpose other than this...!" One of the chains lashed at Muffet's top left arm, swiftly wrapping around it. The spider monster winced at the contact, feeling a bit weak. But she then shoots a strand of webbing towards Lisa's other arm with her top right hand. She too felt weakened, though neither of them were accepting this. Frisk was looking at the both of them worriedly as he tried freeing himself, but the chains continuously sapped him of magic. But it was strange. Lisa didn't seem to be focusing on him anymore, so who...?
"There's nothing to feel shameful for, Lisa. We know this isn't your fault. But you obviously have an important history with Frisk and Chara. You need to let us help you." She was ultimately ignored, but not from a lack of trying. Lisa was very clearly wavering, when she really feels like she shouldn't be. This must be a very difficult situation for her, and it wasn't doing Frisk any favors or freeing him any sooner. Though for a few moments, she could see the pleading look in her eyes, even as she's still struggling to attack Muffet:
Help me...help me, please...!
Muffet sighed, seeing how Lisa truly couldn't stop herself on her own. With this in mind, she made use of her four remaining free hands; four splotches of webbing soon shot out towards Lisa, pushing her backwards. Not wasting time, Muffet used all of her hands to web her up further before she could regain her momentum. Son enough, she was almost completely restrained, safe for her head and a bit of her tail. Muffet sighed as she slowly stepped back, somewhat glad it his part was over. "Good grief...now I just have to make sure that Frisk...Frisk...?" She turned around...only to see him not there. And Muffet didn't see Zevia around either, which means...
...Oh dear.
She had another giant spider come along and gently carry the webbed Lisa on it's back, and they both went off to chase Zevia before she got too far.
[Justice: Vetrom Remix]
Chara stood almost stoically across from Justin, who was also mostly stoic. They were both pretty battle-damaged, which was clearly shown on their bodies, especially their faces and ponchos. Though it was pretty obvious that the former was slowly losing his vocal rage over the situation, and was now slipping into a calmer state of mere annoyance. His body was quite riddled with magic bullet holes that definitely didn't tickle. Though he had stopped overplaying his reaction to them, and was simply annoyed with him. Though he did mentally praise Justin for being so creative when all he can do is shoot magic bullets from his gun with almost any kind of magic element, and be able to change directions mid-flight. That was pretty impressive, if he were to be totally honest. Now if only Justin wasn't shooting at him, then he would praise it more.
Well, there was no use in complaining about it now.
"Justin. How long are you gonna keep this up?" Chara asked almost blankly with his eyes halfway lowered but the crimson still glowing within them. His shadow arm has compressed from a claw to the form of a normal sized arm. It could dissipate if he willed it too, but he couldn't really chance that with Justin still gunning for him..Sans would be proud of that. And it fills Chara with shame. So much shame. Alas, he had more important things to worry about.
"As long as it takes to bring you down. You can't be trusted with Frisk. Neither you or Asriel can be entrusted with him. He deserves far better than either of you. Or any of you. Just remember what you've all put him through, all for your own selfish gains."
"Did they fill your head with this junk so you'd have an excuse to try and kill me?" Chara deadpanned. "Justin, you're being used for your power. guys are gonna keep draining you dry, using your own trait against yourself, and towards people who don't deserve it."
"You'll say anything to escape punishment, won't you? I've been told that you'd do something like that. Well, I won't be falling for it." Justin declared, his gun charging with more magic. "They've said that you and Asriel are the biggest dangers residing in Ebott, including your family. You all need to be dealt with, with ruthless efficiency. Especially you, Chara."
"...You're not going to give this up, are you? Very well." Chara slowly nodded as he extended his blackened arm, which morphed into flames that shifted into claws once again.
Justin raised an eyebrow. "What? No Real Knife?"
"That thing is outdated and useless at this point. Relying on my own inner power tends to help my friends out much more." Chara responded, moving his claw in front of his face with glowing crimson eyes. "Last chance to back out of this, Justin. Know that I'm not like Frisk or Asriel. I won't feel the least bit bad about beating you senseless."
"As if you could." Justin huffed, and his gun immediately goes off. A yellow ball of magic shooting quickly towards Chara. The latter brought up his shadow hand and blocked the yellow bullets, which soon vanished into nothing after being in contact with it for a long enough time. Justin snarled at this. "Really, what is it with your arm? Where did that even come from?"
"My arm, huh. I guess you could say that it's quite a mixture of darkness magic and dark fire magic. I find myself capable of both of those things." Chara shrugged. "I suppose it reflects upon my personality...my view of the world is much darker than Asriel or Frisk's...and I wanna keep it that way. They shouldn't see the world the way I always see it." He says as he then swipes his darkened hand across, sending a black wave of flames towards Justin, who was barely able to avoid the wave of dark flames by jumping upwards. In response, Justin fires magic from his gun, this time in the form of a powerful orb of air. Chara jumps over that was well, impressed as the wind ball actually made a decent crater in the ground when it exploded.
Being able to use multiple magical elements just from using that gun is rather impressive...but that's just it. It's ONLY from his gun that he can fire other elements of magic that aren't just yellow magic bullets. Chara briefly reviews in his head, before nodding affirmatively. So I just gotta get the gun away from him to have a better chance...though I doubt he's gonna make it easy for me...I'm fine with that. Nodding again, he lands on his feet and pushes his blackened hand forward, which also generated a black fireball hurling towards Justin. It crashed into him, pushing him back a great deal and slightly singing his clothes. He managed to recover in time, though the damage was still noticable.
Justin glared angrily at Chara. He once again points his gun towards Chara, and shot something very quickly, two quickly for Chara to react to on time; it ended up knocking him down and rolling across the ground. He grunted while still standing upwards, if a bit shaken. Was...was that an air bubble...? Bursting upon contact with me...sending me flying must have been a case of blunt-force trauma. He then watches with slight disbelief as Justin holds his other hand out as another gun manifested in his hand, generating magic. He then aimed both of them towards Chara, who sighed tiredly, knowing that Justin's brutal aim and efficiency has just doubled. Dual-wielding...of course. Now everything he shoots will be double the annoyance and double the trouble...I'll deal with it.
Alphys was having slight difficulties of her own, having come across Eyus again. Only this time, the Earth Mage mercenary didn't seem to be himself at all, given how his expression has mostly been blank, which has already allowed her to figure out that they've done something to him after breaking him out. She had to admit, not counting on him doing so on his own with the earth magic he has, was clearly a mistake on their part. Perhaps the only reason he didn't break himself out of prison was because Undyne and the others would simply beat him back in. Regardless of that, Alphys knew that he had to stop him from progressing any further.
"Here goes..." Alphys sighed, before narrowing her eyes behind her glasses and bringing her paws upwards. Multiple pods manifested around her, and she proceeded to fire a multitude of lasers towards Eyus. He rose a wall of earth that was hard enough to defend against each blast. When they ceased for a moment due to overheating, he pushed the wall directly towards her. She holds both paws outwards again, resulting in her yellow force-field defending against it, though it did push her back a little, and she winced from the strain. She was still trying to adjust to using techno-magic, and so far she was progressing nicely. Still, she'd rather not overdo it.
"Don't allow him to get close. Close-range combat isn't your style." Geno Alphys said through her headpiece. Alphys nodded, well-aware of her counterpart's advice. She raised her paws again as two bolts of lightning magic struck towards Eyus, which was easy for him to defend against with another wall of earth. She was able to properly react to that one, as she generated a lightning bomb right in front of the wall. It was much more effective, as it demolished the earth wall and lightly grazed Eyus with the leftover debris.
"This is not going to be like last time. I can't drag this out." Alphys said, her eyes narrowing and her eyes flashing a digital yellow for a few moments. She raised her paws once again, higher than before. Multiple digits of data began appearing above Eyus, causing him to look upwards. She didn't give him time to process what was happening, she just forced her paws downward as the yellow data turned into missiles, crashing straight down on his earth wall, demolishing it even easier than last time. Eyus jumped away from the blast, seemingly in time. Right there! Alphys pushed her paw outward, a concussion beam of energy crashing into Eyus' back and knocking him down, and eventually into unconsciousness.
"Good work, girl. He's down and out. Now you gotta help with the rest." Geno Alphys said from her headpiece. Alphys nodded, lightly stretched her arms a bit to relive some strain, before moving to help the others.
"Your friend is more capable than first glance reveals." Gitaz admitted. Undyne narrowed her eyes while watching the man in the cloak, seeing how pale his skin was compared to the rest. The one known as Gitaz stood by his side, with his skin being a bit more cream-colored than the others. "I don't think I've ever seen a technomancer with such copious potential. She might actually pose a much larger threat than she realizes. That's...quite dangerous of her."
"Yeah, so what?" Undyne raised an eyebrow. She narrowed her eyes as multiple spears manifested above her, each black with a white aura. "Touch her and I'll kill you."
"Monsters such as yourselves will do such a thing?" Ciras was skeptical about her claim. "You would kill us, yet you spared the lives of our subordinates? That seems a bit hypocritical of you."
"My gut's telling me that most of them aren't here by choice. Some of them just made some stupid decisions, they're not attacking out of their own malice. They're attacking because you guys, who actually have genuine malice within your actions, are telling them what to do." Undyne snarled. "It isn't their fault they have shitty bosses that wanna hurt people just for the hell of it. I'm a fighter, but that's never the kind of fight that I want." The spears crackled with more magic as her snarl intensified. "And to add onto that, you're using those kids as weapons...they were dead before. I'm not the smartest gal around, but I think I'll believe Lisa when she was constantly saying that this wasn't their choice. You're manipulating them too?!"
Gitaz shrugged carelessly. "Of course they were dead, and we had special sources bring them back to life. Besides, who do you think is responsible for their death in the first pl-" He was silenced by a spear sailing past his had, one he barely dodged.
"Toriel and Asgore must be heartbroken AND pissed right now..." Undyne muttered angrily. "Those kids finally found their peace in death after they've forgiven us, and you assholes were cruel enough to to take that peace away from them! On top of that, you turned them into slaves! I'm not gonna forgive that."
As she was saying this, she looked to her side to see Justin and Chara still briefly clashing. Justin now wielding magic guns in each hand, and firing a volley of yellow bullets towards the former. The latter was taking most of the yellow bullets with his shadow arm, though not all of them were dissipated by it. Some of them managed to graze his flesh arm as well as his cheek, while at one point, Chara was fast enough to slash a Justin's chest horizontally. It left three gashes across is poncho as they jumped away from each other afterwards.
"Your sins run deep, Chara. Hatred, destruction, treachery, manipulation, lies...a majority of it all can be traced back to you, indirectly or not." Justin declared strongly as he fires more rounds at Chara. "You think living the way you are now is going to make up for all of that. You're wrong. Those sins will never leave you. The best you can do is quietly accept your death and stay in it, and then the others will join you due to their own wrongdoings. Only Frisk will be allowed to walk away alive."
"You won't heed me no matter what I say or do. This argument is meaningless." Chara said decidedly.
Justin's response was to fire two explosive rounds towards Chara, which warped mid-flight. Thus, Chara had little time to react as the bullets warped right in front of him and exploded in front of him, knocking him back and causing him to land on his side. He sensed Justin ready to fire again; he gathered more dark flames within his claw, and smashed it into the ground. Justin's yellow eyes widened as he jumped upward, black flaming spikes rose from the ground and nearly impaling him. With his other arm, a black fireball shot out and crashed into Justin, forcing him back into the ground.
He retaliated once again, firing multiple rounds of yellow bullets, which soon began changing in random directions. Chara wasn't able to keep his eyes on all of them, so he stuck to swiping his blackened hand across and obliterate most of the bullets with a wave of black flames. Mid-swipe, Justin fired a swift yellow round through Chara's knee. Chara definitely couldn't ignore that one, stumbling to the side slightly while wincing, closing one eye. Though he was still able to deal another attack by firing yet another black fireball towards Justin, though this one exploded right before making contact, greatly knocking him back and burning him greatly. In response, through the flames, Justin shot another yellow round with one gun while firing a bubble round with the other. The yellow round shot through Chara's other knee, then the bubble round knocked him on his back due to it bursting with great blunt trauma once again.
Both of them were momentarily down. But because Chara's knees were shot, he was having a slightly harder time recovering. Justin moved first, making his way to Chara with one of his guns train on Chara's head. As he was preparing to fire a shot, Chara immediately grabbed his hand with his darkened arm, pushing the gun away. Justin's eyes widened as he tried aiming with his other gun, though that was slapped out of his hand with his regular arm. Both of their eyes met with the exchange.
"Strange. How you were revived as a lion monster, one that is supposed to represent justice in some cases. Though in other cases, they can also mean dominion, and authority. Given how they lead a pride of other lions and all. Though there are two things wrong with that." Chara narrowed his eyes. "You have no authority over me, nor do you have any dominion over me. Sorry, but executing me is not gonna be crossed off your to-do list after being reborn a monster." Chara shook his head, before sighing. "This is gonna hurt bad, Justin. Brace for it."
Justin was confused by this, until he realized that Chara's claw expanded and restrained him entirely. He struggled against it, then noticing that Chara's other hand pressed against his side. It slowly pulls back, revealing yet another black ball of fire, which expanded slowly...until he was blasted back by the intense flames, his clothes becoming even more burned than before.
[Music End]
Justin grunted as he landed on his back, the black cinders going away for a bit once Chara was sure he wasn't getting back up. Chara walked up to him, his claw compressing to the form of a regular arm again. Justin noticed this, pushing himself up just slightly. It was quite ridiculous After all this time, after everything that they've been through, among children one through eight, Chara was still undoubtedly the strongest among them. He proved that just now, and without fanfare. He shook his head, mentally berating himself for allowing himself to lose. knows what huis superiors does to losers. He and the others won't be able to handle it.
"...Justin. Based on your soul-trait, I gotta ask...you're still mad at me, huh?" Chara said, gaining his attention. "Because of my actions, all three of you had to be killed to achieve the Monsters goal of breaking the Barrier. Yet despite everything that happened, me and Frisk were the only two human children to walk away alive and well." He scratched his cheek a little. "So, be honest with me. Are you sure that the ones who revived you didn't twist your soul turned into something like Vengeance to go along with Detachment? Did you want revenge against me only? And Detachment is just allowing you to try and kill everyone else without a care. They've cut off your attachment from everyone, which is why the only passionate emotions you feel is hatred towards me...is that right?"
"...Why does it matter to you...?" Justin muttered, turning away.
"Justin. We can help you. Come with us." Chara offered. "You all are being used as weapons...we can free you from that."
"But...why do you care...?"
"In all honesty...me personally? I don't care. But Mom and Dad will, and so will Asriel and Frisk. I'm offering for their sake, not yours. So, what's it gonna be?"
Justin thought over his options. There was no way the others were going to tolerate his loss at Chara's hands. But at the same time, could he really afford to allow himself to submit to Ebott's forces? Many things could happen, and none of them were good. With small bits of consideration, Justin shook his head for a moment, then prepared to voice his answer-
Chara turned around and slashed with his claw. Multiple, much more powerful yellow bullets nearly pierced Justin's head, had Chara not cut them apart. He was glaring at the one who fired the yellow bullets, the one known as Ciras. Chara narrowed his eyes at this. "That's it, huh? One loss and they're immediately discarded?"
"Failure has not, and will not be tolerated. He was forced to learn this upon his rebirth, and still did not deliver when it counted the most." Ciras glared.
"Worthless! Completely worthless!" Gitaz spat in annoyance. "We shouldn't have wasted so much time on you!"
"It's alright though. He can surely make up for it with this one." Zevia said while appearing a few feet above them, standing on purple chains, and having Frisk wrapped up tightly in the same purple chains. "You can make up for the failure by executing this one and taking his soul."
"W-What?!" Justin's eyes widned.
"...Put him down, and I'll try not to make your death agonizingly painful." Chara said slowly, in no uncertain terms.
"No! Guys, please stop this!" Frisk pleaded with both sides. He struggled to free himself from the chains even more, but it was no good No white flames, no soul mode change, nothing. They were much more experienced than he was, that was for certain. "Can't we please stop this, no one else has to get hurt! You can't be here to solely hurt us, can you?! There's no need for anyone else to get hurt from all of this-GACK!" Frisk gagged as the chains tightened around him, very nearly crushing his lungs.
"Silence, child. You're still a major part in this whole mess. Eliminating you will save us trouble." Zevia huffed, then turned to the others. Undyne and Chara immediately discarded their powers, as well as Alphys. Muffet slowly slid off of her spider and sighed in defeat. Zevia smiled. "Interesting. You all would forsake yourselves for one human child? Even you monsters."
"Frisk doesn't deserve this." Undyne shook her head.
"Look, you got us. Just...let Frisk-Dearie go." Muffet said with a defeated sigh.
"W-We'll do whatever you ask." Alphys stuttered, something she hasn't done in a while.
"..." Chara wouldn't humor them. He just wanted them to put Frisk down and leave him alone.
"Guys...no..." Frisk shook his head sadly and in a slightly guilty manner. Ciras and Gitaz nodded to Zevia, who nodded back. She loosened the purple magic chains around Frisk and very gently lowers him downwards, until he could feet his feet touch the ground. Everyone breathed a brief sigh of relief...
Zevia grinned sadistically. The purple chains around Frisk shined brighter and brighter, almost to the point of hurting the others eyes, until...
BOOM!
Everyone's horrified expressions filled the air with dread as they witnessed the chains explode around Frisk in a bright purple light. It took minutes for the smoke to clear to see Frisk's collapsed body in a circular crater, with smoke continuously rising from it. Chara didn't waste any time making his way to Frisk's side, desperately hoping he was okay. He kneeled down and gently lifted Frisk's head, then shook him delicately.
"Frisk...? Frisk! C'mon, wake up! FRISK!"
...No answer.
Chara immediately checked to see Frisk's soul, then sighed in immense relief to see that it hasn't shattered. Though what did concern him was that his soul was cracked in many more ways than halfway down. It was on the very verge of shattering, but he was just barely keeping it together through sheer Determination. It was clear that Frisk wasn't going to die, but it was even clearer that he wasn't going to wake up. That Zevia...she was fully powering that explosion to kill him, and it almost did.
First the X-shaped scar across his chest...and now this...?
Zevia smirked. "Awww...you seem a tad upset at seeing a fellow human blown up...and here we thought you harbored a strong hatred for humanity. What makes this one any different? Is it because he looks like you?" Chara didn't answer, as he was shaking with barely restrained rage, his eyes overshadowed by his hair and his blackened arm turning pitch-black. Zevia chuckled softly, her chain flowing around her slightly. "It would makes sense that you harbor a close connection to this one than Asriel Dreemurr. So we'll do you a favor. We'll kill him first~"
Alphys shivered from the intense amount of killing intent in the air right after she finished that statement. It was emitting from both Chara AND Undyne the moment the foolish female said she was intending to harm Asriel as well. Chara slowly stands up, swaying slightly. Soon after, he slowly turns around, his head facing the three hostile mages. Ciras gazed at him for a few moments, and then he was surprised when he saw the expression on Chara's face. "What's this? What kind of expression is that...?"
=(
Undyne's hair shifted upwards, and her magic aura cracked the ground as more spears surrounded her. "...This is your last warning. Either give yourselves up or leave. Or else what happens next, the third option, we will no longer have qualms over." Her voice left no toleration for any more taunting from them.
Gitaz did say something, unfortunately for him. "You're acting as you might actually win this confrontation. Surely you must be-" His doubts about her bluffing fully vanished the moment more spears jutted from the ground, and this one succeeded in impaling him right through his shoulder, causing him to grunt. Ciras and Zevia narrowed their eyes slightly while they were quicker to avoid the spears, not taking any damage at all. Though they have now fully acknowledged that the monsters, as well as Chara, have fully gotten serious. Gitaz adjusted his shoulder and covered up for the bleeding. "Well, looks like they're serious about it after all!"
"So are we..." Ciras said, as Gitaz and Zevia spread to two directions, with Muffet looking to hunt down Zevia and Undyne clashing with Gitaz. Ciras then turned to the one left that was intent on combating him. "Well then, Chara Dreemurr. Let's-" He immediately jumped out of the way of a black fireball, it barely missing him. Though by the time he looked back forward, Chara was already in front of him, that same horrifying expression on his face, with something black dripping from his eyes and mouth.
"My tolerance of you have fully extinguished." Chara said in a very clear tone which lacked any amount of uncertainty, and promptly kicked him in the chest, sending him skidding backwards. He then swiftly gathered a black fireball in his hand, which expanded into spikes that tried to impale Ciras. It wouldn't be that easy, for Ciras was surrounded by a storm of yellow bullets that managed to mostly defend against the fireball. A few of them scraped Chara's cheek and chest, but he powered through it and punches Ciras in the face, sending him skidding back. Chara's shadow arm extended slightly, once again shifting into claws.
In the meantime, Undyne first turned towards Alphys, Justin, and Frisk. She didn't need to be told to cover them both in a force-field, protecting the three of them easily. She nods towards her, before turning again and throwing a spear. The spear penetrates the shield Gitaz put up, but not enough to shatter it. Gitaz reinforced his shield, closing it and slicing the spear clean in half without much fanfare. He then looked towards some of his fallen subordinates, monster and human alike, and thought now might as well be as good a time as any to kill them. So he swiped his hand as multiple large green shot outwards in order to kill them. Undyne wasn't having it, stepping in front of all of them and holding out her hand. A protective blue dome surrounded her and the fallen subordinates, the spikes breaking off into nothing upon contact. Gitaz was actually amused by this.
"Really? You'll really stick your neck out for these useless monsters and mages? Some of them aren't even that strong, and yet you still insist on protecting them and killing us?"
Undyne didn't respond to him at all. Instead she continued her relentless assault, spears continuing to attempt piercing through the shields he raises up to defend himself. Then she switches weapons, a spear in her hand morphing into a sword that slashed at his robe, surprising him greatly. She takes advantage of that and shifts her weapon again, this time turning it into a naginata and slicing at his legs. He briefly jumped back to dodge it, though it was far too close for comfort. He huffed a bit as his green shield morphed into green lances and attempted to pierce her right back.
What's her problem? She can't seriously be getting this worked up over one lousy child... Gitaz wondered, unable to understand Undyne's silent rage over Frisk's injuries, and how he was willing to callously and nonchalantly massacre his own men for failure, human or monster. Unknown to him, that's one kind of person she cannot help but loathe with every particle of magic in her being. And this showed as she was completely quiet as she tries to relentlessly skewer her target. It would seem that these two things were the last straws for her, as she was now very much focused on killing him as quickly as possible, unlike the incapacitation of the two children they hid behind.
Meanwhile, Muffet was intent on hunting down Zevia, with the intent of saving Lisa. She soon reached the tall woman, with the young Lisa in tow. Zevia narrowed her eyes, stepping back and wrapping Lisa's neck in chains, threatening to choke her. Muffet slowed to a complete stop, some of her eyes raised in curiosity. "Oh? Just what do you plan on doing...?"
"You're going to stay where you are. Or else this one dies horribly." Zevia glared at Muffet, who seemed almost disinterested in the threat itself and was mostly worried about Lisa. Though she could see one of her spiders signaling her through one of her eyes. Managing an invisible nod, she turned towards Zevia and sits on a rock, folding one leg over the other.
"Whatever you say, Dearie." Muffet responded with a bit of a stretch with her upper two arms. Her casual demeanor, along with the look in her eyes, made Zevia raise an eyebrow in caution. "Oh, by the way...you REALLY shouldn't have done what you did to Frisk. We're all quite protective of him, you know."
"You're speaking nonsense, insect! Why don't you just get to the point so that I can kill you!"
"We monsters are a happy, friendly bunch, when you give us a chance. But over six years...we've also toughened ourselves to deal with outside dangers. We can get quite terrifying when we get properly motivated to protect our home and our loved ones. And some of us are more merciless than others..."
Zevia huffed. "Was that some pathetic attempt at intimidation?." She says while choking Lisa some more.
Muffet shrugged. "Feeling doubtful? Okay.~" She then snapped her fingers. Zevia heard a loud thud behind her, and slowly turned around...only to drop Lisa out of shock. Muffet's beloved enlarged and enraged pet spider/muffin glared at her with intense eyes while purple drool slid down it's fangs. She briefly turned towards a smiling Muffet. "You see, with today's shenanigans going on, I unfortunately missed my beloved pet's feeding time. Fortunately for us...you're here."
Zevia shook her head at her, refusing to believe her threat. "You're bluffing."
"You really want to make that bet? Very well~" Muffet beamed as she clapped her upper hands twice. Zevia's eyes widened, immediately turning around and preparing her counter.
It was much faster than it looked, and it's jaws were wide open...
Meanwhile, Ciras underestimated a pissed-off Chara. BADLY. Hence why a grown man with plenty of magic prowess under his belt was being pushed back by an adolescent in a fit of rage at seeing his brother seriously hurt and his other brother being threatened even though he wasn't there. Multiple magic bullets were fired in Chara's direction with some hope of stopping his momentum, but Chara's black claw swiped that away, burning them to cinders. Chara then clenched his claw and struck Ciras hard in the chest, burning it and sending him flying onto his back, barely alive.
Gitaz attempting to compete the Undyne was a joke. The fish monster's telumkinesis was unbelievably versatile as well as powerful. Every time he tries to put up a shield, she shatters it effortlessly. The latest one was a tomahawk of all things, slicing directly down on the shield, as well as slashing his chest. With his constant magic guarding costing him copious amounts of stamina, Undyne's advantage wasn't hard to see. Undyne clenched her fist and struck him hard in the face, certainly breaking a few bones within it, before he falls on said face, next to Ciras.
Undyne had her spears trained on them with narrowed eyes. "Last warning means last warning, punks. You don't get another one."
"You won't really go through with it." Gitaz said confidently, pushing his hand as a spiked green magic ball made it's way to Chara's head. Chara's shadow hand smacked it out of the way, his eyes darkening.
"Reviving dead children to be puppets...attacking the innocent...hurting my brother...do you really want to keep digging that hole in front of me?"
"You've been a very serious danger to friends and innocents alike, with absolutely no interest in apologizing." Muffet added, riding atop her beloved pet with Lisa while staring at the two mages. "We monsters of Ebott are very kind and compassionate...but we will NOT allow ourselves, nor the humans that live here, to be bullied."
"...what happened to Zevia?" Ciras asked, neither man able to see her. RIght as he asked this, Muffet's pet spits something out of it's mouth...Zevia's cloak. The shock and disbelief on the men's faces was humorous to Muffet. Then it's jaws eagerly parted at the sight of Gitaz, who didn't have much time to resist, much like his female comrade.
As Ciras stared disbelievingly at the scene, Chara throws one strong black fireball into his chest as he disregarded his guard. The darkness took him, and he would never be returned.
Roughly ten minutes later, Asriel and Asgore both emerged from a rainbow light via teleportation. The first thing Asriel saw was Alphys cradling a seriously injure Frisk in her arms. His eyes widened as he immediately ran towards them. "FRISK! Oh my golly, what happened to you?!" He asked in a slight panic as he took it upon himself to cradle Frisk this time, worried tears in his eyes, while Justin and Lisa look on, utterly ashamed of themselves for letting this happen. Alphy also sighed sadly.
Reigning in his emotions to keep calm, Asgore made his way over to Undyne, who's spear dissipated while she stands in attention at the sight of him. "Undyne. The Pack was successful in incapacitating most of the enemies in the park, but they killed the monsters who were leading the attack, who had also absorbed human souls from their comrades. Are you okay with that course of action?" He asked cautiously.
"No. They did what they could. I just hope Frisk is as understanding. And as you can see, we kinda did the same, sparing the subordinates but killing the unremorseful assholes leading them. I'll take them in so we can talk important stuff, now that they don't have leashes around them anymore."
"Ah. I see. How did you..." Asgore looked around. Two cloaks covered with drool lie on the ground, and Muffet was petting her satisfied pet on it's head, as it pants happily. "...Oh."
"It's Muffet, so it doesn't surprise me that much." Undyne shrugged. "Though Chara took care of the last one."
Asgore blinked in surprise, then turned towards Chara, who's shadow hand was still emitting black flames, and was standing in front of a charred corpse. His eyes lowered at the sight. Sensing this, Chara turned around to meet Asgore's eyes. Sensing his paternal worry, Chara shook his head.
"I took no pleasure in doing this, Dad." Chara muttered as he closes his eyes and passes his worried father. "Right now, we have to get Frisk to Mom. She'll be able to heal him much better than Asriel can..." Asgore watched him pass by in silence, and could only sigh.
Even in victory, this truly has been an unfortunate day for Ebott...
And thus, the leading forces of the siege have been all but wiped out. Muffet...well...that's certainly one way to deal with an enemy. Yet, their underlings have been spared so they can have another chance, unlike their unrepentant superiors. But Frisk is also seriously injured like Papyrus. Both of them will need some serious healing.
The six children have now been stopped...but the remorse on their involuntary actions will be immense.
Everyone will be going over the ramifications of this attack in the next chapter, which will be a bit shorter than the rest.
Until then!