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Chapter 38 A Downed King

—Morning—

Asgore took a deep breath, the fire went bright and dark following his breathing, after concentrating for a while. He spread the fire in the yard, trying to form several geometric shapes, at first, they were just like how he thought they should be, but after a while, the shapes started to deform and became a mess. He couldn't stay calm. Thus, his magic wasn't stable enough to stay in a certain form.

He sighed at turned to another activity he loved, gardening. But he was making a ton of mistakes, memorizing the wrong fertilizer formula, using pesticide as water, placing a sun preferred plant into a shady place. His relaxing activity was done no good for him.

After the last fight with Lunar, he got defeated by her, again. Although not humiliated this time, he was quite…not that confident of himself that much, the feeling of losing everything was coming back, with a high possibility that they won't come back once again. Miracles won't happen twice. It's not something which had never come to his mind, but after the Lunar event, it popped up even more than usual. Perhaps Lunar's… or Tempest's magic made him become more vigilant about this.

The two recent major fights, he lost both, he couldn't defeat a mind-controlled dragon and a foe from the past. He got lucky that those two events didn't end bad. Both encounters, all of them made it out in one piece. Who on Earth knows when the next defeat will come and what will it take from him.

That, made his nerves and SOUL stressed out. He managed to stay cool, that actually fooled everyone except one monster.

Toriel. She already noticed that she could tell something was wrong with him, but not that sure why.

"Gorey, can you go out with me for a while?" Asgore put down his flower pot and looked at his wife. Although that was asking, Asgore can feel that Toirel will drag him out the house if he said no or find any excuse. But that's not what he was concerned today since he already wanted to say yes. "Sure, after I bury this flower into the ground. It'll take a minute."

"OK, then Gorey. Waiting for you outside!" Toriel left a peck on Asgore's cheek and headed outside.

Asgore feel light footed after that, for some reason, Toriel was a bit jumpier than usual, he hadn't seen her like that for quite a long time. He wondered where she would take him today.

He buried the flower in the right place, gave it a dose of water, making sure it can keep moisture after the transplant, and headed outside.

"Where are the kids, Tori?"

"They just told me they will be out for a while." Toriel looked outdoors. "And I want to do that, too."

'So, it's our kids who awaken Tori's heart to be young again.' Asgore also felt light on that thought, yet was depressed by the thought he had early this morning.

"All right then, let's go." Asgore said.

Asgore held Toriel's hand and walked outside.

"So, where are we going?" Asgore watched Toriel watching around aimlessly.

"Nowhere, just following my feeling. How about we don't talk about goals or destinations today, Fluffybuns. Just goofing off with our friends. Here they come!"

Toriel waved her paws at the monsters who are coming in, Undyne and Gerson.

"Heya Asgore!" Undyne shouted when she saw Asgore. "I got Toriel's call, Gerson was with me practicing fighting, so I brought him here."

"It has been some time, your majesty." Gerson nodded his head at Asgore. "Let's get to another place to talk, shall we?"

—Somewhere in the town—

"Here you go! Another nice cup of warm chocolate!" A waiter gave Asgore another cup of hot drink. He passed it to Toriel.

"I don't know when didn't Grillby and Muffet worked together to make this delicious beverage." Asgore sipped his cup.

"Apparently, you are a little too diligent on your work." Toriel smiled. "Not only this. A lot of vendors in the Underground are opening stores on the surface. One by one." Toriel looked at Mt. Ebott. "Time had gone pretty fast. It's almost winter now. And how long since we came to the surface?"

"I think almost 2 years, Tori. A lot has changed."

"Sure, we had experienced more than the hundreds of years we spent down there." Toriel paused, pondering the years in the Ruins and sighed. "Thinking back to it, now I think it was a waste of precious time, I can do more. Maybe helping out the people, maybe helping the children before Frisk to live in the Underground, maybe try to talk you out of it…, but I never did any of the options. I did feel bad for you because of your poor choices of politics, but I didn't try to make a stand and try to change it. I avoid conflicts, which was worse than reacting negatively to it."

Asgore, Undyne, and Gerson just drank their treat and listened.

"Oops." Toriel covered her mouth, with a shocked expression. "I'm terribly sorry if I made the atmosphere too heavy."

"Na, it's OK." Undyne just shook it off. "Everyone makes mistakes or something, but what matters is we care about it, and being here to fix it."

"Indeed." Gerson nodded and took a sip. He looked at Asgore for a while. "Victory is not a part of daily life, failure is. And trying to make it up is too."

Asgore didn't respond on that one, but it triggered a lot of thoughts.

—Beeping sound—

"Sor." Undyne stood up and finished her drink in a second. "I had a date with Alphys later, see ya later guys." She left the three, heading to her house.

Asgore just watched Undyne leave.

"That fish kid we know had come to a fish lady, isn't it?" Gerson laughed heartily.

"Time just runs so fast."

Asgore nodded. He was glad that he did live long enough to see that after his family shattered, Undyne was almost his family, he and Gerson watched her grew up.

He looked back at Toriel, this was his dream which he hadn't wondered to come true, after Asriel and Chara's death. He became happy for a while but now felt his powerless might lead him losing this again. This made him depressed again.

Toriel watched Asgore, knowing he was having some conflicts inside.

"Gorey, how about we got in the wood and have a walk?" Toriel suggested. "It's already a miracle for us to have a spare day at the same time, and I remembered it was more than hundred years ago since you took me out."

Asgore smiled and looked at Gerson.

"Go ahead! It's no more good'ol Gerson's business, have fun youngsters! Besides I promised Darkness to take over his place in school today. I've gotta go now, or I'll be late!"

They all laughed, and Gerson stood up and left the place.

—Later—Ebott forest—

Ebbot forest was mostly composed of plants which are more resistant to cold since the place was located mostly on mountains. The wildlife here was just like any other place on mountains, but there's more than bears and deer who called this place at home. Well, a lot more.

Toriel took a deep breath in the vast nature around here, it was cool and relaxing.

"Everything changed in Ebbot… except for this forest." Asgore touched a tree. "After hundreds of years, this forest is still here, thriving on its own, not caring about history or the tragic in Ebott."

"There's a giant tree there, Gorey!" Toriel pointed at far away.

"That is a big tree, Tori." Asgore was stunned by the greatness of tree, judging from the height of it, the king could tell it had been here for at least hundreds of years to grow this high. But strangely, this was the solo tree so high around the place.

"Let's go over there and look!" Toriel was almost dragging Asgore to the place. It reminded Asgore that she was just like herself when he first met her now. He was too inward to go out to play back then. For some reason, all the boys in the Dreemurr family were shy in nature. Perhaps, it a family trait for all of them.

The duo arrived at the giant tree, once they arrived, they both noticed something was wrong.

"Gorey, why this tree has magic power on it?" Toriel asked with curiosity. "It's special. I don't know trees on the surface could have any bit of magic power. Perhaps that's the reason it could stand this high, without getting destroyed by natural hazards like lightning strikes or something else."

"I truly don't know Tori. But I know…" Asgore paused because something hit his head, he touched where the object hit, it was wet, yet his paw wasn't covered with blood, it was water, and the King looked up. The sun was high up in the sky, and raindrops are bombing his head. A very strange scene, at a moment, Asgore doubted there was someone spraying water from the trees around them, he shook off the silly idea when Toriel shouted.

"Oh, my!" Toriel shouted and retreated under a tree, but the tree wasn't doing very well of blocking the rain, she still getting wet.

"Here." Asgore took out a jacket from his storage for Toriel to block the water drops.

"Thank you, Fluffybuns." Toriel smiled and kissed Asgore on the cheek tenderly.

Asgore blushed a bit. "Not a problem, Tori. We really should get out this place, we didn't expect this. Not on a sunny day."

"Sure," Toriel took up Asgore's hand, but when they are going to leave the huge tree. A strange noise appeared, a kind of strange music in fact.

The duo staggered. "What is that?" Asgore looked at the direction where the sound came from.

Toriel focused on her hearing. "It's some kind of music, but what kind?" When Toriel was trying to identify the music, Asgore's suddenly come to her.

"Tori…" Asgore whispered in his wife's ears. He just noticed two things on the end of the forest, staring at them. "Over there, how long are they there?"

The two new arrivers were wearing fox masks, one tall, the other is short, and have some sort of… Japanese outfit on them. It was a black coat and white clothing inside.

Toriel shook her head, this place had a thick layer of leaves on the ground, there's no way walking through these without making any noise loud enough for the Dreemurr royals to hear. It's strange.

As the cold war between the Dreemurrs and the strangers go on. Toriel and Asgore slowly realized, whoever is this, they might not come in peace. They slightly arm themselves with magic, in the case of a sudden attack.

Tension continues to grow until the stranger on the right side suddenly drew a revolver from its clothing and shot at the Dreemurrs.

—Bang—

The quickdraw was too fast for Asgore and Toriel to react, but the bullet just landed in front of Toriel, it was not a bullet intending to hurt, Just a warning one instead.

"How…" Asgore tried to start a conversation. But he suddenly got gaggled by a piece of cloth which came out of nowhere, and the cloth was golden.

Upon seeing the golden cloth and the quickdraw, Toriel and Asgore had a pretty good idea who is this.

"Tem…" Toriel wanted to say something but also got gaggled by a cloth as well.

Toriel and Asgore looked at the dragon duo with not a friendly look, Asgore was trying to burn the cloth off, but it's not working, the cloth seemed to be fire resistance, cannot be burned off with ease. They placed their index finger over their mouth, asking them to be quiet. After watching the actions, the Dreemurrs realized there's something going on here, which needed to be quiet. And the dragons slowly led them out the forest.

When they were lead out the forest, the shorter one waved his hand, the golden cloth was gone.

"What the golly is happening? Tempest, Darkness?" Asgore shouted at the two dragons. He was definitely not delighted about getting stuffed by a piece of cloth in the mouth.

"I'm sorry, but some monsters in the forest DON'T like to be disturbed," Tempest spoke, looking to be embarrassed. "By chance, you just almost accidentally crossed over a wedding. A fox wedding. Things are, it will end bad if you do."

"Actually, they WILL try to kill anyone who interrupted, I've seen it once, I couldn't tell that poor guy from him than dirt." Darkness made a cold shiver. "It's lucky that we are in it, and noticed you coming." Darkness said, Toriel and Asgore couldn't see Darkness face because of his mask, but judging from his tone, he should feel relieved. "Or it's going to be a nasty and endless fight."

"Tempest! Darkness! The walk back to the bride's house is going to begin! Get back here!" A voice came from the woods.

"OK!" Tempest shouted back. "That's our call. By the way, Lunar had something to tell you, wait a sec."

Tempest closed his eyes, after a while a pair silver eyes appeared, everyone was shocked when Lunar took her act.

She slapped Asgore on the face and yelled. "Look, I don't want to someone I just admitted become a coward, get your shit together! Watching you like makes me feel like a moron. It's way too obvious!"

And she switched back to Tempest after the outburst.

"I don't know she would do that…" Tempest apologized when he came back. "I'm terribly sorry."

"Tempest! Darkness! Don't make me go over there and grab you back! What on earth do you boys have that much to do?" The same voice appeared from the woods. "Or…" The voice got darker. "Did you just encounter someone you CAN'T handle? I'm going over there, now. Whoever ruined Aunt's wedding, I will not show them MERCY." It seemed the trees around were shaking with the anger of the voice.

"Well, our time is up." Darkness said and gulped. "Not sending you, bye." Darkness took Tempest away, carrying Tempest in his paws, like grabbing a toy doll. "Coming! Just wait for a while." They ran back into the woods before Tempest did any objections about it.

Asgore and Toriel just watched each other, confused about what just happened.

"I think we should go home," Toriel suggested and pointed downhill.

—Later—

The way back home was silence and strained, Lunar's outburst just confirmed Toirel's concerns were not out of imagination.

There was something wrong with her king.

Once they got home, the goat monsters sat on the couch and watched around, so far no one was home, Frisk and Asriel already told them they won't be back for dinner. Tempest was likely not coming back early since he and his cousin were taking part in a wedding. So, the house was quiet. Only the two of them were here.

Toriel decided to get head-on with her husband and go straight to the question.

"Gorey…" Toriel watched Asgore. "I know you have been strange recently. What's the problem?"

"It's nothing Tori, not such a big deal for all of us. It doesn't matter a lot." Asgore didn't have any facial expression changes. Not happy, nor sad, just a plain face.

Toriel looked at Asgore, tilted her head, and sighed. "Look, I'm sorry for leaving all the pressure on you while I left you back then. Thinking of it, I really felt guilty about it. Letting an already heart-broken king lead a folk of dreadful monsters, he had to stay strong and keep that confident smile on his face, though his feelings were already destroyed, meaning that he couldn't make a hearty smile anymore. If he failed, the Underground will fall apart in a short time. And what was I doing? I wasn't thinking in your shoe, dear…" Toriel felt her eyes wet, and tears rolled down.

"Tori, we both did something wrong. I shouldn't make that outraged policy. I wasn't brave enough to stop you leaving, pay a visit, or call you." Asgore took a tissue to wipe Toriel's face, caressing it at the same time.

"Gorey." Toriel enjoyed Asgore touching her face like this. Even though she wanted to enjoy it and forget about her purpose to do this, she had to make his husband tell her his worries. "It's not the Underground we are in now, we in the timeline in which we had a miracle. You're not holding it alone now. There's no need to pretend to be strong here. So please tell me. What is bothering you so much?"

Asgore watched Toriel.

"I'm such a loser. All those fights. I was only a sandbag in the situations… I didn't win any of them. I was just getting lucky about everything. I know there's something out there, more sinister than you and I could think. I'm afraid one day, this dream-like life will be fractured again because of my incapability." He watched down to his feet. "I tried to toughen up recently, but it's not working. Actually, my magic got worse." Asgore took a deep breath, preparing to talk more.

Toriel cut it off.

"Fuffybuns… You know that emotions affect magic a lot, it's a more important aspect to take care of for monsters, since our health and sanity relies on it. I can tell you. You are not a loser. You got us enough time to gather magic to defeat Pine, a Dragon who used the entire magic power of a mountain, which was an impossible achievement, according to Darkness. You stopped Undyne from going into a fight when she was over-heated by rage, preventing her from getting messed up. If you are missing, no one knows would things go. Perhaps to the worst ending possible. It was a great job you did to make things have the best outcome possible."

Asgore looked up at his wife, from her face, he firmly believed that whatever Toriel said was not just trying to make him feel good, it was also how his wife thought about him.

"Next time," Toriel added. "When you wanted to practice magic, you can find me or others to practice together." She smiled, which made Asgore's SOUL soaring in heaven.

"OK, Tori." Asgore felt completely well at the moment. "By the way, what are you going cook today?"

Toriel giggled at Asgore and made a naughty smile.

"Hehehe~~~ I've been waiting for you to ask! It's only us for today's dinner. How about we recreate the dinner we have on our first night after the wedding? I'm getting a bit starved here."

Asgore blinked sheepishly and blushed, once he realized what was Toriel's thoughts. 'Great, she's getting hungry for sure… in two ways.' Of course, he wasn't a monster who would dump cold water on this. Asgore nodded. "Let's go to the kitchen and solve one of your problems first. And after that. Let's address you 'other' hunger."

The jolly couple went inside.

Author note's

I'm on winter break, so everything on this could go a bit faster, yeah, a bit.
Don't count on it.

I still got a lot of things to do.

Nothing much to say here.

And break continues. Another arc will begin sooner or later.

That is all!

You can check out my Tumblr blog. Ask questions about the story or ask the characters a question!

The blog name is selfieprobe(my main blog). It will be OK if you search The Final Ending on Tumblr.

Sorry for poor language and making you all having a hard time to read.

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See ya all in the next chapter!

eliteprobe warp-out.

Stay determined!