With only 3 hours and 11 minutes left on timer I check the news again. Top headlines about my coming battle. Buildings lent out for public #JoinAsriel parties. Firms giving paid time off to eager workers. Party selfies of normal people with captions about saving the world and what they'll do later. Countless shots of empty streets with holo-banners and a few people crowding on benches or under trees to access the CLOUD. They're all ready for me, and I'm ready for them.
Ah, the CLOUD protocol. I call Jordina and she shows up bright-eyed. "We already updated yours days ago. I'm willing to bet time itself we all did a good job."
Just then, Nullity's Gate talks to me. Frisk's voice. Frisk Prime rather. Asriel, thank you for your help. Now get in here and figure out this toaster-shroom for me. We can eat pie and make flower crowns together.
Thinking of Jordina and the others I confront Frisk Prime. What about all my friends here? Will I have to remember them?
Frisk Prime goes on calmly. It is too late for you, for they have tainted you with their foolish hopes and tempting machines. They've tainted mom and dad this way. But even now I can save them.
All who I've met since I came back. Don't just erase my friends here. They're people like you and me with…
Frisk Prime: They are mistakes. I was stupid enough to break the Barrier thinking you wouldn't go to the stars and make bad things. Think of mom and dad, your true friends happily safe from all harm. I'll be a better friend to you than Chara ever was.
Something bugs me. "Are you gonna grant me with everyone?"
Jordina smiles deeply. "No, I volunteered for the watching task force. I'll make sure the CLOUD really holds up. I asked my art fans to join you so you're not missing out. Now let me get ready for the long shift."
Frisk Prime: Soon it won't be too late. You won't even know who that cave savage is you're talking to.
I cough a tiny orange fireball that heats my face. Call her what you will, she's helping me stop you. As you might've guessed I'm here for all these people you want to erase and I'll end you to make sure all that stays.
Jordina slips on a pink scarf. "Any last comment?" I have none.
Frisk Prime: You murdered your one true friend just so you can play with tech. Instead of a truly good life you condemned mom and dad to endless star-horrors. All you have left is an illegal file that insists it's your dear Frisk. Unless that's truly what you want later, please stop fighting and allow my favor.
Right, I'll be choosing how mom and dad live. Does that make me better than Frisk Prime? I hide all that behind me. If I don't like it, so what? Life will grow and change. People will live and invent new things. Fights will be won or lost. I find that far more perfect than your time-loop can ever be.
Frisk Prime: I'll show you what you're trying to deny people. Once you see how good it is you'll never want to go back even if there was still a back to return to.
Not sure what to say, I give Jordina the no-brainer. "Thanks. Have a good night. I'll see you soon." she fades out.
The Gate's voice. Frisk Prime must've cracked the Voidglitch's tricks faster than I thought. I am ready to make my final stream, then feel all those SOULs at once.
Mom, dad, and everyone.
I call the History Club, Dreemurrs and all. "Quick, any of you mind never going back to the Under Days?"
They all nod unanimously. Nobody wants to go back.
Papyrus: "Can't do my fan club party in 3 hours."
Undyne: "Nothing's worse than not trying at all."
Sans: "The only back we're going to is Frisk Prime's back."
Chara: "I'd love to see the future. New stuff."
Frisk: "We're a team, remember?"
Toriel: "Do what you like."
I point Ryujen to the grass-portal to our ship. "Go back home. I have my own way out."
Ryujen leaves. "I'll make sure there's a next month to fund that study ring."
As the portal closes Sparky strolls to my side. "The Makers are not dead, but trapped. Free them and you'll have the upper hand."
Good point but no time to wait. Flicking on the far-link pebble I start my final stream, steeling myself for what I've come for. "This is Asriel Dreemurr, 3 hours early. I didn't know Frisk Prime would crack it this soon. Grant your SOULs now."
Just then dozens of SOULs hit mine, each their own brand of magic and DT. Then billions arrive, making my insides roil hot as lava. I bend over and drool powdery gray dust, watching my paws burn with rainbow magic. As trillions stack up I think up a spell to handle all this power. It takes over my whole body. My paws grow into metal-sharp talons as wings of pure churning reality erupt from my back. With a flick of my wings I shoot a few meters up and stay there, above a 6-meter crater of vivid fire eating the grass into white sparks.
Sparky: "Thanks for the data, but you'll overload this realm. I didn't set this place up for such magic."
I think of Nullity's Gate at Norma Arm. "Sorry. To make that speech later, I have to save later."
At a thought I plunge through time and space and pop into the cold starry pink-cloud black of Norma Arm. Nullity's Gate silently crackles with red DT arches miles across. A few thousand more SOULs join mine, tiny to what I already have.
Frisk Prime speaks calmly. Peoples of the CLOUD, you're all destroying the perfect world I fought so hard to give you. And why? You help a fool choose your life. You fund the murder of one who wishes no harm. Take back your power from him. No one does.
I glance back at the 9 angular grey cruisers miles back, trusting me to do what's right. Turning back to Nullity's Gate I focus a Chaos Buster gun maybe miles long and quietly call Frisk.
Frisk screams at the Gate. "I am you, who you could be with the right choices. I used to like your idea, but then I found this world kinda good after all. Give the Makers back their home and say sorry, or my friend here does it for you."
Frisk Prime: Turn away their SOULs, your terrible power, and you'll be truly happy. I'll fix this huge mistake unlike your talking illegal file.
Asgore surges through the CLOUD, angry at what she said. "Scone or not, she's the real Frisk as much as you. More than you, in my opinion."
Frisk Prime: I'm sorry I led Monsterkind here. Technology has ruined mom and dad such they don't know a fake thing from the child they saved. They are lost to you but I can save them.
Asgore: "Your black market buy gave back our one true Frisk. Irony, dear?"
Frisk: "Azzy, your turn."
Only one Frisk shall live. With Chaos Buster I bathe Nullity's Gate in a stellar rainbow beam that kills the red sparks. Already won? As the beam stops the red sparks return.
Frisk Prime goes on, pure peace in her voice. Fear not, dear Asriel. I won't punish your selfish act. In fact you're gonna really enjoy what happens next. Nullity's Gate erupts a white pulse that makes the whole world stutter and glitch like a broken holo. With only one timeline to save I aim Hyper Goner at the starry black. All reality turns clear again before imploding into a tiny blue spark that tingles my hands. My timeline, all the people behind me, my every possible future.
Frisk Prime: Give me that. I'll save you all. Looks like she hasn't found the timeline-stealing trick yet.
Dodging another time-wave I tuck away my timeline and survey the black void I'm in. Swerving my wings I sense a structure around me, a machine bigger than any universe. The Voidglitch, or at least its body Frisk Prime stole.
Using another's body to complete her stupid plan? "You're not the Voidglitch. You don't know how its tech works or how to use it most efficiently. You can't even invent new Voidglitch tech. If you'd spent a few million years learning that maybe we'd all be Under by now."
Red sparks in the machine. After I'm done using this tin can of mold to save you, I'm gonna destroy it with its own tricks. If I used its entire brain I wouldn't be me anymore, and I want to be me.
"The Frisk I knew would never kill a whole race like-."
The real Frisk would never force people to kill or be killed on a galactic scale. Asriel, you're a tyrant. You ban the happy ending and will execute its giver. You mandate star-horrors and say you're the good guy.
Toriel: "We actually like it this way. And Asgore just said who's our real Frisk."
The machine parts to reveal Frisk Prime half-grown into the machine itself, red SOUL beating into its systems. Tell me Asriel, what makes you right to decide all these people's lives?
Chaos Saber in each hand I hop down where she lies, landing soft on the machine around her. Too easy. "People decide what they want, and since that's also what I want I do it for all of us. For example this." I plunge both blades into her pulsing SOUL, killing her in a hued blaze that burns her figure to nothing. The machine hums and another red SOUL winks above that blank space, growing a new Frisk Prime. A time-wave forces me to zip up, out of that great chasm. I cast a shield spell just in time for her concept-erasure blast that costs at least half my magic to block.
Frisk Prime: Don't make me pry that timeline from your dead body.
SOUL cloning. I test my theory that just might win this. "Hey sorry for my easy hit back there. Actually it's cool."
Frisk Prime: I thought you'd fight honest than slay your foes in their sleep. Why's your friend the exception? Correct. The active Frisk Prime updates its latest memories to its dormant clones, but I have no idea how to kill all Frisk Primes that way. I fling a cutout star into the machine and watch a sleeping clone die in rainbow fire, then the machine write a new one in its place. The gap seems to scream before the dormant SOUL fills it in.
Frisk: "The Makers are still alive. You can save them."
I know. Calling on the trillions with me I turn a dozen Chaos Busters to a fiery shockwave that carves me a big SOUL-free crater. The machine starts cloning new Frisk Primes but something in the crater fights back to reclaim its machine and hold off growing clones.
Frisk Prime tries to shoot another eraser, but the thing from the crater fights her will. I offer humans and Monsters a happy ending, and this is how you all thank me. One taste of mine and you'll all realize who Azzy was to deny you that.
I grin at her. "Everyone, feel free to rate what she's been saying."
Trillions say it and I open my wings so Frisk Prime can hear them all.
"#GiveUpFriskPrime big picnic tomorrow"
"We don't want this. #GiveUpFriskPrime."
"Just tossed my Frisk posters. No diss to #RealFrisk but I don't wanna see any Frisk now."
"The real #HappyEnding: Azzy wins and makes Frisk Prime go away. Keep on Granting boyz."
"Not big Xeno fan but gotta stop her #MakerGenocide"
"You go Azzy. Now bake all the other Scones. I mean the #RealFrisk is alright."
Memes, taglines, a human family doing the CLOUD a bench while a Monster stands guard. I think of the timeline in my pocket with everyone I fight for.
Frisk: "Enough talk. Time to take the Makers into this fight."
A million concept-erasers surround me only for a sub-reality breaker to wipe them from existence. Thanking the Voidglitch I face the shrinking crater and fly there into an endless white void.
A damp spongy thing bounces off my foot into that blankness. I stretch my toes, shocked to find myself a kid again in a green stripe sweater. No wings or magic here I guess. Big mushroom shapes trail long tendrils as they drift in white space, eyes glazed. The Makers, race of the Voidglitch. Shorter shrooms that might be their children.
"Makers. Voidglitch. You're all in danger." I call out but nothing happens. If they can hear, my words must be alien to them. A tongue eons from their time, of twin races not born yet. How can I reach out to them?
I elbow something and spin around, finding not another Maker but Frisk in pink and blue stripes.
Frisk: "We're in the Voidglitch's mind. What it can access now, at least. It thinks we're part of it. Try the research logs."
I broadcast Sparky's file across this expanse, showing these Sea-Soil people their own history, their crafty fables, their making-songs, the mind-machines they used to become the Voidglitch. Hundreds turn to us, eyes livid as they grumble things I don't know. I think of those angry humans so long ago who used cut me to dust with crude tools.
Frisk squeezes her eyes for a moment and talks to them in their alien language. Some answer back and she responds. Thousands more float up from the blank depths, listening to what she's saying.
Frisk turns back to me with my language. "I read their dialects in here. I told them the truth, but most insist this is truly real. I'll stay and tell them more about who they really are. You stop Frisk Prime."
I turn back and dive through a pulsing black portal, leaving Frisk with long-gone aliens in the machine's mind. I'm definitely not seeing her again if we lose to Frisk Prime.
Rising again on fiery wings I drink in all their magic and DT while upping away from Frisk Prime's attacks. Finding a clear shot I unleash a rainbow firestorm that cleans a good swath of the machine, then swoop to dodge return fire while resuming. As the many surviving SOULs start copying back the machine roars awake and starts deleting them in waves.
I made an agent to cure the virus, yet still I have a strange memory that feels like part of me. The Voidglitch again. Magic tears of joy fill my eyes. I ran all known scenarios and found no way it could've been, yet I insist I truly met it once.
Oh Frisk. "Sorry I can explain. I had my friend go into your memories and..."
...Tell me who I was so I'd save myself. I confirmed Frisk's statements with what I just saw. Frisk is safe now. After all, I'd rather not kill part of myself.
"Can you like, destroy Frisk Prime with your reality powers?"
I am prioritizing their retake yet it seems Frisk Prime has locked me out. She may soon break my last deceits and access everything.
I look at the other half of the machine where clones are trying to copy faster than the Voidglitch deletes them. I bet my whole fight on a request. "Can I please have your antivirus?"
Knew you'd say that. Here's how to bind it to your spells. I try to describe it but fail. An idea-virus that targets Frisk Prime and Frisk Prime only, destroying her at the sub-reality level when it touches.
Attaching the idea-virus I fly up to the machine's red core and cross my arms, blazing magic in every color. Soon a beam would take the idea-virus to the active SOUL that would spread it to all dormant clones and kill Frisk Prime.
Can I really do this? I check for my timeline but it's gone. A clear triangle-cage rises from the machine, confirming my worst fear as a blue spark flares inside. The timeline-stealing prism. Frisk Prime holds our future and is going to destroy it forever. But I can kill her right now.
"Would you like to truly die for your world?"
The prism glitches with white energy. I never die, you see. I'll save you all.
I clench my talons and implode magic into a vibrant beam that blows right through the machine's red core. The entire machine flashes violet-white around me as all Frisk Primes active or dormant die in purple sparks that leave nothing. I float dumbly, half-expecting Frisk Prime to come alive and slay me right here.
The prism. My timeline. I snap open the icy cage and cradle my tingly blue spark that's home.
Your Frisk has done her time as my legend. As the Voidglitch fills its machine it sends Frisk back to me, back through the CLOUD. Now is her time in your reality.
Frisk embraces me, sobbing. "We actually did it. Now let's go home and live our best."
I clasp her SOUL, a warmth I didn't think I'd know again.
One more thing. The Voidglitch instantly crafts a set of glowing black rings far away. Your timeline is but one of many. Should've been, at least. To restore all your timelines I'll only need to see one.
This can't be a trap. Surely if it had other ideas it'd steal my timeline again instead of tricking it from me. But my timeline stays safe in my hands.
Or it can stay an orphan instead of a larger thing's part. It will never play out any other way.
The CLOUD watches, arguing my choices in ways I don't bother to read. Surely other Asriels and other futures deserve to live as much as me and my future does.
Frisk: "Are you really sure of this?"
I fling out my timeline for those distant rings to see. The rings focus like a great eye on my home. They pulse twice. Sparks of every color, each a timeline, ignite the distance like a starry sky. Then so many bloom forth the void shines like a stellar core.
Icy black returns with actual stars and pink clouds. I admire the serene black cube that is Nullity's Gate, noting its utter lack of red sparks as a dizzy wave takes me over. As the SOULs retreat I turn to the coming grey survey fleet and black out.
