CHAPTER 9: The Core Of The Problem
"So what exactly is the Core," Nafi asked.
"Geothermal energy converted into magical energy," Alphys replied, "The reason it's so big is the actual parts of the machine needed to be away from the lava to not overheat, w-which is actually still a problem because it itself generates heat. There's a small canal that runs from Snowdin into the Core that large blocks of ice float down to help cool it."
Nafi furrowed her brow as she thought back to her time in Snowdin as she walked the blue, metallic halls of the ludicrously gigantic machine they were talking about. Now that she thought about it, she did sort of remember ice being sent down a river although it never occurred to her to ask why they did it.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Alphys instructing her to, "Go left at the next fork."
As she followed the directions, Nafi said, "I vaguely remember that actually. How do you have infinite ice then?"
"Same way Waterfall always rains," Undyne interrupted, "Magic!"
"actually, none of the steam leaves the cave system so it just Falls back down eventually," Sans corrected.
Papyrus groaned in the background.
Nafi shifted the phone her friends were talking through to her other ear as she slid across a narrow bridge, saying, "Back on my original train of thought because I got the machinery and steam, built some machines myself using steam power. What I don't get is why I have to walk through the entire thing to get to Mettaton. You guys don't just do this trek every time you go up to the capital do you?"
Because that was what she was doing. After she had left Alphys' true lab, back up the elevator to where she started, her path led her though the Core. The Core itself was a maze of twists and turns and she soon had to call up Alphys to get her through. He was still back at his lab with the other monsters who were now giving commentary as they followed her using the cameras.
"Mettaton disabled the elevator to go around, a-and no we usually don't. It's also called New Home, not just the capitol by the way," Alphys said.
She nodded and the conversation turned to other matters. Eventually she asked a question that had been on her mind, "Why did the humans seal you down here? You seem nice enough."
"Didn't you read the tablets in Waterfall," Undyne asked back, Toriel murmuring something too low to hear in the background.
Nafi thought for a second, "The ones labeled, 'The War Of Humans And Monsters'? Not really, I thought it was going to be a list of the fallen or a list of battles, something like a history book."
"You would think that," Toriel sighed, "No, they are not a list, for there was only one battle and the fallen too numerous to name. They are our theories as to why the humans attacked. We believe the humans were afraid of us, for we could absorb their Souls and transform into terrifyingly powerful beings. They could not do the same..."
"Because monster Souls disappear on death and humans can't absorb humans," Nafi finished, remembering Alphys' Entries in the lab.
Her mind dredged up an image of a human with the magic of a monster, followed by a monster with the cold, calculating, ruthless emotions of a human, and the worst one, a human able to wield the power monsters said the human Soul possessed. Those images made her grimace, and she said, "I can see that being an issue. Do… things that come back from the dead have Souls? Or plants?"
"They shouldn't? Why do you ask?" Alphys asked, confused. Which prompted Toriel saying, "The surface is plagued by beings known as the Undead, although from what I have learned only half of them truly came back from the dead."
Nafi took over the explanation, listing them out, "Zombies, Skeletons, Creepers which are walking, exploding plants, giant man-eating spiders, and the Endermen that no one has any clue about."
Alphys screeched in a panic, "How are they not down here!"
"I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the Barrier, given I fell down the hole with an Enderman and it vaporized half way down."
Which brought up a point, if the Barrier came down what was stopping the Undead from killing the monsters? To come up with an answer to this issue she needed more information. "How does magic work?"
Of the five monsters on the other side of the phone, none of them had the same answer. The chaos of the conversation, although calling it that was something of a misnomer, was a welcome distraction from her paranoia showing her images of humans absorbing Undead, previously human, Souls no matter how unlikely it was.
She caught the gist of her answer however, magic was a manifestation of the Soul willed into existence and into a certain shape with a certain purpose. How it was created differed from Soul to Soul, the color of the Soul having a large impact.
That brought up another question however, "What does the color of the Soul do then?"
"Turn right at the end of the hall," Alphys instructed before answering, "Each color represents a personality trait basically, and the personality influences the types of magic able to be casted. Monster Souls, what we can see of them using special spells and equipment to check on their health, are mostly white with tints to one of the colors as everything blends. That means that we can cast all types of magic, with an affinity to one type or another. In human Souls, like yours, the colors don't blend as well, meaning most types of magic are unusable. Occasionally you can get a human who can use magic, but that isn't common."
Nafi remembered her own red-green blended Soul and, with her thoughts turning to her HUD and console as she turned the corner, asked, "What colors represent what trait?"
Alphys started, "Yellow is Justice and those spells are normally ranged attacks."
Undyne butted in, "Purple is Perseverance, holding to one path or paths! Tracking spells too."
Papyrus came in over Undyne, "CYAN IS PATIENCE, MOSTLY CUTTING SPELLS. BLUE IS INTEGRITY, THOSE SPELLS ARE FOR PULLING."
Toriel came in next, sushing Papyrus, "Green is Kindness and for healing or holding."
Sans spoke up, "orange is bravery and movement."
Alphys finally got control of the conversation back and finished with, "A-and! And red is most likely Determination. Although no spells have been found for it yet, it's theorized to be something like manipulation of surroundings. I-I found that out after… t-the Amalgamates..." he was silent for a second before continuing, "O-o-obviously those a-aren't all the colors, but they are the m-main seven."
Nafi hummed as she thought about this new information. Determination and Kindness? Not what she expected, but she could see how it fit. She wondered aloud, "I thought red would be Spite, but I guess it's just angry Determination. Although it could be Perseverance… Or both."
"As f-fascinating as this is," Alphys interrupted, "You're getting close to the end and you need a plan to deal with Mettaton."
She pressed her lips together and ruefully said, "It's not as easy as stabbing him in a weak point is it?"
"Only slightly more complicated. The box you have been seeing isn't his only body, I've recently finished another. He has a large switch on his back, flipping that will make him transform into it. It had an issue of taking too much power, but I fixed it so just waiting it out won't work. H-however, it does have a weak point, a kinda obvious one. He isn't going to let you get close, s-so that's where the yellow button on the phone comes in."
Nafi pulled the phone away from her ear just enough to see the yellow button before putting it back, saying, "I see it."
"G-good, when you press it, it will turn your Soul yellow, oh w-wait we just finished… Um, n-not actually turn it yellow, i-it just looks like it. It's a… a stored spell that takes extra energy off your Soul and allows you to fire it."
Well, that explained Undyne's green Soul spell during their fight.
Alphys continued unimpeded by Nafi's thoughts, "It's ranged so you should be able to stay away from his attacks. Mettaton is angry, and he's going to fire back hard. I'd...Y-you probably shouldn't get hit."
As Alphys finished, Nafi stopped in front of an extravagant door, just able to see Mettaton sitting in the dark beyond.
"I'm here," she said, "I can see him. Just to check your plan here, flip the switch on his back to make him switch bodies and make him vulnerable, press the yellow button on the phone to turn my Soul yellow, and use it to shoot at the weak point until he goes down. Anything else before I go in?"
"I h-had been working on a third body," Alphys revealed, "one with more flash and lazers. If it is used, just wait for a few minutes and he'll r-run out of battery. Same issue as the one I had fixed, but with everything going on it was harder to correct and I h-hadn't fixed it yet"
"Alright," Nafi paused, "Thank you."
The monsters on the other side yelled words of encouragement, each in their own way, before she hung up as she stepped through the door.
Walking towards Mettaton, she was privately pleased to see her cape swooshed dramatically. If he was going to be a drama queen, so would she.
Mettaton didn't react.
This was not normal.
She approached with more caution.
When she finally stepped up onto the slightly raised stage then he started talking, "THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A BIG SHOW. AN ACT. THE HUMAN WITH THE HELP OF DOCTOR ALPHYS STOPPED THE MALFUNCTIONING ROBOT. HE HAD GROWN ATTACHED TO YOUR STORY AND DESPERATELY WANTED TO BE A PART IN IT. HE ENLISTED ME TO TORMENT YOU SO HE COULD SAVE YOU…"
His screen turned red and his mechanical voice turned scathing, "BUT YOU SAVED YOURSELF. NOT ONLY DID YOU TOSS AWAY ALPHYS' HOPES AND DREAMS ALONG WITH HIS SELF-ESTEEM, BUT YOU USED ME TO DO IT. IT'S TIME TO FINALLY HAVE OUR LITTLE SHOWDOWN, AND YOU ARE NOT LEAVING HERE WITHOUT FACING THE CONSEQUENCES."
The stage started to rise up, continuing until there was no safe way down. Mettaton reached behind himself and started expelling steam, and Nafi realized that he flipped the switch himself to transform into his second body. Which also gave her the time to realize what exactly Mettaton was saying.
He wasn't doing this for himself.
"Oh yes, you will learn your actions have consequences."
He was doing this for Alphys.
"And, as a treat, I will make your last living moments Ab-so-lut-ly Bea-u-ti-ful!
The fog cleared
Her Soul appeared.
Mettaton and Nafi stared each other down on the high stage, him in contempt and her in angry appreciation.
His new body was almost identical to a human in form, down to the hair that swooped dramatically in front of his right eye. Past that it was obvious he wasn't. With metal skin and obvious joints, buttons and dials on a bright pink chestplate that matched the boots attached to his legs, and a window in his stomach that showed a white Soul, he was the picture of a gaudy robot.
Health: 1600, Defense: 47, Attack: 47, he's not immortal now at least.
Flip the switch, done
Nafi smirked, pulled out her phone, and pressed the yellow button. A shiver went through her and her Soul gained a yellow coloring. The weak point was most likely the Soul behind that window, and with a plan in mind she said, "Let's go big guy."
Nafi started off with a few shots, almost surprised that they came from the phone and not her Soul. Mettaton chuckled as they ricocheted off the glass, "That peashooter isn't going to do much, nothing Alphys tossed at this even scratched."
He followed up his declaration by tossing some bombs around Nafi, kicking at her to force her into the path of the bombs or be kicked off the stage. Nafi retaliated by switching the phone into her off hand, pulling out her sword, and batting the bomb closest to her into his face just as it went off.
1550/1600
It didn't do much, but it tossed him back towards the edge and put him off balance. Taking advantage of this, she charged forward and stabbed her sword into the edge of the glass, using it as a lever to pull the glass off.
It came off, sliding across the stage, but not without a price.
Her sword shattered and she was flung back holding a useless handle.
Mettaton recovered and growled, "You…"
Nafi tossed the handle off the side stating, "Alphys may not have gotten the public hero image he wanted-."
She was interrupted as dozens of tiny Mettatons zoomed out of nowhere to throw sharp metal hearts at her. Quickly, she shot them out of the sky to finish her statement, "But that doesn't mean he didn't help me."
"Shut up and fight!" Mettaton replied, launching another flurry of kicks Nafi's way.
She retaliated with another few shots, deflecting some of the kicks with them as she dodged the rest. She followed up by punching him in the face and firing directly at his Soul a few times.
19/20
1340/1600
He fell back as she clutched her hand to her chest. They both looked at each other for a moment, before fighting with renewed vigor.
Nafi went for another charge, ducking under Mettaton's leg and crashed into him. She got a few hits before Mettaton returned the punch to the face, sending her away.
1200/1600
17/20
Mettaton then surprised her with a magic bolt from his soul, but she managed to dodge and fired off a few more blasts herself. He jumped to the side and almost completely fell off the stage, just managing to grab a hold of the edge to hoist himself back on.
The fight continued.
Although Mettaton was almost invulnerable everywhere but his Soul, he had much less experience than Nafi who, even without a sword, trumped him in speed and strength.
Even with the difference, both were taking hits constantly.
900/1600
12/20
750/1600
9/20
500/1600
7/20
300/1600
5/20
200/1600
3/20
50/1600
"ENOUGH!" shouted Mettaton.
Nafi stood there, barely hanging on to the phone, bleeding from everywhere, and breathing extra hard as Mettaton sparked, twitched, and smoked. She mustered up a small smile and, between breaths, asked, "You… had… enough… then?"
"You are… a rotten brat," Mettaton got out.
Nafi breathlessly chuckled, "I've... been… called… worse…"
He pulled himself up, some static making its way through his speakers. "Then how about this? You are a destroyer, a dream ender, and a killer of joy," he laughed and Nafi stumbled back, "But I have one more trick up my sleeve."
He twisted a knob on his chest and there wasn't any smoke disguising his next transformation.
Nafi watched as his soul was pulled up into his main body as a white decal replaced it. She watched as his legs flew off his body and attached themselves to his back. She watched as he unfolded new legs as his old ones fired lazers onto the shape of wings and his right hand morphed into a gun.
Health: 50/30000, Defense: 9, Attack: 90, this is an appropriate third form.
She dropped her phone, the blasts useless at this point, the yellow bleeding off her soul. Running to the side, she knew if she got hit once, it was all over.
Mettaton fired off a laser blast from his arm gun, then another, then another. Nafi barely managed to stay ahead of them, stumbling and unable to breath as she was.
Then he hit her cape.
The high heat laser immediately caught her cape on fire, starting to burn it and everything else in it. Stumbling over the glass from the start of the fight, she managed to pull off her cape as she hit the ground. Her hand hit the glass and she got an idea.
She spared only a moment to properly pick up the glass before she forced herself to get up and continue running, holding the burning cape in one hand and the glass in the other.
Mettaton fired again.
Nafi stopped and tossed the burning cloth onto Mettaton's face.
He didn't stop to remove it before he fired again.
She held up the glass.
The glass shattered into her but the laser reflected.
Mettaton's gun arm was blasted off.
1/20
1/30000
The screech he let off was loud, even louder in the tall room. Nafi was forced onto her knees with her hands over her ears as the noise droned on and on.
Then it stopped. Her burned husk of a cape fell off the side of the stage as Mettaton fell over. He sparked and growled as Nafi wobbled up and over.
She sat down next to him as his laser wings flickered.
"I... never... finished... talking… you... know."
Mettaton's eyes glared at her as she caught her breath.
Nafi, now able to breath, sighed, "Alphys waylaid me as I reached your hotel," technically it was Sans but he didn't need to know that, "We had dinner with Undyne, the Skeleton Brothers and Toriel. Apparently, something I said fixed a theory of his and he ran off to his true lab. I saw the Amalgamates."
"Do you hate him?" Mettaton interrupted.
Nafi was quiet for a few seconds. "No. He did his best and made mistakes. We gave him the courage to finally tell the families. He didn't get his public hero status, but he's still a part of my, and many others, stories. I believe mostly for good reasons."
He chuckled. "That's all I wanted."
The stage descended as he started to shut off and Nafi managed to stand up as Alphys came running in the room.
He knelt by Mettaton's head and said, "Thank you for thinking of me."
He mouthed 'You're welcome' before he finally ran out of power.
Alphys knelt there for a while as Nafi tried to salvage anything from her cape. Eventually he said, "He ran out of power. I'll get him back to the lab and meet you and the others at the throne room."
Nafi nodded and pulled out half a dozen miraculously unburnt veggie bars, scarfing four of them down right there.
Alphys left the way he came. Nafi waited for him to leave and put a command in her console.
/effect give Nafriskenta Regeneration 40
She shouldn't be doubling the time she normally uses this for, but she was in really bad shape and there was no use bleeding out.
Through the pain, she stumbled into the elevator at the other end of the room and hit the up button.
In pain, she wondered if this was technically green magic, or if manipulation of surroundings applied to herself. She wondered what color her HUD would be if she saw it instead of hearing it.
The elevator got to the top and she waited on the floor for the effect to wear off.
9/20
She pushed herself up and exited, eyes roaming over what looked like, at first glance, to be a grey clone of the Ruins.
This was New Home.
The finish line was in sight.
She started walking.
Hopefully Toriel would heal her before the final fight. Even if she wasn't in danger of bleeding out, she was nowhere near good.