Chapter One: The Surface
Long ago, four races ruled the Earth. Humans, Monsters, Demons and Angels.
One day, the humans, spurred on by fear, declared war on Monsters, whilst demons rose up in rebellion against their Angelic cousins.
Eventually, the Demons and Angels took their war to the stars, leaving behind only ruins, though rumors of a few left behind persisted.
After many battles, Humans eventually emerged victorious over the Monsters, whether they were unwilling, or unable to finish their genocide however, is not known, what is known is that seven human mages created a powerful barrier, sealing Monsterkind deep underground beneath Mt. Ebbot.
Monsterkind, fearful of a human reprisal, ventured and expanded deeper into the mountain and the Earth, but eventually they were unable to expand further, due to the nature of Mt. Ebbot.
A skeleton monster built and designed a device to provide power to the underground, however unknownst to the Royal Family, it had a different purpose, the CORE was it's name, and it's purpose was to alter time.
One day, a human child fell down into the underground...
The Prince, Asriel Dreemur, a child himself, aided and comforted the human, welcoming them. Touched by their son's kindness, the King and Queen made an announcement to all monsterkind, stating that the child, CHARA, would be the symbol of a new peace between humans and monsters, and any other humans to fall would be welcomed as their own.
Chara at first was silent, but in time, became best friends with Asriel.
But Chara held memories of the surface, painful memories. Chara, despite being human, hated humanity.
Chara devised a plan, involving golden buttercup flowers, which when prepared properly, can make delectable tea, but when prepared carelessly, can be a deadly poison, almost untraceable.
And so they told Asriel, their newly adoptive brother, of this plan. A plan to go to the surface, take six human souls and use them, and their own souls, to destroy the barrier and free monsterkind.
Location: Ebbot Village, POV: Unknown.
"Stop it!" shouted Asriel, but they didn't listen, the humans here, fueled by fear of history many years before their own birth, continued to attack. They shouted things like child killer, monster.
"Fight back! Do you now understand? Humans will never accept peace, not unless you show them strength, strength that surpasses them. Fight! Before they kill you! I've told you before Asriel, in this world..." said the voice of Chara, whose SOUL was within Asriel.
Asriel looked up at the humans who attacked him, his HP now half, the look in their faces, fear mixed with hate. They refused to listen, they wouldn't listen. More attacks hit, more pain, Asriel's HP was now a tenth of it's maximum.
"It's kill or be killed!" said Chara.
"Enough!" yelled Asriel.
Magical arcs of lightning struct all around him, the surprised humans were stunned, Asriel cast a healing spell to undo all their progress towards his murder, but his own fear and Chara's own encouragement caused him to go further, in a desperate bid to survive, Asriel summoned a large torrent of flame, instantly vaporizing all the humans surrounding him, a few in the distance were badly burned but alive, filled with terror, they fled.
Far more than just six SOULs were ripe for capture, but Asriel hesitated, wrought with regret and terror over what he had just done, the SOULs faded away.
"You were too slow! Now you have to go after the others! If you want to minimize the bloodshed Asriel, you must act without hesitation!"
Asriel wanted to give up on his quest, but something had steeled himself against caring, he sighed, walking towards the fleeing humans, who were too injured to move fast enough.
One by one, using magical swords, he ended their lives and took their SOULs, reaching the desired number and then abandoning the rest, but Chara persisted.
"Not enough. The others will warn the village, the underground isn't ready for war and you know it. You need to raze the village to the ground!"
Asriel shouted back at Chara, though to the other humans around, it was as if he was talking to himself, it was one thing to fear a monster, another to fear one that appeared to have fallen into madness.
"No! There are innocents in the village, children who do not yet know hate like these humans, like you..."
"You idiot, their parents will teach them to hate, and as you already likely killed many of their parents, they will learn to hate you anyway. You're doing them a favor, spare them the pain of living and end the threat to your family, your friends. You nearly died, you know Asgore too well, he's a big fuzzy pushover, not like you, not like me. And Mom, she cares too much, the only one with the mindset to survive really is Dr. G, but he's just a normal monster, not like you, who now have enough Souls to put merit to that childish claim of yours.
Asriel shook his head and said "Not all of them... Someone has to tell them we are not to be trifled with."
Asriel sighed, consigning himself to this grim task, the fleeing humans again, one by one, he snuffed out from the world of the living.
His LV and EXP grew and with it, he became colder, more distant from his past self, until he was nearly unrecognizable, both physically and mentally.
LV. 16
More humans gathered at the village market, shakily holding spears in formation as the monster approached, levitating in the air slightly, the ancient deltarune symbol upon the chest of his robes, he held out his hands and created two fireballs and said "You have fifteen seconds to surrender, those who don't, die."
Some ran, but the rear guard of their fellow humans, not overwhelmed by fear, called them traitors and speared them to death, no more ran.
Asriel was shocked briefly, so he incinerated the rear guard immediately and then said "Last chance..."
And then they ran, except a single, lone human in a blue shirt with two violet stripes.
The human, male, held his spear firm and said with determination "I won't run. I can't. I can't let you burn the village to the ground."
Asriel slowly approached, the human before them did not waver, standing firm, some human bystanders stopped fleeing, watching the event whilst Asriel then spoke, saying "I won't kill everyone, leave this place, tell the rest of your kind that monsters are back and they have a protector, one who can smite any army you can muster, no matter how powerful a magic you conjure, I will be stronger."
For some reason however, these words only filled the human with determination, they then whispered to themselves silently as the villagers evacuated, saying "Frisk, forgive me."
He charged Asriel, instead of incinerating them however, Asriel simply lunged his arm forward at the human, directly ripping their SOUL and capturing it, the human's body fell lifeless to the ground, their spear did no damage as Asriel at this point was beyond a mere boss monster.
LV. 20
In time, the village was a ghost town, some buildings Asriel burned down, others he preserved, as a grim reminder for what happens when you stand in his way.
Asriel returned to the underground, but he didn't break the barrier, Chara was silent, waiting for him to do so, knowing he would eventually.
Asgore and Toriel were on the other side, concerned, yet relieved when they saw their son alive and well, or so it seemed, he had used his magic to will his form back to what it was when he just had Chara's soul, though by now, he had more than 22 human souls in him, but as Chara was the only one who gave theirs willingly, Asriel was able to suppress their will with his determination, for now at least, and he wasn't alone, Chara's SOUL was the most determined of all of them and aided in keeping the others in line, usually with poetic torments when they tried to resist. Revenge for the hell they put him through.
Asgore stared, recognizing his son's magic, though also recognizing he appeared to have accelerated in age, at least in appearance. Asgore then spoke first, saying "Son, are you, ok?"
Asriel shook his head and said "No, not really. I..met the humans, to put it lightly." Asriel put his right hand on his left arm and looked away with an expression of guilt, Toriel recognized it and spoke, saying "My child, were you attacked?" Asriel nodded, Asgore shook his fist and said "Even after all these years, humans still have not improved. My son, I won't ask what you had to do to survive, as long as you're alive, I'm glad. But you shouldn't have crossed the barrier, I should have been more alert, this whole thing could have been avoided..."
"No, not really." said Asriel, Toriel looked at him and said "I know we're still grieving over the loss of Chara, but please, we cannot lose another child, please let us just go inside, I will make some butterscotch-cinnamon pie."
Toriel grabbed Asriel's arm, but he refused to move, he then looked up at his mother's face and then said "I can't. At least, not yet. Chara, may technically have died, but they gave their SOUL to me willingly, so they could see the flowers of their village one last time. The humans thought I had killed him, so they attacked me, so I defended myself. But..."
Asgore sighed and Toriel was speechless, knowing what Asriel was saying.
Asgore then put a hand on his son's shoulder and said "I, know all too well what you're going through right now. I've been forced to do horrible things in the past to survive and protect those I care about. Humans are, irrational, most of the time. You said Chara's SOUL is with you? Are you, able to talk to him?"
Asriel nodded and said "Yes, and they respond. I can't go inside just yet though, there's something I have to do, like you said, you've done things to protect the ones you care about. There is something I must do along those lines as well, but it's something I must do alone." Asgore looked dead into his son's eyes, it was just a feeling, but he could sense something was different about Asriel, Asgore knew that look, that tired look, he nodded in resignation, Toriel was however unwilling to give up so easily and said "Is this not something we can help with then? Surely whatever you must face you needn't face alone."
Asriel sighed and said "Unfortunately mom, it is something I must do alone. I, will tell you all about it when I return, but for now, I have to go. I'm sorry."
Toriel tried to protest, even to pull Asriel away from the barrier, but he broke free easily and walked through the barrier, inaccessible again, though at least they knew he was alive.
One week later, The Serene Kingdom's Capital City of Illum
Seven Humans had gathered around a table which held a map of the continent, along with an eighth who entered just recently, wearing attire befitting a king, he was quite old, likely in his 80s, though the other seven around, save for one, were younger than he, much younger, in their 20s.
The human king spoke first, saying "Rumors have reached me of the first monster sighting since the end of the war 70 years ago. Is this true?"
The other elder, a woman who appeared in her 60s, said "Unfortunately, it is. Our agents have confirmed that it was indeed Monster Magic that burned down Ebbot Village, however all eyewitness accounts seem to point to a single monster, and they all claim it took many of their comrades' souls, the numbers in the accounts vary, but the estimate is well over a dozen at the least."
The king held a finger to his chin and said "Could the monsters have broken the barrier and sent a champion to test our might?" The woman shook her head and pointed to the red heart crystal locket around her neck and said "This relic is tethered to the barrier, should the barrier in any way break, it will shatter, however, it did vibrate earlier, which indicates someone or something did pass through, twice. However it cannot distinguish whether something is leaving, or entering and there was a missing child report there earlier, a boy named Chara had ran away after learning about your decree regarding the Reformists."
The king sighed and said "So, it is safe to assume some reformists have escaped then? And this child fell into the underground and had their soul stolen by a monster who then crossed the barrier to collect more to free their kind? Is this theory sound?"
The woman nodded and said "Perhaps, but it has been a week already, they would only need seven human souls to break the barrier, why they haven't yet we do not know. Perhaps they seek to gather intelligence on us before doing so, which would be wise, as it has been 70 years since they last had knowledge of the surface. This leads me to a certain concern though, if some reformists escaped and this monster makes contact with them, they may manipulate their naivete into forming an alliance, one monster surely we can handle, even with the power they may have gained from taking so many souls, but an armed rebellion on top of that may actually threaten the world order we've been trying to uphold."
The King nodded and pondered this, the other mages being junior to these two, merely observed, listened and pondered as well.
Eventually he made a decision and said "I then must humbly request the Order of Souls to find this monster, learn their intentions and if possible, eliminate them, preferably before they are able to cause any further damage."
The woman gave a polite curtsy bow and said "On behalf of the Order of Souls, I accept. This matter concerns us just as deeply as well, your highness."
A hill overlooking Ebbot Village, filled with golden flowers.
Asriel stared silently at the sunset sitting next to a bed of golden flowers, it had been a week, Chara then spoke to Asriel from within. "So, what have you decided? It's been a week already, you don't intend to break the barrier?"
Asriel shook his head and said "I will, when the time is right, but now that I've had time to clear my head, I know what I need to do, even more so than before. Humans will come, they must be shown that monsterkind is not weak, but also that we are fair and kind to those who deserve it."
Chara laughed and replied "Humans will never learn, after defeating monsters, they still fought, they turned on eachother in a struggle for power and land, when there were solutions of peace and co-existence, they instead chose war and bloodshed and when a brave few decided instead to stop the chaos, they were killed for it." Asriel nodded and said "Yes, a few, a few who must be the ones to decide the fate of their species. What do you know about them Chara?"
The other souls got uppity at this turn of events, but Chara shouted "Silence!" and projected visions of Asriel burning down the entire village to shut them up, all but one went silent. The man who stood alone against Asriel. Instead of shouting back however, he calmly asked a single question.
"Why are you doing this?" he said. Chara was about to speak, but Asriel beat him to it, saying "Because it's necessary. Everything you've been taught about monsters is a lie, it was you humans who struct first, we defended ourselves and for that you banished us to a place we could only survive for so long. Once again, you humans started a fight, but this time, it'll be monsters who win and when that day comes, I'll have the power to tell both sides to lay down their arms and swallow their pride."
The other human was silent after this, Chara made a sigh and said "Anyway, from what I know, my parents were among the reformists, they didn't tell me too much, but I do know my cousin Kris and his parents were part of them as well, though my Grandmother is a traditionalist, we aren't getting through to that stubborn old fool. In fact, she might be a threat, she's one of the mages who made the barrier in the first place, she looks like she's in her 60s but her magic has tripled her lifespan, though even that is approaching it's limit, so I don't think she'll be as powerful as she once was. I believe the village Kris resided in was called Lasi Village, it should be a day's walk down the eastern road, I've been there a few times in the past. You should know however, the King of this land issued a decree that all reformists were to be put to death for the crimes of heresy and treason. There's a reason I fell into the underground, fleeing the town watch. Well, they got what was coming to them at least."
Asriel pondered on this for a bit, before using magic to adjust his attire, he was now in a black hooded cloak which concealed his face just enough that unless you were right in front of him, you could never tell he was a monster. He stood up and said "Then I guess it's time to move on. As long as the barrier is still up, humans will have no reason to head to the underground, since there would be no going back for them, in addition to the puzzle defenses. Worst case scenario, Gaster has to dirty his hands, though I hope that doesn't happen, if they were to get seven souls on their own and break the barrier before I finish my quest..." Asriel paused, then headed back to the barrier, but did not cross it. With a powerful magical spell, he strengthened the barrier, it now required 100 human souls, he however made this strengthening timed, it would slowly wear down back to the barrier's normal state in a year, he had one year to accomplish his task, and so the lone Dreemur set forth towards Lasi Village, directed by Chara, his best friend.
To be continued...