One hour earlier
ASRIEL sat on the rather comfortable bed in his room. Through the window he could see the small garden Lucia had on the edge of the floating piece of terrain, and beyond that, the shining golden lines he knew were just a couple of the timelines of his world. It was so strange, knowing he was in the depths of the inner workings of his world's existence, but he had gotten used to it since long ago.
What would have been ominous for a lot of people had turned into everyday normalcy for him, if only because he had seen it constantly for years already. So silent, so surreal, it reminded him of Waterfall in some way. He remembered some time ago he had asked Lucia if she could get some Echo Flowers for her garden. Through the window ASRIEL saw it, glistening in the light of many golden threads in the sky. Having calmed down a little since the argument he had with Sisyphus, ASRIEL walked down the hallways of the Hopeful Star. Ever since he got all those memories from a younger self from another timeline, he recognized this house, it helped him feel like he was in a familiar place instead of in the purple vastness that had filled the void. It was somewhat unsettling, to have memories you hadn't accepted as yours yet, but they felt...right.
Outside it was silent. Usually there was never wind or breezes, it was always a perfect stillness that was simply unnatural. It didn't hinder the plants from growing, though. On a corner of the floating terrain where the house was located at, the garden kept blossoming. Lucia had been rather kind, making this patch for him a year ago. With some trepidation, he put his ear closer to the Echo Flower, listening the message he had left to himself not so long ago, but he felt he had to remind himself:
You can trust him.
Lucia had advised him to leave that reminder. He hadn't understood why, but now that Sisyphus had betrayed his trust, he thought Lucia had foreseen it. Maybe she was right and feelings would always be hurt in a game like this one. Or maybe she knew Sisyphus had the capacity to hurt someone for the sake of breaking the Barrier despite the condition they had imposed about not using any human souls to shatter the Barrier.
She had said something like that once, didn't she? That she could see the worst in people because she was a terrible person. Lucia always said it with such certainty and with no remorse at all, but to ASRIEL it was hard to think of her as a bad person. True, she had been rather sketchy for quite some time, and she had ensnared him in a moment of vulnerability, but...but he liked her, and he wanted to trust her. It was naïve, and maybe a bit desperate because Lucia was the only person he had been near of for quite some time, but he really wanted to trust her.
To think he had been in this manor for ten years already...
-ooooo-
Asriel Dreemurr had just told Frisk to leave him and go enjoy life above the surface with the rest of monsterkind. It hadn't been with those exact words, but that was the gist. Frisk had tried to convince him to not stay in the Underground by himself, alone and slowly turning into a flower, but he couldn't imagine returning to the surface with everyone else. Slowly lose his feelings towards everyone, slowly lose what remained of his soul and turn back into a flower, much to the horror of his family...he couldn't do that to them, that'd hurt them too much.
Besides, after everything he had done through countless timelines, it felt fair to stay in the Underground while everyone else enjoyed their life outside.
Time passed. The light that shone from the hole above his head vanished. Asriel looked up, missing how the warmth felt on his fur. It had been different than how it was like when he was a flower. Maybe he'd have more time to feel it the next day. His reversal into a flower was taking much longer than he thought. He had thought by now he'd at least be growing leaves, but he didn't seem to have any so far. It was both a relief and an annoyance – the sooner his fate came, the better. He couldn't tolerate it taking so long!
Especially when he had nothing to do. Asriel had spent the day just walking around the empty Ruins. All puzzles had been deactivated, Toriel's house was filled with her stuff, but nobody was there. Were they going to come back for all these things? The door to leave the Ruins was locked tight. He was locked inside. Frowning, Asriel passed a hand over the doors, as if expecting them to open anytime now.
Nothing happened.
The Ruins could be really cold at night, and without Toriel's homely fire magic, he wasn't looking forward to spending the night here. Forlorn, Asriel returned to the house and sat to the table. Maybe he could use his old bed...it'd feel weird to sleep at the Ruins house just like the old times, but it was better than being cold. It'd even bring back some memories. He wasn't sure he wanted them. Maybe just for old time's sake he could rummage around his toy box, try to see if he finds anything he lost a long time ago, try to find out what those oblong plants in the hallway were called—
"This place is rather inviting, for a house deep underneath the earth and in some abandoned ruins"
That unfamiliar voice startled him. Asriel jumped from the chair, instinctively moving to throw himself onto the floor like he was going to burrow into the ground, and barely stopping himself from actually trying that. Freaked out by hearing voices, he looked around. There was nobody in the house. A quick check around the house revealed there was nobody else but him, and nothing indicated somebody had been there just a moment ago. Wary about spending the night in the house but preferring that to sleeping on the cold floor anywhere else, Asriel entered his room and, after a moment of hesitation, locked the door.
If nobody but him was in the house, that meant that voice was just his imagination? It was the voice of a woman. Maybe he had imagined it, because he missed Mom. Asriel stared at the ceiling, the only noise was the sound of his own breathing. So this is my life now. Alone in the Underground, with nothing to do.
...I wish it didn't have to be this way.
His wish was granted.
Asriel didn't notice he was falling asleep. All he knew was that one moment he had been sleeping on his bed, the next moment it felt like something had changed. There was a strange purplish tinge in the air – if he had been outside of the house maybe he wouldn't have noticed, but there in his room it was obvious. Asriel got off his bed, weirded out. "...howdy?" he called. Still no response. Asriel opened the door of the bedroom, noticing it was now unlocked. Outside, in the rest of the house, the same purple tinge covered everything, there was almost the sensation time had stood still.
He didn't have to go very far to notice someone who shouldn't be there.
Sitting to the table, on the other side of where he had been not too long ago, was a woman – a human woman, from what he could see, dressed with a rather vivid deep blue dress. She was almost garish, and there was a blindfold over her eyes. It didn't impede her sight, though, she waved at Asriel. "...who are you?" Asriel asked, more curious than wary.
"Sit down, little prince. Just for politeness' sake"
Isn't it impolite to be in someone's house without being invited? he thought, not daring to say it aloud. Intending to find out what was going on, Asriel sat to the other side of the table, nervous at being with a complete stranger in what was starting to be an unusual night. "Howdy. My name is Asriel" he said, just so she wouldn't call him 'little child' again. He wasn't a child anymore, technically if you put together all the time he had lived through the same days, weeks and months over and over he'd be several centuries old!
"I know. I know your entire story, and frankly I sympathize. That's why I'm here, I want to make you an offer"
It was difficult to figure out what her intention was. Despite how awful it felt to be trapped in the Ruins, even if it was willingly, that didn't mean he was going to jump into a solution given by the first person that appeared in front of him. "How did you get here?" The Ruins were supposed to be sealed for a while, apparently, had she fallen into this cave?
Lucia leaned back on her chair, carefree. "You're dreaming, little prince. You're currently all snuggly on that old bed" she said, pleasant "Doesn't mean none of this is real, though. I'm just as real as you are"
There was a silence so Asriel tried to understand the meaning of that. This being a dream did explain the strange atmosphere that filled the house. "...I think I understand. What are you here for?"
"I told you, I want to make you an offer. I have heard a lot about you" her face twisted into a grimace, like she was remembering something unpleasant "I know what happened, and I just want to ask you something: is this fair? Do you deserve it?"
"I do. I caused so much suffering, and I now understand it" if she knew about him then she also had to know about his lack of soul, so he didn't go into detail "This is like punishment for everything I did"
"Ah, what a noble thought. Noble, but ultimately the mindset of a martyr" she studied him for a moment, her intense gaze searing through her blindfold "Was it fair when you died?" Asriel closed his eyes, uncomfortable when she mentioned that. Even though it had been such a long time since he died, he still didn't like thinking about it "Was it fair your mind was unknowingly inserted into a mere flower? Is it really fair you have no emotions?"
"...can we...not talk about this?"
Lucia put her hands on the table and lowered her voice, persuasive. "Can you really say life has been fair to you, little prince?" he didn't answer, she pressed on "As I see it, you were dealt a rather lousy hand. I can help you...change the cards, so to say. If you agree to follow me, there'll be a way for you to get a life. You won't be a sad goat destined to turn into a flower.
You'll be free"
"...free?" It was tempting. When she put it like that, it was hard to say he deserved his self-imposed punishment. He hadn't asked to be killed, or to be able to SAVE, or even to be a flower! It was so unjust now he had to accept such situations without complaint! "How would you do it?" he definitely wanted to know more. Nothing indicated more information meant he automatically accepted, so he took the risk.
"First let me warn you it won't be quick. It's bound to take years. Then again, you have all the time in the world, don't you? Just that instead of wasting away in some ruins, you'll be doing something productive" she said "We can modify the workings of this world. It won't be perfect, but you'll get something good out of it if you do your best"
That sounded like it'd be too complicated to explain right now. What if this woman got impatient because he asked too many questions? The offer would be gone too. He had to pounce on the opportunity...and bail out, if he didn't like any of it. Deciding to stay vigilant and make sure he wouldn't fall into traps of any type, he pretended to hesitate. "Golly, I don't know..."
Lucia extended a hand. She seemed to be trying to withhold a wide grin. That didn't really make her seem more trustworthy. "Do we have a deal? Will you join me?"
Asriel's arm moved upwards a bit. He felt compelled to accept, if only so he wouldn't stay trapped as a flower in the Underground. He thought it was somewhat selfish for that to be his main motivation, but he had to be honest with himself. "What'll happen to me? I'm sleeping right now"
"With my help, your consciousness will become someone like me, while your physical body continues its life like nothing happened. From the moment you accept, you won't be Asriel Dreemurr anymore. It could be said you'll be a different person altogether"
"So I'll be trapped in the Underground forever even if I don't accept..."
"Asriel will. You won't"
It was too complicated to understand right now, and Lucia wasn't willing to give him much time to think. She was pressuring him to accept. As a negotiator she was ruthless – in the sense she would keep the upper hand and mercilessly give little time to think about her terms. Either he refused and he stayed in the Ruins for the rest of his life, or he accepted this bizarre deal and entered a deal he wasn't sure would be good for him.
After a moment, Asriel grasped the hand Lucia extended.
-ooooo-
Although the house looked ruinous on the outside, and the lobby, hallways and a couple rooms looked like they would fall apart over their heads if they weren't careful, most of what he saw was clean and almost luxurious. "You don't recognize anything?" she had asked, noticing the former monster prince was gawking and looking around with amazement.
"I had never seen a place like this before!" Even the royal castle was remarkably humble. Despite the beautiful halls and the tall windows, it still was a large stone building that was mostly gray. The marbled and polished walls of Lucia's Hopeful Star was lavish, almost excessively. Lucia smiled.
"Making my home here was difficult, I had to combine my home with an abandoned house I found in this world. Someday you'll recognize the parts that seem out of place"
"What do you mean?" She didn't answer. Her constant need to entice him with mysteries was starting to annoy him.
Once he was introduced to all the places of the house he would be allowed to go to, they sat in her parlor, she was willing to answer questions more calmly now that he had accepted to join her. "Our existence is complicated" she said "We are the facets of ourselves that are part of the collective unconscious, and usually you wouldn't be aware of this side of the world, but we are special for a reason: we know how the world works, both in a literal and a figurative sense.
You have gone through the same time period so many times. You know every inch of the Underground, you know the reactions and thoughts of every monster, and even if they change, you know enough about them to know what to do to make them do what you want. You and I are what people would call a 'witch', for lack of a better word. Witches are manipulative, have magic and recruit more of themselves"
"That's all you need to be a witch?" Just knowing about the inner workings of the world? He couldn't deny he did know everything she had mentioned just now, but surely there had to be more? Otherwise, why wouldn't, say, Sans be a witch too? Or maybe he was and ASRIEL didn't know?
"No. Knowing your world so well is good, but it's not essential. What's vita for a witch to exist is the wish to escape an unescapable fate. You sentenced yourself to be trapped alone underneath a mountain, doomed to turn into a flower, and you wanted more than that. It was that intense desire what led me to you"
It made some sense. He did not want to become a flower, be soulless, and be trapped in the empty Underground, but it wasn't like he could leave the place either. Lucia continued: "Witches have come from the strangest places, but we all wanted more than the disastrous destinies we had. The impending death of the village you lived in, the impossibility of a relationship with the person you loved, the inability to reach what you worked for your entire life, being trapped in a duty because of someone else's mistake...it all has brought forth some marvelous witches.
You're now one of us"
He'd need some time to come to terms with his new status. It was a bit too much to deal with right now. "What made you a witch?"
Lucia scratched behind her ear, a look of uncertainty crossing her face. "I'd like not to talk about that. Listen, there's a lot of work to do, and the sooner we start, the sooner it'll end. It's going to take years, so let's get started. There's so much for you to learn!"
She wasn't wrong. It took years to complete the game.
-ooooo-
It had barely been a week when ASRIEL felt doubts about his stay with Lucia. All that week he had been trained in the basics of magic. Being a monster, it was easier to handle than it'd be for most people.
A few days had passed before he noticed each day he had been feeling less grateful towards her. He also felt less suspicious, less...everything. It was getting harder to recall his emotions, and how he felt about her and his new life. For a while he hoped it was just temporary, but it wasn't long before he knew what was going on:
He was undergoing the effects of being soulless. Every morning he looked all over himself, looking for green-colored patches, or for leaves. He found just what he feared, on his arm there were tiny green buds of what he was sure were leaves. Sooner or later he'd wake up as a flower. Disappointed and mustering all the assertiveness he could muster at that time, he hurried to the parlor, where Lucia was calmly reading a book. ASRIEL ran to her and extended his arm, showing her the leaves. "I thought this wouldn't happen!"
"...oh. Oh, right. I forgot" Lucia put the map aside, grabbing ASRIEL's arm with surprising delicacy. She touched the leaves, making ASRIEL shudder. It felt so strange, like an appendage that shouldn't be there. "I can make these go away, but I'm not responsible for this. It's your body, only you can decide if you'll return to being a flower or not"
"That's not something I can just decide! I don't have a soul anymore; I'll turn into-"
Lucia scowled. "Why are you questioning what I say as if I don't know more than you?" even though her tone was rather nasty, she wasn't wrong, if she said he could then it was likely he could. Maybe because his disbelief had annoyed her, she pressed the leaves with her thumb with a bit more force than it warranted. All the leafy buds were gone in a moment. "There. Now listen, we are in the collective unconscious right now. If you decide you're not turning into a flower, then you won't. The power of the mind over the body, basically"
That sounded simpler than he expected, and that was good. The simpler it was, the easier it'd be for him to understand. "So if I decide I'll grow up..."
"You will. Technically you could make yourself grow in mere seconds, but I think you really, really shouldn't do that" she said "You're very old by now, but I don't think it'll do you much good to be in an unfamiliar body all of a sudden. You freaked out when you found yourself in an unfamiliar body once, let's not let it happen again. Let it happen with time, okay?"
-ooooo-
Time kept passing. After a month, Lucia decided it was time to introduce ASRIEL to the methods witches used to play with a world. She entered ASRIEL's room, giddy. "It's time. You're ready for the meat of the matter, ASRIEL. Follow me, to my study"
"Not the parlor?"
"No, my study. That's where I keep everything you'll need"
Lucia's study was right on the top of the manor. When ASRIEL entered the study, he felt a very, very faint feeling of amazement. The study was a sizable circular room, lined with bookshelves and tables. On the far end there was a rather large canopy bed that seemed to be the kind a little girl would want. The lighting of the study was purplish, dim, like it was meant to give an aura of mystery to the place, the small chandelier on the top was outfitted with veils. It'd have been a rather nice room to look if it wasn't for two details that seemed rather morbid.
One was the canine skeleton behind a glass case. It was positioned as if the dog was lying on its belly, staring right at the entrance of the study. There were also two large curved horns protruding from the top of its head. The plaque welded to the case had a few words:
'REST IN PEACE, CORNIO, BEST FRIEND'
The other detail was that the atmosphere was heavy, uncomfortable, like someone had spent a lot of time here grieving and in deep sorrow. It wasn't an atmosphere he wanted to spent much time in, but he had no option.
One of the smaller tables was lifted in the air and taken to the center of the study, Lucia followed it with a book that turned into a board in a moment. She placed it on the table, and around thirty pieces appeared immediately on the ends of the board. "Come over here, take a look at this" ASRIEL approached to see what Lucia had called him here for.
It resembled a chessboard with too many pieces. "We're going to play chess? I don't know how to play" ASRIEL stated, unsure if she had called him all the way to her study just to play chess.
"No, this isn't a simple game of chess. Take a better look at this. Can't you see it?"
ASRIEL focused onto the board, examining every inch of the surface and the pieces, until it felt like he was seeing more than that. The flat surface turned into a city, the pieces into different humans, into different objects, even into concepts like dark nights and stormy days. "What place is this?"
"This you see here is what we use to interact with the worlds. Usually, two witches sit to play a game, each one taking a side. One creates a script, a story, the other tries to defeat them. That's what decides the fate of the pieces"
"That's what we're going to do with the Underground?" It sounded easier than spending lots of time convincing and befriending a lot of monsters so they did what he wanted.
"Yes. But before we can do that, I'll have to turn you into an expert in games. Right now you'd lose unless you played against a complete beginner. Sit here and watch carefully the movements of the pieces"
That was how they spent the next couple years.
Lucia always brought ASRIEL to her study, took a board from her bookshelf, and showed ASRIEL how the game went. The pieces moved automatically while Lucia recited what happened in the world, what the characters said, what kind of situation they went through, and how the game ended. Very few games reached a happy ending, most times the endings were bittersweet to some extent, and a considerable amount ended in the complete destruction of the pieces' lives. Lucia always took the time to explain why every move happened, how each movement influenced the world, and what kind of mistakes the players made. Board after board, world after world, every day during a couple years.
ASRIEL saw so many worlds, so many people, so many humans and non-humans, it started to feel like the Underground and everything he had known was incredibly insignificant.
And more than anything else, he understood what he had done all those times as Flowey was very similar to what he was supposed to do now. It was all about manipulating everyone to do what he wanted. All he had to do is figure out weaknesses and the right moves much quicker than he used to do before.
That wouldn't be too difficult, he believed.
-ooooo-
Three years passed.
Just like Lucia had said, ASRIEL didn't turn back into a flower. He willed himself to be a monster and continue growing, and so that happened. ASRIEL grew, as if he had been absorbing his parents' magic. The growth spurts were rather dramatic, and although Lucia had said she wouldn't take the time to check on him or be friendly towards him, she showed an unexpected amount of kindness, even though he never appreciated it.
Sizable horns and fangs growing in your skull was a painful experience. He couldn't ask Asgore or Toriel for some sort of way to counter it, so all he could do was endure the pain and hope the headaches didn't last long. His pained expression must have been rather noticeable, because one day Lucia entered his room. "What's going on? Why do you look like you need your wisdom teeth extracted?"
"My...my what?" ASRIEL wasn't sure what wisdom teeth were, but if Lucia tried to extract his fangs then he was getting out of there as soon as possible!
"You're in pain, I can see that. What's wrong?"
By now he knew when she got something in her head, she could get really stubborn. Deciding not to waste time trying to drive her away, ASRIEL looked apologetic. He had gained the habit of feigning some emotions sometimes, if only to not forget them. Anything to not fall back to his worst behaviors during his days as Flowey. "I didn't think growing up hurt like this. It's like my head is splitting in half!"
"The horns, huh" Lucia stared at the growing horns, rubbing her chin and mulling something. After a moment she slowly approached her guest. "Trust me for a moment. I'll try to help you"
"I don't think this is something you can help me with" ASRIEL said bluntly, baring his teeth a bit. Lucia raised her hands.
"I know what I'm doing. Just trust me"
Resigned, ASRIEL yielded. Lucia got behind ASRIEL and carefully placed her fingertips at the base of his horns, right where the horns connected with his head. Slowly, pressing a bit, she started moving her fingertips in circles. Bit by bit ASRIEL felt how his headache diminished until it was just a dull sensation of discomfort. Compared to the aches from before, that was better.
Surprised, ASRIEL turned around. "I'm feeling better now! What was that?"
"It's just something I used to do for a friend I had. His horns used to cause him pain too" she smiled with nostalgia.
"Really? What did you use to do in your world?"
"...you could say I used to tame wild animals. That's all" she shook her head, hurrying to go to the door "You're not an animal, but I think I can help you if you're in pain anytime. Just tell me and I'll see what I can do" it was a bit more altruistic than ASRIEL had expected from her. Lucia left, leaving the door open. That was a clear indication he was meant to follow her.
When they arrived to her study, she put a gameboard on the table, just like she had done for years already. This time ASRIEL noticed something was different, though: the wood of the board looked lustrous, the pieces looked brand new. From inside the board there was a golden and blue shine. "What's this?" ASRIEL sat in his spot. Lucia opened her arms wide, proud.
"It's a brand new game! I have decided you have learned enough about past games, now you will hone your skills through some practical application.
Take that side. Solve this game I obtained"
What followed was a humiliating loss for ASRIEL. Even though he had spent two years studying hundreds of different games and scenarios, playing was a completely different matter. He couldn't apply most of what he had learned, Lucia barely imitated anything she had showed him before. Even though he had a lot of knowledge, he just couldn't apply it as efficiently as before.
It ended with the complete destruction of all the pieces on his side. Lucia looked at the remains of the setting of the game they had just finished, shaking her head and finishing the narration: "...all was lost. The meteor struck, and the resulting wave drowned the coastal town until nothing remained" she flicked a finger upwards, the pieces flew off the board and disappeared. "Game over. I win"
"You can't have expected me to win my first game" ASRIEL said defensively.
"I suppose not, but remember you have to learn to play. You need to be a prodigy at this game if you want to save monsterkind" Lucia said lightly "You already got a head start thanks to your years as Flowey, but that's not going to be enough"
If all he had to do was get better at playing, then that was going to be easy. That was matter of practice, over and over. Once Lucia said he could go rest, he stood up and left the study. He was sure the next game wouldn't be similar to the one he had just played, but he started looking back to his mistakes during the game, remembering Lucia's narration and how she strung him along her plans and strategies.
It wasn't surprising she had won. She had surreptitiously led him towards paths and moves that wouldn't help him at all. He would be more careful next time.
-ooooo-
The next time he was more careful. He got defeated. Over and over. Another year of training passed before he won. Lucia was defeated right in the nick of time, ASRIEL surrounded her pieces with skill. Lucia was completely still. Was she in shock?
"...I lost..."
"Checkmate!" ASRIEL couldn't avoid saying, almost like bragging.
"I gave my best...and I lost. I can't believe I actually lost..."
"You should have known this'd happen someday"
Lucia's stunned demeanor melted, she seemed genuinely proud of ASRIEL. "I knew it. You're truly a prodigy" It was very impressive ASRIEL had managed to defeat her, even if it had been a very close match. The mere fact she lost was meaningful enough – he had defeated a witch that had thousands of years of experience more than him. She stood up, smoothing down the hems of her long sleeves, barely containing her joy. "I taught you everything I knew, and I'm finally seeing the fruits of my labor. Well done"
"Now what? Will we start working on my world?" He refrained from being frank: he was getting impatient. ASRIEL had gained a lot of patience after the countless SAVE and LOAD, he had to be patient in order to befriend all those monsters, but after four years he was wondering when exactly he'd do what he was brought here for. It wasn't that he didn't find interesting all the games he had taken part in, it was just that after all this time he thought they'd have started already.
It wasn't surprising making a new game would be a lot of work. They needed a setting - Lucia placed a large blank piece of paper, and passed ASRIEL a pencil. "We're going to create this board from scratch. Don't worry, I'll help you with that. Can you draw a map of the Underground?" Not only he drew every part of the Underground, he also wrote everything he remembered about those places.
They needed the pieces – Lucia dropped a few sheets, neatly divided in cells. "Not every monster in the Underground needs to be a piece. Those that are similar can be grouped in one single piece, but just in case write about everyone you know" Hundreds upon hundreds of monsters were painstakingly described. Their appearances, their personalities, their lives, everything that could be relevant was written and analyzed.
They needed the history of the world – "If you want to change the world so much, then you may need to change the events in the past. Write everything you remember about the events throughout the years". Not only he wrote about his life as the Prince of All Monsters, not only he wrote everything he remembered, about Chara, about how living in the Underground was like, about everyone's hopes and dreams. He also wrote everything he knew about the past, everything Asgore and Toriel had told him, about the history of monsterkind. He could only go as far as a few years before his birth, he didn't know much about anything that came before then. ASRIEL described how six humans died, how their souls were the hope of finally getting out from underneath the mountain, and how the seventh human had freed monsterkind in so many timelines. Writing it all was like reliving everything once again.
And last, they needed a story.
-ooooo-
ASRIEL sat on the bench and stared into the purple distance. Lucia had once said they lived in the collective unconscious of the world, where Shadows roamed and people's hidden sides are out in the open. Many golden lines were visible through the clouds and fog, shining like beacons. Timelines, Lucia had said. He wondered if he would recognize any of those timelines if he saw the events in them. How surreal to think he could peer into one of those timelines and maybe see himself as a flower in them.
'You must not leave this manor' she had said. She said they were floating way above the ground and therefore they couldn't get down there, but he was pretty sure that was a lie. Sometimes, through the fog and purple atmosphere, he was sure he could see a very large shape – a mountain, he was sure that's what it was. He had a feeling it was Mt. Ebott. If he had the means to descend there, he would have.
It was hard to believe he was going to make it all change. On the bench he had put the humongous pile of paper where he wrote the contents of the game. Every scenario he could think about, everything he thought the monsters would say and do...to him it had seemed more like writing a roleplaying script than a story. It had taken him several weeks to think of every action the other player could take, and plan ahead according to that. Now all that remained was to turn the script into a board, and they would be ready to start.
But Lucia had said she wanted to wait, and she refused to say why. She said it wasn't the right time, and that they'd need to make corrections to the script. ASRIEL never thought it'd be simple to do this, but this was required much more planning than he expected.
'These games are a bit of a weird thing' she had said 'Witches make games based on the worlds and influence them, but most times those worlds were already in a lot of trouble.
For example, yours. It was already undergoing this entire mess caused by that child's ability to SAVE and LOAD, and we are now going to cause our own problems here. See? We aren't to blame for what's going wrong, but it's not like we're making things any easier for anyone'
She had said witches tended to use the same gameboard many times, but he planned to do this only once. Only one script...and they had to succeed.
"ASRIEL"
He turned his head around. Lucia was waiting at the back door of the manor. Having made sure he had seen her, she vanished. ASRIEL took the pile of paper and focused, in a moment disappearing right like she had done, and arriving to her study. The atmosphere inside was different this time. Although nothing had changed, the feelings of unease were stronger. Lucia was to a side, looking at the floor. When he left the script on the table, she looked up.
"Happy eighth year of being here, ASRIEL"
"Eight years...?" ASRIEL blinked. "It has been that long?"
"Yes. We're almost done with the preparations of this project. What's going to happen today is essential. Listen to me carefully and do what I tell you"
"I'm ready" he immediately responded. Lucia opened her hand, and there in a moment she showed something she had spent the last few years preparing while ASRIEL worked on the information for the game:
A SOUL. A white heart-shaped, ethereal object floated inside a small capsule an inch over her extended hand, shining brightly. ASRIEL had seen monster souls before, but it was the first time it wasn't under some situation he had orchestrated. He thought he had seen a small red dot in the center of the monster soul, but he chalked it up to some sort of reflection on the glass of the capsule. "Whose soul is that?"
"Yours"
Surprised, ASRIEL struggled to know what to say. He stared into the soul, stunned. "Mine?"
"You have no idea how much work it was to extract this specific monster soul. I mean it, this is your soul – a soul from Asriel Dreemurr, from a timeline you have never seen before" she pushed the capsule towards ASRIEL. "You, ASRIEL, you will have this part of yourself back, and then we will continue"
"Why? Why do I need that for?" if she had offered the soul to him eight years ago, he would have accepted it without any hesitation. Now, after eight years, he wasn't sure he was entitled to his soul anymore. He was not the same Asriel Dreemurr he used to be. Eight years had showed him an entire mindset and possibilities he hadn't experienced before, not even as Flowey. He was a soulless monster who had lived in a tiny part of the collective unconscious, maybe he wasn't even a monster anymore. He was a witch. To receive the soul...
...it would be like pretending to be Asriel, wasn't it? As if he could be Asriel again.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not Asriel anymore. I don't need the soul; I'm not going to turn into a flower again" he decided to add, just in case: "Thank you for taking the time to get it, but I don't need it anymore"
Lucia stared at him blankly. It seemed she hadn't expected the rejection of the soul. She inhaled sharply through her mouth and took the capsule back. "...I see. I didn't think you'd embrace this new life so readily. These last few years you have surprised me a lot, ASRIEL. In a way I think I'm fond of you, more than I thought I'd be. Well done"
"Thank you" he thought she had understood, but slowly she started opened the capsule, aiming the mouth of the capsule towards him.
"...but I won't accept this new philosophy of yours" and, with a rough shove, she pressed the mouth of the capsule onto his chest hard enough to jolt the soul into him. ASRIEL barely had time to understand what had just happened before a very warm sensation spread through his body, it was like being under sunlight for the first time, or like sitting in front of a fireplace in a cold day. It was nice, pleasant, yet completely foreign. A flurry of emotions he had feigned for so long invaded him, overwhelming him. He didn't even notice he had fallen on his rear, clutching the spot where the soul had entered him, his fur standing on end. Lucia calmly lowered his head onto the floor while he was too overwhelmed to protest, and aimed a single finger at his chest.
"And now to get rid of your 'plus one'" she moved her finger upwards, and that was enough. As if it had been fished out, a red human soul came out of Asriel, straight into the capsule she had brought the monster soul in.
That was all ASRIEL saw before falling unconscious.
-ooooo-
If someone had told ASRIEL he'd have to get used to this situation, he wouldn't have believed he would ever undergo it, yet here he was, trying to cope with it:
There were two Asriels in one single body. What was even stranger: one was younger than the other. Even though the younger one – the one the monster soul brought into him – was more like a conscience instead of a second personality or anything like that, it had also brought along a deluge of emotions and memories he hadn't expected.
ASRIEL had never met the six humans who always died in the Underground. The other Asriel knew them, and what was more, felt a degree of affection towards them. ASRIEL didn't have good memories of the human city above the surface. The other Asriel was fond of it despite the bad memories he had of it. ASRIEL had never flown in a plane, experienced real rain, or saw animals other than birds and insects. The other Asriel had done all that and more.
It was very difficult to come to terms with the fact he had all those memories he couldn't relate to, and all those feelings and emotions he had never felt.
Soon he understood the reason why Lucia had waited until he had received this soul back. He had been told to reread the script and everything he had written, and make corrections. What had sounded like a logical suggestion to improve the script turned into an entire ordeal that prompted a rewriting of more than half of the script, for a simple reason:
He had emotions.
ASRIEL reread the script, feeling the guilt settle inside him when he noted everything he had been planning to make the monsters go through, what the other witch's piece would have to endure, and what his closest friends and his parents would experience. Frisk, Chara, Toriel, Asgore, they all got their problems reduced and were given more moments of happiness to compensate for the hardships he'd make them endure. Not only that, he also gave as many monsters as possible ways to achieve what they wanted and be happy. He hoped his opponent would try them.
Arranging the humans to survive in the Underground despite being surrounded by monsters was easy. All the memories he received showed him their personalities. He was able to nudge all of them into situations where they wouldn't get their souls taken – mostly thanks to Toriel. Even though it also caused everyone in the Underground to be dissatisfied, without any souls that could give them hope.
All that remained was to direct his opponent to succeed in the game. He had left plenty of ways to win, many opportunities to succeed. Only someone incompetent would lose against him – he hoped, mainly because he didn't understand very well yet what the challenges Lucia suggested were like. Those were a recent addition.
"Personas?" he had asked. Lucia had been dusting off the glass case that contained the horned canine skeleton, explaining to him what Personas and Shadows entailed. He wasn't sure he understood everything, but it sounded well enough to convince him to put that in the game. "Do they really have one? Dad and Mom and everyone?"
"No, what they have is Shadows. Everyone has Shadows, not everyone has Personas. To get a Persona you have to tame your Shadow in some way"
"And the way we're going to shatter the barrier is by defeating twelve of those Shadows" he repeated what she had said not too long before, trying to understand it.
"Not exactly, but close enough. You'll lead them into each of these twelve, you'll orchestrate the fights, all that"
That had sounded simple enough. ASRIEL tried to ignore the case of bones, it kind of creeped him out. "That means we have Shadows too?"
"We don't. I told you, we're part of the collective unconscious, and we exist here because we are like our Shadows, more or less. That means we don't have any"
ASRIEL didn't understand at all. Part of him wondered if she was intentionally trying to confuse him. "What about Personas?"
"That we do have. You have a Persona even if you didn't realize it" Lucia left the rag aside, she led ASRIEL away from the case. "Focus. There's something inside you"
"It's myself"
"No, I'm not talking about him. I mean you need to take a good look at yourself. You know who you are, you know how you're like and what you're capable of doing.
Embrace it all, feel like you can use that knowledge of yourself to keep going on"
Easier said than done. ASRIEL obeyed nonetheless, closing his eyes and focusing. He hadn't thought about that in a long time. Who he was, what he would do...it felt like an image was forming in his mind, something that felt alien and familiar at the same time. He told that to Lucia, who nodded. "That's your Persona. It's what represents your personality and who you are. The Persona can be used to fight and support others. Try calling it forth. It'll feel like a name resonating in you.
Focus and unleash it!"
Kind of curious how this so-called representation of himself would be like, ASRIEL obeyed, It took him a moment, but soon a bright blue light appeared in front of him, quickly enlarging into a figure larger than himself, with four arms, far different from what Lucia expected. She stared at the Persona, with her mouth open in surprise. After a minute, she recovered enough to talk.
"That Persona...that Persona is..."
The name Lucia said meant nothing to him. If it wasn't for her surprise, he wouldn't have thought it was anything special.
-ooooo-
"We're ready" Lucia said, serving ASRIEL tea and chocolate cake. Without restraining herself at all, she served herself half of the cake, while giving ASRIEL a much smaller portion. Near the cake there was a finished gameboard, shiny and having been just created from the script ASRIEL had made. Celebrating and smiling widely, Lucia was raising her cup high in the air, as if she was about to toast with champagne. "Good job, ASRIEL! I have no words to express my gratitude!"
It was hard not to feel proud when she was praising him so much. ASRIEL was already munching his cake portion like it was the last cake in the entire world. He wiped the crumbs off his snout with the back of his hand.
"We're going to play tomorrow, right?"
"...no, not really. You're not going to play this game with me"
ASRIEL frowned. "What? Then with who? I thought we'd play and shatter the Barrier"
"There's someone else in this manor, another guest. Just like you, I picked him up from your world, and I trained him just like you did. Thirty years, in fact. He isn't nearly as good as you, to be honest"
If it was from his world, then maybe he knew that person. His first thought was that it could be Frisk or Chara – a strong desire to change something, and they were familiar with LOAD and SAVE. "Who is it?"
"I named him Sisyphus when I brought him here – like the Greek myth about the man who pushes a boulder up a hill, and keeps being pushed back. A senseless endeavor where you don't progress, like what he was doing when I found him" it made that person sound a lot more than Frisk, although ASRIEL saw nothing senseless about it. "His name before I picked him up was Patta. Does that sound familiar to you?"
"No—" Yes! Immediately, the other Asriel piped up. An image of some human ASRIEL didn't know filled his mind, linking that to the name he had just heard. That person had never been in the Underground before, he was sure of that. "Who is he?"
"He's someone who used to be working on the same thing than you, right from the void where he ended after he and Gaster went in there. You know how that goes – you stop existing. How he got there is a long story, what you must remember is that he has the same objective than you. He's going to try his hardest to win, and your objective is to not let it happen"
"But we're working to do the same thing!"
"ASRIEL, it's a game. The point of a game is that one side loses and the other wins. You already set the ground for the liberation of all monsterkind, now it all depends on him, and don't even think about playing badly. If you play badly, you'll just ruin the game, and all the work you put will be lost. Have I made myself clear?"
Those were way too many stipulations, especially since he had never been told about it before. For the first time since a long time ago, he started feeling like he had gotten into some kind of unfair deal. "Yeah..." he muttered.
"There's something else we need to discuss. I believe you shouldn't show yourself without a disguise"
ASRIEL snorted, growing more unsatisfied with the arrangements. "Why?" He expected something along the lines of them not expecting an eight-foot-tall goat taking part in this, and knowing firsthand how badly someone could react to a monster when they don't expect it, he wouldn't argue even if it did sting such measures could be necessary, but that wasn't what Lucia was talking about.
First, he felt that Patta, Sisyphus or whatever he was called, wouldn't be surprised. It didn't make sense to try to hide he was a monster. Then Lucia shook her head: "You see, he knows you. To put it plainly, he has an almost unhealthy fixation about helping you. I don't know how he'd react if he found out you're here, safe and sound, and it'll get in the way anyway. It's just to avoid trouble, okay?"
"...fine..." not completely convinced but kind of seeing the logic, ASRIEL decided to agree, even if he felt disappointed. He wanted to meet this Patta guy and see why in some other timeline he had become friends with him, that wouldn't happen if he didn't know it was him. "You want me to change my appearance?"
"Yes, but you don't have to force yourself to do that. There's not much time for that, so we're going to use this" in her hand a brooch appeared, in the shape of a firefly, shining ominously in the dim light of the study "I made this. It's a brooch I channel my magic into. Pretty complicated stuff, took me a long time to get a grip on it" she slid it towards ASRIEL. "If you keep this on your person it will change your appearance to the eyes of anyone – only your appearance, so you better not let yourself be touched"
It wasn't that farfetched there could be magic that could do that, although he had a hard time thinking this kind of magic existed in the Underground. He took the brooch, examining it carefully. "How will I look like?"
"That's what we're going to decide now. If you allow me a few suggestions, I have a few pointers to give you..."
The end result was an appearance ASRIEL felt was intended to be very similar to someone specific in Lucia's mind. An acquaintance, perhaps? A tanned and large man, with blond hair, overall looking disheveled and completely unfitting in the relatively opulent parlor where they'd play. ASRIEL at least got a word in edgewise about how he wanted to look – he convinced her to give him a sizable mane of hair. He had always liked his father's hair; this was the closest he'd be to having something similar without modifying his appearance for real.
"Yes, like this. I don't think he'll ever suspect someone who looks like you were picked up from a random alleyway is the Prince of All Monsters. Like a prince and the pauper thing, you know?"
"I don't really know" he had the feeling she was referencing it wrong, anyway.
"Whatever" she walked around him, examining the illusion ASRIEL was hiding behind of, and tried to pass a hand right over the top of the illusion's head. Her hand hit ASRIEL's neck, unseen and invisible. "Keep him away from you at all costs, this is far from a perfect disguise" Satisfied with the disguise, they sat again and continued eating. "Now, your name. Any ideas?"
ASRIEL thought for a moment. He seemed to have inherited Asgore's terrible naming skills, he couldn't think of anything. "Um...I dunno...Leirsa?"
Lucia kept her face neutral. "What."
"It's my name backwards. That should be enough, right?"
"Of course it isn't! Who would be fooled by that!" she sighed "As usual, I'm the one who has to make all the effort when it's about the logistics. How about Cornio?"
She had immediately decided to name his fake disguise after her dog. ASRIEL wondered if he should feel offended. Deciding it wasn't worth it to get into lengthy discussions about his name, he yielded. "Fine"
A heavy silence fell over the table. Lucia finished her portion of cake, delicately placing her hand over her ceramic plate. "You should rest, but before that, I recommend you take the time to say something to that Echo Flower you asked for. Something to cheer you up, because...let me tell you, sometimes there can be a lot of hurt feelings during these games. Go"
Still a bit confused by everything, feeling he had no other choice, and wondering how he hadn't seen Lucia's other guest during ten years, ASRIEL left the study. Once ASRIEL left, Lucia took the gameboard and, with a wave of her hand, turned it back into the thick script ASRIEL wrote. With only the slightest bit of hesitation, she opened it, took out a pen, and tampered with the delicate workings of ASRIEL's game. It was simple – just two sentences that would put in peril the world:
'The world will fall apart and be destroyed by its inner demons if one or both conditions are fulfilled:
1. 120 days pass.
2. Twelve Shadow Selves are defeated"
And to guarantee the complete destruction of the world in its entirety, she tied the existence of all timelines onto very specific Shadows in the collective unconscious. Let Sisyphus' piece destroy them, inadvertently destroying the timelines. It was nice, making others do the work for her.
"With this, the stage is set" Lucia said, turning the script back into the board. Her sabotage wouldn't be able to be removed once the game started, so she was confident even if ASRIEL somehow noticed something was wrong, he wouldn't be able to do anything.
All she had to do now was sit back, watch, and reap the fruits of her labor.
-ooooo-
ASRIEL shook his head, snapping out of remembering moments from the last ten years. It had been quite some time, and he had worked so hard. It'd be a shame to let it all go to waste. He disliked a lot what Sisyphus had done – to say the least – but everyone in the Underground relied on him to help them, even if they weren't aware of it. He couldn't step aside and abandon them even if he was upset with Sisyphus. He had to trust him.
"ASRIEL"
He turned around. Lucia was walking towards him, hands behind her back. She stopped right beside him, she seemed to be a bit hesitant. "I thought you'd be in your bedroom"
"I needed to hear again what I said to the flower" he whispered, getting away from the flower to not ruin what it already had in it. "Lucia, I'm not sure I can do this. I want to free monsterkind, but what he did made me so angry I just...I just forgot about them. Was that bad?"
"I wouldn't say it was bad. There's nothing shameful about embracing how you feel"
"Even if everyone else gets in trouble because of me" He knew saying 'in trouble' was kind of an understatement. They would stay trapped in the Underground for a very long time! And although he would have searched other ways to help them, he knew this was his only option right now. It could be a long time before he got some other way. He had to grit his teeth and cooperate with Sisyphus. ASRIEL stepped towards the edge of the floating island, looking towards the golden timelines in the distance. Were there less timelines than before?
"Even if they get in trouble because of you. If it was about anything else I'd tell you to forget about it and do whatever you want, but..." Lucia raised a hand. She intended to do the same she did to Sisyphus – hold him down and coerce him into keeping the game going – but after a moment she sighed and put her hand down. She couldn't bring herself to do it. "...geez...I think you should give him another chance. Not for him, not for anyone in the Underground. Do it for yourself"
"For myself?"
"You have spent so long with this project it'd be a shame to waste it" she said. Even if she didn't want to admit it, she had gained some affection towards the former monster prince. She felt closer to him than she did with Sisyphus despite he being around for much less time. She had turned him into a replacement for friendships she once had. "So chin up and get ready to continue, alright?"
"I quit. Can I really return to the game?"
Lucia played with a strand of hair. "...okay, that may be a bit difficult. He'll suspect something's off if you approach him and say you want to continue. I said I wouldn't meddle, yet here I am, meddling like the meddler I am..."
Something about her tone made him have a bad feeling about all that. She seemed a bit too carefree, like she wasn't worried at all. That could only mean she had something in mind already. Knowing her, it wouldn't be simple or straightforward. "What'll be the plan?"
"How about you fight him? Challenge him, tell him if he wins you'll continue playing"
ASRIEL chuckled. Of course. A fight. There was nothing straightforward about that. He would have preferred not to fight anyone, to be frank. "Would that really work?"
"The key is to make him feel like he earned it. That'll give him motivation to give his best during the game"
He considered that for a moment. He had stormed away from the game and left Sisyphus...that may have disheartened him. Even though ASRIEL thought he shouldn't feel any guilt about disapproving his actions, he felt some – mostly because he knew he had left the Underground trapped underneath the mountain. It didn't help that he wanted to make amends with Sisyphus.
It was worth a try.