(15)

Leontius sorely hoped that Mettaton would not be a recurring blockade. After he left the cooking setup, he had been walking East for quite some time. No matter how far he walked, the gargantuan machine in the distance never seemed to change perspective thanks to its size. Leontius felt he should check the guide, the looming machine and the constant noise it made somewhat worried him.

The guide revealed it to actually be his destination, the Core, which he'd reach by going through the "MTT Resort." The Core is the source of power for the Underground, the reason why their buildings have light the way they do. Apparently, it also contains an "elevator," which Leontius equated to the chain lifts he'd seen in numerous places in his kingdom. That elevator would take him directly to Asgore's castle.

Leontius wondered how that encounter would work out. Would the king listen to reason? Or would he be like Undyne and stay steadfast, choosing to battle instead? The way Toriel described Asgore made it seem more like the king would prefer the former, but Leontius was unsure in the end. Asgore may have changed since Toriel last saw him, Leontius had witnessed just what can happen to kings and lords when they change… and he'd done battle with them before. He just hoped he wouldn't be forced to break his promise to Toriel by killing her ex-husband of all monsters.

His thoughts were cut short when he noticed a large vertical silver tube was ahead. It rested against the path which he saw had abruptly ended as he walked closer. The tube had a few orange markings, a sliding door, and a panel that had up and downward pointing arrows on it. The orange markings were four dots and an "R1." What R1 stood for, he had no clue.

Leontius decided he'd try pressing one of the arrow controls, which opened up the sliding door. He stepped inside, finding that it was indeed some kind of lift. There was another set of controls on the wall of the elevator, that being a panel with red-glowing and non-glowing buttons. The two glowing buttons read "Left Floor 1" and "Right Floor 2."

He wasn't quite sure what to press first, so he tried Left floor 1. Once his finger pushed the glowing button, a confirmatory beep sounded out, and the elevator began to drop rapidly. Leontius stumbled a bit at the acceleration, but by the time he'd gotten used to it, it had already slowed down and the door had slid open. He stepped out to see Alphys' lab a little ways away. He'd come in a circle. At least the elevator gave him a way back…

Leontius stepped back in, and this time he selected Right Floor 2. He braced for acceleration, but he'd been expecting it to be downward. His prepared stance resulted in him being even worse for wear once the force came in the totally opposite direction, resulting in him nearly falling on his backside. He braced himself on the wall, thankfully.

He wasted no time when he was getting out, he found the elevator rather unpleasant. As soon as he was out, a short flame monster standing in front of the elevator doors yelled "HEATS FLAMESMAN!" and stepped in. The short monster then hopped up to press one of the buttons. Leontius looked on as the elevator closed and whooshed away, wondering just what the monster's issue was, and why he would be shouting his name. With a dismissive shake of his head, he just kept walking.

The path was heading West, for once. A short ways from the elevator, Leontius saw what seemed to be a floating monster, a miniature volcano, and…

'A Snowdin sentry post… with snow on it. In Hotland…?'

Leontius walked up to the strange group. Closer (but still somewhat distant) inspection of the volcano revealed it to actually be a monster, with an odd food item stuffed into its top. Unlike the volcano monster, Leontius could not divine just what the floating monster was. It had long feminine eyelashes, a pink dress… thing, and oddly enough, a rather female looking chest. She also held a similar food item in her long claws which she brought up to her beak every now and then to take a bite out of.

Leontius felt he should just pass by the strange monsters and instead investigate the sentry post, finding that it was none other than Sans that was behind it, reclined in a chair with his slippered feet on the counter. The skeleton had on his ever-present grin and was looking at him lazily.

"hey big guy, what's up? feelin' hungry? How 'bout a hot-dog?" The skeleton slid his feet from the counter then held out one of the food items, then gave Leontius a look over, noticing his change in apparel. "nice threads, L."

As Leontius inspected the "hot-dog" he noticed it was actually a cat-tail in a bread bun. He decided against trying to eat it. "Thank you for the offer Sans, but I do not get hungry."

The skeleton shrugged, put the now identified "hot-dog" next to some other ones like it, and then he leaned forward with his elbows on the counter. "so where's tori?"

Leontius shuffled a little and tapped his boots to get some of the trail dust off them. "About Toriel... we got separated by Undyne, I have not seen her since, and have decided to continue on to Asgore without her. I am unsure how we will meet up… and I remembered my name a short time ago, it is Leontius."

The skeleton's voice didn't seem to even change to convey his surprise. "wow, thought ya had me in the short names department and turns out you actually got papyrus beat… mind if i call ya leo for short?"

"I… would not mind, at least it is not a moniker as brief as 'L,' so it is fine by me."

"cool. so, undyne got you guys split up... how're you gonna do that mission of 'dire importance' with ol' dreemurr if tori isn't with ya?"

Leontius absentmindedly fiddled with his sheath's latch, getting it back in place… "I plan to attempt to convince him to end his barrier-breaking plan with some diplomacy. From what I have heard, he feels terrible about killing those six humans for their souls, I will attempt appeal to that."

Sans managed a questioning look at that. "how would that stop him? if i know the king, it's that he doesn't like it… but he's still gonna do it to make good on his promise to all us monsters."

"That is correct, but… you do not know what is on the surface, do you?" The short skeleton gave him a seemingly careless "nah."

Leontius hushed his voice, knowing the other two monsters were well within earshot. "...Terrible things. Beings far stronger than I inhabit the surface, and all of mankind has been turned into soul-hungering undead, nearly all of which are outright hostile, save a few people who have retained some semblance of their sanity. If the king makes this place known to what dwells on the surface… it would be ruinous. I intend to tell him of the worst the world above has to offer, perhaps that may bring him to call off his plan."

Sans was practically frozen. 'leo's… not the strongest thing from the surface? what the hell could be…'

Sans was stock still, sweat seemed to be visible on his skull. "...do ya mind giving me an example?"

Leontius noticed Sans' change in demeanor and hesitantly gave an answer. "I... have met and done battle with a few great dragons that truly put me to the test, one of which I could not defeat without assistance. Another was different and seemed to be in a comatose or sleeping state. It was massive and humanoid, with wings that spanned the whole of the magmatic cavern it rested in. I daresay that one was some form of draconic or demonic avatar, I had to use ballistas to break it free of my path so I could even pass it… it is likely still where I left it."

Sans sat still. The odd white "eyes" that usually inhabited his sockets were gone. He'd seemingly become unresponsive, until… "get going, leo. get to asgore ASAP buddy." His voice was even and uniform, he'd dropped his lazy tone. Sans actually sounded serious for once.

The two monsters that were enjoying their hot-dogs had taken notice of Sans' odd change in personality, but they hadn't heard Leontius talking about the surface. Leontius had noticed the change as well and he was rather troubled by it. Sans continued to stay totally still, sweat still visible on his skull.

Leontius decided to take the silent comic's advice and get going, he was becoming slightly worrisome. He set out West once more.

Sans finally looked at Leontius' back once he had started walking again, still silent.

'it makes sense now… no wonder why i sensed the things i did. this timeline is way more dangerous than i thought.'

vvv

The westward path went on for a while. Things were becoming visible in the dark around Leontius, waving towers of ominous red glows, gears, metallic pipes, and beams were starting to appear and go every which direction into the dark cavern. The path went uninterrupted until another segment of moving conveyors became audible ahead. Before he saw them, a small offshoot of the path grabbed his attention. He decided to check it.

The path was short lived and expanded out a little, but there was nothing of importance on it. The only thing that was of note was a very small, stained apron. Leontius didn't bother with the trifle and instead returned to the main westward path and the noisy conveyors.

As it turns out, the conveyors were part of a puzzle to unlock what seemed to be a barrier made of arcing lightning.

Fortunately, this puzzle was straightforward, and it was just timing on Leontius' part. He simply had to ride one of the conveyors and press three switches mounted to pipes that were next to the conveyor, which then dropped the barrier allowing him to keep going westward…

...Unfortunately, the next puzzle was much more complicated and dangerous by far. A veritable maze of suspended steam plates was now in his way, serving as a convoluted method of transport to the other side of the path. The steam plates also were equipped with switches on their suspended bases, which would activate and change around the directions the plates would launch him.

Consulting the guide gave Leontius an idea of how to complete the puzzle, but the moment he started jumping the gaps he found himself being spun about midair and disoriented in every direction excluding up and down. Leontius came to a simple conclusion.

These plates were far worse than the straightforward ones.

After numerous attempted and failed patterns to get to the other side, and a few trips on a conveyor that would reset him should he get stuck, he solved it and found himself on the other side, dizziness setting in. After waiting a few moments to regain his poise, he kept walking West. He passed by the two knights from before, who were inspecting what seemed to be a container of sorts on top of an out of place wooden table. When the squat-helmed one finally noticed Leontius had passed by, he called out to the undead wanderer.

"Hey! You! Stop!"

That got Leontius' attention. The undead turned, hiding his face with his hood. What an odd sense of deja vu.

'Perhaps they will not recognize me, I have changed equipment, bar my sword…' At that thought, he slowly adjusted the sheathed blade so that it was less obvious, and more hidden behind his person.

The two knights dropped their curiosity regarding the container and instead walked closer to Leontius. Like before, the squat-helmed one was the one who wanted to speak.

"We've… like, been searching for a human wearing armor. They were wandering around Hotland by the Lab, and we've been waiting and looking all over. Have you seen them?"

Leontius gave them a shake of his hooded head. 'Do not recognize the hood… it is just a coincidence.'

"...Well, just stay chill. You look like you can handle yourself, so be safe. We'll just be waiting some more over at that safe thing."

The squat-helmed knight then turned and went back to his spot, shortly joined by the tall-helmed one, who stayed and silently stared at Leontius for a few moments before joining his comrade.

Leontius let out a "breath" he didn't know he was holding, then briskly kept walking. The path passed by a number of suspended bases of land similar to the plate maze's, but these ones sported steam-venting pipes. They were of no consequence and were only a backdrop to the path, which had turned North and back East around the suspensions. Another dark room was ahead. Leontius wasn't quite sure how it was dark, but it was as if all ambient light had been purposefully blocked out of the area. As he walked into it, he had a sense of foreboding that this was another one of Mettaton's tricks.

The light somehow came back on, and a camera shaped like Mettaton floated down and focused on Leontius.

At this point, Leontius could almost feel his annoyance on a physical level.

The camera then started speaking, in the voice of none other than Mettaton. "OHHHHHH YESSS! GOOD AFTERNOON, BEAUTIES AND GENTLEBEAUTIES! THIS IS METTATON, REPORTING LIVE FROM MTT NEWS! AN INTERESTING SITUATION HAS ARISEN IN EASTERN HOTLAND! FORTUNATELY, OUR CORRESPONDENT IS OUT THERE REPORTING LIVE! BRAVE CORRESPONDENT! PLEASE FIND SOMETHING NEWSWORTHY TO REPORT! OUR TEN WONDERFUL VIEWERS ARE WAITING FOR YOU!"

Leontius was really beginning to tire of this robot. He could actually recall some deaths that were less frustrating than this metallic nightmare, he'd rather suffer through some of his "friend" Patches' antics than deal with Mettaton's nonsense anymore; which is saying something, since Patches (who'd gone through quite a few titles and names, "Hyena," "Trusty," and the name and guise of "Pate") was a trickster who'd led Leontius to his death on more than one occasion. At least he made it up by selling and buying equipment… Mettaton would most likely make no such motion.

There were a number of benign objects scattered about, a cup, a ball of sorts, papers…? Leontius didn't want to play into Mettaton's game or acknowledge the machine, so he kept walking. A blue light orb barrier was on the path ahead, an attempt to block him from leaving. The camera was still watching Leontius as he unsheathed his claymore and just put it straight through the orbs, shattering them. He promptly kept walking after, resheathing his claymore as he went. The camera stayed in place, watching the undead as he walked off and into another elevator to the North.

Mettaton (who was now wearing a news anchor outfit) floated by, and the camera looked to him. "IT SEEMS OUR CORRESPONDENT HAS MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS. NO WORRIES! A GOOD ANCHOR ALWAYS GOES WHERE THE STORY IS! AND THE STORY IS… ACTUALLY NOT HERE." Mettaton then waved to the camera and rocketed off once more, letting his news anchor attire fall to the floor beneath.

As the camera stayed in place, a dog walked by and sat directly in shot, not doing much but being a dog. As the camera stared at the dog, it couldn't help but wonder just what its existence meant to everything as a whole, what was its purpose? What was the dog's purpose? Why are they here? Is there something after this life? Is there a god? Because there certainly was a dog.

The dog blankly stared back at the camera, then merrily trotted off.

The camera spontaneously combusted and exploded shortly after.

vvv

Leontius was now on "Left Floor 3." This floor was far more metallic and featured much more machinery than the last. The path had become a red steel walkway, which was taking Leontius East once more. He'd just walked through a "bake sale" being held by a spider monster who introduced herself as Muffet. She explained the sale was being held to raise money for helping spiders.

Leontius apologetically announced that he did not have enough money to purchase things, so instead he handed over the last ten gold he had, seeing as he really had no further use for it. He was still not intent on giving up that last coin from the surface, though. It had quite the story behind it.

After donating, Leontius walked past a monster who'd just spent all his money on a donut, and was on his way…

...Before promptly being presented with another suspended steam plate maze. This one wasn't quite as bad as the previous one, it lacked the direction changing switches that complicated the puzzle by a large degree. To the East, he could see another large locked door and the puzzle buildings for it to the North and South. This was a pretty self-explanatory situation. He also noticed the northern building was quite clear of obstacles, unlike the southern one which had conveyors and blue laser orbs moving about. Leontius felt that getting the simpler path out of the way first would be a good start, so he hopped across the maze, and made his way into the North building.

This building's arrow and box puzzle was even more complicated than both of the previous ones, allowing him only one shot which meant he needed a totally clear line of fire. This took Leontius quite some time to complete. Some frustration and irritation at the lost time later, he'd solved it, left the building (and walked past two odd diamond-faced monsters who were spouting things about Mettaton), hopped to the South building, and found himself stuck.

This conveyor and blue laser setup was devious. How exactly was he supposed to not move through the blue lights with the conveyor carrying him, he was unsure. He did not want to experience just what they would do if he moved through them, so he took the safe option of just shooting them out with Soul Arrows and entered the building.

The southern building's box puzzle turned out much easier than the northern one's, Leontius managed to solve it in just a few moves. After the screen congratulated him, he left, stepped on the return conveyor, then hopped across the maze to the door, which, exactly like the last, slid open as he approached it. The door's path led to an odd building-thing, which was made of an unidentifiable purple material. Leontius wasn't quite sure if it was stone or metal, it made no sound to indicate just what it was. Despite the oddity, Leontius had to keep going, so he unhesitatingly walked through. He had noticed a large number of spider webs about…

'Maybe it is Muffet's home. I would not be surprised, all things considered… it would not be the first spider's lair I have walked into.'

He was walking around splotches of webbing that were all around on the path, when the spider monster herself swung by on a web-rope-swing thing. "Hello dearie, thank you for the donation!" Muffet then swung away, laughing "Ahuhuhuhu!" as she went.

Leontius was glad he'd done some good, he wasn't really able to purchase much with just ten gold anyways. After crossing a web bridge, Leontius had left the purple building and found himself on another one of Mettaton's sets. Buildings, a moon, and stars were all set up as a background, and a foreground wall with stairs leading down to his level blocked his way. Leontius was looking around for a way through when, of course…

"OH? THAT HUMAN…" The infernal machine Mettaton rolled out from behind a "room" atop the wall and was standing just before the stairs, wearing a dress.

Leontius had no words.

"COULD IT BE… MY ONE TRUE LOVE?" Mettaton then rolled down the stairs, then began his play in song. Leontius only stood there, pulled his hood further over his head, and looked down.

"OH MY LOVE, PLEASE RUN AWAY, MONSTER KING, FORBIDS YOUR STAY. HUMANS MUST LIVE... FAR APART, EVEN IF… IT BREAKS MY HEART. THEY'LL PUT YOU…" Petals began blowing in, and like the confetti before, Leontius did nothing to prevent them from landing on him.

"IN THE DUNGEON… IT'LL SUCK… AND THEN YOU'LL DIE A LOT… REALLY SAD… YOU'RE GONNA DIE… CRY CRY CRY… SO SAD IT'S HAPPENING." The robot finally finished singing, and Leontius finally had the self-composure to look at Mettaton without getting the urge to do something he'd later regret.

"SO SAD. SO SAD THAT YOU'RE GOING TO THE DUNGEON." Mettaton then pulled a remote from under his dress, dramatically held it up, and with a "Toodles!" pressed the button with flair. A trapdoor underneath Leontius opened up and he dropped in with a surprised grunt.

Leontius landed somewhat roughly on his backside on a rocky piece of land, his pauldron rattling away. Once he got up, he saw a thin conveyor path that was inactive, which led to a far longer, and rather familiar, colored tile puzzle. Mettaton then floated down from above, hovering with his now purple colored thruster.

"OH NO! WHATEVER SHALL I DO? MY LOVE HAS BEEN CAST AWAY INTO THE DUNGEON. A DUNGEON WITH A PUZZLE SO DASTARDLY, MY PARAMOUR WILL SURELY PERISH." Mettaton then pointed to the tile maze dramatically. "O, HEAVENS HAVE MERCY! THE HORRIBLE COLORED TILE MAZE! EACH COLORED TILE HAS ITS OWN SADISTIC FUNCTION. FOR EXAMPLE, A GREEN TILE SOUNDS A NOISE, AND THEN YOU MUST FIGHT A MONSTER. RED TILES WILL… ACTUALLY, WAIT A SECOND. DIDN'T YOU SEE THIS PUZZLE A WHILE AGO?"

'What… oh, that is correct… Alphys made that puzzle-contraption that Papyrus attempted to use. It seems to actually be working. This… is not going to go in my favor.'

"THAT'S RIGHT. YOU REMEMBER ALL THE RULES, DON'T YOU? GREAT! THEN I WON'T WASTE YOUR TIME REPEATING THEM! OH, AND YOU'D BETTER HURRY. BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T GET THROUGH IN 30 SECONDS…"

A wall of flames appeared behind Leontius, startling the undead. Of course he'd be wearing one of his least flame-resistant sets of gear when this of all things was happening.

"YOU'LL BE INCINERATED BY THESE JETS OF FIRE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA… AHAHA… HA… HA! MY POOR LOVE, I'M SO FILLED WITH GRIEF, I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING! GOOD LUCK DARLING!"

Leontius shot Mettaton a caustic look that would have melted right through the machine's metallic chassis had it been truly acidic. The robot began singing again, floating about, almost gloatingly in nature.

'If the machine thinks he has me beat with fire… a bit of fire magic of my own ought to surprise him.'

Without a care for the rules, Leontius sprinted forward onto the "inactive" conveyor, which activated as soon as he stepped on it. It began to try and move him backward, but he ran fast enough to outpace the treadmilling conveyor and was onto the tiles. He ran in any direction he could, not caring what flavor of fruit he smelled of. Eventually, he was running in circles, not able to move in any direction thanks to the correctly functioning magic of the puzzle. The thirty seconds passed. The tiles grayed out and Mettaton floated over.

"OOOOH, I'M SO SORRY! LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE OUT OF TIME! HERE COME THE FLAMES, DARLING!" True to his word, walls of flame appeared and surrounded Leontius. "THEY'RE CLOSING IN!"

The flames came in closer, and Leontius prepared a spell in his glove…

"GETTING! CLOSER! OH MY!"

The flames were at Leontius' boots, he was about to cast his Flash Sweat pyromancy…

"ANY MINUTE NOW!"

The flames had halted, and Mettaton gave a robotic cough. Suddenly, the flames died out.

"OH NO! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? I MUST HAVE BEEN FOILED BY THE BRILLIANT DOCTOR ALPHYS! SHE HAS SHUT DOWN THE FLAMES! BUT… HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT THE GREEN TILES DO? THEY MAKE A SOUND, THEN YOU MUST FIGHT A MONSTER. WELL DARLING… THAT MONSTER… IS ME!" Mettaton then flung off his dress and landed in front of Leontius on the tile maze. The robot and undead wanderer stood still for a while, not doing anything. Mettaton seemed to be looking around questioningly.

"SO…"

The robot actually jumped when Leontius finally moved, walking right past the machine.

Mettaton sassily put his hands on his chassis and watched the human go. "I SUPPOSE YOU ARE NOT IN THE MOOD THEN. FINE, THE DRAMATIC AIR HAS GONE STALE ANYWAYS. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE RESORT, MR. PARTY POOPER HUMAN." Once again, the encounter ended with Mettaton rocketing off and Leontius walking away.

'For a "blood-thirsty human-killing machine," Mettaton is rather shoddy at his one job.' Leontius had kept on the tile-path, and was now headed North. The ground was rocky again, and he could see the top half of a tall building looming ahead, sitting atop a hill. He assumed that was the MTT Resort. He could also see the Nicecream man and the two knights from before, it seemed like the knights were buying some of the rather joyed bunny monster's frozen treats.

For a few moments, Leontius regretted donating that money to Muffet. He sorely wanted to try one of those treats.

(15)