(16)
After morosely passing by the Nicecream Man (and returning his greeting with a half-hearted wave), Leontius started the trek up the stairs cut into the hill. He wasn't too mindful of the two knights, they seemed to be distractedly chatting. They had even taken their helmets off to eat their nicecream and talk. The squat-helmed one was a rabbit monster, and the other seemed reptilian in nature, but not quite like Alphys.
Leontius brought his attention to the Resort atop the hill. It was the tallest building he'd seen in the Underground, and the area on top of the hill was dark. The building had numerous golden-lit windows that reached up into the dark above. The architecture was quite unlike anything Leontius had ever seen, the buildings of Snowdin were not unlike cabins and far-northern buildings of his own kingdom, and Alphys' lab was solid-white and plainly rectangular, but this building was totally new to him.
He'd finally gotten to the top of the hill, and could now see the front door and sign of the building. The glowing sign was a stylised "MTT" on a red backdrop with two winged golden Mettaton-shaped characters on either side. The doors were made of glass, the handles being an "M" divided between the two. A long, luxurious red carpet extended to the stairs, bordered with M's and T's. Just as Leontius was about to make his way into the building, someone stepped out of the shadows to the left of the entry and stood before a planter.
It was Sans. Once more, the skeleton had found a way to get somewhere ahead of Leontius without the undead ever noticing.
Leontius decided he'd have a talk with the comic, he was beginning to seriously wonder just how Sans could beat him to his destinations with ease. As he walked up to Sans, the skeleton gave him a knowing look and walked back into the dark, beckoning Leontius to follow as he went.
Leontius went into the dark as well, and suddenly the shadows fell away and he found himself inside what seemed to be a fancy dining hall. There were a few monsters here, but it seemed that the hall was actually closed, no one was here eating. The room was mostly darkened, but Leontius managed to spot Sans at one of the tables in a worried looking sitting position.
Leontius joined Sans at the table, leaning back in his chair as he sat down. "Sans, I must ask you a question."
The skeleton stopped fidgeting for a moment and finally looked up at the undead. "yeah, i gotta ask you something too. i know i told ya to get to the core, but i just gotta know more. and i'll be honest with you, i know a lot, but things are different, at least this time around."
Leontius pulled his hood off so Sans could actually see his face. "What are you talking about? What do you mean by 'this time around?' And just how do you keep getting to places before me?"
Sans tried to relax a bit, he needed to get some straight answers out of this conversation, after all. "i'll start it off by just outright tellin' ya how it is. i'm not a normal monster. i'm not bound to just one timeline like everyone else, and i've got abilities. the one you're asking about is simple, i can 'shortcut' my way to wherever in the underground i want to be."
Leontius was about to remind Sans about the reference he'd made with "this time," but Sans interrupted him. Leontius just sat back again and started fiddling with his rings while he listened.
"don't worry, i was getting to that. what i meant by 'this time around,' is that i've been through this whole thing countless times. i've seen every possible outcome of what happens in the underground with the eighth human to fall down here. all of them before this involved a kid named frisk. frisk would go through any combination of actions through the underground, killing some monsters, befriending or sparing all monsters… or going on a complete genocide and emptying the underground totally. the last time we went through with frisk was pretty standard, didn't kill anyone outside of the ruins, tori managed to get him to see that monsters were people too. Frisk escaped, undyne hated his guts for killing a few monsters, yadda yadda. i've seen it all plenty of times..."
Sans let Leontius take the information in for a few moments. The Undead had never heard of this "Frisk" before now, but by the sounds of it, he had taken the child's place as a key figure in the Underground.
Sans confirmed as much with his next statement. "...but this time around, you're the eighth human, and apparently the surface is completely different. i've gotten to see frisk's surface world, and it sounds nothing like yours. so i gotta ask you a personal question now. i know it's sort of a weird one, but when you were up on the surface, why did you do the things you did and go to the places you went to?"
Leontius had to think for a while on Sans' peculiar question. He pondered his purpose on the surface, what did his actions there mean? Why did he always pit himself against stacked odds? No one ever requested him to do anything, yet he always kept moving forward from one task to another, one encounter to the next. It never occurred to him in his less aware state in the past, but it truly was strange.
"I… am unsure, in all honesty. Most of the time I did not know why I was doing things, yet that never struck me as odd. I hardly ever had any direction from anyone either, yet it all felt natural and ingrained, like…"
Sans could see it. Leontius didn't even know he was stuck in the time loops, just like everyone else. But something more had to be in play, he knew it.
"it felt like you'd done it a million times before, huh? i know that feel, bro. the world's been stuck in a cycle for a long time. and i can tell it affects you differently, kinda like me. when the world and time loop back, i still remember... mostly anyways. when it loops for you, you stay just as strong as before, but it seems like you forget like everyone else. gonna need some help figuring it out, but i can tell you've fought the same things over and over though. i know ya don't remember a whole lot leo, but try and remember how it started this time for you."
That was even harder to do. Leontius began to recall his time after his first death. He felt like crawling out of that river had only happened once, it was exclusively the first thing he'd done as a "fully-fledged" and turned undead. He knew he'd wandered lost for a long time, and then he was found and herded with a number of other undead to some kind of asylum.
He was there for quite a while, the memory of that place was nothing but an image of steel bars blocking his way out, and the senseless growls and moans of other undead. Then he could remember a trap-door opening above, and a talisman had been dropped into his cell… he went limp after that, asylum staff flooded the cell, and dragged him off to the medical ward. The staff had examined him, looked at the Darksign, prodded it with tools, checked his body over. After that, he was put back in his cell. More blurring. Then, another thing was dropped into his cell, long after. It was the key to his cell. When he looked up, all he saw was the retreating helmet of a knight.
The moment he left that cell, that was when his journey, and by extension, the cycle- started.
Leontius communicated his memories to Sans. The skeleton seemed glad that things were beginning to come to light.
"that's great leo, we know how your time started then. is there anything else ya have to say? joggin' your memory any more? can you figure out how your cycle usually ends and goes back to the start in your cell?"
The end of the cycle? The last major thing he'd done on the surface before deciding to explore out to Mt. Ebott was fighting the Altered King in his very own throne room… that fight. The king had changed horribly long ago. By the time Leontius had reached him, he was some horrific amalgamation of things, and he wielded a great ceremonial sword imbued with flame. That battle was quite difficult, Leontius had nearly fallen twice during the fight before finally defeating the king.
He tried to recall specifics of the battle's aftermath and remembered a key detail. After he defeated the king, a dark passage behind the throne opened up. The dark seemingly beckoned to him, but he ignored it and walked away and went back out into the kingdom to wander for quite a while. Eventually, he'd explored much of the expansive kingdom, from North, East, South, and West… until he finally set his sights on Mt. Ebott, always far off in the distant mountain ranges, piercing the sky as one of the tallest peaks.
It was that corridor. The more he thought of that strange, dark hall, the more he felt as though he'd actually walked down it before, like he'd given in to his curiosity sparked by the tempting darkness… and he had, many times in fact. All but this time through. Walking down that corridor is what ended the cycle, and his memories began to piece together.
A true grasp of how time was working began to bombard Leontius' mind. Since he had woken up out of that cell this time, it had been what felt like something above at least a millennium. Everything had occurred after that moment he stepped out of that cell… battling countless undead, demons, dragons, the king…
And that timespan had been repeated who knows how many times.
He slowly looked down at the palms of his hands, noticing he had begun to shake slightly.
'How long have I truly been fighting…? I had believed it had been quite a while since I stepped from that cell… but after repeating the years how many times… how many times have I killed… how many times have I died? How long have I actually existed?!' Leontius brought his hands to his face. He was beginning to recall.
Hundreds of thousands of years of similar memories were flooding his mind. Walk out of the cell… kill the king, walk into the passage… walk out of the cell… kill the king… walk into the passage… he had to kill his closest friends and allies at some points when they turned hollow on him, and he'd killed them countless times over the cycles. He'd felled great beings over and over and battled through a countless horde of undead, all sporting familiar sunken and pained faces that had begun to burn into his mind and memory after fighting them through the duplicate sequences so many times.
And the deaths. He had died many times in this single cycle. He now knew just how many deaths he'd experienced over the cycles combined. And like the number of beings he'd killed, those deaths were nigh innumerable.
He had become like Sans. Not only had he retained the strength gained in the repeated timelines, he now reclaimed the memories once obfuscated.
"hey, you alright?" Leontius could hear the concern lacing Sans' voice, but he did not look at or even acknowledge the skeleton. He was too busy attempting to understand the concept of his existence and the sheer volume of time he'd experienced.
"yeah, it's a lot to take in, i get it. it's best not to hang onto it too much buddy, it'll start confusing ya more."
Leontius was still in a state of shock.
"leo, come on man."
The undead finally looked at Sans, a seemingly thousand-yard stare the only thing his face could express effectively. Sans felt like Leontius was actually looking right through him. With the way Leo had described the surface, he could imagine why.
"how ya holding up leo?"
Leontius' voice was distant and hushed. At this volume, his voice had lost its gravel and was barely more than a whisper. "I am not well Sans. Not well at all. I am… attempting… and somewhat failing… to quantify to myself what my memories from the past cycles all mean. I… I suppose you are right…"
He stood up from the chair, still somewhat catatonic. "I should try to move on…" A horrified look slowly crept across his face. "Sans. What if… time loops again after I complete my quest to end Asgore's plan? Will I remember any of this? Will… I forget everything again?"
The skeleton also got up from the table, and gave the shocked undead a pat on the arm. "the only way you'll know is if you get to asgore and convince him to give up his plan. the most we can do is hope, and the core isn't far now. it's a pretty straight shot, and from what i can tell, mettaton is doing things differently too. he usually hires mercenaries, rearranges the core… but he hasn't done any of that this time. in frisk's timelines mettaton wants to get to the surface, but… maybe he learned about it from a certain someone, huh?"
"He may have overheard me and Alphys talking about it…"
The skeleton shrugged, and he adopted his usual seemingly careless posture and attitude. "alright, good talk leo. get going, you've got it easy ahead compared to how frisk usually has it. just go to the resort's lobby, and look for the giant sign that says 'core,' can't miss it. anywho, be seein' ya, maybe."
The skeleton then walked towards the back of the hall where there weren't any monsters, then he seemingly vanished. Leontius looked on and slowly came to grips with himself. He felt much older than he did before. He also began to understand just how much killing and dying he'd experienced. He hoped that the world would not reset again, not after he found a place free of the horrors of the surface, not after Toriel had fixed him after spending so long being broken.
If the world reset, Toriel would forget him, and that scared him as nothing had before. If the world reset and he forgot everything, he would most likely forgo coming to Mt. Ebott, and he would forget her as well. Leontius could feel uncertainty growing within him, but he needed to keep going. He went the opposite way Sans had and left the dining hall, finding that it led to the main lobby of the resort. There was a fountain in the center, unsurprisingly featuring a golden statue of Mettaton which was spurting out a stream of water from its face onto the red carpet.
Leontius ignored the shrine to the self-absorbed robot and instead followed the carpet. There were quite a few patrons, and all of them (except the receptionist, who had a hand for a head) were giving him odd looks. Only then did he realize he had left his hood down.
Oh well. They had seen him anyways, so he decided to just leave it down and keep going. Not like there weren't more pressing things than people seeing his face weighing on his mind already.
Sure enough, there was a glowing "CORE" sign at the end of the carpet above a pair of golden doors. Leontius took on a confident and determined stride as he passed the gawking patrons, he could feel his uncertainty and fear starting to die down a little, the end of his journey wasn't far now. He pushed his way through the double doors and kept going, seeing a room bathed in glowing blue light ahead.
vvv
As Leontius traveled through the Core he met no resistance from any mercenary monsters, just like Sans had said. There was one section where the laser orbs would not let him pass, so he spent some time blasting them out of the way to proceed. After that, it was a fairly straight shot to the Core elevator… at least until Leontius found Mettaton awaiting him.
vvv
Leontius had just crossed a bridge that spanned a gap above the white-hot Core and was now standing before a final ornate entryway. Stepping through, he was greeted by the sight of Mettaton standing still (for once) on a dark metal platform. As Leontius approached, Mettaton spoke.
"THERE YOU ARE, HUMAN. SO, TIME FOR OUR LITTLE SHOWDOWN-"
Leontius was not about to deal with this again. "I do not have the time to deal with you, robot. I must reach Asgore…"
"-BUT I HAVE NO INTENTION TO FIGHT YOU. THIS WAS ALL JUST A SHOW. AN ACT. ALPHYS WAS BEHIND ALL THE PUZZLES AND SETS. SHE MADE THEM ALL BEFORE YOU GOT TO HER AND GAVE YOU THAT GUIDE. DON'T FEEL ANGRY. SHE'S JUST A COMPLICATED CASE, AND SHE JUST DID IT TO FEEL BETTER ABOUT HERSELF, LIKE SHE ACTUALLY HELPED SOMEONE. AND IN A WAY SHE DID."
That certainly explained a lot.
Mettaton began moving like he usually did, emphasizing his words with gesticulations towards himself. "ANYWAYS, I WON'T FIGHT YOU HUMAN. I'M AN ENTERTAINER, THROUGH AND THROUGH. ORIGINALLY, I WANTED TO LEAVE THE UNDERGROUND TO ENTERTAIN HUMANS… BUT I HEARD HOW YOU DESCRIBED IT, AND I'VE SEEN HOW YOU REACTED TO THE SETS. I DON'T THINK HUMANS WOULD APPRECIATE MY QUALITY OF ENTERTAINMENT ANYWAYS, IF THEY'RE LIKE YOU, WITH YOUR SWORDS AND ALL THAT DRAB METAL AND HOODS. I DON'T WANT TO STOP YOU, BECAUSE IF WHAT LIVES UP THERE COMES DOWN HERE, I'LL HAVE LOST AN AUDIENCE TO ENTERTAIN."
The robot then wheeled past him somewhat briskly and went back out into the Core. Leontius stared after the machine before being on his way as well. He was glad Mettaton had not blockaded him any longer, but he was somewhat confused as to why Alphys would want to make the path more difficult, just to help him subvert her own puzzles. He pondered it as he walked through a normal Core-colored area after Mettaton's, which was a long hall. At the end, he found his goal.
The Core elevator.
Stepping inside, Leontius noticed it was far larger than the elevators of Hotland and featured a purple coloration. Thankfully, it fit him comfortably in terms of size. He pressed the glowing red button on the panel, and the elevator accelerated up at a leisurely pace, not surprising and jostling the undead about. The ride took a good thirty seconds before it finally came to a slow halt, and the doors opened with a "ding!"
Leontius stepped out into an uncomfortably familiar gray bricked corridor, which was somewhat similar to those in the castle of his own kingdom. The corridor and path were linear now. As he followed it, he found himself walking along a castle wall, overlooking the cityscape of New Home, the "stars'' above creating a rather good looking nighttime setting.
He remembered seeing this city from the waterfall opening when he and Toriel were still undertaking this quest together. He sorely hoped she had made it out fine… Undyne had yet to really get his scorn for harming her. Leontius continued to walk along the wall until he saw the entrance to the castle.
It looked like a gray version of the front of Toriel's house, complete with gray leaves in the exact same spots. Leontius entered the bizarre copy home and found that the inside followed the trend. It was exactly the same, albeit gray. Leontius did not feel compelled to linger in the home, so he went down the staircase. In Toriel's home, it led down to the Ruins exit, but in this house it led into a long corridor, followed by another section of a lower wall and view of the city.
The wall-path then led to a beautifully made corridor. Unlike the last few, it was made of numerous vibrant orange bricks and great pillars that rose to the ceiling. As Leontius walked through the large hall, his footsteps echoed around, the overall setting reminded him of the hall he'd fought a certain duo of royal warriors in many times before. He was put slightly on edge when he noticed a shadow walk out from one of the pillars, but the intensity fell away when he saw it was just Sans. The skeleton leaned on the pillar and gave him a nod and a slightly lower-than-usual grin as he passed, bells sounding out from somewhere outside the whole while.
After the corridor, Leontius stood in another gray hallway before the throne room entryway, but another path had caught his eye. The path took him down some stairs and to a basement room. A row of seven coffins were in it, all marked with colored hearts. The closest one was marked with a red heart and had a name on it, unlike the others which went nameless.
"Characas"
These were the coffins containing the dead humans. The fact that they were all child-sized was not lost on Leontius. He could feel an amount of sorrow for the children. They were victims of a half-hearted plot for 'revenge.' However, he was glad they had not lived on the surface long enough to see the kingdom and their families become twisted and destroyed. In that way, these children were lucky.
They had died innocent.
Leontius left the room and went back to the throne entry after that. He slowly walked through, not knowing what to expect.
As Leontius walked into the throne room, he saw a tall and broad-shouldered figure slightly bent over. He was covered by a royal purple cloak with golden pauldrons pointing out on either side. The figure was watering some of the familiar yellow flowers that made up the room's floor, humming as he did so in a deep baritone. He then stood up a little straighter, revealing the crown atop his head.
Leontius stepped a little closer, his thick leather and metal-reinforced boots making audible steps on the grassy floor that seemingly demolished the silence of the room.
"Oh? Is someone there? Just a moment! I have almost finished watering these flowers." The king gave a few shakes of a watering can, sprinkling the last drops on the last flowers. "...Here we are!" He turned, a smile on his face before he even saw his visitor. "Howdy, how can I…"
The moment his eyes rested on Leontius, Asgore dropped his watering can in surprise and took a few steps back. "Oh… my goodness."
(16)
