(17)

For a few tense moments, the king and undead did nothing but inspect one another at a distance. Both were subconsciously sizing their possible opponent up, before long Leontius felt he should break the ice of the settling silence.

He had taken an open and straight stance, he was in the presence of an actual king and he'd not let poor posture make a bad impression of himself or his strength, not now. "I am… a bit of a step up from small children, am I not, king?" The naturally harsh grate in his voice put Asgore a little on edge.

Asgore was still having a hard time even dealing with the fact that the human now stood before him. "When I heard there was a human traveling through the Underground… I did not expect…" He let a big, fuzzy paw free from underneath his cloak to gesture at Leontius in general, before letting it fall back in.

Asgore wasn't sure what to say he was even expecting in the first place. Another innocent child? Maybe not, but it certainly wasn't the man before him, who wore pieces of armor over a tattered coat. He had a gaunt face, the steely eyes of someone who'd seen and dealt death, and he was openly allowing his weapon to be seen sheathed at his side.

He had not been faced with such a human since the war. He could manage no mournful smile at that memory.

The king needed to say something to the man, or they'd just be having a staring contest. "So… are you here on behalf of the humans? Have you come looking to learn the fate of the children, after so long?" His voice came out a bit shakier than he'd hoped.

Leontius caught the king's demeanor, the death of the children most definitely had an effect on him. "In a way, I am here on behalf of my 'kind,' if they can even be called human anymore. But in the end, I am not here for the children, or for my people. I am here for yours. This concerns everyone in the Underground, and what you are planning on doing with those souls."

The king's face dropped more, he could only look at the flowers before the human's feet. "You know about my promise to them, then. I regret it so much, but… I must go through with it, for them." Asgore then turned away, before starting to head to the next room. He spoke as he went. "You know what we must do."

Leontius began following him, calling out to him as he went. "Asgore."

The king just ignored him and kept going, walking through an archway, not unlike the ones in the Ruins. When Leontius followed through as well, he found that he'd stepped into a seemingly endless hallway that pulsed gray, black, and white. Asgore stood before him, a regretful look dominating his features. Seven cylinders slid up from the ground, containing six colorful and heart-shaped human souls. "This is the barrier. This is what keeps us trapped underground."

Leontius took another step forward, getting the monster king to look at him. "Asgore. This situation has factors and, should you go through with it, ramifications that you cannot begin to fully grasp. There are things you do not know that would make you drop this plan this very second should you learn them."

Asgore managed to look both hopeful and doubting about that statement at the same time. "And what would those things be?"

Leontius took a deep 'breath' before beginning to tell the tale once more. "The surface fell to chaos long ago. It is not a prospering home for humans, and it is not a salvation for your people. If you break or cross that barrier and announce your presence to the horrors that dwell above… you, your people, everyone in the underground… you will all be overtaken by hordes of immortal, soul hungering undead humans that have no reason or remorse. That magical barrier is the only thing hiding you from them, the demons, Greatbeasts, dragons, corruptions, and disasters of the surface. It is the one thing that ensures the evil that has taken the surface does not leak into here. The Underground is the last bastion of peace and civilization. I tell you now, as someone who has spent countless eons stuck in an endless cycle of experiencing what is above, end your plan. You should hope you never see anything else from above. Humanity has suffered plenty for what we did to monsterkind during the war. We have already gotten what we deserved."

Once more, the ruler of the Underground was struck speechless. "If what you say is true, human, why aren't you trying to kill and destroy everything in sight… are you the one exception? The sole human unaffected by all of that?"

The undead couldn't help but smile grimly at Asgore calling him a human. "I never said or implied I am not one of the undead. I am, but I am in better condition than most." To prove his point, Leontius untied the two topmost bindings of his coat and pulled the tattered collar of his shirt to expose the Darksign over his heart for Asgore to see.

The king squinted at the unhealthy looking mark. "What… is that?"

Leontius then covered his chest back up and tied his coat closed, explaining the mark as he did so. "The Darksign. This brands all of humanity. Those marked are cursed to suffer a torturous existence, to eternally search out souls to sate the hunger they feel after losing theirs countless times. They are bound to go mad and become hollow inside. They die countless times and are reborn equally as many. Like everyone else, I have gone through all of that."

Asgore eyed the undead suspiciously. "So… that means you've…"

"Killed other undead? Yes. Countless numbers of them."

"Then how are you sane…?"

"Toriel."

Asgore looked shocked at the mention of his ex-wife's name. "W-what?"

"I met Toriel, she was the… second... monster I encountered. She did something that fixed me inside. She-"

"L! Asgore!" As if she had been called upon, the motherly monster herself rushed through the entry to the barrier, slightly out of breath.

The hits were sure rolling in today for Asgore. He could feel a well of hopeful happiness coming over him. He was a bit confused by what she was wearing though, he did not remember her ever having such an odd black cloak. "Tori! You came back!"

Toriel came to a stop and stood by Leontius, leaning against the wall of the odd corridor, trying to regain her breath. "Do not… 'Tori' me... Dreemurr. I did not come back for you."

Asgore looked to her, the oddity of the situation before him crashing into him like a tidal wave. "I'm… so confused, what is going on?"

Leontius nodded in the king's direction after Toriel caught her breath. "I was just telling him about how you helped me, Toriel."

Asgore looked even more desperate for an answer as to what was going on. "You didn't return home for me, Toriel?"

Toriel shot the king a glare. "No Asgore, I didn't. L and I-" Leontius leaned over to whisper something to her, getting a surprised and glad reaction from her before she continued. "-Leontius and I met when he fell into the mountain. He was attacked and incapacitated by a rather vicious flower, after that, I healed him and convinced him to join me in stopping you from-"

"Golly, I'd absolutely hate to interrupt this rather emotional reunion, but…" A pair of gigantic thorny vines burst from the glowing ground and snatched up Toriel and Asgore. Leontius was knocked off balance by one of the vines and stumbled back-first into the pulsing wall of the barrier. The vines lifted the two boss monsters high into the air then held them there, their expressions pained as the sharp vines writhed with them coiled inside.

"...I think someone mentioned a rather vicious flower!" That voice, that happy, deceiving voice. Leontius found that the source of the voice was none other than Flowey, the very first monster he'd met in the Underground. Flowey had popped up where Asgore had been standing, among the now empty soul containers. Leontius undid his sheath's latch and quickly drew his claymore on the flower, taking a defensive stance. The flower simply smiled wider.

"You IDIOTS. While you three were having your little meet and greet, I took the human souls! And now… not only are those under my power, in a few moments, I'll absorb the soul of every monster in the Underground!"

Leontius grit his teeth in anger at the flower and stepped forward to point his blade at the flower. "Not if I hack you in twain before you can do it. Release them!"

Flowey gave him a condescending look, unperturbed by the greatsword pointed at his face. "Really? I don't know if you know this… but with six souls I'm nearly unstoppable! And who ever said…" A sudden bright flash issued out of the flower, blinding Leontius instantly. A nearly deafening sound rang out soon after, overlapped by a horrific voice.

"...THAT I'D EVER LET YOU GET NEAR ME OUTSIDE OF MY FINAL FORM?!"

The blinding light and ear-piercing sound abruptly ceased and Leontius found himself in a pure black void with a monster child before him, facing away from him. The child had white fur, long ears, bare fuzzy-furred hands and feet, a green and yellow striped shirt, and light-purple pants.

For a few moments, Leontius was sorely confused as to what was happening and couldn't find the ability to speak. He lowered his sword a little, eyes locked onto the child. For some reason, the child's appearance messed with his head, as if he should know…

A name floated on his mind. It was no longer a question. It was now a statement.

"Asriel."

The boy was testing his hands, looking at them, before giving a delighted laugh.

"Finally. I was so tired of being a flower." He then turned around to Leontius, and gave him a smile. "Howdy Characas! Are you there? It's me, your best friend. You've grown up!"

Another brief flash, and Asriel had been replaced with an adult version of himself, complete with black robes styled like his mother's. He was floating above the ground, his happy smile replaced with a smug grin. Asriel eyed Leontius with reverse-colored black sclera and white pupils. Black markings snaked across his cheeks, bordering his face. Adult horns had grown in, bending out and backwards unlike both of his parents' neutral inward horns. The grin became a sneer as he caught Leontius' blanked expression.

A deep and demonic voice ushered from him. "I've grown up too."

With a snap of his fingers, the void burst into an array of color. Asriel began to float ominously as his hands began to charge with multi-colored energy. The monster left a rainbow after-image as he floated side to side.

Leontius finally got a grip, then got back into his stance, blade ready. He was unsure just how strong Asriel would be, but how far could six human souls and a large number of weaker monster souls possibly take him?

Asriel let out a laugh before raising his arms and vanishing. A loud racket somewhere high above made Leontius look up. He saw a vast number of massive, falling star-shaped projectiles, all headed in his vague direction.

The undead did his best to dodge the projectiles and their explosions upon landing. He'd managed to roll away from one last bigger projectile before finally getting blasted by its explosion. The hit had sent him off-balance and scrambling mid-roll. He'd righted himself just as Asriel appeared once more.

The godlike monster nonchalantly floated just out of reach, before holding his hands up with indifference. "You know, I don't care about destroying this world anymore."

He then raised his arms and began flinging bolts of lightning at Leontius, who barely caught on that they weren't aimed directly at him, but rather where he was going to be the next second. He had to move erratically to dodge the bolts. The impacts of the lightning created jarring thunderclaps that boomed rapidly, one after the other. A wave of the bolts then started heading towards him in a line. Leontius backstepped as the line passed, only to have even stronger bolts start striking next to him on all sides. He found himself dodging and rolling back and forth. Finally, the bolts relented and Asriel appeared once more. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

'How am I going to hit him if I have to keep dodging, and even when he attacks he simply vanishes!?' Leontius supposed sending some stronger Soul Arrow attacks at him could do something. Before he could ready the attack, Asriel suddenly dropped to the ground and slowly advanced on him.

"After I defeat you and gain total control over the timeline… I just want to reset everything." A pair of sabers materialized in his hands, then he leaped across the distance separating Leontius and himself and attacked with his blades simultaneously.

Leontius barely had time to register that he was being attacked thanks to Asriel's sheer speed. He'd managed to edge-on-edge block the blades and parried them away. Asriel went with the flow of force, and instead of being knocked off balance he had spun away and landed on a foot before pivoting and sprinting back over to continue his assault. He began attacking with alternating, flowing swings, and Leontius either had to block or lean to prevent being hit.

Asriel was good, but he had not been a swordsman for countless millennia. He had made a pattern, a set speed. Leontius anticipated the next strike in his consistent flurry and caught it with his claymore's crossguard, then sent the saber and Asriel towards the ground. Asriel let the saber go free and once again allowed himself to take the parry, only to reverse his momentum by flopping off the ground and launching himself airborne.

Asriel gave the undead swordsman an entertained laugh and flung his other saber towards him. The blade exploded into small star projectiles as it flew, forcing yet another dodge on Leo's part.

Once Leontius had finished his quick side step, he was once more dodging gigantic falling stars. He'd managed this barrage better and got far enough away from the final explosion so that it did not damage him. This was followed up immediately by another lightning attack. Through all of this, Asriel was nowhere to be seen.

The lightning attack came to an end just like the last one, and Asriel showed himself once more. He'd summoned another pair of sabers and seemingly teleported to the ground before sprinting towards Leontius once more. This time the undead ran to meet him midway, going for a quick thrust attack. Asriel put a spin on himself and moved out of harm's way, before attempting to follow through with a flowing slash from his right saber. Before he finished the spin, Leontius interrupted the dodge by slamming the large pommel of his claymore into Asriel's exposed back, sending him forwards and away.

Like the two times before, Asriel took the counter in kind. He tucked himself to roll over his shoulder and land in a squat position, before flinging the sabers away and launching into the air again. The sabers seemed to boomerang about before pointing at Leontius and exploding into projectiles heading his way.

Leontius was beginning to get agitated by Asriel's constant ad lib comebacks to his trained and tried counters. As the projectiles closed in, Leontius invoked the power of his claymore's talisman and manifested it as an outward Force wave miracle that dissipated the majority of the stars and sent the rest off course.

Asriel was once more taunting Leo mid-fight. "All your progress… everyone's memories. I'll bring them all back to zero!" He followed the taunt up with another lightning attack. Instead of dodging, Leontius stood his ground and deflected them with force waves when he could, and dodged when needed. He wasn't comfortable trying to force away the final strong bolts, so he dodged out of their way.

Another taunt. "Then we can do everything all over again."

More star projectiles. More force counters. Through all of it, Leontius was charging sorcery power in his blade. He needed to go on the offensive.

Asriel narrowed his eyes at Leontius, and his voice sounded dangerous enough to actually inflict pain. "...And you know what the best part of all this is? YOU'LL do it!" He then summoned a large and ornate looking weapon, held with both of his hands. He aimed the weapon at Leontius and started sending a hail of shots in an automatic nature, slowly floating to get to ground level as he fired.

Leontius had kept a near constant orb of force to stop the barrage, suddenly exploding the bubble outwards with a massive Soul Spear that was larger than even he was. The projectile detected Asriel and sped towards him, the winding weaponized soul energy leaving distortion in the colors of the void in its wake. Asriel had been caught off-guard by the massive retaliation, and Leontius had been peppered with shots from Asriel's Chaos Buster after ceasing his Force bubble.

Both attacks did not stop their intended targets.

After they had shrugged off each other's attacks, they resumed battling. Leontius had begun casting numerous sorceries, miracles, and hexes with his charged power. Names of spells and miracles rapidly filed through his head, memorized after unfathomable ages of using them. His magical focus was rapidly draining, so he'd occasionally interrupt his charging with quick chugs from his Ashen Estus flask to keep himself topped off.

'Dark Blade, Homing Crystal Soulmass, Pursuers, Great Magic Barrier, Tranquil Walk of Peace, Sacred Oath…' As he casted as many spells and miracles as he could, he began readying a pyromancy as well. He was now one-handing his claymore as he readied for the next clash. Asriel had been powering up as well, now holding a single chaos saber in one hand, and the Chaos Buster in the other. He was getting his other attacks adapted to fire from his saber like Leo had fired the attack from his claymore.

Once the two finished powering up, They charged each other and began blasting away. Asriel was sending countless chaos rounds at Leontius, and Leontius was firing Soul Arrows, Soul Spears, and barrages of smaller versions of the two. The chaos rounds were pelting against Leo's strong Magic Barrier, and an occasional swing from Asriel's saber would send a bolt of lightning his direction every now and then. Both fighters were taking hit after hit now, but their sheer vitality allowed them to keep going.

The two then got into closer range and then the real fight began. Leontius' prepared homing projectiles surged forth and washed over Asriel in a wave of darkness, shattering crystals, and weaponized soul energy. Asriel pushed through and began slicing at Leontius, finding that his movements became horribly slowed as he did so. Leontius had also casted the pyromancy he'd readied, Iron Flesh. The chaos saber glanced off his magically and physically toughened body, the blade sparking against him.

Leontius then struck back viciously. His dark empowered and enchanted claymore slashed and pierced Asriel's godlike form, but it was still not outright damaging him as much as he thought it would. Asriel did his best to backstep, but both fighters were slowed to the same pace by Leo's magic and their constant onslaught against one another.

Both stopped their flurry at the same time and readied strong melee attacks, Leontius channeled the power of the Dark Moon into his claymore once the previous dark empowerment wore off, and Asriel charged energy in his saber. The two unleashed the attacks at the same time, and both hits connected solidly. Asriel was sent flying to the left, and Leontius' Iron Flesh cracked and fell away in large broken plates shaped like himself, shattering on the floor of the void.

Once both of the supernatural warriors had recovered and were once more at a good distance away from one another, they prepared their strongest ranged attacks. Asriel had dissipated his saber and took hold of the Chaos Buster in both hands once more, then charged up its beam cannon. Leontius had extinguished his pyromancy in his left glove and, like Asriel, wielded his main weapon with both hands. He was charging up a Soul Stream attack, a constant beam of- normally- fatal soul energy.

They finished charging the attacks at the exact moment the other did and released them the next. Asriel's chaos laser and Leo's pure-blue soul attack intercepted. The two held the duel of power for what seemed like an eternity. With an enraged yell, Asriel called directly upon the six human souls to empower his laser even further, causing Leo to briefly panic before he forced a hex-powered spell through his sword to strengthen his Soul Stream in response, increasing its power and turning it black as it became raw and untamed dark soul energy. The two titanic attacks collided even stronger now. They held this enhanced duel for only a few seconds before the attacks finally fell and died out.

Leontius was magically tapped, he'd spent almost all of his magical focus on that attack, yet Asriel still stood with that smug grin.

"Now… ENOUGH messing around! It's time to purge this timeline once and for all!"

Asriel floated up slowly and vanished again. In his place, an enormous skull appeared and let out a horrendous laugh. The skull then opened its maw as wide as it could and began sucking in all the color of the void. Leo's sight became distorted and waved to the point where he couldn't see a thing, and he could feel himself being tugged towards the skull. A flash of all-consuming pain overcame him and his sight returned shortly after, finding himself facedown.

He was still conscious, and that attack had rendered the void black once more. Asriel still floated before him, almost genuinely surprised as the undead stood back up.

"...Even after that attack, you're still standing in my way…? Wow. you really ARE something special. But don't get cocky. Up until now I've only been using a fraction of my REAL power! Let's see how well you hold up to THIS!" Asriel began to distort and change, and the bright flash that signified his transformations followed.

When it passed, a god had taken his place.

Asriel hardly looked the same. His body had become like a flowing shadow with great wings spanning from his back. Leontius was too awed to notice it, but in this form Asriel resembled the Delta Rune that adorned his mother's robes and many royal structures.

The angel who'd seen the surface had returned. He made the Underground go empty. A deity of death had been revealed. Leontius was unsure of how to approach the situation, he thought back to battling the Four Kings in the Abyss. Perhaps he could close in.

The moment he tried to run forward, Asriel lifted a hand and Leontius found himself frozen in place. He could feel a non-corporeal hand holding him still. He tried to struggle, but that made Asriel laugh more. The god then raised his arms and fired a volley of chaos projectiles from his hands, and Leontius could do nothing but take the hits. He could not move an inch as the shots impacted him, his soul only just spared by his still active Great Magic Barrier.

Asriel's venomous glare burned into Leontius, his phantom grasp slowly tightening. "I can feel it. Every time you die… your grip on this world slips away. Every time you die, you forget a little more. Your life will end here, in a world where you know nothing." He sent another volley of shots, trying to push Leontius closer to death, but the undead stubbornly resisted the attacks and held on. He still had an amount of his vitality and physical endurance left, but he could do nothing to make use of them if he was restrained.

"You're still hanging on? That's fine. It won't be too long from now, you'll forget everything. That attitude will serve you well in your next life!" Another dual handed blast of projectiles came in and impacted against Leontius.

The god laughed at him. "Still? Come on… show me what good your determination is now!" Even more shots. Leontius could feel the wear. He could feel his soul now, the shots were affecting it as he'd never felt before. He could feel… souls. More than just his. Asriel had the souls of everyone inside him, and Leontius was an undead, a thing that had an affinity for snatching souls away from others. He began to struggle again, this time to just touch his sword's talisman… with the power he had left, he could save everyone else.

There, he could feel the talisman in his grasp.

'Wrath of the Gods.'

A divinely powerful blast issued forth from Leontius' body, breaking Asriel's hold on him easily. He let his sword fall from his hands and readied a power he had not used in a long time, forgotten and lost to him in a past cycle, but remembered for use in this dire moment thanks to Sans.

The soul-gripping Dark Hand technique, used by powerful Invaders to tear the very soul and Humanity from a target.

Leo ran full speed to the recoiling god as his hands became coated with increasingly dark powers, and made an acrobatic leap up onto Asriel's chest. The floating god fell and ended up on his back, his wings flailing madly. Leontius then plunged his phantom hands into Asriel's chest and grasped at the souls of those contained within. First, he pulled Asgore and Toriel free, then Sans and Papyrus, Alphys, Undyne, then he began to almost dig away through the god, shoveling more and more souls free of him.

The god seemed to be panicking, watching as the souls left him to rematerialize outside of the void as their respective monsters across the Underground. "NO! STOP IT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? GET OFF ME!"

Before Leontius managed to reach the six human souls, Asriel charged up his strongest attack in this form. As soon as it was ready, he let it loose right into the human on his chest, sending a wide ray of chaos energy right into him and blasting him off. The expense in power, coupled with the one-human-soul equivalent loss in strength caused him to weakly stay on his back. His wings began to shrink and fade in color, his shadowed body less violently flowing.

Leontius had been blown clear of Asriel, but the last of his Great Magic Barrier had taken the brunt of the attack before it dissipated under the stress. He got up from the floor of the void and slowly walked over to Asriel, the entire front of his body smarting and feeling like it had been lit aflame. Leontius' Dark Hand was still active, and he could still sense the human souls inside Asriel. But something more began resonating within the god, there was more than just the humans to save. But who…?

The undead called out the god's name. "Asriel."

"H-huh? What are… what are you doing…!?" Asriel managed to lift his head and catch the sight of Leontius walking to him with pure determination set across his face.

The sight did something to him. "What's this feeling…? What's happening to me? No! No… I don't need anyone…" The undead continued to close in. "Stop it! Get away from me… do you hear me?! I'll tear you apart!"

Leontius was still not listening.

"Characas… do you know why I'm doing this? Why I keep fighting to keep you around…?" His body began to fall away, it was not capable of holding his god form any longer. The shadows began to fall away little by little, burning away in white flames as they went. "I'm doing this… because you're special, Characas... you're the only one that understands me… you're the only one who's any fun to play with anymore…"

More of his body began to fall away, faster now. "No… that's not just it… I… I'm doing this because I care about you, Characas… I care about you more than anybody else…" His wings had burnt away entirely. Leontius now stood just before him, watching him dissipate.

Leontius looked down to the misguided and confused monster. He was still just a child after all, and he was even imagining that he was speaking with Characas, not some totally different human.

"I'm not ready for this to end… I'm not ready for you to leave… I'm not ready to say goodbye to someone like you again…"

He was so weakened now… "So please… stop doing this… and… let me win…"

Leontius stood just as firmly, piercing him with that determined gaze.

"Stop it… stop it now…" the last of his god-form was vanishing. "Characas… I'm so alone, Characas… I'm so afraid, Characas… I… I…"

Once again, the bright flash signified Asriel had changed. He had turned back to his child form and stood crying, the undead warrior sadly looking down at him, snuffing out the Dark Hand.

"I'm so sorry." The boy wiped some of his tears away and sniffled before looking up at the tall undead. "I always was a crybaby, wasn't I, Characas… I know… you're not actually Characas, are you?"

The undead shook his head as he answered. "No, no I am not."

"Characas has been gone for a long time… um… what IS your name?"

"Leontius. You can call me Leo, however."

"Leo? That's a nice name… Leo, I haven't felt like this for a long time. As a flower, I was soulless. I lacked the power to love other people. But when I had everyone's souls inside me, not only did I get my compassion back, I know about every monster's as well. They all care about each other so much… and my mom really cares about you." The boy awkwardly smiled at the grown undead. "Do you care about her?"

Leontius couldn't answer. Thoughts of that manner had surfaced, and he certainly felt attraction to her for all she'd done for him, the trust she imparted upon him, and their travels together. Did she have any such thoughts about him? He was unsure, but if what Asriel said was true...

Asriel seemed to pick up on Leontius' thoughts through his body language and decided to leave the topic, somewhat smirking. "Monsters are weird." It didn't last long, however...

He let out a sigh, and his demeanor dropped rapidly. "Leo, I… understand if you can't forgive me, if you hate me. I acted so strange and awful. I hurt you. I hurt so many people. Friends, family, bystanders… there's no excuse for what I did…" The boy looked down and sniffled, tears welling again.

Leontius didn't hesitate much before deciding to say something. "...I forgive you, Asriel."

"W-what? Leo, come on… you're… you're gonna make me cry again… besides, even if you do forgive me, I can't keep the souls of the humans inside me…" The boy looked down at his feet steadily, then he forced the six souls out of him, and let them go free into the void like the monster souls.

"I have to go now. Without the power of the souls, I can't keep maintaining this form. In a little while…" Tears started to fall freely again. "I'll turn back into a flower… I'll stop being myself. I'll stop being able to feel love again. So… Leo. It's best if you just forgot about me, OK? Just… go be with the rest of them…" The boy's eyes closed as he began to sob.

Leontius looked to the child, before quietly going to comfort the boy. He dropped to a knee to be at his height, then lifted his head up by the chin to get Asriel to look at him. "Asriel. You do not have to become that maniacal flower again."

The boy was still tearing up. "But… without the souls…"

"You do not need those souls…" The undead powered up his Dark Hand in his free right hand then set his normal left on the boy's shoulder gently. He then pushed the Dark Hand inside himself and grasped at his own soul slightly. Using the soul control granted by the power, he removed a minuscule, near dust-like piece of his own soul and pulled it from his chest, wincing as he freed it from inside himself. He held the dark soul fragment for the boy to see.

"...you can have a piece of mine." He then offered the soul to the boy, letting his dark hand power fade.

Asriel looked between the undead and the soul fragment reverently. "You… you're giving me a piece of yourself so I can stay?"

The undead nodded, then held it closer to Asriel.

The boy gingerly, and ever so carefully took the fragment of Leontius' soul into his own hands. He looked at it in awe as it responded, changing size and shape in his hands, matching the upside-down heart shape all monster souls share, yet it still maintained the black coloration. He slowly pushed it to his chest, letting it fill the emptiness inside. He felt normal again, he felt like he was whole.

The young boy's tears began again, this time tears of joy. He grabbed the undead and hugged as much of him as he could, surprising him. "Thank... you so... much, Leo…" His voice was irregular, sniffles and tears of true happiness went unbidden for the first time.

Leontius slowly returned the hug, patting the young monster on the back.

The void fell away around the two, and they could feel themselves going someplace familiar to the both of them…

(17)