(21)
When Toriel joined her son in their new house, she found that he'd already started exploring the new abode. Asriel was looking around upstairs in all the rooms, trying to take in the larger sights. She decided to take a look around the bottom floor and see the exact state the home was in, as well as what the home had thanks to Sans and Papyrus.
vvv
Toriel wasn't ungrateful for what the skeleton brothers had done for her, not in the slightest, but…
"It just does not have the makings of a 'home' yet… hmm." Her eyes passed over the bare table, mantelpiece, and kitchen, and she got an idea. A detail Leontius had told her about earlier in their journey, his bottomless box. From what he'd said, it has the space for an infinite number of items… of course, he made no mention of furniture, but Toriel decided it couldn't hurt to go ask. There were a couple of issues with the idea though, namely the fact that she'd sealed the door to the Ruins... she'd have to teach him how to unseal and reseal the door...
She contemplated the idea for a few moments, reasoning that Leontius would likely be able to learn a monster-created spell or two. It was decided, she'd ask him to retrieve her possessions from her old home. Even though she wasn't particularly keen on leaving her son alone in the house, she decided she'd go see Leontius on her own, she'd be sure to make it quick.
After finding Asriel in one of the upper floor's rooms and telling him where she was going, she left the house, re-adjusting her cloak as the cold winds of Snowdin met her. She recalled Sans saying Leontius' home was in the field behind hers, and sure enough, she could see it in the distance once she went around to the side of her house.
His house was quite a ways out there, but Toriel knew she could make the trip quickly. She started walking, slowly increasing her pace until she was at a good jog, then used her magic to lift herself off the ground in a series of long floating jumps, covering considerable distance with each jump.
In only a matter of minutes, she came to a stop before Leontius' door. There was a small amount of candlelight filtering through the two front windows of the home, and she could just make out the man moving things around inside.
After suppressing a small shiver (practically flying around in the cold wind does a number on whatever warmth one has), Toriel knocked on the small cabin's door, and a loud 'THUMP' noise immediately sounded out from inside. A second later the door opened, revealing Leontius and a rather intimidatingly large axe laying on the floor behind him. His practically ever-present hood was down, letting his visage be seen in full.
The undead took a look around outside before addressing Toriel, noticing that she was alone. "Ah, hello Toriel. You caught me in the middle of something, just setting out some things for later…"
That made Toriel feel a bit bad about coming here, he hadn't even finished settling in and she'd interrupted him. "Oh, well I wanted to ask if you could assist me with something about my house, but if you are busy I can return later."
Leontius shook his head to assuage her concerns. "No, it is nothing too important, I was just getting some axes out to chop wood for my fireplace, I have the time to help you. What is it you need?"
Toriel couldn't help but look further inside to see just what axes he was talking about, and sure enough, there were more set against the table. All of them were massive slabs of metal, the one on the floor included. "You intend to chop trees with those…? Um, anyways, yes, I needed help with something concerning my home, or house, as it is now. It lacks all the makings of a home, but I have a question to ask first. I was wondering if your bottomless box would not happen to be able to carry furniture, would it?"
When Leontius silently contemplated on it, he realized he never really tried carrying anything outside of weapons, supplies, armor, or little oddities… but he didn't see any reason suggesting he couldn't stuff furniture in it, so he gave her a simple "It can" as a response.
Pleased, Toriel pitched him her plan. "Perhaps you could return to my home in the Ruins and bring back some of what I left behind? It would be nice to at least have my books back… you would be doing me a huge favor." Toriel made sure to give Leontius a hopeful smile, but he didn't need much in the way of persuasion.
He figured he could use the opportunity to further go through his box later, and Toriel really only needed to ask. "Of course, it sounds like it would be a simple task. Should I just get as much as I can? I can possibly just empty out the home and bring it all here."
After tossing the concept around, she decided to tell him to just stay within realistic bounds, she wasn't sure if he could literally bring the whole house or anything. With a nod, Leontius went to his table to start getting some things together.
And of course, there was the issue of the sealed door she hadn't addressed. "Another thing… I sealed the door with magic when we left, you will need a way to unseal the door or negate the spell, then reseal it once you return through."
As Leontius was picking up from his table what he'd take with him (essentially his usual set of equipment, barring a shield and actual armor, he still had his old coat on), he thought of a miracle that could negate strong spells. "I know of one way to negate magic, but I do not have any way to seal it back once I have undone it."
When he looked to Toriel, she seemed worried about that.
"It could be an issue… and teaching you the spell to reseal it might take some time, depending on how quickly you grasp my kind's magical concepts and..."
Leo interrupted her at that, if there was one thing he was quick with, it was learning magic. He'd spent many souls reinforcing that ability in particular. "I am actually quite adept at learning spells. I am sure a sealing spell would not be out of my reach, I simply never needed something so specific. Just… give me a brief on its details, I will likely not have much of an issue with it."
Toriel gave the man a nod of understanding. "As long as you are confident that is the case, keeping that door sealed is important. At any rate, I would prefer if we returned to my home first, I left Asriel alone to come here and would like to get back to him."
Leontius had no issue with joining Toriel in her home to learn the spell, so he agreed, pulling his hood up as he exited his cabin. "Very well, let us be on our way then."
vvv
While Leo and Toriel were figuring out the sealing spell together in the living room, Asriel had just finished exploring the upstairs area. He left what would be his room and went down the stairs, seeing his mother and Leo quietly talking about something by the dining table. When he walked over to them, he caught the end of what Leo was saying.
"... I should be able to replicate it now." He made for the door, turning just as he was about to walk back out into the cold. "I will try to be back as soon as possible." With that, he shut the door behind him and he was off to the Ruins.
"Where's he going, mom? Why did he have his sword?"
Toriel reached down and played with her son's hair before taking off her hunter's coat and setting it on the back of a chair, finally back to just her familiar robe. "Do not worry, my child. That is just how he is, he is from a dangerous place, so having that sword makes him feel more assured. And he is just going back to my old house in the Ruins to retrieve what I left behind, he should not take long. So, my child..." She gave Asriel a warm and loving smile, brought on by the still-fresh knowledge that she had him back. "How are you liking the new house?"
vvv
While Leontius made his way through the town, he could feel the eyes of the townspeople on him, just like the past few times. He knew he'd just have to get used to being around 'normal' people again, even if they were a different kind of people. Eventually, they'd get used to him too. For now, he would just go about his business until that happened.
While he walked the path out of town and into the various sentry areas, Leontius did as he usually did and thought on things as he went. Some of the things that crossed his mind were rather important, like the fact that he'd need to get some form of income. He didn't need much at all to survive, but there were certainly some things he'd need out in his isolated home. He'd have to find some kind of job…
...the introspective undead passed right by the huge armored dog sentry's post/doghouse, then carefully made his way across the icy path, since he no longer had his spiked silver knight boots equipped…
...But what could he do? For a few moments, he considered selling excess timber from his woodcutting once he started that, but monsters like Toriel would negate that. Their ability to use and control fire magic in everyday needs most likely cut out the need for wood-fueled heat. Snowdin was also rather small, homes weren't quite in demand at the moment, so timber for that was likely not going to sell.
Leo's practical skillset outside of combat had vastly deteriorated thanks to the eons spent doing nothing but fighting. He'd have to find something though. Being a sentry seemed unlikely since the sentries and Royal Guards were posted solely to stop humans. Actual policing guardsmen seemed unnecessary, monsters seemed (almost) entirely peaceful. Just what could he do…
He walked right past the stone-sword-wielding dog's post, not noticing the dog in question building snow dogs with abnormal necks, then passed Papyrus' now blown away puzzles, Sans' golf course, the invisible maze, the rogue dog's post, San's post and the bridge/gate (which was now far easier to traverse, since Leo was no longer in armor), and after a long final walk, he stood before the Ruins entry.
Leontius looked at the large set of doors. After all this, he was right back here.
'Now, to unseal the door.' Leo invoked the same miracle he'd used on Undyne when she was pursuing him and Toriel in the Waterfall Cavern, then lobbed it at the door. The miracle's purple sphere engulfed the door and began to glow brightly along the crack where the two halves of the door met, before shattering the glow like it was glass. Shortly after, the sphere shrank and dissipated, its power being sapped. Satisfied by the results, Leontius pushed his way through the large double door.
Once more, he was in the long, purple brick hallway that was beneath Toriel's old home. Except that now, he lacked the clanking armor and boots that caused the hollow-sounding and metallic echoes that would normally accompany his presence. Being in fairly normal clothing was still new to him… or was it just so old that it was now alien? Either way, he felt like he no longer needed to wear armor to feel safe. He was in the Underground, a kingdom that still stood- despite not being above the surface- quite tall and certainly stronger than his previous one.
Leo was now in Toriel's old house, except the lights were all out. He searched for a switch; thanks to Asriel going about the rooms in Toriel's new house, he knew that monster homes had switches on the walls that would turn lights on or off, quite the invention. Eventually, his hand bumped against a fixture with a protrusion on the wall… with a "click," the lights came on, and he could see the home was the same as Toriel had left it.
'And so begins the moving of a home.' He unhooked his box, and got to work…
vvv
About half an hour later, Leo had pulled nearly all of the home's innards into his box. He was about to start on Toriel's room and the children's room next to that when he felt something… odd. Something familiar. Something off. Something that put him on edge. Leontius dropped what he was doing to instead investigate the strange feeling. Moments later, he understood.
"No..."
He immediately burst out of the home's front door and drew his claymore, his eyes darting across the empty and silent front yard area of the house.
'An invader. How…? Of course. If they could invade me in the Painted World, they could quite easily invade me here, if they fell through the entry…'
Invaders were quite the issue on the surface. They are undead who made pacts with intelligent demons, and in return were granted powerful items that allow them to project phantom avatars to remotely attack other undead with. That would mean this invader's actual form was somewhere nearby… but how? Why and how would someone follow him here, unless it was…
"Kirk. Who else would it be…"
Kirk was a rather troublesome, and quite infamous, invader. The undead had a particularly brutal fighting style, one which earned him the name of "Knight of Thorns." The madman actually weaponized his very armor. He covered his armaments and armor in a coat of wicked steel thorns and gnarly, raw blades. In a close melee, he would barrel into his targets shoulder-first, grapple them, bash them with his shield… all the while his nasty, rusted blades did their gruesome work on his victims.
Many undead have fallen to Kirk, and Leontius was one of his most frequent targets. The two were practically rivals at this point. Kirk had many of his avatars destroyed by Leo, and Leo had many of his adventures interrupted by Kirk's invasions and persistent stalking.
And now he was here, at Mount Ebott, in the Underground.
A sudden sound from the hall ahead issued out, a haunting and familiar sound, the sound of an invader's phantom avatar manifesting. The sounds slowly ended and finally cut off, and the red-hued phantom form of Kirk walked into view. Like usual, no sound came from it, and no shadow was cast by it. It was still a strange sight to behold, as always.
Kirk seemed to be looking at him somewhat sideways… inspecting him, as it were. He likely didn't recognize Leo out of his steel Vanguard armor and mask. He seemed to conclude he had indeed invaded his target based on the claymore, though. Kirk untied his horrific looking straightsword from his side (no sheath could hold such a thing) and unbacked his shield, which looked more like a hunk of wrought iron, complete with jagged protrusions twisting every which way. He took his normal cocky battle stance, why worry when he was covered in weapons with which to attack?
Meanwhile, Leo adopted his readied two-handed stance, he had no shield, little armor… but what he currently lacked in equipment, he made up for in skill with his claymore and experience in battle. And speaking of experience, Kirk stayed his usual tactic of instantly rushing in, he knew that starting off like that didn't work well against Leontius. He'd need some tactics.
The two began to circle around the dead tree between them, attempting to get an opening on the other, however, Kirk was getting impatient with this, Leontius could tell. After a few more seconds of pacing, Kirk made to jump over the roots of the tree and dash at Leontius. What Kirk didn't count on was the corporeal undead having a Force miracle ready, which was unleashed right into his phantom's helmeted face, sending the Knight of Thorns soundlessly to the purple stone underfoot. Leontius back stepped from Kirk's downed form just as he took a sweeping kick at his legs from the ground, but Leo made a swipe with his longer range blade as he did so, catching the phantom in his outstretched leg.
A pulse of white phantasmal 'blood' flowed weightlessly from the phantom as the enchanted blade sliced through his thinner leg armor, eliciting a silent yell of pain and a roll onto his feet. The phantom was not even hardly perturbed by the attack though, invaders were not affected by damage locationally, instead taking damage to dissipate them wholly alone.
Kirk was wary now, Leontius rarely used magic against him. Most of the time the other undead was in dangerous locations and he wanted to reserve his magic for later encounters instead of exhausting himself for a single fight, so Kirk was unsure of his magical capabilities.
While the phantom was busy sizing up his opponent, Leo was charging up his magic and readying spells. Kirk could not find out about the rest of the Underground.
A single line of thought punctuated that possibility. 'It would be a massacre.'
Kirk slowly advanced, shield held at the ready and sword held beside it, ready to thrust. Leontius had his guard up, and his spells were nearly ready thanks to all this stalling. Kirk threw his blade forward quickly in a thrust, but the attack was redirected down and to the side with a guarded turn of Leontius' claymore, leaving Kirk wide open for a counterattack. Unlike Asriel, Kirk lacked unnatural movement and reflexes, and he was subjected to a powerful stab under his guard and through a gap in his phantom's chest armor while he was off-balanced.
The amount of phantom blood pouring from the wound was actually audible, like a higher pitched version of the manifestation noise. With his riposte successful, Leo pushed forward and towards Kirk, pushing him back and to the floor. Leo then pulled the blade from the limp phantom and backed as far away as he could, only for the phantom to get back up and ready himself again.
Kirk was quite the persistent one.
Just as Kirk was about to rush Leontius again, he was met with a Heavy Soul Arrow to the chest.
Leo's spells were ready. The staggered phantom slowly backed away, phantom blood and wounds all across his invader's body from the exploding soul energy. Just as he recovered to move again, he noticed Leontius had pointed his sword directly at him from range, and a Soul Stream attack was rapidly coalescing around the claymore. Before anything else could happen, Leo released the beam from his weapon and it easily engulfed Kirk's phantom and quickly dissipated it in a cloud of red smoke.
While the cloud moved in the air, Leo remained slightly tensed. 'As persistent as Kirk is, he should at least know when to give up. We have fought numerous times before…' Once the cloud vanished, Leo let himself ease up a little for the moment, and he sheathed his blade.
'I can handle his phantoms, but what else can pierce the veil of the Barrier? And where is his true form…? He would certainly need to be at least near the drop into the mountain… if not, he is already inside the Ruins somewhere close to the entry. I doubt he could get through the sealed and locked doors deeper in. He has not shown much in the way of magic before… This is still highly off-putting, though. No doubt I will have to tell Toriel about this.'
With that, the undead returned inside the home to finish gathering Toriel's things from it, then he'd be off as quickly as he could to figure out this new threat.
Kirk would be back, that was for certain. Whether or not he'd be able to invade deeper in the Underground was yet to be seen.
(21)
