The precipice of the war, which had gone on for five years. Five long, grueling years, and had left monsterkind standing on its last leg. Two armies stood opposite each other in a large valley, Mt. Ebott looming in the background between them.
The two largest armies to ever meet in recorded history yet. The last remnants of monsterkind after half a decade of eidocide against them, and the Holy Roman Empire, led by the General King called Derek.
Five years ago, this event seemed nearly unthinkable. Derek had been one of his closest friends growing up, and the two remained good friends into adulthood. The tensions arose when Derek's father had been mysteriously murdered. The pin was blamed on monsters, and while Asgore tried to speak reason into his friend, his own father, Asgard Dreemurr, had been similarly killed. The murderers were caught, and revealed they were agents of King Derek. So began the war, small in scale at first, but it grew exponentially as Derek worked to feed into humanity's fears of monsters, and soon enough, in a conquest of five years, kingdom after kingdom had been wiped out, all to lead to this day.
Asgore stood at the head of his army, his crimson trident in-hand, glaring across the battlefield at King Derek, a scarlet bastard sword in his hand, both kings draped in violet robes that covered their golden armor.
For an hour now both armies had been locked into this staring contest, and all were getting restless. Asgore could hear the alachtis tribes clicking their mandibles together in anticipation as the setting sun cast an orange glow upon the valley.
Nearby were Asgore's closest friends and allies. His best friend, Royal Advisor, and Royal Seer, Wingding Gaster, his black robes drifting lightly in the breeze that pushed against them, his hollow eyesockets glaring out upon the army. Toriel Dreemurr, Asgore's wife, his second in command, wearing a similar violet robe to Asgore, both donning the deltarune. The symbol of Orion.
On his other side stood Flouis Dhelaron, Captain of the Royal Guard, his blue-green scales glistening in the warm light, his yellow eyes piercing. Gerson Boom, High General of the Monster Army, a grey goatee hanging down from his chin, an over-sized hammer resting on the ground beside him as he leaned against it. Finally, there was Rayla Arachne, Queen of the Alachtis Tribes, the bulk of what remained of Asgore's army after five years of war.
King Derek had his own team at his side, consisting of Count Raido, his Royal Advisor, as well as the Luxmagi, though these days they called themselves something else. Something Asgore never bothered to remember the name of. Six humans, all with extremely powerful SOULs.
This was the final battle, surely. The final push. Even after he'd riled up his army, deep down, the monster king knew just how pointless this was. The human army would crush his own, and there was no alternative. He was certain today would mark the extinction of his people.
Gaster seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he slowly blinked, breathing in the crisp air before shifting his gaze calmly upon Asgore.
"This may be our last chance at a negotiation," he stated, nodding toward Derek. "There may be a way we can survive this," so it seemed Gaster had reached the same conclusion as Asgore, and their certain doom.
"Negotiation?" Toriel's eyes narrowed. "Hardly. The time for talking has long since passed. We all know that a negotiation won't stop the humans."
"Perhaps," Asgore replied, staring across the valley toward Derek, "but it's worth a shot. Perhaps… we could reach a compromise," he suggested. Gaster and Toriel said nothing to this, though they needn't. They knew Asgore had reached a decision, and would be undeterred.
"Hold the army unless I give the signal," Asgore advised Gerson, who gave a simple nod, appearing worried. With that, Asgore began to march deeper into the valley, making a beeline for Derek, who was still for several minutes before he too began walking. It felt like it took forever, each king staring one another down before finally just feet apart, neither's gaze breaking from the other's.
"You know what's about to happen," Derek spoke, his voice cold and rough, like sandpaper.
Asgore gave a slow nod in reply, before closing his eyes. "I hoped to… talk. Before what happens… happens."
Derek blinked, the only way Asgore could tell the human was surprised, for otherwise, he remained stoically still. The monster continued; "A compromise. The two of us duel in place of our armies. If I win, your army disperses, and you allow monsterkind to live in harmony as long as your bloodline continues."
"And if I defeat you?" Derek questioned the monster king, who pursed his lips.
"Surely you wouldn't plan to… wipe out my people,"
The human didn't respond.
"No matter what happens in the event I lose, please, don't destroy them all. They're innocent in this," he pleaded, and Derek slowly shook his head.
"I never planned to wipe out monsterkind," he informed Asgore. "I have cornered you here at Mt. Ebott with the intent of sealing you inside the tunnels within. It is the most mercy I can bestow upon you. An eternity trapped, sealed away, to be forgotten to time with no hope of escape."
Somehow, Asgore didn't find this any more appealing than death, but he agreed to the terms, and the kings decided to give one another an additional hour to prepare, returning to opposite ends of the valley to deliver the compromise.
"You're not serious," Flouis spoke up, his golden eyes widening after Asgore had informed them of the deal he'd made.
"I am," the king stated followed by a moment of silence before Toriel shook her head.
"He'll destroy you. Asgore, Derek has the SOUL of Determination. A SOUL never beaten before, how do you hope to have the chance?"
"What else do you expect me to do!?" Asgore barked back, his tone angry, but his eyes registering his fear. "I know none of us would willingly allow ourselves to be trapped in the caverns beneath Ebott. Otherwise, we would willingly fight to the last monster, and be wiped out anyway. At least this way… we have a chance to survive."
"Without our king," Gerson pointed out, and the monster heaved a heavy sigh, closing his eyes.
"You will manage without me."
A skeletal hand was placed upon Asgore's shoulder, and he looked up to see Gaster smiling at him. "No matter what, we appreciate this," he stated, the dim lights within his eye sockets steady as they focused on the king. "We're behind you. To the end."
And time trickled by, slowly at first as both armies waited in bated anticipation, before the hour had passed all too soon, and the sun had set behind the horizon, leaving golden and magenta streaks across the sky. The two kings met in the middle of the green valley once again, this time speaking no words as they held vice-like grips upon their weapons. The seconds turned into minutes, in which they began to circle each other.
Is this what either of them wanted? Surely not. They had been friends, once upon a time. They had treated one another as brothers. They had once been the prime example that humans and monsters could live together, but the deaths of their fathers pinned the blame against each other, Asgore with more proof than the human, yet still, the monster king felt a twinge of guilt. Perhaps things could have turned out different had he let his mercy prevail. All was too late now, far too late. Thousands lay dead at the behest of either army, leaving nobody free of coming out of this with clean hands.
Derek led with the first attack, bursting toward the monster with the slash of his blade, which was blocked by Asgore, following it with a swipe of his trident in attempt to knock aside the now close Derek, who leaped over the weapon, his left hand pulsing a deep scarlet before a burst of SOUL energy struck Asgore in the chest, forcing him to stumble back a few feet. Derek moved forward again, slashing his sword with intense ferocity, going blocked just barely as Asgore winced beneath the raw power of Determination. His trident held, however, and this game continued.
Derek remained on the offensive, leaving Asgore to back further and further away as their duel thrived, pushing Asgore up the path for several minutes.
Things were quickly turning sour for monsters, leaving their king to ponder on his tactics. He was trying to simply overpower Derek, and failing horribly, failing to use the magic his late father had taught him. Yet as the outcome of the duel was looking more and more certain in Derek's favor, his blade glowing brighter and brighter with each swing, Asgore realized that his love for the human didn't matter any longer. This was a duel to the death, and he had to prevail. The fate of the entire world hung in the balance, not just the fate of his people. Monsters had helped shape the world for thousands of years, they were the foil to the humans, and they to the monsters.
He had to stop holding back, and unleash his full capabilities if he wished for the world to continue spinning with the influence of monsters. Humans were fueled by war, monsters were naturally peaceful. Very rarely had monsters dueled one another, whereas humanity was constantly trying to kill each other.
And those he loved. Toriel, Gaster, Flouis, Gerson, all of the remaining monsters…
He was done convincing himself of his purpose.
Derek was suddenly blasted backward by a torrent of fire that swirled around him. The human king rammed his blade into the ground, halting himself. Asgore's face was shrouded in shadow, but the fire that twirled and danced around him was a clear indication that the tide of the battle had now shifted favor. The King of Monsters planted himself as Derek moved forward with a slash, the trident swinging upward and knocking the sword away, before a massive hand grasped Derek's arm, and flung him aside, the sword flying out of the human's grasp, landing several feet away, where it vanished mid-air, reappearing in Derek's hands as he landed, a wall of fire erupting up behind him, forming a perfect circle around the duelists.
"You're exerting a lot of energy to keep this barrier up," Derek informed his former friend. A huff of smoke was exhaled through Asgore's nostrils, before it was his turn to charge, both eyes flashing a quick succession of cyans and oranges, the trident quickly following the same pace as it slashed through Derek, who endured every single blow, before the final one struck him dead-center, the trident back to its crimson appeal, blasting the human skyward. Bringing the trident back, Asgore flung it like a javelin toward Derek, who barely managed to knock it aside with his sword before a funnel of fire swallowed him on his descent.
With a heavy thud, Derek landed on the scorched earth, the breath leaving him, before he managed to spin to the side, avoiding getting impaled by Asgore's trident as it was shoved into the earth where he'd just been lying.
Rising to his feet, the human grit his teeth. "You're sure to be getting tired now."
Asgore didn't reply as he began to push back against Derek, the wall of flames dying out as the human king was pushed back, barely blocking blow after blow after blow, a sense of urgency, even fear, erupting over Derek's face as he strained to keep up with Asgore's speed and intensity. Soon enough, they were back to where they began, a fire burning within Asgore's eyes as he swung with a particularly massive swing that launched Derek several meters away, where he tumbled to the ground with a groan, his scarlet sword disappearing.
Wordlessly, Asgore slowly began to approach Derek, hands flickering with the same magical fire that his father used to possess. For as long as time was, the Dreemurr's had fought for their homes. Dreemurr's had never failed. Asgore refused to lose now.
However, something unforeseen happened. As Asgore brought his trident down to seal Derek's end of the deal, he felt a sudden tug on his weapon, and the trident stabbed into the ground beside the human king.
Asgore frowned, a little annoyed, and looked up to Derek's army, searching for the perpetrator. Only magic could have made him do that, and his eyes fell on Count Raido, a hood covering his face made of a bronze-colored silk, the rest of his body draped in similarly colored robes. As the monster king saw him, Raido tilted his head to the side, and he flicked his hand. Almost immediately, Asgore's breath caught.
A sharp pain had erupted in his chest, and as he looked down, he saw Derek standing before him, his bastard sword lodged into- and through- Asgore's chest. Blood trickled down Derek's face as he savagely glared up into Asgore's eyes, which were widened in a mixture of surprise and pain.
The scene seemed hung in time for several moments, before Asgore dropped to a knee, Derek yanking the sword out of the monster's chest. "You…" Asgore grunted, struggling to speak. "You cheated," he huffed out in reference to Raido. Derek merely shook his head.
"You missed," he corrected, watching as Asgore's eyelids grew heavy, before he fell to his side.
A sudden roar filled the valley, and Derek looked up to watch as a legion of spider monsters began to charge into the valley with a rallying war cry. "Wipe them all out!" the human bellowed to his army. "Every last one, and this war will be over! Humanity will have won!"
Asgore watched as Derek raised his scarlet sword into the air, his own army roaring in agreement, before everything faded into darkness…
Was this… the end? He'd failed his father, his name, his people… the whole world. Everything remained dark and empty, but he could see something before him. A hunched over figure cloaked in blackness, next to it was another, similarly dressed figure, and as the first turned to face him, he could see what appeared to be a melted face with a crooked smile staring back at him. The second figure did nothing, before both disappeared, and a pair of strangely coloured lights glared back at the king through the darkness.
They appeared almost green… except they weren't. It was an indescribably complex color that he failed to make out, before it too disappeared, and he was left to be swallowed in the void…
Before his eyes reopened. Everything remained dark, but now he could hear voices. Muttering. Hushed whispers. Cries that echoed. Everything was muffled, before a light appeared, hazy in appearance. He could make out two figures standing over him- no, kneeling over him. A wet cloth was dabbed on his forehead.
After a few moments of confusion, his vision and hearing cleared. Sobs echoed throughout the dimly lit tunnel, illuminated by only a few small torches, as well as a ball of white fire that sat within the palm of Toriel's hand, her other grasping a rag that she gently placed against his forehead. Her face stared down at him in worry as his eyes locked with hers. "Tori…?" he asked, and she gave him a small smile.
"Gorey…" she replied softly, closing her hand to extinguish the ball of white fire before leaning over and wrapping her arms around him, nuzzling her snout in his neck. Weakly, he brought his arms around her torso to return the hug, feeling her shoulders begin to shake with sobs. The second figure now stood, staring down at the two. Gaster.
"What happened?" Asgore asked quietly, and the Seer closed his hands, folding his arms over his chest before letting out a stressed sigh.
"I'm not quite sure," he replied after a few moments, still not opening his eyes. "You had him, Asgore. Surely you know what happened."
"...I almost did it," the king stated, "but something stopped me. It made me miss my mark, and… how am I here?"
"When I saw you hadn't turned to dust, I realized I could still save you," Gaster replied simply, "so I did."
Toriel finally pulled back, her eyes red and puffy. "I thought I'd lost you," she whispered to him. With a small smile, Asgore brought his large hand up to her cheek, wiping away some tears.
"Can't get rid of me that easily," slowly, the king began to sit up, struggling due to the pain in his chest. Toriel tried to get him to lay back down, but the stubborn king merely shook his head, climbing unsteadily to his feet. "Before I fell unconscious… Derek was telling his army to wipe us all out. Are we under Mt. Ebott?"
Toriel gave a nod. "We are. Only some of us made it here, Asgore… it's thanks to Rayla and her Alachtis that we got here at all. Without them, we all would have been wiped out."
"They didn't follow us here," Gaster added, his back now to the king and queen. "I… don't think we can go back at all, now."
With Toriel's support, Asgore followed Gaster back through the tunnel into a small chamber, presumably the way they'd come in at. No, there was no longer an exit. Just a strange barrier that made the walls echo as though it were breathing. It looked like a wall, yet it seemed to extend outward forever.
"The Luxmagi," Asgore hissed out under his breath. "We would need a power equivalent to their SOULs to break this."
"Not quite," Gaster replied, turning around to look at the king, "only seven human SOULs. Six to counteract the Lightway magic, and the seventh to ultimately shatter the barrier. Though one of us could pass through if we absorbed only one SOUL."
"Become God-like, take more SOULs, and shatter the barrier," Asgore nodded slowly. "So until a human stumbles down here, somehow… we are to make a home."
The trio then departed from the barrier, passing through the wide caves into a massive cavern that extended for who knew how long, a distant portion illuminated with the orange glow of magma.
"The Underground," Asgore sighed, staring ahead as the rest of the monsters began to file out into the great cavern. "It could be thousands of years until a human arrives here, if ever… so for now… we build. We make do with what we have. We hope that one day… we see the sky once again."
And so the monsters did just that for over a thousand years. The few hundred that survived began to populate the underground, building a city at the entrance to the barrier, known as the Capital, where the King's Castle was constructed, his throne room leading directly to the barrier.
After that, the monsters made their way across the lake of lava, and colonized the far side of the cavern, constructing the Violet City, and a new castle where the Dreemurr's stayed, until the first human fell underground, and everything changed.
Though that is a story for another time.