Chapter 10: The Soul Eater of Ebott

Long ago, two races ruled over the world: humans and monsters. Then one day, war broke out between the two races. The humans, filled with determination, won the war and sealed the monsters beneath Mt. Ebott. After that, it became the sworn duty of the seven greatest human mages to guard the barrier that sealed the monsters underground. Years passed, and a small town was built at the base of the mountain to supply the mages with anything they might need. However, as the years passed, human magic began to disappear, and fewer people believed that the monsters below the mountain were real, and soon after that, the barrier was left unguarded.

In spite of this, the town, now called 'Little Ebott', continued to flourish and grow. However, this town had no mayor, nor any elected officials; this town was governed by the church. It was believed that as long as the head clergymen of the church committed no sins, the town would prosper, but if the head of the church were to become corrupt, the town would suffer. In the late 1600s, the head of the church was a man named Gideon Johnson, and he was revered by all the people of the town. When Gideon's wife, Anne, became pregnant, the whole town rejoiced as never before. For the next nine months, it seemed that nothing was wrong in the world, then the fateful day came when Anne gave birth. It was a long and painful labor, and the people of the town held a vigil for the entire duration. However, in the end, Anne died during labor while the baby barely survived.

Gideon, and all the people of Little Ebott, were distraught by Anne's death, but things only got worse from there. When the baby girl opened her eyes for the first time, the people all recoiled in fear. The baby's left eye bore the mark of a soul eater; a creature that eats the hearts of others to gain the strength of their souls. The people's fear soon turned to anger as they accused Gideon of committing some heinous sin which made God send the demon to punish them. In his heart, Gideon held hatred towards the infant, but none the less, he defended her from the town's people and began to raise her by himself.

As time passed, and the child grew, so did the hatred of the people. The girl became cruel in nature, she spent most of her time alone in her house, she never attended church, and when she went to school, she almost always got in a fight with some of the other children. On the days when she didn't attend school, the girl cut her own arms to satisfy her bloodlust, and on some days, she would take her self-harm further; to the point she often appeared battered and bruised.

Finally, on the girls tenth birthday, the people of the town could no longer stand her; she was chased away from the school and hid in her house. The people demanded that Gideon find a way to get rid of her before she brought the destruction of their village. "Rest assured my people; I will find a way to exercise the demon that plagues my daughter." Vowed Gideon. "And when the demon is exercised, she will never bring harm to this village again." With that, the people's joy returned. Gideon locked himself in his house with the girl, and for days neither of them were seen or heard from by the people.

Then one night, a great storm brewed over Little Ebott. The people of the town slept in their beds, until a loud scream emerged from the center of town. Everyone in town rushed to see what had happened; the church was completely enveloped by fire. Despite the heavy rain, and the efforts of the people, the church eventually burned to the ground, leaving nothing but ashes. When the people thought things couldn't get any worse, Gideon stood up in front of them and announced "She's gone! My daughter has disappeared! The exorcism failed!"

The people cried in terror, but before panic could ensue, the tall man in a blue cloak who operated the town ferry called for them to quiet down. "People of Little Ebott, we have only ourselves to blame for this travesty. The girl was suffering, and we made no effort to help her; but it is not too late. She is traveling to Mt. Ebott to try and escape from us, if we cannot make amends with her, she will return with the angel of death, and many will suffer for our sins." When morning came and the storm died down, the people set out to search Mt. Ebott for any signs of the girl, but after a few weeks they realized the girl must have fallen into the cavern at the top of the mountain. The people had no way to reach her, so Gideon wrote a letter pleading for her to return to the town so they could make up for their mistreatment of her, and he threw it into the cavern.

The girl however, never got a chance to read the letter. She had died in her fall and awoke in a dark place. She wandered in the dark for years without ever finding another person, until one day an angel came to her. "Howdy, I noticed that you have been here for a while, and I thought I could keep you company." Said the angel as he approached the girl.

"Greetings, I thought I was alone here. It's good to finally meet someone else." Said the girl.

"Would you mind if I kept you company for a while longer?" Asked the angel.

"Not at all." Replied the girl. The two of them then began to spend more time together, slowly the angel began to fall in love with the girl, and when she knew she had his loyalty, she asked him, "Angel, my spirit cannot rest if my body is stuck beneath the mountain. Will you please take it to the surface?"

"Gladly." Replied the angel. With that, the angel left and took the girl's body from Mt. Ebott into Little Ebott town where he planned to bury it properly. However, when the people of town, led by Gideon, saw the girl's body being carried by the angel, they feared for their lives and attacked. While the girls spirit urged the angel to fight back, the angel refused, and as a result Gideon drove a spear through the angel's heart. The angel cried in pain, but then apologized for disturbing the people and carried the girl's body back to the mountain. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you." Apologized the angel as he collapsed with the girl's body still in his arms.

The people of the town had no idea what had happened, but then the ferryman stepped up and announced "People of Little Ebott, that was truly our last chance to make amends with the soul eater girl. Now we will truly suffer for our sins." With that, the ferryman and many of the town's inhabitants fled in fear.

"I will not let them win." Proclaimed the soul eater. "I will come back."

"The end." Finished Alphys as she closed the book.

"Geez, that's a pretty dark story." Replied Sans. "But how exactly does it help?"

"I d-don't think it does." Replied Alphys.

"Then I guess we should get back to figuring out why Frisk was implying she isn't herself." Suggested Sans.

"…Wait… You said that Frisk asked how skeletons ate, even though she knew the answer." Pointed out Alphys. "Skeletons eat by breaking food down into pure energy then absorbing it, and Frisk's soul is so powerful that it can do the same thing. If you couple that with the fact Frisk's chocolate milk glass was empty, despite her not drinking it, maybe Frisk is trying to tell us that something is wrong with her soul."

"Yeah, that would make sense." Replied Sans. "It would also explain why Frisk ordered chocolate milk in the first place. She doesn't like it, but if whatever's in her soul does, then she knew it would drink it using her soul's power."

"T-this seems to make sense, but it also sounds like we're making a lot of leaps in logic. And it still doesn't explain why she kept repeating the word 'chara', or why she brought up 'the Soul Eater of Ebott.'" Said Alphys.

Now I think I know what's going on. Thought Sans. "Well, don't worry Alphys. I'm sure we'll figure it out." Said Sans as he gave Alphys a half-hearted smile.

"If something's going on with you kid, I want to help. I know better than most what it's like to suffer in silence." Said Sans to Frisk.

"Heh, I guess I never was good at taking my own advice." Said Sans, making Alphys look at him quizzically. "Hey Alphys, I know who Chara is. Before we get into that, how much do you know about the theory of multiple timelines?" Sans and Alphys then discussed the theory of multiple timelines, and Frisk's power to change them. "Then Frisk explained to me that a demon, named Chara, had possessed her to cause the genocide run. I didn't believe her at the time, but a lot of people have been having nightmares about Tori's dead daughter, who was also named Chara, and it seems more and more like it's the truth."

"W-well, t-that's definitely a lot to take in." Said Alphys. "Human souls persist after death, so if what Frisk said was true, then maybe Chara latched onto Frisk's soul, and now she's trying to take over. From the recordings of Chara and Asriel I have, Chara definitely sounded like the controlling type."

"And if Chara really is the thing Frisk has been trying to warn us about, maybe the reason she brought up 'the Soul Eater of Ebott' is because Chara was the soul eater the story was about." Said Sans.

"Oh, I d-definitely don't like the sound of that." Said Alphys nervously. "H-how much of this are we going to tell the others?"

"Hmm, we only need to tell Tori enough so that she can help us understand what Chara might want, and enough to keep her out of danger." Replied Sans. "It's getting pretty late; we can get back to figuring this out tomorrow. I'll see ya later." When Sans finished, he used a short cut to return to Toriel's house.

"Oh, I have a bad feeling about this." Said Alphys to herself.