She wasn't sure how long it'd been since the elevator had stopped.
After what felt like hours, the human finally stood back up and rubbed away at the tear marks streaming down her face. She was going out there now, and she didn't want anyone to see her in that pathetic state, so she needed a moment to recollect what little dignity she had left.
Finally, Ginger eased her breathing, brushed some of the dirt from her cloak and straightened out the hood before securing it over her head. Snowdrake's feather still adorned the top of it, and while it, too, had some wear, it was still intact. And she was thankful for that, seeing it as sort of a memoir of her travels.
With the way things were going now, she might never get the chance to thank him to his face.
Her head hung and her spirits low, Ginger stepped out of the elevator and into the hallway. The bricks in the walls were a soft grey, as was the cobblestone floor she now stood on. There was a glimmering Save Point on the path just in the corner, and the human almost absentmindedly approached it, doing the same thing she did whenever she saw one of them.
*Castle Elevator
*File Saved
She sighed deeply, then turned the corner of the path due north.
And when she turned yet again, she was met with the sight of the city of New Home from the overstretched walkway that she now followed. The human stole a glance at the vast underground cityscape as she went across the railed bridge; the buildings were plentiful, but all of them were grey, and the architecture was very dated. Nonetheless, a city was a city, and despite its lack of color, it was actually the most noble-looking city she'd ever laid eyes upon.
But she couldn't stop and enjoy the view, and she didn't bother leaning over the balcony to get a look at any monsters that might be bustling below. All she did was keep walking, her eyes trying to keep themselves on the path ahead, and ONLY the path ahead.
The path turned north again, and got narrower. Ginger stayed in the middle of the path, passing large towers as she went. She'd almost forgotten that the entire city of New Home was actually just one big castle; a castle that its king was kind enough to share with his citizens as a place to call home.
Or in this case, their New Home.
The narrow path broadened greatly up ahead, and she passed into the next room.
And she could hardly believe what she saw.
Ginger removed her shadowy hood and blinked at the sight, almost certain that her eyes were playing tricks on her. But they weren't. Just beyond the old pile of grey leaves before her, there say what looked exactly like...
Toriel's house. From the Ruins.
But it was a soft grey, like the rest of New Home, and not that striking shade of royal violet. And where there should have been a maple tree, there was instead a lonely pile of dead leaves that'd long since turned grey to as though match the rest of the atmosphere, as well as two other piles that sat just along the bottoms of the house's walls.
Just outside the door, there was yet another Save Point, and this time, Ginger was a bit more aware of it.
*New Home
*File Saved
She almost felt bad entering the house. Would she find Asgore in here somewhere? Wouldn't it be rude of her to just barge in unannounced? And when the king discovered that his unwelcome guest was a human, of all things! How would he react? Would he kill her on the spot, or at least try to? Was he really the wonderful person that all of his people said he was?
I'm about to find out...
Quietly and slowly, she entered through the front door. The human shook her head in denial when she scanned over the layout of the house; it was exactly like the one in the Ruins on the INSIDE, as well, the only difference being the chain blocking off the stairs to the basement, which was secured by two padlocks. A piece of paper was attached to the chain, and Ginger read the glittering gold ink scrawled out onto it.
"Howdy! I'm in the garden.
If you have anything you
need to get off your chest,
please don't hesitate to come.
The keys are in the kitchen
and the hallway."
Ginger nodded at the note, almost as though its writer had spoken to her directly, and made her way through the hallway to the right of the stairs.
She was first met with another door, a pot of Golden Flowers growing next to it. She wasn't sure if the key would be in there, but it wouldn't hurt to just look...hopefully.
She entered inside, and beheld a children's bedroom. Now she saw some more noteable differences from the bedroom in Toriel's home; instead of just one, there were two beds, one on each side of the room, opposite from each other, and the rest of the furniture was arranged a bit differently. But what really stuck out like a sore thumb were the two gift boxes sitting in front of each of the bed, each of them wrapped with red ribbons. But there was a thick layer of dust atop them, as well as everything else in the room. None of these things had been disturbed in the longest time, even longer, it seemed, than the old things in the room in Toriel's home.
Nobody was going to be coming for them, so her curiosity got the best of her, and she opened each box to see what they held. Maybe one of them held a key? But this wasn't the hallway, this was a room ALONG the hallway. However, that didn't stop her from opening them anyway.
The first one, in front of the bed to the right of the room, held a small, gold locket in the shape of a heart. Something about it intrigued her, and she carefully extracted it from the box, holding it by the heart-shaped charm at its end.
The moment she picked it up, she paused.
It was very strange, but...she could have sworn the object in her hand...moved somehow.
Ginger opened her hand to inspect it; the gold heart almost felt like it was beating, like the very thing it was shaped after. Upon taking an even closer look, it turned out to have words engraved on the surface of the soft metal.
"Best Friends Forever"
There was something important about this little trinket. Maybe it once belonged to one of the king's children, and they'd forgotten it. She decided to take it with her, tucking it into one of the smaller pockets of her messenger bag. She wouldn't wear it; it didn't belong to her.
The second box contained something a bit more useful-looking: an old, worn dagger. The blade was somewhat dull, and the faintest grassy aroma rose up from it. It seemed as though the knife had been used more for gardening and the like instead of battle. Really, it was more suited for the former. It was perfect for cutting plants and vines.
...But if used right, it could still be an efficient weapon.
The human hoped she wouldn't have to use it, but she stowed it away for easy access, just in case.
She exited the room, and turned to go down the rest of the hall. This time, she spied the key the king had written about, sitting on one of the side tables, and she passed the room that was undergoing renovations to get to it...
Then, all of a sudden, she heard low voices. She couldn't tell where they came from, but she heard them.
"A long time ago, a human fell into the Ruins."
"Injured by its fall, the human called out for help."
They almost sounded like the low, croaking voices of...Froggits?
She looked around; there were no Froggits in sight, nor any other monsters. Nobody there except for herself. Not sure what to make of it, she brushed it off, grabbing the key off of the side table and slipping it onto her phone's keychain for the time being. There was one more room in the hallway that she hadn't explored yet; the one on the end of the hall. She peeked inside, and cautiously looked around it.
This was Asgore's bedroom. It had to be. There was his huge bed; either the king was absolutely enormous, or there was also a queen she hadn't heard of that shared it with him. But judging by the single pillow that sat at its head, she decided the latter not to be true.
The king's journal sat open at his desk, and Ginger peered over her shoulder as she turned to leave to take a quick look at the page it was open to.
"Nice day today!"
The gold ink it was written in still looked fairly fresh; it couldn't have been any more than half an hour since it'd been written.
But she'd done enough snooping around the king's bedroom. She exited through the door again, looking over at the mirror beside it on the hallway's very end.
Ginger beheld the sight of a sad, broken creature who hid her sorrow beneath an imposing cloak and battle-hardened ruse. But behind her grim appearance cowered a little lost owlet that wanted nothing more than for everything to just go back to normal. Her cheeks were still tinged red from her crying earlier. She didn't deny it this time, but it still irked her, with how emotional she'd let herself get, and she pulled the hood more tightly over her head until she was satisfied with how obscured it was by the shadows.
She started back the way she came up the hall, and another set of voices sounded when she neared the end of it.
"Asriel, the king's son, heard the human's call."
"He brought the human back to the castle."
The voices of the Whimsun echoed in her brain. Asriel...But she'd never met any Asriel character. The human they spoke of couldn't have been her. What was going on? Where were all of these monsters' voices coming from? And what were they talking about?
She passed the front door again and went into the living-dining room area, passing by a familiar-looking set of table and chairs, a bookshelf, and a large, comfortable reading chair, just like the one Toriel had in her own house. It didn't look like it'd been used lately, however; the cushions were all still plump, although there was little dust on it. At least the king kept it in decent condition.
When she passed the chair, just about to go into the kitchen, the voices rang out again.
"Over time, Asriel and the human became like siblings."
"The King and Queen treated the human child as their own."
"The Underground was full of hope."
That was when she realized what was going on. How it was happening, WHO was behind it, she didn't know, but she knew what this was.
...It was a story.
The tale of the Underground. The king, the queen, the prince and the human, all living happily.
She entered into the kitchen; the key was in plain sight, sitting right there on the counter beside the sink. She took it and put it on the keychain beside the first one, turning away to leave...And then she noticed all of the crumpled up pieces of paper in the small waste basket across from the stove.
She took one of them out and read it, her curiosity piqued. It was a recipe for...
Butterscotch pie.
Wait. But...How did he...Does he know...?
She kept walking to the padlocks blocking the stairs, but her mind was ablaze. Were King Asgore and Toriel acquainted with each other somehow? Pondering this, she figured it would explain how similar things looked between here and...
Wait.
What was the prince's name?
Asriel. The king's son...The king who was terrible at naming things.
As-gore...To-riel...As-riel...!?
The pieces snapped together in an instant.
"Holy racdrops..." she breathed. If her theory was correct, then it made so much sense now.
Toriel was the queen. And she and Asgore were married. And they had a son together, who brought a human back to live with them!
"But then..."
She unlocked the chain, still pondering everything she'd experienced. What was Toriel doing in the Ruins? What about Asgore's policy on humans? Wouldn't he have had the human his son brought back put down in order to collect its SOUL to break the Barrier?
And to top it all off, where was Asriel during all of this? And why hadn't she heard anything about him until now, from the strange voices that told the tale of the Underground as she traversed the King's castle?
She wasn't expecting answers to her questions, but when she went into the basement, she got them. She'd thought the story had ended, but she hadn't been more wrong.
"Then...One day..."
"The human became very ill."
They continued as she walked down the dimly lit corridor, leading to a corner up ahead.
"The sick human had only one request."
"To see the flowers from her village."
"But there was nothing we could do."
Because of the Barrier... she acknowledged.
"...So what became of the human?"
And as though to answer her directly...
"The next day..."
"..."
"...the human died."
With the way the story was going, she figured she should have expected it.
"Asriel, wracked with grief, absorbed the human's SOUL."
"He transformed into a being with incredible power."
So the two siblings stayed together after all...And with the two SOULs combined, did that mean Asriel could...
"With the human SOUL, Asriel crossed through the Barrier."
"He carried the human's body into the sunset..."
"...Back to the village of the humans."
The path actually turned TWO corners up ahead, going north just a bit, and THEN turning east again just a few yards later.
"Asriel reached the center of the village."
"There, he found a bed of Golden Flowers."
"He carried the human onto it."
Another bridge path lay ahead, and she could see more of New Home from below.
So...the human's final request WAS granted, after all. And it was all thanks to the prince...But what became of Asriel?
"Suddenly, screams rang out."
"The villagers saw Asriel holding the human's body."
"They thought that he had killed the child."
Oh...
Oh, no...
That didn't sound good.
"The humans attacked him with everything they had."
"He was struck with blow after blow."
"Asriel had the power to destroy them all."
So, he fought them off, emerged victorious and was able to return home, right?
"But..."
"Asriel did not fight back."
"Clutching the human..."
"Asriel smiled, and walked away."
What? Nothing? He did NOTHING to retaliate? He just turned and walked off after the ruthless assault, giving them all nothing but his...
...His MERCY.
A hand rose to her mouth in shock, but on she went. She HAD to know what happened next.
"Wounded, Asriel stumbled home."
No...
"He entered the castle and collapsed."
Please, please, no, don't say it...
"His dust spread across the garden."
She stopped dead in her tracks, her fears having seen through.
...Asriel died. The very same day as the human.
"The kingdom fell into despair."
"The king and queen had lost two children in one night."
"The humans had once again taken everything from us."
Why?
Why did it have to be them? What did this do to the kingdom?
"The king decided it was time to end our suffering."
"Every human who falls down here must die."
"With enough SOULs, we can shatter the Barrier forever."
...So that was what set it off.
That was what resulted in the proclamation of war against humanity.
...But she understood their grief. The humans had hurt them, imprisoned them, trapped them, and then they killed their heir to the throne.
Let them die.
Let them suffer as Asgore's hands.
They all deserved it.
...
...But what about herself?
She had not been born into this earth as a human, but how was she to tell anyone this? And...what if it wasn't enough? What if Asgore's plan to destroy mankind only ended with the rest of monsterkind being destroyed?
And what would it mean for the world as a whole? For a few hundred monsters to take on the tasks of billions and billions of humans? Havoc would ensue.
"It's not long now."
"King Asgore will let us go."
"King Asgore will give us hope."
"King Asgore will save us all."
If only he didn't have to destroy them all...
...But isn't that why she was still going forth? To change his mind? To find another way?
"You should be smiling, too."
"Aren't you excited?"
"Aren't you happy?"
The end was just up ahead.
And the final voice she heard was one of a Froggit's.
The same Froggit she fought in the Ruins. The very first monster she'd ever battled against.
"...You're going to be free."
...
And free them all, she would.
...But not before she found a way out.
The Huntress turned south, and the sight she beheld was magnificent.
This hallway was not washed in a dull grey, but a striking gold. Tall pillars lined the corridor, and through the giant, stained glass windows emblazoned with the Deltarune, sunlight shone down from outside of the Barrier, giving the hall an almost heavenly golden glow.
And to match the color scheme, a shimmering, gold Save Point sat right before the entrance.
*Last Corridor
*File Saved
As she walked down the final corridor, she marveled at the spectacular architecture in the hall compared to the rest of New Home. The beautiful golden interior paired with the sunlight shining in through the Barrier above was absolutely amazing.
She was so drawn in by the beauty of the hallway, she didn't see the dark figure step out from behind one of the pillars...
Until she looked ahead again.
Her heart stopped when she saw the silhouette, and she jumped. It stood no further than a few yards away from her.
A bell tolled, and the sunlight above was blocked over by a great cloud, obscuring the ominous figure even more.
"...So you finally made it," it acknowledged, his voice too quiet to recognize. "The end of your journey is at hand. In a few moments, you will meet the king. And together...You will determine the future of this world. That's then...But right now...You will be judged."
"...Judged?"
"You will be judged for your every action," he explained. "You will be judged for every EXP you've earned."
"'EXP?'"
"It's an acronym. It stands for 'execution points.' A way of quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others. When you kill someone, your EXP increases."
She looked down at her hands, stained with the blood of surface creatures. Did this Judge person know of the many scores of enemies she'd killed up there?
"When you have enough EXP, your LOVE increases," he continued. "LOVE, too, is an acronym. It stands for 'Level Of Violence Enacted.' A way of measuring a person's capacity to hurt. The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. The more you can distance yourself, the less you will hurt...And the more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others...Now...Observe."
The figure raised a thin-fingered hand, and snapped.
And the moment he did, a display was written out right before Ginger's eyes, conveyed in white magic.
"What's this?" she questioned.
"Those are your stats," the Judge explained. "...Take a look."
So Ginger read over the text the white magic wrote out in front of her.
"GINGER WINGREN
LV: 5
EXP: 43
HP: 37/40
ATK: 18
DEF: 10
ATTRIBUTE: FORTITUDE"
"So...You see now just what you're capable of...You've cut the lives of many short. And in doing so, your hit points, attack and defense increase, and the harder it becomes to keep you from getting stronger...which makes you an even greater threat. And your SOUL reflects this, as well...It is a combination of the two most unrelenting traits a SOUL can take on; BRAVERY and DETERMINATION...But you have more DETERMINATION than anything else...After all, BRAVERY itself is a combination of JUSTICE and DETERMINATION. The BRAVERY to confront an enemy, and the DETERMINATION to get the job done...It's one of the most potentially dangerous SOUL types I've seen. For the time being, this hybrid trait will be called FORTITUDE."
"I..." she stammered. "I-I didn't kill anyone under here, I swear. It all happened on the surface."
"...i know."
"Wait..."
The cloud blocking out the sun rolled away, and the figure stepped further into the light cast by one of the windows, revealing himself.
"...Sans?!"
"betcha weren't expectin' this, huh?"
"How did..."
Her stats flashed away with a wave of his arm.
"don't try to process it too hard, kid. it'll give you a headache."
"...You know," she echoed. "So you know I haven't killed any monsters under here so far?"
"that's right...remember our little discussion at the resort?"
"...Yeah?"
"that LOVE...that's why if that lady hadn't said anything, i'd have done you in a long time ago. you came down here with that. and with someone who did all those things to other humans, i could've only imagined what might've happened to us...tell me. what exactly were you doin' up there?"
"I...Well..." she tried to explain. "I'm...a soldier, to say the least. It's my job to kill enemies, and...exterminate threats. Especially on the front lines."
"...hm...wouldn't have guessed, from someone as young as you."
"Where I'm from, if you can wield a blade, you're in the brigade. I lead my own mini-squadron of fighters, and I'm the youngest among them."
Sans was silent for a moment, analyzing the look on the human's face through the cloak hiding most of it from view.
...She was telling the truth.
"...that's what i find kinda odd."
"What?"
"since you've been down here, you haven't gained anymore LOVE that what you started with," he explained. "no matter the struggle, no matter the hardships you faced...you always strove to do the right thing. and because you did, you kept learning more and more about this place, and getting to know everyone. so...instead of gaining LOVE...you gained love. does that make sense?"
"...Huh..." she pondered. "...Yeah. It does make sense."
"proud of ya, kid...although, i have to admit...something about you always struck me as sort of odd. and i'm talking besides the whole warrior thing."
"What's that?"
"i dunno. it could just be the little things I've picked up, but there's somethin' different about you...despite having the power to do such great harm, you harnessed your urge to fight...productively, even. and you even seemed to know what might happen if you didn't keep that power in check. it's almost like you've seen it all before."
"...I might as well tell you something."
"what's up?"
"Something...happened when I was coming this way, Sans. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I...I had a revelation, sort of."
"what'd it reveal?"
"...Everything," she answered.
"everything?"
"About what happened...to...to the monarchy."
"...oh."
"Yeah."
"...well...now you have something you can use in case you need it, right?"
"Um...I guess that could work."
"speaking of the monarchy...it's time, ginger. you're about to face the greatest challenge of your entire journey. your actions here will determine the fate of the entire world... if you refuse to fight, asgore will take your SOUL and destroy humanity...but if you kill asgore and go home, monsters will remain trapped underground."
"I...Don't get your hopes up too high, but...I might just be able to convince him to call it off."
"...what'll you do if you can't?"
She was silent.
"...well, if i were you, i'd have thrown in the towel a long time ago. but you didn't get this far by just giving up, did you? you've got DETERMINATION, kid. so as long as you hold on...as long as you do what's deep down in your heart...i really do believe you can do the right thing...no matter what path you choose."
She smiled at his sentiment.
"...alright. we're all countin' on ya, kid," he told her, motioning for her to venture forth. "...good luck."
She passed by him, giving him one more firm handshake before keeping toward the end of the Judgement Hall.
"...see you on the surface."
She turned to bid him farewell one more time...
But he was already gone.
Sans...He was REALLY something of a mystery, wasn't he?
Deciding not to put it off any longer than need be, the Huntress continued down the golden hallway and reached the end of it. The path turned north, and the underwhelming grey made itself present along the pathway again...This time, however, it was just given just a bit more color with the verdant vines trailing across the bricks, showing just how old they really were. But the vines themselves actually seemed well-kept, almost like someone had intentionally grown them along the wall for decoration. There was a sign for the Throne Room just on the wall beyond the corner, and on the other side of the doorway was another Save Point.
*Throne Entrance
*File Saved
This was it. She was about to meet the king...And decide the fate of the Underground.
...Oh, how she desperately wished Alphys hadn't run off the way she did. It would have definitely done some good, with her being there.
...And how she wished she could have given the poor little monster a proper goodbye, forgiving her when she had the chance.
...She would get the chance again.
She HAD to get the chance again.
She drew in a deep, somewhat ragged breath in her own building fear. There was always the possibility something might go awry.
And it was up to her to prevent that.
Slowly and hesitantly, she stepped forward away from the Save Point, looking down at the ground as it turned from grey cobblestone to green, grassy ground.
The silence was broken by the sound of singing birds coming from above somewhere. She looked along the walls and up to the ceiling; there was no ceiling, rather she found herself looking at the roof of the cavern. There were several thin patches in the earth above, letting the soft morning sunlight shine through, and the beautiful, warbling song of the birds on the surface could be heard from even underground.
And then, she looked ahead. There, standing among the immense bed of Golden Flowers that covered almost the entire middle section of the floor...
Was a monster.
His back was turned toward her, but the bright violet cloak, gold pauldrons and tiny crown atop his head were all she needed to see to know who she was looking at.
This was King Asgore. No doubt.
Looking at the back of his head, she first noted his full mane of golden blond fur, and then when she looked further upwards...
The horns.
The thick, segmented, lyre-shaped ivory horns that curved down, then pointed right back up, almost like an impala's.
A regal image, to say the least.
She heard Asgore emit a low hum of a song as he bent over his enormous flowerbed, seeming content. He was oblivious to her presence.
She almost didn't do it, but to alert him...
She cleared her throat.
And, just as she'd both hoped and feared, his head perked up.
"Oh? Is someone there?" he called out. His voice was very deep and powerful, but at the same time, it had a cheerful, strangely gentle quality to it.
"Y...You're Majesty?" she addressed, not wanting to be informal with him. "I'm-"
"Just one moment, please!" he answered, not sounding the least bit irked. "I am almost finished watering these flowers!"
She heard him mumble something about his flowerbed, and whether or not to make it any bigger, the sound of the water flowing from the watering can and onto the flowers keeping the silence at bay. Finally, the king nodded, satisfied with his work, leaving the small, silver watering can on the ground as he stood up to his full height and brushed some of the dust from his outfit, straightening himself out.
"Hm...There we go..." she heard him mutter to himself, and she instinctively pulled the hood even further over her head, as far as it could go, to conceal herself.
And then he turned around, and the two met face-to-face.
She couldn't stop the hands from rising to her mouth at the sight of him.
"Oh my Glaux..." she mouthed.
He was a Boss Monster. Just like Toriel. And he looked almost exactly like a male version of her; the white coat, the pawed appendages, the caprine face, the floppy ears, everything. It all looked so unsettlingly similar. The only real differences were the blond beard, horns and eyes.
His eyes...They were blue, like her own, rather than soft crimson like Toriel's. But his were not a striking azure like those of the human. They were darker, and softer, almost like the peak of the sky during the calm cool of the evening as opposed to the height of noon reflected in the her gaze.
A warm, friendly smile spread across Asgore's muzzle. With the face of his guest obscured the way it was, he had no idea what he was really looking at.
"Howdy, there!" he greeted. "How can I help you?"
She couldn't help it. Ginger's legs gave way, and she fell onto her knee at the sight of him, hoping that her collapse looked enough like a humble bow.
But Asgore was actually alarmed by this, having seen her unsteadiness just moments before her fall, and he hastily approached the hooded figure to give her aid.
"Are you alright? What is the matter? A-are you hurt?" he asked, not knowing how to assess the situation.
"...King Asgore?"
"Yes?"
"I'm...I came to...I don't know if..."
She couldn't spit it out. Asgore was now genuinely worried.
"Pray tell, what troubles you? Whatever it is, I will do whatever I can to help you."
The poor creature looked so weary, scuffs and tears all over her armor and a cloak that was in absolute shambles.
"May I take your cloak for you, traveler?" he offered. "You must have traveled so far to get here, from what I'm seeing."
That was it. He would know as soon as he saw her face.
But he was going to have to find out here at some point, right?
She nodded, removing the hood from her head as Asgore took the rest of it. She was looking down, still, so it wasn't just yet that he actually saw what she really was.
"Traveler, you barely seem able to stand," he noted, going up to his throne in the center of the room and carefully draping the tattered garment over the back of it. His back was turned to the visitor as she stood up and rose her head.
"I think it wise that you stay and rest a while before you depart," he said, courteously flattening out some of the wrinkles in the cloak. "And if you would like, we can discuss what you came for over a nice cup of..."
He turned to face his company, only to behold the tawny-headed human standing there.
"...Tea..."
His eyes widened at the sight of her. Ginger raised a gauntleted hand to rub some of the grit from her face, then sighed deeply.
"...You probably already know why I'm here," she finally said to him. She opened her mouth to say something else, but nothing came out. She had nothing else to say to him.
"...Yes," he nodded solemnly. "...I do know."
He strayed away from his throne, suddenly finding the singing birds aboveground very interesting.
"...Nice day today, huh?" he remarked, as though there was no tension at all. "Birds are singing, flowers are blooming...Perfect weather for a game of catch, isn't it?"
"It is."
The sight of her was a bit unsettling, and not just because of what was to happen soon enough. None of the humans who had fallen before her had been quite so prepared to fight off the dangers posed to them by his people and Royal Guard, much less himself. But this one had a full set of armor, and she had the familiar, hardened glimmer in her eyes of one who had seen the face of combat many times...Perhaps too many in her day, despite looking no older than maybe fourteen.
"I suppose..." he began, starting for the other end of the Throne Room and approaching the exit. "...You know what we must do, then."
"We don't have to do this, King Asgore."
He tensed a bit, but did not take her words to heart; yes, they did have to do it. If only they didn't, but it had to be done.
"...This is a hard thing for both of us," he confirmed. "When you are ready, follow me to the next room."
"Asgore...?"
She called his name again, but it was too late; he didn't even look back, only entering into the room beyond his garden.
She walked on the grass to reach the opposite end of the room, not wanting to trample his flowers. She felt bad for the king, she really did, but with her being the last SOUL needed to break the Barrier, it looked like he would need some more convincing yet.
Ginger was just about to enter through to the next room, when she saw something across from the doorway...It was another throne, sitting in the dark corner, a white sheet having been draped over it to conceal it from view.
Toriel's throne...
She suddenly didn't feel comfortable without her cloak, and she carefully stretched her leg over the Golden Flowers and onto the bare patch of ground, then pushing herself forward to stand beside the throne. She reclaimed her cloak, slipped it back on, hood down, then strode over the flowers again, meeting yet another Save Point just to the right of the door.
*Throne Room
*File Saved
Once that was taken care of, the human started into the room after the garden. Asgore was standing there waiting for her, looking very contemplative about things, perhaps reconsidering his options. He sighed nervously, glancing off to the side, not wanting to meet the human in the eye.
"How tense..." he remarked, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "Hmm...Just think of it like...a visit to the dentist."
"...I've...never been to the dentist before," she admitted.
"Oh...Um...Excuse the bad analogy, then," the king apologized as they walked. "J-just...If you just relax and close your eyes, then...It will all be over before you know it."
"You do know I'm not going to let that happen, right?"
"...Ha...I...should have expected as much," he admitted. "If you have made it this far, you must have learned quite a few things on your journey. And you seem...quite well prepared for the whole ordeal...Well, then...I suppose we'll be settling things the old fashioned way?"
"I didn't come with any intent to harm, sir," Ginger said to him again. "...But I will defend myself with any means."
"...I see."
"Can't we settle this somehow without the violence?"
"...We can't."
"Why is that?"
"...I'm the one who started this...Unless I see it through, then...then I won't..."
He trailed off, deciding not to finish, and they found themselves at the next gateway.
"Erm...Are you ready?" he asked her, stopping briefly outside the entrance. "I understand if you are not. I am not really ready for this, either...But it must be done."
"So...You're dead set on all this?"
"...Yes. And...I am sorry for that."
He proceeded inside, and Ginger saw one more Save Point for her to interact with, slowly bending down and reaching a hand out toward it.
*The End
*File Saved
There was no use waiting for the inevitable. She stepped into the room beyond the gates, and there before them stood an almost spectral image.
The Barrier, the very entity keeping the monsters sealed in their subterranean prison, stood in between them and the cave exit that lead to the world on the surface.
"...This is the Barrier," he explained. "This is what keeps us all trapped underground...Through your seventh and final SOUL, we can finally undo the thousand-year spell...and return to the surface world."
Ginger was silent.
"If...If by chance, you have any unfinished business, then...Please. Do as you must. I will wait for you."
There was nothing else she could do, now. Nowhere else to go. Nobody else to see...She couldn't just turn around and hide away somewhere like a coward.
This was really it.
She stood her ground, and the king interpreted her silence as the signal to begin.
"...I see...So, this is it, then."
He rose a paw, commanding that something rise from hiding. Seven holes opened up in the floor, and out from each space there rose a clear, glass canister.
Each of them contained a glowing human SOUL that hovered in their containment...except for one.
A strange light began to fill the room from above as it shone from the sky through the Barrier.
Her journey was finally over.
But, even now, standing before the king, who had vowed to destroy all humanity, she wouldn't back down. Her FORTITUDE stood fast and unwavering.
And all the while, she was filled with DETERMINATION.
"...Human," Asgore addressed, managing one more smile for her and extending a paw to shake. "It was nice to meet you."
She met him halfway, her gloved hand small enough to fit right in between his enormous padded thumb and forefinger. When they let go, Asgore's brow furrowed in anguish, and he shakily, reluctantly reached for something within his cloak.
"...Goodbye."
The gateway behind them slammed shut, and the King of Monsters pulled out a giant, glowing red trident from his cloak, which came at the human with one swift swing, his eyes shut tightly all the while. No cry of agony followed the attack. Was it over? Had he actually done it? Hesitantly, he opened his eyes, preparing to see the worst.
But instead of a body, he beheld the crouched human to his side. She'd dodged the attack, and was now pulling something from the pack she carried.
It was a bow. And with it, three arrows.
This was really happening. She was going to fight back. She was going to fight him valiantly.
And with that, the battle was on.