"Please, human," he plead, the trident shaking in his paws. "I...I don't want this to hurt anymore than it has to."

"It DOESN'T have to," his opponent insisted, her voice surprisingly calm. "I don't want to fight you, Asgore, but if you keep at it, I will."

His breathing got a bit strange for a moment, and he cast the weapon at her again in a powerful, but halfhearted sweep. She ducked beneath it in the nick of time, the three prongs just barely grazing the top of her head, then fired her own readied projectile at his shoulder plate.

Asgore turned out to be wearing his own set of armor beneath that purple cloak, and was a leather-metal hybrid design, just like Ginger's, even sporting the Deltarune across it, as hers did the Symbol of Bhachtyr. But his was gleaming and gold-plated, meeting the highest standards, in contrast to the brassy scrap-metal alloy that the human's was crafted from. Being so strong a set, the human should have expected the arrow she launched to have gone in as deep as it did.

...Which barely amounted to anything. And it actually fell from his armor just moments afterward, having barely caused a wound deep enough to bleed at all. Her arrows were practically useless against him.

She would have to use her alternative.

For a moment, the king's trident dissipated, and he prepared a harder-to-dodge attack, reluctantly opening his palms and summoning a burst of flame.

Fire magic...

The flames came down from above in spirals, almost braiding around each other. It was a difficult attack to dodge.

Unbeknownst to him, the human had experience with this type of combat before.

She skillfully wedged herself within the spaces between the streams as they parted, and only just barely clipped one of the blazing bullets. He had to try something else.

A lighter array of the sparks began to descend, and the young human avoided them easily. Hopefully, she would not anticipate what would happen next.

Her portion of the battlefield began to flash red; she recognized this attack method from the fight against Mettaton, and immediately scrambled away from the area, taking on one more stray bullet in the process from the side just as a fiery downpour erupted from within the flashing. The other side flashed even quicker, and she ducked and tumbled out of the way of that blast as well.

Asgore re-summoned his immense trident. He didn't show it, but he was truly impressed. Never had any human been so skillful on the battlefield, even those who'd come down already equipped with weapons.

Speaking of weapons, that was when he saw the human pull something from her pack with a frustrated huff, clutching the handle tightly in her gauntleted hand. It was a familiar-looking, dirty, worn dagger.

That couldn't be...Could it?

"I WILL use this if I have to!" she warned, borderline yelling. "Put. The trident. Down. NOW."

Oh, if only he could. But it was too late now.

Ginger saw something flash in his eyes. Strange coloration, almost magic-induced. Blue, orange, orange...

That was when she realized.

It was a warning signal.

The trident flashed from red to blue, and he swung it at her...But she stood still as a stone, even if just for a split second as it passed through her body like it was air.

And when the trident turned orange, she drew in as it swung the first time, then a second, and then dove in right for the king's feet.

He felt something tear through the black leather of his leggings, and the burning sensation of a wound that followed. But it was a flesh wound, and in the leg; not anywhere close to lethal, so the king stood his ground and faced the human again, his head bowed and his trident flashing to red again before disappearing yet once more.

Again, he tried fire magic; a swift cast to the side with his arm, and there was a good, strong row of it that formed in its wake. Then with one more manual command, he sent them right for the human. But once he launched those flames, he was no longer in control of them, and their path was straight. The human could simply move out of the way if she wanted.

And that was exactly what she did.

But the seemingly simple and easy-to-evade attack had a catch. There wasn't just one wave. There were several, each appearing quicker than their predecessor, first coming instantly after the last, and then overlapping between each other, even. It was a confusing attack, and the king hoped it would disorient her, getting her slow enough to land a good, quick blow on to just finish the job.

But she was quick; that armor was lighter than his own, and she had more experience than he thought, so she not only survived the attack, but avoided a good amount of it. She failed to miss every flame, though, and after the barrage, she held her arm; the metal there was soft, and the bitter smell of charred leather was apparent. The burn had penetrated her armor. Asgore looked up for a moment, his guard lowering. He desperately wanted to cease the fight and heal her.

Faltering had been a mistake, though.

The human before him emitted a notably angry growl before lunging at him again and sending the dagger cutting through the side of his thick chest plate. The very tip of it passed to the other side of it, not even piercing an inch through his furry hide beneath.

The damage was superficial, but as soon as the human scrambled back to a safe distance and saw the blood on the tip of her weapon, remorse pooled in her eyes.

She looked up at him, silently pleading that he stop this madness, but he still refused to lock eyes with her.

"...It's..." he stammered, his trident forming in his grasp again. "It's alright. I understand. I understand entirely. But..."

He shut his eyes again, then took another swing with his glowing red weapon. He knew deep down he could only aim it right if he kept his eyes open and locked on the target, but he couldn't bare to watch the human become a mangled mess of spilled innards and a disembodied SOUL. As he expected, she was able to duck beneath the swing. So he sent it hurtling towards her again, and again, and again. Ginger saw that Asgore was just swinging it haphazardly, hoping he might somehow miraculously land a proper hit that way.

He was that desperate to get it over with.

"This-" she swerved to avoid another swing. "-This has gone on long enough! Do you even know what you're doing? What if your plan fails somehow!?"

"It's too late..." he answered quietly, his voice trembling in an odd manner. "...to turn back..."

"It's NEVER too late!"

He didn't listen. He COULDN'T listen. And now, he pointed the weapon, able to aim the prongs at her stomach for just a brief moment before plunging it towards the leather. Ginger flung herself off the side once she saw what he was trying to do...

But not soon enough to avoid one of the outside points jabbing through the leather and through her starboard side, leaving a deep puncture wound there.

The human squawked upon the hit, seemingly more in shock than in pain at first, but she was quick to double over, emitting a suppressed wail as she fell to her knees. Blood began to pour from the hole, and Ginger reached up and tightly grabbed her hood, vainly hoping that gripping it hard enough would ease the pain. Asgore shut his eyes again and turned away, unable to bear the sight of her suffering. Then, knowing it was inevitable, he started to charge his trident up with flames of its own.

Ginger saw what he was doing, and found herself at a loss for escapes. Her blood loss was growing worse; if the king, for some reason, couldn't muster the courage to put her out of her misery with one more blow, she would die of the wound eventually; it'd likely punctured a kidney, anyway, which was dangerous by itself. And she had nothing left to heal herself with.

...Or...

...Or did she?

The young human gasped in realization, in spite of her growing weakness. She DID still have ONE more healing item at her disposal. The one bit of food left she had packed away, never thinking she would actually bring herself to eat it.

Finally, Asgore fired up his trident with nearly enough scorching heat to set an entire meadow on fire, and he turned to face the human. She'd buried herself within the dirty cloak she wore, and he could still detect movement coming from inside it. With a shaking paw, he rose the trident and pointed it down at her. It was like laying down a poor game animal that he'd failed to shoot properly to put it out of its misery before harvesting it.

And the idea sickened him.

But just when he thought he could finally let the trident fall, he saw her begin to stand back up. He looked at the spot where the end prong of his trident skewered her; there was a hole in the leather of the armor, but the skin had closed up, and blood no longer spilled out of it. Not only that, but all of the other wounds she's received thus far, the burns, the blows, the scuffs and bruises she'd first arrived with, all of them. They were all gone in an instant.

And then the human raised her head.

Her mouth was stuffed full, and whatever food she was eating, she had what was left of it squeezed in her hand. It almost looked like...

A pie crust. And the smell of it...Asgore swore it smelled just like...

Butterscotch.

And cinnamon.

It can't be...

"...How...?" he just barely breathed.

His opponent shoved what was left of Toriel's culinary masterpiece into her mouth and swallowed, barely bothering to savor the final bite.

"...I'm sorry, Asgore."

With an almost grievous grunt, she plunged the dagger into the other side of his chest plate now at full force. He didn't even tense, he was in such disbelief, and the blade passed through the leather and into his side, cutting deep into his soft tissue. Now blood started to leak from HIS side. Despite this, he barely even seemed to notice. Ginger noticed his indifference.

"...Asgore?"

At the mention on his name, the king snapped out of his state of shock, shaking his head and taking a few deep breaths, the flames in his trident having died. Instead of using that, he instead raised his arm, pointing it upward, and the human looked above to see the swirling inferno the Boss Monster had summoned, the flames spinning down and out from the center point like a hurricane. But they were spaced apart, despite their speed and unpredictable direction, and she managed to evade all but one.

Maybe if he tried the trident again, it'd catch her off guard.

The monster's eyes began to flash again; orange, orange, orange, then blue. With the first three swings, the human honed in again, landing a slash of her knife on the leather of his arm. But she froze too late, and the side of the icy blue weapon sent her straight into the ground. Ginger got off extremely lucky; had the trident been cast at an angle, she would have been impaled, and the last bit of food she'd just used would have been a waste.

Asgore was beginning to get impatient with himself; why couldn't he land a blow right? Why was he going so easy on her? The first human to come down hadn't even put up a fight; she'd just...stood there, arms out, waiting for the inevitable. He didn't think he would feel any remorse, knowing all of the terrible things the humans had done to them.

But he had wept over that dead body for hours, and would have taken that trident to himself that day had his Royal Guard Captain at the time not found and stopped him just in time. And now he was gone, too. Dead at the hands of the last human to have come down before the one he faced now. And that gun had not only taken the life of Doge in a split second; when Undyne stepped in to assume his position and avenge his death, the human with the yellow SOUL had fired a shot right to her face before he was buried under a merciless shower of spears. Undyne, too, nearly lost her life that day, and her new title as Captain of the Royal Guard had cost her an eye.

But even after what a number of the fallen humans had done, he could not help but want to bring them all back. What would it have been like if he had instead taken back his promise to his people? Would they still all be here, alive, and maybe even happy? But it would have plunged the kingdom back into despair all over again, right when he had gotten their hopes back up. People would have mourned their eternal prison, and surely, rebellions would have ensued after he'd dashed all of their hopes. Asgore had dug his own grave that day. And now he was lying in it.

And he actually hoped this human would beat him, so he really COULD be laid to rest after so many years of loathing himself for his horrible deeds.

Ginger saw the recollection flash in his eyes as he stood there, doing nothing, and she rose to her feet again.

"Asgore," she told him, her voice as hard as stone. "There HAS to be another way out of this. I...I don't know, but even without your SOUL, there's still a chance I could be strong enough to pass through the Barrier. And if I can do that, I WILL find a way for you to get out. Mark my words. Maybe I'll find some other human to bring here; one that's old and about to die anyway, or someone who DESERVES to die...I'll be honest with you, Asgore: I don't like humans that much myself. But there ARE some good ones out there; there HAVE to be. Wiping them all out isn't the solution. And it's not right. I doubt all of them are going to just blindly hate your kind. And some of them just...they don't know any better; it's ignorance. If you DO end up breaking the Barrier, then...Try to make peace with them."

"We've tried that before," he rasped.

"Times have changed since the war. You might have better luck this time. Especially if they KNOW why you're there this time around."

"If they find out about...what we did for our freedom..."

"I'll help you. Do you know just how deep the hole in the ground is?"

"It won't work..."

"There's ALWAYS A WAY, ASGORE!"

"We can't...wait...any...longer!"

He just barely kept himself from shouting, then he gripped his trident like a lifeline and swung it again, only to miss, the human diving down at his legs again and leaving a fresh gash in his unprotected ankle. Now he was starting to notice his wounds; they were accumulating, and the one in his side, while not lethal by itself, was still bleeding; if he didn't step up his game, HE would likely perish at the human's hands.

But he would make the best of either option...Though not without putting at least a bit more effort into his own promise to his people.

Another fire attack conjured up around young Ginger; this time, the flames formed open circles around her, and she found that she was able to pass through the openings of the flame wheels to avoid being burned. It was too easy.

Again, he readied his trident; blue, blue, orange, blue. So the human stood frozen for the first two swings, then moved on the third...though she couldn't stop herself in time to avoid the final blue hit, and the prongs of the weapon landed in her shoulder plate, cutting through the metal and just barely piercing the shoulder underneath. It was one of his best maneuvers, but she was still fighting fit, and wasn't planning on going down anytime soon.

So he tried his previous attack, but with an added affect; the rings of fire now spun around the human instead of simply closing in, and the openings she could escape from changed position as they rotated. This proved harder for Ginger to get by, and a few of the bullets clipped her along the sides, one even landing right on the side of her face. The blow to the right temple was hard and hot enough to make her raise a hand up to it, and for a moment she analyzed the damage, perhaps just to make doubly sure that she still had both eyes. But when she realized she did, the young human went if for another blow, sending the knife slashing across the black leather beneath the chest plate, leaving a long break in the flesh very similar to what the Black Kite had done to her in her last big fight, which had granted her that scar along the stomach.

But this time the cut was clean slash, and not a jagged rip that the dictator had left.

It bled out slowly, and Asgore did his best to fight the gradually worsening loss of blood as the white of his coat and the black of his leather plackart ran red. Ginger saw that he was getting weaker; if she could just whittle him down enough to make him stop, and THEN try to reason with him...But even so, to what lengths would he go in order to keep his promise of freedom to the Underground? It didn't seem like he could do much else but do the grim job himself. All else had failed; the puzzles, the Royal Guard, the civilians...She'd gotten past all of it. He was the one remaining thing that had a chance to accomplish their goal.

And now HIS victory was becoming more uncertain.

However, he saw that the hone-in maneuver was effective against her, so he decided to try the third and most swiftly-turning wave of the attack to see what it would do. But by this time, the human had become accustomed to the spinning, and was able to slide through the openings, waiting for them to draw close enough for her to know exactly WHERE her escape port would be before leaping in that direction to pass the flames. Some of the flaming wheels turned faster than others and some were stationary as they simply closed in. She had it down pact.

And then she dug the blade of the dagger into his upper arm, causing the trident he was forming again in his grasp to waver a bit before fully summoning.

Asgore was getting desperate, so again he tried the reckless swinging of the weapon to try and knock the opponent off her feet before putting her out of her misery. He had already guessed that it likely wouldn't work, but the human's own carelessness with her thinking that the attacks would be easy to avoid balanced out with the sweeps.

She just barely missed one swing that'd been aimed right at her head, but in dodging it, she tripped over her own boots and staggered, slamming against what felt like a wall behind her and seeing the three points of the triple-headed spear point down right at her, freezing just a foot away. The king accidentally locked eyes with her for just a brief moment; she was staring at the tips of the weapon, her eyes as wide as saucers, and his expression was one of deep remorse, but also of exhaustion, longing, and just the tiniest bit of relief. As soon as he realized what he was looking down at, Asgore shut his eyes and turned his head away again, the weapon lowering slightly in his grasp. The human took the chance to look up at just what she was pinned up against.

Its magic pulsated like a disembodied heart against her back, just barely resisting the strength of her SOUL and keeping her from falling through effortlessly.

It was the Barrier.

"Human...F...Forgive me for this..."

The Boss Monster's choked up speech snapped her back into the battle, and Ginger let her legs cave in as the trident hurtled right towards her head...and missed, careening into the Barrier instead and bouncing right off. When he looked down to see where she'd gone, Asgore discovered that she'd disappeared.

"This has gone on FAR ENOUGH!"

The knife ran past the armor and through his back at an angle, the length of it only cutting through his hide. He turned to face her, swinging his weapon one more time.

"THIS ISN'T THE WAY!"

He never expected what she did next; the human's grabbed the weapon just beneath the split of the prongs with her gloved hands and pushed against its force, her blade still held tightly within her right gauntlet, even as it fought manually against the magic trident. Desperation flashed within the high noon of her gaze, and in a sudden fit of fury, Ginger descended the length of the king's weapon, screaming as she honed in on him.

"STOOOOOOOOOOP!"

Finally, the worn dagger flew into his left side one more time, deeper than ever, the blade completely disappearing within the leather, only the handle remaining visible. The monster tensed upon the blow. His trident wavered, then dissipated, and the stab began to spill crimson fluid as the human drew out her weapon.

It was too much. It all added up and it had become too much.

Ginger stepped away from the king as he weakly lowered to his knees, looking at the dagger she had drawn out of him.

And she stared at it, horrified. The entirety of the blade was bathed in his blood.

"...Ah..." he sighed, his breathing pained. "So that...is how it is..."

Ginger looked down at the kneeling Boss Monster's side; it was worse still than the wound in his other side, yet still SOMEHOW refrained from being lethal. She was amazed by his durability, knowing that just one slash of a blade not anywhere near sharp as the one she now carried could easily kill the queen...Then again, Toriel had no armor for defense against the weapon. Asgore did.

Even so, one more hit to him, and he would be certainly be reduced to dust.

"...I remember the day after my son died," he whispered. "The entire Underground was devoid of hope. Just...Just like that, he was gone at the human's hands. Once again, they had taken everything from us."

He grasped the ground in frustration with himself.

"In a fit of anger, I declared war. I vowed to the people that from hence forth, every human who falls down here must be destroyed, no matter who, no matter how good or how evil, and no matter how old, and that with enough SOULs, I would become godlike, and use my powers to not only free us from this terrible prison...but also to destroy humanity, so monsters could rule the surface in peace. With that, the people's hopes returned...But I failed to see the consequences of my declaration soon enough. My wife was absolutely disgusted by my actions...I can still remember that horrified look on her face right after I finished that accursed speech. She left this place, never to be seen or heard from again."

"Toriel..."

He choked up at the mere mention of her name.

"That's...That's right. That was her name," he confirmed, holding back a flow of tears.

"...Truthfully, I do not want power," Asgore continued. "I do not want to hurt anybody. I just want everyone to have hope..."

One of his tears escaped, flowing down the matted white and gold fur along his mournful face.

"But I cannot take this any longer," he grieved. "I just want to see my wife. I just want to see my child..."

He rose his head to finally look the human in the eye.

"Young one," he told her. "This war has gone on long enough. You have the power to stop it...Take my SOUL, and leave this cursed place."

The human gripped the handle of her dagger more tightly, and with a shaky breath, she rose the weapon, pointing it down right at him. The King of Monsters bowed his head again in submission as he closed his eyes, accepting defeat, and accepting the sweet embrace of death.

He was content.

And that was when the dagger fell.

And it made a loud, metallic clanging noise as it clattered to the floor from Ginger's hand.

Asgore opened his eyes to find the young warrior's weapon on the ground, and then he turned his gaze back to its wielder, watching her slowly lower to her own knees.

"I...I can't do it..." she whimpered. "I can't do it, Asgore, I can't kill you."

"But..." he reminded her. "...Your freedom."

The human clenched her fists, not sure she was fully convinced what she was about to say herself. But here she was, about to say it, after everything she'd gone through in order to return to the surface world.

"I'd rather be stuck Underground here for the rest of my life..." She hid her face in her hands. "...than to leave this place leaderless and...You can't die, Asgore, I can't do it."

She was crying now, he knew she was. He could tell by the ragged breathing, despite it being hushed so it couldn't be heard.

"...After everything I have done to hurt you..." the king marveled. "You would rather stay down here and suffer...than live happily on the surface world...?"

She was silent, but her silence was all he needed to know that she meant everything she said, word for word. He huffed out a laugh, in spite of himself, the smile returning to his muzzle, and he rose his head once more, a newfound hope having appeared in his sad, blue eyes.

"...Human," he addressed, lifting her chin up. Tears streamed down her face like a waterfall, but she was still silent. "I...I promise you...for as long as you remain here...my wife and I will take care of you as best we can."

She emitted a wet sniffle, and the king gently caressed her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

"Yes, human. You'll be alright. You're safe now...Ha..."

He forgot all about his proclamation.

"Just the three of us," he imagined. "We...we can sit in the living room. Telling stories, p-playing tabletop games...Eating butterscotch pie. Why...We could be like..."

A spark of joy that he hadn't felt in the longest time rekindled within him.

"...Like a family."

The human rose her hand a put it against his gentle paw, using her other arm to dry the flow of tears that'd finally begin to lessen. She was okay. Asgore was still here. The war was over. She'd done it. At last, she'd convinced him to stop it all. And while the Barrier still stood between her and freedom, she would be completely content staying in the Underground until the day came when they would finally...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of materializing magic.

For a moment, Ginger thought her ears were deceiving her, but judging by the startled look on the king's face, he'd heard it as well. And when they unlocked their gazes to look around themselves...

There, forming a ring around Asgore, was a floating series of spinning, white bullets.

"What-"

And then the ring closed in around the king of monsters. He tried to stand and evade the assault, but his wounds were too great to move quickly enough, and all of them, all of the several dozen bullets that'd honed in on him from all directions as soon as they'd appeared, struck Asgore right through the middle.

His heart stopped. The contorted expression of pain was frozen on his face.

And then his eyes rolled back into his head as his body began to dissemble into dust.

"No..."

Just like that, he was gone.

"No, no, no, no, NO, NO NO!"

She saw his SOUL, the fragile upside-down white heart that still held the king within it, rise from the dust, and she reached for it, hoping she could save it.

But there was one bullet left, and before she could reach out to grab it, it lowered right into the SOUL, snapping it right in half.

And what was left of the noble King Asgore broke apart into uncountable pieces, scattering out into nothingness.

Ginger was hysteric, bending over the monster's dust and desperately trying to put it back together with some vain hope that she could restore him; one minute the king was kneeling before her, telling her of the bright future that lay ahead for the two of them, and the next moment he had turned to dust. He was gone. Dead. How?! Who!? Where did that magic come from!? What abomination of a being was responsible for this!?

She was not expecting an answer.

The ashes shifted, and the human scrambled away from them, almost hoping that they were about to reform into the Boss Monster that'd been sitting there just seconds ago. But instead of a Boss Monster, something else poked out from the white dust.

A bright yellow flower, and he wore a sickeningly innocent smile on his face.

That was all she had to see to know what'd happened.

And in an instant, her heartbreak boiled and rose from the pit of her stomach to fill her chest, turning from grieving agony into pure, relentless fury.

"...You," she whispered, her voice deathly hushed. Flowey simply giggled as though it were nothing more than a childish prank.

"You IDIOT," he chastised, still grinning widely, looking very pleased with himself. "With someone with as high LOVE as you, I thought you would have kept up with whatever you were doing on the surface...But you haven't learned a thing from any of this, have you? Well...I guess I'll just have to remind you again!"

Ginger didn't care about what he said, and grabbed the worn dagger off the ground to go after him with and avenge the king.

But before she could get close enough to do so, a think, thorny vine shot up from the ground, lashed out at her feet and sent her falling forward.

And when she looked up at the flower, she saw what he'd done.

The six human SOULs that the king had gathered were now free from their canisters, and Flowey had all of them encircling him.

"In this world..."

"Oh, NO..." Ginger breathed.

"It's KILL or BE killed...!"

His face distorted into a horrific image that'd risen straight from the depths of hell, and he let out a maniacal cackle as the six SOULs drew towards him to be absorbed. The light intensified, the world around began to fade, and from her own sheer terror at what she now beheld, Ginger whited out.