Good morning, my viewers! As you can see, the Undertale/DnD crossover has been uploaded, with the first chapter being the largest thing I've ever written...

...this is probably going to be a recurring theme here, which means that I won't write constantly for this story, since I have other projects I want to finish...

Still, it's 15k words, so I think you'll understand. Anyway, hope you have a good read!


Long ago, two races ruled over the continents and the seas of our vast world:

Humans and Monsters.

Despite their inherent differences, these two races managed to coexist more or less peacefully over the centuries. Although there were a few conflicts sprinkled throughout these times, they were never anything too big and were often resolved with peaceful solutions, such as treaties.

That was...until the Fateful day.

It is now lost in the chaos of those distant times, but the events in it were unforgettable for the monsters: that was the time where humankind, united as one, declared war on monsterkind as a whole and defeated it, casting them into the Underground.

Looking back at those events, no one was sure why the war started to begin with: despite the fact humans were prone to starting conflicts, they were never anything even comparable to that magnitude and sometimes there were good reasons for them. Monsterkind, despite being overall peaceful most of the time, had their brief times of conquest and violence, but up to that point none of their actions (justified or otherwise) caused such a backlash.

For a long time this question remained unanswered, until a previously unknown historian (whose name has been unfortunately lost in time) offered a possible solution to this dilemma.

The event known as the "massacre of Nirrgold".

This event was almost completely unknown to monsterkind, but humankind knew it all too well: Nirrgold was a developed mountainous city where mining was the primary source of income for many humans and even a few monsters. It was also known that in those mines the workers were treated as slaves, who received low wages and had to work for many hours a day.

The humans couldn't do much aganist it because not only most people in Nirrgold supported this practice, but also because the economies of the surrounding kingdoms heavily depended on Nirrgold's slavery.

Monsterkind was a bit more vocal about it, but they were in a similar situation as the humans. One monster, however, wasn't going to sit there and watch it all unfold any longer.

This monster, according to the historian, planned to cause a revolution within Nirrgold in order to free the slaves once and for all. What happened in reality was much more different than he expected.

That monster, wounded and on the verge of death, in order to stay alive and keep fighting for his cause, committed an act before unknown.

He absorbed a human soul.

The surge of power in that monster was insane and enable him to keep fighting while also dealing disastrous losses to the slavers. However, because of how LOVE and EXP worked, what was a righteous quest quickly turned into a sadistic massacre.

Thousands of humans and even a few monsters living in the area were mercilessly killed by him. More lives would have been lost to his madness, hadn't the neighboring armies intervened.

Because Nirrgold was a fairly isolated city and rather far away from the monsters' cities, the event almost didn't happen in monsterkind's minds. The humans, on the other hand, were now terrified of their monstrous neighbors.

'That was only one monster, who didn't originally want to do something like that. What if an evil monster attains such power? What if an entire nation thought of using this ability to enforce their rule upon others?' these were the thoughts of humans, rulers and commoners alike.

The humans knew they were much stronger than the monsters and that the other race was (mostly) peaceful, but now their views on monsterkind changed forever: they thought they were up aganist a foe they didn't know as much as they thought and that could cause untold amounts of destruction and death whether they were provoked it or not.

Driven by fear and a seriously misguided sense of righteousness, the next step for the human nations was simple, yet very hard to make...

War.

All of the human nations declared war to the monster nations all at once. The following war was the bloodiest humanity and monsterkind alike had the misfortune to witness.

Dust was sent flying, blood was shed, blades were swung, arrows were fired, weapons were summoned and magic was casted.

Souls of monsters and humans alike were absorbed and were the catalysts of some of the grandest duels to date.

But in the end humanity won and monsterkind surrendered, powerless before the winners. But instead of just slaughtering the remaining monsters, humans decided to be "generous" and, through the combined power of seven mages, sealed the monsters in the underground of Mount Ebott, one of the most important natural landmarks for monsterkind. It was in fact the place where the first city of monsterkind was founded and, to top it all off, it was the capital of the kingdom of the Dreemurr bloodline, the oldest and most powerful kingdom (not just among the monsters', but among the humans' as well!).

Whether or not the humans knew that detail is still unknown, but it doesn't matter anymore. They probably don't even remember the war at all or even the existence of the remaining members of monsterkind itself!

But now there's no time for rambling on.

From there, monsterkind settled in the Ruins, the first and smallest area of the Underground. According to the oldest records of the first royal advisor of the Dreemurrs, this area was supposed to be used as both a shelter and a military base in case of war or natural disasters.

It was a good start, but space and resources were dwindling by the day, so the monsters moved on to the other parts of the Underground. There they founded small settlements, the most important one Snowdin, but there were also other mostly-secluded villages in Waterfall and a metropolis in Hotland.

A few monsters stayed back in the Ruins, either fearing what laid beyond its exit or enjoying the tranquility of the place.

Finally they got to the Capital of the first kingdom, and the largest city of monsterkind to this day.

The monsters, despite their unfortunate predicaments, were beyond excited at the mere sight of it and began rebuilding it using many different styles they learned throughout the lost ages of freedom, resulting in the Capital becoming the most diverse and beautiful town of the Underground.

Life in the Underground was a bit grim without the sun, but at least monsters had each other and the King and the Queen did their best to raise the morale of their subjects. The citizens loved them and saw their child, Asriel Dreemurr, as a part of the key to their freedom.

Then the first human, named Chara, fell in the Underground and was found by none other than the prince himself.

The human child was fully accepted by the Dreemurr family and for a time all was well...

...but there were already signs of change: Asgore Dreemurr, the king of monsterkind, hailed Chara and Asriel as the saviors of monsterkind, as those who showed that humans and monsters could coexist peacefully with one another.

And then there was the human: by the few written pieces of evidence that we have, Chara was a strong-willed individual who always wanted to command and make decisions. Another characteristic of Chara was their hatred for humanity, seeing monsterkind as more deserving to be on the surface than humans. A sentiment many monsters agreed with, but it was the beginning of a tragedy.

One faithful day the human died and Asriel, having absorbed his soul, crossed the barrier to bring their body to their native village, but the humans attacked him and so he returned to the Underground, where he succumbed to his wounds shortly after.

It was later "revealed" that the human planned their own death, poisoning themselves with buttercups and having the prince absorb their soul.

There have also been theories that Chara might have planned everything: having Asriel carry their lifeless body to a human village would obviously give the villagers all of the wrong messages. Humans, despite their shortcomings and the things they may do to one another given the chance, are very protective of young ones and have never seriously harmed, not even in the war.

This would make the villagers believe Asriel killed the child and see not the kind boy he was, but a threatening monster. It is likely Chara used this to make Asriel attack the villagers in self-defense, ultimately taking their souls and freeing monsterkind.

That's not what happened, as Asriel refused to fight back and escaped.

In the end, ironically enough, Chara could be as horrible as the humans they so zealously despised and her inconsiderate actions costed the kingdom not just their prince, but their Queen as well.

After the notice of their deaths, Asgore was furious and declared that any fallen human would be hunted down and killed. While many of the monsters thought this was a good idea, the Queen did not agree with this new rule and so fled the Capital and made her home in the Ruins.

Since then, six humans feel into the Underground and were killed either by the members of the Royal Guard or by the King himself.

Yet the seventh one was unlike any of them, as he was able to traverse the whole Underground and killed the King, the captain of the Royal Guard and presumably the Queen as well.

Another matter is how Alphys, the royal scientist, disappeared from the whole Underground without leaving a trace. A search party was established to find the missing scientist, but after scavenging the whole Hotland and the surrounding areas, they gave up.

But the most important (and horrible) event following that human's path was how the hard-earned souls disappeared without so much as a trace.

All of this happened in one dreadful night.

Because of this, a new ruler had to be elected immediately: they needed someone with leadership skills, able to lift the monsters' spirits and strong enough to fight off humans, were one to unexpectedly fall in the Underground.

By process of elimination (a very bad way to choose a ruler, according to some citizens) an eccentric skeleton native of Snowdin, named Papyrus, was elected as the new king of the Underground and promised to bring Hope to his people.

X X X

"And that is how we ended up in this situation, but fear not, future citizens! The great Papyrus has it all under control!" Papyrus said to the classroom of children in front of him.

They all varied in shape: some were quadrupedal, some were bipedal, some had wings, some had no eyes, some had fur, some had goop etcetera...

The children, sensing that their king had finished the story, soon clapped their hands, or any other body part if they didn't have them. Some where clapping because they enjoyed the lecture, others because the teacher expected them to and then there were those who slept through the whole thing and just did whatever everyone else was doing in order to not get in trouble.

Still, the teacher was content with how well the lecture went and Papyrus was just glad he remembered the whole thing.

During king Asgore's reign, the king would sometimes make appearances in public, but Papyrus cranked that up to eleven because he had to give his people hope, especially the young ones, who perhaps needed it the most.

Two months passed since those events took place, yet everyone was still on edge. Now they were in a situation where nothing was the same anymore, but people wanted to keep living as if everything was still like before.

With his presentation done, Papyrus saluted the students in a way only he would and strode out of the classroom to let the teacher do her job.

The artificial light of the narrow halls shined on Papyrus' silky red robe and on the dull grey armor underneath. He didn't really like these clothes, if he wanted to be honest with himself: the red scarf he used to wear was lighter than his new crimson robe and still gave him that coolness factor; the armor was also not in line with his taste, still preferring his prized, chalk-white battle body over this boring grey armor, even if it DID give him a considerable defense boost.

Thinking about stats brought a lot of unwanted thoughts into his mind: the fact that he will have to kill humans to free his people, that his life is now much more complicated than before and the fact that the rest of his friends was on vacation without him.

And about that-

Papyrus heard a creaking sound and felt a few droplets of water softly hitting his skull. By looking around a bit, the skeleton realized that he had just exited the school building.

Papyrus briefly looked at his wristwatch and saw that it was 10AM, just two more hours before his cooking lessons.

He decided to walk around the Capital, since he wasn't busy with anything.

Papyrus seldom had been in the Capital as he went there only to apply for the royal guard and follow Undyne in her duties there, even if she didn't want him to. Not to mention the fact he didn't really understand what she was exactly doing back then.

Now the Capital was the place he was always in, either attending meetings he himself programmed or listening to his citizens' requests and opinions on their daily lives. He kind of missed the chilly-yet-heartwarming Snowdin, but he also (begrudgingly) understood that his new role required him to make sacrifices. He simply didn't think that sacrificing actual living beings for some sort of greater good was okay.

When Papyrus thought of these things, he would then think about the previous king and it would spiral downwards from there.

Thought this time it was different.

Papyrus suddenly didn't feel the rain softly pounding in his skull and so turned his head downward to find his older brother, "holding" an umbrella over his head. Papyrus' thoughts were on his brother's telekinesis were between "he's pretty cool" and "oh God, this will definitely make him even lazier than he already is".

"Hey there bro, are you alright? You kind of look...under the weather" Sans said with a bony smile and his younger brother had to suppress a groan at that pun. Sometimes he didn't know when his brother was serious or when he was joking, especially now that he handled most of his paperwork, but one thing was certain.

His puns were and still are to this day, absolutely horrible.

"Oh it's okay, Sans, I was just walking around the Capital. My cooking lesson and my meetings are in a few hours anyway, so I thought that for once I could lay off some time too" Papyrus replied nonchalantly to his brother, who decided to change the topic of the conversation "Still, rain in the Capital? Makes you wonder what's happening on the Surface...also the streets are eerily empty today. Used to be bustling with people...".

Unfortunately for Sans, that change of topic struck a nerve in Papyrus, but his reaction was still calm as he said "Yeah, we really don't know anything about the Surface...maybe that's also why we want to go there so much...but fear not! The great Papyrus will eventually find a way out of Underground and together we'll uncover the secrets the Surface holds, like what's this 'sky' thingy the books keep mentioning!"

'And then we can hang out again, human' Papyrus thought of his old buddy, but every time he did so, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had something to do with his friends going to vacation and leaving him with an entire kingdom to manage 'Fortunately, despite how great I am, I'm happy not to be alone in all of this'

Sans smiled at his younger brother's optimism, but then the grim reality of the situation struck him yet again, though he couldn't let his brother see it. He just wouldn't understand.

They walked in silence for some more time, until they arrived at the castle. Sans and Papyrus walked up to the front door and opened it.

The hall was as grand-looking as ever, with a ruby red carpet stretching in all of the hallways and the yellow tiles that, basking in the light, seemed made of gold.

From there they went to separate directions. Sans went to the hallway preceding the throne room, while Papyrus went straight to the royal kitchen, where he would wait for his new teacher.

Thinking that sounded wrong thought. 'This isn't right, it's almost as if I'm replacing Undyne- agh! I'm not doing that, I really miss her and I know she will return from her vacation one day. And then I'll show her all of my improvements! She'll be so proud of me!' Papyrus' head hurt because of these thoughts and as a result he was starting to have trouble walking. So he leaned on the wall and started regaining his breath.

After a few minutes Papyrus looked at the wristwatch again and realized he still had a mid-hour until the start of his lesson. 'Hmm, I can wait a little...' Papyrus thought, allowing himself to rest.

X X X

Sans was standing at his usual spot in the corridor, just before stair that would lead to the throne room. The light flooded the long hallway, yet the pillars still managed to cast enough shadow to give it an eery feeling.

Sans was basking in the light, yet the pillar at his side casted an ominous shadow over half of his body, resulting in a perfect symmetry between light and darkness.

His roundish, bony head was hunched, but then he raised it and his two large eye-sockets were completely black pools, devoid of the usual shining white dots.

This meant that Sans was angry.

"Human...no...Frisk, why haven't you Reset already?" Sans said aloud with a fake calm, thinking the human could hear him.

Sans was now silent for a little bit and then sighed. He didn't know what had happened now. Everything was going normally.

He had called the human some time ago (too much time ago), talked to them while not being sure how many times they listened to his monologue, had Papyrus talk to them and reveal to them his "dark secrets" ('not you, THEM' the voice screeched venomous within his skull) and end the call.

That was the time a Reset would happen and Frisk never failed to be punctual on that front.

'So what happened differently now? With the Resets, at least we could get the others back, but now? Are we seriously stuck like this forever?!' Sans thought in unbelievable rage as he thought numerous ways to track down and kill that kid. He WOULD make them burn in hell one day.

'Though, if they don't Reset that'll never happen...' Sans thought as he calmed down 'Geez kiddo, I wanted to tell that you needed to learn how to Quit so many times, but you could've done it in a way that wouldn't seriously screw us over...'

Sans found no further point in arguing with someone who wasn't there and couldn't even hear him, so he sighed yet again and looked at the large windows: barring the barrier and some remote parts of the cave where the Capital was made, this hallway offered the best view of what the Surface was like.

Thought no one but himself and Frisk (oddly enough) could actually look at the windows and see what was beyond the glass, which was pretty sad for the rest of monsterkind.

The small skeleton was now at a loss of what to do, but then decided to go to his basement. Not the castle's, since seeing the graves of long-dead children wouldn't be of any use to him (let alone raise his mood), but his house's.

With a flicker of cyan magic enveloping his body, no trace of Sans remained in the hall.

X X X

Despite becoming king, cooking was still one of Papyrus' favourite activities and, since Undyne was away on vacation, he needed another teacher. Fortunately the royal chef was up to the task.

The first lesson the skeleton felt as if a new world had been opened to him.

He was extremely marveled by the chef's cooking techniques and observed with utmost attention each and every one of his movements, which were much calmer (though admittedly more monotone) than Undyne's.

'Wowie! Who could've told that you could cut vegetables with a knife!? And with such care, too!' Papyrus thought at the time.

Blobbus, the royal chef, was really taken aback by the king's excitement over something as trivial as cutting tomatoes. Though he should've known his quirks even before Papyrus became king and he got current position.

Blobbus was a dark-green slime with three eyeballs and a few long tentacles. Despite his "skin" being slimy and his lack of hands, he would always strive to achieve perfect hygiene at his workplace and learn the ancient art of shaping one's slimy gelatinous body.

Blobbus wasn't always the royal chef, in fact he got that position only a little more than a week ago! He previously worked in Droplet, the largest village of Waterfall which was especially famous for its cuisine. Blobbus always thought of having learned from the best chefs monsterkind could offer, even going as far as to study ancient recipe books (event those written by humans) from morning to evening.

Like all monsters, he admired Undyne's courage and would mourn her loss until he fell down.

But getting to know her cooking skills might have just changed his opinion of her for the worst.

'Fortunately her pupil can still be saved!' Blobbus thought in relief, though by saying that he felt like he was not only betraying Undyne, but also erasing her mark on Papyrus, who was so attached to her that he refuse to accept the fact she was dead.

'Maybe though...just maybe...it's best if I adjust my teachings so that they match Undyne's a bit..." Blobbus thought as he felt a little bit better about himself. Though he couldn't predict what would unfold next.

He finished cutting the vegetables and looked at Papyrus taking the spaghetti out and looking at them tentatively. Blobbus thought he wanted to cut them by using karate-chops, so the slime told him "Your majesty, if you so desire, you can cut them the way Undyne would, thought please make sure your hands are properly washed"

As he expected, Papyrus beamed at that and began cutting the pasta in his 'usual' way.

The skeleton was quite happy that Blobbus let him do that: it was as if he was still at Undyne's house, her teacher...well...teaching him all the cool ways of cooking!

Papyrus now looked at the counter and saw all of the carefully cut vegetables. Most of them were tomatoes and and jalapeƱos, since they were making a "mexican" recipe depicted in Blobbus' books.

'Who knows where he actually found them...' Papyrus thought as he saw the slime cutting the final veggies with practiced calm. Seeing Blobbus working with such dedication gave Papyrus an idea, completely in line with the spicy soup they were making.

"Alright, we are done with the vegetables, now we just have a few steps before the soup is complete!" Blobbus said to Papyrus, who then replied "Ah, good! But can I please handle the heat, just to give it an extra punch it might need?"

"Surely, your majesty!" Blobbus said as he put the vegetables in the pot and put it on the oven. Papyrus then turned up the heat, a bit too high for Blobbus' liking, but he decided that he didn't mind it much.

After a minute, Papyrus said "I say it's coming along quite well, but I think it needs more heat..." and promptly turned the heat higher. Blobbus said nothing.

This scenario repeated itself for the next ten minutes and the slime felt the need to speak up after he thought he saw the pot catching fire.

"Your majesty, I say you must stop turning up the heat of the oven!" Blobbus said to Papyrus, the latter saying "Don't worry about it, Blobbus! The Great Papyrus has everything under control for I know all of the properties of the vegetables cultivated in the Grassy Plateau!"

Blobbus knew that Papyrus was always scrupulous in reading the reports from the Royal Scientists, but there was a detail they failed to account for.

Blobbus first smacked himself mentally for having remembered it just now and then shouted "But sir, you do not know that the Infernal JalapeƱos cultivated have explosive properties if exposed to enough heat!"

Papyrus' non-existent eyes bulged out of their sockets at hearing about this. "What?! How come I wasn't informed of this?" he replied panicking.

"Your majesty, I only found out about it today from my pen-friend who worked at a greenhouse in the Plateau. I'm sorry for forgetting about that important detail" Blobbus admitted in shame.

Papyrus accepted his apologies, but none of the two monsters noticed that the pot was actually catching fire now. Papyrus briefly looked at it and then shouted "COVER!".

Time went slow-motion in that moment, Papyrus shoving Blobbus (and himself) out of the way as the explosion began.

Then time continued normally and all the two monsters could feel were flames, smoke and a loud, roaring noise.

Blobbus, under the weight of his king's armor, finally understood why exactly Papyrus sucked at cooking.

X X X

After surviving that explosion, fixing the kitchen, cleaning the kitchen, apologizing to Blobbus (who was quite shaken by the experience) and then cleaning himself up, Papyrus was in the meeting room, seated and patently waiting for the new captain of the Royal Guard to come speaking to him about a peculiar matter.

It wasn't as if she was late, but because the new king of the Underground had made a promise to himself and that was to be always punctual to any meeting or task his new job brought with it.

Even if it meant he had to wait for the ones he had to speak with for a little more than an hour.

"Your majesty, why must you always insist on repeating this habit of yours?" a deep and annoyed voice spoke from beside him. Papyrus turned and said "But honorable Sol, please understand that a king must be always ready for everything! What if Dohj were to come here right now? You know how strict she is with timing and whatnot..."

"I know that Dohj can be huge pain in the ass- I meant stickler when talking about rules and punctuality, but she's not that crazy over these matters" Sol replied respectfully to the king.

Sol (full name is Solfuego) is a fire spirit whose body consists of a large ball made out of orange-purple flames and two medium-sized fiery hands, which can be either harmless or painful, based on his emotions. He's a rather laid-back monster who tends to avoid fights, but has also a serious side that compels him to do execute his duties with zeal.

Solfuego is a low-ranked noble whose birth dated back to the time before the first human fell; being a wealthy fire-based monster who sometimes boasted of being part boss-monster, he lived in the city of Blaze, the biggest (and only) city in Hotland.

Despite his important status, his opinions regarding humanity as a whole didn't gain him the favor of the Royal Family, especially when Chara entered the picture. Thus he wasn't very active in that time...

...until the prince's death, that is.

With Asgore declaring war upon humankind, Solfuego offered himself to be the main patron of not just the Royal Guard, but also the scientific development (mainly for the upcoming war, but his funds also went in other important sectors, such as medicine and telecommunications).

Papyrus, despite his contrasting opinions regarding humanity, still saw Solfuego's merits and appointed him as the economical expert, who would give the king weekly reports on the ongoing economical state of the Underground.

"I see, well I can use this time to give me your report then" Papyrus said.

Solfuego 'Straightened up' and began his report "Your majesty, the economical situation of the Ruins is as stable as ever, with Muffet's bakery as the leading business, however there are some who suspect her of illegal practices towards the competition, given how they started to also sell products made by her at slightly higher prices than the norm"

Papyrus listened to him and asked "I see, so what do you propose?". Solfuego didn't skip a beat as he answered "Since this could cause a situation of monopoly, I think it's best to put limitations on Muffet's activity, such as a fixed price for her products and the encouragement of friendlier relations between the businesses of the Ruins, even if they can be counted on a single hand"

Papyrus beamed at him and said "Yes, The Great Papyrus approves of your ideas!", then he returned serious and continued "So, I do not need a report on Snowdin as I already know the situation is fine there, but I am rather curious on how Waterfall is going? After all, it seems that they don't engage much with the rest of the Underground..."

Solfuego then gave Papyrus his report on the villages "The villages of Waterfall are quite far from other, larger settlements like Blaze and Snowdin and the path to either is usually harder for outsiders to traverse. However they are still in good condition and the laws of fair trade are being respected"

Papyrus at that at Sol continued on "The situations of Blaze and the Capital are fine as always, Verde is the main (and only) producer of biological products in the Grassy Plateau, though they're closely following the laws of fair trade, and the three cities of the Bottomless Chasms are suspected of doing illegal practices, such as not following safety norms, overworking the miners and raising prices"

"I see, looks like tomorrow I'll have to visit Copper, Tungsten and Gemmore to get at the bottom of this, but first talk to me about Verde. Last week they said production wasn't going so well..." Papyrus said with a pensive look in his eye-sockets.

"According to the headmaster of the plantations, there were problems connected to one of the rivers used to irrigate them: apparently one of them was poisoned and the farmers there noticed it too late, so they had to take back all of the products harvested in those specific plantations and closed them down" Sol said to Papyrus, who was decisively taken aback by the information. The fire spirit thought that his king was angry at the headmaster of Verde for keeping such an important information for himself, but in reality Papyrus was very worried about the farmers and felt pity for the headmaster, who was probably too scared of the repercussions for his supposed negligence.

"That is a disaster! I'll have to go there immediately!" Papyrus shouted as he propelled (literally) from his chair and bolted to the two-faces door. He opened it forcefully, but stopped at the three monsters in front of him:

A brown dog with very soft fur and floppy ears.

An ocelot with bright yellow fur dotted with many tiny black and white points, her right eye red while her left eye blue.

And lastly a fat pigeon with a blue and grey plumage and muddy green eyes.

"We're a bit early, your majesty, but due to present circumstances we ask to start the meeting immediately. There are situations that , if left unchecked, can become...troublesome" the dog respectfully told Papyrus, but he could tell that the dog's voice was laced with frustration and shame, the latter being an odd feeling.

Papyrus knew these three monsters very well:

The stern-looking dog on the front, dressed in the traditional grey armor of the Royal Guard, is called Bassiere von Dohj III, commonly known as just Dohj, and is the new captain of the Royal Guard. She commands her subordinates with an iron paw and demands from the guardsmen respect of the rules, efficiency in training/combat and devotion to the crown. That said, however, Dohj doesn't like king Papyrus much, both for his eccentric behavior and for his perceived lack of seriousness. She also gained a fairly negative reputation among the Guard due to her strictness and occasional rude comments, but all of them still recognize Dohj as a very skilled fighter/spellcaster, only second to the now-deceased Undyne.

The energetic ocelot behind Dohj, dressed in the dark-brown leather uniform of the long-ranged division of the Royal Guard (consisting of long pants, a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of goggles on her forehead), was called Capala, a promising rookie with excellent agility and great skills in offensive magic, however not only was Capala bad at close combat in general, but she also tended to act on instinct.

Lastly, the pigeon behind the two of them, dressed in a dark-green camouflage suit and sporting dark-green goggles, was called Cipro, a soft-spoken monster who has virtually no fighting skills and little casting skills. However he was among the smartest monsters in the Royal Guard (being on equal standing with Dohj's) and quite stealthy as well.

Papyrus really wished he could tell Dohj and her subordinates to wait in the room while he attended the serious matter in Verde, but he also wanted to hear out what the captain had to say simply because in these times Royal Guard never came to him with news that required such urgent attention.

They started walking towards the table and Papyrus really couldn't contain the blaring question in his mind, desperately begging to be given voice. "Say, has a human fell into the Underground?" Papyrus asked casually, not even thinking about what he said. "W-w-what!? No! Your majesty, it is NOT a human, otherwise the Royal Guard would have been deployed into the Ruins immediately" Dohj replied hastily, the aura of discomfort around her still there for Papyrus to see, as well as the rest of the monsters in the meeting room.

They all sat at the round table and Papyrus said, in a calm voice "Please, Mrs. Dohj, I can tell these news upset you much. Please calm yourself until you feel good enough to inform me". Dohj looked at him "Your majesty, the matter is that, as of late, there have been rumors about the presence of..." the captain looked as if she had trouble with using the right word "...beasts attacking the citizens"

At that Papyrus was pretty concerned, but his expression communicated that he needed more information on the situation.

Dohj understood this and continued "It all started two weeks ago when two young villagers of Rivercoast came up to the Royal Guardsmen and told them they had been attacked by a large, grey-furred beast, but thankfully escaped unharmed. We dispatched some guardsmen to the place they mentioned, but we found neither signs of a battle nor the smell of the beast, so at the time we thought it was just some prank of the youngsters. Over the course of these two weeks, however, there have been calls from the villages of Rivercoast, Mudpond and Droplet about this same beast, but the guardsmen sent there never found anything. Sometimes they found strange footsteps in the mud, but following them didn't give us additional clues on this mystery. We collectively decided these incidents were just elaborate pranks...until, near one of the Royal Guard's stations, four guardsmen were attacked on camera by none other than the beast itself, and it wasn't alone either"

Papyrus was now very invested in the matter and said "Don't worry about this, Mrs. Dohj. You have done whatever you could on the incident and I'm sure the guardsmen investigated the matter as best as they could. But I must ask if you have further information, if any at all, of the beast and how that encounter exactly went". Papyrus was more interested on the wellbeing of the guardsmen while Dohj interpreted the question differently "The guards were taken by surprise by the beasts, but 'luckily' there were only two of them, so the guardsmen sent them back to where they came from without receiving serious injuries".

"Great news! Now though, do you have any-" Papyrus began speaking, but Cipro beat him to it by handing him some photos as well as a video cassette. "These photos have been taken by the surveillance camera while the guardsmen were attacked by the beasts; the cassette contains, of course, the recording of the attack" Cipro added as the king began looking at the photos, showing the four guardsmen skillfully avoiding the beasts, which Papyrus recognized immediately, though a quick look on his face could tell that Papyrus was quite confused about the discovery.

"Oh, I know these beasts! They're supposed to be the so called 'rodents' known as 'rats'! But they're supposed to be pretty tiny, these ones seem to be as large as tables..." Papyrus said as he shifted his attention from one photo to the other "I will view this video cassette once I have the time, but right now I want to know what sort of solution you have to this problem" he then finished.

Cipro was going to answer but Capala decided it was her time to speak, so she abruptly cut him off "Simple, we'll just have to follow these evil rats to their smelly lair and give them a butt-kicking they will remember for ages!" she shouted as her eyes beamed with tiny lighting bolts. She might have continued to speak, but Dohj hushed her and turned to Papyrus at a velocity that made Capala pretty jealous.

"I'm sorry for my subordinate speaking out of turn, she's still a new recruit" Dohj said in an apologetic tone, but Papyrus raised his hand and said "No need for excuses, Mrs. Dohj, I appreciate her enthusiasm and eagerness!". Capala beamed at him and pumped her fist in sign of victory, something Dohj sneered at, while Cipro just facepalmed at it with his left wing.

Papyrus and Dohj returned serious to continue their discussion where they left it off, with the king asking "So, what plan have you in mind to stop this crisis?" and Dohj relating her plan with a tone of finality and slight frustration "For now the Royal Guard will put almost all of their forces in Waterfall, creating a perimeter around Rivercoast, Mudpond and Droplet, with particular attention to the roads that connect these settlements to one another and Waterfall to Snowdin and Hotland. We absolutely cannot let these beasts spread to the whole Underground, especially since there could be many more prowling around without us knowing".

Papyrus wanted to argue with Dohj about putting nearly all of the guardsmen in a single location, but her tone was so strong that he kept any objection to himself and merely answered with a nod.

Dohj nodded in return and said "Well then, I will begin mobilizing the guard in a few moments".

Dohj got up, Capala following her action, and Papyrus got up as well, although much faster than the canine. The skeletal king looked as if he was ready to bolt, he stopped as Cipro raised his right wing and asked "Your majesty, if you have a moment of your time, I would like to share a rumor going around the miners in the Bottomless Chasm. It seems that some of the deepest mines appear to be haunted by a giant bug called 'centipede', which was able to easily carve its path through stone and throw a minecart around with its pincers".

As Cipro uttered these words, it was as if the world around them suddenly stopped, with time itself following suit. Dohj turned to the stubby avian very slowly and said very calmly "Why haven't you told me that before".

She voiced this sentence so calmly that everyone in the room recoiled, Capala also making a considerable jump and Cipro falling off his chair.

There was another short moment of silence, where everyone was still as the calmest pond of water...

...until Cipro exploded in an astounding radiance of disrespect.

"YOU ARROGANT, STUCK UP, IDIOTIC MUTT! I was going to tell you about this rumor but you didn't want to 'lose time with something as fickle as that' and promptly ignored me! Besides that rumor was a week old without any sort of follow-up, so I didn't know if it was real to begin with and thus worth our attention!" Cipro shouted in Dohj's face in a bout of uncharacteristic anger.

The moment of silence didn't even have the time to enter existence as a fiery argument broke out, or what could have been appropriately called a heated shouting match.

Papyrus turned to Solfuego and quickly said "I will go to Verde in the meantime I leave the situation in your hands" and promptly ran and jumped out of the closed window, easily shattering it. Capala saw the king jumping out of the window and decided to follow him, both curious at what he might be doing and terrified at the extent of her superiors' infernal rage.

Solfuego was utterly silent and wide-eyed as he was abandoned in a room with two loud lunatics and decided that the best course of action was to leave the room immediately.

So he did just that. Stealthily.

Dohj and Cipro kept shouting at each other, not aware that they were alone in the room, or of the heavy steps coming from the other side of the door.

X X X

Papyrus was running for his life, trying to arrive at the Capital's border as fast as possible before Dohj noticed his disappearance. Not only he wanted to settle the matters in Verde as soon as possible, but he also didn't want to be around a shouting match between two of the highest-ranking monsters of the Royal Guard.

As Papyrus run in the empty streets of the Capital, he noticed that the "rain" had stopped, leaving wet stone and shallow ponds as a mark of its previous presence.

Papyrus felt relieved by the uncharacteristic silence of the Capital's streets, until he heard the sound of fast-moving paws coming from his left side. He turned around and saw Capala running beside him in her usual four-legged stance.

The few times Papyrus sparred with the rookie, she used this stance to give herself even more speed and to skillfully avoid his attacks, including his fabled blue attack, but that same stance made attacking really difficult, especially given the fact that her main weapon was a crossbow that shoots lightning arrows.

Because of this, the spar turned into a battle of attrition and Capala, despite having an admittedly good amount of stamina, was still too green and was thus beaten by Papyrus.

He remembered that she was kind of embarrassed that she lost in a fight she started, but a few well-meaning words from Papyrus did put her at ease and pushed her to train herself even harder.

Papyrus felt pride at seeing her grow both in mind and body, it almost made him feel like Undyne, until he realized that if things were to go south after monsterkind broke the barrier, then she might as well get drafted into a bloody war without any chances of winning for monsterkind...along with many other young guardsmen, all of whom put their full faith in his hands.

Papyrus shook his head to dispel the dark turn his train of thoughts abruptly took. He decided that it was best to talk to Capala in order to achieve that, but as he turned his head she said, a bit annoyed but still excited "Finally you notice me! Can you tell me where are we exactly going?"

"Oh, we're going to Verde in order to check out a situation. Apparently some of the plantations were affected by a shortage in the production of vegetables. Unfortunately the grandmaster didn't go in depth in explaining this issue, so I'll go there myself to assess the situation" Papyrus answered and Capala's eyes gleamed.

"Cool!" she replied "Do you think this is some secret plot of the humans to destabilize us or it's something from the Bottomless Chasm influencing the magical atmosphere of the Underground?" Capala then asked with a mischievous grin. Papyrus grimaced at Capala: to the skeleton, she had a lot of spirit and the right mindset for the Royal Guard, but she tended to believe made-up stories and judge humans based on the actions of the few instead of their individual value.

"Capala" Papyrus said very calmly "What did I tell you about conspiracy theories?". The ocelot grimaced as she begrudgingly recited "Don't believe in them?". Papyrus nodded "Exactly! I assure you that the folks in the Bottomless Chasm are not involved in some ruinous plot for the Underground, and when a human comes we'll see if they are good or bad. Still, we're gonna give puzzles either way, so you can focus on that!"

Capala frowned at her king. She always liked Papyrus because he was nice and just, but she quickly realized that he was too just.

'Why do we have to turn the other cheek for the humans!? They put us in this situation in the first place!' Capala thought angrily, even as the words of her mother flowed in her mind.

'Yeah, yeah, the humans now may not be as bad as the ones then, but look at that human who came a few weeks ago!' she argued aganist her mother's words, ignoring the small voice in her mind that reminded her that the human only killed those who wanted to kill him.

Papyrus saw the mental argument in Capala's mind and decided to put it to rest.

The rest of the run was quick and quiet as the two monsters finally reached the border of the Capital. Capala was now waiting Papyrus for instructions on where to go next, since she had never been in Verde before, only saw photos of the place.

'I can't believe I'm actually going there!' the ocelot squealed mentally and suddenly heard the electronic sound of the elevator.

"I assure you, this is a faster and most comfortable route to Verde! You'll probably like it!" Papyrus told her as they slid in the moving metal box. One awkward, silent wait later and they were out of the contraption and in front of a large tunnel.

It was decently illuminated and it looked like one of those "train stations" the humans had. On either side of the train-tracks there were various royal guardsmen around, either chatting, eating, drinking, listening to their superiors or boarding the rectangular red-and-white-colored trains. On the ceiling there was a large, electronic sign that displayed the trains that were supposed to arrive, those that arrived already and those who were going to arrive late.

Capala's tail was wiggling excitedly and she found that she liked this place. Papyrus, happy at seeing her reaction, explained her, with his usual flavor, the station's purpose "Capala, look at this marvel of engineering and technology, all made possible by dozens of hard-working monsters! You see, this particular train station is exclusively used by the Royal Guard and it allows us to travel to Verde and to the Bottomless Chasm in record time!"

Capala was probably going to say something, but a loud metallic whine interrupted her. Papyrus looked to his side, then at the large sign and saw that their train arrived just now.

Without saying anything, he grabbed Capala and bolted to the open door.

Inside the small-yet-comfortable carriage, Capala saw that there were only a few other passengers, most of which were garbed in armor but one, strangely enough, wore civilian clothing. The peculiarly-clothed bat also had a white-colored and black-outlined badge, which displayed something akin to the Dreemurrs' insignia, but the triangles were replaced by green ampoules and the circle, as well as the wings, were colored red and blue respectively.

Capala had honestly never seen that version of the emblem in her entire life and so decided to ask Papyrus about it.

"Oh, that? It's the insignia of the RSC, the Royal Scientific Council! You see, after Alphys'...disappearance, we had to find a new Royal Scientist, so I organized a contest between the academy's greatest minds! Though, it ended in a massive draw so I decided to give the position to the six participants who scored the highest. Thus, the RSC was born! I do like their emblem but, truth to be told, I'm not a big fan of it...only because there are no bones there!" the skeleton explained the eager ocelot.

The bat then noticed them and waved at them, coming closer. "Good afternoon, your majesty. And to you to, lady" the purple-furred bat addressed the two monsters, though Capala was a bit miffed about being called a 'lady'. It definitely not fit her at all!

"Ah, good afternoon to you too, Romiu! This here is a promising rookie of the Royal Guard, Capala!" Papyrus greeted the esteemed scientist and Capala said "Nice to meet you, Romiu!" as she energetically shook the bat's hand.

He was taken aback by the gesture, but still maintained his composure as he asked "So, may I know why are you en route to the Bottomless Chasm?"

Papyrus and Capala stopped for a few second and then the former slowly said "...Romiu, this train is going to Verde".

Now it was Romiu's turn to freeze for a few seconds, but then said "No, this isn't right. There's already Schmitt handling the situation at Verde...I should be at Tungsten studying this dangerous material known as 'uranium'..."

Papyrus gulped and explained the whole situation to Romiu. The bat, despite being very intelligent and quite observant, always tended to space out and put himself in situations similar to this one.

"So it's like this..." Romiu said with a crestfallen expression "Then I have no choice but to wait for the next train..."

Capala meanwhile heard the loud shrieking of the train, sign that they arrived at their destination.

"Ah!" Papyrus said in delight "Come Capala, I have a feeling you'll like the Grassy Plateau!", then Papyrus turned around and said to Romiu "Good luck with your endeavor!" as the three got down the train.

Capala sprinted with her four legs, fuelled by her desire to see this place with her own eyes. Once she opened the door (or, better yet, threw herself at it) Capala's feline eyes grew the size of plates the moment she saw the Grassy Plateau.

It was a true paradise, with an endless sea of light-green grass swaying from left to right by the gentle wind and made sparkling by the warm yellow rays of the sun above. There were large grey stone pillars rising from the sea of green to support the ceiling above, where sharp stalagmites were silently threatening to plow on unsuspecting monsters...but at least this ceiling had holes! Large holes where the sun's light came down like sweet honey.

There were also trees lying around the plain and the more Capala looked at them, the more she wanted to climb these trees, especially the larger one in the back.

Finally, in front of her there was a beaten path with a bus capable of transporting at least two dozen monsters.

'This is infinitely better than the photos...' Capala uttered in her mind but was snapped back to reality by a light pat on her shoulder. She turned around as Papyrus said "This is a really nice place indeed! We, including the great Papyrus, could do nothing but gawk at all of this for a few minutes. Also...". "...These holes are covered by the barrier too, aren't they?" Capala finished with annoyance.

Papyrus tried to say some, but then deflated and instead said "Yeah, let's just say that destroyed the team's morale...especially the discovery that this barrier isn't the same as the one in our Underground...".

Capala had a glimmer of hope that this barrier was weaker but then Papyrus continued "... According to the RSC, this one is somehow much older and, if we wanted to break it down, that would require fourteen human souls."

Capala's lower jaw was very close to dropping on the soft grass with a loud CLANG.

'What the hell!? Why did they make this barrier to begin with!? Why do these humans have to make our escape from the earth much harder!...' Capala mentally shouted, but then asked herself '...Though, why is this one stronger? And what's the deal with how old it is?'.

Papyrus, almost reading her mind, said "I know what you might be thinking and I, the great Papyrus, think that we found (or at least about to find) the answer to this dilemma! I'll show it to you once we've looked at the situation in Verde!"

Capala merely nodded, grateful for the answer but confused as to how she got it in the first place, and followed her king in the bus, whose engines soon started.

Papyrus was humming his own theme song throughout the drive while Capala had her feline face glued to the window as she watched the wondrous scenery all around her.

At one point Capala also noticed the path they were treading dividing itself in three different directions: the one on the left had more trees around it and seemingly brought nowhere; the one on the right which disappears behind hills; the one in front of them, which was decorated by a lot of wildly-colored flowers. The bus simply took the road in front of it, but Capala was now curious about the two other paths and so asked Papyrus about it.

"Oh, those? Well Capala, after going to Verde I had in mind bringing you to the one in the left, just to show you something which is linked to the barrier in the Grassy Plateau" Papyrus said he momentarily stopped humming and Capala nodded slowly, now her interest in the situation in Verde dwindling by the minute.

The bus kept going, slowly rocking from left to right.

X X X

Despite the lightning-quick change of leadership in the Underground and the wave of new elections in all of its cities, Snowdin didn't change one bit. The snow still fell peacefully from the cavernous ceiling above and the townsfolk were still as vibrant as ever.

One house in particular reflected that. Two-floor tall, Christmas lights blaring under the roof and with a "stylish" classic pirate flag on top, the residence of the skeleton bros truly is the symbol of the city's warmth in this otherwise macabre forest. What most monsters don't know about, however, is the older skeleton's laboratory underneath the house.

This secret location can be accessed by going on the left side of the house and using an even more secret key obtained through...unconventional means.

The laboratory, was small and pristine white, with a few desks and drawers on the left side of the room and various machinery on its right side (four terminals and two medium-sized monitors).

Sans was currently looking at the monitors: the one on the left displayed various differently-colored lines, some being straight, some abruptly ending and some branching in different directions; the one on the right displayed a map of the whole Underground, decorated with some markers and blood-red stars.

'...These recent timelines have been weird...' Sans thought as he went to a desk and wrote something on a document, which described the order of each timeline, which Sans grouped together for the sake of convenience.

The first group was called "The pacifism era" which was self-explanatory. The kid supposedly did many pacifist runs and probably freed monsterkind a bunch of times.

The second group was called "The spiral downwards", where the kid supposedly continued to do increasingly gruesome neutral routes, ending this group with the first genocide.

The third group was called "The massacre" which was...self-explanatory too.

The fourth group, which was the weirdest one so far, didn't have a name for how random it was.

Genocide routes. Pacifist routes. Neutral routes. All of them would happen in a jumbled-up order and sometimes would end suddenly without any logical reason.

Sans frowned as he read the documents he supposedly wrote. He frowned at the monitors and terminals beeping every once in a while. He frowned at the entire room he was in.

The documents of which only he could see their writing. The monitors only and only he could understand. The room only he could enter in.

'All of this is an anomaly, but why does it exist? Why only I can comprehend it?' Sans questioned himself and nearly doubled over, as if he was in pain '...None of this makes sense...' he then thought as he looked at the other monitor.

This one instead displayed two things: Sans' preferred spots for his shortcuts and the human's so called "save points"...or at least they should have been on the monitor.

"Well, if these readings are anything to go by, then I guess the human really IS gone..." Sans said with an amused tone, but then returned serious "...and so seems to be the Weed. Though, I'll have to search the Underground more throughly if I want to truly confirm that"

Sans moved away from the monitors and began typing away on a terminal. More buttons were pressed and, after a while, the nearby printer started doing its work.

Sans retrieved the newly-printed document and put inside the drawer. Then he felt tired by all of this nonsense and decided to end his observation of the timelines for today.

A quick teleport later and Sans softly landed on the old couch, ready to take an especially long nap.

It was at times like these that Sans often thought about what his brother was doing at the moment. Papyrus was always going to all kinds of meetings with nearly all of the remotely important monsters of the Underground, while little old him either handled a part of the paperwork or just slept to his heart's content...

His train of thoughts would have continued on for a few minutes but its conductor was already fast asleep.

X X X

Under the warm rays of the sun and between the blooming flowers the bus finally stopped and Capala almost wanted to get transfered to this sections of the Underground.

In terms of size, Verde was just a little bigger than Snowdin. The houses were mostly made of colored wood and each of them had small lawns decorated with various flowers and fences around them. Further ahead there was also a large market where many monsters bought and sold different items, from clothes to books, but especially food.

Papyrus saw that she was very interested in the market and explained "That is a very special market that attracts lots of monsters from nearly all around the Underground! That's because the food there, especially the fruits and veggies, are actually not made with magic!"

Capala turned around to face him, her face expressing both wonder and disbelief, and immediately bolted to the stands bustling with activity. Meanwhile Papyrus decided to go to the headmaster to settle the situation, though it was a slow walk since he often stopped to converse with the folks of Verde.

Eventually he got out of the village and arrived at the plantations. Papyrus was sure that Capala would have jumped in utter amazement at the huge fields and the crystal-blue rivers. He surveyed each field as he walked on the beaten path and occasional bridges, sometimes waving at the workers, until he arrived at a set of empty fields, near the headmaster's mansion.

Papyrus got closer and could see that in front of the building two monsters were talking frantically. The one on the right was a grey-furred fat bunny with short limbs and absurdly long ears, while the other one was a snake with three eyes and a pair of angelic-white wings.

Papyrus recognized the former as Holsen, also informally known as "Buzz Bonny", headmaster of Verde's plantations, and the latter as Schmitt, one of the most brilliant members of the RSC.

"Wait, you two! As the king of the Underground, I demand you stop at once" Papyrus ordered as he got closer, deciding that now was the right time to use the authority that came with his new status. Upon hearing his voice, the monsters stopped talking and turned towards him.

"Y-your majesty! I-I didn't know you were coming today, I'm so s-sorry!" the headmaster sputtered a greeting as he saw his king, but Papyrus said "Don't worry, headmaster! I, the great Papyrus, already know of the ordeal you're going through and I am here to tell you that it's fine, but that I want to know the precise details of the unfortunate incident!"

Holsen was going to say something, but the winged snake cut him off as he said in an almost venomous tone "Not so fast, you"

He then addressed Papyrus next as he spoke "Your majesty, I think this miscreant needs some kind of punishment, because this ordeal was made possible by his negligence! It all started two weeks and a half ago, when our probes were doing standard surveillance on the four rivers we use for irrigation. A particular river was also used by the humans for some kind of industrial process, however they had installed water purifiers so any probability of contamination was highly unlikely...until some of them malfunctioned. I noticed this and immediately notified the headmaster about it while also telling him to close the fields which use that river as a precaution. He didn't listen to me since he 'could not afford to lower the production'. Lo and behold, two weeks later and the machines tasked to control the quality of products found out that they were poisoned! Fortunately they weren't put on the market, or we would have had an health crisis on our hands. Long story short, I had to make robots to purify the affected fields and install purifiers on all four rivers as a precaution for any future incidents. It was time-consuming and I could have done 15 different tasks in that time! The reason I am here is because I found he didn't mention the incident at all in the report!"

Papyrus was blown away by the explanation and Holsen spoke next "...He's right, your majesty...But the only reason I did this was that demand was going through the roof! Lowering the offer would have certainly caused an uproar and many problems for the merchants!"

Schmitt would have roared again, but Papyrus stopped the snake scientist and spoke to Holsen with a sympathetic yet-remotely-stern "I understand your reasoning, Holsen, but if it wasn't for Schmitt then there would have been an even bigger problem to handle! Because of this, I will have to strip you of your position"

The fat rabbit took it surprisingly well and said "Certainly, your majesty..." and walked away from the mansion.

Papyrus nodded to himself and said to himself "Well, now I only need to notify the mayor so a new headmaster can be elected!", then he turned to Schmitt and said "Once again the Underground thanks you for your service, Schmitt, however I think you have to work on how to talk to people without exponentially escalating the situation"

The snake raised his head as his three eyes twitched in annoyance, but managed to recollect himself "Yes, your majesty, it is an honour to devote my intellect to the Underground's wellbeing. However I must ask that the Underground has to go through a third industrial revolution. Manufacturing all of those robots and probes in such a short period of time was only possible thanks to the humongous worker team at my disposal..." Schmitt said to Papyrus, then momentarily stopped and continued "...Oh, and if you wanted to ask, the Surface Gallery is nearing completion. We only need a few more photos and another quality control"

Papyrus' eye-sockets gleamed in excitement as he asked "Really!? Wowie Schmitt, you're the best! Rest assured, the robotics facility is actually nearing completion!...Though, back to the Surface Gallery, how many days are we talking about?"

Schmitt actually had to do calculations to answer that question, but eventually got it "Just two more days, then we'll have all the photos we need"

"GREAT!" Papyrus shouted and started running on the opposite as he said "Now I have to do just a few things, catch you later!"

Schmitt looked at the retreating form of the king and released a sigh, thinking about these recent months.

Even though he admired Papyrus for his spirit and for giving him this position, Schmitt couldn't help but feel annoyed at his king's childish and hyperactive behavior...

...though out of the other important monsters of the previous era, Papyrus was the one he disliked the least, along with Asgore: to him Alphys was a bumbling incompetent fool who cheated her way into position, Undyne was a loudmouth who barely got anything done, the queen wasn't even worth mentioning anymore and Mettaton actually scared the hell out of him.

Schmitt also had some complaints directed at his colleagues, but he kept those to himself as he recognized that each and every one of them objectively deserved their role and made the best with it.

Even Romiu, who probably got the train wrong and was now in Verde instead of the Bottomless Chasm.

Schmitt decided to make his way to the village. A dish of steamed vegetables would raise his overall mood after that incident with the former headmaster.

X X X

By the time Papyrus had finished talking with the mayor and now reached the bus station, he found out Capala had bought 1kg of five different vegetables, a vegitoid plushie and three postcards. She was so happy her fur was giving off a continuous shine.

The two got back on the bus as the impossibly-excited ocelot was now vomiting a plethora of words at him.

She finished just as the bus took a different route, the one with a lot of trees.

"Say, where are we going?" Capala said as the shine around her dimmed slightly and Papyrus answered "Since there is voice you like medieval stuff, I know of a location that will certainly be of your liking!"

The ocelot's ears perked up and she remained silent for the rest of the drive. The suspense was just torturing her now! Capala tried to focus on the scenery around them, but not only the verdant trees now somehow proved to be less interesting, there was also less light overall.

Eventually the bus stopped and Capala literally bolted out of the barely-halfway-open automatic doors. If Dohj saw that, she would reprimand Capala for using her magic trivially.

But right now the ocelot wasn't paying attention to her own thoughts, completely paralyzed by the sight before her.

Standing taller than the Royal Palace and half-drowned in the darkness was a gargantuan castle. By the erosion of the dark-grey stone bricks, the rust on the visible metal objects and the rotting wood, Capala could tell that this structure was old. The walls stood imperiously over everything else in the vicinity, barring the nearby stone pillars; at each angle of the castle's perimeter four massive towers, with many small windows and armed with cannons at the top, watched the land with timeless scrutiny; and at the center of it all the main building seemed to be the least threatening thing inside that ancient complex, with no weapons on display.

Capala was silent in front of this colossal monstrosity of worn stone and only when Papyrus came to her side she breathlessly asked "...What is this?"

"This is an ancient human fortress and the most interesting fact about it is that it's actually older than the War!...If the documents found inside are anything to go by" Papyrus explained to her. Capala almost didn't believe this information and almost shouted the question lingering in her mind "Papyrus...where actually is the Grassy Plateau?"

Papyrus went quiet for a moment, trying to recall the piece of information, but another voice piped in as it said "We are in a nearby continent, believe it or not"

Both Papyrus and Capala turned around to find Gerson walking towards them as he continued "By the recordings of these fancy probes and good old speculation, the Grassy Plateau is in another continent, with seemingly no human population and separated from the other one (where Mount Ebott is located) by an ocean"

Papyrus immediately remembered something as he said "Ah yes! The probes' exploration of the Surface let us know about many things, such as the Capital being technically near a large human city and both train stations being technically under beaches! Technical thinking of the great Papyrus, of course!"

Capala's jaw would've definitely hit the floor now. So, rended speechless by the previous revelation, she decided to look around and immediately found a large statue, showing a human knight holding a sword with his right hand and placing his left hand on his chest.

"Probably making some sort of oath..." Capala muttered as she got closer.

Despite most of her time outside playing sports with her friends or training at her post, Capala also spent copious amounts of time staying at home reading history books. Capala especially liked books which talked about orders of monster knights.

The ocelot's favourite knight orders were the Greenskins, whose members were exclusively orcs dedicated to helping villages in case of violent storms, Dragon's Keep, whose draconic members amassed wealth just to donate it to the less-fortunate, and most importantly Fur of the Just, a group of feline paladins who fought for justice in the slums of both human and monster cities. They followed their SOULs while pursuing their missions, even when the law wasn't on their side. This order of knights didn't have a chastity rule like most and so spawned a lineage that was beyond ancient. Capala was part of that same lineage, its youngest member, and she would devote her life to her kind's wellbeing.

Her next step now was to learn how to properly use a sword.

As she got close, Capala could see an emblem on the front of the pedestal. It was a shield with a bow in its centre. One she knew of...

...Capala almost never read about human history. She was more interested about the monsters' and found no reason to ever learn about the humans'.

Though, in the instances Capala finished all the books available to her and was bored out of her metaphorical skull, she would fish out old tomes about human history. Why did her ancestors even have those? Capala didn't know for the life of her.

Human kingdoms never interested her too much and would usually skim over those, while the knight orders were far more appealing...

...There were orders Capala kind of liked.

The Bow of Aria (the order the statue probably belonged to) intrigued her because of their burning desire to fly in the skies. Golden Cross was in this minuscule list because they showed no mercy to bandits and because she got a kick out of humans killing each other.

But the one order who Capala couldn't remotely hate on (and upon discovering she was sympathetic for them, she tried) was Brilliance. The knights belonging to that order weren't many, mostly because of the huge losses they sustained on every mission (the main information that made them famous), but they lived up to their name too much. They would always strive to solve disputes without spilling a single drop of blood. Suffice to say, that was the reason why they sometimes lost most of their knights.

Capala shook her head, wanting to forget how Brilliance died...

It was just as Gerson uses to say.

"Love is one hell of a drug" Gerson said from behind her shoulder. Capala yelped loudly as she hastily turned around, her ears low, her eyes semi-feral and her fur bristled.

Gerson was surprised by her reaction, but Papyrus was there to explain the ancient turtle "Capala tends to react like this when she's startled, so don't worry about it too much, Gerson". The turtle nodded and, as Papyrus went to calm down the young feline, said "Welcome to the Eternal Bulwark, an ancient human fortress which dominates the Grassy Plateau! Founded by ten different orders of knights, this fortress dates back to two centuries before the War and could contain over five thousand soldiers. Unfortunately we couldn't find out why it was built in the first place and, on top of that, sealed in with such a powerful barrier..."

At that last part Capala gave Papyrus a deadpan look, but Gerson came to the defense of his majesty "Young Capala, we may not have a clear answer NOW, but we have yet to decipher the remaining documents, some of which appear to be pretty important if the traps installed nearby were anything to go by!"

"TRAPS!?" Capala and Papyrus shouted at the same time, then the skeleton continued "Was anyone hurt?". Gerson shook his head, at which Papyrus calmed down while Capala was still on edge.

"Fortunately not, we inspected this fortress with the utmost care and prudence. Still, the amount of traps we had to disarm was too excessive, in my opinion, and the sheer lighting of the fortress was unusual, to say the least" Gerson reassured. Capala was a bit uneasy now, but that seemed good enough for Papyrus, who said "Alright then, lead the way!"

Thus the huge doors opened and the trio entered in the Eternal Bulwark.

The first part of the trip was uneventful for Capala and the only things that interested her were how the fortress was actually built like a feudal city and the fact that it was heavily used by the Royal Guard, both as a training camp and a storage facility.

The second part of the trip was the kicker.

Gerson, Capala and Papyrus walked into the main room again. It was very large, with various emblems hung on the walls and a high pedestal positioned at the norther wall. The room was lighted by several torches, but Gerson said those were a small fraction of the ones that were previously there.

The old turtle got close to its centre, lifted a seemingly random brick and flipped small lever hidden underneath. Immediately the bricks beside, thanks to an unseen mechanism, were lifted up and revealed a secret passage with a seemingly long staircase leading downward, barely illuminated by the magical lanterns hung on the walls.

"Neat" Capala said as her interest was once again rekindled.

The trio walked down the stairs, Gerson watching his step while the other two walked nonchalantly. After minute and Capala almost tumbling down twice, the trio finally arrived at the bottom.

"This is the underground section of the Eternal Bulwark. Here there are documents, weaponry and the remains of the knights stationed here. For the sake of preserving this place, we moved everything as little as we possibly could" Gerson explained as Capala looked around warily.

With pitch-black stone bricks and a plethora of torches with seemingly undying cyan-blue flames, this place was way creepier than Capala could imagine. And she didn't even look at the deceased humans in armor.

As the trio walked around, the armored skeletons littering the rooms and hallways became more unsettling. Capala didn't just hate humans because they sealed her kind under the mountains, but she was also deeply disturbed by their bodies.

Suffice to say, Capala vowed to NEVER look at an anatomy book again.

'Ugh, at least there are only skeleton. I don't know what I'd do if I looked at them in any other state-' Capala thought, but made the mistake of imagining what a corpse of a deceased human would look like. She didn't have the knowledge that meat rots, but the mental image of a human carcass with blood and loose organs was enough to send her in a gagging fit, alerting Papyrus. While this was happening Gerson was talking about the routine of the knights while they were still alive, the various secret passages scattered throughout the underground complex and the staggering amount of magical items in the fortress, especially those that were capable of creating light.

Papyrus found all of this mildly interesting, but he was sure that they were going somewhere else. In a place he didn't know about.

The trio arrived at a large two-faced door, which was guarded by no less than twenty royal guardsmen.

'What the...why are there so many guards at this door in particular?' Capala thought as Papyrus said "Oh, I've never seen this door before, it's actually pretty exciting!"

Just as Gerson nodded to the guards, who in turn went to open the door, Capala turned to him and said "Wait, your majesty. You've never seen this door before?"

"Oh no!" Papyrus said he and the other two walked into the room ahead "This place was but a crumbling ruin when we found it. When exploring the Eternal Bulwark, there are new discoveries nearly every day, but I have to attend many of my other duties and meetings, so I (or Dohj for that matter...) can't tend our attention to this place a lot..."

"Really-" Capala was going to speak, but completely froze for the second time this day.

What the trio saw was a gargantuan door, sealed by thick stone slabs and inscribed with ancient writing. All around the room was advanced-looking machinery hooked up to the door and beeping every once in a while. Monsters in white coats, presumably lower-ranked scientists from RSC, walked around the room, inspecting the surroundings and writing down notes at random intervals.

"...Why did no one inform me of this?" Papyrus spoke after a long moment of silence. Gerson looked at his king and said "Your majesty, we only found out about this around midnight and we've been trying to understand what this is supposed to be"

Papyrus then said "Well, you could start by telling me what you know already..." and Gerson began his explanation "What we certainly know is that this is a magical object and that the incantation is strong...perhaps stronger than the barrier on the Grassy Plateau. Secondly, contrary to initial belief, this is not a gate but a blockade, strong both physically and magically"

The old turtle then continued "The RSC is currently studying it to gleam more information out of it, they were also planning to tell you after Schmitt gave them the his approval..." "...though he probably forgot, right? He was really caught up in that scandal with the headmaster..." Papyrus finished for Gerson.

He was caught by surprise by the news and commented "Really? Always kind of thought that guy had something to hide, though it's nothing too ground-breaking"

Capala was hearing the conversation between the two important monsters and was instead entranced by the ancient artifact and its unknown magic. Capala was so entranced by the glowing scriptures that she was unconsciously getting closer and could almost hear a voice coming from the symbols engraved in the artifact...

...until she tripped on a large wire and fell on the ground. This caught the attention of both Papyrus, Gerson and some RSC scientists, who immediately noted that the magic readings the artifact gave were, for a few seconds, quite difficult to analyze.

Before anyone could ask any questions, one of the scientists said to the skeleton "Your majesty, if I may ask, would you order this monster to remain within the Bulwark? In the meantime, we'll call Schmitt over immediately to assess what just happened"

'Wha...what's happening now?' Capala thought as her head felt like jelly, not because of the hit on her head but because of the voices she heard.

She got back up and was even more confused as Papyrus told her that she was going to be relocated to the Bukwark.

X X X

It was a really long day, what with the meeting ending like...that and showing Capala around the Grassy Plateau, so Papyrus was going to enjoy a hard-earned rest in his former house in Snowdin, with the familiar snow already soothing his bones.

Though a thought entered his mind. Rest? Really? Was he going down the Path of the Lazy (aka his brother)? Well, Papyrus at least had to give Sans some credit: the first days of ruling were unfathomably busy and by end of the first week he felt as if all of his would shatter in a shining dusty mist. Thanks to his brother he understood the importance of some rest every once in a while! Besides, it wasn't as if Sans was extremely lazy, since he did an excellent job at handling paperwork...somehow.

Though, Papyrus felt like this was a really really good day, little argument with Capala aside. He also wanted to show her around the Whispering Forest, but that incident at the Eternal Bulwark required to have proper attention.

'After all you can never be sure with obscure pre-War human magic. The barrier was clear proof of them being able to use powerful magic if they decided to go at it' Papyrus thought as he opened the door.

And the first sight that greeted him was his brother, who he had mentally praised before, sleeping like the bone-white couch potato he knew him to be. But this time Papyrus decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking that he had really worked himself to the bone.

Either that or it was one of """those""" days...

"WAIT A MINUTE, I'VE MADE A PUN! NYO HO HO, SANS REALLY IS RUBBING OFF ON MEEEE" Papyrus shouted in pure, utter despair at the ceiling.

"Well, now I know what kind of letters bro's getting tomorrow..." Sans muttered with a chuckle as his eye-sockets were closed.

Papyrus turned his head at 360 degrees faster than light as he heard his brother, then he said "Oh brother, you're awake. What have you done today?"

"Oh, the usual" Sans replied nonchalantly, completely chill with his little brother's head behind in a technically-impossible position "Human patrol, paperwork, hand-feeding hotdogs to calm Sol down, checking the space-time continuom in the lab"

"You mean the one supposedly under the house? Come on, brother, you can just tell me you slept for eight hours straight. I know paperwork can straining..." Papyrus told Sans, the latter having something between a scowl and a frown on his skeletal face.

Sans sighed, but then had an idea and so asked Papyrus "Say bro, you think you can find me a full map of both the Grassy Plateau and the Bottomless Chasms?"

"I presume you want to know more about these new areas?" Papyrus asked his brother, to which he answered "Yeah, something like that"

"Then the great Papyrus will give them to you by tomorrow morning!" he said as he disappeared into the kitchen, only to then poke his head out and saying "I will be preparing dinner now, Sans. Please wash your hands throughly!"

"Ok bro" Sans said as he teleported into the bathroom.

X X X

Later that evening, in a residence near Blaze's borders, Capala had just now finished dinner, washed her teeth and was now clad in her favourite pajamas, mint-green with an arrow motif. She was now sitting on her bed voice-chatting with her three friends, using the trending app "Skide". It was popular especially among teenagers and some types of workers.

"And that's what happened!" Capala exclaimed as she finished telling this day's events to her three friends, whose faces were displayed on her laptop.

On the top right of the screen there was a lithe lizard with white scales, a sharp snout and blue-yellow eyes; she was clad in a simple nightgown and her name was Nashia.

On the top left there was a cuddly-looking wolf with dark orange fur; he was clad in simple clothes and his name Gangler ("Gang" for his friends).

Finally, on the bottom of the screen, there was an elegant-looking bird with rainbow feathers and a large dark-yellow beak; she was clad in pretty clothes and her name was Ilan ("Illy" for her friends).

"Seriously, Capala, I'm definitely not surprised by your story. I don't think anyone I've known can get in these kinds of troubles!" Nashia said as she laughed, but then added "...Glad you're fine though, almost thought that weird human magic was going to royally screw you over"

"Geez, thanks for the concern, I guess" Capala said in a fake-annoyed tone, suppressing a laugh in the process.

"Really nice story, but isn't anyone going to ask how our date went?" Gangler piped in while Ilan remained silent, though a look on her face showed that she also wanted to talk about it.

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot! Sorry about that!" Capala said sheepishly as she rubbed her forehead while Nashia said "Sure enough, though I won't be surprised if Gang did something dumb"

At that Gangler got a bit angry and said, in a tone of finality "Hey, I swear today I acted normal! No embarrassing situation. At all"

At that everyone else laughed: Capala's laugh was normal, Nashia's was a full-blown howl and Ilan let out just a small chuckle. After a minute Gangler began laughing too.

Eventually they all stopped laughing and Gangler told Nashia and Capala of his date "It was pretty simple, all things considered. We just walked around Blaze hand-in-hand, bought some fancy clothes, went to take photos of some cool attractions and had dinner in a good restaurant"

"If it was The Grand Reale, I'm going to kill you myself, Gangler. You don't just hype your date for a week straight and then think you can get away with bringing Illy in that tacky hellhole" Nashia said decisively, surprising Capala, but Ilan came at his boyfriend's defense as she said "But that place had really good sandwiches! Gang knows how much I love those!"

Nashia, however, was unforgiving as she rebutted "Doesn't excuse Gangler from offering you something that shouldn't even be considered edible"

Capala felt the spirits heating up and, to prevent a late-night argument from starting, she had to act as a peacemaker, a role she seldom takes in her group of friends "Now now everyone, let's calm down. Nashia, please don't judge Ilan's dinner choices. Gangler, you should've imposed your will onto Ilan to go eat somewhere else. Therefore, you are both at fault in this argument"

Everyone was silent for a few minutes, until Ilan shyly said "...I kind of agree with Capala" and both Nashia and Gangler slowly nodded in agreement.

"So, sounded like a good date. How did you end it?" Capala then asked, completely oblivious of the effect her previous speech had on her friends, but they recovered quickly from the shock.

"We went gazing at the lava lakes near the border between Hotland and Waterfall. In fact, the two guards blocking the passage also went there to have a romantic dinner as well. It was like a double date!" Ilan was sweetly and the tale made both Nashia and Gangler go "Awww!"

"So, where will you work tomorrow?" Capala asked after a while. The three friends took turns answering that question.

Gangler went first "Apparently the Royal Guard has issued a perimeter around Waterfall because of 'dangerous presences'...honestly I think it's humans and the Royal Guard is just hiding them from the king so they can claim those juicy souls for themselves" and Capala said "Nope Gang, it's rats. Big rats"

Gangler had an expression which communicated total confusion and utter disbelief, but this didn't stop Ilan from going second "Tomorrow it will be my first time doing aerial surveillance in the Bottomless Chasms. I'm pretty scared but the doctor says that my wings are strong enough for that!" as Gangler and the others gave their silent support to the shy avian.

Nashia went third "I'll be doing sentry duty between the Ruins and Snowdin for the 25th time this month. Yay"

"You really complain about that task? It's literally the easiest one, besides none of us is a lieutenant like you" Capala said with Gangler nodding in agreement.

Nashia became annoyed at that comment and so she said "Do you think patrolling there is easy or even slightly rewarding? It's the most boring task where I have to contend with both the king's utter bullshit guidelines on puzzles and the zenith of idiocy and and handicapped monsters that is the dog guard! Besides, I got to be a lieutenant just because I'm 19 and I was basically forced into the position!" and then continued her rant with "Also, what's up with this drafting frenzy the Royal Guard has been going through lately? I thought that wasn't a thing since the king expressively banned mass-drafting to prevent people from thinking another war with the humans was gonna happen! I'm seriously going to ask him about it some of these days!..."

"I...guess that's the end of it?" Gangler tried to mend the air around his friends and girlfriend, but then gave up and said "Well...it's pretty late so...I'll see myself out" Gangler said as he exited the call, soon followed by Ilan with more or less the same reason.

Now it was just Capala and Nashia, who said "By the king's bones, I miss being 16-17 years old like you guys, where the only things I had to worry about was turning in assignments. Take care, Capala. Hopefully that weird human magic doesn't turn you into an amalgamate or something like that..." and exited the call.

Capala sighed as she closed her laptop and thought whether Nashia told those things to them or to herself.

"Well, I guess I just gotta wait for whatever tomorrow brings..." Capala thought as her sleep was greatly helped by the sense of tiredness brought by today.


This chapter certainly brought a lot on the table: new areas and tons of OCs! The only one that doesn't belong to me is Dohj, and I will make sure she's in-character as much as possible!

In this chapter I also started to develop some themes and some OCs (mainly Capala), so in the next chapter others will take the spotlight! Cipro and the rest of the RSC will be shown next, along with the Bottomless Chasm, which (spoiler) is as grim as it sounds.

Well, despite this chapter taking forever to write (and drowning my creativity for my other works...), it was a really fun endeavor. See you next time!...

...Hello again, folks, and I am finally fixing this beast of a chapter.