The city of Dublin had undergone two week's worth of siege. People were beginning to feel the tension, it was becoming far, far harder to act as though this was something they could just ride out. Day after day passed by, and an irritatingly familiar routine was being crafted. The monsters would try to shoot their bows at those upon the town ramparts, or they'd toss magical fireballs through the air or they would launch burning pitch from little catapaults, or sometimes outright try to climb the walls.
The citizens of Dublin town inside would wait with abated breath in bars and town squares and in the town hall, waiting and waiting for news on how the new assault had been forced back, and then scouts would rush in, saying how the new attack had been fended off. People would nervously smile, and laugh, they'd clap each other on the back and they'd all order a round or would sing and dance for joy…but all with a distinct air of desperation lingering around. A sense that…they were just keeping up appearances and people would really, really lose it hard if something wasn't done to stop the daily assaults.
The monsters would destroy the city if the ramparts fell. If it came down to it, should that happen…the folks in Dublin had all sort of agreed to fight to the last man, to the bitter end, even if they just had to use sticks, they'd go down fighting like a mad dog. But the worst part was the concern about disease. People living so close together AND enduring having flaming pitch and big clumps of monster sewage tossed at them from over the walls were living in a disease's paradise. It was getting worse and worse, people were forgetting to bathe, folks were manifesting sores, looking paler and paler than ever.
King Maecoal was aware of this. He'd seen guards on the ramparts being swapped out because they'd collapsed still holding their spears, coughing and spluttering, shaking like a leaf, sores popped up all over the exposed skin that wasn't covered by armor. And if he couldn't claim the city normally, he'd just raze it to the ground if it came to that.
And it was coming to that.
"The RATS are starting to look good." Eri admitted as she sat on the ramparts, peering out over some stone as Hadiya was currently on the other side, cleaning up a crossbow so she could make use of it whilst Solomon sat between the two. He was currently in his more monstrous, spidery-form, white hair fluttering in the wind, a squealing rat vainly thrashing around in his clawed grip as he held it above his head. "But still, I mean…the smell of those things. And being so…small and squirmy. How can you stand it?"
"I shut my eyes and think one word." Solomon told her calmly as he took in a deep breath and then dropped the rat right into his mandibled maw. GLOMP. "…venison." He told Eri as she cringed, watching him swallow the thing down whole and alive.
"Does it work?" She wanted to know.
"…a little." Solomon confessed. "But not by much!"
"How intriguing, two mages have graced the ramparts my men keep such a close eye on." A voice rang out as they looked up. Sure enough, it was King Maecoal himself, and by his side was very clearly his son. The human guards atop the ramparts of Dublin all readied their weaponry, taking up positions as dark clouds quilted the sky above all their heads. Hadiya clenched her fist, readying her small, spherical little "bullets", ready for a fight as Eri took aim with several crossbows, focusing her blue magic to hover two on either side of her body. It had taken her five solid hours of practice but now she was able to fire them with blue magic as easily as if she had them in her actual hands…one of which she had IN her actual hands, and aimed squarely at the monster king.
"How lovely for the king himself to come." Eri remarked loudly. "Truly the Lord will sell the Caananites this day into the hand of a woman!"
"Don't fool yourself, "Deborah"." King Maecoal sniggered. "You're more a Jezebel, about to be thrown down into the street for chariots to run over your bones as dogs gnaw upon your remain-"
KLIK! Eri was not having any of that. A crossbow bolt sailed through the air, King Maecoal frowning as it went THA-THUNK, bouncing off his chest armor. "…really? You thought I'd be stupid enough to wear armor that your weaponry could pierce? Are all you human wenches this stup-"
Luckily that distracted him long enough for HADIYA to do what she did so well, as one of her yellow bullets sailed through the air and knocked his crown clean off, knocking him back a few feet as he staggered, furiously glowering in her direction, looking like a bull that had just been whacked on the nose. "Call Erimentha that more time, and the next one goes right up your nose." She swore.
"Languaaaage!" Solomon called out mockingly, King Maecoal furiously snarling as he slammed his big, enormous trident into the ground.
"You want to play it that way? Fine! Son, get Grillby out here. I want to talk to him about having him make use of his full potential!"
"Father, he's outright refused to just 'raze the ramparts'." Prince Asgore muttered quietly. "Remember, you broached the subject last week?" He admitted.
"I'm going to be more persuasive, then." King Maecoal mumbled. "In the meantime, you take over for me at the front lines and start shelling them with more burning pitch and refuse. Let's see how they like an hour long onslaught of filth!" He proclaimed, shaking his fist at the humans before he trudged back to the monster encampment as Prince Asgore sharply whistled, and catapaults began to be moved up.
"Oh geez, here they come AGAIN!" Solomon yelled out. "Get my webbing shields ready!" He cried out as he clenched his fists and began to furiously spin a new batch of silken shielding for his plan, the others on the ramparts scrambling to get their shields up. "All hands on deck, all hands on deck!"
"Hope you like it!" announced a VERY smug-looking Garamond the skeleton as his brother Courier held up a burning torch, lighting up a pile of…very foul-looking stuff. "You would not believe how difficult it was to get all this out, but we did it! One of the many benefits to being a skeleton monster!"
"You guys are SICK!" Hadiya screeched back as Courier blushed a bit in embarrassment as the burning pile of skeleton shit soared through the air. She held up the enormous woven shield of spider silk as it collided hard, almost knocking her back and off the ramparts as the burning poop splattered and flopped all about. "The audacity of these monsters!"
"Thank goodness my shields are holding up." Solomon remarked as a bunch of crap sailed over his head and flopped down into the streets below. It was a good thing that the people had wisely taken to staying as far away from the city walls and had moved out of homes close to it. Nevertheless, a lot of burning refuse, pitch and crap still found it's way inside, flung through the air, and so a system had been set up to put it out, big buckets of water, sometimes ALSO formed from Solomon's silk, carried from the ocean to whatever was burning.
"They're hoping they can either wait for us to get feeble enough from sickness to just rush on in and overwhelm us, and if they can't do that, Maecoal will force Grillby to just raze the town, I'm sure of it." Hadiya said as she swung her arms. TWHOOSH-THWOOSH-THWOOSH! Her bullets sailed forth, monsters trying to load their catapaults racing away to avoid getting filled up with holes. "We need backup! We can't hold out like this."
It was true. They wouldn't last another month. The sickness was getting far worse than they had any idea, a very slim majority of the town was actually infected with the ravaging disease swelling up inside Dublin, they simply hadn't manifested the symptoms yet. Someone had to save them.
Luckily for them, there were several someones on the way. And one of them was now overlooking the monster encampment from afar on a high hill.
"Theeeeere they are." Cu Chulainn murmured as he and Elisud scouted ahead under the cover of darkness. It was beginning to rain, the water pouring down from the opened heavens as they crouched under sown-together big ol' cloaks designed to protect against the rain. While an umbrella may have been more helpful, such a thing wasn't really used in their lands, people preferred cloaks like these, and the two were tightly bundled up indeed. "I can see them, alright, and I can see Grillby's tent. Look, there." He pointed far off in the distance. "What kind of tent would have that bright a fire and that TALL a one burning in it? See? It's even moving around."
"Yes, that's Sir Grillersby, alright, and where he is, so's Prince Asgore." Elisud murmured. "They must have met up with King Maecoal, the rumors we heard from travelers on the road were true."
"He's taken time to lay waste to the countryside, very, very carefully. Now he's finally reached Dublin, huh…" Cu Chulainn growled. "Well, alert our men. We need to meet up with Dublin's resistance, let them know they have help, and then we can close in on the monsters from two sides, snapping in on them like a crab with its claws!"
"Good idea!" Elisud said with a nod. "Maybe it's best if I go, sir?" He offered. "I mean, I'm small and short enough and my cloak is dark enough that I'll be harder to notice than most of our men." He suggested. "And if trouble arises, I'll simply use my bubble!" He added with a smile.
Cu Chulainn chuckled a bit. "You and your bubble." He remarked.
In truth, the red-haired warrior was finding Elisud's company amazingly calming AND helpful. Elisud had suggested that whenever the folk hero wanted to get out how he felt, to just…lash out and strike at something if he was honestly mad? Whack Elisud when he was in his bubble. So the "Bubble Boy" would just let Cu Chulainn beat and strike and punch and headbutt and kick at the big, green, magical shielding bubble he'd manifest, letting the red-haired, hot-headed man get it all out of his system.
Then something odd began to happen after all that.
He would sit down…and Elisud would sit next to him, and they'd just…
Talk. That's all. Just talking. And now the two were comfortable enough talking that Elisud could openly ask…
"Could you tell me what you see when your future self speaks to you?"
Cu Chulainn stared at Elisud for a while. The question had come right out of nowhere. He wasn't opposed to the idea of talking about it, but…still, to just have it dropped on him so suddenly made him stare. Finally, at long last, he spoke aloud as the winds began to become chilly around them, making him huddle up even more under his large cloak. "The first time it ever happened was when I was trying a technique I had learned about from visitors to our lands. They'd spoken of the power of the one known as "The Buddha" and how meditation led him to reaching a place they called "Nirvana". That it would calm you, bring you to a higher state, a greater, spiritual place inside your heart. At first I thought it was ridiculous, but I began to think how similar it was to my little counting exercise I'd do to calm myself, counting to thirty whenever I was feeling very angry with my wife, to keep myself from yelling at her. It always worked so well, so I thought I'd try this "meditation"."
"And that was when you first encountered your "future self"?" Elisud asked.
"Yes." Cu Chulainn could still see that moment clear in his mind's eye. The air is cold and bitter and foul, yet somehow, also hot and cramped and humid. The land is dead all around me, and mountains piercing into a dark sky linger in the distance. He sat upon a throne of bones and skulls, many…many of them were children." He mumbled, looking uncomfortable, glancing to the side. "And he told me I was he, and he was I. That I would become him in the future, and he would guide me to victory in battle if I heeded his words. Naturally, I tried to hit him, he just…" Cu Chulainn cringed. "A single FLICK of his wrist knocked me across the land like I was a child's toy being tossed away. I had no real choice but to listen, he just…he seemed so insanely powerful, and his words always ended up being proven right. So I kept listening, again and again. I didn't see the big deal but…"
He trailed off for a while, and nothing but the small thudding of raindrops cascading around them filled their ears.
"Now I realize there was something I desperately should have asked about. My family. If I had just paid more attention to them, they'd still be here." He murmured. "And every day I'm waking up to not see my sweet boy and my beautiful wife…their eyes always calmed me. Connla in my lap was…a rock for me when I was scrambling to stay afloat in a river." He tried to explain, grabbing at the air as if trying to wrench hold of a point. "Now…now they're gone. And it's as if big chunks of my insides went with them." He murmured. "…what am I going to do?"
"I'm here to talk, if you want." Elisud offered. "I'll always be here, sir. As a shoulder to cry on. Or just to lend an ear. Like it says in Ecclesiastes, "A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth."
Cu Chulainn stared at him for a while, blinking a bit. "You know, I don't believe in your God. But his books sure have very pretty words."
"Well, it's nice we've got that, at least." Elisud offered. "I'll begin sneaking into Dublin, sir. Wish me luck."
"I suppose…go with Christ, as your ilk would say?" Cu Chulainn chuckled as Eli nodded, keeping crouched down, racing from tree to tree as the rain continued to pour, the red-haired, fierce-eyed warrior looking on as he watched the young man barrel off for Dublin in a zig-zagged manner. "He's something special, that young mage." He thought to himself. "So mature for his age, too. Doesn't look half bad eith-"
He suddenly stopped himself. His eyes went wide as his mouth gaped open in shock at the realization of what had just left his mouth. He clamped his hands over his mouth, turning pale, a cold chill sinking into him. What in the hell had he just said?! He…he couldn't TALK like that! You didn't…not with a man! And especially not with someone so much younger than he was! Cu Chulainn was old enough to be the teenager's father! He couldn't possibly have…FEELINGS for him! That idea was disgusting! Unnatural!
But he felt so calm around Eli. And he was always so…happy.
"By WHICHEVER God…what in the fuck am I supposed to do?" Chulainn groaned as he buried his face in his hands.
...
...
...
...Elisud kept himself hidden as the dark rain poured down all around him, a steady THUDDA-THUD-THUDDing echoing through the air from the thick and heavy droplets of water. It was pouring so hard you could scarcely see two feet in front of you, it was as if all around him was hidden by a curtain of water. What he could see, though, was various irritated-looking bunny guards who were looking up at the walls of Dublin Town, holding tightly onto spears and grumbling their unhappiness at each other.
"S'been SIX WEEKS since we got here and they still ain't given up yet. The other's gave up two weeks ago, they couldn't last a bloody month!" The first one remarked as his compatriot sighed, both of them having distinct English accents.
"Well, y'know, not everyone's got what it takes. Some people are just a load of poncy gits that can't hack it." The second bunny guard remarked.
"Yeah, but why do WE gotta hack guard duty today in the worst bloody rainstorm I've ever seen?" His friend wanted to know. Both were wearing cloaks over their round-helmed heads, having thick boots, thick gloves, and looked as miserable as can be, their bunny ears poking up through little holes in their cloaks. "Remind me again why we can't just get our platoon of merfolk to handle this? They love water, don't they?"
"They're sick, remember? They've actually caught colds except for Selkie." The first bunny guard remarked. "Evidently, they're really, really sick too-SHH. Here she comes!"
Elisud realized that the clanking of armor was coming this way and he quickly hid himself right behind the backs of the bunny guards, turning around just as they did, remaining as hidden as he could as a female merperson approached. Unlike others of her ilk, Selkie had a distinctly darker color of skin that was faintly seal-like in color, and she was much more well-built and toned in her muscular structure. On top of that, she was wearing tight-fitting armor under the rain cloak she wore and yet had a distinctly big pot belly on display that jiggled a bit as she looked the two bunny guards over, frowning a bit, with very deep brown eyes.
"Any humans come by? None of them trying to sneak out?" Selkie demanded to know in a distinctly Icelandic voice, her cadence very thick indeed and with dark black hair flopping down her features.
"Believe us, ma'am, we've had our eyes and ears peeled and we ain't seen or heard a single one!" The bunny guards insisted as they both saluted.
"Yes, we've been very closely guarding this section of Dublin's wall, and we've not seen a single bloody human. They're all staying sheltered inside the town or up on the top of the walls overlooking all of us, but they've not even tried shooting at us or anything, it's as if the rain itself just saps their strength." The first bunny guard confessed.
"If I had to guess, ma'am, I reckon humans don't much like being out in the rain." The second bunny guard admitted. "They're probably more miserable here than we are, and we're from England, we're very used to rain, ma'am!"
"BAH, you call this a drizzle? It wouldn't even give the women in my homeland the sniffles. You all can barely hack it." She told them with a scowl, sticking her mottled-looking tongue out, which made the bunnies cringe. "The mer-platoon can't seem to stomach this either, they spend so much time in the lovely Italian or Spanish sunshine or hanging around with the Portuguese and in other lovely warm waters, none of them really know what it's like to be in cooler, more trying temperatures." Selkie muttered. "Builds character!" She proclaimed, smacking her chest with her gauntleted fist. "At any rate, keep an eye out. Maintain your post!" She demanded. "All three of you little bunnies." She remarked, nodding as she walked on off, the two bunny guards saluting after her.
"Yes, ma'am! Of course, we're gonna…"
Then they stopped, staring at each other. "Wait, did she say…" the second one began, the first one nodding as they turned to look behind them…
But Elisud had already taken off, he was now climbing up the wall as best he could, using blue magic to elevate himself up, up, onto the ramparts, flopping down right next to, of all people, Solomon and Eri, the two currently on guard duty themselves at that spot of the Dublin wall as Hadiya and Abel were patrolling a section across from them. "Oh!" Solomon intoned, looking surprised as he held up a shield of strong webbing he'd waterproofed over he and Eri's head, Elisud picking himself up. "My, my. Who might you be?" He inquired. "I can tell you're a mage from that fine little display of blue magic. I'm Solomon, and this is Eri, and you would be…?"
"I'm Elisud, sir." Elisud bowed his head at him, then at Eri, who's hand he shook. "I'm here to deliver a message from Cu Chulainn, if you would hear it. We've mustered our forces not far from Dublin Town, and we're ready to help you. We've an idea for a pincer attack, you in the town can sweep forth from your city and we'll come racing in from behind. I just need to give Cu Chulainn the symbol and we'll put the plan into action." The green-robed young man informed the two. "Who's in charge here of the town's defenses?"
"The mayor'll be very happy to here this!" Eri intoned. "Finally, we've been waiting AGES for some kind of backup!" She joyously grinned as she held out her arms.
"Oh, geez, s-sorry, I don't want to get you wet…" Elisud admitted nervously as Eri chuckled.
"Get me wet." She insisted as Elisud hugged her, Solomon chuckling a little.
"I'll go alert our friends, then. How are we going to signal your lord Cu Chulainn's forces? A fire of some kind?" He inquired of Elisud as he shook his head.
"No, you just need me. I'm to manifest the biggest, largest green shield I can manifest on top of the ramparts. But we'd best wait for this awful rain to clear." He added before a THWIZZZ sound rang through the air and he cringed, gasping in pain, an arrow had stuck right into his shoulder, and damn, did it hurt!
"Human mage, human mage!" One of the bunny guards below roared out as Solomon quickly maneuvered his shield he'd been using to protect from the rain in front to shield Elisud and Eri as they scrambled to move down to the town streets below on a ladder, Elisud cringing as Eri brought him into a nearby house to remove the arrow, more arrows flying at the ramparts as the cries of angry monsters rang out.
"Hold on…this'll hurt a bit." Eri said, taking a deep breath as she grasped the arrow, then quickly yanked as hard and swiftly as she could, tugging it out. Elisud panted heavily, wiping his brow as he held his hand up to his shoulder.
"Just need to focus a little…could I have some water?" He asked as Eri nodded, turning to a small group of Dubliners who were standing around them.
"Water, please." She insisted as one of them raced off, bringing back a waterskin, made from sheep skin. Eri raised it to the young and bearded lad's lips and Elisud took a few swigs, closing his eyes.
"Thank you very much. God bless you." He softly intoned as he smiled at them all before the hand on his shoulder glowed with a soft green light. Bit by bit the wound from the arrow began to fade as he sighed, now he just had a tear in his cloak instead.
"Ah, so that's how green magic works." Eri remarked, looking very impressed indeed as Elisud rubbed the back of his neck. "You're a "Kindness" soul."
"Yes, Miss Eri." He remarked as he looked into her eyes, and a faint tingle rose up in him. "Would…would you happen to be a magic user too?" He asked of her. "I've got this hunch inside me that you are."
"Oh, yes, I can use purple magic." She remarked. "I'm able to bring the things I draw to life." She told Elisud. "It's helped out a little when it comes to replacing torn waterskins or broken furniture or food items, but it takes a lot out of me. On top of that, we've kind of gone through a lot of the parchment I could use to make such things."
"You burn it for fires, then?" Elisud inquired.
"…well, not at FIRST…" Eri admitted with a sigh, shaking her head back and forth. "I'm very glad you're here because it was getting horrible. I mean, we've utterly run out of tablecloths now, people are that desperate. And you don't wanna KNOW how we get rid of all the waste."
SPLOOOOORSCCCGGGGGHHHHH! Catapault loads of very unpleasant things indeed had been jettisoned out from the town square and now flopped down onto the armored, irritated and infuriated forms of the besieging monsters outside as they held their shields up, cringing in disgust. "You people are GARBAGE!" King Maecoal furiously bellowed out as he hid underneath his own enormous shield, the monsters around him gagging in disgust at the smell.
"Speaking OF, have a little more!" Hadiya yelled back from over the wall as she turned back to the town. "Give 'em another load!" She called out as Abel pinched his nose tight with one hand, the other holding up a shield to protect himself and Hadiya from the inevitable onslaught of retaliatory arrows that were sure to follow after this, as they always did. They had run out of the material needed to make "Greek fire", a kind of dark oil, "crude oil" in fact. So they'd figured out something else to toss at the monsters that was proving just as effective in its own disgusting and childish way.
"Thank God we'll literally never run outta shit to throw at them." Abel remarked as Hadiya began to laugh so hard she doubled up.
Meanwhile, Tobias, Toriel, Seiichi and Sakamoto were having a meeting with the most powerful blue mage in town, which, in their case, was none other than Leopold, and as they went to approach his home, they stopped in mid-walk, staring in surprise, seeing the unmistakable sign of Leopold giving a skeleton monster, and a male one at that, a kiss on the cheek. The two had been practicing lifting Gaster up into the air along with Gerald, and now Leopold had gotten so good he no longer really seemed to need much additional magical aid from the faintly UFO-shaped alien anymore.
And as Leo had bounded up and down for joy, holding Gaster in his arms in a hug, the moment had happened, a quick kiss right on the cheeks, first the left, then the right!
"OH." Toriel had remarked aloud, Tobias gaping, mouth wide open, Seiichi staring ahead as Sakamoto went "Huh", shrugging a bit as Gaster, Leo and Gerald turned to look at them. "Um…h-hello."
"Oh! Uh…" Leopold turned almost as white as his long hair. "Just, um…er…"
They all stared at him, Toriel glancing away as Tobias cleared his throat. "I'm, ah, going to pretend I didn't see that." He murmured to them. "I'm not going to judge you for what you do in your spare time, but you probably should not be doing that sort of thing anywhere in town. Unless you both decide to engage in "Adelphopoiesis" but you're too young to go into a "brother making" ceremony. Not everyone is Saint Sergius and Bacchus."
"How old do you have to be?" Leopold asked quickly as Gerald held up a finger to his lips.
"SHHHH! SHH-SHH-SHHH. None of that, none of that! Not right now, we've got a dragon in front of us!" He said quickly as Sakamoto chuckled.
"In OUR culture, we don't really give a damn about who marries who, in fact, we have "open" marriages. If we so desire, another man or woman is allowed to sleep with those not their husbands or wives, we simply understand that, in the end, they will come back to their truest love."
"That seems…" Toriel frowned. "I'm sorry, that seems very reckless and naïve to make such an assumption, you're almost inviting cheating on you, inviting your heart to be broken."
"A risk we don't mind taking." Sakamoto intoned. "What IS your species's hangup with homosexuality? Animals in nature engage in it, it's not that strange, the Greeks were famous for it."
"Yes, but they were also famous for rather disturbing things with boys." Tobias said quickly. "I've read up on it, good sir, they're not beyond reproach. I would just prefer people keep their more…erotic feelings to themselves and to their homes." He commented.
"Have you ever been in love?" Gaster asked of Tobias, looking the brown-haired young lord over, seeing his rosy complexion. My, my, my, he was quite a lovely specimen of human himself. Seiichi wasn't his type much, but he was kind of cute in a charming sort of butterball-like way.
"Um…well, I've had infatuation, perhaps." Tobias mumbled. "But at any rate, you seem to be an exceptionally wonderful mage, Mr. Leopold, and we'd like you to join our little campaign. King Maecoal himself is at Dublin Town, laying siege to it. We wish to completely overwhelm him. Capturing him, we'll force the Monsters he commands into signing terms of surrender." Tobias went on. "It will be difficult, admittedly, because he's amassing more of his troops based off intercepted communiques we've gotten hold of, but if we strike quickly, we can get to him before his backup does."
"And while he may be able to handle one, two, maybe even three mages at once, having about half a dozen fighting alongside hundreds, if not thousands of humans, including the one and only Cu Chulainn is another thing entirely." Sakamoto intoned. "So what say you?"
"You just want to capture him?" Leopold asked quietly, looking from them to Gaster and Gerald, biting his lip.
"Yes. We would capture him and force his surrender, we would prefer not to kill him. But it's best we get there soon as possible, because from what I've heard, Cu Chulainn is not famed for his patience, nor his mercy." Seiichi remarked. "Tobias and Ms. Toriel have been regaling me with all kinds of stories about him. Can he really turn into a demon?" He wanted to know.
"Oh, yes, I can testify to that." Gaster said. "My brother Garamond has fought with him, his skin becomes all red, scaley, he gains horns, a tail, claws, taloned feet…" He shuddered. "Evidently he also smells like brimstone, too. A true demon, that's his unique ability, that's not in dispute at all."
"…oh. Oh, well, um…that's…" Seiichi looked considerably disturbed. "I…well, so, er…are you going to come with us?"
"Yes, yes I will." Leopold said. "But I would very much like for Gaster to be allowed to come with me alongside Gerald. They're very dear and helpful to me."
The others nervously looked at each other. "We'll uh…discuss it while you have a chat with your two "nakama"." Seiichi murmured. As they walked off, Seiichi put his hands in his robes pockets, biting his lip, looking down at the ground as Sakamoto glanced back at him.
"Whatever is the matter?"
"An actual demon? A real demon? I mean…" Seiichi sounded sick. "He's a real demon! We have legends of demons where I'm from but I've never heard actual evidence of it, never heard the animals talk of them, there's always just been spirits angered by others, who felt unjustly wronged and who wanted to get even with humans, like the youkai. But if demons are truly real, then maybe…maybe evil is real. And I've been taught for years it really wasn't, but-"
Sakamoto quietly nodded as Toriel then gently placed her hand on his shoulder, and Seiichi looked quickly up at her. She smiled warmly back at him.
"I've also heard Cu Chulainn had a wife and son he loved even more than fighting. Anyone like that can't truly be evil, can they?" She offered.
"Do you believe in the Devil, Ms. Toriel?" Seiichi asked. "Do you not think he's evil?"
"I think he's delusional and pitiable." Toriel told Seiichi. "We've had prayers for many people, but none for the one who needs mercy the most…the most pitiful, deluded, utter fool of all who had paradise and threw it away. And if he was good and smart enough to realize it, he'd be welcomed back into God's arms. Yet even then, the Devil still sometimes does God's work, sometimes we need to be tested and tempted to emerge stronger. Try to think of THIS as a test. Maybe you'll come out stronger for it."
Seiichi gave her a big, fat hug. She smiled, hugging the twelve year old back. "Children like you shouldn't have such great a burden placed on you. I'm sorry that you do."
"You're wise beyond your years, Ms. Toriel. I wish more people were like you."
"Yeah. That's what's so amazing about her." Tobias said with a nod and a big smile at Toriel as Sakamoto slightly clucked his tongue, and shook his head back and forth.
Gaster and Leopold, meanwhile, were sitting in the kitchen in the house Gerald and Leopold were staying in, Leo and Gaster holding hands.
"Will your mother allow it?"
"I'm old enough to make decisions for myself." Gaster said firmly. "I don't care if she does say no, Leo. I'm going with you. You couldn't stop me even if you told me not to and tried to tie me down."
"You really want this?"
"Yes."
"So do I." Leo squeezed his hand. "I just wouldn't want anyone else besides you and Gerald by my side for this."
Gerald rubbed the back of his head. "Don't be going all sentimental on us, m'boy. We've got a lot of work still to do. You'll be out on the front lines, no kind of safety net. You'll have to either sink or swim. So can you promise me you won't drown?"
"I'm a damn good swimmer, Gerald." Leopold insisted. "I think I'll stay above water. And I'll make sure you do too."
And so, as the sun began to descend, it was decided. They would go to Dublin Town as quickly as possible, travelling upon Sakamoto as Tobias left the town in the charge of his parents. He'd instructed the court mage and his sons to find a way to keep in touch with him though.
"We've got an idea that could work." Said Mr. Bloke, the ghost monster smiling as his adorable sons pulled off the cover of an enormous mirror, which reflected…nothing. It was all swimmy and dusty and dark. "Say your name, milord."
"Tobias." Tobias said quickly into the mirror as the others gazed on, mesmerized by the sight as the swirling black inky abyss in the mirror transfigured itself into, sure enough, Tobias!
"It's you!" Mr. Bloke laughed. "See, this mirror is enchanted. We're going to work on having it hone in upon your very soul, sir. And it'll, in turn, then hone back on us. You will see us, we will see you and anyone else who's currently touching your body and in front of the mirror. Right now though, it's not quite finished, it only lasts for five minutes." He added as Tobias could see the visage in the mirror fading away to darkness once again. "But it'll prove invaluable, we'll let you know how things are back home and can provide you with news from feelers we've sent out across our lands. If more monsters are coming to Dublin Town, if there's going to be rioting in Germany, you'll know almost as soon as we know."
"Brilliant!" Tobias said happily, giving Mr. Bloke a hug…or rather, trying to. His arms passed through Mr. Bloke as he cringed. "Oops. S-Sorry." He murmured as he shuddered. "Wow, I can't feel you, yet you're icy cold!"
"A regrettable side effect of being dead." Mr. Bloke admitted. "It's always very chilly for me. Like it's a winter's evening and I've plumb forgotten to put on any pants."
Toriel began laughing so hard she fell off Sakamoto. "Okay, little rule. Nobody tell ANY jokes when I'm flying!" Sakamoto insisted as Leopold hovered her right onto the dragon's back. "Can we agree on that?"
"No promises." Toriel giggled mischievously.