This is a warning.
I know the majority of my fic up till this point hasn't been that violent, and is not really that "NSFW."
With that being said, I cannot consider this chapter SFW.
I am bad at describing the nitty gritty of gore, but this chapter contains it.
Please proceed at your own risk.
Also, this chapter has a little bit of... whiplash, I guess.
There is good and pleasing information, sandwiched between a new, unexpected, threat.
:-"The Answer"-:
Post-Time jump Sans' suit is full of DT, having stored it over time while he was sitting in that accursed empty "lab."
Because the tank is full, Sans decides to leave the empty maddening place.
His enhanced shortcuts make travelling across the continent much easier, and he is able to make it to the other side within a day.
Standing at the western shore of Terra, Sans gazes out to the direction of the shrouded isle.
He can hear something calling to him… And he can also feel the pull of some ominous energy…
It sickens him.
Sans feels a sudden burst of magic, coming from the direction of the Barrier, and it makes him very worried.
The sooner he can find and destroy the source of his mental anguish, the better.
Fortunately it's about an hour past sunset on this side of the continent, which makes his next maneuver much easier.
He darkens the area around him, reaches out to the island, and makes a pulling motion as he utilizes the void to bend space to his will.
With the less pleasant shortcut made, Sans hops through.
He finds himself exceptionally tired, immediately after jumping through, and finds somewhere to take a nap.
A couple hours pass before Sans wakes up.
He checks his DT reserves, and notes that the tank is one third empty.
With his remaining DT noted, he looks for the entrance of the Secret Laboratory.
When he finds the entrance, he sees that one of the battered doors are on the ground, and the other is wide open and hanging on by only a single rusted hinge. The signs of battle are obvious. As there are decayed corpses laying in the dirt, near splotches of whiter-than-usual dirt… Sans assumes those spots have monster dust in them, but that the wind has blown the dust around over the long years.
As he looks into the dark entrance of the abandoned laboratory, he hesitates.
Not even the emergency lights are on, and not even the self illuminated strips along the trim of the walls are glowing any more. The facility feels impossibly older than it should.
The darkness seems to grow deeper, the longer he stares into it, and it almost seems as if the darkness is peering back at him.
He shakes his head to rid himself of his worries, and heads into the facility.
With a bit of Justice magic, he casts a spell to grant himself sight that can pierce the darkness.
Slowly, he makes his way through the facility. He would use a shortcut, but he doesn't want David to realize he is there. Human magic is easier to mask than monster magic.
He descends into the depths of the facility, passing decaying bodies, piles of Dust, and dried pools of blood along the way.
The sounds of hundred year old battles echo through his mind, as he slowly remembers what happened.
As he remembers how many humans he killed.
It was after his fight to escape that he decided to only fight when absolutely necessary, but it's something he had forgotten at some point…
He stops moving and looks over a scene of carnage, the leftovers of a battle long since completed.
Desiccated organs and skin are barely clinging to bones, and pools of dark dried blood cover the floor. He thinks back to when he slaughtered cultists to draw David into the open, and then continued to do so even after David showed himself.
A perverse sense of pleasure passes through his mind, as he thinks of all the dead cultists.
He breathes out and in slowly and purposefully, as he does his best to clear his mind and focus on the reality of his situation.
Despite his efforts, it only seems to make things worse; now he can hear other people talking around him.
The voices of the dead are haunting him. People who were once his co-workers are greeting him cautiously, while people he confronted are yelling death threats.
He does his best to ignore them, as he continues through the facility.
In his peripheral vision he sees a dark shadow moving about, but nothing is there when he turns.
The human voices die down, as he approaches the lower levels, and are replaced with those of dead monsters.
They speak their disdain for him, claiming he failed them and that they died for nothing.
His guilt for escaping with only Papyrus, and someone else who he can't seem to remember, rises as he proceeds.
An oddly familiar voice is added to the myriad of other voices.
He can't ignore it.
'Sans… I see fate has brought us back together, yet again. Are you reminiscing days gone by, or perhaps you decided to stop by and pay me a visit? Oh, who am I kidding; it is obvious that you came by to remember your past. I can tell that you are missing some of your memories, though not to what extent… So humour me as I do my best.'
Sans tries to ignore the voice, as he continues into the depths of the facility.
'You can hear them, can't you? All those wretched monsters you failed to save, and all the humans whose lives you took. Tell me, can you also hear the CU's? I bet you can't.'
Sans continues on in silence… something is familiar about the voice, but he can't put his finger on it.
'There is a good reason you cannot hear them. Because, just like CU-270, you couldn't really kill them. Could you? As many times as you tried, they just kept coming back. You would have succeeded at your attempt to destroy their Phylacteries, if I had not replaced them with fakes well before hand.'
Unable to bear it much longer, Sans replies, "leave me alone."
The voice ignores him, and continues speaking, 'How many times did you try to kill them, before you decided to scatter them into the other timelines? Lets see if I can remember… Oh, who am I kidding, I wasn't paying that much attention. I know that your onslaught went on for weeks though. Gaster had to convince you to find another way, didn't he? The only one you didn't try to kill over and over again was CU-270 . You only tried to kill it once… Do you remember why?'
Sighing, Sans retorts, "you must be pretty desperate for attention, trying to get me to remember my past and all. If you don't mind, I have something I need to do."
'Oh, I don't mind at all… but I am not getting in your way, and the past is important to learn from. Of course, with that in mind, I am talking about your past and not the past of… well, the other you.'
Sans, only partially surprised that this voice knows about his time travel duplicate, replies dryly, "i don't think i want to learn anything from you, creepy voice guy."
Faking shock, the voice replies, 'Gasp! Have you forgotten about me, Sans…? No matter, I will just have to remind you.'
'Let's see, where was I… Ah, right, I was reminding you about your second worst crime. I am sure you remember destroying the bodies of all the CUs over and over, but CU-270 got special treatment, did it not? You were so scared of it that you tried destroying its SOUL, but you failed; do you think it remembers that?'
Near his destination, Sans decides to play along a little. It seems to be helping his mind… well, the voices are going away at least. He also does remember what he did, unfortunately.
Bluntly, Sans replies, "i don't think he understood, since it wasn't any different than what happened to him before anyway. if my memory is correct, someone broke his soul apart multiple times to 'strengthen' it."
'Ah, yes… Good times. That particular experiment was unpleasant to do, but quite important. You poor SOULs have to be manually reinforced, or you will die easily. Of course, I later discovered that for CU-270 it was entirely unnecessary; but you can't do science without breaking a few SOULs. I'm sure you remember, having been one of my closest aides in the past, that I hail from a time of unparalleled glory. Back before those idiots caused the Earth to shatter, and before those monstrosities roamed the land. I don't have the burden of a SOUL, unlike you, and that lets me partake in all the "unsavoury" science.'
Sans scoffs, "right, the civilization that killed itself after learning how to use magic. i'd say that it's been fun chatting with you, but i'd be lying. if you don't mind, i have something i need to destroy."
In a condescending tone, the voice asks, 'Oh you do, do you? Let me guess… You are hearing the whispers of some unknown entity, calling on you to sacrifice me on an altar, with the promise of taking care of some dangerous monstrosity ? Sans, you should really pay more attention. That was me.'
Sans freezes in place as the pieces click, and it dawns on him that David is speaking to him… He couldn't even remember who David was until now, let alone what he sounded like. Sans isn't entirely convinced, however, because the voice that spoke to him in his mind was different…
'Are you just now figuring it out? Tsk tsk tsk, what a shame. I guess I can't blame you, I did use a much older voice to pull the wool over your eyes. I can tell now, though, that it wasn't needed, since you don't seem to remember me at all. Oh well, don't bother resisting.'
With the trick confirmed, Sans ignores him and begins to send out a wave of DT enhanced bones to tear the floor apart, so he can get to the altar and give David the metaphorical middle finger.
It fails and instead an arcane circle, taking up the entire floor of the room. begins to glow.
'I warned you, didn't I? Now for the fun part… You see, as we speak, I have a very dedicated cultist tracking Frisk. Unlike you, Frisk wont get the chance to fight back. The problem is, I expect this cultist to die a horrible death by the hands of that hollow SOUL they managed to bring back to life. Quite an interesting development, no? That is where you come in to play. You see, I need you back on my side Sans, but I know you would never return willingly... So now it is time for you to die and be brought back, but under my control.'
David's grotesque and decaying physical form manifests inside the room, and he peels the metal floor aside with ease.
He gestures down into the room holding the altar, "After you, Sans."
Before Sans can say or do anything, he feels a strong force try to grab him and throw him down into the altar room, but it isn't doing anything to him; he can feel his DT enhancing the force. He plays along.
"I must say, this DT energy you tried to use is quite something. It is a shame you have squandered its true potential. No worries, I will make sure you use it properly from now on. When we are done, give Frisk my regards… There is no doubt that this DT came from them."
David tries to hold Sans onto the altar with DT enhanced telekinesis, then pulls out a fancy ceremonial dagger.
Sans smirks… but says nothing.
"Unfortunately, you have no flesh for me to carve away… But, fortunately, that SOUL will do just fine."
David begins laughing maniacally.
He stops his laughter, and yells, "IT IS TIME TO DIE, SANS!"
David raises the knife up high above his head, and shouts with force, "FAHF HLIRGH Y'VULGTMOR AH YMG' CTHULHU! Y'STELL'BSNA R'LUH OT YMG' L' MGEPGOKA YORR'E UAAAH!"
With exceptional force, David stabs down at Sans' SOUL…
Shock briefly flashes across David's face as Sans catches his arm, and says, "surprised? me too… i learned something new just now, thanks. turns out, dt won't go against its original owner. which means dt enhanced magic can't do anything to the person the dt belonged to… who would've guessed."
David is livid, and begins using unaugmented magic to assault Sans.
Sans dodges out of the way before casting his own spells to counter, then grapples David and tries to take the knife from him.
David falls against the altar as they effectively switch positions in their struggle, and Sans gets the upper hand in his attempts to wrestle the dagger away.
Once Sans has secured the dagger, David's face turns to one of angry panic.
An onslaught of cruel and terrible deeds pass through Sans' mind, his desire for vengeance is increased seventy fold, and so, in the heat of the moment, Sans stabs David in the heart with the knife and twists it, unaware of the consequences of his actions.
Thick dark blood oozes onto the altar from David's wound.
David's face turns to one of terror, and he barely manages to say "y-… y-… you…"
The altar begins to glow a sinister purple colour as a drip of David's blood touches it, and a tear in space, leading to some maddening plane of existence, opens up above it.
Sans lets go of David.
David loosens his grip on Sans' arms and arches backwards violently, while screaming in agony, and the ceremonial knife begins glowing that same sinister shade of purple…
From the tear in space, inky black tentacles reach out and grab David.
An almost endless number of ethereal tentacles reach out as well, seemingly beyond the facility, and bring ethereal versions of David to the altar.
One tentacle brings an open silver locket. Sans manages to see it before it is destroyed.
On one side there is undecipherable text scrawled in miniature letters, over what seems to have been a picture of a young man; On the other, there is a picture of a young woman with "Don't Forget" written in red ink on the bottom.
Sans is oddly calm.
Eventually, the ethereal tentacles stop bringing copies of David and begin to tear all of the versions of him apart, before dragging his remains back with them through the portal.
Sans slowly begins backing away, because the altar still looks like it's active and he would rather not get eaten by a strange tentacle creature.
Unsure, Sans prepares a large magical attack to smash the altar; but he's too late.
Countless black tentacles shoot out and wrap around him, while also devouring his prepared magic.
Hopeless thoughts pass through his mind, 'welp, I guess this is the end.'
A sinister purple light radiates from the tentacles, and then seeps through Sans' suit.
The tentacles retract after the light has completely vanished into Sans' suit.
The altar becomes inactive.
Sans examines his SOUL and finds that it is the same sinister colour as the energy.
As he evaluates the rest of himself, he notices that his senses are heightened, his magical power and capacity has increased several times over, and he feels a strange thirst for DT.
He desires DT to such a degree that he takes the DT container out of his chest and drinks the remaining contents, without a second thought.
Halfway through he realizes what he's doing and panics, for a brief moment, before noticing that no ill effects have resulted from his consumption of such a large amount of DT…
In fact, it doesn't even quench his thirst; If anything, it makes him want more.
Sans begins to feel where concentrated pockets of DT are across Terra.
He fights this strange thirst as much as he can, but it overtakes his mind.
Unable to resist any longer, Sans gives in; it causes his body to mutate, while his mind is warped by an evil force.
His left arm increases in size, causing it to burst out of the arm of his suit, and breaks apart to into several weird fleshy tentacles.
His head throbs with pain as it shatters and alters its shape violently, over and over again, until it's almost unrecognizable; he now has eight eye sockets, and three mouths, which are all placed randomly on his "head" (if you can call it that any more)… His helmet, due to the violent transformation, has been broken beyond repair.
His legs snap apart, becoming a mix of skeletal spider-esq legs and tentacles; causing the legs of his suit to tear apart.
His right arm increases in size and bursts from his suit, as strange other worldly flesh envelops his arm and hand. The flesh on his arm seems to writhe and undulate, but it also seems to not move at all.
Sans' chest explodes as tentacles come from his SOUL, and misshapen bat-like wings sprout out from his back.
His suit is inoperable now, but that is the least of his problems.
He begins to ooze, a sickly, slightly glowing, purple liquid; which, upon examination, seems to be that sinister purple energy mixed with his karmic poison.
Looking at himself, Sans can't help but feel ecstatic for some reason; with only a smidgen of disgust.
He feels that his new form should also come with a new name, and so he decides that, from now on, he will be called… "Ph'lloigshoggoth." He isn't sure why he chose that name, since he doesn't know what it means, but it has a nice ring to it.
Then he decides that it's too long, so he's just going to call himself Ph'lliog.
Deciding to test out his new grotesque form and powers, Ph'lliog decides to go to the closest patch of DT he can sense; which appears to be somewhere in the North-western part of the central plains.
:-:
Three young children are lying on Marceline's bed.
Frisk is sleeping in the center, with Asriel on their right, and Chara on their left (who hasn't moved an inch since they were laid down in the bed).
Marceline giggles softly as she looks at the children, since Asriel has somehow managed to flip completely upside down.
She thinks to herself, 'Goodness, what am I to do… I suppose I should prepare the other rooms for them, for now.'
Sighing, Marceline leaves her room and prepares the beds in the two other spare rooms… Then decides to also prepare in case Chara and Asriel want to sleep in the same room.
From what she has been told, those two were inseparable when they were alive.
It doesn't take long for her to prepare the rooms, so, when she is done, she looks for someone she can talk to about getting more clothes for them. She isn't sure what kinds of clothes they would like, so she errs on the side of caution and looks for clothes similar to what they are already wearing.
While she is away, fuzzy feet, connected to fuzzy legs, attached to a fuzzy body, begin to move into a different position; they end up tickling Frisk's nose.
Not long after Asriel begins moving, a loud thud sounds out in the room and wakes up Frisk; who immediately sneezes.
Looking around, Frisk sees a kid they don't recognize, and a pair of fuzzy legs that are barely on the bed.
It would seem some fuzzy monster was in the bed, but fell off.
Frisk rubs their eyes and looks around again…
They are both still there.
Frisk can hardly believe it… 'Who are … is it… Asriel …? Did CU-270…?'
With that thought, Frisk gets up slowly and goes to get a better look at who the legs belong to.
They immediately recognize who it is, "(Asriel ?)"
There's no response, it seems like Asriel is sleeping like a rock at the bottom of the ocean, under a larger rock, that also has a log somewhere nearby, and also a baby… somehow.
Frisk pinches themself, it hurts.
Then Frisk remembers that some dreams can mimic physical stimuli… So they go to the bathroom to try to wake up with some nice cold water.
Red-Brown eyes slowly open while Frisk is away, with a strange view that is more limited than they're used to.
Chara, unaware of what is currently happening, and unfamiliar with how to control a body, begins to panic as they feel things they can only remember feeling while they were attached to Frisk.
They are worried that they have been bound to someone else's body, again.
To their surprise, they hear a quiet whimper as their panic increases; and they recognize that it came from themself.
Though surprising, the unexpected sound calms them down a bit.
Frisk returns and sits on the floor where Asriel fell out of bed.
At this point, not even his legs are on the bed any more.
Wanting to take full advantage of the situation, Frisk starts running their fingers through the fur on Asriel's head.
It's just as soft as back when they gave him a comforting hug in the Underground, when he almost destroyed all of reality so he could stay with Chara forever.
Asriel shuffles around a little, prompting Frisk to stop petting his head.
Frisk gets up and goes to look at who the other person is.
Carefully, Frisk gets back in their mother's bed and slowly moves over to get a good look at them, without waking them up.
They are about Frisk's age, and they appear to already be awake… They seem familiar.
Frisk waves, and the other person looks at them but doesn't say anything.
Chara attempts to speak, but all they get out is "hm, nnn. Hnmm…"
Fearing that they'll never be able to speak or move, tears well up in Chara's eyes.
The last thing they remember is being in some sort of ritual chamber, with all sorts of people around them… Including… Papyrus? Chara is confused, and decides that it must have just been a dream. There's no way that goof ball could do something like that.
That means Frisk must have found them and rescued them, but it doesn't explain their current situation.
Frisk reaches over and pats Chara's head, which surprises Chara, and says, "there there, everything will be OK. I'm sure my mom brought you here for a good reason."
Chara tries to move, but their body feels heavy and unresponsive… They're only able to move their arm a little. "Fmhnn hmmnn… Unnnn…"
Frisk stops patting their head, and says, "I have an idea."
Slowly, and carefully, Frisk gets off the bed without disturbing the kid on the floor.
They go into their room and get the SOCDev, then bring it into their mother's bedroom.
Recognition fills Chara's mind, though their face is somewhat unresponsive and doesn't show their expression.
Unsure, but thinking it might still work, Frisk straps the SOCDev onto the child backwards, so that the main part of the device is on their chest, then says, "this is a SOUL Communication Device, SOCDev for short. If you can bring out your SOUL-, Yea! Just like that, now, you can talk with this by-"
Frisk is interrupted by the familiar sound of the SOCDev, "Frisk! What is going on, where are we, where am I?! Is this- This- How-… Papyrus …? How did I get a body…?"
The conundrum is solved. Frisk knows who the child is now, it's Chara… "I don't know, the last thing I remember was you getting SOULnapped. After that I found Asr- Flowey, and asked him to look for you… Now you're both here, with bodies!"
Chara asks, "Wait, A-… He is here too?"
Frisk nods.
Brushing it off, Chara says, "That's cool. I have something more important to talk about though! I was kidnapped by invisible skeletons! Isn't that awesome?! Who knew that skeletons could turn invisible?! OH OH OH! But that isn't even the best part! I came up with a new name for the magical pendant!"
Frisk puts their finger to their mouth and shushes them… Then remembers that they can control the volume of the SOCDev, so they turn it down.
Chara continues, "anyway, I decided that ' ' is not nearly as fun of a name to use, especially for such an old magical artifact… No, what we should name it instead is… ' !'"
Frisk giggles at the stupid childish joke, but then looks slightly upset and says, "well, we're gonna have to wait for that. I can't find the pendant anywhere…"
Shuffling on the floor can be heard, so Frisk goes to look and see if Asriel is waking up yet.
'Nope, not awake.'
Frisk returns to Chara, "so, how does it feel to be in a body that's all your own?"
Chara comments, "it feels… really slow, like I'm trying to do everything through super thick syrup."
Posing their arms to exaggerate their thinking, Frisk nods slowly, "I see, I see. So, now that you have a body, do you want me to call you 'he,' 'she,' or 'they?'"
Frisk is curious, thanks to Katherine, about what people consider themselves to be. It had never occurred to them that people actually care how others address them, but they don't feel comfortable talking to just anyone about it, or asking any adults…
Chara responds, "eh? When I was in the Underground it wasn't a big deal, since most monsters just say 'they' to keep it from being awkward if they're wrong. I mean, you've met the slime family… right? Anyway… I guess, if you really want to know, I'm actually a girl… But you, and only you, can call me what ever you want."
Frisk nods and takes a mental note, "OK. Do you like 'girly' things… or?"
After a pause, Chara responds, "what? I just like things. I don't care what they look like… Also, If you tell anyone else that I'm a girl, I'll kick your shins! I want it to be a surprise. Seeing the embarrassed look on everyone's faces, as they realise they've been calling me a 'they' or a 'he' when I'm really a 'she,' is gonna be sooo priceless!"
The SOCDev begins making a sound that Frisk assumes is chuckling/giggling/snickering.
Frisk comments, "wait… but, if you don't want people to know you're a girl, that leaves me with calling you 'he' or 'they…' I guess I'll use 'they,' so I don't get confused later."
A brief silence follows, since Frisk isn't sure what to say or ask next.
After a moment, Chara pipes up again, "hey. Do me a favour and help me up. I want to see what it feels like to stand on my own two feet again, instead of feeling it through someone else."
Frisk nods, and carefully begins moving Chara towards the end of the bed.
Once there, Frisk takes one of Chara's arms and puts it over their shoulder.
With the limp child secured, Frisk slowly lifts them off the bed and onto the floor.
Chara is heavier than expected… It also seems that Chara isn't actually standing on their own feet.
Frisk uses one of their feet to move Chara's feet into optimal standing positions, instead of being rolled onto their sides or on their toes.
Carefully, Frisk starts to lower Chara so that they can try to stand on their own… It doesn't work, since they are unfamiliar with how to use their legs.
Chara responds, still through the SOCDev, "Just give me some time… I can figure it out. I can feel my legs now, so… that means it's just a matter of time before I can figure out how to move them, right?"
Frisk shrugs, "yea, I guess so. You're pretty heavy though, so I need to put you back down…"
Though the SOCDev doesn't do tones very well, Frisk can tell Chara is disappointed when they say, "Oh, OK…"
"Wait a minute! Did you just call me fat?!"
Frisk is slightly confused at first, but then the SOCDev starts making a light chuckling sound.
"Just teasing, I know that I'm pretty heavy. I've carried my own dead body, after all."
Dark comment aside, Frisk wonders what should happen next…
They ask a question that they feel should have been asked sooner, "so… do you want Asgore and Toriel to-."
"No."
"I have caused them enough trouble, have I not? Them seeing me like this… would only make everything worse. Besides… I have done a lot of terrible things. Even if they can forgive me, I cannot forgive myself. Actions have consequences, you cannot just make those consequences go away because they are inconvenient."
Frisk isn't sure how to respond at first, but an idea comes to their mind, "I don't know what to say about that, but… maybe my mom could help?"
Chara is sceptical, "I don't know, Frisk. I don't trust adults. I'm sure your mom is great, better than mine at least, but… I'd rather just talk to you."
Shrugging, Frisk replies, "OK, well, I guess all that's left is to figure out how to help you learn how to control your body. We should probably get it done before bed time today…"
Not entirely sure what Frisk means, Chara asks, "why before bed time?"
With a hint of amusement, Frisk replies, "you know, because of bath time."
Chara responds, "oh, right. That thing living people do, when they are alive, and when they smell bad."
Frisk does their best to put Chara back up on the bed, which ends up being a funny looking position.
Giggling, Frisk apologizes, but also lies, saying, "sorry Chara, I can't get you into a better position."
Shuffling on the other side of the bed can be heard, "Mmhn?"
Chara quickly asks, "whatever. Cover me up, I don't want him to know that I'm here. It sounds like he's about to wake up."
Confused, Frisk assumes Chara wants to surprise Asriel; they oblige and cover Chara with a blanket, then top it off by putting pillows around them and lying down.
Sure enough, a white tuft of hair starts to poke up from the side of the bed, as Asriel sits up from the floor, and he sleepily asks, "w-what… where am I…? Am I de-"
Frisk crawls off the bed and moves over to him, causing him to stop speaking momentarily, and waves.
Confused, he asks, "Frisk…? You're- Am I dreaming?"
Frisk pinches Asriel, it hurts. "Ow! W-what was that for?!" then pinches themself too.
It still hurts. "Nope, not a dream."
Asriel takes a moment to let that sink in, and looks around.
He moves his hands, wiggles his toes, and just sits there for a moment feeling reality.
Sighing, Asriel comments, "yea… I can tell now. This-… This feels real. More real than when I used everyone's SOULs to make a body."
Asriel gets up, and asks, "how did this happen? Did… Did anyone get hurt?"
Frisk shrugs, and responds, "I dunno. I asked y- Uh, I mean, I asked Flowey to look for Chara, and now you're here and no longer Flowey."
Asriel looks around the room and notices the oddly shaped lump of blankets and pillows.
Frisk gets his attention, "I have an idea! Lets go plan some pranks together! I wanted to set up a trap at a door to pour a cup of water, flour, and corn starch onto someone… but I passed out while doing magic stuff. With your help, I could set up an even better prank!"
Asriel is hesitant, but goes along with Frisk anyway; Chara is thankful.
Frisk doesn't know why, but they get a feeling deep in their SOUL that something very bad is going to happen soon; they decide that they're just begin paranoid.
:-:
Ph'lliog arrives at his destination with ease. He's no longer plagued by exhaustion when travelling through the void.
In addition, his new ability to fly lets him get a bird's eye view of the world. Naturally, however, Ph'lliog opts to not use his wings and simply stands in the air; some things never change.
His thoughts on the matter being: 'i have wings, so now i can fly, but who said i had to use 'em?'
Looking around, from his view in the sky, Ph'lliog sees something he didn't expect.
It's a rather large cluster of villages, tucked snugly between two rivers, with a large yellow field around it.
He focuses on the humans, and sees that their garments are reminiscent of tribal humans, as are their weapons, but it is clear they are organized.
Ph'lliog looks around the area to get a good lay of the land.
The villages themselves don't seem too far apart, but stylization changes make it clear that there is more than one culture; however, there is also a large village in the center that combines all of their styles, it must be the main village.
Around the village clusters is a large field of golden flowers, which his obviously the result of a massive number of aberrant creatures being slain.
He surveys the area around the village, and sees an impossibly colossal city that's in ruins to the south west… Thinking back to his history lessons, he determines that it must be the Megalopolis of Candor; the colossal human city.
Due to their proximity to the city, Ph'lliog believes that the humans are survivors from Candor.
Taking a closer look around the outside of the villages, a rather sparse amount of tribal guards are patrolling around them. All things considered, they are probably very competent to be willing to spread so far apart.
It makes him happy, he's hoping they put up at least a little bit of a fight.
He's done looking around, now it's time to strike; it's time to test out his new abilities…
Skipping right to the end, Ph'lliog flies towards, and lands, in the center of the middle village.
Screaming heralds his arrival. He savours it for a moment, allowing the humans to panic and try to fight him.
For some reason, though, he is hesitant to fight them.
His hesitation vanishes when an arrow is shot at him.
Deftly catching it with his right arm, he throws it back with twice as much force, killing the archer who shot it.
Though he isn't sure why, he feels like absorbing a human SOUL would be less beneficial than it seems; he opts to trust his gut, and lets the SOUL shatter away.
Ph'lliog lets out an unnatural, blood curling roar.
As unarmed villagers flee, more tribal guards approach.
Ph'lliog extends his tentacles, where his left arm would be, and grabs three of the guards. Once firmly grasped, he slams them against the ground repeatedly, and his Karmic acid, tainted with that sinister energy, begins dissolving their flesh immediately.
A few guards he didn't previously notice launch a volley of arrows at him, he counters them by throwing the guards he is smashing against the ground at the arrows; they end up also colliding with the offending archers.
He rushes the group of guards and tears them apart with his tentacles and his arm.
Taking a moment to let the scene before him sink in, he looks with glee at the carnage.
Livers dangling haphazardly with intestines and kidneys, arms and legs torn from their sockets, and crimson blood gushing from everything.
Deciding to play dirty, he pulls the intestines out of one particularly large guard, and wraps them around his neck like a scarf.
A group of guards throw spears at him, while yelling in some language he doesn't know.
He can see the fear and confusion in their eyes, mixed with savoury DT.
While dodging, he unleashes his dogs of war. His usual "Gaster Blasters" have mutated with his own body, taking on a more horrifying appearance. They have acquired six more eye sockets –for a total of eight, which appear to move around in the vicinity of where their eyes would be–, four new rows of teeth –which each appear to be able to open and close independently–, their original teeth have become longer and drip with tainted Karmic poison, tentacles have burst out from the base of where their necks would be, and they are covered in what appears to be blood veins and arteries full of DT; their forms are also significantly more solid, thanks to Ph'lliog being able to fully utilize True conjuration.
Unleashing a significantly more powerful attack than he expected, a radioactive trench –coated in tainted Karmic poison– is the only evidence that the guards, and everything behind them, ever existed.
It was overkill, for sure, but he enjoyed it.
Leaving their SOULs to shatter, he moves through the village on his skeletal, spider-like legs and tentacles.
He can feel their DT growing stronger, and it makes him hungrier… but he can't properly eat while they're annoying him.
Unarmed men, women, and children have been evacuated from the village by now.
All that are left are guards… he's OK with this, but he wants to make sure no one gets away alive.
He rushes the next group of guards faster than they expected he could, and tears them apart with his tentacle "legs" as he continues running. A part of him feels like all this running is too much work, but he ignores it because he's having fun.
Flicking his "legs" to get the bits of flesh and blood off of himself, Ph'lliog wonders why he bothers with it for a second… then decides the best way to overcome this other part of himself is to start eating.
A good snack is always enjoyable.
Waiting in place for more guards, he rips out the heart of one of the nearby corpses and takes a bite out of it. The taste of fresh blood, mixed with DT, really hits the spot.
Yet another red "drink" that he can enjoy.
When no more guards show up, he moves to the most likely place where villagers would have been taken. The next closest village.
He can feel them gathering together, all the guards must be preparing to fight him.
It excites him.
Deciding to show off for his prey, Ph'lliog decides to fly over… but opts not to use his wings, of course.
He can smell their fear as he slowly descends.
Despite the hopelessness of the situation, their DT increases.
He pushes them further by deciding to talk. "you know, this is a pretty nice place you have here. it'd be a shame if something… happened to it. oh, wait… to late."
Though he can tell they didn't understand him, he sees even more fear fill their eyes.
It's likely they've never encountered another creature capable of speech, especially not one that wants to kill them.
Several of them yell out foreign words to others behind them, and some begin shaking and hesitantly bowing… probably hoping he will spare them.
He decides to kill them first.
Reaching out with his left "arms," Ph'lliog extends his tentacles and carefully wraps them around the cowards; carefully, in order to get their hopes up.
He brings them close, pauses, and smiles for dramatic effect.
They begin panicking and screaming, while trying to break loose of his suddenly tighter grip, as he opens his "head" into a large maw and bites their heads off one at a time.
Their dead bodies are tossed violently at the others, who are forcing themselves to watch with eyes full of horror.
Most of them begin running away in fear, but the few who remain fight valiantly.
Or they would, if Ph'lliog would let them.
The remaining guards prepare an attack, but Ph'lliog sweeps his right arm in front of himself and sends a wave of bones, enhanced by True Conjuration, to impale them.
His magic attack has a significantly greater effect on the environment, and their physical bodies, than his old attacks would.
One of the guards survives the attack, but barely; they seem to have more HP than the others, so they were probably an executioner.
Pinned to the ground by an over-sized tibia, the human still tries to retaliate by shooting Ph'lliog with an arrow, albeit at an awkward angle.
Knowing the tainted Karmic poison will kill him soon enough, Ph'lliog considers leaving him to die relatively slowly…
He decides to takes advantage of the moment and feigns, as if the human's attack hurt him.
In truth, one of the tentacles coming from his chest instinctively caught the arrow.
He can feel the human's DT rising higher, and feigns again.
And again.
When the human's DT is as high as their body can handle, Ph'lliog, in the blink of an eye, impales them with his right arm, breaking through their ribcage, and rips their still-beating heart out; it sends blood, and precious DT, spewing out everywhere. He's slightly disappointed by the mess.
The human's face, having been able to recognize what happened before their heart was ripped out, is a mix of surprise, terror, and loss of hope.
Ph'lliog takes a moment to savour the DT in the human's blood.
Wanting to further provoke the other humans, he rips the guard's head off to be used as an improvised throwing weapon.
After tossing aside the flimsy arrows, Ph'lliog moves on to the next group of humans he can sense.
They are unarmed, and petrified with fear, so he kills them easily.
A thought enters his mind… A simple ritual, one that he feels would help him devour DT more efficiently and less literally.
He isn't sure where the thought came from, but he is glad for it.
Ph'lliog throws the guard's head hard against a nearby boulder without thinking, causing the head to explode into chunks… then regrets it, as he realises he will need four freshly severed heads for the ritual.
Using his magic to his full advantage, Ph'lliog flattens a large area that used to contain people and huts, then summons some normal sized bones and draws a large arcane circle with them.
The markings he is using are unrecognizable to him, but he feels like he understands them, somehow, if only barely.
He removes the intestines from around his neck, growing bored of the flesh scarf, and retrieves four heads from his prey.
Arranging them in the north, east, south, and west, he then uses his magic to cause their blood to fill his arcane circle.
He imbues Justice, Perseverance, and Bravery into eight bones, and sets them in groups of two between each of the heads, along the outer rim of the arcane circle.
Once done, he dodges an arrow and ignores the guard who shot it.
He yells, "Y' ulnah orr'ee ot fahff Y' l' ah'n'gha gokln'gha ya f' gn'th'bthnk uaaah!" and sends a pulse of that sinister energy within him into the rushed arcane circle.
It responds by pulsing and enveloping him in magic. After it's completed, a sinister purple aura, with red tendrils, surrounds him.
He can feel the DT from all of his previous victims flowing into him, which he otherwise wouldn't have been able to absorb without devouring them whole.
Another arrow is shot at him, but one of his tentacles instinctively deflect it.
He kills the annoying guard, and their DT is automatically absorbed into his SOUL.
It's refreshing, and now he doesn't have to eat them unless he wants to.
Which means, to strike fear into their hearts, he will still do so occasionally.
Besides, if he relies entirely on this ritual then he can't taste their blood.
He has found that their blood tastes rather good when they die afraid, but it's especially tasty when they die after thinking they have turned the tides.
He starts to consider if his newfound thirst for blood makes him a vampire… but waves it aside; he doesn't have to drink their blood, it just reminded him of savoury ketchup at first… He isn't sure why.
A loud bang is followed by a piercing feeling in his chest.
Ph'lliog turns around, another bang from a different direction, another feeling of something piercing him.
His form slowly destabilizes, as the magical field that makes up his body begins to collapse.
Another bang, another piercing feeling. This time he sees where it's coming from.
A guard is holding an old, remarkably well-kept, gun.
To increase their chances of survival, the guard seems to be changing positions every time they fire.
Ph'lliog scoffs, "you think that can kill me?! Nothing can kill me any more!"
He allows his form to collapse into a puddle, and spreads it out to find the nearest bodies of his fallen prey.
Only a single partial corpse is close enough, but it will suffice.
Upon absorbing the remainder of the corpse, Ph'lliog's body begins to reform itself… It's several times more grotesque than it was before. His physical body has partially re-grown, but there is no skin except on his tentacles and his right arm; which is otherworldly rather than human-like.
His skeletal spider-esq legs, his chest, and his head are all covered in sparse amounts of muscle and pulsing blood veins and arteries. His heart has also regrown, and can occasionally be seen beating behind the tentacles coming from his chest. His veins and arteries, which would normally carry blood, are full of his tainted Karmic poison and his own DT.
His abdomen now hosts a large organic sac, where stolen DT is being stored.
Ph'lliog is now more physical than magical.
The fear in the human's eyes increases for a moment, but their DT rises and they continue firing their gun and moving.
Ph'lliog takes the shots and charges after the human, then pins the human to the ground by their neck with his right arm.
He allows his prey to struggle for a moment, hoping to get as much DT as possible, before squeezing his hand tight enough to crush their vertebrae.
Deciding that the gun is far more trouble than he wants, Ph'lliog breaks it.
He starts to grow bored of the village.
With the death of that guard, and the destruction of the gun, the rest of the tribal village's DT drops lower than Ph'lliog wants to bother with.
None of them can match him, and their DT is growing thin… Not to mention, the ritual he cast has gotten him quite a lot of DT from his fallen prey, causing him to feel full.
All his moving about, and attacking, has also gotten him quite tired.
So, to their relief, but confusion and fear, he vanishes.
Ph'lliog decides to float around in the void for a while and let his meal settle, but he already has his next destination chosen.
The next closest location, with a large amount of DT, is Ebott Valley; the Sanctum, to be specific.
The DT he senses coming from there is so strong that he can't even tell if there is just one large reservoir, or if it's actually a densely packed building.
Given that David mentioned some Hollow SOUL being brought back to life, it's likely he'll encounter a Red SOUL there; that's the only reasonable explanation for how much DT is in the Sanctum.
And given the fact that he started to feel magical energy lingering in the air, it's likely they will have access to magic. Though he doesn't remember everything about the Sanctum, he does remember that it was a place where humans learned magic.
Thinking out loud, Ph'lliog says, "well, who'd've thought that i'd return to ebott valley? heh… maybe i should bring a souvenir. i wonder… will i remember more by going there now?"
Shrugging, to no one in particular, Ph'lliog decides to take a nap.
Ebott Valley can wait a while.
Notice:
I have been working on this fic for a while now, and while I am happy with some aspects (especially the, albeit small, amount of progress I have made as an author), I am not content with the fic as it currently exists.
I do not feel that it properly conveys my intent for it, but especially not the characters, and there are many details and things that are overall useless.
In short, I want to make this fic better... so I have started planning a re-write for it.
With that being said, I am going to continue working on the current version of the fic in order to wrap it up as much as I can and as satisfyingly as I can, but without going through all... 11 planned arcs.
As for what effect this will have on the story thus far, it wont have much of an effect... OK, that is a lie, it wont have any effect. The story will progress as I expected it to, but will cut off before the next arc starts. You probably won't even notice, because I planned it to feel like the end of the story... and then I'd go: "But wait, there's more!"
This notice will be placed at the start of the fic.
Since I already have a note here...
Sans succeeded on his grapple check, but failed his Will save multiple times.
David would have gone and decimated that village cluster in place of Sans, so all in all not much has changed.
I think this way may be more interesting for everyone, though.