Chapter 4: A Rest
Kia had enough sense not to leave the house dusty. She instead spread them in the ruffled leaves in front of it. Patting her hands, Kia glanced at the crimson sphere holding the pieces of the Monster's shattered inverted SOUL. Carefully, she pieced the SOUL together again. Kia's size grew as her blackened skeleton form took her human form's place. The feel of her slipping waist line vanishing.
K.I.A. LV 120 HP 860/860
Tall, dark, intimidating, and powerful, she will need a lot of magic for the next step.
Her crimson magic turned garnet. The sphere with the pieced together Monster SOUL slowly filled up with a kind of pink syrup. Garnet magic sweat started to bead on Kia forehead. Slowly clenching her fists, the pink syrup slowly shrank and hardened over the broken SOUL.
Her magic disappeared suddenly.
Kia gasped in exhaustion and fell to her knees. Her human form took over, but it wasn't as healthy as it should have been. Shriveled up with darkened skin and fragile hair strands, without the majority of her magic reserves Kia was a human raisin mummy. Her innards had already turned to dust within her. Feeling extremely weak, Kia struggled to reach the star of magic next to her head.
Crushing it in her grip, Kia drank in the magic hungrily. Stronger now, Kia stood on wobbly knees. Kia immediately caught her falling pants with her other hand. Kia hobbled into the house and locked the door behind her. Entering the sitting room to her left, Kia collapsed into the huge reading chair to rest. Kia inspected her hands. As she thought, her appearance had aged. Finger combing her dry short wavy hair, she brought a lock of hair to her sight. Silvery. Yup, she defiantly aged. Kia sighed.
Kia held up the thumb sized marble in her other hand. It was pink with the bright white SOUL inside. The broken SOUL was dimming in the light. Kia frowned. Kia pulled out her own beaten and battered SOUL. It had bruises, puncture wounds, cracks, and jagged holes. It had even started to split between the two hills right down the middle of her SOUL. If it wasn't for those three inches at the bottom tip, her SOUL would have shattered a long time ago.
If it wasn't for the others and her own DETERMINATION overfilling it, its bleeding to give her life in this decaying corpse.
Dabbing her pinky into some of her liquid DT, a spindly strand stretched as she pulled away from her SOUL. Her pinky met the surface of the marble. The red DT slid across the surface to net around the Marble. The SOUL inside started to brighten.
Kia let go of the marble.
It floated in the air along with Kia's SOUL. The webbed strand of DT connecting the SOULs together, Kia created a bond. They disappeared within Kia's chest soon after. A surge of foreign magic tickles her fingers. Raising her hands, Kia watched at white flames encompassed them. Kia grinned with her crimson eyes. Glancing at the empty fireplace, Kia reached over to light the tinder and fuel.
The fireplace was filled with a merry white fire, warming up the room. Kia sighed in content. Using the other hand still on fire, she flicked it into the air and molded it with her crimson magic around it to take the shape of Toriel. The crimson replica had the white fire magic in her chest to animate the form. Now it just needed memories. The fire in the replica's chest turned red.
Toriel blinked. She looked around and then at her paws. She snarled and glared at Kia. Kia smirked and lounged a more comfortably in Toriel's large chair. Toriel had tried to attack Kia, but that was unsuccessful. Toriel's form just phased through the grinning old woman and the chair. Her fire magic didn't even spark in her paws. Toriel huffed and puffed in rage before calming down.
"There now, temper tantrums are not suited to us adults," Kia cooed.
"What do you want," Toriel snarled.
Kia's smirk fell. Toriel stiffened.
"Food, I want food. It takes quite a lot to create an apparition on a first try. Go bring me something edible so I can recuperate. Please and thank you."
Toriel stared at Kia before moving to the kitchen to do as instructed. Kia closed her eyes in exhaustion. She needed food and rest before she can explore more of this place. Kia reclined on the plush chair even more. She has had enough of thinking. She needs to relax.
Kia blinked awake when she smelled something good to eat wafted under her nose. Humming in delight, Kia uncurled slowly to stretch out her limbs. Squeaking out a moan and a yawn, Kia relaxed. She got up on her feet to shuffle over to the dining table, pulling up her slipping waist line. She felt a bit better after her nap.
Sluggishly, Kia climbed up the chair to sit. Rubbing her eyes with fists to get rid of the eye sand, she finally woke up properly. Before her was a plate of sausages, Kia was suspicious. Using magic to give her a boost in her chair to actually see the plat properly, Kia tested the connection between her and astral Toriel. Nope, not poisoned, it wasn't even real meat. It was a swamp plant's seed pod called a water sausage. Oh well, food is food.
After she finished eating, Kia spied the cracked vase full of wilting flowers decorating the table. Taking a quick peek at Toriel's position, Toriel was patrolling the Ruins, letting off steam. Kia snickered. For now, Kia threaded her hands through her short dirty blonde hair. Pulling out all the loose strands she could, Kia bundled them up and dropped them into the vase. She didn't exactly worry about the size of the hair ball she put in there since her hair was ridiculously thick. Now she had a magical anchor here, she can regulate a minimum of magic to keep Toriel's form while she was away.
Satisfied and completely rejuvenated, Kia dumped her dishes into the sink. She really needed to find her clothes. The sweater she was wearing is getting uncomfortably itchy and warm. Searching around the little home about a good hour, she was able to finally find her clothes in what looks to be a children's room. Her boots were thrown into a box filled with children shoes of various sizes. Her clothes were cleaned and folded with the spare pants in the closet, her jacket hanged above with the other sweaters. Searching her clothes, she was relieved that her underthings were also there and cleaned.
Placing her original clothes and another set of sweater/pant on the small bed, Kia shed her sweat soiled clothing. Pulling on her lace underwear and strapless bra, Kia pulled on her dark tub top first. It's bottom edge stopped just above her belly button. Pulling on the pants and fresh pair of socks, Kia pulled on her shorts over it. It was a little snug, but her waist line wouldn't slip now. Pulling on the sweater, Kia wiggled on her leather short jacket as well. Its long sleeves snug from the sweater sleeves underneath. Pulling on the thick socks and her boots, her pant legs didn't seem like they were like high waters anymore.
Sighing in content, Kia slipped her hands into her short short's pockets. In surprise, she pulled out the slip of ribbon from her pocket. Shrugging, Kia walked back out into the hallway and towards the mirror. Slipping the faded ribbon along her hair line, Kia tied the ends into a bow on top of her head. Kia hummed. Sliding the bow to one side of her forehead, Kia picked out her side bangs to make her forehead and pierced ears less pronounced. If only she had some stud earrings and makeup, she would look a whole lot cuter.
Pleased with this, Kia stood from her half hunch looking in the mirror. Wandering into Toriel's room, Kia snagged a messenger bag from her shelf. Kia looted the pantry, cabinets, and fridge for food. In the fridge was a lone brand name chocolate bar, Kia took that because, yum chocolate. The cabinets had a jar of sugar cookies in there. Kia took that. After that, she couldn't find anything snack wise to stuff into her bag.
Kia contemplated on making a meal and stuffing them into the containers she found. Nah, even if Toriel couldn't eat human food, the magic in Monster Food would keep her going without Kia's help. Kia blinked. How did she know that? Oh well, Kia needs to get going anyhow.
Strolling back into the sitting room, Kia spoke to the white magic fire she conjured earlier.
"Hey Toriel, I'll be leaving through the basement now. Thanks so much for letting me loaf around here. Also, in the first room with all the flowers, I may have left a human corpse. If you can clean that up that would be fantastic! Well, see you much later!"
Pulling away, Kia trekked down the abused stairs and passed through the dark hallways in the basement. Kia squinted. She couldn't see a damn thing. Lighting her hand up in white fire, she traveled further down the tunnel. Passing through the stone door, Kia came upon a patch of dirt with a single golden flower with a face.
It caught sight of her, paled drastically, and disappeared. Kia clicked her tongue in disinterest. Waving her torch around the area he disappeared into, Kia concluded he (it?) doesn't want to hang around her. Walking on through, Kia came to a second set of doors. These were heavier than the other ones. She actually had to use magic to strengthen herself to open them.
Her torch was instantly snuffed out by a bitter cold blast of wind. She tripped on the height of the snow the doors had blocked. She was on her knees, saving herself from face planting into the slush and fluff.
"HOLY FUCKING JEEZ IT'S COLD!"
Her voice echoed through the dark, snowy woods? It looked like a place from a gory action film. The woods were dark and empty with scars all along the foliage. Getting up in the snow, Kia hugged herself to preserve some warmth in her body. She may be wearing layers of clothes, but it was still really cold. Kia jumped when the heavy stone doors slammed shut behind her.
"Damn fucking shit, like that is reassuring, this place gets shit zero stars for any welcoming party that's for sure."
Kia shivered. Kia sighed and moved on. She stopped in front of some frosted bushes. She felt the familiar sensation of being watched. Narrowing her eyes at the bushes, Kia pushed aside some branches. There it was … a camera. She cackled. Crimson magic flared, she reached with her claw. She glared right into the lens with her pointed grin.
"Hello~, don't mind me but I really hate fucking shit like this. Come and meet me if want to see me up close."
Kia could see her crimson eyes, black sclera, and slightly pointed teeth in her reflection. She gave a wink and kiss before she crushed the machine in her claws. Kia loved doing that. She unfolded her other arm to crush the camera further into bits. Letting the pieces fall, Kia turned away.
Down the packed snow path way, she stalked. The feeling of being watched didn't vanish. It intensifies. She ignored the thick branch in her way. She pretended to not notice the distinct harsh snap and crackle of the branch shattering behind her. She smiles. She notices a shadow out of the corner of her eye. Her lips stretched into a grin.
She stopped before a little wooden bridge. The brigade set up so sparsely she could just stroll right on through without any hindrance. Humming a little tune, Kia waited for them to approach her. A crunch in the snow behind her alerted her they were here.
She grinned wider.
Twirling around, she raised a hand in greetings. She stared down at the shadow with cold amusement.
"Hey-o, whatcha doin'?"