Chapter 16
Upon our group getting to the castle proper, we then immediately rushed forward and Toriel pointed out the next elevator, which we went into immediately, since she said it was a shortcut. We then went south and through a large hall of marble columns as we could see the sunset giving the place an almost golden glow to it. "So you know... I encountered some of those creatures that Alphys created on the way to Hotland... Amalgamates, as their called," Toriel frowned.
"Yeah?" I asked her.
"Well... I don't know if we can keep her around as the Royal Scientist after that. Those poor souls, now forever stuck in that state..." Toriel sighed.
"It's not like she meant for it to happen, Toriel. In fact, whenever it happened, Alphys became a complete recluse and steadily became more fearful of what others would think of her... it got to the point that she only opened her lab doors for myself and Sans, and even then, she never told me a thing about it until Mute had Sans convince her to come out with the truth," Undyne said.
"Really?" Toriel asked.
"Yeah... she was kind of a nervous wreck because of the whole situation," I said.
"It must hurt to be incredibly lonely and to seclude yourself from others," Papyrus sighed.
"Not like the Great Papyrus would know what that's like. After all, he's got a very tough brother and a whole slew of friends to back him up now," I smiled at him.
"Quite right, Mute! The Great Papyrus always knows victory!" Papyrus smiled widely as we then made it to the next area and we saw that there was a staircase to a basement to the right and the front of us would lead to a garden.
"Okay, let's all go in together at the same time," Asriel said, us doing just that and seeing that Asgore was busy watering the flowers of his garden.
"Huh? Hold on, I'm almost finished watering these flowers," Asgore said as I simply hid me and Asriel behind Toriel and Asgore looked at her and started speaking. "Hello, to whom do... I..." Asgore asked in shock as he saw Toriel. "T-Tori... you... you came back!" Asgore said with a smile.
"Just Toriel for right now, Asgore... I am still upset with you," Toriel said, Asgore's smile turning to a sad frown at that. "But... if you must know why I am here, it is because someone very important wants us to have a reunion, on the condition you abandon the plans to war with humanity... someone very important to me," Toriel said.
"Really?... Who would that be?" Asgore asked as I simply then had me and Asriel step out from behind Toriel and Asgore gasped in shock. "A-A...Asriel?... My boy... h-how?" Asgore asked in pure shock.
"Daddy..." Asriel said as I let him in control to rush up to Asgore and he hugged him happily. "I have a human to thank for me being alive today... a human named Mute... she merged her soul with my body..." Asriel smiled.
"But... you were turned to dust by the humans... how are you still alive?... You're not a ghost, are you?" Asgore asked.
"No, I'll explain," I said as I then went in control and Asgore sniffled. "So you know, the only way to tell me and Asriel apart when we're in control is our eye color and voices... anyways, whenever you asked Alphys to experiment with the human souls and their Determination, she took one of your flowers from this garden that popped up after Asriel's ashes fell here. And that flower gained Asriel's memories, but didn't have a soul... he then started to mess with timelines, resetting the same days over and over with his Determination because he got bored of the same scenarios... and then I came down here and made a promise to a friend. To help everyone down here on my quest to go back home.. so, with my soul of purity, I placed it inside of Flowey and he immediately turned back into Asriel, as my soul is the equivalent of 7 human souls, giving Asriel his old body and his good nature back again," I explained.
"All of that... is hard to grasp... wait... you said you have the power of 7 human souls?" Asgore asked.
"Yes, we do, dad... we can use our combined power to destroy the barrier, but you have to promise to give the other souls to each of our friends so they can have a life again... and also that you tell everyone to live on the surface in peace and that we won't war with humanity... and we need to do it quick, because Mute made a promise to her mother to be back before sunset," Asriel said, him looking at our watch and us seeing we only had 20 minutes left.
"Of course. Come, this way to the barrier," Asgore said as he led our group through a door ahead and then to an area of pure white... at least, it looked that way to everyone else and to me and Asriel when looking from afar. But when me and Asriel went inside of the barrier room, we saw that we had passed it by completely.
"Okay... time to release our full power to destroy this barrier. Everyone, I suggest you stand back in the throne room," Asriel said as me and him then focused and I actually felt Asriel's body grow slightly as we focused heavily and then, when everyone was out of the room, we unleashed a massive laser of purity directly at the barrier, me and Asriel smirking as it cracked and then completely shattered in one single attack, a chill going down our backs upon the breeze of autumn coming through the door.
"Alright! The barrier's destroyed!" I smirked as Asriel then fell to the ground and I tried to move our body... and I found we were pretty winded from using our full power. "Hey, Great Papyrus? Can you pick us up? We feel a bit winded," I said with a sigh.
"Of course, Mute and Prince!" Papyrus smirked as he rushed over and picked our body up with both hands and smiled.
"Okay... now for the other human souls..." Asgore said as he pushed a button and a bunch of containers emerged from the floor, me smirking at his surprise.
"What the?! Where did the souls go? Three of them are missing!" Asgore gawked.
"They had to be absorbed by one of my friends in order to combat an enemy of intense power, one that had the power to destroy the entire universe with a single attack," I smiled as Asgore then simply let out the three souls and gave one to each of my friends. One to Papyrus (the green one) one to Undyne (the blue one) and one to Toriel (the cyan one). And after they absorbed the souls, they gasped as they could feel something happen to him. Probably the same feeling Asriel had when he absorbed my soul.
"Oh my... I... I feel tougher! And... the human soul in me... she senses my skills in cooking... and is giving me knowledge of all kinds of recipes!" Papyrus gawked with his cheekbones turning red.
"How does a skeleton blush?" I smirked.
"It's best not to ask that question," Undyne smiled as she then groaned as she felt her chest. "Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry for doing that to you back then. At least now you'll be able to be in control whenever, so long as you ask," Undyne frowned, most likely speaking to the soul inside of her. "Now? Fine," Undyne smirked as her eye then turned to a light blue and she started to speak in a more refined manner.
"Thank you, fish woman... you would not believe how cramped it felt in that container... and how long I was kept in there," the new voice for Undyne said, her sounding very well-to-do as she then looked at me and Asriel and held her hand out. "I would like my tutu and shoes back, please," she said, me smirking as we then undid them and gave her the items and Undyne soon went back in control after accepting them.
"Okay, that's enough. I'm not putting those things on," Undyne frowned, Toriel giggling as she then touched her chest with a smile.
"Yes, young one... I missed you too," Toriel smiled happily as we then looked at Asgore with a smile. "Okay... now we need some people to stay behind and spread word to the other monsters about the barrier being destroyed... and I need a small team to take me and Asriel back to my town and to my mother's house. Releasing our true inner power took a bit out of us... I bet we can't move a muscle until after a good rest," I smiled.
"Right, so who wants to do those jobs?" Asriel asked.
"I'll take you to the village with help from Papyrus. Undyne and Asgore, you stay behind to tell everyone else to get out of the Underground and treat the humans nicely," Toriel smiled.
"Deal done," I smirked as she and Papyrus then rushed forward with Papyrus carrying me and Asriel out of the door to the Underground in time to see the sun setting in the distance, Toriel gawking at the sight with tears in her eyes.
"So this is the beauty of the sunset... I've never seen this sight before in my entire life..." Toriel said with a small smile.
"It's something that we humans take for granted... but for everyone else in the Underground, it's sure to be a sight you'll never forget," I smirked as I then gave them directions to my village via the nearby trail. Toriel cleared parts of the brush with a sharpened knife as we emerged back in my town and we saw that everyone outside was preparing for the end of the day and that they looked at our trio with looks of surprise on them.
"What the... are those... monsters?" some of the townies asked, Toriel simply smiling and Papyrus carrying me and Asriel all the way to mom's house and Toriel then knocking on the door.
"Knock knock," Toriel smiled. And my mom answered.
"Who's there?" she asked.
"A couple of friends of your daughter... we have a whole lot to explain to you," Toriel smiled. My mom immediately opened the door and gasped when she saw who looked back at her. I smiled at her and mom looked at me with the most intrigue.
"Um... who's the kid?" she asked. I simply responded in song.
"~You know who... I am, mother dear
I'm still me... inside this kid here,
I am Mute, and you are my mom,
I'm finally hoommee...~" I sung happily and triumphantly, mom gasping and her face starting to produce tears.
"Mute... I was worried you weren't going to come back in time... but why are you trapped inside of a little goat kid? And why are you being carried by an old goat woman and a skeleton?" mom asked.
"Well, we have quite a story to tell you, mom... to be honest, you may not believe all of it, even with some of our proof right in front of you," I smiled.
"Why not start from the top? I'll try to believe everything that you say, hon," mom smiled.
"Okay... I went to the mountain for a climb and I discovered a large hole off the path. I went to investigate it, tripped over a root, and fell into the Underground. Mount Ebott, this whole time, was the prison for all monster kind," I said, mom smirking at that.
"I believe that much with your two friends here," mom smirked at me.
"I then proceeded through the Underground, all the while hoping to keep true to the promise I made you, that I'd be back before sunset. I came across a lot of monsters, almost all of them being very nice. Toriel, this woman here, is one of them. A very tender mother to Asriel and the Queen of the monsters," I smirked.
"Indeed. Mute has done so much to help me... she even gave me back my son, giving her body up in the process," Toriel smiled.
"What do you mean?" mom asked.
"See, Asriel had been killed by the humans in the past, many years ago. But he was brought back to life as a flower, but without a soul... and therefore, no positive emotions in his body. He tried to kill me a couple times on my journey through the Underground, because he had grown bitter at how he was unable to feel positive, adopting a mantra in the form of 'in this world, it's kill or be killed'. But after traversing through the Underground some more, I learned of Asriel's true identity and the fact that my soul was one of purity, which meant it had the power of all 7 different types of souls a human can have," I explained.
"Really? Can you prove that?" mom asked. I smiled and focused, me and Asriel temporarily letting our soul out of our body and mom smiling at it. "Okay, I believe it now," she smiled. "So that means that Asriel has his form back because of the pure power of your soul?"
"Correct. But we ended up having to get past a couple different obstacles during the last bit of our journey. We had to defeat a demon that had possessed my old body, one with the power of over 100 thousand souls across multiple timelines," I explained.
"Really? That I find hard to believe," mom frowned. But then we got a surprise by a certain person who simply teleported into the room we were in on his own.
"Believe it, miss. I had to help Mute and Asriel defeat them in a fight with my telekinesis," said Sans as his very voice made mom jump in surprise.
"W-Who are you?" mom asked him.
"That's Sans, the most powerful monster in the entire Underground. But in his base form, it wasn't enough to defeat the evil Chara. So he had to absorb 3 human souls of those who had previously fallen down to the Underground in order to have the strength to beat Chara in a fight," I explained.
"How can this skeleton be tougher than you when you have the power of 7 souls and he only had 3?" mom asked.
"Trust me, miss. Even in my base form, I gave that demon a bad time over 4 times the number of souls they had across multiple timelines. I knew that if I wanted to get rid of the time loops forever, I had to beat the source, so I got myself an increase in strength from the 3 souls of previous humans. And it was just enough to be greater in power to the demon," Sans explained.
"Okay... this is getting a bit creepy now... anything else that happened?" mom asked.
"Yes. Soon after we defeated Chara in battle and sent them back to the afterlife, we learned of an even bigger threat. A Void that threatened to absorb and consume the entire universe at midnight. Me and Asriel, having a soul of purity, had to face the embodiment of the Void itself and we barely escaped soon after, as we had to be in its domain in order to fight it," I explained.
"Okay... and how did you learn of this Void?" mom asked... and then I looked behind her and smiled. It was Goner Kid and Clam Goner, both behind her.
"Those guys behind you," I said, mom gulping and turning around and her being surprised by the duo that stood there. "So how come you two are still around?" I asked them.
"We are all that remains of the Void... you needn't worry... Mute... without the evil... of Gaster... the Void is now... much more peaceful..." Goner Kid said. And Clam Goner soon signed out her words soon after, which mom interpreted.
"And you promise to leave this world alone and warn us if the Void happens to have anything else happen to it... got it," mom gulped as the duo of gray monsters then disappeared into nothingness. "This... is a lot to grasp, honestly... the fact that you did so much in only one day... you must be exhausted, huh?" mom smirked, me and Asriel chuckling at that.
"Yeah, we are," Asriel smiled. "After all, we had to use our full power to destroy the barrier that sealed everyone down there... we can barely move a muscle because of how sore we feel... Great Papyrus? Can you and the others help us find a bed? We need some sleep," Asriel smiled.
"Of course, young Prince," Papyrus smirked as mom smiled.
"Great Papyrus? What's great about you?" mom asked with a smile.
"His spaghetti, mom? Best thing I've ever eaten in my entire life. And he stood up for me when someone was trying to hunt me down for my soul. That is why he is the Great Papyrus," I smirked.
"And the Great Papyrus, soon after the world learns of monster kind, wishes to open up a pasta restaurant! And maybe... well, I have a request... do you have a car nearby? I've always wanted to drive down a long highway in an open-hooded car," Papyrus smiled.
"Only if I can ride with you," mom smirked at that. "And lucky you, I happen to have an open-hood car. Just make sure it's on a sunny day, because it'd ruin the interior if you drove in bad weather."
"Understood, mother of Mute!" Papyrus smirked as he then laid me and Asriel on the bed in my bedroom... and soon after mom and Toriel covered the sheets over us, me and Asriel immediately fell asleep. It had been a very long day, but it was one of the best days I'd ever had in my entire life.