He had two maps of the exact same region, but they were both different. Asgore sat in the throne room pouring over maps and documents. He ordered a large table brought in after Chara fell so he could keep track of everything. The circular table took up most of the room; its' entire surface covered with papers. Royal guard reports, weapon and armor supply reports, economic updates and yes, maps.
Maps were especially annoying to deal with. The two maps were supposed to depict the landscape of the surface just beyond the barrier. The documents were ancient and a bit faded. They were constructed from the memories of a few monsters after the nearly extinct race had been trapped underground.
How was he supposed to make a plan with this? One map showed there was a mountain pass to the southeast, while the other showed there was one to the southwest. He grabbed another map from the table, this one said there were no mountains at all, and instead the Underground exited into a large valley.
Asgore grabbed a random piece of blank parchment, bottle of ink, and a feather quill. He drew an 'X' at bottom of the page; a representation of the barrier. Then he drew a large diamond shape in the middle of the page. And two more lines on the left and right of it, both following the edges of the central diamond shape.
Two paths branching around a central mountain or hill. Asgore sighed and threw his improvised, and probably incorrect, map onto the sea of papers. After what felt like months of research, he was getting nowhere.
As he started his fourth check of how many royal guardsmen were in fighting condition, the doors of the throne room burst open. A disembodied suit of armor ran in, the pieces connected by an ethereal white light. Asgore could already guess why the monster had come.
"My liege," A surprisingly grounded voice said, originating from the glowing armor.
"Speak." Said Asgore's own deep voice.
"There is a gathering outside. Their leader is challenging-"
"I figured. I'll handle it," Said Asgore, hearing enough.
"Would you like me to alert the captain?"
"I can handle it. Return to your post." The guardsman turned to leave immediately. Asgore paused for a moment, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath; in and out. He was already wearing his suit of armor, ready for moments like these. He slowly pushed himself up from his seat, and started the trek to the castle's main entrance.
Asgore, dressed in his armor, cape, and crown, the symbol of his authority, looked up at the massive wooden doors of the castle's main entrance. He could hear a distant, muffled commotion from the other side. He motioned to the two assembled guards. One of the monsters looked like a snake with a pair of bird wings, coiled through some metal pieces that only slightly resembled armor, the other being the same glowing suit of armor from before.
Both guardsmen noded and, combining their strength, removed the large wooden beam that kept the door shut. The doors slowly swung open, a dim stream of light poured into the room. The mumbled sound swiftly turned into loud yelling. Asgore stepped outside. A large group of monsters stood on the huge bridge the the castle's main entrance.
At this point, everything was going almost routinely. When Asgore heard the inevitable cacophony of insults, he froze. Usually it was about how Asgore didn't solve this, or how he wouldn't help the monster race with that. Asgore would be blamed for things that the monsters didn't actually understand, but today it was a different. More than just petty quarrels. Chara.
The crowd was yelling about Chara. How did they… Asriel. He must have been careless and was seen with a living human. Asgore should have been paying attention, how long have monsters known that Chara was alive? The information could have spread across the whole of the underground by now.
"Asgore!" a savage voice yelled above the rest. Thoughts aside, Asgore scanned the crowd for the source. The yelling had died down somewhat with the introduction of this new voice.
A monster stepped out of the crowd. It was humanoid, with two legs and arms. It's head was matted with unkempt, brown hairs. One huge orange eye looking into Asgore's. More noticeably where the two large, curved blades sticking out of the creature's arms. It had a bulky, muscular build, obviously possessing great strength.
"You harbor a human!" a gruff voice spat from the creature. "You betray your own kind by allowing the enemy to live!" Asgore kept his face impassive, even though he was quickly losing patience.
"You're mistaken." Asgore said, monotone. How much did this monster know?
"Look at his lies! You chose to help the enemy over your own people!" In other words, all this monster knew was Asgore is bad because there is a human. Great. Only the faintest Idea of the situation, as always. At this point Asgore was just waiting for the inevitable fight to begin. The monster turned to address the crowd. "Do we want a king that would side with the very race that locked us down here?" the monster yelled again. The crowd responded with with shouts of defiance.
"Well then" the leader said, turning once again to address Asgore. "King Asgore," he started. Asgore knew to wait until the monster finished. If he attacked before the proper words that initiated an official challenge were completed, it would be seen as a cowardly act. He was considering breaking this unspoken rule just to save time, but he knew it would only incite another challenge some time later. "You are not fit to lead the monster race! I hereby challenge you to ownership of the royal crown!" Finally.
Challenging the king was a duel to the death. If Asgore lost, he would die, obviously. However there was more at stake than just his own life. This group of monsters would storm the castle. The Royal guard would likely be overtaken by the sheer number of attackers. If his wife failed at defending herself, she would be killed, execution style. His son too.
That, or his family would be exiled to some far reaching, dark corner of the Underground. Of course by that point, Chara would have been ripped to shreds long before that. A challenge meant Asgore fought to defend himself, his reign, his family, and even Chara, although for a different reason.
However there were many things working for Asgore. Toriel wasn't the queen because she married into power. She had earned the title herself. All concerns were irelivant. Such worries would only exist if there was any chance that Asgore would lose.
"I accept!" Asgore bellowed for all to hear. He shot out his arm and a massive whirlwind of flames blossomed into being. The flames spiraled inward toward his outstretched hand. When the flames dissipated, a massive glowing red trident was held in his grasp.
He always made a big show of it before a battle to discourage enemies. Fighting is more than strength. Information is just as important, if not more. He learned that the hard way a long time ago.
The challenger wasted no time and charged at Asgore, arm blades held back, ready to slash and cut. Fast, faster than expected. Asgore swung his free hand and a wall of flames engulfed the bridge, cutting off its' path. The monster was suddenly on the railing of the bridge before it rebounded off with a jump. It flew through the air, arms out in front in a sort of pincer attack.
With perfect timing, Asgore swung his trident. the pronged end covered enough area to block both blades, faster than the attacker was expecting. The harsh parry sent the monster sailing off course. It landed hard, skidding against the stone floor of the bridge, now on the opposite side of Asgore.
The creature shot up and charged once again. Asgore was completely confident he had won. He created another wall of flames, this time he knew more than what to expect. He thought two steps ahead.. Its' legs were obviously capable of jumping a great height, the reason it skirted the edges of the flame before, instead of jumping straight over it was likely to catch Asgore by surprise. Asgore's years of experience told him his opponent was going to vary its' strategy.
Asgore kneeled down, trident held up at a roughly forty-five degree angle. He saw the shadow as the monster drew near the wall of flames again. This time, the monster appeared above the center of the fiery wall, blades held high over its' head. Asgore had predicted correctly. The monster, before it could even process what was going on, fell onto the pointed end of the trident. Without breaking so much as a sweat, It was almost too easy.
However it is not enough to simply win a single fight. In order to truly be the strongest, you have to win every battle to come after, before it even comes to pass. As the now dying monster, skewered to the end of the trident, started to disintegrate into dust, Asgore hefted his weapon up and turned toward the crowd. Summoning all his strength, he threw the trident like a spear high in the air. It arced, and as it came close to landing in the crowd of assembled monsters, Asgore clasped his hands together.
The weapon, and the impaled monster, exploded into a huge shower of flames. Monsters screamed and jumped to the floor for cover. The flames didn't reach them, Asgore only wanted it to appear like it would. When the glow faded, the trident, the monster, and any courage another monster had to challenge Asgore disappeared in an instant. It was unfortunate this discouragement didn't last longer.
Stories would be told of this day. How the true king of the monster dispatched his attacker with ease, in less than about fifteen seconds. Even though it may have seemed longer, that's about how long the whole ordeal lasted.
Asgore spoke before the crowd could recover from their shock. "This monster, and others like it have been feeding you lies!" his voice boomed. "I will show pity to you poor, ignorant people. I will not harm anyone, or even banish any of you from my city. But be warned; do not oppose the Royal Family again." He kept telling himself that this was the last warning he would give. Then he turned and calmly walked back through the gates of the castle.
Some time had passed, and Asgore was once again pouring over pieces of parchment that did not help him in the slightest. He had taken his armor off; it was strew about on the floor. He couldn't be bothered to take care of it.
"My king," a calm, smooth voice interrupted. Asgore, now further frustrated by yet another interruption, looked up to see the royal scientist, Doctor Gaster, standing in the entrance to the throne room. The doctor wore his normal blinding white lab coat that draped over much of his form, save for his hands and head. "I know right now may not be a good time, but I would like to ask you something," said his voice that seemed to emanate from everywhere. His unnerving dark eyes and cracked face that never moved were enough to unsettle even Asgore, although only a slightly.
"What do you want?" Asgore barked, turning his gaze back to the papers.
"The commotion from earlier has much talk about it. Soon the entire underground will know that you have captured a human."
"Spit it out doctor."
"I want to study this human."
"Absolutely not." Asgore said, slamming a book down and looking the doctor straight in the closest thing that resembled an eye.
"Oh come now," implored Gaster in a tone that sounded much too sweet. "There is so much to gain if I were able to study it." The thing was, Gaster could learn a lot, but there was such a thing as going 'too far,' even in the harsh society of the Underground.
"I remember what happened the last time you were given subjects to study, doctor." Asgore said, trying to retain an impassive attitude.
"Yes, then you know how far my research came because of it."
"You yourself told me that you somehow managed to damage your own soul in the process."
"It was all for-"
"And then there were the others…" Asgore trailed off, remembered the screams during one of his rare visits to Gaster's lab. He always thought of himself as harsh and unbreakable, but Gaster's pursuit of knowledge was, and still is… extreme. Very extreme. Asgore didn't even want to look at the bodies. Even though Chara is a human, and therefore the enemy, there is a difference between killing and torture.
Gaster didn't speak but instead silently slid across the ground, approaching Asgore. Cautious, he observed the doctor slowly remove a piece of paper from the stack on the table. Asgore was thinking about cutting the half-monster, half-… thing down for getting so close. Gaster held out the paper for Asgore to see. It was the rough map he made depicting the area outside the barrier.
Out of nowhere, small white stones popped into existence and flew through the air, snapping together at a single point. Asgore had seen Gaster's trick before. The stones, more accurately, bones, formed into a floating skeletal hand with a perfect circle cut through its' palm.
"You see," Gaster finally continued as his magical floating hand grabbed the quill and dipped it in ink, "you always have a plan." Gaster flipped the paper over to its' blank side with his real hands, while extra appendage began to sketch something. "I, as you probably know, like plans and procedure. That's why I've always admired you." Asgore remained silent. "You're forming a plan right now, in fact."
This struck a nerve. The thing about Gaster was that he always knew things. Much more than he should in fact. He probably knew more about Asgore's plan of attack than The King did himself. That kind of knowledge is dangerous, and it makes Gaster a potential threat. Still, he is… usefull.
"Yet you are missing a few pieces," continued Gaster. It was time for Asgore to learn just how much the doctor knew. "It all comes down to Chara, does it not?" Asgore's nails dug into the wooden table ever-so-slightly. "A monster and a human soul can pass through the barrier, and seven human souls can completely destroy the barrier."
"I already know this."
"Yes, you do, you know that if you kill them and absorb their spirit, you become stronger, but you don't know how much stronger exactly. If I were to make an educated guess, you are thinking that if you walk out on to the surface, your power may still not be enough and you may simply die, along with the hopes of all monsters being freed. Am I correct?"
"What's your point?" Asgore said, having to try harder to keep a straight face. He really wanted the scientist to just disappear. Yet, a part of him thought that this was the very reason he recruited Gaster. Besides, the King knew what the doctor was going to suggest.
"My point is that I can figure it out. Everything. Your biggest strengths and weaknesses while you possess the soul of your captured human." Gaster put the finished drawing on the table. It was an incredibly detailed depiction of a path on the surface that wound down from the barrier's exit to a valley. It even included lines to indicate exact elevations. How did Gaster possibly know this? Well, Asgore wasn't that surprised at the doctor's show of knowledge. "I can tell you everything you need and more. Besides, what does the comfort of a single human matter when they will all be exterminated?"
Gaster did have a good point. In fact, it left Asgore with what looked to be a blatantly 'correct' choice. He hated it. Everything Gaster said seemed to be like a knife slowly twisting through Asgore's spine. It seemed right logically, but it felt wrong.
Asgore remembered how his son, Asriel, would walk in, smiling because of the time he had spent with Chara. He stopped using the chain a long while ago; he said the human was harmless and sort of innocent, even though they were the enemy. Asgore never liked his son's too-trusting attitude towards the human, but he was happy. Asriel's father didn't want to take that away from the two of them…
Even the sight of the small human at the dinner table had become somehow familiar. However, Asgore was the King. He had a higher duty to attend to. The humans had taken everything from him and his people. For monsters to continue, humanity would have to end, and Gaster could prove to be valuable in reaching this end.
"... fine," Asgore said eventually, "Asriel will take the human to you in time."
"When?" Gaster asked curtly. Leaning forward like a hungry animal. Asgore jammed a pointed finger in the doctor's mask-like face.
"You should best remember, the human is the property of the Royal Family. What happens to them is ultimately my decision. Got it?"
"Of course. I don't forgotten."
"Good, now get out," Asgore said with disdain for the mad scientist.
"When can I expect the-"
"That was an order!" he bellowed. Then Gaster's form simply faded away, like he was never there to begin with. All that was left of the doctor was the map Asgore held in his hands.