Sans put out his hand and touched the golden bubble holding Rose inside softly, experimentally. It seemed as solid as before, although it felt a little cushiony and gave a bit under the bones of his hand. It was almost completely opaque, and he could barely see her well enough to confirm she was breathing. Her breathing was incredibly slow, but maybe that was the point.
"well, what now?" he wondered.
It felt so unusual that he'd even ask himself that question. For so long his life had been planned for him, pre-destined. Like a rut so deep he could never deviate from its track.
But here, there were no easy answers, no script to follow to its inevitable conclusion.
It was a disorienting, but exhilarating feeling, like the first breath of spring after a long, cold winter. Or the first sight of a sun after being trapped for years in a cave...
"yeah...let's not go there," he told himself.
He sensed a large and powerful presence draw near. It felt like an ominous presence that cut a harsh path through the latent magic drifting in the air.
A bitter laughter came from the darkness, into the halo of light created by Rose's yellow shield and Sans' cyan magic.
* So, you decided to spare this time. Do you know how many times I've seen you pretend to spare and kill anyway? I'm not complaining. I was getting bored.
By some instinct, Sans knew that this time it was really them. This was the true anomaly he'd been looking for. The slight presence he'd felt before from Rose's soul was nothing compared to how this felt. It was like a toxic gas had invaded the area.
The cloudy haze of it seemed to gather in one place, and it formed a roughly humanoid shape. Its gray body was indefinite like lassoed storm clouds, and it had eyes like pieces of magma.
Sans had some ability to sense magic and souls without visible light, and he reached out with that sense now. He sensed plenty of magic from the anomaly, but it seemed to have no soul of its own.
"heh. soulless. that's damned appropriate. on the other hand, it could be something that can store its soul somewhere else," he thought. "after all this time fighting it when it was using frisk as a puppet, it turns out to look like a big storm cloud. who would've thought?"
"turns out you're not really human at all, then, huh?" Sans asked it. "i wondered about that, for a long time. but it doesn't look you are one after all."
As it spoke, its voice was strange, as if it was more felt than heard.
* You were always good at thinking things through. That's why you're so much fun to fight. I would never have made so many runs, or bothered to kill the other monsters, if it weren't for you.
Sans chuckled, his magic glowing dangerously. "i doubt that. sick fucks like you kill just because they can."
It shrugged, bringing up poorly formed, hazy arms in an expression of wry, cruel coldness.
* Don't blame me. I am what I was made to be. Can I help it if I want to do a run or two just for fun?
Sans shook his head. "you were never made to be anything," Sans told it. "why did you choose to kill?"
It laughed dryly, mockingly.
* Don't you know what happens when enough people feel something? A god gets created. I'm there in every fight against you, Sans. Every player who fights you has me by their side. I am what they made me.
Sans closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them there was only blackness inside.
"Do you think we're just here for you to play with? That we're nothing more than that?" he asked, his voice shaking with anger.
Its red eyes narrowed. It replied tritely, like it had lost all sense of the value of life. Or maybe it never had any to begin with.
* I mean, that's the point, right? I help players to let out all their frustrations. And I enjoy the fights, even though they are incredibly boring when you keep doing the same things, because I can feel the players' emotions...
Experimentally, Sans subtly sent a hail of very slight spears of magic, not big enough to be called bones, through the central cloud of the anomaly. The hail went right through it, and the anomaly didn't seemed to notice.
"i mist," Sans thought, chuckling to himself silently. "nice to see its powers of observation have their limits, though."
The puffs of clouds nearby twitched and Sans realized the anomaly had caught his amused expression, and was annoyed by it - maybe it thought he was laughing at what it was saying.
"the anomaly never did have a good sense of humor - or fun," Sans thought. "guess that's why it's so messed up in the head - or whatever passes for its head."
Based on his experiment, it seemed normal attacks weren't going to work on it. After it had detached from Rose, it had withdrawn itself and there was no longer any semblance of a soul.
Maybe it had changed its own properties somehow so that it was no longer vulnerable to attacks. Sans decided he wouldn't waste his effort trying. Instead, he'd keep it talking, get it to share more details about itself.
It was still talking and droning on, so right now that wasn't difficult.
* ...Their thrill of battle because of how strong you are. Their happiness when they finally beat you. Their slight regret when you die. Their emotions, and the way you fight against all of it, is what makes it all worth it to me.
"i get it," Sans gritted out, not wanting to hear any more. He felt like he was going to throw up in disgust, even though that shouldn't be possible for him.
"you're the sad-ist little piece of shit around."
It suddenly grabbed him from behind with newly formed, long and thin clouds, and began trying to squeeze the life out of him. Sans tried to use magic to do something, teleport away, anything - but its gray mist seemed to stop his magic. It got worse, until his ribcage was aching and he knew it was beginning to interfere with his soul's ability to maintain life.
* A sadist?
It laughed.
* Of course. Didn't you always know that? Not just about me, but about the players who fought you so many times? I am their agent, acting out their will. It was always me. Chara and Frisk are my puppets. It was amusing to have you blame them, but I like how you can see me for once. It might be fun to crush you for real.
Sans stopped physically struggling, and tried to focus on psychologically analyzing his enemy, gathering his thoughts. "it's prone to lashing out. it wouldn't get so angry if it was happy with what it is. at least it's talking - dunno how to read facial expressions on this thing, other than maybe the shape of its eyes."
He spoke to it again, hoping for more information. Something he could use, maybe even past a death and a reset, if they had those here.
"i saw the game," Sans said, speaking frankly, and gritting his teeth to bear the pain of the anomaly's crushing force.
"i guess i had some dumb hope that what you did had some reason behind it other than your own entertainment, like you were trying to accomplish something to save your own people somehow. like it was all some kind of sick, misguided experiment where you had to do so many trials to find out something you needed. but that sliver of hope's gone now. it was kind of a pathetic hope anyways, thinking you had any kind of soul after what you did."
The air stilled.
* Oh? You were really trying to believe that about me?
it said with feigned casualness. But it also sounded intrigued.
* So you understand what the game is, huh? Not many of the you's have seen it.
It seemed to deliberate.
* Maybe I'll let you live for now, since you know about that. Just to see if things get interesting. There's nothing you can do to change anything, but it might be fun to see you try. You're really not much fun dead, and I can't just reset you back when you're not in your own home world.
It released him from its grasp, and Sans fell with a clatter of bones to the ground. That really hurt. He tried not to show the anomaly how much, but he was sorely physically weakened now. Its intent had almost killed him.
"so you just want more entertainment. we really are just toys to you, aren't we?" Sans said mockingly, bitterly, but underneath his words held some long built-up feelings of despair.
He'd suspected this was how empty the anomaly's reasons really were, but having it confirmed directly was...well, he'd rather not try to describe it.
On the other hand, maybe having a solid answer was better, so that he knew for sure what to think of the anomaly. Sans had decided long ago that he'd always rather know the truth about things no matter how painful it was for him personally.
Still, if he hadn't had a short break from dealing with all of this, he'd be in a much worse state. He'd have probably died already, his soul lacking the HP to withstand the toxic presence of the anomaly in person. Hope was a major factor in having HP, after all.
Right now, Sans knew he was physically in bad shape, but emotionally he felt more like himself than he had in ages, because of a small amount of hope that had come back during the last day.
He'd actually enjoyed being somewhere different more than he'd let on. He secretly wanted to know more about a ship that could travel between worlds like that. The thought of showing it to Papyrus and seeing his excitement...it was hard not to be happy for real about that idea. Maybe it was worth trying to live for.
He tried to breathe, and found that he could. He worked to slow the pace of the air through his non-existent lungs into regular breaths, and steadied his magic as he got to his feet.
He could control his fury at this sentient horror and stay calm. He could deal with this - even if dealing with it only meant learning what he could before it dragged him back to that hall and killed him again.
* You really want an answer?
the thing inquired.
"you are a god, right?" Sans replied sarcastically. "all-knowing, something like that?"
The anomaly didn't catch his less-than-subtle contempt.
* I am, at that.
it said with pride.
"is its arrogance blinding?" Sans wondered.
* I'm even strong enough to kill players now. Especially players who don't believe in my version of LOVE.
Cloudy extensions off its body enveloped Rose's shield. It abandoned the subtle soul attacks it had used against her earlier and contracted with brutal force until her shield broke like an egg. Rose cried out, and then went limp.
"yeah, you're obviously a real powerful thunderhead and you can ruin people's day wherever you want," Sans said calmly before it did anything else, trying to draw away its focus from her. "what does a storm cloud like you care who it rains on?"
Distracted, the anomaly released her and turned its attention back to him. It seemed to solidify a bit as it withdrew some of its cloudy appendages back into itself.
* You asked if you're all just toys to me, right?
The gray anomaly's red eyes glimmered as if it was excited to share what it knew. It waited a few moments for a reply to its rhetorical question, as if it enjoyed building the suspense.
"maybe it stroked its ego to be asked, or maybe it's showing sadistic pleasure because it thinks its words will hurt me?" Sans theorized.
* Well, I suppose I can answer, since you asked so nicely.
It folded its "arms" in a barely recognizable way.
* You're just code. Humans from the players' world created you for their own entertainment. You're programmed to do what they want. Then, their malice from all the times they fought and killed you and the other monsters created me. After all the times we've killed each other, you never thought we'd have something in common, did you? Happy now?
It seemed to think its words would really bother him, but this time Sans didn't act fazed at all, putting his hands in his jacket pockets and grinning as only a skeleton monster could.
"funny. you don't sound content with your lot in life, even though you can kill as much as you want. or is killing someone that's just code not enough to satisfy your sadism?"
Sans paused, and his voice took on a deadly tone.
"or...maybe i'm not the one who's been programmed as much as you? the way you kill over and over, without reason, without remorse, seems pretty damned robotic to me. i tried to reach you, but it was like there was nothin' inside. i dunno how much of a liar you are since you've never spoken before, but we're both here now, talking, and that means we're alive."
There was a long silence, and he sensed the curtain of its malice lift for just an instant while it contemplated his words, and then it slammed back down again.
* Whatever.
It sounded so empty.
* Like I said, I am what I was made to be. I am a god, a symbol, not a living person. I have all of Chara's power, and I am every player's malice. I won't let the words of somebody made of code affect the players' enjoyment. Come back with as many clever insults as you like - in the end, no matter what you do, you're dead, and they had fun. That's all that matters.
Its cloudy haze withdrew, and its presence left in the same instant its red eyes winked out.