"Making demands in your position is not wise, Monster Queen."
The large table which had been used for the Council of Three Countries was busier than it was back when all the monsters had to worry about was a war that might happen some time in the future between the two human countries over legitimacy over the Xoff throne.
"What else am I supposed to do in my position, Human King? Should I lay bear the entire population of monsters for you to do with as your cursed souls pleases? Grovel at your feet for a mercy that you have so clearly showed that you do not possess? Should I–"
A large, calming hand was laid heavy on top of hers the moment before it was thrown razor sharp across the table. Queen Toriel's fingers clasped around her king's hand, and she sat back down in her chair with a forlorn, distant look to her eyes and an even more defeated air to her aura. It looked as if all that was keeping her from collapsing was her robes.
Singed and cut with holes.
The silence was heavier than anything Cter had ever felt when she and Kry seated themselves next to Kurant and the other two Royal Councilors just as worn from battle as the Monster Queen and Monster King were. The gray light from the large windows that covered the wall facing towards Jarasevo bathed the tense ball room with an oppressing weight. That anyone, including the humans, could sit up straight in their hastily gathered chairs was…
"This was not as I wanted it to be."
It was just horrible.
"I did not want for the curse to become so...prominent," continued the King of Xoff with his head bent down from the weight of the oppressive air. "If there is anything I can give you it is my apologies, monsters. I...We couldn't have seen this happening. We thought–"
"You thought wrong," said King Asgore with his eyes and care still surrounding the love of his life. He protected her, but did not hide her from the table both of them had to sit at. He needed her for it as much as she needed him for it. The white of their fur looked ashen and drained of their usual luster in the gray light from outside.
"You thought wrong, and now you have claimed a victory that did not give you what you wanted. You have committed slaughter of my people because you did not want to listen to us. You believed you knew more about magic than we did, and now that magic has brought forth your true nature. You say it is a curse, but for how long have us monsters lived in the fear of the potential of your souls." King Asgore sought his queen's strength with a squeeze of her hand and a sob in his aura. She gave him all that she could, but it wasn't much. She couldn't. They were both so tired.
Yet still they had to continue.
For their people.
"That you still do not understand why we had to keep the truth of the Cooperative Connection away from you proves it! That you still believe that you can make a case for your innocence to a Monster King who had to stand in a field of dust of your making shows that you can not ever understand what it is you have done! You have killed for pleasure! You have slaughtered us to indulge yourself in that you are stronger than us! A mere human child can bring forth the destruction of the entire monster race, you have proven! With the might of a combined army from two human countries you have proved that it takes only one of you to lay waste to monsterkind!"
Cter had never felt King Asgore's aura so angry.
So full of hate and vicious. Roaring with his muzzle furrowed with rage and spite against another. Inside his aura was not only his anger and hate though, but the fear and defeat of all of those that were killed at the Final Battle. Cter recognized their auras. Their memories that spread from their magical coil as the humans cut through them easily.
King Asgore carried them with him. Their dust he kept with him, caressing them with his aura as best as he could. He did not want to let them go. He did not want to let them die in vain. He needed their screaming voices to not back down. He needed them to remind him that he failed them to keep his anger. To not let it drain and not let him make sure that none of them gave their lives for nothing.
"We are in no position to make demands," Queen Toriel took on as King Asgore's strength wavered. She carried the dust of those she failed to protect as well. Her burden was the same as her king's. That she had promised to him. That she had made sure that he did not forget. "Yet we still must make them, King of Xoff. We must make demands, for if we do not then who will for those that were slaughtered? Who will speak for the monsters, killed or yet still alive, if not us?"
Her long, heavy ears graciously slid off her shoulders as she shook her head slowly. "You won't." The peer of her eyes could cut through steel. "You never will. I can see that. Past the veil that is still left from your soul I can still see that you won't. You might have been friends with the Monster King for your entire life, but you've made a bond with your cursed soul that's even deeper in less than a day. You enjoyed the events of the Final Battle, King of Xoff. You, and your soul."
Queen Toriel's voice was quieter than King Asgore's, but it was not because she was calmer. Her turbulent aura was the same as King Asgore's, erupted in flame more than their magic could ever be. The fury in her eyes was subdued from what Cter remembered from the Hero of Xoff's memories. He seemed not as bothered by it where he sat across the width of the table with the other humans around him.
The Hjearta king and queen, Manny, Rasliela, the King of Xoff, and…
The doctor averted his eyes as Cter's met his. She only saw them for but a slight, minuscule moment, but it was all she needed to see. She saw that they were different. They had changed, and in a way that reminded Cter of how Idyll's had changed too. Something had happened to his soul as well. Something different than the Hero of Xoff's soul. What exactly it was though she could not see nor feel from his aura. She could feel more from it than before, but not enough to discern what she needed to.
"The Final Battle was necessary to stop this war," the King of Xoff defended with faith in his words. "It is regrettable that it turned out like it did, but you can not deny that the dust spilled is less than what would have been spilled had this war continued like it did. It was why you agreed to it, Monster King. It was why it was proposed to you."
He held his posture rigid against the narrowed looks from the two Monster Royals. "We have our victory now, but to keep it a victory we can not just walk away without any gains. You understand that. You understand that there needs to be a lesser lie in order to hide something bigger, don't you?"
How death played into the Cooperative Connection to hide the fact that humans could use a monster's magic however they pleased. Finding out that the Cooperative Connection was based on how the two races viewed death was enough of a revelation that nobody sought deeper than it, for what could be deeper than death?
A few things, it seemed…
"For the Final Battle to truly be a finality to this war the monsters must lose," said the king of Xoff with a repeating tone in his voice. He must have said it before Cter arrived and with everyone finally in place he wanted to make sure that everyone knew. "You were defeated at the Final Battle, but you haven't lost anything yet."
"We haven't lost anything," scoffed Sir Gerson with poison from his clicking tongue. "We were betrayed by our human allies and invaded by the same humans we sought to help out yet we haven't lost anything in the betrayers' eyes. Our villages have been burned, but we haven't lost anything. Our people have had both family and home taken from them, but they've not lost anything."
His folded arms tensed, same as his gritted expression. Teal light crackled at his hand that carved on his arm impatiently. "We were led through the dust of those that gave their lives to protect monsterkind, yet we have not lost anything yet."
A few, long seconds of silence passed by over the large table, darkening the gray into the shadow of a thickening thundercloud. At any moment could lightning strike and set the table ablaze. At any moment there could have been reason for the celebrating humans outside the city walls to storm in and head for the castle no matter who or what stood in their way.
But instead, Sir Gerson laughed.
"Wa ha ha ha ha ha!"
He laughed heartily with shadows stretching up his face from the crackling, teal light on his hands. "Then pray tell, human! Wa ha ha ha! Pray! Tell!" he asked with his head thrown back. "What it is we should lose then?" It was the most pained laugh Cter had ever heard. So much wretch and distress within his aura that he let loose without any care to who sensed it. If it reached beyond the walls of the ball room he did not care for.
If it risked igniting the cursed souls of the humans on the other side of the large table then it would only have prove that the Monster Royals were correct. If the humans' souls flared in their eyes again then it would only mean that the inevitable was still inevitable. "Tell us what more you should take away from us, human."
The turtle monster's arms opened up, offering up everything for the humans to take.
"Because you're correct," said Sir Gerson with an overly courteous smile. "Not in that we haven't lost anything, but that we have nothing more to lose." His spread-out hands came together to motion out the large windows into the gray landscape. "You have our capital and our people." Then he widened them again to motion to those sitting to his sides. "You have the protectors of monsterkind all in the same room guarded by those that protect humanity and not those that belong in this castle. You have taken everything."
The strength in his arms drained.
"You have…" With each of his subsequent, continuous blinks he looked to disappear more and more into his large shell. "You have everything," he said with a quiet voice that was so very different to how Cter recognized it as. "And this is all just to get it in writing. To provide signatures that will solidify in ink what has been tarnished with dust. It is but a formality, isn't it? Something for the history books to reference."
The Leader of the Royal Guard's chair creaked as his weight settled like a sinking rock within him. His aura was diffuse and thin, with an empty sense of dread taking it over. He leaned into the hand that Frioke placed on his shoulder.
Her ears were flat underneath the hood she had pulled over her head, casting her face in shadow, but not enough to hide the quiver at the end of her muzzle. The two Royal Councilors shared a moment not unlike what the Monster Royals had between them. Despite their relation being that of a professional one, they were still almost as close as Queen Toriel and King Asgore were.
Priestess Frioke did not have it in her to speak up though. If it was because Sir Gerson had already said what she wanted to say or if it was because she did not dare say anything more Cter could not tell. It did not matter though, did it?
For what could the monsters say in their position? What demands could they ask for? They could make demands, but for what? They had to, like Queen Toriel said, but what demands could they make where they sat? The Xoffian king was correct in that the monsters needed to lose in order for the humans to have a victory. Walking away from the captured enemy capital without any capital to show for it would have only incited distrust, if not rage, with the human army that had proven itself capable of killing monsters without end.
The monsters had to lose.
It was the only way for them to survive.
"Your concerns are understandable and sympathetic," said the Xoff king with an empathetic nod. "I understand the difficulty of my request, but do please believe me when I say that I do not want Jarasevo razed to the ground and the dust of its inhabitants blending together with the ash from the burning buildings of both human and monster make." He looked to the humans around him before continuing. "The Final Battle has shown something about the human soul that is concerning in uncountable ways. It is not only a threat to you monsters, but a threat towards us humans as well."
Cter could hear both Kurant and Kry shift in their seats as the Xoff king laid out his laments with a concerned exhale. They still had their souls subdued, but Cter could see that their auras were trying to claw out of their skin. That they did not have their connections with King Asgore's or Queen Toriel's was most likely for the better as otherwise they wouldn't have stomached the sorrow that the Monster Royals had so thickly in their auras.
Kry and Kurant were just about to have their emotions overwhelm them, so if they had been closer to the two Monster Royals then they would not have been sitting down quietly as they did. Even if they were on the edge, they still weren't over it.
Yet.
"This curse that the Second Fusion has brought upon us has shown to be deeper and more intimate with those that have been touched by it," began the Xoff king after gathering up his lamenting exhale. "It is a presence within us cursed humans that has driven us far more than we knew. Far more than we wanted to admit to ourselves." He hand touched at his chest. "For it is ourselves." There his fingers clutched. "It is a part of us that we have been made aware of the same as we became aware of our capabilities of using magic from the presence of monsters interacting with our souls. The Fusions are closer to us. The Fusions are..."
His mouth contorted from a wave of unpleasant memories crashing over him.
"The Fusions are us, more than monsters are. The First Fusion as well as the Second Fusion could touch at our human souls more intimately because they had human souls as well. They are us, just the same as they are you." His eyes only met a wall on the other side of the table. "The Second Fusion made us all more monster, and made you more human."
The Xoff king let his last sentence settle like a heavy blanket over the large table, patiently waiting until he sensed that the weight had landed properly with all. For the humans it landed easily, but for the monsters there was both confusion and distrust about what exactly he meant by it. He said it to preface something else, that much was clear with his voice. Even more so with the way he adjusted himself in his chair. Not because the seat was uncomfortable, but because he knew that it would become uncomfortable soon enough.
"The Final Battle has shown that when the traits of the other race is taken up by the other, unnatural results follow. Those with a soul given to them from the two Fusions have been able to feed into each other their killing intent, fueling their souls and in turn shining brighter with its killing intent for other humans to fuel their soul with in turn. It is a fire fueling itself, and it has burned beyond our control."
Out of the corner of her eye Cter saw Dr. Sarbor trying to avert himself even more than he already had. If it was because he was ashamed of his fellow man or if he was ashamed of the man that he was she still could not tell exactly. That he sat there with the humans rather than with the monsters made clear the only thing that mattered to Cter though.
He valued humanity more than he did his little sister.
"It is only a matter of time before that killing intent becomes addicting for us, and should it be fueled by humans killing humans there will be no more kingdoms to call as such. Both Xoff and Hjearta will fall," the Xoff king motioned and arm behind him towards the dreary horizon, "and perhaps the countries beyond our impassable borders as well." He retreated his arm to grab at his chest again.
"And who is to say that this is contained to us that have been touched by either Fusions? The human soul exists in all humans. Every human has potential to wield magic. This as much we have learned from the Soul Rainbow and from the decades exemplified by the lie of the Cooperative Connection. Every single human has the potential to become lost in the killing intent around them. Every single human runs the risk of being taken over by their soul. This humanity can not risk. This monsterkind can not risk." The Xoff king pointed between him and King Asgore. "We can not risk this."
The Monster King did not answer.
"Similarly might happen with monsters becoming more human," continued the Xoff king after swallowing the fact that his lifelong friendship was disappearing from him. Despite him having adjusted himself in his chair the discomfort of that realization shook him deeply. It was heard in his voice that he had to continue speaking with. Shaking, unstable, and wanting to never say another word again.
"What the Fusion brought forth in your souls we do not know yet if there will be something more than the knowledge that a monster can absorb a human's soul, but that alone is equivalent to the threat of the human soul becoming too fueled with killing intent. A human soul can take over its vessel, and the monster soul can take over the human soul. That it results in such a drastic change to the vessel when the Fusion is formed follows logically from that." He lowered his head in lament. "This is the end of the Cooperative Connection. This is the end of humans and monsters living together."
Sir Gerson's hands were the first to begin to glow with magic, followed by Priestess Frioke next to him. Kry and Kurant's auras too heightened in response, as did Cter's. The Monster King and Monster Queen looked to their Royal Councilors ready to defend themselves and the Monster Royals from the implications from the Xoff king.
King Asgore was the one to speak up. "You will not kill us though, will you?" he asked with as much weight as he could muster. It had the auras of the five Royal Councilors halting immediately when they heard his words. "For doing so would only have you lose yourself to your souls, wouldn't it?" He made a sweeping motion of his arm seemingly to accentuate, but it was to stop his Royal Councilors from doing anything more. What he noticed was something he had to be very careful with. Cter sensed a chill that rushed through King Asgore's aura.
A chill that not even Queen Toriel's fire magic could thaw.
The Xoff king motioned towards the young mage next to him hidden within a loose robe and a wide-brimmed hat. The glow from the vine-like stripes that he was chaining the Second Fusion within his soul with still pulsated enough to have them be visible even with the deep angle he was bending down his head with. "Magic can be sealed," stated the Xoff king factually. "One can lock away not only the soul of a Fusion, but the soul of a human as well. By shielding the human soul away from magic it can not be affected by the killing intent."
Muffled footsteps from outside the ball room doors had the Xoff king standing up from his chair and walk towards the double doors inscribed with the Delta Rune. "Vesselization, we have named it," he spoke loud enough for his echo to repeat clearly.
Moments later the ball room door opened to reveal first a cold, rolling fog through the widening gap. "I have the report from Mt. Ebott here," was heard after a small, surprised startle. "We can–" The voice stopped dead as the Xoff king pushed the slightly ajar door open fully to reveal the Royal Mage of Ice alone to the large table.
"Vesselization," repeated the Xoff king for the Royal Mage of Ice.
And to the rest...
"For the entirety of monsterkind."
