"So you gave one of the Royal Guards that...feeling of yours, Cter?"

There was an insinuation in the turtle monster's words, yet his gaze looked elsewhere completely. His question was aimed directly at the Monster Mage sat opposite him in the decorated carriage, but his head and eyes were set on the landscape passing by outside the glass window flanked by rolled-up curtains. Despite his eyes not being in the vicinity of the Monster Mage, she felt its full force against her.

"I did," Cter answered directly with a distinct nod that had her entire torso nodding along as well. She looked down to her left arm before her gaze wandered to the landscape passing by outside as well. She recognized it. They had just left Jarasevo and were passing by the farmland outside of the city. They were heading towards Xoff. They were heading towards war. "The elder brother to the Royal Guard that was stationed at Clinic Hill when the First Fusion came to be."

A bump in the road had the body of the Leader of the Royal Guard oscillating from side to side. "Keze, right?" he guessed, but the concern in his voice revealed that he already knew who it was. "Not an extraordinary Royal Guard of any real merit besides his family and its heirlooms. I am curious as to why you gave it to him."

Not as curious as to turn and face Cter, but curious enough. "I am also curious why you decided to do it to begin with." That however he was curious enough to turn to face Cter with a sunken expression casting a deep shadow over his eyes. "I would like you to tell me about it, Cter."

Cter did not answer, for Frioke did it before her. "You have had months to express your worries about it, Sir Gerson," the Monster Priestess answered from right beside him. His narrowed glance at her ran off her like water on a goose. "That you chose this particular time to ask Cter is not fair to her or to us three who have to listen to you addressing her like she was but a common Royal Guard who ignored guard duty due to some vestigial and juvenile reason."

Cter looked to the two other Monster Mages sat next to her. They shared a look at each other, all three, before Kry coughed gently into his fist. "While I agree that the benefits of this magic will be applicable in the upcoming battle, I..." He swallowed and pushed his glassed up his nose. "I do not fully agree with it. It has nothing to do with either Cter or her magic, it is only a matter of me not understanding it fully, and it being such a gamble that we do not want to give to more than just one too. Now that Cter has used it she should be able to describe it in better detail, and perhaps even share it with us too?"

Kry looked to Cter with an apologetic look, but she nodded it calm. He was right in that she could describe it better after she had finally gotten a use out of it. If she were to be perfectly honest, it was partly the reason why she gave it to Keze. Doing so gave her the entire journey to the battlefield to perhaps refine and come up some other use for it, perhaps. It was limited outside of the very specific case that the final battle with the humans had set up, but still…

"I would like to hear more about it as well," added Kurant with an explaining motion to her hand. Another bump in the road had her shifting the weight she had on her knee brace, and a brief, annoyed expression took her over. Her explaining motion was interrupted as she had to use her hand to lift her leg, and a silent second passed as she exhaled out the interruption. "I think that it might be important to help ease things over with the humans past the battle. Not only that, but it does hint at a Soul Rainbow equivalent as well."

It...did?

"It is an idea I have," said Kurant to Cter's folded eyebrows. "And I should probably have said that after your explanation in case it becomes relevant or not." She gave Cter a quick smile. "But don't think about that now, okay? You explain you, and I'll tell you the connection afterwards." Cter could see in Kurant's narrow eyes that she was mildly annoyed with herself for suggesting that she had an idea.

However though, it gave Cter more calm about it. If Kurant said to not worry then she wouldn't worry about it. Cter had also thought about there being a connection between the two, but she hadn't gotten a lot with it as she had been busy trying to get it to work in the first place. If Kurant had figured something, then good. If she hadn't, then fine.

Cter adjusted herself on her seat cushion with a small lean forward for comfort. "The principle is the same as when I give the crystal skates on Crystal Day. I managed to do it the first time by recognizing that when monster auras share a common sense towards something their auras come together in that feeling, connecting with each other. It has to be specific and strong, for otherwise we would all be knowing what everyone else was thinking about when the clock at Time's Square strikes noon."

Cter wasn't ready for the image of the rush hour in Jarasevo all stopping and looking up in thought at the same time that her head conjured up for her. She swiped her mouth to wipe away her small chuckle. "And it is through that collective sense of sharing a moment with the auras of those around you that allows emotion to be shared with them all at the same time. Keze made a big scene out of his promise to his brother which the other Royal Guards reacted too, so right there is a good basis. If him and his emotions are already in their memories and souls then that makes it easier for them to share in it."

"This war being the common ground necessary?" asked Sir Gerson while Cter paused for air. "Or is it this final battle with the humans that is specific enough?"

The Fourth Monster Mage nodded.

"The war there are too many differing thoughts and feelings about to reach the necessary level of specificity for the different auras to come together seemingly as one. We all hate it, but some have seen it first-hand while others haven't. And those that have seen it have seen it differently, same with those that have not seen it. It needs to be even more specific than Crystal Day since there is nothing for the magic to latch onto and heave a head-start on, so to speak." She gestured between Sir Gerson and Frioke. "Feel how the war is to you. Even with you two working so closely together your auras won't come together on their own."

Violent, angry, lamenting, and stressed emotions rose from the two Royal Councilors' auras like deep and dark thunderclouds. They were similar, with worries about their own work being not enough for monsterkind, but even as they even grimaced in unison as their auras began interacting with each other, their auras did not come together.

They stayed separate with their own experiences being their own rather than being the same as the other's. So much was so similar though. So much wrought grief and weight in their auras that they risked crashing through the purple carpet on the carriage floor had they been out for much longer. "Thank you," Cter said to stop it.

She felt shivering in her own soul, and she could feel that her Monster Mage colleagues felt the same. "Thank you," she repeated so that she could wait for the shiver to thaw. It took a small while, and her face was as pale as Kurant's once she could continue.

"You two see this war differently based on your roles. You feel betrayed differently due to humanity's actions, and that sits too deep in your souls to be exactly the same with someone else. The war with the humans is something us monsters have all come together with in spirit, but not in soul. It is too big for anyone to feel exactly the same about it with someone else. It means too much for anyone to have been affected by it exactly the same as someone else. Even two monsters from the same family who has had their home and village burned by the humans wouldn't have it be the same. The parent would lose the home they built up for their child, and the child would lose the only home they had ever known."

In her left palm Cter conjured up the image of Keze standing in honor with his two axes in each hand on either side of him. "This is where we can learn from the human army something that will help us."

With a sweep of her hand the carriage carpet became bustling with quarter-sized human shapes standing in the same honor as Keze in her hand. They were identical enough that she could shuffle them all around and no one would have been able to tell the difference.

To boot they looked to be a part of Sir Gerson's board game, that which he had packed up just before it was time for him and the other Royal Councilors to head into the larger-sized carriage which they all shared. He had brought with him the map which laid over the board, but the board itself and its pieces he had neatly tucked away into his desk before taking the lead out his office.

"The human army is that of many soldiers who all are the same. They are trained in such a way that they are to be a uniform unit rather than anything else. Not being able to tell the others apart and not being able to tell if the soldier standing next to you is a friend or a stranger has the human soldiers all thinking and acting the same as if they were but one soldier copied and copied."

Cter made her magical soldiers all switch their weapons with the one next to them. "I only had each of these conjurations reaching to the right with their weapon and grabbing the weapon reached to them from the left. Two simple instructions that worked for almost all of them apart from the ones on the left side which can be easily fixed with another set of simple instructions."

She dissipated all the left-most conjurations in each row and continued. "This is also what allowed the Second Fusion to give the entirety of the human army souls, cursing them. Since they were all drilled and trained the same with an emphasis to remove the individual and replace with distilled discipline, it would have been the same for the Second Fusion as it is for me during Crystal Days."

A small, upside-down monster soul materialized within each of the magical conjurations, each one with a distinct color of the rainbow. Kurant looked to Cter to see if she was done, but Cter had more to say. Kurant nodded in understanding.

"The Second Fusion could give all of the human army souls since their fears and emotions were all the same and specific about the Second Fusion. For the humans that were not the foot soldiers in the armies the Second Fusion would have to done it on a case-by-case basis, but those were far, far fewer than the many similar soldiers."

Another magical conjuration was formed in front of the human army.

"Kallorean did not become fully human the same as Huvett and Huvtvao managed. Had he managed he would have been able to set his emotions aside and not break down over his fallen squad mate in such an intimate way." Cter's left fingers caressed and pinched on her palm in an anxious and restless way. "With me having given his squad mates temporary Cooperative Connections with Kallorean's magic when I visited Fenkeep Castle I'm sure that also contributed to–"

"Cter," interrupted Frioke before Kry's hand reached the Monster Mage's shoulder. He placed it firmly and steadily on Cter's lowered shoulder, but let Frioke do the talking. "You can not know if that was the case. You might have brought them closer when you were at Fenkeep Castle, but you can not put responsibility on yourself for what they did after that. It was not you that drove Kallorean to do what he did, nor what drove his squad mate's to become susceptible to be absorbed like Sund's soul was."

And what would the other case have been then? That it was inevitable that another fusion would form somewhere some place where there were humans and monsters? Would the other case then be that the humans were right with the war? That they were correct in waging war on monsters because monsters had the power to absorb souls?

"But if you feel responsible for it, however wrong that is, see this as your chance to redeem yourself and correct what you feel that you've done wrong, Cter." Frioke leaned down with her ears folded down behind her head to find the lowered look of the Monster Mage.

Once she did, Cter could see the comforting in the Monster Priestess' eyes even though her words might have been harsh. She did not say them out of spite, but to help the Monster Mage. It did not matter why Cter felt how she did. What mattered was Frioke helping her get out of feeling how she did.

And she was right.

If Cter felt that she was responsible then she would do her best to undo that feeling. To correct it. To correct...everything.

She gave Kry's hand a comforting squeeze before continuing.

"It is this undoing of individuality that we have focused on instilling with the Monster Army. Not through discipline, but through shared experience that will be relevant to the final battle. The refugee camp we have used to inform groups of Royal Guards, making sure that there is the first place that they learn and are informed of the final battle with the humans. We have done much to further narrow down and make the final battle be the same for as many of the Royal Guards in the Monster Army as possible. This way those that have failed to fall in line with their fellow soldiers will still come together as one with enough of those around them. You can still heat a kettle by placing it between enough fires."

Not a perfect analogy, but it was close enough for what Cter wanted to say. Those with her in the carriage were smart. They were Royal Councilors. They would figure it out.

"Each step in assembling the Monster Army has been to make it more like the human one. Not only to surprise the humans, but also to increase the chance of the Final Battle being specific enough for the Monster Army that we can utilize someone like Keze so that their hearts can come together as one, the same as the humans." Cter let Kry retreat his hand from her shoulder. "For our benefit though, and that will be the upper hand we will have over the humans. We have learned from their plight and will use it against them. Where they fell we will stand tall. Where their souls screamed in agony ours will roar in triumph."

The conjured soldiers raised their swords in the air before fading away from existence. Left in their disappearing wake were the colors of their magical souls fading, fogging it for Cter if she meant for them to be human or monster when she summoned them. She realized that she had probably been going back and forth with what her conjurations were meant to represent.

Again though, the Royal Councilors sat around her understood the gist of it.

"Make sure to write that down and hand it over to King Asgore to help his speech before the battle," suggested Sir Gerson with a motion of his hand towards some parchment in a pocket on the carriage wall. "His words will be the ones that the Royal Guards will carry with them against the humans. His words will be their shield, and he will be their spear and trident."

He ignored Frioke mimicking the same motion with her hand. "It will be glory once we return, but until then it will be anything but glory for any part in the Final Battle. We can try to be clever, but even if we manage to break up a boulder into many pebbles it will instead become a thousand impending dangers instead of just one overwhelming one."

Sir Gerson's shell embedded itself deep into the backrest as he leaned his weight and folded his arms with his eyes closed in contemplation. "I have not yet figured the best approach since I have only seen human armies facing each other. It is what I trained them for, if they even remember that by this point. I can not assume that they will be using my own tactics against me, so it will be me coordinating on the fly. Both figuratively and literally if needed."

Cter wouldn't get a better segue than that. "Then I believe that Keze might help you with that." She was going to tell about the next step before Sir Gerson chimed in.

"Conduits," Sir Gerson said before Cter could to see how the word felt to him. The slight tension in his aura told that it didn't feel great. "How are you planning with them, exactly? I know that Kry and Kurant will be on defensive duty with their magic, and if it were up to me I would have liked you to take a more active part in the Final Battle, Cter."

A green hand was raised. "I know why you're not." It was lowered back into the fold. "And I know that it is worth having you being passive in exchange for the Human Army not using their mages either. Whatever you did when you were their prisoner at Soul's School gave them quite the spook that they were willing to add that clause, and that we should take advantage of."

"I do sometimes wonder what the humans would have added to the clauses should Kry or I have been captured as well." Kurant looked to her colleagues with a confident smirk. "Perhaps they would have just handed us the win on a silver platter if it was me additionally and for Kry..."

"Golde–"

"Wooden platter, yes," Kurant interrupted before breaking into a shared chuckle with the First Monster Mage. He had to push up on the rim of his glasses so that they would not slip off his nose. "But yes, sorry, I interrupted you, Cter." She had no reason to apologize. If anything it was good that she brought in some levity into the carriage. God knows it was needed. "The Conduits?"

Cter nodded. "Yes, the Conduits." She returned the conjured image of Keze in her palm.

"They are essentially the ones that we will have all the auras come together at. Should we see an increase in morale around Keze then I believe that I should make more of them. For them to focus and direct the emotion of what their fellow Royal Guards went through when we showed them the refugee camps and told them about the Final Battle. Their auras will be the brightest ones among the auras once they all come together, and those that we have chosen are those with the strongest will and intent against the humans. They will be the Conduits for the will of the Monster Army, and lead behind King Asgore."

Frioke's ears raised up. "And King Asgore? Will he be–"

"Absolutely. Not." Sir Gerson shook his head hard. "This I am barely comfortable with using on the Royal Guards so King Asgore is completely out of the question." He cleared his throat of the harsh malice his words brought up from his soul. "Nothing against you or your magic, Cter," he said after looking for a way to spit out all the malice, but having to resort to swallowing it instead.

"However, it is not something I would have chosen to employ as I feel that it is too close to what the humans have against us. However however, I know that exploiting the humans' weaknesses is the only way we will have a chance to succeed in this Final Battle. I trust your judgment, Cter. I trust your magic."

It was good that Sir Gerson said it. Having heard that Cter could have something to push out her second thoughts about the Conduits. She would not have even begun to consider it had the situation not been as dire as it was. A Final Battle to decide the war, and she had to be a passive part in it for the monsters to have the best chance? She would have been feeling like she hadn't done anything at all for it had she not figured out the Conduits. It was borderline her being able to influence auras and souls on a large scale, and what would that have led to?

"The Soul Rainbow?"

Cter looked to Kurant leaning forward to be seen from behind Kry. Her braid slid off her shoulder as she waited for an answer. "Are you finished with the Conduits, because I think that I might have a relevant idea."

Cter nodded.

"Shoot."