The path before the Fourth Monster Mage is laden with tracks even in the lack of rhythm displayed in the mountain road trodden more today than it has ever been walked on before. A mosaic of sizes both in width and weight have carved indistinguishable scars, but plenty distinguishable in what they represent.

"Today, a new chapter begins for monsterkind! This journey we have followed together we will now finish together! In all of our souls, and in all of our hearts, we will remember this day!"

In each of the innumerous and uneven scars the Monster Mage's feet find only unbalanced steps as each one that she takes is impossible to guess the distance of where the sole of her shoes will land. Be it up to her toes, ankles, or knees at some point, for every step she repeats that monsterkind has done just a handful of hours before her, she struggles for balance.

As she should be.

"However, how we come to remember this day will be our choice! It will be a choice that each one of you will come to make! This is our new chapter! This is us regaining the grasp of our own fate!"

Behind her stretches a mountain road even and untouched, as if nobody has walked on this mountain road ever before. That an entire people has walked up the road would be considered a lie, for there are not a single trace at all that the mountain road has even been disturbed by anyone.

For the moment it is an illusion. For the moment the flat of the road is accomplished by a blend of crystal magic and the same barrier magic used by what lies up ahead. It will fade soon enough, but exactly when the Fourth Monster Mage does not know. The magic of it is crude, and will fail under any form of scrutiny to deduce. It will serve its purpose though.

The same as the Fourth Monster Mage has.

"We can not tell you for how long this new home of ours will be just that, but it is because of that why we ask you to dedicate your souls and hearts to this new chapter of ours! Stand tall! Stand proud! Stand together as only monsterkind can!"

The crudely hidden road is peppered with seeds shaken out of a sack surrounded by stasis magic floating just behind the Fourth Monster Mage. It had been easy enough for her to remove it from the wagon where it sat. No monster would even think to speak up towards the actions of the Fourth Monster Mage earlier in the day.

They all knew what she had to do, and as they looked behind them after their journey up the mountain road which decimated it beyond recognition, they had no choice but to be aware that she had succeeded. The Fourth Monster Mage wonders which one of the tracks is from the first monster that noticed that she had succeeded in her final task given to her by the Monster Royals. Has she walked past them already?

Or is it just up ahead?

"Let us leave naught but the silence of our disappearance behind us! Let us carry all that we are and all that we know into our new chapter! A new existence that we will make fulfilled beyond our wildest imaginations! One last journey, is what we ask of you! One last journey, so that we can regain the peace we have longed for so many years!"

As the large pouch pours itself lighter and lighter with each of the Fourth Monster Mage's clumsy steps higher and higher up the mountain she's been in shadow of for so many weeks, the small pouch given to her by the First Monster Mage rattles in her pocket. She keeps it there so that she can say her final farewells to the people that have given her so much, and that she is beyond inconsolable that she has wronged and lied to.

"Follow us to where the shine of our souls that has kept away the encroaching darkness around us will be even brighter! Follow us to our new home! Follow us to a new chapter for monsterkind!"

She moves on yet still because she has wronged and lied to them all. She moves on yet still with another uneven, ankle-endangering step so that she can make good on all she had to make wrong to achieve. All that she has changed in those that trusted her. All that she has taken from those that respected her. All that she will be choosing for those that looked to her for answers.

She has been exhausted for so very, very long, so what is ascending up Mt. Ebott again in comparison to all that she has already done? Another haphazardly thrown box onto the already unstable tower reaching as high as she has up the mountain after the better parts of two hours. If it is the last box that has everything collapsing, then so be it.

It won't matter once her legacy begins.

"Do not look back! Do not look upon what it is we are leaving behind! It is not what we shall bring with us into the Underground! Leave everything in the dust behind us! Bring only the dusts of you and those that you love and care for! Bring them with you into the Underground, but not their burdens, nor your own! Let scatter those to this wind around us! Let it tear from you what keeps you and your memories from leaving this bitter horizon behind us!"

The same wind has been blowing gently, but steadily, since the early morning when an entire race made their way to where their future lies. The same wind tries its best to tear away from the Fourth Monster Mage what it could from the sea of monsters, throwing and scattering the burdens like misty foam thinning out into nothing. It is not strong enough though, nor would the Fourth Monster Mage let it do so even if it could. It is all that she has left in this world, for all that she had she has sealed away.

"Our souls shall shine away this dark! Our souls shall guide us to where our new home is! Let the dark not take hold of you, for it will be banished! Let your souls shine! Let them color the Underground with splendor the likes of which has never been seen before! Give your new home all that you have and all that you are!"

The touch of Aajja's beak which he so desperately pushed against the entire length of Cter's body she can still feel even hours after she dismounted from his soft back for the last time. His reins she offered to take off him, but he did not want to. He wanted to keep them.

Even after she had changed his soul to not feel as much towards her he still refused to let it be taken off him. He could not say why, but he did not want it taken off him. It was hers, and he wanted it left on him. She would join him and the other monsters in the Undeground later, he too said, only to wonder why it was that the wanted it to still be on then.

Soon enough he would take it off himself though.

"Call out for all to hear the bright you see in the future of our new home! Call out for all to also see the magnificent cities and busy villages which we will all live in! Do you see the lights? Do you see the roads? Do you see the houses built anew? The towering monuments of our culture? The home our people! The– Ow! Golly! The...um...pointy rocks that hurts when stepped on! Those we shall overcome as well! Yes!"

The three Monster Mages looking between themselves and bursting into joint laughter as King Asgore's echoing voice reached up from deep within the gaping chasm that had swallowed up the entirety of monsterkind is still vivid with Cter. Having watched a seemingly endless parade of monsters walk past them into the Underground had the three so frightened, but hearing that the Monster King still was the Monster King, trips and all, was beyond comforting. They were in good care of, the monsters.

"The path before us we will make safe, so walk in our footsteps, dear monsters! We will trod these pointy rocks down to make sure that you can follow without any worry! Walk without fear!"

From both of the Monster Royals the monsters were in good care.

It was Kurant that waited a second longer than the other two Monster Mages to head down the mountain to prepare for the Barrier, and in doing so, she allowed all three to hear what they have always wondered in silence about.

"For every monster's soul! For all the ways that magic can shine away the dark!"

The response from monsterkind felt as if it was shaking the entire mountain, and as it faded, the three Monster Mages could join in on their own. It had been something they trusted in, and said with all their hearts and souls. To know what it meant though. The last gift monsterkind had given them.

"Forever!" the three Monster Mages had shouted together at the dark mouth of the entrance to the Underground.

"And always," finishes Cter for the second time on her own as the same entrance appears from behind a soft bend around a cliff face sparkling from the soon-to-be orange stretches of the afternoon sun.

The Barrier.

Giving the six other mages the magic needed to raise the Barrier Cter had managed with ease. She knew their magic. She had taken a peek at all of theirs at one point or another. That they opened themselves up for to change their magic did help, and if anything it showed that they were dedicated to help. Some did it to seal in the monsters, and others did it to seal out the humans, but however their motive, their goal was the same. All their roads had led to Mt. Ebott.

"These hats are to hide who we are. From both those that do not know, and from us that do know. Wear them to only think about the task ahead, and not who it is that is standing beside you. Trust in that the same will be for those beside you too. They will not know of you when we raise the Barrier. It will only be seven mages that raise this Barrier. No names. No faces. Just the actions of us seven mages for history to remember."

The act itself was exhausting. The magic needed left even Cter barely able to breathe afterwards. She had not skimped on her magic, and neither had anyone else of the six mages. They all had their reasons, and they all followed it through. It was not something elegant. Not something that lent itself to any flourishes.

Purely functional, standing as solid as the mountain rock surrounding it. Harshly white, and without any possibility for anything or anyone to leave or enter through it. Seven human souls dedicated all of their power to it, and it would take just as many working together like the seven mages had done for it to break.

"This is the future we have now sealed for all. The Barrier is our greatest victory, and our greatest loss. No longer are there any monsters with us, and because of that we are all human now. The they of yesterday is no more. What will become the they now we can only wait and see. Take care and embrace this brief peace that we have created. Take time to understand what it is that you mean to yourself. What was it that made you human? Is it the same that makes you human now?"

Cter almost immediately snuck away from Rasliela's waxing after their descent from Mt. Ebott. She used up the last of her saved-up emotional ink to keep the Second Fusion content with the enormous appetite it had found during the raising of the Barrier. It is necessary for her legacy that it is so, and she only needs to keep it within her for the shortest of whiles longer. Within the yawning entrance dark and solitude it stood deep within pulsating its harsh white with slow, monotonous breaths.

For its functional intent it still is a wonder to look at by the ones that had raised it, and should anyone else come and lay theirs eyes upon The Barrier, it will stun them by its impossible shape. Each minute motion of the eye has it looking different.

Each angle of the head has it stretching deep for eternity in another direction. There is no way to even begin to understand where it begins and where it ends, all by its functional design. It is indisputably magic though, even by someone who's never seen the tiniest of magical ember.

And that would not do.

Not. At. All.

"Are you doing well for now?"

The lone mage's voice carries far into the throat of the cave she enters through with respectful steps. She knows that her voice won't manage through the Barrier. She helped construct it so that no one's would, after all. That they can hear or not does not matter though. What does matter is that Cter still wants to talk to them. It's her last chance to do so.

"I know all of you would tell me to rest up before I do this, but if I do so then the reality of what I have done might grow too big. I'm already keeping one thing down with all that I have, so I have to do this before reality comes back from the shock we have forced upon it. I have to make good on my legacy. It's for all of you, so please understand. Be angry with me for deceiving you. You have all the right to, even if all of the seven mages made the same choice as well, independently. You can't have any humans with you in the Underground. Not how they are now. That includes the Monster Mages. That includes me."

At a crevice in the cave floor, surrounded by cave plants reaching down to explore into the hole, the lone mage kneels down with the small bag retrieved from her pocket. The seeds from within she pours into the hole without a visible bottom.

They gather on top of the Barrier's presence as if floating in air, but they will soon fall through it once Cter's legacy begins. The lone mage then fetches something else from her pocket that she has been carrying for many years. A gift she was given by the Monster King, and what she wants to give back to him.

"Keep these flowers a secret, won't you? Keep these flowers and this small piece of the sun secret so that you can be reminded of what it is you will one day bring your people back to. You entrusted the hope of it to me, and now I give it back to you, King Asgore. Use it to strengthen yourself when that gentle soul of yours needs to be steeled."

The sun cat blends with the Barrier's presence, illuminating downwards the same that shines onto Mt. Ebott. There are birds singing from around the cave's mouth, so hopefully that too will carry down into the Underground. And even if it does not, it has carried enough already. It has shown Cter that it is still possible for her to manipulate the Barrier's presence. She will not have to change it to influence it.

But she will do it either way.

"And Queen Toriel, please make sure that you don't lose yourself too. You always say that you weren't always a queen, but in the Underground you will always have been, and will always be, the Monster Queen. Make sure that you're content with this fact, and only then join Asgore at this secret sunshine. It is here not to remind you of what you left behind, but to remind you of what you should bring everyone back to."

That Cter can manipulate the Barrier's presence this easily has a niggling thought at the back of her mind nipping away. The Barrier will become weaker with time. It will fade one day if not broken. That is a fact, and while Cter's legacy will ensure that no one will come looking, that will only be for a set amount of time.

Eventually her magic will fade as well, and before that the magic of all the other six mages. For there to be a peaceful return of monsterkind back to the Surface though the Barrier must be broken. It must be shattered, for that means that someone makes a choice that involves the souls of seven humans. Whether or not it is a monster or a human that makes that choice does not matter, only that it is made. Seven humans need to dedicate their souls to monsterkind once more.

But not now.

Not tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.

Time is needed.

Time for the human soul to forget this cycle of human magic.

"Don't worry about me being alone here without Kry or Kurant. I'm here to help. I'm here to make sure that a few things we had to keep from the humans are put in order. The last polish to the Barrier. Same as how you tended to the Royal Garden even after the gardeners had, King Asgore. You saw things they did not, and so do I with the Barrier. It is I that planted the idea, and it is from my magic that it is kept alive, again the same as your Royal Garden."

For all the blessings this cycle of human magic had brought with it, the evidence stands harshly white that it was not the correct way for humanity and monsterkind to live together. Magic is inevitable between the two races, and twice in memory has it failed. In truth it is once in memory and twice in long-forgotten records of a lost time.

A time where another type of human magic existed, and which the details of which is no more. The details of this cycle the next one will get to read though. Read in more detail than they perhaps will ever want to. It is necessary though. The next cycle needs to succeed where this one has failed.

That will be Cter's legacy.

"Had it not been for you I would not have come this far, Queen Toriel. Without your ascension to the purple from who you are rather than how you were born, I would not have been able to wield all that I have. I would not have been able to make right in this final choice of mine. Please keep monsterkind filled with hope in the Monster Mages' absence. Please take care of our people, for us Monster Mages can not protect them no more."

The cave is brighter than when Cter visited it earlier. Not due to the Barrier's harsh white, for that is behind dark corners. The sun behind her is about to set, and the light from it is peeking in curiously now that it is flatter. There is detail to the cavern, with flickers of glimmer from some of the jutting rocks from the floor, ceiling, and walls. It is clear where the innumerous footsteps and heavy wagons have been drawn in the higher abundance of light, but unlike the mountain road up, Cter does not feel it necessary for her to cover them up with magic.

If someone manages up here then her legacy has failed already. It is as simple as that.

One of the long shadows catches Cter's eyes though among the many stretching ones that the lowering sun brings into the cavern. Not so much it, but rather what surrounds it. A haze of sorts. Movement. A small cloud that's not before the sun, but rather much closer than the far-away sky.

That Cter saw it she can not hide, neither on her body nor in her aura. It has her stiffening from her otherwise-tired movements, and the chill through her aura has her exhaling a breath of condensation. She sees the shadows seeing her see it, and turns away behind the entrance to the cave. Someone is there. Someone has followed her!

Why? Why did they follow her?

She can't have them here! No! Damn it! Not when she is so close!

The no-longer-lone mage needs a few deep breaths to calm herself down. It's bad, but it's good that she saw them. All she has to do is convince them to leave. That is all. She can't have anyone near here when her legacy begins. It will be too dangerous.

For them.

"Leave," Cter calls for the one that followed her. "Go back down Mt. Ebott."

"Let's talk," comes an unfazed answer that has Cter stopping dead. A thick, icy fog streams down from the lean the human at the cave entrance does to let his voice be heard clearly inside the dark of the cliff's mouth.

And Cter curses.

"Singe my soul..."

For he is the only one that might be able to convince her.