It wasn't long before the human showed up. From the shadow of a pillar, I watched in silence as they strode forward, oblivious to my presence. Their blood-red eyes were large and intent. Determined. i have to go out there. it's time. Sighing, I straightened. Hearing the tiny noise, the kid stopped mid-step and whirled—but I was already gone.

"heya, brat," I said. They spun back around; as their choppy hair cleared their face, I glimpsed the biggest, most eager, cracked smile I'd ever seen. A moment later—"you've been busy, huh?"

Their only response was to grip their dust-tarnished knife tighter.

"so, i've got a question for ya," I started, then paused, internally frowning. no, i don't like that one. Instead of asking the demon child about goodness, I asked—"how many deaths will that determination of yours overlook?" To my surprise, the human laughed. It was a chilling sound.

"Well, Serif—"

"stop calling me that," I growled through clenched teeth. They ignored me.

"How about you fight me, and we'll find out," the child finished.

"i'm warning you kid, you don't want to do that." In reply, they took a threatening step forward. I sighed. "you really wanna have a bad time, don't you?" Another step. "alright then. let's go dirty brother killer!"

With that, the fight began. The human sprinted towards me, their path staggered and hard to follow. My left eye sparked ablaze.

"it's a beautiful day outside." Confusion flashed across the kid's face as a bone shot up from the ground, gouging their arm. Karma dragged their HP down like a falling stone. "birds are singing." A hit on their side. "flowers are blooming." An attack appeared in front of them, forcing a brief halt. "on days like these, kids like you…" A huge barrage of blue attacks made them freeze in their tracks; surprise and slight fear filled their eyes. "… should be burning." A blaster finished them where they stood.

The moment their soul shattered and their body disappeared, I turned away and shut my eyes tight, feeling sick. Heavens, I had forgotten humans bleed. It was disgusting. I was thankful I was a skeleton. A dull headache began thrumming through my head. stay strong, it's only the beginning…

Hearing them reload the save file, I looked back up. They had barely taken four steps when I sent a huge attack bursting through them. This happened two more times before they finally managed to roll out of the way in time. Their face, oh, they were furious! Yet slightly… pleased?

"I knew you were different, but that—!" the human laughed, eyes glittering dangerously, "that was astonishing! I'm impressed!" I balled my fists.

"impressed? i spilled your guts over the hall three times just now, and you say you're impressed?!" They stopped to think about this for a moment, tapping the tip of their knife against the edge of their lips.

"Yes, I am. I am intrigued that you don't play by the rules."

"that makes two of us," I snapped, yanking an attack up from beneath them.

From that reload on, the attacks didn't stop.

We fought for hours. The human got better and better at dodging my attacks, but right as they would get the hang of my patterns, I would change it on them. Field of bones, a ring of Gaster Blasters, rows of shifting blue and white, walls, projectiles, pinging their soul and throwing them across the hall… no matter how many times I killed them, they just kept coming back. They even seemed to enjoy it. No matter how many times I pinned, incinerated, stabbed, or crushed them—they came back just as eager as before.

But the strain—mental, emotional, physical, and magical—was wearing me down. I couldn't keep this up forever. Justice was a hard job. I had stopped pointlessly jabbering and now had a heavy headache because of it; whenever it was especially bad, my aim was thrown off and the kid would get dangerously close.

Another reload.

can't… keep… going… Overwhelming weariness overtook me, and I knew; it was rest or dust. Pinging the human's soul as hard as I could, I held them at bay and my eyes drifted shut. just a minute of sleep… In a flash, on instinct, I sidestepped, my eyes snapping open as a knife carved up the air where I had been standing seconds before.

"heh, what, did you think—" Suddenly, everything stopped.Desperation hit me like a panic attack. I felt smothering fear. I knew what would happen next.

Frantically, I launched myself backwards as the knife came for me again. I wasn't going to make it. I wasn't fast enough. With the tiny reserve of magic energy I had left, I summoned a thin bone wall between us. The blade cracked through it with ease—but it was enough. I fell back, the blade nicking the fringes of my jacket. I hit the floor.

Inexpressible agony exploded in my mind. My vision went blurry. Dimly, I saw the human dash for me. At the last possible second, I rolled, the deadly metal singing as it struck the tiles. I swept my arm out, knocking the kid's legs from under them. They crashed down. I weakly pinged their soul and gave it a rough shove. They skidded across the ground with surprising speed, the back of their head slamming into one of the nearby pillars. All was silent.

I scrambled back. Everything was still. Their broken soul hovered above their broken body. Leaning against a column, I huffed wearily, trying to catch my breath. The pain reached its dark roots deep into my skull, tightening dangerously. I watched in amazement as the knife slipped out of their limp hand, clattering noisily to the ground. I waited. Nothing. why aren't they reloading? I waited and waited. Nothing. For a moment, I almost dared to hope… when their eyes snapped open.

The moment their bright, pure red eyes met mine, my skull felt crushed with white-hot, vice-like pain. The whole world pulsed and spun in my vision as I fell to my knees. My mind balked as the kid rose. Freaky hazes of 1's and 0's flickered around them. They cupped their hands around the two halves of their soul and forced them back together; they then scooped up their knife.

"how?!" I gasped in horror.

"You think you're so smart," the human growled, slowly coming nearer, "going outside of your programming, changing the story." I tried to stand, but upon discovering that was impossible, tried to crawl back. "But you're not the only one. I can break the game too!" programming? game?! "I'm a hacker. How do you think I got here so easily?" Blindness overtook me for a moment. "But you—you broke everything! You're a glitch!" They were so close… "I've had enough of you. It's over now. Time to die!"

I raised my hand in a weak attempt to block the attack. The kid violently slapped it away, shoved me down, planted their knee on my waist, and drove the knife through my back. It sliced straight through my soul, the tip protruding from my chest. In that instant, my eye shattered. I felt it burst. The left side of my vision blazed ultra-white.

Gasping and choking, I gazed in curios horror as red gushed from the wound, even trickling from the corners of my mouth. i… bleed? Whether it was blood, magic, determination, or even ketchup—I didn't know. The first explosion of pain came. My breath caught; I almost cried out.

"p…papyrus…" I whispered shakily, "i'm sorry—" I yelped as the kid twisted the blade.

"Shut up!" they shouted in my ear. I shuddered as the pain mounted. I felt myself disintegrating.

Dark, darker, yet darker…

Blackness.