Once again Frisk was standing at their save point outside the throne room. This was becoming a bit too familiar. Frisk sighed. There wasn't much they could do about it other than win, which was easier said than done considering that Clover was a human with determination and thereby could remember each time Frisk's save file was loaded.
Frisk sighed and entered the throne room again. There was the same sun as last time. The same howling sound of wind, emanating from the barrier. The same tumbleweed rolled between, but Frisk knew that plan wouldn't work. Standing in front of the throne was the same cowboy, and just like last time, Clover's hat was tilted upwards, revealing his smiling face. Only the harmonica sang a different tune, this one being, "But the World Refused to Die".
Check - Frisk
HP 99 ATK 99 DEF 99
No longer human
A smile flashes over Frisk's face as they draw a knife and throw it at Clover. Clover dashed out of the way and drew his gun before immediately firing it. You couldn't even see the gun move. One moment, it was in its holster, the next it had released a bullet at Frisk. Another moment afterwards, Frisk had taken their real knife and slashed the bullet out of the air. The harmonica's song quickly shifted to "Finale", played to the best of Flowey's abilities.
Clover immediately fired five more times. Frisk quickly slashed each and every one of them apart, then sprinted forward. Frisk stabbed forward with their knife. Clover simply dashed to Frisk's other side and shot them in the back. Frisk staggered a step forward, purposefully.
As Frisk staggered, the tumbleweed rolled in front of them. It was in their reach. Frisk grabbed the tumbleweed. Then, Frisk spun on their heel and threw it at Clover, catching him completely off-guard.
Clover ducked underneath the tumbleweed, but Frisk lunged forward towards him, knife outstretched. Since Clover isn't standing up, he can't dash. So, Clover jumps as high as he can, trying to jump over the attack. It turns out, Clover isn't particularly good at jumping. He gets about two feet off the ground. In retrospect, Clover isn't particularly surprised at his jump height. In fact, it's well above average for humans, especially considering that Clover is only a child.
Frisk saw Clover's jump and hopped right next to him, bringing their arm high enough to slice at Clover's side. They then quickly turned around to slice again, but Clover had aimed his gun at them in the meantime. Clover fired, and Frisk just barely managed to jump out of the way.
Clover landed and spun around, seeing Frisk not too far. He dashed with his fist extended and punched Frisk in the face hard enough to make them fall over. Unfortunately, it didn't pierce their skin, though Clover supposed they couldn't hope for anything different considering Frisk's 99 DEF. HP: 92/99
Frisk grabbed Clover and pulled him down while pulling themselves up. Clover was off-balance and so was quickly falling, while Frisk was nearly to their feet. Frisk had their knife pointed at Clover's chest. Clover spun to the side, accelerating Frisk to their feet and putting them off balance. However, Frisk let go of Clover's fist early enough to catch themselves.
As Clover hit the ground, they noticed it was surprisingly soft. These must have been the same type of flowers that cushioned him during his initial fall. Meanwhile, Frisk held up their knife and brought it down on Clover. Due to the soft landing, Clover was easily able to roll out of the way. Frisk's attack missed and cut an innocent flower, making Flowey shiver. He suddenly had a bad feeling.
Clover rose to his feet, keeping an eye on Frisk. Frisk stood still. The two locked eyes and another tumbleweed thematically rolled past them. Once it passed, Frisk darted forward towards Clover. Clover shot at Frisk. They didn't slice it out of the air or dodge. They kept barreling towards Clover at full speed. Clover was about to dodge out of the way, but then the barrel of his gun was grabbed by Frisk, who flashed a smile.
Frisk tugged on the weapon, but Clover held on tight. Then, Frisk brought their knife down towards Clover's wrist, trying to cut it. Clover tugged to the side, avoiding it and directing the gun at Frisk. Clover pulled the trigger, but Frisk tugged and angled the gun towards the ground. Another flower had a bullet hole pierce straight through, making Flowey shiver again. Frisk tried to cut Clover's wrist again, but Clover tugged back, protecting his wrist. However, it came at a cost…
The Wild Revolver was sliced apart. The gift Starlo bought for Clover at double the price. The weapon he'd given Starlo at his death to remember him by… A tear fell from Clover's eye.
Beyond that, the gun had served a purpose of utility as of late. After all, it was currently Clover's only weapon. He frankly had no idea what had happened to his toy gun and before this moment, he didn't care.
Now, Clover was a kid standing in front of a demon, staring at his useless gun through the tears welling his eyes.
Flowey stopped playing harmonica in shock. Dunebud's expression fell into something more unsure. Frisk sliced with their knife across Clover's torso, right where his soul was shining in the shape of a heart.
No blood. No gore. No dust. No damage at all. A zero hung over Clover's head. The second and last hit of invincibility offered by the golden pear. Another hit would surely take out Clover's measly 16 HP. The human and former human felt a shift in the air. This felt like a turning point, although neither could tell quite how so.
Whiteness filled Clover and Frisk's vision. Then, they were looking onto something entirely different…
—
"Do you really hate me th- that much?" Toriel asked. The caretaker of the ruins. The nice old lady guiding humans to safety. Trying to take care of Frisk. Sliced to dust, mercilessly.
Toriel's soul hung in the air. Frisk sliced again, cutting the heart straight down the middle.
Clover's hands fell limply to his side.
LOVE: 4
—
"IS THAT A HUG? I ACCEPT!" Papyrus said with a bright smile. Then, he was struck down, reduced to a head as the rest of his body crumbled to dust.
"I- I STILL BELIEVE IN YOU. Y- YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER!" His dying words.
Clover dropped his gun to the floor.
LOVE: 7
—
"Oh. Oh man. What would Undyne do?"
The child turned to Frisk. "If you want to hurt anyone else, you're gonna have to go through me!"
They swung their weapon, trying to kill a mere child.
Clover turned on their heels and walked away.
LOVE: 8
Undyne intercepted the blow. She shooed the child away and nearly crumbled to dust, but with determination, she held on. She explained how she felt everyone's hearts beating together, wishing for Frisk's annihilation. She transformed into Undyne the Undying. Into the monsterkind's zenith.
But after a grueling battle, Frisk jumped up towards Undyne with their dusty tutu and ballerina shoes. They kicked Undyne in the face hard enough for Undyne to fall to her knees. Then, she slowly began to melt. "Papyrus, Alphys, Asgore… I failed you."
Clover put a foot on the cushion of the throne.
LOVE: 10
—
Frisk watched a terrifying transformation take place in front of their eyes. Mettaton transformed into Mettaton NEO, giving hope to his fans, those who were left. Mettaton charged up a blast with his cannon. Frisk was frozen with fear, their feet stuck on the floor. Frisk gulped, they really couldn't move. Frisk shook as they fumbled for and grabbed the empty gun, then pointed it at Mettaton NEO.
Their determination built up until a blast came firing out of the gun, straight into Mettaton NEO. A hole was blown straight through his center. Then, a moment later, he was gone, with his fans. As shaky as it was, Mettaton made sure he went down smiling.
However, not only was Mettaton killed, but so were all the hopes and dreams of the underground, slaughtered in a single blast of pure determination. With this knowledge, Frisk smiled widely.
Clover put his other foot on the throne's railing.
LOVE: 12
—
"On days like this, kids like you should be burning in hell."
Sans judged them. They were guilty. Sans enacted Justice the best he could. Still, Frisk was too determined. They persisted.
For all his gusto and his skill, Sans couldn't face up to Frisk. As Sans fell asleep, Frisk stabbed towards him. Sans quickly dodged, but Frisk sliced their knife to the side. It skidded against Sans and cut him open, making blood gush from the wound. Sans slunk off and turned to dust behind a pillar.
Then, when Frisk was forced to fight Sans again, Frisk killed him the same way without hesitation.
Clover took a quick step on the toy knife embedded into the king's empty throne.
LOVE: 14
—
Frisk stepped back for another swing and Asgore holds out his trident to block. His trident was cut in half and dissolved into magic. Frisk stepped closer and plunged the real knife deep into Asgore. The number "99999999999" hung above him. Asgore gasped as he dissolved into dust, leaving behind his soul. Frisk grabbed his soul with their hand and shattered it.
Clover put their feet on top of the throne's backrest.
LOVE: 15
—
Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, and Frisk all stood on a ridge, outside of Mt. Ebott, looking out at the sunset.
Flowey appeared to Frisk. "Please, don't reset. Let everyone live their life on the surface. Sorry, you've probably already heard this a million times before."
Frisk hit the reset button, bringing the world back to how it was when their adventure began.
LOVE: 19
—
Clover stood high. His physical high ground was mirrored by his moral high ground. His back was turned on Frisk.
Clover turned his head towards Frisk, his face obscured in shadow. "You… I can't even begin to tell you how downright unjustified what you did was. You… took away monster's happy ending for your own sick pleasure. You killed them all because… you were CURIOUS?! You just wanted to know what happened."
Frisk stepped to the foot of the empty throne and ate a handful of snow. A part of a snowman Frisk had torn into bits of snow. HP: 99/99
Music started to play. It wasn't like the tunes Flowey had played on the harmonica. In fact, it felt just like all of the other music Frisk had heard during their most intense battles in its almost "pixelated" instrumentation. As for the mood… it was vindictive and intense.
Clover sighed. He turned his head down, making the shadow cast by his hat over his face twice as deep. Through the fading sunlight, it was impossible to see Clover's anywhere above his mouth's snarl.
"LOVE. As I've learned, it stands for Levels Of ViolencE. Right now, I've realized there's only one thing that can bring Justice to the fallen monsters you've slain and the scared monsters whose lives have been ruined."
The song that was playing… if Frisk had to describe it in a single word, that word would be… "Retribution". In more words than that, it might have been, "Recompense for the Departed", or perhaps, "Balancing the Scales of Justice".
A yellow light shined out from under the shadow over Clover's face. Right where the cowboy's eye was. "And it's downright violent, but also perfectly justified."
Yellow energy coalesced and built up in Clover's clenched right fist. The image of a yellow heart disappeared from Clover's chest and reappeared, twice as bright on his hand. "So, I'll give you one last chance. Fall to your knees. Beg! Beg for forgiveness from the monsters you've slain!"
Frisk's mouth curled upwards into a smile as their eyes glowed red. They tore the toy knife out of the throne's backrest.
"I thought so."
LOVE: 20 EXP: 0
Clover took out his fingers on his right hand, forming a finger gun. He aimed it and then, released the build-up of energy in a laser made of magic, determination, their soul, and Justice, all in one. In that way, it was not unlike Undyne the Undying, but instead of being an opponent, that power was all put in a single technique.
Frisk jumped and rolled to the side, barely evading it. In the spot it had hit, the flowers were eviscerated, as was the ground. There was a deep hole and the dirt around it was so blackened it left that hole as a complete void.
At that point, Flowey didn't shudder, he froze entirely.
Frisk darted at the throne and cut it in half with their knife. At the last second, Clover jumped off the throne and landed a short distance behind Frisk.
Frisk spun, and threw their knife at Clover. Clover barely moved to avoid the attack. The knife kept flying towards the frozen figure of Flowey, cutting off one of his petals, the one on the far right side. Flowey flinched afterwards and distantly felt his new bald spot with a vine.
Meanwhile, Clover lunged forward and grabbed Frisk by the collar. He was holding them up as he aimed his finger gun at them. Yellow light shone brightly, building up.
Check - Clover
HP 100 ATK 58 DEF 27
Judge. Jury. Executioner.
Those stats… they were second only to Undyne the Undying and Frisk themselves. Frisk didn't struggle. It wouldn't have amounted to anything. Clover released his laser from his fingers. Naturally, with such a combination of magic, determination, their soul, and Justice, Frisk met the same fate as the flowers: immediate evisceration.
You gained 1 EXP and 434 G!
"Uh- uh- What the heck?!" Flowey sputtered out.
Clover walked over to Dunebud and gave her a good jiggle. "Awawa!"
"You didn't answer my question!" Flowey yelled.
Dunebud's smile grew wider as Clover patted his head a few times until it looked as if the smile would grow off of Dunebud's body. "heHe!" Dunebud cheered.
"Ergh!" Flowey yelled. Then, his face morphed into a rather blank expression. "Wait a minute, you still haven't told me how Dunebud got here!"
Clover stood up and turned around. He opened his mouth and- took a bite of the Golden Cactus.
"Ugh. Come on Clover!" Flowey demanded.
Clover sighed. "Okay, she-"