The laughter had ended, and my hands were sticky. My wounds had faded. Had I eaten something? I couldn't recall. It didn't matter. It was time to take a long walk on a long pier. Was it a pier? It didn't matter.

As I walked, I glanced to the wall beside me, and to my surprise it was covered in carvings. Even more surprising, the carvings formed comprehensible words. Scrawled there, across the whole wall, I could just make out bits and pieces of a story. A tale of war, between humans and monsters. A war fought over… souls?

The narrative seemed… incoherent. It claimed that human souls could outlast their bodies and be consumed by monsters, as though this was unique to them. What did this make Toriel, then? A human? It seemed to assume that humans had started the war, and then laid out the motive monsters' could have had for starting it, as though that was evidence of the former.

I'd already seen the power that consuming a monster's soul had given me. I'd seen their strange magics, and the even stranger fragility of their existences. No wonder they preyed on children. If the pure drive for survival hadn't been more than enough already, the sheer horror of whatever these monsters had in store for the surface world if they managed to seize the power of my soul would have stiffened my spine.

And at the end was an illustration of-

WRONG

DON'T

BAD IDEA

-left the water as the little platform I rode upon hit the pier on the far side. I considered sailing out in another, random direction, just to throw off anyone waiting in ambush, but paddling this poor excuse for a boat with my hands alone was tiring, and it would be incredibly easy to lose myself in that inky blackness. It still rankled to forge ahead on the path laid out for me, but if I was ambushed, I'd fend it off easier if I wasn't stuck on a tiny little platform. I could always swim for it, but I had no idea what was in that water, and that was without considering the aquatic nature of my foe.

And so I strode onward, and onward, along this incredibly long dock, flanked on one side by a raised cliff with a line of pillars stretching into the distance. A perfect place for an ambusher to hide.

And to my utter lack of shock, I soon saw a glowing teal spear plunged down into the wood from above. It landed a scant inch away from my face. A warning shot, then? I calmly turned my head from the spear and looked up at the cliff, where a familiar armored figure appeared from the shadows.

She didn't even need to step out from a pillar, or move at all. She simply faded into view. It was like she was gone one instant, and there the next. Invisibility of some kind? It was a lucky thing that she was apparently too honorable to simply stab me in the back; even I would have trouble noticing her approach in time to defend myself. Unless she needed to be standing still to… well, I wasn't about to assume anything.

We stared each other down for a long moment, as she paused for dramatic effect. It was a shame this was taking place underground, as this would be a perfect time for a dramatic lightning strike. Alas, the world is distressingly unaccommodating to narrative convention. Or maybe that's for the best.

Finally, she broke the standoff with a gesture of her hand; a gesture which spawned one… two… three spears of dazzling light and magic. In unison, and without even a gesture from the figure, they turned to point at me, and were let loose.

Triple the spears, each just as sharp, just as gleaming with magics… just as slow. I sidestepped the lot of them with contemptuous ease, and began to run. And as I sprang across the long pier, spear after spear after trio of spear followed in my wake. Even in all that armor, she was fast, almost as fast as me, and her aim was as sharp as her blades. As well, the narrow wood seemed to stretch on impossibly long, bending and twisting in peculiar ways. And while the spears always spawned around her, the positions of each one seemed to vary almost randomly, and yet always seemed perfectly position to most effectively cut off my retreat.

And yet.

And yet.

And yet and yet and yetandyetandyetandyetandyetnadyetnadyet AND YET!

She couldn't. Fucking. Hit me.

Every single spear flew by harmlessly. Every time it seemed like my escape was cut off, I would weave through an unseen gap between them, or I'd suddenly leap sideways over a gap in the pier I'd seemed to be going around, or I'd toss my knife to my right hand and blindly slice a spear behind my back out of the air. An incandescent teal spear flew past my face as I twisted madly, so close I could just about taste it, and probably could have touched it with my tongue if I had thought to try. My legs were on fire. My lungs were alight. My mind was an inferno. My jaw ached from a grin that seemed to want to stretch further than the skin on my face, further than the edge of the world. I'd surely have laughed, if I had the breath to spare. The greatest of the monsters, the captain of the royal guard, the most eminent hunter of humans had me in her sights, was unleashing an endless torrent of violence in my direction, to absolutely no avail! And I loved it! The specter of betrayal and horrors I'd beheld, the trauma, the exhaustion, the soul consuming, Papyrus… All my worries faded away in that glorious, beatific moment, that seemed as though it would never end.

Of course, even that impossibly long, twisted and warped pier had an end. Again, I beheld those strange, tall, dried up seagrass thickets stretch out in front of me. I plunged into them, heedless of the stalks whipping at my face as I went, but still they hampered me, cutting my speed down to a fraction of what it was. Undyne would be hindered as well… but she didn't need to dodge a torrent of spears.

There was nothing for it, then. I dove into the brush, and then… stilled. If I played my cards right, she would have only the vaguest idea of where I could be in the thicket. It was unlikely she'd not realize I was hiding there, unless she suspect I'd stealthed my way to the other side and was sneaking away, but if she waded into the brush to find me… that would be my chance to strike. It was hardly the most dramatic of places to have our final confrontation, not to mention quite a bit too soon, but needs must.

A great rustling of grass began, combined with the sound of metal hitting the ground firmly, moving slowly and steadily through it. It moved this way and that, but gradually grew close, closer, yet closer. My hand itched to strike, to slide into the gaps of that pretty armor into the pretty flesh beneath. Closer. So close I could practically TASTE HER.

Then, a different sound. A rustling that plunged down in an instant, and then slowly rose back up, combined with the sound of metal on flesh. Then, back down. The rustling of grass and the metal steps began again… headed in the opposite direction.

…What?

Was it some kind of trick, mayhap? I pulled a periscope from my backpack, and carefully poked it above the tall seagrass. She really did seem to be walking away. I watched her go, partly to make sure she really was leaving and partly just because I was hypnotized by the sight of her armor in motion. The interlocking plates, moving to the sway of her step… it was mesmerizing. Especially around her waist, where the breastplate and the faulds and the cuisses intersected and intermingled so elegantly.

But soon, she was out of sight. Even if this was a ploy, there was no sense sitting here psyching myself out about it. It was time to move forward. I stepped out of the tall grass, and-

In a flash, I whirled around, knife at the ready, at the sound of rapid footsteps to my right. It was the yellow creature from before, twitching like a kid on a sugar rush, and sporting what looked like the beginnings of a mild black eye. I kept my guard up, but it didn't approach. Instead, it began speaking. Well, closer to squealing, really, but it was intelligible enough.

"Yo…" it began. "Did you see that!?"

"No, actually." I replied. "What the bloody hell happened back there? Also, are you alright?"

"Undyne just…" it continued, in an ever rising pitch. "…TOUCHED ME! I'm never washing my face again…!" It looked at me with a half pitying, half triumphant expression on its face. "Man, are you unlucky. If you were standing just a LITTLE bit to the left…!"

"Quite so." I returned. "Poor, poor me. If only I had been the one to be manhandled by Undyne." Actually, that didn't sound so bad. The feel of that pristine metal on my flesh would have been interesting, and being lifted up to eye level might have given me the chance to find a good chink in the neck to slip a knife into…

"…Yo, did you notice?" the creature said, interrupting that useless train of thoughts. "She seemed really mad about something! She looked like she was gonna blast me to pieces! But…" It let out a long, wistful sigh. "Then she decided to put me down…" Its face fell at that, but it quickly regained its cheer. "Yo! There's always next time, right? Let's go!" And with that, it began to speed off, only to trip over its own feet and land face first with a mighty thud.

I just shook my head at its antics. "You're one strange creature, you stripy masochist!" I called after it, as it regained its footing and sped off again. I got nothing more than a silly giggle in return.

Well, the creature's squealing had more than once hit an octave usually reserved for calling dogs, but it sounded like Undyne was mighty frustrated by my glorious performance out there, and the sound of my enemy's teeth grinding in impotent rage is music to my ears any day. After all, I'm not an opera critic. I'm a survivor.

Onward. Through narrow tunnels once again. The yellow creature had long since disappeared into the twists and turns, not that I cared to follow it. It had proved a useful meatshield, and Undyne seemed unwilling to pursue me with it around, but it could turn on me at any moment, and who knew what strange magics it could conjure to eviscerate me. I wouldn't want to end up like Frisk, that poor kid, who offered a skeleton his friendship only to be cut to pieces while his guard was down.

The tunnel passage opened up a little to my left, a little nook containing another of those oddly tall teal flowers, and on a table was a strange pinkish translucent crystal containing… a block of cheese? A peculiar sight, to be sure, but that crystal looked…

I licked my lips, and looked nervously to either side of the tunnel. There wasn't anyone there…

I seized the crystal and began sawing away at the table with a serrated knife I kept in a sheath on the side of my pack, until I could pry the crystal off. I licked my lips again in anticipation, and then began to gnaw on the crystal. It was a little softer than what I was used to, and it wasn't long before little scrapings of crystal were fragmenting off, and that delectable mineral taste hit my tongue. This one tasted… a little salty. Corundum, mayhap? I had no complaints about that.

There was a strange texture to it, however. Faint, almost like an aftertaste. It reminded me of…

An incandescent teal spear flew past my face as I twisted madly, so close I could just about taste it, and probably could have touched it with my tongue if I had thought to try.

So this was the taste of magic, was it? Magic, hardened into solid, crystalline form. I rather liked it. I tore into it with greater ferocity, eager for more of this taste. Almost without thinking, I called up that sea of fire to my jaw, and with teeth of flame I cleaved into this lovely crystal. I devoured at a truly rapacious pace, only stopping when the soreness in my jaw began to taint the pleasure of my meal. The cheese had long since fallen out onto the table, but I didn't give it a second glance.

I continued onward with a spring in my step, a half-eaten crystal laid at rest in a pouch on the side of my pack.

As I journeyed forward, the tunnel began to grow brighter, awash with a bluish glow. Soon, the tunnel opened up to either side, and I beheld great pools of a strange incandescent liquid, glowing cyan. Small, thin trees grew atop wide pillars of dirt poking out from the pools, and grass grew around them. Their true color was impossible to make out through the oversaturation of cyan, their lower trunks seeming to glow as the fluid did, but their upper trunks and boughs were too shadowed to make out. The whole place was almost painful to look at, and staring directly at the pools of light made my head feel light and my legs wobble. A fresh wave of exhaustion hit me, suddenly, and I diverted my gaze a bit. Bright lights were, as usual, the very last thing I needed if I wanted to stay awake.

Reads poked out from the pools of liquid, like arms reaching up from the depths. Arms in the depths… Arms in the depths… Why would there be arms in the depths? Were there creatures below the surface, waiting to strike? Stiffened corpses of a long forgotten battlefield, or victims or Undyne? Or of me? I'd have reached out and shook their hands, but they were out of reach from the pathway, and I had no idea what this strange cyan glow would do to me if I touched it…. If I touched it… if I touched it, what would happen? Did I know? I couldn't remember.

The way forward was cut in two, like some great sword had cleaved it apart. Mayhap I could have leaped for it, but there was a creature on the other end, some sort of birdlike thing, no doubt waiting for me to try for it. Maybe I could have fried it, but what if Undyne was watching? That sea of flame was my ace in the hole, and I'd feel like a real ace hole if I blew it here. I turned away, and began to traverse the twisted path.

The place seemed a veritable maze. I must have wandered through it for hours, or maybe only years, all the while fighting off attacks that sprung from the pools, made up of gelatin creatures and muscular seahorses that flexed and shouted pick-up lines at me. Of course, even if them assaulting me didn't put me off, I was already spoken for. After all, didn't I have a girl waiting for me?

Granted, one that was fanatically devoted to my death, but that still meant she was devoted to me, in a sense! I'd take an uncomplicated relationship like that over the mess that preceded it. Certainly I'd take it over a damnable goat creature that claimed to want to be my friend, helped me through puzzles, only to eviscerate me with "friendliness pellets" the moment I let my guard down, or a pair of skeletons who… well.

Suffice to say I'd sooner call Undyne a friend than anyone that had tried to be mine thus far.

As I left the brilliance of the pools, coming at last into more normal looking water and then into yet drier tunnels, I heard a sound as brilliant as the brightest of the pools. A sound so crystal clear and beatific, and yet… fainter than קוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה. The soul of a song… or maybe the ghost? The shadow? No, the outline. The scars on my right hand itched.

I followed that brilliant, thin silence. A desolate corner, where a creature… no. Where two creatures shrank away from the world. One of them, the teal one on top, with lovely blue hair, was humming under its breath, barely able to even look at me, but it was… It was that song. I could barely make out the shallowest of its notes, but I could feel it. I began to hum along with it, just as faintly. This seemed to embolden it, and it hummed a little louder. And so, I too hummed louder. A feedback loop emerged, the two of us utterly lost in our own little world where only music existed, and I began to pick up more and more of the soul of the song as it grew louder and louder and louder and louder and louder and…

My eardrums rumbled and vibrated and, finally… burst. The sound was no longer a sound. The notes had physical form now, impacting over and over and over into my chest, with a force that would have sent another man reeling. My arm was alight with a searing pain. It had been like that for a while now, and I hadn't even noticed.

I'd dropped my knife.

I didn't need it.

My right hand plunged into the still open mouth of the monstrous siren in front of me, and with a powerful yank, came out with pieces of lip and tongue clutched within my fist. The singing stilled, as the sheer trauma of it left both creatures reeling. The terrible aching in my ears faded, leaving only the lingering pain of the bursting drums, and clearing my head of the unnatural fog it had taken on. My free hand scrabbled for the knife, and in short order they were both cleaved in twain. I popped a couple of candies into my mouth and crunched down on them, my eardrums beginning to regenerate and my hearing slowly coming back to me.

I stared down at the pieces of the siren I'd claimed, already beginning to crumble to dust with the rest of its body. That song… that beatific song… had gone from the wind. I wasn't even sure when it had happened. Were these the source of it? These trivial little instruments of mundane sound? It didn't seem possible… and yet, even now, fading into dust, these little pieces seemed to have a presence that dwarfed their size in my hand. Before they could fade further, I shoved my scarred hand into my mouth, swallowing them down in one breath.

The song… I still couldn't hear it on the wind anymore. But I could feel it, now, in my bones. No, deeper than that. Somewhere deep within my soul… somewhere like that great sea of flame… there was a song. A song that transcended music itself. A deadly song, if given life and light. But all the most dangerous things are beautiful for it, and all the most beautiful things carry an essence of danger.

I swayed and wove through the tunnel, finding myself dragged by my feet to left of where I'd come in, where a small piano lie at rest. The wall to the far right of this room was decorated in carvings.

A haunting song echoes down the corridor...

Won't you play along?

I gave the writing a crooked smile. I knew precisely what it was talking about. I approached the piano with a serene clarity, running my hands along the keys. I had no idea how to play, of course, beyond a cursory understanding of how it functioned. I had never been taught to play, and I didn't even like piano music. None of that mattered. I had a song in my heart. It wasn't a matter of effort to bring it forth, but rather to keep it from bursting out!

And so I played.

And played.

And played.

Days and years and months and centuries and hours passed, as the notes filled the room, filled the tunnels, filled the world, filled my mind. My muscles ached, my fingers bled, but still I played.

And then, suddenly, the music was swallowed up by a sound like a thousand springs. I recoiled back, my gaze sweeping across the room until I saw it. The middle wall, recessed away from the sides, had opened up a passageway at the center of it. The music had opened the way forward, just as I knew it would.

Through the passage was a simple little room, with naught but a pedestal at the end. Atop that pedestal was naught but a massive orange orb, at least as big as my head. I felt a strange sense of trepidation as I approached. Strange, because it didn't seem to be coming from me…

Seized by a sudden, fevered impulse, I slung my pack off of my back and opened it up. Inside… everything was the same as before. Of course it was. I packed it myself when I left my house on this trip ten minutes ago, and no one else had access to it since. These weren't even my fears. Shaking off the last vestiges of these feelings, I slung my pack upon my back once again, and grabbed the massive orb with both hands.

I held the massive thing in the palm of my hand for a moment, feeling its heft. I closed my fist around it, then opened it again, and wove it between my fingers idly. Then, with a twist of my hand, I sent it behind my fingers, and held it there for a moment, invisible to the eye. Then, with another twist, I sent it flying into the air, coming down into my outstretched hands. The full weight of the massive thing impacting them jarred my arms a little, and my hands were getting a little sore carrying it around like that, so I twisted it behind my fingers again for safekeeping.

It certainly was a pretty bauble, but it didn't seem like some legendary artifact that needed sealing away. It just seemed to me to be an ordinary, if very large, orange orb. So I continued on, with nary a second thought.

As I walked, I began to hear a peculiar pitter-patter sound coming from up ahead. It sounded so… familiar.

I rushed forward eagerly, and what I saw further on did not disappoint.

Rain.

Genuine. Fucking. Rain.

A grin began to split my face as I stood amidst the downpour. I'd always loved rain. The way it felt to stand amidst the torrent, the sound of it around me, the way it almost felt like swimming through the air at the most powerful of storms… well, this one was hardly above a sprinkling, but that had its own charms. At this point, I hardly even questioned the idea of getting rain underground. It was hardly the most unintuitive thing I'd seen all day. I walked… no, I danced through the showers, and skipped through the puddles along the way.

"Yo!" I suddenly heard a voice call out. It was the yellow creature I'd seen a few times before, standing in a shaded alcove to hide from the rain. "You can't hold an umbrella either?" It asked.

I laughed a glimmering little laugh in reply. "Oh no!" I said, still laughing. "I have no need of an umbrella! Not when I have a song in my heart!"

"I dunno what that means," It began, a mix of bemusement and sympathetic joy on its face. "But if you're walking anyway, I guess I'll go with you, haha…" And with that, he began to walk beside me, as I continued to sway and weave my way through the downpour, humming as I went.