One Simple World

Chapter 13: Simply Soul-Passing

Angel's Point of View:

Undyne was gone then, off to hold off Chara while we were left to assist the king. The underground was still in a chaotic state while Chara still roamed free. Undyne would do her best to buy us time while we made our way to our desired location.

The ghosts attached to myself, my parents, Wingdings and Papyrus, they directed Sans and I to that of the ruins once more. It was the home of Toriel, the safest place where she would hide herself. Asriel always stuck close. For what reason, I perhaps wouldn't ever know. It could have been as simple as he missed her. It could have been something much more sinister while Asriel was in the soulless form of Flowey.

With a deep sigh, I tried not to let my mind get away from me while Sans attached the device to my chest once more. I could feel the gentle phalanges against my skin, right over my heart and soul to gather magic. Just like before, it began taking magic from me rather rapidly and already was to two percent just after attaching to me. I'm sure under normal circumstances, Sans would have been surprised. Myself as well. But we both knew what was needed and what was asked of us.

And that time, I pushed my magic into it.

I hardly remembered how well my magic went into the device or how much it took from me. It was during the battle with Asriel when he absorbed the other souls that the same device took and absorbed the rest of the energy needed from me and more.

I just didn't know how much extra was needed for that spark.

I pushed magic into it. I could see Sans looking at me with a slightly worried look, though it mostly contained an understanding undertone. I essentially had to fast track the gathering process of magic into a spark within hours compared to months.

And I knew the best way to do that.

It was once Sans had his hand in my own that we were teleported away. Asgore had woken and was given some time to recover before we let him know of our plan and set out. Asgore understood what we planned to do, but it also gave him a son back if everything worked out, as well as someone to take over for the monster people should he be lost protecting the others.

He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but none of us knew what would happen in the new timeline.

I had Sans teleport us back into Toriel's home to have us at an easier starting point. When we searched for her last time, only blood and dust were seen by the door of Snowdin, I could assume due to Chara killing Toriel. With her gone, the ruins felt far colder than before.

I recalled my memories of the old life to trace back to the path Frisk and I had fallen together on. I assumed that it was a strong possibility that Asriel in the form of Flowey was in the chamber we'd fallen in last time, compared to otherwise. It was my only hope of finding him.

Along with one other feature.

With time, and the help of Sans' magic, I summoned those of the souls attached to my own. Focusing entirely on them only and no other magic, the four souls stood around us with eyes glowing the same color as their souls. It felt... strange to see Papyrus standing among those dead, and it brought Sans to tears to see him like that.

"Don't cry brother..." Papyrus tried his best to show Sans a bright smile. I watched him hug Sans tightly while glowing orange tears flowed down his cheekbones. "If there are bad times like these, there will be good ones too. Like the life we had before. Don't you remember? I had a wonderful son and wife! And besides... in a way, I'm still here. And Angel is with you. I may have been your world once, but she became your world after. She will keep you happy and safe."

"Papyrus, son, perhaps we can save that conversation for another time?" Wingdings was quick to the rescue to help us along. "I know you wish to help your brother, but we have much to do. We shall have to save this conversation for another time. Alright?"

I saw Papyrus pout at that. "But Dad..."

"He's right, Papy." My mother came in next to pat his skull in comfort. "There is much to do, I'm afraid. We'll have plenty of time to comfort our loved ones once the issues have passed. For now, we have been summoned by Angel's incredible, but risky magic. It's better with Sans merged with her to give an even more steady flow and better control, but she still will only be able to do this for so long, and she's focusing on keeping us corporeal."

Papyrus continued to pout, but nodded slowly, allowing his brother some space. Sans' hand was kept in mine. He held me tightly as he dealt with his own emotions that we sadly didn't have time to handle.

"Let's find Asriel. Branch out."

The four ghosts immediately separated to check between the walls and underground for his roots in the current form he'd been in. While they branched out to look for him, Sans and I slowly walked down the familiar hallways I vaguely remembered from another life. It was something Toriel had shown us to walk many times and sometimes was the only form of exercise in the past since we couldn't leave the ruins for our own protection.

It was too quiet as we passed the hallways. A light breeze would pass by us showing the cracks in the rock walls above us of the mountain. The rain made its way down, leaving puddles and droplets to fall, almost sounding like rain if you listened hard enough.

Rain...

Listening to the sound of it, I paused to gauge the location of where it came from as we walked. Sans said not a word as I investigated. Slowly, ever so carefully, I looked up to the cracks in the walls. They bled water from the world above. One stray droplet fell upon my face before another gust of wind came and I smelled the very flowers that grew where we landed.

I let my senses lead me down a path that branched. So focused on my task I hardly remembered Sans' hand held in my own. Following them silently, I felt the signs I was following increase in volume as I approached. The rain echoed off the walls in a loud ringing echo before I felt it.

We'd made it.

To the very cavern I'd fallen in during my journey in the other life. Above I could see the cracks in the stone where looming clouds could barely be seen hundreds of feet away. They poured onto us. The rain felt warm. It was like tears for the lives that we were forced into. As if the very timeline cried for what we had to experience compared to before.

And there in the middle of it all was a bed of yellow flowers. They wilted slightly from the pelting of the rain in the middle of the room. The water was so great, the earth below them couldn't keep up with the saturation as water flowed away into other chambers. If it wasn't for the boots I wore, I would have been soaked.

But there was still something else there that stood out.

Alone in the center of the room was a single flower that didn't wilt nearly as drastically as the others. And it sounded like... someone was crying. I almost couldn't hear it over the rain and wind in the chasm.

I carefully stepped out into the area after letting go of Sans' hand, entirely exposed to the area before us before the crying flower. There was no other flower that could do that. There was no other monster like this one.

"Asriel."

The crying cut shot. I saw a leaf like appendage help propel the body to turn and face us. The face of the flower was basic enough, just simple eyes and a mouth on a yellow coneflower. His eyes were filled with tears as he sat there, among the others flowers before he let out a dark laugh, then masked himself with a beaming smile.

"Asriel? I don't know who that is. But I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower! Are you new to the monster kingdom? Where did you come from? Did you fall? Hey, hey! Come in close and I'll tell you all about it!"

Taking a careful breath, I blinked slowly at him. "I do need your help, but not to know about the monster kingdom. I need to know about something else."

"Oh?" He giggled behind his little leaf-like hands. "What's that?"

"How to stop your sister, Chara."

The flower instantly went pale at the comment I made. That paleness turned to instant dread, and fear. Asriel actually backed away from me in absolute fear.

"I know all about you Asriel, in another life, I met you. You were a treasured friend who told me of your past. Of you and your sister, Chara." I paused to sit down on a rock not far from where he was to try and appear less threatening. "She'd fallen down here, escaping a toxic and abusive family. You and your family, the royal Dreemurr family, took her in. Saved her, raised her, healed her. You did all you could, but her burning hatred of her family was the one thing you couldn't stop. She hatched a plan one day to die, so you could take her soul, cross the barrier, and kill the rest of them. For the most part, you let her do as she wanted until she tried to kill her sister, Silke, and you had to stop her then. 'She was a kid, she was harmless.' Those were some of the thoughts you had when trying to fight Chara."

The face of Asriel changed slightly. I could see it morphing into that of a child-like goat face in the center of the flower as I recalled parts of his life he likely didn't think about or talk about for a long time. He looked at me differently, but the gaze still didn't show much emotion.

"I understand what you're saying... I remember all that..."

"But you can't feel because your soul is gone."

"Yes."

"Then let's change that."

The face looked at me quizzically as I reached the device on my chest. The amount of magic it'd taken from me was insanely already at ninety percent from only just an hour ago to then. Filled with red magic, you could almost feel the pulse of a new soul.

"I gave you one in the last life I knew you in. I can do it again, and was planning on it. Will you take it from me?"

"Huh?! You're actually giving me a soul?" The sneer came from the goat faced flower before he hissed. "Why should I trust you? I don't know you!"

"At this moment, perhaps you don't. But we knew each other well in our previous life. Besides, you need a soul to be whole again. It's also what Chara wanted for you, to live." I tilted my head at him. "Don't you want that? Instead of being a flower for the rest of whatever strange existence you've been turned into? Being separated from others? And your parents?"

Asriel paused before looked between me and his own leaf hands. While he debated, I sent a mental message to the other ghosts checking the passageways to come back to me since I had Asriel with me. Asriel watched as faded white chains appeared before broken souls scattered about the room. He saw the two red ones, and then two white. From them appeared my parents, Wingdings and Papyrus. Asriel's eyes widened at the sight of them all before he focused in on Papyrus. His eyes widened at the sight of him.

"You're... dead? But..." Asriel snarled before he barked at me. "Did she kill you?!"

"No! No, no, no!" Papyrus quickly waved his hands before him. "No little flower best friend! I... actually died to Chara... she has taken over Frisk's body... But! Angel was able to save my soul from vanishing! Look! I am attached to her now, so I can come back every now and then! I can still help!"

That thought seemed to bother Asriel the most, but he stopped hissing. He thought about it deeply, and I could feel his roots moving below us. I didn't know if he was going to make a move against us, or if he planned something else. Did he finally believe me with enough information presented?

"Let's make a deal then, Angel, right?" Asriel pouted at me, as if he didn't believe that I could do whatever it was that he wanted of me. "You said you'd give me a soul if I helped you with stopping Chara, right?"

I nodded to him, still sitting on the rock I was perched on. "That's correct."

"Well I need you to do two more things for me to agree!"

"Okay." I tilted my head at him, curious as to what those other things were that he wanted. "And those two things would be?"

"First of all! That person you got hiding in the shadows!" Asriel snarled to the area where I came from. "Get that skeleton out here! I don't want anyone hiding from me!"

"Of course." Looking back to the entrance, I called him. "Sans? Come join us please."

A flash of blue came from behind me, and the weight of my partner was against my back. I felt Sans' hands come around my waist and he laid his head against my shoulder.

"Sup kid?"

"Stupid smiley trash bag! Don't hide from me!"

"That's one of your requests." I calmly noted to the two before an argument could break out. "And your next one?"

Asriel paused for a few moments longer than I assumed he would as the earth below us moved. His roots came in around us, darkening the space. I could feel the grip of Sans' against me, but we remained where we were along with the ghosts who weren't bothered by the physical roots. Seconds later, I could hear something cracking. From below the roots I could see something protected and contained in the heard of all his roots.

It was a white, shattered soul.

"I can't... she's breaking..." Asriel looked longingly at the pieces before him before looking at me. "Can you save her like you saved-"

But the rest of his words I couldn't even hear. My magic surged, it called out to the little soul that was already in pieces and almost entirely gone. A white chain painfully stuck out from my chest, which my family slowly tried to encourage the two together. Sans held me during the process while the soul was bound to me, another soul yanked into one solid single white soul, held together by a living red one.

The device on my chest screeched while the soul that latched onto me came into form. And the device shattered on itself with a spark of red glittering before me. Only a few feet from me did I see the person that Asriel had saved. Someone I lightly expected when he asked that favor of me.

As the person formed before us, I hardly gave Asriel a second to think before using my chains to push the spark into his chest. His soulless body sucked it in without hesitation and he looked at me with wide eyes while I needed a moment to rest. I had to close my eyes while I felt the world around me shake.

"W-what? Y-you really... gave it?"

But I heard nothing else as I felt his roots retreating from us and I closed my eyes, focusing on the new soul attached to me.

"Tori..."

"My... my child?" I could hear her voice while I rested, not looking due to an onset headache pounding in my mind from all the miracles I'd performed that day. "I... how...? But..."

"You have just been bound to a living soul like the rest of us, Toriel." My mother supplied for her. Her form was just coming into existence, I could feel her taking energy from me then to be able to take form like the others. "Take time, a lot has happened in these last few moments. Including your son saving you."

"My... son?" I had just enough energy to crack open my eyes to see the white of Toriel's fur and everyone look to the ball of roots that were pulling back in on where Asriel was wrapped up. I could hear him groaning loudly at whatever mutation was taking place. I never got to see it the time before, and it looked like I wouldn't see it entirely in that life either.

But it mattered not. That wasn't important.

As the roots pulled away, there was the goat prince once more. Laid out on the ground as he breathed heavily and all the roots were gone. His clothes before he died, tattered, and he himself looked once again like a pre-teen.

Toriel gasped loudly. "Asriel! My baby!"

She rushed to him. Checking him over while I rested, knowing that my limits were being reached. My vision was slipping from me, and my magic was starting to slip as well. The others wouldn't be able to hold their forms much longer without me awake.

"Sorry Darling... I need a nap."

"Ya do what ya gotta do, Precious."

Witch's Note:

Well damn, what a chapter. Flowey/Asriel finally making his appearance, and it would appear he's been protecting Toriel's soul from the beginning. Did he know it was Chara who killed her? Did he know what she was doing?

The only thing we do know is that he has a soul once more and has returned to his normal form, while Toriel is now attached to Angel. Another soul for her to be bound with… she really is gathering a lot of spirits.

Mystic Girl: Have we made it far enough yet?

Me: Far enough for what exactly? If we're talking about the next book, then no. We promised that would be the end of chapter nineteen.

Mystic Girl: No! I know that. I mean about… (She comes over to my ear and whisperes to me, my hands stopping on the keyboard.)

Me: Ah, that, yes, that's actually next chapter.

Mystic Girl: It IS!?

Me: Yes, it is my dear, you and your dear Chaos won't be waiting long for that. I believe he was hoping to see it in one of the reviews he sent us. His wish shall be coming true.

Mystic Girl: Fuck yes! Chaos, everyone, your gonna love next chapter. Trust me, you'll know why when you see it, I won't spoil it. But Halloween! It's time for reviews!

Me: I know… XD

MysticBoywastaken: Its not a problem Mystic Boy. It happens. I know I have to go back and check on some chapters here and there when I forget. No worries. But still hoping your enjoying the story.

Thechaosmaster: I'm so glad you seem to be enjoying my version of things Chaos. I wanted things to be different then what all people do. I can't tell you how many people write all the bosses as friends with Frisk in some way shape or form, but you can't be friends with all of them. Besides, someone seeking stardom only has that in their minds, and I have seen some versions of Mettaton where I do love the way they/she/he has been written, depending on the situation. But I wanted a villain, or someone who could become a villain when they didn't get what they wanted. Mettaton just fit that all to well for me.

So enjoy your wish coming true next chapter, ey?

Dasansi: Dansasi, I can not agree with you more when it comes to the subject of Toriel as Asgore. I hope it's coming across well when it comes to the stories I've written. Asgore has shouldered so much and Toriel abandoned so much. She is far more selfish of the two together. Her death hurts, but in a way, she brought it on herself. But we've yet to make it to Asgore so I can't comment on that much just yet. And your thoughts on Grillby and Papyrus are very justified. A true genocide route isn't complete without Papyrus' death to motivate Sans, and Grillby is a loved side character, I hope I expanded on him at least a little bit with his family, him being part of the jury and so forth. But that's not an issue if you don't feel the same way.

And I may have to check out that other story. Fluff is always a good thing to have in comparison at times. We knew this story would be quick and bloody. Makes me think of my first three books since there was a lot of fluff with some issues in each one. But mostly fluff, especially book one.

Shadow8Phantom: You're not wrong by any sort there Shadow, its only due to the combined nature of determination magic from both Frisk and Chara that is keeping them alive, and Chara using healing magic from Frisk to stay alive. It doesn't mean their not without scares or wounds, but they've been healed, and it takes time to do so since Frisk isn't helping, so Chara has to figure it out on her own in the midst of battle or in the aftermath so she doesn't die.

It also doesn't help that Frisk's chain determination magic is defending her, her soul, and that also means her body since Chara latched on. The magic itself sees it as an entire host together, not two souls. Its protecting both of them.

And that unique magic she mentioned? It will come up again, so keep an eye out for more details! I left a few scattered breadcrumbs!

Okay, another chapter done, and I'm so eager to post the next one, but I need to be patient. The next one is one of my favorites, and Mystic Girl's, but that doesn't surprise me, one of her favorite villains is in the next one.

Love you all and see you next week! Please enjoy the rest of 2024 and I'll be eager to see you all and post the first chapter for 2025! Happy New Year!

Halloween Witch and Mystic Girl