Chapter Text
“We caught the last one, your majesty, Captain Undyne have it restrained!”
Asriel turned to Astigmatism, clenching his sword’s hilt. Finally.
“Lead me to them.”
The one-eyed monster blinked, morphed their face and started to hop away through the crumbled houses and fallen corpses. Asriel followed, taking care of side-stepping a pile of dust that had started to crumble under the wind.
Someone would have to take all the dust and bring it back to their proper family; a battle field was no place for a funeral.
The young prince walked through the small town and saw all his subjects busy cleaning everything up. As the Tamers were gently shooing the Amalgamates back to their crates, the Soul-Claimers were surrounding the fallen humans and bringing out colorful shining hearts of light out of their chest. At least, it looked like they got most of them intact this time. Human soldiers’ souls usually shattered quickly after death; Asriel was fairly sure their military had trained them to do so.
…It meant this village had been mostly civilians; mostly non-combatants. As if to confirm his thought, his gaze met the vacant stare of a very small human, half crushed by a fallen roof.
A strategic take-over, nothing more.
The Boss Monster could not ignore the sharp pain in his soul. He just lost a bit of Hope. Monsters were not made for war; their soul thrived on hope, love and compassion. At this very moment, he could feel all of their beings slowly dwindling. Even as this went on for years, for all of their victories, for all of the ground they gained, they were still the dying specie.
Monsters would lose. Humans were too persistent.
“Here it is, your majesty,” Astigmatism announced, pointing to an assembly of monsters in the town square. The view was another blow to Asriel’s soul, because the whole area was a sea of dust and blood. There would be no way for the Pickers to separate the muddy powder on the ground; they would have to do a communal funeral for those. The human limbs lying around would not help; Asriel wondered which of his Royal Guards was responsible for this butchery. Then, he saw the two steel axes and the big armor lying around and he felt his throat constrict. When he neared the circle of monsters, his fears were confirmed.
“Don’t lose hold of that thing!”
“Is that it? Is that what killed Greater Dog?”
“So small…”
“So vicious…”
“Dogamy and Dogaressa, they…”
Asriel let sorrow invade him. It was after the fact. It was after they had won the town. They were three of his most respected Guards. Greater dog, filled with an even bigger love than his stature; Dogamy and Dogaressa, the most lovey-dovey couple he ever knew, stuck in a perpetual honey-moon…
…All three of them sneakily killed after the battle. By a lone human.
It was those kinds of blow which reminded the prince how much their victories depended upon their cunning strategies and magic. Humans were unbelievably strong. If it weren’t for the monsters’ knowledge of the souls…
…If it weren’t for his father, the king…
He caught sight of the human, under Undyne’s grip of steel. They were struggling feebly; their yellow skin, dark-brown hair and torn up clothes were barely visible under the blood and dust covering them. They were so small.
Not as small as Chara had been, but still small; probably in their human teen.
Asriel shook off the thought of Chara from his mind; he could not… should not think of them now.
“The prince is here!” a voice proclaimed.
The human snapped their attention to Asriel; their squinted brown-red eyes were full of unrestrained fury. It was a rare eye color for a human; the same as Chara’s. Asriel had to force himself to stay still to avoid shaking his head and chase the thought.
Above the human, Undyne gave Asriel a serious nod.
“My lord, here is the silent killer.”
The restrained human lunged.
“Killer? You’re the killers here! All of you devils! All you… you beasts!”
Their voice was hoarse and their struggle mad, but Undyne was not budging. Her voice was stone cold when she continued.
“What is the sentence, my prince?”
They tried to kick her, but to no avail.
“You have no right to judge, murderers! You-you know what those dogs did? Do you? They killed Cam! They killed CAM! You… you killed mom and dad! You killed them ALL!”
Their voice pierced through the devastated town and echoed in the cloudy sky. All monsters around kept silent as the human spieled. They knew perfectly well what they did.
But this was war.
They tried to keep human prisoners before, they were still trying occasionally, but it turned out to be too risky. Captive humans never gave up, never stopped trying to flee and harm. A great number of monsters had been killed by successful breaks. Humans with strong killer intents could dust the toughest monsters with a single hit.
It was easier to kill them, better to wipe out the remaining survivors and take their souls as fuel for their war machines. Living humans would mean a more stable power source, but it was too dangerous.
When humans made monsters prisoners, they never lasted long either.
Asriel stared at the pathetic creature wailing insults and curses at the sky. They were so small, so broken by the war. All the surrounding monsters were broken as well. They all died a little each time they killed; each times their Level of Violence, the LOVE in their souls, increased.
This human would die, but the monsters would lose. Somehow, Asriel did not think this would comfort the small teenager before him.
The human shook again as they screamed and Asriel noticed a little blue heart struggling to jump at their feet: their soul. Monster magic could pull out human souls; it was one of their greatest assets, because human souls were vulnerable to magic. The human’s soul color showed they were constricted by a gravity spell. Asriel looked for its source and spotted the short skeleton holding his hand forward, his left eye glowing in an ominous light blue: Sans.
The slouchy skeleton chuckled darkly and walked to Asriel.
“What a nasty piece of work, that one,” he commented with a stilled smile, “wounded my bro, almost made him ‘fall’.” The skeleton was sweating a bit.
Asriel nodded shortly. It did not explain why Papyrus had been here, but it explained why Sans was. Sans only lived for his brother Papyrus and his work as a war scientist. As skilled as they could be, the two brothers were not made for the war; Papyrus tried, but he was too innocent; and Sans had too little ‘Hope’.
The human’s wail degenerated into mad sobbing. Their soul was still struggling against the blue magic’s hold.
“alphys would probably like having them as a test subject, though,” Sans pondered, his perpetual grin as forced at it usually was. “lotsa determination in that one… very dangerous… maybe too dangerous.”
Determination…
Asriel’s eyes widened a bit and he searched through the skeleton’s eyes to see if he meant the double-meaning. Sans’s expression said it all.
Alphys had asked for human ‘Determination’. Asriel did not know what this was for, but he knew she was occasionally draining their short stock of human souls dry for it. It was a very important energy they had in limited quantity, because a dead human could not create more Determination.
Asriel took out his cell phone and reached for his dimensional box; he pulled out the small canine skull-like object Alphys had lent him.
It was only a prototype; a new way of restraining humans’ powers; never tested. She told him it was for emergency only, with a huge chance of killing the human test subject. The prince figured he may as well try. He walked in front of the crying human. To their credit, their hiccups had mostly stopped when they saw their death approach; Asriel had seen older humans react with less nobility.
Not that there had ever been any kind of nobility in what Asriel did to them.
The town’s square had grown silent. All monsters gave an air or respectful gravity. The human raised their head. Through their unruly meshes, their eyes were still searching for Asriel’s gaze. Asriel stared back for a few seconds, before taking a breath and turning to Undyne.
“Shackle them.”
The captain blinked at the sudden order.
“But… my lord-“
“Do it.”
The fish warrior complied. She released her hold of the human’s hands and brought them to their chest. She quickly made two pairs of shackles appear from her inventory and restrained the human’s hands and feet. Her captive looked too confused to react. They still thought themselves to be put to death, so why was this needed?
Her work done, Undyne rose and took a step back.
“Your majesty, if I may, I believe this is a mistake. This human has killed, they have gained LOVE. They cannot be captured safely.”
Hearing Asriel’s intent, the human burst into an angry laugh.
“Heh! S-So… Now you want me alive, monsters? After…After all you’ve done?” They gave Asriel the nastiest sneer they could offer, their eyes burning with rage and sadness. “…I’d rather die a hundred times trying to kill you than letting you lay your dirty, disgusting paws on me, you damn goat-face!”
They finished their speech with a surprise spit. The snotty liquid landed on Asriel’s combat robe. He recoiled and the human made a victorious cry before Undyne bashed them roughly on the head, sending them on the dusty pavement.
“You will show respect when the prince give you their mercy, human!”
Asriel tried to ignore the nasty liquid on his clothes with all the dignity he could muster. Humans had given him worse than stained clothing. With a groan, the human pulled back up, a new trail of blood coming out of their nose. Even though it must have hurt, the look they gave the prince was one of smug satisfaction.
Asriel reported his attention to the little blue heart glued to the ground. He crouched near, but still outside the human’s reach.
“Sans,” Asriel called, “release your gravity binding.”
“okay, no bones about it.”
When the magic stopped, the little soul turned bright red and started to float up. Asriel caught it in the palm of his hand with his magic. The human flinched at the contact.
It was a pretty soul, Asriel thought. Monsters’ souls were colorless, but humans’ all had a unique shade to them. This one’s red was the same as Chara’s had been. It was really rare for two souls to have the exact same shades, but Asriel knew those two did. No wonder the human reminded him of them.
… No, he was better off not associating the two.
Asriel clutched the little skull-like object in his hand, then slowly, but firmly brought it to the captive soul. When it neared, the skull seemed to take a life of its own and snapped around the heart violently.
The human’s eyes went wide.
And they screamed.
All monsters took a step back. The cry was deafening; tearing up at their beings.
Then, it stopped, as sharply as it begun.
But the human’s mouth was still open. It was like no sounds could come out anymore. They fell to the side and started to contort in silent pain.
Asriel stared in horror. He could not look away.
They wriggled and their soul vibrated, as if trying to shake off the deadly maw of the skull. Asriel could see it lose its vivid color, turn into a pale pink.
When it neared to white, this was when the impossible happened.
A monster’s gasp brought Asriel’s attention back to the body and he could see, he could see the tuff of brown fur spouting on the human’s bare arm as they yelled voicelessly. They tried vainly to clutch their chest as their shape was changing, their limbs elongating. Asriel could hear the bones shifting; there was a sickening crack when the bony end of their spine burst out of their pants and covered in muscles and fur to form a long tufted tail. Through their obvious pain, the human managed to stare at it in pure horror.
Then, Asriel heard before he saw the two small horns bloodily piercing the skin of their skull. The prince winced and brought a hand to his own small horns before coming to a realization. He predicted it when the human’s ears turned floppy and fell on each side of their head, covered in brown fur like the rest of their body; he also predicted it when their fangs elongated and they vainly clutched at their muzzle as it grew in their hands. He predicted it when the change stopped once the human had taken the appearance of a goat-like beast.
He predicted it because it was that of a Boss Monster’s, like he was.
The skull released the shaking white soul. It hurriedly went back into its owner’s chest. Breathing quickly, the human… the ex-human did not even seem to register when it did, taken aback by their shaky new sets of claws. Slowly, they raised their gaze at Asriel, trembling from head to toes. Their wide eyes showed myriads of feelings, among which were confusion, shock and fear.
The monsters were shocked as well. They started to talk among themselves. Asriel could hear the words buzzing.
“A monster-“
“Turned into a monster-“
“But how, if the human-“
“Does this mean we can change the humans into our own?”
“We won’t have to kill-“
“We can show them our way-“
“We can win…”
A clamor started to erupt around. The air of fear and sorrow suddenly turned into joy, even as they stood in the middle of the corpses of the fallen. The monsters started to praise their ruler.
“The prince did it! The prince found a way!”
“We won’t have to kill! They can be like us!”
“We’ll show them our way! We can be one people!”
“We can win our peace! We can win the war!”
At each new claim, Asriel could feel the hope rise into their souls. Inadvertently, he partook into it as well. Everyone was in shock, including Sans and Undyne; including himself. But Asriel knew that, as a leader, he did not have the luxury to show his surprise. He did not think even Alphys would have predicted this result; he would have to ask her himself.
At this moment, however, Asriel was silently pondering the thought. Could they do it? Could they change the humans they captured into monsters? Increasing their ranks as well as offering a more peaceful alternative to both humans and monsters? They may not have been able to handle captive humans, but they could handle monsters. Humans would lose their unfair advantage in strength, as well as gain in learning love, hope and compassion with their new monster souls. They could be taught how to live among them; they could be taught to share their land.
It was a beautiful thought. Asriel wanted to believe it. His eyes landed on the former human again. They, too, thought the change had been on purpose, he could tell. And now that they heard the chants, now that their shaking had stopped, Asriel could see other emotions flickering through their new face: disbelief, outrage, anxiousness, fright…
…hate; Boiling, furious and deep hate.
Asriel felt a constriction in his soul. In life, things can never be this easy.