Underearth/Book 4/Chapter 22

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The inside hosted architecture like Frisk had never seen before or since. Ahead of him was a grand staircase that led to upper floors, yet the walls of the main hall also hosted staircases. Doors to other rooms aligned with the floor, along with multiple walls, and a few up in the ceiling as well.

"We should split up." Calibri said. "If anything gets found, send out a pulse-wave and run back here."

"What's a pulse-wave?" Frisk asked.

Calibri brought his hands together to demonstrate. With his eyes glowing red, as soon as his hands contacted one-another, a blast of red energy erupted from them. The pulse of red energy continued outward until it disappeared just a few inches from his hands.

"That was a weaker version. In the event you find something, you'd need to make a bigger one that covers the entire mansion. Just be careful, the bigger the pulse, the more AURA you'll expend."

The two then split up, with Calibri starting from the first floor and Frisk climbing the grand staircase and starting from the second.

Over the following few hours, they searched the massive structure, occasionally running into one another, more often from different angles, with one being on the other's wall or ceiling. After many hours had passed, they both arrived on the roof of the structure.

"Did you find anything?" Frisk asked when he saw Calibri.

Calibri shook his head. "I take it your search was just as fruitful as mine?"

"Unfortunately..."

They both heaved a sigh and sat down. Frisk took this time to look around at the surrounding environment.

"Do you know where we are?" he asked.

"Not a clue. I've never even heard of a place like this." Calibri replied.

"Guess a question regarding its size is also out..."

They both then sat there in silent contemplation regarding what to do. A few minutes in, Calibri spoke to break the silence.

"So," Calibri said, "if your magic isn't sourced from LOV, where'd you get it all from?"

Frisk looked at him. "What do you mean?" he asked, trying to dodge.

"I've been watching your every move since your first RESET. Remember when you spotted me in Snowdin?"

"Yeah, I remember." Frisk gulped.

"During that run, you had a very... novel grasp on magic, having it just... happen around you. It looked like it was in the same vein as LOV, but you weren't killing anybody, so that's out. Next time around, though, you were slaughtering all, LOV's magic developing with each kill. Now, here you stand, or... sit, with masterful control over your own magic. So I ask, how? How'd you go from being completely incompetent to mastering a few types in basically no time at all?"

Frisk let out a sigh. *Might as well tell him...* he thought.

"It was relatively recently. In the last World. It started after I absorbed Toriel's SOUL."

"Wait, you absorbed her SOUL?"

"Yeah. I mean, it was there. I thought, hey, let's grab this thing, and so I did, and absorbed it, and then suddenly I just... had great magic. Didn't really think much of it further."

"Interesting. And what about everybody else? Everyone I rallied against you. Did you absorb their SOULs too?"

"Of the ones I could. Sans didn't release his SOUL, and everyone after Gerson turned to rock after I killed them, except Mettaton."

"Well that checks out. That would be all the Boss Monsters you fought. And you said everyone after Gerson turned to rock? That'd be around the time I'd gotten the Human SOULs to them."

"What's a Boss Monster?" Frisk asked.

"Remember when I said some Monsters only having a hundredth of the SOUL strength instead of the more normal thousandth?"

"Yeah."

"That's what qualifies a Boss Monster. They're just ten times more powerful than the more average Monster you'll often find."

"I see... So, backing up a bit, does absorbing a SOUL turn you to rock after you die?" Frisk asked.

"That would seem to be the case, with Monsters absorbing Human SOULs, at least. I don't see any other reason it would happen." Calibri then looked right at Frisk. "Would you mind if I... searched your SOUL?"

"What!?"

"Would you mind if I searched your SOUL?"

"I know what you said, I just... didn't understand it."

"I want to use my magic to investigate your SOUL to see if there's any signs of absorption. There's only ever been one documented case of somebody absorbing somebody else's SOUL, and that was Asriel absorbing Chara's. You're a sudden new case that I can actually study here and now. Err, with your permission of course."

"You want to study me."

"Err, yeah... word choice isn't my best quality." Calibri said, nervously laughing afterwards.

"Will it hurt?"

"No, not at all. I had my SOUL vigorously studied for the first ten-or-so years of my life. You'll hardly notice a thing. Maybe a bit of mental discomfort, like somebody looking at you while you're naked since your magical sensitivity is rather high, but that's hardly the same as physical pain."

Frisk took a deep breath. "Alright, I don't see why not. I would like to know a bit more myself, so yeah, go ahead."

"Excellent!" Calibri said, his excitement barely stifled.

Calibri placed one of his hands just above Frisk's chest. As he watched him, Frisk noticed his eyes start glowing red, which was quickly followed by an uncomfortable sensation, like somebody grabbing your very heart. As soon as it happened, Frisk took another few deep breaths.

"You alright?" Calibri asked, his primary focus on the situation at hand.

"Yeah, just... hurry please."

Calibri didn't respond. After a few more seconds, the glowing ceased, along with the awful sensation. No later had it stopped had Frisk collapsed backwards, breathing deeply.

"Incredible." Calibri said. "There's no sign of what I thought would be present after an absorption whatsoever."

"What do you mean?" Frisk asked, still lying on the ground.

"The SOUL ESSENSEs, the source of consciousness, they're all gone. There's only yours. This must be why your head isn't filled with the literal voices of those you absorbed screaming at you."

Frisk laughed a bit. "What makes you so sure of that?" he asked.

Calibri gave him a weird look. "Are the literal voices of those you absorbed screaming at you? Being that it's not you remembering them to make yourself feel bad, but them actually having an actual presence inside you."

"No. There's nothing." he said.

"That's what I thought."

"So, this SOUL ESSENSE. If I don't have it, where'd it go?" Frisk asked.

Calibri shrugged his shoulders. "Passed on, I guess. You *did* kill them, after all. Passing on is typically what happens after your SOUL is gone."

"Passed on?"

"Whatever you want to believe regarding that. Gone to Heaven or Hell, gone to be re-incarnated, vanished completely from existence, whatever. It's just not here anymore."

"I see."

The pair went silent again. After a few minutes, Calibri started shouting.

"LOOK!" he said, shaking Frisk while pointing off at a dark patch of sky.

"What about it?" Frisk asked, sitting up and looking off in the direction Calibri pointed.

"I saw a dim red glow coming from that direction. It could be something worth checking."

"A dim red glow... What does that have to do with anything?"

Calibri looked back at Frisk. "What all do you know about SOULs?"

"Besides the stuff youâ€™ve just told me, pretty much nothing."

"Great! Long story short, SOULs glow in the dark. LOV glows dark red."

"You think that could be it?" Frisk asked, getting ready to stand up.

"It's better than sitting here, doing nothing."

They both stood up and approached the edge of the roof.

"So where'd you see it?" Frisk asked.

"Right over there." Calibri said, pointing to a small white point of light.

Frisk squinted at the point. Just above the white light, Frisk could just barely see a dim red against the infinite black. Upon spotting it, both Frisk and Calibri jumped from the building, the lack of gravity allowing them to simply drift away.

Drifting through the nothingness, Frisk eventually looked back at the structure they had left. It was now only a pinprick of light, as it had been before. Ahead, the light they sailed towards grew larger and larger. As they got closer, it became clear that the source of the white light was a small dish-like platform, circular in appearance. Floating above the platform was a distinct heart-shaped object, heavily encrusted in an extremely dark-red, spiky object which was separated into multiple plates, a brighter red light shining through the narrow gaps in-between.

"H... holy shit." Calibri said, his voice barely audible. "That's... a lot of LOV..."

"Hello Partner." Chara's calm voice pierced the darkness. Looking down at her, Chara was standing in the center of the platform, directly below the giant SOUL above. Her smile lowered slightly when she saw Calibri. "Who is this? How did he get here?"

Frisk and Calibri landed on the platform. "Wouldn't you like to know." Frisk said.

Her frown reverted to that eerie smile she almost always wore. "It doesn't matter. So, Frisk. Have you thought about my offer? Join me, and we can cleanse this world of the vile presence of Humanity."

"Enough, Chara. I'll never help you destroy Humanity. I'm here to stop you."

Chara laughed. "Fine." she said, her voice on the verge of acid. The chitinous figure appearing behind her. "Then both of you will be the first to die."

Chara vanished completely as the chitinous figure shot forward at Calibri, its progress halted by a sudden surge of bones erupting from the ground. Where the bones touched, chitin of its exoskeleton began melting, a lavender glow emanating from the molten bits.

"Frisk!" Calibri said. "Let's waste this thing."

Nodding, Frisk brought up his hands and launched a stream of fire into the bones. As the fire engulfed the field where the figure was trapped, its chitinous form shot from the inferno, charging Calibri once again. As soon as it escaped, Calibri rolled out of the way towards Frisk, seemingly already knowing that it would charge.

"You really need to stop doing that." Calibri said.

"Doing what?" Frisk asked, stopping the flames while the chitinous figure slowly regenerated from its wounds.

"Throwing fire magic around like you do. Fire magic is real fire that burns SOUL AURA as its fuel, SOUL AURA being what is used when preforming magic. Think mana from a bunch of fantasy worlds. Those bones I summoned were just SOUL AURA, especially with the karma magic infused within them."

"So, when I threw the fire, it burned through the bones?"

"Exactly. Try using soul magic instead. I'm sure your unique formations, whatever they may be, would be more useful than the other magics you've attained."

"But isn't that thing made of magic too?" Frisk asked, staring at its nearly regenerated body. "Shouldn't it burn with the bones?"

"It should, yeah." Calibri said, also watching. "From its lack of major injuries, and being on fire, when it emerged, I'd wager it's extremely skilled at both fire and ice magics, so it could counteract both burning and freezing temperatures."

At this point, the chitinous figure had finished healing itself, its eyes ceasing their red glow as its posture re-steadied to attack.

"We're out of time." Calibri said, getting himself ready to dodge whatever would be thrown his way. "Just use soul magic for now until we know more."

"How? I don't really even know how I'm using what magic I am. I just think, and it happens."

"That's pretty much it. Since you absorbed the SOULs of those Monsters, you gained their power, magical expertise, and the spells they knew. It's gonna be instinctual for you. Don't think about it, just do it."

The chitinous figure's eyes turned orange as a blast of heat and flame shot from its hands, deflecting off a shield summoned by Frisk.

"Good. Just like that, but with soul magic this time." Calibri said. "Like so."

Calibri's eyes then glowed red as a swift red wave of energy shot into the ground and rushed towards the chitinous figure, emerging as more bones that impaled the creature. As soon as the bones struck their mark, numerous skulls appeared around the platform, a small point of lavender light sparking to life within their terrible maws moments after their summoning.

The chitinous figure thrashed through the pain and melting, snapping free of the bones that impaled it, firing another beam of heat right at Calibri, who blocked it with a summoned shield. The chitinous figure then appeared from the flash, its claws burning with murder as it hastily closed the gap between it and this unexpected Human.

"CALIBRI!!!" Frisk shouted, throwing his hands up as he closed his eyes, hoping that *something* would happen.

The darkness of his eyelids only made the silence that followed worse. It quickly became too much and Frisk cracked his eyelids. Before him was the chitinous figure, barely moving, as particles of sand whizzed around it.

Calibri looked over at Frisk. Upon seeing that his eyes were glowing red, a smile broke across his face.

"Nice work." he said, moving out of the way of the chitinous figure. "So, this is your innate magic." Calibri walked around the small dust storm before heading to where Frisk was standing. "Seems like you've nullified its movement." he said.

"No." Frisk said, his head starting to throb. "I, can't explain it, but it feels like it's moving in there."

"Interesting. So maybe just a slowdown, like slowing time within this specific spot... Most interesting indeed..." Calibri then summoned a small bone-knife and threw it into the storm. The knife, almost as soon as it had completely entered, halted its progress, which was followed by Calibri saying "Interesting..." a bit more.

"Can you do this another time?" Frisk asked, his head feeling like it was being crushed.

"What? Oh, right. Sorry." Calibri looked back at the storm. "Let's finish this thing off. Stop focusing on maintaining the storm. Think about something else."

As soon as Frisk stopped thinking about the dust storm that had formed around the chitinous figure, the dust stopped swirling and fell to the ground, disappearing soon after. Once the storm dropped, the figure and knife thrown in moved again. Roughly a second after it began moving again, impact fractures appeared all over its body, which was followed by it screaming in pain. Calibri, unconcerned at this, pointed his hand at the figure. Simultaneously, the skulls surrounding the platform all opened their jaws and fired great lavender beams at the chitinous figure, beams which held their fire for a quarter of a minute before fading. The target which they fired upon was nowhere to be found when the beams faded.

Above them, the great SOUL in the center cracked, shooting lavender liquid in multiple directions. Remembering it, Calibri had one of the skulls ram the object.

"Wait!" Frisk said upon seeing this, running to Calibri.

"What? We're close, we can end this now. Is that not what you wanted my help for?"

"Sort of, but my goal was to save Chara, remember?"

Calibri looked off to the side. "Right, yeah. I remember." he then looked back at Frisk. "Real quick, though, I have a question for you. What makes you so sure she *wants* to be saved?"

Frisk raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"From what I've learned with you and past subjects, LOV only gives its host the DETERMINATION to press forward with murderous goals and intents. You wanted power, and LOV convinced you to grow it for that power. She wants to wipe out Humanity, and likely has since she was in the Underground. Why do you think the Dreemurrs are separated as they are?"

Frisk simply stared at Calibri, his mind racing through this information. As it coursed through, Frisk remembered something the Timepiece had told him.

"Yet, despite this, Chara is still alive in there. A tender, loving soul who only wants the best for everyone."

"And what makes you so sure of that?" Calibri asked.

"Because I felt it before, back when those SOUL fragments were connected to my own SOUL."

Calibri went silent, his own mind now racing.

"Alright." he said after a minute. "But if you *really* want to do this, we're gonna have to work fast. LOV is a parasite, and there's likely not much of those fragments left after that fight."

Above the two, the shell around the SOUL shattered, its separate tectonics turning to dust as a much smaller version fell to the ground, forming a crater upon landing. This inner shell, upon landing, cracked itself slightly. From within, a golden liquid began seeping out.

"We haven't got much time." Calibri said. "Alright, here's what's gonna happen. Pay attention because we'll only have seconds at *best*. I'm gonna crack open the shell and tear out the fragments. As soon as their free, I want you to use the life magic you got from Toriel to sustain the fragments. That may buy us just enough time to force a fusion back with your SOUL. Understand?"

"Life magic?" Frisk asked.

"Think about being compassionate and using your magic at the same time. Try using it right now."

Frisk tried. Almost instantly, his eyes started glowing green as a green aura formed around his hands.

"Excellent. Seems like you got the hang of it." he said, looking back down at the LOV-encrusted SOUL. Calibri then summoned a long, four-pronged polearm, pointing it at the SOUL. "Ready?" he asked.

Frisk nodded.

"Alright. Three. Two. One. NOW!"

Upon shouting now, Calibri shoved the end of the weapon into the SOUL, golden liquid spilled from the opening like the insides of an egg. As the liquid spilled, small red slivers started to become visible. As soon as they were visible, Calibri dispelled the polearm as his eyes glowed purple. The slivers shot upwards, breaking from the sides of the inside of the shell, and out into the open air. As soon as they exited, Frisk's eyes glowed green again, his hands hovering over the fragments.

Seeing them maintained, Calibri focused his magic into fusing the slivers with Frisk's SOUL. Shortly thereafter, the slivers shot straight into Frisk's chest, the pain of this fusion causing him to scream out, clutching his chest as he collapsed to the alabaster floor and lost consciousness.