Underearth/Book 4/Chapter 2

A</span

**Want to read this elsewhere?**

Frisk opened his eyes, seeing only darkness. Through the silence, Frisk heard the beast's voice.

"AGAIN." it said.

"Again?" Frisk asked.

"CHARA REMAINS UNDEFEATED. YOU STATED THAT YOU WOULD KILL EVERYONE, NO MATTER WHAT, UNTIL CHARA WAS DEFEATED. SO, AGAIN."

Frisk thought back to before the last World. He did indeed agree to do this.

"Fine." he said, sighing.

A chill enveloped the area, and Frisk found himself once again waking up on the bed of golden flowers.

The Citadel door groaned as Frisk slowly pushed it open, reluctantly pushing forward in his quest to end Chara's horror. Everything on the other side was always how it was. Quiet, calming. As Frisk thought about these, it tore him apart inside knowing what he was about to do.

A snapping sound brought Frisk back to reality. As soon as he heard the sudden noise, he shot his eyes to the towering trees on his left, straining to hear anything.

Silence.

As he stared into the darkness of the trees, he couldn't help but feel as though something within was staring back at him. Watching him.

*I need to go.* Frisk found himself thinking. Soon after, he walked down the path.

Once he reached the bridge, a familiar voice called to him.

"Human." it said.

Frisk looked up to the top of the gate thing that loomed over the bridge. Sans was sitting on top of it, holding a bottle of relish in one hand.

"I *relish* your ability to have made it as far as you have." he said. "I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton."

Frisk simply stared up at him.

"... are you just gonna stare at me, or...?" Sans started saying. Before he could finish, though, Frisk walked through the gate.

"Alright then, make sure not to run into any scary Monsters." Sans then called after him.

*Something's not right.* Frisk thought. *He's never been on **top** of the gate before...*

As Frisk proceeded through the forest, he found it to be disturbingly empty already, with even the canine unit being gone. Despite this, Frisk cut his way through the forest, making it to Snowdin Town.

The town was, as usual, completely empty. Based on the situation of some of the doors, everyone seemed to have left in quite the hurry.

"STOP RIGHT THERE, HUMAN!" a voice called out, breaking the silence.

Frisk looked over to the center of town, where a large, decorated tree stood. Next to the tree stood a tall skeleton who looked to be wearing the sort of costume a superhero would wear.

"IT SEEMS THAT YOU HAVE CAUSED QUITE THE STIR. AS SUCH, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THE VERY FAMOUS ROYAL GUARDSMAN (IN TRAINING) HAVE COME TO STOP YOU."

Frisk drew the knife. As soon as he did so, Papyrus caused a few bones to erupt from the ground and launch themselves at Frisk. Nimbly, he dodged the bones, cutting the last in half, turning it to dust, then sent the knife across Papyrus's chest.

Upon being slashed, Papyrus dropped to his knees.

"YOU..." he grunted. "WERE STRONGER THAN I THOUGHT. NO MATTER, AT LEAST I STILL HAVE MY HEAD."

Frisk brought the knife up over his head. Just before he brought it down, however, a chitinous hand shot in from behind the skeleton, grabbing hold of Papyrus's head from behind, another being placed on his shoulder. Looking up a little, Frisk saw the chitinous figure, the entity that had helped Frisk through his first eidocidal run but had vanished soon after. The figure then ripped Papyrus's head from his body, then began flooding the head with a strange golden liquid. Just as the head started to lose its form, a red pulse emanated from the skull, a torrent of the golden liquid leading the way.

"Greetings, partner." a familiar, soothing voice said.

Frisk looked to the source of the voice. It was Chara, again.

"Aren't you here a little early?" he asked, tightening his grip on the dagger.

She returned a puzzled expression. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I have always been here. At least since you *murdered* everyone the first time."

Frisk winced at that verbal stab.

"Since you are at it again, I thought I might as well collect some trinkets. Drink out of the skulls of our enemies, perhaps. Speaking of which,"

As Chara stopped speaking, the chitinous figure tossed Papyrus's skull to her, which looked more like it was made of rock rather than bone. Frisk thought about taking advantage of Chara's distracted behavior, but as soon as he moved even slightly, he noticed the chitinous figure watching his every move, a menacing fixation in its bug-like eyes.

Upon catching the skull, Chara brought her free hand over and tore the jaw clean off. Red energy then slowly extended from her fingers, which she used to crack open a small section of the skull right behind where the jaw had been. To Frisk's horror, she then started scooping out a number of rather fleshy objects. First was a pinkish red/brown sac, followed by a long, thin tube, a short, thick tube, along with a few other such objects that were bound to be related to one another. Once pulled out, Chara simply dropped these objects to the ground, which turned to dust soon after hitting.

After she finished scraping out the soft fleshy bits within Papyrus's skull, Chara walked towards Frisk, skull in hand, and looped her arm over his shoulder, presenting the skull as though it were a camera taking a picture of the two.

"What do you think, partner? Fit to drink from?" she asked.

Frisk simply stared up at the skull, his jaw agape, his eyes begging to pull away, yet magnetized to the horrific sight.

After a few more seconds had passed, Chara brought the skull back down and let go of Frisk, walking towards the Waterfall Caves.

"I willl see you up ahead, partner." she said before disappearing in the darkness of the cavern ahead.

Roughly a minute after Chara left, Frisk finally broke down, collapsing to his knees and vomiting into the dusty snow.