Multiverse Saga/Taken!Altertale/Chapter 4

</span

The climb up the steep face of Mount Hot was a slow one, though not nearly as slow as it could have been with Undyne showing off her incredible strength. Within half-an-hour, the pair reached the summit and rested for a few minutes before running to the MTT Resort.

"There it is!" Toriel said as she reached the upper plateau.

Within moments of stepping from the last stair, however, she froze in place.

"What's wrong?" Undyne shouted up, noticing Toriel had frozen.

Reaching the upper plateau herself, she discovered why Toriel had frozen so suddenly. All across the outer courtyard of the MTT Resort were bodies; blood splattered across the pavement like red paint carelessly dumped from a bunch of buckets. Undyne was the first to speak again.

"Toriel..." Undyne worked out, still paralyzed by the sight. "Why aren't... why aren't they turning to dust?"

Toriel slumped towards a nearby corpse. It was a cat-Monster with purple fur; its yellow eyes still contracted in utter terror. The gash across the Monster's chest still seeped blood; the scarlet liquid working its way into the cracks between the paving stones and down towards the stairs.

"I don't know..." Toriel finally answered. Snapping from her shock, she gazed back at the door of the MTT Resort. "We have to get to the palace." she said firmly before walking through the puddle to the door.

Not knowing what else to do, Undyne quickly followed.

Passing through the automated doors, the pair found the dark lobby of the resort, the fountain of which no longer gushed water out onto the floor. If the outside was a mess, the inside was indescribable. Blood streaked every part of the lobby, turning it from its usual yellow and white to a horrific red, with occasional white spots interrupting the flow of scarlet.

Catching sight of the room, Toriel felt her stomach painfully twist itself in knots as she forced herself to not throw up.

Undyne simply surveyed the room, taking in the blood splatters.

"This is a nightmare..." she uttered.

"If only that were true..." Toriel responded, stepping further into the darkness.

From her better point of observation, Undyne spotted a shine of metal hurling its way towards Toriel as she stepped into the room proper. Unsure of what else to do, she shoved her out of the way, knocking her to the floor in the process.

Finding herself falling towards the floor, Toriel brought her arms up and caught herself, though staining her dark purple jacket in the blood-soaked floor in the process. After landing, a pain stung in the middle of her right ear. Looking over at it, she saw a small red streak coming down from the source of the pain.

Remembering Undyne, Toriel turned around to see why she'd shoved her.

"Undyne—" she started to say, though stopped when her own pink eyes made contact with Undyne's singular yellow eye as her head dropped past, hitting the ground a moment later. After Undyne's head hit the floor, the rest of her body slumped to its knees and lurched forward, spewing out a river of blood through the neck-stump upon hitting the floor as well, covering Toriel's legs in the warm liquid.

"Ah, a pleasant ring." a raspy voice sounded in the darkness. "Yet one still remains."

Toriel, who was now starting to hyperventilate, slowly looked up to the source of the voice. Through the darkness, she could just make out a shape pulling an axe out of the corner. As the shape slowly turned its head to face Toriel, she recognized who she was facing.

Sans.

But... not.

As Toriel stared up in abject horror, she noticed that he seemed... shorter. *Way* shorter, yet still taller than her by at least a head. Sans was also wearing different clothes. A blue jacket with a fluffy hood adorned his torso with a white shirt beneath. Black shorts with a white stripe on either side covered his thighs, and tall red socks ending in red boots covered his shins and feet. The most striking feature about this entity was the massive hole in its head, the great gash across its chest, and its glowing white right eye.

"Hello there." Sans said. "Nice of you to show up for dinner. I was thinking of having some shank, know where I can get some?" He brought his axe up and licked off the blood from its surface.

Toriel, now screaming, summoned a great skull and fired a beam of fire straight at him. As it engulfed him, Sans simply started to laugh maniacally. Ceasing the beam, Toriel looked at the skeleton, who looked as though he was being tickled. A moment later, he looked her straight in the eyes and dashed towards her, bringing his axe down.

If she hadn't rolled out of the way of the blade, covering herself in more blood, Toriel'd have been cleaved in two. Instead, after dodging, she fired the beam at the ground next, shooting up great concealing clouds of dust.

As soon as the dust went up, Toriel made a break for the Helios door at the back of the lobby, sprinting across the bridge beyond and into Helios Station. Not looking back, she ran into the teleporter in the front room and appeared next to the control room, which she ran through just as fast as well, reaching the elevator to Elysium quickly thereafter.

As soon as the sliding doors closed, the elevator rose, slightly pushing Toriel down towards the floor. Blood dripped from the wound in her ear onto the tiled floor of the car. When the doors slid open, she burst from the car as quickly as she could.

*Gotta find Papyrus!* She thought, sprinting down the hallway and across the vista of Elysium. Reaching Papyrus's house, Toriel leapt down the stair-well and dashed through the hallways beyond, quickly reaching the Judgement Hall.

Running past the pillars, a sliver of light shot into Toriel's vision as she ran past a mid-point. Moments later, a great pain suddenly emerged within her head as blood spewed from some unknown wound.

Collapsing to the ground from the pain, Toriel placed her hand where the pained spot was. It was her left horn. Half of it was gone.

"You know..." a raspy voice said from behind her. "if you weren't so loud with your running, I'd have thought you were long gone."

Toriel looked at the source of the voice. It was Sans. Sans held his axe firm, its metal surface freshly bathed in Toriel's blood.

Contorting her face in terror, Toriel summoned a ball of fire and threw it at Sans, who brought up his arm and neutralized it. Too late, though, as Toriel had started to run again. Sans simply sighed, bringing his axe down to the ground and grinding a groove into the floor as he walked.

Sprinting up the stairs beyond, Toriel quickly reached the throne room.

"Papyrus!!!" she shouted as she burst into it. Witnessing what lay in the center of the room, however, caused her face to contort with fear once again.

Papyrus was sitting on his throne, his skull removed from its place and placed into his hands down on his lap.

Toriel dropped to her knees. "It's over..." she mumbled as she stared at the corpse of her king. "... we won't survive this monstrosity."

The sound of footsteps behind her told her that Sans had caught up and was now standing just a few feet away. Before she could react in any way, everything went black.