Underearth/Book 3/Chapter 5

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Though the Waterfall Caves were normally as quiet as the grave, there was always this droning whisper that seemed to permeate the area. Now it seemed that even that had been strangled out, and the Caves leaned ever towards the unnaturally quiet.

As Frisk walked into the caves, he could feel LOV feeling out for the SOULs of those that dwelled within. By the time he'd made it to Sans's Waterfall Sentry Station (which was unattended), LOV had discovered twenty-three SOULs within the cavern.

Frisk continued through. Eventually he came to a river with two waterfalls on either side that hindered further progress. Unconcerned, Frisk entered the chilling water and crossed, uncaring that it sank him up to his waist, and uncaring that he was now soaked from the waist-down in freezing water.

Deeper into the cave, Frisk came upon a patch of exceedingly tall grass, at least double that of his own height. Seeing no other way through, Frisk entered the patch, which rustled from the movement quite loudly. Before he could reach the other side, Frisk heard metallic footsteps atop the cliff to his left. As he continued through the grass, a relatively bright light-blue light shown down from above. Knowing what this light was, Frisk froze in place.

Not daring to move, Frisk could only see the light shine onto the blades of grass around him. Though it felt as though it would never end, the light finally ceased, and the metallic footsteps retreated.

No longer under threat of being impaled, Frisk finished crossing the patch of grass. A few seconds after exiting, the strange Monster Kid Frisk had originally met in Snowdin Town ran out of the grass patch too.

"Yo..." he said. "did you see the way she stared at you...? That... was *AWESOME*! I'm SOOOO jealous! She was just standing there waiting *forever*, and then you just...!!! C'mon! Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!"

Before Frisk had a chance to pull out the dagger and send it sailing across the Monster Kid's abdomen, he ran off further ahead.

*And he makes twenty-four.* Frisk thought as he steadily walked after.

Ahead, Frisk came to a small pool of water. In the previous two Worlds, he'd had to dip down into the water, but this time there were four enormous flowers that spanned the gap. Stepping across their surface, the flowers were extremely rough and durable. Looking back, it didn't look like he'd even touched them.

As he was looking back, the warm feeling within his chest began to grow, signaling the presence of a Monster to kill. Frisk snapped back into focus and continued down the corridor, seeking out the Monster.

Further ahead, Frisk came to a small pool of water bridged with a wooden bridge. As he crossed it, the Monster, which looked like some strange cross between a horse and a fish, came out of the water. Immediately, Frisk drew his knife and ripped through the Monster's arms, which it had brought up defensively upon spotting him. With massive lacerations in them, the Monster's arms went completely limp. Frisk took this opportunity to then send the dagger deep into the Monster's frightened face.

The Monster, now with a knife embedded in its forehead, turned to dust. Frisk collected the knife and sheathed it before continuing on ahead.

As Frisk continued forward, he was ambushed by Undyne, who missed everything. He'd encountered the Monster Kid again, who'd run off just before Frisk could kill him. He then passed through the outer edge of the Quiet Village, which was abandoned, and continued through the area surrounded by the glowing cyan water. While passing through, Frisk couldn't help but notice that each and every echo flower in the area was strangely silent.

Pressing forward and slaying those in his path, he eventually came upon a humming Monster who was hiding in a corner. Even after cutting it in half, though, LOV still signaled that there was another SOUL nearby. Following the guidance of LOV, he eventually ended in the dead-end room with the piano.

Frisk looked around the room. It was completely empty, save the piano in the corner, and a sign in the opposite corner.

"A haunting song echoes down the corridor..." the sign read, "Won't you play along?"

*Haunting song...?* Frisk thought, looking back over to the piano. As he stood there, looking at the piano, the burning feeling within him spiked, drawing his attention back to the current problem at hand: finding the SOUL hiding nearby. Yet, as he scoured the room, Frisk could find no place a Monster could hide. The walls, ceiling, and floor of the recess were solid rock, lit up by the red, green, and blue rocks that were embedded in them.

Eventually, the burning sensation within his SOUL faded, and guided him forward.

As Frisk continued forward, he passed the dark grey, worn statue, and continued into the rainy area. As he walked, he came across an alcove. Expecting the Monster Kid to be there as he was in the previous Worlds, Frisk reached for the dagger. Upon reaching it, however, Frisk was surprised to find that he wasn't there.

*I must have beat him here...* Frisk thought. *Hmph. Lucked out is all. I'll see him before I face Undyne, though. I'm sure of it.*

Frisk continued through the rainy area, eventually coming to a steep cliff. Looking up at it, Frisk remembered that he'd ascended the cliff both times before with the help of the Monster Kid. Cursing under his breath, Frisk turned to leave, backtrack to the narrow strip that led straight to the Quiet Village. As he began walking off, a thought presented itself in his head, though this time, unlike the hissing whispers of before, it was his own voice.

"Jump at the cliff." it said.

"What...?" Frisk questioned. "Why?"

The warmth in his chest burned, and Frisk collapsed to the ground from the pain. When the pain passed, he heard the voice again.

"Jump at the cliff." it said.

Frisk steadied himself back on his feet.

"Jump at the cliff." it said again.

Frisk looked boldly at the cliff and started running at it, jumping when he got close.

As he got closer, a ghostly yet heavily chitinous black-red hand emerged from behind him and grabbed the wall. It then thrust itself, along with Frisk, upward, grabbing the top with another hand, and landing safely on the top. Frisk, no longer jostled, looked behind him to find what had assisted him up the wall, only to find nothing.

"Go." Frisk's voice said again.

Frisk, heeding this voice, proceeded down the new, dark path.

Within the caves ahead, Frisk came to two wooden bridges, one level with the plateau Frisk was on, and one located just below the first. Soon after Frisk began crossing the upper bridge, a bunch of light-blue vortexes appeared around him, quickly darkened to cyan, and erupted forth spears. Once this started happening, Frisk began running, the metallic footsteps of Undyne coming from the bridge below.

After about a minute of running, the end of the bridge came into sight. As he neared the end, three spears suddenly sailed over his head and cut the bridge he was running on in half. As he began to fall, a chitinous humanoid flew out from behind him, and grabbed the destination cliff. Frisk then felt himself being thrown upward, towards the top of the cliff. When he neared the top, the chitinous humanoid appeared from behind him again and grabbed the cliff, pulling Frisk up to the top.

Once Frisk was at the top, he looked back to see if he could find Undyne. Nothing. It's as though she'd disappeared right after firing the spears. Frisk, taking advantage of the break given, hurried through the opening in the rock wall ahead.

The opening led to a long, dark tunnel, only lit by a few of the glowing stones scattered about. As he continued, he eventually came to the exit from the tunnel. At the exit, Frisk looked around. Water was to his right.

*So, this is what was down the tunnel, huh.* Frisk thought as he exited.

He was referring to when he'd ridden with the Riverperson to visit Undyne with Papyrus in the previous World. He saw a pathway on his left after disembarking from the boat but was too worried about his impending visit with Undyne to care enough to explore.

Now it was different. There was no fear in Frisk, there was no worry. Simply... DETERMINATION.

Upon exiting the tunnel, Frisk felt warmth in his chest. Somebody was close. Looking left, Frisk could see them. Gerson, the tortoise-Monster who sold things within the Waterfall Caves, standing at the doorway to his shop.

"Wa ha ha..." Gerson said. "So you finally made it. What a treat." he spat.

Frisk began approaching the Monster, drawing his knife.

Gerson chuckled a bit to himself.

"You know, long ago, Asgore and I agreed that escaping would be pointless, since once we left, Humans would just kill us." he said as Frisk got closer. "I felt a little betrayed when he eventually changed his mind. But now, I think... Maybe he was right to. 'Cause after all, even though we never escaped, a Human's killing us anyway, ain't that right?"

Frisk stopped. He'd expected some kind of attack by now, not idle chatter.

"Why are you telling me this?" Frisk asked. "Why aren't you just trying to attack me?"

"Eh?" Gerson said. "Attack you?" he gave out another chuckle. "Nah... I'm not a hero. Never was. And b'sides, these old bones aren't fit for fighting anywho. One attack from you and then I'd... well... At least by talking to you, I've bought enough time for some of the others to escape."

Frisk's eyes widened a bit.

*He's stalling!* Frisk thought.

Wasting no more time, Frisk brought the knife up and slashed the ancient Monster in half.

As the two halves of Gerson collapsed to the ground, they turned to dust. Soon after, something rose from Gerson's ashes. A barely perceivable, small, white heart-shaped object. A SOUL. As it rose, cracks began forming all across the surface of it until it finally shattered into a million pieces.

With Gerson dead and no longer wasting Frisk's time, he moved on further into the caves.

Deeper in, the caves grew darker. Eventually, it came to a point where the only light was that given off by the grass disturbed by Frisk's movements. As he proceeded through, he let LOV guide him, slaughtering the various Monsters he encountered along the way.

Eventually, he came to an area filled with water, at the end of which an echo flower could be seen. As he approached the echo flower, Frisk couldn't help but notice that, unlike all the others, this one seemed to be whispering something. When he got close enough, he closed in and listened for what was being said.

"Behind you." the flower echoed.

Frisk looked back. Undyne was standing far behind him. She simply stared at him, her general demeanor unreadable beneath the armor. Despite this, Frisk could tell from how she was standing that she was seething with hatred. Without speaking, Undyne summoned a spear into her hand and advanced, fearless, towards Frisk.

Frisk, in response, drew the dagger.

The two then approached each-other. A few seconds later, the Monster Kid jumped out from within a patch of the tall grass in between the two.

"Undyne!!!" he shouted.

Frisk, seeing the Monster Kid's sudden appearance, charged him, ready to kill.

In that moment, as Frisk brought his knife forward to slice the Monster Kid in half, Undyne dispelled her spear and grabbed the Monster Kid, shielding him from the killing slash of Frisk.

Once the scene was clear, it slowly dawned upon everyone what exactly had happened.

As Undyne stood, back-to-Frisk, shielding the Monster Kid, she began shaking.

The Monster Kid, who'd closed his eyes in the sudden jostling he'd received, reopened them to find Undyne standing over him. Seeing this, his face lit up for a few seconds before his eyes caught sight of a massive gash decorating a diagonal of her chest.

"Undyne..." he whimpered. "You're... You're hurt..."

"Hurt?" she laughed. "It's nothing."

Undyne then proceeded to push him away.

"Go, get out of here." Undyne said to him.

"Undyne..." he protested. "I..."

"I'll take care of this!" Undyne declared. "Get out of here!"

The Monster Kid began running off.

*Oh no you don't.* Frisk thought.

As Frisk started to pursue, spears erupted from the ground, stopping him from doing so.

"Where do you think you're going?" Undyne growled him.

Frisk glared back at Undyne. She was beginning to fall apart.

"Heh..." she worked out. "'It's nothing'... No... s-somehow, with just one hit... I'm already... Already..." Undyne collapsed down onto her knee. as she did so, the spears blocking the way vanished too. "D... damn it..." she uttered.

Frisk started to walk off, listening to Undyne ramble on as she began to slowly disintegrate.

"Papyrus... Alphys... Asgore... Just like that, I... I've failed you."

With the utterance of her last words, Undyne finished collapsing to the ground, her form disintegrating more and more.

*Too easy.* Frisk thought as he continued to walk off. *Now, where'd that Monster go?*

"No..." Frisk heard from behind him.

Surprised, he looked back. Undyne had stopped disintegrating and was beginning to stand again.

"My body..." she said. "It feels like it's splitting apart. Like an instant... I'll scatter into a million pieces. But... Deep, deep down in my SOUL, there's this burning feeling I can't describe. A burning feeling that *won't* let me die."

Undyne got back to her feet.

"This isn't about Monsters anymore, is it?" she asked. "If you get passed me, you'll... You'll destroy them all, won't you? Monsters... Humans... Everyone... Everyone's hopes. Everyone's dreams. Vanquished in an instant. But I *won't* let you do that. Right now, everyone in the world... I can feel their hearts beating as one. And we all have *one* goal. To defeat *you*."

Undyne opened her eye, which was now a brighter gold than it had been before.

"Human. No, *whatever* you are. For the sake of the whole world... I, *UNDYNE*, will strike you down!"

As soon as Undyne finished speaking, her body exploded, the armor she wore falling to the ground. Moments later, it began reforming, but with different armor. This armor appeared more... brutal. Spikes adorned the shoulders, the forearm of the gauntlets, and the end of the sabatons. Her plateskirt was now also longer and much more armored. Her helmet also changed, with the fins on either side of her head appearing from outside the armor. Within the right eyehole of the visor, Frisk could see a clear golden point of light. Out of the left side was a fountain of golden light. Above all, the armor was black, like the previous suit, though this armor also featured a large golden heart at the top of the breastplate.

"You're gonna have to try a little harder than *that*." she said.

As Frisk prepared to be attacked, Undyne summoned a spear and threw it, fast, right at Frisk. Not having enough time to react due to the sudden speed of the spear, Frisk was impaled by it, as the spear flew right through him, destroying his heart in the process.

The last thing Frisk saw before blacking out was Undyne walking over, another spear in hand.

Frisk opened his eyes to the ever-present darkness. A single thought pulsating in his mind.

*Stay DETERMINED*