(See the end of the chapter for more notes .)

hhh i'm not dead i just have a shit sleep schedule enjoy this mess of a finale while i finish up the epilogue bonus scene might come if i'm feeling up to it

Horrors abound as the three heroes try to stay together.

Chapter Text

The three of them hatched a plan in secret.

Ralsei, who had seemed to be a bookworm upon first glance, proved to be even more so when he spent three days in a row in the library doing nothing but reading through every old magic book he could get his hands on. Kris spent days with the captain of the royal guard, a burly fish woman, drilling sword exercises and muttering to himself about something he wouldn't share. Susie set to work readjusting herself to her usual fighting style, which was easier than it had any right to be. At night, they met and talked endlessly about whatever they could to prepare for what they were going to do. Despite everything, Ralsei couldn't find anything on the being in the ice, and Kris seemed more nervous and stressed every day. Susie didn't know what to do, and her worry would only keep rising.

Eventually, she needed a breather, so she went where she would normally go when she was back at home: the roof. Finding a good window to climb out from, she shimmied down the wall until her feet touched the safe tiles below.

Only to find Kris already there.

“Oh, hey.” He sounded almost too tired to be surprised.

“Hi?” Susie picked out a spot next to him. “What are you doing out here?”

“What are you doing out here?”

“...Touche.”

“Besides, can't a guy appreciate the swirling lights of impending doom?”

She looked out. “He can.”

It was silent for a moment.

Finally, Kris sighed. “I know why you followed me out here. It's 'cause I look like garbage, right?”

He did, but Susie hadn't followed him out. She decided not to point that out, though, and waited for him to continue.

“I've been thinking.” He picked up a small rock and threw it off the side. “You were right that one time, when you asked me if something was wrong.”

“Which time?”

“Ha. I meant the boat.”

“Oh, the – oh.”

“Yeah. It...you were right.”

Susie nodded. “Sometimes...sometimes Muffet says strange things that stick with people. We still can't tell whether she has some sort of premonition or if she's just playing with everyone she meets.”

“You got that right.” He wouldn't look at her. “She said that something was going to happen. No explanation, no clarification. Just that something would come up, and if I wasn't smart about it, you and I would be...irreparably damaged.”

Way darker than the spider's normal tone, Susie would give her that. “Like a breakup?”

“I don't know.”

Silence.

“So?”

“So, I've been thinking.”

“You've said.”

“I don't want you going with us.”

“Well, that's–” It took a moment for his words to sink in, but when they did – “Wait, what??”

“You heard me. I don't want you coming along. What if something happens?”

“If something happens, I'm gonna be there and I'm gonna know about it, ass!”

“You don't know that!”

“If I stay here, I can't for sure!”

“That's the point!”

“Are you saying I can't handle it?”

“No!”

“THEN WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?!!”

“YOU KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEM IS!!!”

They both stopped yelling, breathing heavily. It was impossible to tell who was going to make the next move.

Then, without warning, Kris broke. His shoulders sagged, and his head fell into her shoulder. “God, I'm so fucking scared,” he mumbled. With a jolt, she realized there were tears in his eyes. “I'm terrified of losing you. For the first time in my life, I just...this is awful.”

Susie wasn't sure what to say. She felt pretty much exactly the same. So, instead of saying something comforting and fake, she just hugged him, and they watched the lights until who knows when.

Finally, everything seemed to be falling into place. The three heroes had decided to all go together, but if something were to happen, one of them would get out immediately and get help, regardless of the condition of the other two.

Then, as they were finally ready to sneak away, they were found by the last person she would have expected: little Frisk. He stopped them in the hall as they were making their way out.

“Oh...” Kris shuffled his feet. “Hey, buddy. What are you doing up so early?”

Frisk, not having it, crossed his arms.

“Alright, yeah, we're leaving. But, it's really important, because this could affect everyone. So, please don't tell Mom and Dad?”

Frisk paused for a moment, then reached into the folds of his nightgown. Approaching, he pulled out an old faded ribbon and tied it gently around Ralsei's wrist.

“Thank you?” Ralsei says.

Turning to Susie, Frisk pulled out a small locket, unadorned, and placed it in her hands. No doubt it was once pretty, but it had become tarnished beyond repair. Regardless, Susie carefully hung it from her neck. “Thank you.”

He nodded, then turned to his brother. They looked at each other for a long moment, then, cautiously, Frisk pulled out a small hunting knife. It was gleaming, and had an intricate goat's head with rubies for eyes carved into the hilt. The child placed it with utmost care in Kris's hands.

Kris's eyes widened. “Where—how—are you sure?”

Frisk nodded.

“This is a big risk.”

He nodded again.

“...If you're sure.” Kris slipped the knife into his belt, then hugged his brother tight. “Thank you. We'll be back soon, I promise.”

Ralsei winced at those words.

And then, they were out of the castle, en route to the source of the lights, which had grown so powerful that they could clearly be seen by day, sending dazzling colors out over the kingdom and worrying the king and queen something fierce. It hadn't seemed to affect anything at first, but the longer they waited, the more tired and drained everyone in the castle seemed, which, according to Ralsei, proved definitively that it was some sort of horrible variation of a magic gathering spell. Thankfully, the hasty protection spells they had managed to erect had worked, but they didn't know for how much longer they would last.

It took hours, but eventually they started to see their goal: a huge cage of light at least a mile in diameter. Around it, the winds whipped viciously, threatening to tear away them and everything around them. Even as they watched, the ice was starting to chip and break from the force of it.

Kris took a deep breath. “Ready?”

Susie took his hand, and Ralsei did the same. “Ready,” they said.

They all knew they were lying. But what choice did they have?

With that, they all stepped forward into the light.

Everything was still.

Snow fell gently around the trio, resting in their hair and clothing. The land was flat, extending into seemingly nowhere. The sky was white, blank. Not a spot of color could be seen.

Carefully, the trio made their way into the center. Nothing. Not a sound. Even their footprints had disappeared into the snow behind them.

“What...” Ralsei started, but–

A sudden typhoon of wind slammed into them, launching them to the side and almost burying them in the snow. When they finally managed to pull themselves out, they saw...a disturbing sight.

Where they once stood was a new figure. A woman, maybe once, but what she had become was something else entirely. Thin, viscous flagella poured out from the very top of a strangely humanoid shape, and crusted spiny fins adorned what seemed to be arms and legs. What may have been skin was now green and mottled, and the air now smelled heavily of rotted fish and sea brine. From the...face, two large, yellow, and slimy fish eyes stared at the three heroes, set in an urchinlike sphere of tangled eel tails. The ground around it boiled with pulsating tentacles that didn't belong to any creature they knew of. Its entire body dripped with a dark liquid that hissed and bubbled violently.

In short, it was as if the entire sea had tried to become a human, failed, and couldn't undo itself.

“FEED,” it hissed, sending chills down everyone's spines.

“What do you want?!!” Susie yelled out, struggling to be heard over the ringing in her ears.

In response, the thing raised a barnacle-encrusted finger, and bolts of dark energy shot from its flagella, striking the ground with horrendous force and forcing the heroes to scatter. “WANT...FEED...HUNGER,” it spat. “TRIED...TRIED TO LIVE! TRIED TO SURVIVE! YOU TOOK IT FROM ME! MADE ME HURT! DESPAIR! AND NOW...NOW YOU SHALL FEEL IT!”

It was almost impossible to do anything. Ralsei raised his hand and spoke a spell, erecting a shield around himself that quickly broke under the pressure. “What are we supposed to do?!!” he cried.

“Try not to die!!” Kris yelled back helpfully.

“I THINK WE KNEW THAT,” Susie screamed, running in. She tried to hack through the tentacles, but the liquid hissed at the blades of her axes and threatened to dissolve them. Cursing, she tried to back away, but the witch was too quick, and a bolt of energy slammed her into the ground several feet away. Dazed, she forced herself to stand, and as she did so, she saw Kris race to Ralsei's side and save him from another blast. She joined them as quickly as she could, adding her magic to their shield. “We need a plan!”

“This isn't going to hold up much longer!” Ralsei pointed out, eyeing the impacts from the witch's magic that threatened to collapse their own spell around themselves. “We're doomed unless we figure out something!”

“At this rate, it better be a miracle!” Susie grunted.

Kris, who had been quiet up until that point, finally spoke up. “Ralsei...you can still do that magic amplification thing, right?”

“It's a longshot, but yeah! But that's so risky, why–”

“Susie!”

“Yeah?”

“Skjulte krefter, beskyt min kjærlighet!”

“What??” But one look at her hand told her...well, she couldn't look at it. He had turned her invisible. “Kris, why??”

“Just go! Go! Ralsei, now!!”

Ralsei threw his arms around Kris's middle and began to chant. His eyes glowed white, and tendrils of power began to wrap around the two boys, amplifying their abilities tenfold—a hundredfold, making the barrier much much stronger. The sudden increase in power enraged the witch, and she focused all her attention into trying to break through, leaving her open from the side...oh.

Oh!

Susie, understanding, slowly made her way out of the barrier, getting side-scalded from the raw power of the assault, and crept around to the witch's side. There was a bit of an obstacle in the writhing tentacles that had stopped her before, but she backed up as far as she could, ran forward, and threw herself over them, lifting her axes above her head and shouting:

“Briseadh a cumhachd agus a corp!”

She didn't have a lot of magic to begin with, and maintaining that barrier had sapped her. But then, from around her neck, something thrummed, washing through her new energy. Maybe, just maybe...she prayed that it would be enough. It had to be enough.

It was enough.

Two red slashes, larger than anything she had ever been able to conjure up before, materialized and gouged themselves deep into the witch's side, sending a shower of a foul crimson liquid spattering into the once-pristine snow. The thing screamed, halting its attack and stumbling away. It tried to heal itself, but Susie, still flying forward, tackled it to the ground. Power still coursing through her, she hacked and slashed violently at the already gaping wounds, screaming uncontrollably in a way she hadn't in a long time. It was only thanks to another force roughly pushing her away that she was able to stop and move out of the way.

Kris and Ralsei had started to advance forwards, Ralsei still zoned into his spell and Kris now crying out a different incantation, the hunting knife now in one hand and a ball of light in the other. Suddenly, the light started to unfurl, shooting out sheets of itself at the witch and wrapping themselves around it. It tried to move, but it was still so injured that it couldn't focus, and was quickly engulfed. The light then grew smaller and smaller with every step, until, at the base of Kris's foot, they were the smallest of all. He knelt down and picked it up, and the lights faded away with his final word, until it revealed...

A warty, disgusting, poisonous frog.

Ralsei stopped chanting and fell to his knees, exhausted. The other two joined him as the world around them faded back into existence, revealing how close they had come to the high edge of a glacier. Ice and snow were thrown everywhere as the area returned to normal.

“What...” Susie wasn't sure how to finish her question.

“A Souleater,” Ralsei wearily answered. “A soulless being of pure hatred and selfishness, born from the pits of the elements themselves. They drain the very essences of living creatures in order to survive.” He gestured to the frog. “This one must have been trapped and sealed away long ago, forgotten by the entire kingdom. Although, now that it's harmless, we could probably throw it into the ocean and let it die on its own, right, Kris? Kris?”

For Kris was staring intensely at the frog, unblinking. Without saying a word, he slowly lifted the knife over his head and brought it down, cutting into the frog's back. The frog screamed an unholy sound, but was too late, as the rubies in the hilt glittered with malice and the frog began to disintegrate into nothing.

“What in the name??” Of everything she had seen that day, this scared Susie the most.

The frog stopped screaming, for it had no mouth anymore. Then, it was gone. The knife began to pulsate, and Kris lifted it again. Before he could stab anyone else, however, he grabbed his wrist, forcing himself to drop the knife into the snow. Breathing heavily, he scooted away.

“What is...” The others were afraid to go near it.

“Don't touch it.” Shakily, Kris pulled out a leather cloth and wrapped the knife without touching it, tucking it safely away into his belt once more. “It's...an old family treasure. The Devil's Knife.”

Susie felt the blood drain from her face. “Oh.”

From the look of it, Ralsei was horrified as well. “You mean...you mean that thing has been in the castle this entire time, under our feet, and no one was constantly freaking out? Your brother somehow got to it and was holding it! Your very young and susceptible brother!”

“I know! I was just as surprised as everyone else! He shouldn't have...” He paused. “He couldn't have...how...”

“What exactly does this knife do?” Susie asked, not really wanting the answer.

Ralsei winced. “The Devil's Knife is a legendary dark artifact of unknown origin. It consumes its victims – mind, body, soul, everything – and...no one knows what happens to them. All we can tell is that each one makes the knife a little more powerful, maybe. But, the wielder must be incredibly cautious, as the power of the knife can consume them, as well.” At this, he turned to his cousin, visibly upset. “Kris, you shouldn't have done that! You don't have the training, and the battle already left you tired! Who knows what could have happened!”

“Yeah,” Susie agreed. “I don't want you dying before the wedding.”

At that sentence, Kris stopped, blinking. “Wait, the...oh my–”

“Yeah, moron! We're engaged!”

“You're marrying a stupid person!”

“I know!”

Ralsei, head in his hands, finally begged to go home and rest. The other two, ceasing their argument, agreed, and they got up to make their way back...

Only to realize that they were lost.

“Well, hell.” Kris kicked at the snow. “Now what?”

“What is that?” Ralsei asked fearfully.

His concerns were aimed towards something trying to wiggle its way through the snow. It twitched, pressed, and finally broke through–

“Is that a buttercup?” Susie asked, incredulous.

It blew in the breeze impossibly and happily. Then, like a miracle, another popped up behind it, then another and another, until a line of the bright yellow flowers danced into the distance.

Kris smiled wide. “Papyrus, you mad genius! Thank you!” Clasping hands, the three friends ran off towards home. “I swear, that skeleton's gonna be my best man!”

“I thought that was gonna be me!”

“You assume too much!”

Toriel was not happy with them when they finally returned, and telling her what they did only served to make her pass out. Asriel, who had been with her as she and her husband worried, managed to get them out of the room before she could wake back up. “I think you guys were really brave and all that, but it still was stupid going in there by yourselves. A Souleater...”

“Are you mad?” Ralsei asked.

“Oh, of course I am.” Asriel's voice was smooth and even. “I just don't have my mother's temperament.”

Kris breathed a sigh of relief at that.

Susie had been anxious the whole time for a different reason. “Where's Frisk?” she finally asked the older goat.

“Taking a nap.” Asriel raised his eyebrows. “It's unlike him, really. I'm sure he'd be glad to see you all are okay, though.”

“Thanks.” Pulling the ribbon from Ralsei's wrist (“Ow!”), she took off to the little boy's quarters. Panting, she reached the door and very carefully opened it. Sure enough, Frisk was slumbering peacefully in his bed. She crept over, taking off the locket, and slipped both it and the ribbon under his pillow. “Thanks,” she whispered. “You really saved us back there. Anything you need, you can ask me.”

She couldn't tell, but he may have smiled just a little bit. Standing up, she rubbed his hair and crept away.