Rune, the kid, whose name turned out to be Frisk, and myself were ready to head off. Toriel was going to stay in the ruins until we called on the phone she gave Frisk. How phones work down here I have no idea. We left to the rest of the Underground through a doorway Toriel had in her basement, and Rune and I promised not to let any harm come near Frisk.
For safety measures, I gave Frisk a Keyblade also, making a total of four out of seven wielders. Frisk’s Keyblade was… odd. It had white wings as the grip, the blade was eight colored hearts, red, light blue, orange, blue, purple, green, yellow, then red again. The tip was a black wing crossed with a red knife. It’s name was Soul Capacity.
When we walked out the door, we were in a snowy forest. I’m not gonna lie, Rune, Frisk and I spent a good three hours just throwing snowballs and building snowmen. When we finally moved on, we walked over a large stick. As we walked on-
Snap!
I turned around. The massive stick was broken into pieces. That’s… worrying. I kept my guard up, someone is following us. We found some kinds… barricade on a bridge? Who makes a barricade like this? You can walk right through it.
“Hey there pal. Don’t you know, how to greet a new friend? Turn around, and shake my.” Despite the fact that voice sounded like it rose from the depths of hell itself… I just turned around and shook the bony hand of, the surprisingly short, monster who was behind us. The sound of a deflating whoopee cushion rang in the air. “hey, hey. the old whoopee cushion in the handshake trick. clasic. Hey, i’m Sans, Sans the skeleton.”
“Clasic? It’s new to me.” I said.
“you must not see a lot of comedy guy. so what brings folks like you into the Underground?”
“My wife and I are looking for some more people to open the barrier around this place. With me, Rune, Frisk, and Toriel in the Ruins waiting for our call, that’s five out of seven.”
“and how do you plan on opening the barrier? last time i checked, only seven human souls can open it.”
I summoned X. “Keyblades can open anything. I think we just need seven wielders and we can bypass that.”
Sans looked at the X-blade, almost like he’s seen it before. “huh… maybe. so can you just give those things to anyone?”
“The Keyblades choose their wielders. Are you asking to become one of the seven?”
Sans looked thoughtful. “maybe not me… but my brother… no, no i’ll do it. these things seem… dangerous and he’s… well he has big dreams but…”
“He’s a pushover?”
“something like that. so how’s it work? does the one that chooses me just… appear like that one did?”
“Yeah, that’s about right.” Alright, now who want’s the skeleton guy? I held out my hand and a Keyblade appeared. “Fatal Crest? Didn’t see that coming, though I guess it fits you.”
As I handed Sans Fatal Crest, he was just… holding it. “wow… guess my break is gonna have to be longer than usual. heh... so when are we gonna… ya know, open it?”
“We’ll need two more people to make seven wielders. Any ideas on who?”
“well, there’s Undyne. She’s captain of the royal guard, and king Asgor. good luck with Undyne though, she might not listen right away…”
“Thanks for the help. If you got a number we can call you when the time is right.”
“sure.” Sans entered his number into Frisk’s phone.
Frisk took a quick liking to Sans… as did Rune and I. He’s a nice enough guy, and when we ran into his brother… I tried so hard not to laugh. Since Sans brother Papyrus is a human hunting fanatic, he would likely try and catch us. Frisk hid behind a conveniently shaped lamp, Rune just played in the snow since the monsters here confuse her as one of them, and I put on my armor and stood next to Frisk.
I tried so hard not to laugh at how Papyrus didn’t get Sans hints to look at the lamp, or me. He left and soon after Sans asked us to entertain his brother, and we agreed. We ran into them and Sans managed to get Papyrus to think he was looking at the rock a little further ahead of us. This was going to be a pleasant world.
We spent a long time in the town of Snowdin, just generally messing around. A few Heartless showed up, but they were dealt with. Frisk managed to quickly befriend Papyrus when we not looking, and Rune and I were waiting in the livingroom of the “Skeleton Brothers” home with Sans sitting across from us. “So Sans,” I said, gaining his attention. “How do you know about Keyblades?”
“... normally, i’ll play off those questions… but i feel i can safely say you two aren’t from this world.”
“We aren’t. So how do you know?”
“as you can guess by my reaction i’ve seen a Keyblade before. this is secret, even from the king, but back during the war some humans wielded these things against us monsters. i know this because my father… was studying the one we recovered. after a while of messing around with it he wanted to try and make one, and that’s when things went wrong fast.”
“What happened?” Rune asked.
“he just… touched it and he started acting crazy. kept rambling on about darkness, and ‘ever darker’ whatever that meant. he eventually lost it completely and wanted to enter darkness. he went into The Core, and used that thing to open… something that swallowed him.”
“... That Keyblade must have either been incompatible with him, or it was corrupted. Did it look rusted?” I said.
“no, it looked in perfect condition. how could it be corrupted?”
“Keyblades are either made from light, or darkness. They may choose their wielders, but it’s the wielders that do with them as they see fit. If it was corrupted, then that means it’s last wielder’s heart was lost to darkness. There might not have been any hope for his salvation.”
“and my old man?”
“Not sure. Those that enter the realm of Darkness don’t find a way out easy without giving into it. It all depends on him at that point.”
We spent about two days in Snowdin, mainly having fun and solving Papyrus’s puzzles. We had to move on though, and that's when we found the road to Waterfall… where we ran into who I guessed was Undyne. She stood on the land away from the bridge, throwing magic spears at us.
It was easy to block them, and I didn’t want to fight her unless necessary. Her spears were slow, so we just dodged as we could, until she somehow got ahead of us. “Stop running and fight humans!” She yelled as a wall of spears appeared behind her.
I’m getting serious flashbacks to the Xalden fight. “Rune, Frisk, I got this.” I walked forward, and a wall of spears separated me and them. “So, what you got?”
She wielded a spear and rushed in for an attack. I met her spear and crossed it with X. Should I give her a Keyblade during the fight, or after?
Your call.
Well, it will make things interesting. Alright then, who wants the knight! In my free hand, Ends of The Earth appeared… Okay that was unexpected. Using Ends I attacked, making her jump away, then I threw it at her. “It’s yours.”
Undyne looked down at it. After a bit, she picked it up. “This magic is unlike any I’ve seen before. It seems powerful as well, why just give it?”
“Ends of The Earth chose you. I just hand the Keyblades over to their chosen wielders. With you that now makes six. One more wielder and you all can be freed.”
“That’s a lie! Only seven human souls can open the barrier!”
“Seven locks, seven keys. It’s a better alternative to murder in my opinion.” Undyne flinched. “So, you know what you would have to do if I didn’t offer an alternative path. I suppose it’s understandable to help others… but If I didn’t come here… would you really do it? Kill a sinless child, would you be able to live with that blood on your hands and their terrified face engraved into your mind if you did do it?”
“You talk as if from experience! Have you killed?”
“No… I have never killed, but I’ve seen enough murder and corpses to fill the Devil’s remaining nights with nightmares! I couldn't do anything then, but now that I can I am offering help away from this path. Besides, even if the Keyblades don’t work, I know a way that will work without a doubt.”
“And how can I trust you?”
“Two of your own kind already do. You are a peaceful people, don’t lose that innocence just because you don’t wanna try something that might not work. Sans and Troiel are waiting for us to reach the king, will you help or will you fall into your own darkness?”
Undyne was silent for a time. The spear walls disappeared, and she turned around. “I guess you’ll need an escort to king Asgore. Sans and his brother are good friends, and Toriel was our old queen before she left Asgore… Besides, I think he would want to hear about this… possible alternative. I’ll take you as far as New Home, our capital, but I’ll go on ahead while you just walk through.”
“Any reason in particular?”
“Non that I wanna talk about.”
That tone of voice… “Someone you like?”
Somehow her armor cheeks blushed. “I, I just wanna show her the cool sword you gave me! That’s all!”
“A her, wow. Well it’s your love life. Tell you what, after this barrier is gone, how about we spar? Would like to fight for real when you get the hang of your Keyblade.”
Undyne removed her helmet, revealing her fish/human like head… so some kinda anthro mermaid… perana girl? She had a sharp toothed grin that kinda reminded me of Chrysalis. “Sure, I’ll win to. That’s what a True Hero does.”
True Heros aren’t overconfident, or cocky, but I like her spirit.