The Mountain East (An Undertale Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

"Run it through me again, will you?"

Asgore fiddled with his horns with a puzzled expression, unsure what to make of the anomaly in front of him. Chara sighed.

"That's all you need to know about me. Maybe with time, I'll disclose more. For now... I'm sorry."

"Do you have a surname?" Asriel piped out.

Chara's expression darkened, and eyes flashed with recollection. A slight tint of red could be seen hidden in her pupils.

"I... I don't have one." She said through clenched teeth.

Before Asriel could blunder a follow up question, Toriel flashed a stern look towards her son. He shrunk back into his chair, taking sign that Chara clearly did not want to grace the subject with attention.

For a moment, the 4 participants said nothing, unsure of what to clarify next.

"Well," Chara says, breaking the silence. "If y'all have nothing left to ask, I've fulfilled my end of the bargain. My turn."

Asgore beckoned Chara to continue. "Ask away, dear. Ask away."

Chara took a deep breath. "Where am I? Who are you? Why am I not dead? Wh – no offense, but what are you? Why are you here? Why am I here? Wh -" Tears of confusion and maniacal laughter began gushing out from her eyes and mouth respectively. She hated not knowing. Knowledge was the one thing she had, and now, all sense of rationality had been thrown out of the window. Only now did she realize the severity of her situation, and how the one thing she always relied on – her sanity – was being contested.

Toriel looked taken aback at the sudden disappearance of the once calm Chara. She tried, like Asriel before her, to place a paw on her shoulder, but was met with only air. Asriel's eyes widened, and his pupils glossed over. Even though she had only met Asriel for a day or two, she was already his overprotective guardian angel. Something about him resonated within her. Seeing him tear up because of her was the last straw of guilt. Her tears ceased and she sat down, slowly, as if nothing had ever happened.

"I'm sorry. I hate emotions."

A half-sniffle half-muffled laugh came from Asriel. Toriel and Asgore seemed keen to forget what happened, and this time I was on the same page. Asgore began to list out answers to my request.

"Well, you see, it's hard to lay a finger on what exactly we are. Our ancestral lines trace back to an extinct species of goat monsters, but that's the only ancestors we have that I know of. As for who I am and where we are, I am Asgore Dreemurr, king of the Underground."

"Wait, so you're all royalty?" Chara questioned, not exactly seeing the regality of these seemingly ordinary and caring monsters.

"Yeah! It's super cool, right!" Asriel chimed in. Chara stifled a laugh and asked for more clarification.

"What do you mean by underground? Were you born here, and they didn't have the required amount of braincells to ever find you?"

Asgore looked puzzled. "Have you at least heard myths?"

"About the mountain above, yeah," Chara responded. "But none of that hinted there was actually a functionable society underneath. Heck, it might be the only functionable society out of the two."

Toriel sighed. "It seems, by quirk of time, the humans have erased us off the pages of their reality. History is written by the winners, after all. A thousand and one sins committed against our people, and yet not one perpetrator faces consequences. What miserable luck, what blowing shame."

Asgore began reciting the story he had told so many newborns before. "Long ago, two races ruled over the earth, Humans and Monsters. One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell."

He sighed. "That story is... simplified, to say the least. The true horrors of the great war are sugarcoated greatly. I haven't time to explain every small detail. Just know that whilst we lost thousands upon thousands of citizens, not one human paid the price of death."

"Why did they attack?"

"They feared us. Well, they feared what we could have done, anyways. If a monster was, hypothetically, able to overpower a human and take their soul, it would transform into a being with incredible power. A being capable to channel both magic and soul power at the same time."

Chara furrowed her brows. "That makes even less sense."

"In what way?"

"Like, what are you talking about when you say souls? Like a heart, a brain, their consciousness? And magic? Does that mean you can pull a rabbit out of a hat?"

"I have no idea what you are referring to. We all can pull a rabbit out of a hat, given there's a rabbit in the hat. Magic is... complicated. Not for us, but for an outsider. Your ancestors used to be able to use it as the story gives. Now, it seems, it has been ridiculed and replaced with party tricks judging by your reaction. To explain briefly, magic is what makes up monster souls, unlike human ones, which I will get to later. I'm still astonished that no one ever taught you what human souls are. They are the very thing sustaining your physical form, after all."

He continued. "With our souls filled to the brim with magic, one could use it to act in self-defense, or take care of ordinary everyday things. It's how Tori healed you and how Asriel managed to carry you halfway across home."

Chara glanced at Asriel, who stared back looking smug. To her absolute horror, he looked more adorable than ever.

Asgore cleared his throat and resumed his explanation. "There are different types of fighting magic tailored specifically to each monster's soul and combination of ancestry. For example -"

He raised his hand, and several fireballs appeared in the air next to him.

"Fire magic runs through our family, though I really don't know how to trace down the roots. As for ordinary general magic, like healing or increased strength, most can be learned via practice."

Despite Asgore's lengthy and thorough explanation, Chara had difficulty wrapping her mind around the concept. However, there were more pressing matters at hand, or so she thought.

"What about human souls?" She asked.

"Human souls?" Asgore replied. "Why, it might be best to let you see for yourself."

Slowly, the room dissolved into a void-like pitch black. All surroundings, including Asriel and Toriel, vanished from view and was replaced by 4 orange, neon boxes. A single red heart appeared in front of her, seemingly out of nowhere. It was confined by a white border of sorts. When Chara tried to move, the heart inside copied.

Strings of numbers solidified into a solid, tangible interface. Chara looked around out of curiosity and panic, unsure what to think of this newfound 'place'. A monochrome version of Asgore stood over her, leaning on a glowing red trident that he simply willed to exist.

But what interested her the most was not the flashy or glamorous soul she now knew she possessed. It was simple, white, glowing text that caught her eye.

"Chara" it read. "LV 2. HP 24/24".