God of Lost Stories

#10 Welcome to the Amphitheater

A full week after the AUs went on lock down, a shock wave swept through the Multiverse. It didn't matter what route was going on or who it was. Sanses from every single AU, even the copies, were suddenly pulled right out of their AU.

One such Candytale Sans was in the middle of a nice walk through town when the ground gave way under his feet. Candy yelps as he topples forwards. Instead of landing in snow made from spun sugar, Candy falls face first into shaggy carpeting. He sits up and shakes himself off, confused. More squeaks of surprise sound out around him. Candy looks up to see his copies being teleported into the same room one by one. Each is just as confused as him. Candy is sitting in some sort of glass box. Enough theater seats for him and all the copies are set up in the large area.

Candy then looks beyond the glass box. Hundreds of other such rooms line a circular pit. The different glass rooms are all sorts of sizes with all sorts of different Sanses getting teleported inside. A few from the more violent AUs are sending attack after attack at the glass walls, but they show no sign of cracking. Most of the rooms hold a certain type of AU. Others, smaller ones, hold specific groups. Candy can see Dream in one, sitting up and confused with his son sprawled in his lap. Another small room has Horror and Killer separated on their own. Candy shivers when spotting the bad Sanses.

That's when Candy notices a very strange detail: no matter how far away the people he focuses on are, Candy can see them perfectly as if he was standing right next to them. The same effect is present when he looks down into the central pit. A skeleton is standing down there, too, watching the rest arrive. Candy recognizes them after a moment of staring. Alloy came to his AU just a couple days ago. He claims to be a god of balance, but didn't show much to prove it. Alloy asked him all about Candy's involvement with the rest of the Multiverse, which admittedly isn't much considering Candy is a poor fighter who hates violence.

Alloy is grinning like a mad man. He spins around slowly on one foot to look around at all the other monsters. This world is working perfectly just like he had hoped. It took a lot of planning for Alloy to make it perfect for all types of monsters. This environment reacts perfectly to his magic and no one else's. No can be allowed to fight before hearing each other out. Many monsters are coming out of their shock now and noticing Alloy. The noise of their muted conversations or shouts all meld into one giant mess. Alloy can't hear a thing, and neither can anyone else.

The God of Balance looks around again before holding up a hand for silence. Nobody does shut up, of course, but Alloy's magic burns hotter and reacts to the AU. Everything goes dead quiet. Oh, people are still talking, but sound is no longer escaping out from the glass boxes. Only those together can hear each other. Moat quickly realize it, and attention slowly shifts fully to Alloy.

"Welcome to the amphitheater!" Alloy breaks out into another wide smile. Despite talking in a normal voice, it is heard by everyone even through the glass. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, I can't hear any of you, but you sure can here me!" Alloy cackles at that last part. That earns him another round of mute curses.

"You've all met me, yes? I worked pretty hard to make sure I didn't miss any AUs," Alloy continues, "For those who didn't get the memo, or a proper introduction, I am Alloy, a God of Balance from another world." Nobody needs to know the specifics right this moment. Alloy isn't here to talk about himself. "A great injustice has been done to this Multiverse, and I'm here to fix. I'm going to tell you a story. THE story of this universe. YOUR Lost Stories."

This makes many monsters pause in thought. Most of them are far, far younger than their Multiverse even with the resets. Even Classic does not know it all with frequent true resets. Only Ink might come close, but he doesn't have the full story, either. A few monsters are absent from this meeting, but Alloy made sure he did talk to everyone. The Fresh of this Multiverse is probably somewhere having a midlife crisis after receiving a soul Alloy had crafted for him. Unfortunately, that's something Fresh has to work out by himself.