The Open Gates of Decimation

Chapter Three

I never knew what made Chara change their mind about me, but it was nice to know that someone still liked me. We spent around half an hour getting to know each other and trying to restore my memory.

“How’d you lose your memory in the first place?”

I tried to explain, “I’m not sure. It could be a side effect of excessive resets…”

“You died that much?” Chara seemed surprised.

“What? You weren’t there?” They looked away slightly.

“I have…stuff to do.” I chuckled to myself.

“Like you have things to do. This place is an endless void!”

“True. But I still have a life.”

“Life? You’re dead!”

“And right now, so are you.” I grumbled – Chara was right. To the rest of the universe, I was dead. “So, when are you planning to go back?” I looked at them. “To your fight.” They clarified.

“I’m not sure. I mean, should I even ever go back?”

“Of course you should! You need to finish the job. Do you really want to leave everyone in despair as you spend eternity here?” I stared down into the floor, seemingly stretching on forever.

“I suppose not…but what else can I do? I can’t reset.” Chara thought for a moment.

“Finish. Then, reset. It’s all you can do.” I hummed in agreement. It was all I could do. At the end, I can reset and redo the whole thing. I could regain our ‘happy ending’. Everything will be exactly the way it should be. Except, what about that skeleton. He remembers resets – would he try to kill me? He hasn’t before this…what if he physically isn’t allowed to. Perhaps he just doesn’t care, or is too lazy to do anything about it. Whatever the reason, I had to risk it. I had to go out there, and finish him off – I had to put an end to this world.

“Let’s do it.” I finally said. “Let’s put this to an end.” Chara smiled.

“Well then, we’ll need to get you prepared,” I pulled out my knife. “You’ll need to get better at dodging if you want to survive.” Clutching their hands together, they pulled them apart from each other, summoning a glowing, red knife. “Good thing is, I’ve learnt to create things here in the void.” They looked up at me, “And it’s good that you can’t get hurt here, so, let’s practice.” More knives appeared around them. “Ready?”

“Ready.” The knives came flying at me. Three, five, seven. Mentally counting each individual weapon, attempting to dodge all of them. A few cut my skin, but a wound did not appear. Chara was correct – here, you couldn’t die. You couldn’t even get hurt. But the pain felt so real. Clenching my ‘wounded’ arm, I looked over at Chara. They hadn’t changed the expression, unfazed by the quality of my parry. “Remember, you can’t get hurt here. So, just ignore the pain. As for you skills – based on that – you’re going to die.” I groaned in disappointment. At this rate, I’d never beat him. He’d crush me into the ground again, and again, and again. I had to keep trying – I needed to get better. Keeping a firm grip on the ground, I stood in a battle-ready stance. Keeping my eyes on Chara, I watched through my peripheral vision as the knives reformed around them.

What seemed like hours went by, and I was improving. Cleanly dodging each knife as it pierced the air as it charged towards me, I slashed at Chara, only for it to phase through them. They turned to me, the brightest smile spread on their face. “That was a pretty good round!” I gave a slight smile.

“Thanks,” I walked towards them. “Do you think I’m prepared enough?” They laughed.

“Enough? I think you’ve trained more than enough!” a smile spread across my face, “I think, you’re ready.”