Broken Souls

Chapter 34 - Two Antagonists

Neither party could tell how long they'd been fighting. For Chara, each reset began to blend together into one long line of fighting, dying and trying again. For Casua, it was a never-ending battle, where her Creativity was put to the test as she struggled to invent new attacks on a whim every five seconds as well as dodge every swing of Chara's knife.

But neither gave up, or showed any signs of stopping. Casua wanted to stay alive, Chara wanted Casua dead. An interesting clash of opinions, with a dangerous result.

The two moved around the white Void as they fought, although it was rather hard to tell exactly how far. Black Magic attacks littered the clean white space, sticking out like a sore thumb. Casua had purposefully missed Chara with some of those attacks in order to create a sort of environmental hazard that they'd have to dodge. It worked, to an extent, better so when Chara was focused more on dodging other attacks and wasn't paying attention to where their feet were going.

But no matter how many blows Casua rained down upon them, Chara didn't stop. And no matter how many times Chara reset, Casua's attacks were never the same. It was impossible to learn them. So that was why Chara had decided to take a little break. When there was an opening to lunge at Casua, they did not take it. So eventually, Casua stopped her attacks entirely, watching them with a puzzled expression.

"What's stopped you now little anomaly?" Casua mocked, "Your conscience?"

Chara shrugged,

"I just wanted a chat. Stop this endless fighting for just a little while y'know?"

Casua raised an eyebrow, but didn't protest as Chara came and sat down near her. She joined them, sitting opposite in order to keep an eye on them. The white floor was neither hard nor soft, hot nor cold. It was just there, not really being anything else. Chara placed their knife on the ground beside them, keeping their eyes focused on Casua as they did so.

Casua felt a wave of tiredness wash over her as she finally let all of her Magic disperse into nothingness. She would have liked to sleep right about now, but it probably wasn't the best of times to do that. Instead, she blinked herself awake and met Chara's eyes.

"You know..." Chara said, "I am really confused on one thing about you."

"Oh yeah, and what's that?" Casua grunted, not really paying attention.

"You claim to be perfect and not evil at all, yet you were the one who killed those monsters."

Chara's words were like a bullet to Casua's chest. She felt rage like never before at that accusation, welling up inside her and threatening to overflow.

"How dare- I did no such thing. Their deaths were all because of you." she hissed though clenched teeth. Chara laughed loudly, their grin wide and mean.

"And who brought me into their world?"

Casua was quiet...

She hadn't done this, had she? Chara existing was not her fault... it couldn't be. It wasn't, that was that. And yet... who else would she have brought in?

"I didn't know it was you..." she replied meekly, failing miserably to keep her voice steady. Chara snickered,

"Really? You want a reminder on what you said?"

Casua began to speak before Chara could, cutting them off with a tone like ice.

"'I need someone who can kill. I need some sort of death to make this more interesting.' That's what I said, didn't I? Don't worry anomaly, I know what I meant."

Upon admitting that, Casua suddenly realised something else that made her anger spike once more. Chara continued to grin, leaning forward like a child waiting for an interesting story just to mock her further.

"I only wanted a few deaths." Casua continued, "Those humans were exactly what I was looking for and at the same time...."

"You messed up on that as well." Chara snapped, sitting upright once more, "Yes that last one was me. Your actions were disgusting, who wishes death upon others they don't even know to make something interesting happen? That's why she died, to teach you a lesson."

Chara chuckled to themselves, lifting the black heart pendant from around their neck and throwing it at the floor by Casua's feet. She picked it up, noticing a small crack in the smooth stone from what looked like a knife swipe. Casua sighed, already knowing what was coming next.

"But you didn't stop there." Chara continued, "I saw you smile because of what happened to you after that. You lost your best friend to your own actions and all you could do was smile."

"So what, you killed all of monster-kind?" Casua asked angrily, "You can call me despicable, vile and cruel as much as you like, but in the end, you've ended more lives than I have."

In response, Chara grinned again and pulled up some information about themselves.

ATK unknown, DEF unknown, HP 99

LOVE: 20

Casua tried to shrug that off, but Chara had already got what information they needed.

"That's the LV I gained from all of this. So tell me, Casua Gaster, if you're better than me, how much LV do you have? It can't be as much as me right? If it was, you'd have had some part to play in this, but you say you haven't. Go on Casua, hasn't anyone taught you not to lie?"

Chara had driven her into a corner, that was for sure. Casua muttered indecipherably under her breath before final coming to her conclusion. It was better out than in as they say. After all, it wasn't like anyone else would see this. As slowly as possible to cause as much irritation as she could, Casua pulled up her own stats and showed them to Chara, leaving out as much information as she could get away with.

Casua Gaster

ATK 70, DEF 10, HP 10

LOVE: 92

Strangely, that rendered Chara speechless. Apparently they hadn't expected that high a number for Casua's LV. They had guessed it to be somewhere around 40 or 50... but 92? There was no wonder why Casua's Soul was black, why her emotions were close to non-existent. The comedian had said it himself back in that infernal corridor when Frisk had been the one to call Chara back. LOVE was a way to measure someone's capacity to hurt others, and the more they had, the less others could hurt them. In short, Casua's Soul had kept her away from any form of physical or emotional pain, rendering her almost invincible. Well... almost. Her HP was still low enough to be downed in one of Chara's hits.

Knowing they'd won that short battle of wits, Chara sat back to admire what damage they'd done. Casua was speechless, staring hard at the heart pendant in her hands. Chara was right, she had done this. Unintentionally, she had caused the deaths of her entire family, and all of monster-kind with them. She didn't have to say anything for Chara to know she'd figured it out.

"I'm sure you're wondering what happens next." Chara said, "Well, seeing as the comedian is dead, he can't really do his job, not that he was very good at it anyway. I guess little old me will have to be your Judge."

Casua was on her feet in an instant, a bone spear forming in her hand.

"I know what will happen if you get my Soul, you'll erase this world. I won't let that happen, it's mine." She vowed with a snarl. Black fire swirled around her in an arc, creating an impressive display of Magic power behind her. Chara readied their knife, preparing to dodge any attack that came flying their way.

"I may have been it's downfall, but I can be it's saviour just as much."

In a second, the fight had begun for real.