UnderCorrupt

Epilogue

It had been one year.

Sans stood in the Barrier room, looking at the pulsing, glowing wall that expanded before him. Right down the middle of it was a large dark crack, refusing to give off the same eerie ambient light the rest of the wall did. The crack was the end result of Frisk's battle with the Dark Lord Chara and Commander Flowey, neither of whom had been seen since said battle.

With a small sigh, Sans stuffed his hands back into his jacket pockets and turned away from the wall.

One year since that battle, since Frisk told them that the Corrupt could now be Purified with love.

With both the Dark Lord and the Commander of the Corrupt Army gone, the baton of leadership was passed on to Sans. He had spent the last year attempting to lead his army to peace, coaxing the Corrupt monsters to let go of their hate.

It had been hard, of course. Hate was a greedy thing; once it had a hold on you, it was a challenge to loosen its grip. There had been some small skirmishes, but it was merely angry and confused monsters lashing out, no organized rebellions or such. Hate was painful, and all the Corrupt had eventually succumbed, accepting the help of love. Finally, after a year of toil, the last Corrupt monster had become a disgruntled and irritable Pure monster.

Sans laughed a little at the thought. It had indeed been like dealing with a bunch of moody teens, and would remain to be so. The formerly Corrupt monsters would always be a bit rough around the edges, tending to err on the side of the crude and sometimes harsh of things, and it could make them difficult to interact with.

Sans' only consolation in this was that, having been a Corrupt monster himself, people excused his behavior when he began rampantly insulting people or broke out cursing in the Corrupt language.

That was another thing- all the reformed Corrupt monsters retained their Corrupt abilities, albeit fueled by Pure Magic now. Sans was thankful for this, as his left eye was still broken, and still bled Magic and gave him migraines when he used it. This way, he could still light his right eye with Magic, and still use the variety of "Corrupt" attacks without harm to himself.

As Sans stepped out of the Barrier chamber into the throne room, he was met by everyone, friends and family. Gaster was sprawled across Asgore's throne, and Papyrus, now a good few inches taller than Sans and thus not quite fitting in Gaster's lap so well anymore, was sitting on the ground beside the throne talking animatedly to his father. Asgore was amid the brilliant flowers, Frisk in front of him as he taught them to garden. Toriel was keeping a watchful eye on her ex husband. Undyne and Gerson were talking strategy, while Alphys fangirled over her girlfriend.

Tomorrow, the Barrier was going to come down. They had all been far too excited to sleep, and had all ended up in the throne room, waiting for morning.

Waiting to feel the sun rise.

As Sans entered the room, Frisk was the first to notice him. They rose, brushing a few stray flower petals off their clothes. "Well, Sans? Is the sun rising yet?"

"almost. i'd say give it a half hour or so, but i don't actually know anything about sunrises, and who's to say the barrier isn't distorting the light or something? who knows. if i were you, kid, i'd just go for it."

The sun was probably actually nowhere near rising, but Sans was getting bored of waiting around in the throne room, and Undyne was getting really loud- her and Gerson's strategy-talk had somehow turned into Undyne trying to explain anime to the old turtle.

Needless to say, Sans didn't want to be there any longer, and if he was forced to, there was little doubt in his mind that he would become re-Corrupted and slaughter them all.

Luckily, Frisk just smiled and nodded and turned to go to the Barrier.

Everyone followed.

Frisk stopped in front of the glowing, pulsing wall with the huge dark crack in it.

"Umm..." they said quietly.

"What?"

"I-... I don't..." they slowly admitted. "I don't actually know how... to break it...?"

For a long moment, everyone just stared at the child.

Then Sans threw his hands into the air. "you gotta be kidding me!"

"Well, what should I do?" Frisk countered.

"gee, i dunno! how in the world do you break something? that's impossible! i mean, i really doubt that doing anything like, say, attacking it will have any effect at all!"

"Sans-"

"attack the freaking barrier, frisk!"

"Sans, I don't think that will work-"

"FRISK! BREAK THE BARRIER OR Í̸ ̧̨W̧I̶Ĺ͏L ̧RIP͠ ̴̵̷O̧͡U͜T͘ ̶̧͜Y̴͡O̴͘U̧͝R̡ ̴̨S͘͞͠O̴ÙL À̶̶̠̳̙̞̝̬̩̰̠͟Ņ̼͙̯̥̰͟͜͝D҉̱̹̱̰̹̯̲̖̰̤̙̕͢͜ ̨̢̞͕̟̗͢Ḑ̵͓̥̺͚̞̫̮̟̜͉͙̼̝͙͈́͢ͅͅO̸̰̞̱̱͎͔͕̗͎̜ ̵̵̨̫͇͓͈͕̀͟Í̵̞͚̘̠̻̹͓̳͚̫͎̼͎͕͕̗̬̝͉͘͡Ţ̵̴̝̤̥͇̠̘̟̗̥̞̞̻̪̤̗̼͇͟͞ ̷̡͙̤͉̠̦̠̦̤͈̯͎̪̮̲̰ͅM̴͕̤̼̤̬͕̤̰̬͎̼͎̣̀̕͢ͅỲ̴̵̼̮̟̫̺̩̖̬͠Ş̢͢͝҉͚̭̟̖̜͕È̷̛͍̳͇͈͔̺̹̱̯̬͎͚̘̝̜͇L̨̟͓̹̪͎̦̲͓͈F̠͓͔̦͎̮̯̬͉̼̼̩̖̰͇̀͟!̡̢̢̼̼͇̤͖̩͞͞!̴͎̩͖̳͚̞͕̩̖̙̳̣̩̗́"

As Gaster tried to calm his son down, Frisk let out a sort of yelp sound and ran forward to wards the Barrier. They didn't understand the last bit, it being in the Corrupt language, but they got the gist: violent things.

Really, getting near the Barrier was apparently all it took. Even Sans stopped his ranting to watch as a red glow spread from where Frisk's Soul was lit agains their chest. Quickly, the light spread outward, running like water into the dark crack in the wall

Then it faded.

"Well," Undyne said after a moment of silence, "that was anticlimac--"

She was cut off suddenly by the sound of glass shattering, but louder, like thousands of glasses being smashed against the ground, as more and more cracks spanned the surface of the Barrier.

Then, with one final loud SNAP, the Barrier fell away, glowing particles disintegrating into nothingness.

And there, just beyond the mouth of the cave...

Sans took a breath. It was beautiful.

The sky, darkness lit by millions of millions of glowing specks, pure white light pushing back the blackness.

Hardly daring to speak, the monsters and human all stepped forward, looking to the sky.

For each star was a Soul, pulsing in the darkness, fending off the Corruption. The sky, brilliant and beautiful, full of stars, held a promise.

It was that of a new future, free of Corruption, of hate, full of love.

The war was finally over and the stars awaited, brimming with hope and promise.

They only had to go forward and claim their future.