"Ready, Metta?" I turned towards the robot who was in his new, more offensive form.
"Whenever you are, darling." He nodded with a stern expression. Betty turned towards us and raised her hands, shooting out two triangle-shaped bolts of magic toward us.
"You take the air, I'll take the ground." I declared, activating the perseverance power. All 7 hands turned purple, copying the attack and shooting back the attack towards Betty. Mettaton took off from the ground, hovering a few meters above the place next to me. The enemy's two attacks collided with mine, providing an explosion and five other attacks flying towards Betty. From what I saw, the attack landed as smoke rose from around her.
"Alright... That hurt a little." Groaning, she stood up from her kneeling position. The dust settled, letting me take a peek at her true, demonic form. Her inner skin was pink, with sharp teeth resembling a shark's. She was regenerating fast, but Mettaton started his turn with a barrage of magic blasts. Dodging them, she slowly inched forward towards us.
"Don't waste your energy on a moving target!" I advised the robot as I combined the hands into the Duality ability. Now I was controlling them directly and they were more durable too.
"Wow, you don't know how fighting works, do you?" Betty snarled, appearing before me, her scythe hand inches away from my head. I quickly shot out an integrity razor blade at her from the side as I tried to teleport away, even a few meters. Her hand grew massive in size and blocked the blade, sending it to the ground. But after that, an energy ball sent her into the wall next to me.
"There, did I waste my shot?" Betty snarled at that comment, getting out of the rubble and jumping up to the upper seating. Sending out another wave of triangular bullets, flying towards Metta, leaving Betty's guard down.
As she was distracted, the left hand captured her in patience strings, making her growl as I pulled her back to the surface level. Planting bravery bombs all around her, the pink shade took over more of its hair as she noticed my trap. Snapping my fingers, the bombs exploded, destroying the wall behind her to mere rubble.
"Watch out!" I heard a robotic voice from afar, but I was too slow. Betty appeared before me, her left hand transforming into a hot pink spike. It ran through my right shoulder, lifting me into the air.
"Still thinking that you're going to be the hero who saves everyone? You're the most horrid creature I've seen. A being with a human soul and monster magic." Betty taunted, leaning closer toward me. Her sharp teeth were glistening as the light let me peek into her mouth.
"Then you haven't seen your reflection yet, right?" I joked, then heard something break in my body as she dashed forward with me still impaled on her spike arm and broke through the wall with my body. Spitting out some blood, I chuckled.
"What's the matter? Did you realize that this show you're trying to put up is meaningless?" She grinned evilly, her voice full of hate.
"No... I remembered how I always annoyed Agate, your creator with my presence. When I tried to talk with her once, she summoned her spear and stabbed me right where you just did and pushed me into the wall. Talk about Deja Vu." I explained, knowing that I could only stall the time for so long.
"Goodbye, freak." Her other hand transformed into a scythe as she raised it. I closed my eyes to prepare to die for the last time, only to feel that I fell to the ground and Betty was screeching like a wounded animal. Opening my eyes, I saw Metta pulling me up from the ground with his left hand, while a blade was protruding from his right arm. A black substance was slowly dripping down along the blade, leaving drops on the ground that slowly tried to crawl towards Betty. Regaining the strength in my legs, I snapped my fingers, summoning a Duality hand, and stepped onto it. Mettaton flew up and I followed behind. We can't protect each other if we're separated and we decided to act on it.
"I settled my debt, you're welcome." He joked, causing me to remember that time I saved him and his fans from Betty's first assault where they used Papyrus to drop slabs of concrete on the fan meeting.
"Right, I forgot about that. Still, we need to defeat this beast..." Turning back to the Arena, I felt drops of some liquid running down my face.
"What is that...? It's the same color as their blood." Metta asked, and then dodged, crashing into me. Something solid shattered to pieces on the upper wall of the arena behind us. Turning back to Betty, she raised her grotesque hand, throwing a huge chunk of concrete towards us. Raising the other hand, I sent out a large razor blade, slashing the projectile in half. Mtt took this chance and shot a bullet at Betty, making her dodge forward. Grabbing another boulder, she hit the Duality hand I was standing on.
"Lukas!" Metta shouted when I lost my balance and fell off, landing on my back.
"I'll have to get a new spine by the end of this..." Silently cursing, I got up from the ground just in time to see Betty jumping up into the air towards Mettaton. He proceeded to kick him, but her now regenerated left hand caught the attack, leaving him vulnerable.
"Get back here!" I shouted, summoning 7 hands and grabbing her with them. Metta squirmed to get out of her grip as my hands took action and grabbed Betty's shoulders, hips, and legs. Holding her back from attacking, I pulled her down into the ground with a loud bang. Panting, my hand touched the liquid on my face, only to remember what happened outside as Mettaton landed next to me.
"Something is wrong, isn't it?" He asked yet again, causing me to snap at him.
"Nothing is wrong! There's nothing wrong with me!" I growled, causing him to take a step back. Closing his eyes as he flinched, I quickly tried to calm myself down. The past trauma of being called a freak shone through my facade, and I didn't like it.
"Sorry. It's complicated." I apologized, turning away.
"What is that black liquid?" He asked rather impatiently. He must think that I'm connected to her.
"That's complicated as well." Answering so apathetically wasn't my style in the past, but this whole void thing changed a few things. For some reason, I vomited and cried this strange liquid instead of tears.
"Alright, I believe you." Mettaton's eyes told me otherwise. As I moved to check on Betty, the ground around me broke into pieces. Pushing Metta away, I held up my hand to create a shield against whatever attacked me. Pink tendrils burst out of the ground, their tips resembling spears. They quickly turned black, making me shiver as they came closer. I waited for them to bounce off the barrier, but the attack passed right through it, piercing my body and locking me in one place.
"Darling!" My ally shouted as he charged up his canon.
"Stop it! You'll hit me too!" I shouted, trying to escape. Coughing up blood and black goo, I was badly wounded as Betty pierced through my upper body and arms leaving only my legs free.
"I'm immobilized, but that doesn't mean that she'll stop attacking." A fireball suddenly landed at my feet, creating a tornado of flames around me. The black things caught on fire and melted, letting go of me. As the tornado vanished, my fall towards the ground was halted by a pair of warm hands. I noticed the bartender's suit and his quiet stare looking down at me.
"Grillby...?" I coughed, letting him help me up.
"We came to help." He said, not sugarcoating why he's here.
"Wait, we?" I blinked, seeing Betty charge towards us from the corner of my eye. Her movement was stopped by thin silks of spider webs, making her immobilized.
"Yes, the two of us." Muffet chimed in, landing beside me.
"What are you doing here? She might kill you both!" Mettaton cried out in worry.
"Well, we couldn't just stand there and watch as you fought. Besides, it would try to kill us sooner or later." After her explanation, I raised my hand and activated the bravery power, and blew up Betty with small bombs.
"Then let's not waste this time." I groaned, summoning the Duality hands again. Stepping up on one I hurried to higher ground, followed by Mettaton. Seeing it as the logical next step, I summoned the small hands too.
"Why can't you see? All I'm doing is trying to prevent you from killing each other again." Betty stepped out from the dust, sending out two magenta triangle bullets at Muffet and Grillby. Metta destroyed it with a magic shot while I protected Grillby with the free hand and destroyed the projectile with a focused red beam from the small hands.
"Just sacrificing a couple hundred to save thousands." She added, appearing before Muffet and hitting her into the nearby wall.
"I'm the only one who understands. That's why I have to make sure I'm the one in charge in the new world without monsters." The evil grin on her face turned into a neutral pout as I shot a red blast at her, making her dodge. Then she kicked Grillby next to Muffet.
"That's why I have to get rid of Monsters, especially you, freak." With her eyes glaring at me, she picked up two boulders and crushed one to rubble, throwing them at us. As the rubble flew towards me, Mettaton blew up the boulder and I deflected the rubble.
"We should end this fast. I'm starting to run out of energy." Mettaton sighed, not being able to see Betty through the dust from the blown up boulder. Something fast passed through it, and it was the same attack, but switched up. Knowing that Mtt can't handle multiple targets, I projected the shield around him, but forgot about the boulder.
"Darling!" After I was hit by it, I fell off and landed on my back from more than 10 meters. Betty jumped up and attacked the shocked Mettaton, punching him to the other side of the arena. That thing landed and walked towards me as her hands turned into scythes.
"I finally get to kill you for real. After all this time, Lukas..." Her face contorted into a grin full of bloodlust. Something was off about her. Her eyes. Her eyes were black, yes, but the pink iris turned to orange.
"A-Agate... What...? How..?!" I gasped, crawling backwards as a way of escaping. I couldn't focus enough to teleport, and she was still full of magic.
"I'm not sure myself. It wasn't intentional. But, at least I get to kill you personally." She smiled, then suddenly her iris turned back to pink.
"I've wasted enough time." Her tone became the same as before, indicating that I might have only hallucinated Agate. A blue beam of light embraced us, causing me pain as I tried to get up. It was the same thing as before the Arena. Noticing Metta at the source, I summoned the small hands and surrounded myself in the kindness barrier to make myself immune to the light. Betty however started walking towards the source, erasing her outer shell. Her skin was hot pink, more monstrous than any real monster I knew. Metta was badly damaged as her right arm and wing was missing.
Betty shot out a triangle bullet at the source,blowing it and Mettaton up. The robot landed at her feet as she regenerated, looking down at him.
"What a shame... It ran out of energy." She smiled, then Mettaton moved. His remaining hand grabbed her leg, stopping her from moving towards me.
"Why are you still struggling?" The beast growled, asking the platonic question.
"If you want to kill anyone, you'll have to kill me first." He threatened.
"I know." She smiled and turned her hand into a spike. Feeling the magic of Chara and the Dreemurrs nearby, I stood up and felt that something was healing my wounds.
"And why..? I just needed to make more time." Metta added as black goo surrounded my hand and made it look like Betty's spike. Rushing towards them, I saw our reinforcements arrive.
"I've had enough of you!" I shouted, hitting Betty into the wall as well as leaving a deep wound on her upper body.
"How's everyone?"
"We made it just in time." I heard Chara and Toriel's voice as my head was ringing. The black goo disappeared after my blow, leaving me suddenly tired.
"You've done more than enough, take a break my child." A strong, big hand touched my back, hinting at the fact that Asgore was behind me.
"I'm not in the best condition. But I'll help if it's needed." Shaking my head, I grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently, trying to reassure him.
"Tori will fix you up quick, then we can finish this." He smiled at me, and I mustered a weak smile onto my face. Toriel walked to us and checked me. Without a sound, she started healing me.
"Did you try to heal this? It's kind of an imperfect work." I shook my head again and sighed.
"It's kind of a mystery what tried to heal me." I said, twisting the truth a bit. I knew it was the void, somehow, but I didn't know how or why.
"Hey! Stay down!" Chara shouted, shooting out an energy blast towards Betty who recovered from my hit. Asriel appeared before her and blocked the attack with a star. Was he here the entire time? I must have focused too much on the fight.
"Why didn't you join us before? It must have been amusing to watch us fight." I said with a cynical smile. Asriel narrowed his eyes and appeared before me, his sword raised above his head.
"I have nothing to say to you." He said, knowing that I was vulnerable from a close range. Chara moved in before I could defend myself and blocked the attack with his shield, reminding me of Copper in the past.
"That's right. You're a nobody to him. You weren't even friends. So leave this to me." Chara stated coldly, making me step back.
"Great. I'll take the other." I groaned back, teleporting behind Betty. Coating my own hand in determination magic, I punched her in the back, sending her towards Asgore and Toriel. Her hand turned into a scythe and used it to slow down her momentum as I charged up the 7 hands.
"So, you've brought your best fighters to me." A magenta triangle bullet flew towards me and I simply sidestepped to let it fly into the wall behind me.
"But are you sure I'm the only thing you should be worried about?" Her grin made a shiver go up my spine. Something wasn't right. I haven't seen a single kumu blob around the arena taking souls...
"Chara! Your turn!" I shouted, shooting razor blades at Asriel to make him take a defensive stance. The human did as he was told, dashing towards Betty and dodging a blade hit from her scythe hand. The Goat kid blocked the razor blades with one sword, preparing a focused fireball in his other hand and throwing it at me.
"Toriel! Asgore!" I called out again as I blocked the fireball with a Duality barrier. The now ex-king leaped up into the air and extended his trident, making Asriel block the incoming blow with both of his weapons.
The ground shook and a humongous magical energy formed somewhere in the center of the city, making me shiver. I had to go out and warn the battalions before they get hurt.
"You three can handle this, right? Don't die!" I shouted, teleporting to the roof of the arena. I hopped from building to building until I reached the park which separated the school and the Arena from each other. I pressed the earpiece that was still intact, calling the battalion leaders and Jessica.
"Lukas talking! The magical energy of a massive entity is in the vicinity of the park! What's the status of the blobs at you? The Arena is clear. I suspect that the blobs are forming a massive sized creature." I explained.
"Are you sure they didn't just fall back to regroup?" Ronan, the police chief said, prompting Jessica to think.
"There's nothing here. Didn't we eliminate them all? Dr. Gaster says that he can't sense anything. Are you sure about this Lukas?" She asked, making me doubt myself. Was this all an illusion?
"Hold on, I've got someone else backing your story." Ronan interrupted my self-doubt party.
"A blind boy who can see magical energy says the same. That the points underground started to gather in one place." He continued, confirming my theory.
"If that's the case then..." I sighed, feeling the ground shake under me. About two or three streets ahead of me, something emerged from the ground, growing taller and taller. It was a kumuzilla. Its height was about a 10 story building.
"It's only 4 stories high in other timelines... The resurface of Agate. The higher kumuzilla. And you of course, unique to this timeline. Something's definitely going on." Core!Frisk said, appearing next to me as their face was trying to figure out a plan. But I didn't need that new plan.
"It's easy. I'll just go and defeat it." A grin appeared on my face as I activated Polychromatism.