Dusttale 01

[Author's note]

Hey, dude, the Dusttale arc of this book might be a little awkward, but it gets a lot better later on!

Please bear with me and keep reading! Boohoo, remember to leave a review and a rating. Any feedback would be great. There's not a single soul in my comments section...

A newbie like me really needs your support!!

Dust blanketed the Underground. Snowdin, Waterfall, the Core-not a single place still held any sign of life.

But the one responsible for it all had long since grown used to the sight.

Murder had forgotten how many resets this made. At first, he had kept track of how many times the timeline reset, but as the number grew, he realized that his meager determination seemed to accomplish nothing.

In the end, he gave up.

Throwing himself body and soul into slaughter, Murder yearned for release from the endless killing, yet knew full well that the peaceful future he envisioned was not meant for him.

"Paps, how much LV do you think the human has gained by now?"

Murder slumped over the sentry station in the Core.

Before leaving Waterfall, he had set plenty of traps. He believed that even if they couldn't kill the human, they could at least slow his progress.

"SANS! NOW ISN'T THE TIME TO WORRY ABOUT THAT! YOU CAN'T STOP YET! THAT HUMAN WILL DEFINITELY LAUGH AT YOU WHEN HE FINDS OUT HOW LAZY YOU ARE!!"

The apparition flickered in and out beside Murder. Even knowing he wasn't real, Murder couldn't help imagining him.

"Guess you're right. Time to get moving."

Murder continued on his way.

He was certain his LV was higher than the human's this time. Having enough LV allowed his attacks and stats to reach greater heights, giving him a slightly better chance of winning against the human.

"If one day the human would just give up this pointless fighting..."

Murder shook his head, refusing to indulge that fantasy any further.

The human would never change. That was the conclusion he had reached after hundreds of resets.

Like a veteran player who had memorized a game's patterns hundreds of times over, Murder knew every monster hiding anywhere in the Core inside out.

To gain LV, Murder swept through every place he remembered as quickly as possible.

His speed was undeniable. The monsters were wiped out before they even had time to react.

"The last one... There. No monsters left in the Core, either."

Murder opened the door to the True Lab with practiced ease, then barged inside.

Though he found Alphys's actions contemptible, he had to admit this was the only way to experiment with determination.

Those monsters hadn't been able to withstand it, and then they had turned into these monsters.

He, however, had endured it. In the end, even forgetting the memories of these damned cycles had become difficult.

The True Lab was filled with monsters melted by determination. Murder knew the human had no way to deal with them, but unfortunately, he did.

Using his special methods for dealing with determination, Murder wiped out every amalgamate as well.

At least this counts as salvation for them, Murder couldn't help telling himself.

After finishing his sweep of the True Lab, Murder immediately left that eerie place.

Unfortunately, the moment he stepped outside, he saw the human coming in.

The human had several wounds on his body and a few broken fingers, all signs that Murder's unpredictable traps had worked quite well.

Without a word, Murder immediately channeled his magic, summoning a sea of countless bones to attack the human.

Though startled, the human dodged the barrage with his exceptional control.

"Look behind you."

The human turned, only to see a row of Blue Bones hurtling toward him.

The best way to avoid blue bones was to stand still. The human immediately froze in place, not realizing that this was exactly the moment Murder had been waiting for. With a flick of his hand, Murder unleashed summoning magic, and several Shock Waves cannons appeared out of thin air around the human.

"Fire."

With a deafening roar, thick smoke immediately billowed over the area.

Murder didn't let his guard down. Knowing full well that the human possessed the nearly unkillable vitality of a cockroach, he immediately extended a hand and used Gravity Manipulation. Blue light flared just a few steps away from Murder, and the human stood frozen in place like a wooden dummy.

Bam!

Murder slammed the human hard into the ground, and numerous Blue Bones rose around him.

"Hmm..."

Murder had clenched his fist, ready to smash the human's head with a punch, but ultimately abandoned the attack.

"Heh heh heh... My blue bones can hold you for about an hour. Just sit here and wait."

His LV still wasn't high enough. Killing the human now would only send him back into the past-the thing that human loved doing, something like "loading a save."

Rather than let him reload, it was better to press on and gain a little more LV first.

An hour later, as the blue bones crumbled, the human shot forward like a rocket.

He knew Sans had held him up for a full hour. The worst-case scenario was that Murder had already killed all the remaining monsters and was waiting for him somewhere.

He reached the corridor, the only route to the Barrier. Even though the human had lost count of how many times he had passed through here, guilt always weighed on his spine, subjecting him to endless condemnation.

Unexpectedly, Sans wasn't there.

That smiling trash bag had fought him here countless times, but this time, he didn't seem to be waiting here.

"Where could that guy have gone?"

With that question in mind, the human continued forward.