Dusttale 03

Murder walked with steady steps. He was in no hurry, nor did he take any shortcuts, because he needed to make sure there were no greater threats in this timeline.

The farther back he went, the more alarmed he became.

It was the sheer efficiency of the monster slaughter. He could tell that this timeline's killer seemed to have combat experience on par with his own, which convinced him that this killer had also reached LV 20 before.

(Note: What Murder was seeing were the atrocities Killer had committed in her own timeline long ago.)

"More than one killing spree... Is this person human? Or... another timeline's version of me?"

Murder could not reach a conclusion. If his current LV had not been high enough to handle most situations-

(LV 18, which also explains why Murder had completely dominated the human earlier.)

-he might have needed to be several times more cautious than he was now.

He arrived in Snowdin. After searching every corner of the town, the confusion on Murder's face only deepened.

Could this timeline's human be fighting me right now?

Or was a version of me who slaughtered his own kind fighting the human at the barrier?

The more Murder thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. It would also explain why he had not seen a single monster along the way.

Taking a shortcut, Murder moved to the entrance of the corridor. To his confusion, there was not the slightest trace of a battle here.

If they weren't in the corridor, they had to be at the barrier.

That was what Murder thought. Unfortunately, the empty scene before the barrier only deepened his confusion once again.

"...Nothing."

Returning to the corridor, Murder leaned against a pillar and resumed reading his novel.

He had no ability to reset, so this passive approach was all he could do about the current situation.

"Interesting."

By then, Killer had already appeared in the corridor as well.

From her observations along the way, she had realized that this was not the timeline she had originally been in. After all, she generally used her knife more often.

Yet there were barely any knife marks among the traces of battle here. Most were marks left by bones and cannon blasts, with only one or two knife marks appearing now and then.

"Let me guess... another me's timeline?"

Killer shook her head. Back when she had been in Stage 2, she had often gone to other timelines to slaughter their inhabitants.

Now, however, special circumstances had returned her to Stage 1, and she had lost interest in killing monsters. Still, she retained her basic discernment and powers of observation.

"What... should I do?"

Killer walked slowly toward the barrier.

The interweaving of the timelines grew increasingly unstable with each step she took.

If Undertale: Something New and Dusttale had only partially overlapped before, the overlap was now beginning to expand... as though someone were pressing them together by hand.

As Killer took her final step, she came to a stop where the human usually stood.

Bells echoed throughout the corridor. False moonlight streamed through its windows, so bright that Killer could barely keep her eyes open.

"You..."

A young male voice rang out.

"...Aren't human, but your LV is extremely high."

Only then did Killer notice the hooded figure standing before her. There was no doubt that he was this timeline's version of her.

The bells in the corridor continued to toll. Suddenly, Killer felt a piercing pain shoot through her soul. This feeling...

It was as though she were about to turn back into Stage 2... Memories of slaughter surged through her mind. Clutching her chest, Killer desperately concentrated on suppressing her other personalities.

"...Are you all right?"

Coming back to her senses, Killer realized that the bells had stopped at some point.

"You're probably... not a monster from here, are you? I don't intend to fight you. Judging someone from another timeline isn't my place, after all... What do you think?"

Murder watched Killer warily. This sweet, adorable-looking girl, dressed much like him, actually had an LV as high as 999999.

Murder had no idea how many living beings she had slaughtered, nor was he interested in getting involved in that. Right now, however, he had to find out whether she intended to fight him.

"...No, I don't intend to..."

Killer was only halfway through her sentence when the tearing sensation in her soul grew more intense.

"Oh no..."

Killer shouted to Murder,

"I... I'm about to enter Stage 2... Be careful of me when that happens..."

Before she could finish, Killer's head drooped. When she raised it again, every trace of confusion in her eyes had vanished, replaced by an eerie thirst for knowledge.

Murder noticed that her exposed soul had changed shape, going from a monster's inverted heart to a circle.

Recalling what she had just said, Murder began to piece together what was happening.

"Heh heh... Buddy, why are you looking at me like that?"

Looking utterly harmless, Killer spread her hands and slowly approached Murder.

The closer she came, the more alarmed Murder became. The black liquid flowing from her eyes gave him an instinctive warning: he absolutely could not let her get close.

"Stay away from me."

Unable to hold back, Murder unleashed gravity magic and flung Killer into the distance.

"Ugh... You people who look like me are all the same... You show up here for no reason, then pick a fight with me for no reason..."

Murder summoned a sky full of blasters, mentally set their firing delay, then charged straight at Killer.

"Wow, buddy. You're better at fighting than that... big sister next door... in the tan clothes."

In an instant, Killer was ready for battle again.

Watching Murder approach, Killer merely smiled. The knife in her hand danced like an extension of her arm, tracing countless dazzling flourishes.

Bang, bang, bang!!!

Murder met Killer's blade head-on with his magically enhanced fists, sending sparks flying.

"You can actually fight me up close?..."

Killer looked a little surprised. Even though she was not putting much effort into her slashes, not just anyone could withstand her knife.

"You really do have plenty of combat experience!"

Murder smiled at Killer. After dodging one of her slashes, he summoned blue bones right in front of her, locking her in place, then vanished on the spot.

At the same time, the delayed blasters from earlier seemed to finish charging. Immense blasts of energy came crashing toward her with overwhelming force.

"You think a combo like that can finish me off? Heh heh heh..."

Killer did not move a muscle, yet the blue bones around her scattered like withered leaves eroded by the wind.

Bang! Killer sprang upward at incredible speed. The enormous energy blast missed her completely, failing to graze even the slightest part of her.

Giving Killer no time to catch her breath, Murder promptly brought out two compact blasters. One had eyes that glowed blue, representing Murder's endurance; the other had eyes that glowed red, representing his determination.

After whispering a few words to the two blasters, Murder left the corridor.

Unlike the casually summoned white-eyed blasters, these two seemed to possess intelligence of their own. Before Killer could move in to attack, both cannons opened fire on her.

The blue-eyed cannon attacked like a machine gun, pouring out ammunition without pause. The red-eyed cannon kept firing massive charged shots, their terrifying destructive power enough to shake heaven and earth.

Dodging these attacks was not particularly difficult for Killer.

In fact, Killer had not gone all out from the very beginning. She had spotted plenty of openings in Murder's movements, but rather than winning so easily, she wanted to see what other novel little toys he had.

Before long, Murder returned from afar. Like puppies, the two blasters obediently nuzzled his hands before retreating into the void.

"Buddy, let's see what new thingamajig you've got that can beat me...?"

The smile that had never left Killer's face suddenly froze, because Murder had taken out a collector's-edition tape of "Super-Cute Kitty Kissy Cartoons."

"This..."

Killer had to admit that she was interested. She tucked her knife inside her clothes, walked slowly over to Murder, and gave him a meaningful look.

Murder did not dawdle either. He took Killer by the hand and brought her to his room through a shortcut.

To Killer's surprise, this other version of her actually had a television in his room.

"Here, watch this."

Murder inserted the tape into the slot. As the colorful images gradually appeared, Killer's interest in the cartoon became increasingly clear on her face, while Murder quietly slipped away.

"Dr. ▇▇▇'s interests really are hard to put into words..."

Remembering how the man who spoke with his hands usually acted so mysterious, yet lit up with joy whenever he talked about cartoons, Murder found him rather enigmatic. Was liking cartoons a tradition passed down through generations at the Royal Academy of Sciences?

▇▇▇ had given Murder this tape when they had previously discussed Super-Cute Kitty Kissy. According to ▇▇▇, he had slipped some seriously effective jump scares into its best scenes so that Murder could use it to torment people.

Murder himself did not think it was particularly scary. Jump scares from decades ago could no longer frighten anyone. Still, to avoid fighting that female version of himself, he could only compromise and resort to this collector's-edition tape.