Underlust 06

Click.

The two appeared somewhere completely dark.

A faint flame appeared in Murder's hand, barely illuminating their surroundings.

Ahead of them was a doorway with three paths beyond it, which seemed to branch off further inside.

"Buddy, this is the maze where Gaster stores souls. After extracting most of their traits, he stored the souls here. This place... is incredibly well hidden. Even our king might not know about it."

Lust watched their surroundings warily.

"But... this place is seriously dangerous. There used to be lights here. Those guys probably destroyed them."

"Those guys?"

"Yeah. In this maze... there are a few monsters completely consumed by lust. They... were brought here by me. They tried to force Papyrus... to do some filthy things, so I dragged them here and disposed of them. But... that lust seems to have brought them back to life."

A light flickered in his eyes.

"After coming back... they became demons with nothing but sex on their minds... and the worst damn part is, they can't be destroyed."

"Aren't you worried they'll take that soul?"

"No. That soul has a restriction placed on it. Only monsters directly related to Dr. Gaster can take it."

Lust patted himself.

"As it happens, I'm his son, so I can take the soul."

(Note: Parent-child relationships do exist in Underlust. Here, since Sans's personified gender is female, the term used is daughter.)

"Son? You're Gaster's son?"

"Yeah. Oh, and buddy, there's something I need to warn you about... you can't use shortcuts here."

"Got it."

Murder agreed, and the two headed deeper into the maze.

Naturally, Lust led the way. He still remembered the route to the soul, which was a definite plus.

As the two ventured deeper into the maze, eerie growls drifted in from all around them.

The maze might have carried sound a little too well; they could almost pinpoint where the noises came from.

"Uh... Lust?"

"Yeah?"

"Mind if I ask... how many monsters are in here?"

"...About four or five. Whatever you do, don't let those things catch you, other me. Those monsters are probably already ruled by lust. They'll do absolutely anything to whatever prey they catch."

(Doesn't this sound a little like Crossed?!)

"...Lust, what you're describing is..."

"Don't get the wrong idea, buddy. There used to be surveillance cameras here, but they got torn out later. I know about this because I saw them catch a cockroach."

Lust spread his hands slightly. That description made Murder think he actually had a remarkably strong stomach.

Suddenly, Lust's expression tightened.

He had heard that familiar, heavy breathing.

He had actually come here often in the past to collect data. Then, on one visit, he discovered that the corpses here had gotten back up, and they were far more mobile than he had imagined.

What he had just said wasn't exactly a lie to Murder, either. He really had seen those monsters do those vile things to a cockroach.

Only, he had witnessed it firsthand, at extremely close range.

If his lust-suppressing device hadn't worked back then, preventing the recently revived monsters from sensing him, he might have lost his innocence long ago.

After that, he really hadn't dared come back.

Murder looked at Lust's grave expression in confusion. He was controlling the flame and couldn't spare the concentration to sense the magic around them.

"Murder, don't make a sound from here on."

With that, Lust tugged Murder along and hid in a corner of the maze.

"I have a device on me that can conceal lust. Besides hiding my own lust... it seems to hide other people's lust for me, too."

Lust leaned against the wall with a grave expression, Murder beside him after being pulled over.

"Those monsters sense living creatures... through lust. Buddy, do you have any way to boost this device's output?"

Lust took the small device out from inside his clothes and spoke to Murder telepathically.