Determination Fish

Linde looked at Undyne before him, his heart bleeding. Why did I inject the whole syringe?! I wanted to study some of it!

But when he thought back to Undyne's unstable condition halfway through the injection, Linde sighed. Forget it. I'll definitely figure it out myself someday anyway.

As he thought this, the effect of "Freeze" wore off, and Undyne broke free of her restraints.

Since time had been stopped for her, she had no idea what had just happened. "Humans! Perhaps you really are powerful, to have lasted this long under my attacks..."

Linde's heart lurched. No... surely not? She doesn't hate us that much, does she?

"You humans... are born with powerful souls, with the determination to make yourselves stronger..." A faint light shone beneath the patch over Undyne's left eye. "We are born so much weaker than humans..."

"Linde... something's... wrong with her." Frisk seemed to see something beginning to grow wildly in Undyne's chest.

"Asgore... is the hope of the entire monster kingdom, the sole embodiment of every monster's longing for the outside world! By hurting him, you're destroying everything monsters have!"

Undyne tore off her eye patch, and the two children saw flashes of light pouring continuously from her left eye.

Linde stopped Frisk from trying to explain. "Don't interrupt her right now. This is a good thing for her..."

Undyne's presence grew ever more powerful. "But I will never let all of that disappear! We all have things we must protect!"

"So, if you really want monsters to be defeated just like this..." Brilliant light radiated from Undyne's entire body, and an inexplicable pulse stirred up clouds of dust...

"The power of determination... you can feel it too, can't you?" Linde smiled and glanced at Frisk beside him.

"Yeah... how can you still be smiling?!" Frisk snapped, watching Undyne nervously.

At that moment, all of Waterfall fell silent. The only sounds were the distant flowing water and their own breathing.

In an instant, a brilliant light pierced the dust, and a fierce wind swept through, revealing a towering, sacred figure.

At that moment, looking at that figure, they could almost hear the heartbeat of the world.

Undyne swept her hand out, and countless spears appeared behind her. She grabbed one and swung it forward-

"You'll have to try harder than that!"

"She did it!" Linde exclaimed in delight.

Frisk grabbed Linde by the collar and dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the incoming spear. "You lunatic!"

Undyne looked down at her powerful new form and clenched her fists. She could feel that she would return to normal in another ten minutes, so she resolved to destroy these two humans within that time and then rescue Asgore!

"She probably can't keep this up for long. We just have to hold out," Linde said reassuringly, patting Frisk on the back.

Frisk glanced back at Linde helplessly. "Don't worry. I can load my save. I know all that."

Spears rained down on them from every direction. Linde's and Frisk's souls turned green, and their feet were fixed in place, leaving them only the spears Undyne had given them to block her attacks.

Still, Linde and Frisk could defend against attacks from two directions at once, which made things quite a bit easier.

"Seriously, if she really wanted to beat us, couldn't she just not give us spears...?" Frisk complained between blocks.

Linde's expression was full of reverence. "You don't have to understand her, but I hope you can respect her. This is her principle. She wants a fair fight."

"Mm... all right. I get it."

Seeing that her attacks against their green souls were having no effect, Undyne immediately restored both their souls to normal, then raised her spear and lunged at them.

Linde leaped aside and gritted his teeth. "Monsters have souls too, right?! Then I'll..."

He immediately seized the soul projection in his hand and charged at Undyne, sidestepping to the right to dodge her spear before thrusting his soul projection straight into her soul...