VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 110

The hateful glares subsided. There were a few she could catch, but those people would look away. Those unlocked memories lingered, and Asgore's speech wasn't enough to make anybody simply forget, even if they now believed those memories to be fake. The "warriors" that had gathered to follow Asgore into the depths of the kingdom and recover anything that could aid their defense were nine individuals, not including Asgore, nor Frisk, as she was going to be going regardless if she was told she could or couldn't.

Papyrus had designated himself as team co-leader beside Asgore, and with him was Sadie, Rian, and Fuku, all four of whom Frisk had been expecting. Then there was Dogamy and Dogaressa, and they seemed to be leaving their puppies under the care of Doggo, Lesser Dog, and Greater Dog. Dogamy and Dogaressa had had their litter a couple years ago. Six puppy monsters who were growing fast. The circles under their parents' eyes was enough to indicate that Dogamy and Dogaressa were in need of a break. Raising rowdy puppies was a lot harder than fighting the Messiah or exploring abandoned tunnels, obviously.

Then there was Muffet, though her reasons for joining mostly had to do with "making sure no spiders are harmed", which made enough sense. Abandoned tunnels were notorious for housing spiders. The final two were Mettaton (who mentioned needing more opportunities to get his joints in working order), and Napstablook (only at the urging of his cousin).

Magnum and Mosu declined to join, mentioning the surface needed to be guarded. Gregory used the same excuse. Truck wanted to join, but Alphys had requested his help, since Mettaton and Papyrus were already leaving.

Eleven individuals total. A king, a skeleton, a ghost, a robot, a spider, a fire person, two dogs, and three humans. It was almost like the set-up for a long-winded joke on a George Carlin routine. Frisk could remember her parents really enjoyed stand-up comedy, especially George Carlin. She'd never much cared about what her parents liked anyway, they'd been awful and neglectful.

Asgore led their group back into the throne room, and toward a door mostly hidden behind the thrones. Frisk was surprised she hadn't noticed it before, it was a fairly large archway that led down a set of stairs into inky blackness, though the thrones themselves were massive. Asgore-sized. She wasn't certain that this had been Asgore's kingdom though, unless perhaps he'd been young enough at the time to be seated in one of the Prince-sized chairs, and his own parents had been seated at the larger thrones.

Into the darkness they descended, Asgore lighting torches clinging to the walls along the way with his fire magic. That fire could only extinguish if he willed them away, or perished. Thankfully, his fire produced heat, and the air breathing through these tunnels seemed to be channeling that magical heat, warming up the cold tunnels beneath the land.

Frisk found Sadie walking beside her as they descended. They were in the back of the group, Rian and Fuku directly in front of them, and the others further down. "So what was that whole "hate Frisk" thing about?" Sadie asked Frisk in a quiet tone.

She opened her mouth to reply, before pausing. "Uh . . . just something the Messiah did, I guess. You heard Asgore," she replied, and could hear Chara scoff in the back of her mind.

"Oh," Sadie appeared unimpressed. "You ran off when it happened." She reminded.

Frisk nodded. "Yeah, I uh . . . got the memories too. It . . . uh . . . freaked me out and . . . can we talk about something else?" Sadie mistook Frisk's hesitation for being unsettled by the "implanted" memories, though in truth she just didn't want to keep the lie going and enforcing it so, but right now she couldn't go about undoing Asgore's words. Not until the threat had passed.

"Sure," Sadie agreed. "We haven't talked a ton since I got back. After . . . yeah. Think Terrence is . . . you know?" Frisk felt her stomach tighten.

"Maybe another topic would be a better replacement," she offered quietly. This didn't seem to sit well with Sadie, who huffed.