The Angel of Darkness, And the Demon of Light

Chapter 22: The King of Spades, The REAL Monster

After the quick visit with Rouxls, the heroes continued to the throne room. Once they arrived, they took immediate notice to the giant mess in the room. The floor had holes and cracks, and the banners had tears in them. The walls had cracks in them too. The throne itself looked like it went through hell and back. The point being, the place was an absolute mess. "Christ on a bike... This room looks like a warzone..." Vixen mumbled, as she walked around while examining the carnage. "I see what you mean... Look at the throne!" Chara remarked, pointing at the semi-destroyed throne.

"Not to mention the cracks on the ground and the rips in the banners..." Susie added, glancing over the nearly shredded banners. She looked back in Vixen's direction. "What the hell do you guys think happened in here, anyway?" She asked, only to get a shrug and an "I 'unno.'" in response. "Signs indicate there was a struggle, for one..." Ralsei stated, as he and Kris looked over at the others. "I think she means WHY was there a struggle." Chara remarked, as she, Vixen and Susie looked back at them. "Yep." Susie replied, nodding.

"Well, in that case... I... Don't know, actually..." Ralsei replied, awkwardly. "Some help you are..." Susie mumbled as she rolled her eyes, which resulted in Kris lightly elbowing her. "Maybe we'll find out...?" Vixen said in uncertainty. "See, the funny thing is, I'm not even sure if I WANT to..." Chara stated, as she glanced over the room again. "Well, I guess we'll see then..." Susie stated, as they continued on their path.

The group soon made it to another dark corridor. The tension from what they were about to face was nearly suffocating. Having enough of the tense atmosphere surrounding them, Susie spoke up. "...Hey. Vixen." Vixen glanced behind her. "Yeah?" She acknowledged, waiting for Susie to continue. "You and Chara are from another universe, right?" Susie asked, curiously. With a nod, Vixen replied with; "Timeline, technically speaking, but yeah, we are."

"What exactly makes it different?" Susie asked, which ended up peaking Ralsei and Kris's attention, as they were curious about the subject too. "I must admit, I've been wondering about that for awhile myself. What about you, Kris?" Ralsei added, before turning to Kris who gave a nod in response to his question. "Weeeell... It's tough to explain, but to put things into perspective, It wasn't ORIGINALLY a timeline where stuff like this would happen. Not to Chara and I, anyway." Vixen attempted to explain, doing the best she could without going too far into detail about what happened to herself and Chara.

"And... What does that mean?" Susie asked, clearly not getting what she meant. "It basically means that she and I weren't initially... Like how we are now." Chara simplified, earning a nod from her sister. "Yep. We used to be totally separate people with zero powers." Vixen stated. "Hmm. Is that so? Well, once we're done with this, perhaps you could tell us sometime!" Ralsei said, interested about what caused his friend and her little sister to become who they are today. "Alright! Sure! But for now, let's stay focused." Vixen replied, stopping as she noticed they've reached the end of the monochromatic corridor.

"Hey, there's Lancer...!" Susie pointed out quietly, as she noticed the little spade boy. "And I guess that bigger guy is the king..." Chara added, noticing the shady figure in front of the aforementioned child. "...He's... A lot more intimidating than I thought he'd be..." Vixen commented, holding one of her hands to her chest as she and the others watched Lancer approach his dad.

"Father!" Lancer called, looking up at the looming figure. "Lancer, my son. Have you dispatched the lightners, as I commanded?" The shadowed king asked, his deep voice reverberating throughout the empty room. "N... No, b-but... I did even better! It turns out we don't actually have to fight them!" Lancer proclaimed, somewhat nervously. "They said they could just talk to you, and..." Lancer was cut off by his Father's loud stomp.

"They're ALIVE?" The king seethed, making Vixen and Ralsei jump from the sudden loudness in his voice. 'Wait... I get why RALSEI jumped, but... Why did Vixen?' Susie wondered, confusedly. 'Ah, screw it... I'll ask her later.' She figured, shrugging it off for the time being. "Yes, and I think you'll like them a lot!" Lancer stated, still trying to sound cheerful.