A SkeleTON Of Mystery

Chapter 4: Flight of Blue

WARNING: MENTIONS OF SUICIDE IN THIS CHAPTER. AN ALERT WILL BE MADE BEFORE IT STARTS.
Hooo boy! Over one thousand reads?! You guys are amazing! I'm still putting in my Author's pre-post (or whatever they are called). Also! Need to clarify something! Not every chapter is going to be three or four thousand words long. The last one was a little excessive I admit, but they will be at a minimum of 2000 words long.
Understood?
Good.
-T-Dude
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Time stopped. They were all frozen in place, unable to process the words the King had spoken.
"Sans is destined to die."
Frisk's eyes were immensely wide opened, their sky-blue eyes full of fear.
Sans can't die! He was Frisk's super funny Dunkle! He may be lazy, but he still took care of Frisk like they were his greatest nephew! He couldn't die before confessing to Toriel! Frisk's ship would be ruined!
To them, death didn't have as much of an effect as on others. If Sans died, Frisk could just RESET and try and find a way to fix it. Their naïve mind never thought of the consequences.
Papyrus's mind was full of turmoil. HIS BROTHER WAS FATED TO DIE?! THAT COULDN'T BE CORRECT AT ALL! WHY SANS?! HE WAS THE GREATEST BROTHER IN THE WORLD! YES, HE WAS LAZY, BUT HE WAS THE ONE WHO TOOK CARE OF PAPYRUS FOR HIS FULL CHILDHOOD! HE WAS THE ONE WHO READ HIM BEDTIME STORIES EVERY NIGHT BEFORE BED! THE ONE WHO STOOD UP FOR HIM WHEN HE WAS BULLIED WHEN THEY WERE KIDS! HE COULDN'T DIE! PAPYRUS NEEDED HIM!
The voice in his head started to build up, its words constantly reminding Papyrus that his brother's life might end. Unconsciously, he started breathing heavily, his SOUL attempting to calm him down from his rising hyperventilation. Sans had been by his side for his entire life. Losing him would shatter Papyrus's very being, unable to recover from it. Without meaning to, his magical eyes activated. An orange glow began to emanate from his eye sockets, filling the room with a warm orange. His magic started to radiate heat, releasing a fragrance of fresh oranges.
Undyne glanced at him and noticed his magic attack. Thinking fast, she ran over to him and tackled him from behind, ready to suplex him unconscious if he went out of control.
"Papyrus! What's wrong?!" She yelled, trying to get through to him. The magic in his eyes halted, before vanishing from Papyrus's eye sockets. The orange magic that had been infused into the air had also disappeared, all trace of it gone.
Papyrus gasped.

"U-Undyne?" He stuttered softly, freezing Undyne in place.
"It is good you stopped me in time," he continued, seeing the startled look on Undyne. "Otherwise I might have done something terrible. I don't have magic attacks very often as I have a much more powerful control on my magic due to lots of training from Sans. H-He said that for skeletons, magic attacks are much more dangerous considering that we are completely made of magic." He stopped, his usually jovial face threatening to overcome itself with sorrow. His head sank, refusing to look anyone in the eye.
"Was it Sans and his possible death?" Undyne asked carefully. He nodded, slowly getting back up. "What was that coming from your eyes?"
"Sans called it a 'magic focus'. It is a useful tool for monsters with high magic levels as it gives them better control over magic. It also improves the monster's vision." Papyrus had a look of defeat, considering that he had almost let his magic go out of control.

"I MUST APOLOGISE." Papyrus spoke, his voice stabilizing. He went to continue, but Asgore raised his paw.
"I understand Papyrus." Asgore took a deep breath
"The truth is, we don't know if the curse is real."
Papyrus's head shot up, a faint glimmer of HOPE in his eyes.
"REALLY?! ARE YOU SURE?" He asked, his voice increasing in volume. "MY BROTHER MAY NOT DIE FROM THIS 'CURSE'?!"
"Well," Asgore began. "This has been passed down orally for centuries. It is possible that the curse was added later on and is not true at all. It could just be there to warn people about the Infinite Soul and how its power is damaging."
Undyne listened to him, feeling something was off about his words. Her instincts kicking in, she carefully studied Asgore as he spoke. With a start, she realised why.
The King of the Monsters was lying.
Toriel knew that it was a lie. It wasn't fair, but she knew it had to be done. Papyrus had suffered a magic attack after merely hearing that his brother would die. This lie was to help him cope by not needing to worry about Sans.
Toriel herself had to keep her emotions in check, knowing the truth and the pain that awaited her friend.
The Infinite Soul truly was cursed. The version Asgore gave them was just a simplified version. Choosing not to listen to Asgore's lies, she began to recite the original in her mind.