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Silence, Introspection. That’s all the ruins were now. The monsters that would usually inhabit its creaky floors and its outdated puzzles were no longer here, and It seems as though everything has continued on without them. No more is the bustling of monster footsteps or the faint conversations that could be heard through the thin walls. Dalv had to wonder… How long had it been since the human arrived? An hour? Five Hours? A whole day? It seemed impossible to tell, as was most other things in here. In his head he could still hear the screaming of the Flier’s, or the desperate pleas of Decibat on his front door, or even the loud footsteps of all the other panicked monsters trying as hard as they could to flee from the human. No matter how much he wished they would, they weren’t coming back.
When the human first arrived, Dalv originally thought they were the same as the one from that dreaded day. He opted to stay away from them, not wanting to be faced with the one who made him isolate himself, but it became clear quickly that this human was not like them. There were cruel. Merciless. Unjust. They slaughtered every single monster in the dark ruins. The other human was ruthless in their path, sure, but this one? It was as if they weren’t even human at all. He continued running from them, dust clinging to his cape as he noticed the population of the ruins dwindle. He ignored them like he always did. The other monsters wouldn’t want anything to do with him, surely, and he didn’t want anything to do with them. He wished now that he had done something different. Something to have prevented this massacre from happening. But it was far too late. The dust had already settled, and the ruins… had never felt so empty.
The strangest part of today though? The fact that the human decided to spare him and no one else. Indeed, they had left him alone, and continued on through his house to complete their mission. Dalv wasn’t sure why this had happened. What did he do differently? What did he do to deserve mercy that the other monsters didn’t? He attacked them just like every other monster did. He scorned them for their actions like every other monster did. It truly seemed as if the human was doing it just to mess with him. He simply couldn’t wrap his head around it. He’s been staying in his room ever since, hoping that if he went back to sleep, then this would be undone.
…
Doesn’t seem like that will solve anything. Dalv decided to finally come out of his room. There was no point in dwelling in here forever. He walked down the hallway of his house and went to the main room, sadly looking at the ransacked furniture and the destroyed exit door. He opened Pop’s wardrobe, only to find that the human had killed him too, pieces of his popped remains spread out in the wardrobe. Dalv began to grow teary eyed. “Why is humanity so cruel?” He asked himself. He picked up the pieces of Pop’s and gently set him down on the table where his drawings used to be. He sat down at the table, contemplating. In a way, this was technically what he wanted. He always wished the other monsters would simply leave him alone and stop trying to befriend him. If only he could take all that back. He decided to look out into the ruins through his front door to see if anything changed. Still nothing. Still silence. What else should he have expected? Oh, how he missed having people to talk to. How he missed the constant attempts to befriend him by the ruins residents.
The biggest question of all crept its way into Dalv’s mind. What should I do now? There was no point in rotting away in these ruins anymore. It was clear hiding here wouldn’t get him away from humans like originally thought. Which meant that the only other place to go… Was Snowdin. Just thinking of that place jogged his memories of that one fateful day. Truthfully, he didn’t particularly want to go back there, doing that would mean he’d have to do a lot of explaining to his old friends and colleagues. Especially someone like… Kanako. But what else could he do? He needed to make a decision.
…
After a good ten minutes of contemplating and pacing, Dalv came up with an answer. It was time to go back to Snowdin, no matter how much it may hurt. He went back to his room and grabbed his oversized coat before putting it on. It still fits as good as it did before. He walked back down to the main room and towards the broken exit door. Looking out, he could vaguely see all of the snow and ice that at one point would have been where he played with Kanako. As soon as he got to the door, he realized something. The human came out here. Dalv remembered. He got so distracted with his Snowdin debate that he had genuinely forgotten about them. Well, that should be fine, right? Snowdin had royal guards, surely the human has been well past caught and killed by now. Dalv walked out of the door, finally feeling the cold air on his skin.
Snowdin felt… oddly eerie. He couldn’t quite explain it, but it felt different than before. Hopefully that wouldn’t impact anything. He began walking down the snowy path, trying to remember the way to the honeydew resort. This walk was actually quite nice, with Dalv seeing a ton of landmarks he could vaguely recall, like the weirdly placed pole, or the dilapidated cabin that he once considered living in. He did notice something strange though. “Where is everybody?” He asked no one in particular. This part of Snowdin always has been considerably less popular than upper Snowdin, but surely he should have seen somebody by now. where are they? “Hello?” Dalv yelled out, hoping someone would answer. “Helloooooo?!” He yelled again. Still no response. Oh no. This can’t mean what Dalv thinks it means. They have to be somewhere! Like… The honeydew resort, of course! Maybe they all just went there! That place was quite popular after all. Dalv picked up the pace of his footsteps, trying to get to the resort faster. As he walked, he passed through a few already completed guard puzzles and a few archways, a pretty typical sight to see on a lot of these pathway’s, though he found it weird that the puzzles had already been completed.
Eventually, he managed to reach the resort after a few minutes of speed-walking. Though when he went inside, all the lights were off, and nobody was there either. His worst fear at this time seemed like it had come true. He sat down at one of the booths, and began crying. He couldn’t help it anymore. Nobody being here likely means that somehow, the human had managed to kill everyone here too, and if they could do it here, they likely did it everywhere else too. Which begs the question again, why did the human spare him specifically? It had to be some sort of cruel joke, why else would they go out of their way to do this? He looked around the resort again, sadly staring at all the knocked over tables and furniture, until he noticed something. Someone had hidden something behind the main shop desk. Dalv walked over and picked it up, inspecting it. It looked to be a regular map of Snowdin, But he noticed it had a highlighted path and a note attached to it. The note read:
Any residents of Snowdin that haven’t been able to make it, please use this map to find your way to the nearest evacuation zone! This should help keep you safe.
Signed, Martlet of the royal guard.
Of course, the evacuation zone! Surely at least some people had to have escaped. This small bit of hope was enough to motivate Dalv to practically book it out of the resort, and run down the hidden path marked on the map. Once he got deep in the forest, he saw the bunker that other monsters were presumably hiding in. He knocked on the large metal door, hoping for a response. Small gasps could be heard from the other side of the door after he knocked. He decided to say something.
“Hello? It’s me, Dalv. I haven’t been in Snowdin for a while, but I’ve seen the evacuation procedure and I decided to come here. Could I be let in please?” He could hear faint conversations behind the door, but one voice stuck out.
“Wait, Dalv? You actually came back?” He remembered that voice, it was the Snowdin shopkeeper that he used to order pancakes from nearly every week. He was thankful to hear another monsters voice again. The shopkeeper came up and managed to open the metal door, letting Dalv into the bunker. She shut it behind him. He looked around the small space at all the other monsters, who had also escaped the human’s wrath.
“Where have you been? We evacuated six hours ago!” One of the monsters said.
“That’s how long it’s been? Where is the human now?” Dalv asked them.
“We aren’t sure, we were just told to hide here until we got an announcement from Undyne.”
“Ah.” Dalv decided to just sit with them, frankly, he didn’t care about where the human was now, as long as his friends were safe, that’s all that mattered to him. An hour went by as all the monsters remained huddled in the bunker, some were talking about their families, some about their day, and some about what they were going to do once this evacuation ended. Dalv chimed in a bit too, talking about his time in the ruins and his near death encounter with the human. He managed to enjoy his time with the other evacuees, managing to make light of the grim situation.
Suddenly, an announcement came on over a speaker in the bunker. It was the voice of Undyne, the captain of the guard, and she sounded like she was on the verge of crying as she prepared to speak. “Citizens of the underground… I bring very unfortunate news. Our glorious king Asgore…” She took a deep breath. “Has fallen.” A sudden stream of shock could be heard inside the bunker. “And the human… has fled the underground with the souls in tow. We have confirmed reports that they layed waste to multiple areas in the underground, including lower Snowdin, the Dunes, and New home.” Silence spread across the bunker as the monsters processed what this meant. Some of them began crying, realizing that they had lost. Humanity had beat them once again.
Dalv stared in silence. He couldn’t believe the human actually did it. They made it all the way across and out of the underground, taking all of monster kind’s hope with them. This practically confirmed his suspicion, they were just sparing him to make him see the loss of monster kinds one chance at freedom. They were just that cruel of a person. Dalv wanted so badly to be angry, to throw attacks in a rage! But he simply couldn’t muster it. What was the point? It’s not like throwing a tantrum would bring the souls back, or the monsters he lost. He simply got up, and walked out of the bunker. The human had left, so there was no reason to stay. He walked out of the deep forest and towards the path to waterfall, noticing some other monsters leave other safety shelters as he passed through. Once upon a time those monsters passing him might have tried to strike up a conversation, or even offer to be his new friend. But no one could manage such a thing now, and they may never be able to again.
Dalv quickly sped up his walk to waterfall, not wanting to look any other monster in the eyes right now. He needed a bit to process this new information, everyone did. He made it to Waterfall’s entrance after a few minutes, and looked at his own reflection through the only thing he could see it in, the nearby water stream. How should I live my life now? The question went into his mind. Since there was no longer freedom from the underground to look forward to, he wasn’t sure what he should do now. He could try to come back to Snowdin again, maybe move into that dilapidated cabin. That would be a good distraction from all this. Or maybe… maybe he should look for Kanako? It’s been so long since he had seen her, he was starting to forget her face. Undyne had said that the human had massacred the dunes, but surely Kanako and her family escaped right? He admittedly had no idea how the Ketsukanes have been doing lately, but he remembered them caring deeply about each other. They had to have kept Kanako safe. If they didn’t… Dalv wasn’t sure what he would do. He decided to set out to the dunes, ready to search for his long lost friend. Maybe if he could find her, he may find hope again.