Chara: "...is that all?"

sans: "Yup."

*I'd facepalm, but my low HP might mean I'd die from it. And therefore need to hear this stupidity again.

Chara: "Because you need seven souls to break the barrier."

sans: "But you only need one to cross."

Frisk: "Okay I've been lost for like this entire conversation. What even is the barrier? Is-"

Chara: "Agree to ignore their request?"

sans: "That would maximize their suffering...sure."

Frisk: '...Fudge y'all.'

sans: "Anyway, why hasn't Asgore crossed the barrier using the souls to take the remaining few he needs? It wouldn't be that hard."

Chara: "I...I don't know, maybe he doesn't want to repeat my mistake. Maybe his-"

sans: "given up. I told W.D that much. Which earned me an insult and another question. Why did no one use the souls to cross the barrier? It was the easiest way out after all. No need for killing either. They could go to a hospital with a patient at death's door to absorb their soul. Or take the soul of any human that's...taken their life. Or a thousand quicker and more moral options than just sitting around and waiting for a kid to fall. Yet no one's done it. I asked him why he didn't do it then. W.D smiled in a way that I don't know how to describe. I just knew that at that moment W.D had become something more than a monster." (within)

sans: "he told me he had, and urged me to do the same. And see how the world resists. i wasn't in the mood to confirm his theories so I left him to his weird new project...that's the last time I saw W.D. but eventually curiosity got the better of me and I tried going to Asgore to suggest the idea." (this)

Chara: "And?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

sans: "Emphasis on tried. Every time i settled on going something would get in my way. And when I finally did meet Asgore I...forgot what I was going to say. Only after getting back home did I remember what I was there for. At first, I thought it was the anomaly playing a trick on me. I mean, if they could stop the timelines left and right then who's to say they couldn't erase a memory or two? But when I confronted who I thought was the anomalous figure I learned that we had in fact worked together to try to solve this exact issue. But no matter what we did we could neither convince Asgore to use the souls, obtain them, or even spread the word about the obvious solution. We even tried contacting W.D, hoping that he'd have the answers to all of this. With the anomalies' ability to reset we had practically unlimited time to fix W.D's machine and get him back. I...I've got no clue how long we went at it. It could've been years, decades...maybe even centuries. All I know is that it takes a lot of dead ends to make someone as determined as an anomaly give up."

Chara: "This anomaly, does it refer to itself as Flowey?"

sans: "Hm, so you've met it. I haven't seen it in a while. But I get it, they probably felt like a kid who'd just learned there was nothing at the end of the rainbow."

Chara: "...Your question from before. Flowey told me I'd stolen some sort of power. We call it the reset, the ability to go back in time after death via save points. It sounds like what Flowey was doing. I guess I'm the current anomaly."

sans: "...not quite. you're THE anomaly. Ever since you've shown up the system has been way stricter than before. Or do you think I didn't try to convince Papyrus not to fight you? It just...didn't matter. And when I went to help-"

Chara: "You couldn't interrupt as well..."

sans: "Yeah. it doesn't end there. before you came, i could use my shortcuts just fine. the world works...kinda like a video game. Parts of it are loaded for you, and when you pass those loaded parts into a new area there's a bit of time in between when you're in the middle. Do certain actions and you can end up in all sorts of places. now... well it's like something is stopping me."

Chara: "Hold up, how did you teleport at the bridge then?"

sans: "Oh, that? Must've been thanks to the author's poor planning."

Chara: "W-wha-"

sans: "hehehe, i'm just messing with you, kid. that's a totally different power, costs a lot of energy though."

Chara: "Alright...any clue why this is all happening?"

sans: "I do have a leading theory. It's the magic of those 7 human mages. We all assumed that it was just a wall of sorts. But in retrospect, it should've been obvious that it was more complex than that."

*A chill runs down my spine as I realize how fucked we all are.

sans: "hm, that expression...yeah, I didn't fare much better. The thing that's limiting our actions, ensuring that we can't escape...is none other than the barrier itself."