Editing User:Reversedragon/UTDR/pointed-tail/v2 (section)

=== The Knight ===

As the three heroes reach the end of the Dark World, the Roaring Knight turns up one more time. And this time they do something truly sneaky. Before the Delta Warriors arrive the Knight creates a second hole within the Dark World that doesn't look like a Dark Fountain, so Kris and Susie have no choice but to investigate it. What they don't know is this pit is the Titan — not actively spawning out of the interior of a second Dark Fountain, but simply already-spawned and flattened into a huge, vast void. As should have become apparent by now, a Titan is not much more than someone's most repressed thoughts or most terrifying memory that could crush their psychology if it came to the surface. So, the Titan is now taking the form of the first few cracks of the Roaring that appeared years ago — the pointed tail.

{{stage|[Kris backs away from the pit.]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Hey, what's wrong? This is just... a hole.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  We've fought worse things than this before.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Kris?<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  ...Well. I don't blame them.<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  You see, I can't go into that hole either. That's the Roaring.<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  Do you remember what the Prophecy said? When the Roaring comes to pass, that "hole" rips through Dark Worlds and drains the color out of Darkners. There will actually be nothing left of any of the Dark Worlds when it gets all the way through.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  {{stage|[serious]}} You are saying that much too cheerfully.<br/>
{{stage|[While the two have been bouncing off each other, Kris simply turns around and tries to walk away.]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Kris...?!

At this point the Angel can actually allow Kris to turn back and willingly have them run away. Susie and Ralsei run after them. The Knight taunts them by hurling a bunch of void daggers. Before long, Susie and Ralsei catch up with Kris, and it becomes a strange game of everyone following Kris to who knows where.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  ...So where are we even going?<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  {{stage|[smiling]}} Beats me.

Soon enough, Kris slows to a halt. Up ahead, we can see that Noelle has been in the Dark World and has just caught up to the two of them. Kris continues to her with no delay and awkwardly hugs her, just seizing her and pressing her into them. This is not easy to confuse for romance. Kris was clearly terrified and seems relieved Noelle is here.

{{stage|[As Kris lets go of Noelle they simply gaze at her a second, apparently choking out a "thank you".]}}<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[weirded out]}} Kris.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[compassionate]}} It was nothing.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[glancing away]}} I was just afraid of, if you're going to be down here, what was going to happen to you.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[looking at them]}} The world is falling apart.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  And if it's that bad out there... what's going on on the inside?<br/>
{{stage|[Reassured, Kris gently takes Noelle's wrist. Noelle has a heartened smile. The two of them glance over at the great shadowy rift, which the Knight is still silently hovering over. Looming.]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  {{stage|[good-natured]}} Hey, you can't just claim Noelle for yourself.<br/>
{{stage|[As she says this Susie walks over to the other side of them and puts her arm around Noelle, gentle with her but holding her close. Ralsei, who had mostly just been standing to the side smiling, moves to where Susie was.]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Well, are we ready to go down there?<br/>
{{stage|[Susie lets go of Noelle and takes a couple steps back out into the Dark World landscape to stand in the direction of the looming Knight.]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  {{stage|[unseriously]}} Any last words?

{{stage|[If this is a game, a dialogue box pops up for Kris to finally have the chance to let out part of what they've been so afraid of... or not.]}}<br/>
{{TTS|tts=(Option 1.) You'll find her dead body|☐ You'll find her dead body}}&nbsp;&nbsp; {{TTS|tts=(Option 2.) That isn't Dess|☐ That isn't Dess}}&nbsp;&nbsp; {{TTS|tts=(Option 3.) Into the pit|☐ Into the pit}}

{{stage|[Option 1]}}<br/>
({{b|Kris:}}  You'll find her dead body)<br/>
{{stage|[Noelle looks anxious for a moment, not saying anything.]}}<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  I always knew there was a chance of that.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  {{stage|[teasing]}} Kris, I tried to tell you that monsters collapse into dust. <ref name="gb"/><br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  No, they're being poetic. When they were smaller they wouldn't stop talking about skeletons.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  You know, dead ones. It was always, ooo you'll find them and they'll be a skeleton!<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  I think they saw one too many heavy metal albums.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Kris... why would you think that lamps had skeletons??<br/>
{{stage|[Kris looks embarrassed, but just normally, not in any sense of looking outright ashamed and afraid of Susie or Noelle this time.]}}<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[compassionate]}} Kris, it's okay.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  I want you here no matter how many weird metaphors you put in everything.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  And. Um.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  If we go in there and there's just a bunch of dust on the floor, I'll be able to accept that too.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  All right then.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  It can't be worse than when we went in and found the old man. Maybe she'll be a cool statue for all we know.

{{stage|[Option 2]}}<br/>
({{b|Kris:}}  That isn't Dess)<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  What... what do you mean by that?<br/>
{{stage|[Kris mumbles something looking away from the two of them]}}<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  "You don't want to know."<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[tense]}} {{em|What}} don't I want to know?<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  Kris. If there's something you've been keeping from me about what this thing is, you need to tell me.<br/>
{{stage|[There is a brief silence.]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  The Knight is a sandwich.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  It's a very bad sandwich that Kris accidentally dropped behind the couch and left there for three weeks and by the time they cleaned it up the couch stank and they couldn't wash away the stain and were forever afraid the world would catch onto their crimes. <ref name="ww"/><br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[disconcerted]}} Really.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  That's why it has daggers. You know, on a sandwich—<br/>
{{stage|[Kris quietly admits a bit more]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  The daggers are for piercing through your hand?<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  What does that even mean?<br/>
{{stage|[Kris uses their hands to show the Roaring Knight's blade wisping up out of the portal in their other hand, and then clasps their hand into a fist as if to hold a dagger and slams their fist hard into their palm. Noelle jumps.]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  That looks... painful.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  I wonder if. Do you think you could create a Dark Fountain into yourself?<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[lost]}} While we're already in here?<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Well. At all. But I guess in here too.<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  It would only lead to the Roaring. What's in your mind is no different from what's in the Dark Worlds.<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  And what's inside all Dark Worlds is the Titans.<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  The Titan Fountain would fill your entire being.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  The {{em|Titan}} Fountain?<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  It's best we just go in. It'll make sense to you once you see it.

{{stage|[Option 3]}}<br/>
({{b|Kris:}}  Into the pit)<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  All right then.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Noelle?<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[hopeful]}} We're going to find her.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  As they say, where there's snow, there are clouds.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  And where there's a Roaring Knight, there's...... something.

If you met up with Asgore, the second conversation will be slightly different:

{{stage|[Option 2]}}<br/>
({{b|Kris:}}  That isn't Dess)<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  What... what do you mean by that?<br/>
[...]<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  The Knight is a sandwich.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  It's a sandwich that Kris made with twenty-five toothpicks, and accidentally dropped behind the couch and left there for three weeks. They didn't want to tell anyone they'd forgot to clean it up so by the time they finally cleaned it up the couch stank and they couldn't wash away the stain, and—... Kris. Come on. Are you going to start talking or not?<br/>
{{stage|[Kris looks away, definitely not wanting to start admitting anything to Noelle.]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  It's a very bad sandwich.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[concerned]}} Kris?<br/>
{{stage|[Kris looks back at Noelle and quietly admits a bit more]}}<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  Only two?<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  They "hurt more than anything"? <ref name="kg"/><br/>
{{stage|[Kris uses their hands to show the Roaring Knight's blade wisping up out of their other hand, and then clasps their hand into a fist as if to hold a dagger and slams their fist hard into their palm. Noelle jumps. Susie is unfazed, though her expression looks bleak.]}}<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  Yikes.<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  I don't even know what that means but I don't like it.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Say.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Do you think it would actually be possible to make a Dark Fountain into yourself?<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[lost]}} While we're already in here?<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Well. At all. But yeah, I mostly meant in here. ...<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  The Titan Fountain would fill your entire being. ...<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  It's best we just go in. It'll make sense to you once you see it.

Kris opens the spellbook they found in the burning flower field Dark World and allows Ralsei to dissolve into a bunch of sparkles that fly into the book, snapping it shut as if to press him for later and stowing it, through unknown means, beneath their cloak. This is just a colorful way of representing the inventory space that isn't exactly anywhere. With Ralsei safely registered into Kris' inventory, he is not going to get shredded entering the pit. Kris, Susie, and Noelle head off toward the horizon where the Knight and the pit wait for them.

If, back at the moment Kris turns away from the pit, the Angel does not let Kris run, Kris faces the pit, takes a very deep breath, right now clearly in a state only a couple rungs above a panic attack, and abruptly catapults their body into the void fast enough Susie and Ralsei can only follow with their eyes before the pit contracts into nothing. Once again the Knight has shut the door and locked them in. Susie jumps forward onto regular burnt earth. Ralsei looks very distressed. The Knight is nowhere to be seen. Chapter 6 will begin with only Kris.
</div>

<div class="bop academic"><h2><time datetime="2025-11-02T19:05:19H">Gaster</time></h2>
When Kris falls into the void, they enter a new kind of landscape. Everything is rendered differently here from the way it is in the Dark Worlds. Major characters are shown in their Light World form, albeit still able to wield Dark World weapons. Darkners, at the moment they exist, are either rendered in stark pitch-black darkness with white outlines, or in the case they ever had associated colors, as similar black-and-white figures plus about a third of their original color swatches inverted, with hatching or patterning if necessary. (For example, Ralsei would be drawn in black and white with a nice light-cherry or hibiscus red.) Kris, Susie, and Noelle's equipment are also rendered as monochrome shadows like this.

The place itself is mostly covered in dark and there is not a whole lot down here. One of the most notable features is a canopy of what look like jagged glass shards all packed around particular "corridors" like angled pillars. Even so, it's impossible to see any kind of sky as much as some kind of viscous, cloudy background blackness. Heading down the corridors you can see a number of darkness fetuses bubbling up from the bottom to the top layer of froth, and what look like some kind of discarded shells of the Roaring Knight. Some of them look very crushed and beat up, while others look more untouched.

This "Titan world" is rather extensive, containing a few different sectors that circle around in a spiral. There are about seven floors, and any of the bottom six can contain a bridge to a secret floating rectangular-prism building hanging out in the center of everything — it's seemingly random which of the six floors will actually contain it, but it will consistently be on that particular floor the moment Kris enters the Titan world. (In the end, the floor is not actually random, and is chosen based on a hash of what options were entered into the "character creator" segment at the beginning of the game and what dialogue choices you picked. There are some combinations of choices that will give you the secret room on the first of the six "basement" floors.)

On each of the six basement floors, there are a bunch of miscellaneous objects on pedestals, taking the form of small abstract columns of darkness-stuff a little like spurts of water or stalagmites. This place doesn't work like ordinary Dark Worlds. Although there are a few tiny Titan children floating around in the background, all the Darkners have been replaced by ordinary inanimate objects that only turn into Darkners when Kris' party gets close and inspects them. The objects are very often shown in the black-and-white Titan palette as if to make it especially clear they are only shadows or memories of the object rather than literally being the object itself. As Darkners, they are more or less like pre-Chapter-5 opponents, aside from the fact some of them stay inanimate objects in the encounter, they are more moody than usual, and they will run away when you choose your Acts badly. Fighting them doesn't necessarily count as a "bad choice", depending on the item. If you fail to Spare them they distort into tiny Titan children that look very vaguely like the Knight and wisp away out the top of the screen. If you Spare them correctly you will see the continuously bubbling baby Titan vents around them shut off. At the same time, given these pedestal encounters are more difficult than before and less intuitive, whenever you leave one of the major map-divisions of this Titan world without Sparing all the pedestal Darkners all the pedestals in that area reset so you have a chance to try them all again.

The Titan world is like one big environmental storytelling exercise. It's something like the "Black Space", cluster-of-freaky-puzzle-rooms-around-the-distorted-queen ({{game|OFF}}), or {{game|Yume Nikki}} rooms of Deltarune, although it's more on the chill side versus any of those things.

One of the items on pedestals is the guitar from back in Dess' Light World room, which has turned into some kind of security guard. If you "Harmonize", or if you "Secret", it can be Spared. It isn't a difficult one.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}} Is secret really a verb?<br/>
{{b|Ralsei,}} {{stage|popping out of spellbook in inverted palette}}{{b|:}} Yes, it means to stow something.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}} Huh.

There are also a number of other pedestals with guitars on them, all shaped into some very artistic designs from various unimportant pieces of debris. They will click up into encounters which are eerily still with nothing really happening and not much on the screen where you can click and they will apparently play themselves. There is no particular point to this except that the presentation of all of it is unnecessarily eerie. None of the characters have any dialogue, it's just Kris and the guitar and utter silence and then a tune, and then the encounter ends. Although... there is just one guitar that if you manage to find and play Kris will get very unnerved. This is the accursed fractionally-tuned guitar that plays Gaster's theme as if were a chord arpeggio, hitting {{em|some}} kind of chord in the middle. Going back to the overworld Kris turns away from the guitar and everyone and shifts uncomfortably. Susie and Noelle are confused, apparently having no idea what this song is. But it seems Kris doesn't want to tell.

One of the items is a shadow of the red Soul device. When encountered this turns into an imaginary projection of what really looks like Chara, complete with knife. It says the joke line "I am the shadow... the true self", literally referencing the {{game|Persona}} series. If you "Discard" this character, or "Shadowbox" them, that's wrong. If you "Overshadow" them, they can be Spared.

One of the items is a journal. It appears to be a series of observations about the Dark Worlds and the Titan World, which the closer you look at them seem to just be another version of the Prophecy. This item appears at least once on every floor, sometimes simply being a readable book with different sections and sometimes turning into a sort of fancy mosaic wyvern made of stained-glass window sections, named "Trihard". If you "Follow" it, this is wrong. If you "Read" it, it can be Spared. This character has a funny little encounter puzzle where when you "Read" it you have to make a couple moves to solve a tangram. It isn't overly difficult.

(Journal:)<br/>
{{i|17. Light and dark both burning dire, countdown to the earth's expire [...]}}<br/>
{{i|The pointy-headed will say "toothpaste" "boy". [...]}}<br/>
{{i|Insufferable egg wants to make a fountain. [...] Hurry up Kris. If you make me watch this kid any longer I'll hit you. [...]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Dess really doesn't like Berdly, huh?

{{i|9. The end started before us. Their world is a sheet of paper tearing in the wind. [...] Kris, Noelle... I'm so sorry. [...] I'm going to fix it for your sake. I still love you.}}<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  {{stage|[no words, on the verge of crying]}}

{{i|5. Kris must not find BCCDDBWT}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Kris mustn't find... what?<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  B.C.C. D.D.B.W.T...<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  No. I don't have the slightest idea what this is.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Wait until we run into a shadow thingy named BCCDDBWT and then we go, oh, that's what that was.

{{i|24. [...] That little friend was a questionable idea. [...] he'll get ripped to shreds in the Roaring, and anyone would be sad. And why make him such a clear... you know? I wouldn't have created him. Hint hint. [...]}}<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  {{stage|[fake-mad, but judging]}} Bad opinion.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Whoever made Ralsei has better taste than you.<br/>
{{stage|[Kris has turned away, looking uneasy.]}}<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  {{stage|[supportive]}} Kris.<br/>
{{b|Ralsei:}}  I'm sorry it didn't go well, and you had to be stuck with me, but... we can pull through.<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  {{stage|[suspicious]}} Kris? What is going on right now?<br/>
{{b|Noelle:}}  Ralsei. We'll save you from Kris if we have to.

The way the journals work is there are 25 journal items but they are grouped into two stacks within the inventory menu that each display a particular group of entries: 7-25, or 1-12; basically there are two physical-"ish" journals that are being copied across the Titan world a bunch of times, and each time you find a copy, Susie and Noelle will focus on an entry you didn't "have" before. Entries 1 to 6 are special, and will only appear in six specific journals all within the same floor the central secret room is on, such that if you find any of these you'd then know to look for the bridge to the center room. The whole pedestal puzzle is pseudo-randomized carefully such that for each save file there is a particular set of items that is strewn around in a different arrangement each time you start Chapter 1 but otherwise stays constant whenever you enter a section of Chapter 6. There is always a full set of journals across the six floors, with only a few extra copies of entries 7-25 mostly so you can get all of those faster. You are not actually required to find entries 1-6. There is just a certain total number of journals, any entry, you need for their secondary use of unlocking doors between sections of the Titan world. (The journal entries above are shortened for readability, but in-game they would probably be read out in full except for a couple paragraph-long ones that would be excerpted at first, but which you could read from the inventory menu. There will be a full journal below this "Chapter 6" section.)

One of the items is an egg. This appears if Kris collected any one of the hidden eggs. It will turn into a talking forgotten-man tree, because a lot of things down here just aren't logical any more. You are not supposed to "Water" the tree. If you "Uproot" the tree, or you attack the tree to 0 HP and it slices in two — on the last hit it abruptly breaks before you can even use Pacify — it will be Spared. This encounter is totally optional, but is an important hint, explaining why the eggs are "not too important" but "not too unimportant". The eggs are just lore.

One of the items is a Shadow Crystal, which appears if Kris collected at least one in the previous chapters. There are thousands and thousands of Shadow Crystals down here of various sizes, but this small one is here to explicitly remind you they're still important. In an encounter the Shadow Crystal transforms into a looming dagger with an eye on it, very similar to the ones the Knight throws sometimes. The eye blinks sometimes, showing that for whatever reason this thing truly did turn into a Darkner. If you "See", you'll be cursed with a particularly nasty avalanche of daggers to dodge, although nothing else bad happens. If you "Overlook", the Darkner turns into a Titan child. If you "Accessorize", the Pacify meter increases {{em|and}} you get the nasty dagger pattern. Kris can't actually do any actions that increase the Spare meter. The least difficult strategy is to let Kris defend and have Noelle "Unsheath", which does increase the Spare meter. But clicking "Accessorize" and watching Kris wear the giant dagger-thing across their back {{em|is}} awfully funny.

These are some of the most important items. A lot of the items are just slightly more ordinary things like a pencil, a green scarf, a stack of green crayons, the very cursed burnt pizza box that turns into an image of the Shadow Mantle "Nightmare" boss again, a Pipis, and a rotating red gem that leaves Susie baffled (it's a reference to the "caskets" room in {{film|Petscop}}). A couple of these would be appearing here specifically to have the Noelle blog anecdotes actually appear in the game.

When you find the red gem, Noelle claims she remembers it. It was hidden somewhere in the dark corners of her house, and it was one of the many things that as a child she was afraid might "kill her". It turns into a spinning battle robot with blades on all sides. The wrong action for it is "Spiral". The right action is "Appraise".

Additionally, if you found journal entry #5 early enough to see it, there is a silly gag where when you find one of the ICE-E related items there is a chance the Darkner will be shown in a monochrome palette {{em|so}} surreal-looking it feels more "dripping with irony" than actually creepy, and its name will be shown as "BCCDDBWT".<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  That's... No...<br/>
{{b|Susie:}}  Did I make it turn into that?<br/>
{{b|Oll'een:}}  Be careful what you say. This whole place is a trap.

The journal is one of the most important items. Each time it appears as a normal book it can be picked up, and at the end of each floor it floats up in front of Kris and transforms into a shadow dagger that pierces into the keyhole and twists itself around to unlock it. It is a very unnatural sequence of events; the keyhole looks about the right size to fit the dagger, but the way it hovers over to the door and gets ready to stab it almost makes you viscerally afraid for the well-being of the door in a strange way before you realize, {{i|oh, that's just a door, what was I thinking}}.

On the bottom floor there is one final stabbable door that is placed specifically where it is the most unsettling, with all the scenery around it especially plain and simple. If Kris gets to it before finding the secret room, it will always be "locked" even if you have spare journals. But if Kris comes here after Sparing the Shadow Crystal character, they will produce a Shadow Crystal that turns into a dagger and unlocks the door. Without having found the secret room, the room inside is just small, empty, and mysterious, with no real point to it. But after finding the secret room... there {{em|is}} something inside. We will get back to this later.

On exactly two floors, one being pseudo-random and one being the sixth floor, there is one area where for unclear reasons there is a spelling keyboard a lot like the one that was spelling "ICE-E's catchphrase" in Chapter 2. The keyboard is mostly blank, and has letters only in particular locations, looking like this:
<pre aria-hidden="true">
[TEL YTV HEB E]    (or)    [TEL YFV HEB E]

T _ _ F _ _ _ _            T _ _ F _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ B H            _ _ _ _ _ _ B H
E _ _ V _ _ E _            E _ _ V _ _ E _
L _ Y _ _ E _ _            L _ Y _ _ E _ _
</pre>
On both keyboards the actual keys are the exact same, containing mostly blank spaces except a few isolated keys which spell out the target phrase at the top. The only difference is that the one on the sixth floor shows the target phrase "TEL YFV HEB E" instead of "TEL YTV HEB E", making the puzzle actually solvable. It shows a check mark, but does not reward anything.

But for now... the secret room.