Snow crunched beneath footfalls. A beautiful wonderland of white lay ahead of the pair of travellers, the brilliant white shining through the mass of tress that surrounded the ruins. To the sides, the trees were thick and solid, barely worth traversing if they did not wish to become lost, and so it made sense to stick to the path that was already set out for them.<br/><br/>Monsters had left the ruins behind them long ago. Was it this path that they had created when they had first began to discover and explore their new world?<br/><br/>Now Frisk and Aster walked that same path, liberating themselves as the monsters of old had done so.<br/><br/>It seemed strange for it to snow underground, but a quick pat with a hand revealed that it was thus. Aster would know of the different temperatures that lay inside a mountain, about the freezing cold snow that drifted in from the tip of Mount Ebott, forming a natural climate within this area, about the central heat that lay before them once they got to the CORE, and even about the area made of water and melted pools that was formed when snow and lava mixed together.<br/><br/>Neatly they stepped over a fallen branch that seemed to block the path for a few moments. No wonder it had never been moved; it seemed to be a thick and sturdy object (for Frisk actually stood on it for a few seconds), yet there seemed to be no sense in paying it further mind. It certainly couldn't be moved or used as a weapon, but it was so unusual to see such an obstacle after a path of pure driven snow, that they couldn't help but take it in a little before moving on.<br/><br/>Never faltering to question this more so, the pair moved on, heading towards an ominous structure looming in the distance.<br/><br/>Crunch!<br/><br/>The tell tale sound of splitting wood. A sickening crack that split the air behind them so suddenly. There was no mistaking that the noise had come from where they had just been standing.<br/><br/>The branch, that had been strong enough to hold Frisk's weight...was splintered in the middle; split completely in two as though someone much larger than either of them had crunched it beneath a boot...