From the highest rooftop of the Brimstone Institute of Demonics, it looked as though the entire world was coming to an end. The dry storm was at its worst; a maelstrom of churning red clouds and flashes of violent crimson lightning that struck the land in jagged forks. Gunshots and war cries echoes from far below where the Sulfur Bloods were doing battle with the BPD, and the footfalls and yells of escaping students were whipped and warped by the searing wind. The rooftop itself was strangely peaceful, like Cobalt was standing amidst the eye of the storm. It was little more than a flat expanse of concrete, surrounded by a wire fence that blocked off the sheer drop to the hard earth down below.

And in the middle of the rooftop stood Diate, his back turned to the Incubus. He was tall, and dressed from head to toe in dark clothing.

He took a deep breath.

"I'm here," Cobalt called through the wind, clenching his fists.

Diate turned his hooded head towards him, his eyes burning red like hot coals.

"That you are. You Trayers are far too stubborn to die. You fight and squirm and resist; pests to the end. Brass was no different," he remarked, his rusty voice grinding against the Incubus' eardrums.

Cobalt swallowed hard.

"So what now? You kill me and let this all be over with?"

"It's almost cute how you think it'll be that easy. Would I have spent so long tracking your every movement if I just wanted to kill you? Had that been the case, you would have been dead before you gave your first lesson."

He turned around to face the Incubus, his coat whipping in the wind.

"As I said before, I wish to take back the dignity that your father stole from me," he hissed, clenching his fists.

"I'm not him," Cobalt replied.

"That you are not. But you'll do."

Raising his hands, the Devil cracked his knuckles.

"But before the games begin, I say we ought to set the stakes," he sighed.

"Stakes...?"

Cobalt heard footsteps behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Karazelle and Whitney emerge from the stairwell, both looking bloodied and bruised. They bore their weapons and planted themselves between their teacher and Diate.

"You want to get at him, then you're going through us first," the Succubus hissed, readying her whip.

"For once, I agree," the Nymph concurred, holding her spear out threateningly.

Diate's eyes widened bemusedly.

"How cute. Even after everything, your gaggle of schoolgirls still cling to you like flies on shit," he remarked.

Cobalt heard yet more footsteps from behind him as Quinn and Lottie emerged from the stairwell. The Golem was holding her Granite Shield out protectively, while the Imp was aiming her Lead Revolver directly at Diate's head.

"Brass commanded the same blind loyalty from his own companions. I wonder, would they love you so if they knew what you were?"

A glassy black arrow buried itself in the concrete right at his feet. Craning his head, he looked up to see Elya flying above, her Obsidian Bow nocked and ready to fire.

"Oh, if only they knew..."

"We can still leave it here, Diate. There's been enough violence already," Cobalt called, raising both of his hands.

"No, I don't think there has. Why won't you bear your teeth at me, Trayer? After all I did to get them nice and sharp for you?" the Devil asked, cocking his head.

Swallowing hard, Cobalt nervously ran his tongue along the sharp fangs in his mouth. The Devil must have noticed this, as he immediately burst out laughing.

"Wet your teeth, Trayer. Let your blood burn for once in your pathetic life. Here; I'll make it easier for you...!"

He raised a hand and snapped his fingers.

"MUIRATNEMAMRA MUERREF! SUCRA!"

In a dark miasma of grey smoke, an iron longbow suddenly formed in the Devil's hand, alongside a brace of barbed arrows in his other. Turning on his heel, he fired them all into the sky, forcing Elya to duck and weave out of the way. The others leaped into action as he turned and snapped his fingers again.

"MUTUCS!"

The bow morphed into a massive iron tower shield that Diate raised before himself, causing Whitney and Karazelle's attacks to just bounce off. Quinn let loose with a salvo of rounds from her revolver, but the bullets just bounced off uselessly.

"SUELLAM!"

Again, the Devil's weapon changed form, becoming a huge warhammer before Cobalt's very eyes. His ivory teeth glinting from within the shadows of his hood, he slammed it down on the ground, cracking the concrete and generating a wave of force strong enough to knock the rest of the demons onto their backs. Up above, Elya shrieked and dove for Diate, Immoderata bared and aimed right at his heart.

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He snorted.

"Fools. The lot of you," he sighed as his weapon faded away into dark grey vapour.

He reached out without looking and grabbed Elya's throat, halting her mid-dive.

Knocked prone, Cobalt could only watch as Diate's eyes glinted.

"Now, about those stakes I spoke of," he said, hurling the Fallen to the ground.

Before any of the girls could speak, he grinned and snapped his fingers.

"Menidutitrof ihim ad. Orref. Tneratpac."

Black iron chains burst from the edges of the rooftop, wrapping tightly around their limbs and dragging the girls away from Cobalt and the Devil. Though they struggled and thrashed, the metal links constricted around their throats and mouths, silencing their cries of protest.

"So, Trayer. Care to dance, now that we have a captive audience?" Diate asked, offering a gloved hand.

Swallowing hard, Cobalt refused his foe's hand and instead forced himself back onto his feet. He felt sick; the fire in his stomach was only serving to churn his insides and muddle his thoughts. Grimacing, he pointed at Diate's coat.

"... only if you show me who you really are," he gasped, fists balling in anger.

His red eyes flashed before he gave the Incubus a shrug.

"I suppose that's fair enough. Do try not to faint...!"

He grabbed the front of his coat and ripped it off, all in one go.

Cobalt had only ever heard tell of Devils in old storybooks and fables, like most other demons. Supposedly they were once the apex of the demonic species; statuesque beings that stood heads and shoulders above their lessers, capable of wielding the same power of creation as the dread king Lucifer himself.

And as broken as he was, Diate still struck terror deep into the Incubus' heart.

His skin was steel grey all over, and riddled with all manner of battle scars. They criss-crossed his chest and spiralled around his abs, and a pair of raised gashes extended up past his neck towards the man's face, which radiated pure bloodlust. His angular visage was marred with yet more wounds, but where his horns were supposed to be, he bore a pair of ragged iron stumps. Noticing Cobalt's stares, Diate grinned and ran a finger along them as he held the metal spikes dangling from his belt with the other.

"Yes... a parting gift from Brass. He ripped them from me oh so cruelly, along with these," the Devil explained, turning around.

Upon his back were two massive scars held shut with metal staples, where his wings supposedly once were. Looking down, Cobalt noticed a lot of scarring around the base of his spine; his tail was gone too.

"But I lived on. After everything he did to me, he refused to cross that line. He refused to do what he was born to do. He held back on me, Cobalt, and I didn't like that," Diate hissed, facing him once more.

The Incubus tried to say something, but before he could say a word, an orange blur suddenly rushed past him from the direction of the stairwell.

"GOH~RAAAAAAGH~!"

Izzbelle Suyas, with her Bronze Axe raised high, barged past the Incubus and made to cleave the Devil straight down the middle. Diate just rolled his eyes and grasped the blistering axeblade in both hands, halting it immediately.

"Oh Izzbelle, have you learned nothing? Do you really think this'll scare me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She breathed hard through her nose like a bull, but in place of growing angrier, the Oni just grinned madly.

"I'm not the one to be afraid of right now, cocksucker...!" she hissed.

Cobalt staggered forward as a green blur pushed past him.

"G- Gorah~!"

With her Rock-Candy Mace gripped in both hands, Jelli rushed up to Diate and squeezed her eyes tight. Before he could drop Izzbelle's axe and defend himself, the Glutton swung her weapon and struck him hard across the side of the face, drawing a grunt of pain from his throat.

He turned back to glare at both of them.

"Hmph. Trayer's sweethearts show themselves at last," the Devil remarked, shoving them both back.

With two snaps of his fingers, they were bound in iron and dragged to the sidelines, leaving him and Cobalt alone in the centre of the rooftop.

"Come on Trayer, I've got your lovely girlies all trussed up and at my mercy. Doesn't that make you a little angry?" the Devil jeered, gesturing to the bound demons all around them

The flame flared, deep down, but the Incubus kept his nerve.

"I'm not a fighter, Diate. I'm not Brass," he gasped, shaking all over.

"Once again, you misunderstand, Trayer! I don't want to fight you! And as for your father, he really doesn't matter all that much to me! What matters is that I want to fight an Incubus! I want to fight a Devourer of Pandemonium!"

Cobalt's eyes widened.

"What...?" he breathed.

In turn, the Devil's grin only grew wider, more insane.

"Oh yes! Us Devils, our reign ended miserably! Our forces were decimated by the Rapture and destroyed by revolution! But our spouses and children? Our families that sought shelter behind the walls of Pandemonium? They were ripped apart by the likes of you! They were massacred by Lady Fesser's feral fucking Incubi!" he roared, his outburst punctuated by flashes of lightning.

To his left, Cobalt saw Karazelle manage to reach up and pull one of the chains away from her face.

"What the fuck are you talking about, you psycho?!" she cried before her speech was robbed from her once more.

He fixed the Succubus with a maddened stare.

"Tell me; is it not strange that Incubi are only born once in a blue moon? Do you not ever wonder what happens to them when they reach maturity? Have you never pondered the nature of your beloved teacher's jagged teeth and manic stare?!"

Cobalt's skin went pale as his stomach dropped into his shoes.

"Think about it. No really, all of you; have a good long think about it," Diate continued, looking at them all in turn.

He gave them a moment to think, before the Devil gave a dramatic sigh and began to count off his fingers.

"Must I spell it out? Succubi are Lust demons, correct? So even as an all-female race, they spread like wildfire. At the rate they breed, overpopulation is all but inevitable."

His grin grew sickly. He was enjoying this; drawing out every moment as he unveiled the terrible truth.

"So, in my master's endless wisdom, he created a solution to counter the Succubi's endless expansion. He created the Incubus."

Cobalt's legs buckled from beneath him. He looked up at his students, only to turn away upon seeing the looks in their terrified eyes.

"Oh yes, they're sweet and charming at first. But once they hit adulthood...!"

He shut his eyes.

"... that's when it hits. Incupsychosis. Their minds break down, their bodies toughen, their teeth grow sharp and jagged...!

"Stop...!" Cobalt pleaded, trying and failing to block the Devil's words out.

"And then they do what they do best; they kill. Everyone and everything. They kill, they ravage, they eat and they destroy. What they cannot devour, they break beyond use. What they cannot break; they bleed dry! And they enjoy every fucking minute of it!" cackled Diate, throwing his hands to the sky.

"Stop, please!" screamed the Incubus, staring desperately at the Devil.

"Why?! Why hide it from them any longer, Trayer?! Don't they deserve to know that you're naught but a murderous savage?! That you've been eyeing their lovely, surging throats, just waiting to rip them-?!"

"I HAVE NOT!" Cobalt roared, rising to his feet.

The fire sparked, burning so bright that it threatened to scorch his insides.

"There it is! I can practically hear your blood boiling!"

"You leave me no choice!" cried the Incubus, raising his fists.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! BRILLIANT! ROSSEM!"

In a flash of grey smoke, a great iron scythe appeared in the Devil's hands. He swirled it around himself and pointed the curved blade at Cobalt as the sky split apart with bright red lightning.

"Let us dance beneath a blood-red sky, like we did so many years ago! Rip and bite, gouge and tear, bare your fangs until you can drink no more, because I will not settle for anything less...!"