Riles finished their masterpiece.
There, painted right upon the rockface of Alison's laboratory, was a massive mural depicting three figures, each standing with their arms around one another. The figure on the right was detailed in black and white, their body comprised of precise geometric patterns, each made up of hundreds of tiny, precisely painted equations. The figure on the right was smaller, squatter, and much more colourful. They were made up of abstract swirls and flashes, a kaleidoscope of different colour spectrums making up the form of a person. And the figure in the centre - the tallest of the three - was painted in calm, earthy tones. Their body was made up of landscape vistas; from the mountains and hills making up their torso, to the salt-soaked strands and dusty dunes comprising their limbs. Only one part of the central figure stood out; the left hand, which had been painted all in white.
Cobalt sat in one of the chairs by the central pool table, staring up at the mural of the Sarrabat siblings. Riles, bedecked in every colour, their mind awash with artistic potential. Alison, her every equation incorrect, and yet her conclusions always working out for the better. And Jacques, the brother they both lost.
Beside the Incubus, the Devil once known as Gamma leaned against the table, her arms folded as she stared up at the mural alongside him. Her arms were folded, and her brow was set firm. She gazed at the wall, her eyes betraying the artistic acuity her people were once known for.
"... They have potential..." Gail murmured, her gaze flitting from one figure to the other.
Cobalt looked her up and down. It was the first time he had seen one of the Alpha Corps wearing something aside from the dark combat gear they always seemed to have. She wore a long hooded jacket, and around her neck hung a pair of binoculars. An old wooden hunting rifle leaned against the table next to her.
"... I like to watch them paint... Is that strange...?" she asked, turning to Cobalt.
He didn't answer. Cobalt didn't feel like saying much of anything, not since he properly came to in the hospital. Nobody tried to stop him leaving. The doctors and nurses just turned their gazes away and said nothing as he passed. Not even Doc Elliott could find any words to say. Cobalt just signed himself out and immediately tried to return to his old life. He needed routine. He needed structure. Anything to distract himself.
"One step forward, a thousand steps back..." the Incubus muttered to himself, lost in his thoughts.
Settling back into the teacher's life, blotting out all the thoughts that constantly dogged him... There was little comfort in it. The fear in his students eyes was palpable. Izzbelle had her arm in a cast, and her gaze radiated pure hatred. Jelli avoided him whenever she could. Quinn kept Lottie away from him.
It was only going to get worse. He could feel it, deep down. That collar he clapped around his own neck, at the very bottom of his own Deepest Refuge... It was choking him, biting harder and harder into his flesh, even now. But he put it on himself. He was putting himself through this for their sake, no matter how much it hurt him.
At the end of the day, only one thing had been made clear to Cobalt. He was going Incupsychotic. The locks and shackles in his mind were the only things keeping it at by, and they were cracking and fraying by the day.
He knew it. Lilith knew it. Neither needed to say it out loud.
Cobalt as he knew himself was dying. His very being was molting, becoming a monster of flesh and bone. Of teeth and blood. Of hunger, fury and hatred.
The Incubus took a deep breath. If an invasion of Devils was inevitable, then the best thing he could do was ride it out until he was sure the girls were safe. Then... he'd see about taking as many Devils as he could down with him.
"... I never met a human before those two... They're intriguing, aren't they...?" Gail murmured, peering around at the lab.
"I'm sorry," Cobalt said suddenly, interrupting her.
"... Sorry...?"
"For everything. For Pandemonium. For your queen. For your finger."
Gail looked down at her hand. The index finger of the glove she wore had been pinned back.
"... I can shoot fine with my middle finger... But what do you know of the other things...?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Cobalt weakly shrugged his shoulders.
"I saw. Lilith, she... our minds are... I don't know how to describe it. But I saw everything. The angels, the city, what happened to Lilith's mother..."
He took a deep breath. The memories were all dull and fuzzy. He could only remember the brief, intermittent flashes brought on by Immoderata's influence, but the parts that mattered stuck out as clear as day. The Devils weren't born evil. They were driven to acts of evil by something far outside of their control.
They were just hurt. And that hurt festered over countless centuries into a festering resentment.
"Pardonin' me, but ain't none o' that yer business," barked a harsh voice as a hand suddenly clasped Gail's shoulder.
Cobalt looked up to see another Devil, this one dressed all in denim with a trucker's cap upon his head. A double-barrel shotgun was slung over his shoulder.
Dallas, the Devil once known as Delta.
"I know it's not," Cobalt sighed, slumping his shoulders, "but I'm sorry all the same."
Rolling his eyes, Dallas roughly patted his head.
"Ain't nothin' ya need t'be sorry about. Ome-"
He cleared his throat.
"Ah mean Lily was tellin' me y'all ran into a Curse. Fuck, that means ol' Epsilon was right, don't it," Dallas grumbled, folding his arms as he stared up at the mural.
He gave a low, drawn-out whistle.
"At least y'all are safe. While y'all were dealin' with that, we've been puttin' the work in. Yer da and the egghead got all them fuckin' ward things and stashed 'em by the school. As fer us, we've been scoutin' around the town, mappin' shit, lookin' fer signs of Devils. Well, ah was, anyways. GG here was too busy starin' at the artsy one's ass-"
Grabbing a paperweight off the pool table, Gail lobbed it at the back of Dalla's head, knocking his hat off and flattening him against the floor.
"... Ignore him..." she mumbled, stepping over to her companion.
As Dallas protested his innocence, his comrade mercilessly grabbed him by the horn and dragged him away, forcing him to stoop as he was steered away from the mural. Cobalt remained where he was, his heart still heavy despite the jovial Devils in his midst. Taking a deep breath, he reached down and slowly ran a finger along the leg of his trousers. His legs healed from their burns in record time, and yet they were still marred with scars. A constant reminder of that night out in the middle of the woods.
Elya... Lilith was right. She was being controlled by a Curse, and he was too blind to see what was staring him right in the face. And when he pulled the dagger from her hand, it took him too. He didn't have time to react or fight back. From the moment his fingers grazed the dark iron, it just... had him. The things it whispered to him, the thoughts it pushed into his mind, the feelings it ignited deep down... It made him feel sick. All the while he was forced to watch through his own eyes as he tormented Lilith in mind and body alike. If she hadn't snapped out of it at the last second...
How the Hell did Elya manage that for all this time? Five years without control over her own body. It beggared belief.
Cobalt remained where he was, staring into the middle distance as his companions bustled all around him. Lilith and Brass discussed the matter of how they could further prepare the B.I.D. campus for attack without arousing too much suspicion, Dallas and Gail set about preparing for another trip up top to try and determine the best way to hamper their old comrades when they finally arrived, and Riles sat in a corner, calmly humming to themself as they decorated an array of t-shirts with the words "Devilbane Pact for Life!"
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
These people were trying their hardest to stave off an inevitability, but in all honesty, what could a crippled Incubus, three Devilish has-beens and a pair of humans with no combat experience hope to achieve? Even if they somehow managed to get the town to co-operate once the time was right, in all likelihood they would only be delaying the inevitable.
Unless they had a monster on their side. Something the Devils fell to before. And yet even still, Cobalt could bear to sit there and ruminate on the idea of letting Incupsychosis take him. It felt like his willpower was the only thing keeping him sane now that Immoderata's subtle hold on his mind was gone, and watching everyone bustle around him was making him dizzy. He stood up and quietly excused himself, marching out of the main laborotary and down the tunnel to the Titchs' living quarters.
-----
It was quiet in Alison's room. Partly because Cobalt was alone, and partly because the sheer amount of dirty clothes scattered around worked as decent-soundproofing. He sat upon the scientist's bed, running through his thoughts again and again before a familiar pain forced itself to the forefront of his mind. His stomach growled and churned, desperate for something to sate it.
So what would it be? Limp bear meat? Claggy eggs? Dry, unpleasant jerky? Or...
He looked down at his hands.
There was no denying the hunger for living flesh; it was right there at the forefront of his mind, drowning out every other craving he had. He already saw that Immoderata was more than willing to make him devour himself, and the pain coupled with the sweet relief was an addicting loop of ravenous devouring, regenerating, and devouring once more.
He had already done it before, but now he felt as though he could keep doing it; gorge himself until he was full, and all it would cost was a little bit of his waning sanity with every terrible bite.
It took Cobalt a moment to realise that he was salivating. A few moments more to notice the presence hanging around in the doorway.
"You good, bluebell?" asked Alison, stepping into her bedroom.
The Incubus wiped his mouth and nodded shakily.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just needed some time to think."
"We're starting the meeting soon, but if you need a second we can go on without you?"
"By all means. I don't have much to say anyway."
The human scientist nodded and turned to leave the room, only to rethink it upon squinting at Cobalt's face. With a heavy sigh, she urged Cobalt to scooch over and sat down on the bed next to him. He could smell her. The heart hammering in her chest was almost deafening, and he had to dig his fingernails into the mattress to resist its siren's call.
"Riles has been really psyched about this whole 'Devilbane Pact' thing. Still not sold on that name," Alison uttered, staring at the same spot of wall the Incubus had fixated on.
Her usual upbeat tone was gone.
"I'm worried they don't get how dangerous this could be. Your Devil friends spared no detail. When the rest of their old war buddies show up... there's a real risk of dying."
Cobalt took a deep breath.
"I shouldn't have dragged you into this, Alison. That's not fair on you," he told her, turning to look the human in the eyes.
She returned a weak smile.
"After everything I've done to you, I think you're owed a turn of the tables, bluebell. No, I'd still help you out with this even if you didn't want me to. It's just... with Riles back in my life... it's different, y'know?"
"Yeah... I understand..."
Taking a deep breath, she stood up and walked over to her dresser, where she began to root through the drawers.
"They deserve better than this. Than living in a hole in the ground for the rest of their life, playing second fiddle to my bullshit. I know they wanna get out there; really see what this new world has to offer."
She found what she was looking for; a small plastic box containing a pair of necklaces. They were no mere decorative pendants, however. They looked almost identical to Cloaking Charms, barring the dull-grey colouration.
"I reverse-engineered those necklaces demons use to disguise themselves. No easy feat, but... Once I finish calibrating these, me and Riles'll be able to pretend to be one of you. It's just a matter of picking what kind and putting together some doohickies so we can pretend to have magic," she explained, though her usual gusto was conspicuously missing.
A lump formed in Cobalt's throat as his heart sank. He knew his time was growing short, and yet the news still saddened him.
"... You're leaving," he said simple, staring at Alison as she placed her creations back safely in the drawer.
"... We are. Trust me, bluebell, if it were just me I'd stick with you like a tick on a horse's ass. But it's not just me anymore, and I can't keep Riles down here forever."
He stared at his feet.
"When are you going?" he asked quietly.
"Between getting everything packed up, finishing the disguises and dealing with this Devil crap, probably not until halfway through summer. But even so, I'd like to get out of town before the Devils actually do show up. I know it sounds selfish, but-"
"You don't want to expose your sibling to danger. It's not selfish, Alison. Not at all," Cobalt interrupted.
Alison breathed a sigh of relief as she sat back down.
"I'm sorry for telling you like this. Would have said something sooner, but you've been, ah... preoccupied."
She tried to put on a smile, but he could tell that her heart wasn't in it.
"But hey, it's not like we'll be apart forever, right? I got a plan. Riles'll get back into the groove and hopefully get the eye of some artsy demons with good taste, I'll send my work off to some colleges or institutions and hopefully get picked up, and once we're stable and on our feet we'll come back and visit you! Hell, maybe I'll join you as a Science teacher!" she joked, jabbing him in the ribs with her elbow.
Cobalt smiled back. He wasn't about to tell her that the battle with the Devils was not one he intended on returning from.
"Just bumps in the road, all of this. Trust me, bluebell; it'll all turn out fine."
With a pat on his head and a quick thumbs-up, the intrepid human scientist returned to the main chamber of the laboratory, leaving Cobalt alone to stare a hole into the wall. He remained there, paralysed by his darkening state of mind. As he fixated on the rocky wall, his hunger worsened, as his vision began to swim. The soft rustling of rose petals sounded in his ears as thorny vines wormed their way out of the rock, filling the Incubus' vision with vibrant blooms.
"I told you it will get worse before it gets better," spoke a calm, familiar voice from beside him.
He glanced over to see the cat perched beside him on the bed, eyes ever-gleaming.
"You did," Cobalt murmured.
"You think it's never going to get better, don't you?"
"I do."
"Why so dour? Your mind is free now, is it not?"
"I don't know," he sighed, holding his hand to his forehead, "Sometimes I feel like my mind was never really mine to begin with."
The cat chuckled and walked closer to Cobalt, its soft feet too light to press into the bed's duvet.
"Oh, the burden of sentience. It's a Hell of a thing."
The Incubus didn't respond, prompting the mysterious feline to slowly circle him until it was lying in his lap, gazing up with its emerald eyes blazing.
"You saw the end of the world through another's memories. You don't know whether you'll be able to fight against a power that weathered the angels themselves, no matter how much they've diminished. You're hoping you die before that fateful day ever arrives," it said, hitting the nail on the head, over and over.
Frowning, Cobalt tried to look away, but something about the cat's gaze had him transfixed.
"Tell me; what sin does an Incubus stand for?" it asked, flicking its ears.
"Lust," he answered simply.
"Hm, partially right, but not quite. Some believe them to be demons of Hate, but in truth, Incubi are much more complicated. Cobalt, may I reveal a cosmic truth to you?"
He furrowed his brow.
"Nothing's stopped you before," he muttered.
"In essence, Incubi were made to be destroyers of life; crude facsimiles of Oblivion, forged in the fires of Creation, through stolen Genesis, to wreak Destruction."
"You've lost me."
The cat took a deep breath.
"An Incubus is a demon not of a single sin, but rather all of them. He gluts himself on flesh and blood, covets what others seek to hide from him, grows fat upon the unfathomable power he accrues, believes himself to be a god of his own making, harbours a maddening anger towards all living beings, derives an almost sexual pleasure from the massacring of innocents, and slays himself rather than work a moment more once the job is done. Seven sins in a single suicidal soul. An entire genocide wrapped up in one neat package. And that makes you a paradox, doesn't it?" it explained in a calm, low tone.
"Wh- What are you saying...?" Cobalt breathed, staggered by the magnitude of what it just told him.
"Perhaps things aren't improving because you have yet to meet your lowest. Perhaps in order to overcome your Incubus nature, you must first wallow deep in it. Become every evil of the world, so you may know their sting and learn to be better. Only then will the locks finally crack, and your true potential break through."
"I-"
"Think on it. Time is running short. Judgement day is approaching, and your fall with it should you fail."
It winked, and just like that, both it and all the roses just blinked out of existence. Panicked by such an influx of information, he frantically looked around, only to find himself alone once more. With a long sigh, he laid back against the bed, eyes steadily unfocusing as he stared at the ceiling.
His head felt about ready to split open. And in all honesty, he was beginning to wish it would.