It shouldn't hurt this much. Not after he lost everything else. He was supposed to be numbed; lulled into a sense of cold comfort by the constant barrage of tragedies that had impacted him. He had made peace with it. He was dying, either in body or in mind; a dead man has no need for a job. He was going to lose it either way. He knew this. He knew this!

And yet, when Mistress Viola declared that he was hereby dismissed from his position as a core teacher at the Brimstone Institute of Demonics, something deep within Cobalt Trayer finally gave way. By all accounts it made no sense. He was far beyond the point of caring anymore, considering everything that had happened, and everything that was to happen in the near future. But the feeling was distinct, like something snapping after months of being pulled taut to the absolute limit.

He left the office without a word once the Headmistress made her degree, the voices of those around him drowned out by his own hammering heartbeat. The other teachers watched with wide eyes as they called for him, all the while Karazelle desperately tried to get his attention. But he just kept going and didn't stop. He zoned out for a while, his mind blank and empty as it struggled to process what had just happened.

She dismissed him. The one thing he always clung to. His morals and values as a teacher.

Gone.

He was nothing now. Even after everything, being a teacher was all Cobalt had left.

And now...

Before long, Cobalt found himself on the roof. Despite the cloud cover, the sun was doing its utmost to break through, and the resulting heat left him breathless and uncomfortable. The wind whipped at the Incubus' hair as he slowly stepped into the centre of the rooftop, trying and failing to calm himself down. Looking down, he watched erratic pulses of red flash through his veins and his wounds. Below the surface of his skin, his blood was steadily rising in temperature, still agitated from his confrontation with Viola.

He knew from the moment he carried Karazelle's unconscious body out of that school that her academic career was over. Everyone unaffected by the gas had gathered at the front end of the campus to await the emergency services; Viola included. When he laid her down in the grass and breathlessly explained what he found, the first thing Viola did was sigh and rub her eyes.

After that, he was instructed to rest and recuperate, but he couldn't just sit there and do nothing. Karazelle - after everything she had told him - stood to have her dreams crushed by her own mother. He knew he was supposed to keep her at a distance, but something compelled him to rush to her aid, one last time.

And look where that got him.

He sat down in the centre of the rooftop, feeling completely and utterly defeated. An overwhelming sense of loss and nestled deep in his stomach; a frozen ball of ice to complement the constant burning hunger.

"Cobalt?" Lilith said tentatively.

The Incubus stirred at her voice, but only barely.

"Are you okay?"

"... Yeah."

"... You know I don't believe that, right?"

He swallowed hard and nodded slowly. Sitting cross-legged, the Incubus reached forward and ran a bony claw down a groove in the stonework. A full year had passed, but despite all of the wind and the rain, old dried blood still clung to the masonry. How much of it was his? How much of it was Diate's? Or had it all mixed together?

"What am I anymore...?" Cobalt asked aloud, staring at the brown-red flecks.

"You're still you, Cobalt."

"What does that even mean, Lilith?"

The Devil sighed.

"Look, I know being a teacher meant a lot to you-"

"Meant a lot...?"

He balled his fists.

"It was all I had," he spat, feeling an inexplicable anger take root.

The wounds covering his body hissed and spat in response to the burning blood in his veins.

"I'm falling to pieces with every day that goes by, but still, it was all I fucking had."

Behind him, he could hear the sound of footsteps echoing up the stairwell to the roof access door. The squeaky hinges squealed as someone stepped out onto the roof, and the clanging of metal rang out as the door slammed shut behind them.

"Cobalt?" spoke the voice of Karazelle Terna, quiet and filled with concern.

At once - the moment she spoke - the fire flared and the Incubus clenched his fists as a rush of unexpected pain flooded through his body. Rose vines began to bloom all around him; their sudden appearance didn't even shock him anymore. Karazelle drew closer to him, her steps slow and uncertain.

"C- Cobalt, I... I'm so, so sorry."

Slowly, the Succubus reached for his shoulder. As her fingers grazed the cloth of his shirt, teeth abruptly tore through the flesh of his knuckles, spraying blood all over the floor and causing her to recoil. Beneath his skin, the Incubus could feel his muscles writhing as his tenuous grasp on his hunger faltered.

"Momma, she... back there..."

She couldn't seem to find the words. There was a fear in her voice, a fear that he hadn't noticed until then. Was he scaring her? Was she trying to hide her revulsion?

"Cobalt, please, talk to me. I- I get that you're-"

"No you don't," the Incubus interrupted, turning his head.

He slowly rose to his feet. He trued to stand up straight, but the agonising pain growing in his gut forced him to retain a slight stoop. Karazelle was staring at him, eyes wide with worry. Despite her quivering voice, however, she stood her ground as she pointed at his face.

"You're bleeding..." she murmured.

Cobalt lightly pressed his fingers to his nose to find two streams of blood flowing thick and fast down his face. Instinctively, he lashed his tongue out at it, flooding his system with adrenaline as the hot, sanguine fluid nourished him.

"You don't get it, Karazelle. This was my life. All that I had," he said quietly, watching the teeth on his hands clash and grind against one another.

The Succubus stared at his hands, but kept her cool.

"I'm sure we can talk to her once she's calmed down."

He bared his teeth.

"No, there's no point! There's no going back from this! She's not going to just give my job back after everything I've done to fuck it up! And even if she miraculously did...!"

Cobalt stared at his hands, shaking as blood seeped through the fresh wounds.

"... I'm a dead man walking anyway."

He slowly raised them to his head.

"I can feel it now. My reasoning slipping. Every day it gets worse. Nothing works to stop it anymore." he breathed.

Karazelle took a step towards him.

"There's always a way, Cobalt. We can-"

"We?! What do you mean by we?!"

Anger and resentment scorched his mind, and though a small voice in the back of his head told him to stop, he was tired of keeping his feelings battened down. There was no trying to sugarcoat any of this; he stuck his neck out for Karazelle because of something she did.

"This is your fault, Karazelle! I wouldn't have had to step in if you hadn't been down there in the first place! What were you even trying to do?!"

"Cobalt, lay off her! This isn't helping!" Lilith interjected, but he swiftly ignored her.

She looked hurt by his words, but still she remained standing before him, hands raised.

"I- I know, okay? And I'm sorry. I- I was just trying to help. I get that it was stupid, but I didn't know what else to do!"

"How is poisoning nearly the entire school helping?!"

"I was trying to make something for you, Cobalt! To help you!"

His eyes widened.

"You... You were trying to..."

He thought back, despite his turbulent mind doing everything it could to keep him adrift in a sea of instinct and outrage. Karazelle was good at chemistry. She had a vested interest in traditional Succubus alchemy. She purchased a lot of supplies and equipment in Phrodival. Then there were the stories he overheard of the other girls acting strangely.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

That time at the gym when Izzbelle suddenly grew more and more aggressive.

If all of that was in preparation for him, then...

"... you were trying to spike me...?" Cobalt asked in an almost silent voice.

"No, no! Please, I was just trying to-!"

Fight or flight kicked in as every cell in the Incubus' body screamed in a blind panic. Flashes of half-remembered scenarios tore through his head; all the times back in Phrodival where he had narrowly avoided ingesting toxic plants and fungi, or the times his mother tried to get him to take aphrodisiacs in a misguided attempt to help him. He could barely recognise how many were real or imagined, but most prominent of all was the memory he had of his grandmother paralysing him on the day he was to be trapped forever within the Undercroft, and in that moment in time, Cobalt's failing mind registered Karazelle as a threat.

He saw her standing there, just a couple of feet in front of him. He could hear her heartbeat, quickening by the second. He could smell her sweat on the wind as fear took root. Teeth bared and claws at the ready, Cobalt lunged at the Succubus, ready to rip her apart.

His irrational mind screamed with instinctual hunger, goading him to tear into her supple flesh and gorge until he couldn't fit anymore. HIs rational mind was filled with thoughts of conspiracy; blind paranoia that urged action over reaction. Both pushed Cobalt into a manic frenzy.

But before bone could slice through flesh, the Devil residing in Cobalt's body took action. She materialised before him and grabbed him by the throat, snatching him right out of the air as she hurled the Incubus to the ground. With practiced efficiency, Lilith knelt on his back and pinned his arms down, immobilising him.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" she cried, struggling against his flailing arms.

"Get off me...!" Cobalt screamed, his voice a barely-recognisable guttural howl.

He could see the roses all around him. He was drowning in them.

Though clearly shaken, Karazelle still stood her ground. She stared at Lilith for a moment with wide, bewildered eyes before shaking her head and stooping down to Cobalt's eye level.

"Please, just listen to me! I was trying to make something to make you better, okay?! I never meant for any of this to happen!"

"You're not helping! Just get back!" Lilith snapped, forcing Karazelle away with a swipe of her wing.

Taking advantage of her distraction, Cobalt slammed his elbow into her and made another mad dash for the Succubus, only for Lilith to grab his tail and hurl him against the far wall. Summoning a pistol into her hand, she took up a protective stance in front of her and took aim.

"You've got to calm the Hell down, Cobalt! This is too far, even for you!" she barked, urging Karazelle to stay back.

Lowering himself into a predatory stance, he dug his nails into the stonework, preparing himself to lunge. At that moment in time, Cobalt felt like a cornered animal.

"Wait, don't shoot him!" Karazelle cried.

"I don't want to, but I will if I have to!"

"But-!"

"Just shut up, alright?! You're the reason he's like this!"

Cobalt launched himself forward. He darted in a zig-zag pattern to avoid any gunfire, but was surprised when he didn't hear any shot. Right when he was about to dive at Lilith, the Devil swiftly turned the gun around in her hand and whipped him hard across the head, knocking him to the ground. As she recoiled from the backlash, Karazelle barged past her and knelt at the Incubus' side.

"Cobalt... please, just... I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to go behind your back like that. I promise, I was never trying to do anything to-"

"I can't take this anymore," he murmured, staring at the hallucinatory roses all around him.

"What...?"

He sat up, teeth chattering as he held a hand to the blood streaked across the side of his head.

"It's all ruined. Everything."

Karazelle's breath caught in her throat.

"... You still have us, sugar," she said, reaching for his shoulder.

He bristled and shrugged her off.

"No I don't."

"But-"

"I don't fucking want to still have any of you!"

As the teeth jutting from his hands began to creak and writhe, Cobalt clenched his jaw tight. Karazelle just knelt there, dumbfounded.

"The constant interruptions, the favours, the expectations, the piling of problems upon problems upon problems... I can't take it!"

He fixed her with a cold, manic glare.

"The others, they hate me now, Karazelle. As they should. And if you had any sense, then you'd join them!"

She shook her head firmly.

"I told you a million times before; I could never hate you. No matter what you say or do. And I'm sure that holds true for the others."

Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her close. Lilith cried out and tried to pulled Karazelle back, but she was still dazed from the pistol-whipping.

"Jelli watched as I vomited her food up, right in front of her. Izzbelle shattered her arm off my chest. Elya can't bear to look at what I've become. Quinn despises me because I wouldn't pick her side. And I just told Whitney that I ate her arm. There's no coming back from that," Cobalt breathed.

He could feel tears running down his face, mixing with the blood splattered all down his front.

"You... You ate her arm...?" Karazelle asked, shaking in his grasp.

"I did. And it was good."

He tightened his grip.

"I'm an Incubus, Karazelle. Sooner or later, everyone close to me will end up as meat in my eyes. Some of you already have."

Shaking her head, she point at his face.

"No. That's the Incupsychosis talking, Cobalt, not you. I know you. I know you'd never hurt-"

"I already have!"

Cobalt tightened his grip further, causing Karazelle to cry out as the teeth dug into her skin.

"And I know I will again."

"Cobalt! Let her go!" Lilith cried, taking aim once more.

He looked up at her, before returning his attention to Karazelle. She was scared, but defiance burned in her eyes. It seemed like no matter what he did, she refused to leave his side.

Very well.

He'd just have to give it to her straight.

"I couldn't stand it, you know," he said, gasping for breath as his heart threatened to rip itself right out of his chest.

"Couldn't stand what?"

"You being so close. Always within reach, and yet so far away. Do you have any idea what that's like? To be so hungry, to have a meal right there in front of you, and yet not being able to even take a bite?" he asked her, staring hard at her throat.

She flinched at his words, her skin going pale.

"S- Stop. I don't know what you're trying to do, but it's not gonna work."

"It's true. And while all I wanted was to get through the year, you kept it up. Always barging in. Always in my face. Always fucking goading me."

"Cobalt, stop! Y- You don't mean that!"

"I told you from the top, Karazelle! I told all of you! I was your teacher, and you were my students! And not only did you try to test me on that, you took it away from me!"

"What about that night, huh?!" the Succubus suddenly cried, her face twisting with anger.

Her gaze bore right through him, and yet he could see that it was tinged with pain.

"We had such a beautiful time together, Cobalt! Are you telling me that meant nothing?!"

The fire flared. The roses swayed. Silence fell all around them as he ruminated on his answer.

"... The entire time, I dreamt of tearing your arteries out. Aside from that, I felt nothing."

She slapped him. Right across the face. With enough force to bowl him over.

"So that's it?! You can drag us into danger constantly, but the second I make a single mistake, it's over?! You're done with me?! Just like that?!" the Succubus yelled, balling her fists.

The rose vines around him grew thicker, their flowers deepening in hue.

"You're talking like we were together! That was never going to happen, Karazelle! Just another delusion!"

"I'm delusional?! I'm not the one stringing everyone along only to grind them into the fucking dirt!"

"I don't expect you to understand now, but I was protecting them!"

"You were protecting yourself!"

Cobalt could practically smell her rage.

"Those girls went through hellfire for you! They loved you, Cobalt! And you just stomped all over their feelings! What, you were so afraid of messing up that you had to ruin their lives just to uphold your own pride?! You fucking coward! After all we've been through, all we've fought through together... Was any of that genuine?! Or was this all some fucking ploy to get us to dance to your sick little tune?!"

Her enraged scream echoed off the rooftop. Taking a deep breath, Cobalt looked her right in the eye.

"I'm done talking about them," he said simply.

Karazelle laughed. A strange, paradoxical noise that contrasted sharply with the raw fury on her face. She wiped her brow and took a moment to collect herself, stunned by Cobalt's audacity.

"Truth is, if I had never met you Karazelle, we wouldn't be here right now. We would both be better off," he continued.

Her tail lashed violently against the ground.

"So what's the plan then, Cobalt?! Now that the jig is up?! You're just gonna run off and get yourself killed, is that it?!" the Succubus snapped.

The Incubus nodded.

"Better for you to hate me in that eventuality," he responded quietly.

"Well then..."

Reaching up, she wiped her eyes.

"... I guess you can count this as your win, then."

The look she gave him... It made all the burning pain feel like barely a tickle. Disgust, heartbreak, betrayal... It left Cobalt paralysed as Karazelle turned and left through the roof access door, and even once she was gone he stood in place, silently staring into the middle-distance. After a moment, he collapsed onto his knees as a cold sweat overtook his body. His hands shook, his heart hammered, his veins flashed.

Tears poured down Cobalt's face thick and fast as he stared at his hands, shivering all over.

"Th- That's that, then..." he breathed, feeling the last connection he had finally drift away.

It hurt. It hurt. It hurt so much.

But it had to be done.

But it hurt.

But it had to be done.

But it hurt...!

The worst part was that in all the blind confusion and panic, Cobalt lost track of what he was saying. What he meant and what he didn't, what was a fabrication just to get her to leave and what was the truth. He just let it all loose, hoping that she would abandon him like all the others.

Better for her that way. And still it cut him to pieces.

His muscles gave out, but before he could topple over, Lilith swiftly grabbed Cobalt by the shirt and hoisted him off the ground, her one eye burning with anger.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" she yelled, shaking him rigorously.

Cobalt just stared back at her, completely spent.

"How much time do you have?" he responded.

"None of that was called for!"

"What does it matter anyway, Lilith? So long as she stays far away from me-"

"It's not all about you, you fucking moron! You mean something to these people! And all you've done is shit all over that!" the Devil interrupted, shaking him again.

He sighed.

"It hardly matters now..."

"Oh, you son of a-!"

She raised her hand to try and slap some sense into her, backlash bedamned. But before she could lay even a finger on him, a loud, deafening explosion rocked the entire town of Brimstone.

A mighty earthquake abruptly struck, shaking the entire building and knocking both Cobalt and Lilith down. Striking his head off the stonework, he could only writhe in pain as the Devil arduously climbed back to her feet, clinging to the low wall surrounding the roof for support. She gazed off into the distance, her one eye widenening.

"Cobalt! It's... It's happening!"

Doing his best to block out the pain, he crawled to the edge of the roof and climbed up just far enough to look over at the the form of Brimstone proper in the distance.

The Incubus went pale as his blood seemed to freeze right in his veins.

As the earthquake continued, Cobalt could just about see a cloud of dust down in the centre of Brimstone. It grew larger and larger as the seconds ticked by as the roads cracked and buildings began to topple. To the Incubus' horror, the crumbling point of an ancient stone tower emerged from the earth. Around it, other towers began to appear, each piercing through stone and brickwork alike as the hulking mass of a giant fortress gradually rose. It was unfathomable; a massive structure of dark bricks and ancient steel machinery that blasted steam and sparks with every inch that rose from the ground. Townsfolk screamed as rocks and masonry rained down from above, destroying cars and crushing rooves. Once the castle finally stopped moving, mighty steel augers drilled into the surrounding earth before a drawbridge fell right upon the central High Street. As screams and sirens rang out from the town, the Incubus slowly turned to Lilith, completely dumbfounded.

"T- The Tempered Bastion... But.. There shouldn't even be enough ferrohaem to..." the Devil breathed, her face pale and clammy.

Cobalt's phone rang in his back pocket. Swallowing hard, he answered the call. From the other end, he heard the breathless voice of his father. He sounded as though he was in a hurry.

"Buckle up, son," he said in a serious tone.

Cobalt looked back at the looming form of Tempered Bastion 31-3 in the distance.

"I think shit's about to get difficult."