How many times had Cobalt made the leap between worlds? It was a fair few at this point. He remembered when he first took the plunge to attend further education on Earth, nervously clutching his bags in the Terminal with his ticket leaking ink onto his sweaty hands. The apprehension he felt as the Jump Gate spooled up, causing his skin to prickle all over. The awful sensation of hurtling between worlds, and the hour he spent vomiting in the Parisian Terminal's sick room after accidentally cracking an eye open on the trip. And yet as he plummeted between worlds - his eyes wider than they had ever been - the only thing that he could focus on was the hollow, empty ringing in his skull.
Lilith just wasn't there. And no amount of shifting, impossible geometry and sparking cosmic energy was going to distract him from that. The air was hot and scorching, but the cold dullness in his chest only intensified.
That a father could be so callous...
The jaunt through the portal lasted as all Jumps seemed to; endless and instant at the same time. In a searing blast of hot air, Cobalt was spat out of the other end, where he flew through the air and struck hard cobbles with a painful crunch. Stunned by the sudden impact, the sounds of screams and blaring car horns rang in his head, echoing and warping as the Incubus staggered to his feet. Every gasp for breath he took caused his ribs to click painfully as they tried and failed to heal themselves.
The screams around him were off. Not the lingua franca he was used to, but rather... French.
His eyes widened as his vision cleared.
Oh no.
It was a place that Cobalt recognised immediately, despite having never been there in person. A huge plaza of cobbled roads and ornate fountains, surrounded on all sides by beautiful architecture and stunning gardens. A beautiful place with a bloody past; the site of many executions, famous or otherwise. And as the Incubus staggered around, staring at the familiar surroundings, his gaze was drawn to the centrepiece before him, jutting up into the night sky.
The Luxor Obelisk. A magnificent pillar of yellow granite, covered in hieroglyphs. And above it, the largest rift Cobalt had ever seen, much bigger than anything a regular Jump Gate could produce. It hung in the air; a blood-red wound hanging in the warm night air.
"Place de la Concorde..." Cobalt murmurmed, breaking out into a cold sweat as the realisation hit him all at once.
He wasn't in Hell anymore. He was on Earth, smack-bang in the middle of Paris. All around him, terrified humans were staring, pointing and screaming; some even bailing out of their vehicles in an effort to get away from the demon in their midst. Gasping with shock, he took a few steps back, eyes wide with terror.
This was bad.
This was very, very bad.
How many years of demonic secrecy? How many centuries of keeping a lid on their home's existence? How much money and man-hours spent to keep it that way?
There weren't enough Mesmers in all of Hell to wipe the memories of an entire city.
It was ruined.
The veil was lifted.
And Cobalt was standing front and centre before it all.
As the abject horror of the situation dawned on the Incubus, the rift above the obelisk began to spark and flash, drawing the human's attention to it. They pointed and pulled out their phones as a second figure slowly emerged, floating effortlessly through the air with his massive wings spread wide.
Lucifer.
He hung in the air for a moment, silently surveying the chaos around him with a look of disgust upon his face before slowly raising his right hand. Though too far to hear him, Cobalt read his lips as he summoned a weapon into his hand; a long-handled hammer, pulled straight from the Iron Arsenal. For a moment, the Incubus expected some sort of speech or announcement - he had come to expect as much from the Devils - but the King of Demons was clearly not one for such grandstanding. He simply raised his weapon and dropped down like a meteor, slamming it into the ground with such force that cracks split the ground throughout the entire plaza, buckling one of the fountains and causing cars to veer off course in an attempt to escape.
From the crater he left upon the ground, he wordlessly began to march towards Cobalt, eyes set forward with the intent to kill.
"Wh- What do I do...?" the Incubus breathed, too terrified to even move.
He was given no reply, just the empty ringing of his mind. Lilith was gone. It was like his very body couldn't accept it.
"You have to stop this! They've seen us! All of Hell is-!" the Incubus desperately pleaded, raising his hands.
"SILENCE," Lucifer barked, and at once the wind died in Cobalt's throat.
He raised the hammer above his head.
"It doesn't matter any longer. Bear witness, cur."
Splaying his other hand, he invoked a mass of ferromantic magic to spew forth from his palm, forming into the shape of a great iron anvil.
"Orref... Muirepmi."
He struck the anvil with the hammer. The ringing sound of metal-on-metal rang out through the entire plaza, causing what humans remained to scream and fall to their knees in agony as they covered their ears. The ground began to quake soon after, knocking Cobalt over as all around him, pipes and underground cables ripped themselves from beneath the cobbles, coiling into jagged spikes that sought out and impaled those unlucky enough to escape them. The screams all died one by one as the stench of blood and metal filled the plaza, terrifying the Incubus to the very core. Everywhere he looked, he could see bodies suspended upon jagged metal edifices. Countless lives ended in a single blow.
Lucifer was like no Devil he had seen before. He eyes betrayed no emotion. Only hate unlike anything anyone had ever witnessed.
"Do you understand now? Just what you're dealing with?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Cobalt.
"What did they ever do to you?! If you hate Incubi, fine; humans did nothing to you!" the Incubus cried, outrage boiling over the fear in his gut.
Bearing his teeth, Lucifer sidestepped the anvil and swiftly struck him in the chest, cracking his ribs further and launching him back a dozen feet or so. He struck the blunt side of one of the jagged metal structures, only narrowly avoiding impalement.
"Don't ask why I hate them when you have no reason to love them. They're in the way; nothing more, and nothing less."
As he lay there dazed, he thought back on what he had been taught all of his life. The teachings of Lady Fesser, the passages in the Book of Aneop, his own experiences with the Alpha Corps... If Lucifer was a prime example of how Devils were, then the world was truly better off without them. Not a shred of remorse burned in those eyes; not for his creations, not for his subjects, and certainly not for his own family.
Cold, hard pragmatism. Like the man himself had been hewn from steel.
Something dripped onto the back of his shirt. Swallowing hard, the Incubus looked up to see a poor Parisian woman impaled upon the twisted metal spike, her phone still recording in her hand. Blood was leaking all the way down, soaking him through.
The smell was...
"I don't expect you to understand the minutia, cur. The politics of the Chain and the duties of its Overseers are far beyond what you can comprehend. But do understand this; dereliction of duty is a serious offence, be it by a soldier or an Overseer. With none to claim it, then I shall gladly take Earth for myself."
Cobalt climbed to his feet. The blood coated his hand as he steadied himself, spurring an aggressive spark deep down.
"I- I don't care about any of that! But that doesn't mean I'm just going to let you do whatever the Hell you want!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
Gathering the woman's blood up in his hands, he forced as much of it as he could into his mouth, swallowing greedily as the fire in his gut intensified tenfold. His cracked ribs seared themselves back together as bone jutted from his arms, earning a scoff from Lucifer.
"How arrogant. You don't stand a chance," he said simply, readying the hammer.
Dropping down low, the Incubus dug his claws into the cracked ground and launched himself forward, ready to launch a desperate attack against his very maker.
As he sprinted full pelt across the ruined plaza, a dim thought rang in the back of his head. Just what was he expecting to accomplish here? This was Lucifer he was facing, for crying out loud; the very creator of both Hell and the demons who inhabited it. He commanded a power far beyond anything Cobalt could hope to achieve, and outclassed him in every single aspect. He would be lucky to even come within five feet of landing a hit, so why should he even bother trying to go up against such a force of nature? Diate, Beta, Epsilon; they were nothing compared to him.
The Incubus did not stand a snowball's chance in Hell of ever winning this fight. Of every making a single kind of difference to the nightmare that was rapidly unfolding before him.
But still... The fire in his stomach spurred him onwards. Fueled by thoughts of anger and desperation, of his students and friends, and memories of the look on Lilith's face when she searched her father's eyes for mercy and saw nothing.
That was something he just couldn't abide by. So on he went, fixing to give what little he had.
He owed her at least that much.
Lucifer, though he kept his stance relaxed, was ready. With a ferromantic twist of his arm, he caused his hammer to change shape, turning it's square head spherical as brutal spikes emerged from the metal as it turned into a morning star. He swung at Cobalt, who skidded to the left and lashed out with his claws, only to be struck by a mighty wing. Despite how thin and membranous they seemed, it was like colliding with a brick wall.
"Predictable," Lucifer sighed, opening his hand.
Though wasn't even gripping his weapon, something kept it magnetised to his palm, allowing the Devil to rapidly spin it around in circles. Jarred as he was by his wing, Cobalt wasn't able to dodge as the centrifugally-enhanced morning star struck him clean in the stomach, goring him upon the spikes and hurling the demon across the plaza. He struck the edge of a fountain, cracking a chunk of stone off as he splashed into the water. Blood poured from his wounds, staining the water red.
The pain was excruciating, but he couldn't fall so soon. No, he had a point that wanted for getting across. What that point was exactly escaped him, but...
Cobalt had a legacy to live up to. If Brass Trayer could face the impossible and survive, then so could he.
Hauling himself out of the fountain, he sunk his teeth deep into his arm and drank as much as his mouth could hold, healing his wounds and allowing him to stand back up straight. He couldn't rely on his own blood like that; Lilith warned him as much.
"Tenacious. I'll allow you that, but it's hardly surprising. After all, I made you this way," Lucifer called, holding his weapon in both hands.
The haft melted and reformed into a thick chain. He spun the spiked ball around and around, whipping up the dust left by his rampage.
"Y- You've had nothing to do with anything I've done! I made me this way, you hear?!" Cobalt cried, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
He could hear sirens and screams in the distance all around him. The city wasn't just going to take an attack like this lightly. He had to be ready for anything.
"Wrong. You were designed to be a weapon. All you're doing is following prewritten instructions encoded into your very tissue. You think it was your own choice to become an autophagic monster? You feast upon your own flesh because if you don't devour someone else's, you no longer have any purpose. And so you attempt to destroy yourself. Your final orders; orders I gave you when I created the blight that is your kind," Lucifer responded, drawing closer with every second.
He sighed.
"But no design is perfect. No matter. If you won't kill yourself, then I'll just have to do the job myself."
He launched the spiked ball forward, forcing Cobalt to duck for cover as it smashed straight into the fountain. Water and chunks of ruined stone flew everywhere as Lucifer drew the weapon back, only to swing it once more at his target. Though the Incubus managed to avoid the iron spikes, the chain coiled itself tightly around his leg, allowing the King of Demons to drag him across the ground. Broken cobbles, torn metal and chips of shatter car windows scraped against his skin as he struggled to break free, all the while Lucifer kept talking.
"What was I thinking? The solution to Succubus overpopulation didn't have to be so fucking complicated. I should have suffered micromanaging a thousand different parameters rather than bring monsters like you into being."
He flicked his wrist, and the chain released Cobalt's leg with a deafening crack. He was slammed into the side of a van, denting it badly and winding the Incubus as he bled from a thousand cuts all down the side of his body.
"It doesn't matter. I'll right those wrongs. Starting with you. Then I'll find Fesser's little conclave, and finally clean it out for good."
The Undercroft. As much as Cobalt despised that place, the Incubi held there couldn't be allowed to come to harm. They were innocent; slaves to the changes Lucifer forced them all to undertake.
Besides, Phrodival stood in the way. And though his feelings on it were complicated, he couldn't deny that town as his home.
Pulling himself from the wreckage of the vehicle, Cobalt unsteadily raised his fists, ignoring the pain in an effort to prepare himself for the next attack.
"I- I won't let you!" he spluttered as blood leaked from his mouth.
"Do I sound like I'm asking permission, cur?"
With an inarticulate scream, Cobalt rushed forward, claws and teeth bared. Gathering his weapon's chain, Lucifer formed it back into a solid haft, creating a massive warhammer that he swung overhead, splitting the cobbles further and sending a shockwave through the ground. Easy as it was to avoid the impact, Cobalt quickly began to loose his footing, slowing him down enough to allow his opponent to dart forward, grabbing him by the neck and hoisting him off the ground.
"You just can't help yourself. Every bit the animal I made you to be. Go on. Struggle. I know you want to."
Growling through blood-frothed teeth, Cobalt fruitlessly swiped at the Devil's face, who kept him held just out of arm's reach. As his oxygen was cut off, his vision began to fade, all the while Lucifer kept speaking.
"One thousand, three hundred and fifty years. That's the time you and yours had to reign over Hell. And what have you made of it?"
He gestured to the ruined plaza all around them, the surrounding buildings damaged by Lucifer's errant magic.
"A poor imitation of this pathetic mudball. Heaven may have destroyed what we built, but it was lower demons like you who shat all over the legacy we left behind."
Cobalt grabbed his wrist, desperate to loosen his grip.
"L- Lilith said... your time... is done...!"
"Do not invoke that name with me, cur!"
A flash of anger. Brief, but there it was. Maybe the first spark of emotion Cobalt had seen from Lucifer, enough for him to accidentally let out what little breath he had.
Grasping Cobalt's throat with enough force to almost crush it entirely, Lucifer hurled the Incubus as far as he could, until he sailed right over the gilded fence protecting the Luxor Obelisk and slammed straight into the monument itself. The stone - standing as old as Devils' legacy itself - cracked and crumbled from the sheer force of impact as Cobalt slumped into a heap at the base. He lay there, struggling to breath as broken masonry rained down all around him, all the while Lucifer slowly advance, tossing his hammer aside in favour of his bare fists.
"Enough of this. I've made my point more than clear to you."
Ferromantic magic began to coil around him, powerful enough to rip the fence away and tear the metal to shreds.
"You will not stop me from taking back what is mine, and neither will Zelde. Whether it was you who turned her from her rightful path, or if she had been conspiring against me from the start, it doesn't matter; I will not allow anyone to stand in my way. I will not stop until-"
"ARRÊT~!"
An aggressive voice rang out over the chaos of the screams and sirens emanating from the city around them. Scowling, Lucifer turned back to face the crowd of humans advancing from the other side of the plaza; stern-looking individuals in military gear and berets, each carrying a rifle. As they dropped into firing stances, a trio of helicopters flew overhead, whipping up the dust and shining blinding floodlamps upon the two demons.
"Mortal fools," Lucifer sighed as an officer of some kind made demands of them both, though Cobalt could hear him over the whirring of the helicopters above.
Rather than answer, the King of Demons just raised a hand, his horns glinting in the light from above.
"Orref Muirepmi."
As soon as he moved, the officer raised his weapon.
Cobalt could only duck down low and cover his head as the soldiers opened fire. The gunshots were deafening; each burst punctuated by the rattle of shell casings hitting off the ground, all while the helicopters fired on them from above. His heart was in his mouth, and his blood - once boiling - lay like slush in his veins. Terror was something he knew well, but this... Cobalt couldn't handle this. He could feel his nerves tearing themselves apart by the second, and without Lilith close by to keep him lucid, he could feel himself nearing closing and closer to tipping over the edge.
In fact, he was so consumed by fear that it was only when the soldiers cried out to cease fire that he realised that not a single bullet touched him. Opening his eyes, the shaking Incubus raised his head.
Lucifer stood where he was, his arm held outstretched as hundreds upon hundreds of bullets hovered all around him, as if held back by an invisible wall of force. Taking a deep breath, the Devil splayed his hand, causing them all to rattle to ground harmlessly. They crunched underfoot as he took a step forward and reached into his coat, whereupon he produced the Iron Artillery and held it tight. Red light began to glow from between his fingers, and upon letting it go, it floated up through the air just next to his head.
"Let's see if your petty weapons really are worth the trouble."
He pointed at one of the soldiers, ripping his rifle from his hands. It shot through the air with magnetic force, stopping just a few inches from the tip of Lucifer's finger. At once, he began to dismantle the weapon with his bare hands, his eyes darting about impossibly fast as he took stock of each individual component, measuring them carefully by eye before tossing them aside like nothing.
"... And you call it a FAMAS... I see. I'll admit, human technology is more formidable than I had given it credit for. That being said, your code of warfare is cowardly and flawed. An entire battalion stands before me, firing upon an unarmed man with weapons of such calibre. It's fucking pathetic."
Lucifer raised his hands as the Iron Artillery began to glow. Despite the horrible pit opening in Cobalt's stomach, he couldn't look away. His legs had gone numb; all the Incubus could do was watch on in horror.
"Let's see how you like it."
He snapped his fingers once. The soldier's rifles fell apart in their hands as the mounted guns dropped off the helicopters and crashed to the ground.
He snapped them again. The Iron Artillery flashed, creating dozens of those very same rifles made from black iron. They hovered in the air all around Lucifer, causing some of the soldiers to begin panicking.
He snapped his fingers a third time. Each of the rifles jerked around, locking on to the head of an enemy combatant, while several of them pointed straight upwards.
"Fire," Lucifer said simply.
Cobalt should have looked away.
He really should have.
But all the Incubus could do was stare, completely transfixed, as the iron rifles all fired in tandem. The soldiers went down in an instant, their heads blowing open as blood was splattered all over the ground. Likewise, as a hail of bullets were fired upwards, the rotors of the helicopters were completely shot out; they crashed one after another, littering the plaza with burning wreckage and twisted metal.
As the screams of the pilots trapped within the flames rang in Cobalt's ears, Lucifer calmly raised a foot and slammed it down onto the broken stone underfoot, causing more pipes and cables to emerge from the ground all around the plaza. They stretched and twisted into unnatural shapes, weaving around one another as they blocked off each and every entrance to Place de la Concorde, leaving Cobalt trapped with the King of Demons.
"That's enough distractions. You've wasted enough of my time as it is," he spat, the Iron Artillery faithfully hovering just by his head.
Another snap of his fingers, and every rifle turned to face Cobalt.
"I'm curious. Just how much can your skin withstand?" Lucifer asked in a disinterested tone.
Cobalt had survived being shot. Multiple times, in fact. But he had a feeling that even an Incubus wouldn't last from a sustained salvo from multiple angles.
"P- Please... Don't do this..." he breathed.
Lucifer raised his hand and twisted it. Iron chains burst from the ground, looping around the Incubus' arms and anchoring him to the obelisk.
"Save your breath, cur."
"Please! I- Is this what your wife would have-?!"
"SILENCE."
His throat closed up. But in a fit of blind desperation, Cobalt kept trying to speak, eventually forcing it out.
"L- Lilith told me about her...!"
"I SAID SILENCE."
"Sh- She...! She wouldn't have...!"
"SILENCE, CUR!"
And there it was again. The blind, unfettered rage whenever Cobalt broached the subject of his family. The cold, uncaring facade just seemed to fall away, and in that moment, the Incubus realised he had seen this all before.
Like father, like daughter; Lucifer was just detaching himself emotionally.
"... You still care about her, don't you...?" the Incubus breathed, looking the King of Devils right in the eye.
A third flash of rage all but confirmed his theory.
"Enough of this."
Right as he signaled his weapons to open fire, Cobalt splayed his restrained hands. It was a desperate gambit, but considering his situation, there was no sense in dismissing even half-baked ideas.
"O- Orref Muirepmi!"
There was no telling if this would work.
The rifles all went off at once, peppering the Incubus with bullets. Though he could feel the sting as they hit his flesh, he noticed that they seemed to stop just before they broke the skin, held at bay by a weak ferromantic force. In the hail of muzzle flashes and gun smoke, however, Lucifer hadn't picked up on it.
Dozens of rounds struck the obelisk, ruining the monument further as chips of stone were blasted off. With every bullet that hit the chains binding Cobalt, they weakened just that little bit more.
This was his chance.
Summoning the last vestiges of strength he had, the Incubus ripped his arms free from the chains and sprinted through the gunfire straight towards Lucifer, clenching his teeth as the rifle rounds pinged off the ferromantic barrier encasing his body. Silently thanking Lilith for what little influence she had left on his body, he leaped up and swung his fist right as Lucifer wheeled around with an outstretched hand.
He succeeded in batting the Incubus out of the air, but not before a single bony claw raked all the way across the King of Demons' face, drawing a single drop of blood.
"Agh...!"
As Cobalt rolled to a stop by one of the burning helicopters, he wincing and looked up at the Devil, shaking the last of the bullets free as the magic died around him. Lucifer was just standing there, completely frozen in place, backlit by the crimson light from the rift high above. He held his hand to his cheek, pulling it away as he stared at the blood streaked upon his palm.
"For an animal to draw the blood of a god..." he murmured, slowly clenching his hand into a fist.
"I'm not an animal! I'm a man! Your daughter's friend!" Cobalt retorted, trying and failing to clamber back to his feet.
Hunger and exhaustion alike were claiming their due. The Incubus only had a little fight left in him, and he had just expended it. Kneeling there amidst the wreckage, he watched as Lucifer picked up one of the broken helicopter rotors and dragged it back to the iron anvil still sitting in the middle of the plaza. Resummoning his hammer, he placed it upon the striking surface and stared for a moment.
"... You claim you're not an animal. Fine. I won't slaughter you as such. Rather, I'll bestow upon you a punishment I reserve only for my greatest enemies. So be proud; you get to die a man."
Raising his hammer high, Cobalt watched in awe as it began to glow... green? Taking note of his confusion, Lucifer's eyes flashed with unrestrained spite.
"I am the Overseer of Creation, cur. Did you think metal to be the only power I wielded?"
He struck the rotor in a flash of green sparks. Water surged forth from the point of impact, flooding the plaza with a salty spray that slammed into the Incubus like a solid wall. Salt stung his countless wounds as freezing-cold seawater was forced down his throat, leaving the Incubus choking and spluttering as every inch of exposed flesh burned.
Lucifer struck the rotor a second time in a flash of black sparks. A howling gale cut through the plaza, slicing Cobalt's shirt to ribbons and chilling him to the bone. His stinging wounds began to bleed as the screaming winds deafened him. He could scarcely breath the razor-sharp air, and yet Lucifer was not done yet.
The Devil struck the rotor a third time in a flash of red sparks. Caustic mist spread outwards from the anvil, spurring thorny tendrils to grow from the countless cracks in the ground. They bit into Cobalt's flesh, wrenching a scream of pain from his roughened throat as the gas began to burn his skin.
Lucifer struck the metal a fourth time in a flash of brown sparks. A shockwave rippled outwards, tearing through the stone as spikes of earth pierced their way through. They stabbed the Incubus' legs, splattering blood all over the ground and forcing him onto his hands and knees. And yet the torture wouldn't stop.
His tormentor struck the metal a fifth time in a flash of yellow sparks. A thunderous burst of electricity erupted from the clanging anvil, causing the night sky above to rumble and flash. Bolts of lightning streaked down all around, striking the twisted metal edifices before finally hitting Cobalt, sending a surge of blinding pain through his body and completely paralysing him.
Lucifer struck the metal a sixth time in a flash of orange sparks. Flames spread from wherever they landed, scorching the stone black and surrounding the plaza in a ring of fire. Unable to move, Cobalt could only endure the agony as they ate through the tatters of his clothes, burning his flesh all the while. He clung to his tie, desperate to keep it safe amidst the chaos.
Finally, Lucifer struck his creation a seventh and final time, showering Place de la Concorde in purple sparks. Dark, inky shadows poured from atop the anvil, gradually plunging the entire plaza into darkness as it slowly creeped outwards. It extinguished every fire it touched, and upon reaching Cobalt, it began to climb up his limbs, numbing everywhere it touched and causing him to shiver uncontrollably.
The pain was unbearable. But even as he fought to stay conscious, Cobalt looked up to see Lucifer pull something off of the anvil. A helicopter rotor no longer, what he held was a long, glowing object that seemed to vibrate by itself. It was blinding white, and as the Devil approached Cobalt with his creation in hand, the colour drained from his face.
It was a sword.
"Creation is a beautiful thing, cur. Count yourself lucky; very few have been fully subjected to the horrors it can wreak," Lucifer said, gripping the impossible blade in both hands.
He didn't even await an answer, not that Cobalt was capable of giving one. He just unceremoniously ran him through, stabbing the Incubus through the chest.