Fear kept Cobalt rooted in place as the Sandlady bore down upon him, the crystals fringing her armour glittering in the firelight. She took a step forward, dust falling from her as the individual stone plates scraped and ground against one another. The Incubus slowly raised his hands.

"She's not gonna listen to you, kid," Lilith said as the Golem raised her shield.

"Lilith, you're not helping!" Cobalt hissed.

"Yes I am. She's going to charge you, just watch."

Sure enough, the Sandlady abruptly kicked off the ground, launching herself forward in an effort to flatten Cobalt with her shield. He just about managed to throw himself out of the way, landing on the hard-packed earth in an undignified heap.

"S- Son erangup non sumebah!" he pleaded.

But the armoured Golem didn't listen. She swung her fist at him, narrowly glancing the side of the Incubus' face as she wound up a powerful shield strike.

"Ixid et eramra!" the Sandlady barked, gripping her weapon in both hands as she brought down in an overhead slam.

Cobalt scrambled back, his heart hammering in his mouth as a plume of dust rose from the impact.

"You gotta fight her," sighed the Devil.

"I can't! It's-!"

"It's a test of strength, kid, she said it herself. If you fuck this up that you can kiss your chances of doing whatever it is you wanna do goodbye."

The Incubus gritted his teeth. He hated it when she made good points!

Narrowly dodging another punch from his opponent, Cobalt put some distance between them and took a second to collect himself, already feeling the sweat running down his back. Ever since his horns first turned to iron, he had avoided casting magic whenever he could help it. But if he really had to go up against the Sandlady in a contest of arms, then he didn't have a choice.

"O- Ocov et..." breathed the Incubus, holding out a shaking hand.

That familiar rush of power began to flow through him, but it still felt wrong.

"Amra... ilobaid...!"

A rift form in the air, tinged with blue tones. Cobalt tentatively reached inside, wincing as the magic around him grew hotter. Feeling his fingers glance metallic links, he held his breath and pulled it free, blanching at the sight of rapidly-cooling iron chain before him.

Before him, the Sandlady scoffed, her voice echoing within her helmet.

"Euqined."

She pointed at him.

"Arret."

The ground beneath Cobalt's feet began to rumble. Before he could react, a spike of stone erupted from the earth, nearly impaling the Incubus had he been standing just a few inches to the right. The sharp rock raked against his arm, but thankfully the coat Lottie gave him ensured that the cut wasn't too deep. He was forced to weave this way and that as more rocky spikes burst from beneath him. Right as Cobalt thought he could catch his breath, the Sandlady rushed in from behind and slammed her Granite Shield against his back, knocking him to the ground.

"Gah!" Cobalt cried, wincing as pain shot through his body.

"You gotta go on the offensive, kid. Can't win a battle of attrition against a Golem."

"Shut up!"

Rolling to the side, the Incubus gritted his teeth and swung his chain with all of his might. It was much heavier than the whip he was used to, but once the heavy links thrashed against the Sandlady's armour, it struck with enough force to knock her off-balance.

"Come on! Follow through!" urged Lilith, her constant yelling bringing on a headache.

But Cobalt just shook his head and wound the chain back in.

"I don't want to hurt her," he gasped.

He could feel his heartbeat quickening in response to the fire in his stomach growing hotter. He had to remain calm. He couldn't let anything get out of hand, not when it came to Lottie.

"For the love of- she's a walking fortress, kid! She can take a beating!"

"She's my student, and I will not-!"

"Ut atrepa!" cried the Sandlady, letting loose with a surprise haymaker.

Her strike hit Cobalt square in the chest. He cried out in pain as he felt his ribs buckle, stars dancing at the edge of his vision as he flew back. Sweeping his legs out from beneath him, she followed up with a rough kick, slamming the battered Incubus into one of the stone spikes.

"You're not getting anywhere like this," sighed the Devil.

Holding a hand to his mouth, Cobalt coughed and spluttered as blood forced its way up his throat. Something was definitely broken in his chest.

"I- I don't need your help," he hissed, wiping his face as he unsteadily rose to his feet.

"Yes you do. Duck."

He lowered his head right as the Sandlady threw her shield at him. It demolished the stone spikes before lodging itself in the far wall. With one hand clutched to his throbbing chest, Cobalt watched as his opponent resummoned her weapon.

"Golems were designed to be defensive fighters. You have to go all out."

The Incubus bared his teeth.

"Why do you care about the outcome here?" he murmured, remembering her constant dismissal of Lottie's plight.

"Because I can't rightly use a dead man to cover my tracks now, can I?"

"Sh- She's not gonna kill me."

"Is that a fact?"

Across the entrance chamber, the Sandlady raised a hand. Dust and detritus began to float around her helmet.

"Tucis sivlup tetanrepus!" she called, splaying her hand.

Before Cobalt could argue any further with the Devil in his head, an unseen force suddenly closed around him. Frozen in place, he could only watch helplessly as the Sandlady levitated him into the air, her eyes glinting behind her helmet's slits. Try as he might to wriggle free, the telekinetic pressure kept him pinned in place.

"Elis," she breathed in a mocking tone.

She screwed her gauntleted hand up into a fist.

All at once, the invisible pressure surrounding Cobalt's body intensified, closing in on him. His ribs screamed in pain as a high-pitched tone began to ring in his ears. As he was getting crushed from all sides, Lilith continued to complain in his head.

"You're a demon, for fucks' sake. Violence is a fact of life," she scoffed.

"Shut... up...!" he cried, struggling fruitlessly against the Sandlady's magic.

He screamed as another rib snapped under the pressure. Blood began to dribble from the corners of his eyes.

"Not even that, but you're an Incubus."

"I said shut up...!"

"Literally a killing machine."

"Lilith...!"

"So why fight nature?"

The fire flared hot and bright at her words.

"GAH~! MENIDUTITROF IHIM AD! ORREF!" he incanted as newfound strength surged through his body.

Molten, metallic energy circulated around his hands as he splayed them forth. Beneath his skin, he could feel his blood boiling, his wounds hissing steam and sealing shut.

"OLLEGALF!"

A tangled mass of barbed wire suddenly shot forth from Cobalt's palms, shooting towards the Sandlady in two bundled streams. The iron wires wrapped tightly around her armour, completely ensnaring her in a matter of seconds.

"GAAAGH~!"

Cobalt gripped the wire tight, hissing through his teeth as the individual barbs bit into his flesh. He pulled with all of his might, tearing himself free of the Golem's telekinetic stranglehold and launching himself right at her. Unable to move, she grunted as he planted his left foot against her chest plate, and with the other, violently kicked off her helmet.

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"Agh! Sutcidelam simrev!" she swore, her head rocking back as Cobalt landed unsteadily a few feet away.

Gasping for breath, the Incubus groaned as he felt his ribs painfully fusing back together. In the back of his mind, Lilith hummed low beneath her breath.

"Hm. Armour's thick," she remarked as Cobalt struggled to catch his breath.

Reaching for the barbed wire she was tangled in, the Sandlady tore it away in an impressive display of strength.

"You'll need something to crack through it."

"I told you, I'm not trying to-"

"Something like a twelve-gauge. Magnum slug. Right in the centre mass."

As his opponent raised her shield for another charge, Cobalt raised an eyebrow at the Devil's words.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't worry your little head about it. I'm taking over for a second."

His arms numbed for a moment. As he tried to raise them, Cobalt was alarmed to find them refusing to respond. Just like when he first met Lilith, his arms began to move against his will, puppeteered from within by his unwanted passenger.

"Brace yourself, kid," she told him, positioning his body into a readied stance.

He tried to cry out, but Cobalt's breath died in his throat as a painful stinging sensation made itself present in his left eye as dark, ferric magic began to seep from his hands. As the Sandlady began her charge, it slowly coalesced and formed into a heavy weapon.

Though his blood still ran hot, in that moment it nearly froze.

There, formed entirely from iron, was a shotgun. It was coarse and heavy, but gripped in Cobalt's hands, he could feel a strange power radiating from it.

"Wh- What...?" he gasped.

He looked up at the Golem to find her rushing towards him, shield raised before her. The barrel was aimed right at it.

"Wait, Lilith-!"

The Incubus' finger was pulled tight against the trigger. The gun went off with the force of a thunderclap, sending painful shockwaves through Cobalt's body as a blinding flash of light erupted from the barrel. A single ferric slug shot forward, striking the Sandlady's Granite Shield square in the centre, shattering it into pieces. As she staggered back from the unexpected gunshot, Lilith forced Cobalt to pump the weapon, ejecting a thin metal casing from a side port.

"Lilith, stop!" he pleaded, but the Devil would not relinquish control.

The trigger was pulled again, this time striking the Golem right in the chest plate. Fragments of stone and plumes of gunsmoke filled the air as she toppled backwards, the thick armour cracking from the sheer force of impact.

As Lilith prepared another shot, the Incubus managed to exert enough will to overpower her control, regaining use of his arms in order to hurl the shotgun as far away as he could. The weapon skidded across the floor, melting away into nothingness before long.

What the Hell was that?! Not even Devils were able to create weapons like that!

"You're welcome," scoffed Lilith.

"What did you do?!"

"Gave you a leg up. Now stay alert; she's not down and out yet."

Though confused and outraged, Cobalt swallowed his frustration and turned back around to face the Golem. Sure enough, she was climbing back to her feet, covering her badly-damaged chest plate with one hand.

"Douq suneg eaigam tse...?" hissed the Sandlady, sounding utterly infuriated.

Cobalt swallowed hard, his heart pumping so much adrenaline that his body refused to stop shaking.

"P- Please, let's stop this...!" he murmured, too frazzled to remember his Tongues.

The Golem scoffed and raised her fists.

"Sitas silod. Arap et!"

Slowed not by her heavy armour, she closed the distance between them in an instant. With a heavy punch, the Sandlady struck Cobalt hard in the stomach, following up with a series of quick jabs that threatened to break a bone with every hit. Paralysed by shock and pain, the Incubus wasn't able to react as she ruthlessly pummeled him, finishing him off with a firm uppercut.

As soon as her rocky knuckles made contact, the Incubus felt his jaw shatter. He choked out a garbled croak of pain, falling back onto one knee as tears began to fill his eyes.

"Amrifni," the Golem scoffed.

The Incubus held a hand to his broken jaw, veins throbbing at the edges of his vision as his blood vessels began to glow an angry red. Steam hissed from his open mouth as his bones painfully began to fuse themselves back together.

"Ensatup et meuqila ireut essop?"

With his rampant heartbeat hammering in his ear, Cobalt looked down at his shaking hands.

The Sandlady's words rang true. Why did he think he had it in him to protect his students? He wasn't a fighter, and even whenever he did come to blows, he only ever caused more harm than good.

"Lottie non supo tse ibit."

Lottie wanted his help for something important to her. But the Sandlady clearly didn't think him worthy of the honour. He couldn't protect her when Diate first struck, so he surely wouldn't be able to help her if anything else ever goes wrong...

The Golem sighed.

"Eti mumod. Ut sutsui sulutac," she concluded, dismissing the Incubus.

Her final word struck a chord with him. A deep, unpleasant chord that reinvigorated the fires of wrath burning deep within.

Sulutac. An old Tongues insult used by martial experts to belittle those they believe to be inexperienced or out of their depth. It was the same word used to refer to young animals like kittens, but more specifically puppies.

Cobalt hadn't heard it spoken aloud, at least not to his knowledge. But when the Sandlady called him a pup, every hair on his body stood on end and his fists clenched.

"What... did you just call me...?" he breathed, looking up at the armoured Golem.

She looked over her head, cocking her head to betray her inability to understand his words.

"Diuq em sacov...?" Cobalt repeated, drawing himself to his full height.

The Sandlady faced him, eyes boring into his behind her helmet.

"Sulutac," she repeated, her voice dripping with venom.

Again, he felt that red-hot twinge of anger rush through him. Why did that word spark such outrage? He had never been called it before in his life!

Right...?

"Ilon eracov em nemon," breathed the Incubus, slowly shaking his head.

"Kid, what are you doing?" Lilith asked, but he ignored her query.

The Sandlady marched up to him, her heavy boots rattling the loose stones scattered around on the ground. Squaring up to the Incubus, she leaned in close.

"Su. Lu. Ta-"

He headbutted her. Hard.

The combined impact of his iron horns and uncanny strength obliterated the Sandlady's helmet in an instant, sending fragments of shattered stone and cracked diamonds flying. She stared at him with her mouth agape as she toppled backwards, thrown off guard by his sudden surge of defiance. Bleeding from the forehead, and enraged Cobalt planted a foot on the Golem's chest plate and pointed down at her, red steam hissing from his mouth.

"Don't you dare call me that! I am no-one's dog, no-one's pup! Not now, not ever! I will not be fettered, I will not be controlled, and I will not be commanded like a fucking animal! Do you understand me?!" he barked, his vision swimming from how fast his heart was beating.

The Sandlady just stared at him with wide eyes.

"Eneb?!" roared the Incubus.

He heard the familiar sound of hot blood hissing against cool skin. His vision cleared just enough to let him see the red droplets that had splashed against the Sandlady's face, still steaming.

Looking down at his hands, Cobalt found an array of jagged teeth jutting from his flesh.

Again. It happened again.

"W- Wait, no..." he gasped, taking a step back as he clutched his wrist.

His blood oozed all over his hands. It was unbearably hot.

Unsteadily rising to her feet, the Golem wiped her face and stared at the red smears upon her gauntlet. Frowning, she looked up at Cobalt.

"Hm. Sitas tse," she said after a moment's consideration, alarming him.

What? After all that, now he was suddenly suitable to be Lottie's witness?

"E- Enet...!" the Incubus spluttered, holding out a hand.

Glancing at the teeth, he blanched and pulled his arm back in, doing his best to hide it beneath his coat. The Sandlady just took up her position in front of the entrance to the monastery and gave him one last look.

"Elav, Cobalt. Avres eam memulocni ihim."

A small smile played across the Golem's lips as she shut her eyes.

"Caf saitpun Lottie munu munob," she added softly, almost inaudibly.

Completely mystified by what she had just said, Cobalt could only watch on blankly as the Sandlady stood stock-still, her eyes shut and her face serene. After a few moments, her armour cracked and crumbled away into nothing, and once her eyes opened once more, their familiar green sheen informed him that Lottie had returned once more. She looked around blankly for a moment, before fixing him with a brilliant smile.

"Mista Traya, you did it! Sandy says you can come in!" the Golem cried jubilantly, hopping up and down.

Cobalt put on a strained smile at Lottie's words, feeling as though his very life-force was slowly leeching out of him. With so many bones healing themselves in short succession, he found himself feeling painfully hungry.

"Th- That's good to hear, Lottie," the Incubus breathed, hiding his hands behind his back.

Thankfully, she didn't notice that anything was amiss. Running up to the gates, Lottie cleared her throat and raised her hands.

"Sandy said yes~!" cried the Golem excitedly.

In response, the great stone gates of the monastery slowly began to open, scraping against the ground as they unveiled what lay beyond. A cold gust of wind blew in, chilling Cobalt and causing the braziers to flicker. The monastery looked like a small, closely-packed town surrounded by high walls. The buildings were built from irregularly carved stone blocks, and the paths were lined with similarly cut slabs. Dozens of Golems in simple robes were going about their daily business, but as soon as they noticed Lottie, they each stopped what they were doing and bowed their heads in reverence.

"Ah, Charlotte, great timing!" called the voice of Bessa.

Lottie's aunt was bounding down a small hill, carrying a massive bundle of white cloth. Looking up, Cobalt could see that atop the hill was the largest structure in the monastery; a grand open-air temple.

"Congratulations on passing the trial, Cobalt! How did it go?" she asked, peering over her half-moon spectacles.

The Incubus swallowed hard.

"Fine..." he murmured, staring at his shoes.

"Excellent! Well, if you'll follow me, we can go get Charlotte dressed and ready for the ceremony!"

"Mista Traya, I get to show you the temple!" his student gasped, practically vibrating from excitement.

Cobalt nodded and leaned against the wall.

"Maybe... Maybe head on up without me. I just need a moment to catch my breath."

The Golem pulled a face.

"Are you alright?" she asked in a soft voice.

Before Lottie could put her calming charms to work, however, Bessa took her niece by the arm and bowed politely.

"By all means. Don't worry, we won't start without you!" she laughed, guiding Lottie through the gate.

Cobalt watched as the pair stepped out into the snow and made their way up the hill, leaving him alone in the entrance chamber. He let out the deep breath that he had been holding, collapsing against the wall as his heart pounded in his chest. He swallowed hard and stared at the teeth jutting from his hands.

"What the fuck happened there, kid?" Lilith asked, bewildered.

"I could ask you the same thing..." he replied, remembering the gun she conjured from nothing.

"Never mind that! You just went berserk over what? A little name-calling?"

He didn't have an explanation for that one. He could only recall the barest hints of a memory whenever he was called a pup.

Red hair. Cruel eyes. A Succubus he once knew.

But... anything other than that...

"... Once we're back home, you're giving me an explanation," Cobalt breathed.

"I don't owe you shit."

"After making me shoot my own student, yes you bloody well do!"

Lilith retorted with another vulgar outburst, but at that moment, Cobalt's attention was drawn by something else. The sound of distressed cawing and the flapping of wings. A small raven shot in from the front entrance, landing upon the ground in an undignified heap of crumpled feathers. Eyes widening, he rushed to its aid as it thrashed about, cawing incessantly.

"What the-?!"

In a poof of red magic and black feathers, the raven abruptly transformed into the sweat-soaked and panic-stricken form of Quinn Redtile. The Imp looked to be in a bad way; her skin was pale, her unbandaged eye was bloodshot and she looked as though she was struggling to breathe.

"Quinn?! What are you doing here?!" Cobalt cried, hunkering down to help her.

She grabbed his shoulder and pulled his face down, staring into his eyes with a wide, manic gaze.

"L- Lottie! Is she okay?! Wh- Where is she?!" the Imp spluttered, shaking all over.

She looked down at the teeth lining his hands. He gaze tracked over to the blood soaking his clothes, then to the general destruction of the entrance chamber.

Quinn took a shuddering breath.

"No..." she breathed, reddish magic slowly seeping from her body.

The Imp began to convulse as she rapidly incanted beneath her breath, her entire body beginning to glow.

Cobalt went pale, recognising the symptoms from the time he went to the pool with Jelli, all those months ago.

She was going to suffer an outburst.