The sound of a crossbow firing was a distinctly unnerving one. A heavy mechanical clunk, followed quickly by the sound of the bowstring snapping taught. But worse was the sound of the bolt. A high-pitched, terrifying whistle that swiftly intensified as the sharp iron projectile grow closer to Cobalt. The Incubus didn't even get a chance to vocalise his shock as Gamma fired her crossbow at him, forcing him to topple backwards into the half-melted snow. It lodged itself into a tree far behind him, scattering splinters and bits of bark everywhere.
Gasping for breath, he scrambled back to his feet, only to find that the Devil sniper had disappeared. The trees rustled all around him, and above the whistling of the wind, he could hear the clicking of the crossbow being wound.
"Lilith, what the Hell are you doing?" Cobalt hissed frantically, backpedaling behind the tree.
"Nothing," she responded glibly.
He bared his teeth. He could hear Gamma moving in the canopy up above him, but he couldn't pinpoint where she was.
"I can see that! Why now?!"
"Running from my problems, just like you claim I do."
"Is now really the time for th- GAH!"
He heard the sound of Gamma's crossbow firing once more, forcing him to abandon his cover as another bolt was sent his way. As he staggered out of the way, a mass of leaves and twigs burst from the canopy as the Devil herself dropped down, clutching her weapon beneath one arm. Producing her curved dagger from her cloak, she quickly slashed at him, the blade biting through his side and splattering blood all over the snow. As quick as she appeared, she disappeared, kicking up snow in order to cover her retreat. Crying out in pain, the Incubus tripped over a rock, ripping the wound open further as he tumbled to the ground.
"Agh! L- Lilith! Come on! Can't you throw a hissy fit about this later?!" he choked, holding a hand to the seeping gash.
"Why should I? You seem to throw your toys out of the crib whenever it suits you."
"For the love of-!"
Struggling to stem the bleeding, he rolled out of the way of another one of Gamma's shots. Pulling the iron bolt out of the ground, he weakly flung it back at the tree from which it was fired, but Gamma had already leaped to another firing spot.
Holding his bloody hand to his mouth, he hastily licked it clean. A mild, relieving sense of euphoria washed over him. Steam rose from his side as the gash began to seal shut.
"You're acting like a bloody child, Lilith!" Cobalt spat angrily, feeling his temper flare along with the fire in his gut.
"Pot meet kettle."
Ducking out of the way of another bolt, the Incubus clenched his fists and began to run, keeping his head down as he heard Gamma follow him. She was better with a crossbow than she was with the rifle, and she was damn good with the gun; trying to use the trees as cover didn't seem work. His next best bet was to get her out in the open. At least then he could face Gamma on level ground.
"So you want me to get killed by this psycho?!" he panted, nearly stumbling over a tree root as he heard a bolt fly over his head.
"If you think you're above what I'm trying to do here, then I'm sure you'll be able to handle her. By yourself."
"Argh!"
Skirting around trees in an attempt to throw off the Devil's aim, he spied the orange glow of the park's lights peeking through the fog from up ahead. Right as he broke through the treeline, however, Gamma's crossbow finally found it's mark. A heavy iron bolt pierced through the Incubus' back, scraping past his lumbar and lodging itself right beside his spine. He screamed in agony and fell onto his front, scattering snow everywhere as hot blood sprayed from his back.
"Might wanna get up, kid. Gamma's a good hunter. Tends not to let prey suffer on the off chance she misses the head," Lilith added smarmily as the Incubus breathlessly dragged his way through the snow.
He wasn't sure if it was because of where the bolt hit him, or the rapid loss of blood he had suffered over the previous few minutes, or perhaps just the cold, but the tingling in Cobalt's legs had dulled to an empty numbness.
"I- If you're not gonna do anything to help, then just shut up!" he guttered, leaving a trail of red snow behind him as he arduously dragged himself out of the trees.
Behind him, Cobalt heard the soft thump of Gamma dropping down from the trees. Straining to look over his shoulder, he looked back to see the Devil slowly stalking towards him, holding her crossbow against her shoulder as she flipped her dagger around.
"What the Hell did I do to you, huh?!" he shouted at her.
The Devil didn't reply. She just lifted her chin, causing the streetlight to glint off her spectacles.
"You think I wanted this asshole in my head?! You think I wanted to be a part of this whole mess?! If I could serve Lilith up on a platter I fucking would, okay?!"
She shifted her grip on her crossbow, allowing Gamma to fire another bolt into his back. This one pierced his shoulder, intensifying the bleeding.
"Gaaagh!"
With his left arm incapacitated, Cobalt was forced to try and crawl away with only his right. It didn't take long for Gamma to catch up to him, whereupon she halted his escape by planting her boot against his back.
"Lilith...!" he choked.
"Apologise."
"Wh- What?!"
"Apologise and I'll help you out. On the condition you never try my fucking patience like that again."
Was she serious?! She was making him go through all of this for a damn apology?! Just because they had a falling out?! Out of all of the stupid, petty, contrived...!
If she was going to be a stubborn, petulant child about this, then so was he! If anyone, Cobalt was the one who was owed an apology! Lilith wanted to drag this out, so he'd make it last as long as he could! He'd make sure it hurt like Hell, and that she'd have to experience every mote of pain alongside him!
It was the least she deserved...!
As Gamma grabbed his hair and made to slit his throat, the Incubus willed himself to raise his uninjured arm to his face.
He bit it hard, sinking his teeth so deep that he felt them scrape against bone. Lilith gasped from the sudden onrush of pain, spurring him to greedily suck the blood straight from his own body. His heartbeat quickened, his vision blurred, his hearing intensified to a high-pitched whine... And the blood kept spraying down his throat.
At the back of his mind, a very quiet voice informed him that he had hit an artery, but the Incubus was simply too angry to care. Reinvigorated, he withdrew his teeth from his flesh, causing a flood of superheated blood to spray right into Gamma's face.
The Devil screamed and staggered back as she grabbed her face, dropping her crossbow as she struggled to wipe the steaming ichor away. With his teeth bared, Cobalt staggered back to his feet. Grabbing a crossbow bolt in both hands, he tore them from his flesh, further intensifying the bleeding.
As his wounds mounted, the miasma of hot red mist surrounding the Incubus grew thicker.
He could taste his own blood on the air, and even though the bleeding from his arm was showing no signs of stopping, he felt all the more invigorated for it.
A few feet in front of him, the shimmering form of Gamma cleared the blood off her glasses and dropped down into a combat stance, but upon seeing the Incubus wielding a pair of her own iron crossbow bolts, her eyes widened.
"... Oh..." the Devil whispered.
Her voice was low and scratchy, roughened from years of disuse.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
She slowly lowered the knife.
"D- Did... did she just...?" Lilith breathed.
Cobalt shook his head. He didn't care about whatever was going on here. Right now - as high as he was off adrenaline, anger and his own boiling blood - he just wanted to fight.
Flipping the bolts around, Cobalt rushed towards Gamma, roaring incoherently as he aimed to plunge them as deep inside of her chest as he could manage. As he drew closer, she grabbed her crossbow and raised it to fire, the Incubus leaped right at at her.
The sound of the crossbow clicking and snapping echoed through the empty park. But the bolt never left the groove.
Gamma stared in amazement at the iron bolt as it strained against the bowstring. Slowly, her gaze tracked up from the jammed projectile to her opponent. Cobalt stood at the end of the crossbow, his teeth clamped tightly around the head of the bolt. He glared right into her eyes, breathing through his nose like a bull.
With an animalistic growl, the Incubus tore the bolt off the groove and spat it to the ground. Before she could react, Cobalt knocked the crossbow from Gamma's hands and lunged at her with the bolts, forcing her to grab his wrists in order to keep the sharpened points at bay.
"... Wait..." Gamma murmured, wincing as she was forced back through the reddened snow.
"Kid, she's speaking! Let her talk!"
No!
As the red mist doused the pair in Cobalt's steaming blood, Gamma's knees began to buckle. She clenched her teeth and stumbled a little, allowing him to press one of the bolts right against her throat.
"She hasn't spoken for years! For the love of all the burns, at least let her get something out before you fucking kill her!" Lilith cried.
Not a damn chance!
Cobalt tried to stab Gamma in the neck, but only managed to make a nick in her skin before the Devil found her second wind. Twisting the bolts out of his hands, she shoved the Incubus back and roughly punched him in the face, buying her enough time to grab her crossbow once more. She scrambled to load the weapon, but he quickly recovered from her blow and skidded out of the way as she hastily blindfired at him.
His vision shimmered and distorted as the simultaneous blood loss and energy absorption from the sanguine spray around him wreaked havoc on his perception. He could see red roses poking up from beneath the snow, blooming wherever his blood touched.
"Kid! Listen to me!"
He had to get that crossbow out of her hands. But it was a magical weapon; she could just summon another one...
He'd have to remove her ability to fire, then!
"GYARGH~!"
Cobalt threw himself at Gamma with full force, flattening his wings against his back in order to aid his flight. Knocking her to the ground, he threw the crossbow away with one hand while using the other to hold the Devil's dominant hand aloft. She tried to break free, but upon realising that she couldn't throw him off, Gamma instead drew her knife and began to stab the Incubus in the side, over and over again.
But the Incubus barely even noticed. Tightening his grip on her wrist, Cobalt shoved her index finger into her mouth.
It took no effort at all to cut it clean off. Like biting clean through a carrot.
With a mouthful of blood, flesh and bone, Cobalt let go of Gamma and took a few steps back. The red mist briefly lifted as the realisation of what he did slowly dawned upon him. The Devil just lay there, clutching her wrist and silently watching as blood sprayed from her missing digit.
"Kid what the fuck are you doing?!" Lilith screamed.
He furrowed his brow. The red mist returned.
Cobalt began to chew. His canines tore the skin and muscle to shreds as his molars crushed the bone and fingernail. It tasted better than anything he had eaten in a long, long time. The combination of flavours and textures was purely euphoric, and a feeling of longing settled in his burning stomach by the time he swallowed it.
As his veins glowed brighter, the Incubus looked up at Gamma. She had torn a strip of her cloak off and was using it to stem the blood loss, but her attention was focused squarely on him. Cobalt bared his fangs and clenched his fists, causing an array of teeth to burst through the flesh on his arms.
He was ready to put this Devil in the-!
"... I surrender..." she rasped.
"What?!" Cobalt spat.
She raised her uninjured hand.
"... I... surrender..."
A sudden wave of fatigue staggered the Incubus as Lilith appeared before him. Her face was twisted with pain, and her right arm hung limply by her side. Glaring back at the Incubus, she turned to Gamma.
"Gamma. Why are you still fighting for him? Remember the last time you fought the old man's war?" the Devil asked, shrugging her functional arm.
The sniper looked away for a moment.
"... What choice is there...?"
"Challenge his delusions. Make him see that Pandemonium is dead, and is never coming back. If it wasn't for-"
"ENOUGH OF THIS!"
Barging past her, Cobalt leaped at Gamma and raised his fist to shatter the first thing it came into contact, only for Lilith to intercept him. Grabbing him by the throat, she pinned him against a tree.
"You stay out of this, kid!" she yelled.
"So now this is suddenly worth your time?!" he snapped back at her.
"This is Devil business!"
"Which has become my business, because my life keeps coming under threat because of you!"
Lilith tightened her grip, cutting off both her own and her host's air supply.
"Watch your damn tongue," she spluttered.
Grabbing her fingers, he loosened her grip just enough to gasp for air.
"I thought you were happy to kill your old friends! You wanted me to put Delta down, didn't you?! So why the hypocrisy?!"
"I wasn't thinking straight at the time!"
"And I'm not thinking straight now, and the more you drag this out the more I'm gonna-!"
"Just shut up! Just shut the fuck up, kid! You have no idea what death means to a Devil!"
Cobalt narrowed his eyes.
"So enlighten me, Lilith," he spat.
The Devil bared her teeth.
"You mortals... You think you were once our slaves, that we are the masters of of eternity. But you got it all backwards. You have as many lives as you could wish for. We don't."
She dropped him into the snow. Wincing in pain, Cobalt pulled his jacket off and pressed it against his bleeding arm as he felt himself grow woozy. As he sat there, Lilith staggered back over to Gamma, who had simply knelt on the ground, staring at them.
"Beta's dead. Delta's not," Lilith told her.
She nodded.
"... I know..."
"Can't you tell him you killed us?"
She shook her head.
"... Can't go back without the Artillery..."
"Tch. Of course."
"... He knows you've taken a host now..."
"Shit. Shit!"
Gamma staggered back to her feet, but made no attempt to run.
"... He wants to take a home for us, Omega... He wants you to rule..." she murmured, her voice barely audible over the wind.
Licking some of the blood that had splattered all over him, Cobalt managed to seal his artery enough to stem most of the bleeding. Though he still felt incredibly lightheaded, he uneasily climbed to his feet and lurched over to the two Devils.
"What's she talking about, Lilith?" he asked, wincing as his carnimantic fervor died away.
Gamma raised an eyebrow.
"... Why does he call you that...?"
"What?"
Lilith shook her head.
"Enough. I'm sorry about this, Gamma."
"... Sorry about wh-?"
Lilith suddenly sucker punched her old comrade, knocking her glasses off and bowling her to the blood-soaked ground. Taking a deep breath, she looked back at Cobalt with eyes full of hate.
"We're done here," the Devils spat.
"What?! After all that?! No, you don't get to just up and leave! You've got some fucking explaining to do!" Cobalt retorted.
But she just snarled.
"Watch me, kid."
He tried to gutter out another reply, but by the time Cobalt managed to choke out the first word, she had refused with him. No matter how many times he yelled her name, she refused to respond, leaving the Incubus to kick the ground in frustration.
"You... gah!" he cried into the night, feeling the cold seep into his bones.
He looked back at Gamma. She looked oddly peaceful lying there, despite the mess of blood and slush surrounding her.
Cobalt took a deep breath. Stumbling over to the Devil, he arduously lifted her into his arms, frowning as her wings and tail dragged across the ground.
"Fine. Let's get you to Alison, then..."
-----
Cobalt lay in Alison's bed, staring at the rocky ceiling as a makeshift heart monitor steadily beeped next to him. The most grievous of his wounds had been closely tended to by the human scientist, once she had finished freaking out over the sheer amount of blood staining both his clothes and the Incubus himself. Next to the heart monitor was a pair of drips linked to his arm; one linked to a blood pack, the other filled with some murky fluid of dubious origin. Cobalt didn't know what it was, but it made him feel a little better, and he was too quiet to question it anyway.
So that was that then, was it? Beta, Delta, Gamma... The dreaded Alpha Corps, laid low by an Incubus. It was almost laughable, if the situation wasn't so horrific. Cobalt was feeling a lot of tumultuous emotions. Anger and frustration were at the forefront, but disgust and regret were definitely prevalent as well.
He... ate a woman's finger. Drinking his own blood was one thing, but actively devouring the flesh of another...? The one thing he feared himself doing for years?
He was no better than an Incupsychotic beast. And worst of all, he actually enjoyed it.
"Ding-dong, bluebell," yawn Alison from the hallway, spurring him to sit up in his bed.
The scientist stepped into the room, looking unusually exhausted. She yawned and leaned against the wall, folding her arms as she gave him a weak smile.
"How you feeling?"
Cobalt sighed.
"Not great," he mumbled.
"Mm. Wanna talk about it."
"... Not really, no."
"Fair enough. Well, allow me to talk your ear off."
Clapping her hands together, the human cleared a pile of old notebooks off a nearby desk and sat down upon it, kicking her legs as she looked the Incubus over.
"Well, I wasn't really expecting another guest to look after, but what can you do. Got the bloodstone at least. Thanks for that, by the way," she told him.
"Does it work?"
"Seems to, from what little testing I've done. Once I've gotten the whole rig set up, I'll be able to find out for sure."
Cobalt nodded slowly. He felt no satisfaction from that. In all honesty, he direly wished he had never agreed to get that damned bloodstone for her.
"Oh, speaking of your new friend, I put her in the same cell as the other one. He seemed happy to see her, if threatening to shove an axe up my ass can be considered an expression of joy."
The Incubus was barely listening, as mired in his own thoughts as he was.
"Gonna have to put a collar together for her before she wakes up, though. Not complaining about the workload or anything, just... man, I haven't slept in days."
Cobalt nodded absentmindedly.
"... Made progress on the cure."
His ears pricked up, prompting a little smile from the human.
"Just a little breakthrough, nothing major. Had to defer to some alchemy message boards to figure out what the hell some of the ingredients actually did, but once my test batches stopped exploding or melting through the glassware, I figured that was a step in the right direction."
She took a deep breath.
"Don't worry, bluebell. It'll be fine."
It'll be fine. There was so much hope in that sentence. At times - especially recently - it was hard to find hope like that, but usually all it took was someone saying something like that to Cobalt to make him feel better.
But now?
Now he just felt worse, and he didn't know why.