Oni were strong, with might to shatter stone. Golems and Gluttons were sturdy, and Succubi were deceptively cunning. Fallen and Imps were sharper than tacks and knew how to keep their wits about them, but Nymphs...?

They were fast.

One moment, Whitney Brode was standing just a few feet away from Cobalt. The next, she was right in front of him, her teeth gleaming in the light from the electricity coursing through her body. He could practically see her veins pulse with blueish light. With her spear clutched tight in her left hand, the Nymph thrust it upwards towards his face, forcing the Incubus to swing his head back to avoid getting run through. Whitney just scoffed and wheeled around, striking him with the blunt side of her weapon, sending a sudden shock through his body. Crying out, he staggered back and gripped the side of his head, backing up as his student regained her footing.

"Whitney, come on..." Cobalt breathed, raising his hands protectively in front of his face.

She lunged again, using her prosthesis to steady the Golden Spear as she thrust it forward, again and again. He managed to knock the first few strikes away with the backside of his palms, but the residual electricity from every parry left his hands stinging painfully, slowing his movements. Whitney seemed to notice his sluggish movements almost immediately. She quickly backpedaled before ducking down low and sprinting headlong at him, her spear held close by her waist.

"Steady on, kid!" Lilith cried.

Cobalt held his breath, preparing himself to intercept the strike. He had never had to fight a Nymph like this before, but after all the practice he had gotten in after his training session with Izzbelle, as well as all the encounters he had previously, he was confident that he would-

Whitney's grip with her good hand shifted right as she was within lunging distance.

"Shit, it's a feint!"

Her warning came to late. Cobalt dove forward in order to intercept her attack, but the Nymph had already skidded to a halt. He could only watch as he toppled forward, helpless as Whitney's spear tip keened through the air towards him.

"GAH!"

The golden blade sliced across the side of the Incubus' head, the strength of its wielder insufficient to pierce his skull. As electricity flooded his body, he crumpled to the ground, twitching and spasming as blood flowed from the gash in his head, staining his hair a dark red.

"I'm not going back out there, sir. You can't make me," Whitney breathed, staring hard at the blood dripping from her weapon.

Cobalt hissed swears through his teeth as he clambered back to his feet, wincing with every drop of blood that struck the expensive hardwood floor.

"Agh... You can't stay here either, Whitney," he guttered, wiping his bloodstained hand on his shirt.

"Watch me!"

She dived at him again. Cobalt wasn't sure whether it was the pain keeping him alert or something else entirely, but this time he managed to react accordingly. Turning his body to meet the oncoming spear, he allowed Whitney to sail right past him, giving him the opportunity to hook his foot around her ankle and sweep it out from under her. The Nymph cried out as she was tripped up, but managed to break her fall with a dexterous roll.

"GYAH~!" she shrieked, stabbing her spear deep into the floor.

Using her weapon as an anchor, Whitney swung around in an effort to lash out at Cobalt with both feet. He sidestepped her attack and lunged forward, restraining her arms before she could cause any more damage.

"Is this really how you want to deal with this?!" he cried, struggling to hold the electrically-charged demon still.

She responded by violently ramming her forehead into his face. Her horns came within an inch of gouging his eyes out as the impact knocked him back, blood spraying from his nose.

"You can go whenever you want, I won't stop you!" Whitney retorted, wiping her teacher's blood off her hoodie.

Holding a hand to his face, Cobalt shook his head.

"Not without you."

"Why not?! Out there I'm second best to everyone! At least in here I can mean something!"

"In here isn't real, Whitney!"

"I don't care!"

Unshaken, she grabbed her spear and charged at him once more. Hissing through his teeth out of frustration, Cobalt lowered his stance and braced himself for impact. As much as he admonished the idea of hurting his students, talking didn't seem to be working. He'd have to get a good, decisive blow in; one that would hopefully get the Nymph to reconsider without hurting her too much.

Right as her spear scraped his side, Cobalt lunged forward and lashed out with his arm, fixing to bash his elbow into Whitney's ribs. The electric shock from her weapon threw him off, however, causing the many teeth lining his arms to bite into the side of the Nymph's face, spraying them red. She screamed and toppled onto her back, clutching at the ragged wound as she struggled to stem the bleeding with only one hand.

The Incubus stared wide-eyed at the blood dripping from his arm. He could smell it from here.

"I- I didn't mean to..." he breathed.

"Now is not the time, kid!" Lilith reminded him sharply, snapping him out of it.

"R- Right!"

Shaking off the uncertainty, Cobalt turned his gaze back to Whitney. She had unsteadily climbed to her feet, leaning against her Golden Spear for support as blood oozed from between her fingers. She fixed her teacher with a manic glare, her eyes glowing brighter as electricity began to wreath her entire body.

"You made so many promises to keep us safe, so why do you always end up fighting us?! Jelli, Izzbelle, Quinn, Elya; how many more times?!" Whitney cried as her body was enveloped in a storm of lightning.

It clung tight to her skin, growing in mass and volatility with every passing second. She was charging up something big.

"Just because we've come to blows a few times doesn't mean I don't care about-!"

"Do you?! Do you care?!"

"Of course I care!"

"Then why the fuck do you keep stringing everyone along, sir?!"

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Cobalt paused.

"... What...?" he asked.

Both her eyes glared at him, her other glowing through her curtain of hair.

"I'm not a moron, sir. I can tell how you feel about everyone. You just won't admit it. OISULLI!" the Nymph screamed, raising her arms above her head.

The lightning clinging to her body pulsed dangerously, spurring Cobalt to drop low and dig his fingernails deep into the floorboards. True to his predictions, a corona of electricity burst forth from Whitney. Bright light filled the hall, forcing him to shut his eyes and hold his breath as scorching pain washed over him.

"You love them, don't you sir?"

He could hear Whitney's garbled voice in his ears, coming from all sides. Blinded by the light, all he could do was rip his nails free from the floorboards and try to catch his breath.

"Whitney!" he called, fruitlessly rubbing his eyes.

"You fell in love with Karazelle and Jelli and Izzbelle and Elya!"

"It's not like that!"

"Yes it is! You won't admit though, will you?! You always tell us to be open and honest, but you won't practice what you fucking preach!"

He clutched his head painfully.

"I am not in love with anyone!"

"Yes you are, sir! You just won't admit it!"

"Whitney...!"

"Say it!"

"Whitney!"

"Do what you told me and stop pretending to be someone you're not!"

"WHITNEY, SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

He tore his eyes open, the words having left his throat before he had time to regret them.

The dining hall, the Whitney clones, the chaos created by their fight... It was gone.

Instead, Cobalt Trayer found himself standing on top of the main school building, back in B.I.D. The crimson sky rumbled as a dry storm churned overhead, and he could feel the hot wind blustering against his face. He was hot and breathless, and in the distance he could hear the screams and gunshots of an ensuing firefight. The lights of B.I.D. glimmered dimly, drowned out by the red and blue lights from the police cars surrounding the school campus.

Behind him he heard a low, grating laugh. A sound that froze the Incubus in place.

"Weak. Fucking weak," spoke a deep voice, flooding the Incubus' veins with ice.

"Is that...?" Lilith breathed.

Cobalt slowly turned around, his eyes wide and frozen.

A Devil stood before him, wielding a lengthy iron spear. He stood shirtless, his grey skin heavily scarred from years of abuse. His horns were broken, his wings and tail were both missing, and his eyes... they burned into the Incubus.

"N- No, this... you're dead," he breathed, taking a step back.

Laughing, the Devil took a step forward, his spear scraping off the stone underfoot.

"Dead? No, I don't think so, Trayer," he growled, sharp teeth glinting with every flash of red lightning.

"... Diate...?"

Cobalt's legs felt weak.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me you're getting cold feet! Are you really going to deny your girlies a good show?"

"S- Stop it," the Incubus breathed.

He couldn't move.

Diate's grin widened.

"Bear your fangs, Trayer. Be a man for once and show your little princesses who you really are."

"Stop it!"

"Kid, keep it together, this isn't-!"

Lilith's reassuring voice was drowned out by the countless panicked thoughts tearing through Cobalt's head. The mere sight of Diate - the man who killed him once before - completely sapped him of his strength, rendering him powerless. He couldn't think. He couldn't speak. He could barely even breathe.

"You're scared, aren't you?" the Devil asked, leaning against his iron spear.

"Wh- What...?"

"These strumpets of yours... You haven't shown them who you really are, nor how you really feel. So you're just gonna drag them along with you, am I right?"

"Y- You don't know anything!"

"I don't need to, Trayer. It's obvious from a glance!"

Crying out, Cobalt grabbed his head.

"Shut up! You're not real! You're dead; I killed you!"

Scoffing, Diate struck his weapon off the floor, scattering sparks everywhere.

"Oh, I'm as real as I need to be! You might be embracing the Incubus body, but your mind is still stuck back here on this roof, pissing yourself over the thought of making any kind of commitment!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up...!"

"So prove me wrong! Bare your fangs and show me that you're a man! Take them or renounce them; just quit hanging in the middle!"

"I'LL KILL YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

Scrambling to his feet, Cobalt broke into a sprint. Blinded by tears, he leaped at Diate, fixing to tear him apart as he had done so once before. But he was just met by the Devil's grin as he raised his spear high. Time seemed to slow as painful deja vu took hold. The familiarly cold sensation of the spear tearing through his midsection intensified as Diate impaled him, splattering his blood everywhere. The spear tip burst out of his back, biting into the floor and pinning Cobalt in place.

He gasped for breath and fell to his knees, his bloodied hands clutching the spear haft jutting from his body.

"Really? Again? Are you that blind, Trayer?" Diate jeered, slowly circling the Incubus.

"K- Kid...? Tell me you got a plan," Lilith spluttered, sounding as though she was in agony.

Cobalt couldn't answer for all the blood forcing its way up his throat.

"You're a hypocrite in every way. Unwilling to change. Blind to everything around him. Weak in soul, if not in body," the Devil spat, narrowing his eyes at him.

Folding his arms, Diate pulled back and folded his arms, looking altogether unimpressed.

The edges of his vision began to blur as his extremities grew numb and cold.

"Hypocritical, scared, pathetic little Cobalt. Born a shadow of his father, lived a life stunted by his fear of commitment, and was plagued by mediocre attempts at reconciliation."

Losing the feeling in his hands, the Incubus lost his grip on the haft, causing him to slump forward. Another inch of cold iron was fed into his ruptured abdomen, but by then, the agony was beginning to dull. Through his distorted hearing, he was dimly aware of Lilith crying out at the edge of his perception.

"Pathetic," Diate repeated.

It was the last thing Cobalt heard, as by then, his eyes blacked out and his head slumped forward. Slowly, his heartrate declined as one last breath was sucked from his lungs.

So this was how it ended.

Diate wasn't wrong; every effort he took to change for the better was mediocre.

A mediocre death for a weak lamb of a man.

Pathetic.

Truly...

He was-

"No! You are not falling for this! Not here, not now!" Lilith suddenly screamed.

Cobalt's eyes fluttered open.

"I..."

"Are you really gonna let this pasty stickbug get inside your head?!"

Gritting his teeth, he took an arduous breath.

"She's hurt and confused, and she's taking it out on you!"

"Sh- She's right, though... I don't know what I want..." Cobalt mumbled beneath his breath, watching as his lifeblood oozed out of the wound in his stomach.

"Be that as it may, this is no place to die!"

"I should have died here."

"And let Diate win?!"

"Maybe. I don't know..."

"What about the girls? Were you just gonna let Diate take them apart?"

"I... No, I..."

"You want to protect them."

"Of course I do."

"Why?"

"Because..."

He swallowed hard, his throat burning from the blood.

Deep down, he couldn't deny it; a part of his heart fluttered at the thought of them. But that part of him... he just wasn't ready to face.

"... I..."

"Kid."

Cobalt took a deep breath and grabbed the blood-slicked haft of Diate's spear. It faintly buzzed with electricity.

"I... care about them. More than a man in my position should. I want them to be safe. I want them to be secure. I want them to be happy. All of them. I- I want... I want to be what an Incubus can't be," he said aloud, enough for Diate to hear him.

His grip on the spear tightened, causing it to creak.

"I want to see them through this last year, and I want to keep up with them even after they graduate. Maybe then I'll be able to speak up. Maybe then I'll..."

Cobalt swallowed hard.

"Maybe then I'll be able to answer that question."

"And what question is that, kid?"

He shook his head.

"I'm not ready to ask it yet. But someday I will be."

With a grunt of exertion, Cobalt crushed the haft of the spear in his hands, causing it to shatter into pieces. They scattered to the floor, their iron veneer melting away to reveal lustrous gold, which faded into vapour as the wind blew. Pulling himself off the remaining half of the weapon, the Incubus took a deep breath and stood up, the wound burning itself shut with every passing second.

Diate stared at him with wide eyes, looked unsure for the first time. He could smell blood leaking from a wound that wasn't on his face.

"And when that day comes..." Cobalt breathed, marching towards him.

He held his hand out.

"... I want you to be there to hear the answer. As a proud graduate of B.I.D."

The Devil stared at it for a moment, before taking a deep, shuddering breath. Slowly, he reached out with his own right hand. It shimmered and faded, revealing a dull yellow prosthesis. The metal hook lay heavy in the palm of Cobalt's hand, and upon looking up, he found himself faced with Whitney. The real Whitney.

She was tired. She was crying. She looked ready to collapse. But it was really her.

"Sir..." she murmured, blinking her eyes dry.

Cobalt swallowed hard and sighed.

"We'll talk. But let's deal with all this first, okay?"

Sniffling, the Nymph nodded and raised her good hand.

"O- Okay."

Taking a sharp breath, she shut her eyes, spurring Cobalt to follow suit.

She snapped her fingers.