The sharpness against the side of his skull made Zero wince while his vision faltered for only a moment. He stood at the entrance to the cave, listening, feeling the air around him swirl, attempting to suck him into its blind depths. The cave had been simple enough to find. He only had to follow the song.

The call.

She was guiding the way.

So, he followed.

The rising and falling of notes led the boy through total blackness, winding and turning and declining further and further down into the earth. The sweet scent of her blood wafted into the tunnel, mingling with the sourness of the devil’s. The sounds of his furious howls from somewhere in the distance bounced and echoed off the walls of the cavern, making it sound as if he were everywhere. Zero could see the light of torches, dim and flickering, staving off the threat of the dark.

Ivy was there alone, her body motionless on the ground. He sat and gathered her against him, observing the blood on her nails and around her mouth. It wasn’t hers, but the trickle on the side of her head was.

Exactly where he had felt the pain.

It was surreal, as if he wasn’t actually there. Like his body wasn’t his own. Every sound and smell and the coolness in the air was just so far away, nothing connected to himself. He could feel the warmth, the light within him quickly succumbing to the flame, falling victim to its heat as it devoured them for fuel, growing more and more intense. Taking over, becoming all.

He ran his fingers through her hair and watched her breathe, the gentle rise and fall of her chest, pulling and pushing the air in her lungs. Pressing his ear against her breast, he listened to the rhythm of her heart.

So lovely.

Exactly in tune with the beats from his own.

Pulling away, the boy took his time in carefully wiping the devil’s blood from her face.

He needed to get her out of there.

Take her somewhere safe.

But he didn’t.

He stayed.

He allowed the inferno to flood through him.

Twisting and flowing through his veins.

Raging with a heat uncontrollable.

Disastrous.

The devil would realize soon enough that there was another encroaching on his territory.

And Zero would be waiting.

He shrugged his way out of his jacket and wrapped it around her, laying her back on the ground. He continued to trace his fingers along her face and into her hair, the way she would do to him. He marveled at her, the length of her lashes, the curve of her nose, the shape of her lips.

How many times had he done this very thing?

How many more would he get?

More.

He wanted more.

She was his.

He wouldn’t let anyone take her from him.

She was everything.

And he would have it all.

No matter what.

He could hear the devil making his return from one of the tunnels, finally having realized that another devil was there. He smiled softly down at the girl, his skin brushing across hers.

So soft.

“You should be dead. I killed you,” the growl was low and furious, a hint of disbelief peeking out through his anger. “Get away from her.”

The boy watched her.

So peaceful.

There was the hiss of a sword unsheathing. “Don’t touch her. Her bloods mine.”

If blood was what he wanted.

Zero was before the devil then, his hands gripping tightly around the devil’s and guiding the blade into his stomach. The tip pierced through his skin, making way for the steel to slice its way through his organs and exit from his back. His gaze skimmed over the deep lacerations winding across bloodied flesh before settling on crimson eyes so similar to his own.

So different.

“If you want blood,” the boy spoke softly, his hands slipping to the blade and grasping it tightly as he pulled it up towards his chest, further mutilating himself. “Then take it.”

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Deafening screams erupted from Ivy, showering them in her agony as her body writhed and convulsed in a harrowing dance. With eyes rolled into the back of her head, she clawed at the ground, searching for something, anything to grab on to. Her hand found its way around a stalagmite, crushing it in her grasp before attacking her own back, her nails pulling and tearing at the fabric of the jacket and her corset, desperate for release.

Zero would have to leave her.

Ivy would have to accept it.

Alone.

Just as he had to.

And they would do it together.

Apart.

But always together.

The devil looked at the boy, his eyes widening as he watched the horns that protruded from his head grow even taller, swirling towards the sky like cyclones of onyx that overtook his own. The boy’s eyes slowly darkened, creeping from the pupils and going entirely black, the crimson and white completely consumed in the abyss. The back of his blood-stained shirt split as sharp and pointed bones erupted from Zero’s shoulder blades, the form of massive, stripped bare, skeletal wings looming behind him.

A true angel of hell.

Ivy’s screams died away, and she went silent once more.

“What are you?” the devil sputtered as the boy’s bloody hand covered his mouth.

“Drink,” the voice was deeper, the darkness peering in.

The devil tried to pull away, but Zero’s other hand latched onto the back of his head, crushing the gaping wound further onto his tongue, forcing the scorching liquid down his throat while he choked and gasped. The boy released him, and he fell back onto the cave’s floor, his body lurching as he began to vomit. It was like fire tearing through his insides, melting his organs and bones, eating away at his soul. He shrieked, a cry that reverberated off of the walls and entered his ears, plaguing his brain with the incurable infection that was draining his body of life. He looked up at the white-haired devil above him, the vision of a monster, as the whites of his eyes turned black with the madness.

“What are you?!” the devil’s voice was no longer his own, his sanity fading quickly.

Zero snared his face, lifting the man above him as he grappled to no avail against him, scratching at his arm and attempting to pry at the vice like grip that held him captive. The boy grabbed the sword that still penetrated through him, pulling it free, and tossed it away like the useless heap of steel that it had become.

“I am her. She is I.” He slowly closed his fingers, the devil’s bone wailing against the tension, crunching and popping as his blood gushed and ran down Zero’s arm, spilling to the caves floor in streams of scarlet. “Her blood, her body, her soul… is mine. She’s mine. No one will take her from me.”

Not this time.

Never again.

She was his.

His.

Only his.

For all eternity.

The devil’s hands fell limply to his sides, his skull an unnatural shape formed by malicious digits, breath no longer in his lungs.

But it wasn’t enough.

The boy dropped to all fours, smashing the body to the ground before raising it and vehemently bringing it back down.

Over.

And over.

And over.

Shredding the flesh.

Spattering the blood.

Snapping the bone.

Pulverizing what was left of the one who had been a threat.

Each time getting further away from the confines of the cavern and falling deeper into the void. The warmth and the light missing, the song mute.

Only destruction.

Only chaos.

Only his thirst for her.

There was only emptiness. Only the sound of the devastation that was being inflicted on the now unrecognizable form in the boy’s possession, transforming it from a solid to nothing more than pulp to settle in the crevices of the rock below.

Zero didn’t hear the woman scream for the girl, or the splash from her footsteps through the dampness as she rushed to her. He didn’t see the man as he stopped at the entrance of the cave and attentively watched him, ocean eyes brimming with ardor.

The torchlight flickered, illuminating the girl as the demon fell to her knees beside her, clutching her against herself and burrowing her face into her neck, the feel of her pulse against her lips. “Ivy! Open your eyes! Please, Ivy, please!” Sakura begged frantically. “Ren! Help me! We have to get this chain off of her!” She looked to the man, but he made no attempt to move towards her or even glance her way.

The angel stood, watching the boy as he decimated the devil that had taken Ivy. He had dealt with Zero as a true devil plenty of times at this point, the beginning stages relatively simple, if not a bit dull, and growing in difficulty each time it took over, until the boy had gotten to the point where he could control himself and it ceased to be an issue.

But this was nothing like any of those times.

It was so much more thrilling.

Ren had never even heard so much as a whisper of a rumor of wings like the ones that now protruded from Zero’s back. They were the complete framework but lacking all skin and feathers from the bones. They were gruesome and horrifying all while being fantastic and mesmerizing at the same time. How he wanted to reach out and touch them, examine their form and density, the way they moved. Bend the bone at the joints and measure their length and circumference. See how similar they were to his own.

Zero’s horns were taller and thicker than his father’s had been. It was clear that the boy was much stronger than Gostog had been, the proof in the mangled form that he continued to bash into the ground. There had been carnage in the elder devil’s hideout, but not nearly to this extent. Not in this short amount of time and against another devil, nonetheless. One who was older, with more experience and time to train his mind and body. The same mind and body that was now nothing more than a lump of mangled meat, the creation of the boy who was otherwise soft spoken and reserved. There was no sign of that boy here now, only that of the savage creature that had been lying in wait inside of him, his time finally now.

And what a time it was.

The boy was absolutely fascinating. Ren had thought it from the first moment he laid eyes on him, and it only grew as the days went on. What an absolute gift he had been. How he so looked forward to continuing watching him grow and thrive, becoming stronger and even more formidable with every passing day. What more was there to come? In what other ways would the young devil surprise him?

Zero was a nightmare.

A dream come true for Ren.

But that exhilaration quickly morphed into terror as he turned to look at Ivy at the other end of the cave.

He wanted to discover more about Zero. Bear witness to his endless possibilities. Push the limits of his potential.

But not if it meant losing her.

Not if it ever meant that Ivy would be the one to suffer.

His blood turned to ice and breathing was forgotten as his eyes followed the curvature of the delicate wings that sprouted from her shoulder blades. The swirls of blues, purples, pinks, and silvers twisting and dancing against the flickering light. They weren’t round and soft like the butterfly he had carved out of wood for the girl the day she had come into his life. These curves were sharp and dramatic, licking away from her back, making the girl look even smaller in comparison as they reached high over her head and fell towards her ankles.

They were like flames.

Burning bright in the darkness.

A beacon of hope.

Of life.

They were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

And he shouldn’t have been seeing them.

Ivy wasn’t supposed to exist.

Not anymore.

The words came out barely a whisper, loud enough for him to know it was true.

“She’s fae.”