Cobalt ran as fast as his legs would carry him, panting with every step and ignoring the pain growing in his chest, like his heart was going to burst. His entire body was tingling with equal parts fear and adrenaline, and as he skidded down one of Brimstone's backstreets, he felt an intense shock of pain suddenly rock through his entire body, knocking him off his feet and into a collection of recycling bins. Gunshots rang out through the nigh, no doubt a result of Quinn fending off Elya. He was frightened for her; the Fallen had left her alone so far, but now that Quinn had directly interfered with her, there was no telling what Elya was capable of.

As he tried to extricate himself from the discarded paper and cardboard, he heard his phone go off in his pocket. Flipping it open, Cobalt held it to his ear.

"H- Hello?!" he gasped, struggling to catch his breath.

"Yeah, bluebell? It's me, your best friend. How's your date-slash-not-date going?" piped the cheery voice of Alison Titch, only further worsening Cobalt's nerves.

"Alison? Now's not really a good time!" he cried, nervously glancing behind him for the telltale violet glint of his pursuer's eyes.

"Well, there never really is a good time for anything, you know? Just one of the facets of modern philosophy, if you think about it. To live is to suffer, therefor anything that ever occurs is an inconvenience, and-"

"Why did you call me?!"

He heard the sound of water bubbling, followed by a fit of coughing from the scientist.

"Right, right, sorry. Yeah, uh... The nanosurgeons, right? The ones in your bloodstream?"

"What about them?!" panted Cobalt as he turned a shady corner.

"So I did some retrospective testing of your blood - don't ask how I got the samples - and I found that, interestingly enough, demon blood has a slightly lower pH than human blood. Who would have thought, huh?"

"Your point?!"

"Yeah, the nanosurgeons can't really handle the added acidity. They're sensitive, you know? So I had programmed them to undo the changes they did before they go kaput. Just letting you know it'll probably happen sooner than later," she explained nonchalantly.

Cobalt blanched. Having those tiny robots modify his body from the inside out was traumatising enough; just what was going to happen once they expired?!

Stopping outside a fenced-off demolitions site, he quickly glanced around for any sign of Elya before squeezing through a gap in the chain-link. He was far enough away from her that he would be better off hiding than running.

"Lemme just get up the old calculator here... Uhh, carry the two... factor in exertion levels and adrenaline... take away... hmm..."

"Alison, please, hurry it up! When do they expire?" he asked breathlessly, chest heaving as he planted his back against the wall of a derelict building.

"Here we go. The nanosurgeons should begin their shutdown procedures in about... ten."

"Ten what?! Hours?! Minutes?!"

"Nine... eight... seven..."

The phone slipped from Cobalt's grasp as his heart suddenly gave a mighty lurch. Crying out, he fell to his knees and clawed at his shirt as his entire body began to heat up. It was slow at first, before his temperature rapidly spiked, to the point where he felt as though he was boiling alive in his own skin. He could feel each individual muscle stretch, tear and reform whilst his bones felt as though they had been reduced to some kind of effluvial powder that shifted and splintered with every breath he took. Fat deposits squirmed beneath his flesh, all the while his skin grew incredibly tight and itchy. Stars flashed at the edges of his vision, pulsing in time to heartbeats that just kept getting faster and faster. He could taste blood in his mouth, and the only thing Cobalt was able to hear was an incessant, high-pitched whine. He reached a hand out, only to watch as his purple skin split open, giving way to an iridescent blue.

"Bluebell? You good?" Alison asked from somewhere behind him.

"N- No!" Cobalt cried, sweating all over.

The whining began to die down, but not before an acute headache ripped through his head. His insides shifted and settled, and with a mighty fit of coughing, Cobalt splattered a worrying amount of blood onto the floor. Even worse, it appeared to be bubbling.

"Just try not to die, alright? I'm gonna need a full report of what it was like!"

"IT FU- FLIPPING HURTS, OKAY?!"

"How bad?"

"LIKE I'M GONNA DIE!"

He heard the sound of her sucking air through her teeth, followed by yet more bubbling.

"Yikes... Well... I'm gonna leave you to it, okay? Don't die!"

The call ended, prompting Cobalt to give a scream of pain and collapse onto his side. He was convulsing all over, and though he could feel his body return to its original shape, every second hurt worse and worse, like his very nerves were being torched.

His vision faded and sharpened, waxed and waned, before something abruptly snapped behind the Incubus' eyes, causing his head to slump against the ground, a thin trail of reddish saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth.

 

~~~~~

 

The air smelled of old books. It was a pleasant, comforting scent, the kind that reminded Cobalt of all the nights he spent studying in libraries in university. But as calming as it was, he realised that run-down demolition sites typically didn't smell like antique paperbacks, so he opened his eyes, and was quite puzzled by where he found himself.

He lay slumped in a large leather armchair that sat before a roaring fire, in some kind of stately office that he didn't recognise. All around him, dozens upon dozens of books sat in piles that were haphazardly stacked upon any and all flat surfaces around him, be it the carved wooden desk in the corner of the room or one of the many shelves bolted to the walls. Quirking an eyebrow, the Incubus blinked a couple of times before looking down at himself. His clothes were gone, replaced with flowing grey robes.

Then it clicked.

"Dreaming..." he murmured, easing himself off the chair.

His surroundings made more sense once he came to that conclusion. It was said that when Lust demons suffered extreme physical or psychological trauma, their minds would take protective measures and draw their consciousness into themselves, forming a kind of safe space within their own psyches. The strain of his body changing so rapidly must have been too much for his mind to bear.

That being said, he didn't feel particularly afraid. If anything, he was fascinated. This was the first time he had ever experiences such a phenomena.

"So this is my Deepest Refuge..." he murmured to himself, remembering the name from a demonic psychology book he once borrowed from his sister.

Running a finger along the spines of the various tomes all around him, Cobalt carefully pulled one from its stack and opened it, only to find the pages blank. He flipped a few of them, but was quickly dismayed upon realising that the books held no words at all.

"Well, this is strange," he sighed, placing the book back where he found it.

A gentle meow suddenly drew the Incubus' attention to the corner, where he was surprised to find a pitch-black cat lying in a pile of scrunched-up paper. It's eyes were a piercing green colour, and it kept them locked with the Incubus as he slowly approached.

"Are you a construct of my mind, I wonder?" he mused, reaching a hand forward.

The cat drew it's head back.

"I'm my own person, I think you'll find," it responded, licking one of it's paws.

He froze in place, startled from receiving an answer to his question. The book he read on the Deepest Refuge mentioned nothing about sapient housepets, especially not ones that could speak.

"U- Um..." was all he could manage to say, taking a step back towards the armchair.

"Assumptions are dangerous things, Cobalt. Just look at the situation with your stab-happy friend up there. Look at what her assumption about you lead to," the cat continued, standing up to arch it's back.

The Incubus collapsed back into the chair, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

"A- Are you... part of me, or...?" he asked in a shaky voice, drawing a line between himself and the talking animal.

It gave him an unimpressed glanced.

"I thought I already answered that. No, I am myself. Besides, I think you'll find that you're more of a dog person. Hounds, specifically."

"Wh- What?"

"Pay me no mind. It's not something you're supposed to know yet."

It continued to lick itself in a most casual fashion.

"I- I didn't mean to offend you. I- I'm just a little unused to... whatever is going on here," spoke Cobalt, choosing his words carefully.

The cat curled itself up into a ball, eyes still locked with his.

"None taken. I'd say I wasn't expecting to have dialogue with you yet either, but that would be something of a lie."

"What do you mean?"

"Again, pay it no mind. I'm simply running my mouth. Your mind is... a complicated place, to say the least, and I'm a little exhausted from trying to navigate it."

It gestured towards a door with a flick of it's tail.

"In any case, you'd best wake up. Before you forget how to."

Swallowing hard, Cobalt turned his gaze towards the oak door at the far end of the office. Light was eking though from the gap underneath it, and he thought he could hear splashing water and the sounds of muffled voices coming from beyond it.

"Th- This is the way out? Back to, um... consciousness, I suppose?" he asked, stepping over and placing a hand on the door handle.

The cat seemed to almost sigh at his words.

"It's your mind. I'd say that you ought to have the greatest understanding of its workings, but that would be a lie as well."

Its eyes flashed.

"Wouldn't you agree?"

A shiver went up Cobalt's spine, prompting him to take a deep breath and pull the door open. Blinding light lay beyond, and as he held a hand up to shield his eyes, he held his breath and took a definite step forward.

 

~~~~~

 

There was something reassuring about hearing one's own heart beating regularly, especially after it had been put through its paces. Cobalt lay face down on hard concrete, silently gasping for breath. He could feel rain pattering against his back, while his body had ceased overheating, allowing him to shiver as his clothes were soaked through. Though he had yet to investigate his body, he felt as though everything had returned to its rightful place. Clearing his throat, he was relieved to find that his voice had returned to its regular pitch.

"At least I'm still in one piece..." he sighed hoarsely, wincing as his dried-out throat cracked.

Eyes fluttering open, the Incubus turned his gaze to his right, only to be met with a sheer, hundred and fifty foot drop straight down onto one of Brimstone's backstreets. Screaming fearfully, the Incubus rolled away from the edge of the rooftop where he found himself, doused by the nighttime rain. Staggering to his feet, he wheeled around and tried to get a sense of his surroundings, only to wind up staring right into a pair of deep purple eyes.

Crouched atop a pile of broken cinderblocks, Elya Yalfre calmly sharpened her dagger against a chunk of concrete, not once taking her eyes off her prey.

"E- Elya..." Cobalt breathed, keeping his voice low.

"Do not speak my name so casually, harlot," she rasped, baring her teeth.

The edges of her coat were scorched, and some of her cartilage feathers had been burned.

"Why'd you bring me here? Where's Quinn?"

"Sleeping. For now. I have more urgent matters to deal with first."

She drew herself to her full height, towering over the Incubus as she continued to sharpen Immoderata threateningly.

"I thought him safe so close to my reach. And still, he falls victim to a faceless wench I don't even recognise," Elya spat, taking a step towards him.

She still didn't recognise him? Even after Alison's nanobots changed him back?

Cobalt tried to reason with the Fallen, but at that moment she dropped the piece of concrete and suddenly tore the tie from his hair, causing a mess of navy tresses to fall across his face. Taking advantage of his distraction, she then swift locked her cold fingers around his throat, slowly raising him off the ground.

"Make your peace. The groundwater shall run red tonight!"

A burst of panic abruptly tore through the Incubus, his heart hammering faster and faster as the Fallen brought the honed edge of the iron knife towards his throat. He frantically searched for something - anything - that he could use to free himself, but she held him at arms length, out of reach of anything that could help him. Gasping and guttering, he fruitlessly grabbed at her wrist, only to notice something about his hands.

They were still purple, riddled with blue cracks. Of course!

Spurred on by a sudden burst of adrenaline, Cobalt pressed his shoe against Elya's stomach and suddenly shoved her back, grabbing onto her knife as he did so. She cried out and staggered back, Immoderata slipping from her grasp as the Incubus skidded back. His hands shook as he held the black iron blade, but he kept his nerve. Now was not the time to let old fears overwhelm him.

Gathering his elongated hair up with his free hand, Cobalt roughly sliced through it with the knife, scattering countless strands of navy hair to the wind. Still running high off sheer nerves, he gripped it between his teeth and began to claw at his face, shivering as he felt his fingernails rip and tear at the layer of purple skin that had grown over it. With one look at the shreds of purple that clung to his hands, he pulled Immoderata from his mouth and turned his gaze back onto the Fallen, hands raised as nonthreateningly as possible.

"Elya! It's me, okay!" he gasped breathlessly, sweating all over despite the cold.

She had fixed him with a strange, dead-eyed stare. Her usual maddened glare was gone, and whether it was a trick of the light or some figment of Cobalt's exhausted imagination, her irises seemed to flicker from one colour to the next. She was twitching violently, but as Cobalt tried to offer his assistance, she suddenly spoke.

"Give... it back." Elya breathed, eyes wide and unblinking.

The Incubus swallowed hard.

"Wh- What...?"

Slowly, she bared her teeth as her eyes filled with violent, purple rage. Her pupils shrunk down to pinpricks as her canines flashed in the moonlight.

"GIVE IT BAAAAAAACK~!"

He wasn't fast enough to react. How could he have been, as the Fallen moved with such speed that all he saw was a dark blur rushing towards him. Grappling Cobalt around the stomach, Elya launched the pair of them right over the edge of the building, still screaming and with her wings folded. Cobalt began with a scream of his own as they quickly fell into a terminal dive, the wind howling in his ears as they dropped by storey after storey. And still, Elya held on tight in a maddened death grip, shrieking like an insane banshee.

For the first time in his life, Cobalt brushed with death. For the first time, he felt as though his life was in danger.

And for the first time ever, he heard something crunch violently as the two demons impacted with the roof of a car.

All went black, and he was once again cast into obliviousness.