The house hadn't been touched in years, that was clear to see. At one point, it may have been a beautiful two-story home built from logs and clay from the surrounding forest, but time had not been kind to it, and the woods less so. The front door was old and rotten, held shut with dozens of old, rusted nails. The windows were shattered and boarded from the inside, and the chimney looked half-collapsed. Vines and moss clung to the decaying walls, and as Cobalt slowly approached through the untamed gardens, he felt intense unease build in his stomach. Only a single window was left unblocked; the one that Columba flew through, all the way on the top floor. Elya could fly, so it made sense for her to be able to gain access through it or one of the many holes in the roof, but that didn't bode well for him.

"What's that?" Lilith murmured, drawing his attention to the house's right side.

A small patch of ground had been cleared away, leaving room for two mounds of raised earth, each covered in grass. A single plank of wood jutted from each, though whatever words had been carved into them had long since faded with time. Even without descriptors, however, Cobalt knew exactly what they were.

"... Graves..." he murmured, coming to a halt in front of them.

"Looks like she's not done with us yet. Over there, on the wall."

Cobalt looked over at the side of the house. Much of the wall's rotten outsides had been recently peeled away, allowing another message to be carved into the wood.

IT is providence, that it all comes to a head here. Where lives ended. Where life began. Where our life together can truly reach a conclusion. Together, alive or dead.

The words directed his gaze towards an old, rusted drainpipe.

"Climb up that?" Lilith suggested.

True enough, it would allow him to mantle up onto the roof and get in through the window, but Cobalt didn't trust it to hold his weight, or refrain from giving him tetanus. Instead, the Incubus approached the wall and sunk his bony claws deep into the wood.

"Ah. Careful, the rotten parts might give way."

Bit by bit, he clambered up the side of the wall, leaving deep cuts in the wood leading all the way up to the window. He crawled inside, taking care not to cut himself on the broken glass still jutting from the window frame. Tumbling inside, the Incubus was greeted by the smell of damp, rot and dust as he collapsed against the floor.

The attic of the old house was a grim sight; a barebones loft sporting half a dozen holes in a ceiling and more than a few in the floor. A few of Columba's old feathers were scattered around, and as he climbed to his feet and dusted himself down, he noticed the pigeon herself sitting atop a knocked-over chair. She stared at Cobalt as he approached.

"What's wrong?" he murmured, holding a hand out to the bird.

She cocked her head back, staring up beyond him. The Incubus followed her gaze up, towards the short length of rope wrapped around the rafter.

Just above the chair.

Cobalt's eyes widened.

"What the Hell happened here...?" he murmured, glanced back out the window at the two graves.

"Don't go looking for sense in anything, kid. Just keep pushing on if you gotta."

"R- Right, of course. I need to find Elya."

Leaving Columba be, Cobalt fumbled around for the attic trapdoor. He hauled it open and began to descend the ladder, only for the rungs to snap beneath his feet, plunging him down to the floor below. He struck the rotten boards with a painful thump as pieces of broken wood rained down all around him. The smell of the house was stronger here; old, musty wood, permeated by a scent he couldn't quite fathom. It pervaded his mind, dulling his thoughts as he staggered to his feet, wincing and groaning.

"Agh..." the Incubus murmured, leaning against the wall.

"This place has got bad vibes, kid. I'm not... I'm not feeling so good, you know."

"Can't leave Elya here. She might need help."

"Are you serious?!"

He nodded resolutely and fumbled around in the gloom, waiting for his eyes to gradually adjust.

This house used to be warm and full of life. He could tell by the sheer amount of old furniture clogging up the halls and the pictures cluttering the walls. It was all broken and faded now, but as he put one foot in front of the other, he began to feel woozy. Nostalgic, almost, for a place he had never been before. Cobalt ran his fingers along the pictures on the wall. Some were rain-damaged, others were torn, but nearly all were impossible to make out. Bar one.

A family photograph. Three Fallen; a mother, a father and a young girl. The father looked tired and emaciated, but he shared the same eyes with his daughter. The mother, however, stood tall and straight, her face twisted into a facsimile of a smile. One hand was clasped upon the shoulder of her husband, while her eyes...

... were a violent, turbulent purple.

"Kid. Look. Her other hand."

He glanced at the edge of the photo. The mother's hand was just out of frame, but when he squinted, he could make out a handle clutched tight. A familiar handle.

Slowly, he returned his gaze to the young girl in the centre, her hair so long it almost covered her face. Her smile was meek, almost frightened.

"... This was her home," he breathed, feeling a deep, indescribable sadness settle in his chest.

"That's...?"

"Yeah. That's Elya."

"And her mom?"

Cobalt didn't answer.

"Look at what she's holding, kid. Look at her eyes. Her face. Same shit, same look, same dagger."

"Maybe her affliction is hereditary. All the more reason to find her and get her somewhere safe."

"Kid-!"

"I have to find her, Lilith. Maybe she's in one of these rooms."

Ignoring the Devil's incessant cries, Cobalt stepped over to a door on the far end of the hall and pushed hard upon it, grunting as it refused to budge at first. Teeth gritted, he raised a foot and kicked. The hinges snapped, the wood buckled, and Cobalt toppled inside.

The room... it wasn't what he expected. It was clean, and the air smelled fresh. The floor beneath his feet was cheap linoleum, and the walls were cold stone, half-covered by posters and noticeboards. Desks filled much of the room, and warm sunlight streamed through tall windows. Dazed and confused, Cobalt staggered in, his memory piqued by the sound of his feet squeaking against the floor.

"Wh- What...? I don't- what?" Lilith stuttered, completely bewildered.

"This... This is the History classroom, on the second floor. That... That can't be..." Cobalt breathed in response.

Something was wrong. How could this be?

Wait.

He ran a hand along one of the desks. Old wood, covered in almost two decades worth of drawing and carvings.

"This... isn't right. Classroom furniture was replaced the year before I started working here..." he murmured, walking from one desk to the other.

He hazily remembered having to write at these desks, back when he attended the school as a student. It was difficult, especially when his copybooks had thin covers.

Cobalt stopped at a desk by the window. It felt familiar.

"Am I seeing things, or is that...?"

Another message carved into the wood. Deeper, with more intent than the other childish scratchings.

WON'T you stay with me? Here, now, forever? Hunger or no, I'll accept you for all you are, my love. I always have. From the very first day I met you, until the very last. We'll be so happy.

He looked up.

A figure sat at the desk in front of him. A Fallen; long white hair, a neat uniform, her nose buried in a book about medicine. When Cobalt looked around, he saw other figures. Students, all of them, talking and joking before class, but all of them keeping their distance from him.

He looked down at the pen in his hand. She dropped it, and didn't even notice.

The day they met. The very first day of school. He handed her that pen, and their eyes met for just a moment. She was one of the few who didn't shy away from the Incubus boy, and although she never spoke, he... he felt...

"Kid! Kid, snap out of it!"

Lilth's sudden cry startled him. Everything seemed to wink out of existence as the rancid smell of rot and decay returned. Cobalt found himself standing in a trashed master bedroom, staring down at a message carved into the floorboards, illuminated by the moonlight shining through the gaps in the boarded windows.

"I... what...?" he guttered, feeling his legs grow weak as his heartbeat quickened.

"Not now, not fucking now...! Fucking Soulrot...!"

Cobalt shook his head. No, this has happened before, back in the infirmary. Lilith mentioned that when two minds were forced together in a contract, they could bleed into one another. Memories and feelings were stripped bare and warped, just like that.

He held a hand to his nostrils. His nose was bleeding.

"What's gonna happen to us?" he asked breathlessly.

"I- I don't know! This isn't supposed to happen so quickly! I don't know if it's because you're an Incubus or if it's because we're both demons, but this isn't right!"

Cobalt could feel how much she was panicking. It was causing his own heart to flutter relentlessly. All the times in the past when he caught on to Lilith's thoughts, when she directed his gaze without a word, when he could sense her dishonesty... was that this Soulrot thing? Were they really slipping away into one another?

He shook his head.

No. Not now. He still needed to find Elya; she alone was the priority here.

Turning around, the Incubus headed back out through the busted doorway, but what awaited him was not the hallway of the old house. He could smell paper in the air, and everything was deathly quiet. His vision was blurred and bleary, but when he looked around he found himself surrounded by floor to ceiling shelves, each stuffed with books.

"School library... they changed those over the summer, this..." he muttered, pointing a limp finger at the dim lights hanging from the ceiling.

Students all around him sat at a long central table. A seat was pulled out for him, and a pile of biology books lay open. He pushed them aside to find another message, cut deep into the otherwise-pristine wood.

LET the outside world remain as it is. Here, amidst the trees and silence, we can have peace. No more deceivers. No more obligations. No more pain. Just us, our love, and our home. Please, my love. Please. Can't you see that all I want is you, and you alone?

That shy, long-haired Fallen girl... she sat just next to him, timidly outlining various passages of the book, speaking slowly and clearly so he might understand it better. This wasn't the first time they spent their nights at the school library, and it wouldn't be the last. Did he even care about studying? Or was he just happy to have someone to be with?

"You... You were close to her," Lilith mumbled, sounding distant.

"I..."

"I can feel it, kid. You liked her."

"This isn't real... This isn't real! Th- This is just my mind playing tricks! Because of you!" Cobalt cried, staggering back.

"Well clearly it was real at some point!"

"I- I gotta find Elya, now!"

"Calm down! Just stop and think before you-!"

Blinded by panic, he began to run, blundering into old cabinets and side tables as the library faded back into the old, decrepit hallway. His foot caught against something, and he toppled head over heels, crashing down the stairs in an undignified heap. The stench of neglect was only stronger here, and Cobalt felt sick to his stomach. His head was swimming, diluting his perception to the point where he could no longer keep his balance. He collapsed against the door to the house's living room, breaking it and falling through.

The Incubus lay against a blanket laid out on the floor, cushioning him from the hard concrete beneath. The old fluorescents above were dim and flickering, the smell of alcohol lingered in the air, and he could hear music and shouting from the floor above. All around him, Cobalt could see metal kegs stacked alongside wooden whiskey barrels. When he turned over, he saw another message cut into one of them.

ME. All I have to give. Is it not enough to sate you? I would gladly offer my body to you whenever you ask, my love. To consummate or to consume, it matters not. I need you to devour me. Is that so hard to believe?

He felt a presence behind him. A warm, soft body. Cobalt knew that he was wearing his nightclothes, but he could feel skin press right against his back. A soft sigh in his ear. An arm wrapped around his chest. A heartbeat beating against his spine.

Cobalt could feel the colour drain from his face.

This...

This couldn't have happened...

It had to be some kind of holdover from the psychflensing, some remnant of Cherry's torture still lingering in his mind.

"Kid...?"

The storage cellar of some downtown dive bar. It was his birthday; no big occasion, just a few drinks with friends. Or one single friend.

Was it the alcohol that dulled his mind? His reasoning? Or something else entirely?

Did she ask him? Did he ask her? Who fell into who's arms? Who made the first moves? How? For how long?

Despite all the questions, a few things stuck out to him as definitive fact, his mind no longer quite so blurred.

He and Elya... they were far closer than he could have ever imagined. And when they lay together in the afterglow, he turned to look into her eyes. She smiled shyly, brushed her hair from her face, and asked him a simple question. To be hers forever.

And he answered.

He...

"Kid...?" Lilith asked quietly.

Cobalt slowly blinked. Tears were welling in his eyes, and he didn't know why. Splayed out on the floor of a living room filled with threadbare couches, broken coffee tables and rotten decor, he just lay where he was, crying as he stared at the words Elya had carved into the floor.

"... Why can't I remember, Lilith?" he asked quietly, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

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

He took a deep breath.

"It's my fault, isn't it?"

"What?! No, that's not-!"

"She loved me. We... lay together. And now she's like this."

The Incubus swallowed hard.

"I must have done something to make her this way. I made her sick, Lilith," he breathed.

"Enough of this, dammit! Stop trying to rationalise her bullshit!"

"No!"

Slamming his fist against the floor, Cobalt hauled himself to his feet. The Devil's anger fueled his own, setting his blood ablaze.

"How the Hell could I have forgotten something like this?!" he cried, clutching his head.

"Your head hasn't been in the right place for a while, kid! Just stay calm!"

"I- I can't! I can't! This is all my fault!"

"Kid! J- Just take a breath, okay?!"

But the Incubus simply couldn't. He began to hyperventilate as his mind ran in circles, old doubts splitting open like scars as his foggy memories blurred into one another. Lilith's panic fed into his own, forming a feedback loop of hysteria.

Elya. Sweet Hellfire, Elya.

All this time... The erratic behaviour, her constant stalking, her obsessive habits...

Was it all his fault? The danger she put herself and others in, too... was that all because of him?!

Toppling backwards, Cobalt fell to his knees. He squeezed his eyes shut tight as he clutched his head. Something was very, very wrong. His memories were playing against him, and his skull felt as though it was clamped in a vice. He gasped and guttered, hissing through his teeth in an effort to drown out the pain.

"H- Hurts...! Lilith, do something...! Make it stop...!"

"I- I can't! F- Fucking Soulrot, it's...! Agh...!"

He forced his eyes open and tried to stand. Lightning flashes of pain tore through his head, causing the world around him to blink and flicker. The ruined house shifted and warped at the edges of his vision, until everything suddenly went white. A loud, agonisingly high-pitched tone deafened the Incubus, forcing him to cover his ears and scream in order to drown it out.

"No, no not...! Not this, not now...!" Lilith cried.

He heard her choke something back.

"Fuck, kid...! I am so fucking sorry...!"

Cobalt blinked. The pain ceased. Everything stopped changing. Silence returned.

He was no longer in the house, but he was nowhere he recognised either.

A hallway. The walls were built from blocks of carved stone, and the floor was tiled with black slate. Whirring cogs, hissing pistons and other machinery was seamlessly worked into the stonework all around him, and torches bearing bright blue flames illuminated the dozens of crates stacked all around. Boxes of supplies, ancient weapons, suits of plate armour...

It reminded him of the Tempered Bastion.

"... No, this... this can't be..." the Devil breathed.

Leaning against the wall for support, Cobalt slowly made his way down the hallway. Outside, he could hear militaristic yelling. Explosions and crackles occasionally interrupted them, as well as the clashing of metal.

It sounded like a war.

"What is this?" the Incubus asked, holding a hand to his throbbing head.

She didn't answer.

Grand wooden doors were interspersed regularly along the corridor, but only one caught his interest. A message, just like all the others, carved into the wood with a knife.

GO down these stairs and grant me your answer. Your true answer that you gave me all those years ago. All these games. These distractions. These promises and betrayals. They end tonight, my love.
I am waiting for you, my love.

He grabbed the handle, but froze up. Lilith's apprehension kept his arm jarred, physically preventing him from opening the door.

"Don't..."

"I have to. I have to speak with Elya."

Pushing through it, he pulled it open.

The corpse of a Devil man lay upon the floor of a storage room. He wore an armoured coat; some kind of officer, maybe. His throat was slashed, his chest had been carved open, and his organs spilled out onto the tiles. Red eyes, wide and glassy, stared lifelessly at the ceiling, his face forever twisted with horror. The cold, creeping sensation returned, causing Cobalt's legs to shake. He felt like he knew this man. Like he meant a lot to him.

But those feelings weren't his.

"Rho..."

Another figure knelt over the body, staring at the heart she had wrenched so cruelly from his chest. Another Devil, splattered in blood, clutching a dagger formed from dark, twisted iron.

Slowly, she turned to face Cobalt. Her pupils were pinpricks, and she was smiling.

"He forced my hand, Omega. You said he wouldn't deny me anything," the Devil breathed, standing up straight.

As she brandished the dagger, the Incubus looked down to see an iron hammer in his own shaking hand, his knuckles white from how tightly he clutched the handle. He felt pain. Anger. An urge to kill. He could see exactly how he'd do it, in the back of his mind.

"She killed... Rho..."

Cobalt took a step back as the knife-wielding Devil approached.

"Kill her, kid. Stove her fucking skull in. Please."

He shook his head.

"Please...!"

The Devil raised the dagger. She was crying.

"JUST FUCKING KILL HER!"

"NO!"

Cobalt raised his hands defensively right as she lunged at him. He expected sharp, stabbing pain, but when it didn't come, he slowly removed his hands from his eyes. There he stood, back in the old house's ground floor, staring at an open doorway. Beyond was a stone staircase leading down into the basement.

In the back of his mind, Lilith was gasping for breath, clearly shaken by what had just happened.

"Lilith...?" he whispered, his own voice wavering.

She didn't answer.

"Lilith, I-"

He cut himself off. There was nothing he could say. Nothing he could do. He knew nothing about any of what he just saw, and he never should have seen it to begin with.

The Incubus returned his attention to stairs.

"Elya's waiting for me..."