The Alpha Corps weren't always warriors. A long, long time ago, they formed a council of the greatest artists, architects and inventors in all of Pandemonium. They went under a different name then, but it was so long ago that Lilith could barely remember, just as she could barely remember the original names of those she served alongside. When they were first warned of the incoming Rapture, the council turned their interests from creation to destruction, trading their brushes and tools for weapons of war. They gave up their names, their identities signified by the brands upon their chests.

Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon. The lieutenants.

Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda. The tactical specialists.

Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi, Rho. The martial experts.

Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi. The magical and mechanical prodigies.

Alpha and Omega. The first and second in command.

She knew each and every one of them, from the moment they accepted their duty to the moment they met their end. Most by the hand of an angel.

But others... to treachery.

As the house was consumed by a roaring inferno, filling the air with smoke and sparks, Lilith stood frozen to the spot. Just ahead of her, Cobalt had his back turned to her, Immoderata held tightly in his grasp. Elya was slumped by his feet, blood oozing from her mouth. She was lying there, guttered and bleeding, and he was just ignoring her...

A cold sensation settled in her stomach. Despite the Incubus' hideously burned legs, he was standing tall and rigid.

"Kid?!" she called, feeling a cold sweat form upon her brow.

He didn't respond. He just watched the house burn, his wings gently fluttering upon his back. Lilith winced and held a hand to her head as a sudden pain tore through her skull. Ever since they arrived here, her thoughts had been constantly intruded by Cobalt's conflicting emotions, but now her head was jarringly empty. Something was very, very wrong with him, and she had a horrible feeling that she knew exactly why...

Taking a deep breath, Lilith clenched her fists.

"Fuck this. You're not taking him from me...!"

The Devil ducked her head low and sprinted right at him. Taking a running leap, she willed herself into mist mid-jump, fixing to refuse with Cobalt's mind in order to snap him out of it. But whereas it was usually a brief, seamless process, she was suddenly met with a cold wall of mental energy, blocking her from rejoining. The Incubus whipped around to glare at her, his eyes burning a violent purple colour.

A cold, raspy voice tore through Lilith's head.

BEGONE. THIS ONE ISN'T YOURS.

A concussive boom knocked the Devil back as her corporeal body reformed, sending her clattering to the ground.

"Agh! Fucking Curse...!" she spluttered, hauling herself back to her feet.

Looking up, she saw Cobalt kneeling by Elya's side, cradling her body as she silently choked on the blood in her throat. Her eyes were wide and glassy-green, the same colour Lilith had glimpsed them shift to occasionally. The same colour her eyes used to be, in the Incubus' memories. She had been fighting the Curse's influence for a long, long time.

"Shh... I have you," Cobalt murmured.

He wasn't flinching away from her naked body. His voice was low and monotonous. That wasn't him.

Elya gasped and spluttered, spraying red all down her front as she reached for the Incubus' face with a shaking hand. He just took it in his own and tenderly kissed it.

"Don't look at me like that," he sighed, cupping her chin.

He kissed her deep, forcing the Fallen's eyes open wide as she jammed his tongue down her throat. Lilith could only watch as her blood leaked out from where their lips met, Cobalt's throat coursing as he drank deep. Elya's eyes fluttered as the Incubus' wounds began to hiss and spit, his veins alight with Incupsychotic power.

When he was finished, he simply dumped her back on the ground. Standing up straight, the Incubus stared at Lilith, his eyes cold and unfeeling.

"You look bitter," he remarked, his tone completely indecipherable.

Lilith bared her teeth.

"Don't you dare fuck with me, Iota!" she roared, absolutely furious.

Cobalt cocked his head.

"You keep saying that name like it means something. You don't seem to realise that your world died a long time ago. Chewed up and spat out like gristle."

He gazed at his arms.

"I feel good. My thoughts are clearer than they have been in a long time," he breathed, inspecting his claws.

Slowly, he pointed at Lilith with the dagger.

"So I won't be needing you anymore. It's a shame your body isn't physical anymore. You look positively-"

Conjuring a pistol into her hand, Lilith took aim and fired. After the blinding flash and the deafening gunshot, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest. Cobalt stood where he was, staring down at the bullet hole in his nightshirt. He pulled it open, revealing the lump of misshapen iron jutting from his body. It didn't even break the skin.

"Rude," he murmured, flicking the bullet away.

"Let him go! I'm only going to say this once!" Lilith yelled, re-aiming her pistol.

Raising an eyebrow, Cobalt abruptly slashed Immoderta across his right arm, splitting the skin and spraying hot blood everywhere. In kind, Lilith's arm began to scream in agony, forcing her to drop her weapon.

"I'm not going back to how I was. No, this... this is good. I feel free. After so long, I know exactly what I want," the Incubus breathed, completely unbothered by the streaming gash in his arm.

He looked down at Elya.

"I'll start with her. Lean and sinewy, but enough of a morsel to keep me going. Too broken for anything else."

That Curse... it was going to make him eat her...?!

"Like Hell am I gonna let that happen...!" Lilith spat, clutching her arm.

Cut off from Cobalt so completely... she felt unbelievably weak, like she could collapse any moment.

"As for the others... I'll need to keep them close. Determine their grade," Cobalt continued, talking more to himself than to her.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!"

"Prime, choice or cutter. Prime is more delicious breathing. Choice needs to be savoured. Cutter..."

He glanced back down at Elya.

"... Best swallowed quickly."

Those terrifying purple eyes flitted back over to Lilith.

"But first, you. You've served your purpose; I no longer have need of you."

The Incubus took a step towards the Devil, wincing as his burned feet touched the ground. He gazed down at his legs, marveling at the scorched skin and raw, exposed flesh.

"Hm," he murmured simply, like such horrifying wounds were mere distractions.

His veins flashed red as the flesh on his legs began to squirm, splitting open further as sharp shards of bone tunneled outwards in a spray of superheated blood. The stabbed their way outwards before snapping down into malformed scales, forming greaves and sabatons of twisted, bloodied ivory.

"There we go," Cobalt said, looking back up at Lilith.

He slowly turned his head as he gazed deep into Lilith's eyes.

"You're scared. I can smell your sweat on the wind."

"Shut your fucking mouth," Lilith demanded.

But he kept approaching, his bony armour clinking with every step.

"How long have you hated me? Since before you ever met me? Do you blame me? Or just my nature?"

"Shut up...!"

"I feel what you feel. The fear and despair. How long did she last, I wonder?"

Lilith flinched, prompting Cobalt to smile emotionlessly.

"... you mentioned that your mother fell to Incubi. That you last saw her screaming for you to run. But you didn't run, did you? You stood and watched as they tore into her, piece by piece. Until all that was left was a torn gown and pool of blood where she once stood."

Lilith staggered back, eyes wide as the world shifted and shimmered around her.

Of course she remembered. Every night she wished she didn't. That day, as she stood on the palace promenade as she was escorting civilians to safety. Her mother held the line, taking Incubus after Incubus down with a mighty glaive, until they completely overwhelmed her and...

Her dress was made for peace and war; a stunningly beautiful gown made with high-tensile weave, lamellar paneling and concealed plating capable of withstand direct shots from a ballista. And yet those monsters tore through her with their teeth. And when they had finished...

Cobalt's eyes widened as their connected minds funneled Lilith's rising panic right to him.

"You never told me you were a princess."

He grinned. A bloodstained maw of fangs, shining in the fire.

"... did you, Zelde?"

No.

Nobody got to call her that.

He didn't get to call her that.

The only person who ever retained the right to use her original name was the woman who gave it to her, and she was long, long gone.

Rising to her feet, Lilith balled her fists and lunged right at the Incubus, fixing to beat the beat the Curse out of him with her bare hands. He welcomed her with a wide grin and open arms. She got a few good strikes in - rocking her own skull something fierce - but at one point he wrapped an arm around her neck and plunged Immoderta deep into the Devil's stomach. As she felt her blood flow out of her, Lilith wrapped her hands around the Incubus' throat, pressing her thumbs into his larynx and cutting her own air off in the process.

That cold, emotionless stare. The passionless grin. The stilted monotone. The cold aura.

Iota. Iota. Iota. The whole thing stank of Iota!

That bitch she once called a friend! A comrade! Who took her trust and grinded it into the dirt!

The very same woman who murdered one of her best friends right in front of her eyes, all those centuries ago!

The Devil Lilith killed!

The Curse she made!

Fuck!

Planting her boot on his stomach, Lilith forced them both apart, painfully ripping the dagger from her abdomen. She held a hand to the seeping wound, gasping for breath as she evaluated the battlefield. She couldn't let her emotions get the better of her. It was making her soft.

Omega was a destroyer. It was about time she started acting like one.

The glade was a wide-open space. The ground underfoot was mostly overgrown grass; standard woodland fare. Mobility was no issue. Massive blaze in the centre. Hampered visibility, but if she could get between it and Cobalt, and keep her back to it, that shouldn't be a problem. As for Cobalt - no, the Curse - his body was damn near indestructible, especially if he was willing to consume his own friend to fuel his regeneration. Bullets wouldn't break his skin. Buckshot at close range, perhaps, but given how quickly he could move... No, this needed to be up close. Blades would work best. She would need to bleed him dry.

Opening her hand, she summoned an iron combat knife into her hand.

"You're wounded. Prey with broken limbs don't get far," Cobalt threatened, passing Immoderata from one hand to the other.

Lilith didn't respond. Instead, she focused on blocking out the pain and forming strategies. Cobalt was an Incubus, but he wasn't quite an animal yet. He couldn't rely on him to fall for the usual bait-and-switches.

Taking a deep breath, she shut her eye for a moment and thought back.

Rho...

A defensive expert who cared for Pandemonium more than life itself. He spent every waking hour of his life fortifying its walls and drilling its guards in how to repel attack from without and above. It took Lilith so long to convince him to take just a moment for himself, and once he finally put his shield down and started talking, they grew closer. More than colleagues, more than comrades. True, equal friends, through and through.

But that caught the eye of another. Iota, the infiltration expert. She became obsessed, always needling Lilith for information about him, always stalking him, always hanging onto his every word. And when he rebuked her advances...

Her eye snapped back open, burning with the urge for blood.

"Hearts of iron. Souls of steel. With burning minds; We make. We take. We break," she whispered to herself.

As she repeated the translated words of the Alpha Corps' battle chant, Lilith felt her panicked mind calm down. Her focus sharpened, her fists clenched, and her eye narrowed into slits.

That thing in front of her... It wasn't Cobalt. It was a Curse.

And it needed to be put down.