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You slowly stand up, and you motion to Lord Diavolo. "I did what you asked. Your turn to hold up your end of the bargain. Set him free."
Seeing as you didn't acknowledge his apology, Belphegor looks to Lucifer, who reaches a hand to him through the bars. He gives Belphegor's hand a reassuring squeeze. Mammon gripes loudly to you that if they could forgive you for hurting them, you could forgive Belphegor for hurting you, which earns him a smack from Satan.
You pause, and you sigh.
You're tired of holding it all in. If they get to let loose, so do you.
"I'm just... really tired.. y'know?" Your hands tighten into fists as you glare at the floor in front of you. You've turned away from the group, and all eyes are on you as you speak. "Do you know how many times.. I've been the one stuck to solve a problem WAY outside my skillset..?" Your eyes harden as you feel it bubbling inside. The anger, the resentment, the exhaustion.
God, you've been so exhausted...
"Every corner, it's a threat at my throat." You reach up to quietly touch the marks around your neck, which causes Belphegor to feel incredibly guilty. "My food.. my housing.. my life.. I've been fighting to survive since I got here.." A dark energy bubbles up around the edges of your form. Belphegor's eyes widen as he watches, helpless to stop it. "I've been fighting for my life long before I got here, but god! I'm so fucking tired of it! Of battles that scar me and leave me wondering if the next one will finally do me in!"
You laugh. A laugh that causes everyone's stomachs to drop.
The brothers who've created pacts with you can't feel a hint of their sins off of you. You envy nothing. Not a single thing could strike your greed. You're not even wrathful. You lust for nothing, pleasure long-since having been abandoned in your survival plan. There is no hunger in you as your body is engulfed by the ink. There is only the grief of the person you once were. The grief of the person you wanted to be. Your body is overtaken by the ink as you laugh a bitter, lifeless laugh. Cynical.
Belphegor shouts "They're overblotting, someone needs to help them come down from it!" his hands clutching at the bars- Only for a tendril of ink to lash out and splatter across the bars- Wings.. as inky and dark as an oil slick, begin to fill the hallway. Everyone's stifled.
Barbatos sucks a breath in, cursing silently. It's the one outcome he couldn't prevent. The one outcome that relied on you being able to bear the weight of the stress. The one thing he didn't know HOW to save you from. You tear through the hallway, leaving everyone behind.
Belphegor cusses loudly; "If you don't snap them out of it, they'll die!"
The brothers tear off after you, Lucifer lingering with his youngest brother at the bars, looking at the ink that drips down over the metal. ".. Are you going to be okay?"
"I won't be if they die because of me."
Lucifer nods. He knows what he has to do.
---
[___ is overblotting? Belphegor knows more about it. Help.] He sends a text directly to a new chat made with Solomon, Simeon, and Luke.
[What?? Where are you? What caused this??] Solomon, who had no idea you even HAD magic, moves to start getting ready. He knows how dangerous this can be.
[Castle. ___'s tearing through the halls. We'll try to keep them here if that's best for you to get to them. I don't think we can stop them.]
[What's an overblot?] Luke asks, nervous. This sounds serious.
[It's when a human's magic overcomes them through exhaustion or negative emotions. Sometimes both.] Solomon's already tearing out of the Hall of Purgatory. He sees Simeon on his way out, who hasn't even seen the texts and tells him to come along.
[I'm coming with you Solomon! ___ needs our help!]
[We'll be there soon, Lucifer. Keep them there. Keep them alive. Don't let them expend too much magic.]
---
Simeon's filled in on the bare minimum on the way to the castle. "What could have caused this, though? Could it have been their fight with the brothers?" He's genuinely concerned for you. He knows how heavy your heart weighs, and has often tried to mitigate stress where he could, but.. He's never been able to get close enough to help you.
"I think it had something to do with Belphegor. The last text I got from them was 'Gonna do something stupid. Best course of action available. If I die, find Crowley and kick his ass.' - And now Belphegor is out and Lucifer knows and is okay with it??" The sorcerer can't help but to speak in a barely contained panic. Overblotting is dangerous for trained mages. You shouldn't even have magic.
How quickly will it deplete you of your life?
He should have never let you go this alone. He knew you were up against dangerous odds. Why didn't you rely on him?
If you die here, he WILL kick Crowley's ass. Personally.
---
The angels and the sorcerer arrive at the castle to find you in the main hall, a massive creature behind you. It looks like you.
You, if your head was a bottle of ink, and your body was mutilated.
Luke's eyes tear up in fear as he looks to Simeon, who's expression hardens as he can't promise the younger angel that you'll come out of this safely.
Simeon recognizes the TSL medallion hanging from your neck as the one that infuriated Levi and almost resulted in him killing you. In fact, the longer anyone stares at the monster, they can pinpoint signifiers of things that point to when you've almost died here in Devildom.
This outburst directly relates to the danger you've faced, and the pain you've endured.
The brothers and Diavolo and Barbatos have taken to defensive stances, having been incapable of getting close to you at all. It's all they can do to keep your monster from tearing through to the streets of Devildom.
The creature iteration of you hosts injuries all over their body. Mutilation from every overblot you helped to prevent. Damage from every time the brothers have tried to kill you. Each injury spilling ink onto the floor as you stand, motionless in front of the creature, your grief taking hold of you.
"I'm so tired... I'm so fucking tired..." is all you can say. The brothers corraling the creature into place as it lashes out on your behalf. Inky wings encase your body as you cry out in pain every time the creature is attacked, new injuries bleeding ink onto the once pristine palace flooring below.
Solomon breaks the line, rushing into the fray. "___! ___, it's me! Solomon! Listen to my voice!" he calls out, the brothers helpless in this instance.
None of them knew you well enough to be an anchor.
All they did was feed your grief.
Upon hearing Solomon's voice, your wings open up and you stare at him, eyes bleeding ink as you sob, overcome with exhaustion and grief. Solomon isn't even bothered for a moment. He closes the distance, the overblot creature letting him in.
He's the only one it let get close to you.
He reaches you and you hold a hand out to him, as though begging for him to save you from this. He can see the fear in your eyes, the ink suffocating around your neck, the real tears that cut through the inky ones. He takes your hand securely into his, and pulls you into a warm, loving hug. Secure, safe. His body is stained by the ink, but he couldn't care less.
Solomon holds you close, making sure you know he'll never let you go. Tears ebb at the edges of his eyes as he can feel you sobbing against him.
For all his time away from humans, you bring out such palpable humanity in him.
"It's okay, you're okay now. You're okay now. I've gotcha. You're okay now." He coos to you quietly. The monster above lashes out to strike Solomon and Lucifer takes the hit, refusing to let you die here. The overblot creature begins lashing out all of your fears, no longer keeping the brothers at bay, but now trying to prevent Solomon from soothing you.
Solomon knows as he comforts and coos to you that the monster's anger must be stirred by the fear of being controlled and soothed into complacency. "You don't have to be okay with this.. You don't have to be okay with any of this. You don't even have to go back to the brothers if you don't want to. I'll keep you safe. As I have this whole time."
As he murmurs to you, he begins casting the Human Naptime Protection Spell. The spell begins to calm you down immensely.
Yes, you are safe now.
The monster begins to melt, crashing to the floor as the wings bleed off of your back, and you fall into Solomon's arms, supported by the sorcerer. He casts the spell, helping you down to the floor, where he checks your vitals amidst the inky display.
Your body relaxes as you pass out. He made it just in time.
He made it just in time.
As the ink comes off of your body, dissipating, Solomon can see the marks around your neck. He doesn't dare touch them, but he can figure what caused this.
---
When the ink has dissipated completely, Solomon refuses to bring the barrier down.
The brothers and the angels all stand around the edges of the Human Naptime Protection spell. The demons can't breach it, but the angels can. Still, Simeon asks Solomon before stepping inside. "Solomon, can Luke and I come closer?"
"..." His voice almost no firmer than a whisper, Solomon holds you as he murmurs ".. Yes."
Simeon and Luke step into the barrier, moving closer. Upon seeing the marks on your neck, Luke's eyes grow wide with the heat of rage. Simeon's grow soft with sadness.. But then cold with disgust. Luke spins on his feet to look at the demons.
"Who did this?! Which one of you demons did this!?"
For once, the older angel isn't reining him in. Simeon instead scans the group for guilty eyes. "The culprit isn't here, but that doesn't mean none of them contributed." His voice is like venom. How could anyone here let things get this out of hand? The brothers were meant to protect you. He finds himself too disgusted to preserve the relationships built here.
He knew it was bad, but he never figured it was this bad.
Luke sneers angrily, unsure of where to spit his own venom. He lashes out at Diavolo. "You said they were safe there! You said they'd be safe! How bad of a leader do you have to be to let things get this bad!? This whole program was a mistake! Humans shouldn't be anywhere NEAR you demons! All you do is destroy!"
Diavolo's brow furrows as the young angel chews him out.
Maybe he was right. Maybe this exchange program was a mistake.
Looking at your practically lifeless body on the floor of his own castle.. it's hard to say anything different.
The demon brothers, however, don't take kindly to the insinuation that you were in danger with them. They begin spitting venom back at the small angel, at which point Simeon begins speaking up and listing every part of the ink monster's form that connected to their own destructive actions that put your life in danger. "It can't be a coincidence, can it?"
Everyone's silent as the pain of lashing out at each other settles in.
Solomon, however, has just quietly been tending to you.
It was never his job to fix the rift between the angels and demons, it was just his job to protect humanity. And he almost failed here. He almost lost-
He can't think on it too hard. No, he has to continue protecting you.
"They're going to live in the Hall of Purgatory." is the only thing he says when he finally interjects.
"But-" Mammon's about to gripe, but is stopped by Lucifer.
Lucifer just, silently nods. He saw the grimoire in your overblot monster's hand. How it signified the moment you stepped between him and Beelzebub and Luke. "This is the best thing for them."
"...." Mammon looks on in frustration and anxiousness as Solomon and the angels tend to your injuries. He can't get close to you. None of the brothers can.
---
Diavolo feels the rift in his gut, frustrated that he ever thought this could work. The three realms are farther apart than they've been in a long time.