Noctis was standing alone in a field of carnage, the fires of hell burning across the piles of corpses both some demon but mostly angels, the screams in the distance echoing as the heat kissed his skin whilst the smell of death permeated his nose. He looked near and far and found himself lost amongst the results of war.
"Where the hell am I?"
He started walking through the only trail of bloody dirt as the scenery became more gruesome ahead.
"Guys!?" He shouted ahead for any sign of his loved ones."Charlie? Vaggie? Angel?…..Anybody?"
He heard no one in the distance but a cry of pain , one that shook the very ground underneath his feet before angels that remained in the sky soared in groups to the portal high above, leaving the realm in its bloody mess.
He began to sweat even in the heat of hell with his fear becoming evident, but for some reason his feet still carried him up the hill of bodies.
He gagged and coughed with each squish of flesh in his hands as they pulled him to the top to see what had this battlefield so riddled with carnage.
When he reached the top, soaked in red, he gasped at the battle before him as it laid waist to hundreds of angels laid waist.
Down below rested an angel of feathery white hair, fallen to her knees and broken into sobs with another angel hugging her from behind and sharing the same heartache.
This strange angel held the body of someone clad in nothing, just naked skin, deceased with it's six wings mutilated from their body and burning in a nearby fire.
"Who is that?" Noctis questioned himself at seeing this sobbing woman so defeated.
"I had to do it." The angel cried, though her own belief in such was little as the other squeezed her shoulder. "Why would you side with Lucifer?"
Noctis needed to understand this more. He took a leap and rushed down the hill of corpses before stopping just short at the heartbreaking scene.
"My lady, he's gone." The male behind her drew forth his strength enough to speak those words, invoking even more pain from the woman cocooning the corpse in her six wings.
"I know he's gone Michael!" The woman choked over her own words, bitter and angry as the eyes in her feathers closed up. "It doesn't make it any less painful to know my son chose this realm over our own!"
Though Michael tried to comfort and draw her away from the body, she refused to move and held on tighter, whimpering into the crook of the neck as her hand dropped the bloody dagger that ended it all.
"My son…..my baby….."
She gazed down at the one she held lovingly and caressed his blank face. Noctis blinked as he somehow felt this strange sensation of a hand on him….. but no one was there.
"Please...Please... Don't let this be true…..~" The woman began to sing as the remaining soldiers that survived began to gather and circle. "Don't leave me behind....Lets stays for another...~"
Noctis froze as he felt a familiarity to that song and kneeled to the woman, his mind hypnotized by the voice and oblivious to how the remaining soldiers passed through him.
"Please …..please...don't break the heart…..—" she paused enough to remove his hair from his life lifeless face, sending a wave of panic to Noctis. "Of your mother~"
"What the fuck!?" He sputtered anxiously and shot back, watching in disbelief as the body began to disappear in the woman's arms.
It didn't change the fact that he saw his own face.
Before he could say anything else he found himself grabbed by his shoulder and spun in place to a darkness with Lucifer staring blankly at him, his eyes watering.
"It's you."
"Lucifer?" Noctis wasn't even sure if he should be confused or panicking at this point.
"You're here..." Lucifer stepped forward. "After all this time….."
"Stay back!" He yelled and backstepped hastily.
Lucifer felt nothing but hurt as Noctis said this, but knew he was only confused and frightened to what he just witnessed that who that dead angel was.
"WHY DID THAT GUY HAVE MY FACE!?"
Lucifer shook off his doubts from his head and tried to calmly reason with the man.
"Noctis listen to me. I know who you really are but I need you to calm down. Right now I'm in your head."
Noctis' eyes widened as he listened to the king. It sounded too weird to be real but at this point weird was the normal for him.
"My head?"
Lucifer nodded at this and explained.
"Right now you're in a deep sleep and I've invaded your mind to make sure you weren't mentally damaged after what you did."
"What I did?"
Noctis opened his eyes and sat up straight. He was panting and smothered in the hold of Charlie and Vaggie as they laid under the covers and followed his movement. He forced himself to calm down with deep breaths and looked around to see it was their room with Lucifer stepping back and Carmilla rushing over.
Without a moment to himself both girls smothered his form with Charlie being the one who gushed happily against his shoulder, whispering 'You're okay' like a mantra while Vaggie was more collected in waiting for him to realize where he was.
"Be still!" Carmilla grabbed his chin and shined a burning light into his eyes.
"Ms.Carmine?" He asked, squinting to the light but unable to move from her hand that maintained a firm grip.
This irritating process went on for seconds before she clicked the light off and looked back to Angel Dust that was maintaining a very safe distance due.
"He's probably going to be starving." Carmilla pointed out to Angel Dust before going back to examining Noctis. "Go fetch something for him."
Angel Dust didn't even argue with the overlord, simply saluting and taking his leave.
In turn of this moment Noctis was still very groggy and confused, and now he was a victim to her harsh treatment of ensuring his health. Without a warning he was forced to lean over more than his stiffened body would allow and twitched to the cold metal pressed against his back.
"Ms.Carmine that's-"
"Hush!" She ordered sharply as he realized she was using a stethoscope.
Reluctantly he remained silent and waited through grit teeth of the coldness throughout his body as she listened hard.
"Heartrate is normal." She stepped back and allowed the girls to hold him. "How do you feel?"
"Cold." Noctis answered as he realized his body was shivering, but at the same time he had come to look down and see he was in nothing but his boxer with both girls in their bra and panties and under the covers.
Embarrassed beyond measure he went to scream his heart out until Carmilla slapped her hand over his mouth and scold him.
"Do not raise your voice young man. Your body was under severe stress and you couldn't regulate!"
Noctis frowned at her stopping his freakout but figured for now that his best bet was to go along with it. Slowly he pushed off her hand and collected himself before the chill on his body hit again.
"Youre freezing." Charlie pointed out with the same worry they had and forced his body back down, curling her entire form with Vaggie to help.
"Why am I so cold?" He shivered uncontrollably even with Charlie and Vaggie doing their best to help.
Finally it was Lucifer's turn to step in and explain, albeit reluctantly after the encounter they shared in that dreamscape. He wasn't even sure himself how to explain what happened or what was happening with the man.
He took in a breath and set his hat down before sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing a somber expression.
"Your body released a powerful amount of divine energy when those mobsters attacked and it stressed your body." Lucifer explained, cringing with anticipation for a reaction.
He drawled in a high pitch tone, adding to his explanation and rolling his eyes nervously.
"And you may be the reincarnation of a divine beast."
Noctis stared blankly, laying there with not even a twitch while all eyes from the four demons rested on him. Frankly he was too cold to begin to freak out at this point and the potential scolding from Carmilla downright terrified him.
But now he finally had some answers as to who he was and why he was changing. Months of torment, or wondering why he was down here, and now he could understand.
Sadly it was obvious from the reactions of everyone in the room that Lucifer had already told them.
"This is what you wanted Noctis, and now you got it. So just suck it up and listen."
He laid back fully and closed his eyes, letting himself relax between the girls.
"Okay, start with the divine energy thing please." He requested calmly, surprising everyone.
He found himself listening as contently as he could by focusing to the intimate touching of Charlie and Vaggie spreading their body heat to him. That was all he could do to keep calm and collected while Lucifer was evidently grateful for his maturity but ready to explain.
"So—" he coughed awkwardly. "When max was shot, which he is fine by the way, your body released a lot of divine energy that created a barrier around the hotel."
"Max is okay?" Noctis asked, just to be sure while Lucifer scooted closer on the edge of the bed.
"Yes." The king nodded and continued. "However, releasing that much stressed your body a great deal. You've been asleep for five days now and the girls have been sharing their body heat because the stress of using so much irregulated your body temperature. You were in danger."
Noctis took this information with a grain of salt, although every fiber of him wanted to panic. Nevertheless he continued to keep his inner turmoil under control by wrapping his arms around the girls.
A gesture he didn't know would relax them more than they let on while listening with him.
"Okay, and what is a divine beast?"
Lucifer gratefully nodded at the man for his mature response of not having a breakdown and explained while Carmilla did more maternal duties in the room, listening but also prepping Noctis' day with the basics of bedrest, such as fresh clothes and clean sheets for when he got out of bed.
Gestures that didn't go unnoticed.
"A divine beast is an angel who willingly converted to be a guardian of the realms. They were revered higher than the most powerful of angels for their sacrifice."
"Uh huh." Noctis quipped and took in a deep breath, exhaling his stress through his nostrils. "So I'm an angel?"
Lucifer shook his head.
"No. You were an angel back then, but you gave up your angelic status to become a divine beast. However, you were...killed."
"Killed?" Noctis opened his eyes to that one and looked down the bed to the king with shock on his face. "What do you mean I was killed?"
"It's complicated." Lucifer answerd halfhazardly, earning an unamused glare from the man.
"Your majesty," he tried to sit up but ultimately gave up when Charlie and Vaggie refused to let him leave their bodies. "I've been down here for months and experienced change after change with no understanding. It can't get anymore complicated."
"Oh trust me it can." Lucifer laughed dramatically.
The king found himself silent as Noctis looked at him with a raised eyebrow, as if testing the waters of the truth that needed to be said. Obviously he had very little support when Charlie raised her eyebrow as well and gained a protectiveness of holding Noctis even tighter.
"Dad, you told us. Now you tell him." She said firmly.
The king stared nervously at the three that started to share the same disapproving look about his continuance of dodging. All he could think was how to gently let Noctis know the rest of the truth without making his life harder.
His mind was screaming different scenarios, each one different but the result being the same he knew he wouldn't like.
"Spit it out!" Carmilla barked, making the fallen angel flinch after she stood there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently for her own reasons.
"You're the reincarnated son of the High Seraphim!" Lucifer blurted out.
"Huh?" Noctis tilted his head, raising an eyebrow.
Lucifer shook his head to get rid of his emotional tirade and looked to Noctis nervously.
"Dad, say that again." Charlie requested, her tone a bit worried and pleading.
He sighed, knowing there was no escape now.
"Noctis is the reincarnated son of the High Seraphim."
"And you're sure of this?" Carmilla asked with deep skepticism, earning the king's certainty while her concern expressed in how she touched her hand in Noctis' head.
A touch Charlie and Vaggie did not like but remained focused on warming up Noctis and listening to Lucifer.
Lucifer's expression changed from awkward worry to certainty as the overlord rubbed Noctis' head tenderly as the girls watched her jealously, unaware of the reason behind Carmilla's intentions. He straightened up on the edge of the bed and scooted even closer to them, frowning when he knew this truth would chsnge everything.
"I'm sure because I know who he is...or was." He answered as truthfully as he could, although he wasn't making any sense to anyone even when he explained to the others prior to Noctis' wake up.
"And who was I?" Noctis asked, suspicion and worry etched in his expression.
"You were an angel that was called Romna. A long time ago you volunteered to become a divine beast to safeguard heaven and hell, but your mother, Sera, was convinced that you were corrupted when you fought against her and the army of heaven."
"And you're certain of this?" Noctis continued, his suspicion deepening whilst the king's expression turned regretful.
"I'm certain because I was the one who buried your body." Lucifer replied before he took a breath, suppressing his own emotions to that painful day. "Sera was convinced that you had been corrupted by me and sent the army of heaven to stop you."
"Stop him from what?" Vaggie asked. She didn't want understand the reasoning behind Noctis' past life but something about this made her protective.
"From destroying heaven."
Noctis narrowed his eyes as he stared up at the ceiling with a frown. He couldn't believe all of this being surrounded to him or that he was a person before his life now.
Then again, it wasn't so hard to believe when nothing about him made sense.
"Originally you were meant to keep war from happening between the realms." Lucifer continued darkly. "But someone got into Sera's head that after I fell you became twisted by me due to our relationship in the past, that your personal matters clouded you into siding with me. And when she saw how you and I were still friends she became furious and sent the angels to wipe out hell."
He maintained his dark demeanor and turned to Charlie before telling her so boldly.
"The extermination started on this day, but Romna tried to stop it."
Charlie's eyes were wide with disbelief as her father finished talking.
Suddenly the king manifested his angelic power and cast a window into the room, playing an image fresh from his own memories of a past he hoped to never see again. Begrudgingly he waved his hands to this window of said memory and played the the truth to all of them.
Hell, freshly burning from golden fires of a great battle with sinners of all types cowering and hiding from the army of heaven that downcast from the mountains they hovered over with their weapons drawn.
In the front though stood Sera with the Archangels at her sides as she glanced pitifully under her anger to a six winged figure that stood at the bridge of this unfinished castle with a desperate Lucifer trying to reason with him.
The figure in question became undeniably true to his words. The lookalike was indeed Noctis but in this case the Romna person he just spoke of.
Collective gasps came from Charlie and Vaggie while Carmilla silently watched with wide eyes and now understood.
Noctis in the other hand fell into a deep confusion at seeing himself in such that he slowly became unsure of himself entirely.
Depression of the worst set in as he told himself mentally, "I was never meant to exist. I should be dead."
"Romna, you dare stand agajnst heaven and it's entirety!?" Sera yelled angrily, her hand gripping its handle shakily.
Romna gave no answer and ignored Lucifer's pleas as if they didn't exist in the first place, his eyes narrowing to his own mother as he reached up and took his seraphim off his head.
Without hesitation he tore the chest plate from his body.
"NO ROMNA!" Lucifer cried before he was shoved away and had his wings shackled by chains that shot out of the ground.
Chains summoned by his own friend that looked to him in tears...yet smiled.
"Sorry old friend."
"NO!" Lucifer screamed and thrashed as another bound his neck, forced to his knees yet his hand reaching helplessly.
"DON'T DO THIS! JUST GO HOME!"
Romna, as pained as he was to betray his friend, shook his head and said, "I cannot do that. This is what my duty is—to prevent war."
Lucifer was at such a loss of words he could only cry and reach harder as his friend raised his holy crown high above his head, his claws digging into the ground to the point of bleeding.
Without a second thought the seraphim son snapped his crown in two and impaled himself in the chest with both pieces. He gave an otherworldly scream as the light of his broken crown flooded his form into a beam that blinded all for a few seconds.
Untold light rose high above hell and stretched across hell as the angels were left no choice but to cover their eyes lest they wanted to be blinded.
This display lasted for a few seconds before a rumbling power exploded and left the army of heaven quaking when they saw Romna had sacrificed his angelic form to become what the Heavenly Father deemed him to be.
A massive serpent showed and roared defiantly where Romna once stood and now glared at them from a distance, it's size as monumentous as a mountain while coiled around Lucifer's kingdom that was still under construction.
"My home….." Charlie whispered as she held onto Noctis for comfort.
"When it was first built, before you were even a thought." Lucifer explained.
"Romna..." Lucifer sobbed in defeat of his friend making his decision.
"Your orders my lady?" Archangel Michael asked coldly without taking his gaze off the much younger Lucifer that was still clawing his way to get to Romna, but the chains continued to hold him back.
"My son has made his choice." Sera said coldly, but underneath that declaration were the tears of a broken-hearted mother who's hand shook when she unsheathed her blade and pointed it to the beast.
The serpent hissed dangerously at the seraphim, it's body coiling tighter around the castle as a barrier.
It was obvious Sera was full of regret but hiding it underneath her hair as the angels battle-cries echoed before descending.
"ROMNA JUST GO HOME!" A desperate Lucifer cried, but he was ignored by the divine beast that roared back at the army swarming down, blacking the sky with their numbers.
Lucifer cast the image away and sighed, before standing up and pacing to the front of the bed and searching for an answer to Noctis' existence.
"The only sensible answer of your reincarnation is that Natasha went against the very laws of existence and found your pieces in oblivion to put back together. Hence why your soul is fractured and mending while your powers are coming back."
"What is oblivion?" Carmilla asked critically.
"It's the realm of nothing." Lucifer answered her grimly. "When an angelic being or a creature of divinity die they are cast away from existence."
Charlie and Vaggie bristled with fierce protectiveness over that. Even now as they shared their heat with Noctis they were more intent of keeping him safe rather than keeping him healthy at this moment while Carmilla stopped rubbing his head and faced the king with a seriousness only the other overlords had seen.
"You said that someone got into her head." Carmilla pointed out as the bedroom became fuller with a most disgustingly interested radio demon shifting through a wall to join the conversation. "What makes you think someone manipulated her into murdering Noctis?"
That was an obvious answer to Lucifer, and he explained it to them neutrally.
"Because Sera adored Romna, saw no fault in him. She made him from a dying star and from then on her life was dedicated to loving and protecting him and I heard her say something before she left that day."
"And what was it?" Carmilla asked, arms crossed in suspicion.
Lucifer answered her truthfully, "She said they were right about Romna being a traitor."
"They?"
"But who would manipulate her into killing Noctis?" Charlie asked, but her father was unsure and pondering.
"Why that's an obvious answer." Alastor mused thoughtfully with a deep hunger for Noctis, making his presence known.
Although everyone else was ready to hear his perspective, Vaggie wasn't so sure how truthful someone like him could be, and scoffed at both his presence and his involvement.
"And you know who it is, shit-ass?"
Alastor's eyes narrowed mischievously as he tensed the room with his slow walk to the window, peering through the blinds to the divine realm high in the sky as everyone waited impatiently.
"It's obviously someone in her inner circle since demonic presence is completely banned in heaven." His grin widened to an uncomfortable scene for everyone in the room. "The question is who wanted Noctis dead in his previous life?"
"Like, an Angel?" Charlie asjed with wide eyes.
An eerie silence passed through the room thanks to Alastor passing clear wisdom to them. He wasn't just right but with no flaw to his logic that someone close to Sera had to be the one to influence her with such deceit.
"But now—" he chuckled darkly and went to approach the lovers still in bed but found himself stopped immediately by Lucifer getting in the way and a maternally protective Carmilla unveiling a pistol from behind her.
"Oh?" Alastor tilted his head mockingly at the two while Charlie flared her horns and Vaggie drew her spear, both equally ready to protect Noctis even in their not so decent forms.
The hostility from the king and weapons overlord would have sent any demon running for the hills, but for Alastor it was simply amusement at how two of the most powerful beings in hell were so protective of the man, and even pathetic in his eyes that the girls were so eager so step in as well.
"What?" He joked half-heartedly with a friendly shrug, appearing as friendly as possible. "I just want to ask our dear friend a simple question."
"Then ask from a distance." Carmilla ordered and cocked her pistol.
"No offense Alastor," Charlie spoke his name venemously as she added her input. "But you don't come around Noctis much so it's a little suspicious you want to be close all of a sudden."
"Keep your ass back." Vaggie threatened with a firm grip on her materialized spear.
"Don't even think about." Lucifer warned, flaring red in his eyes.
Alastor laughed heartily at the four for their viewpoint of his approach, posing a dramatic hand to his chest while everyone remained waiting for him to possibly act.
"You all wound me." He said tauntingly and spun his microphone. "I'm just as piqued as everyone here about our safety since the boy there is going to be the prime target of heaven and hell when word gets out."
Noctis could see this wasn't going to end well if they kept up the hostility, and right now he just wanted to process everything without anyone go for the other's throat. He knew Alastor was conniving and deceitful at every corner he could be, but there was one thing the radio demon had always given him no matter how twisted it may be.
The truth.
"Everybody stop!" He shouted, earning their gazes before a harsh cough escaped him.
Already regretting this exhaustion he was enduring, Noctis coughed and hacked as the girls rubbed his back and chest to calm him down.
"I...I want to …..hear what he has to say."
The radio demon found glee in that demand as the others stared uncertain and worried when that shout from Noctis took so much strength that he was now laying deeper in the bed and panting as though he just ran a mile.
Lucifer was the first to raise an eyebrow at the radio demon before he ultimately stepped aside and allowed him to get closer.
The same smile filled with amusement from Alastor gave Noctis a chill down his back, as the sinister demon sat on the edge of the bed and eyed him intently while the girls held on tightly.
Carmilla wasn't so easily swayed though and expressed herself explicitly in lacking trust for her fellow overlord by crossing her arms with her gun still in hand, her finger resting on the trigger.
"So protective Carmilla." Alastor noticed and mocked in a sweet tone, tilting his head with a sickly crack. "Perhaps you care more about the boy than you let on."
Her eyes narrowed with said finger tightening on the trigger as he dismissed her threatening posture by looking back to Noctis.
"So what will you do now?" He chirped out of the blue, finally asking his question.
That took everyone by surprise, especially the young man giving him a confused look underneath the bags under his eyes.
"What will I do now?" Noctis asked curiously with the radio demon nodding and pointing his microphone at him.
Alastor leaned in with a critical eye, his static radiating through his voice as he showed his more sinister side with the changing of his eyes into dials.
"Yes, what will you do now that you finally discovered you're the reincarnated son of the High Seraphim who happened to murder you in your previous life when you became a divine beast and defied all of heaven?"
He added emphasis with pretending to weigh the situation in his hands like a scale.
"Will you stay in denial or will you come to grips with the reality that you seeked?"
Noctis felt the weight of those questions come down hard, his mind processing this entire bedroom meeting. He pondered whilst the ceiling became his only focus in the room and felt the responsibility of this discovery being his decision to make.
Charlie and Vaggie waited patiently for an answer but then looked to Lucifer and Carmilla stepping away and whispering to one another, conversing so seriously that they were arguing quietly.
"He needs to rest, your majesty."
"He needs to be trained, Carmilla."
"He is not a weapon."
"No, but he is my old friend even if he is reincarnated and I want to make sure he can defend himself."
"He is just a boy!"
"And my daughter's claimed one. He is to important to be unready for the troubles to come."
"Ugh. You are insufferable!" Carmilla groaned loudly with a wave of her hands and returned to the bed to hear Noctis' answer.
What she didn't know was the king did have a childish side of him and it showed with he stuck his tongue out when her back was turned.
"Well?" Alastor hummed sinisterly, though the finger tapping on his microphone indicated little patience.
Charlie and Vaggie were starting to get anxious with how Noctis passed around only silence in the bedroom, but how could he even think right now?
How could he think at all?
A few hours later in the lounge room…..
"Ugh….kids." Husk groaned in disgust after tossing a dirty diaper in the trash, gagging to the smell that overpowered his alcohol breath as everyone but Noctis, Charlie, and Vaggie sat in the lounge room contemplating the entire situation.
"So let me get this straight—" Angel Dust sat with his arms and legs crossed as he stared with some understanding at the king. "Noctis is some reborn divine monster that used to be an angel and is the son of the High Seraphim?"
"Correct, and divine beast." Lucifer answered as he tinkered with one his rubber duck projects.
"Whatever." The spider demon dismissed before he continued his questioning. "And that guy used to be your friend?"
"Yup." Lucifer chirped before looking up from his seat to all eyes staring at him. "What?"
Carmilla narrowed her eyes at his dismissive tone tone before she asked, "And you don't think this won't be problematic considering he has untold power?"
The thought had already crossed his mind, but Lucifer knew there was nothing he could do while Noctis was still trying to decide what he should do. Thoughtfully, he knew the best course of action was for the man to recover and figure out himself.
"Noctis has to decide for himself. We can't decide for him."
Carmilla suddenly slapped her hands on the coffee table, making everyone in the room flinch as she snapped at the king.
"Bullshit! He is a boy with the entire weight of his true self thrusted upon him and you're choosing to sit back and let him be in disarray!"
"What do you expect me to do!?" Lucifer snapped back at the overlord and gestured to himself. "I can't make him do anything!"
"Guide him. Help him realize his potential that could help protect our realm before someone else gets ahold of him." Carmilla suggested with an aggressive tone of voice.
Unfortunately the suggestion was easier than it sounded and she knew that. Convincing a young man who knew not what he was before and now a being of great power, even she was apprehensive of it.
Lucifer understood what she was saying, he really did. But there was the matter of his own personal vendetta of seeing his oldest friend back from the dead and a completely different person. It wasn't just a matter of Noctis finding his existence now, it was coming to grips with his existence that was taken so long ago by the one who should protected him.
"You're being too hard on the kid." Husk spoke up in a grumble after pouring a drink, clearly unimpressed with the argument.
"What!?" Carmilla and Lucifer barked in unison with similar scowls.
"He's right." Angel Dust added casually and leaned back in his seat. "You two are being hasty on what Noctis needs to do."
Alastor gave a mild laugh from his chair before he asked the spider demon, "And what wise words of wisdom would someone of your caliber have to say?"
He leaned as Angel Dust tensed at that implied insult, listening to this supoosed answer he had even when his relationship with Noctis was strained after the studio.
"You're all expecting him to step up." Angel Dust answered, laying the obvious on the table. "He just found out who he really is and you're all expecting him to grow a fucking pair and accept that he's reincarnated divine fucker who has legit mommy issues."
"He will be targeted by both realms if he is not trained!" Carmilla emphasized each word with tapping her finger on the coffee table.
"He has a life to live!" Angel Dust retorted angrily.
"He needs protection and guidance!"
To everyone's surprise but the overlord herself, the pervy demon was done shouting from a distance and shot out of his seat. He met her scowl with his own as soon as he got in her face, unafraid of her or her status for the one simple fact he couldn't deny anymore.
He cared about Noctis.
"And what the fuck makes you think you know what is best for him?" He asked harshly with a strong shove, stunning everyone as he added. "When you aint his mother!?"
Carmilla stumbled back but caught herself, surprised by both the aggression and the challenge Angel Dust gave her. She opened her mouth to retort but found the truth in those words were not some petty fact that she could brush aside with a scoff. The undeniable feeling she had grown for Noctis had finally infected her persona as hell's weapons overlord.
And to make matters worse, this feeling had silenced both her mind and her heart to a throbbing pain of realization that made her glare at the smirking spider demon before she stormed out of the room to collect herself.
"Yeah that's right." Angel Dust taunted with his arms crossed. "Walk away when you know I'm right."
Carmilla growled and stomped for minutes through the hotel before finding herself a quiet spot inside a secluded room on the second floor. She stepped in and closed the door, locking it with a click before the pain Angel Dust invoked with his words rippled in her body with need to release.
She breathed so heavily her composure was breaking as the repeat of his words hammered in her mind. It took every ounce of willpower just to start pacing herself in the room and not burst into hysterics while pulling her hair out of its style and hang loose.
"When you aint his mother….."
"Aint his mother….."
"Aint his…"
Her mind finally betrayed her with the replay Lucifer displayed earlier today before the agonizing fear of potential threats flooded the overlord and fueled her pacing into shaking rage.
Savagely she snarled to the reflection of herself in the dresser mirror and saw with her own imagination the possibilities of Noctis being harmed, used, or manipulated if the angels were to find out one of their own had come back from the dead.
Especially if the High Seraphim found out her own son was back.
This anger, this burning feeling in her chest erupted after her memories of Noctis replayed so clearly she couldn't shake them out.
The first time she hugged the man to comfort him, every dance lesson she gave over the weeks after their lunch date, their laughter and enjoyment of eachother's company.
Even the way she tended to him these five days.
But it all fell apart to the same belief in her heart.
Heaven and Hell would come for him, and there was nowhere for him to be safe.
"NO!" She snapped with smashing her fists onto the dresser, and obliterated it with the mirror.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
She clenched her eyes and screamed for all it was worth. There was no one to see her break down and go into a frenzy, bleeding her heart out in a fury of smashing the room to pieces with her kicks and throwing every small object her eyes could find.
And when there was nothing left that was small to smash, she used all her demonic strength to target the larger objects, starting with snapping the bed in two after kicking it into a wall.
"FUUUUUCK!"
She was absolutely beside herself with rage and wasn't letting it die out as the room became the exaggerated result of a tornado flying through. She looked around and found a dresser to destroy with just a punch and threw the largest pieces into the bathroom.
"FUCKING DAMMIT!"
After a few minutes of this unbridled fury she collapsed against the most vacant wall in the room, heaving and panting for air while looking to the destruction she caused from losing herself.
She looked down at her own hands as they shook with so many emotions, realizing where this man...this boy....stood in her heart.
In that moment of destructive loneliness she rested herself into her hands and did what she never thought to be possible ever again.
She sobbed.
Meanwhile in the shared bedroom rested a silently distraught Noctis staring at his reflection in the bath water that Charlie and Vaggie drew up after sharing the idea that a good cleaning from them would settle his nerves.
The warmth of their hands moving so gently across his naked body was soothing whilst their intentions to bathe together did bring some peace of mind. He looked up and found himself staring to the princess that was gingerly touching his chest with a soapy loofa and smiling while Vaggie carefully worked his hair.
The dull in his eyes however was a painful reminder to Charlie that the man they loved was hurting in so many ways no person should feel.
It was obvious to both girls he was so defeated from her dad laying out the truth of his existence that he wasn't embarrassed in the slightest of being naked with them in the tub.
It broke their hearts to see him so down and depressed.
"So you're dad agreed to help?" He asked in a hollow tone.
Charlie maintained her smile and worked the scrubbing on his collarbone and neck, but Vaggie was no fool to how strained her smile was.
"Yeah he agreed a couple days ago." She replied as wholeheartedly as she could. "We even had a little song and dance about it."
Vaggie nodded with her and added. "We will have a meeting in a month."
"That's good." Noctis exhaled and nodded before he went back to staring down at the water.
His reflection rippled when the water was splashed by Vaggie turning on the shower head. She carefully rinsed the conditioner from his hair as Charlie took a breather to talk him into some conversation.
"Can you feel anything?"
Noctis shook his head and emphasized his lack of strength with grabbing the shampoo bottle on the edge, or at the very least he tried to do so before his hand shook and dropped it in the water.
"Oops." Charlie giggled before she picked it up and set it away. "That's okay. You're still recovering."
"Don't push yourself." Vaggie told him softly, a tone almost unfamiliar to the man as she coated him in warm water. "Like her dad said your body was put under severe stress."
"Stress?" He asked before scoffing the word as though it were bitter. "I'm already under a lot of stress. I'm a fucking...thing."
Charlie flinched at the self-degrading insult and looked to Vaggie for some of help.
She received a nod and resumed scrubbing his skin while the spear user took this desperate intimacy further with pressing her body to his back and hugging him tightly, hoping to invoke the flustered part of him.
"You are not a thing." Vaggie told him firmly and rested her head over his shoulder staring at their reflection in the bathroom mirror that shimmered from the moisture of their steamy bath.
It was anything but intimate when she saw how her closeness didn't get even a flinch of embarrassment from the man. Seeing this though made both her and Charlie more determined than when they claimed him to open his eyes and see who he was to them.
"Vaggie's right." Charlie nodded in agreement and cupped his face, forcing that tired look of his to meet the certainty in her eyes. "You are Noctis. You are the man we love, the father of a hellhound you took in and the handyman of the hotel. You are so much more than a thing."
"Damn right." Vaggie chuckled lightly after she removed herself to massage his shoulders.
Noctis wanted to believe them, truly he did when their love was the only thing keeping him losing his sanity at the moment. But the grim fact of who he is and was darkened his mind with a war within himself that was between the confusion and the uncertainty.
He shook his head and said somberly, "No I'm not. I'm a broken thing from a past I don't even remember. I shouldn't even be—"
"Don't!" Charlie interrupted him with a tone unfamiliar to him.
In that brief moment of silence he earned with his self-loathing, Noctis found himself staring regretfully to the princess that was on the verge of tears as she glared in defiance of the truth.
"Don't you dare say you should not be alive." She told him in a cracked voice that affected Vaggie as well. "Because you are alive and you are here with us. With everyone. With your family."
It took every ounce of her willpower to not break down into sobs as Vaggie put on the harshness everyone knew her to have when anybody in the hotel needed a thrashing.
Or in Noctis' case a stern reminder that he was so much more.
She squeezed his shoulders and said firmly, "It doesn't matter if you are reincarnated, or that you're Sera's son, or a divine beast. You are Noctis. You are a fucking person and the sooner you realize that the sooner we can work together in stopping extermination day when we get our meeting!"
Noctis didn't respond to those words as they had hoped and wondered just how damaging the truth was.
"Noctis please." Charlie said quietly as he made an attempt to pull away, but through her tears she clutched his face desperately and pleaded loudly. "LOOK AT ME!"
He looked but it was as if the realization had struck more than just his mind. It was as if his soul broken more even if it was mending.
"Noctis…..please." Vaggie joined Charlie in reaching deeper to him through their touch and their words.
"Don't you dare believe that you shouldnt be alive or that you're a thing because you're not!" Charlie screamed desperately, pressing her forehead to his.
Noctis looked away scared and unsure. "How do you know?"
"Because!" The princess shouted with a pained expression before beginning to sing.
"~You don't need to doubt yourself when it's already true ….. that you're so much more~"
Pained by his turmoil but determined, Charlie nodded to Vaggie to help her.
Said woman didn't need another hint and gave her own melody after nodding back. "~You say you are a thing but you are more than that~"
Noctis went to pull away from Charlie, but the song and dance she had with her father he became intertwined in the magic as they helped his weakened body stand as her magic cast his life in the hotel like a home movie.
A flicker in his eyes came and it gave the girls hope as they continued in unison.
"~You say this but we say that, you say no but we say yes!"
Noctis, though still without the fire they remember him having, looked up to his life and listened as they took this time to dress.
"~Look at this and look at that, look at all the changes you made before!"
Vaggie stepped back but held his hands as they looked up to more of Charlie's golden power casting his moments in the hotel.
She pointed out the moments of his triumphs in fixing so much of the hotel and the times he helped with the project.
"You fixed so much and you fixed so many in ways you can't even see~"
Charlie gave her piece next, taking his hands next and singing higher with confidence.
"~You learned from us as much as we learned from you~"
Noctis continued to look up and started to see behind the truth of what he was there was something far deeper that mattered.
His fire was coming back and the girls could see it, so they went higher and hoped.
"~So what if your death was drew, you were brought anew because you are so much more~"
They pressed their hands to his chest.
"~We know who you are, we know who you can be because we have seen your depth and seen your core~"
Charlie screamed this declaration proudly. "~It doesn't matter what others say because no matter what, you found your own way~!"
"~It doesn't matter!" Vaggie yelled with certainty. "~It doesn't matter what others think because you are so much more~!"
"~So much more~!" Charlie repeated before they crescendo together.
"Because no matter what you do, no matter who you be, it doesn't matter because WE LOVE YOU!~"
The duo became silent with the magic dying out as Noctis stood there weakly still from his body's stress, but the hope they shared for him became greater when he looked to the mirror and saw himself in a brighter meaning than he'd done before.
They were back in the room again and silently he approached his reflection a puzzled looked of rethinking the man he was that wondered what he was meant to be.
"Noctis," Charlie hugged him from behind, pressing her face to his back. "We don't care what you are. We love you for who you are."
"Damn right." Vaggie said with a smug grin. "Before what Lucifer said we fell in love with you when you thought you were human."
"Yeah…." He breathed in agreement before a smile crept his lips. "You both did."
Suddenly a determined look came to him before he spun around in Charlie's arms and took her by surprise with a kiss.
She froze but quickly melted into said kiss and couldn't restrain herself from hugging his neck as their touch became the most intimate it needed to be. She didn't just see it now, she felt it as the depression of his true existence melted away.
Their Noctis was back.
Her moan was a pure delight that vibrated in his ears as Vaggie chuckled and forced her way in, sparing them not the fact that she was a little jealous of being left out.
"Don't forget me asshole."
"Vaggie!" Charlie whined and looked away pouting that it didn't get to last.
She muttered under breath. "You got to have fun with him."
They knew exactly what the princess meant, but Vaggie didn't allow a laugh from the man by taking control.
Swiftly she grabbed his chin and took his lips in her own romantic way with being the dominant one, making him touch her hips and hold while the depth of what she believed to be a kiss was a little bit of tongue.
Something that had Charlie pouting even harder after the spear user pulled away with a satisfied smile and a playful glint in her eye.
"Like I said, you're stuck with us."
"Yeah." Noctis chuckled and looked back at the mirror with a newfound confidence to himself, seeing their pleased smiles in the their reflections as they helped him stay standing. "And you know what, who fucking cares if I'm some divine person. I know who I am."
"There's our guy." Charlie praised happily before realizing the most dressing they did during the song was their bra and panties and him in his boxers.
She blushed of course, unlike Vaggie who just smirked.
"Alright." He nodded to their reflections. "If this meeting is going to work then I know how we can even the playfield a little."
"You do?" Charlie asked with a curious look about her.
Noctis found her reaction enduring and said with absolute certainty. "For now I'm gonna learn more from your dad about this divine stuff, but when the meeting happens I'm gonna be your witness."
Those words came without a hitch as Charlie beamed in understanding the power behind his viewpoint.
But what they didn't know was the one hiding in his shadows and crackling in silence as his smile cracked.
"The game is set and the pieces are on the board. Let's see how well you play...boy."
Later in the Dining Room
A quiet evening continued to play out with Carmilla still nowhere to be found as they gang remained downstairs and ever so silent with dinner having a little conversation to share between the demons that were just as perturbed by Noctis' new existence.
Angel Dust was picking at his food methodically, Husk as always having more drink than food, and finally Pentious trying to converse with the disheartened Lucifer that was still deep in thought about his oldest friend being a completely different person.
He was still in disbelief that Romna was actually back a new person, but the power was a definite sign and the face recognition was uncanny after the memories played over and over again.
"Hey everyone ." Charlie called out softly as she and Vaggie helped Noctis limp to a seat. "Someone got hungry."
The first to perk up was definitely Lucifer at seeing the man have at least the strength to get out of bed when he shouldn't be out at all, but the determination he saw in how Noctis was setting himself into a chair despite no strength gave him a sense of nostalgia.
"You always were stubborn."
"Thanks girls." Noctis gave them both a kiss before his eyes met the king. "We need to talk."
Lucifer flinched but awkwardly straightened himself before trying to be professional, though he sounded a bit concerned.
"Oh….uh…..yeah…..what—what do we need to talk about?"
"Everything." Noctis said bluntly as Vaggie got him a plate. "Tell me everything about this divine beast thing."
Lucifer knew this wasn't going to be a fun conversation but apprehensively inhaled his courage before stating the first thing that came to mind.
"There are a few of them that exist, such as the behemoth, the dragon, the phoenix—" he paused with a dark expression that made everyone nervous— "But you were the one known as The Leviathan."
It was going to be a long conversation.