Noctis forced his irritated stare from Carmilla and onto Angel Dust who was looking at him with an almost noticeable smirk during their ride back to the hotel. His forehead was proof that his body was not as tough as he felt after getting a slipper thrown at it and felt the intention of his adopted mother's wrath in the welp that stung. It also didn't help that his rear still stung from the paddling he earned and now said paddle sat by Carmilla in her seat of the limo, resting in her lap as a warning.
"Did you learn something from all of this?" Carmilla asked, her tone motherly but carried a dangerous edge of warning.
"Did you have to chancla me with your slipper?" He asked in annoyance and winced trying to rub it.
Carmilla raised an eyebrow which was quickly followed by Angel smugly raising his own while the welp pulsed from pain during their ride home.
"You disappeared all night with that insufferable hellhound and her friends, and then we find you naked with her and Beezlebub, in her BED!" Carmilla said, her expression purely angry for her adopted son.
"I am a 26 year old grown man. I don't need you hovering over my shoulder with everything I do."
Carmilla had to use every ounce of her willpower not to throttle Noctis for his sudden defiance, and judging by her twitching eye, she was very tempted to come undone and remind him not to disrespect his own mother.
"You are my child, and without your own status you are already a respected member of the Carmine name!" She told him. Although Noctis didn't understand the weight of the name or catch the knuckle pops in her tightening fists. She had to bite her own tongue to stop herself from breaking language.
Noctis glared defiantly at his overlord mother and silently challenged her in a deadly staredown while the limousine was rounding onto the highway and Angel was taking advantage of a liquor bottle he found the mini fridge, watching and enjoying the taste of tequila.
"Are you proud of yourself?" She scolded.
"I know I am proud of him." Loona commented with a satisfied grin, earning her disapproval from the irritated overlord.
Loona didn't care for it though. She quickly closed the gap between her and Noctis by scooting into his side, holding the same challenge with a possessive grip on his thigh.
"Especially when he manned up, bent me over, and rammed me." She added just to taunt.
Angel Dust gave a low whistle mid-pour of his drink and adjusted the snoring Nifty using his thigh as a pillow while Carmilla flashed the red of her eyes, her body brimming with the urge to skin the arrogant hellhound that was now blatantly nuzzling into his neck and whimpering happily.
"Man my stomach is killing me." Noctis complained before Carmilla making her voice heard.
They could almost feel the temperature drop in the limousine when she spoke.
"You are a Carmine," she scolded as calmly as her body allowed. "You no longer have just your reputation to worry about as seraphim lord but also my reputation. You could very well ruin things for me if you start acting on this new behavior."
Noctis wasn't sure what Carmilla meant by reputation but he turned away and scoffed, fueling the fire of her anger.
"You're one of the oldest overlords. You'll be fine."
"T-T-That is irrelevant!" Carmilla stuttered, unable to talk properly due to her mind not wrapping around this behavior. "Stop dismissing what I have to say when I am your mother!"
Everyone froze at the laughter in his voice and watched as his transformation slowly took hold in the car. This entirely uncommon for Noctis and not just concerning but also a bit scary even for Angel Dust when he new the guy to have a deep love and respect for the overlord that adopted him.
"I don't have a mother!" He actually laughed with a dark echo in his voice, smiling at the pain he created on Carmilla's face. "I'm a fucking orphan who thought he was human and got picked up off the street by you!"
"And I took you in as my own!" Carmilla snapped finally and confronted him, hiding the edge of fear in her voice with anger. "And right now you are acting like a child."
"I'm not a child, you old bitch!" He screamed angrily before the shocking benefit of a reality check made him realize he was not himself.
He was forced to look away after being slapped by the overlord with Loona immediately showing her teeth, snarling and curling her body as much as she could around his form while he held his bleeding mouth and groaned in agony of this sudden pain in his teeth.
Carmilla for all of her many years of experience couldn't hold back herself to her own standards any longer. She felt disgusting, maybe a little bit of a failure for having to hit her own child to make him understand something was wrong.
And for the first time since that day of smashing one of Charlie's hotel rooms, she shed the one tear that fell.
"You are not yourself right now. And it scares me." She said just as quietly as Angel cringing with the word 'yikes'.
After a short while of getting their minds on the same subject, both of them managed to get hold of themselves and stopped acting as two opposing forces. Noctis started understanding his behavior was nothing normal and Carmilla did the same after collecting herself.
But it was understood through pain.
Noctis clenched his eyes shut from the still growing stinging in his mouth and pressed his hand harder to pressure the pain that seemed to be endless. He couldn't stop the tears that made Carmilla think he was just being soft about getting slapped.
"I think you did some damage." Angel winced after getting Carmilla's glare.
Carmilla was beffudled by this random reaction from Noctis until her hand started to sting, and she looked down to find his fang embedded in her hand and drawing blood.
"What the…."
Nifty snorted herself awake after the action was over and yawned sweetly before blinking her tired eye at Noctis.
"Noctis…..you look funny….."
Noctis gave Nifty an uncertain look until Carmilla saw it as well and grabbed the spot for better examination after dislodging the fang. By force and uncaring of the hostility of Loona being defensive of Noctis, Carmilla leaned over and grabbed his head with firm cupping of her hands.
"Open your mouth now!"
Noctis was hesitant at first when everyone was watching and his pain was still terrible, but he slowly complied in the end and carefully opened.
To everyone's shock though he opened it far more than he had done before figuring out he wasn't human, before the signs were obvious. He yelped after feeling jawline pop and realized he was almost at a full opening similar to a snake.
To their surprise his other fang fell out and landed in Carmilla's hand while two more were protruding, even sharper than before.
"Holy shit." Angel gasped after dropping his drink, and took out his phone for the flashlight to see what had Carmila breathing irregularly.
"He looks funny like that." Nifty giggled tiredly.
"Carmilla, are those….." Angel looked to the overlord, incapable of processing. "Is that a….."
"He has new fangs coming in and his tongue is no longer normal." Carmilla took Angel by his wrist and forced it closer. "It's forked and his teeth are shaping."
"Now that's some wicked shit." Angel commented before poking a certain tooth that was overlapping a normal human canine.
"Are those snake teeth coming in past his regulars?" Loona asked, finally calming down to see the what confused them.
"Suga does this hurt?" Angel pinched the one he could reach.
Almost immediately there was a groan of pain before Noctis scared everyone with snapping his mouth shut and clamping his hands over it. The amount of pain was unbearable and left him uncapable of stopping the tears that gushed out of him.
Angel leaned back and smiled sheepishly as he reached into his chest fluff to find some pain killers he always kept for emergency.
"Noctis!" Carmilla screamed when suddenly he clapped his hands to his mouth again and groaned in pain. He dropped his knees on the floor and hyperventilated as the pain seared like a hot knife grazing across his gums.
"Noctis!" Loona dropped to the carpet and held him as the limousine turned off the highway.
"Driver, speed up now!" Carmilla ordered.
The demon in silence nodded and for a few moments contemplated how fast to pick up the pace until he saw Carmilla being motherly again when blood seeped between Noctis' fingers. He shook it off and quickly hardened his mind for the job, before going on to floor the pedal, glaring at the traffic he was weaving through.
"What the hell is going on?" Angel asked while trying to shove two pills to Noctis.
"I don't know but the heaven grimoire might have answers." Carmilla said.
Everyone could only nod in agreement and before Noctis vomited violently on Carmilla's leotard, dressing her in a black sludge that had everyone screaming. The overlord was definitely surprised at this but soon panicked and pulled as he started to lose his claws that fell off one by one.
"Jesus. What the fuck is that!?" Angel squealed as he jumped in his seat. He didn't even care that Nifty was wide awake now and pulling out rags and cleaning sprays from god knows where in her dress.
"Mom…." Noctis croaked just before his skin started peeling. "Mom…."
Carmilla didn't know what to do at this point except take her phone out and make a phone call to the only demon that's been around for everything. It worried…..no…..it scared her to see Noctis so terrified of his own body suddenly breaking down and there was nothing she could do.
And that alone was her biggest fear.
Meanwhile at the Goetia Palace….
"Mhmm I didn't know you were good at this love." Stolas said playfully over the phone, utter arousal making it difficult for him to speak while he thought he was being secretive in his own kitchen. Octavia proved that to be untrue when she could hear everything from her father that was so bold as to make breakfast without the use of magic or servants.
"I'm good at a lot of things, you just don't know them all yet, birdy ." Blitz replied coyly over the phone.
"Oh really? Well you'll just have to indulge me later then Blitzy." Stolas told him sultrily.
"I plan too."
"Kill me….." Octavia groaned after pressing her head to the dinner table.
Stolas shivered at the huskiness in Blitz' voice and wondered just how much his admittance would go before either of them decided to have another rendezvous.
Stolas smiled as he finished adjusting the ruffling in his feathers and looked down at his robe to adjust the obvious, then back to Octavia who was looking at him with disgust.
"Do you have to talk like that in front of me?" She asked questioningly.
Stolas' face went slightly red for a moment but turned around and jumped at the sound of another phone call coming in.
He chuckled out of embarrassment but composed himself quickly before answering the call over Blitz.
"Yes Carmilla?" He said sweetly before concern etched his face at hearing the background. "My word, what is that?"
"Meet us at Hazbin Hotel quickly!" Carmilla screamed before another retching sound came through. "Something is wrong with Noctis."
Stolas' playful tone suddenly dropped smirked as he heard Loona in the background as well. Quickly, he left the kitchen with a serious expression Octavia hadn't seen for awhile, and followed him quietly.
"What is wrong Carmilla?" He asked sharply.
"Noctis is falling apart!"
Octavia leaned from around the corner and gasped as she felt her own worry rise when her father stopped down the hall, and turned around to see she heard the overlord.
"Is something wrong dad?"
He continued to listen intently and ignore Octavia when the details were both gruesome and shocking for someone even of his caliber.
"When did this start?" He asked.
"After I slapped him. He was showing abnormal behavior, even defiant of me, and after I slapped him I watch him vomit a black sludge."
Stolas felt slightly nervous as she said this but decided to hold back his worries for when they were needed.
"I'm on way." He hung up his phone and set away with a flick of magic.
After a few minutes in dressing, Stolas was fit and ready to open a portal before Octavia grabbed his wrist.
"I'm going with you."
"Darling no!" He said firmly and tried to gently remove her hands. "This is not…..for….."
"I'm going. He's my friend!" Octavia stood her ground after saying that with a fiery spirit she hadn't shown before.
"Octavia I need to understand—"
"Dad, please!"
Stolas paused and looked at his daughter's face and sighed audibly as he realised that she wasn't going to be swayed with charm or words. But how could he blame her when the last person she wanted to be around was Stella.
"Very well, but I must warn you it will not be pleasant." Stolas warned with a dark glare. "Something is wrong with Noctis and I will need you to stay out of the way."
Octavia put a hand to her chest and pretended to cross over her heart before grabbing her drawing pad on the table.
"I just want to see him." She said firmly.
Hazbin Hotel
Charlie and Vaggie found themselves at a loss for words after getting a text from Angel Dust about the situation, gasping together in horror of the state Noctis was in when they opened the front doors to let everyone in the hotel. By the time they got Noctis out of the car he had already vomited more than intended on Carmilla and Loona, his skin was a sickly pale and behind him was a trail of feathers that rapidly molted.
"Charlie it's bad!" Nifty yelled while trying to clean.
"What happen?" Vaggie asked sharply while Carmilla and Loona carried him inside.
Instead of complying with answers to what she asked, Carmilla shoved her aside and decided to carry Noctis fully in his arms just as his last tooth fell out at Charlie's feet.
Charlie reached down and picked up said tooth to find it was a molar. She felt so sick to her stomach she could puke at the sight in front of her just as he was laid down. She ran over with Vaggie and reached him, both laying their hands down on his chest and on the brink of collapsing as he coughed that sludge again.
"Baby what's wrong?" Charlie asked, panic heavily lacing in her tone.
Noctis didn't know where to start when his entire body felt like it was shattering and on fire. He felt like he was dying again…actually he felt as if life was slipping again when Michael stabbed him back in heaven. His eyes darkened and bled and he tried to roll on the floor while being restrained, breathing erratically.
"It hurts…." He sobbed
"I know Mi Amor. I know." Carmilla said with tension in the softness of her voice, petting his head before gasping at her own gentle action.
Vaggie's eyebrows nearly shot off of her head at the overlord holding bloody hair in her palm. One second they were scared of the current situation, now they were terrified.
"Carmilla what is happening?" Charlie asked concernedly.
Carmilla suddenly seemed to snap out of it as her eyes lost their dark tint and regained their motherly persona just before a portal opened with Stolas and Octavia running though.
"Help him before he completely breaks down.'" She yelled at the prince, completely trusting him.
Noctis' cries were starting to worry Stolas after seeing this unknown damage, quite immensely and so he put both hands on the boy and started channeling his dark powers, searching for whatever that could be destroying him. One the other hand his eyes darkened again and he suddenly developed a powerful determination as he stared down at Noctis, feeling obligated to stop this horror that had Octavia stunned.
"I need to know what happened. Can you describe it?" He asked sharply, his eyes darkening with each passing second of drawing his power out.
Charlie was at the end of her rope like everyone else in the room, completely confused as to why Noctis was falling apart with no answer to help.
"Go get your dad!" Husk screamed from the bar.
Charlie snapped out of her thoughts and didn't waste another second when that was her best option. She nodded and took off through the hotel as fast as her feet would carry her through the halls while Alastor peeked out of his door to see what was going on.
In a matter two minutes Charlie made her body throb and exhausted with her heart pounding in her ears, but she came to her designation while a soft hum of rubber duck play could be heard echoing inside.
She pounded on the door with everything she could muster without breaking the door.
"Dad I need you! Something is wrong with Noctis!"
"Charlie?" Lucifer, in his oversized sweater, was surprised that she wanted his attention and poked his head out of a pile of rubber ducks.
"DADDY!"
That got his attention every time when Charlie never called him daddy unless it was an absolute emergency. Swiftly he changed into his regulars and appeared with a flare of hellfire and his signature smile to add just for his little girl.
"Hotel having problems pumpkin?" He asked smugly but lost his arrogance when Charlie turned to be completely disheveled with upset being a serious understatement.
Now he was worried.
"Daddy…. Help him." Charlie cried softly.
At this Lucifer glared at her with understanding that something was happening to Noctis, and then proceeded to teleport the two of them to the flux of power he was sensing. His presence forced everyone to turn away and step aside to see the horror of Noctis and his body while Stolas was trying to help in some way.
"Oh shit!" He sprinted and came a sliding halt while seeing the condition was getting worse.
"Symptoms now!" He ordered before placing his hands over Noctis' chest and forced a glow.
Charlie stepped back and slid down the clutching shaking like a while while Vaggie tried to comfort her.
Carmilla on the other hand was stuck in a daze once more when Noctis sat up suddenly and roared so abnormally it was nothing but monstrous. A part of him was screaming at the pain of his body, saying that something was wrong. But the other part of this scream was nothing unheard of to Lucifer.
"Symptoms!" Lucifer enunciated just before Angel Dust stepped in.
"He was being a jackass to Carmilla. She slapped him and that's when his fangs fell out and he vomited black sludge all over us and now his….his…."
"His whole body is falling apart." Lucifer finished and glared back at Angel. "Get everyone else out of here. I need peace and quiet."
Carmilla took back her grasp of the situation and started to give protest of being forced out, making Lucifer growl at her defiance and start to work harder on helping her crying child. It didn't last long though when Angel grabbed her and Nifty was already doing all she could to get the lobby cleared.
"Will he be okay!?" Charlie called out as she dragged away by Vaggie.
"Get us the heaven grimoire!" Lucifer yelled over his shoulder.
Several Hours Later….
"It's been too long. What if something happened to him?" Charlie asked while pacing the fireplace, making the situation even harder for anyone to process.
Alastor merely nodded at the sheer amusement of her uneasiness, unable to make himself speak when he was handling a problem of his own.
"This doesn't make any sense." Husk grunted his frustrations and swigged the flask he shared with Angel while on the couch. "The kid should be as hard as fucking steel after what happened."
"Is he going to be okay?" Octavia asked while petting Max and Chance.
"Why are you even here?" Angel asked the teenager.
"Because he's my friend!"
"ITS NOT COMING OFF!" Nifty laughed manically but in truth she was having her own breakdown when the sludge was stuck to her dress.
"Everyone calm down!" Vaggie was just as worried but keeping her head on a swivel as best as she could.
Charlie was all but ready to walk in, no storm into the room her father and Stolas took Noctis to for privacy. Fortunately for her the two royals came down the stairs completely exhausted from their teamwork but pleased with themselves.
Everyone turned their heads to see them enter less than ideal when there was blood, hair, and that same sludge from before. They muttered in agreement while Charlie was the first one to rush over, shoving anyone out of her way.
"Is he okay?" She asked before getting shoved aside by Carmilla.
Some silence was expected when the situation was worse than a horror movie, but Stolas and Lucifer both looked right at the fidgeting Loona texting Blitz about the situation.
"What did he eat?" Stolas asked on the spot.
Loona tilted her head as Stolas and Lucifer's eyes eyes stopped glowing which everyone noticed. She frowned at this but took in a breath and collected last night's endeavors.
"Just some appetizers at the restaurant we went too. After the sloth hog that was ordered, Noctis went outside and puked."
"What color?" Lucifer asked, as if knowing with how sharp his tone was.
"Kinda brown at first but after a few seconds it got darker."
Stolas raised an eyebrow at this but did manage to lose some of the suspicion and nod in agreement to the king before addressing the group.
"Dad is he okay?" Octavia worried more and more when he looked so serious.
Stolas knew this was a hard thing for Octavia when she had no friends and rested a hand on her head to calm her before the owl noises started.
"He will be fine, darling." He said firmly and turned his gaze to everyone. "Let's all gather in the lounge. This will be difficult to explain."
"Explain what?" Charlie questioned, feeling her heart put into her stomach. "What is wrong with—"
"Charlie this is something we all need to address as a group." Lucifer interrupted. "But right now he will be fine with a little bit of rest since what happened was natural but accelerated."
Charlie's eyes regained their normal appearance and she nodded in defeat before following everyone to the lounge room. One by one they took their respective seats on the couch though Charlie, Vaggie and Loona were more anxious of the matter.
"Okay, tell us." Vaggie said though it was more of a command.
"Guys relax!" Lucifer suddenly laughed and confused everyone. "Noctis is fine. He's just shedding!"
"Shedding!?" The group said in unison, and said king nodded.
At that moment Lucifer set the book down and opened a specific page that detailed the maturity process of a divine beast.
"Yup, divine beasts have this sort of process in maturing. For Noctis it's shedding since the leviathan is a serpent."
"But the vomiting and the teeth falling out and…." Carmila was at a loss of words before Stolas raised his hand to silence her.
"All part of what transpired, though a bit forced thanks to Blitz and his team." Lucifer said and turned to another page that showed bad results.
"We did this?" Loona questioned, fidgeting with her hands as he nodded.
"I'm sorry to say this but Loona you and your escapade with your group triggered the shedding to be quite violent." Stolas apologized sincerely.
"What!?" Loona snapped on the spot but more so out of fear and guilt rather than her usual rage. "What did we do!?"
Lucifer had chosen at this moment to take a strong breath and walk over to the hellhound which made her very uneasy. Her eyes widened at this and instinctively curled her own tail around her form. Like any animal, her eyes started darkening again as well as her hackles rising.
"You couldn't have known that what you all did would poison Noctis." Lucifer told her.
"What why? What's wrong with him? Is he okay?" Loona asked rapidly.
"Noctis cannot digest foods that are cooked over the flames of any souls." Stolas answered for everyone, sighing with bitterness. "For a divine beast it is poison if anything is created with the use of souls."
"Even food?" Vaggie asked and pondered after Stolas nodded. "Charlie have we—"
"No, the kitchen is all electric stoves." Charlie answered quickly. "But dad, why was Noctis falling apart?"
"Because his body was setting up to do a purge in the first place, but since the bad food got in his system, his body went into overdrive to cleanse everything." Lucifer explained with a smug grin, knowing the effects as if elementary. "It's all part of the divine beast thing when they mature but miss hellhound here accelerated it and it got internally violent."
Everyone looked at Loona who seemed to be shaking and hyperventilating the moment she processed. In truth she was repressing her instincts and trying not show vulnerability when it's not her thing. Keeping strong though was entirely different for her when she finally had an alpha and now feelings were beyond her team.
"I poisoned him…." She growled, clenching her fists so tight she bled from her claws.
"Why did it take so long for this to happen?" Husk asked out of the blue.
"Remember what Beezlebub said during the extermination?" Angel Dust reminded the entire group. "Noctis' power is uncharted territory so he's bound to have weaknesses."
"Maybe like a snake his digestion is slowing down?" Alastor suggested.
"In this case the first sign is his body can't handle any form of soul ingestion." Carmilla puzzled her chin on that.
Charlie and Vaggie looked back at Loona and watched as she tried to clench her teeth to suppress everything.
"I-It was a-supposed to be a f-fun night b-b-but we….."
"Loona are you okay?" Charkie asked.
Loona said nothing and darted out of the room for the only reason that made her stick around. Ignoring all protests she sprinted to the next floor of the hotel using her sense of smell to find Noctis.
Charlie felt the most worried for Loona but nodded to Vaggie, and both were on the chase against the wishes of the prince and king.
Loona proceeded to burst into a random room that had feathers, blood and sludge on the floor and see the bed was something of a crime scene that made her heart drop like a stone. There was blood and feathers all over the bed and a strange skin husk shaped like Noctis on the floor, empty and shriveled with still very fresh fluids dripping off it.
She nearly lost it at this but held strong when Noctis came out of the bathroom holding his stomach after one serious flushing. His body was covered in a clear fluid that slimed the floor and left a trail behind.
"Damn. What did I eat?" He groaned.
The others caught up and watched Loona pitifully but knew that this was something she needed to face even when their own relief of his bodily madness didn't take him away. Not even Carmilla dared to speak or step in no matter how furious her maternal instincts were, not when all the tension in Loona dropped.
"He's okay?" Angel whispered to Husk, who only shrugged in confusion.
"Loona?" Noctis stopped after closing the bathroom door and laughed quietly. "Don't go in there. Pretty sure something died in me."
She flinched at that joke and choked up at seeing him perfectly healthy before her legs gave out completely.
But she didn't fall….
Noctis saw this and moved too fast for anyone but Lucifer to see. He caught Loona with a gentle gust of wind billowing his wings from behind and hugged her tightly to his chest before the shock could escape her in a gasp.
"Holy shit." Husk gawked and dropped his flask.
"I didn't see him move." Charlie whispered to Vaggie.
"Loona what's wrong?" Noctis asked and ignored the faces of his loved ones to tend to the hellhound now digging her claws into his chest. "Loona why are you crying?"
Nothing would be equivalent in words for how sorry she was for poisoning his body, but the sobs that finally came out gave enough for Noctis to understand that something was wrong and she just needed this. He didn't even wince to her claws digging into his skin and just kneeled down to level her on the floor for the cries she muffled against him.
"Hey whatever it is, it's okay." He whispered but she shook her head and whimpered.
It didn't take long for Octavia to shove herself through the crowd and run over to embrace Noctis by surprise.
"Well hey." He laughed gently and hugged her close. "Haven't seen you in a hot minute. What's up?"
"You're okay." Octavia whispered, chirping happily against his wings that curled around.
Noctis didn't understand what had everyone so distraught but he had his own questions when he looked up to see Charlie on the verge of tears while Vaggie was hiding behind her own hair, along with Carmilla turning away to wipe her eyes.
"Guys what happened?"
Several Minutes Later…..
"I shed my body!?" Noctis screamed in bed after a quick hot shower with Loona, sharing the nakedness under the covers while she rested in his lap.
"Yes and it would be recommended that for the next week you are to be confined to the hotel just for safe measure." Stolas stated matter-of-factly during Lucifer's little slip of a bracelet on Noctis.
Noctis had thought he figured himself out but started to feel a slight bit out of his league when it came to these powers and the leviathan. But even as he thought that he felt his instincts stesngwly demanding that he stayed calm and in bed. With a deep breath he calmed down and nodded to the goetia prince and checked the bracelet after feeling it click together.
"A bracelet?"
"It's nothing special." Lucifer shrugged it off with a smile. "Just a simple trinket that will help Charlie keep track of you."
"So I'm under house arrest?"
"What, no!" The king squeaked to play it off while Charlie came around to look at it. "It's not house arrest. Think of it as a foolproof way to keep you in the hotel until it is deemed safe for you to interact."
"House arrest." Noctis said flatly.
Charlie secretly nodded to her father and watched as he exited the room and headed in the direction of his own, before waving his hand to make his rubber duck outfit fit again.
"No. This is house arrest." Carmilla said sharply with her mind still on the night of his debauchery. "Sit up hellhound!"
Loona sat up with a growl of confusion to the overlord but gave her undivided attention. Noctis could already tell this was not going to end well when his mother was muttering in Spanish before she made her intentions clear.
"I don't care who the hell you are. " Carmilla was not messing around and pointed to the floor. "He is not to leave the hotel for a week, and right now you can get dressed and go home and priortize where you stand."
Loona nodded at the overlord and by surprise showed submission when she adjusted herself hop out of bed and get herself dressed. She didn't even bother growling at Carmilla or give a huff of disrespect, acting like a new hellhound.
"I thought she was a bitch." Angel whispered to Vaggie, who glared over her shoulder in disapproval.
"She just had the shit scared out of her. How would you act if you hurt someone you care about?"
"Yeah but she's been so hardass about being top bitch."
"Yeah well even a hellhound knows when to tuck their tail."
Angel blinked repeatedly at such a thought and shrugged while Carmilla targeted Noctis next.
"And as for you!"
"I'm sorry." Noctis apologized out of the blue, surprising her.
Carmilla was not the kind of demon to be surprised by much but she flinched at Noctis being sincere with his words and showing guilt for he was certain to be his attitude.
"I'm sorry mom. I don't know what happened." He looked away ashamed but brave enough to admit his fault. "I felt something in me, like I was being chained with how you were trying to treat me like a child."
A long silence passed in the room not between two royals of their own calibers but between a mother and a son, and honestly it softened the overlord enough to see that beyond all this insanity of his powers there was still a confused boy that stared at his own hands like they foreign.
"I need help." He admitted, gazing up as she slowly took a seat on bed's edge, placing her hand on his. "I feel things…..things that are not normal."
"I understand that." Carmilla tried to put love in her tone, motherly love, even when she wanted to snap. "But you disappeared all night with no call or message. And when we found, and I don't care if it was with Loona and Beezlebub, you have obligations to this family—" she pointed to herself, and then at Charlie and Vaggie and the boys. "—And to the family you decided to build."
Noctis didn't have to think of the severity of his actions. He only nodded and listened to Carmilla.
"You may be the seraphim lord. You may be the leviathan. But you are MY SON first and foremost. You are A FATHER first. You CANNOT disappear when any demon could take you and use you for any means of power or pleasure."
Alastor sarcastically raised his hand at that but was completely ignored by the egrossed looks everyone had when she was breaking Noctis' walls.
"What if something happened to you?" She scolded quietly and gestured to the limousine outside the window. "You were falling apart, literally."
"But that's not my—"
"It doesn't matter!" Carmilla interrupted and cupped her hands to his face, showing behind her hardness there was a vulnerable woman. "What if we had not found you? What if all this happened and we couldn't find you in time? What then if your life was in danger!?"
"Noctis…" Charlie stepped forward with Max in her arm, glaring through her tears. "You disappeared all night. It's not okay. I was scared that something happened, that Vaggie and I would be raising these pups alone!"
Noctis finally realized how bad things were made because of his choice to stay out when Charlie set Max in his lap and sat down with Carmilla to hold the strength of her distrust and dislike to his choices.
"I don't care what anyone says." Charlie grabbed his arm and squeezed where their bond linked their wrists. "I claimed you first and I say this now that you DO NOT disappear again. Because Carmilla is right, what you did was wrong and this entire day has been frightening. We thought you were dying."
"I….I'm sorry." He stuttered, but guilt was nothing to the regret of his choice. "I just wanted to get out a bit."
"Yeah well from now it's under supervision since you are now the biggest target." Vaggie scolded angrily to hide the fact she was about to shed a tear.
Meanwhile….
Reporters had been escorted inside VoxTech the moment Vox had opened the lobby doors for the new exclusive they were promised. With Valentino at his side it was more of a reason to stir trouble than to boost ratings in their empire. Like vultures the reporters swarmed but strangely stayed quiet and waited to hear from the media overlord himself about the events.
Velvette had already guessed that Vox had planned something to make the entire situation hard on Hazbin Hotel. The smile on his screen reeked of dark intentions when he was simultaneously filing every bit of information his memory could archive about Noctis, especially recent events thanks to his drones and one secretive birdie.
After around five minutes Vox felt the crowd in his tower was enough to stir some trouble for the Hazbin Hotel and decided to project all the information he had collected about Noctis and Exterminatikn Day. He noticed with satisfaction that the reporters were mesmerized simply by the largest recording of Noctis overpowering Adam.
"Alright people you know what your job is." He paced in front of Valentino but eyed the crowd. "I want all the juicy details on Noctis and his heritage, even the dirt on his weakness."
"Weakness?" Velvette whispered to herself, dreading this new info.
"Oh he has a weakness?" Valentino licked his lips hungrily before the projection altered to Noctis in bed during the aftermath.
"Yeah that's right, a divine beast has a weakness and hell should know." Vox encouraged said crowd with showing a recording he got from a hidden source. "Anything involved with putting a soul in his body is fucking poison. I want to know just how deadly it is."
"Does that include if anything other than food?" One reporter asked.
Velvette glared with distaste of this new tactic.
"You got that right!" Vox laughed, feeling his power surge. "Now get prepped because guardian of heaven and hell or not—" he darkened the lobby with his static. "—The little bitch princess won't be able to keep him safe forever on one side. After all, hell deserves that power after what Heaven did."
Velvette turned away and went back to the elevator grimacing, uneasy at the idea of taking a fight to Noctis after what was learned.
Back at the hotel….
"I thought I'd find you up here being a damn mope after getting your ass chewed." Husk thought inquisitively.
Noctis barely turned around and saw the cat demon approach with the same liquor they shared before extermination. He turned away and sighed while on the ledge of the rooftop, staring at the recovering pentagram city.
"Come up here to play some daddy parent?" Noctis asked flatly and felt a hand on the back of his head. "OW!"
Husk nodded and laughed at him and began to pour a glass for the teary eyed Noctis rubbing his head. He grinned as he took a spot on the ledge and handed an icy glass. As they sat there, it took Husk all of his self-control to not explode and rather confront Noctis about his actions.
"You know you gave everyone a damn scare." He said cooly and swigged his glass, testing Noctis by how the glass was in his hand. "Must feel good realizing you're so powerful and capable of doing whatever you want, like disappearing all night to fuck a hellhound and a sin that are clung to you."
Noctis stopped from taking his first sip and that was all it took for Husk to see there was everything he knew about the kid. He was guilty but most of all angry with himself.
"Is everyone okay?" He asked quietly.
Husk shrugged and looked back to see Vaggie at the doorway with her arms crossed, glaring at them and patiently waiting.
"Well kid I'd say everyone is okay but you've got a lot of apologies to make for being a dumbass."
"For being gone one night?" Noctis rolled his eyes and scoffed but Husk was quick to smack his head again. "STOP THAT!"
"No for being gone with not even a damn phone." Husk chastised with a little restraint in his tone. "For a selfish dumbass and disregarding how unsafe you are."
Noctis opened his mouth to protest but had nothing to say when Husk wasn't wrong. He was still unsafe and being powerful didn't excuse him from the unaccountable terrors pentagram city had to offer. His mouth clamped shut and so he resumed to glare at said city with Husk taking his glass away completely for his own swig.
"Get it now?" He asked, and Noctis nodded reluctantly.
"Yeah I get it. I should have come straight back to the hotel after being at mom's compound but I stuck with Loona and her friends all night. And we found out the worst way possible that something can hurt me."
"And?" Husk would not let it go, knowing someone needed to get the kid to bite his pride and admit his faults.
"And I have to think about Charlie and Vaggie and the boys first because now that extermination day is over I need to focus on my family."
"And?"
"And what?" Noctis asked.
Husk just laughed and pat the young man on his back. "Just making sure you're actually listening."
Noctis didn't understand this interaction with Husk when he was so dismissive of things and uncaring about most of the hotel.
So why was he like this again?
"Why do you care about me so much?" Noctis asked out of the blue.
Husk was taken aback by that question while Vaggie quietly approached behind them and listened for the obvious assumption that he would either dodge the question or be an asshole to Noctis. It was easy to say she had little hope in the cat demon to show anything but his grumpy side.
"Because I want you succeed." Husk answered after staring at the reflection in his glass, surprising Vaggie but not enough to make herself known. "You've come a long way from the sniveling shit to the man I see in front of me."
Noctis blinked with swelling in his chest he'd never felt before while Husk pat his shoulder and offered a very rare smile not even Angel Dust received.
"Beyond all the crap you've put us through, I'll be the first one to say that I am damn proud of you."
Noctis was still quite dazed from being scolded and taught about today's events with his body. He didn't think Husk would say such a thing when no one, not even Charlie nor Vaggie, had given any expression of pride for him.
He chuckled at this and bounced back from his depressing day with tears and a smile during Husk's moment of silence, who slowly got back onto his feet and stretched before taking the walk back to the rooftop door.
"Oh and you better make it up to her, kid."
"Her?" Noctis turned and dropped his wings when he looked up to see Vaggie right behind him. "Oh…."
"Yeah. Oh." She joked and kneeled down.
Noctis thought he was ready for Vaggie to hit him and flinched at this before her touch seemed to take on a much more gentle approach.
"Done being a pain?" She asked after hugging him tightly from behind.
Noctis thought about that for a moment but sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, I'm done after this day." He looked up to the former angel pressing her chin to his forehead. "Why aren't you furious or hitting me or not talking to me?"
"Did everything you went through scare you straight?" She asked on point about his sickly endeavor.
He knew what Vaggie referred to and nodded, submitting to his own fault that earned him a kiss.
"Good, because next time I'll make you serve Angel Dust."
Now that definitely made him shiver since he still hadn't held up his 24 hour deal before.
Vaggie had to hold back a grin as she held back laughter when it came to Noctis dreading anything that involved Angel Dust which in turn made realize she had a weapon greater than no sex to use against Noctis.
"I think I'd rather fight Michael again." He said, shivering at the twisted mind of his pornographic friend that didn't understand boundaries.
"Really? What for?" Vaggie asked and helped him up, holding his hand as they walked across the roof to go back down.
"Because I'd rather get my ass beat than get a finger up my ass."
Vaggie couldn't hold back a giggle from that and held on Noctis a little harder when she wrapped her arm around her waist, showing her possessiveness through it all with the relationship.
"So who's better?" She asked out of the blue before Noctis opened the door.
"Better?" He questioned before seeing that implication in her smug grin. Now that was something he didn't expect from Vaggie at all when she was always reserved about privacy.
Embarrassed as is, he scratched his head and came out with saying, "To be honest, you and Charlie, especially you."
"You're damn right." She said proudly.
Noctis had no idea what it was but something told him to brace himself when Vaggie slipped her hand further down and squeezed particularly hard on his rear during their walk.
"Is Charlie mad?"
"Yes but she's just pouting in bed because you didn't come home last night."
Noctis promptly shut up by closing his own mouth as soon as they came down the stairs and saw Charlie standing right outside in the booty shorts and tank top he liked, standing there with her arms crossed and pouting like Vaggie described.
"Told you." Vaggie joked just as Charlie pointed to the door.
"Snuggles. Now. And you're bathing the boys." She ordered firmly before Max and Chance could be heard whimpering. "And they're hungry."
Noctis could only sigh and nod while he went inside to find both pups were on the floor waiting to be fed and bathed, considering they both had a foul smell from their forms that even her couldn't resist gagging from.
"You heard her." Vaggie slapped him hard on the butt, making him yelp before the door shut. "Get to work."
Meanwhile in Heaven….
"Are you ready?" Jophiel asked Sir Pentious after handing him a plate of food.
He accepted the meal with good manners and said to her politely, "Will it be fair?"
She nodded with that serene smile and a very articulate plot she had formed days ago to help him.
"Yes dear, and Noctis will be here to help you. I'll make sure of it."