The centipede squirmed, writhing as my nails sliced deep. My other hand set the tea cup down, grabbing a knife from within my coat. The insect lunged forward, pincers open.

Knife met head, punching through chitin. My nails cut too, slicing open flesh, purple ichor flooding out as it went it's death throes.

From the writhing carpet, a couple of forms moved forward, proving. A horned beetle leapt up, only to be sent back with three legs torn off. A locust slumped on the countertop, snapped in half. After those two failures, the swarm seems content to writhe, a few probing attempts to charge warded off by my knife.

The music was louder now, the harmony sounding like an entire band playing right in this room. I took a step, my knee buckling. That damn melody was still worming into my mind.

I grabbed my teacup with my free hand, draining what was left. I lowered it just in time to cut an oversized fly in half.

The extract I'd mixed in with it made the inside of my brain hurt, a pounding headache that only got worse. That specific blend of mushrooms, when prepared right, cleared your head of malignant influences. Even better, they were much easier to get than the alternatives. Just two costs.

One, they wore off fast. I had minutes at best before this devil's magic started influencing me.

Second, as I winced, every blood vessel in my head felt like they were filled with boiling pitch. The mixture worked by actively warring with said influences, which didn't do great things for the inside of my head as I gritted my teeth.

The centipede tried to move in its death throes, and I sliced down its underbelly with my sharpened nails. Foul-smelling insect guts fells across my countertop.

"I am getting tired of everyone treating my house like they can just waltz on in, you know?" I say, driving the knife point further into the twitching centipede's head. "It's a store, yes, but I think the giant gaping hole where my window was would be a sign that we are closed!"

The thing didn't respond as it finally stilled.

Hold onto that anger because you'll need it, The Imp said. The efficacy of jolting your brain will only work a few times. We bought one extra use through you actually managing to break the spell yourself.

"Doing what to my brain?" I snapped, knife cutting a locust as it flew towards me.

The insects were mostly keeping their distance for now, clustering around the prone forms on the ground. Only a few made probing attacks, crawling from the front of my store. Entirely from there, which meant-

I whirled around, having heard every step of the centipede's claws as it had crawled around my back wall. I dodged to the side, one arm wrapping around the struggling creature, the other jabbing the point of my dagger into the back of its head. It screeched, its struggles fading as I pushed the knife deeper.

None of the other insects advanced. It wasn't in this devil's nature to act swiftly, and its swarm would follow similar patterns. Not that I could be complacent.

I can do something far superior to that brew you drank, The Imp said. Far better at clearing your head of this Devil's influence. It will just maybe damage the parts of your brain I scour it out of.

"Superior?" I muttered as a locust suddenly broke into a sprint. "If I wanted to end up brain-dead, perhaps."

I kicked the charging influence, and it snapped in half as my hoof rammed into it. It burst open, insect guts and ichor coating the lower half of my leg.

I wish I could say this was the most disgusting thing to ever end up on me. I really, sincerely wished I could, but even if it wasn't, it felt disgusting.

"So," I said, eyeing the chittering horde spread across my shop floor, sparing an idle glance for the forces gathering on the stairs leading up to my bedroom. "None of you feeling quite up to trying to take me on? Come on, you all clearly have the advantage in weight, numbers, and probably brain power between all of you."

Them no, but the Devil I was actually talking to, yes. This had to be one of the devils summoned by the Black Flame Diabolists earlier, following their orders. It had set up and prepared its own trap before we could even begin setting up ours. How early had it been when I first noticed insects, and people had started to get bitten? Stupid, why would there be insects out during winter?

Time for recriminations later. This needed to be handled first.

Sloth digested slowly, said the part of me that had come out of that circle. Slowly enough that I had time. It could rush it, perhaps, but not quickly enough to prevent me from handling most of the horde. But would I be fast enough to stop all of them from dying if it ordered its swarm? And wasting that time killing these minions would do nothing. The Devil could have collected dozens, hundreds of these things before it had struck, waiting hidden inside my walls or in places nearby.

Worse, it hadn't just done that, it had prepared for this. If it hadn't been for the Imp's prodding, making me notice, we all would have fallen asleep. I doubted we would have lived long past that.

It had been prepared for some of us still being up.

My alchemicals being gone made sense now. Dawes hadn't moved them, these things had in order to keep any potential weapons away from me. The skittering horde likely would not deal well with gases or fire. Not that I'd use them with people asleep inside, but the devil wouldn't know that. Might not be capable of knowing it.

I still had a few in my pocket, ones I hadn't used at the warehouse because we'd been aiming for stealth or things had moved too fast once Mitlau and Malachti had attacked. The same issue with those. Throwing alchemist's fire at this swarm would clear it out, but it would also set everyone lying on the floor aflame. Tossed up above? Well the assembling second force on the stairs was nowhere near as large as the one down here. I'd still have this one to deal with.

What was the swarm waiting for? I shifted my focus from the motionless carpet of them on the store floor to the ones on the stairs. Those ones were moving, if only because more were joining their ranks, but not a one advanced.

I heard the sound of a door being opened downstairs, and the violin music got louder.

I eyed the swarm of insects. They remained still, not a twitch. Clearly an invitation, and unfortunately, I'd have to take it. I was good with a knife, and these weren't very tough insects, but the sheer weight of numbers would tell. Worse, I could feel the pain in my head fading quickly. I didn't have another dose ready without fighting my way upstairs.

Sure, I could risk the Imp's method to keep my mind clear. How long would that remain effective for? Keeping this a standoff had no positives. No guarantee anyone who could be useful for this situation would arrive in the minutes we had.

I inclined my head at the nearest centipede.

"I think, upon consideration, I'll accept your invitation," I said, backing towards the basement stairs. Now all the insects had gone motionless, all silently watching as I moved towards them. Almost no pain now, and I nearly slipped as a suddenly tired hoof almost missed a step.

A minute later, I yawned as I came to a halt on the stairs. Everything felt so warm. Moving felt like pushing through molasses. Or the Nover. Or both, when that one factory had collapsed into the river and made it solid enough to walk across. I remembered my mother trying to stop me from dipping my hat in for a drink.

I shook my head, chasing those memories away.

Spike? The Imp offered, and thankfully, the thought of it doing anything to my brain also helped rouse me a little.

"Not yet," I said hesitantly as I approached the open door.

Why here? Was it just because the two circles were inside? But why draw me here? It had to know about the diabolism I'd left inside the first ritual cicle, surely?

Enough time wasting. If it didn't, it was a way out. If not…I'd think of something.

I went to the door, rounding the corner, then stopped at the sight of it.

It looked like a massive bedbug, segmented, roach-like form pressed with its back against a wall. Black chitin formed rough layers of armor on it, pushed together in rough, jagged lines that shifted and moved. Things moved behind that surface, figures trying to reach out, hands pressing against the inside of the devil as their mouths opened in silent screams. Six limbs extended outwards, each of them tipped with grasping spikes. The upper limbs somehow held a violin in them, which it played delicately, focused on the music. Oversized pincers moved slightly as it kept the violin tucked between its rotund head and a jagged spike of a shoulder.

Truly massive, its corpulent girth filled over half the room. It pushed both circles to the corners of the room. Alice lay between them and it, still snoring away as the devil loomed over her. The circle I'd laid out sparked weakly, the symbols and metal forming it half-melted and gone.

It didn't pause in its violin playing, the oversized mouth parts opening. The voice that emerged was warm, calm, and comforting. A soft soothing voice that disturbingly sounded similar to how Uncle Liu used to speak to me when I was very young. The fact that it was a massive oversized tick speaking through a mouth that looked nothing like a human's only made it more unnerving. Inside that maw, tiny pincers were there, ready to pull whatever got in its gullet further inside.

"Ah, child of the holder of the Lilac Gardens, I greet you, young noble. I would bow, but I am not inclined to physical activity of any kind. I hope you can understand."

"Well," I finally said after a moment. "Just calling me a noble already makes you more polite than pretty much anyone else in my lifetime, so I think I can forgive not bowing. I'm surprised I'm considered a noble at all?"

Its eyes crinkled as parts of them seemed to collapse in on themselves, and its maw formed into a truly horrifying attempt at a smile.

"Oh, most would see you as something to quietly devour and absorb the potential from, and hope your progenitor would take no offense," It said. "It is very much a devil-eat-devil world for several of our kin. Several of your own siblings as well. I met one recently who well, if they were here instead of me I imagine your parent would have never gotten a chance to meet you."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

That thing was not my parent, but I would play along.

"We have met a number of times," I said. "Although they have never really taken an interest in me during any of them."

"It has a truly massive number of spawn," The Devil said. "Paying attention to all would be a tremendous task for even one who has eternity. And you unfortunate devils stuck here in your larval phase, well, most do not consider you truly existing yet until you reach the lower planes."

"Mm," I said noncommittally. Talking about the devil that had been involved in my..birth was probably on the bottom of the list of things I wanted to talk to a devil about. At least this one was talking instead of immediately attacking me.

The longer it talked, though, the more its voice became unnerving. There was something underneath that cloyingly paternalistic tone, lurking so deep I could not tell exactly what it was but it made my skin feel cold.

"You're very well-spoken for someone from the Hells," I said carefully, trying not to provoke it. Who knew when its slothfulness would be shed in favor of action? Probably the moment I looked like I wasn't falling under its curse. "Most devils I've met summoned from there aren't nearly so articulate in mortal tongues."

"When one spends long enough in a place, they tend to pick things up," The Devil said, amusement clear in its tone. "Just sitting and listening to the droning of the gnats, eventually one begins to pick up the meaning they attach. And I would hardly fail to be polite to a youngling still stuck in their cocoon."

It played on its violin again, and my eyes drooped. I pierced my skin with a nail, the little bit of sensation making me jolt back to reality. I could hear the sound of dozens of chitinous limbs behind me, moving about, gathering, but I didn't look back. Instinct told me the moment I did, they would strike.

This was bad. This Devil was trying to aspect itself to Sloth. A basic thing to try and embody, like all the Seven were in comparison to the more esoteric ideals a Devil might try to wear, but the Seven were powerful. But that power meant embodiment, so any devil aspected to Sloth would be inclined to be passive, to take the laziest route possible, and not try to actively learn new things.

How old was this one, and how long had it spent in the mortal planes to pick up languages?

"You shouldn't do that," The Devil said chidingly as it continued its tune. "While I can understand a desire to rip that mortal shell off of yourself, you won't achieve that by ripping up the chains that bind you here."

"A bad habit," I agreed. "Apologies, I just want this conversation to continue as long as I can. For what I imagine are pretty apparent reasons."

"Mrrm. True, but how long can it continue? You are very tired, aren't you little one?" The Devil said placidly, continuing to play on its instrument, the soft gentle sound of the strings making my eyelids drift closer and closer together. Caressing my brain, making everything feel so soft. "You aren't like us yet, such a mistake to make. You've visited but refused to let yourself sink. Instead, you cling to your chains like a piece of driftwood in the sea. How did you visit I wonder?"

I did not freeze or give any other obvious tells, but was that a genuine question? Did it not know how I'd gone to the Hells? What if confronting me here wasn't a case of arrogance, a thing of pride, but just not knowing about my power in that Ritual Circle?

"I went one time when my teacher in diabolism decided to bring me to the Hells," I said. "He wanted to make me understand it by demonstrating exactly what awaited us when we made it down there."

The bedbug slumped, tiny pincers wiggling. "Ah, it showed you the worse of us, hasn't it?"

"Perhaps," I said, knowing damn well that Daver hadn't.

As much of an issue this lazy waste of souls is, the Imp said. It has a point about the prejudices of that drunken fool your half-sibling insists on keeping around him.

"You have a gnat inside your head," The Devil observed. "What a strange creature to put inside yourself and not consume."

"It's a glutton," I said, taking a step closer, and the buzzing of the insects grew even louder, carrying the violin's song with them to louder heights. "I think in a contest of devouring, it would win. Also, I said not to do that."

That was hardly what we discussed earlier, The Imp said irritably. It is not even trying to put you under, so I hardly need to set your brain alight. That is just to keep you awake while you wait in its presence. Because what we should be doing is chatting.

"I don't see any reason why we can't just talk," I said. "I attack…him, her, they, what would you prefer?"

"I care not."

You must be joking, The Imp snarled.

"No reason to be impolite," I said, hoping desperately the devil could not hear the Imp. Damnations you gluttonous thing, learn how to not be so impulsively eager to sink your teeth into things! "Violence doesn't do any of us any good. I imagine if I attack them, they'll consume everyone in response?"

"That is what I intended," The Devil said. "A smart move on your part, to come down here instead and accept the inevitable."

Sure. It wasn't bluffing at all. It probably wasn't in part, the swarm could do plenty of damage if it chose to, but it hadn't eaten them yet. Why? Probably because their sleep wouldn't last if it started actively hurting them. No, Sloth fed slowly, piece by piece, while the victim didn't notice as it slowly drained more and more, as they never woke up. Frog boiling.

Of course, its victory was coming quickly. I needed to get to the circle, but as we talked, my eyes were drooping. And every single one of its limbs but the ones holding the violin was free. Making a rush for it would not end well.

"So is the inevitable death? Consumption of my soul?" I asked it, taking a hesitant step inside.

"I have more than enough souls," The Devil said, sounding almost offended. "Besides, I would never consume a fellow devil. Too much effort to digest those souls."

"Aw. Thank you?"

"Besides," The Devil continued. "Offending your parent is well beyond what I was promised to see this through."

That thing is not my parent, was on the tip of my tongue, but even as my eyelids fluttered once again and my mind sank, I knew denying that relation wouldn't end well. Giving this thing excuses wasn't a good idea.

"Interesting," I mumbled, stifling a yawn. "Isn't the end goal of this to open a permanent hellgate here? I'd imagine eating my soul wouldn't be something they'd retaliate over? Not if you had another noble protecting you for helping make that happen?"

The Devil chuckled, a warm, pleasant thing that felt like a blanket worming its way into my ears. Slipping around my brain.

"Everyone thinks they'll make their way back here," The Devil said. "Why insist on making such a fuss for this kingdom? Some take too much offense to having their plans thwarted. They need to learn to take a step back, relax. Go somewhere else and stop coming here."

"Huh," I said, sitting down next to the circle. Did it really not know? It wasn't even trying to stop me. Could it not taste the magic down in that circle?

"Why are you even here then?" I murmured. "You took the deal offered to come here, didn't you?"

The Devil smiled, mouth opening to reveal rows of teeth and beyond them, things that made my eyes hurt. Things that wriggled. Things that screamed in voices that made my ears hurt, cutting through the fog coating my thoughts.

"They offered quite the quite the bounty of souls upfront to me. I couldn't resist the offer, especially when it is such easy work. A pity that they've been changed, so they cannot be born again where they truly belong, but they might as well got to some used."

Its mouth snapped shut, cutting off the shrieks.

"I see," I said. "Sorry, we couldn't provide more of a challenge for you."

"I don't think you should yet. A few centuries down below will help with that. Given enough time in where you should be, and you'll have a proper perspective untainted by whatever fool ideas they fill your head with up here."

I frowned. "I thought you wouldn't be giving my father offense? Killing me feels like it might fit that bill?"

I knew what this devil probably intended, but anything to keep it talking as I continued to slump towards my target. Also, to confirm that was the case. Confirmation was always nice. Maybe it would just be leaving us all and we could sleep…

The devil shifted a little bit, one of its clawed mid-arms coming near Alice's neck, and suddenly that bout of sleepiness was gone.

"Oh, we would never permanently end you," It said. "But bringing you closer to them earlier? I don't see any reason why they would be upset with that. And the other children in this house who deserve to be freed, why would we keep them chained to this world?"

"I can see your point," I said carefully, as the pincer rested oh so gently on her neck. "I suppose the same consideration is not being extended to the non-Infernal people currently asleep?"

"Flesh is flesh. Souls are souls. If they are profane enough to be worthy of being us, that'll happen as I drag them down. If not, while I am not the same glutton that your little friend is, I will happily take their souls as well."

"I don't suppose I could convince you not to?" I asked, as the pincer withdrew from Alice. "I assume your task here is just to grab the circles, which you have well in hand."

"Yes," The Devil said. "But I will not be denied a meal."

Yes. That was about what I expected. "Well, I don't see any real reason in fighting this," I said. "You clearly have me beaten."

"Sleep."

My legs collapsed, bringing me to my knees. My vision swam, and I jabbed myself in the eye to keep my eyelids from closing. My other hand was on the ground, desperately keeping myself up as the surge of pain kept me awake.

"Was that really necessary?" I whispered.

I managed to get my hooves back under me, staring at the featureless eyes of the devil that met mine in a placid stare.

"Consider it a discussion from any foolishness. Rest, kin from the forge. Rest."

"Consider myself dissuaded," I muttered, leaning forward. "You don't mind if I lie down, do you?"

All I needed to do was just lean forward and collapse, and contact would be made, but just falling felt like…so much effort. Too much effort.

"Of course," the Devil said soothingly. "Let yourself collapse."

I nodded mutely and let go. Down I went, right towards the angry runed surface.

One of its limbs shot out, and pain sprouted inside my stomach. I tried to scream, only for a pathetic moan to emerge from me instead as I slumped down, staring at the limb. It had stabbed through my stomach, tiny little barbs on its surface cutting as it pushed further inside.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice the roiling energy poured into that circle?" The Devil asked chidingly. "I suspect pride is what you will be drawn to once this is over, assuming I don't break you from that path."

I opened my mouth, a shuddering breath sending pain ripping through my torso. I coughed, blood falling onto the circle down below.

"Can't blame me for trying," I said, a hand going to feebly push against the spine.

Close to my coat. The other hand drew a dagger and the devil scoffed.

"You should know when the battle is lost," It said. "Such a little blade. What can it do?"

Well, for one, it could keep the devil's attention on the open blade as my other hand let go ot its arm, reaching inside my coat.

"Such a pity," It said, lifting its limb back, holding me overhead. I gurgled as I began sliding down, and its maw opened, revealing row after row of wriggling spikes down its gullet. "This could have been so peaceful. Sleep."

Pain faded. My eyes drifted. Yes-

Pain sparked in my brain, shrieking through my head with a vengeance as the Imp muttered an insincere apology as I suddenly found myself fully aware, just above the devil's head.

Its eyes were still on my knife. Not noticing my other hand grabbing the vial of alchemist's fire from within my coat.

I hurled it at the open mouth, and fragile glass shattered against one of its pincers. Air made the mixture catch alight, and the devil shrieked as it burned.

My knife went for the limb, hacking. It was an overly large spine, not as thick as a normal limb. I cut deep, then wrenched myself to the side. Flesh ripped, its and mine as the limb snapped, and I plummeted towards the circle.

I hit the metal surface with a thud, something snapping. More pain, even as that brief burst of awareness was fading. My eyes were closing as the devil affixed its gaze on me, mouth open, pincers and tendrils emerging from within. All I could hear now was droning, nothing but that, blanking out everything else.

Too late, as I touched the ritual circle, feeling the souls within, and what I fed them. And what I could reclaim.

They resisted as metal turned to liquid and my hand plunged within. They clung greedily to the power I'd put in, meant to intimidate but now claimed by them. But it was mine.

Pain traveled up my arm, my bones shrieking and my flesh tearing as my arm went in up to its shoulder. The other devil stabbed me from the back, spine-limb plunging in deep, a sudden burst of pain. Heart. It had stabbed…it didn't matter. I wasn't dead.

My veins burned. Bones shifted as my diabolism came back and forced them to shift and shape. Scales forced their way to my skin's surface as my jaw unhinged. Teeth tore through the scraps of what was left as I forced myself up. Diabolism weaved at my direction, closing wounds and stitching flesh back together. My tongue uncoiled, striking and slicing through the spine-limb the devil had stabbed through me. It quickly withdrew, taking the now useless organ it had pierced with it. My tail swung through a second later, nearly catching it, half-formed claw nearly cutting the limb.

I stood up, turning to face it, relishing as everything burned, as my body continued to change like fluid as I stared the devil in the eye.

This had just been to get Diabolism, but oh, had the results been so much better instead for me/she/we. What was I now? Did it even matter?

"So, I/us/they did lie," I/we/he told the shock-still devil. "Two/double/dual visits/trips-"

It reared back, mouth open, music flooding out of its voice. I/they/she rushed forward, the edge of my saber/sword/blade aimed at its throat.

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