Infernal Academia

Chapter 60 - Trayer's Righteousness: Part 4 (A Guardian's Anger)

Crimson lightning crackled through the sky as the clouds churned far above.  The wind was akin to blasts of air from a freshly-opened furnace, and the humidity was making it hard to breathe.  As Cobalt quickly marched back towards the looming shape of B.I.D., he frowned and reached up to loosen his tie, only to stop in his tracks upon touching the fabric.

He had nothing in his life that connected to his father.  He had never once stopped to think about who he was.  And now he found out that Brass Trayer was a forgotten hero, and a remnant of his legacy still hung around his son's neck even after everything else had been redacted.

There was a lot to process.  Almost too much, in fact.  

Tugging at the collar of his shirt, the Incubus took a deep breath of the suffocatingly hot air and leaned against a nearby wall.

"At a loss for words?" spoke a familiar voice.

Baring his teeth, he turned away as the black cat appeared from behind a lamppost.

"Get out of my head," Cobalt hissed, already growing impatient.

"Who says I'm in your head?  I could be just as full of flesh and blood as you are."

As soon as he said those words, his head throbbed painfully, causing Cobalt to stagger and almost collapse onto the ground.

"Oh, my mistake.  I ought not to say anything that could trigger anything within you," the cat remarked as it licked its paw.

"Do you think this is funny or something?!" snapped the Incubus.

"Not at all.  In fact, it's a very serious matter."

It ambled over to him and stretched itself out on the pavement.

"You've been given a handful of hard pills to swallow lately, Cobalt, and you've been doing well so far.  But while you're still choking down this issue regarding your father, I fear you're avoiding the biggest and bitterest pill of them all."

"Sh- Shut up..."

"You need to admit it to yourself.  There's no running from fate, and you can't cheat it forever, Everlast or no."

"Shut up...!"

The cat's eyes glinted.

"You feel it, don't you?  The hunger?" it said in a dour tone.

"Stop it!  Stop trying to-!"

"To what, Cobalt?  Make you admit to yourself what you are?  Who you are?  Because Cobalt Trayer isn't the man you think he is, and it's something that goes deeper than you think."

It cocked its head.

"Look around you," the cat instructed.

Swallowing hard, Cobalt slowly craned his neck to see his surroundings.  He was on a street that was usually packed with cars and pedestrians, but with the oncoming dry storm, it was deserted.  The hot wind blustered down the empty road, gently tousling the petals of the-

He stifled a gasp.  Roses.  Here and there, thorny roses had pushed their way up through the tarmac.

"N- No...!" he breathed.

"Everlast bought you a few years, Cobalt.  But I'm sorry to say that you can't outrun your own base urges," sighed the cat, padding next to him.

The Incubus clenched his fists.

"What the Hell do you want from me, huh?  Do you want me to just give in and wind up like every other Incubus?!  Or would you rather I keep fighting it and wind up worse off?!" he cried desperately.