When Cobalt stumbled out of the Silibon building, his mind had finally pieced together the previous few minutes, and he had come to the conclusion that if it weren’t for Jerome’s intervention, he likely would not have been able to fight off Juliette’s advances, a thought that brought a shameful burn to his cheeks. He had hoped that by now he would be strong enough to get along by himself, but clearly he still needed Lydia to step in for him.

  Still… Who was she talking about? Girls? Aside from his sisters, Cobalt didn’t really know many girls outside of Phrodival. Granted, he didn’t really know a lot of people currently, but Juliette’s words still rang in his head as he walked to the next building over, and the final destination on his list.

  Amrifni. The one Covenant that absolutely nobody had anything nice to say about. A knot had tied itself up in the Incubus’ stomach, and when he peered up at the building, it only grew tighter and more uncomfortable.

  The Amrifni building was by far the smallest in the Plaza, making it comically squat compared to the towering spires of Silibon next to it. Flaking blue paint covered the old stonework as ivy wormed its way across the front of the building, and many of the windows had been boarded from the inside, the external glass broken in places. Planters lined the ground floor windowsills, but they were all overgrown, and tiles that had slipped off the roof littered the path in front of it. It looked depressing. With such a dour exterior and a terrible reputation, it stood to reason that Cobalt wanted nothing to do with the place.

  And yet, he approached the front door and knocked politely, causing the wood to rattle.

  “Door!” called a harsh voice from somewhere inside.

  A moment of silence passed.

  “Can someone get the door?! I’m in the middle of somethin’!”

  Again, silence passed.

  “Dammit, fine! I’ll get-!”

  Cobalt heard the sound of snapping wood as a great deal of heavy objects clattered from somewhere behind the door, making it rattle all the harder.

  “Agh… I- I’m alright. I’m good.”

  Feeling heavy footsteps approach the door, Cobalt took a step back, tightening his grip on his cane if worst came to worst. He had already been to the house of the strong, the smart, the sly and sleek; there was no telling what was waiting for him.

  The handle turned and the door creaked open.

  Standing in the doorway was a tall, gangly Oni man, lacking much of the musculature that his race was known for. He wore a pair of shabby blue jeans and a sleeveless shirt, exposing arms covered in plasters, bandages and dried paint. Rough red stubble covered his face, his hair was tangled, and the glasses he wore bore a crack in one of the lenses. Frowning, Cobalt glanced up at his head to find that his horn was strangely twisted, and a fair amount of blood was oozing down the side of his face.

  “Are you alright?!” the Incubus gasped, his nose twitching at the sanguine smell.

  “Hm? Oh, yeah, that’ll patch itself up,” the Oni replied casually, wiping his head with an oily rag.

  “Y- You’re bleeding.”

  “When am I not? I’m used to-”

  He cut himself off as his watery-blue eyes scanned the Incubus, widening as he was struck by a sudden realisation.

  “Wait a fuckin’- You’re him, right? The Incubus guy?!” he gasped.

  “Uh, yes, that’s me. Cobalt Trayer.”

  He offered his hand, which the Oni shook vigorously. His hands were uncomfortably rough and covered in sawdust.

  “Man, we’ve been waitin’ all day for you! C’mon in!”

  Grabbing his hand tighter, he dragged the Incubus into the Amrifni building, swinging the door shut behind him.

  The entrance hall was… much humbler than the others Cobalt had experienced that day. It was fairly small – almost homely – but it was clear that it was in a bad state. Floorboards were missing, there were cracks in the walls, and the lightbulbs were struggling to keep the room illuminated. A broken ladder lay in pieces on the floor, and one of the side cabinets had a disconcerting amount of blood staining one corner.

  “Do you need me to call an ambulance…?” he breathed, peering back at the Oni.

  “Nah. No vehicle access, ‘cept for over by the bridge. Gotta keep my wheels shacked up over there. Fuckin’ waste,” he replied, wiping the rest of his blood off his head.

  He suddenly slapped his forehead.

  “Dammit, haven’t even- Gettin’ ahead of myself, sorry.”

  He gave Cobalt a smile, proudly displaying a missing premolar.

  “Ivar Gattson. You can call me Roach.”

  “Roach…?”

  “That’s me.”

  The Incubus just smiled and nodded.

  “It’s an intriguing name.”

  “Heh, thanks. Can’t be used against you if you wear it proud, right?”

  “I- I… suppose?”

  “Awesome. You’re here to take a look around, right? Lemme give you a tour of the shithole, then. Follow me!”

  With that, Roach – still profusely bleeding – turned on his heel and marched off down the hall, giving Cobalt no other option but to follow. Though the Oni’s demeanour was friendly, he still felt on edge; Juliette had managed to lull him into a false sense of security, and he wasn’t about to be caught out like that again.

  “So, welcome to Amrifni! It’s not much, but lemme tell you, this place grows on you! Like a fungus!” Roach called over his shoulder as they approached the building’s canteen.

  Inside was a large room befitting of a cafeteria, but that was where the similarities ended. In place of the tables and benches Cobalt expected to see, he was met with a smatter of mismatched furniture, each article looking more out of place than the last. Amrifni students ate their lunches at garden tables and old office desks, seated upon barstools, beanbags and armchairs. Eyes widening at the unique furniture layout, Roach snickered and slapped the Incubus’ back.

  “Yeah, couldn’t really afford custom shit, so we had to improvise. Lot of these are donations. I grabbed a couple of them from work,” he explained, giving a computer chair a kick.

  “A- Ah. Where do you work?” he asked.

  “I work the compactor down at the dump. Spent most days breakin’ cars apart, but sometimes people toss out perfectly good furniture.”

  “… You got these from a landfill?”

  “Well, obviously I hosed ‘em down first.”

  “A- Ah.”

  “Anyway, over here’s the kitchen…!”

  As he was dragged across the canteen, Cobalt noted that there weren’t terribly many academics around, and those that were here seemed quite sullen. Most didn’t even look up as he passed them by, but before he could get a good look at them, the Incubus was pulled into the building’s kitchen. Within were multiple counters, stovetops and ovens, all of which lay unused and piled high with unwashed dishes. At the back of the room, a portly Succubus woman stood at a sink, muttering to herself as she scrubbed plate after plate.

  “Hey Baba! C’mere!” Roach called, slapping one of the counters.

  “Busy!” she snapped in a thick accent.

  “It’ll only take a sec! Someone here you gotta meet!”

  “I said busy!”

  “You’re gonna like him, Baba! C’mon, just-!”

  With quick, fluid movements, the Succubus pulled a ceramic plate from the sink and lobbed it across the kitchen as hard as she could. Eyes wide, Cobalt ducked behind the countertop just in time, but Roach wasn’t quite so lucky as it struck him right in the forehead, shattering into pieces and throwing him onto his back.

  “I told you I am busy, stupid man!” Baba barked, wiping the suds off her hands.

  She was an older woman, if the grey streaks in her hair was anything to go by, and as she marched towards Cobalt, she reached into her apron, pulled out a hip flask and took a very liberal swig. A faded Amrifni seal was monogrammed upon it; a broken shield. There was something off-putting about that imagery.

  “You. You are Trayer?” she asked, fixing him with her steely eyes.

  “Y- Yes, that’s me,” the Incubus stammered, straightening up.

  “Mm. I am Baba. I cook. I clean. You stay out of kitchen. Good?”

  “Sounds good, yes.”

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  “Good. Go away. Take stupid man with you.”

  Gathering up the shards of broken plate, she tossed them onto a nearby counter and dutifully returned to the sink, her tail thrashing irritably behind her. On the floor, Roach groaned and gave a thumbs-up.

  “Agh… Good talkin’ with you, Baba…ow…”

  Rubbing his face, he turned to Cobalt with an undeterred grin and a rapidly darkening bruise on his forehead.

  “She covers housekeepin’. Has done for a long time,” the continued, grabbing the counter to pull himself to his feet.

  “Are you okay?!” Cobalt cried, shocked by the sudden violence.

  “Man, you worry too much. It’s just a plate.”

  Despite his concerns, the Oni shook the bits of broken ceramic out of his hair and cheerily urged Cobalt to follow him, which he did with much apprehension. Gone was the previous concerns he had about the Covenant, replaced instead by concern for the mental wellbeing of its students.

  But with Roach at the helm, the tour continued. Amrifni didn’t have much compared to the other Covenants. No recreational areas, no library, nowhere for the academics here to mingle barring a common room on the ground floor, which seemed to double as a storage area for construction supplies. Throughout, Roach explained how he alone had been attempting to renovate the building, with little to no success.

  One thing became plainly apparent to Cobalt in that moment; Amrifni was in dire circumstances.

  The upper floors weren’t much better. The hallways were in various states of disrepair, and whereas the other Covenants – barring Sucifenev – had entire apartments for their students, the rooms here were spartan; just a bed and cabinet, a closet and a desk. There were communal sinks in some of the halls, and communal bathrooms at the end of each corridor.

  Many of the rooms looked empty. Were Amrifni lacking students…?

  Roach yapped the entire way without taking a breath, stopping only upon hearing someone call his name from a nearby room.

  “Roach. Come here one second.”

  “Ah. One sec, Cobalt,” the Oni apologised, opening the door and peering in.

  This room looked much more lived-in. There were some dirty clothes on the floor, research notes and sticky notes on the wall, and a laptop at the desk. What drew Cobalt’s attention, however, was the man currently sitting before it.

  “Wexford?” Cobalt asked aloud, raising an eyebrow at the sight of the Fallen.

  He raised his hand in greeting.

  “Nice to see you again, Cobalt.”

  “Wait, you two know each other?” Roach asked, drawing a line between the two.

  “Not closely. We only met this morning.”

  “You’re in Amrifni?” the Incubus asked, raising an eyebrow.

  As if to answer his question, the Fallen grabbed a jacket off the floor and pulled a small blue pin off it, emblazoned with the Covenant crest.

  “I’m in my final year. As is most of us. But as much as I’d love to chat, I still need to finish some things up. Roach, make sure you clean your shit out of the way for later; Deanson’s stopping by later,” Wexford explained, turning his eyes back onto his friend.

  The two demons in his doorway exchanged concerned glances.

  “… He never visits. The Hell does he want?” Roach asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Returning his full attention to the laptop, Wexford waved him away.

  “I don’t know; I only just got the message. Make sure Cobalt doesn’t fall through a floor while he’s here, yeah?”

  “Fuck you, I’m doin’ my best here.”

  “Oh, I’m sure.”

  With a scowl, Roach gave his guest a nod and they continued down the hall.

  “Don’t mind him. He just stresses easy,” the Oni said patting Cobalt’s shoulder again.

  Cobalt just kept his mouth shut and nodded, waiting for a point in the conversation when he could ask to finally meet the Head.

  “Between me, Wexford and Senna, we’re just about managin’ to keep the place runnin’. Once we’re gone though… I don’t really wanna think about it.”

  “Senna? Is… that your Head?”

  Roach stopped in his tracks. Slowly, he turned his head to stare holes into the Incubus. Then, all of a sudden, he burst out laughing, staggering against a door to support himself. The door, however, wasn’t strong enough to hold his weight. The lock popped and cracked, flying open and causing to the Oni to topple into an empty room.

  This man certainly had a penchant for hurting himself…

  “Gahaha! Fuck no! Oh man, can you imagine?! Senna?! Gahaha!”

  He looked up, the wound on his head having split open once more.

  “Hey, you wanna meet Senna?”

  “Um, Roach, I really need to-”

  “Hey, it’s no big deal! She’d love to meet you!”

  Hopping back to his feet, he excitedly gestured for Cobalt to follow and took off down the hall. The Incubus – his legs beginning to complain after all the travelling – sighed and tried to keep up to the best of his ability, his tattered wings flapping weakly behind him.

  “I really… must meet… your Head…” he gasped weakly, staggering towards the stairwell.

  Ascending a few flights, he eventually located Roach in another hall, this bearing some missing light fixtures. Wires hung from holes in the ceiling. The Oni gave him a wave before knocking on the door before him, this one marked with multiple handmade warning signs.

  “Senna!” he called, hammering on the door.

  Coming to a stop beside him, Cobalt’s ears pricked up at the sound of heavy metal pulsing from within.

  “Hey! Senna!” Roach cried, pounding harder.

  “Roach, it’s alright, I’m sure she’s-“

  “SENNA OPEN THE FUCKIN’ DOOR!” the Oni bellowed, startling him.

  But once more, the door didn’t open. It seemed Roach wasn’t a terribly welcome presence here.

  “I really don’t want to take up too much of your time,” Cobalt said weakly, slumping his shoulders.

  “Nah, it’s nothin’. Maybe her door’s stuck; it’s been stickin’ lately. Here; take a step back.”

  “Huh?”

  Gently pushing him back, Roach dropped into a combative stance and narrowed his eyes. Winding his fist back, he took a slow, deep breath through his teeth. Cobalt’s next question died in his throat as the Oni’s horn suddenly sparked, and his veins began to glow brighter and brighter.

  “Oitargalfnoc…” he hissed, wincing as the glow grew brighter.

  Cobalt’s eyes widened. Where has he heard that before…?

  “Toh…”

  The blood vessels in Roach’s hand ignited and roiled with a crackling glow.

  “… RAGH!”

  He punched the door. The it split and buckled, and for a brief moment there was silence. A deafening explosion erupted from the Oni’s knuckles, scorching the wood and blasting the door to bits. Cobalt covered his face as the force staggered him back, and down the hall a few annoyed Amrifni students peeked out into the hall.

  “… Shit,” Roach murmured, his knuckles still smoking.

  The skin on his hand was all torn up, and blood was dripping all over the floor.

  “Wh- What the Hell was that?!” Cobalt cried, completely dumbfounded by the display of brazen recklessness before him.

  Frowning, Roach scratched his head as he peered down at his wounded hand.

  “Might’ve put too much into that one…” he murmured, completely unperturbed by the blood.

  “You’re bleeding! Again!”

  “Eh, that’s just how it is with the Clastic Arts, y’know?”

  “The what?!”

  He waved his query away.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll fix the door later. C’mon.”

  With that, he wiped his bleeding hand on his jeans and sloped into the room. With a heavy sigh, the Incubus bowed his head and followed, deigning to just endure it.

  Despite having its door completely obliterated, the room beyond wasn’t much worse off for it. The curtains were drawn, the light was off, and the floor was absolutely drowned in clothes and trash. A slight individual was hunched at the desk, her back turned to them as she played a flashy videogame on an impressive PC setup. Cobalt could hear the music pumping through her headphones from where he was standing, and it seemed for all the world like she didn’t even realise their door had been atomised.

  “For fucks sake…” Roach sighed, picking up a piece of broken wood and tossing it at them.

  It bonked off her head, causing her to make some dreadful mistake in her game – Cobalt honestly wasn’t sure what – that caused a bright red GAME OVER to flash across the screen. With a sigh, she took her headphones off, causing a pair of long, pointed ears to stick out.

  “That was a comp match. I’m gonna get deranked for this,” she sighed, setting the headphones down on the desk.

  They spun their chair around, bringing Cobalt face-to-face with a very bedraggled Nymph woman. She was dressed in an oversized hoodie, its grey fabric stained in places. Her greasy hair was long and unkempt, and as the Incubus stared into her bespectacled eyes, she scowled and pulled her hood up.

  “Cobalt, this is Senna Bessda. She-” began Roach, gesturing to the Nymph.

  “What the fuck did you do to my door?” Senna interrupted, staring at the ruined doorway.

  “Uh… I thought you were stuck or somethin’.”

  The Nymph pouted.

  “Fix it,” she said simply.

  “Can’t right now. I’m showin’ Cobalt around, and I also gotta-”

  “ROACH!” roared a furious voice from down the hall, punctuated by frantic footsteps.

  The Oni winced as Wexford came into view, looking just about ready to burst a blood vessel.

  “What the Hell did you just blow up?!” the Fallen asked, taking a moment to catch his breath.

  “How do you know it’s me?!” Roach retorted, folding his arms.

  “Door! Hand! You! All of that!”

  He pointed to the evidence in turn, spurring Roach to look away, cheeks burning. Scooting her chair over, Senna gave Wexford a glare, completely forgetting about Cobalt in the moment.

  “You said you’d get him to quit doing this.”

  “I am, Senna. Just… give me a moment.”

  “I thought she was stuck or somethin’ alright?!”

  “Shut up, Roach!” the pair yelled in unison.

  While they bickered, Cobalt just stood in the middle of Senna’s filthy room, feeling rather out-of-place. The smell wasn’t doing much to help his churning stomach, and he felt for all the world as though he was about to collapse. He was glad to find that Amrifni wasn’t anything malicious, but compared to the other Covenants, it was… well… a joke.

  “Okay. Roach, just clean out the broken door and put a curtain up for now. Once you’re done, tidy that mess in the hall and join me upstairs. We need to clear out the office for the Archdean’s visit,” Wexford sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “What? Why? We never use the office,” Roach complained.

  “Just do it!” the Fallen called as he walked away.

  Rolling his eyes, the Oni gave Cobalt a smile and flashed a thumbs-up with his bloody hand.

  “You mind sittin’ tight here while I handle a couple things? Senna’ll keep you occupied.”

  “I’ll what?” the Nymph asked right as she was about to put her headphones back on.

  “Thanks, Sen!”

  With that, Roach skedaddled out of the room, leaving Cobalt alone with her. Looking him up and down, she took a moment to think before finally gesturing to the bed.

  “You can sit there. Just move all that stuff over.”

  Nodding, Cobalt sidled over to her bed, only to find that it was completely covered in just as much rubbish as the floor. Grimacing, he found himself a tiny corner of free space and sat down, leaning against his cane to ensure he didn’t fall.

  As Senna got back into her game, the screen light reflecting off her glasses, Roach returned with a hammer, a mouthful of nails, and an old curtain. As he began to nail it over the door, Senna glanced back at the Incubus.

  “… You’re like a male Succubus, right?” she asked, completely unprompted.

  “In a manner of speaking, yes,” Cobalt asked, clearing his throat.

  “Huh.”

  She tapped a few keys.

  “Never met one.”

  “Most people haven’t.”

  “Hm. Is your dick big?”

  “Senna!” Roach yelled from the other side of the curtain.

  “It’s a legit question!”

  “You can’t just ask him that!”

  “Don’t you have an office to clean?!”

  “Maybe I do!”

  “Then fuck off and do that then!”

  “Maybe I will!”

  “Fine then!”

  “Fine!”

  “Seeya!”

  “Bye!”

  They heard the heavy stomping of Roach’s boots and the squeaking of the floorboards as he marched off, leaving Cobalt alone with Senna.

  “So. What do you think of the place?” the Nymph asked, leaning back in her chair.

  Cobalt blinked a few times, his head spinning.

  “It’s… unique,” was all he managed to say.

  She snorted.

  “You mean it’s shit.”

  “I- I didn’t say that!”

  “Well I did.”

  Sighing, Senna kicked off the floor, spinning her chair around and around.

  “You know what Amrifni is about right?” she asked, kicking her legs.

  “No-one has told me yet…”

  “Hm. Well. No point in sugarcoating it.”

  Halting the chair, she looked him dead in the eye, though he could see hers past the glare from her glasses.

  “Amrifni is the house of the weak. If you don’t fit anywhere else, or you were kicked from another Covenant, you wind up here. We’re literally the worst.”

  “I- I’m sure that’s not true.”

  “Oh no, it’s true. We haven’t won a single Tourney or Showcase since our founding. Don’t have a single achievement to our name. Our building is falling apart. We’re broke. And now we’re running out of members. We’re completely dogshit.”

  Cobalt frowned, not sure exactly what to say. That would at least explain why the other Heads were so hard on Amrifni; it was the entire Mancer Plaza’s punching bag.

  “I… I’m sorry.”

  “Tch. Why?”

  He just shrugged.

  “No-one ought to be in a position like that.”

  Raising an eyebrow, Senna sighed and returned to her computer, her attention turned fully to her game. A few minutes passed in uncomfortable silence as Cobalt shifted about on the bed, until he finally built up the courage to ask.

  “Senna… What is your Head like?”

  She glanced back at him.

  “Oh. No-one told you, did they?”

  “What?”

  Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, Senna Bessda gave Cobalt as sympathetic look.

  “Cobalt… we don’t have a Head.”