It happened. Belial felt Despair’s presence when Lucifer’s icy gaze met hir determinate one. It was cold and lonely, as trapped in a world full of hir own broken mirrors. It was worse than be worthless but actually having worth, shaking the comfortable role Mad Hatter had deluded hirself to play.

There was no more need to play a clown when, deep down, the Satan of Pride ruled them all.

Hir jaw trembled and hir eyes were cast down, weakly assenting. “As you say, Lord Lucifer,” replied Belial with an absent voice. “One will carry on alone. No, one always did it, didn’t it?” Sie smiled at last, sensing something that had never experienced before: confidence.

It felt… so different to arrogance and vanity. More fragile yet fulfilled.