Chapter Text
Nero would like to say that he's a good person.
He attends church with Kyrie every week, never gets into fights with other people, and even completes the missions Sanctus gives them without complaint, even the ones that seem marked for failure.
So by Fortuna standarts, he should be considered a standard citizen, and yet no matter what he does he's never treated like he belongs with the rest of the population.
Being with Kyrie helps, she soothes the wound the people's distrust carves into his flesh but Nero's reputation is destroying hers. He can hear them whispering every time they come back victorious.
They think there’s something wrong with him, something bad, maybe even rotten, and that he’s corrupting Kyrie with his cursed blood.
Nero sometimes thinks they are right.
He tries not to, but it’s hard to think they are wrong when he lays his eyes upon that form.
The cream colored primary feathers and soft white fur-covered body, the elegant shape of a sharp-toothed maw and the long powerful legs that end in deadly talons all come together to paint a very specific picture.
Kyrie is a demon, or at least can transform into one.
And that’s Nero’s fault.
He was the first to transform after all.
From the moment they came from that cursed mission something was wrong, Nero knew that and so did Kyrie.
But telling the Order of the Sword that your arm suddenly looks like it belongs to a demon sounded like a sure way to disappear under suspicious circunstances.
And so they kept that secret, mission after mission, never letting it show that something was amiss.
Until they were almost killed and had to be rushed to a healer, then things really started to get bad.
After all, his arm can’t be hidden when they are both unconcious, so there was nothing stopping his bandage and glove from being cut open to reach what the healer must have thought was a wound.
Nero can’t blame the healers for that, they were only doing their job, but he can blame them for telling the Vicar about his arm.
And most importantly he blames them, and the Holy Knights that came to get him, for not stopping Sanctus from taking Kyrie along too.
No one said anything about Fortuna’s most powerful team suddenly disappearing. It was like they never even existed, like Kyrie wasn’t such a kind and wonderful person.
She never stood aside when she saw something she considered unfair, that's one of the things he always loved about her, so Nero knows with certainty she would fight with all her might to stop Sanctus if she was in their place.
The fact that no one fought for them make him so angry, so much so that it makes him want to cry from the unfairness of it all. Because if everyone can excuse the things Sanctus and that excuse of an alchimist Agnus did to them, then Nero doesn’t like what it says about the world they live in.
No one deserves to be cut open and experimented on, and if the world were a kinder place, Kyrie never would have been used as a guinea pig to test the possibility of turning a human into a demon.
He had bad days, months even, but that year was the cherry in an already pretty shitty life. He always knew the Order considered them disposable, but there was knowing and there was experiencing just how little Fortuna cared for them.
And yet, it wasn’t enough to torture them, to cut Nero apart and put those pieces inside Kyrie, Sanctus still had the audacity to send them back to the battlefield once he got what he wanted from them.
Like they were his loyal little hounds, ready to fight his battles and made to heel at his feet.
The worst was that he was right, they could never leave him, because leaving him meant leaving Fortuna and at this point, the lands beyond were little more than ruins beneath the demonic army.
So they stayed and fought in a war that they were forced to participate in.
Nero spends so many hours transformed that his demonic side feels more like home to him than his human one. He gets so used to seeing the long white hair and his spectral wings in his peripheral vision that being without them feels alien.
He wonders if Kyrie feels the same, if she misses the demonic features that should frighten them but instead protect them, if she maybe finds herself missing the comforting weight of her mace like he misses his sword’s, their weapons designed to be almost too heavy to carry and yet they hold onto them easily and with a desperation born of fear.
And even if they logically know no human would be able to overpower them now, they still feel afraid of putting their weapon away and not being able to defend themselves.
Maybe this is what normal children feel when they hug their toys close, that overwhelming feeling of security washing away all fear that something may come from the dark to take them away.
If only they had been normal, if only they hadn’t shown so much promise, if only they had a family that would fight for them, so many what-ifs that will never come to pass.
It’s saddening to think they never had a chance at a normal life, Nero probably never would have a completely normal one, not with his hair and misterious parentage, but Kyrie could have had a gentle life.
Had they been born in a world without a never-ending hopeless war against demons, they could have been a strange but mostly loved part of the community.
They would go to restaurants and have dates and be normal teenagers instead of having to be satisfied with stolen moments on the battlefield and in between hopeless missions.
Nero tries not to be a pessimist but at this point, what is there to hope for? The end of the war?
The demons don’t look closer to giving up, in fact, they look more eager than ever to continue this war, he's never told the information the higher-ups manage to gather about demons but even he doesn’t need to be told that the number of demons far overtake the percentage of humans left.
He wonders sometimes if this war is a game for them, something to be dragged on for their entertainment.
Do they see the humans' pathetic attempts at fighting back and think "how pathetic, these worms believe they ever had a chance of winning?". Do they laugh and think humans should take their natural place at the bottom of the food chain and submit to the rightful rulers of this world?
Nero thought about his death for a long time, most of his life was spent thinking about how he would die because he knows what he is capable of, what Kyrie is capable of.
And so he knows they both would rather die than submit to the horror that their lives would become in the hands of Mundus.
They are reaching the end of the line for humanity. The demons are an extinction event that humans have tried to stop but are simply incapable of ever stopping.
They are burning stars running out of fuel while demons can reproduce in mass and reach maturity quickly, humans aren’t able to keep up with that.
Fortuna has already reached the point where the Holy Knights are a dying breed.
There is simply not enough time to train more fighters, so more and more people - more children – are being sent to the battlefield to die brutal and mostly useless deaths.
Nero is tired
So so exhausted of fighting, of being afraid. He just wants to close his eyes and stop feeling like this.
The only hope he has is that he will meet his end at the hands of his beloved.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the very love that allowed him to keep fighting, to keep surviving, became what kills him?
Kyrie deserves all the nice things and for some reason, Kyrie considers Nero something nice, a precious thing that she loves and keeps in her heart.
That means that dying would destroy Kyrie's heart and so he keeps going forward.
It’s for her that Nero searches for the small things that make life worth living.
He lives because Kyrie’s hair is the most beautiful shade of brown in the morning sun, because having his back protected by her makes him feel safe, because being vulnerable with her feels good, sleeping so close together they feel like one is comfortable, and because listening to her thoughts about nothing and everything is a perfect way to spend the time.
All these things fill the emptiness inside of him.
They were finally allowed to take a break between missions and he was excited to spend the day relaxing with Kyrie, so of course the fucking demon army decided this was the day to stop being nice and take over humanity once and for all.
Couldn’t they wait a single day to do this? This is the only break they have gotten in months and this is how they have to spend it, fighting a horde of demons eager to taste their blood. Really, what a relaxing and nice day.
The fight is hard, not because the demons are particularly stronger than before but for the sheer number of them. Normally they only come in the hundreds at a time yet this time there are so many that it feels there’s no ending, he kills one and then another appears.
It doesn’t help that he and Kyrie aren’t accustomed to fighting alongside others, so not only do they have to be careful of the demons, they also have to be mindful of not cutting down an ally. Really did Sanctus ever think that maybe having all his fighters be able to transform into demons might make it harder to differentiate them from a demon? Their only saving grace is that they have mostly white colors and demons very rarely come in such colors.
It's more annoying and exhausting than he’s used to but as long as he has Kyrie fighting by his side, Nero can get through this.
So it’s with great displeasure that he realises they will both die in this fight.
He should have known this was a trap, but the sheer amount of demons he had to fight kept anyone from figuring out that the real deal would only come later.
The moment the last demon falls is not a moment of respite, they don’t even get a single second to take a breath before two shapes come down from above and start to cut the knights apart.
They are fast, so fast he can barely keep up with their tagectory, so in sync they appear to be one being, they go from one knight to another, never taking more than a second before continuing, leaving behind only the feathered remains of the Holy Knight they killed without breaking a sweat.
Nero only has a second to look at Kyrie and see the same resolution in her eyes.
They will fight with all their might, and if they die they will die together.
They don't even get another second before he has to bring his sword up to defend himself from an attack that would certainly cut his neck clean off had he been any slower. Using his spectral wings he holds their arms, they barely seem to feel the strength he used, only slightly adjusting the hold they have in their sword but that is enough for him.
Nero does not hesitate before getting his legs around their torso and using the second they take to break the hold his wings have on their arms, he brings his sword to the space in between their helm and their chestplate.
He already knew the chance of actually killing them this fast was basically null but it’s still disappointing to find himself being pulled free before he can give them more than a papercut.
The demon uses the hold they have on Nero to throw him in the direction of the one Kyrie is fighting.
Shit, if he hadn't been able to get his bearings in the last second he would have certainly been impaled.
Having missed the finishing hit doesn’t seem to affect either demon, they instead appear to almost look excited that he and Kyrie lasted this long, enough so that they both allow them the seconds necessary for them to stand side by side.
These seconds of calm allow Nero to notice parts of their appearance that he hadn’t had the time before, they look very humanoid, more than the demons he’s used to seeing, besides the red eyes he can see through their helmets, they could almost appear human.
Nero takes this borrowed time to take a last look at Kyrie, only to find her already leaning in to kiss him, she tastes of blood and sweat and she is divine, he wouldn’t be able to imagine her tasting any other way. So with great reluctance, he separates from their kiss.
How nice of them to wait.
Sharing a last look with her, they both jump back into fighting.
It feels like a dance, Nero attacks and she defends him. Kyrie brings her mace down on their enemy and he redirects their attack. Normally this is more than enough to win, but this time their enemy are more than capable of getting the best of them.
No attack seems to faze them, if they hit one, the other is ready to push them back. He’s more annoying, more exhausting than he has ever felt in his live. He can’t hold back his grin and neither seens Kyrie, if anything she looks even more elated than he is.
The fight is not long, he and Kyrie were tired before and these demons are strong enough that even at their best their chances of winning were small.
Nero always knew he would die, he was even hoping for it, so he is very surprised to find that he regrets not being able to continue fighting against them with Kyrie by his side.
How funny that it is with a sword impaling him that Nero finally finds himself truly wanting to live.
He barely feels his body falling from the sky, the ground meets him with a crunch, and it’s not long before Kyrie falls close by.With the last of his strength, he moves his hand in her direction, only to find hers in the middle.
This life was truly shitty, but at least they were together. Nero hopes that if some afterlife awaits them, they continue to be together.
Nero feels the last of his energy disappearing, his transformation leaving along side it, how funny that he’ll die human after so many years feeling more like a demon.
The last thing Nero sees is the two demons, their silhouettes in front of the sun, which shines with a bright purple light.
And then Nero feels nothing at all.