The trio had approximately 0.3 seconds of peace after leaving the Oracle's garden before chaos returned like a clingy ex.
They landed smack in the middle of an abandoned motel in the middle of nowhere, dusty neon signs flickering like they were powered by regret. The room smelled like expired pickles and ghost trauma.
Lucien groaned as he sat up on a deflated bean bag chair. "I'm too pretty for interdimensional crash landings. My spine did a full remix."
Cain stood, brushing off his jacket. "You're not even injured."
"My soul is."
Ayden kicked the door open dramatically. "I CALL SHOWER FIRST! I SWEAT MAGIC."
"You literally didn't even fight anyone," Lucien said, eyeing him.
"I emotionally battled myself, okay? That counts."
Cain rolled his eyes and pulled open a moldy fridge. "Great. No food. Just one suspicious jar of—what is this? Demon mayo?"
"Don't touch that!" Selene barked from the corner. "It's sentient. It bit me last time."
Lucien slammed the fridge shut. "We are NOT being taken out by condiment-based demons. That is not how this anime ends."
Somehow, miraculously, they found a way to make pasta with magic fire, leftover motel coffee creamer, and suspicious mushrooms Ayden "borrowed" from a forest nymph last week.
Cain poked his bowl skeptically. "Is it… safe?"
"Eat first, cry later," Ayden said, already slurping noodles like his life depended on it. "It's survival gourmet, baby."
Lucien took a slow bite. His eye twitched. "This tastes like betrayal."
Selene sipped her tea with the elegance of someone above all this nonsense. "You boys are supposed to be the chosen sons of a god-devil. You were once feared warlords."
Cain grinned. "Yeah, and now we can't even boil pasta properly without starting a small fire."
The microwave beeped randomly.
None of them had used the microwave.
Lucien: "We are absolutely haunted."
They sat in a circle on the motel's roof, wrapped in old motel blankets. The stars were out, and the night was the kind of quiet that made even demons hesitate.
Lucien was halfway through retelling how he once charmed a vampire duchess into sparing them—except his charm turned out to be a glitter bomb spell that Ayden had accidentally set off.
"She thought it was fairy dust!" Lucien cackled.
"I WAS SPARKLY FOR THREE DAYS!" Ayden yelled.
Cain was wheezing from laughter. "You looked like a Twilight reject."
"I will bite both of you."
Selene shook her head with the patience of a thousand years. "You're all idiots."
Lucien winked. "Admit it. You love us."
Selene sipped her wine dramatically. "I tolerate you."
Cain's expression softened, just a little. The night reminded him that despite the chaos, despite the prophecy, these idiots were his family. Dysfunctional, yes. But real.
Ayden flopped onto Lucien's lap. "We should form a boy band. 'Devilicious.' Our debut single will be called 'Soul Snatchers.'"
Lucien: "I hate how catchy that is."
Cain just whispered, "Please no," into his hands.
While the boys bonded over cursed noodles and trauma jokes, the final shard of the Devil's soul—Samael—was watching from the edge of a cracked mirror in the motel's storage closet.
His eyes glowed with amusement.
"They laugh… but soon they'll cry."
He paused.
"Also… that pasta looked kinda good. Rude that they didn't offer me any."