When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in the smithy, but in a burning volcano. He watched the lava move frantically, bubbles exploding, and the earth shaking.
If the volcano were a living being, anyone would say it was furious.
"You locked me in!" he heard behind him.
Marchosias was there. Just like in that photo. Neatly dressed and elegantly poised. Even the chains on his body looked like accessories he had decided to wear.
"Was that forbidden in our agreement?" Altair asked him.
"You're scum..." Marchosias spat.
Altair didn't care much about his opinion. He was one devil among thousands, a powerful one, but not one with whom he had a personal altercation or wanted to get to know.
"Didn't you plan to possess my body by joining the Sacred Gear with my soul?" Altair asked in return.
The devil remained silent. He simply sighed resignedly.
"I've been confined for hundreds of years. Do you blame me for wanting to get out?" he asked calmly.
"No. I don't blame you," said the boy. "Honestly, I don't care either. I was a means of escape for you, you took advantage of my disagreement with the Sitri to make a deal, of course. Although it's a little interesting how you assumed I would be willing." He said curiously, not waiting for an answer. "For me, you were a method to become stronger. And I succeeded, so I should thank you, I guess," he said finally.
"Do you think these chains will keep me here forever? I've lived your age dozens of times. I've even surpassed death. Eventually, I'll get out, when your body is old and decrepit," he warned.
"Will you wait millennia?" Altair asked.
Although he wasn't very interested in his threats, the runes connected Marchosias to the Sacred Gear; it wasn't simply that he used its powers. No, the runes ended up transferring the devil's power to the staff, using the gem as its core.
Marchosias would eventually die when the process was complete, in a few days. Only his power and magic would remain.
Altair wouldn't say that; clearly, it was better for the devil to think he had millennia to escape his prison than to do something rash that could hurt Altair or those around him.
"All it takes is a moment of weakness," warned the devil.
Altair almost rolled his eyes in front of him.
"You were a good ingredient," he said to irritate him.
The volcano behind him erupted. The heat was pleasant and comforting. He believed he could swim in the lava without any problem.
He left that strange place.
------------------------------
[Sense deprivation]
It worked the same way as the spell Lily had used on Bella, only with a much more powerful effect.
It wasn't a cure, per se; it was a means of treating the main symptom. In the end, it completely eliminated Bellatrix's ability to feel. That included pain, of course, but also everything else: temperature, texture, vibrations, caresses, and so on. It wouldn't work in the long run, but it was enough for what Altair had at hand.
"I don't feel anything anymore!" Bellatrix said happily as she threw herself into Altair's arms. Her hands wrapped possessively around his body. "No!" she suddenly cried out. "I hate it!" she said. Altair didn't know what had caused that reaction.
"Mother," he said softly. He noticed her smile, as she always did whenever he said that word. "What's wrong?" he asked. He didn't know if he had caused any side effects beyond taking away her sense of touch.
"I can't feel you, Alti," she said, her hands clasped around Altair's neck. "Nothing!"
"That's because I took away all your touch senses," he explained, taking Bella's hands in his.
"Give them back!" she demanded, even though minutes earlier she had been happy when he told her he could take away her pain.
"I can't," he said, painfully.
"But I can't feel my baby!" she shouted at him. "I can't, I can't!"
Altair watched as things around the room began to shake. He used his magic to suppress the damage his mother could cause to the room. But Bella's eyes widened with fear, as if she could sense what was happening at that moment. Altair relaxed his magic. Things exploded.
'Looks like she saw something of my father in me, huh,' he thought with disgust toward his progenitor.
"Mom, listen," he said as he took her cheeks in his hands. She looked at him with eyes gone lost and empty. Then she smiled as she headbutted him on the nose.
"I'm so sorry, oh, I'm so sorry," she said, apologizing. She had started crying as she caressed him.
Altair had had a card to cure her a long time ago, the ability to recover. But that required having had sexual relations.
'Just once, it will be the only time, and then I won't mention it again,' he had thought.
When he proposed the idea to Bella, she agreed immediately, almost with unbridled excitement. It was as if he had told her she had won the lottery. But when things were about to happen, she reacted differently.
"NO! GO AWAY! STAY AWAY!" she screamed in fear.
It had taken Altair a long time to heal his mother. It wasn't until he acquired the new skill, [Sense deprivation], that he was finally able to relieve his mother's pain.
He had to find another way to heal her. He had studied the curse, but he couldn't make head nor tail of it. It was the first time he had ever felt this way about a spell. Even with the Sacred Gears, he hadn't had so much trouble figuring out how they worked.
"She seems... disturbed," Lyra said from the doorway. She moved aside as a lamp flew in her direction.
"Ah! My baby-Ly!" Bella said happily. The room returned to normal. Lyra found herself in an uncomfortable hug with her mother. She could only stand still. "Give me back the hugs!" she suddenly demanded, casting a spell in Altair's direction.
The young man didn't know what to do with his crazy mother other than comply with her request.
Altair deactivated the spell. He watched his mother's body writhe in pain for a second before summoning Altair to her side. He let himself be carried away by the spell. Both Altair and Lyra were caught in their mother's embrace. Altair looked at his sister, who had the same uncomfortable expression as he did.
Bella's breasts were hitting both of their faces. She writhed as the two siblings rubbed against her involuntarily.
"Ahh~," Altair was sure he didn't want to hear that kind of sound from his mother.
"Altair," Lyra murmured.
"Don't talk, it's time to eat," Bella said as the top of her clothes disappeared.
"Altair, I—," Lyra ended up being pushed onto her mother's breast.
He suffered the same fate. He found it curious how his mother preferred to suffer pain in exchange for moments of pleasure from the affection with which she caressed her children.
Bellatrix began to hum a lullaby cheerfully.
"Why aren't you eating?" she asked suddenly, interrupting her melody. She took her children by the back of their necks as she put them to her breast.
Altair found, strangely, that milk came out of his mother's nipple. It was sweet.
He wondered what the hell to do. It was one of the most ridiculous situations he could have ever been in in his entire damn life. He was almost 20 years old, for Merlin's sake! Lyra, beside him, looked just as lost, and Altair wondered if her dreams of becoming a minister would be ruined if someone took a photo of that moment and published it in the Daily Prophet.
"Ah, enough," he said as he pulled away from his mother.
"Altair Regulus Black, I said you couldn't take my wand!" Bella scolded him.
Altair didn't know what to say until he saw his mother's hand rummaging through his underwear, grabbing his cock, and pulling it hard.
"Damn it!" Lyra snapped out of her stupor. "Just turn her into a devil, that might help remove the curse," she said.
"Where the hell did you get that idea?" Altair had had enough. With a tap on the forehead, he put his mother to sleep while adjusting his pants. Lyra's gaze was lost in his crotch, where, to his embarrassment, he was displaying an erection.
'Don't cross that line.'
"I heard it from Lily," she explained, in a more formal tone. However, having milk in the corner of her mouth did not help her project a formal image. "Her research. She discovered that ancient curses disappeared after turning into a devil," she continued.
"Why did Lily tell you about her research?" Altair asked as he carried his mother to a bed. He laid her down carefully and covered her chest.
"She questioned me a little," she shrugged. "About the changes she had noticed since I changed race." Lyra looked at her mother with a sweetness that Altair had never noticed in his sister.
Altair weighed his words. A Bellatrix turned into a devil would be a danger to everyone. She wasn't as strong as Lily, but she would undoubtedly be in the Upper Class or above. Strong enough to cause quite a bit of trouble.
'I need to confirm this with Lily,' he thought.
Before making a decision, he had to make sure that what Lyra told him was the truth and not just a guess she had come up with herself.
—--------
Note: I didn't heal Bellatrix before because I wanted to do it in the funny way. But it's a DxD arc, so I didn't want to focus too much on HP characters. But yeah, it's kinda dumb not to heal her…