The Incubus System Chapter 1371. See The Gray Instead of Clinging to White and Black

The Incubus System Chapter 1371. See The Gray Instead of Clinging to White and Black

I laughed. Bitter and small.

“And now what? Demons eat humans. Angels use humans. And then there’s me.”

I gestured vaguely at myself. The messed-up hair. The demon prince who once buried under college debt and cheap noodles.

“I’m both of them. Both! And somehow I’m out here protecting this world like some kind of tragic superhero with a villain vibe. No press. No thank yous. No theme music.”

I slumped back on the couch with a groan.

“Hurray,” I muttered, throwing one arm over my face. “So cool. So edgy. So dead inside. Ugh.”

There was a beat.

And then…

“Then we can just beat them!” Buni declared, puffing out his tiny chest like he was about to declare war with a sharpened carrot. “I can distract them while you use your cool dark powers. Like… zoom zoom, pow!”

“You make it sound like a cartoon,” I muttered.

“Yeah, but a really good cartoon,” he added helpfully.

Red leapt up onto the couch beside me, tail going wild. “I can bite their heads off! Holy or not. Nobody messes with my prince and walks away without teeth marks on their ankles. Grr.”

Shadow stretched languidly across the top of the couch, tail flicking lazily behind him. “You know,” he purred, “you’re strong enough to deal with them. You’ve already proven that.”

“I mean, yeah,” I admitted.

Rave fluttered down from the bookshelf and landed on the backrest beside Shadow, feathers rustling. “Then just kill them when they come again,” he said, voice as calm as always… unnervingly so. “Same as the wild demons who’ve tried to eat humans. No difference. Threat is threat.”

I looked at him, eyes narrowing. “You’re seriously telling me to just murder angels now?”

Rave tilted his head. “Didn’t you already?”

“That’s not—!” I stopped. Groaned. Rubbed my face. “That’s not the point, Rave.”

I sat up straighter, bones groaning a little from the sudden movement.

“Yes, I can fight them,” I said, voice flat. “I did fight them. I won. But that’s the problem.”

They all quieted, watching me.

I looked at them. My chaotic, loyal, totally unqualified for therapy pet crew. “That means… angels are the same as demons. In this case. No better. No holier. Just the same weapons, different costumes.”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t disagree.

“It is indeed the same,” he said slowly, his voice oddly serious now. “Then what’s made you like this?”

I leaned back again, my head hitting the couch. My eyes stared up at the ceiling. Still. Quiet.

“I don’t know…” I said quietly. “Maybe…”

They all leaned closer.

“Maybe it was my expectations that betrayed me,” I finally admitted. “I thought… stupidly, yeah… that if angels ever showed up, it wouldn’t be like this.”

“What did you expect?” Buni asked softly.

I smiled bitterly. “A conversation. A debate. A little bit of diplomacy. I mean… this is the modern age, right? I thought maybe we’d talk about things like reasonable creatures instead of going full medieval sword and smiting mode.”

“You thought they’d listen,” Shadow said.

“Yeah,” I said. “That maybe… maybe… they’d ask me who I was before they decided what I was.”

Red whimpered and licked my arm gently. “I’d have listened,” he said softly.

I ruffled his ears. “I know, buddy. You’re the goodest.”

“I’d still bite them though,” he added immediately. “Holy or not.”

“Duly noted.”

Rave cawed. “Disappointed by a belief. That’s the real sting.”

Shadow purred beside him. “Expectations make liars of angels.”

Buni tapped my knee. “But you’re still here. So that means your belief in yourself was stronger.”

I chuckled at that one. “Did you read that off a fortune cookie?”

He puffed up again. “No! I made that up myself!”

There was a shift then. Subtle.

Puriel, who had been quiet this whole time, finally moved. Her light flickered once, not bright… soft. Her wings folded tighter. She sat up straighter.

“I didn’t think you’d want to talk to them,” she said suddenly.

I looked at her. “I didn’t. But I would’ve, if they tried.”

She nodded slowly. “That’s the difference, isn’t it?”

I tilted my head.

“You wanted to be understood,” she said, voice quiet but heavy. “They wanted to classify you.”

I blinked. “…Yeah.”

She lowered her gaze. “I thought things would change in the upper realms. That after I left, maybe… they’d learn to see the gray instead of clinging to white and black. But if what you’re saying is true…”

She didn’t finish it.

Because we both knew.

It was true.

The silence that followed wasn’t heavy.

It was real. And maybe, just maybe… shared.

For once, I didn’t feel like I had to explain myself. Not to her. Not to any of them. Puriel sat besides me, her expression unreadable but her energy calm… no longer rigid with divine expectations or haunted by some invisible guilt. Just present. Listening.

“I guess,” I said eventually, voice lower now, “I just wanted to believe someone up there still gave a damn.”

Shadow flicked his tail. “Well, someone down here does.”

Buni nodded rapidly. “Multiple someones!”

Rave ruffled his feathers with a proud little trill. “Loyalty has never been exclusive to the holy.”

Red wagged his tail and said with all the sincerity of a good boy ready to throw hands, “We got your back. Even if the sky falls.”

I gave them a tired smile. “Thanks, guys.”

Puriel shifted, her gaze softening as it settled on me again. “You didn’t want a war,” she said. “You wanted… space to be.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s all I wanted. Not a throne. Not some divine or demonic crusade. Just to exist without someone trying to put me in a box labeled ‘Too Dangerous to Let Live.’”

She nodded, slow. Thoughtful.

“And you still want that?”

I paused.

Did I?

After everything… did I still want to try for peace?

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I think I do. I want to hope there’s a version of this life where I get to laugh, and go to class, and annoy Larry, and eat Celia’s over spiced cooking without worrying who’s gonna come through a portal next to smite me for breathing wrong.”