Seeing the Grim Reaper on TV is what took him over the edge. He didn't know how he happened to catch Paruko's broadcast - he never did it on purpose, she just always seemed to be broadcasting - but something in him boiled over as soon as he saw the contenders. The Grim Reaper was one of his crowning achievements- he took the desperate, pathetic child and twisted his heart to his every whim, had him weak with gratitude to a fake friendship, corrupted the sweet boy Wolf and Gao's little gang loved so much. He made Kiri into something awful, jaded and cruel but still so naive, so dependent on the power that would allow him to feel independent. On screen, the Grim Reaper still smirked like he used to, condescending and smug, like he was having the time of his life watching his opponent struggle- and it was so cute when Davide knew he was ultimately the one being controlled, by the dark core and by Disaster and by him, but now it resembled Miserea too much - he actually did have all the power, all the control, and Miserea and the Grim Reaper were so alike but so maddeningly different and watching him be both at once filled Davide with the need to put him in his place. 

So he got himself to Cho-Hodaka, interrogated a weird old man that looked like a cloud, and eventually Miserea came for him - and it pissed him off that he would, that he did so with the face of someone greeting a dear friend, and without thinking he activated Disaster Force and charged at him with Evil Death Scythe. Miserea didn't even look surprised.

And that kind of thing somehow became normal, a routine. Whenever Davide was bored, or agitated, he would call for Miserea and they would duke it out. It wasn't like real buddyfighting- it was violent, and dangerous - even though he could tell Miserea was intentionally holding back with him, sometimes using his water powers to cushion the blows when he'd send Davide flying, he was fighting a god and he was fighting for keeps. Nearly every time it simply consisted of Miserea blocking all of Davide's attacks while barely moving, maybe making some snarky comment to get him off guard before completely overpowering him with one move. Both Davide's ego and body were usually sore by the end of it, but he kept doing it, and at some point he forgot why even as he wondered why Miserea kept humoring him.

"You know, Davide, you can just admit that you're lonely."

Miserea looked down on him from where Davide had fallen on the ground, too beaten down to move anymore. Davide hated the sight of it - him floating, clean and calm and powerful, while he lay defeated and absolutely none of those things.

"I am not lonely, and you're a monster."

It was true- even more than before, Miserea was embracing his Demon Lord status: he was changing, both in appearance and in the way he held himself, no longer hanging onto his manufactured humanity like he once had. He lived in Dungeon World now, and as far as Davide could tell, he was accumulating power- Davide wished he could believe it was going to corrupt him at some point, but somehow he couldn't make himself believe it.

"I may be a monster, but I'm still your friend."

"You are NOT my friend, and you never were! Any pretenses otherwise were just lies so I could use you!"

Miserea just smiled at him, and something in his expression said he wasn't going to believe him, Davide gritting his teeth in frustration as Miserea started to approach him. Davide wished from the depths of his black heart that he had the strength to get up and assault him again, but he'd already forced himself up "one last time" more times than he could handle that day, and he could do nothing but watch as Miserea knelt down beside him.

"Davide, I feel like taking a reward today, for defeating you."

"What could you possibly want from me? You're a god."

"There's one thing I'd like you to give me, that I doubt you'd ever relinquish willingly."

He helped Davide sit up, and then, Davide letting out an exaggerated groan, he forced him into a hug.

Davide would've preferred any kind of pain to this- his body was weak and worn down, desperate for comfort and powerless to resist, but worse was feeling how desperate it was for contact- he wouldn't have been able to refuse even if he had the strength, and knowing that was a fate worse than death. He felt deprived, and disguising, and so so much that he needed this - and maybe that's what Miserea was trying to tell him, that he preferred these all out brawls to card games because at least a kick to the ribs was some sort of physical contact, and he was alone enough that he hiked up these mountains in the middle of nowhere once or twice a week to get his ass kicked by a god.

Miserea's hold was gentle, affection oozing from his touch, and Davide could almost feel the satisfaction under it, hating it even as he pressed himself closer despite the pain.

He let out a cry as Miserea scooped him up, smiling down at him as Davide shot him a panicked look of confusion.

"You can rest in the inn- you can't very well make it home in your condition, and it'll give us a good opportunity to spend time together."

"I didn't ask for your help! Put me down right now, you demon!"

"Now now, I was the victor, after all - what I say, goes."

Kiri gave him a grateful smile, turning back to the cards in front of him. Looking at them, his present emotions fell away, his face turning neutral as the experiences of his past blurred together into something unexpressible.

“I didn’t always erase my memories of who I was. At first, it was enough for me to fool others, to convince them that I was human so that I could live among them.” He went silent for a moment, gaze looking focusedly nowhere as he searched his own mind for the next relevant detail. “Even when I saw myself as different from humans, I enjoyed the time I spent with them- so when those around me began dying off and it became time for me to disappear, I didn’t want to forget those I’d been close to. As I waited for my idenity to be forgotten by records and human memory, I missed them terribly.” His eyes refocused, and he turned to Davide again, the nostalgia of his past erasing the neutrality of his expression. “Having seen me come to the relevation before, I’m sure you can imagine how overjoyed I was to return to humanity and discover that some of my old friends had been reborn for me to meet again.”

Davide flicked an irritated glance away, tapping a foot impatiently. 

“Yeah. I don’t see what any of this has to do with those cards though.”

“I was just getting to that.” Davide glanced back at Kiri, letting the latter’s patient smile soothe his growing boredom. Seeing that he had Davide’s attention, Kiri nodded, expression no longer hazy as he neared his conclusion. “Tell me, if you knew that after someone’s death, they would inevitably return in the next lifetime, what would you do if something befelled those you cared about? Some tragedy scarred them so they’d never be the same, or some event or quarrel meant you’d never see them again.”

“I guess...” Davide smirked, looking back at Kiri with the smug satisfaction of knowing his thought process well. “You’d despiar, because it’d be bound to happen again and again, right?”

“Wrong.” Davide gave a look of suprise, and Miserea gave him a grave smile that began to set him on edge.  “That’s the thought process of someone powerless, helpless to change the course of fate. But what if you had great power- the power of an Omni Lord?” For once, Davide looked clueless, and Kiri turned Ragnarok towards him, reading its flavor text aloud. “A day of demise for all living creatures. Welcome the end of the old, and a new world shall be born.”

Davide raised an eyebrow, gears spinning behind his eyes until he jolted with realization, face frozen in horror. 

“You mean- you slaughtered everyone just because things weren’t going your way?!”

Kiri didn’t even flinch at the accusation, but when he put the cards in his hand back onto the table, the eyes that looked up from them were weighed with a new saddness.

“That’s one way to put it. The lives they’d been born into weren’t happy ones, and I didn’t want to watch them suffer anymore. I thought to hasten their rebirth into an easier time.” He looked at his now empty hands, as if he could still see ages-old blood on his fingertips. “But next time I saw them, I could only think of what I’d done- it became impossible for me to understand that they couldn’t remember my actions as well.”  The regret was palpable in his voice now, and Davide squirmed uncomfortably beside him. “After that, I began erasing my memories- of the lifetimes I’d lived on Earth, and of the power I possessed. Living while thinking myself fully mortal taught me what I was missing- that I hadn’t yet truely understood the value of a human life. I’d been using them for my own enjoyment, didn’t recognise the equal meaning of lives that were hard and lives that were easy.” Kiri went silent, signalling the end of his story. Davide didn’t move, too busy taking in his new knowledge about the Omni Lord, and when Kiri glanced back at Daivide, the latter shifted uneasily under his even stare.  “Davide, do you know why I told you this?”

“Why? I thought you were just bored...” Kiri shook his head, and Davide tensed further, mind racing to find some meaning in the story for himself. “No- there’s definitely no way you told that to me on purpose- you were just caught up in your memories and weren’t thinking about what you were doing!” He ignored Kiri’s patronizing look, becoming more sure of himself as he spoke. “That must’ve been one of your most painful memories- there’s no way you’d give me such an easy weapon against you!”

“Davide.” A single world stopped his defensive rambling, eyes locked onto him for an explanation. “... I told you before that I could love you despite all the wrongs you’ve done because folly was part of humanity, did I not?”

Davide grimaced with disbelief, tension easing from his shoulders as they sagged at his sides.

“You’re kidding me...”

Kiri nodded, a satisfied smile on his face.

“I told you this to demonstrate that I too am imperfect- have even commited atrocities far beyond what any human is capable of.” His expression was warm again, despite the regret still lingering, and the sight of it made Davide’s stomach turn. “It’s because of that that I don’t fault humanity for its sins- can believe there is good in even the most wicked.” He moved in closer, and Davide crawled back, becoming more and more repulsed with himself for humoring him and allowing him to get to this conclusion. “And because I’ve seen even you change across lifetimes, I believe in the potential you have- that this world stubbornly refuses to let go of you because you are part of what makes life precious.”

“Cut it out already! You’re seriously disgusting!” 

Davide got up, and Kiri moved back to the table, starting to put the Dungeon and Legend World cards back into their proper decks. Davide watched him cautiously, until Kiri had them neatened to his satisfaction and looked up at him warmly. 

“So, do you want me to help you make breakfast? You just got up, right?”

“Ugh, that’s right. I can’t believe that you’re so sadistic that you were thinking about murdering people first thing in the morning.”

As if sensing his agony, Miserea approached from the shadows of his home, looking down at his pathetic state from his privelleged levitated height. Davide drowsily wondered why he was decked out in his omni lord gear- even though everyone knew what he was now, he normally preferred to wander about as Kiri, passing as a regular human outside of battles for anyone not caught up on the news. Another bead of sweat rolling down his neck, Davide gave a dry laugh- so he abandoned his humanity when it was inconvientent, did he? 

“What’s so funny?”

“You are. You’re terrible.”

“You’re the one who looks terrible.” He laughed, in that gentle teasing way that drove him nuts, like every other way he could possibly speak. 

“Shut up. I’m working on my tan.” 

Miserea only gave another gentle laugh as he moved closer, finally relinquishing his extra height as his shadow fell across Davide’s vision. 

“I can help, you know.”

At first, he though it was just the extra shade- but in the silence of Miserea’s expectant smile, Davide suddenly realized a thin mist was falling around them.

“... What do you want?”

“You know I don’t like to see others suffering.” 

He knelt down beside him now, moving a hand into Davide’s sweat-soaked hair. His fingers felt refreshingly cold, leaving a cool dampness after them. The heat having sucked away his will to resist, Davide let him do as he pleased, letting out a submissive grunt. 

“...You know, you could’ve just got me a glass of water like a normal person.”

“I thought my abilities would be a bit more convienient.” 

He had moved Davide’s head into his lap, something that, had he the energy to get pissed off, would’ve sent Davide off by now, and now pushed both hands through his hair. Davide wished with all his dark, blackened heart that the feeling of it wasn’t so relaxing, sapping away his pride as he gave into the feeling of the water on Miserea’s skin contrasted with the sun on his own.  One of Miserea’s hands slipped out of his bangs to slide down his face, cupping his cheek before a single, jet black finger brushed his lips. Davide’s eyes, which had been peacefully closed, jolted open as he pushed himself up to look at his buddymonster. 

“What the hell?”

Miserea only smiled, and Davide couldn’t tell if it had been flirting, if he’d been trying to fuck with him, or if he was just seriously weird. It irritated him not to know what he was thinking- ever since he’d gotten his memories back, he’d gotten harder to read, too experienced and complex for him to control. Davide thought about how satisfying it would be to have the omni lord wrapped around his finger- subtly different from now, from getting favors out of a messed up, omnipresent love and some strange obession with using it to reform him. 

“Do you want me to stop?” 

“...Do you get off on making me dependent on your power?”

“You can say no.” 

A stray drop from his damp hair dripped onto his neck, reminding the rest of his skin of the hot summer sun still pounding on it, and Daivde grit his teeth at the feeling of his whole body crying out for Miserea’s cooling touch.  Fuck water powers, fuck omni lords, fuck weird god complexes and looking down on everyone else.