They made a pact that would assure them uninterrupted self-actualization, riches, and power. That deal was supposedly inviolable.
Now, they’re seeing that the position they hold is tenuous at best. They know that if they are exposed for what they’ve done, they will be torn limb from limb, metaphorically or in actuality. They are realizing that they bought a lie, and whatever advantages have been made available to them now rest on unstable foundations. Truth is something they cannot face, because with Truth comes Judgment, both temporal and eternal.
It will not end well for any of them. But, like the rats they are, they will scurry and hide and fight and eat each other.