Fate To Fake: Loved by the Fallen; Fated to Kill the Divine

What stood before Leo was… another Leo.

The same build, The same hair, The same face....

But this one's expression was wrong. His skin twitched, his lips quivered, and his eyes drowned in sadness.

There was a strange, cold gloom clinging to him, as if something had been torn violently out of his life and left nothing but an empty shell behind.

The real Leo's throat tightened.

A sharp breath caught in his chest as his body instinctively crawled backwards, his hands scrambling for distance.

"W-Who… who are you?" he asked.

His palms pressed against the ground, and an unexpected sting ripped across his skin when the sharp grasses grazed his skin.

"Ah—!"

Leo hissed, flinching as he lifted his hands to see red lines across his palms.

The other Leo slowly crouched, lowering himself until his shadow stretched over the real Leo's trembling form. His voice came out hoarse, almost brittle, each word breaking as if pulled from a wounded throat.

"You… took… everything."

Those words were enough for Leo to flinch in utter fear.

"I…" Leo's back dug into the ground as he pushed himself away, ignoring the stinging in his hands. His eyes flicked between the figure's face and those lifeless, broken eyes that seemed to see straight through him.

The other Leo stepped forward with deliberate slowness. His gaze didn't waver, didn't blink.

"Look at you," the figure said, tilting his head ever so slightly, "smiling… living… enjoying it all. Tell me… how is it?"

Leo swallowed hard, his throat feeling as if it were closing in on itself. "W-What?"

A faint, humourless chuckle escaped the other.

"Oh, please… Don't act like you forgot. I know. I knew.... And I still know. What are you feeling right now, hmm? So-called Leo?"

The figure inched closer, his face lowering until their eyes were nearly level.

Leo's breath hardened as he looked at the other Leo, whose eyes were breaking apart as if something inside was truly broken.

"I… I just lost my parents," the other Leo said, his tone shifting,

"I couldn't even understand the pain… or the suffering. The only comfort I had was knowing my aunt was still there for me." He took another creeping step forward, fog curling between them.

"She was the only family I had left. And with the future I dreamed of… with my two girlfriends… I thought… I thought I could finally live a happy life."

Tears slid down his cheeks, not quickly, but slowly, dragging over pale skin as if reluctant to leave. His lips trembled, his gaze drifting upward toward a sky that couldn't be seen through the dense, ghostly fog.

"But…"

The single word fell like a drop of cold water down Leo's spine.

When the other Leo's gaze returned to him, all warmth had vanished. His tone was empty.

"You stole everything from me."

Leo's head jerked back slightly. "N-No, I-I didn't—"

"Don't lie to me, Leo," the other snapped, stepping so close their breaths almost mixed, "Don't you dare lie."

"You were thrown away by your birth parents like you were nothing. An orphan. A label stamped onto your life from the moment you opened your eyes. Beaten down, bullied, humiliated, rejected over and over again… all because you didn't belong anywhere. Ahaha…" His laugh was hollow, jagged.

"How laughable, isn't it?"

Leo's breathing turned ragged. It was like watching a reflection come alive, but this reflection knew every scar under his skin.

"P-Please… stop…"

But the other only grinned... a grin that didn't reach the eyes.

"Tell me, when you took my body… how did it feel? Living inside someone else's flesh… was it thrilling?"

"I-I don't know… I didn't fe—"

"Lies!" His head tilted again, unnervingly slow, his grin widening,

"I know how you felt.

Relieved."

"N-No…"

"Happy."

"N-No… please…"

The shadowed face came within inches of his own.

"And… cared~"

"NNOOO!!"

Leo's scream tore through the fog as he grabbed a handful of damp sand and flung it toward the figure—

But it hit nothing.

He blinked rapidly, searching. "W-Where did he go?" His voice was a hoarse whisper, trembling on the edge of breaking. His eyes darted in every direction, but only the endless white fog surrounded him.

There was nothing else.

Leo staggered to his feet, stumbling once before forcing his legs to move... Then he ran.

He didn't care where—he just needed to get away.

From that place... From that voice and... From himself!

"Haha… how long will you keep running?"

The voice came again, rolling in from all sides, impossible to pinpoint.

It was his own voice, twisted, hollow, mocking.

"Keep running… just like you always do. Take what isn't yours… and run as if you've done something great!"

Leo clenched his fists, but instead of answering, he just kept running. His breath tore out of him in ragged bursts, his legs burning, his mind screaming for him to get away.

"Oh, oh, oh~" The voice followed, cruel and teasing, slipping between the trees and into his ears.

"How was it… when you kissed my girlfriend? Did you savour it? Did you enjoy every second?"

"S-Stop!"

Leo's voice cracked as he pushed his legs to move faster, pounding the ground as if speed alone could outrun the words.

The voice was right behind him now, wrapping around him like smoke.

"Loved by my junior… that sweet, innocent girl? You took advantage of her? How pathetic… getting horny over another man's girlfriend.

Was it exciting, Leo? Was it thrilling to steal what wasn't yours?"

"S-Stop it!"

"Stop? Why, man? You didn't stop when you were stealing, did you? You act like some grand Robin Hood… but deep down, you know the truth. You're not saving anyone—you're just trying to ease the guilt that's rotting you from the inside."

"Stop!!"

"Do you think you'll be forgiven for the things you've done?"

"Stop!!"

"Do you think your pathetic offerings make your actions justified?"

"STOP!!!"

"HAHAHA… DO YOU REALLY THINK THEY WILL LOVE YOU?!!!"

"I SAID STOP IT!!!"

Leo's eyes burned red, veins swelling across his temples. His scream ripped out of his throat with all the force of his lungs.

He skidded to a halt, spinning in place, glaring wildly into the fog as if the voice might take shape before him.

"Haha… got angry already? Haha… fucker! AHAHAHA!"

The laughter swirled around him, high and low, near and far, like a thousand mouths laughing into his skull.

Leo's fists shook, the veins on his forehead bulging as his breath came hot and fast.

"Come on, face me, you bastard!" he roared, slamming a fist into his own chest in a rage that boiled over.

And then… silence.

A sudden, crushing silence.

Even the fog stopped curling, hanging motionless in the air. It was the kind of quiet that made your own heartbeat sound deafening.

And then… a soft, mocking whisper.

"Tell me… how does it feel… to be loved by my aunt… after stealing her too?"

Leo froze—then snapped.

Inhale~

He inhaled sharply. His eyes went wide, his nostrils flared, and his chest swelled as something deep and primal roared inside him.

BOOM!

His palm slammed into the ground with bone-cracking force, a shockwave blasting outward. The fog exploded away from him in all directions, scattering like torn fabric.

The earth beneath him cracked into jagged spiderweb lines!!

Leo's voice came low, furious, steady. "Face me… coward."

As the mist peeled back, the forest appeared around him... torn and broken, the ground littered with splintered wood as if a battle had already torn through this place.

"Thank god you snapped out of the illusion"

The familiar voice made him flinch. He turned and saw a cloaked figure standing sideways to him, her blade raised mid-swing—tearing through the trunk of a tree that… was moving?

Leo's eyes went wide.

The damn tree was alive!!

Roots ripped themselves from the earth, snapping forward like striking snakes.

One root lashed toward the cloaked figure, but she moved with unnerving elegance, stepping aside so smoothly it was as if she'd known the attack was coming. Another branch whipped toward her, its leaves shooting off like sharpened darts, but her weird, curved, rusted blade sliced through them with ease.

Before Leo could even process that, the ground behind the cloaked figure erupted—another tree rising unnaturally fast, its roots twisting toward her back like drills.

"WATCH OUT!!" he shouted without thinking.

She didn't turn. She simply tilted her body in a fluid motion, the roots barely missing her.

"You should worry about yourself first," she called back.

Leo blinked.

"Me?"

Then he noticed... Something was wrong with his vision. Everything felt… sideways.

Slowly, he looked down.

Half of his body was gone—swallowed up to the waist in the thick, splintered trunk of a tree. The bark pulsed and shifted around him like flesh, pulling him deeper into its wooden maw.

It was eating him.

"OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!"