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

"… Here?"

Azrael muttered with a surprised expression as she stood on the bridge, looking at a humongous crater!

Her breath caught, eyes wide as the cool night wind brushed past her cheeks.

A gorgeous place, especially at night....one of those scenes that felt pulled from a dream, impossible to forget. Stars glittered overhead, scattered across a velvet sky. Below, the huge, deep black crater.

The big white moon had risen high, painting the world in silver, its light pouring over the rim and reflecting on the slick stones. That glow washed across the entire crater, shimmering and wavering as if the earth itself breathed.

The sight was utterly mesmerising, both beautiful and a little haunting.

Essa nodded as she looked at the orb in her hand.

She raised her hand and pointed toward the crater, "This is where it leads."

Raphael glanced at Leo with a slightly worried expression, "Are you alright?" she asked.

She remembered—this was the place Leo came with his parents all the time.

Leo, who was blankly staring at the crater, turned before saying, "Yeah… I am fine."

Azrael gave a quick glance at Leo before turning to Essa.

Her tone shifted as she asked with a serious face, "Are you sure this is the place? I mean, it could be anywhere else, right? Not here particularly? There's nothing here except emptiness and shadows."

Essa shook her head under the hoodie, lips set. "I am sure this is where it leads," she repeated. Her words rang clear, but she frowned, glancing up at Azrael,

"Why do you think it's not here?"

Azrael gave her a small smile, "I mean, it's just a plain surface, right?" She tried to laugh it off.

"I see it," Ophis, who was standing over the edge of the rail, said suddenly.

Her eyes narrowed, pupils brightening as she stared into the depths. "There—a blue light, flickering, in the middle of the deep crater."

Everyone looked at each other before nodding.

"This is it, everyone…" Leo said with a serious face. "Once we enter the stage, there's no turning back… So…" He looked at each of them, seeing their resolve.

Each one gripped their weapon tightly.

READY!

Leo took a breath before nodding, "Well then… Let's do it," he said quietly. Essa's fingers tightened around his wrist and Raphael's shoulder as she moved. Without hesitation, she leapt from the bridge, taking them both with her.

Ophis reached for Azrael, and together, they followed, jumping into the abyss below.

Thud!

Thud!

They landed hard on the cracked ground.

As soon as they hit, Leo's heart tightened, pain and dread flaring for a moment—"Hmm," he hummed with a frown, before everything settled into uneasy silence.

"Let's keep going," he said as he started to walk, his boots scraping against the broken, scorched surface.

Others followed him, their footsteps cautious. Every sense was tuned for danger—after all, this was the kind of place where things hid in shadow, where an attack could come at any moment.

This was crucial; hesitation could mean death.

Their boots scraped and crunched on the scorched stones and ground as they walked quietly.

The surrounding silence was so deep, it felt as if the world itself was holding its breath, unwilling to disturb the stillness. Not even the faintest breeze moved.

Everything seemed to be holding its breath.

Like, literally.

As they walked near the centre, they reached the edge of the ground, where a sudden curved slope fell away beneath their boots.

Instinctively, they halted, movement freezing all at once, and everyone lined up along the rim. Their breath caught in their chests as they saw—below, resting in the hollow darkness…

The Arcanum Eidolon!

A Wish-Granting Relic.

But it didn't bloom like before. The black, stony surface was closed tight, like a monstrous flower refusing to open to the night. Only a faint wisp of blue energy flickered from its topmost cone, swirling upward in the moonlight.

"T-This is it? The Wish-Granting Relic? The thing everyone's fighting for?" Raphael asked.

Leo and Ophis nodded, though their faces were grim, frowning as they studied the relic from above."Why is it closed?" Leo asked.

Ophis shook her head, "Not sure… Maybe it's not time yet?"

"What? What's going on here?" Raphael pressed, turning to Leo and then Essa, her confusion growing, "If we're here first, then we won, right? Doesn't that mean it's ours? Please tell me this is over."

Essa shook her head, eyes never leaving the closed relic.

"That's not how it works. Sure, the first to capture it should be the winner—but before that, the Relic is supposed to bloom. The challenge isn't just in getting here."

"That means…?" Raphael's voice was lost.

Essa took a deep breath, about to explain, when Azrael cut in, her voice cold and clear as glass."It's waiting."

Essa shot her a sharp glance.

"W-Waiting? For what? For whom? I don't get it." Raphael's words tumbled out, desperate, confused, lost all at once.

"Just go and take it… We could finish this without bloodshed!" Her voice rose, nearly shouting, as she stepped forward, ready to enter the slope and rush the relic, when—

Thuck!

A small pebble rolled down from the opposite side, bouncing across the rocks and stopping at the relic.

The group flinched, heads jerking up to scan the far opposite edge—and saw them.

The Fallens had arrived!

Dread slammed into them like a wave.

Leo's hand shot to the sword on his back, grip tightening until his knuckles blanched.

He stared down the approaching figures: Fallen Pride with her stone-cold eyes, Fallen Nergal standing silent, Fallen Camazotz twitching with hungry anticipation, and... Dracula, closing the heavy book he'd been reading, blue shimmering particles fading as the cover snapped shut before disappearing.

A wicked grin split Dracula's face as he looked them over, gaze lingering on Ophis. "Look what we've got here," he purred, his eyes glowing with a deadly, monstrous light as they locked on his daughter.

"Indeed… a competition, it seems." Fallen Camazotz's grin twitched. His body twitched in anticipation, as if he could taste the fear drifting from Raphael—her terror was a perfume to him.

Raphael gulped, both hands shaking as she gripped her gun. Leo stepped closer, "Don't let the fear control you. Remember our training… and our plan. This is what we came for."

Everyone took a deep breath, grounding themselves as they raised their weapons.

But then, a cold voice cut through the confidence.

"This place was never meant for you, mortal." Fallen Pride said.

Leo flinched as the Fallen's eyes narrowed,

"Once again, you haven't learned your lesson."

Leo gritted his teeth as he shouted, "Don't you dare look down at us…" He inhaled sharply, voice trembling with anger, "This time… you are the one who's going to learn the lesson!"

Fallen Pride raised her eyebrows in mild surprise, a flicker of interest breaking through her cold mask. "Hmm…" Her lips curled in a sly,

"You've finally made your decision," she said, her tone almost amused.

Leo clenched his fist, refusing to break eye contact.

Fallen Pride grinned even wider, her eyes shining with cruel delight.

"Good. Now you're looking at ME,"

She taunted, raising her fingers with a deliberate slowness and,

SNAP.

The snapped sound echoed in the huge crater, sharp as a whip crack.

Everyone flinched, instinctively drawing closer as a wave of cold dread swept over them. They looked at each other, faces drawn tight with fear, as they felt a sudden shift in the air—a ripple of something wrong moving in the darkness all around.

But nothing was visible.

Crack!

"SHIT!!" Azrael shouted, voice ringing out as she caught sight of it.

Everyone turned to the source.... From the deep black, a sticky figure oozed into view—its surface glistening, a black, viscous shape that barely resembled a human.

It moaned and screamed in a voice that was almost too distorted to be real, as if it suffered every moment of its existence. The thing dragged itself forward, limbs writhing, as if the darkness itself spat it out.

"What the fuck is that?!!" Azrael shouted, not waiting for an answer. She raised her gun and fired without hesitation, finger squeezing the trigger again and again.

Sluckk!

The bullet didn't pierce so much as explode the head of the sticky figure, sending a burst of black liquid splattering across the ground. The fluid was thick, dripping like tar, filling the air with a pungent, nauseating stench that stung their noses.

Just when they thought it was over—another one lurched from the darkness, then another, and another, multiplying with every blink, each one dragging itself out, their moans rising to a wailing chorus.

Essa's eyes glowed, fury flashing as she turned and glared at Fallen Pride.

"You wicked monster!" she spat, voice trembling with fear and hatred.

Fallen Pride just stared at them blankly, her face utterly indifferent, like a queen watching insects.

"Survive, if you can... perhaps you will be worthy to meet me again," She said with a cold and emotionless tone. Without a backward glance, she leapt down the slope.

The other Fallens glanced at Leo's group. As much as they might have wanted to fight, they knew Fallen Pride hadn't given the order, and so, reluctantly, they followed her one by one.

Dracula paused, giving his daughter a look that was half pity, half twisted affection. "Don't die on me, dear~" he murmured.

Now Leo and his group stood entirely surrounded by the black sticky figures... monsters that moaned and screamed, pressing closer with every heartbeat.

"W-What is going on here?" Raphael shouted, panic tearing through her as she fired her gun wildly, bullets ripping into the sticky bodies.

Essa spoke with a cautious, "They somehow managed to turn the people into—"

"Fallens?" Leo finished.

Essa nodded grimly.

"But I thought their source was cut. I thought they didn't have the energy to do this?" Azrael yelled, still shooting as fast as she could, emptying one clip after another into the horde.

Essa sighed, frustration and fear mixing in her eyes. "Maybe the mana crystal gave them enough power, or something… I don't know." She shook her head in confusion and disbelief.

The situation had spiraled out of their control—fast.

Now… their plan was slightly, disastrously messed up.

Meanwhile, standing on the edge of the bridge where Leo and his group once stood, a tall, enigmatic figure waited beneath the lonely moon.

His silhouette was long and imposing, draped in a dark coat that caught the restless night air. The brim of his oversized hat concealed his face, casting him in a deeper shadow than the night itself.

No one could have said whether he was watching the crater or something far beyond it.

For a while, he did not move. Then, the quiet was broken as a man in a police uniform approached.

The officer, the very same man Leo had glimpsed once before.

He drew a slow breath and lit a cigarette, the orange tip briefly illuminating the tired lines of his face. He exhaled, sending smoke curling toward the sky as he spoke,

"This is it?"

The man in the hat nodded, gaze fixed on the crater's silent maw.

"But… expect the one is missing—" He stopped abruptly.

A sudden golden flash streaked across the sky.

Both men looked up... A burning yellow shape, trailing fragments of fire.

It cut through the darkness like a meteorite flung straight for the crater's heart.

The man with the hat smiled faintly, "Guess everything's falling into place," he murmured, so quietly that even the wind strained to catch it.

He turned, cloak swirling. Then, more loudly,

"Secure the parameters. No one comes near this area until the sun rises. And… inform the President.... And Eden. No mistakes."

The police officer frowned, unease twisting his mouth. He tried to hide his nervousness, but his hands tightened around his radio.

"Where are you going?" he asked, wary.

The hat man only offered a brief, cryptic smile, "To prepare for what's coming next."

"But the war hasn't even begun, and we don't know the end result. Why the urgency? What's really going to happen? Why must I warn the President and Eden?" The officer's words tumbled out.

The figure halted, as if weighing whether to answer, then looked up at the vast sky. When he spoke again, his tone was sombre, almost mournful.

"No. It began eighteen years ago. And… Fate had already decided its end.

None of us can escape that now."

Suddenly, a violent wind rose, swirling dust and loose papers, shrieking through the emptiness. The officer flinched, covering his face. He blinked hard—and the man in the hat was simply gone, leaving not a single trace. It was as if the wind itself had swallowed him, or as if he'd never been there at all.

Only a whisper remained, echoing across the bridge, so soft it could have been his imagination... or a warning meant for the world.

"The New Era shall rise."