Fate To Fake: Loved by the Fallen; Fated to Kill the Divine-Chapter 71: ...Goodbye... My worthy Leo

Leo, Valra, and Ophis stood together, backs nearly brushing, each breath held with tension. They were surrounded... Envy guarded the front with watchful eyes, while Pride stood tall behind them, reassuring like a towering wall.

Their knuckles turned pale as they gripped their weapons tightly, not daring to blink.

A few meters ahead, Nergal stood, calm and eerily still, watching with a cruel smirk dancing on his lips.

Envy’s eyes darted around restlessly, his pupils flicking left and right as if he were tracking something invisible—something moving faster than the eye could follow, its motion disturbing even the strands of hair in the air.

"We’re surrounded."

Pride muttered under her breath, barely moving her lips.

A sudden whistle—then a spiked flail came hurtling toward them. Pride’s wooden sword flashed up just in time, intercepting it with a jarring clang. The impact sent her boots screeching back across the ground, the force reverberating through her arms.

Meanwhile, Envy was shooting arrow after arrow into the empty air. To the others, he appeared to be shooting at nothing, but Envy wasn’t guessing. His gaze followed something—something too fast, too high, too unpredictable. Still, he aimed, breathing steadily, fingers quick. He was tracking it... hunting it. frёeweɓηovel_coɱ

Until—

"Camazotz...?"

Ophis’s voice cracked, a whisper filled with disbelief and fear.

She caught a fleeting glimpse—dark wings, twisted smile, glowing eyes. Her former champion flew overhead, circling like a predator teasing its prey. In the blink of an eye, he descended, claws slicing toward her throat.

But before the claws could touch her skin—

FWOOOSH!

Valra threw her arm forward, unleashing a roaring blast of flame.

BOOM!

Camazotz screeched, recoiling mid-air, eyes blazing with fury. His sharp teeth bared as he hissed at Valra, then vanished into the forest, leaving only writhing shadows in his wake—black tendrils creeping along the ground like living smoke, slowly slithering toward them.

"They’re coming,"

Leo whispered, sweat sliding down his temple, not sure what these were but sensing from others he knew it was a dangerous one.

Envy’s mouth tightened. There was no time. They couldn’t fight the tendrils and Camazotz and Nergal all at once. He gritted his teeth, glancing at Nergal, who now walked toward them with a wicked grin, closing the distance.

Envy’s eyes flicked upward—Camazotz had taken to the skies again, circling above like a vulture... even though he was a bat.

He raised his bow. An arrow shimmered into existence in his fingers, pulled taut.

He let it fly.

Nergal casually swung his flail to deflect the arrow—only for his eyes to widen as a rope burst from it midair, wrapping around his limbs like a snare.

"Got you," Envy muttered, already preparing the next shot.

With mechanical precision, he released another arrow, this one arcing high toward Camazotz. The tip struck the bat-like beast’s claw—hooking in deep.

Then—

Yank!

Nergal’s body jerked violently as the rope connected them. With a shocked roar, both enemies were pulled together, colliding mid-air and tumbling like tangled beasts into the forest depths.

"SHIT!!"

Nergal’s furious scream echoed as he and Camazotz vanished beneath the trees.

The brief moment of chaos gave them a time to breathe—just a few seconds. Envy turned to Pride,

"I’ll hold back whatever’s left! I can still move—just go! Don’t waste this!"

He fired more arrows, hands blurring as he fought against the relentless shadows.

Pride’s eyes locked onto Envy’s body. Cracks ran along his limbs like fractured porcelain, black mist leaking through the gaps. He was already breaking.

She inhaled deeply and turned to Leo.

"Master," she said, voice low but firm,

"I’m going to pour everything I have into this... all of it. The moment I do it, you run. All of you. Do not look back... Do you understand?"

Leo’s fists clenched. His mouth opened to protest—but he saw the look in her eyes and fell silent. He nodded once. Valra and Ophis did the same.

Pride stepped forward, her feet steady, her hands gripping her wooden sword. Her body began to tremble—not from fear, but from the pressure building within.

Glowing green particles began to rise off her skin, drifting upward like tiny fireflies as the shadows slithered ever closer.

The moment they reached her boots, the earth beneath her feet pulsed.

A brilliant shimmer of emerald light erupted from the ground, spreading out in a circle that vaporised the approaching shadowy tendrils into nothing but ash and motes of dust.

Her eyes snapped open—now glowing pure white, radiant with uncontainable energy.

Her wooden sword pulsed in her grip before it began to shift, transforming in her hands. The grain faded, the texture hardened, until what remained was a long, gleaming blade of pure silver, ethereal and impossibly smooth.

The aura it gave off felt ancient, divine... Holy!

She raised it above her head, her platinum hair flowing freely as if caught in a wind that didn’t exist.

Her lips parted, her voice calm and echoing:

^Golau...

Thud!

She stabbed the blade into the earth. A surge of light exploded outward, cracking the soil in every direction. The tendrils around them shimmered—twitched—then crumbled, vanishing into nothingness as if erased from existence.

Then Pride gripped the sword’s hilt, planting her feet, and with a grunt of power, twisted it in the ground.

...Avalon^

CRACK—

A web of glowing lines fractured the land beneath them. Then—

WHOOM!

A colossal burst of blinding white light erupted like a sun from below, sweeping away every trace of darkness. Leo and the others shielded their eyes, forced to turn away from the brilliance.

When the light finally dimmed... they saw it.

A path.

Stretching out before them was a vast, ethereal road blanketed in shimmering white petals, almost like fresh snow.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of swords were stabbed along either side of the path, their blades radiating soft, divine light.

Each sword stood like a silent guardian, forming a majestic corridor that blocked the shadowy tendrils from entering, holding the darkness at bay with sheer power.

A sacred road that shimmered underfoot, as if it had been blessed by the heavens themselves.

A path worthy of a king.

Thud!

Pride collapsed to the ground, the silver sword fading from her grasp like mist evaporating in sunlight. Her limbs felt unbearably heavy, her strength completely drained. She could barely lift her head, her breath ragged,

"G-Go... NOW!"

She shouted with the last shred of her energy, voice hoarse but filled with command.

Valra hesitated, tears welling up in her eyes. Her feet stayed frozen for a heartbeat too long as she looked one last time at her champion, Envy smiled at her and pointed his finger at Leo to tell him her love...

Then, with a trembling breath, she turned and ran, following the radiant path as the glowing swords guided the way forward like sacred guardians.

Ophis dashed after her without a word.

But Leo... he didn’t move.

"W-What are you doing?" Pride’s voice cracked in confusion as she watched him stride back toward her. Her blurry vision cleared just enough to see him kneel beside her, arms slipping around her broken body and lifting her into his arms.

Leo’s face was stern, his jaw clenched tight,

"I don’t know what happened to Envy... but I’m not leaving you behind," he said, voice low, rough with emotion.

Pride looked up at him... his face, his eyes, his trembling lips. She could feel it—he blamed himself.

After all, it was he who wanted the relic, right?

Her heart softened.

"This is fate, Leo..."

She whispered, a small, bittersweet smile forming on her lips.

"Some things are meant to happen, whether we like it or not..."

As she spoke, her gaze shifted toward Envy—still fighting in the distance, still holding the enemy back with arrow after arrow despite his crumbling form.

Pride’s eyes dropped lower—to her own foot.

Her ankle.

A dark, sticky blackness had spread across the skin.

It had started when those cursed chains had caught her. She hadn’t noticed before, but now it pulsed, affecting her mind.

She knew her time was ending.

And yet, in that moment, all she saw was Leo’s tired face. The exhaustion under his eyes. The way he still held her like she mattered more than his own safety.

Everything slowed.

The chaos, the shadows, the wind—it all faded for just a heartbeat.

Only him.

Why was he trying so hard?

She was just a champion... a tool for him yet...

"Don’t worry," Leo murmured, tightening his hold on her. "I’ll get you out of here. We’ll be fine—"

SSSSHHHH!!

A sudden, sharp whistle pierced the silence.

Pride’s eyes widened as her instincts screamed. A massive black spiked flail hurtled toward them from above, spinning with deadly momentum.

In a fraction of a second, she acted.

Her body twisted sharply out of his arms. With a grunt, she shoved Leo forward with all the strength she could muster, forcing him onto the path.

Leo gasped, stumbling, turning back just in time to see—

Her smile.

The last one she gave him.

Time stopped.

In that fleeting second, Pride remembered. A young man thrown into chaos, scarred by battles he never asked for. A boy who faced horrors with nothing but grit and hope. One who still stepped forward—again and again—shouldering pain, fighting for strangers, loving without restraint.

Was he worthy?

She didn’t know.

But to her... he was everything.

"...Goodbye... My worthy Leo."

The massive flail crashed down.

BOOOOMMM!!!

The ground split with an earth-shaking roar, the path shattering beneath the impact. Light scattered in all directions as debris flew like shards of glass.

"NOOOOOOO!!"

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