(A/N):
Drop a meme here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.
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Even as the blade carved fresh lines of torment into his bound body,
The fake Death's green eyes did not dim—
They burned hotter with every cut.
"____"
His voice rasped, broken by the hours of screaming,
Yet his hatred only deepened.
"How… long has it been?"
He croaked, though no true sense of time existed in this void.
He had lost count—
Minutes, hours, or days, it no longer mattered.
What remained was the fire of his hatred.
His head jerked up,
Hood barely clinging to the ruined shadow of his form.
In a guttural snarl, he rasped.
"Tell me your name, boy. The name of the one who dares… who dares… torment Death itself!"
For the first time,
Leo paused mid-strike.
"____"
His grip on the obsidian knife loosened slightly,
A faint smirk tugging at his lips.
Smirk~
He realized he had forgotten one of the simplest courtesies—
Introducing himself.
He tilted his head, chuckling low in his throat.
Chuckle~
"How rude of me,"
Leo said mockingly, stepping closer so the chained figure could see the gleam in his patterned eyes.
"Blame yourself—you came crawling out of your hole, threw your weight around, and attacked me before we could even talk properly."
With a cruel flourish,
Leo stabbed the blade once more into the creature's shoulder,
Twisting slowly before leaning down to whisper in his ear:
"My name… is Leo Morningstar."
The name echoed through the void, sharp and resonant.
The fake Death froze.
"____"
His emerald eyes widened,
Then narrowed with venom.
His aura flared violently against the restraints, sparks of black-green light spitting into the void.
"Morningstar…"
He hissed, every syllable laced with rancor.
Then, his voice rose into a roar that shook the endless black.
"MORNINGSTAR! YOU THINK A MORTAL NAME WILL SAVE YOU!? I WILL TEAR THAT NAME FROM THE ROOTS OF EXISTENCE! I WILL DRAG YOUR SOUL ACROSS EVERY PLANE OF SUFFERING UNTIL NOTHING IS LEFT BUT SCREAMS!"
His body thrashed against the nails pinning him, chains rattling with each violent spasm.
Hatred distorted his voice until it sounded less human, more abyssal—
An echo from something ancient and corrupted.
He spat the words like a curse, his rage boiling over.
"You may bleed me here, you may laugh now, but in the end—you are flesh, you are mortal! And I… I AM THE GOD OF DEATH!"
The void itself seemed to tremble at his declaration.
Hahaha~
Leo's laugh rolled out, loud and clear—
More shock than cruelty—
Echoing in the negative void until even the chains seemed to shiver.
He let it hang there a moment, watching the bound thing writhe and howl beneath the nails.
When the fake Death begged—
Hoarse, furious, trembling—
"Release me. Fight me like a man. End this fairly,"
Leo actually went still.
"____"
The look that passed over his face was a weird mix of incredulity and mild annoyance,
As if someone had asked him to play marbles with a mountain.
'Is this for real?'
He thought, incredulous.
The creature before him, wrapped in the stolen trappings of inevitability, wanted honor now—
Wanted rules—
Now that the noose had been pulled tight and the tables had turned.
Leo straightened, the knife tucked against his palm.
He studied the bound figure for a long breath, then spoke slowly, deliberately.
"You want fair?"
He said. His voice was soft but every syllable cut.
"You, who wore a god's name and spat on the lives you took. You drained and cheated and lied until death was a costume you put on when convenient."
The fake Death's green eyes burned, swallowing the pain with a flicker of savage pride.
Gulp~
"I—"
He rasped.
"I will not bow to you—"
Leo's smile went cold and patient.
"Then listen carefully."
He stepped back and, with a motion that was almost casual,
Let the realm around them settle.
The obsidian cross glowed once, then dimmed.
The nails stayed.
The chains tightened a fraction.
Leo's patterned eyes never left the prisoner.
"If I release you—if I hand you your body and your wand—you will have one chance. One proper duel in the living world. No domain tricks. No borrowed titles. No puppets. Just you, me, and the rules of men and magic."
He let the offer hang out like bait.
"Lose, and you vanish. Permanently. Win… and I'll burn what I must—give you whatever mercy the world can stomach."
Rage contorted the creature's face.
Pride warred with pain.
For a long, brittle heartbeat, he refused to speak.
"____"
"____"
"____"
Then, voice raw and proud, he spat,
"You would let me go? You would trust—"
"Not trust,"
Leo cut in.
"Control. Terms. And a witness."
He nodded once toward the faint shiver in the void—
The system's presence, the invisible laws Leo could call down at a thought.
"You beg for a fair fight because you think fairness will save you. It won't. But if you insist on dying by your own hand rather than by a trick, I'll grant you that vanity."
The fake Death's laugh was a broken thing.
HAHA~
"Vanity,"
He croaked.
"Very well, Morningstar. I accept. A duel—like you asked. Like a man."
Leo's smirk returned, small and severe.
Smirk~
"Good. Then I'll see you in the world that matters."
He turned away and, without another word,
Gathered the edges of the negative realm like a curtain.
The nails didn't slide out; the cross didn't crumble—
Leo was not done yet—
But the bindings loosened just enough for the transfer to be possible under his rules.
The bargain had been struck.
A release, a duel in the living world, and a promise that the world would watch.
As the void unspooled,
Leo's last look back was quiet—
Half pity, half warning.
"Prepare yourself,"
He said.
"Because when you face me as a man, you'll find out what real death looks like."
And with that, the negative world folded,
The obsidian cross shrinking into shadow.
Being freed, the fake Death sneered,
Sneer~
"____"
His bony fingers twitching as though ready to strike.
But before he could launch an attack,
Leo raised a single hand, his voice calm yet commanding.
"Before you make your move—tell me, who are you really? What's your true name?"
The words hung in the air like a spell of their own, forcing the fake Death into silence.
"____"
His frame stiffened.
For the first time since their clash began, hesitation flickered through him.
But he gave no answer.
Instead, with deliberate slowness,
He lifted his hand toward the hood that concealed his face.
The fabric rustled faintly, and then—
The hood fell back.
A hollow visage emerged, grotesque and unnatural.
His face looked like a bleached skull, empty eye sockets glowing faintly.
A sickly green mist seeped out from the cracks of his skeletal features,
Curling and coiling into the air.
With a sudden burst of emerald smoke,
The full face became visible—
Half-bone, half-decayed flesh—
Like a corpse caught between life and death.
The silence deepened, oppressive and heavy.
"____"
Leo's eyes narrowed, but a smirk tugged at his lips.
Smirk~
"So… that's your true face."
Leo squinted at the half-formed face before him,
Smoke and rot spilling like some failed mask of divinity.
He tilted his head, unimpressed.
"I asked for your name,"
Leo said dryly,
"not a dramatic stage performance. What's with all this smoke and bone theatrics?"
The fake Death froze for a moment, his skeletal jaw twitching.
"____"
Hatred flared in those hollow sockets,
But then—
Slowly—
A crooked, self-satisfied grin stretched across his face.
"You dare mock me?"
He rasped, his voice echoing unnaturally.
"I am not merely a man to be named and forgotten. I carry a title etched in the very bones of magic itself. I replaced gods in the lives of wizards. I became their beacon, their savior, their legend!"
He spread his arms wide,
As though demanding the heavens themselves to acknowledge him.
The poisonous green mist flared brighter, swirling around like a crown.
"My true name…"
His voice boomed now, swelling with pride.
"Is Myrddin Emrys—the Welsh call me so. In time, when I ascended to my peak as a mortal, the world knew me by another name."
His grin widened, sharp as a knife.
Grin~
"Merlin Ambrosius."
The declaration cracked like thunder,
Carrying the same arrogance as a god demanding worship.
His expression mirrored Loki's infamous sneer,
As if daring Leo to kneel before him.
For the first time since this twisted exchange began,
Leo's smirk faltered and he looked at the fake death in little shock.
"Myrddin… Emrys?"
He repeated slowly, the name heavy on his tongue.
Then louder, as if testing reality itself.
"Merlin Ambrosius."
The weight of that name seemed to ripple through the air.
Even Leo, who had walked among monsters, yokais and wizards.
He never expected the revelation will take such a turn.
In the wizarding world,
Merlin's name was no mere relic—
It was worship, it was myth.
Children grew up hearing of him as Muggles spoke of Jesus or Mary,
And even now wizards swore by his name in moments of awe or terror.
Leo's eyes narrowed.
Frown~
'So this is what's hiding behind the mask of death itself…'
The fake Death—
Merlin—
"____"
Grin~
Basked in the silence that followed,
His skeletal grin widening as if feeding on Leo's surprise.
"You see it now, don't you?"
Merlin rasped triumphantly, his voice echoing like a chorus of graves.
"Even you, Morningstar, cannot ignore the truth. I was the god in their eyes long before you ever drew breath. They cursed by my name, they prayed by my name, they feared by my name!"
The green smoke coiled higher,
Forming phantom shapes of kneeling wizards,
Of kingdoms bowing,
Of his legend carved into the marrow of history.
Leo exhaled sharply,
Shaking his head in disbelief.
"So it's true,"
He muttered.
"The same Merlin every wizard still reveres like some forgotten god…"
His gaze hardened again, his smirk slowly returning.
Smirk~
"Guess that makes this even more fun."
Leo tilted his head,
Studying Merlin as though he were some pitiful relic in a museum rather than the so-called god of wizards.
A cold laugh spilled from his lips.
Pfft~
Hahaha~
"So this is the great Merlin?"
Leo sneered.
"The so-called god of magic, the name that children whisper like it's divine? I expected… I don't know… something more than a half-rotted skull hiding under a hood."
Merlin's grin stiffened,
"____"
But Leo pressed on, his voice laced with cruel amusement.
"You declare yourself the one who replaced gods in their lives, and yet—look at you. A shadow clinging to old glory, reduced to pretending you're Death itself just to be feared again."
He stepped closer, his eyes gleaming with that strange, otherworldly pattern.
"Tell me, Merlin… how does it feel? To know that after centuries of being worshipped, you've ended up here, nothing more than a cheap bogeyman scaring children? They may revere your name—but you? You're just a ghost of what you once were. A legend rotting in his own pride."
Merlin's skeletal features twitched, his aura flaring with barely contained rage.
"____"
Leo chuckled darkly.
Chuckle~
"From the so-called god of magic to a beggar in a mask. Honestly? You should've stayed dead."
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(Author's POV)
(A/N)I hope you guys are enjoying the story.
Thanks for reading the chapter!
Please give a review
And power stone!!!
It will Motivate Me.