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After Hunter and Luz disappeared, Belos smiled to himself, feeling satisfied that he had achieved one of his goals.
"Well, those kids were pretty easy to fool, don't you think so?" , Belos mentioned as he waved a single finger, forming a circle in the air with it.
From the ground emerged the real Philip Wittebane, coughing, gasping for air, as if for a time he had been unable to breathe; he looked around in confusion.
When he noticed Belos, all the bewilderment vanished.
His expression turned into hatred, anger and pain were also visible on his face; Philip didn't say a word to his supposed counterpart, dedicating himself to looking and conveying all his contempt with a look.
"Why so quiet?" asks Belos, quite confused by the lack of voice coming from the original owner.
Philip just watched, refusing to speak; but Belos has been existing for a long time within the mental space, he knows how to make speak and provoke a reaction in the clinging and foolish human.
"I met your cute nephew and the human; silly children, meddling where they shouldn't…" Belos had his back turned, but watched over his shoulder, seeing the horror on Philip's face.
"I told the brats some things, and now they think I'm an evil tyrant ready to kill everyone…" he sounded quite proud that he managed to plant such an idea in the children.
"Oh, yes, of course they will believe you..." , Philip replies with his voice full of sarcasm and bitterness, because there was no way that such intelligent children would believe such nonsense.
They weren't him...
Belos held out a hand, gesturing for Philip to look around; he doesn't want to, but Philip ends up watching, taking in the terrifying, gaunt mindscape.
The images on the dead logs are representing a terrible story, Philip turns his attention to a corridor full of golden masks, all of them destroyed; the human pales before the horribleness of the scene.
Philip turns to see Belos, with utter contempt, "You're a liar!" Philip yells angrily, his eyes burning a brilliant bluish hue.
This bloody bastard made the kids think he was a killer; Belos smiled, the human idiot having realized the heavy repercussions of Hunter and Luz believing such a hoax.
"They will find out the truth!" , because there is no way they would believe such nonsense coming from this idiot.
This impostor takes on the appearance of a child, only to laugh in a horrible and evil way; this greatly annoys Philip, who pales even more, Belos is an entity that has the audacity to impersonate him.
"I'm an innocent and sweet boy, I'll help you with everything you need..." Belos was laughing at the naivety of Luz and Hunter, who have believed his series of lies.
Philip is disturbed by the bastard's ability to mimic his appearance.
The boy bumps and jumps around Philip, spinning around, keeping a nice smile.
"They won't believe in the possibility that there is something good in you, I am a bad person after all…" the boy peeks out from behind Philip, smiling so innocently that it seemed to be true.
The boy's smile turned crooked, "Isn't that right, Philip Wittebane?" he asked, as his eyes glowed red.
Philip's eyes were open, horror consuming him...
The boy looking back at him was terrifying, it was seeing himself speaking in the third person, saying those things as if it were the absolute truth.
Belos smiled and took on a different form.
In front of Philip, a replica of what it was supposed to look like on the physical plane appeared.
Philip has been a prisoner of the mental landscape for a long time, he was unaware of what he looks like in the real world, his mental form has not changed since he was young, naive and apparently stupid enough to fall for the tricks of this entity.
Philip only knows his physical appearance, precisely because of this entity that supplants his place.
The entity explains to Philip what he has talked about with the children, the false lies he has told, false facts, unspoken truths; he lets out a laugh at how he has ended up scaring the kids.
All this is said with a mocking smile.
This angers Philip, but what angers Philip most are the words the entity said to Hunter.
"You miserable bastard!" , his scream is brutal, full of hate to the point that his voice breaks, it hurts to scream, but he doesn't care, he just wants to kill this asshole.
"How can you say that to my nephew?" , he yells in rage, twisting, trying to escape the magic grip and land a blow to the fucking bastard's face.
"No…" , the shape-shifter gives him a terrible smile, looking terrifying and sinister, a hand grabs Philip's face tightly, forcing him to look at the reddish eyes full of evil and sinister happiness.
"How could 'you' tell him that?" , this impostor uses Philip's appearance, impersonates him, uses his voice, his image, and to his own misfortune, everyone else falls for the deception.
This entity abruptly releases Philip's face, who is horrified with the information that has been delivered to him; even if Philip didn't want to, Hunter has kept that idea in his head, believing Belos' deceptions.
"You are no longer of use to me, I will let you go..." , with one finger, Belos forms a circle in the air.
Philip falls to the ground as the magic holding him fades, the impostor turns his back on him and walks away with a smile.
"After all, there is nothing you can do now..." , the voice pours out a sinister happiness, the being is satisfied with his actions.
Philip just screams in pain, no one present to hear him cry; he holds his own head, burying his fingers in his hair, trying to bear it, but it's impossible.
Because he knew it was true...
Of all the lies told by Belos, these words weren't a hoax, for there was no chance that anyone would believe him.
Meanwhile, the dark environment that had been surrounding them regained a brighter appearance.
The trees took on a leafy appearance, false memories faded, replaced by true ones; Philip doesn't look back, he just stares at the ground, with a dead look, tears in his eyes and pleading.
Pleading for someone to see through the deception...
But it's asking too much.
He knows that the opportunity to reveal the truth is gone forever.