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He was on his knees at last, his true face no longer hidden.
Was it too soon?
Or was it too late?
His hands hung limply by his side, while his knees dug into the sharp rocks he kneeled upon. They bled ever so slowly, but so, so painfully nonetheless.
His body hurt, hanging onto it's last ties to life. His heart, was a sieve.
But oh, to love a hero.
The last bits of strength having left his body, he collapsed on the bloody floor beneath him.
Was it dirty?
But it was his own. Every drop shed dripped from his own dying body.
Every drop, shed by the person he'd handed his life over too.
Bleeding from every orifice, his once peerlessly beautiful face seemed inhuman.
From his eyes, mixed with the red, slipped a crystal clear tear.
Wishing for a pain so deep, his soul could depart at last.
He moved his lips, once, twice. There was so much to say, so many questions to ask, so, so many complaints to make.
But in the end all that left his mouth was a raspy whisper, "Watch over me till the end, won't you?"
Another tear slipped from his eyes, this time tinged red with blood.
"...in the name of love, hero?"
There was only silence accompanying him.
It was the kind of stillness that seemed to feel death upon the place, the kind that had taken over his still beating heart.
It had once raged for someone, now shattered to pieces by that very person.
A laugh worked it's way from his broken body, turning onto a cough that wrecked his wounds even further.
Love.
It was hard to imagine, how someone like him had succumbed to it's temptations.
Him with his rotten heart and cruel intentions.
Him with his vengeful destiny and unimaginable power.
Him, who was the villain in all their tales.
Another laugh, this one for himself, left his mouth.
He still didn't feel he had loved the wrong person, because if not him...he would have never loved at all.
And he had been loved in turn, yes.
But the hero always loved the world more, didn't he?
In time, he would bleed out, and the precious world would nourish itself from his life.
A necessary sacrifice.
After everything, after running from this fate for decades, he was brought to this place in the arms of his beloved.
He didn't want to die.
But his body was getting colder, and his end was near, yet despite all of this, his shameless heart wouldn't rest peacefully.
For its sake, for his own, for no reason whatsoever, did it matter why he wanted a last glimpse of him?
"L..ook me...in the eye...before, I go, isn't it...the l..east you..can do?"
A moment of silence went by, before there was the sound of footsteps in the distance.
He still couldn't see him, but he hoped that person could see him. See the fate he'd sentenced him to, see what he'd done to him with his own hands.
He knew his love was not unrequited, he knew that person would die in his place if he could.
So he hoped the agony of having done this to him would crush his very soul. That not a night would pass without him dreaming of this moment.
Over and over again.
He hoped that the guilt would not kill him, but that it would keep him awake countless lonely nights.
Aha...ha..would he regret it?
There was no time to wonder as a pained sound escaped him.
Death had finally embraced him.
His lifeless body had a beautiful glow to it, shimmering ever so magically as it disappeared from sight.
He shone like never before, and then left as if he hadn't ever been there in the first place.
A while passed, before the light dissapitated.
As the dimly lit room returned to a chilling silence, words, written in blood revealed themselves on that place he had once lay.
A person slowly stepped into the light, stoic and calm. There was not a ripple on his face.
Before they met, he'd been this way.
Always the soldier of justice.
Somewhere along the way, he'd met a wild spirit that burned so bright it had manged to set ablaze his sleeping heart.
For him it had burned in the blazing flames of something he'd never felt before.
A passion he'd never known he was capable of.
Late nights had never been so enchanting, the break of dawn never so captivating than with him by his side.
And to the person who'd gifted him this light, he'd extinguished on the damned path to his false destination.
Could he ever escape his melodious laughter that rung inside his very heart?
Could he ever outrun the memory of his sly glances?
In him, who loved so crazily, would there ever be something akin to forgiveness in heart left for him?
No, never.
In there were a next life and that person remembered him...it would only be from hatred.
He sword clanged to the floor, still covered in the blood of his lover.
There had never been steps so painful as the few he took to reach the place he had last been.
Not much was written on the floor, just four words that held him captive.
For the world, hero?
For the world?
Ah.
Wide eyes, so surprised, so shocked and betrayed. Hurt body, so pained, so frozen in disbelief.
That was the way he had looked at him at that moment when everything changed.
"In the name of love, hero?"
"...for the world, beloved."