‘H-huh…?’

Gerard found himself in a daze.

‘What is… happening right now?’

His blurry vision could hardly make out anything that was happening, and the pain he was experiencing was too much for him to feel anything else.

He could no longer move his hands, legs, tail, or wings.

Why?

Could it be because he was still in a haze? Or… could it be that they were no longer attached to his body?

He saw several limbs that resembled his own falling from the height he was currently stuck in. He saw a pair of wings and a tail too.

He could have sworn they were his.

But… what were they doing away from his body? Why was he currently suspended in the air while they lifelessly fell.

It made no sense! Gerard tried to understand it, but he could not reconcile his expectations of how the fight was supposed to go with the fact that he was currently limbless and defeated.

It wasn’t even up to a second.

Even now, he still did not know when and how it happened.

One moment he was going to strike Legris from multiple sides to attract his attention, and the next thing he noticed was his current predicament.

“E-eee…” He couldn’t even form words from his lips since he felt his throat clogged by the tight grip of his supposed adversary.

Right now, he could not scream in response to the pain, even though he desperately wanted to.

He could not flail around, since his body was nothing but a limbless vegetable that dangled according to the wishes of the one who defeated him.

He felt like nothing but a ragdoll.

… A useless lump of meat.

“What a joke.” As Legris uttered those words, Gerard broke down into tears.

“Real men never cry!” He was always fond of saying, yet the flood of bitter liquid that descended from his lips was frightening.

A meaningless, limbless, pathetic man.

That was what Gerard was at the moment, and he knew it fully well.

“Looks like he couldn’t buy you any time.” Legris now began to talk to Serah.

This caused Gerard’s heart to tighten greatly. Serah,.. he had promised her to buy time, yet he failed so horribly.

He tried telling his body to regenerate, but nothing was happening.

Never in his life had he felt this pathetic.

“See for yourself…”

Legris swiftly shifted Gerard’s body so he would face Serah, now holding him from the back of his neck.

‘No…!’ Gerard’s thoughts screamed.

“Look at the people you tried to help.”

‘Please NO!’ He begged, but no one could hear him.

With tears in his eyes, he was forced to look at Serah in his pathetic state.

What he saw…

‘NOOOOOOO!!!’

… Was the look of pity.

Serah Crimson, the woman he had done all he could to impress, now pitied him.

It hurt him so much that he felt like ripping his heart out and dying at that very moment. Her eyes showed so much compassion, and that was precisely what he wanted to avoid.

Where was the expression of admiration that he desired? Where was the countenance of devotion he had imagined?

None of those were present now.

He didn’t want to look weak in front of her, but in the end… that was precisely what he was.

WEAK!

“What will you do now? If you make any unnecessary moves, I’ll kill him off, and not in a pretty way.” Legris spoke, causing Gerard’s heart to tighten once more

Not only was he completely useless, but he had now become a liability in the fight.

He was a hostage!

‘No… not that! Anything but that!’

Gerard had always despised relying on others for strength, but the thing he hated most was being a burden.

And right now, that was precisely what he was.

As Gerard looked at Serah, and then Maria, and slowly tilted his head to look at Legris, he instantly realized the truth.

From the very beginning, he was the burden.

‘But… I won’t let that happen to me! Not anymore!’

~WHUUUUSSSHHH!!!~

Power burst from within his multiple Cores, and he overloaded them with energy that they began to shatter and leak out.

‘There’s still something I can do! I won’t be a burden to anyone!’ His thoughts echoed as he embraced the pain.

What he was doing was simple.

Initiating his own Mana Burst Sequence, where he would overload his body with energy and explode his Core from within.

Why… why would he do something like this?

‘I would rather die than be a burden to anyone!’

There was only one way to buy some more time, while also preventing a hostage situation. 𝐎𝒱𝑙xt.𝗰𝑶𝓂

That was to take himself off the equation entirely.

And so, Gerard decided to kill himself.

~BOOOOO—~

Right as the explosion was about to occur, however, Gerard felt a hand dig into his chest.

~SQUELCH!~

Blood spurted out, and so did an immense amount of energy.

“Trying to cause an energy overload so you can kill yourself and damage me in the process, huh? Did you think I wouldn’t notice?” Legris asked, his gaze as cold as ever.

His hand reached out for Gerard’s heart and crushed it in an instant.

‘Guark!’

Gerard felt unimaginable pain as his heart was destroyed. His body throbbed in response to the agony he faced

However, despite all of that… he could not help but smile.

‘Of course… I knew you would notice. But so what?’

The energy in his cores finally broke forth, surrounding Gerard, and by extension, Legris.

‘You can’t stop what’s about to happen!’

There was something Legris did not know, which Gerard capitalized on even though he was on the verge of death.

‘I have a second heart… idiot!’

~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!~

As the final explosion devoured Gerard, he stole a final glance at Serah and found her smiling.

It was strange, but he felt satisfied to see her this way in his last moments.

‘Thank you, Serah. I… will… always… love you.’

And with those last thoughts, Gerard sank into the abyss.

*

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*

A

/N

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