"I love you, Erza."

Erza stared at Jellal with her wide dark brown eyes which were void of emotions. Jellal painfully waited for Erza's reaction to his untimely confession, feeling that each second seemed to pass ten times slower than usual as they enveloped in the dead silence. Finally, after several seconds - or was it several minutes? - she grinned at him, in an unnatural way which made Jellal shiver. Her facial muscles were twitching; her thin lips curled up stiffly and her grinning face showed absolutely no feeling of happiness.

"Give me your life then."

Erza's grin grew wider while she applied more force into pushing her katana deeper into Jellal's body until its blade finally penetrated his abdomen and pierced through the skin; his blood dripping relentlessly from the point of the blade struck out of his back.

It shouldn't turn out like this.

Jellal had dreamed endless times how he would confess to Erza and what her reactions would be despite his constant effort in repressing his feelings for her. He would bring her flowers, take her out for candlelight dinner and surprise her with a diamond ring when asking her to be his girl. She would smile with happy tears in her eyes before saying "yes", then throw herself into his arms and wrap her arms around his torso. He would hold her to him in a tight embrace and whisper his love for her into her ear, causing her to raise her head to look at him with affectionate gaze which melted his heart. His head would slowly lean to hers to close the distance between their faces, and they would both close their eyes when their lips finally touched.

He knew his dream would never come true, and he would have gladly submitted his life to Erza if it was her true wish. But how was he supposed to live this nightmare in which Erza was determined to kill him because Tartarus had transformed her into a demon by taking away her humanity?

A sorrowful smile formed on Jellal's lips. Gathering his remaining power, he used one hand to grasp one of Erza's hands which were holding the katana to prevent further movement of the sword, and placed his other hand to the back of Erza's neck to pull her head closer to his.

"Wake up please, Erza."

Jellal begged, before forcing his lips onto Erza's and closing his eyes, pouring all his feelings for her he had repressed over the years into the kiss.

He had accepted long time ago that he would never be the Prince Charming who saved the Princess from the hands of the witch and then lived with her happily ever after. What he had ever done to his red-headed Princess was broke her heart over and over again. But for this one time, he wished that he could live out Fairy Tales to become the Prince who liberated the Princess from the demon's control, just like how any Prince in Fairy Tale would rescue the Princess from the poisoned apple, from the sleeping curse, from the dragon or from the high-rise tower.

Jellal could feel Erza resisting his sudden advancement by shaking her head fiercely. Her hands attempted to pull out her katana from his abdomen to launch another attack but he stopped her action by holding her hand even tighter. Their fight for dominance inevitably caused more blood to flow out from his wound, and his power was gradually losing in the course as well. He started to feel dizzy but tried as hard as he could to stay conscious as he knew Erza's struggle would not last long.

Suddenly, the force Erza applied on the katana weakened. Jellal slowly released Erza's lips from their kiss and opened his eyes, only to see Erza's hand which was not in his hold had risen in the air and was ready to summon another weapon. He held his breath as he watched the magic seal glowing like firework around her hand, but let out the breath after several seconds when the seal faded out with nothing coming out from it, and also her katana stuck in his body vanished in the air.

Erza's body stiffened before she fell to the ground, her limbs convulsing. Jellal's gaze mixed with pity and guilt fell on her falling form which was now bound by the red bind snake he applied on her when he touched her neck.

"Free me!" Erza roared.

Her words broke Jellal's heart as Jellal felt like hearing her desperately begging him to free her from the control of Tartarus. But then he realized from her resentful gaze directed at him that she had not woken up from Tartarus' manipulations that she was only demanding him to release the bound on her body.

"No."

Jellal answered with a tiring voice, his legs finally gave out followed by his knees kissing the ground in the next instant. He grabbed the corner of his cloak and pressed the materials against his wound, trying to slow down the blood from running out his system. He had no more energy left to take Erza back to her guild. He only hoped that her comrades or Meredy could find them out soon and then they could find a way to restore Erza's true self.

Seconds passed, then minutes; however, no one came to them. Erza was still struggling to break the bind snake while Jellal continued losing his blood that his pants were now all wet and sticky after soaking up the red fluid. Fear and pain occupied Jellal's heart as he felt his hope to save Erza was slipping away but nothing more he could do to bring her old self back with his current state. He already had difficulty in focusing his vision that he could no longer see Erza's face clearly and even though he could still hear Erza's ear-piercing screams, it sounded like from afar. Not to mention the numbness and coldness ran through his body which prevented him from moving even one centimeter.

"Erza…"

Jellal's front landed on the ground, his eyelids had become unbearably heavy. The last thought on his mind before he closed his eyes was how much he wished that everything he was experiencing right now was only a nightmare in his sleep that when he woke up, he would find that Erza had never been turned into a demon.

The bind snake winded around Erza's body disappeared after Jellal fell into unconsciousness. Erza still rested on the ground to catch her breath after having struggled violently. When she finally felt that she had regained her strengths, she stood up and walked towards Jellal, turning his body over with a hard kick of her right foot. Gazing down on the unresponsive man with evident malice in her eyes, she summoned her katana in her hands once again and in one swift motion, stuck it precisely and forcefully in the spot on his left chest under where his beating heart located.

The grin on Erza's face grew never so wild before, while a lone tear silently rolled down from her left eye and dropped on Jellal's tattooed cheek.