Sion Note:Vol 3

“…you weren’t chosen. So you can’t win against me. Milk. ‘’’Goddess of Reincarnation’’’ [Milk Ephillet]”

At my words, the ‘’’Goddess’’’ – Milk tilted her head in confusion.

She looked at me and said,

“…I wasn’t chosen?”

She repeated those words to herself.

“Wasn’t chosen. Wasn’t chosen…in other words, you were chosen by something?”

She asked.

Then she looked at me straight ahead at me.

Magic dwelled in her eyes. Magic to analyze my insides.

But I don’t accept that.

I don’t accept her tremendous power.

And Milk,

“……..”

She smiled.

“What’s that? Why did such a power suddenly…”

In the middle of her sentence, she moved.

She moved to catch me off my guard.

Her figure disappeared, and the next instant, she reappeared before me. She swung up her slender arm and attempted to pierce my chest with it.

But I grabbed her arm.

Milk charged her arm with magic and attempted to repel my arm, but I grabbed it with even more force,

“….it’s impossible for you, Milk. And disappear.”

I whispered at her ear.

Milk widened her eyes and looked at me.

Her expression was fearful for one instant, but she smiled again.

“Aha.”

She laughed, and severed the arm in my grasp with her other arm.

Then she turned to her severed arm and commanded,

“Shatter, and make yourselves his parasites.”

And Milk’s arm, still held tightly in my grip, shattered into many pieces. And the fragments attempted to enter my body.

Even though they shouldn’t be able to do that.

I swiped away the fragments of her arm with both of my hands, and the fragments spread out across my surroundings in a frenzy.

And those fragments killed, killed and killed the surrounding ‘’’Goddesses’’’.

But by that time, Milk had already put a great distance between herself and me.

The fragments closed in upon Milk, but she grabbed the heads of the two ‘’’Goddesses’’’ beside her, drew them together and used them as shields.

The two ‘’’Goddesses’’’ died immediately.

But she doesn’t care.

She doesn’t care about her comrades.

She merely looked at me in joy,

“….interesting. What’s that, what’s that? Why do you have so much power? Just what did you eat to end up like that?”

I looked towards her.

And I opened my palm. I created a black sword from the center of my palm.

I grabbed the sword.

And Milk,

“Incredible, tremendous power. Very obviously a different kind from mine. Is that what you spoke about? The power of the chosen one?”

I nodded at her question.

“I think so.”

“But just ‘’what’’ have you been chosen by?”

“…….”

“What are you?”

I answered,

“The one to slaughter all of you.”

“So you’re a predator? A new system born to diminish the numbers of us ‘’’Goddesses’’’, who have multiplied too much?”

I nodded at that.

However, Milk seemed happy.

“But for that…”

She swung her hand.

Her right arm, which should’ve been severed just now, but had already regenerated.

Then something flew towards me. Something unseen yet potentially fatal.

I tried to react to it, but I couldn’t make it.

This time, my arm was severed.

The hand with which I was holding my sword was cut off and roamed the skies.

Milk looked up at my flying hand,

“For a predator, you seem awfully weak from my perspective…but whatever. I’ll look at your true identity.”

Then she looked around her. She turned towards the ‘’’Goddesses’’’ who are indulging themselves by devouring Menoris’ corpse and ordered,

“Hey, you filthy ‘’’Goddesses’’’. Stop eating. You have a new prey. Attack that mad ‘’’Goddess’’’ – that mutant.”

In response, the monsters lifted up their heads.

Unlike Milk, their lifted faces were creepy, and their features were pretty.

They looked towards me, and attacked me at the same time.

“……”

I stared at them, and then looked up at the sky. I looked up at my arm in midair, still gripping my sword,

“Sword.”

I whispered.

And my arm reacted.

The black sword reacted.

The sword moved towards the attacking ‘’’Goddesses’’’.

The sword drew a wide arc across the sky, as if to mow them down.

And just by that, a few dozens of ‘’’Goddesses’’’ disappeared.

But the ‘’’Goddesses’’’ didn’t decrease in number.

The ‘’’Goddesses’’’, who multiplied to an abnormal extent, didn’t decrease in number.

They multiplied enough to cover the back of Menoris.

No, the ‘’’Goddesses’’’ multiplied almost enough to cover every single space in this world, and compared to the numbers that I killed, far more of them have been born.

Another few dozens of ‘’’Goddesses’’’ closed in upon me.

I created a sword with my left arm as well, and cut them apart.

Something is trying to attack me from behind.

I ordered,

“Sword, return.”

And called back my right arm which was floating in midair. My right arm passed over my head and tore apart the ‘’’Goddesses’’’ behind me.

Then my arm reattached itself to my stump.

I held up both swords with my arms, and tore through the next wave of attacking ‘’’Goddesses’’’.

Tore them apart.

‘’Tore them apart.’’

However, as usual, the ‘’’Goddesses’’’ didn’t decrease in number.

On the contrary, they were steadily increasing.

Steadily increasing.

And I killed them.

Kill.

Kill.

Kill.

So that my sword can bring death to them father than the ‘’’Goddesses’’’ can increase-

I swung my swords.

Desperately.

And every time I do so, death danced around me.

The Goddesses’ heads, torso, and blood gradually stained my surroundings black.

And each time, I felt my own power increasing.

The more ‘’’Goddesses’’’ are destroyed.

The more I swing my ‘’’swords’’’.

I felt my power increasing.

But Milk merely looked down at that.

She floated above me, and looked down at me with interest.

And another woman appeared behind her.

A woman that seemed a few years older than Milk.

She was probably a ‘’’Goddess’’’.

But her power was incomparable to the ones that attacked me.

A monster that had around the same level of power that Milk had.

The woman looked down at me and said,

“Hey, what’s ‘’that’’.”

Milk shrugged and answered,

“I wonder?”

“Why is he killing our comrades?”

“Dunno.”

“Why are you leaving him alone?”

Milk turned towards the woman,

“’cause it’s dangerous to be near him, right? But the situation’s changed now that you’re here. Me and you, the two of us could probably overpower him.”

The woman looked at Milk and nodded.

“Let us deal with it. ‘’That’’ is dangerous. I did hear that mutants like him appear once in a while, but…”

Milk responded to those words,

“Oh my, you know about ‘’that’’?”

The woman answered,

“Just from the rumors. I did hear about some ‘’’Goddesses’’’ who suddenly turned mad and started killing their comrades.”

Milk tilted her head,

“Do you see that as our comrade…as belonging to our species?”

And the woman said with a bored face,

“I’m not interested.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Anyways, we’re finishing him off. ‘’That’’ is dangerous. It’s something that gets in our way.”

“….yes, you’re right. Let’s finish him off.”

And Milk nodded.

I looked up at them.

While dealing with the small fry around me, I looked up at them.

And I calculated their power.

I made a guess at the scale of the power they harbor inside.

I probably couldn’t win.

If it’s one on one, then I can win against Milk.

And against the other ‘’’Goddess’’’.

But if I had to deal with both of them at the same time-

Right then, the woman started moving towards me.

Milk started heading towards me as well.

I threw one of my swords at them. The magic released from the sword attacked the woman.

But the woman dodged it completely.

And returned to attacking me again. She grabbed my arm and stopped my sword.

Taking advantage of that moment, the other ‘’’Goddesses’’’ sank their teeth into my body.

They attempted to devour my feet, my waist, my stomach, my back.

But I paid it no heed, and attempted to cut the woman with my other sword.

However, my arm was stopped by Milk, who appeared behind me. Milk gripped my arm tightly, and bit my neck.

And she said,

With a voice of rapture and intoxication,

“Ah. You’re delicious, as expected. You…you really aren’t a ‘’’Goddess’’’, huh…”

She said.

I glanced at her face, and put magic into my gaze. Magic to curse and kill Milk.

But it didn’t work on her.

Her power waged war against mine, and I couldn’t kill her unless I sliced her with my sword.

So, in other words-

“…….”

In other words, this is it.

It ended all too easily.

Even though I was born to bring destruction among this world, I would die without managing to destroy anything.

The woman said,

“This is it.”

She said.

And then she opened her mouth, revealing her fangs, fangs that attempted to sink into my throat.

However.

“……”

Her head was separated from her torso and sailed across the sky.

Milk beheaded the woman.

The woman, now reduced to a head, glared at Milk,

“What…”

But before she could finish, her head disappeared. Milk released her magic and killed the woman.

And she even killed the ‘’’Goddesses’’’ that are chewing on my body.

Then she ordered her own comrades,

“Don’t touch him.”

And all the ‘’’Goddesses’’’ left me, as if on a cue.

I looked at her while she went about the series of mysterious actions.

I didn’t know why she would do this, so I looked down at her in a daze.

And she said,

While looking up at me,

“….fu, fufufu, I wouldn’t give away such a delicious prey to the other fools.”

She said.

And I gripped my sword tightly,

“But you can’t win against me by yourself.”

“That’s true.”

“Then why would you help me?”

And she held me in an embrace. She embraced my neck, and sank her teeth into it. She attempted to drink my flesh and blood.

But she didn’t try to kill me.

Slowly, gently, while chewing on my neck, she looked up at me.

Her mouth was stained red by my blood.

She wiped her blood red mouth and said,

"....every day is a repeat of yesterday. I'm stuck with an empty stomach and unsated desire day after day. I'm getting a bit tired of all that~"

I asked her, while turning towards her face nearby,

"So you want me to kill you here?"

"Hmm~ I don't really care, but since I saved you and all, I'd prefer you pay the favor back."

"Favor?"

"Well, if your way of thinking even includes the concept of favors, that is."

She said and moved away from me.

Then she lightly touched her flat stomach.

"Aah~ It's not enough. I want to eat more. But I have to endure it. I wouldn't find something interesting like this anywhere else."

She said.

I didn't understand the meaning of what she said, so I gripped my sword, just in case. To kill her, I gripped my sword and charged magic into it.

She laughed at that.

"I'm fine with being killed, but with the way you are now, you'll lose to a Goddess immediately, you know? There are plenty of folks amongst Goddesses that are more ancient than me...and judging from what the woman said just now, others like you have appeared before and been killed. So you'll definitely get killed as well."

I answered,

"So?"

She said,

"So I'll protect you. I don't know what you were born for, but as long as I find you interesting, I'll protect you and raise you."

She said ridiculous things like that.

So I laughed.

So I laughed.

And I said,

"I never thought of being protected by someone weaker than me."

"How cocky."

"So I'll kill you."

I said and swung up my sword. Immediately, my sword was filled with enough power to kill Milk.

She looked up at the sword.

With a face that said she didn't care whether she died or not,

"....well, if that's what you want to do, then I can't really do anything about it."

"........"

".....what's wrong? You're not killing me?"

So I asked her once again,

"....why did you help me?"

Milk shrugged her shoulders and said,

"I think I've told you this already, but I'm bored, and you looked interesting - is that not good enough of an explanation?"

I didn't swing down my sword.

I didn't swing down my sword.

And she wore a troubled expression,

"...do you not have any of Asruld's memories? You remember my name, so I think you have a bit of it, at least."

She said.

At her words, I searched through my head again.

Searched through the head of the boy, whose consciousness I took over.

And I immediately gained information on her.

On the Goddess of Reincarnation[Milk Ephillet].

So I said,

While looking at the girl in front of me,

"....ah, you're my...breeding partner."

She nodded.

She laughed a bit embarassedly,

And,

"But you don't lust after me anymore, right?"

She said,

And I stared at her.

Stared at her small body.

But I don't feel any sort of thirst for her. I don't desire her.

What I held was impulse alone.

An impulse to destroy everything.

She looked a bit sad,

"So you're partner isn't me. But you can't win against us alone - a predator who was almost killed by a single Goddess? Can something ridiculous like that really exist? Or is there..."

She said.

"Is there...another partner that's been decided for you....?"

She looked around her.

As if searching for something.

Around us were the creepy Goddesses who have begun devouring Menoris' body again, as if they've forgotten our existence.

But Milk ignored them and looked even farther away.

She looked into the distance.

And tilted her head,

"Anyways, if you aren't going to kill me, then let's stick together. I'll help you, and I'll go with you to find that one person who's well-matched for you."

She said and began to walk.

I looked at her back and said,

"I'm not having second thoughts. In the end, I'll kill you."

And she turned around happily,

"Aha! So, you'll let me live till the very end."

She said.

I didn't answer her.

I didn't answer her.

I merely made my swords disappear.

And Milk began walking again with a smile on her face.

She was headed towards the south.

Towards the south.

I asked her,

"Why are you going there?"

"I wonder~"

"Is there something over there?"

Milk stopped her steps and said,

Turning around to face me,

"This is just a rumor, mind you."

"Rumor?"

"That there's a hated being in the south."

"Hated being?"

"Yep."

"What' is it?"

"Dunno. It's a rumor, after all. But since it's hated by the Goddesses, maybe it'll become your comrade, right?"

She said.

I answered her,

"I don't have any comrades."

"Really?"

"Yes. I was born to injure and destroy everything."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"But you didn't kill me."

"....."

"Even though you're a system born to injure and destroy everything, you didn't destroy me. Why is that?"

"....."

"You don't know? You can't answer?"

I nodded at her question.

"Yes, I don't know."

She smiled and said,

"Then you probably have emotions. You're not just a system, you have emotions."

She looked at the monsters around her.

The monsters who continued to devour Menoris without a second thought.

It's true that I don't see her to be the same as those monsters.

No, even the woman who attacked me just now and had about the same amount of power as Milk did seemed different.

So I asked her,

"Who are you?"

Milk answered,

"I'm trying to find out myself."

"I see."

"Yep. Why am I different from the others? Is there any meaning to my difference? Or is it all meaningless, and I'm just broken that way?"

"I see.."

"Yep. Come on, let's go. If we overstay our welcome, the other Goddesses will come. If three or more Goddesses with my level of power came, then we couldn't win against them."

She said and began walking again.

Towards the south.

The distant south.

While following her from behind, I asked,

"So, what's the name of that hated being in the south?"

Milk said the name of the hated being.

The name of the hated being, said to dwell in the south-

"Ryner Eris Reed."

She spoke of such a name.