Sion Note:Vol 7

"...Hey, will you stay here with me forever and ever?"

When the Lonesome Demon[Ryner Eris Reed] finished, the man lifted his face.

Upon close inspection, he found that the man had a very beautiful face.

Well, Ryner had never seen another living being before, so he couldn’t really tell the difference between what’s beautiful and what’s not. Despite that, he still thought the man to be beautiful.

Long, silver hair.

Golden eyes.

And a pitch-black armor stained with blood of the same kind of gold in his eyes.

The man looked at him.

He looked straight into Ryner’s eyes.

Ryner was close to shaking. At the fact that someone is looking at him.

Someone is recognizing him. He felt like trembling from that fact alone, but he restrained himself.

And he smiled again,

"Hey, nice to meet you."

He said.

And,

"..."

The man didn’t reply.

He simply glared at Ryner with his sharp eyes, then stretched out his hand. And,

"...Sword."

He muttered.

And a sword is created in front of the man’s hand.

A pitch-black sword.

A sword of darkness, engraved with the "equation" to destroy everything and paint it black.

Ryner looked down at that and said,

"...As you are right now, you cannot even lay a finger on me, y’know?"

"..."

"Hey, let’s talk instead. Since we’ve met each other and all... plus, there’s only you and me here..."

But the man released his sword.

The sword dove towards Ryner’s chest in a straight line, but Ryner lightly swatted it away.

And the sword was blasted into oblivion.

Because he sent an equation towards the sword that had such an effect.

The man narrowed his eyes.

Looking at the all too obvious difference in power, the man narrowed his eyes.

Having taken in the man’s expression, Ryner spoke up once again.

"See? It’s all meaningless. So let’s stop fighting and talk a little..."

But the man spoke up again,

"...Sword."

And this time, five swords were brought into existence surrounding the man. The power in each one of them is distinctively less than the power in the lone sword just now.

Blood continued to flow from the man sprawled on the ground, staining the gray earth with a beautiful shade of gold.

And the more the golden area expanded, the more power is lost from within the man.

However, the man did not stop his attacks.

He could not stop his impulse of destruction directed towards all of the world.

And Ryner looked at that,

"...I see. Now I know why you were despised in the outside world."

He said and let out a small sigh.

The man commanded his swords,

"Destroy it."

Ryner replied,

"It’s impossible."

And he released equations into the five swords. The swords disappeared imediately.

But the man didn’t mind, he was simply bent on creating more swords.

Ryner said,

"If you use any more of your power, you’ll die, y’know?"

"Sword..."

"Aah, geez. I told you you’d die."

Right then, Ryner reached out his hand. He stretched his fingertip towards the forehead of the man who was trying to create swords. He touched the man’s forehead with his finger, and reached deep inside the man’s brain.

The man’s brain was very warm.

Even though he’d lost so much blood, the man’s body still had warmth in it.

The feeling of coming into contact with others, something completely new to Ryner.

He felt like laughing again.

He felt like raising his voice in joy at the prospect that he wasn’t alone in this place.

But he restrained himself and said,

"Sleep for a while. Even if you want to kill me, you don’t have enough power right now. So just for a little bit..."

And Ryner wove equations.

Equations to ease the tension within the man, and he released them into the man’s brain.

He dissolved them.

Synchronized them.

And the man,

"..."

Immediately fell asleep.

Having lost all strength, the man was on the verge of falling, yet Ryner supported him and gently lowered his head to the ground.

He extracted his finger from the man’s brain and stood up.

And looking down at the sleeping form of the destroyer,

"Wonder if he’s going to attack me again when he wakes up."

He muttered to himself.

"But being attacked by someone...is kind of fun."

He said and smiled thinly.

He took a step a step back and crouched besides the sleeping man. The man’s wounds were already closed, because Ryner made it so by weaving equations. However, he can’t recover the portion of blood that the man had already lost, so he didn’t know how long it’s going to take for the man to wake up.

But Ryner listened to the man’s snores,

"...There’s sound."

He muttered.

Even though the dimensional crack had already closed, it seems like sounds will not disappear from this world.

Everything that this world is composed of has changed.

Is it because the crack came in contact with other worlds?

Or is it because of the man’s presence?

And Ryner looked at the man again. The man with a beautiful face was still sleeping.

He looked at the man’s face,

"...What was his name? If he had a name, then I’d like to call him by that."

He said.

"There’re quite a lot of other things I want to ask him too, I wonder if he’ll actually listen to me next time. Well, I don’t really mind being killed. Haven’t even thought about the possibility."

Because he expected himself to just disappear here, all by himself.

But if somewhere were to attack and kill him,

That would be...

"....Just the thought alone makes me excited."

Ryner placed a hand on his chest and could feel a pulse deep within his chest, much like hope.

Something he didn’t have when he was all alone in this gray world.

Yet it was moving now, without a doubt.

He felt that,

"Ahaha."

And laughed to himself again.

His laughter resounded.

His laughter and the man’s snores resounded throughout the gray world.

Looking up at the expanding sounds,

"..."

Ryner smiled gently.

Chapter 3 : The Reason for Existence

By the time that Sion woke up, the world was covered in gray.

A world where everything was gray.

While scanning his surroundings with his eyes, he attempted to get up, and then,

"...Where..."

He muttered, and someone spoke up beside him.

"Ah, so you’ve finally awakened?"

Sion turned his face towards that voice. Searing pain assaulted his head, no, his entire body.

He turned his eyes towards the offending areas. He found that the pitch-black armor he wore was stained with golden blood.

His own blood.

Shed when he was attacked by the Goddesses.

There were holes all over his armor, but the skin beneath the had already been repaired.

It still hurt, but he could move his arms and feet without any problem. Having confirmed that, Sion lifted his face once again and looked towards the voice.

One man was standing there.

A man with a strange appearance.

Clown-like clothing and black hair. A gentle face. The shape of a tear engraved upon his cheek.

Looking at that man, Sion said,

"Who are you?"

The man looked slightly surprised, and said,

"When you saw me before, you said I was a monster... do I not seem like a monster to you?"

Sion answered the question,

"I said that?"

"Yes."

"I don’t remember."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Well, it has been about a hundred years since you’ve lost consciousness."

"Hundred?"

"Yeah."

"I’ve been sleeping for a hundred years?"

"Yes. Because your wounds were simply that deep. To be more exact, it’s 178 years and 48 days... huh, maybe I should’ve said ‘about two hundred years’?"

The man said and looked at him.

With a happy smile on his face, the man looked at him.

Sion scowled a bit at that, and scanned his surroundings once again.

This empty expanse of space.

This world filled with nothing but gray.

It’s been said that this is a prison made by Goddesses, an alternate dimension not connected to the world Sion came from, but...

Sion asked,

"What are you doing here?"

The man answered,

"I’ve been counting your snores till just now, I guess?"

"What do you mean?"

"But since you’ve woken up, I’ve stopped counting your snores and moved on to talking with you."

He said happily.

He smiled innocently.

And that smile seemed to be tinged with a kind of madness.

So Sion said,

"Were you originally a Goddess too?"

"Huh?"

"But you went mad and was banished here?"

The man tilted his head at Sion’s question,

"Do you know about me?"

He said.

Sion shook his head.

"No."

"Then why are you talking to me as if you knew me?"

"It’s just an educated guess. At least in my world, this place was where Goddesses who’d gone mad are banished to."

The man nodded with an interested expression.

"Huh."

He said.

Then,

"So, I’m one of them?"

He asked.

Sion returned his inquiry with a question,

"You’re not?"

"I don’t know. I’ve been here ever since I’ve come to my senses."

"When you’ve come to your senses?"

"Yes, from the very beginning. At least from the very moment that I managed to recognize myself... since then, I’ve always been alone."

The man said.

And Sion thought, looking at the man who was smiling sheepishly,

So he doesn’t even remember his madness.

Or is this creature really not a Goddess, but some other being?

But in the end, it doesn't really matter. He himself had gone mad as well. Sion used to be a Goddess, but not anymore. He is a consciousness that was created just for the purpose of destruction, and his body had already been recomposed into something different from that of the Goddesses.

And even if this creature was a being different from the Goddesses, would it even matter?

He’s going to destroy everything anyways.

Because Sion was born to destroy everything, Goddesses or no.

So he’ll destroy this creature.

He’ll destroy this gray world as well.

It’s necessary to destroy everything, erase everything—

"..."

But right then, the voice of a woman resounded in his head.

It was a memory. A memory from a long time ago.

Within that memory, a strange Goddess by the name of Milk had said,

Something about the despised one named Ryner Eris Reed.

About the monster hated by the world.

But she didn’t know where rumors of that monster stemmed from. Even though nobody had met it and nobody had seen it, information of a monster who resided on the other side of the dimension, hated by the world, has been passed around.

And at last, Sion came face to face with it.

No, in reality, it was Milk who tried to bring about this meeting.

It seemed like she thought that something interesting would happen if the two of them, both hated and detested, were to meet.

"..."

Sion looked at the man.

He looked at the man who wore clown-like clothing.

The man was smiling.

He was smiling happily, even though nothing interesting was happening.

He had probably gone mad already.

He had probably gone mad already.

But he himself was already broken as a Goddess, so he didn’t particularly mind.

Sion asked him again,

"Who are you?"

And the man smiled joyfully for some reason. He placed a hand on his chest, and...

"I never thought that someone would ask that of m..."

"Just tell me already. Who are you?"

The man answered while smiling,

"Ryner...Ryner Eris Reed."

"Ryner?"

Hearing that, the man — Ryner looked to be on the verge of crying for some reason. An expression both happy and sad.

And he said,

Ryner said,

"Yes, Ryner. I named myself. But to think that someone would call my name... ah, that’s right. Can you tell me your name as well? I want to know yours."

"My name?"

"Yes, your name. What is your name?"

Sion answered,

"I am—"

Asruld answered,

"I am—"

I am—.

Ryner nodded at that.

"Sion, huh. Sion.... what a nice name."

"A nice name?"

"Yes."

Ryner said happily.

Sion tilted his head and replied,

"There’s no meaning to a name."

"I wonder?"

"There is none. To begin with, this name isn’t even mine."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"So, whose is it?"

"That doesn’t matter either."

"Huh, I see."

"Yes."

"Then...then, um, what’s something that has meaning? Sorry, I don’t really know about the world outside, or whether a topic has meaning or not... can you please tell me?"

Ryner said.

In a voice filled with anxiety.

And Sion looked at Ryner. Looked at the man dressed up as a clown, sprouting the most innocent smile on his face.

And he measured the difference in their powers.

To see whether he could kill Ryner with his power.

To see whether he could destroy Ryner with his power.

He even calculated whether or not he could destroy this gray-filled world and go out.

And he said,

"The only thing that has meaning to me..."

"Okay."

"Is whether I can destroy you or not."

"Huh~ So that’s what’s meaningful to you?"

"Yes."

"But why is it that important to you?"

"Because I was born that way."

"To destroy me?"

Sion shook his head and said,

"To destroy everything."

Ryner narrowed his eyes and stared at him. He held up his arms, and Sion reacted.

Sion took one step back, and created a sword in his hand in anticipation of Ryner’s attack.

But Ryner ignored that and looked at Sion through the cracks between his own fingers.

"I’ll try looking for the reason you’re here— analyzing existence—"

He muttered.

And several letters and numbers lined up on the surface of Ryner’s eyes.

He didn’t know what Ryner was doing. He didn’t know what kind of meanings those information that surfaced on Ryner’s eyes held.

But Sion wasn’t interested in their meanings to begin with.

So he struck out with his sword.

Towards that eye.

With his pitch-black sword, he struck out towards that eye with letters and numbers.

But for some reason, Ryner didn’t dodge the sword.

Even though the sword is about to pierce his eye, the man dressed up as a clown didn’t dodge.

The sword closed in upon his eye.

But Ryner was still smiling.

The sword touched his eye.

But Ryner was still smiling.

The sword struck his eye.

And Ryner,

"Ah, so I really..."

Said in a small voice.

A small yet secretly happy voice,

"Am to be killed here.... that’s alright with me... but if I die, you’ll be left all alone. All alone in this place. I’m worried about that. Because it’s hard to be here. It’s hard to be alone. Are you fine being alone he...."

But at that moment, Sion’s sword pierced and crushed the eye that held those equations, and emerged from the back of Ryner’s head.

And then,

"..."

Ryner’s words ceased.

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