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Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (Light Novel) - Volume 11, Chapter 10: Buddies Part 2
Volume 11, Chapter 10: Buddies Part 2
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
It was already 10:00.
“…Shit. The rain’s not letting up,” Ryner said. They’d just left the tavern after three hours of eating, drinking, and then at some point Ferris tried to steal the money Sion gave him so he yelled that he was gonna kill her, and then he ended up crying just like always.
Even though three hours had passed, the rain was going just as strong as it started.
“Actually, did it get stronger since we were in there?” Ryner wondered and groaned. He’d be sopping wet by the time he got back to the inn at this rate. “What should we do, Ferris?”
For some reason, she was carrying an umbrella. No, two.
“Wait, where’d you get those?”
“They were given to me.”
“By who?”
“Hm. Do you remember those bad-mouthed men who tried to hit on me a week ago?”
“Ahh. The two that you almost killed?” Ryner asked. Sixteen men asked Ferris out that night, all of whom she turned down without a second thought, but the final two were super persistent, so she beat them up. “So what’d they say?”
“They said, ‘We’re not going home tonight, so you should use them, Ma’am.’”
“Ma’am?”
“Mm.”
“…Wow… people sure are quick to love you.”
Ferris nodded. “Because I’m beautiful.”
Ryner was tempted to say that those two in particular probably liked the fact that she beat them up more than the fact that she was beautiful, but he’d be in trouble if she didn’t give him an umbrella, so. “Yeah, that’s true,” he said. He had to go with the safe choice at times like this.
“Mhm!” Ferris said happily. She looked up at the sky. “It really is pouring.”
“Yep. And it got really cold, too.”
“It looks like we should return home sooner than later.”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
“Mm.” Ferris nodded, took a step forward, and opened her umbrella. Then she opened the other umbrella. Then she held them both up to use herself.
“Hey, wait!”
“Hehehe.”
“Don’t just laugh!”
“Do you want me to lend you an umbrella?” Ferris asked.
“I mean… It’s just that if you actually try to use two like that, water’s gonna fall on you through the gap in the middle.”
“Ah.”
Now that she’d stepped out into the rain, she was getting pretty wet through that gap. And it wasn’t a warm day.
“You must be reaaally cold right now, huh?”
“Uuh.”
“Don’t be stupid. Give me the other umbrella.”
“M, mm.” Ferris tossed the other umbrella.
Ryner caught it, then took a step out from the door. The sound of rain on his umbrella was deafening. “Man, it’s really raining.”
“Ryner,” Ferris said through a shiver.
“Hm?”
“It’s extremely cold.”
“Then hurry up and go home!”
Ferris nodded. “I’ll head home, then. You’ll be running around nude attacking women, right?”
“…I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be anyone to attack on an awful rainy night like this… Anyway, be careful.”
“Mm. I’m leaving.”
“Take care.”
“Mm.”
“See you.”
“Mm.” Ferris turned and left.
Ryner watched her go for a moment. Maybe it was because Ryner made her drink, but she seemed a little slow on her feet. But he probably didn’t need to worry. After all, if twenty people attacked her at once, the twenty would come out for worse, not her.
Ryner shivered. “Augh, it’s cold. I’m going home too.”
He turned from the shopping district to use an alley as a shortcut into a main road. The rain continued unflinchingly. It was like it was trying to get all of its rain out now so it didn’t need to continue all night. Though it was already past ten. Often people came out of bars cheerfully at this hour, but tonight’s streets were empty.
“Well, it is pretty cold,” Ryner mumbled to himself. His inn was at the end of this road, so he’d be there in a few minutes. So he ran through what he’d do when he arrived in his mind. He could take a bath and then sleep… or maybe skip the bath and go straight to bed. He could always take a bath in the morning.
“Actually, I’m sorta wet from all this rain, so… maybe I will have a bath,” Ryner decided.
His bigger problem was what he’d do tomorrow. Sion said their work was over, but if he was lying, he’d come bright and early and wake Ryner up to tell him that it was time to get to work. But he sure would like to sleep ‘till noon. He’d be sooo happy.
The inn was close by. He was almost home.
“……”
But right then, Ryner stopped in his tracks.
He was surrounded by an awful, loud downpour. But he could just barely sense the presence of another person.
Ryner tilted his umbrella up and looked through the rain. There he was - a man standing alone in the rain, in the darkness, without an umbrella. His hair and clothes were absolutely soaked. He started straight at Ryner, but his expression didn’t react to his presence.
He was laughing. Or maybe he was sobbing.
“…Sion?”
“…Ryner.” It was hard to tell what kind of emotion his voice carried through the deafening rain.
“You’re gonna catch a cold standing out here without an umbrella, you know?”
Sion looked up at the sky. It was like he’d only just noticed that it was raining. “Hm? Oh… oh, yeah.”
“What’s with you… uh, anyway, come here. You can use my umbrella.” He held his umbrella up so Sion could come under too. Though it was a pretty meaningless gesture, considering he was already soaked to the bone… But still. There was no reason for him to keep standing there in the rain. “C’mon, get in.”
Sion didn’t even look at him. He just continued to stare up at the dark sky.
“Heeey,” Ryner said and scowled. “Seriously, what’s with you?”
If Sion wouldn’t come to him, he’d go to Sion. Ryner took a step towards him.
“…Mm?”
Ryner raised his umbrella up a little higher to get a better look at his surroundings. Because of the rain, it was difficult to see and hear anything around him.
All he could see was darkness. All he could hear was rain, wind, and the occasional roar of thunder. He couldn’t sense any other people, either. But that went without saying. There normally weren’t too many people around here at this time of day anyway, and the fact that it was pouring only made it emptier.
Ryner concentrated on the thunder. On the darkness.
“So?” Ryner said. “What’re you gonna make me work on this time?”
Sion looked at him. But Ryner couldn’t make his emotion out through the rain. Was he laughing? Crying? Smiling in his usual annoying way?
Ryner took another step closer. “Even though you said our work was over.”
“It is.”
Another step closer. “Then what did you need?”
“…I had the sudden urge to see you,” Sion said jokingly. Maybe it was because of the strong winds, but his voice seemed to shiver.
Another step closer. “What’re you saying?”
“I’m serious.”
“And I’m always telling you that that’s gross.”
“Haha.”
Another step. Another step. Then he stopped. Because he was close enough to see Sion’s expression now.
“……”
Ryner gazed into Sion’s expression. He was smiling as he stood, pelted by heavy rain. He looked happy. He looked like he was enjoying it. Yet tears were streaming down his face.
“Are you crying?” Ryner asked.
“No.”
“It looks like you are.”
“That’s just the rain.”
“Is it?”
“It is,” Sion said and nodded, that same smile still on his face.
“Hmm.” True, there were times when rain might land like tears. “So? What are you gonna do… to me now?”
Ryner looked around again. This time, he was surrounded by countless peoples’ murderous intent. Then he looked back at Sion and his unwavering smile. His sad smile. His pained smile.
“…I always thought this’d happen one day,” Ryner admitted. His own expression was the halfway point between a smile and tears. “Suddenly. Because it’s always sudden…”
Sion didn’t answer.
“Hey, Sion.”
“……”
“You…”
“……”
“You want to kill me, don’t you?”
“…Yeah. I do,” Sion whispered. He sounded sad. Resigned.
But it was only natural. And Ryner was already so used to it. He was an Alpha Stigma bearing monster. He was a hateful being who existed only to hurt people. A species with no worth whatsoever. So he was used to being betrayed by the people who were precious to him.
He’d believed for a long, long time that it was better if he just disappeared from the world, before he could hurt anyone else. Before he could dig the wounds he’d already caused deeper. Wasn’t it better if he just died now than if he lived and prolonged everyone else’s suffering?
He’d believed that, too. But he continued to live idley anyway. And now he’d gone and hurt another person who he held dear.
Ryner looked at Sion, who was crying and pressing a hand to his chest hard, as if to fill a hole. He looked incredibly hurt. Like he was truly suffering.
The same voice as always echoed in Ryner’s head.
“What kind of impossible dreams do you ugly monsters have?”
Ryner felt like he was about to start crying, too.
“You should already know. Monsters’ hands are already covered in blood. They can’t grasp anything… and they can’t make it anywhere.”
He was going to cry.
“Your mere existence is a blight on this world. Monster.”
He knew that better than anyone.
Even so… he dreamed. He dreamed of something impossible.
But Ferris… Ferris said that he was still needed, even though he was the way he was.
And Sion… Sion said to come with him. That he was still needed.
So he ended up dreaming. It was a stupid dream. He dreamed of those days where they laughed, cried, yelled, and cried again to continue forever.
He dreamed his stupid dream. And this was the result.
“This,” Ryner said softly in his voice that’d given up on anything and everything.
He hadn’t realized that Sion wanted to kill him. Not at all.
But… it was okay. For a brief second, he considered things.
Dying here wouldn’t be too bad if Sion was the one to kill him. He had a good run if he was able to die by the hand of someone who had once said that he needed Ryner.
Ryner took another step forward, presenting himself to the killing intent around him.
He felt something rise to his neck. As if to cut it. So he closed his eyes.
“……”
But when he did, there was an image waiting beneath his eyelids. It was that berserk dango girl, her face on the verge of tears despite her usual expressionlessness.
“Idiot. I’d get lonely if you died…”
Ryner opened his eyes and grabbed whatever was approaching from his side.
“…Huh?” Ryner said. He surprised himself. He was ready to die, but his body moved on its own to grasp the arm of what had tried to hurt him, twist it, and snap it. Then he threw it at whatever was trying to get to him from the other side.
He felt someone behind him, too, so he dodged and then kicked. His foot slammed right into their head, knocking them away.
That was everyone.
He didn’t even need to see them. His body knew what to do based on their presence alone.
Ryner looked back in front of himself. Towards Sion, on the other side of the rain, the other side of the darkness.
“So like… umm, sorry, Sion. I don’t really want you to kill me.”
Sion didn’t answer.
“It’s like, umm, see… I just remembered, but if I died now, there’s this idiot that’d get lonely…”
“…You mean Ferris?”
“Yeah.”
“…Hm. It’s that ‘idiot… I’d get lonely if you died’ thing from earlier, right?”
“Well, um, it’s kind of embarrassing when you say it like that,” Ryner said and held his face in his hands for a second, then looked back at Sion. “But I’m not gonna run away anymore. Because I don’t want to hurt her.”
Sion smiled. “I see… But you know that I’d also be sad if I lost you, right?”
“Would you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why do you want to kill me?”
“…I have to.”
“Can you explain the reason why you have to?” Ryner asked.
“I can’t.”
“That’s too horrible, isn’t it?”
Sion shrugged. “That’s how reality’s always been. Horrible.”
“Ah… well, that’s true,” Ryner said. He gathered his strength and crouched just so. He faced Sion—his buddy—and readied himself for a fight. “I won’t let you kill me. I already decided who gets to kill me.”
Yeah. He promised. So he couldn’t run away again, even if he hurt someone. He could run from the monster inside himself. And if he happened to lose to that monster someday… he already asked Ferris to kill him if it came to that.
“…If you come back.”
That’s how she responded. She promised, even though she gained nothing from it. Even though it’d only cause her pain.
“…I can’t let you kill me,” Ryner said to Sion.
“Another promise with Ferris?” Sion asked, troubled.
“Yeah.”
“You know… I’ll get jealous if Ferris is the only one you ever make promises with,” Sion said.
“You’re being gross again.”
“Haha… I guess there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m the one who breaks our promises first anyway.”
“…I still think of you as my buddy,” Ryner said.
Sion’s face warped like he was going to laugh and cry. “Me too.”
“But you’re still going to kill me?”
“Yeah,” Sion said.
“You already made up your mind?” Ryner asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then… then it can’t be helped.”
Sion nodded. He looked stupidly sad. “Yeah. There’s nothing we can do about it now.” His hand fell to his waist, where he pulled a knife from his pocket. “Let’s end this, Ryner.”
Let’s end it, he said.
It was over.
The end was always such a sudden thing.
Even if he yelled for it to stop, it wouldn’t. And it was always like that. The more precious he thought something was, the stronger he felt, the faster it left him. They fell from his hands the moment he gave up.
He lost something when he gave up. Always lost something.
It was an endless cycle. One that he thought he was incapable of changing until recently.
He was a monster. There was absolutely no value in him continuing to live. He caused people to cry. That girl cried. Bio cried. Kiefer cried. Tony cried. Tyle cried. Fahle cried. Lafra cried. Pueka cried. He even made Ferris cry.
There was nothing he could do to stop it.
No matter how much he screamed that he wanted the people he loved to stay with him, they always disappeared. Because the end always came too soon.
He was a monster. A human whose life was utterly worthless.
That was why he decided to stop wanting things. To just give up before he started, while he was still ahead.
But it was ending again now. Sion said so while crying.
It was happening again. He was making someone important to him cry and want him gone.
The end, the end, the end. It was the end. Everything always ended so easily. Everything slipped from his hands so easily.
He gave up and lost something. He gave up and lost. Over and over again.
The Ryner from before would have said that this was just how things were and gave up. But the Ryner now smiled. “Sorry, Sion, but this isn’t the end. You can’t beat me.”
“I will.”
Ryner shook his head. “No, you can’t. My full power’s actually a lot, you know? So after I beat you up real good, I’m gonna have you tell your best buddy Lord Ryner what’s got you so worried.”
“……”
“And then I’ll get Ferris here and we’ll laugh about how super lame all your problems are.”
Yeah. He’d decided. He’d changed. From now on, he wouldn’t lose anything important anymore. He’d try harder, little by little.
When he met Ferris.
“……”
No, when he met Sion. That was when he first thought it.
So now he said it to Sion instead of the other way around. “I won’t give up.”
“……”
“No matter how hard you worry about things by yourself… No matter how much you say that there’s nothing you can do about it… Even if you fall to a dark place where I can’t reach…”
“……”
“I won’t… give up on you,” Ryner said as he faced Sion.
Sion didn’t answer. But that was fine.
Ryner raised his hand towards him.
Ryner thought of the words that Sion said to him, for him, so long ago. He raised his hand towards Sion and said them back. “Come with me, Sion.”
“……”
Sion’s expression didn’t waver. It was already too far gone to get any worse now. It was impossible for him to look any more pained.
And then, softly, Sion spoke. “No… You’re going to die here.”
“I won’t die.”
“You will.”
“I won’t die. I won’t die until I find a way to save you from whatever’s making you cry,” Ryner said.
“……”
Sion was silent. He looked up at the heavens as if asking for guidance and allowed the rain to hit his face like a wave of fresh tears. Then he sighed.
“……”
Then he looked back to Ryner. He wasn’t crying anymore. Instead, he smiled and gazed at Ryner like he was something dear. “I’m sure of it,” Sion said. “I’m certain of it now. My decision is the right one.”
“Like I said, you gotta explain the decision fir—”
Sion readied his knife. “I’ll save you, even if it means the world will…”
“Huh? What are talking ab—”
“It’s the end, Ryner.”
“No, like I said, you need to explain—”
Sion crouched, then sprung forward, knife in hand.
“Augh, shit,” Ryner said and took a defensive pose. It’d been several years since they met now. But he’d never seriously fought Sion before.
“……”
Sion moved faster than Ryner thought he would.
“…You really think that can kill me?” Ryner asked.
“I don’t,” Sion said.
“Then…”
Ryner’s words trailed off. Because he sensed a vague presence behind himself - the presence of one of the guys he thought he already knocked out. It rose up to attack Ryner with an impressive murderous intent.
“Whoa!?”
Ryner dodged then turned around, intent on taking that enemy down a second time.
“…Huh?”
Nobody was there. He’d turned because he felt a strong murderous intent. But nobody was there. The guy he thought it was, an assassin in all black, was actually lying on the ground a little ways away, still out.
But there was nobody next to him, where he thought he’d been attacked. Only a strong killing intent.
“The hell…?”
Ryner was surrounded by murderous intent. But nobody was there. The empty sky closing in seemed to be what wanted him dead, but…
“…Ah.”
Ryner suddenly realized something. Little by little, the assassin on the ground before him was getting smaller. No, to be more precise… he was melting into the ground, with a strange, slippery noise as his body turned to liquid.
“Sion, did you…”
Watching it made Ryner realize.
“Did you…”
A human who melted into a liquid. Ryner knew what it was.
It was something from the old Roland. From their mad experiments. Human experiments.
This one was one of the worst experiments, too. It was one that worked in theory, but they’d never gotten to work in reality. If they tried it on one hundred subjects, all one hundred died. And it was performed on children still in the womb.
Obviously Sion made it an illegal experiment when he became king. He outlawed most human experiments then, as well as other dehumanizing practices: solitary confinement, corruption, and the use of malicious curses on humans. Now they were things of the past.
So why were they here, then?
“…Sion, don’t tell me you…”
He shouldn’t have. No, he wouldn’t have. Sion wouldn’t do that.
But he said it so easily. “Yeah. I perfect the experiment,” Sion said, his knife still bared.
“What!?”
“I really did.”
“Why!?” Ryner yelled.
“…Can you really afford to look away from it for that long?” Sion asked.
Killing intent exploded under Ryner as that nothingness in liquid form sprung up, forming an arm to attack him with.
“Shit!” Ryner said, jumping back to dodge. But that just moved him closer to a different assassin. A different… victim. Of human experimentation. This one didn’t look human from the start. He looked like a monster with four arms sprouting from under his dark assassin’s garb. He moved to attack Ryner with those arms… but Ryner dodged, then moved to grab an attacking hand in his to stop it from trying again.
But when he touched it, he heard a sharp sound like something catching fire, and pulled his hand away. Because it hurt.
This assassin’s arms were hot like fire. And as soon as Ryner pulled away, the arms were swinging right back at him.
“Shit,” Ryner muttered as he raised his arm, this time to twist and break the assassin’s neck.
But…
“Augh, shit!” He couldn’t. He couldn’t kill him.
The assassin put his burning hot arms on Ryner’s shoulders.
“Guah!” Ryner cried.
“…You shouldn’t sympathize with your enemies,” Sion said from behind. He held his knife up to drive into Ryner’s neck…
But Ryner caught it in his left hand.
That didn’t stop Sion. He pushed Ryner down to the ground, then tried to push the knife in with all his force from on top of Ryner.
Ryner raised his legs to try to push Sion off, but they were soon grabbed and held down by the assassin who was a liquid human experiment victim.
“Shit,” Ryner groaned.
Another assassin stood behind Sion and began to draw a magic circle. It was a spell that Ryner had never actually seen used in practice before. Because it was illegal for countless reasons. Because its effect was too major. Because no spell could effectively disable it. Because it wounded the caster horribly.
And if he was going to use that spell here and now…
“This is bad,” Ryner groaned. He closed his eyes, then opened them again. A scarlet magic circle shone on top of his black eyes, proof of his Alpha Stigma, the mark of his monstrosity.
They were eyes that could see through all spells, whether they were illegal or not.
He looked at the assassin casting magic and saw everything: the spell’s effect, the reaction it caused, how to cast it, how long it’d take, and even how to cancel it.
“……”
It really was the world’s worst spell.
It was extremely difficult to counteract, and one use of it would destroy the caster’s body. His skin would crumble, his organs melt. He’d never be the same.
No normal person would cast it so easily. But here this assassin was, casting it like it was the most normal thing in the world. No… there was no way he decided to do it. Because if he had, he would have used a different spell.
Ryner used his Alpha Stigma to peer inside of him, searching for the magic circles that were carved into him as part of his human experimentation. He wasn’t surprised at what he found. It was one he recognized - the magic circle given to victims of corruption experiments.
It was an experiment that aimed to end people’s sense of pain and have them continue to fight even if their bodies were falling apart. It was an experiment to create a perfectly corrupt fighting machine. Its victims didn’t even mind using highly illegal and dangerous spells…
“I won’t let you,” Ryner said. He began to draw the counterspell for it - something that’d stop it before it ever fired - with his free hand.
But just then, something burnt his arm.
“Oaugh!”
Burning hot arms held him down.
Then the forbidden spell finished. “Your Majesty, please get away. The spell is ready…”
Sion shook his head. “No. It’s fine. Cancel the spell.”
“B, but Your Majesty—”
“Don’t worry. I’ll kill Ryner myself.”
“…Understood.” He ended the spell. Even though the assassin’s body was corrupting more and more by the day due to the experiments done on him, he still sounded completely devoted to Sion. And it didn’t sound like brainwashing or anything. It sounded wholly sincere.
“…What have you been doing in this country?” Ryner asked.
Sion was now expressionless, a stark contrast to how he’d looked before. “Nothing in particular. I’ve done what’s natural. I have done and will continue to do what’s necessary.”
“So human experimentation is necessary now?”
“……”
“You’re killing me because it’s necessary?”
“…I don’t want to talk to yo—”
“Just answer me!” Ryner said. “What are you doing? What kind of responsibility is crushing you? Is it something I can save you from?”
“……”
“Remember what you said to me a year ago? You asked why I didn’t talk to you if things were so hard. You asked why I didn’t tell you. But that’s my line. Why can’t you just talk to me?” Ryner asked. “Why do you have to bear everything alone? I’ll turn your lame speech back on you. Am I so far removed from you that you don’t think you can talk to me!? Weren’t we supposed to be buddies!? Answer me, Sion Astal!”
Sion’s expression didn’t even waver. It was completely blank. Like he wasn’t even seeing Ryner now. “It’s over, Ryner.”
“It’s not. Answer m—”
“It’s the end. I’m going to kill you,” Sion said and raised his heavy, knife-baring left arm, to Ryner’s neck.
“You won’t kill me!” Ryner yelled.
But it didn’t reach Sion.
“You aren’t capable of killing your friends!”
His voice didn’t reach Sion. He didn’t react in the slightest. It was like his mind was in some far-off place, hidden in the dark of his mind. A darkness that Ryner didn’t know.
The rain. The dark. Roland. Human experiments. The crying Sion. The emotionless Sion. The hero king. The absolutely flawless… and absolutely alone king. The completely changed king.
“Where… where are you now?” Ryner asked.
Sion didn’t answer. He just pushed the knife closer. He was serious. He seriously meant to kill Ryner.
“…I’m going to bring you back,” Ryner said with a glare. “I’ll bring you back, no matter where you are.” And for that… “I’ll need to get a little serious.”
Ryner’s eyes narrowed. He focused his power into his left arm. He used it to break two of Sion’s left fingers to loosen his hold on the knight.
“Uuagh,” Sion groaned, his expression finally wavering.
Ryner didn’t leave it at that. His right arm was being held down by the flame man’s arms, but his fingers weren’t. He used his fingertips to draw a tiny magic circle. “I wish for thunder - Lightning Flash!”
A tiny bolt of lightning was born at his fingertips. It was incomparably weaker than a normal Lightning Flash. It definitely wasn’t capable of killing anyone. He couldn’t lift his arm to fire it at anyone, but he could point his fingers down and fire it at the ground.
The wet, rain-covered ground, that is.
Ryner shot the lightning. It crawled over the soaked pavement to shock the flaming man, the liquid man, as well as Ryner himself. It wasn’t enough to deal damage. It was really just enough to make them jump. But that was fine.
The hold they had on his arm and legs instantly weakened. Ryner took the opportunity to snag Sion’s knife and plunge it into the burning hot man’s leg.
“Gyaaah!”
Ryner ignored him, instead focusing on drawing a bigger Lightning Flash now that his arms were free. He aimed for the liquid man. But he was sure to go easy on him. Because he didn’t want to kill him.
Then he turned his attention to the corruption victim behind Sion. As long as there weren’t hoards more enemies hidden behind him, this should be an easy win.
Then he’d knock Sion unconscious, carry him to Ferris’ house, and force him to tell them what was going on, and then they’d figure out what to do about it.
He could do it. They’d save Sion…
“……”
Sion looked at his magic circle with empty eyes and a faraway expression. Then he lifted his hand up to interfere with Ryner’s spell.
“You’re way too late. It’s already ready,” Ryner said. “I wish for thunder - Lightning Flash!”
Lightning gathered in the center of his magic circle. Unless something happened to the internal structure of the spell, it was past the point of no return now. But Sion still lifted his hand with his two broken fingers and waved in a small fanning motion, as if to call something.
Countless objects formed around Ryner’s magic circle. Swords. Black swords. Dark smoke was coming out of them, and their shapes wavered against reality.
He… remembered that smoke. It was a sight buried deep inside his memories.
He’d seen it somewhere before.
That smoke was the color of blood. Dusky, dull blood.
He’d seen it on armor. Armor made of blood, from his dream inside a dream.
It was the armor that man wore as he cried and swung his sword with endless determination.
At first it was a goddess. An unbelievably, dazzlingly beautiful goddess. He swung his sword and killed her. And not just her. He swung his sword down on another goddess.
One, two, three, four died by his sword.
Ryner shivered. “Wh, what’s going on…”
The memory in his head continued despite everything.
He killed goddess after goddess as tears overflowed from his eyes. And he smiled.
Somehow, he was familiar to Ryner.
Five, six, seven, eight goddesses died by his sword. The landscape was painted with blood. The world was painted with blood - the blood of all goddesses, the blood of all the world.
Everything in the world ended. Everything in the world would end.
He knew the man who killed the world. Ryner knew the man who wore armor of blood.
Ryner slowly looked up at Sion.
“You’re…”
Sion’s blood-made swords pierced the light, and the magic circle that Ryner had drawn disappeared from the world.
“…This can’t be…”
Ryner was in shock. Because his magic circle had completely disappeared even though he already made it. No, it was like he never made it in the first place. He suddenly couldn’t even remember what spell it was supposed to be. It was like a hole had been carved in his mind to cut his memory of it out entirely and killed it.
Sion looked down at him. But it wasn’t the Sion that Ryner knew.
He looked like Sion, but at the same time, he didn’t even look human. His skin was shining from liquid gold in his veins. From despair in his veins.
Strange curses, hexes, and spells flowed through him that Ryner couldn’t comprehend even with the Alpha Stigma. What flowed inside of Sion was the world’s everything.
His curse spread across the world. It was darkness, no, something deeper than even that. It covered the world like a plague.
The sky disappeared. The city disappeared. The world disappeared, as if it had been moved to somewhere else entirely.
Sion stared straight into Ryner with his golden eyes and spoke. But his voice wasn’t that of a human’s. “Ah, aah, Ryner, aah, aaahh, so this is where you were… My, my beloved… My sad… Lonesome Demon… My swords were able to materialize thanks to you…”
Those words didn’t come from Sion’s mouth. Instead… it was a voice that resonated from the world itself.
“Y-you’re—”
“Is it time? It’s time. It’s time. Let’s start, yes, let’s start. I will devour you and become Truth. Solver of All Riddles… Aaaahh, so you were here, aaaahhh… Then. Then I’ll devour you.”
“Wh, what’re you—”
Sion… no, he interrupted Ryner. His palm, filled with despair, drew close to Ryner’s neck.
“……”
Ryner lost his words. He couldn’t say a thing.
He continued, his face empty. “Eternity. An eternity of wandering in hell. I’ll take you there. I’ll take you, I’ll take you, I’ll take you, ah, aah, aaaahhh… I’ll devour you. The world is waiting. I’ll devour you. The world is…”
An arm suddenly reached up from Ryner’s chest. It was a thin, pale arm with a woman’s hand. Ryner recognized it. It was the same arm as in his dream - the arm of the woman who said she loved him as she cried.
Her arm came from the black letter that’d been left on his chest after that day, and twisted around Sion’s torso.
“It’s not… it’s not time for that just yet, now is it?” She asked. Her voice came from inside of Ryner’s chest. “Stop what you’re doing.”
Ryner didn’t know who she was, but her voice was so nostalgic that he wanted to cry even now.
“……”
But he didn’t. He didn’t do anything. He couldn’t speak, even though he wanted to scream. He wanted to scream the woman’s name. He wanted to scream Sion’s name. But he couldn’t. All he could do was collapse, unable to move.
Sion tilted his head. “Who are you? Alpha? No, you’re not Alpha. You’re just in the way. I will become Truth. I will devour him. I will devour the Solver of All Formulas…
“Give it up,” the woman said. “It isn’t time. You should know that too. Get out here, Omega, Creator of All Formulas…”
At her call, someone appeared behind Sion, as if he’d been there the whole time. He had blond hair and an eerily beautiful face that so resembled Ferris’.
Lucile Eris.
Lucile smiled. “My, to think that you’d have come all this way… I seem to have been looking down on you a bit too much, Duchess _____.”
For some reason, Ryner couldn’t hear the end. But that was the least of his worries now.
More importantly, what the hell just happened?
Why was Lucile here? Omega? Creator of All Formulas? Were they talking about Lucile? But what did that mean…?
“Stop him at once and free Ryner,” the woman said.
Lucile shrugged. “He wants to eat him…”
“But it isn’t time yet.”
“Yeah. True. That’s true,” Lucile said. “But if we let this opportunity pass, you people will just get in the way again. So it’s alright if everything ends now…”
“It’s impossible. It’s not that easy. The world won’t change by the hand of your little game… If the world were that simple, no one would be hurt. I wouldn’t be, you wouldn’t be, and the girl you hold so dear wouldn’t be… You know that better than anyone, don’t you? Lucile.”
Lucile’s expressionless, emotionless face reacted ever so slightly to her words. “Yes… you’re right. It’s as you say.”
“Then stop him.”
“Understood. I’ll stop him.”
“…I’m glad. I’m glad that a little of your true self still remains.”
Lucile looked to Ryner’s chest. “My true self? Ha, haha, hahaha. My true self… my true self, huh. I could say the same of you. No, that’s what I really want from you people, you know?”
“……”
The woman didn’t answer. So Lucile continued.
“But Sion is different. He’s different from you. I am certain that he won’t lose himself. I am certain that he won’t lose sight of what’s important to him. That’s why I chose him. Because he will always choose the correct path, no matter how hard it is, no matter how much he cries, and no matter how much it threatens to tear him apart… So I won’t do what you want me to…”
“Shut up,” the woman said.
Lucile peered down at Ryner’s face and continued. “Yes. Sion will betray you. He will betray you. Are you listening? Are you listening to me, Ryner Lute, you ugly beast, you miserable demon…”
“Shut up!” The woman yelled.
Lucile continued. “Sion will betray you… and when he does, you’ll sink into a sea of despair far deeper and far darker than death for all eternity…”
“I told you to shut up!”
Lucile shrugged. Laughed. Like he was ridiculing them. Pitying them. He raised a hand to Ryner’s face. “But, well, it’s fine. Continue with your make-believe friendship, brandishing your justice and your love, without ever understanding his pain. You can sleep peacefully, just like you always do…”
Lucile’s hand covered Ryner’s eyes.
The world suddenly got further away.
The blood-colored dye was wiped from the world and the scenery changed to empty white as his consciousness was torn from him. But in exchange, he got his voice back.
Everything was turning white, and his mind was becoming hazier with every passing moment.
But with his voice back, Ryner managed a single word, in the end—
“…Sion.”
He called his buddy’s name.
---
“…Hey. Hey, wake up.”
He was being told to wake up. But from what?
“You’re half asleep. C’mon, wake up already.”
He couldn’t open his eyes even if that voice asked. They were just so heavy. And he was so sleepy.
“Come on, get up.”
“…Mm.”
“You’ll catch a cold if you sleep here. Ugh, geez, get up already, you idiot.”
“Mm… magh…”
He opened his eyes. Well, he tried to. But it was so, so bright, so he instantly closed them again and wrinkled his nose. His head was throbbing. There was no way he was going to open his eyes to that light.
“I’m tired,” he said.
“I’m tired too!!” The voice shouted. “Come on, just get up.”
He reluctantly opened his eyes a sliver. His head was throbbing. He was so, so tired. But he did his best to open his eyes for the feeble eyes that kept asking him to.
He opened his eyes bit by bit until he recognized the room he was in. It was the same room as always. The same simple room with a bookcase and two desks.
“…Huh? Wait, why am I here…?”
“Are you still half asleep?” The voice asked. Now that he was awake, he realized that it belonged to someone he knew well. Black hair and black eyes. A lanky guy who was a little taller than he was. It was his friend. His buddy. He was terribly lethargic, and tired to the point of exhaustion. “What’re you trying to do, asking me to help with work and then falling asleep before me like that?”
“Huh… um, what’re you doing here, Ryner? I mean… shouldn’t you be—”
Ryner scowled and tapped Sion’s head a few times. “Hellooo? You still half-asleep?”
He gazed at Ryner’s face for a long moment. “Huh? Um, half-asleep?”
Then his situation fell into place into his mind.
Right. He had fallen asleep in the middle of working.
He had a lot to work on, so he dragged Ryner into it to make it less boring. They were on their fifth day without sleeping. And then, just when it seemed like they were about to finish…
“…I was really asleep?”
“Like a baby.”
“For how long?”
“For hours,” Ryner said.
“No way.”
“Seriously.”
“You’re seriously serious?”
“Man, you’re annoying,” Ryner said.
It was only then that Sion really felt like he woke up. His surroundings finally felt real.
But then. That meant.
“…It was all a dream.”
“Hm? A dream?” Ryner asked.
He nodded. “It was… it was like…”
“Hm.”
“It was…”
He meant to explain his dream to Ryner, but when he tried to gather his words to describe it, he realized that he didn’t really remember.
“Huh? I forgot.”
“Come on, what’s with you?” Ryner asked.
“No, really… I don’t remember. It was just…”
“Umm, hey. Sion.”
“Hm?”
“I’d feel gross listening to another man’s dream, you know.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “Ah… yeah. Right. You’re right.”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry.”
“Not something you gotta apologize for,” Ryner said. “So?”
“Huh? So what?”
Ryner shrugged. “The dream. Was it good? Or bad?”
He tried to remember it again. He couldn’t recall the contents, really. But he did know the answer to Ryner’s question. “I feel like it was a really bad dream.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“Then it’s a good thing I woke you up.”
He ended up smiling again. “Yeah. Thank you. You saved me.”
Ryner grinned in a mean-spirited way. “No, like… You were laughing all weird in your sleep and saying stuff like ‘yes, I’m surrounded by old ladies’ bras! This is a dream come true!’ and I didn’t know if waking you up was the right thing to do or not, you know~?”
“I really said that?”
“You sure did.”
“Oh, damn. You figured my fetish out.”
“It’s no fun if you don’t even deny it,” Ryner said.
“Ahaha.” He looked at the clock. It was six in the morning, so if Ryner was to be believed, he’d been asleep since two in the morning.
The deadline for his work today was nine. So he only had three hours.
“Alright, back to work.”
Ryner made a bored face and patted the stack of papers on his desk. “It’s all done. Head on over to your bed in the next room over and get some sleep.”
“Huh?” He looked up at Ryner’s face, then down to the stack of papers on his desk. The documents were taken care of, and the proposal was perfect. He looked back up at Ryner, who looked the same as always: tired, and a little apathetic. “Umm, did you do all this yourself?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“We didn’t have much time until the deadline, so I pretty much had to.”
“N, no, I mean… You could have woken me up—”
“Uuuughh, you’re such a paaaiin,” Ryner said. He’d averted his eyes. “I tried to get you up, but it didn’t work.”
That was a lie. The kind of obvious lie that anyone would figure out in seconds.
So he smiled again. So he felt like he was going to cry. So he felt happy.
It was such a small, stupid, insignifigant thing. It was amazing that it could make him feel like this. Despite his bad dream, his suffering and his despair, all it took was something this small…
It made everything go back to how it should be.
“Thank you,” he said.
Ryner scowled even harder.
So he laughed. “Thank you, Ryner.”
“Ughh, geez! Cut it out already! Go to bed!”
“I slept four hours, so let’s get back to work together.”
“I never got to sleeeeppp!!” Ryner cried.
It was the same situation as always with the same resolution as always.
So he laughed and laughed, to the point where tears would soon begin to prick at the corners of his eyes.
“……”
But then he realized that this was wrong.
This scene. This sight. It was already a thing of the past.
This was the dream he always had. He felt like he’d cry every time from his sadness. Every time his heart seemed to break in two. Because all of this had already ended. Even though he’d once thought that it’d continue for eternity, now it was gone and he’d never get it back.
Eternity didn’t really exist, after all.
It didn’t matter how much he screamed and cried for a little longer. Eternity would never fall into his hands.
Time moved on. The gears moved the world forward. The weight on his shoulders never left.
It was time. He had to wake up. The world was waiting. Reality was waiting. He had to open his eyes and wake up from this dream. He knew that. He knew it. But Ryner…
---
“…My heart feels like it’ll break in two,” Sion Astal said as he opened his eyes a second time.
He was crouched in the rain. It only ever seemed to get heavier.
He felt like he was crying. But maybe his tears had already dried up. He couldn’t tell what was the rain or his tears anymore…
Sion closed his eyes to stop his pointless tears. To stop the pointless rain.
The scene on the other side of his eyelids was no longer his warm dream. He couldn’t return to those times. He had to move forward. He had to make his choice and move forward.
“…I have to move forward.”
Sion opened his eyes and cast his golden eyes downwards.
Ryner was there, unconscious. His hair was soaking wet, as were his clothes. If he stayed here…
“…You’ll catch a cold,” Sion murmured. He took a second knife from his waist, and stared at his reflection on the blade as it was pelted by raindrops. His expression was empty.
“……”
But human. He still looked like a human being. He hadn’t been completely devoured yet. So if he did something now, it was by his own judgement. It would be his decision and no one else’s.
“……”
Sion gripped the knife hard, then lowered it gently, as gently as he could to Ryner’s neck.
All he had to do was push it in now. It wouldn’t take much strength at all, and then it’d be the end.
It’d be the end of his suffering.
And… Ryner would be saved.
“……”
Because… he couldn’t go on like this. If he continued to live, Ryner would be sacrificed to the monster and never die. He’d suffer in darkness, in agony, until the end of neverending time.
Sion had to kill him. He had to kill him here and now.
“…Kill him,” Sion told himself. He gripped the knife harder. “Kill him.”
He didn’t care what happened to the world. He didn’t care what happened to anyone or anything else.
If it would save his friend… if it would save his buddy—
“…I’ll kill him.”
His hand was shivering.
Just a little more. He only had to push his shivering hand a little closer. It’d end everything.
“……”
He looked at Ryner’s face and the memories he didn’t need to remember swirled in his mind. Even though it was raining, even though he was crying, he couldn’t stop thinking about their memories together.
When they first met, the first time he saw Ryner smile.
Countless unnecessary memories swirled around in his mind.
His lethargic face. His sleepy face. His unmotivated face. His annoying face.
Ryner had said something with that annoying face. He said, ‘it wasn’t a pipe dream after all.’
He said, ‘you’ve done enough already.’ Even though he didn’t actually know anything.
What was Sion doing? This was a terrible betrayal, and Ryner hadn’t suspected it at all. Because he didn’t know anything. But he still said that he wouldn’t give up on Sion. He said that they’d go together, and that he’d pull Sion out from the darkness.
He always made that face like everything was a pain. He always made that sleepy face. He always made that annoying face. But in the end, he had the nerve to smile.
So… So that was why Sion…
“I’ll save…”
It was raining. He pressed the knife to Ryner’s throat.
“I’ll save you… from the darkness…”
But… he couldn’t cut the knife through Ryner’s life.
Sion gazed into Ryner’s sleeping face. His buddy’s face. He lost conciousness with such a stupid expression.
Sion smiled sadly and pulled the knife away, then dropped it onto the pavement where it made an audible clink against the hard ground. But Ryner didn’t open his eyes. He just slept with that stupid happy expression on his face. It was a stupid, relaxed, anxiety-free expression.
He’d been the same when they first met. Even then, he was constantly sleepy and never had the motivation for anything.
Sion smiled sadly, endeared. Then he stood. “Ah, shit… It’s your win. I can’t kill him.”
A voice answered from inside his mind. “Nobody won… I’m you, after all.”
“…Haha,” Sion laughed at himself. But it sounded an awful lot like a sob. “Right. I’m you.”
“I’m… we’re… incredibly weak…”
“Yeah. But we still move forward.”
“Do we still betray our friend?”
“……”
“Do we offer our friend up as sacrifice and betray him?”
“……”
“Do we sacrifice our friend and move forward to hell?”
“…Yeah.”
“I can’t bear that.”
“Yeah.”
“And yet… I can’t bear killing Ryner, either… I’m a weakling who can’t save him.”
“You did your best.”
“…Don’t kid yourself.”
“Don’t blame yourself.”
“…Don’t kid yourself.”
“Your choice wasn’t wr—”
“Don’t kid yourself! What do you understand!? What do you really understand!?” Sion yelled to the rain.
His heart was going to break. It’d really break at this rate. The despair would squeeze it open and the darkness would suck it up.
It was useless. Useless.
“…I just want to disappear,” Sion said.
“I see,” the voice said. He sounded sad.
“…Devour me. Let me disappear. I hand my heart… to you.”
“Okay. I understand. It’ll be okay. You won’t have to worry about anything anymore. I’ll… I’ll deal with the rest.”
“…Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Just disappear.”
Sion nodded and closed his eyes.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
Sion opened his eyes. He’d eaten his way out of their heart through his sadness.
Outside was the neverending sound of rain and the sight of dark.
He looked down.
There lay his ally. His friend. His buddy. The sacrifice. Despair.
Sion pressed a hand to his aching chest at the sight of despair. The darkness was squeezing his heart. He wanted to cry. He felt like he’d throw up. He wanted to scream.
Save him, save him, save him.
Someone, please. Release him from this pain and sadness.
He wanted to scream that to whoever would listen.
But even so…
“…I’m going to move forward,” he said to his other self, who’d already disappeared. His other self who dreamed his naive and sad dream. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I’m going to move forward…”
He took a step into the torrential rain and darkness. Then he stopped for a second and looked back.
“…We won’t… we won’t meet again, but… I’m glad that your face is the last thing I saw, Ryner,” he whispered.
Ryner didn’t open his eyes. He just lay there, pelted by rain, a content expression on his sleeping face.
Sion smiled. He couldn’t help but feel happy at the sight.
“…See you.”
He didn’t look back a second time. If he did, his heart would waver.
“……”
So he didn’t.
---
And so he repainted the world.
