Editing Sion Note:Vol 7 (section)

===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.

<!--9-->
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.

<!--10-->
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?"

<!--11-->
"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?"

<!--12-->
"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—

<!--13-->
"..."

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.

<!--14-->
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?"

<!--15-->
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."

<!--16-->
"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.

<!--17-->
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.

<!--18-->
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.

<!--19-->
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.


<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Sion Note:Vol 6|Vol. 6]]
| Return to [[Densetsu_no_Yūsha_no_Densetsu#Sion Note|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Sion Note:Vol 8|Vol. 8]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>