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stainedglassreflectionsAsruld Roland + Sion Astal History
To fully explain Sion Astal, I unfortunately have to explain Menoris (the continent/world) and The Fallen Black Hero/Mad Hero with the Lonesome Demon . Using the timeline of events would be easier- (Particularly because Mad Hero/Fallen Black Hero is now a part of Sion Astal-)I am sorry, so sorry, it is going to take a while
So. Before there were humans, there was the land of Goddesses. Goddesses were beings of either gender that existed in varying stages of hunger and greed, which were associated with their power levels. They pretty much existed, spawning in massive numbers, across the back of the dead god Menoris.
Asruld was a particular goddess who was enjoying his normal feeding existence when all of the sudden, he produced a second consciousness(described as a pitch black consciousness) that immediately turned around and devoured the original. This consciousness examined its existence (and came to the conclusion it was destruction), then inspected the world and found that it suited its existence. Before the consciousness (which will be referred to as Asruld Roland to prevent confusion) can start in on this urge to destroy, a Goddess confronts him on his lack of interest in eating. Unsurprisingly, since the consciousness rewrote the Goddess urges (eat, eat, eat-) with other ones (destroy, destroy, destroy-), he wasn't hungry. This provoked the goddess to attack him, where Asruld resisted with power alien to that of the goddess. Somehow, this resulted in this goddess—called Milk, Goddess of Regeneration—protecting him from a goddess he couldn't yet defeat.
Milk had decided, since Asruld was no longer her reproductive partner, that meant he had another partner somewhere else. Another goddess of some strength had mentioned that "mad Goddesses, Goddesses that attack other Goddesses, happen once in a while", which implies that there was some system for trying to keep the Goddess population in check. Milk brings up that there is something hated to the south, something that isn't a Goddess, and that maybe that is what Asruld is supposed to be comrades with. Something called Ryner Eris Reed.
It takes them 220 years or so to reach the south where Milk is sure that this being—Ryner Eris Reed—is, and this marks Asruld out as no longer being a Goddess. Unlike Milk, he has grown from being a boy in shape to that of a young man, one with golden eyes and long silver hair. He had grown in power, as well, as his travels included his objective—destruction of Goddesses. Further proof of Asruld's odd evolution is that he does not have the residual memory-sharing that Goddesses have—even rogue ones like Milk. She is able to point him out to exactly which 'prison' has Ryner Eris Reed, simply because the other points have information on which Goddess was sealed where. She claims that this Ryner Eris Reed has to be something to him, because around the same time as Asruld deviated, a source less rumor started about how there was a despised monster in the south called Ryner Eris Reed.
Asruld called bullshit, and Milk told him that he was going to go meet Ryner Eris Reed one way or another—of his own free will, or because she, and the Goddesses she just summoned, banished him into the same odd dimensional space. Asruld ends up badly injured—some of the Goddesses that Milk summoned were able to not only withstand his swords, but throw them back and injure him with them. He did kill some, but he was losing strength because of his injuries.
Milk uses one of his swords, and breaks into the bubble that held Ryner Eris Reed, claiming that because it worked, he wasn't supposed to die. Asruld is thrown into the prison that held the Lonesome Demon, although he manages to catch onto the crack and not fall completely in. Its here that we understand that he is covered in black armor*, and that his blood is golden. (Before they made it here, the last mention of his blood was that it was red….) Asruld seems to have a form of bloodlust or battle-rage, as he's senselessly shouting that he'll kill everything, he can't die yet, and he is destruction all the while he's bleeding and slowly dying. The Lonesome Demon studies him while Asruld continues to launch futile attacks at him, and comes to the conclusion that Asruld can't turn off his desire to destroy. So to prevent his new companion from dying, Ryner Eris Reed made him fall asleep.
So when Asruld wakes later, remembering nothing of his harsh words and attacks previously, exactly 178 years and 42 days later (The Lonesome Demon was bored, okay.), he thought about a few things, and decided that it didn't matter that the Lonesome Demon wasn't a Goddess, he was supposed to destroy everything. But at the same time, even if the creature was mad, Asruld was considered to be a Mad Goddess, so he doesn't mind being around him anyway. Well, doesn't mind being around him until he can tell if he can kill him or not. Lonesome Demon spends time inspecting him, despite Asruld deciding that yes, he could kill this creature. Only it turns out that the Lonesome Demon is so powerful, that even when Asruld has a blade imbedded in the demon's eye and skull, he can't kill him.
This causes Asruld to have a breakdown. He found something he can't kill, he can't destroy. This renders his existence as meaningless. Ryner Eris Reed explains exactly why this is—Asruld was created to cut down the numbers of Goddesses, then a Goddess who was stronger would cause Asruld to lose his meaning to live. While the Lonesome Demon wasn't a Goddess, he was most definitely far too powerful to die by Asruld's hand if the Lonesome Demon didn't want to die. The Lonesome Demon decided that, for his first and only friend, he would split himself and his power into half, and give half to Asruld. The Demon couldn't change his existence, but he could give meaning back to Asruld's life. Asruld questions this choice, but doesn't understand the reasoning, and complies with the Demon's wish.
As a result, he understood the motivation of that half of the Lonesome Demon—of the Ryner half. He understood the feelings of loneliness that prompted the Demon to act as he had—although that changed because the Ryner half was integrated into who Asruld was. He gained the emotions that Ryner-half (Ryner Reed, 'Lonesome') held, even if he didn't know if they were what Ryner Reed felt, or his own. This changes Asruld's power—he can now make use of Ryner Reed's to see, understand, and destroy the formulas and equations of the world—and results in the Ferris Eris-half(Eris Reed, 'Demon'), which takes the form of a woman.
While Asruld had devoured Ryner Reed, that didn't mean that it was gone. (they're sort of like this now) Ryner Reed continues to prompt him into looking at things differently, or guiding him into the uses of his new powers. Asruld changes the existence of his black swords—once only able to destroy two hundred million Goddesses, then running out of power, and being unable to destroy the being known as Worshiper, which created both Goddesses and Asruld—and turned them into something that could cut anything, and kill any number of Goddesses. These swords were thus altered from black to darker than black, darker than shadow, black enough that it can't be seen.
And so Asruld used his sword with the power to cut anything to return to the world of the Goddesses, where he and Eris Reed proceeded to draw attention of Goddess, and kill them. Eris Reed creates a sword, calling it Eris Reed as most of the Eris-half's existence became that sword. Asruld proceeded to simply command his sword into killing a great amount of Goddesses—using words such as Shatter, collapse, destroy. Thousands of Goddesses fell to a weapon they couldn't see, while Eris Reed commented on how the world was unnatural. Asruld was incapable of understanding why the world was odd, as Eris Reed stated.
Milk returns, and informs them it has been 180 years have gone by since Asruld was locked away. She and Eris Reed agree that Asruld has begun changing, as Ryner Reed has begun being one with Asruld, and that changes the personality. Milk refers to Asruld as "a different 'hero' who is warm" at this point, but any further talk is interrupted by all the Goddesses making use of magic, the power of all of them, willing or not, to make a magic. Destroying this magic is interrupted by something different than Asruld, than the Goddesses, than the Lonesome Demon, and they are allowed to see what that magic had born.
It had created Human. These Human had enough power to prevent the Hero from entering their dimension, and Asruld couldn't analyze them. This caused a great problem, as Human multiplied in their other, unreachable universe, their power bound Ryner Reed and Asruld. They studied the magic, and found further that Human was complicated, simple, complete and incomplete. Human multiplied due to Love, which looked to be frail, simple, pure, easily destroyed, but deceptively resilient, which Ryner Reed was unable to analyze further than to Joy, Mad, Sad, Care, Despair, which were indecipherable as well. This Humanmagic eroded the world around Asruld and Ryner Reed, trapping them and Eris Reed in a new dimensional void.
This point of sealing had Asruld completely immobile, incapable of outward speech, even as Eris Reed was trapped with them. Asruld was, well, if he could move, would be trembling in fear. He couldn't move, which prevented any ability to lash out. Ryner-half spends a long time studying human—One thousand, two thousand years?—and eventually comes to a plan.
To counter Human, they can use Love, but the problem with that none of them understand what that thing called Love is. Asruld knows Destruction, Ryner Eris Reed knows Loneliness, how can they know and understand Love? It takes Ryner Reed a great deal longer to come up with a solution.
They would make an eroding magic, one that will link with all Human, and the magic will have Love. Because it has Love, it will be sad, because Human is pretty (according to Ryner Reed). This magic would be sad, lonely, and affect them as well as Human. It would infect them with Love.
Asruld didn't understand this, these other emotions, and thus just insists that Ryner Reed implement this magic. They would be infected by Love, they would learn all of these feelings and be influenced by them. They may crumble from it. Asruld still doesn't care, because at that moment, he doesn't have the capacity to do so. This magic was called Human α.
With the magic of Human α, the Lonesome Demon and the Hero were mixed into the dimension that held Human. They were born, with some of the knowledge that came with being mature in their respective races, infecting with touch, spreading Love to the Human. And then Human α died. (babies)
A thousand years passed, the world reset and restarted, and Human α was born again. And died, again. It would repeat – at least twice more - —the Human α had no set appearance or pattern—it could be a female, a male, a different personality, but once conditions were met, it would inherit Asruld and become Human α. This Human α would seek love, then people who gave love would be considered enemies of the world, as they would be supporting Human α and thus going against Human and the Goddesses. With the world hating him and those who followed him, Human α would construct a country, which would hold the Love, even if Asruld died. The line of kings became the line most susceptible to becoming Asruld, and they would slowly build up the Love needed to overthrow the magic of the Goddesses.
These Human α don't realize the plan, they hear the voice and the command of the God that controlled them—which is the Hero, the Demon—at first, the command and urge were simply progress, grow, gain the world. However once that was accomplished, the order changed. Come, devour all the things you love, complete this magic. Destroy the magic of the Goddesses. The Human α's consciousness was stained black—and he followed the command. It's heavily implied that this isn't physical cannibalism, but some sort of spiritual one, which resulted in a huge magical formation in the sky, all but erasing Human. This caused despair in this Human α—he didn't live to make all these friends and then kill them. But the God controlling him didn't care—the Humans were a kind of magical formation to them. Eventually, all there was left was his wife, the form that held the half of the Lonesome Demon known as Ryner. In order to complete the magic, he would have to continue, and devour her.
This one couldn't. The pair had a little insight before the end—that they would reincarnate, and have the same choice. And indeed they did—the birth of the Human α (the Mad Hero) would come the parts of the Lonesome Demon. The world was destroyed and reconstructed... and the next Human α was unable to. Destroyed and reconstructed... and was also unable to.
The time before the setting of The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, once again, the Human α, also a Sion, reached the end with his friend, Ryner. This incarnation of the Hero showed great amounts of guilt, and he was able to devour this Ryner. However, this world cycle didn't have enough power—they didn't have enough power to 'win'. Instead, this cycle ends in a curse. A curse to mar the plans of those Gods that dictated what they did.
And then the world reset.
Sion Astal was born the son of the king by a commoner. He lived with his mother, but was constantly beaten up by his half-brothers—sons of the king who were by noble women. When he was young, his mother committed suicide (possibly by poison, reads like she sort of wasted away toward the end), and his half-siblings helpfully provided him with a dead dog to accompany that "dirty mother dog" to the other side.
What he does between the death of his mother and when he reaches the academy at 17 isn't known, other than he survived many assassination attempts.
At 17, he is part of Roland Special Academy that trains the children of criminals or peasants to take the front ranks of the army so that the children of nobility don't have to. Here, Sion was top of his class, and spread his influence, slowly gaining competent people to help him in his goal—fix the corrupt nature of this country and its incompetent, warmonger of a king. It is within this academy that he meets Ryner Lute, a lazy slacker of a boy who held the title of Roland's Strongest Magician at 13, and was also the bearer of the magic eyes known as Alpha Stigma. Ignoring the danger everyone points out—Alpha Stigma bearers are monsters, they go berserk and kill and are terribly dangerous—he seeks to add Ryner to those who follow and support him, wanting to make use of the Most Deadly Magician's strength, regardless of his chance of blowing up the surrounding countryside by going insane. As Ryner is as lazy as he is, Sion resorts to blackmail.
After succeeding at an improbably quick mission complete, Sion takes his school class out for some illegal celebratory drinking (Drinking age in Roland is 22, no one at this academy is over 19...). After drugging the rest to sleep, he chats with Ryner and finally gains him as a friend. This moment is broken up as Sion is targeted by some highly skilled assassins. Ryner shows a remarkable lack of care, leaving Sion to fend for himself, and Sion ends up saved by Ferris Eris (although after he manages to seriously injure one and temporarily disable a second-). The Eris family is called a 'Sword Clan', and is generally known to be a group of insanely skilled warriors that serve the crown, but as Ferris was ordered to help Sion, Sion makes use of the family to discover exactly who is behind all the assassins. He does this without saying he is a common-born prince, because that's just how he rolls. The result of this is the start of his acclimation to sleep deprivation; Iris and Ferris begin guarding him in his sleep—which usually includes eating dango in his ceiling.
Despite all hopes, there ends up being war with the southern country of Estabul. All the students are shipped out, and with Sion's connections, he's able to send all his friends with him to a place far enough away that they shouldn't be involved in any fighting. Only this is Sion Astal's life, the one constantly hunted by his powerful half siblings. Those siblings lured 50 Estabulian Magic Knights (soldiers who are near universally extra-crazy, as well as stronger than the rest) into this plain in order to kill Sion, using a Estabul spy that had been caught and turned into a double agent some years before.
This doesn't happen, because there is an Alpha Stigma there. Ryner Lute kills the 50 knights, as they decided to play Poke The Monster, and near purposefully enraged him. Sion and his remaining classmate, Keifer, are nearly killed by Ryner, but a mumbled phrase from the Alpha Stigma has Sion realizing how to calm him down—close his eyes.
Roland's magic knights are sent to the area to kill off the Estabul Magic Knights, only to find that three teenagers remain. Sion, guessing that they were going to kill them, just to claim there were no survivors, as those Magic Knights wouldn't have been there but for a trap, attempts to take down the leader. He is only a student, however, and is easily defeated—but able to strike up a truce. Sion is named Hero, the one who orchestrated the defeat of the Estabul magic knights. Sion tries to prevent this, but Ryner is locked away in return for Keifer being released, as Keifer was their double agent who didn't perform as wanted.
Shortly after this, Lucile invites him to House Eris, where he tells Sion that he has a few questions, but before he gets started, he has to agree to a condition—if Lucile doesn't like any of Sion's answers, Sion will be killed on the spot. Lucile reminds Sion that this is house Eris, the clan that judges and protects Kings, and Sion agrees. Lucile proceeds to test Sion—having him walk down a hallway that tests him (this hallway had Lucile crying tears of blood, when it was testing him-). Eventually, Sion reaches the point where he can lay claim to the Mad Hero's power, and he does so. This is the point where Sion takes in the Mad Hero's consciousness and memories, and gains a few of Lucile's. But he passes, and Lucile vows to guard him and serve him.
The rest of the events between gaining the Hero and becoming king are vague—he gains allies, he fights a duke who ought to be dead named Lieral (he and Lucile lose miserably), he accidentally starts war early, and he sets himself up as an orphan by introducing the king to a dagger several times. Sion gaining the throne happens within a year of Ryner being released.
Either way, two years after acquiring the Mad Hero, Sion sits on the throne. After making a late night visit to see exactly what Ryner is up to, he has Ryner scheduled for execution, given a day of pampering, then acquired by Ferris. Meeting with the other two, he tells them what they will be doing—heading out to find artifacts known as Hero Relics—objects of destruction, for a lack of greater term, with the intent of setting up a magical Cold War. No one would attack a country with these Hero Relics, after all. Ferris is to go with him, to ensure Ryner does as he is told, and the pair head out (after some casual trolling and bullying.) Some time prior to freeing Ryner but after gaining the throne, Sion tricks a boy into believing he is an assassin, as the boy is trying to kill a noble to save his sister. After helping the boy figure out options, he reveals to Fiole that he is the king, and then hires him as a secretary. They manage to recover Eslina, Fiole's sister, even if the noble's actions won't change due to Sion's current lack of power.
While the two are out traveling, Sion spends the time fixing Roland's interior—growing his own power over the corrupt nobility and generally doing his best to thwart them. This does have ramifications—his commoner secretary is (messily) murdered as a warning after Sion saved the boy's sister. There are continued assassination attempts and personal jabs.
Despite this, he still moves forward ; he promotes Milk Callaude to the Taboo Breaker Squad, and gives her the job of hunting after a taboo breaker who recently left Roland. He neglects to mention that this Taboo Breaker is Ryner Lute, that he isn't a Taboo Breaker at all, and that he knows that she knows Ryner from childhood(same "orphanage"). He does give more information to her second in command, having known Luke Stokkart (Luke was part of his rebellion) longer, but mostly this is a mixture of 'for amusement' and 'keep track of where Ryner is'.
Miran Froaude joins him—another of the adopted children that is a custom among Roland Nobility—with the intention of acting as Sion's 'Master Assassin'—doing the things that Sion needs done, but cannot dare do openly, as Sion must be a beacon of light. Sion agrees to this, and when they take a trap-like trip to Nelpha, the northern country where Ryner and Ferris are, Froaude's job is to uncover the plot to kill Sion—and remove it. Miran proceeds to ensure that Sion is able to conquer and control every land he sets his mind to—as Miran is quite certain that is what Sion intends to do.
He isn't far off—this is why Sion doesn't reprimand him terribly for instigating rebellion in Estabul. Sion is aware that Miran is a bloodthirsty creature, with little to no morals, and instead assigns Major-General Claugh Klom to lead crushing the rebellion, as Klom is much more likely to kill a few rather than all. This still weighs heavily on him, sending a friend out to kill. This prevents a bloodbath—or just prevents one as extreme as Miran would have implemented—and gains him the support of Noa Ehn, the princess of Estabul. During these events, he sends Iris to Ryner and Ferris with a warning to not investigate the dragon they accidentally unleashed. Shortly after this, some pressure to provide a heir is pushed on Sion by his subordinates.
Of course, Ryner and Ferris didn't listen—due to problems with receiving the message—and shortly after this report was returned, news of Gastark's movements reached Sion. The rest of the continent was gearing toward war, and Roland was unstable internally, incapable to grow power to be able to stand on its own. He's offered a plan; play nice with the nobles, give them all that they want, and when they gather in one place, kill the lot of them (naturally, this plan came from Miran). Around the same time, nobles try to assassinate Noa Ehn, to rekindle the war between Estabul and Roland, which pushes Sion into making a move. (Ryner and Ferris are saving Arua)
Instead of letting the nobles get what they want, luring them in with false promises, he purposefully antagonizes them. All of his trusted subordinates got promotions, which was coincidentally no noble who held anti-king opinions. Gastark was moving, he needed to secure his country, and while his nobles didn't like it, they were part of his country. If they wouldn't listen to him, when he needed the authority, then he would have to remove them to keep the authority. If they would follow him, they would be forgiven. If they rebelled, they would be purged. His argument is sound—they need the unity—and so his comrades agree. He would sacrifice the least possible to gain the largest effect. His subordinates re-pledge themselves to him.
The result wasn't what Sion expected—the nobles were all but silent, and hundreds of capable people jumped out of the woodwork. His promotions had been based off of merit, not blood, and that enabled plenty of people to decide they didn't need to hide how far they could go from a noble. Sion was uneasy about the nobilities silence. It didn't last long, but it also resulted in more or less what he expected—the nobles in the lands of Miran's family were starting to make a fuss. Which was, of course, all according to plan. Miran enacts the expected purge of all of the anti-king nobles, which had been gathered there, but runs into a pink haired man with a similar artifact and powers. The result is a burnt down mansion, as the pink haired man moves on to try to target Sion.
This doesn't work out—Lucile is more than a match for the attempt, and sends the man running with a warning to his boss. He leaves Sion with some creepy words, as is his habit—if Sion ever runs out of power, or fails at being a king, he will die. Lucile will kill him, and put a new king on the throne, simple as that.
Once Claugh and Miran returned, they discussed what had happened. It was unlikely that the pink haired man had come from a neighboring country, and far more likely he was from the north—such as Gastark. The loss of the anti-king nobles was something Sion still didn't like, but he also didn't know the powerful noble who had been helping one of the more antagonistic ones. With few of these powerful nobles left within the country, suspicions are cast outside the borders.
Sion pardons the remainder of the Anti-King Nobles, and Froaude cheerfully informs them it wasn't Sion's orders, when they start acting snippy, deflecting darkness from Sion's public image. Miran inspects Runa, while Claugh is sent to further stabilize Estabul with the aid of Noa, because they need the military to be solidly blended and on Sion's side. The Spear Clan returns, lead by Tiilnawest Silwelt, who had known Lucile before the Spear House was banished by the previous king. As the Silwelt household doesn't know magic, but is strong enough to try for Lucile's strength, Sion feels comfortable sending them out to spy on Gastark.
It turns out that Gastark has allied with Runa—although through threats—nullifying a longstanding truce between Roland and Runa. News that Gastark has some terribly destructive, unknown magic reaches them—which they take, correctly, that Gastark has some sort of Hero Relic. Sion doesn't like the idea of a mad scrabble between countries to get Hero Relics.
Sion spends some time reflecting on his helpessness – he is the king, yet this mad world is fighting his goals. This infuriates him—he's gotten this far only to be repeatedly shown that even with the power he's gained, his dreams are still impossible. It doesn't mean he will give up, though. He will find another way. He heads to actually try to sleep for once.
After dodging assassination via book, there he finds that Ryner has returned and made himself at home in his bed. He proceeds to spend a lovely evening with his friends—mostly laughing and not helping any incorrect assumptions about his and Ryner's relationship—basically relaxing and laughing like the 19 year old he is. Sion then blackmails him into taking one of two choices—escorting him to Estabul, or paperwork. Ryner takes the third option of visiting an Alpha Stigma child he rescued at house Eris, which Sion expected, but didn't completely expect that Ferris and Ryner would plot to run off together rather than work as guards for Sion.
However, the next morning it is revealed that Ryner had left without either of them. Ferris comes to Sion's office in search, while Sion is trying to figure out who should be put in charge of Roland while he is visiting Estabul.
While Ferris is relaying this, Sion thinks on why Ryner would vanish. However, before any true structure can be made to the plan to locate Ryner, news reaches Sion that an Alpha Stigma bearer of odd strength has been sighted rampaging in the Estabul-territories. Claugh Klom sent the report, indicating he was heading out to deal with the menace, and so Sion intends to join him there with even more men. It can't be Ryner, because the date was well before Ryner vanished, and Sion wanted to prevent the death of this supposed Alpha Stigma bearer, because they could provide clues as to why Ryner's was odd.
Before Sion can get there, Claugh confronts this Alpha Stigma bearer, and loses his arm. Using information from Klom about the movements of this particular Alpha Stigma bearer—who really isn't an Alpha Stigma bearer at all, but an Iino Doue bearer, as the symbol in his eyes are that of a cross, but Roland and Estabul don't know that much about Magic Eyes—Sion produces a plan to subdue or kill the fellow. Use magic, and he gets stronger and faster. Get within reach, and die. So Sion pulls on history and outfits the army with bows—weapons that hadn't been used in a hundred or more years—as they are non-magical, physical attacks from a distance. However, when he catches up with Tiir (The Iino Doue bearer), the man has already talked to Ryner, and his words ring true. After teasing Ryner a little, Sion attempts to talk down Tiir. He unfortunately helps Tiir with his persuasion of Ryner by telling his army to kill the monster. Ryner leaves with Tiir.
Sion returns to Roland, where he is hailed as a hero, again, for getting rid of the "Alpha Stigma Monster". Meanwhile, he is tormented by guilt, and a little by the Mad Hero. While Ryner and Ferris were away, Sion struggled to reform Roland further, and struggled to deal with his guilt. Luke Stokkart returns with news that Ryner is returning of his own free will, and through him, they can form an alliance of convenience with the God's Eye group, which is decidedly anti-Gastark. This would give Roland the edge it needs. Sion is still guilt-ridden, as he is aware of what he must do to Ryner in order to save the world. Lucile comments that it would have been better if Ryner had died, which Sion rejects—rejecting both that it should have happened, and that anyone should kill him, causing the swordsman to claim that Sion was taking the harder, crueler path. He also, for the first time, refers to Sion as 'my hero'.
Crueler path is because any path that Sion Astal takes will be cruel on some level. It is for this reason that he resumes Human Experimentation, to bolster his army to be able to handle the rest of the countries. That even though he severely disliked the purge, nobles were still disappearing and Miran none the wiser.
When Ryner and Ferris return to Roland, Sion greets them with a room full of paperwork, a door they cannot open, and an angry tirade about only coming back so they can have him do things for them. After spending at least a full day with them and paper, this is enough time spent awake for Sion that he has unwilling naps—sitting in his chair and pen in hand, even.
His internal conflict over Ryner prompts Miran into his first voiced intent of disobedience, which in turn has Sion making a purposeful use of Hero abilities to show him 'the truth of Menoris'. This is interrupted by Leiral, and thus exposes Lucile to Miran for the first time. After this, Sion grows weak for a bit, and coughs golden blood.
It is sometime after the start of human experimentation that Sion is targeted by an assassin that Ryner once knew. Due to Lucile, the assassin's attempts fall flat, but the conversation with the captured Zohra awakens the Mad Hero to the point he talks through Sion and discovers the golden blood. Sion is able to convince Ryner that he has not started human experimentation, but that nobles under his name have. And sometime during Sion's keeping of Ryner about that Count Klausberr attempts to repeat the death of Fiole – only by targeting Ryner. Sion doesn't take kindly to it, but he also doesn't kill the count. Just threaten the whole room.
Sion and Sion argue—which will be able to implement their plan, which plan even had a chance of working—which would save Ryner. Turns out the poor guy has kinda split into "emotion" and "logic" Sions. At this point, his golden blood is visible even in his veins.
"Emotion" Sion convinces "Logic" Sion that he can save Ryner, save him from an eternity of wandering in torment—which wouldn't have been a problem, except the previous Cycle cursed the world. "Logic" Sion assumes the passive role in the body, allowing the other to try to save Ryner. (They're both Sion, after all, Lucile seems the only one to have a vague idea something is up.)
Sion reclaims Ryner and Ferris for another four days straight of paperwork—having them inspect each and every proposition to prevent the occurrence of anything remotely party-like, as Sion's 20th is within the week. Although Ryner escapes after a chase around the desk damages some of Ferris' dango, a torture and assassination festival is allowed—likely because who would make that event into a birthday celebration.**
He underestimates his subordinates. Within the week, they have caught onto his plans to avoid an extravagant party, and thus run his carriage down in order to carry him back to the capital for a birthday party. Due to the influence of the adoring masses, Asruld lights off the fireworks—casting a spell toward a light to signal that they should start.**
In the middle of the party, Sion leaves to bring Ryner home, as the man was out in the woods producing said fireworks via magic. This magic has the result of a heavy rainstorm, so the king and his carriage are well received. They make a pitstop to the balcony where Sion and Ryner first talked of altering Roland.**
And they talk of it again—mostly about how Sion feels its an empty dream, and Ryner disagrees—he knows that Sion spends so much time working himself to the bone out of guilt, and he shouldn't think the dream is empty, because he has managed to change Roland greatly, change the world greatly, and that he doesn't need to bear anything alone, because he has friends and subordinates to help him. Sion wishes it was so, that he could share burdens, and that he had really managed to change the way the world works in a significant fashion.
Because the thing he is most wanting to change hadn't. Something that no one else could do.
Like that if he didn't kill Ryner now, Ryner would be doomed to eternal torment. Which is why Sion tries his best—using those human experiments to level the playing field—to kill Ryner. All it does is destroy a courtyard, neither managing to seriously injure the other (Sion has a broken hand, Ryner a burned shoulder), until Sion slips more into Mad Hero—actually awakening the Mad Hero. Ryner attempts to attack him with magic - but Sion was enough Asruld at the moment he could erase the spell with Sword. Ryner abruptly doesn't remember what that spell even was, because it was completely erased from the world.
Ryner's mother stops Asruld, mostly through words to Lucile—the Weaver of All Formulas, or the Demon half of the Lonesome Demon.
Sion wakes in his office, from a nap at his desk. Ryner complains that he couldn't wake him for four hours. Sion comments that he must have had a horrible nightmare, but its fading, and finds that Ryner had done all the paperwork left for the day.
He has the feeling that there's something that feels off about this situation...
**This is the events of the Anime. The light novels have a different event set for Sion's birthday, however it hasn't been translated. Sion isn't likely to remember much other than it happened, and it was embarrassing regardless.
To fully explain Sion Astal, I unfortunately have to explain Menoris (the continent/world) and The Fallen Black Hero/Mad Hero with the Lonesome Demon . Using the timeline of events would be easier- (Particularly because Mad Hero/Fallen Black Hero is now a part of Sion Astal-)
So. Before there were humans, there was the land of Goddesses. Goddesses were beings of either gender that existed in varying stages of hunger and greed, which were associated with their power levels. They pretty much existed, spawning in massive numbers, across the back of the dead god Menoris.
Asruld was a particular goddess who was enjoying his normal feeding existence when all of the sudden, he produced a second consciousness(described as a pitch black consciousness) that immediately turned around and devoured the original. This consciousness examined its existence (and came to the conclusion it was destruction), then inspected the world and found that it suited its existence. Before the consciousness (which will be referred to as Asruld Roland to prevent confusion) can start in on this urge to destroy, a Goddess confronts him on his lack of interest in eating. Unsurprisingly, since the consciousness rewrote the Goddess urges (eat, eat, eat-) with other ones (destroy, destroy, destroy-), he wasn't hungry. This provoked the goddess to attack him, where Asruld resisted with power alien to that of the goddess. Somehow, this resulted in this goddess—called Milk, Goddess of Regeneration—protecting him from a goddess he couldn't yet defeat.
Milk had decided, since Asruld was no longer her reproductive partner, that meant he had another partner somewhere else. Another goddess of some strength had mentioned that "mad Goddesses, Goddesses that attack other Goddesses, happen once in a while", which implies that there was some system for trying to keep the Goddess population in check. Milk brings up that there is something hated to the south, something that isn't a Goddess, and that maybe that is what Asruld is supposed to be comrades with. Something called Ryner Eris Reed.
It takes them 220 years or so to reach the south where Milk is sure that this being—Ryner Eris Reed—is, and this marks Asruld out as no longer being a Goddess. Unlike Milk, he has grown from being a boy in shape to that of a young man, one with golden eyes and long silver hair. He had grown in power, as well, as his travels included his objective—destruction of Goddesses. Further proof of Asruld's odd evolution is that he does not have the residual memory-sharing that Goddesses have—even rogue ones like Milk. She is able to point him out to exactly which 'prison' has Ryner Eris Reed, simply because the other points have information on which Goddess was sealed where. She claims that this Ryner Eris Reed has to be something to him, because around the same time as Asruld deviated, a source less rumor started about how there was a despised monster in the south called Ryner Eris Reed.
Asruld called bullshit, and Milk told him that he was going to go meet Ryner Eris Reed one way or another—of his own free will, or because she, and the Goddesses she just summoned, banished him into the same odd dimensional space. Asruld ends up badly injured—some of the Goddesses that Milk summoned were able to not only withstand his swords, but throw them back and injure him with them. He did kill some, but he was losing strength because of his injuries.
Milk uses one of his swords, and breaks into the bubble that held Ryner Eris Reed, claiming that because it worked, he wasn't supposed to die. Asruld is thrown into the prison that held the Lonesome Demon, although he manages to catch onto the crack and not fall completely in. Its here that we understand that he is covered in black armor*, and that his blood is golden. (Before they made it here, the last mention of his blood was that it was red….) Asruld seems to have a form of bloodlust or battle-rage, as he's senselessly shouting that he'll kill everything, he can't die yet, and he is destruction all the while he's bleeding and slowly dying. The Lonesome Demon studies him while Asruld continues to launch futile attacks at him, and comes to the conclusion that Asruld can't turn off his desire to destroy. So to prevent his new companion from dying, Ryner Eris Reed made him fall asleep.
So when Asruld wakes later, remembering nothing of his harsh words and attacks previously, exactly 178 years and 42 days later (The Lonesome Demon was bored, okay.), he thought about a few things, and decided that it didn't matter that the Lonesome Demon wasn't a Goddess, he was supposed to destroy everything. But at the same time, even if the creature was mad, Asruld was considered to be a Mad Goddess, so he doesn't mind being around him anyway. Well, doesn't mind being around him until he can tell if he can kill him or not. Lonesome Demon spends time inspecting him, despite Asruld deciding that yes, he could kill this creature. Only it turns out that the Lonesome Demon is so powerful, that even when Asruld has a blade imbedded in the demon's eye and skull, he can't kill him.
This causes Asruld to have a breakdown. He found something he can't kill, he can't destroy. This renders his existence as meaningless. Ryner Eris Reed explains exactly why this is—Asruld was created to cut down the numbers of Goddesses, then a Goddess who was stronger would cause Asruld to lose his meaning to live. While the Lonesome Demon wasn't a Goddess, he was most definitely far too powerful to die by Asruld's hand if the Lonesome Demon didn't want to die. The Lonesome Demon decided that, for his first and only friend, he would split himself and his power into half, and give half to Asruld. The Demon couldn't change his existence, but he could give meaning back to Asruld's life. Asruld questions this choice, but doesn't understand the reasoning, and complies with the Demon's wish.
As a result, he understood the motivation of that half of the Lonesome Demon—of the Ryner half. He understood the feelings of loneliness that prompted the Demon to act as he had—although that changed because the Ryner half was integrated into who Asruld was. He gained the emotions that Ryner-half (Ryner Reed, 'Lonesome') held, even if he didn't know if they were what Ryner Reed felt, or his own. This changes Asruld's power—he can now make use of Ryner Reed's to see, understand, and destroy the formulas and equations of the world—and results in the Ferris Eris-half(Eris Reed, 'Demon'), which takes the form of a woman.
While Asruld had devoured Ryner Reed, that didn't mean that it was gone. (they're sort of like this now) Ryner Reed continues to prompt him into looking at things differently, or guiding him into the uses of his new powers. Asruld changes the existence of his black swords—once only able to destroy two hundred million Goddesses, then running out of power, and being unable to destroy the being known as Worshiper, which created both Goddesses and Asruld—and turned them into something that could cut anything, and kill any number of Goddesses. These swords were thus altered from black to darker than black, darker than shadow, black enough that it can't be seen.
And so Asruld used his sword with the power to cut anything to return to the world of the Goddesses, where he and Eris Reed proceeded to draw attention of Goddess, and kill them. Eris Reed creates a sword, calling it Eris Reed as most of the Eris-half's existence became that sword. Asruld proceeded to simply command his sword into killing a great amount of Goddesses—using words such as Shatter, collapse, destroy. Thousands of Goddesses fell to a weapon they couldn't see, while Eris Reed commented on how the world was unnatural. Asruld was incapable of understanding why the world was odd, as Eris Reed stated.
Milk returns, and informs them it has been 180 years have gone by since Asruld was locked away. She and Eris Reed agree that Asruld has begun changing, as Ryner Reed has begun being one with Asruld, and that changes the personality. Milk refers to Asruld as "a different 'hero' who is warm" at this point, but any further talk is interrupted by all the Goddesses making use of magic, the power of all of them, willing or not, to make a magic. Destroying this magic is interrupted by something different than Asruld, than the Goddesses, than the Lonesome Demon, and they are allowed to see what that magic had born.
It had created Human. These Human had enough power to prevent the Hero from entering their dimension, and Asruld couldn't analyze them. This caused a great problem, as Human multiplied in their other, unreachable universe, their power bound Ryner Reed and Asruld. They studied the magic, and found further that Human was complicated, simple, complete and incomplete. Human multiplied due to Love, which looked to be frail, simple, pure, easily destroyed, but deceptively resilient, which Ryner Reed was unable to analyze further than to Joy, Mad, Sad, Care, Despair, which were indecipherable as well. This Humanmagic eroded the world around Asruld and Ryner Reed, trapping them and Eris Reed in a new dimensional void.
This point of sealing had Asruld completely immobile, incapable of outward speech, even as Eris Reed was trapped with them. Asruld was, well, if he could move, would be trembling in fear. He couldn't move, which prevented any ability to lash out. Ryner-half spends a long time studying human—One thousand, two thousand years?—and eventually comes to a plan.
To counter Human, they can use Love, but the problem with that none of them understand what that thing called Love is. Asruld knows Destruction, Ryner Eris Reed knows Loneliness, how can they know and understand Love? It takes Ryner Reed a great deal longer to come up with a solution.
They would make an eroding magic, one that will link with all Human, and the magic will have Love. Because it has Love, it will be sad, because Human is pretty (according to Ryner Reed). This magic would be sad, lonely, and affect them as well as Human. It would infect them with Love.
Asruld didn't understand this, these other emotions, and thus just insists that Ryner Reed implement this magic. They would be infected by Love, they would learn all of these feelings and be influenced by them. They may crumble from it. Asruld still doesn't care, because at that moment, he doesn't have the capacity to do so. This magic was called Human α.
With the magic of Human α, the Lonesome Demon and the Hero were mixed into the dimension that held Human. They were born, with some of the knowledge that came with being mature in their respective races, infecting with touch, spreading Love to the Human. And then Human α died. (babies)
A thousand years passed, the world reset and restarted, and Human α was born again. And died, again. It would repeat – at least twice more - —the Human α had no set appearance or pattern—it could be a female, a male, a different personality, but once conditions were met, it would inherit Asruld and become Human α. This Human α would seek love, then people who gave love would be considered enemies of the world, as they would be supporting Human α and thus going against Human and the Goddesses. With the world hating him and those who followed him, Human α would construct a country, which would hold the Love, even if Asruld died. The line of kings became the line most susceptible to becoming Asruld, and they would slowly build up the Love needed to overthrow the magic of the Goddesses.
These Human α don't realize the plan, they hear the voice and the command of the God that controlled them—which is the Hero, the Demon—at first, the command and urge were simply progress, grow, gain the world. However once that was accomplished, the order changed. Come, devour all the things you love, complete this magic. Destroy the magic of the Goddesses. The Human α's consciousness was stained black—and he followed the command. It's heavily implied that this isn't physical cannibalism, but some sort of spiritual one, which resulted in a huge magical formation in the sky, all but erasing Human. This caused despair in this Human α—he didn't live to make all these friends and then kill them. But the God controlling him didn't care—the Humans were a kind of magical formation to them. Eventually, all there was left was his wife, the form that held the half of the Lonesome Demon known as Ryner. In order to complete the magic, he would have to continue, and devour her.
This one couldn't. The pair had a little insight before the end—that they would reincarnate, and have the same choice. And indeed they did—the birth of the Human α (the Mad Hero) would come the parts of the Lonesome Demon. The world was destroyed and reconstructed... and the next Human α was unable to. Destroyed and reconstructed... and was also unable to.
The time before the setting of The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, once again, the Human α, also a Sion, reached the end with his friend, Ryner. This incarnation of the Hero showed great amounts of guilt, and he was able to devour this Ryner. However, this world cycle didn't have enough power—they didn't have enough power to 'win'. Instead, this cycle ends in a curse. A curse to mar the plans of those Gods that dictated what they did.
And then the world reset.
Please note that the names will seem familiar, but Eris and Ryner are not directly the same. Asruld is more or less the same.
Sion Astal was born the son of the king by a commoner. He lived with his mother, but was constantly beaten up by his half-brothers—sons of the king who were by noble women. When he was young, his mother committed suicide (possibly by poison, reads like she sort of wasted away toward the end), and his half-siblings helpfully provided him with a dead dog to accompany that "dirty mother dog" to the other side.
What he does between the death of his mother and when he reaches the academy at 17 isn't known, other than he survived many assassination attempts.
At 17, he is part of Roland Special Academy that trains the children of criminals or peasants to take the front ranks of the army so that the children of nobility don't have to. Here, Sion was top of his class, and spread his influence, slowly gaining competent people to help him in his goal—fix the corrupt nature of this country and its incompetent, warmonger of a king. It is within this academy that he meets Ryner Lute, a lazy slacker of a boy who held the title of Roland's Strongest Magician at 13, and was also the bearer of the magic eyes known as Alpha Stigma. Ignoring the danger everyone points out—Alpha Stigma bearers are monsters, they go berserk and kill and are terribly dangerous—he seeks to add Ryner to those who follow and support him, wanting to make use of the Most Deadly Magician's strength, regardless of his chance of blowing up the surrounding countryside by going insane. As Ryner is as lazy as he is, Sion resorts to blackmail.
After succeeding at an improbably quick mission complete, Sion takes his school class out for some illegal celebratory drinking (Drinking age in Roland is 22, no one at this academy is over 19...). After drugging the rest to sleep, he chats with Ryner and finally gains him as a friend. This moment is broken up as Sion is targeted by some highly skilled assassins. Ryner shows a remarkable lack of care, leaving Sion to fend for himself, and Sion ends up saved by Ferris Eris (although after he manages to seriously injure one and temporarily disable a second-). The Eris family is called a 'Sword Clan', and is generally known to be a group of insanely skilled warriors that serve the crown, but as Ferris was ordered to help Sion, Sion makes use of the family to discover exactly who is behind all the assassins. He does this without saying he is a common-born prince, because that's just how he rolls. The result of this is the start of his acclimation to sleep deprivation; Iris and Ferris begin guarding him in his sleep—which usually includes eating dango in his ceiling.
Despite all hopes, there ends up being war with the southern country of Estabul. All the students are shipped out, and with Sion's connections, he's able to send all his friends with him to a place far enough away that they shouldn't be involved in any fighting. Only this is Sion Astal's life, the one constantly hunted by his powerful half siblings. Those siblings lured 50 Estabulian Magic Knights (soldiers who are near universally extra-crazy, as well as stronger than the rest) into this plain in order to kill Sion, using a Estabul spy that had been caught and turned into a double agent some years before.
This doesn't happen, because there is an Alpha Stigma there. Ryner Lute kills the 50 knights, as they decided to play Poke The Monster, and near purposefully enraged him. Sion and his remaining classmate, Keifer, are nearly killed by Ryner, but a mumbled phrase from the Alpha Stigma has Sion realizing how to calm him down—close his eyes.
Roland's magic knights are sent to the area to kill off the Estabul Magic Knights, only to find that three teenagers remain. Sion, guessing that they were going to kill them, just to claim there were no survivors, as those Magic Knights wouldn't have been there but for a trap, attempts to take down the leader. He is only a student, however, and is easily defeated—but able to strike up a truce. Sion is named Hero, the one who orchestrated the defeat of the Estabul magic knights. Sion tries to prevent this, but Ryner is locked away in return for Keifer being released, as Keifer was their double agent who didn't perform as wanted.
Shortly after this, Lucile invites him to House Eris, where he tells Sion that he has a few questions, but before he gets started, he has to agree to a condition—if Lucile doesn't like any of Sion's answers, Sion will be killed on the spot. Lucile reminds Sion that this is house Eris, the clan that judges and protects Kings, and Sion agrees. Lucile proceeds to test Sion—having him walk down a hallway that tests him (this hallway had Lucile crying tears of blood, when it was testing him-). Eventually, Sion reaches the point where he can lay claim to the Mad Hero's power, and he does so. This is the point where Sion takes in the Mad Hero's consciousness and memories, and gains a few of Lucile's. But he passes, and Lucile vows to guard him and serve him.
The rest of the events between gaining the Hero and becoming king are vague—he gains allies, he fights a duke who ought to be dead named Lieral (he and Lucile lose miserably), he accidentally starts war early, and he sets himself up as an orphan by introducing the king to a dagger several times. Sion gaining the throne happens within a year of Ryner being released.
Either way, two years after acquiring the Mad Hero, Sion sits on the throne. After making a late night visit to see exactly what Ryner is up to, he has Ryner scheduled for execution, given a day of pampering, then acquired by Ferris. Meeting with the other two, he tells them what they will be doing—heading out to find artifacts known as Hero Relics—objects of destruction, for a lack of greater term, with the intent of setting up a magical Cold War. No one would attack a country with these Hero Relics, after all. Ferris is to go with him, to ensure Ryner does as he is told, and the pair head out (after some casual trolling and bullying.) Some time prior to freeing Ryner but after gaining the throne, Sion tricks a boy into believing he is an assassin, as the boy is trying to kill a noble to save his sister. After helping the boy figure out options, he reveals to Fiole that he is the king, and then hires him as a secretary. They manage to recover Eslina, Fiole's sister, even if the noble's actions won't change due to Sion's current lack of power.
While the two are out traveling, Sion spends the time fixing Roland's interior—growing his own power over the corrupt nobility and generally doing his best to thwart them. This does have ramifications—his commoner secretary is (messily) murdered as a warning after Sion saved the boy's sister. There are continued assassination attempts and personal jabs.
Despite this, he still moves forward ; he promotes Milk Callaude to the Taboo Breaker Squad, and gives her the job of hunting after a taboo breaker who recently left Roland. He neglects to mention that this Taboo Breaker is Ryner Lute, that he isn't a Taboo Breaker at all, and that he knows that she knows Ryner from childhood(same "orphanage"). He does give more information to her second in command, having known Luke Stokkart (Luke was part of his rebellion) longer, but mostly this is a mixture of 'for amusement' and 'keep track of where Ryner is'.
Miran Froaude joins him—another of the adopted children that is a custom among Roland Nobility—with the intention of acting as Sion's 'Master Assassin'—doing the things that Sion needs done, but cannot dare do openly, as Sion must be a beacon of light. Sion agrees to this, and when they take a trap-like trip to Nelpha, the northern country where Ryner and Ferris are, Froaude's job is to uncover the plot to kill Sion—and remove it. Miran proceeds to ensure that Sion is able to conquer and control every land he sets his mind to—as Miran is quite certain that is what Sion intends to do.
He isn't far off—this is why Sion doesn't reprimand him terribly for instigating rebellion in Estabul. Sion is aware that Miran is a bloodthirsty creature, with little to no morals, and instead assigns Major-General Claugh Klom to lead crushing the rebellion, as Klom is much more likely to kill a few rather than all. This still weighs heavily on him, sending a friend out to kill. This prevents a bloodbath—or just prevents one as extreme as Miran would have implemented—and gains him the support of Noa Ehn, the princess of Estabul. During these events, he sends Iris to Ryner and Ferris with a warning to not investigate the dragon they accidentally unleashed. Shortly after this, some pressure to provide a heir is pushed on Sion by his subordinates.
Of course, Ryner and Ferris didn't listen—due to problems with receiving the message—and shortly after this report was returned, news of Gastark's movements reached Sion. The rest of the continent was gearing toward war, and Roland was unstable internally, incapable to grow power to be able to stand on its own. He's offered a plan; play nice with the nobles, give them all that they want, and when they gather in one place, kill the lot of them (naturally, this plan came from Miran). Around the same time, nobles try to assassinate Noa Ehn, to rekindle the war between Estabul and Roland, which pushes Sion into making a move. (Ryner and Ferris are saving Arua)
Instead of letting the nobles get what they want, luring them in with false promises, he purposefully antagonizes them. All of his trusted subordinates got promotions, which was coincidentally no noble who held anti-king opinions. Gastark was moving, he needed to secure his country, and while his nobles didn't like it, they were part of his country. If they wouldn't listen to him, when he needed the authority, then he would have to remove them to keep the authority. If they would follow him, they would be forgiven. If they rebelled, they would be purged. His argument is sound—they need the unity—and so his comrades agree. He would sacrifice the least possible to gain the largest effect. His subordinates re-pledge themselves to him.
The result wasn't what Sion expected—the nobles were all but silent, and hundreds of capable people jumped out of the woodwork. His promotions had been based off of merit, not blood, and that enabled plenty of people to decide they didn't need to hide how far they could go from a noble. Sion was uneasy about the nobilities silence. It didn't last long, but it also resulted in more or less what he expected—the nobles in the lands of Miran's family were starting to make a fuss. Which was, of course, all according to plan. Miran enacts the expected purge of all of the anti-king nobles, which had been gathered there, but runs into a pink haired man with a similar artifact and powers. The result is a burnt down mansion, as the pink haired man moves on to try to target Sion.
This doesn't work out—Lucile is more than a match for the attempt, and sends the man running with a warning to his boss. He leaves Sion with some creepy words, as is his habit—if Sion ever runs out of power, or fails at being a king, he will die. Lucile will kill him, and put a new king on the throne, simple as that.
Once Claugh and Miran returned, they discussed what had happened. It was unlikely that the pink haired man had come from a neighboring country, and far more likely he was from the north—such as Gastark. The loss of the anti-king nobles was something Sion still didn't like, but he also didn't know the powerful noble who had been helping one of the more antagonistic ones. With few of these powerful nobles left within the country, suspicions are cast outside the borders.
Sion pardons the remainder of the Anti-King Nobles, and Froaude cheerfully informs them it wasn't Sion's orders, when they start acting snippy, deflecting darkness from Sion's public image. Miran inspects Runa, while Claugh is sent to further stabilize Estabul with the aid of Noa, because they need the military to be solidly blended and on Sion's side. The Spear Clan returns, lead by Tiilnawest Silwelt, who had known Lucile before the Spear House was banished by the previous king. As the Silwelt household doesn't know magic, but is strong enough to try for Lucile's strength, Sion feels comfortable sending them out to spy on Gastark.
It turns out that Gastark has allied with Runa—although through threats—nullifying a longstanding truce between Roland and Runa. News that Gastark has some terribly destructive, unknown magic reaches them—which they take, correctly, that Gastark has some sort of Hero Relic. Sion doesn't like the idea of a mad scrabble between countries to get Hero Relics.
Sion spends some time reflecting on his helpessness – he is the king, yet this mad world is fighting his goals. This infuriates him—he's gotten this far only to be repeatedly shown that even with the power he's gained, his dreams are still impossible. It doesn't mean he will give up, though. He will find another way. He heads to actually try to sleep for once.
After dodging assassination via book, there he finds that Ryner has returned and made himself at home in his bed. He proceeds to spend a lovely evening with his friends—mostly laughing and not helping any incorrect assumptions about his and Ryner's relationship—basically relaxing and laughing like the 19 year old he is. Sion then blackmails him into taking one of two choices—escorting him to Estabul, or paperwork. Ryner takes the third option of visiting an Alpha Stigma child he rescued at house Eris, which Sion expected, but didn't completely expect that Ferris and Ryner would plot to run off together rather than work as guards for Sion.
However, the next morning it is revealed that Ryner had left without either of them. Ferris comes to Sion's office in search, while Sion is trying to figure out who should be put in charge of Roland while he is visiting Estabul.
While Ferris is relaying this, Sion thinks on why Ryner would vanish. However, before any true structure can be made to the plan to locate Ryner, news reaches Sion that an Alpha Stigma bearer of odd strength has been sighted rampaging in the Estabul-territories. Claugh Klom sent the report, indicating he was heading out to deal with the menace, and so Sion intends to join him there with even more men. It can't be Ryner, because the date was well before Ryner vanished, and Sion wanted to prevent the death of this supposed Alpha Stigma bearer, because they could provide clues as to why Ryner's was odd.
Before Sion can get there, Claugh confronts this Alpha Stigma bearer, and loses his arm. Using information from Klom about the movements of this particular Alpha Stigma bearer—who really isn't an Alpha Stigma bearer at all, but an Iino Doue bearer, as the symbol in his eyes are that of a cross, but Roland and Estabul don't know that much about Magic Eyes—Sion produces a plan to subdue or kill the fellow. Use magic, and he gets stronger and faster. Get within reach, and die. So Sion pulls on history and outfits the army with bows—weapons that hadn't been used in a hundred or more years—as they are non-magical, physical attacks from a distance. However, when he catches up with Tiir (The Iino Doue bearer), the man has already talked to Ryner, and his words ring true. After teasing Ryner a little, Sion attempts to talk down Tiir. He unfortunately helps Tiir with his persuasion of Ryner by telling his army to kill the monster. Ryner leaves with Tiir.
Sion returns to Roland, where he is hailed as a hero, again, for getting rid of the "Alpha Stigma Monster". Meanwhile, he is tormented by guilt, and a little by the Mad Hero. While Ryner and Ferris were away, Sion struggled to reform Roland further, and struggled to deal with his guilt. Luke Stokkart returns with news that Ryner is returning of his own free will, and through him, they can form an alliance of convenience with the God's Eye group, which is decidedly anti-Gastark. This would give Roland the edge it needs. Sion is still guilt-ridden, as he is aware of what he must do to Ryner in order to save the world. Lucile comments that it would have been better if Ryner had died, which Sion rejects—rejecting both that it should have happened, and that anyone should kill him, causing the swordsman to claim that Sion was taking the harder, crueler path. He also, for the first time, refers to Sion as 'my hero'.
Crueler path is because any path that Sion Astal takes will be cruel on some level. It is for this reason that he resumes Human Experimentation, to bolster his army to be able to handle the rest of the countries. That even though he severely disliked the purge, nobles were still disappearing and Miran none the wiser.
When Ryner and Ferris return to Roland, Sion greets them with a room full of paperwork, a door they cannot open, and an angry tirade about only coming back so they can have him do things for them. After spending at least a full day with them and paper, this is enough time spent awake for Sion that he has unwilling naps—sitting in his chair and pen in hand, even.
His internal conflict over Ryner prompts Miran into his first voiced intent of disobedience, which in turn has Sion making a purposeful use of Hero abilities to show him 'the truth of Menoris'. This is interrupted by Leiral, and thus exposes Lucile to Miran for the first time. After this, Sion grows weak for a bit, and coughs golden blood.
It is sometime after the start of human experimentation that Sion is targeted by an assassin that Ryner once knew. Due to Lucile, the assassin's attempts fall flat, but the conversation with the captured Zohra awakens the Mad Hero to the point he talks through Sion and discovers the golden blood. Sion is able to convince Ryner that he has not started human experimentation, but that nobles under his name have. And sometime during Sion's keeping of Ryner about that Count Klausberr attempts to repeat the death of Fiole – only by targeting Ryner. Sion doesn't take kindly to it, but he also doesn't kill the count. Just threaten the whole room.
Sion and Sion argue—which will be able to implement their plan, which plan even had a chance of working—which would save Ryner. Turns out the poor guy has kinda split into "emotion" and "logic" Sions. At this point, his golden blood is visible even in his veins.
"Emotion" Sion convinces "Logic" Sion that he can save Ryner, save him from an eternity of wandering in torment—which wouldn't have been a problem, except the previous Cycle cursed the world. "Logic" Sion assumes the passive role in the body, allowing the other to try to save Ryner. (They're both Sion, after all, Lucile seems the only one to have a vague idea something is up.)
Sion reclaims Ryner and Ferris for another four days straight of paperwork—having them inspect each and every proposition to prevent the occurrence of anything remotely party-like, as Sion's 20th is within the week. Although Ryner escapes after a chase around the desk damages some of Ferris' dango, a torture and assassination festival is allowed—likely because who would make that event into a birthday celebration.**
He underestimates his subordinates. Within the week, they have caught onto his plans to avoid an extravagant party, and thus run his carriage down in order to carry him back to the capital for a birthday party. Due to the influence of the adoring masses, Asruld lights off the fireworks—casting a spell toward a light to signal that they should start.**
In the middle of the party, Sion leaves to bring Ryner home, as the man was out in the woods producing said fireworks via magic. This magic has the result of a heavy rainstorm, so the king and his carriage are well received. They make a pitstop to the balcony where Sion and Ryner first talked of altering Roland.**
And they talk of it again—mostly about how Sion feels its an empty dream, and Ryner disagrees—he knows that Sion spends so much time working himself to the bone out of guilt, and he shouldn't think the dream is empty, because he has managed to change Roland greatly, change the world greatly, and that he doesn't need to bear anything alone, because he has friends and subordinates to help him. Sion wishes it was so, that he could share burdens, and that he had really managed to change the way the world works in a significant fashion.
Because the thing he is most wanting to change hadn't. Something that no one else could do.
Like that if he didn't kill Ryner now, Ryner would be doomed to eternal torment. Which is why Sion tries his best—using those human experiments to level the playing field—to kill Ryner. All it does is destroy a courtyard, neither managing to seriously injure the other (Sion has a broken hand, Ryner a burned shoulder), until Sion slips more into Mad Hero—actually awakening the Mad Hero. Ryner attempts to attack him with magic - but Sion was enough Asruld at the moment he could erase the spell with Sword. Ryner abruptly doesn't remember what that spell even was, because it was completely erased from the world.
Ryner's mother stops Asruld, mostly through words to Lucile—the Weaver of All Formulas, or the Demon half of the Lonesome Demon.
Sion wakes in his office, from a nap at his desk. Ryner complains that he couldn't wake him for four hours. Sion comments that he must have had a horrible nightmare, but its fading, and finds that Ryner had done all the paperwork left for the day.
He has the feeling that there's something that feels off about this situation...
**This is the events of the Anime. The light novels have a different event set for Sion's birthday, however it hasn't been translated. Sion isn't likely to remember much other than it happened, and it was embarrassing regardless.
