Ryner Lute (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tearsofademon) wrote2010-10-13 06:31 pm
tearsofademon) wrote2010-10-13 06:31 pm
Summary of the Story So Far
Because Wikipedia doesn't go into much detail about the actual plot, I'm summarizing Ryner's involvement here.
CURRENTLY COVERS: Through episode 24 of the anime. I'd rather wait and see if a second season is announced before going any further, but there are a couple of novel details here and there where I know them, too. Be warned - you tread here, you tread among spoilers.
The line of asterisks indicates where he was initially pulled from for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
route_29. The line of stars indicates where he's currently pulled from. The rest is included because... well, I felt like putting it down.
Ryner grew up as an orphan, ostracized thanks to his Alpha Stigma once it awakened while trying to save his friend from guards who were going to kill her because many of the villagers got by in life by scavenging from dead bodies on the battlefield. He initially trained under Germer Kleisrole, but was eventually transferred to Roland Special Institute #307, which gave orphans of war thorough military training and then sent the ones with talent off to war or sold them to nobles. (He knew a girl named Milk there, and according to her even promised to marry her, but he claims not to remember her.) He was also made a member of Roland's Hidden Elites, an underground organization of military-sponsored assassins. (He didn't really do well there, purposefully messing missions up and giving away classified information and stuff like that, but they kept him alive because he was valuable as a test subject, being a fluke Alpha Stigma bearer who didn't die after going berserk.) When he was thirteen, he earned the title of Roland's Strongest Magician by defeating the previous one, a real jerk by the name of Quont Quo, in combat.
When the war ended, the institute lost what purpose it had, and the orphans there were given the choice to either remain under military command or be killed. Ryner chose the former and transferred to the Royal Special Military Academy, where he tried to keep as low a profile as possible, lazily neglecting his studies and refusing to participate in training more than he absolutely had to. Of course, this didn't stop Kiefer Knolles from trying to get him to work harder (and eventually developing a crush on him), or Sion Astal from doing his research, learning about Ryner's Alpha Stigma, and essentially blackmailing him into joining his team for mock battle training.
Sion was the first person to know about the Alpha Stigma and not only not brand Ryner as a monster, but specifically seek him out despite (arguably initially because of) it. Sion, who was the bastard son of the king and a commoner, wanted to become king and create a world without corruption, where the weak wouldn't be suppressed by the strong, and where everyone could live happily, even an Alpha Stigma bearer.
Approximately ten months after Sion first learned about Ryner, Estabul, a country to the south, faced a food shortage due to torrential rain, so they decided to go to war with Roland in order to deal with it. The students at the Royal Special Military Academy were, of course, dispatched to the battlefield - however, they were sent to the Roxanne Plains, which was supposed to be a non-combat region.
Supposed to be. Because see, Roland's nobles wanted Sion dead, so they had made special arrangements with Estabul to send fifty of Estabul's most powerful Magic Knights there. Kiefer was actually an Estabul spy who had been caught by Roland and was being blackmailed into being a double agent for the corrupt nobles, meaning she was the one to give the signal for the Magic Knights to attack. It was a slaughter - the only people who survived were Ryner, Sion, and Kiefer. Sion only survived the three Magic Knights who attacked him at first because Ryner used his Alpha Stigma to copy the speed-enhancing magic they used.
And by Ryner, Sion, and Kiefer were the only survivors, that means on both sides. The Magic Knights, upon learning of Ryner's Alpha Stigma, decided to torment the 'monster' by torturing and killing Kiefer and Sion in front of him. This was a bad idea, because Ryner's Alpha Stigma went berserk out of desperation to save them, and he slaughtered every single Estabul Magic Knight there. Almost wound up strangling Sion and Kiefer to death too, except that Sion managed to close his eyes and end the madness before that could happen.
Sion was hailed as a war hero. Ryner was taken to prison and beaten by the nobles who had wanted Sion dead, and then Ryner agreed to be imprisoned so long as Kiefer went free and the nobility didn't bother her ever again. (It's not like he couldn't get out if he wanted - he is Roland's Strongest Magician. But, it's not like he wanted to as long as Kiefer was safe.) Before she left, Kiefer kissed him and stated that she didn't think he was a monster. Sion tried to convince Ryner to let him help him break out, despite the evidence that could be left behind linking Sion to such a thing and thus tarnishing his image, but Ryner passed.
And so Ryner spent two years in prison, never once setting foot outside his cell. During this time, because he needed something to do, he sent for as many books as he could get from libraries across the country and researched ancient heroes and the relics they were supposed to have been left behind. He even came up with an entire theory for creating a land of peace by securing such powerful artifacts, and wrote a paper documenting his findings entitled "How to Build a Kingdom of Afternoon Naps".
After two years, however, he was finally 'scheduled for execution'. Except not really. See, during that two year span, Sion had succeeded in staging a revolution and becoming the King of Roland, and had managed to get his hands on a copy of Ryner's report (by sneaking into the prison while everyone was asleep). He would have probably found a way to release his best friend anyway, but Sion was so impressed with Ryner's theory that he decided to send him forth to actually seek out these relics and bring them back. Sion, of course, motivated him by threatening execution if he refused, and setting him up with a bodyguard to make sure he wasn't slacking off - Ferris Eris, swordswoman of the Eris clan that served the royal line of Roland, a nearly emotionless beauty who loves dango more than anything else in the world.
And thus did Ryner and Ferris leave (fairly reluctantly) for the neighboring country of Nelpha. There, while doing some research in the Nelpha Royal Library, they met Toale Nelphi, illegitimate grandson of the current king of Nelpha and more popular than the legitimate heir due to his kindness and desire to work for the people. They quickly hit it off, though after Sion decided to visit in cognito, Ryner and Ferris wound up having to protect Toale from Miran Frouade, a man with a relic in the form of a ring that can summon beasts of darkness, who they didn't learn was technically working for Sion (though the intended attack on Toale was his own doing).
While on the road, Ryner was pursued by the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron, led by Lieutenant Milk Callaud (the same Milk who knew him at the orphanage). Apparently, Sion neglected to tell anyone that it was fine for Ryner to leave the country and do his research, so Milk and her squad were tasked with bringing him back to Roland - it wouldn't do for a mage to leave without permission, after all, for what if he spread the secrets of Roland's style of magic to other countries? That was treated as a threat to national security. Milk was somehow, of course, convinced that it was Ferris who was slave-driving him into following her against his will - her childhood friend would never do it of his own volition!
During a scuffle involving the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron and some of Nelpha's soldiers who hadn't been informed that Milk's people were allowed to do their work in Nelpha, Ryner actually managed to obtain a Hero Relic! Except that he didn't know what it did or how to activate it, so that in frustration he threw it at the ground, causing a large dragon to appear and scare everyone off. They later discovered the effective use of this artifact (the Dolueli Swordscale), however, when they faced Sui and Kuu Orla, an aspiring author and his younger sister from the Gastark Empire who had also been tasked with collecting such relics, which they referred to as Rule Fragments. The Orlas, of course, had already met with success in finding a few, and needed to silence anyone who might find out about what they were doing, so they attacked Ryner and Ferris. Ryner used his Alpha Stigma to copy one of Sui's spells at one point, and then Sui got the brilliant idea to force Ryner's Alpha Stigma to go berserk, kill him, and then gouge out the crystallized form of his eyes.
Yeah.
Sui, of course, paid for this with his right arm and by seeing the Elemio Comb, a relic that was supposed to be able to protect him from the Alpha Stigma's magic, dissolve into dust. Ryner's is no ordinary Alpha Stigma, after all. Sui and Kuu managed to escape, leaving Ferris to deal with the now berserk Ryner, but she kept calm and managed to talk him through it and close his eyes to end it. Even despite seeing him in that manner and being pretty badly hurt, she refused to think of him as a monster. A perverted bestial demon lord who went and had his way with innocent young women and men alike every night? Sure, such wild tales are too much fun to make up. But a monster? Not on your life.
After everything had calmed down, the pair found themselves in the country of Runa, where they met a girl named Kuku who begged them to save her friend Arua. He, like Ryner, was an Alpha Stigma bearer, except that his had only just awakened for the first time. Runa is a country of religious zealots, and they believe that Alpha Stigma bearers are evil demons - therefore, the Magic Knights decided to torture Arua in order to get him to go berserk, and then kill him.
Ryner, of course, couldn't stand for that, and wound up running in to defend Arua despite Ferris telling him they needed to come up with a plan first. Sadly, he couldn't stop Arua's father from being killed, but he was able to knock Arua unconscious before his berserking Alpha Stigma could leave him permanently in a state of madness, and then take him away to safety. He and Ferris then decided to pick Kuku up and take the children to Roland, but they discovered that Kuku had been captured... by Sui and Kuu, who were going after Arua's Alpha Stigma now. Nice people, huh.
When Arua finally woke up, and after the situation had been explained, Ryner taught him the basics of magic (which comes naturally to an Alpha Stigma bearer), and Ferris taught him the basics of physical fighting. And then the three of them headed off to where the Orlas had taken Kuku.
After Sui asked Ryner to join the Gastark Empire in their plans for world peace (by killing everyone who would stand in their way, yeah, great way to do it), and after Ryner refused, they had a brief skirmish in which Arua used magic alongside Ryner's to attempt to surprise Sui, but that tactic ultimately failed. Due to both sides' mutual desire not to fight the other, Sui decided instead to kill Kuku, the only bit of happiness left in Arua's life. She was (indirectly) saved, however, by none other than Frouade, who was investigating into matters concerning Runa and its relations with Roland and Gastark. Frouade had his beasts of darkness cut off Sui's other arm and then tried to kill him, but Ryner prevented Sui's death - he doesn't like it when people die, regardless of circumstance.
After this was all dealt with, Ryner and Ferris found Milk and company and asked them to take Arua and Kuku to Roland. Unfortunately, they met the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron again soon enough on a ship, and Milk and Ferris got into a fight that caused the boat to explode. Eventually, they all somehow managed to reach the shores of Roland, and Ryner and Ferris decided to pay a visit to Sion... to 'kill' him for the trouble he'd put them through. It was more along the lines of just letting him know every last one of their grievances and telling him that he needed to sleep more, but.
Sion asked that Ryner and Ferris escort him on a trip he was planning to Estabul. Instead of accepting, however, Ryner decided to visit House Eris and say hi to Arua and Kuku (who were now staying there). He learned a bit about Ferris' past here - she was abused and trained relentlessly until she was fourteen, at which point her parents died (more specifically were killed) and her brother, Lucile, became head of the Eris clan. When examining Lucile's Dojo with his Alpha Stigma, however, Ryner had a vision of himself disintegrating into dust - a vision that Arua did not share when asked to examine it as well.
Early that evening, Ryner told Ferris about Sion's request, and she had the same opinion he did - that they should instead leave again in the morning to continue their quest to find Hero Relics. Ryner even promised to carry all of the dango that Ferris was going to want for the road (despite how she doubled the amount she intended to bring only after he made said promise).
****************
The disturbing vision he'd witnessed led Ryner to visit Lucile's Dojo by himself that night, and they had a confrontation where Ryner learned that Lucile was not what most would define as human - and Lucile reminded him that neither was he, and that a monster like him can't have anything, so he shouldn't get any ideas about potentially loving his sister or anything. Nice guy, huh.
With that fresh in his head walking home, Ryner ran into Milk, who delivered what she thought was an invitation to a birthday party the rest of the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron was holding for her, but was actually an order signed by Sion himself ordering Milk's group to kill him immediately should he go berserk outside the country or show any signs of potential treason. (Milk's second in command, Luke Stokkart, had made the switch without her knowing. His intentions were noble enough - he didn't want Milk to get hurt, after all - but still.)
Naturally, Ryner was deeply upset by this order, and decided to go off on his own without telling anyone else. Sure, it meant breaking his promise to head off with Ferris and carry all of the dango for her, but he only thought of that after it was too late to turn back.
He had a dream shortly after leaving, in which he was a small child and his parents were discussing what to do about the fact that he was an Alpha Stigma bearer. His mother was intent on killing him and herself, because she thought she was to blame, but his father refused to let her. (The dream continued and said parents were shattered by the Alpha Stigma, as were Sion and Ferris, but.) When he woke up, however, he had no idea what to make of the dream - such things would imply that he had ever had parents who loved him, but that couldn't be the case, he thought.
Also naturally, Ferris was not happy that he had skipped out on her like this, and she wasted no time in finding out where he had gone and following after him. She found him in an inn close to the border with Estabul, and let him know rather violently how pissed off she was, but Ryner only made cryptic comments at first wondering if she was another assassin sent by Sion, but then deciding that if anyone was going to kill him, he knew she wasn't going to. When asked what he was talking about, he refused to answer.
Ferris was not the only one looking for Ryner, however. Another young man by the name of Tiir Rumibul had come looking for him. He, like Ryner, had magic eyes - his are the Iino Doue, which devour people and magic - and he had come from a group of people who all had magic eyes in order to bring Ryner, who had been hurt so much by regular humans, to join them in central Menoris.
In any other situation, Ryner might have considered not going with him. However, having been so recently reminded of how despised he was by the world simply for existing did not exactly help matters, and then Sion and the Roland army showed up. As it would turn out, Tiir had caused quite a stir in his search for Ryner, and the military was after him for eating several villagers and Claugh Klom's arm - they weren't expecting to run into Ryner as well, but that's how luck happened. Tiir casually revealed to the military that Ryner was an Alpha Stigma bearer, and Ryner decided to leave with him in order to avoid more blood being spilt - if he had stayed, an actual battle might have broken out, and who knows how many would have died.
Sion tried to get Ryner to stay, of course, but ordering the military to fire arrows at Tiir by shouting "Kill that monster!" was the exact wrong way to do it. That was the first time that Ryner had ever heard Sion use that word, and even though it wasn't in reference to him but instead to Tiir... Seriously, Sion could have easily used the word 'cannibal', or 'criminal' instead and been more accurate even, but noooooo...
And so Tiir brought Ryner north toward Nelpha, where the rest of the magic eye bearers (Tiir calls them 'Eyes of God') he had been traveling with were staying. There, Ryner met Lafra, bearer of the Ebra Crypt, eyes that allow the bearer to see into others' dreams. He was actually the one who found Ryner and asked Tiir to go retrieve him, because he was fascinated by how Ryner was still kind and still loved people despite the horrible experiences he'd had in his life, and he expressed his wish for Ryner to bring salvation to all of the bearers of the magic eyes.
That night, Luke appeared. Fun story there - just after Milk had delivered the 'birthday invitation', she ran into Frouade, who kidnapped her in order to persuade Luke to go kill Ryner (who, Frouade wrongly thought, was the one who was holding Sion back and preventing him from being the perfect king). Luke, being a badass in hiding, turned the table on Frouade and threatened that he'd kill him unless he let Milk free, but Frouade did manage to convince him to follow through with the order from Sion anyway. Ryner had fled Roland and refused to return when asked - hence, this branded him as a traitor.
Luke tried to kill Ryner. Ryner initially defended himself, but as Luke tripped him up and went in for the finishing strike, he decided, why not let him? What point was there to his continued existence anyway?
Thankfully, Ferris (who had been tailing Luke) appeared and got Ryner out of the way of Luke's attack. And she was (understandably) pissed at Ryner for running away again.
This little encounter was cut short, however. Because, see, while Ryner was busy with Luke, a guy by the name of Lir Orla (Sui and Kuu's older brother) snuck into the area where the magic eye bearers were staying and decided to attack. Unfortunately, Tiir's Iino Doue is useless against the powers of relics, and Lir's main attack uses a relic that attacks with lightning beasts. Lafra died protecting the others from falling debris caused by said beasts. An Alpha Stigma bearer named Pueka, who had a crush on Lafra, went berserk upon his death, and Lir not only prevented Ryner from knocking her out and saving her like he did for Arua, but used a relic called Spunquel to steal the crystallized form of her eyes, killing her as well.
Yeah. Gastark? The people up there are not nice. I mean, really. When Ryner Lute, the guy who thinks that killing is the biggest pain of them all, decides that you're worth killing? You've got to have done something completely and utterly unforgivable and disgusting in order for that to happen. And Ryner went all out trying to kill Lir, disregarding his own safety and everything.
He was only brought back down to Earth by Ferris, when she blocked one of Lir's attacks in order to prevent Ryner from getting hurt by it, despite the fact that she was also stepping in front of Ryner's magic, risking herself. Why? Because she was pissed off that Ryner was acting so suicidal like this. If he wants to think of himself as nothing but a monster and go off and die, he can go ahead and do it, but she'll never think of him as a monster, and she'll never care what the rest of the world thinks.
And when Ryner, in tears, asked Ferris if it was truly okay for him to live, Ferris merely called him a fool and told him that if he died, she'd be lonely.
Of course, then Ferris got knocked out, and naturally, Lir decided that it would obviously be a brilliant idea to use one of the crystals he had taken from Pueka's eyes to force Ryner's Alpha Stigma to go berserk at this point.
But, see... this time, the result was different. In a move that showed just how strong a will this guy has, Ryner actually managed to fight off the possession and prevent himself from going berserk, instead firing a spell toward Tiir so he could absorb it and take the children somewhere far away where Lir couldn't reach them. And Lir, cornered by both Ryner and Luke and annoyed that his entire 'harvest' was one crystal (well if you hadn't used that one you moron...), decided to flee himself.
As he left, Lir called Ryner the Solver of All Equations, and then commented that if he was still around, that meant the Hero must not be complete. Did Ryner know what Lir was talking about? No. But those are extremely important keywords. Just... to put that there.
Luke then decided to leave as well, without killing Ryner. If he truly was no ordinary Alpha Stigma bearer, there was no need, after all.
And Ryner agreed to return to Roland with Ferris and stop running away from his problems, though not before asking her to promise that, should the day ever come when he loses control again, she would be the one to kill him. Which, of course, is also essentially a promise that, since he's decided that she'll be the one to kill him, he's not going to let himself die at anyone else's hand. A promise to live.
Upon returning to Roland, Sion decided to express how upset he was at Ryner for leaving the way he did by forcing him to help him with all of the paperwork that goes into running a kingdom, without letting him sleep. (Sion doesn't sleep, ever, which is unhealthy in and of itself, but at least he's used to that, unlike Mr. King of Afternoon Naps...) Ferris was also pulled into helping as well, but she tended to be much more forceful about having her dango breaks.
Eventually, Ryner couldn't take it anymore and decided to go to the inn for a three day rest regardless of Sion's protests, saying he'd come back and telling him not to look for him. ...Didn't really work out as planned, though, because some random guy (except not so random - his name's Lieral Lieutolu) came up and decided it would be a great idea to stab Ryner in the chest.
Yes. That's right. Stab. In the chest.
But Ryner didn't die. Not exactly. Instead, his mind wound up going to a place where the ground was covered in blood, where he met Alpha, the force that takes him over when his Alpha Stigma goes berserk. Alpha tried to kill him (also calling him the Solver of All Equations like Lir had), but was stopped by magic called the Curse of Artfahle, which caused its head to explode.
And out came a woman. A beautiful woman, who Ryner's heart cried that he recognized, but who his mind could not remember in the slightest. (Her name is Iruna Lieutolu, by the way.) She embraced him and told him that she had been waiting for a very long time to meet him and that she loves him very much, before telling him to go touch the Door before the Weaver of All Equations shows up.
Then, Alpha regenerated and ate her. But that gave Ryner enough time to run away and reach the Door she had mentioned (despite how he had absolutely no idea what was going on). A Door that happened to exist in his mind. When he touched it, he saw a scene where a man in armor made from blood, a Hero, was killing everything in sight. This man then struggled to beg Ryner to help him, for he has this insatiable urge to consume him. And in the reflection of the Hero's sword, Ryner saw himself as a Demon.
This is where he woke up, in the inn, in the same bed as Ferris, who had also run into Lieral and been defeated (though not nearly killed, exactly) by him. Upon further inspection, Ryner was completely fine, except for an odd marking where he had been stabbed.
But he didn't have much time to consider this, as he was summoned back to the castle. Sion wanted Ryner back right away to continue with paperwork, and wouldn't take no for an answer.
Eventually, Ryner and Ferris managed to escape to the dango shop for a while (and he got to try a recipe that Ferris herself had come up with), but this break was short lived, because Claugh arrived and 'commissioned' him (read: forced him into it) to create a fireworks display to celebrate Sion's birthday. Because despite Sion's dislike of luxury it wasn't right that the Hero King's birthday go uncelebrated, if it was a fireworks display then everyone in the kingdom could enjoy it, and if it was created by Ryner's magic the budget wouldn't be affected.
Beautiful fireworks, by the way.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
After the display was over, it began to rain, so Sion took a carriage and picked Ryner up from where he had been working his magic in the mountains. They stopped off at the Royal Special Military Academy, for old time's sake - that was where they had first met, after all. While there, Ryner told Sion that, at first, he had thought that creating a perfect world where everyone would be happy was an empty dream, but thanks to Sion, he had come to realize that it wasn't empty after all. The world was changing in a good way, thanks to Sion's work, and even if perfection was still unreachable, the dream wasn't an empty one.
Of course, Sion was now convinced that it was.
See, Sion has Problems. Burdens that, like an idiot, he has decided to shoulder by himself without sharing the weight with anyone. Granted, if he had shared them before, Ryner probably would have run away and gone and tried to get himself killed by a third party in an attempt to solve them in the way that would be least painful he would have thought but in reality would have been the worst solution, but that doesn't mean that Sion isn't an idiot.
And they all boil down to those keywords I've been bolding everywhere. I'm going to cut the explanation because Ryner doesn't learn the whole explanation here, but.
Sion drew his sword and attacked Ryner with intent to kill. Ryner had always known this day would come - it was just a fact he had come to accept, that his Alpha Stigma would lead to everyone eventually trying to kill him one day, even Sion, what with his duty to Roland and everything. And if Sion was the one to kill him, it might not be so bad, but due to the promise that asked Ferris to make and thus indirectly made himself, he couldn't let that happen.
So they fought. Sion even brought out human experiments, people who had been experimented on in order to give them superior strength, healing ability, acidic blood, stuff like that. They had been begun in the previous king's reign, and Sion had initially discontinued them, but at some point he had started them back up because they were 'necessary'.
Sion said that by killing Ryner, he would save him, no matter what happened to the world. Ryner had no idea what he meant by that.
As the fight reached its climax, Sion summoned strange black daggers, pinning Ryner. (In the novels, this is apparently where the lightning spell Izuchi was erased from existence. This hasn't been brought up in the anime, but there you go.) Sion's eyes then took on a strange glint to them, and he then said that he wanted to devour Ryner (who he called his 'dear Lonely Demon'), in order to become 'true'. But he was stopped by a woman bursting forth from Ryner's chest (Iruna), who convinced Lucile (who she called the Weaver of All Equations) to stop Sion (who she called the Hero) - devouring Ryner now would be pointless for everyone involved, after all. Lucile then knocked Ryner unconscious, and that was the last he saw of Sion.
He didn't expect to awaken.
And yet he did, in the same prison cell where he had spent two years of his life, which Sion had gotten him out of. After telling him that he was going to kill him and even showing him such a pitiful crying expression, Sion hadn't actually gone through with it.
Ferris managed to find him and break into the cell, bursting into tears when she laid eyes on him. Sion was acting weird, had told her never to associate with him again and that he had killed Ryner, had told her such with a smile while looking like he was about to cry, and had marched the army into Nelpha and was slaughtering soldiers, innocents, women, children, everyone.
So Ryner and Ferris decided that the best course of action would be to leave the country, do research out there, find out just what was going on and why, and then become strong enough to reach Sion again one day, stop this madness, save him from whatever trouble he was in, and make him admit that he had the best best friend ever.
CURRENTLY COVERS: Through episode 24 of the anime. I'd rather wait and see if a second season is announced before going any further, but there are a couple of novel details here and there where I know them, too. Be warned - you tread here, you tread among spoilers.
The line of asterisks indicates where he was initially pulled from for
route_29. The line of stars indicates where he's currently pulled from. The rest is included because... well, I felt like putting it down.Ryner grew up as an orphan, ostracized thanks to his Alpha Stigma once it awakened while trying to save his friend from guards who were going to kill her because many of the villagers got by in life by scavenging from dead bodies on the battlefield. He initially trained under Germer Kleisrole, but was eventually transferred to Roland Special Institute #307, which gave orphans of war thorough military training and then sent the ones with talent off to war or sold them to nobles. (He knew a girl named Milk there, and according to her even promised to marry her, but he claims not to remember her.) He was also made a member of Roland's Hidden Elites, an underground organization of military-sponsored assassins. (He didn't really do well there, purposefully messing missions up and giving away classified information and stuff like that, but they kept him alive because he was valuable as a test subject, being a fluke Alpha Stigma bearer who didn't die after going berserk.) When he was thirteen, he earned the title of Roland's Strongest Magician by defeating the previous one, a real jerk by the name of Quont Quo, in combat.
When the war ended, the institute lost what purpose it had, and the orphans there were given the choice to either remain under military command or be killed. Ryner chose the former and transferred to the Royal Special Military Academy, where he tried to keep as low a profile as possible, lazily neglecting his studies and refusing to participate in training more than he absolutely had to. Of course, this didn't stop Kiefer Knolles from trying to get him to work harder (and eventually developing a crush on him), or Sion Astal from doing his research, learning about Ryner's Alpha Stigma, and essentially blackmailing him into joining his team for mock battle training.
Sion was the first person to know about the Alpha Stigma and not only not brand Ryner as a monster, but specifically seek him out despite (arguably initially because of) it. Sion, who was the bastard son of the king and a commoner, wanted to become king and create a world without corruption, where the weak wouldn't be suppressed by the strong, and where everyone could live happily, even an Alpha Stigma bearer.
Approximately ten months after Sion first learned about Ryner, Estabul, a country to the south, faced a food shortage due to torrential rain, so they decided to go to war with Roland in order to deal with it. The students at the Royal Special Military Academy were, of course, dispatched to the battlefield - however, they were sent to the Roxanne Plains, which was supposed to be a non-combat region.
Supposed to be. Because see, Roland's nobles wanted Sion dead, so they had made special arrangements with Estabul to send fifty of Estabul's most powerful Magic Knights there. Kiefer was actually an Estabul spy who had been caught by Roland and was being blackmailed into being a double agent for the corrupt nobles, meaning she was the one to give the signal for the Magic Knights to attack. It was a slaughter - the only people who survived were Ryner, Sion, and Kiefer. Sion only survived the three Magic Knights who attacked him at first because Ryner used his Alpha Stigma to copy the speed-enhancing magic they used.
And by Ryner, Sion, and Kiefer were the only survivors, that means on both sides. The Magic Knights, upon learning of Ryner's Alpha Stigma, decided to torment the 'monster' by torturing and killing Kiefer and Sion in front of him. This was a bad idea, because Ryner's Alpha Stigma went berserk out of desperation to save them, and he slaughtered every single Estabul Magic Knight there. Almost wound up strangling Sion and Kiefer to death too, except that Sion managed to close his eyes and end the madness before that could happen.
Sion was hailed as a war hero. Ryner was taken to prison and beaten by the nobles who had wanted Sion dead, and then Ryner agreed to be imprisoned so long as Kiefer went free and the nobility didn't bother her ever again. (It's not like he couldn't get out if he wanted - he is Roland's Strongest Magician. But, it's not like he wanted to as long as Kiefer was safe.) Before she left, Kiefer kissed him and stated that she didn't think he was a monster. Sion tried to convince Ryner to let him help him break out, despite the evidence that could be left behind linking Sion to such a thing and thus tarnishing his image, but Ryner passed.
And so Ryner spent two years in prison, never once setting foot outside his cell. During this time, because he needed something to do, he sent for as many books as he could get from libraries across the country and researched ancient heroes and the relics they were supposed to have been left behind. He even came up with an entire theory for creating a land of peace by securing such powerful artifacts, and wrote a paper documenting his findings entitled "How to Build a Kingdom of Afternoon Naps".
After two years, however, he was finally 'scheduled for execution'. Except not really. See, during that two year span, Sion had succeeded in staging a revolution and becoming the King of Roland, and had managed to get his hands on a copy of Ryner's report (by sneaking into the prison while everyone was asleep). He would have probably found a way to release his best friend anyway, but Sion was so impressed with Ryner's theory that he decided to send him forth to actually seek out these relics and bring them back. Sion, of course, motivated him by threatening execution if he refused, and setting him up with a bodyguard to make sure he wasn't slacking off - Ferris Eris, swordswoman of the Eris clan that served the royal line of Roland, a nearly emotionless beauty who loves dango more than anything else in the world.
And thus did Ryner and Ferris leave (fairly reluctantly) for the neighboring country of Nelpha. There, while doing some research in the Nelpha Royal Library, they met Toale Nelphi, illegitimate grandson of the current king of Nelpha and more popular than the legitimate heir due to his kindness and desire to work for the people. They quickly hit it off, though after Sion decided to visit in cognito, Ryner and Ferris wound up having to protect Toale from Miran Frouade, a man with a relic in the form of a ring that can summon beasts of darkness, who they didn't learn was technically working for Sion (though the intended attack on Toale was his own doing).
While on the road, Ryner was pursued by the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron, led by Lieutenant Milk Callaud (the same Milk who knew him at the orphanage). Apparently, Sion neglected to tell anyone that it was fine for Ryner to leave the country and do his research, so Milk and her squad were tasked with bringing him back to Roland - it wouldn't do for a mage to leave without permission, after all, for what if he spread the secrets of Roland's style of magic to other countries? That was treated as a threat to national security. Milk was somehow, of course, convinced that it was Ferris who was slave-driving him into following her against his will - her childhood friend would never do it of his own volition!
During a scuffle involving the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron and some of Nelpha's soldiers who hadn't been informed that Milk's people were allowed to do their work in Nelpha, Ryner actually managed to obtain a Hero Relic! Except that he didn't know what it did or how to activate it, so that in frustration he threw it at the ground, causing a large dragon to appear and scare everyone off. They later discovered the effective use of this artifact (the Dolueli Swordscale), however, when they faced Sui and Kuu Orla, an aspiring author and his younger sister from the Gastark Empire who had also been tasked with collecting such relics, which they referred to as Rule Fragments. The Orlas, of course, had already met with success in finding a few, and needed to silence anyone who might find out about what they were doing, so they attacked Ryner and Ferris. Ryner used his Alpha Stigma to copy one of Sui's spells at one point, and then Sui got the brilliant idea to force Ryner's Alpha Stigma to go berserk, kill him, and then gouge out the crystallized form of his eyes.
Yeah.
Sui, of course, paid for this with his right arm and by seeing the Elemio Comb, a relic that was supposed to be able to protect him from the Alpha Stigma's magic, dissolve into dust. Ryner's is no ordinary Alpha Stigma, after all. Sui and Kuu managed to escape, leaving Ferris to deal with the now berserk Ryner, but she kept calm and managed to talk him through it and close his eyes to end it. Even despite seeing him in that manner and being pretty badly hurt, she refused to think of him as a monster. A perverted bestial demon lord who went and had his way with innocent young women and men alike every night? Sure, such wild tales are too much fun to make up. But a monster? Not on your life.
After everything had calmed down, the pair found themselves in the country of Runa, where they met a girl named Kuku who begged them to save her friend Arua. He, like Ryner, was an Alpha Stigma bearer, except that his had only just awakened for the first time. Runa is a country of religious zealots, and they believe that Alpha Stigma bearers are evil demons - therefore, the Magic Knights decided to torture Arua in order to get him to go berserk, and then kill him.
Ryner, of course, couldn't stand for that, and wound up running in to defend Arua despite Ferris telling him they needed to come up with a plan first. Sadly, he couldn't stop Arua's father from being killed, but he was able to knock Arua unconscious before his berserking Alpha Stigma could leave him permanently in a state of madness, and then take him away to safety. He and Ferris then decided to pick Kuku up and take the children to Roland, but they discovered that Kuku had been captured... by Sui and Kuu, who were going after Arua's Alpha Stigma now. Nice people, huh.
When Arua finally woke up, and after the situation had been explained, Ryner taught him the basics of magic (which comes naturally to an Alpha Stigma bearer), and Ferris taught him the basics of physical fighting. And then the three of them headed off to where the Orlas had taken Kuku.
After Sui asked Ryner to join the Gastark Empire in their plans for world peace (by killing everyone who would stand in their way, yeah, great way to do it), and after Ryner refused, they had a brief skirmish in which Arua used magic alongside Ryner's to attempt to surprise Sui, but that tactic ultimately failed. Due to both sides' mutual desire not to fight the other, Sui decided instead to kill Kuku, the only bit of happiness left in Arua's life. She was (indirectly) saved, however, by none other than Frouade, who was investigating into matters concerning Runa and its relations with Roland and Gastark. Frouade had his beasts of darkness cut off Sui's other arm and then tried to kill him, but Ryner prevented Sui's death - he doesn't like it when people die, regardless of circumstance.
After this was all dealt with, Ryner and Ferris found Milk and company and asked them to take Arua and Kuku to Roland. Unfortunately, they met the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron again soon enough on a ship, and Milk and Ferris got into a fight that caused the boat to explode. Eventually, they all somehow managed to reach the shores of Roland, and Ryner and Ferris decided to pay a visit to Sion... to 'kill' him for the trouble he'd put them through. It was more along the lines of just letting him know every last one of their grievances and telling him that he needed to sleep more, but.
Sion asked that Ryner and Ferris escort him on a trip he was planning to Estabul. Instead of accepting, however, Ryner decided to visit House Eris and say hi to Arua and Kuku (who were now staying there). He learned a bit about Ferris' past here - she was abused and trained relentlessly until she was fourteen, at which point her parents died (more specifically were killed) and her brother, Lucile, became head of the Eris clan. When examining Lucile's Dojo with his Alpha Stigma, however, Ryner had a vision of himself disintegrating into dust - a vision that Arua did not share when asked to examine it as well.
Early that evening, Ryner told Ferris about Sion's request, and she had the same opinion he did - that they should instead leave again in the morning to continue their quest to find Hero Relics. Ryner even promised to carry all of the dango that Ferris was going to want for the road (despite how she doubled the amount she intended to bring only after he made said promise).
The disturbing vision he'd witnessed led Ryner to visit Lucile's Dojo by himself that night, and they had a confrontation where Ryner learned that Lucile was not what most would define as human - and Lucile reminded him that neither was he, and that a monster like him can't have anything, so he shouldn't get any ideas about potentially loving his sister or anything. Nice guy, huh.
With that fresh in his head walking home, Ryner ran into Milk, who delivered what she thought was an invitation to a birthday party the rest of the Taboo-Breaker Pursuit Squadron was holding for her, but was actually an order signed by Sion himself ordering Milk's group to kill him immediately should he go berserk outside the country or show any signs of potential treason. (Milk's second in command, Luke Stokkart, had made the switch without her knowing. His intentions were noble enough - he didn't want Milk to get hurt, after all - but still.)
Naturally, Ryner was deeply upset by this order, and decided to go off on his own without telling anyone else. Sure, it meant breaking his promise to head off with Ferris and carry all of the dango for her, but he only thought of that after it was too late to turn back.
He had a dream shortly after leaving, in which he was a small child and his parents were discussing what to do about the fact that he was an Alpha Stigma bearer. His mother was intent on killing him and herself, because she thought she was to blame, but his father refused to let her. (The dream continued and said parents were shattered by the Alpha Stigma, as were Sion and Ferris, but.) When he woke up, however, he had no idea what to make of the dream - such things would imply that he had ever had parents who loved him, but that couldn't be the case, he thought.
Also naturally, Ferris was not happy that he had skipped out on her like this, and she wasted no time in finding out where he had gone and following after him. She found him in an inn close to the border with Estabul, and let him know rather violently how pissed off she was, but Ryner only made cryptic comments at first wondering if she was another assassin sent by Sion, but then deciding that if anyone was going to kill him, he knew she wasn't going to. When asked what he was talking about, he refused to answer.
Ferris was not the only one looking for Ryner, however. Another young man by the name of Tiir Rumibul had come looking for him. He, like Ryner, had magic eyes - his are the Iino Doue, which devour people and magic - and he had come from a group of people who all had magic eyes in order to bring Ryner, who had been hurt so much by regular humans, to join them in central Menoris.
In any other situation, Ryner might have considered not going with him. However, having been so recently reminded of how despised he was by the world simply for existing did not exactly help matters, and then Sion and the Roland army showed up. As it would turn out, Tiir had caused quite a stir in his search for Ryner, and the military was after him for eating several villagers and Claugh Klom's arm - they weren't expecting to run into Ryner as well, but that's how luck happened. Tiir casually revealed to the military that Ryner was an Alpha Stigma bearer, and Ryner decided to leave with him in order to avoid more blood being spilt - if he had stayed, an actual battle might have broken out, and who knows how many would have died.
Sion tried to get Ryner to stay, of course, but ordering the military to fire arrows at Tiir by shouting "Kill that monster!" was the exact wrong way to do it. That was the first time that Ryner had ever heard Sion use that word, and even though it wasn't in reference to him but instead to Tiir... Seriously, Sion could have easily used the word 'cannibal', or 'criminal' instead and been more accurate even, but noooooo...
And so Tiir brought Ryner north toward Nelpha, where the rest of the magic eye bearers (Tiir calls them 'Eyes of God') he had been traveling with were staying. There, Ryner met Lafra, bearer of the Ebra Crypt, eyes that allow the bearer to see into others' dreams. He was actually the one who found Ryner and asked Tiir to go retrieve him, because he was fascinated by how Ryner was still kind and still loved people despite the horrible experiences he'd had in his life, and he expressed his wish for Ryner to bring salvation to all of the bearers of the magic eyes.
That night, Luke appeared. Fun story there - just after Milk had delivered the 'birthday invitation', she ran into Frouade, who kidnapped her in order to persuade Luke to go kill Ryner (who, Frouade wrongly thought, was the one who was holding Sion back and preventing him from being the perfect king). Luke, being a badass in hiding, turned the table on Frouade and threatened that he'd kill him unless he let Milk free, but Frouade did manage to convince him to follow through with the order from Sion anyway. Ryner had fled Roland and refused to return when asked - hence, this branded him as a traitor.
Luke tried to kill Ryner. Ryner initially defended himself, but as Luke tripped him up and went in for the finishing strike, he decided, why not let him? What point was there to his continued existence anyway?
Thankfully, Ferris (who had been tailing Luke) appeared and got Ryner out of the way of Luke's attack. And she was (understandably) pissed at Ryner for running away again.
This little encounter was cut short, however. Because, see, while Ryner was busy with Luke, a guy by the name of Lir Orla (Sui and Kuu's older brother) snuck into the area where the magic eye bearers were staying and decided to attack. Unfortunately, Tiir's Iino Doue is useless against the powers of relics, and Lir's main attack uses a relic that attacks with lightning beasts. Lafra died protecting the others from falling debris caused by said beasts. An Alpha Stigma bearer named Pueka, who had a crush on Lafra, went berserk upon his death, and Lir not only prevented Ryner from knocking her out and saving her like he did for Arua, but used a relic called Spunquel to steal the crystallized form of her eyes, killing her as well.
Yeah. Gastark? The people up there are not nice. I mean, really. When Ryner Lute, the guy who thinks that killing is the biggest pain of them all, decides that you're worth killing? You've got to have done something completely and utterly unforgivable and disgusting in order for that to happen. And Ryner went all out trying to kill Lir, disregarding his own safety and everything.
He was only brought back down to Earth by Ferris, when she blocked one of Lir's attacks in order to prevent Ryner from getting hurt by it, despite the fact that she was also stepping in front of Ryner's magic, risking herself. Why? Because she was pissed off that Ryner was acting so suicidal like this. If he wants to think of himself as nothing but a monster and go off and die, he can go ahead and do it, but she'll never think of him as a monster, and she'll never care what the rest of the world thinks.
And when Ryner, in tears, asked Ferris if it was truly okay for him to live, Ferris merely called him a fool and told him that if he died, she'd be lonely.
Of course, then Ferris got knocked out, and naturally, Lir decided that it would obviously be a brilliant idea to use one of the crystals he had taken from Pueka's eyes to force Ryner's Alpha Stigma to go berserk at this point.
But, see... this time, the result was different. In a move that showed just how strong a will this guy has, Ryner actually managed to fight off the possession and prevent himself from going berserk, instead firing a spell toward Tiir so he could absorb it and take the children somewhere far away where Lir couldn't reach them. And Lir, cornered by both Ryner and Luke and annoyed that his entire 'harvest' was one crystal (well if you hadn't used that one you moron...), decided to flee himself.
As he left, Lir called Ryner the Solver of All Equations, and then commented that if he was still around, that meant the Hero must not be complete. Did Ryner know what Lir was talking about? No. But those are extremely important keywords. Just... to put that there.
Luke then decided to leave as well, without killing Ryner. If he truly was no ordinary Alpha Stigma bearer, there was no need, after all.
And Ryner agreed to return to Roland with Ferris and stop running away from his problems, though not before asking her to promise that, should the day ever come when he loses control again, she would be the one to kill him. Which, of course, is also essentially a promise that, since he's decided that she'll be the one to kill him, he's not going to let himself die at anyone else's hand. A promise to live.
Upon returning to Roland, Sion decided to express how upset he was at Ryner for leaving the way he did by forcing him to help him with all of the paperwork that goes into running a kingdom, without letting him sleep. (Sion doesn't sleep, ever, which is unhealthy in and of itself, but at least he's used to that, unlike Mr. King of Afternoon Naps...) Ferris was also pulled into helping as well, but she tended to be much more forceful about having her dango breaks.
Eventually, Ryner couldn't take it anymore and decided to go to the inn for a three day rest regardless of Sion's protests, saying he'd come back and telling him not to look for him. ...Didn't really work out as planned, though, because some random guy (except not so random - his name's Lieral Lieutolu) came up and decided it would be a great idea to stab Ryner in the chest.
Yes. That's right. Stab. In the chest.
But Ryner didn't die. Not exactly. Instead, his mind wound up going to a place where the ground was covered in blood, where he met Alpha, the force that takes him over when his Alpha Stigma goes berserk. Alpha tried to kill him (also calling him the Solver of All Equations like Lir had), but was stopped by magic called the Curse of Artfahle, which caused its head to explode.
And out came a woman. A beautiful woman, who Ryner's heart cried that he recognized, but who his mind could not remember in the slightest. (Her name is Iruna Lieutolu, by the way.) She embraced him and told him that she had been waiting for a very long time to meet him and that she loves him very much, before telling him to go touch the Door before the Weaver of All Equations shows up.
Then, Alpha regenerated and ate her. But that gave Ryner enough time to run away and reach the Door she had mentioned (despite how he had absolutely no idea what was going on). A Door that happened to exist in his mind. When he touched it, he saw a scene where a man in armor made from blood, a Hero, was killing everything in sight. This man then struggled to beg Ryner to help him, for he has this insatiable urge to consume him. And in the reflection of the Hero's sword, Ryner saw himself as a Demon.
This is where he woke up, in the inn, in the same bed as Ferris, who had also run into Lieral and been defeated (though not nearly killed, exactly) by him. Upon further inspection, Ryner was completely fine, except for an odd marking where he had been stabbed.
But he didn't have much time to consider this, as he was summoned back to the castle. Sion wanted Ryner back right away to continue with paperwork, and wouldn't take no for an answer.
Eventually, Ryner and Ferris managed to escape to the dango shop for a while (and he got to try a recipe that Ferris herself had come up with), but this break was short lived, because Claugh arrived and 'commissioned' him (read: forced him into it) to create a fireworks display to celebrate Sion's birthday. Because despite Sion's dislike of luxury it wasn't right that the Hero King's birthday go uncelebrated, if it was a fireworks display then everyone in the kingdom could enjoy it, and if it was created by Ryner's magic the budget wouldn't be affected.
Beautiful fireworks, by the way.
After the display was over, it began to rain, so Sion took a carriage and picked Ryner up from where he had been working his magic in the mountains. They stopped off at the Royal Special Military Academy, for old time's sake - that was where they had first met, after all. While there, Ryner told Sion that, at first, he had thought that creating a perfect world where everyone would be happy was an empty dream, but thanks to Sion, he had come to realize that it wasn't empty after all. The world was changing in a good way, thanks to Sion's work, and even if perfection was still unreachable, the dream wasn't an empty one.
Of course, Sion was now convinced that it was.
See, Sion has Problems. Burdens that, like an idiot, he has decided to shoulder by himself without sharing the weight with anyone. Granted, if he had shared them before, Ryner probably would have run away and gone and tried to get himself killed by a third party in an attempt to solve them in the way that would be least painful he would have thought but in reality would have been the worst solution, but that doesn't mean that Sion isn't an idiot.
And they all boil down to those keywords I've been bolding everywhere. I'm going to cut the explanation because Ryner doesn't learn the whole explanation here, but.
Sion drew his sword and attacked Ryner with intent to kill. Ryner had always known this day would come - it was just a fact he had come to accept, that his Alpha Stigma would lead to everyone eventually trying to kill him one day, even Sion, what with his duty to Roland and everything. And if Sion was the one to kill him, it might not be so bad, but due to the promise that asked Ferris to make and thus indirectly made himself, he couldn't let that happen.
So they fought. Sion even brought out human experiments, people who had been experimented on in order to give them superior strength, healing ability, acidic blood, stuff like that. They had been begun in the previous king's reign, and Sion had initially discontinued them, but at some point he had started them back up because they were 'necessary'.
Sion said that by killing Ryner, he would save him, no matter what happened to the world. Ryner had no idea what he meant by that.
As the fight reached its climax, Sion summoned strange black daggers, pinning Ryner. (In the novels, this is apparently where the lightning spell Izuchi was erased from existence. This hasn't been brought up in the anime, but there you go.) Sion's eyes then took on a strange glint to them, and he then said that he wanted to devour Ryner (who he called his 'dear Lonely Demon'), in order to become 'true'. But he was stopped by a woman bursting forth from Ryner's chest (Iruna), who convinced Lucile (who she called the Weaver of All Equations) to stop Sion (who she called the Hero) - devouring Ryner now would be pointless for everyone involved, after all. Lucile then knocked Ryner unconscious, and that was the last he saw of Sion.
He didn't expect to awaken.
And yet he did, in the same prison cell where he had spent two years of his life, which Sion had gotten him out of. After telling him that he was going to kill him and even showing him such a pitiful crying expression, Sion hadn't actually gone through with it.
Ferris managed to find him and break into the cell, bursting into tears when she laid eyes on him. Sion was acting weird, had told her never to associate with him again and that he had killed Ryner, had told her such with a smile while looking like he was about to cry, and had marched the army into Nelpha and was slaughtering soldiers, innocents, women, children, everyone.
So Ryner and Ferris decided that the best course of action would be to leave the country, do research out there, find out just what was going on and why, and then become strong enough to reach Sion again one day, stop this madness, save him from whatever trouble he was in, and make him admit that he had the best best friend ever.