Outside, Reason still stood before Mercy, corrupting sword in hand.
Inside, however, the sword saw only winter.
A world of ice and snow where wind, sound, and even light froze, a still world that just began to move.
The old man stood up; the moon lowered, the sun rose.
His age followed the course, reverting, a clock spinning backwards, years returning to him.
Rays of light shone, but the cold just deepened. Snow and ice began to fall, winds so sharp they slit skin open.
"I AM UNREASONABLE!!?" The now young man's voice exploded. Emotions suppressed had to spill into a loud voice.
*Crack* The ice below, the frozen lake, cracked open.
Water spewed out, making snow fog so dense you couldn't see anything.
There was no relief, no rest, even while blinded, you felt it, the movement, the lake, the water was moving. Ice caps flowed down the newly formed river.
A huge river, drifting them down to death.
'Let me out! You fuking monster let me out!!' This was the moment the sword(eye) realized that even as he tried to cut the connection, he could no longer do such a thing. Even the doors froze shut.
"RUN!? NO!"
"Reason... Reason, are you alright?" Outside, Mercy called him, but the name was wrong. UnReason's eyes were unfocused even as he spoke in both words.
"YOU ARE ANNOYING!" UnReason stood up, facing Mercy, unintentionally pulling the sword out of the ground.
'What are you doing, you crazy bitch, I told you only call 'his' name!! Oh, fuck you don't know!!'
"ANNOYING— TIANA, YOU... are not allowed to speak—" A surprising fact, this Reason, he heard Tiana. A shifting up and down voice, maybe 'both' sides were angry at her.
"YOU BETRAYED US.
SHOULD I KILL YOU FOR THAT?"
"I should kill you for that."
"I WILL KILL YOU!" With each word, even while changing tone, Reason and UnReason stepped closer to Mercy, and so did she retreat.
'Say it! Now!'
"M-Monster and Original... already let Tiana go..." Mercy's back was already pressed to a tree, and fear was again crawling up her spine.
"AND? I DID NOT!"
"No..." Mercy's words choked.
"GIRL, YOUR REASONS!!" UnReason, grabbed her neck, his hand easily encompassing it whole, but then...
"Girl..." Reason's face reverted. The emotions faded in an instant. His face, from a grimace, returned to the cold, emotionless, and unimpressed state.
"I see, reason." His eyes peered, and they saw. Reason and UnReason. The only difference, a single word or action.
"Mercy, Tiana is lying to you. She is lying."
"W-What are—?" Mercy couldn't follow. One moment her neck is being squeezed, the next he adjusts her collar and hair.
She felt her body jump away, or rather, the feeling that it wanted to do so. But even her body could no longer make sense of things, like being hot and cold at the same time, pure confusion.
"All she wants is your body."
"Wait— wait a moment, I can't follow really. Let me calm myself for a moment—"
"I gave her a reason— She could never have a body.
It is the only natural conclusion that she used your soul.
Her reasons from the beginning were a path that led to this 'love' —? "
Before Reason could finish his words, the sword shook in his hand, teeth clawing, biting deeper yet also trying to release at the same time.
An all-black, obsidian-like form, a sword, well, you could call it that.
A hilt and the blade, though it was in the shape, it was all in one, like a stone carved out to look like a great sword.
Sharp edges everywhere, but dull at as many places too. A razor and a saw. A rusted, no, rotten piece of metal like stone.
Even as dirty as it was, it still had a strange, multicolored reflecting glow in the low moonlight. All around, a similar dark yet sparkling obsidian fog began to emerge.
"DO NOT, INTERRUPT ME!" UnReason brought the sword's eye in front of his face. An eye, yes... A deep red eye was embedded at the base of the blade.
It moved around frantically, like someone confused, screaming to escape. Well, actually, he was screaming inside, locked into a storm of ice and snow.
"...?" Reason blinked twice. It was the most expressive notion of his surprise.
"You are restoring yourself, with my blood?" The hilt— the mouth full of black teeth still drew blood, but now it was clear why. It was drinking it up, like some savory drink. It was drinking blood and energy, slowly restoring its 'rotten' form.
'Just release me... I won't bother you anymore... please... just let me go... this ice, I feel my soul freezing...' Released by Reason from the prison of ice, the voice of the sword was shivering from the cold.
"Fine, but I shall punish you." As you do it with a sturdy stick, he put the sword to his knee, grabbing the other end.
'What... what are you planning... I am unbr— AGHK!!' Something happened that the sword felt for the first time in a long while— pain, real pain.
'You— you broke me...?' The eye began to bleed, and the voice in Reason's head sounded both pained and even more confused.
'This... this is not possible, he broke me... my edge... this... You monstrous thing, Hazard will not be treated like this!!' The dark obsidian mist and the mouth of teeth shot at him. It was fully intending to use every bit of strength it had, even just to harm Reason if not to overtake him.
"WORTHLESS!" But UnReason had wasted enough time. Every move the sword made disappeared...
UnReason tore his arm out of the mouth, tossing the two pieces on the ground, and even the black infection spreading on him disappeared like nothing.
The sword was surpassed, as if it had and could do nothing. With all of his power used up, even its voice was completely silenced for now.
"NOW, WHERE WERE WE!?" UnReason turned back to Mercy, his hand was too quick, pressing her to the tree by the throat again.
"Please— I... don't want to die—"
"That is a living reaction, but I intend to kill Tiana, not you." Reason returned, but his cold face now was also dark, as his intentions didn't change this time.
"Then I— won't die?"
"Well, most certainly you will.
The moment Tiana dies, the chain holding you breaks."
"Please..."
"I almost spared you, but Un took it up to remind me. If we let Tiana be and she fully regains her powers of Connection, we won't be able to kill her.
Monster and Original most certainly will be able to, but they let her go. I have to do it now."
"Please..."
"She is too dangerous."
"..." Mercy felt like giving up, but Tiana's voice still echoed.
'I know you don't want to listen to me, but the moment reasons outweigh your life, we die, please you must say exactly what I tell you—'
Tiana could be lying. Mercy knew that.
But if Tiana wanted her dead, she would not sound so afraid, and even more, Mercy was certain that if either one of them died, the other would too. "Original..."
"Hmh?"
"He said... to protect me... didn't he?"
"The mission..." Reason's contemplation with UnReason just began, but Mercy, following Tiana's words, continued.
"Following the order... or killing us. Are you... reasonable... or unreasonable now?"
"Reasonable.
UNREASONABLE!!? UGH!" Reason grasped at his head.
"Kah—" As she was let go, Mercy fell and grabbed her hurting neck.
'Wh-What did you do to him...' Reason was shaking on the ground, his hands pressing at his head so hard that there were cracking sounds. He was crushing his own skull.
'He seems to be in a lot of pain... are you sure he will be alright?'
'Girl, worry about yourself first. He almost killed you just now.'
'That's true but...'
Tiana sighed. 'Reason builds himself on questions and answers. Ask or answer the wrong or right one, and he wounds himself. But he will be fine soon.
I just really didn't want to use this since I would prove some of his reasons right, and he will be even stronger and harder to deal with later.'
"Uh? Wher-Where are you going?" While Tiana explained, Reason already got up without a word and started to move. For some reason, Mercy couldn't sit still and asked after him.
'Crazy bitch, don't speak to him now!'
"To kill. I will deal with you later after everything is clear."
"No..." A low voice.
"What are you doing?" Mercy grabbed Reason's hand.
"No... don't..." Her mood turned just as fast as Reason's does.
"Release me. I have to kill them anyway."
"No— No!" Her voice turned resolute.
"Who do you think you are to order me?" Reason turned back to her, stepping so close that it made her fall back from a root.
"You, said... YOU SAID..."
"What did I say?"
"You said, you needed a plan... please... please don't go in like this... Liam... he died like this, let's make a plan, please. I don't want you to get hurt anymore..."
"We can't die." He turned away, intending to go.
"Again?" Reason stopped.
Even lying on the ground, Mercy crawled and grabbed his hand again.
"I-I am scared..." Reason frowned at Mercy's honest words, the biggest change that wasn't UnReason.
"Liam... the one I grew up with, the one who saved my life, the one who helped me survive that hell— he is... he is dead— yet he stands right in front of me."
"I am not him."
"That's... I know... " Her head lowered. She felt exactly as she was, beaten to the ground.
"M-my stomach hurts, I feel like throwing up.
My head hurts and I... am so damn angry I just want to hit you, but— but please don't be like this.
I don't want you to get hurt anymore." A drop, another, a clear bleeding of a heart.
"I— I am so damn useless, my hands are still shaking, I am even scared of you, but—
I can help too, so please, don't go there alone."
"You—" Reason turned around, squatting down.
"I am surprised someone so young and fragile." He reached out, raising her lowered head, wiping away the clear bleeding of her heart.
"Such bravery, yet such a clear, reasonable mind. I only ever met a few."
"No... did you not hear it? I am scared." She seemed confused.
"Speaking fear and pain out, is a path towards facing them, it's a strength to realise you alone are not enough, yet you still try—
Usually this is Un— And yet, in you, I see —reason.
I like you."
'Uh?'
"Uh?" Though his words were nonchalant, both Mercy and Tiana had the same reaction.
"Alright then, let me make a plan for you." Reason didn't care what the two took from his words. He just looked up, closed his eyes, and pressed his index finger into his forehead.
Focusing on the pressure, on the thoughts, not much time passed, a few seconds maybe.
"Done." As he finished, he stood up.
"What? Already? Don't be hasty, we still have some time."
"No. It is finished. I need time to set it up, and they are fast, the tracker is good, so I have to be even more precise."
"Ah, alright, then tell me."
"No, you are not needed."
"What, but you—"
"The plan has six outcomes. All are acceptable."
"Acceptable?"
"You don't know us yet. It means I win. It is only reasonable.
You can hide over there and watch.
Yes, also when one or both of the scared ones run that way, you can kill them.
I would have let them run. But it has fewer variables for the future if you kill them.
For the other parts of my plan, you aren't needed. I would waste time explaining."
"Kill them…" Mercy repeated, her fingers tightening.
Reason looked at her. "Yes."
There was no cruelty in his voice. That somehow made it worse.
"..." She was still dissatisfied but was also uncertain about complaining more.
'You are one arrogant bitch, be happy we didn't get killed, and just move. Reason will win, and that is it.'
"You again... I hate you so much!" By mistake, Mercy shouted outward instead of just inside.
"Hmh, — if you speak with Tiana, keep it in the head, not just now but always, it is troublesome when others think you are crazy, we know."
"Ah? Yeah, sorry..."
"Alright, go now, I will have to hide your tracks too, so let me work." Reason turned away.
"Yes–yes, I am going..." Mercy did too.
'Girl, you are really not normal either...'
'What are you talking about now, no, don't even say it, just don't talk to me at all.' Mercy was starting to really get tired of Tiana, but what could she do? Tiana and her voice were in her head.
'I will talk when I want. And I meant that you were threatened to be killed five times or something now, and you just brushed it off.
I don't know if this is part of the definition of crazy, but I am sure it should be.'
'Fuck you!' Mercy closed the conversation with an educated answer.