Sickle


 * For other uses, see master of the heavenly yard (disambiguation)

"This isn't the "ended world", Held. This is the place everyone returns to when they have completed their lifetime in the Third Period: the Heavenly Yard."

- Sickle

Sickle, possessing the true name TALOS, was the companion robot for the Climb One. Created by Luna Hazuki, TALOS oversaw the creation of the Third Period. He later incarnated as a god; accepting the name humans gave him, "Sickle" chose to solely observe his creation, curious about what path humanity would follow without his interference.

Early Life
"The god of the sun proposed that they entrust their third paradise to its new creatures, that they merely try to watch over it."

- Excerpt from the Levin Bible Old Testament, Book 1, Genesis

In Second Period, TALOS was created by the engineer Luna Hazuki as a helper robot for the Climb One, his true form being that of a black box; after creation, TALOS also became a professor. As the Second Period began to collapse due to HERs contaminating the world, TALOS accompanied the scientists boarding the Climb One as one of several spaceships intended to travel to inhabitable planets and repopulate them. As they lost contact with all their fellow spaceships, the crew of the Climb One realized they were the last inhabitants of Earth and decided to create a new species in the image of earthlings.

After finding a new planet to inhabit, TALOS helped with creation the the new species and used Held as a model for one of the races. During this process Seth Twiright, an HER who had secretly boarded the Climb One, contaminated the new species to have a possibility of developing HER Syndrome. These developments sparked a fight aboard the ship between the remaining scientists aboard and Hazuki and Held Yggdra; during the fight, the Climb One crashed, killing everyone aboard and leaving only their spirit data.

Sometime afterward, around the point when the new human race began, TALOS took the form of a bat. With Held moving into a Millennium Tree, the two became "gods" of the world, TALOS the sun god and Held an earth god. TALOS additionally tasked Held with monitoring Levia and Behemo should they ever escape, with the Climb One in which they were trapped becoming the revered "Sin" ark of the new Magic Kingdom Levianta. Around this time, the gods agreed to fully hide Luna's existence from their former colleagues.

As time progressed, TALOS developed the different rules governing the new world; among these rules, the god prepared for the world he created to end in one of four different ways. He also decided to make an afterlife for the dead humans out of the Third Period's moon, calling it the Heavenly Yard and cultivating rice fields there.

Observing Evillious
As the Third Period continued, Talos flew out over the ground world and observed the numerous individuals in Evillious, noting in particular Elluka Clockworker and Irina Clockworker and their actions involving the vessels of sin. He went on to watch various events in history, such as the Venomania Event, Disappearance of Evil Food Eater Conchita, Princess Riliane's evil reign, and Prim Marlon's conspiracy regarding it. During his travels, Talos was spotted in his bat form by a human and, determined to be a new species of bat, was dubbed "Sickle" for his oddly shaped wings. He since adopted the new name as his own.

While observing Riliane's reign, Sickle noted her twin Allen Avadonia and was surprised to find that, although he was intended to be a reincarnation of Hänsel, the boy existed separately from him. Also realizing that Allen was an irregularity outside the scope of his designs, he met with the boy in the Heavenly Yard after his death on December 26, EC 500. He tasked him with learning about all of the Third Period's history from the Black Box device in order to understand the mechanisms of the world. Forbidden from visiting his friends and family in the Gardens of Champs-Élysées, Sickle locked Allen inside Black Box to begin his studies.

Later on, Sickle allowed Allen to interfere briefly in the world in EC 505 to protect his sister from the possessed Clarith, and again later that year when Germaine Avadonia and Yukina Freezis confronted Irina on the Lucifenian coastline. In EC 549, Sickle flew to Jakoku to observe the civil war happening there; during this, he witnessed Chartette Langley hand off two pairs of scissors to the swordsman Gaou Octo. Afterwards, he watched Irina arrive and best Chartette in a battle, killing her. He was confused when Irina seemed to look straight at him for a moment. After observing the rest of the civil war, Sickle left.

Brief Return Home
"But in the end, you obeyed the duty I gave you. Therefore I don't understand. Why did you leave Michaela as a successor?" "Well, aren't you plotting something too?"

- Sickle and Held regarding Michaela and Allen

Sickle returned to the Heavenly Yard, where Held had already been brought back to after his mortal form perished. Returning to his rice fields in his human form, Sickle began reaping any weeds he found and then greeted Held; when Held referred to their location as an "ended world", he corrected him that it was the new afterlife of the Third Period and the two discussed how he had refused to use the Hellish Yard to segregate the souls coming into the Heavenly Yard. Sickle then brushed the conversation off and asked Held about him appointing the forest spirit Michaela as a successor god on the ground world.

When Held evaded the question, asking Sickle instead about what he planned to do with Allen, he briefly explained the boy's "irregular" nature. Sickle shortly after sent Held away and brought Black Box down, unlocking it to check on the sleeping Allen inside. After learning that Behemo had returned to the Heavenly Yard and had Allen reincarnate as a human in Jakoku in EC 828, the furious Sickle had him retrieve the boy and Behemo returned with Allen fourteen years later.

A Fate of Corruption
In EC 944, Sickle noticed that the tri-soul fusion Ma had given birth to a son, Gallerian Marlon. Watching Ma be tried for witchcraft and secretly sent away by the judge Hanma Balledold, Sickle became curious about what kind of person the child would become and decided to observe the infant as he grew up, constantly flying around him throughout the years. During this time, he was a bystander for many key events in Gallerian's life that led the boy to becoming a famed judge of the Dark Star Bureau, as well as the father of Nemesis Sudou through an unwittingly incestuous affair between himself and Ma.

With the deaths of Gallerian's wife and other child on the ship Titanis, Sickle followed the progress of PN in trying to find the one responsible and accompanied their investigation into the Millennium Tree Forest. When they arrived at the cabin where a possible suspect lived, Sickle was present when the forest itself began to attack the entire group. Realizing it may be the work of Michaela, Sickle telepathically commanded her to stop interfering. After Michaela informed him that the spirit Lich was at large again, she was persuaded to stop her attack and allow the group to leave the forest.

Sickle continued to observe how Gallerian was convinced to make a contract with Adam Moonlit to speak to the Clockworker's Doll, believing that his beloved daughter Michelle was inside. From then on Sickle watched Gallerian using his courtroom for his own ends, becoming completely corrupt. Sometime after Gallerian allied with the spirits Lich Arklow and Eater Sabella, as well as their master Banica Conchita, Sickle flew up to the doll's room while Gallerian was out; using telepathy, Sickle spoke to the Clockworker's Doll and chatted with the spirit inside it about her "friends" the other demons, and how they'd be moved to Evil's Theater soon.

While speaking with the doll, Sickle learned that "Michelle" was not the spirit's real name and persuaded her to confide her real name to him. Sickle continued from there to watch Gallerian and his associates until the breakout of civil war in Levianta. While Gallerian's mansion was surrounded by the militia, he was a bystander to Gallerian's confrontation with Adam that ended with the doll, now appearing as a life-sized girl, left in the mansion with her "father." When the house was set on fire, Sickle decided to flee the mansion to avoid the flames.

Before he could, the bat was grabbed by Gallerian, who spoke to him for the first time. To Sickle's surprise, he learned that the man could always see Sickle and just hadn't spoken up about it. When asked, Sickle explained why he had always followed Gallerian and the two conversed over him being a god, as well as Gallerian knowing gods existed. As Gallerian pleaded for Sickle to tell him what Ma and Bruno were hiding from him, he reluctantly shared his knowledge before fleeing the house. Up in the sky, he paused for a moment to see Nemesis enter the burning building before returning to the Heavenly Yard.

World's End
"No one's here?" "So you noticed, Allen. Yes, it's just you and I in the Heavenly Yard now."

- Allen and Sickle

In EC 999, Sickle witnessed the Third Period's collapse due to Nemesis Sudou and her weapon Punishment, seeing the ground world become part of the Hellish Yard and pull all the souls from the Heavenly Yard to the ground, as he had set up as the worst of the four endings. Disapproving of these events, Sickle set out to break his rules and interfere in his creation, deciding to borrow Michaela's power.

Meeting with Michaela and Gumillia, the three of them agreed to reduce the influence of the Second Period in order to allow humanity to decide the ruined world's fate, with Sickle sending down Allen to meet each of the seven contractors. Beginning to make his own preparations, Sickle also related his plans to both Held and the demons at some point.

After they and the demons agreed to cooperate, the sun god returned to the fields of the Heavenly Yard and greeted Allen in Black Box, setting him free and explaining how everyone had been pulled down to the Hellish Yard. Sickle soon after explained how he wanted Allen to restore the fallen souls, but to first review history in a new way: by interviewing all the souls important to history, namely those influenced by the Demons of Sin. After Allen agreed to the task, Sickle related that Held and Michaela were awaiting him and that he should contact them once he arrived in the ground world.

When Allen became embarrassed by mention of Michaela and went deep into thought, Sickle urged him to not be too absorbed in his own thoughts, pointing out how the boy usually acted when it was too late to stop something. He then directed Allen to use the black box to appear to the ground world, setting the destination to the Millennium Tree Forest's location. Once the boy jumped back in Black Box and left, Sickle resumed his preparations for the following stages in the plan.

Later on, Allen visited the seven souls in question and retrieved Nemesis Sudou's golden key; once he was caught in the blast of Punishment at the Grave Yard, Sickle retrieved the boy and returned him to Black Box. Sometime after, he let Allen out in preparation for the next stages of the plan, allowing the boy to return to the ground world once more.

Revealing the Truth
Following Allen's defeat of Ma, Sickle brought him inside the Climb One, revealing to him his true form as a robot, recapping the recent events to him. He then brought Allen to the adjacent room to meet his creator. Wanting to make Allen feel the pain he felt when he discovered the Second Period was a simulation, Sickle lied to him that Luna, who was the lone survivor aboard the Climb One, failed to make a new world and instead created an illusory one in her dreams using Black Box Type H, a virtual reality machine.

As Allen countered his points by pointing out the contradictions in his logic, Sickle became increasingly flustered and revealed the deception. Sickle then left Behemo, the true Master of the Heavenly Yard, to explain the rest of the situation. As Luna suddenly disappeared and Riliane and a Black Box appeared in her place, Sickle watched as Behemo took the windup key from his back and gave it to the twins, the two opening Black Box to create a new world, the Fourth Period.

In the new world, Sickle became one of the members of the "Evillious" group chat on the social media site SNS, discussing the new world with his fellow gods and bringing up a news article regarding a bear that had escaped in Tsuruki City.

Personality and Traits
"As I thought, you are angry that the world has been destroyed, correct?" "I wouldn't be angry at such a thing. I expected the world's end from the start. But..."

- Allen and Sickle

As one of the individuals who had created the Third Period, Sickle was strongly attached to it and its people. Refusing to interfere in the world, he became curious about how it would develop on its own and was endlessly entertained by the capabilities of the humans that lived there. He furthermore would become interested in the development of individuals who were unique in history, such as the sin contractors, and would pay particular attention to them and the events the demons caused as making the world more exciting. This aloof and easily entertained nature, however, made him appear indifferent towards the suffering and death the Third Period's humans endured.

Despite this, Sickle still valued the inhabitants of the Third Period, working hard to create the Heavenly Yard as an afterlife for both good and bad souls, and trying to prevent their destruction by interfering with his own rules to prevent the worst ending to the world. Entertaining a hobby of farming, Sickle was also particularly attached to his cultivated heavenly domain and preferred not to think of it as an ended world

Although extremely strict and sometimes stubborn when it came to his own rules, Sickle was willing to make exceptions. Furthermore he took many events in stride and was not angered as long as they were predictable, even if something caused him concern. The exception to this was the existential pain he experienced upon learning the Second Period was a simulation, wanting to make Allen experience this same pain as a form of venting for himself.

Additionally, Sickle had a degree of secretiveness about him, preferring to be anonymous to the Third Period's humans and keeping secrets like the existence of his creator even from his fellow earthlings. Similarly, many details about him prior to the Third Period's creation were unknown.

Skills and Abilities
Due to his past in the Second Period, Sickle was a capable tool to assist the Climb One inhabitants, and thus had a role in the creation the Third Period, as well as being fully versed in the usage of a Black Box. As the sun god, Sickle was able to change form at will between bat and human; as he in human form had two sickles in his possession, so too did his bat form have wings with the unique shape of scythe blades.

Regardless of his form, Sickle maintained immortality and, when not restricting himself, omnipotence over the period. As a bat, Sickle was capable of flying for days without getting tired and could quickly travel across the Bolganio continent to observe anywhere in the world. Aside from his godly powers, Sickle had a talent for farming and was careful when reaping the golden rice fields of the Heavenly Yard.

Character Connections
Held: A close friend and a fellow god. Sickle got along well with Held and valued his contributions to the Periods, later modeling the Elphe race after Held's human appearance. Appreciating Held's wise sense of judgment, Sickle trusted him to monitor Levia and Behemo in Bolganio; despite this, he occasionally argued with Held over his ideals for the Heavenly Yard and was curious about the other god's intentions for Michaela.

Levia: A fellow god. Sickle originally trusted Levia and worked with her during the Second and Third Periods. After Levia began causing problems with her brother, he recognized the danger that they both faced and sent Held to monitor them. Sickle also showed a disregard for Levia's feelings, neglecting her role as Master of the Hellish Yard.

Behemo: A fellow god. Sickle originally trusted Behemo and worked with him during the Second and Third Periods. After Behemo began causing problems with his sister, he recognized the danger that they both faced and sent Held to monitor them. He also showed a disregard for the god's feelings, although in the end acknowledging him as the true Master of the Heavenly Yard.

Allen Avadonia: A boy Sickle gave attention to. Due to his being an irregular, Sickle found Allen an oddity that was beyond the scope of his own creation and became fond of him despite noting his tendency to not act until it was too late. Due to his regard for him, he would often allow Allen to interfere in the world despite his own rules against doing so. He later trusted Allen enough to leave him the responsibility of recreating the world with Riliane.

Elluka Clockworker: A woman Sickle kept an eye on. Although acknowledging that she was a friend of Held, Sickle disapproved of how Elluka broke his rule of time, enjoying an extended lifespan through unnatural means.

Irina Clockworker: Another woman Sickle kept an eye on. Sickle deeply disapproved of the pain and suffering Irina brought to others, considering her an incarnation of malice, and felt she deserved close surveillance.

Banica Conchita: A woman whom Sickle observed. He found Banica's actions and transformation into a demon deplorable; he believed that she was incapable of understanding the situation, particularly in becoming the Master of the Graveyard, and that she didn't comprehend what consequences there could be.

Gallerian Marlon: A man Sickle observed. Interested in him due to his being Ma's son, Sickle was curious as to what course his life would take, constantly watching him as he grew up. Over the years, Sickle considered him have ultimately lost everything due to the choices he had made.

Luna Hazuki: Creator of Talos. At some point she became an engineer and created Talos as a companion robot for the ship the Climb One; the reasons that Sickle hid Luna's existence from his fellow earthlings are unclear, although Talos followed through on many of Luna's ideals of not interfering with humanity.

Conceptualization and Origin

 * Sickle's name and bat incarnation are taken from mothy's logo, comprised of two crossed sickles that vaguely resemble the form of a bat.
 * The Master of the Heavenly Yard's relation to the Heavenly Yard is connected to the event of Heaven in Hieronymus Bosch's The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things.
 * Talos shares his name with the robot Talos from Greek mythology.

Curiosities

 * Sickle's human form is described as always having a severe expression even when not angry.
 * Sickle's true form as Talos is described as being a small Black Box with pipes for legs and a windup key.

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