Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

The Great Call for Blood

GREED REACTED as soon as he saw the black spear in Rafale’s hand. “Fate, you’re too close! You need to make some space, and you need to do it now! Go!”

I dodged back, but it was too late. The blade of Rafale’s black spear seemed to vanish all the way up until just before the place where he gripped it. In the next instant, the vanished blade reappeared in front of me as if from nowhere, driving straight toward the right side of my head. It was too fast! I couldn’t get away in time.

“Did you forget about me already?!” Aaron’s sword whipped through the air with his cry, knocking the black spear off course. The blade grazed my cheek and plunged into the floor.

“Thanks, Aaron,” I gasped.

“Thank me later. First, let’s move. We don’t want to get trapped fighting in here.”

We broke through the wall, leaving the unsettling showroom behind us. However, just as we expected, the monstrous Hado awaited us outside.

“FATE!” The monster roared my name into the air and careened straight for us. He’d transformed again and grown even stronger, but the transformation had seemingly swallowed what little was left of his mind. His fighting style had grown simplistic. Though he had blindsided us earlier, he would do no such thing again.

“Hado!” I shouted. “Do it! Come on! Kill me now!”

“Fate!” Hado howled again and again. His crimson eyes burned with fury and he bounded toward me, his two holy swords raised high, ready to slice off both my arms.

“Sorry to disappoint, but your fight is with me!”

Hado’s glare had been so focused on me that he didn’t realize I was bait. Aaron’s holy sword sliced through the air, taking Hado’s head off in one clean swipe. The head landed with a heavy thud and rolled along the ground.

However, the headless Hado did not fall. Instead, it stood rigid and still. Something wasn’t right.

Oh—no blood. Instead of the fountain that should have spurted from Hado’s neck, there was nothing.

“Impossible,” Aaron muttered. “His healing powers can do that?”

A new head began to sprout from Hado’s neck while his old one still rolled along the ground. First a jaw, then a nose, then his eyes, and finally the top of his skull. Was Hado immortal? And if so, what did we have to do to kill him?!

Aaron and I looked at each other as Rafale slowly walked out of the hole we’d made in the facility behind us.

“Oh? Is that the best you’ve got?” He chuckled. “Fate and the Blade of Light himself… How you disappoint me!”

“What did you do to him? To Hado?”

“I merely gave him some of my blood. You see, somebody went and cruelly slaughtered the poor young man, so I had to use a few monster pieces to put him back together. For that, I suppose I do owe you thanks, Fate.” Rafale turned his gaze back toward Hado. “Thanks for killing him.”

“What are you talking about? He’s your little brother!”

“You don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about, Fate. But Aaron…you know, don’t you?”

Aaron let a sigh escape him. “What I heard was that, in my day, the head of the Vlerick family could not sire an heir. Disgusted with his wife, he turned to his mistress, who gave birth to Rafale. Overjoyed to have the son he had long wished for, he married the girl, whose name was Lina.”

“You have the story right so far,” said Rafale. “For a time, my mother and I lived happily, but my father was already searching for another bride. Do you know why, Fate? Surely, someone like you must have some idea.”

“Your mother…was one of the forsaken?”

“Precisely. My father was entranced by my mother’s beauty. She was made a part of the family, but her class became an inconvenience. Though he was relieved to have the child he’d always wanted, my father still desired a wife of higher standing. And when he found her, Hado and Memil came along. The rest is as you saw in that laboratory…he put my mother in a cylinder, and he kept his half-blooded son around as mere insurance—in case Hado didn’t work out.”

“But…I thought you all got along with each other…”

When I thought back, they’d all seemed to have a grand old time bullying me, their lowly gatekeeper. It had always seemed like Rafale was the older brother watching over his younger siblings.

“Forever blind to the world around you, aren’t you, Fate? That’s why you never noticed Roxy Hart either. People like you deserve to be used and abused. You’re practically asking for it.”

Rafale sent his black spear streaking forward—it vanished into space again until it reappeared behind me. I twisted to avoid the incoming thrust, but it still caught me, cutting into my side.

“You’ve got some reflexes, Fate, I’ll give you that. So, now that I’m warmed up, perhaps we can get to the real thing…the great call for blood. Awaken, my brethren!”

With a twisted grin, Rafale released an unfathomable amount of magical energy. Hado, now finished healing, reacted to the flow and let loose an echoing roar. A wave of groans rose from within the Vlerick research facility. A countless number of voices condensed together like a storm. The facility walls crumbled under the pressure of the nightwalkers fighting to escape.

“How could there be so many of them…?”

Rafale laughed maniacally. “Well? What do you think? Surely this will be enough to bring Seifort to its knees. Then we can finally be done with the pathetic hierarchy that rules this place. You hate it too, don’t you, Fate? The idea of a world ruled by those with the most powerful skills. Rejoice! For I, Rafale, shall change this world in which you so suffered.”

“You’re the last person I want doing that, Rafale! Even if you overthrow the kingdom, you’ll never care about the forsaken people who live here!”

“Of course I won’t. Why should I worry myself with pathetic creatures so far beneath me? In the new world, I will sit over them all, and all others will live below me—as equals. My world shall be truly fair!”

Aaron and I couldn’t possibly hold off this many nightwalkers alone. On top of that, Rafale stood in front of us and Hado behind us. Aaron and I backed up against one another, glaring at our enemies.

“I’ve been observing that guy,” Greed said, cutting into my thoughts. “Rafale, is it? Anyway, he’s got it inside of him. The source of the nightwalkers. I remember the color of his eyes. He more or less admitted it earlier when he said he’d given Hado some of his blood. That makes things nice and straightforward: Kill Rafale before the nightwalkers escape the Military District.”

“Just him, then?”

“Should do it. If you kill the source, you sever all connections to its blood. But don’t expect any miracles, Fate. Anyone who’s already been turned won’t return to normal. They’ll crumble to ashes. However…unlike them, it looks like Rafale’s soul hasn’t decayed too far yet. If you devour his soul, I’m pretty sure you’ll be fine.”

I gripped the black sword. Finally, some good news.

If Hado was practically immortal, then the quickest way to defeat him would be through Rafale. I transformed the black sword into the black bow and turned my head to Aaron. “Message from Greed: Rafale is controlling the nightwalkers.”

“So in order to put an end to this madness, we need to kill Rafale Vlerick.”

“Exactly.”

Aaron charged his holy sword with even more magic, further boosting his attack power. “Very well. I’ll keep Hado busy while you take Rafale. But with this many nightwalkers out already, be ready for things to get messy.”

“Got it. If the opportunity presents itself, we’ll tackle them together.”

“Indeed. Now let’s get to it!”

I loaded the black bow with a magic arrow and fired it directly at Rafale. As I loosed my crackling arrow, Aaron and I split off, each dashing in opposite directions.

My long-destined battle with the Vlericks had truly begun.