Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Totally Frozen

THE MONSTERS’ ATTACKS were basic. It was just like Aaron said. Orcs were much better sparring partners—they at least provided some challenge.

The ogres didn’t fight in any sort of formation and simply attacked at random. They were beasts borne from human corpses, little more than monstrous seeds of evil sown by the goblin shaman. I pitied them, but all the same, they were my enemies now.

Because of Soul Decay, the monsters had lost all reason, all intelligence, and were now creatures devoted only to attacking me. In turn, I cremated them in black flame.

One, two, three down…

“That leaves only you.”

The last ogre had no notion of my power, and it had no idea it was being manipulated by my actions. It simply walked toward me without any fear for its own life. My face twisted at the thought of such a creature.

“Ogres…” Greed muttered. “I never imagined that the technology to create them had somehow survived.”

It was rare for Greed to open up to me with such information, but one word in particular surprised me.

“Technology?”

“It’s Galian military tech. An easy way to convert people into soldiers.”

“Soldiers? These monsters?”

“You killed the one who controlled them. They’re nothing more than puppets under the control of a puppet master. Just convenient, disposable pawns meant for war.”

The idea of using monsters as soldiers was insane. I could barely believe they’d been made from people. It was true that the kingdom’s belief in a skill-based hierarchy made life nearly impossible for the forsaken, but even so, people were never used as raw material to create monsters.

“That’s insane.”

“It is. Galian military tech went too far. Exactly as you said: insane.”

“Let’s clean up this last ogre, then investigate the ruins. We might find something new.”

“Time to light another fire, then!”

Aaron had destroyed most of the ancient Galian ruins with his Grand Cross, but from what I saw, it was sturdy architecture. I was sure we could still salvage something. 

The last ogre foolishly tried to attack me head-on. I waved the black staff and watched as it screamed, black flames appearing at its head and swiftly covering its entire body. Even so, the ogre continued to attack.

“You stubborn freaking…”

The flames I’d cast weren’t strong enough, so I aimed again at the ogre’s torso. The ogre’s screams grew to a fever pitch before the monster crumbled to ash. The black flames continued to burn. As usual, the metallic voice droned on in my head, informing me of my new stats.

“These black flames just don’t go out,” I sighed.

“That’s because you don’t have enough control of them,” Greed said. “They can’t be extinguished by normal means. It’s just like they always say: It’s much easier to start a fire than it is to end one.”

“Yeah, but I don’t really use magic spells. This black staff is hard for me to use.”

“It’s difficult because you’re always relying on the sword. Starting tomorrow, we’re getting serious about your black staff training. Prepare yourself.”

I groaned. “What happens to the flames if I use this in the spiritual plane?”

“They won’t go out, I imagine.”

“But that’s so dangerous!”

Greed laughed. “If you can’t put the fire out, don’t forget that Luna created that place. Just ask her to help. With that in mind, expect to be turned into a human fireball tonight. It’s probably the best way to learn. Out of the frying pan and into the literal fire.”

“Better get ready to join me then. I’m looking forward to seeing you rolling along the floor in a blanket of black flames.”

Before I could continue, my vision was stained red. Blood dripped from my right eye.

“You need a break?” Greed asked. “They might not be the toughest monsters around, but you still just devoured the souls of five monsters in the Domain of E …”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I don’t have time to just wait around. I—”

“You mean the time you have left?”

“Yeah, thanks to Luna and Memil, it at least feels fine on the surface.”

“But the essence of it hasn’t changed. It’s still steadily eating away at you. And it’s gotten faster since you entered the Domain of E.”

“You can tell, huh?”

“I am your partner, after all. You still intend to keep this a secret from Roxy?”

“Roxy and I swapped bodies, remember?” I told Greed as we walked toward the Galian research facility. “I think when that happened…she found out what’s happening to me.”

“Horrible timing.”

“She was going to find out one way or another. I wanted a little more time, but perhaps it’s better this way.”

“So what are you going to do now?”

“Once I understand what’s happening here, and things have settled down, I’m going to head for the Door to Distant Lands.”

“Quicker than originally planned, I see. Did Luna say something to you?”

Greed’s mind was as sharp as his edge. Luna wasn’t the only reason, though—I also needed to talk to Myne, and soon.

“It’s what I want. I have a happy life here, and although I want things to stay the way they are, I can’t stop worrying about Myne. Luna said she’s trying to open the Door. According to her, nobody gets a happy ending if the Door opens completely.”

“So you’re leaving then?”

“Yes. I don’t know what lies ahead, but now I have things I want to protect…so I have to go.”

The restoration of Hausen was going smoothly. Officially, the city was governed by the owners of the estate—the Barbatos family. In truth, however, the citizens of Hausen had elected twelve people to positions of official city management. Of course, Aaron and I still had a significant say in the development of the estate, as well as veto power. However, we never needed to use it, and we largely left the development of the city to the will of the people. We were merely a shield for the forsaken who lived at our estate; we let them determine how their home would be developed.

In an ideal world, all the oppressed forsaken would find a home in Hausen. It was a place where one could lead a different kind of life, one not dictated by the skills one was born with. According to Set—now a recently elected official—the application of Galian technology was going according to plan. It seemed that in the not-too-distant future, my role as a shield for the city would no longer be necessary.

“Aaron’s going to be devastated. You saw how he was when Myne left. If you go too, what will happen to him?”

“I know. It’s only been a short time that we’ve known each other, but we have so many shared memories now.”

Greed laughed. “And you’ve been a holy knight for an even shorter length of time!”

“Don’t laugh. If I leave as the head of the Barbatos family, I’ll probably end up tarnishing the name somehow. I don’t want that on my shoulders. I just want to fight as myself, like you said.”

I thought back to when I had first been attacked by Gluttony’s starvation, when I was no more than a servant at Hart Manor. It had been unlike any kind of hunger I had ever experienced, and at that time, Greed delivered a warning: When Gluttony learns the taste of a soul, it only ever hungers for more. It will forever urge you to eat, and to feed.

“The die has been cast,” Greed said, echoing his words then.

“It has,” I said. “That feels like so long ago.”

“So we’re going back to the beginning, then.”

I walked back to the gaping hole that Aaron had rent into the ground. The trees around it had been ripped from the earth in a display of his frightening strength. 

“Well, shall we?” I asked.

“Let’s do it.”

Just as I was about to drop into the hole, I felt magical energy flaring from the west. It was murderous in intent, and I leaped backward instinctively.

“Huh?!” I stared at what unfolded before me.

The hole I had intended to jump into was now covered by a mountain of ice. It hadn’t fallen from the sky, and it hadn’t come from the ground below either. As if intended to stop me from entering the research lab, the ice mountain covered a space of at least a half mile, freezing the earth solid. It felt very much like a magical spell. 

I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t just frozen on the surface. Even the ground itself had been frozen solid. 

“Who…who could do something like this?”

“Whoever it was, I can’t sense them anymore,” said Greed.

The murderous energy I had sensed had vanished as though it were little more than a whisper. I couldn’t follow it. It had come solely to make sure that I couldn’t enter the ruins.

“This isn’t ordinary ice,” I said. “It’s harder than steel.”

Even when I did chip at it, it simply reformed its previous shape as though it were a living creature with Health Regen. 

“How about this, then?” I shouted, using the black staff to summon a wall of black flames.

Although the flames melted the icy surface, it regained its shape instantaneously. I could do some damage, but it wasn’t enough to make any progress.

“What is this ice?” I asked.

“If the ice is strong enough to resist the fourth level of one such as myself,” Greed said, “then the person who created it must be one hell of a spellcaster.”

“Yeah, yeah, save your praise for later. What are we going to do? Investigating the ruins is out of the question now.”

“Let it go, Fate. Give it up.”

“What?!”

Whoever had created this obstruction had disappeared, and I had no way of tracing them. Making matters worse, they were powerful enough to equal Greed’s abilities.

“There’s too much I don’t know…” I muttered.

“I think the best thing to do now is to regroup with Aaron and the others.”

“Let’s head back to the kingdom, then.”

I felt frustrated and helpless, and I sent those feelings flying through my fist as I punched the ice with everything I had. A towering fracture ran along the ice mountain, but it sealed almost as quickly as it had been made. An unbreakable wall of ice that would remain frozen no matter what happened… I didn’t like it at all, but I left the Hobgoblin Forest all the same. 

Passing through the eerie quiet of the Goblin Grasslands, I stopped when I encountered people busying themselves around the kingdom’s southern gate.

I wondered if the merchants had showed up after I took care of the source of the goblin troubles. But no matter how much I thought about it, there was no way they could have showed up so quickly. Even after they knew it was safe, it would take at least a week for trade to return to normal.

What’s going on? I wondered. I closed in and squinted to get a better look.

“It’s the kingdom’s army!” I said. “But wait…that flag, it’s…”

The crest on the flags the soldiers carried was the blue rose—the Hart family crest. The soldiers numbered more than a hundred thousand. Usually, a gathering of this many troops entered through the northern gate into the Military District. Why were they concentrated around the southern gate of the Merchant District? I couldn’t understand.

“Greed, do you know what’s going on?”

“It can’t be…” the sword muttered.

I realized then that the black sword knew something, but Greed refused to speak any further.

The soldiers looked exhausted. As they made their way to the center of the kingdom, I knew that theirs had been a long journey. The townsfolk and local soldiers looked on in confusion as an old woman pushed through the crowd and hugged one of the returning soldiers.

“You’re alive! I’m so glad! I…I thought you perished…”

“Mother…” the soldier said. “It’s okay. I’m back.”

The scene tugged at my heartstrings, and it seemed to kickstart similar scenes all around as family members ran to soldiers they knew. Happiness abounded, but I noticed something similar in the comments that everybody made.

We thought you’d been killed by the Divine Dragon, they said. 

The southern gate was quickly filling with more people, chatter, and celebration. I found Aaron in the crowd and walked over to him.

“Fate, I’m glad you’re safe,” he said.

“Yes, but…what is this?”

“I don’t know. I asked Miria and Roxy to take Memil to the manor. Don’t worry; her wounds weren’t serious.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Once I heard that Memil would be fine, a weight was lifted from my shoulders. Aaron and I stood in silence for a time, watching the soldiers and the townsfolk. Then we noticed Roxy working through the crowd toward us.

“Fay!” she said.

“Roxy! Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m fine. Memil is safely resting in the manor. But what is all this?”

Roxy said that after taking Memil to the manor, she and Miria had come back to meet with Aaron. However, when she heard all the commotion by the southern gate, she sent Miria to report to the castle while she came to investigate what was happening.

The situation was baffling. More and more soldiers, all of whom were presumed dead, poured in through the gate. Among the throng, I spotted a group of flags much bigger than the others. Our eyes were drawn to the blue roses emblazoned upon them. A man appeared on a white horse surrounded by the flags, calmly entering through the southern gate. 

The man’s entrance left almost everyone speechless. Even Aaron was at a complete loss for words. Of course, I was no different.

“How…?” was all I could muster.

Roxy was the most surprised of all, as the man on the white horse was none other than her own father. Lord Mason had died in battle against the Divine Dragon, and yet he was now here, alive.

I knew I should have been happy, but instead I was filled with an unnameable dread.