Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

Crossing

THE DEMON OF BATTLE brought down her axe with crushing force. At the same time, Shin’s crimson tentacles coursed toward me. Dodging them, I riposted.

“Out of my way!” Greed and I shouted with one voice.

The tentacles stained my blade red as it cut through them and sought the source of red slime: Shin.

“I’m not the one you should be worried about…” said Shin as he melted into the earth.

“Eris, locate Shin.”

“He’s here,” she said, aiming her gunblade.

Eris fired into the shadows of a building to the east. Her aim was true, evinced by the roiling red liquid that seeped from its foundation.

“Nice, that should do it,” she said. “Be careful, Fate. Myne isn’t herself. I’ll keep supporting you with Phalanx and Phantom Bullets when the timing is right.”

“Thanks,” we said.

“I’m moving to higher ground so I can see the field more clearly and prevent Shin from getting in your way. So, it would help me if you—”

“If we didn’t get in your way, right?”

“You got it!” Eris laughed. “I can hear the effects of the Crossing in your overlapping voices!”

It was just like Eris to tease us in the midst of a life-or-death battle. I suspected that Eris was also using the Crossing. Her movements had become sharper.

The Crossing was the result of synchronizing with a weapon of Mortal Sin. In this state, I was both Greed and Fate. We had become a singular being, the sword an extension of my body. There was another huge advantage to the Crossing: I could defend against Myne’s ruthless assault. When our weapons clashed, shock waves radiated out, creating fractures that ran up the walls of nearby buildings. Until now I had only been able to defend myself, but for the first time since our fight began, I could retaliate.

“You’re not the only one who’s grown in strength,” I said, though my words fell on deaf ears.

Myne really was in a state of mind similar to when my Gluttony ravened beyond my control. 

Because I was in tune with Greed, I had access to a certain amount of his wisdom and knowledge. I knew that even though Myne was in a berserker state, it wasn’t absolute. She decided on a target of her Wrath before unleashing it in its totality. I was that target.

Myne could see only me. She had no awareness of Shin or Eris. This was the power of the Crossing. Greed’s cunning and wit in battle had become my own. We thought as one. Unfortunately, I inherited his gutter mouth as well. 

“Bring it on, Myne!” I shouted as I swung my sword.

She blocked my swing, but I had anticipated this. As I twisted my body, I heard the distant boom of a gunshot. The bullet struck the black axe’s handle, and for the briefest instant, Myne loosened her grip. I wouldn’t let this opportunity slip. I was here to fight, and I would apologize for any injuries later.

“Gah!”

I kicked Myne in the stomach with all the strength I could muster. Myne went flying until she crashed into a nearby building. I advanced swiftly, hoping to follow through, and also hoping that the blow had been enough to make Myne drop her weapon. As expected, she still had a firm grasp of the axe. I knew she wouldn’t let such an attack reach her a second time.

Myne emerged from the rubble of the demolished building as if nothing had happened. The massive chunks of debris might as well have been clouds for all she cared. She closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye, lifting her axe overhead and bringing it crashing down on me.

I twisted my body to evade the attack, only to find Myne’s kick waiting for me. Just like that, it was my turn to be buried in rubble.

“Damn it…” I muttered. “She was born for this… Not like me…”

Don’t get started with that. I’ve got plenty of confidence in battle. Don’t forget that Myne was born as a result of artificial gene manipulation and thus has a greater level of affinity with the Skills of Mortal Sin. That’s why she didn’t end up like Luna.

“So that’s why they call themselves sisters, even though they look so different…”

You heard it from Luna yourself, didn’t you? They were selected in the same research facility for their ability to survive. The genes used were identical, but there were slight differences in how they were altered. That’s why they don’t have to look related to be related. I, well, I was in a different research facility.

While Greed and I were in the Crossing state, his thoughts mingled in my head with my own. There was a memory I’d seen when I killed Haniel (and by extension, Luna). It was a room in a research facility full of children being examined by people in white coats. Greed had a similar memory, and it flowed into me. It was of him and Luna together for an experiment, cheerily chatting together.

Oi! Don’t go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong!

Though it angered him, he couldn’t stop the flow of memories. Neither of us had complete control over the Crossing, so at times we were simply made privy to one another’s memories. 

“I won’t be able to concentrate if I keep getting flashbacks in the midst of battle.”

That’s why I keep telling you to focus!

Even so, I felt fortunate to get any insight into the ever-secretive Greed. It was just a pity that now wasn’t the time for it. Still, Greed had promised me that when this was all over, he’d answer my questions, and I think the Crossing was a big reason he’d at last decided to open up. I’d finally have a chance to talk with him about what he knew.

“We’re going to stop Myne,” I said, pointing my blade at the demon of battle.

She didn’t act immediately. Her power was out of control, but was there still some fragment of rationality inside her. I edged closer, waiting for the right opportunity.

“Myne!” I shouted.

And so the battle began again.

With each swing, Myne’s black axe Sloth grew heavier. In terms of power, I couldn’t fend off her blows with the black sword alone. I tried to dodge each of her strikes, waiting for the axe to reach the limits of its mass.

I recalled when Myne had told me about her weapon during the fight with Haniel. She said that as the weapon grew heavier, it slowed her down. If that was true, it meant that there was an upper limit to Sloth. When Sloth became too heavy to handle, I would take it. It was a straightforward plan, but it was extraordinarily difficult too.

As far as I knew, Sloth had only one secret technique: Noir Destruction. The technique released all the stored weight in the axe as a huge destructive force. I didn’t even want to imagine the resulting calamity of an attack from a fully charged axe. According to Greed, Myne had avoided using higher levels of that attack in the fight against Haniel because she hadn’t wanted to risk hurting me.

First, I wanted to force Sloth to reach its limit while ensuring that Myne didn’t have enough space to unleash its stored mass. Then I would take it from her. If I took an attack from Myne head-on, that energy would be stored in her axe. So while I dodged her monstrous swings, I occasionally blocked some of them, always keeping note of the weight of the axe. But would Myne really let the fight continue so smoothly?

“Damn, she’s anticipating my every attack.”

I’d been able to dodge until now, but Myne altered her tempo. She varied the rhythm of her swings, and I was suddenly in danger of having my guts spill out.

A gunshot rang through the air and a bullet hit the axe, knocking it slightly off course and saving me.

“Eris!”

Then another support shot hit me: the Phantom Bullet. This buff created illusory clones of the recipient to confound the enemy. There were suddenly five Fates on the battlefield. Eris had powered up! When we’d sparred in the past, she had only been able to create three copies. The extra two copies were probably a result of the extra power she gained from Crossing with Envy.

I had complete control over my stats while I was Crossing with Greed. Barely dodging the axe, I sliced at Myne’s stomach with a horizontal stroke.

“Greed!” I shouted. “Blunt the edge!”

Greed could freely change the sharpness of his edge. He could become sharp enough to slice through steel, or so blunt that he couldn’t cut paper. The blade slammed into Myne’s side with an audible thud. I had hoped that it was a solid blow, but it was never going to be so easy.

“Forgot about me, didn’t you?” Shin said.

His tentacles intercepted my blade the very instant that it should’ve collided with Myne. Eris immediately started shooting, but the bullets seemed to have no effect. Myne wasn’t about to go easy on me now that I’d lost this opportunity.

Over and over, she raised the black axe up and brought it down toward me. Unable to avoid it, I had to parry the blows with my sword. I defended against a dozen blows, each more powerful than the last. My arms went numb from the repeated shocks, and my bones screamed. The axe grew heavier and heavier. The sheer weight of it cratered the earth beneath Myne’s every step.

Shin watched from within the red liquid and cackled. “Well, I think we’re about ready,” he said, glancing around. “Do you know why I’ve stayed underground all this time? You probably thought I was hiding, but you’d be wrong.”

As I blocked more of Myne’s attacks, the ground under my feet trembled. Red liquid rose from the earth and climbed upward as if to blanket the entire city of Grandol. It would soon be high enough to obscure the artificial sun.

“The city of Grandol is mine,” said Shin, “and it now exists within me.”

The ground suddenly lost its solidity, revealing walls of writhing red flesh.