Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

Fated Encounters

KAIROS’S EYES WIDENED in dismay when I emerged from the room where Myne napped.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed. “You’re a mess!”

“You know the saying ‘Don’t wake a sleeping tiger’?”

“Ah, I see. A tiger. Now I understand.”

Myne had been cross with me because I stayed to watch her until she woke up. When she noticed me, she became embarrassed that I had watched her sleep, so she bit me. 

“He tried to take advantage of me while I slept. Unbelievable,” said Myne.

“Fate! Why, you—” Kairos started.

“You’ve got it all wrong! I’m innocent! I was just trying to wake her up!”

“Just trying to wake her up, huh?”

“Not you too, Micuria…”

The two of them knew I had just gone in there to wake her up. They were bullying me! It seemed that even this far in her past, Myne didn’t like getting woken up. I could feel Wrath emanating from her.

“Enough kidding around,” said Kairos. “We’re moving out. You two ready?”

“Ready,” we replied.

Kairos nodded and grabbed the black sword that was leaning against a wall behind him.

“Finally, some action. What took you so long?” asked Greed.

“Sorry. Things were a little different getting here this time. We have Fate to thank for that. I tell you, it’s been a long time since I’ve had this much fun. I only wish we had more time.”

“You’re the worst, you are. You haven’t changed a bit.”

Kairos beamed with delight. “Well, let’s go. Micuria, I’ll see you when we’re done.”

“Be careful out there.”

Micuria waved and watched us go. We left her office and walked down halls of sterile white. We came across almost no signs of human life. 

“For the sheer size of this complex, there aren’t many researchers,” said Kairos. “And most of them are like Micuria—they prefer to be left alone in their offices to work. You won’t generally see them in the corridors.”

Kairos told us that in order to maintain optimal living conditions for the researchers, the facility was almost entirely automated. As an example, some sort of technology had automatically cleaned my clothes while I was in the shower. Thankfully, Micuria had shut down the surveillance systems to make things easier for us.

“The only reason we’ve got it so easy is because we’ve got an ally on the inside,” said Kairos, cringing at the thought of going without her. I was surprised that someone as powerful as him would need this mission to be easier. 

“How hard would it be if we didn’t?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to know the answer.

Kairos pointed to a motionless figure at the end of the hall. “It’s shut down at the moment, but look at that.”

“You mean that bronze statue?”

“No! It’s a mechanical sentinel—like a mechanized puppet that automatically attacks trespassers. Get spotted by one, and they all close in on you. Really annoying, and on top of that, they don’t even have souls. Can’t devour them with Gluttony.”

“You mean they’re boring because they don’t sate your hunger?”

“Exactly! Anyway, it’s best if we don’t wake them from their nap.”

We continued down the halls, following the route Micuria had provided. Soon enough, we reached a control room. Greed allowed us to bypass the locking mechanism on the door. Though he looked like a simple weapon, he was surprisingly adept at delicate work too. According to Kairos, Micuria had granted Greed security access and hacking capabilities. For a sword, he was versatile, and I remembered that Greed had done similar things back when we had to sneak into the facilities in the kingdom’s Military District.

“All right, where to next?” Kairos asked.

His question was for me, the de facto navigator of our team. Our map said that this control room managed the electrical systems and air conditioning on each floor. That probably meant I was going to get stuck in vents all over again. At least this time I had experience on my side.

“Looks like we can reach the basement through the air ducts,” I said. “Micuria couldn’t find us a route to the basement via any more conventional methods.”

“Well, that makes sense. Our destination doesn’t officially exist.”

Following the directions on the map, I pried the grate off the air vent that would take us to our destination.

“Ugh, it’s kind of foul down there. And right after we took a shower…” muttered Kairos.

“Sorry, Myne, but I’m not going to be able to carry you on my shoulders this time,” I said.

“I’m going back…”

Myne turned to leave, but Kairos stepped between her and the door. “Hold on there! What about your promise?”

“Myne…let’s go,” I said.

“I was joking. I understand. I’ll keep my promise.”

The duct echoed with the rhythmic beating of a huge, slowly spinning fan. Wind gusted with enough force to ensure that fresh air reached the basement.

“You look like you’ve done this before,” said Kairos.

I laughed, “This, uh… This isn’t my first time doing something like this.”

“I’d expect nothing less from our navigator. That’s why I picked you!”

Kairos clapped his hand on my shoulder and shoved me into the duct. He followed behind me, full of excitement. Myne trailed after, quiet as a mouse.

“A bit chilly, don’t you think?” I said.

“Yeah…” said Myne.

“It’s going to make my hands numb,” said Kairos. “Greed, what’s the temp?”

“Never one to say ‘please,’ are you?” muttered Greed. “It’s negative ten degrees and it’ll get colder the deeper we go. You could end up as a Kairos-cicle before you even get there.”

“You heard the sword. Let’s hurry.”

We picked up the pace but were careful not to make too much noise. By the time we reached a dead end, our breath glimmered as it froze before our eyes. I longed for some sort of insulating jacket. We could stay warm by keeping our pace up, but as soon as we stopped, the cold set in fast.

“What are they keeping in this place? What kind of creature can survive at this temperature?”

“This is beyond cold.”

“Our destination is right ahead,” I said.

It was just beyond a large ventilation shaft opening. I cut it open as quietly as I could with the longsword.

“You’re good with a blade,” said Kairos. “Your style is rough around the edges, but I can tell you’ve learned to move and fight through the heat of real battle.”

“I think this is the first time anyone has ever complimented my sword work,” I said.

“Your teacher must be pretty strict.”

“Well…”

My first teacher was Aaron, but I’d had many since, and all of them were strict—particularly Myne and Eris, whose training had been quite literally a trip through hell. They’d driven me so hard that I’d felt like little more than a discarded rag, and they’d often agreed with that assessment. 

“What?” asked Myne.

Whoops. I’d been so caught up in the traumatic flashbacks to that hellish training that I found myself staring into the eyes of one of my demonic instructors. But the Myne who stood before me now wouldn’t have had the slightest idea what I was talking about even if I tried to tell her. 

She tilted her head to the side in a brief moment of curiosity, then gave me a shove. “Hurry up. Otherwise I’ll push you the rest of the way.”

“All right already, I’m going.”

I made sure there weren’t any people around and dropped out of the ventilation shaft. The scene before my eyes—the things that were scattered about everywhere I looked—sent a chill down my spine that I felt through the cold. The whole place was littered with human body parts. A frozen human hand rolled at the floor near my feet. I didn’t want to think about what had happened to these people.

“They were all eaten,” Myne said. 

“You two, eyes forward,” said Kairos.

What the… What the hell is…that? A chimera? No, it’s something different.

It was as if several chimeras had been melted together and kneaded into an altogether different form. The creature seemed unfazed by the extreme cold as it crawled, its limbs scraping along the ground. I saw faces, hands, and feet inside its body. It was full of humans.

For a moment, I thought they were some sort of core for the chimera, but I knew it couldn’t be so. These people weren’t like Luna—they weren’t part of a functional organ within this creature. They were part of something far more twisted. The faces within the creature cried out in agony. 

Myne took a step back.

“Myne?”

I called her name, but she didn’t respond. However, one person from within the creature did. It turned toward us, opened its eyes, and tears streamed down its face.

“M-Myne, you…finally came…”