Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 27

Chapter 27:

Snow and Roxy

“FAY! WATCH OUT!”

We were clambering up old waterways when another earthquake hit, causing the rocky ceiling to collapse toward us. The surface was directly above, so it was ultimately fortuitous. I transformed the black sword into the black shield. “Roxy, under here!”

“Okay!”

I took Roxy’s hand and pulled her close. The debris rained down on us, easily repelled by the shield. “We’ll use the hole revealed by the cave-in to reach the surface,” I said.

“I can climb from here too.”

“Then let’s go!”

We scaled the walls using precarious footholds and edged closer and closer to the sunlight cascading from above. Snow was silent the whole way, simply gazing 

fixedly toward the sky. I’d seen her like this a handful of times, and it always had something to do with Libra.

“Snow, when we reach the top, I want you to look for shelter. Can you do that?”

“Nope! I won’t do it! I’ll fight!”

This new, slightly more mature Snow seemed like she could handle herself. On the other hand, the way she clung to Roxy made her seem like a little girl again. I felt like her immaturity would make fighting as a team fairly difficult.

“I’ll fight with Roxy!” cried Snow.

She hugged Roxy tighter. What had happened to the girl from before who couldn’t stand Roxy?

“I think she took a liking to me because I nursed her back to health,” said Roxy.

“I love Roxy!” cried Snow. 

Roxy had done her utmost to win the girl’s favor. As a result, they’d grown a little closer day by day, and it seemed Roxy’s ministrations had finally won Snow over. I wanted to be happy for them, but it would have to wait until I’d dealt with this new threat that loomed over Hausen.

“All right,” I said, “Then you be a good girl and help Roxy out.”

Snow’s large eyes sparkled with joy. “Leave it to me! I’m real tough!”

“You do your best, okay?”

“I will!”

Snow’s enthusiasm and warmth lightened the dour atmosphere and brought us a brief moment of respite. 

The light above grew brighter and brighter until we burst through to the surface. Alarms rang throughout the streets of Hausen. Everywhere we looked, black smoke billowed into the sky.

“Fay, it looks like they’re still evacuating people…”

“Hmm…I asked Memil and the others to act if anything happened, but…there’s so many people now. There’s no way they could have moved so fast.”

People were running around in a panic, following the directions of the city’s adventurers. But nobody could have seen this coming. The people were caught up in hysteria. They barely had time to register the directions they were being given. Anybody who chanced to look at the sky shrieked in terror. 

Roxy and I looked up just as a column of light flashed. A sound like thunder growled to the north, and another plume of black smoke rose into the air, accompanied by a massive shock wave.

“He’s attacking us…from somewhere way up in the sky?” I could barely see it with the naked eye. 

Snow tugged on my sleeve to get my attention. “Up in the sky, dropping light. It’s just playing around.”

“Up in the sky?”

“Way, way up. Really high. So high the air stops and you can’t breathe!”

Playing? In a place so high up there was no air? I needed a translator and I needed one quick, because I couldn’t understand Snow at all! I scratched my head, trying to make sense of what she was saying. 

Roxy pointed toward the sky. “Look! There!”

“That’s it?!”

It wasn’t a star. It was something else. At that moment, it flashed, and a gigantic pillar of light erupted close to where we stood, accompanied by a massive explosion.

“Roxy! Snow!”

I just managed to shield them with Greed. That wasn’t an attack you wanted to meet head-on. I looked at where the light had hit and was at least glad to see that nobody had been caught in the explosion. But Snow said that the thing up there was just playing. What would happen when it got serious?

“Snow’s not lying,” Greed said. “This is very, very bad. That thing is outside the atmosphere, in outer space, attacking from an incredible distance. Even the black bow won’t reach it. Nor the Bloody Ptarmigan either.”

I looked up at the sky once more. It was a point in the sky, like a star.

“Snow says it’s playing. What she means is that the power it’s dropping down on Hausen is just a fraction of what it’s capable of. Right now, it’s charging up power for a real attack.”

Was there no way to stop it? We’d given up on the Door to Distant Lands and come all this way. I didn’t want to think it was all for naught. Set and Memil were up on the surface, while Myne, Eris, and Laine were all still underground. I didn’t know what to do.

“We’ll fly!” said Snow, flapping her arms.

Hey, we’re not birds! 

But Snow seemed serious. She stared at Roxy. As she spoke, her voice sounded suddenly older, not at all like the Snow we’d come to know.

“Roxy Hart,” she said, “if you are prepared to assume the risk, will you enter a covenant with me?”

Roxy couldn’t hide her surprise, nor could I. Was it possible that Snow had returned to her original self? Was that the person before us? Regardless, she was serious about what she said.

“A covenant…?” said Roxy.

“To become my envoy,” said Snow. “Fail, and you will turn into a creature known as a darkness. Succeed, and you will enter the Domain of E—and acquire new power.”

Roxy’s eyes widened. She’d longed for the Domain of E for ages.

“I…” She glanced at me for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll enter the covenant. I’m ready.”

“Roxy! But…”

“We’re running out of time. I’ve made up my mind.”

“Very good. Then come closer,” said Snow, indicating that Roxy should kneel.

As pillars of light fell all around us, Snow placed her lips on Roxy’s forehead.

“Ooh…”

Snow’s body became particles of light that flowed into Roxy’s body. Roxy was bathed in a pale-red light. Then she clutched at her sides as if trying to prevent something from moving inside of her.

“Roxy!”

As soon as I spoke, white wings burst forth from her back—four wings in total, arranged in two pairs. A halo of gold hovered above Roxy’s head, and her blonde hair blended with Snow’s red as it draped past her shoulders.

There was only one word for what she had become, a word taken from myths and fairy stories: an angel.

The divine transformation took my breath away, but now wasn’t the time to let myself be lost in Roxy’s new appearance.

“Are you…okay?” I asked.

Roxy slowly raised her head at the sound of my voice, and she replied with a smile. “No problem. But I never imagined I’d ever grow wings. Do they look weird?”

“They’re beautiful.”

“Well, that makes me happy, then!”

Roxy really looked happy too. Was it really okay just to accept this transformation so casually? I knew it was in her nature to be positive, but I had truly struggled with the idea of Roxy entering the Domain of E. In the end, she’d decided for herself without any qualms. There was simply no stopping her.

“Looks like you got all worried for nothing,” Greed said. “Forever Fate the worrywart.”

“Greed…”

“But being able to borrow Snow’s powers at a time like this? Gaining access to the powers of the holy beastfolk? That’s huge. Holy Knights actually have the genes of holy beasts within them, so their compatibility rate is extremely high.”

“You could have told me that earlier!”

“And miss out on a chance to see you squirm with anxiety? Not on your life!” Greed cackled. 

I knew that if Roxy was in any real danger, Greed would have warned me. Snow would have as well. Snow’s voice had changed, but she understood the circumstances. She had even asked Roxy if she was prepared—she’d wanted to see Roxy’s conviction with her own eyes.