Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

The Spiritual Plane

A WORLD OF WHITE stretched out before me. It was the familiar sight of the spiritual plane, an environment that Luna maintained for my sake. After talking with Set, I must have fallen asleep while Roxy was reviewing my lessons. Perhaps I was asleep right there at my desk. I hoped I hadn’t caused Roxy any trouble. Regardless, I doubted I would wake up anytime soon.

“Luna?” I called.

There was no response, only a silence that enveloped me as completely as the featureless white expanse.

“Greed?”

The black sword was always around to help out with my training here, but he didn’t answer either. There was no bitter, irate, or annoyed banter this time, only silence. 

Had I somehow gotten myself trapped on the spiritual plane?

There’s no way that could have happened…

This whole realm had been created by Luna to protect me from my Gluttony Skill. She had to be somewhere. I called her name, over and over, but she never showed.

“What the hell is going on here?”

This had never happened before. I stood still, wondering what to do. Looking down at my feet, I noticed my shadow. That’s weird, I thought. I shouldn’t have a shadow in this place.

“Why do I suddenly have one, then?”

I kneeled down to touch it.

“Whoa! It moved out of the way!”

The shadow distorted, avoiding my touch. Not only that, it also untethered itself from my feet and congealed into a particular shape, as though it had a will of its own.

“You’re…”

It was a figure I knew very well. I felt like I was staring into a mirror. But the apparition who gazed back at me was different in one terribly important way: his eyes were a crimson so intense that they made me flinch.

A crooked grin crept across the face of my shadow self, and he extended a hand toward me. A weapon the likes of which I had never seen appeared in his grasp. It was a sort of greatsword; the blade of the weapon extended down to the pommel, entirely hiding the grip. The pitch-black greatsword was designed purely for offense. It brought to mind the weapons of Mortal Sin: Greed, Sloth, and Envy.

There was no doubt about it—the shade faced me as a foe. In his eyes, I was a nuisance, a pest that needed to be eradicated. An unnatural hatred radiated from his core.

This is bad. Unarmed, I was at a massive disadvantage. That didn’t stop the shade, who let loose a piercing battle cry as he closed in and attacked. I barely managed to evade the first strike, and the greatsword crashed into the pure-white floor to my side.

“Huh?!”

In an instant, a black darkness flowed out from the sword, tainting the once-white floor. Simultaneously, a searing pain wracked my body.

“How did you do that? What did you do?”

The shade did not answer. Instead, he swung his sword again. I was too close to dodge, and I didn’t have a weapon to block or parry with either.

I’m a goner!

My boon companion appeared in my hands, wrapped in light. “Sorry I’m late!” 

“Greed!” With a surge of confidence, I blocked the reflection’s attack.

“Having a hard time, Fate?” 

“Who the hell is this?!”

“You know who it is.”

I didn’t reply. It was a creature born of my shadow, taking my shape as its own.

“It’s you,” Greed continued. “Another side of you, the side tainted by the Gluttony. It’s become more powerful. Powerful enough to break into the world Luna created.”

“You mean…”

“All this time, it lay in wait for the Gluttony to consume you. But now it has its own power, and it intends to consume you itself. Don’t forget what I told you: If you die here, your soul dies too.”

“So, if the shade kills me…”

“Then the Gluttony takes over, and it gets to run rampant in the waking world.”

I pushed the greatsword back. If I was beaten here, I’d go berserk and destroy Hausen with my own hands. I leaped backward, putting some distance between myself and the shade.

“Luna is losing control of the spiritual plane because of your Gluttony,” said Greed. “She asked for my help and summoned me here, but we still have a real battle before us.”

Greed had appeared in the form of the black sword, though he usually took a human form in the spiritual plane.

“That’s how powerful it has become,” said Greed. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

“It means I have to do something about it.”

“That’s my boy. Straight to the point.”

With this sword in hand, there was nothing that made me more confident, more ready. “Let’s go.”

“Here he comes.”

I parried the incoming blow from the shade, creating an opening. I put all of my strength into a riposte. The stroke should have cleaved the shade in two, but he twisted his body to avoid death. Nonetheless, one of his arms dropped at my feet. He couldn’t wield that greatsword with any finesse now.

For the first time since his flurry of slashes, the shade leaped back, attempting to retreat, but I wouldn’t let it escape so easily.

“Time to get serious.”

“There’s no limits here, Fate. You know what to do.”

“Let’s give him everything we’ve got.”

I transformed Greed into the black bow and readied the First Level secret technique, Bloody Ptarmigan. In the spiritual plane, I didn’t need to sacrifice my own stats, so I could launch the attack at full strength. But I didn’t stop there, I combined it with a tech-art, turning it into the Bloody Ptarmigan Cross. Normally, this would have been enough to kill me. It was a bold, reckless attack that meant sacrificing everything I had. I loosed two huge bolts of black lightning that helixed around each other as they flew toward their target.

The shade pierced the air with another shrill cry and tried to resist the attack, but the struggle was futile against such overwhelming might. In the aftermath, all that remained was a tattered scrap of shadow-stuff, struggling to cohere. 

As I walked over to it, the shadow spoke for the first time: “You…are mine…”

I plunged my sword into the shadow as soon as I heard those words. I couldn’t stand to see that face any longer. The shadow lost its shape, staining the white floor with darkness that slowly began to fade.

Greed’s voice spoke from behind me. “Looks like you got the job done.”

The black sword had disappeared from my hand. I turned to find Greed standing there, once more in human form. Luna stood by his side.

“I’m glad you took care of it,” Luna said. “I was worried for a moment there.”

 “Now that I’ve beaten it, does that mean it won’t come back?” I asked. The shadow’s last words still rang in my head.

“No. It was born of your Gluttony, and as long as you bear the skill, you won’t be able to escape it. It has yet to eat much of your soul, so you still have the upper hand. However…”

“At some point, the tables will turn,” I said.

“They will,” Luna confirmed. “With my power, I created this world, a barrier between you and your Gluttony. But your skill is overpowering me. I’m… I’m sorry…” From the look on Luna’s face, I could tell that she had done everything in her power. She could help no more.

Greed put a hand on my shoulder. “But like she said, we still have time, and you still have the upper hand.”

I nodded and turned to Luna. “Don’t look so dejected. The only reason I’ve made it this far is because of your protection.”

“Thank you, Fate.”

“No, I should be the one thanking you. Can I ask you something, though?”

“Go right ahead.”

“If Gluttony absorbs my soul, if it takes over…what happens to you?”

Luna grinned. “Then I plummet down there, into that eternal hell.”

The words flew from her mouth so casually that even Greed’s jaw dropped. This girl, Myne’s sister…was completely indifferent when it came to what might happen to her. 

No matter what happened, I wouldn’t allow myself to lose to that shadow.

“Anyway, it’ll be morning soon,” she said. “It’s time for you to return to the real world, Fate. I’ll see to matters here and repair the areas damaged in battle.”

With those words, Luna sent me back to reality.