Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

The Holy Beast That Crawls the Land

CONTRARY TO WHAT I expected—endless battles all the way to the imperial capital of Mercadia—Eris’s long-range sniping smoothed our progress. Myne had been on edge about leaving things to Eris for a while, but anxiety soon gave way to boredom. In this way, our party traversed the Galian wastes, stepping over bloody monster corpses as we trekked onward. Myne tried to guide us along routes with fewer monsters, but even that didn’t stop the monsters from gathering around us. 

Unlike my bow, Eris’s gunfire echoed across Galia. The quiet was punctuated by the ceaseless, resounding booms of the black gunblade, and there was little to prevent the sound from traveling. This caught the attention of monsters, who were drawn in like lambs to the slaughter. Eris remained entirely unfazed and continued to pick off each and every monster with cold, professional cruelty. This was nothing to her. She didn’t even break a sweat.

“Fay, how long until we reach Mercadia?” asked Roxy.

“If memory serves, we’re about halfway there,” I said.

“I see…” said Roxy, glancing at Eris. 

“We’re drawing more monsters than I expected,” I said.

“I can feel it too.”

“I gotta say, these ancient monsters sure are persistent.”

Monsters instinctively ran when they knew they were in a battle they couldn’t win, but these were different. They refused to back down, and their eyes practically boiled with bloodlust. Had they returned to life ravenously hungry? Or was there some other reason?

“It’s so strange,” remarked Roxy. “Monsters don’t usually act this way when so many of them are being slaughtered like this.”

“What do you think, Myne?” I asked.

“We kill whatever comes. That’s that.”

Hmm… Well, at least she’s into it. I felt no magical energy aimed directly at us, which meant we were relatively safe.

Suddenly, Snow tugged at my sleeve. “It’s coming,” she said.

“What is?” I searched for magical energy, but found nothing.

“Fight!” cried Snow, diving at Roxy to transform into Valkyrie mode.

The ground exploded at my feet, but thanks to Snow’s warning, I leaped out of danger.

“The hell?!” I shouted. “You guys can’t get enough of my legs today!”

“What is that?!” asked Roxy.

I squinted at a translucent shape that just barely refracted the sunlight. I could hardly see it, and I couldn’t feel any magical energy emanating from it, either.

“Take this!” I cried, slicing at it with my blade.

Nothing happened. Is it immune to physical attacks?

I imbued my blade with fire magic, flames trailing the sword as I sliced at the shape again.

“What?!”

Still no effect. Even magic didn’t seem to work. The monster, some sort of translucent slime, leaped straight for me.

“Fay! This way!”

Roxy reached out to me as she flew through the sky, whisking me out of danger in the nick of time.

“Thanks!” I said.

“I don’t mind you testing out your enemies, but do be careful.”

“I will. I promise.”

“Good. However, we’re in some trouble. Snow remembers that creature. It’s a holy beast.” 

“Physical and magical attacks are useless. What is it?”

“Give me a moment.”

Roxy shared her consciousness with Snow in this form, so she was probably gathering information. On the ground, Myne and Eris were locked in a fierce battle with our new translucent enemy, but their attacks were just as ineffective as mine. Slivers of Myne and Eris’s clothes melted as they fought, meaning the holy beast could hurt us even if we couldn’t hurt it. Myne was growing frustrated.

Perhaps it only takes physical form in the instant it attacks?

Myne seemed to think the same thing. She timed a counterattack to coincide with the moment the holy beast launched at her. Her black axe whistled through empty air, however, before colliding with the earth and leaving a massive crater in its wake. The holy beast suddenly seemed to shrink, pulsing like a heart.

“Everyone, get clear! Now!” Roxy shouted, her voice echoing loudly.

The holy beast froze for a split second, then exploded into countless feelers stretching in every direction. They targeted Eris, Myne, and even Roxy and me up in the sky. Roxy deftly weaved out of danger, flying circles around the feelers no matter where they attempted to block her. It left me dizzy. My eyes couldn’t focus. I wasn’t used to aerial battles at all. 

On the ground, Eris and Myne dodged and leaped, evading the beast’s attacks. It was a piece of cake for Myne, but Eris was used to providing support and wasn’t as adept in a close-quarters battle.

The problem was that none of us knew what would happen if those feelers got a hold of us.

“Fay, I have some new information from Snow,” said Roxy. “That thing is the Zodiac Gemini. It’s a single creature split between two bodies. She says the monster attacking us is only one half of a whole being.”

“How do we kill it?”

“She doesn’t know.”

That wasn’t surprising. Even fellow holy beasts wouldn’t share their weak points with each other. But a holy beast in two parts, huh? We can’t do anything to the half that’s attacking us here, but what about the other half?

“Let’s look for the other half,” said Roxy.

“Exactly what I was thinking.”

The question was how. If the beast’s twin had the same skills, it would have attacked us as a pair. Perhaps it wasn’t attacking us because it couldn’t. 

I had no choice but to use my Gluttony. I could apologize to Myne later. I still remembered what it felt like to devour a holy beast—the pure satisfaction. It was enough to make me forget the risk of going berserk. But that feeling powered my Gluttony; it hungered for the holy beast before of us. Gluttony’s sense of smell would lead us to its twin. It reached out, and I found the Gemini attacking us, Snow, Libra, and much further away, my father.

Got it!

“This way leads to the imperial capital,” I said. “That’s where the other half of Gemini is.”

“You’re sure?”

“If my Gluttony is right, yes. It might be under my father’s control.”

Battle with the Gemini here was forcing us back, away from the capital. In a moment of indecision, we left a small opening, and the Gemini moved like a flash. It blocked off our escape route and whipped its feelers at us.

“Roxy!” I shouted.

I was certain we were dead, but the feelers stopped right before my eyes.

“That was a close one,” I said, sighing.

“Almost fatal,” added Roxy. “But why did it stop?”

“I don’t think it can move any farther than this. Its area of operation might be limited to a certain region.”

To test my theory, I stretched one hand out and watched as the Gemini immediately shot a feeler out. It still couldn’t reach me.

“The holy beast isn’t going to let us get any closer to the imperial capital than this,” I said.

It felt like a warning from my father. If you don’t want to die, turn around and go home, he seemed to be saying.

“What’s the plan, Fay?” asked Roxy.

From what I could tell, the Gemini in front of us could melt whatever it touched, much like a slime. I’d used corrosion magic to counteract the omega slime, but magic didn’t work on this holy beast.

“We need to get to the capital,” I said, realizing that we only had one choice. “We’ll split into two groups. One will lure this Gemini away. The other will head to the capital to take out its twin.”

Roxy and I dropped to the ground where Eris and Myne waited. I shared the plan with them, and Myne nodded.

“We don’t have any other choice,” she said. “The team drawing the Gemini away have to be especially quick.”

“Then it’s decided. You and Roxy are best suited for the job,” I said.

Myne and Roxy looked at one another. This would mark their first battle as a team. Still, both were more experienced than I was, and they were more than capable of shifting their strategy mid-battle as needed.

“Got it,” said Myne. “But I wish I could have gone with you to the capital.”

“Please don’t do anything reckless,” said Roxy. “I know that simply being here is reckless in and of itself, but still, don’t overdo it.”

Our party’s fighting power was being split right down the middle. Roxy and Myne were one team. And Eris and I were the other.

“Can you fight?” I asked Eris.

“You need not worry,” she replied. “If it becomes necessary to sacrifice myself, so be it.”

The flatness of her affect was in grim contrast to her words. 

“Can I issue an order?” I asked.

“As you wish. Libra said that I am to obey you.”

“Do not die,” I said. “Do not try to die. I do not think of you as someone to sacrifice.”

“I will do my utmost.”

The Zodiac Gemini lay in wait before us, silent. We had to find a way to kill it.

“Everybody ready?” I asked.

This battle was going to be easy. It seemed there was nothing left for me to do but lean on my Gluttony and devour whatever got in our way. 

“Roxy, Myne, try to lead the Gemini east,” I said. “Eris, you are not to fire your gunblade until we reach the imperial capital. The sound will only draw the Gemini back toward us.”

I wouldn’t be able to rely on anyone to forge a path to the imperial capital for me. I needed to carve it myself, just as I always had. Once again, I would have to test the limits of my Gluttony and devour anything and everything that blocked our way.

I could feel my other self grinning from within.