Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

The Imperial Capital of Mercadia

ONE, TWO, THREE… Ten… Twenty… Thirty… Sixty…

Monsters fell in droves, but I was far from done. I could still eat. It was like I had a bottomless appetite. My power swelled as a steady stream of stats flowed into me. 

Eris and I had split from Roxy and Myne and were steadily making our way to the imperial capital. Explosions echoed from the east. I imagined that Myne created her own paths of escape and places to hide by violently reshaping the land around her. If anyone could do that, it was her. The distant sounds also told me Myne and Roxy were still locked in battle. As long as I could hear them, I knew that they still drew breath.

“Master Fate,” said Eris. “Surely from this distance it would be okay for me to—”

She lifted her gunblade as we ran. She’d been doing this nonstop.

“I said no! No guns until we reach the capital!”

Eris’s hands shook as she gripped her gunblade. I got the feeling she was especially trigger happy and desperate to go wild. This wasn’t like the Eris I knew at all, and I wondered if it had to do with her reconfiguration. Perhaps it had given her a thirst for battle.

“I will not tolerate you collapsing before we reach Mercadia,” said Eris.

“Well, I’d love nothing more than your support, but that’s not an option because it would mean firing your gunblade and alerting Gemini to our position.”

“But I am bored.”

“That’s good, isn’t it? Coming to Galia and having all this free time on your hands?”

I sliced off the head of the monster that blocked our path. It had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and a snake for a tail—a classic chimera. Even headless, however, it put up quite a fight. It closed the distance between us in a single bound so its tail could sink its venomous fangs into me. I was resistant to poison, thanks to the lamia’s skills, but I still didn’t relish the thought of getting bitten.

I activated my one-handed sword skill, Sharp Edge, and cut the chimera’s body to pieces, decapitating the snake at its tail.

Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +2.5E (+8), Strength +3.4E (+8), Magic +3.0E (+8), Spirit +2.4E (+8), Agility +3.4E (+8).

The chimera’s skills were just as delectable as its stats, and very useful, too. I was certain they’d come in handy during the battles ahead.

The chimera was a fearsome monster in its own right, but with my ever-growing stats, it felt like little more than a goblin. My body wasn’t used to the overwhelming increase in stats, though, so I couldn’t access their full power. Nonetheless, even I could feel how terrifying I was becoming. The monsters grew more and more powerful as Eris and I made our way further south, and my stats grew higher still. 

An even greater roar sounded from the others’ direction. The earth rumbled, and thick clouds of dust rose and obscured the eastern sky. I suspected Myne was responsible. She was single-handedly altering the Galian landscape.

“They’re going wild over there,” I muttered.

“We are very close to Mercadia,” Eris said calmly.

“Just a little further then.”

Contrary to Eris’s cool demeanor, monsters swirled around us like a maelstrom, blocking our advance. Perhaps they’d been drawn in by the stench of blood from those I had already slain, or perhaps they’d been able to pick out our scent. Either way, we had to hurry to the capital. We didn’t have time to waste on these monsters. With Myne and Roxy’s battle reaching a fever pitch, we couldn’t afford the slow and easy route.

I wasn’t as loud or explosive as Myne, but I had tricks of my own. I transformed my black sword into the black stave as Eris looked on with curiosity.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Ensuring us an easier path forward.”

Fighting all the monsters in front of us would inevitably slow us down. Our best bet was to make sure the monsters couldn’t block our path to the capital. The black stave filled with every bit of magical energy I had devoured. I then unleashed every drop, and cast a fire the likes of which I had never before seen.

“Onward!” I shouted.

A whirlwind of black flames flew from the end of the stave, growing as they sapped my magic. Thick, intense flames dripped with something that glowed blue—­probably gas particles floating in the atmosphere around us.

“Master Fate!” cried Eris.

“I got it!”

Monsters leaped at us, mouths agape. I didn’t slow and sent my flames to consume the incoming enemies. As soon as the fire touched them, they were incinerated. They made no sound, and they left no scent.

The fire didn’t stop with the monsters, though. Instead, it stretched out toward Mercadia. Everything in its path was scorched to nothing as the flames cauterized the landscape before us into a pair of parallel black lines. I heard the toneless drone of my Gluttony informing me of my increasing stats, but there was another voice along with it.

“More… More…”

I slowed down for a moment. 

Eris turned to me. “Master Fate? What is it?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s nothing.”

I leaped onto the path between the two walls of flame. Only Eris and I could get inside here. Galian monsters were huge, several times larger than any human, but my black flames would consume them all the same if they tried to push through. The same fate awaited them if they attacked from underground. They could destroy the ground itself, but they’d still be burned. The black flames would last as long as my reserves of magical energy did. Nothing could extinguish these flames unless I allowed it.

“I can’t believe it…” I muttered. “Do these monsters not fear death?”

The monsters didn’t let up their attempted assault. They kept coming in waves even as they were swallowed in the flames of a burning sea. Even the stampede that had formed when I’d fought the Heavenly Calamity had eventually fled in terror. Perhaps ancient beasts were made of sterner stuff.

“They’re choosing to run to their own deaths?!” I cried.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. The voice in my head droned on endlessly. The hand that gripped the black stave felt different somehow, and I looked at it.

I was trembling. I was afraid.

Could I keep this up? What would I do if my Gluttony crawled up to get me, right here and now? All the worries I kept in the back of my mind suddenly rushed to the forefront. I clasped my right hand with my left in an attempt to control my trembling.

“Now I truly know how important you are,” I said to the silent Greed. “You always knew what to say to keep me on track in times like these.”

The sword had a foul mouth, but he kept me steady whenever I felt lost. He said whatever he wanted—often too much—but in the end, he always assured me that I was capable of facing our foes. In the battle against the Zodiac Aquarius, he’d said that all he ever did was sit back and watch. That was all he’d said, but even that alone made me feel like we could overcome the battle ahead.

“The capital is in sight,” I said. “We’re almost ready to start our search for the other half of the Gemini.”

“Understood.”

I’d lean on my Gluttony for that. But I needed a deeper connection to get an accurate location.

“I need more,” I said. “Give me more power!”

I had never been deeper in my Gluttony than this.

“Master Fate, your eyes!”

She was no doubt talking about the crimson that filled both of my eyes. I had gone beyond my starved state to forge an even deeper connection with my Gluttony.

“Hrngh…” I groaned.

A deep pain shot through the vestigial wings on my back, but I ignored it and kept searching for the other half of Gemini. Mercadia was filled with delicious scents. I felt chimeras finally moving again after centuries of dormancy. Things I’d never eaten lurked in the capital. Among these souls, my Gluttony was drawn to one in particular. I ­focused on it. My heart leaped. It was my father. 

He’s underground?! Is he trying to open the Door to Distant Lands from there? I focused harder. As I did so, my father turned toward me. He noticed me?!

“Do you really have time to concern yourself with me?”

His words rang like a warning, and I turned my attention to the presence I thought was the other Gemini.

“It’s been waiting…all this time.”

I had thought it was too quiet, and there was a good reason for it. It was ready and waiting, charging its power until we were in range. And it was just about to unleash it all. Could I stop it with the black shield? I thought back to the Zodiac Aquarius, the Artillery of God. If this holy beast was capable of something similar, let alone more, I wouldn’t be able to protect Eris. A defensive strategy would wear away at me. The best defense, then, was a good offense. I wasn’t about to adopt Myne’s style completely, but I knew I’d be at a huge disadvantage playing long-range defense. 

I changed the black stave to the black bow and gave it half of my stats. The bow transformed ominously in my grip. I didn’t have Greed to assist in aiming anymore. I had to do this on my own. But thanks to my friends and their tutelage, my archery skills had greatly improved. I could also use my Gluttony to change the nature and elemental attributes of my arrows. Now, I’d prove that I was even more accurate than when Greed guided my aim. 

I took aim at the Zodiac Gemini from within the searing black flames. Much like its other half, it was translucent, like a slime. The Gemini was in a location completely opposite my father’s. It looked down on us from upon the tallest of all the black buildings that filled Mercadia.

“Master Fate,” said Eris.

She pointed her gunblade at me and fired. I felt the buff—a temporary stat boost and an accuracy increase—flow through me. When my bow had reached its limit, I unleashed its power.

“Bloody Ptarmigan Cross!” I shouted.

The instant I fired, I was hit by an incredible recoil. All the monsters trying to attack us were sent flying. Had I not been imbued with Eris’s buff, I, too, would have been hurt.

The same moment I fired, Gemini unleashed a beam of pure white light. The two attacks collided. A spiral of black lightning met a pure white light, and I expected a battle of strength to ensue. But because the attacks were both so strong, or perhaps because the powers repelled one another, they deflected off each other.

Huge plumes of dust surrounded us in the aftermath. When they finally cleared, I found that the ground to the left of where I stood had been carved into a gargantuan crater, while the building the Gemini once sat upon had disappeared without a trace.

The Gemini didn’t fall to the ground, however. It instead remained in the air, floating. Huge, angel-like wings appeared as the holy beast began to change form.