Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

The Power of the Fifth Level

FOCUS… FOCUS…

The black threads of Dimension Destruction lashed out at the Zodiac Gemini over and over, but the holy beast continued to evade them with its probability shifting.

“We’ve got it where we want it. Eris, you’re sure about this?” I asked.

“It will not be a problem.”

“Got it.”

The first goal of the Dimension Destruction attack was to trap Gemini in an isolated space. The holy beast was capable of two extremely effective escape abilities—­probability shifting and portal jumping. We had just rendered portal jumping useless.

It was time to move onto the next phase. Eris placed her hands on my shoulders. 

I grunted as Gemini struggled in my grasp. “Would you please stay still?!” I spat.

The holy beast was shifting the future within the black threads, and the movements were incredibly violent. The shock rippled straight through the black thread, where I felt it from my fingers to my shoulders. Blood dripped from the gaps in the gauntlets, staining the ground at my feet.

“Eris, let’s do this!”

“Very well… Open your heart to me. Accept me.”

I closed my eyes and felt the warmth of Eris’s magic flow into me. It felt wonderful. It mixed with me, becoming one with my own magic.

“Perfect,” said Eris.

I opened my eyes to a world completely different from the one I had known. I suddenly felt as if I saw the true nature of everything I looked at.

“So this is what the world looks like through your magical eye power,” I said.

“I will push my future sight to its limits to interfere with the Gemini’s probability shifting,” Eris said. “You will share my sight, so be ready for the distortion that occurs in its wake. That is your chance to shift the future in our favor.”

I saw two Geminis in the sky. This was the probability shift Eris had told me about. The two potentials—hit and miss—existed simultaneously. The “hit” future was barely visible, like an afterimage.

“Eris…”

I felt her magic increase, and, as it did so, I saw a change in the Gemini’s two futures. Color began to fill the weaker image.

“Master Fate!”

It was just an instant, but I was not going to let it slip from our grasp. I sent the black threads at the Gemini from every conceivable angle. A huge explosion rang out above us, and a sound like glass shattering echoed out. A torrent-like shockwave slammed into the defense system barrier, shattering it. The barrier dissipated around us, but I couldn’t see Gemini through the smoke of the explosion.

Eris was surprised at the fact that she could still see through her own eyes. “But this is…” She trailed off. “Wait, did you…?” She moved from behind me and looked into my eyes. “What did you do?”

“Sorry. I couldn’t let you take the brunt of that alone.”

I could barely see out of my left eye. While we’d shared our magical energy, I’d tried to see if we could share the load of her magical eye between us. By pouring my own magic into the magical eye, I’d been able to make even better use of its power, causing an even greater disruption to the Gemini’s probability control.

“But all’s well that ends well,” I said. “And the battle isn’t over yet. I still need you.”

“Understood…”

The Zodiac Gemini emerged from the smoke. A huge fracture now ran through its center. The pattern that had once moved and shifted inside of it had now come to a halt. We had successfully collapsed the timeline into a single future—a future we could finally grasp. 

My Gluttony instinctively sensed that Gemini’s defenses were down. Eat the holy beast, it called to me. Devour it. The whispered words echoed through my very being.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I muttered.

I still had some power left in the Dimension Destruction technique, and the black thread had the Gemini completely trapped. Its portal jumping was useless.

“Now!” I shouted.

Gemini wrapped itself in its wings as if to defend itself, but I paid it no mind as I brought the threads closer and tore its wings to pieces. Now trapped, the holy beast let out a high-pitched shriek despite having no mouth.

You beg for mercy? Now?

“Too late!” I wrapped Gemini in the black threads and crushed it. “This is the end!”

There was no sound of glass this time, but I felt what happened.

“Is it done?” asked Eris.

“Not yet.”

I had yet to hear the familiar voice in my head. The beast wasn’t dead.

But it had nowhere to run. What did it do?!

I looked up. The black threads still had Gemini trapped. The feeling from the thread to my fingers had changed, and a liquid leaked from between the gaps in the threading.

“No, is…? Eris, move!”

“Huh?”

It was like an egg cracking open, and the contents within were about to drop right on top of us. A moment before we were hit, Eris and I leaped back to safety. The liquid that collided with the ground pooled, forming the shape of a slime. It was the other half of Gemini, the twin Roxy and Myne were fighting. The black thread hadn’t hurt it at all. Going by my Gluttony’s disgust, the prey we’d been after had escaped.

Had the Gemini twins somehow swapped places? I knew only one thing for sure. This was not a portal jump. Was it because they were two parts of a single whole? Was that how they were able to swap places? 

“Master Fate?!”

Eris raised her voice, confused, because I was running straight for the Gemini. I transformed the unwieldy black gauntlets back to the sword and gripped it tight in hand.

I believed in Roxy and Myne. I was utterly certain of what they would do.

My attacks wouldn’t work on the half of Gemini here before me. The other half of Gemini that was on the run, though—the half that would now find itself in front of Roxy and Myne—things were very different for that one. It had lost its defensive measures, its probability shift. All it could do now was flee. But Roxy and Myne would not give it that luxury.

A gunshot rang out behind me. Eris had hit me with Enchant Shot, which gave me a speed boost. I ducked and dodged the feelers Gemini thrust at me and kept closing the distance. 

Gemini knew what I was doing. Countless feelers burst from the ground at my feet, surrounding me in much the same way my Dimension Destruction had done earlier. Gemini was closing off my paths of escape. 

Eris screamed.

The feelers drew closer, but I refused to slow down. Unified Mind…activate.

For a set period of time, all of my skills were five times more powerful. I’d had difficulty controlling it back at the Desert of Extinction, but thanks to Myne’s training, that was no longer an issue. With Unified Mind activated, I used the sword techniques that I was most skilled at and sent fire magic through the black sword’s blade. Flames billowed from its tip. 

The feelers vanished just as they were about to touch me. What appeared before me then was not the slime-like Gemini but the huge, egg-shaped Gemini. It had lost every single one of its six wings, probably because Roxy and Myne had cut off what remained. A huge, diagonal crack also ran through its body, likely the result of one of Myne’s mammoth strikes.

In its attempt to escape, the Gemini had found itself facing Roxy and Myne, and they had hit it with more than it ever could have expected. So, it had swapped places again. Even now, it suffered, screaming. But the moment it noticed me, it fired a ray of light.

Gripping my flaming sword in hand, I used my Gluttony to transform the fire magic I’d cast into an even more powerful flame. The fire illuminating the sword intensified, changing to a golden hue.

I knew Gemini would come right back, and I had made sure that I was ready for it this time. 

“Welcome back,” I spat.

Then, I summarily sliced Gemini in half. The holy beast was quickly engulfed in flames and turned to ash. But even then, I did not hear the familiar drone echoing in my mind. 

Gemini’s body emitted a bluish-white light. Was it trying to swap places again?!

My body moved automatically, slicing the holy beast entirely in half once more. This time, Gemini burned up, turned into ash, and disappeared. Meanwhile, I was left stunned. My body had acted all on its own. 

A familiar voice echoed in my head.

Gluttony skill activated.

A searing pain flowed from my wings straight to my brain.

“Master Fate?!”

Eris’s voice grew distant, and I lost consciousness.