Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

The Fake Fate

SPARKS FLEW THROUGH THE AIR as the black gunblade and the black greatsword collided. For some strange reason, I could read and predict the movements of the other Fate. Of course, he could read mine, too.

“If you don’t make better use of me, you’re dead.”

Surprisingly, the gunblade’s trash talk didn’t bother me. But why? Am I enjoying this battle against my false self? Is it because I’ve finally found a sworn enemy to fight with my full potential?

Whatever it was, Fake Fate appeared to feel the same way. I spied the hint of a grin amid the pure hatred visible in his features. With each clash of our blades, I felt his unbridled joy at being locked in battle. Every strike he threw was heavy. He was giving this his all.

The spiritual plane reflected one’s strength in the real world, but that wasn’t all. Greed and Luna had taught me that it also put your heart and mind to the test. It was easy to mistake levels, stats, and skills for physical attributes, but in truth, they all resided in the mind. To strengthen my resistance to Gluttony, Greed and Luna had helped me train my mental faculties. I didn’t know to what extent I would be able to put their teachings to use here, but I could not let myself lose to the fake Fate.

I pushed the greatsword away again and took aim with Envy.

“What the…? What the hell is this?!”

But I didn’t have time to answer the shocked gunblade, which was already transforming in my hands. My personality wasn’t a good match for the weapon in its original form as a support weapon. I needed it to be one with my mind so I could fight with everything I had. I needed it to change.

“This is how we’re meant to fight together,” I said.

“I don’t believe it. I don’t even have any of Greed’s transformative abilities.”

“Do it,” I ordered.

This was my spiritual plane. I knew the transformation would work.

I had no use for a support weapon. I needed something purely focused on attack, so I took Envy and shaped it into something far more dangerous and aggressive. I widened the barrel for better firepower, then lengthened and sharpened the blade to make it a better cutting weapon. The end result was so huge I had to hold it in both arms, but it put Fake Fate and I on an even playing field.

Envy now had a comfortable heft. I would not be pushed away so easily again.

“What do you think?” I asked. “Even you’ve got to be surprised.”

“You people… You and your Gluttony… Or is this more than just that?”

“Here he comes.”

“Well, whatever. We’ll do things your way then.”

Not even Envy fully understood what had just happened. But this new weapon fit me like a tailor-made glove. Was it because I created it? Or was there some other reason? Whatever the case was, I figured I could work it out after I took care of Fake Fate, who was mounting another attack.

I pointed the new gunblade at him and shouted words that came to me like they were meant to be. “Catastrophe Rain!”

Each section of the gunblade glowed as a tremendous energy built up within it. The gun was fully charged in an instant, and I pulled the trigger the moment it was ready. A torrent of blood-red bullets streamed out. The gunblade had been limited to single-fire, but now, it was different—the spread wider—and Fake Fate was at such close range that he didn’t have the time or the space to get out of the way.

His face twisted in disgusted shock. “You impostor!” he roared.

Stuck with nowhere else to go, the false Fate brought his sword up as a shield to block the hail of bullets. However, his makeshift shield only defended his vital organs, and he screamed as the bullets tore into him. His greatsword was a poor defensive weapon, and Catastrophe Rain shredded the flesh of his arms, legs, and shoulders.

My own power swelled with each bullet that landed. I had been stuck on defense for most of this battle, and I reveled in Fake Fate’s poor defensive decision.

“I will devour your strength,” I said.

“Ridiculous… Why…you’re just an…impostor…”

I was getting real sick of him using that word.

“You’re the impostor, damn it!”

I swung the gunblade with everything I had, letting momentum carry it. It slammed into Fake Fate. A huge, high-pitched clang rang out as his weapon went flying, but Fake Fate only leaned back from the blow.

“I am the real Fate,” I said. “Go back to Gluttony where you belong!”

I swung the sword back for a second swipe as my imposter took a step backward. He should have evaded but didn’t. I roared as the strike hit and followed up with more. He couldn’t understand what was happening. We’d been connected earlier, reading each other’s movements. It seemed our connection was severed the moment Envy transformed, setting us on different paths.

Power swelled with me with each strike against Fake Fate.

“I need…more power,” grunted Fake Fate. “I don’t have…enough time. Just a little longer, and…”

Realizing that he was at a disadvantage, Fake Fate transformed into a mass of darkness, which quickly seeped through the white floor. Before that happened, however, I intended to cut him to pieces.

“What?!”

Or that had been the plan until the floor beneath my feet began to shake. I thought it was Fake Fate’s doing at first, but he was busy putting distance between us. It wasn’t just coming from below, either. The whole spiritual plane quaked.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the black stain disappear. As it did so, Fake Fate said, “The time for the Door to open has come. Next time…I will kill…you…”

Damn it! He got away!

Even with Fake Fate gone, the shaking didn’t stop. That meant he was not the source. But what did he mean about the Door?

No!

“Envy, what’s going on in the real world?” I asked.

“Exactly what you think. Everything changed the ­moment you felled Gemini.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Because it would have rattled you, and you needed to be fully confident against that thing.”

The gunblade was right. This was the spiritual plane, and if I’d worried about anything else, I might not have beaten Fake Fate.

“The capital has started to truly activate. It’s regaining its original functions. The chimeras and defense system are just the beginning.”

“Are the others okay?”

“You should know that better than anyone. However, we’re getting the worst of it.”

The spiritual plane was warping; it was about to collapse. The world Luna had left to protect me from Gluttony was on the verge of disintegrating.

“It’s trying to go back to its original form,” said Envy.

“How do we leave?”

“I don’t know. I thought you would. Guess I was wrong.”

The ground was crumbling beneath my feet, so I leaped around, trying to buy us time.

“Usually, I’d have already left by now,” I said.

“The world of darkness closes in. A storm is coming, as they say.”

“The only way out is through, then.”

I took a deep breath. My every instinct told me not to drop into the world beneath my feet. 

Envy cackled at the sight of me. “So even you’re afraid of something. What a surprise!”

“What did you expect?!”

“To the depths of Gluttony… Never thought I’d live to see the day with my own eyes. Age brings all sorts of surprises.”

“You sure are taking this lightly, seeing as we might not make it out of here.”

“Well, I’m just a weapon in the end. It all comes down to you. It’s up to you to face a world from which you may not return. I’m just an observer.”

“An observer…”

Those words made me suddenly lonely. They took me back to when Greed had given me the last of his power and disappeared. The Weapons of Mortal Sin were incredibly powerful, but they were never satisfied. That aside, was this even what they wanted? And if it wasn’t, then perhaps their world was not unlike the one into which I would soon be diving.

“You scared?”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know what fear is. Even if the world down there is filled with the wandering dead, it’s just a new place. Makes no difference to me.”

“We’re going to find a way back… Back to where Eris is waiting.”

“Do that, and you’ll earn my respect.”

The last bit of floor beneath my feet crumbled away.