Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 34

Chapter 34:

At the Hand of God

IT WAS SO BRIGHT—a world of light where darkness did not exist. It was as if all became clear at the hand of God. The sphere grew ever more brilliant, as though announcing the beginning of the soul harvest.

“Now that the door has been opened, a reset is necessary,” said Libra. “And I will ensure that there will be none to interfere next time.”

Libra moved in front of the sphere he called God. He raised his hands high for a moment before bringing them down in my direction. The black cubes around him immediately drew nearby souls toward themselves. 

“Fate!”

The cubes once again formed into soul monsters and moved to attack. I readied myself to release the souls and decimate the monsters as I had earlier, but then, I noticed the grin on Libra’s face.

“It won’t work,” I said.

“Why not?”

I leaped away from the soul monsters’ attacks, still carrying Roxy in my arms. The closer we were to the monsters, the more I felt it in my bones: These souls were not open to the idea of mutual understanding. They were not looking for salvation.

“I told you, did I not? I will not make the same mistake twice. These souls are under my complete control. I never expected the experiments I toyed with when creating Eris would come in so handy. When all this is over, I’ll have to thank her.”

“Libra!”

“Ooh, so scary. But this is your fault, Fate. You chose your father. And unfortunately, our promise is now void.”

“Eris isn’t just some ‘thing’ that you own!”

“Oh, but she is. I even gave you a chance to own her yourself.”

The soul monsters had me surrounded. There was no way out.

“I always wanted to watch a bearer of Gluttony get devoured. But don’t worry. She’ll follow the same fate. Think of her as an offering.”

“Damn it,” I spat.

My hands were full carrying Roxy, meaning Libra could do whatever he wanted. That was exactly why he’d released her in the first place.

“We’ll have to handle this in one shot,” said Greed.

“And there’s only one way we can do that.”

A shiver of anxiety ran down my spine. Libra had ­already said that he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. There was nothing else I could do, though, so I quickly transformed Greed from the black sword into the black spear.

“Take my power, Greed,” I said.

“Let me at it!”

The black spear fed on my stats. Its point sharpened as it grew more aggressive and its form more intimidating. There wasn’t a more dangerous projectile weapon in existence. I activated the Sixth Level’s secret technique, Revolt Brionac. I poured all of my energy into it, then threw it. It was a spear of pure extinction, able to decimate even the indestructible black cubes. I erased the soul monsters blocking our way forward, completely, starting with their cores.

Each time a soul monster went down, my Gluttony informed me of my ever-increasing stats in its cold, toneless voice. It droned on and on, listing off my new stat levels and new skills. While I was grateful for the stats, none of the skills would be of any use against a foe like Libra. Nonetheless, their owners had thought the skills priceless, so I would show them the same respect.

“Greed!” I shouted. “Do it!”

Libra can’t use Roxy as a shield anymore. How will this go down?

A huge shockwave resounded around us. Libra had stopped even the Revolt Brionac, the spear of extinction. But the black cubes weren’t capable of such a feat. 

Then, I saw it. And everything clicked into place.

“It’s exactly the same thing…” I muttered.

The Revolt Brionac had collided with an identical-looking weapon. It was a spear, one that was the spitting image of Greed in his Sixth Level secret technique. It had the same all-encompassing destructive abilities, too. The two spears struggled against one another. They were equal in power, and when that power dissipated, they simply drifted through the air.

“Greed, get over here,” I shouted.

My black spear arced through the air like lightning and returned to me.

“Never thought he’d mimic my powers,” said Greed.

“Now I know why he looked so smug,” I muttered. “It’s the harvest.”

The spear that returned to Libra transformed back into a black cube.

He can do that with the black cubes?!

“Oh, I’m capable of so much more than this,” said Libra, seeing my shock. “I can do this. And this. And… Would you like me to go on? I wonder what you’d think if we went through all of them?”

It wasn’t just the black spear. Libra could transform the cubes into all of Greed’s unlocked levels—the black sword, the black bow, the black scythe… I had to assume he could transform the cubes into axes and gunblades as well.

“Have you ever thought about it, Fate? Have you ever considered who made the Weapons of Mortal Sin?”

The weapons were not people. They had not been born. Just as Libra said, someone had to have crafted and forged them.

“Only the truly stupid are arrogant enough to think that they alone have access to weapons so powerful. Though I must say, this data is marvelous. What a wonderful spear. So vastly different from Vanity. This is what the black spear always should have been.”

“Using those weapons comes with a price, you know,” I said.

The secret techniques of the Weapons of Mortal Sin all came with a high stat cost, and those stats did not return to their owner upon use. Libra was no fool, though. He wouldn’t take such risks.

“What in the world are you talking about?” asked Libra as he sucked in and absorbed drifting souls. “Look at this plethora that surrounds us.”

But he just called them offerings to God! This is ridiculous! Is Libra even allowed to do such a thing?!

As if in answer, Libra pointed to the glowing sacred mark on his face.

“God allows it,” he said. “It is all for the greater good. We can make and raise more of them. I’m not quite as dexterous as you, so I just take them, souls and all. But there are so many others. Look at them all! It’s a veritable flood! An ocean! Even the souls ignoring the flow have returned.”

I turned and saw a wave of souls pushing back from the direction I’d come.

“What should I decimate first, I wonder? If you have any requests, Fate, now’s the time.”

I only growled in response.

I had successfully destroyed a few soul monsters, but not all of them. Those that remained were still after me. I weaved around their attacks while I checked on Roxy. She looked no closer to waking. Fighting against all of this while trying to protect her put me at too much of a disadvantage.

If only she would wake up…

Black bolts of lightning rained down from above. I looked up and found Libra using the Second Level secret technique, Bloody Ptarmigan. I used the speed granted by my wings to narrowly avoid most of the lightning, but one bolt pierced straight through my left shoulder. Pain coursed through my body, but it wasn’t the sort of pain I was used to back in the real world. This was similar to the pain I felt on the spiritual plane when I’d trained with Greed and Luna.

Back then, Greed had told me that if my soul took too much damage, it would destroy my mind. Libra wasn’t satisfied with simply breaking me physically. He wanted to cut me down completely—body, mind, and soul. On top of that, he was toying with me, Bloody Ptarmigan raining down around me.

“Roxy!” I shouted. “It’s no good. She’s not waking up. Snow, please! Listen to me!”

Just then, a wave of souls appeared before us. If Libra’s words were to be believed, these were souls that had returned. There were so many I could barely see in front of me. They rushed into the giant golden sphere, but one among them changed direction, and it emitted a warm light as it drifted over Roxy. I was drawn to it, and reached out to touch it.

“Fate Barbatos,” said the soul. “I never imagined we would reunite in this form nor in this place.”

“Sir Mason!” I exclaimed.

“I died and returned. I saw my family once again. I no longer bear any regrets. However, when I returned once more as a soul, my consciousness remained. Is this a miracle? Or perhaps… Fate, will you lend me your power? My daughter’s soul is trapped. Ah, so this is what they call destiny… I see. Now that I am a soul myself, I understand.”

“What do I do?” I asked.

“You will guide Roxy’s soul by using my own.”

“But what will become of you, Sir Mason?”

“I will be fine. I am already dead, after all. And I will gladly give my soul for the sake of my daughter.”

I felt Mason’s determination. Greed, too, told me that there was no other way. He had done something similar in the past, so his words carried weight.

“I’ll buy you time while you are in Roxy’s soul,” said Greed.

“You mean…”

“The Crossing. Now go, while we still have the chance.”

Greed forced us to merge, and I became a soul. Led by Mason, I entered Roxy. As I did so, Greed shot me a wink—a gesture that was completely out of character for me—as if to tell me he had things under control.

As my soul entered Roxy, I heard Mason’s soul crumble away as he spoke his last words. “Please, save my daughter.”