Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

The Inhuman

AARON AND I CHARGED at the same time, simultaneously attacking Hado from the left and right in a pincer formation. Our tag-team attack began with me. I faked a high strike, then stepped in deep, shifting my stance and blow to a mid-level attack. Reacting to my movement, Hado blocked my blade with the holy sword in his left hand and brought the other around to counterattack—except Aaron didn’t let him. The Blessed Blade used his own sword to force Hado’s weapon upward, opening a gap in his defenses.

“Fate!”

“Aaron, get back!”

I charged Greed with the spell Fireball and thrust the burning blade into Hado’s heart. Once Aaron darted away to safety, I poured even more magic into the black blade. A pillar of fire erupted into the air, enveloping both Hado and myself because of my proximity. In the next instant, the fire pulsed with a shock wave that threw me back, rolling along the ground to where Aaron waited. Glass and chunks of wall from nearby buildings fell like rain from the explosion.

“Fate, are you all right?” Aaron reached down for me with his free hand. “Don’t do anything rash.”

“I’m fine, it’s just a little fire. Burns like this heal in no time.”

With the Health Regen and Health Regen Boost skills, my wounds often healed before I was even aware of them. Hado’s healing speed was monstrous, and I…wasn’t so different. I took Aaron’s hand and got to my feet, then looked to where Hado burned in the distance.

“That healing ability—it’s incredible.” Aaron watched in amazement as Hado writhed in the flames and smoke. The parts of Hado that had melted and burned off were growing back as his body rapidly repaired itself in spite of the continuing damage. But he wasn’t just regenerating—Hado’s skin was transforming into a much harder substance.

I shook my head. “That thing, it’s not Hado anymore, it’s…” But I didn’t have the words to describe what I saw. For what Hado had become.

“Fate, remember this,” said Greed. “Those that become nightwalkers have no heart. They lose what made them human, and when they move into the Domain of E, it results in Soul Decay.”

Hado had finally become a monster in the truest sense of the word. His mouth split open to his ears, and ragged fangs grew from within that wide maw. His body deformed as it developed, sprouting rough, reddish-black patches like hardened scales of fresh blood. A pair of black wings burst from his spine, symbols of his demonic rebirth.

“If that girl hadn’t saved you after you faced the Divine Dragon…you’d have met the same end.”

The thought made me grimace. If I ever lose myself to Gluttony… With the wealth of power I’ve gathered in the Domain of E…if I ever lose what makes me a person…it would be the death of my human self and the birth of a monster unlike any the world has ever seen.

“You scared, Fate?” Greed asked with an audible smirk.

“No. But I can’t help but wonder…was the Divine Dragon human once too?”

“And if it was?”

I said nothing, and Greed laughed. “I told you at the start. The Domain of E is a place beyond humanity, and I didn’t exaggerate. But remember: you entered this domain yourself, Fate. Willingly.”

As I stood there frozen on the precipice of battle, a voice called me back to my senses.

“Fate, what’s wrong?” It was Aaron.

“I’m okay. But Hado…”

He stood silent among the flames, but the air he gave off had grown heavier. His eyes slowly opened to reveal a crimson glare.

“What?!”

“How the—?!”

Before we could blink, Hado had moved behind us. Was this the power of his new black wings?! He raised his two swords high into the air and brought them down on us in heavy slashes. We parried the attacks in a shower of sparks, but both Aaron and I were sent flying back and through the walls of a nearby facility.

I staggered up from the piles of broken rubble and found myself in a strange laboratory. Countless cylinders surrounded me, each one filled with a woman submerged in an amber liquid. They reminded me of preserved specimens, like insects or birds frozen in time for safekeeping. Stranger still was the fact that the rage-crazed Hado had not followed us inside.

I stared around, and when I spied the crest on the wall, I realized we were back in the Vlerick facility. I felt drawn to one woman in particular who was trapped like the others in her own glass cylinder. She was beautiful. Like something otherworldly. But who was she?

“Lina Vlerick,” murmured Aaron, bewildered. “But why? Why would she be here? She’s been dead for well over ten years.”

Lina Vlerick? Based on the name, I could only gather that she was somehow related to Rafale, Hado, and Memil. “Who is she?”

Aaron kept his guard up as he spoke, always ready for Hado. “Though I don’t know the exact details, I know this is Rafale’s birth mother, Lina. She was always frail, but giving birth to Rafale put even more strain on her body. She died some years later. I never imagined I would see her again, and not in a place like this…not with these other girls…”

I took in the room, so different from the laboratories I had seen before. A lavishly decorated affair, it felt more like a room designed to showcase a collection—or to satisfy the particular desires of its collector.

I approached the cylinder containing Lina Vlerick and noticed thin scratches on the outside of the glass. At my feet, a gold emblem was inlaid in the floor, but something had gouged into the emblem over and over, rendering it unreadable. I noticed one last thing by Lina Vlerick’s cylinder that differentiated it from the rest: Flowers had been left beside the emblem as if at a gravestone. The flowers were fresh. Recently placed.

As Aaron and I stared around, we heard footsteps approaching—casual, and in no particular hurry. Then the door to the room opened with great force, and standing in its doorway was a person I knew only too well. He hadn’t changed in the slightest, and a familiar, hateful grin spread across his face as his eyes fell on Aaron.

“My, oh, my. To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from the Blessed Blade himself? And what are you doing here of all places, Lord Aaron Barbatos? I must say, I’d prefer it if you could stop putting holes in my walls. I expect better behavior from my guests, whether they’re the Blessed Blade or otherwise.”

Rafale had eyes for Aaron and Aaron alone. I was nothing to him, just like I had always been.

“Rafale!” I shouted. “What is all this?!”

Rafale finally turned to me. It seemed to irk him that I stood by Aaron’s side. “Fate? Is that you?” He spat my name, like it tasted foul in his mouth. “Well, now, haven’t you grown since the last time I saw you? I heard about it, you know—that you’re the heir to the Barbatos family name. What in the world does a person like you have to do to earn a position like that?”

“Rafale, you—”

I took a step forward, but Aaron put out a hand to stop me. It seemed I had done exactly what Rafale expected, and he burst into laughter. His insane cackle echoed through the room and sent a shiver down my spine. Talk about creepy.

When he finally finished laughing, Rafale walked straight by us and stopped in front of Lina Vlerick.

“Today’s a very special day,” he said. “I wanted to start now, but it seems somebody already got things going. No matter. It’s as I expected. Today’s the anniversary of the day I lost her, after all. My mother. And today, with this power, do you know what I’ll do to this kingdom?”

“Rafale?!”

“That’s right, Fate,” said Rafale. “I can feel it from you too. The same strength. How do you feel now that you have it? How does it feel to have unlimited power?! With this, I can accomplish everything I never could. And let me tell you, Fate, I’m the real deal. Completely different from that mere beast, Hado.”

The color of Rafale’s eyes bled until they glowed red. Nightwalker red, but even more vibrant. The hatred that seethed from them made me want to flinch back as they focused on me. Then Rafale pulled a black spear as if from out of thin air and pointed its blade at us.

“Fate, it’s been far too long. I think it’s time I teach you something that sticks.”