Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Soul Decay

WHEN I LANDED in the laboratory, I found every last one of the cylinders broken, the creatures once preserved within them spread limp across the floor. The red liquid that had filled the cylinders now seeped everywhere, vivid and translucent. Somewhere in the darkness of the room, I heard a voice: Memil.

She had been unable to open her eyes when I found her, but now I heard her cry out in pain, questioning. “Why? Brother, why would you do this…?”

She received no response but for the wet sound of sucking. Alarm bells rang inside my mind. Don’t get any closer! Don’t look! But move closer I did, and as crimson liquid rippled out from my footsteps, I came across the tragic sight I’d anticipated.

Rafale was drinking the blood from Memil’s neck. To work his powers, he needed to periodically feed on blood. He had been trying to get more from those vials just before he fled. However, even with all those vulnerable soldiers and holy knights collecting outside, Rafale had instead come down here to seek out Memil. That meant there was something special about her blood, and it also meant that ordinary blood couldn’t really satisfy the power within Rafale.

When I’d first found Memil, she had already looked drained and pallid. Was blood loss the true reason for her prior unconsciousness? Now awake, she was once again losing what blood she had left to her brother. The look on her face was pained and uncomprehending.

Rafale lifted his head from her throat, then tossed Memil’s body into a corner of the room. “I have drunk my fill, and I am refreshed. The power flows through me again—no! Now I am more than I was.”

Rafale’s eyes were stained the intense scarlet of freshly spilled blood, and his muscles expanded to the point that they threatened to burst through his clothes. He was drunk on his own power.

“Rafale, how could you?” I pointed my sword at him. “Your own sister?”

“Sister? Funny, I’ve never considered her such. But I suppose she was a nice way to kill a little time…for a sniveling idiot. The daughter of the woman who drove away my mother, and they expected me to accept her as my sister?! She’s nothing but a tool to maintain my power.”

Rafale cackled maniacally, and as her consciousness once again faded, Memil’s face contorted in silent sadness. A tear rolled down her pallid cheek. Rafale clutched his stomach at the sight of her, spasming with cruel laughter.

“Oh, you stupid, stupid girl! As soon as I could, I taught her to look down on people, and she did exactly that. You have to laugh, don’t you? She let herself be groomed into a copy of that piece of shit we called a father! You have to know what I’m talking about, right, Fate? After all, you were just one of many we treated like filth!”

“That’s enough, Rafale. You—”

But Memil had already fallen unconscious. The blood from her neck no longer flowed, allowing me to see that the wound itself was a thin slash, likely a knife cut. Rafale hadn’t bitten into her neck to suck the blood directly. Doing so would have turned her into a nightwalker, and if that happened, his regenerating source of untainted blood would vanish.

“Well, then, Fate,” Rafale sneered. “Ready for round two?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He swung his spear as he moved in toward me. Our weapons clashed together for a third time, pushing against one another in perfect equilibrium.

His power is equal to mine in my half-starved state…

“What’s the matter, Fate? Is that really the best you’ve got?”

We poured extra power into our weapons at the same time, causing a shock wave that sent us both flying. Rafale recovered first, grinning and preparing to attack again with his black spear.

“He’s going to send that spear through a portal again. Get ready for it on two levels this time,” said Greed, observing Rafale’s movement.

“What do you—”

I readied myself for Rafale’s spear to come darting at me from a blind spot. As predicted, it flew out from behind me and to the right. I dodged the strike. But Rafale had read my movements, and in the next instant, the spear disappeared into empty space a second time. Even though Greed had warned me, I wasn’t quick enough to dodge the next attack. The spear ran deep into my left side.

“I have to hand it to you, Fate. I missed my target. I was actually aiming for your heart. But tell me, does it hurt? It hurts, doesn’t it? Doesn’t this bring back old memories?”

I coughed up blood. Rafale pushed the spear deeper as he spun me around. Pain lanced through my body, numbing my head. However, with the spear stabbed into me, Rafale could no longer send it through space. I gripped the spear lodged in my side with both hands and cast Sandstorm. “You let your guard down, Rafale, and now you’re going to pay for it.”

“No…release me!”

“Not even if you asked nicely!”

I’d noticed something when I fired the arrow imbued with Sandstorm earlier. I could disrupt the black spear’s abilities with magic, essentially rendering its portal attacks useless. The spear rapidly turned to stone where I gripped it, running through the portals and shooting steadily toward Rafale’s grip.

“Rafale!” I shouted, pouring more magic through my hand into the spear.

The Sandstorm spell moved from the spear to Rafale’s hands, turning his fingers, hands, and arms to stone. I watched carefully. When the timing was right, I pulled free of the spear’s blade and yanked it to the side with all the strength I could muster.

Rafale let out a cry of pain that echoed alongside the shattering of stone. His arms cracked from his body and crumbled to the floor. Now disconnected from its wielder, the spear warped through the portals until it was completely in my grasp. Thanks to my Health Regen and Health Regen Boost skills, the wound in my side was already almost healed.

“I wouldn’t hold Vanity for too long if I were you,” said Greed. “You’ll start losing blood, and fast.”

“Wasn’t intending to. The only partner I need is you.”

“Ha ha! That’s what I like to hear!”

I stabbed the spear into the ground and walked toward Rafale. “Give it up, Rafale. You’ve lost your spear. You’ve got nothing left.”

“Don’t be stupid. I’m just as powerful as you are! We’ve only just started.” Rafale’s arms rebuilt themselves from his shoulders. He glared at me, but without Vanity, he was no longer a threat.

Greed said the black spear was different from when he’d seen it last. If so, my guess was that meant Rafale had been unable to unlock its true potential. I didn’t know exactly what that looked like, but I did know that if the spear at all resembled the other Weapons of Mortal Sin, it had at least one secret technique. Vanity’s was probably incredibly difficult to access.

Where had Rafale found it, anyway? And where had he found the source of the nightwalkers? It almost felt like Rafale had been goaded into using both, even though he couldn’t handle either well enough to unleash their true power. Even Aaron had seen it was all too much for him to handle.

“I’ll say it again. You’ve lost, Rafale.”

“Big words from the likes of you, scum…scum, scum, scum-scum…scum…”

“Rafale?”

Rafale repeated the word over and over, as if it were a cog in a machine that wasn’t working correctly. “No, wait!” he cried suddenly, as if talking to himself. “I can still do it. This isn’t what we agreed to! I just need more time…”

Rafale’s head slumped to his chest, his consciousness fading. His body shuddered, twitched, and when he raised his head again, he wore the expression of another person entirely: the open and eager expression of a young boy who had just discovered a new game.

“Rafale Vlerick has disappointed me,” this new Rafale said. “I thought I could enjoy things as they were for a little longer, but, alas, it’s not to be. And to think I loaned him all that power. All that strength! A shame. Wouldn’t you agree, my Gluttonous young friend? And how about you, Greed?”

What the hell is this all of a sudden?! Rafale’s never once called me “Gluttonous.”

“Well, in any case,” Rafale’s body continued in this new, eloquent manner. “He had his uses. He was a fine vessel for incubating my new body. I must say, it doesn’t really matter what generation the person is from: Hearts aged with a lust for revenge are always the most delicious. But seeing as I still need a teensy bit more time to bring myself back completely, perhaps I’ll grant him his final wish while we wait.”

The smile on his face in that moment wore an inscrutable expression that Rafale Vlerick never had. “I wonder if you’ll be able to stop me, young Mr. Gluttony. Let’s begin with this!”

I was suddenly bombarded by cascading waves of intense pressure.

“Get away, Fate!” shouted Greed. “Get away now!”

Rafale began gathering magical energy into himself, readying to let it burst in a flare and overtake the space around him. But I couldn’t leave the black spear as it was. I grabbed it and was about to leap to safety when I noticed Memil, still lying limp on the ground.

“Hurry up, Fate!”

“Don’t worry, I’m on it!”

“Fate, you—”

I hefted Memil over my shoulder, then bounded up from the basement to outside the facility in one shot. As I did, the entire structure exploded, sending shrapnel and debris high into the sky. The wreckage fell along with the late-night snow across the entirety of the kingdom. Cries of horror and distress rose up from not just the Military District but the other districts as well.

Aaron ran over to my side when I landed.

“What’s going on, Fate? That’s Memil, I presume? What happened to Rafale? Hado and the other nightwalkers turned to dust just moments ago. I assumed that meant you killed him, but—”

“He’s, uh…”

I looked up from the rubble of the facility and into the sky only to see the colossal form of an inhuman monster hovering overhead, its great black wings beating.

Greed had said that soulless creatures who reached the Domain of E suffered from Soul Decay, an affliction that turned them into monsters such as nightwalkers. Did that mean that the creature inside of what had once been Rafale Vlerick had become something else—something like the Divine Dragon? I didn’t know if it would work, but I tried to use my Identify skill all the same.

The Ascent Drenched in Blood

Undead Archdemon, Lv ???

Vitality: 6.10e8

Strength: 6.30e8

Magic: 9.30e8

Spirit: 9.90e8

Agility: 7.20e8

Skills: Holy Sword Technique, Strength Boost (high), Dark Magic, Undivided Mind

Cold blue skin. Two long horns jutting from its head. Four pitch-black wings sprouting from its back. It was a more refined and sophisticated version of the horror Hado had become.

And I had no idea what level the creature was. I knew it had a unique name, making it a crowned beast, and I knew its stats surpassed my own. Lastly, I knew that all that remained of Rafale Vlerick were his two original skills: the Holy Sword Technique and his Strength Boost.