Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

Kairos, Wielder of the Black Sword

THE FIERY HELLSCAPE of Gluttony was cloaked in silence. The dead stood at a distance, waiting with bated breath but refusing to get too close.

“Sir Kairos,” I said.

“Didn’t I tell you to knock it off with the ‘sir’ stuff? We’re friends. That said…” Kairos pointed Greed at me. “I entrusted Greed to you, didn’t I?”

“I…”

He seemed angry that I had lost Greed. I understood how he felt. His passing the sword to me had been an act of trust—a promise—and I had broken it.

“You two sure are troublemakers,” said Kairos, slowly settling into a fighting stance. “So I guess we have to do this all over again. Don’t expect it to be easy. If you want Greed, you’ll have to take him from me.”

“You mean, I have to fight you for him?”

Kairos grinned in response, but his resolute gaze said he was deadly serious. “This is how things are done in this world. Nobody knows that better than you.”

“And there’s no other way?”

“This world has no need for two bearers of Gluttony. That means that the true bearer must be crowned.”

Kairos leaped at me in a flash, raising Greed before bringing the sword down with such speed that a blue light trailed behind it.

“It’s what Greed wants!” he said.

The high-pitched scream of metal against metal echoed around us. I’d somehow managed to bring the gunblade up in time to defend myself. Still, Kairos’s words left me confused.

“Greed too?” I asked.

“Indeed. Just like Gluttony, the black sword has no need for two wielders.”

“And we have to make that crystal clear?”

“Nobody wants that question left hanging in the air unanswered.”

The black sword and the black gunblade sparked as they fought for dominance, but Kairos was gaining the upper hand and growing in power. 

So, Greed is in on this, too, just like Kairos said…

Kairos pushed my gunblade away. “Greed and I are coming at you with everything we have. Surpass us, or else!” he shouted in a rough voice.

His smile was gone. In its place was a look of such bloodlust that I felt Kairos’s gaze alone could impale me. If he was going all-out, failure here meant death. And death in the spiritual plane meant the complete negation of my existence. Kairos knew that full well, which was why he brought his blade back around to face me. The intent in his eyes was clear.

“That’s the spirit,” he said. “Let’s go, Fate!”

My body moved on its own, parrying the incoming black sword. All the experience I’d gained in battle was embedded in my very being, and even here in the spiritual plane I could put it all to use. That was my strength. That was what I had earned through all my training here with Luna and Greed.

“Yes, that’s the look,” said Kairos. “Those are the eyes of a bearer of Gluttony. Pure red and glimmering.”

“Kairos!” I shouted.

Each stab, each swing of the gunblade felt eerily light. I no longer cared about the horrifying place I was in, instead solely focused on the battle before me. As our battle raged on, I began to feel at one with this world. So much so that I could feel what was happening to it. I could read Kairos’s every movement. He moved faster than my eyes could follow, but I evaded each and every one of his multiple slashes with ease.

“It’s becoming a part of you,” Kairos uttered. “You’re different from me, just like I thought.”

“What do you mean, ‘different?’”

Our swords clashed once more as we pitted our strength against one another.

“You know so little about your true nature,” said Kairos.

“What do you mean?”

“You came all the way down here to the depths, but you’ve retained your sense of self.”

“So have you…”

Our fight continued without a clear victor. The two of us attacked, defended, and dodged as countless strikes sought a decisive blow. Kairos kept Greed in his black sword form, as if telling me that he didn’t need to bother transforming it.

“You don’t get it, do you?” said Kairos. “The reason that Rafale and I can keep our forms in this place is because of you. It’s thanks to you, Fate.”

“But how?”

“You heard it from Greed, didn’t you? I was consumed by my Gluttony. And I know you know what that means.”

“I…”

“Rafale wasn’t so different. He lost himself to soul decay. But upon being devoured, he returned to his former self. He couldn’t have done that on his own. So…who did?”

Gluttony? It couldn’t have been me. So why was Kairos saying that it was?

“You think it was Gluttony that created this world? No. It was the effect of a different power.”

I gasped.

“It was you,” Kairos went on. “It is you, Fate. You wished for it, so we came back to our senses here in forms that can exist independently.”

Was that possible? Rafale had devolved into something no longer human, but when I defeated him—when I devoured him—I had wanted him to watch what I became. But what of Kairos? When I went to save Myne from her own past, I had wanted help. Did that mean I had summoned Kairos from the depths of my Gluttony? Perhaps what Kairos said was true.

“We’re reaching our limits,” said Kairos. “Both of us. But if you try to return to what you were, then at some point…”

“What are you trying to say?”

“You must use me in order to know yourself, to understand who you really are.”

Kairos grinned and pushed me away.

“What?”

I felt a change in him. It was similar to soul decay—a transformation from man to monster. Two sharp horns sprouted from his head. They curled like snakes, their tips pointed directly at me as if to intimidate.

“This is what you fear, Fate. You fear being consumed by your Gluttony. You fear losing yourself… You fear becoming something that only…knows…endless…appetite…”

“Kairos!”

I stepped forward.

“Stop,” said Envy. “You cannot save him. You can only kill him. Or do you have what Kairos said? Can you use your power to bring him back?”

“I…”

I didn’t. Kairos had put too much faith in me. If I could change him back, it would mean I essentially had complete control over my Gluttony. If I could do that, I never would have fallen into this world in the first place.

Ever since I had awakened to Gluttony, I had been at its mercy. Now I knew that I still was. Yet, Kairos insisted I was different. He told me to use him so I could understand who I really was.

I was the son of Dean Graphite, the product of a holy beastfolk and a human. Of all the skills that existed, I had received the sinister skill of Gluttony. What was my relation to the skill? I didn’t know. Hadn’t I received the skill by chance? What more meaning could there be?

“Here he comes. Get ready, Fate.”

There was no time to sit and dwell on it. Kairos closed in, his transformation complete, and swung his black sword straight at me. He was like a demon in human form, powered by enormous amounts of magical energy. I didn’t want to believe it was even possible for such a creature to exist—a being consumed by Gluttony.

“Now I’m glad it never happened,” I said. “I’m glad that, back when I fought the Heavenly Calamity, I never lost myself and became that.”

“Agreed.”

“Don’t act like you weren’t a part of it! You were practically the cause of it!”

Envy chuckled.

Don’t try to shrug it off with a laugh! Once we got back to the real world, I was going to make sure that Eris heard all about this. Still, for all its faults, Envy was a good, ­reliable weapon. 

Kairos disappeared from sight. Greed flew straight for my neck the next instant. Before I was even aware of it, the black gunblade raised to block the strike. Sparks flew as Kairos and I leaped away from each other.

“I think I’m getting used to this place,” said Envy. “I borrowed your right arm for a moment.”

“Envy, I’m warning you…”

“Controlling my wielder’s body is my specialty. You know that. And taking over their minds is my calling.”

“Thanks for telling me what I don’t need to know. I’m grateful you saved my life, but do not take over my mind here in the spiritual plane. If you do, I’ll…”

“You’ll die.”

“Why did you have to say that?”

“I’m joking. Kairos is more than you can handle on your own. You might hate it, but I’m going to help you out anyway. You can thank me later.”

I could barely track Kairos’s movements, but Envy was able to respond to his attacks on my behalf. Nonetheless, we were still wholly on the defensive and didn’t have a chance to launch a counterattack. Kairos was far too fast and much too accurate. Each strike was a potential killing blow. It was hard to believe Kairos had lost his own will. 

As the battle went on, the monstrous Kairos realized his sword alone would not be enough, and he began transforming it.

“He can do that?!” I cried.

“This is…not good.”

It was the black bow, and Kairos was readying its ­secret technique.

“Not so fast!” I shouted, bringing the gunblade up and firing.

At the same time, the transformed black bow let loose a streak of black lightning. The Bloody Ptarmigan and Catastrophe Rain attacks collided. Red bullets met branching lightning, the two forces nullifying one another.

At that moment, I felt something mysterious flowing inside.

Should I continue fighting the demon Kairos has become? At the end of our battle, we both knew one thing for certain: The loser would be devoured. As bearers of Gluttony, the inability to run was a core part of ourselves.