Berserk of Gluttony Vol. 3

by Isshiki Ichika

  For the time being, Fate was saved. We could deal with the little details later. Now was a time to be glad. I looked over at the two of them, deeply happy that it had all worked out.

  Roxy scooped up the unconscious Fate to carry him back to the sentinel city of Babylon, and it was time for me, the mighty Greed, to return with them. Roxy had her hands and head full of Fate, so it was understandable that she didn’t notice me. It was unavoidable, really. So, I just had to wait for Myne to pick me up, and off we’d go together.

  Or so I thought. However, Myne didn’t even glance in my direction as she followed Roxy and Fate on their way back to Babylon.

  “Hey! Hey! You must be joking! How can you not notice me?! I’m right here! You put on that expressionless face, but I know you freaked out back there, Myne!”

  I said a lot more, but all my words fell on deaf ears—which was also unavoidable. Without the Telepathy skill, nobody heard my voice. Time passed, and the three of them faded into the distance until they were little more than a dot in the wasteland.

  “Alas, the mighty Greed has been abandoned…”

  An unbelievable turn of events. It was unfathomable to think I could be left here, abandoned next to a gaping crevice, sitting among the scars of battle that Fate, Envy, and the Divine Dragon had carved into the earth.

  “Well, once everyone calms down, I’m certain they’ll notice I’m missing. Fate is sure to come bounding back out in search of me!”

  I was optimistic at first, so I simply waited for someone to return for me.

  A few hours after that, a wolf came sniffing around where I lay. Its silver fur told me it was a beast known as a desert wolf. It was one of the few survivors of the death parade. The wolf sniffed all over the place, and eventually, it stood over me.

  “Woof woof! Woof!”

  The beast’s bark was surprisingly cute. It was no bigger than a regular-sized dog, so it looked a lot like your run-of-the-mill furry friend. Then the desert wolf started licking me. Admittedly, I was coated in monster blood from the battle.

  “Hey! You stop that this instant! I’m going to get all sticky with your gross wolf saliva!”

  I was still in my Fourth Level form, the black stave. I was slim and elegant and didn’t have any edges, unlike the black sword, so the wolf had no trouble cleaning the blood right off me. I tried to transform back into the black sword, but because I’d just reached the Fourth Level and Fate was gone, I couldn’t. Once the desert wolf was done licking me all over and covering me in drool, I don’t know what the furry beast was thinking, but…it picked me up in its jaws.

  “Oi! Stop it, you scruffy idiot! Let me go!”

  “Woof woof!”

  “Don’t you dare woof at me, you dumb dog! Release me! I am Greed!”

  “Woof!”

  The desert wolf took off, its tail wagging in excitement. Maybe not all was lost. The monsters of Galia tended to head north, toward the kingdom.

  Maybe this beast will bring me closer to Babylon! I thought.

  Once again, my hopes were crushed.

  “Hey, you stupid dog! You’re supposed to run the other way!”

  I hurled all sorts of insults at the beast, but the damn thing didn’t have Telepathy, so all my shouting fell on deaf, pointy ears.

  Thus was the mighty Greed carried farther and farther south. The city of Babylon became a distant memory.

  “Woof woof woof woof!” the wolf barked happily.

  “Just how far do you plan on going?!”

  As a weapon without arms or legs, I was rendered completely helpless. After a time, I got tired of coming up with new insults for my scruffy captor, so I let out a long sigh and stared at the Galian scenery. The wolf and I had reached the strange moss I’d warned Fate about, the kind that grew in human shapes and occasionally spewed spores. We’d traveled very far south.

  The green spores hung in the air like a thick mist. I knew that was dangerous. If you breathed in too many of those spores, they’d take root in your lungs. Your everyday adventurer either took a long detour around the moss, or, if they had confidence in their stats, ran directly through.

  The desert wolf was clearly the latter type. In the next instant, we burst through to the other side of the mist. The wolf showed no sign of slowing, and it woofed happily as it carried me deeper into the heart of Galia.

  “Hey, isn’t that the great canyon?”

  I could see it on the horizon. I’d been there with Fate not so long ago, looking for the duskstone crystals Jade needed to make my beautiful new scabbard. The canyon was perhaps the only green place in the Galian wasteland. It was also a place of mysterious power, and it drew monsters. I couldn’t help but laugh; this was going to be interesting!

  Just as I expected, the desert wolf continued to run as though drawn, deeper and deeper into the great canyon.

  “This is your final destination, doggo.”

  Still clasped in the desert wolf’s jaws, I bounded with it into the great canyon. The air was clear and free of the bloody stench of Galia, and greenery grew all around us. The best-case scenario would be if the desert wolf dropped me beside a big tree, so I could relax in the shade and wait for a savior. I had no real idea when the beast would come to a stop, though.

  We passed piles of monsters who had taken their last breaths in the canyon and turned to stone over many long years, and before I knew it…we’d passed through the canyon completely.

  “Woof! Wooof!”

  “No! I don’t believe it! We’re out of the canyon?!”

  In moments, the great canyon was far off in the distance. The desert wolf had spat in the face of my last hopes, and now I had no idea where this dumb mutt was headed.

  We neared the heart of Galia, where the road ahead led only to danger. The center of Galia was home to a large number of sleeping chimeras, and the monsters on its outskirts were incomparably fierce. If the desert wolf left me anywhere within this wilderness, my chances of being found plummeted. On top of that, it was unlikely Fate would ever even think that I’d been taken so far into the so-called country of death.

  “We might literally be headed for the point of no return…” I groaned.

  It was hard to believe that this would be the place of my eternal slumber.

  Just as I imagined my deeply dull future, we passed through the ruins of a small village. The wolf had been running in a stubborn straight line, but for the first time, it changed direction.

  In that moment, I made up my mind. I would stop this damn wolf!

  The buildings in that village had crumbled over many long years. Now, little more than dusty, fallen walls remained. Even as the earth slowly consumed the village, you could still see that this had once been a lively place. As we neared the biggest building, the desert wolf at last came to a stop.

  “Finally!”

  That relief only lasted for an instant. A black shape swooped in close, and I suddenly found myself lifted into the sky.

  “Caw! Caw!”

  These were the ridiculous cries of a colorful monster known as a roc. That garish bird had stolen me right from the jaws of the desert wolf! The roc’s wings were an ostentatious rainbow of red, blue, yellow, and green; the seven colors that made up its plumage were often used for decorative purposes. This beast was drawn to shiny objects, so the handsome black glimmer of my stave had doubtless attracted it.

  The desert wolf grimaced and howled with an anger I’d never heard from a mutt until that very moment. As for me, I couldn’t just let myself fly to the far ends of the sky. It was said that rocs built their nests in extremely high places, where it was difficult for enemies to get to them. This deep in Galia, that meant one obvious building: the soaring, thousand-meter-tall tower at the heart of the region. It was bad enough to be so deep in Galia, but that was the one place I really didn’t want to go.

  “Let go of me, you damn bird!”

  “Woof!”

  Just as the roc prepared to launch even higher, the desert wolf
bounded off a nearby building and leaped into the air.

  “Oh, what’s this?”

  Amazingly, the wolf reached the roc and sank its fangs into the monstrous bird’s wings. The roc let out a shriek of pain. Its grip on me faltered, and I slipped away, falling to the earth and out of immediate danger. The wolf let out another howl, a proud roar at having scared the roc off its prize.

  The roc fluttered away on broken wings, into the distance of the heart of Galia, where I assumed its nest was.

  Phew. That had been close. “You did amazing, you stupid dog! Got some bite to go with your bark, huh?”

  “Woof!”

  I was so glad that the roc hadn’t taken me to that central tower that I even praised the little woofer. Then I noticed the desert wolf digging a hole in the ground with its front paws.

  I have a bad feeling about this…

  “I knew it! I was a fool for ever wasting a kind word on you!”

  The desert wolf finished digging and dropped me into its hole. The roc’s attack had taken it by surprise, and now it wanted to hide me somewhere safe as soon as possible. As quickly as the roc had lifted me into the skies, the wolf buried me under the earth. It piled dirt over me, and my vision clouded over.

  “You’re burying me alive?! How could you?!”

  “Woof woof.”

  “Don’t think you can fool me with that cute bark of yours! Stop covering me with dirt!”

  “Woof!”

  The desert wolf looked delighted as it buried me.

  “Damn it… I can’t let myself get buried alive in a place like this…”

  The wolf barked with satisfaction once it entombed me. It liked me so much that it didn’t want anyone else to take me away. I could only laugh.

  “If only I weren’t so cool and popular… Damn these good looks!”

  The wolf had left me to rest under the ground, against my wishes. The desert earth was chilly as it settled around me. I found myself getting sleepy. I fought the urge, but with time, I felt my consciousness fade somewhere far, far away.

  ***

  I woke to the sound of a dog’s high-pitched squeal.

  Little by little, I felt the weight of the earth that covered me grow lighter. Soon, I saw faint light through gaps in the dirt. Could it be? Was I saved?

  “Fate? Is that you?”

  It wasn’t who I was hoping for. A young girl stood before me. A girl with white hair, red eyes, and a giant black axe that looked odd against her petite frame. She picked me up from my hole, her face showing not even a hint of emotion at our reunion.

  “Why would you bury yourself out this far?” she asked. “Do you know how hard it was to find you?”

  “Myne! I wouldn’t be in this unbelievable predicament if you hadn’t left me out in the wild while you all traipsed back to Babylon!”

  “I came back for you. But you never have been very lucky. Not for a long time.”

  “You shut your mouth.”

  Like Fate, Myne had the Telepathy skill. That meant I could give her a piece of my mind. Or just throw all of it at her at once.

  “Sloth is so quiet, but you’re so loud,” Myne said, a slight furrow in her brow.

  “It’s not that I’m loud, it’s that Sloth is always sleeping!”

  “I think I’ve changed my mind. You seem to like it better here.” Myne tossed me back in the hole she’d just dug me out of. “I’ll let Fate know that you didn’t want to come back.”

  “Wait! Wait! Hold your horses, calm down, and let’s talk about this like adults, yeah?”

  She’d come out all this way to find me, and now she was just going to leave me to rot? Fate would never have done something so rash. But Myne was concerning. She really was dangerous.

  “Anyway, how’s Fate doing?” I asked.

  “He’s unconscious. Still sleeping.”

  “I see… Not surprising. How long has it been since he defeated the Divine Dragon? I lost track of time, stuck out here in the dirt.”

  “Four days.”

  More time than I thought. I had to get back, and soon. If Fate was still sleeping when I returned, I’d give him a light poke with the tip of the black sword. I was still the black stave at the moment, but enough time had passed that I could probably change forms myself. I gave it a shot, and thankfully, it worked. I returned to the form of the black sword.

  “If you’re going to change forms, at least tell me. You startled me.”

  “Sorry, sorry.”

  “As always, Greed, you’re very light. You could do with a little heft. Like Sloth.”

  The gall of this girl. I was about to give her another piece of my mind, but I fell into silence instead. I really didn’t like the idea of Myne reburying me.

  “By the way, have you seen a desert wolf around here?” I asked. “It’s the monster that brought me all the way to this dump and buried me.”

  “The dog is over there. It got in my way, so I knocked it out cold with a light tap to the skull.”

  I followed Myne’s gaze and saw the desert wolf splayed on the ground, unconscious, drool leaking from its jaw. For some reason, I was glad to see it alive, versus, say, cut in half by Myne’s axe. For all the rude things I had to say about it, there was still something loveable about the mutt.

  “Should I kill it?” she asked me.

  “Leave it,” I said. “Shouldn’t we be getting back to Babylon?”

  “Yes.”

  Still, it was curious that Sloth had remained quiet all this time. I asked Myne about it, and of course, it turned out the black axe was still deep in slumber.

  “That stupid axe spends more time asleep than it does awake. I feel like I could count the amount of times it’s been awake on one hand.”

  “Sleep is important for a growing weapon!”

  Why did she look so proud of that? Well, whatever. I decided to ask about something nagging me—namely, what Myne had been doing out here after she parted with Fate.

  “It’s a secret,” Myne said.

  “I knew you’d say that. Then let me guess. You’ve been looking for the door to his land, haven’t you?”

  Myne remained silent. I was right. But she should have known better than anyone. If that door still existed, it was better not to dig around for it.

  “Well, you do what you like,” I said. “Clearly, it’s something you can’t let go of. But let me say this: Don’t go getting Fate involved. He only just made it to the Domain of E, and that was an ordeal in itself. It’s much too early for him.”

  “Understood.”

  I hoped she really did understand. Fate’s natural impulse was to help. If he knew about Myne’s situation, he’d feel obliged to step in. Then there was the matter of his Gluttony. He’d pushed it past his limit multiple times in the battle with the Divine Dragon. This time, things had worked out, but I wasn’t confident he would be so lucky a second time.

  Myne left the ruins of the village and headed north. She was fast. Her strength was on a whole other level compared to Fate. She ran as though cutting through the wind itself until a horde of orcs appeared, blocking her path. There were more than three hundred of them.

  “Pests,” she said, without emotion.

  Myne had me gripped in her left hand, and I felt power surge into it. For a brief instant, I had a terrible feeling, almost a premonition of what was about to happen. Then Myne launched me like a lance right at the horde of orcs.

  “Myne! I’ll remember this!” I shouted.

  Myne ran at full speed down the path she’d carved through the orcs with my blade.

  “Yes!” she cried.

  What does she mean, ‘yes’?! She knows I hate being used like this!

  “Good job,” Myne said as she picked me back up.

  “Good job?! Why didn’t you use Sloth?! Sloth is your weapon!”

  “I just felt like doing this.”

  She wasn’t handling me with any care whatsoever. I couldn’t wait to get back to where I belonged, with someone
who treated me with due respect.

  Myne launched me through the orcs like a common lance another five times. At least she made sure to collect me after each throw, but I was utterly filthy with all sorts of orc blood and guts.

  “You are a mess,” Myne said.

  “I wonder whose fault that is?!”

  “All right, I’ll clean you up.”

  Myne took a canteen from her back and splashed me with some water. That was it. Now, I knew that water was a precious resource out in Galia, but I had still hoped for a good scrubbing. It was what Fate would have done.

  “I want you to scrub me,” I said.

  “No. Too annoying.”

  My request drifted away, unanswered, like dust on the wind. For all his complaining, Fate always did what I wanted. I supposed that was the difference between the true owner of a weapon and anybody else. In any case, I was grateful to be at least a little cleaner.

  In the distance, I saw the battlefield where Myne and Fate had fought Haniel.

  “You feeling okay, what with Fate devouring Luna?” I asked.

  “There was no other way…”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “I’m grateful. I couldn’t just leave my little sister like that.”

  “I see. Well, I visited her inside Gluttony during the last battle. She’s doing quite well, considering.”

  “I’m glad…”

  Myne said nothing more, just increased the speed of her steps. It was like she was putting the old village and the battle of Haniel out of her mind by more quickly putting it out of our sight. She was a girl of little expression, yet she was in some ways very easy to read.

  On my way into Galia, trapped in the clutches of the desert wolf, I was unsure of where we were headed. But with Myne, I felt safe, knowing we would end up at the place where Fate now slept. When we got back, I’d have to give her a real lecture on how to properly handle me. When we got back.

  “Who’s looking after Fate?” I asked.

  “Roxy. She’s very diligent.”

  Fate would be happy to hear that when he woke.

  “However,” Myne added, “she’s sad that he lost his arm.”

  “Well, we can fix that, so it’s nothing to worry about. Anyway, you came quite a way to search for me.”