The Berserker’s Second Playthrough Novel - Chapter 72

Chapter 72
Chapter: 72

Chapter Title: Every Moment, Every Time (1)

—

The creature of the abyss reclined upon a seat of jagged stone.

His limbs were extended in a relaxed manner, one arm resting lazily on the chair while his fingers pressed against his temple. Above his porcelain-white mask, a glowing sapphire design shifted like the surface of a disturbed lake.

Beings of his kind did not require slumber, nor did they experience the world of dreams. Even in this profound stillness, he was not truly sleeping. Yet, if being pulled into inescapable, uninvited memories of the past counts as dreaming, then this entity was currently adrift in a nightmare just like any human.

In this vision, he stood upon a desolate, pale plain saturated with foul energy. He was nothing more than a bottomless scavenger in that hierarchy. True to his lowly status, his head was ground into the dirt, breathing in the bitter violet silt as he sobbed and pleaded for his existence.

“I beg of you… have mercy… I do not wish to perish… Keeek, a pathetic wretch like me… my death would mean nothing to one such as you…”

“……”

Towering over him was a monolithic silhouette that blotted out the light.

In comparison to the truly gargantuan greater demons, the figure’s physical frame wasn’t exceptionally massive. However, the suffocating aura of slaughter and the sheer weight of his presence made the demon see the giant as a god-like titan far larger than reality.

Lifting his eyes, he saw twin pits of darkness—eyes like an endless trench. The giant held a war axe that shimmered with a murderous light, while a veil of crimson and shadow obscured his features. If only the warrior would strike or let him crawl away—any end to the suspense. But the giant simply watched him in frozen silence.

The demon felt as though he were being buried alive under falling rock. The crushing weight made his lungs fail. Tears and bile choked his throat. He could do nothing but grovel in the dirt, his palms bleeding as he whimpered.

“Keeek, show mercy… I will serve you… Keeek, I will reveal every secret… Keeek… anything you ask, just let me live…”

Suddenly, distant shouts broke through the silence.

“Kadim, where have you gone! Are you unharmed?!”

“Lord Kadim! Lord Kadim! Answer us!”

“Sister Melissa! Be quick with the locating charm…”

“Phew, just a second… it is almost ready…”

Clang!

A spark of life returned to the demon’s face. Upon hearing the voices, the giant had lowered his weapon. It seemed he had decided that ending such a miserable coward was beneath him. A thin sliver of hope cut through the gloom like a stray sunbeam.

…It was a catastrophic misunderstanding.

“……”

The giant did not retreat. Instead, he leaned down until he was inches from the demon’s face, his hollow eyes now burning with a frantic, bloodshot insanity.

The demon tried to bolt, but he was too slow. The giant clamped a hand over his head and unhinged his jaw like a predatory trap.

“…K-Keeek, keeeek!! N-No, stop!”

The demon struggled with the strength of the doomed. But the grip was an iron shackle from the pits of hell. Every thrash was useless, until the jagged teeth finally closed over his entire skull.

Kwachak!

The world went dark.

* ……

A dull throb pulsed behind the mask.

That recurring nightmare always concluded with that specific terror. No matter how many times he relived it or tried to bury it, the history remained fixed.

However… the conclusion of the story would be different this time.

Click, click, click…

In his left hand, the demon held a delicate azure pocket watch. With a light flick, the gears began to hum. Instantly, greenery and wildflowers burst from the stone cracks around his throne, blooming in seconds as if the years had been folded into a single moment.

He flicked it again, sending the hands spinning in reverse. The flora retreated into the earth, becoming seeds once more. He shook the device with more force. Leaves sprouted, turned lush, and then withered into black rot in a heartbeat. With every twitch of his hand, the cycle of life accelerated and crashed.

The blue markings on his mask curved into a predatory sneer.

Birth, demise, vitality, and rot. The entire progression of existence was held in his palm. He was no longer the bottom-feeder of the wasteland. Not even that mountain of a man could bypass the absolute laws of time and aging.

He had lived for this day. The trio of horns on his brow were the fruit of centuries of vitriol and patience. Even after the passage of ages, the opportunity for retribution had arrived—and he was satisfied.

The trap was set. The target’s arrival was certain. The blue light on his mask flared with a mixture of boiling rage and dark joy.

The greater demon, Pebilatus, stood up from his throne of stone.

* Ahh, great one! You are truly the lord of all… or so I believed…? Why, why am I trembling before a mere mortal…

Thwack!

The spell of “Enchantment” snapped. Before Kadim fully shook off the haze, he smashed the head of the skull demon into splinters. The silent demon was already dead, leaving only the woman with the translucent form.

* Hah, a very clever deception… But what follows? No matter how sharp your steel, you cannot touch me.

Her boast was accurate. “Spirit-type” demons possessed non-physical forms that ignored standard weaponry. To wound them required the use of sacred arts, hexes, ancient relics, or weapons of the gods.

Fortunately, Kadim carried exactly that.

Whoosh!

* Kyaaaaah!!!

The hellfire dagger had been crafted as a holy tool for an arch paladin. The flames, sanctified by Elga, were capable of burning even the incorporeal. At the slightest touch, the hem of her gown caught fire, and her ghostly skin began to char.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Kadim launched the blade again and again. Each time the steel passed through her, sulfurous fire blossomed. Swallowed by the holy flames, she dissolved into cinders with a final, screeching wail.

* Aaaah…

Five demons neutralized. Kadim pulled his weapons from the ground and took a shallow breath.

“…Whew.”

He felt the heavy urge to sit and recover, but time was a luxury he lacked. Having consumed so much high-quality blood, his internal instability threatened to boil over.

The harvest was significant. In a single engagement, he had collected the essence of three distinct greater demons. He felt a brief pang of regret that the woman and the skull demon left nothing behind due to their spectral natures, but he didn’t waste time on regret. Kadim moved quickly to butcher the remaining remains, filling his glass tubes and leather bags.

Naturally, he didn’t neglect to fuel “Blood Spirit” with the demonic ichor.

Stab!

The power of the blade’s special attack was undeniable. Even a high-ranking demon would find it difficult to survive a clean strike.

Yet, that peak power wasn’t constant. The strength of the slash was tied to the amount and potency of the blood held within. With this supply of “greater demon” blood, the potential for destruction was massive. Since such beings were scarce, he couldn’t normally rely on this level of power.

‘…It is enough for the task at hand.’

The cave was a graveyard of greater demon parts. Even after saturating his reserves and the blade, plenty of waste remained.

Rumble…

As before, “Blood Spirit” began to pulse with a thick, red light, vibrating with a low hunger. Kadim ran a hand down the metal to quiet its bloodlust, then tucked it back into its sheath. This single strike was his ultimate move to finish a demon—a trump card to be played when they were cornered.

A narrow crevice waited at the back of the cavern. Guided by the heavy pull of foul energy, he stepped inside. The path was so tight only a small creature could walk it easily. Kadim had to crouch, moving forward on his hands and knees.

The corruption in this tunnel was thick enough to taste.

His skin burned, and every lungful of air felt like inhaling needles. Even his high-resistance physique wavered against the concentration of miasma. Still, Kadim drew it in deeply, like a fighter taking a breath of arena dust before a match.

The passage opened up suddenly into a massive chamber blocked by a stone portal. It seemed recently made, yet it was already pitted and eroded by the demonic air, its sharp corners rounded off by rot.

The time to meet the architect of this trap had come. Kadim took a stabilizing breath and threw his weight against the door.

Like a collapsed levee, a flood of miasma erupted from the other side.

Rumble…

Whoosh—his sight failed him.

For a heartbeat, he felt nothingness. It was as if his consciousness had been severed from his body, floating in a dark vacuum.

Kadim kept his composure. He knew this was the result of extreme miasma poisoning. He knew how to fight back. He began to reconstruct himself in his mind: his tanned skin, his powerful limbs, his frame, his face, the feel of the axe in his hand, and the glowing patterns of the tattoos on his skin.

Slowly, his perspective returned. The room came into focus like a torch being lit in a cellar.

“……”

The chamber was as vast as the previous cavern. It was designed with intent; columns stood in rows, a throne sat upon a raised platform, and disturbing carvings covered the ceiling—it felt like the temple of a dark religion.

And standing on the platform was the center of the storm.

He had the stature of a normal man. He wore a crisp, sapphire suit with a long coat and polished leather shoes, his face hidden behind a white mask with pulsing blue lines. He held no weapon other than a simple pocket watch—he looked almost harmless.

But the sheer density of the miasma and the three horns protruding from his head proved otherwise.

Following a period of stillness, the demon began to walk down the steps. A polished, melodic voice rang out over the sound of his boots.

* It has been a long age. To be honest, I am stunned. I truly didn’t think you would still be breathing. A mortal surviving three centuries… Did you feast on elf blood in addition to ours?

“……”

* No matter… at least your personality remains as blunt as ever. I spent a great deal of effort sending my minions and leaking miasma, worried you might never find me. It seems my anxiety was misplaced. To think you would come to me in less than two months after my return…

Kadim narrowed his eyes. The demon spoke with the tone of an old acquaintance, yet the man recognized nothing.

“Who are you supposed to be.”

* ……

“I’ve never met you. Drop the act.”

The blue light on the mask surged into jagged spikes. The miasma at the demon’s feet boiled toward the ceiling. He squeezed the pocket watch until his knuckles turned white to maintain his calm, but the mask continued to flicker with rage.

Finally, the demon drew a sharp line across the mask’s surface.

* Pebilatus, the demon who governs birth and the passing of years… and the one to whom you owe a great debt.

He reached up and slowly pulled the mask away.

* …Do you see me now?

“……”

Underneath was a face that had been stripped of its skin.

Empty holes where eyes should be, tattered flesh, and visible bone. Thick blood and yellow fluid leaked from the raw muscle. The interior of the mask was stained with old crust and fresh discharge.

The demon pulled back his red lips in a terrifying grin.

* I have the power to fix this face whenever I wish. But I chose this. Through centuries of agonizing patience. So I could gain true power and stand before you once more.

“……”

* So that my hatred for you would never fade… in every moment, every time.

Based on those words, Kadim was the one responsible for that ruin of a face. Yet, despite searching his memories, he couldn’t find a trace of this creature. After all, a man does not remember every fly he swats.

Kadim gave a flat response.

“I don’t recall it, but I’m sorry. I clearly didn’t finish the job.”

* ……?

“I suppose I’ll have to take the rest of the skin off now.”

Whirrrrr!

The rotating blade of the axe screamed as it flew. The demon blinked in surprise before simply raising a hand.

Vmmm—thunk!!

A wall of thick miasma rose up, forming a shield like heavy tar. The axe head splashed into the liquid and came to a dead stop. As it began to sink, Kadim used his mana to yank it back to his grip.

The demon replaced his mask. The blue light churned like a stormy sea.

* I see. My error. You treated me like an insect and crushed me, so I should return the favor…

“……”

* Dialogue is over. You will learn the meaning of true misery within the eternal wheel of birth, age, and death, you arrogant maggot.

The demon tossed the sapphire pocket watch into the air. Miasma coiled around the device like a serrated saw, forming into a massive, dark scythe with the watch set into the head.

Shrrr!

He caught the weapon and swung it with immense force.

――――――――――――― Shwing!!

A massive arc of energy tore through the room, slicing through stone pillars and the very walls.

Rumble…

Rock shattered. The walls were gouged open, and the severed tops of the columns crashed into the black fog below, throwing up clouds of debris.

It wasn’t over. With a flick of the wrist, the dark trail of the blade surged from the cuts and snapped back toward the demon.

Shwing ――――――――――――― !!

It was a movement similar to Kadim’s axe throw, but with a terrifying scale and speed. One rotation had demolished four pillars and ruined half the room.

Kadim’s expression soured. He had escaped the cut by a hair; a second later and he would have been cleaved in two. To use the lethal strike of “Blood Spirit,” he had to get close—but these massive sweeps made a normal approach impossible.

――――――――――――― Shwing!!

Shwing ――――――――――――― !!

He took cover behind the remaining stone. In those few seconds, he weighed his options. He decided quickly: a long fight was a losing fight. He needed the solution that carried the highest cost.

Full consumption.

Kadim swallowed every drop of the greater demon blood he had collected. Steeling his resolve, he triggered the “Hydra’s Tattoo.”

“……”

The ink on his skin turned a violent, flickering red. A searing, molten heat—like drinking liquid fire—burned down his throat.

His heart began to hammer like a war drum. His life force boiled and roared inside him.

Adrenaline flooded his system. His muscles expanded, feeling as though they were being forged from heavy iron. Heat raced through his veins. His eyes flew open, the vessels bursting until his vision was tinted crimson.

The berserker let out a breath of red vapor through his teeth, anchoring his feet to the ground.

“…Grrrh.”

The final collision with the greater demon was at hand.