Fate stay/BERSERK (Book 2)

Ch 4

"A Beheilt!"

"Y-you know what this is?!?!" The imp said in surprise. Without looking, Guts reached down and grabbed the imp's throat before lifting him up and slamming him against the wall. "GAH, GUAH!!!!!"

"Guts, stop!" Merlin shouted, pulling on the swordsman's ear. Guts was unfazed by Merlin's attempts to make him stop, instead looking up at the imp with a glare.

"Who the hell are you?" Guts questioned as he watched the imp struggling in his grasp. The imp was grabbing his wrist, trying to make Guts let go, which ended in failure. "Where'd you get this thing?"

"It.....it's not mine—GUAK!" The imp gasped as Guts began to squeeze harder. Merlin's attempt to make Guts stop forced her to grab his lower lip and pull it down, but yet again it had failed. He tightened his lips, making Merlin's eyes shatter like glass as she yelped, now trying to pull her hands out. "It's from the castle.....I stole it from The Count! I'm telling you the truth!!!"

"AH!" Merlin shouted as she finally got her hands free, falling backwards before catching herself with her flight. She looked at her hands, glowing red with pain as she began to tear up. "......that was rude Guts.......!"

".......good." Guts said to the imp, ignoring Merlin. Guts threw the impish man out of the small chamber, watching as he rolled on the ground. The swordsman kicked the wooden cane towards the imp. "....tell me everything you know. If you lie to me.....I'll make what happened to you look like child's play."

"M—my name is Vargas. I used to be the castle physician." Vargas spoke as he stood back up with his cane. The ex—physician wobbled over into the small chamber, grabbing the Beheilt and walking over to a nearby table. Guts stood on the other side, looking down at Vargas as Merlin sat on the swordsman head. "In those days The Count was a different person. He was cruel....but at least he was still human. But seven years ago after getting a hold of this...." Vargas pointed at the Beheilt. "....the Count changed."

"He began to treat people as if they were mere playthings, dissecting us alive...slicing them open, chopping them up, violating them, and then eating them. His inquisition of heretics became nothing more than a excuse to acquire more bodies.....I couldn't bare to be part of the Count's diversions, so I secretly fled with my wife and two sons. But on our way out....we were caught and thrown into prison." Vargas looked down at his hands, a tear forming in his only eye. Guts didn't pay heed, unlike Merlin who felt her heart skipping beats, and not in the good way. "Then the fiend Hacked me up.....and right before my eyes he took my wife and my sons! Even now.....the image is seared into my memory......"

Vargas could still remember ever detail of that day. His legs severed as he hanged from a restraint that spread his arms out. He remembered the number of bodies, too many to count, as they hanged from meat hooks in the dark dungeon. How the Count smiled as he carved a body with a cruel dagger. The count moved over to Vargas's wife, who struggled against her binds before she was chopped to pieces along with his sons. "FATHER!! SAVE US FATHER!!!! HELP ME!!!!!" Was all they could say before they either choked on their own blood or had their jaws ripped open. The Count could have easily killed them with the butcher knife, yet watched with delight as they slowly died, purposefully performing weak strikes so they could suffer a little while longer. When they died, The Count would open his mouth wide, transforming himself into this disgusting creature before eating what was left of the bodies.

"At that time....more than anger or sorrow....more than concern for my wife and two sons.....I was....I was nothing but a prisoner of fear." Vargas didn't look up at Guts, instead reliving his memory in the dungeon, his breath slowly coming to a stop before it resumed. "I....I used a drug I concealed to feign my death....and when the opportunity arose, I slipped out of the castle, taking this thing with me.....it was miracle considering my state of being.....since then I've searched into every aspect of the occult and any religion, even searching into the left behind scrolls of the Fae. But this.....this thing......what in the world is this thing."