38. The Last Straw
Let’s take it back a bit to when Berry and Revet had just started fighting. At first, they were evenly matched. Revet defended against his attacks without getting hit once.
Then it dawned on him that Berry had cleared the nightmare difficulty in a conquest tavern in just fifty-five seconds. Which was simply an inhuman thing to do, even if he had powerful summons—it was far too quick.
Before he could figure out the answer, he had already lost his arm to a black hole that appeared abruptly beside him. Thankfully, it was only an arm he lost, not his life.
"Spatial manipulation? No, this is something else entirely."
It finally dawned on him—Berry was creating rifts in the vacuum of space.
If it were just another kind of spatial manipulation, it wouldn’t have been a problem.
"Gobble."
Berry snapped his fingers. Multiple black holes appeared throughout the expanse of the sky, consuming everything in their path—air, clouds, wind, you name it.
Revet was basically being torn apart, as opposing forces pulled him from different directions. His limbs were being ripped apart piece by piece.
"Summon link, activate."
Revet’s spirit energy spiraled. The air suddenly turned cold—thin blue ice coated him, shielding him from the opposing forces.
Blood dripped from his arms and legs from deep wounds and partially severed tendons.
"This won’t hold. I need to find a way to deal with the pulling forces coming from those spatial rifts."
He thought deeply.
Boom...
A heavy impact struck the ice shell, causing it to begin cracking.
"Shit! This is bad..."
He exhaled sharply.
"But I might as well return the favour."
He charged out of the ice barrier.
"I thought you were going to keep hiding in your little snowball, like the pussy you are!" Berry scoffed.
He was struck by something invisible—then hit again and again. By the tenth strike, he finally lost it. He created a vacuum around himself.
"What the hell was that?!" he exclaimed angrily.
Revet chuckled.
"I thought I should discipline you a little," he said sarcastically.
"As expected, Asmaroth’s ability worked perfectly," he smiled inwardly.
Asmaroth’s ability was the best counter Revet could think of at the moment against Berry’s power. After all, they were both invisible forces—so the stronger force was more likely to win.
The vacuum Berry created around himself dispelled all types of forces within it, be it gravitational or frictional.
"This should buy me a little ti—"
Before Berry could finish his sentence, a slash came from outside the vacuum, cutting two of his fingers off.
The vacuum had one crucial flaw—it only protected Berry against force-based attacks. So normal enhanced physical strikes, or even raw physical attacks, could still reach him. Berry assumed that Revet was using some kind of artifact to generate the invisible force and the ice. He hadn’t imagined that a summoner could possess more than one ability.
"Spatial technique: Fracture."
Berry said hoarsely as he dispelled the vacuum. Multiple spatial cracks appeared and detonated instantly. Revet managed to evade any fatal damage, but he lost a leg and an arm.
"Hahahaha, that’s what you get for cutting off my fingers!" Berry grinned widely.
"Huh?!"
The grin on his face turned into a frown—Revet began to regrow his limbs, a white glow enveloping him warmly.
"You were saying?" he asked coldly.
This was Baskiel’s ability—Purificational Revitalisation. Not only did it heal all Revet’s wounds, but it also alleviated his exhaustion while replenishing his diminished spirit energy.
"Self-made technique: Arrays of Judgement."
Revet created multiple light orbs out of thin air and launched them at Berry.
Berry dodged the attack, but the orbs continued to track him. He dodged and dodged, but all to no avail.
"Tch..." Berry grunted.
"It’s a homing attack... what a pain in the ass."
He stopped abruptly—face to face with the light orbs. Suddenly, they halted. He raised his hand, distorting space, then flung the orbs back at Revet.
They exploded the moment they hit him.
"It seems there’s no limit to his spatial ability," Revet thought inwardly.
An ice wall stood firmly before him, blocking the earlier reversed attack.
"Hahahaha, you are one hard bastard to kill, Blank!" Berry laughed loudly.
He caught his breath after the maniacal laughter. Eerie, dark spirit energy erupted from his body, burning like thick smoke. He frowned—his eyes emitted a purple glow, as if he were possessed.
Crack...
He bent his neck, producing a loud snapping sound. He moved his jaw slowly.
"I never thought I would meet a fellow summoner that would push me to resort to such extremes."
His voice no longer sounded the same—it was now more sinister, more demonic.
"Come forth..."
The space around them began to fracture like a broken mirror—then it shattered, plunging them into darkness.
"From the vast and endless void..."
The dark space began to reshape into a glass-like world. Towering spires rose from nothingness. An artificial translucent sun appeared above. A ground of glass shards formed beneath them.
"Ultimatum Release."
Berry fell onto a throne that stood at the very top of a mountain made of glass.
A crown descended from above onto his head.
"Abagedon: World in the Mirror."
A gust swept across the entire subspace.
"What is thi—"
Glass shards impaled Revet, piercing deep into his torso.
"Agh—"
Blood poured from his mouth.
The shards extended as if alive, lifting Revet toward the throne. They bent forward, bringing him directly in front of Berry.
"If you agree to be my subordinate—no, no, my servant—I will, in my infinite grace, spare your pathetic life. After all, you were quite fun to pla—"
Revet spat blood on Berry’s face.
"I’d rather perish, you bloody motherfucker!"
Revet exclaimed weakly, but his voice burned with fury.
Berry grimaced, wiping the blood off his face.
"If that is what you wish, then I can certainly grant it."
He flicked his finger downward, and Revet crashed into the glass ground. His nearly lifeless body rolled across the shards, tearing his skin open and shredding his tendons.
That brings us back to the present—
He landed with his head against a broken wall, blood dripping from his pitch-black hair. He couldn’t move a muscle. His eyes began to lose their glow, dimming with each passing second.
"Mother..." he mumbled softly.
His eyes widened in shock—he couldn’t remember her face. Did he even have a mother to begin with? What about playing Zenless Zone Zero? He couldn’t remember his favourite character. Everything was blank.
This was the moment he was supposed to call on his mother for strength.
"Who am I... who is Revet?"
It had never occurred to him until now—he had been too caught up in the Summoners’ War to realise that he remembered nothing from before it. The name Revet, playing Zenless Zone Zero, saving his sick mother—it all felt imprinted. Because that was all he could remember.
No... this wasn’t amnesia. It was something else entirely. Something he wasn’t supposed to find out—not now. But he did... because of Berry pushing him to the brink of death.
A mental darkness engulfed him—a fog so dense he couldn’t find his way. He was lost. Memoryless. To put it simply—he was completely blank. Just like his name on the leaderboard. How awfully ironic.
"You are the only one that can save us all, £&£&. Go to Astera and find the $¥¢¥$."
A familiar voice he couldn’t recognise echoed within the fog. Parts of it were muted, as if deliberately suppressed.
"Who’s that...?"
Revet ran forward into the fog.
"Do you know who I am?!"
He searched frantically, like a lost soul—but found nothing. Only darkness.
Amidst it, a glowing violet sigil floated gently—built around a diamond-shaped core with symmetrical, horn-like extensions and intricate geometric lines radiating outward.
Revet felt a strange connection to it—as if it were a part of him.
Bam...
The symbol forcefully entered his body. Revet felt as if he had been shot in the head. The sigil engraved itself onto his forehead.
He looked downward—and an unfamiliar face reflected in the darkness below. It smiled.
Something yanked him violently out of the fog. In an instant, he passed through stars, several realms—he even saw a smiling sun.
He landed back in his body... though it never truly felt like he had left it.
Berry looked around, frowning.
"Where is he?" he muttered, disturbed.
"I’m right here."
Revet’s voice came from beside him.
Revet sat casually on the handle of Berry’s throne, legs crossed, hands in his pockets.
"This is really comfy," he said flatly.
Berry fired glass shards at him—but they simply bounced off.
"What’s going on here? I thought I killed you!" Berry leaped from his throne, his voice hoarse.
"Well, that’s true..."
Revet appeared beside him.
"What’s this...? I can’t sense his presence... I can’t sense anything from him," Berry thought inwardly, stepping back.
His survival instincts screamed one word—
RUN.
"What’s this feeling...? Is this fear?"
Berry held down his trembling hand.
"But I came back from the dead to kill you."
Revet said coldly, pointing a finger at him.
Just like that—
Berry’s arm blew off.
"Huh?!"