The ice collided with its stone skin, audibly shattering. However, just before the shattered pillars completely spread apart, the force of their stabs broke through the defense of the White Whale’s thick hide—scattering its blood all over the plains.
The scream of the White Whale resounded across the plains. Even as the air shuddered enough to make one’s eardrums go numb, the pitch-black land dragon Subaru and Rem rode advanced without fear.
—Subaru and Rem had not acted rashly.
The instant the White Whale emerged, a momentary lull occurred within the expeditionary force. Had they not acted during that time, the preemptive attack would have probably failed.
That pause was a watershed moment. And knowing that such momentary hesitation was a matter of life-and-death, even someone of such remarkable character as Crusch had her breath caught before the menace of the White Whale.
Even if she had been halfway confident the White Whale would appear, seeing the real thing created a ripple in the human heart. That ripple could create even tiny distortions in one’s thought process, and distortion led to stagnation, and stagnation invited defeat.
If it had been so, the battle might have begun with their side at a disadvantage.
—If there was a difference between Subaru and Crusch that moment, he had to call it…love.
Crusch’s split-second delay had been born from her inability to have absolute trust in Subaru and his metia. Even if her mind believed him, it could not force a statesman of her caliber to forget her misgivings.
But Rem had not even the tiniest smidgeon of doubt that the White Whale would appear the very instant Subaru said it would. Accordingly, Rem had prepared magic with the greatest firepower that she could muster, waiting for the moment Subaru had indicated, and slammed an attack into the White Whale the very moment it appeared.
If he could not call that Rem’s love winning out, what could he call it?
“But that analysis is super-embarrassing—!!”
“Subaru, please hold on to me more diligently. You’ll be thrown off!”
In contrast to Subaru, assessing his own starting of hostilities, Rem shouted as she gripped the land dragon’s reins. She announced that they were shifting from phase one of the operation—the preemptive strike—to phase two.
“Everyone—follow that pair of fools!!”
A half second later, as Subaru and Rem galloped like the wind, the expeditionary force behind them obeyed Crusch’s order, loading one cannon after another—or rather, stuffing things like cannons with magic crystals, with the magic crystal cannons firing them like cannonballs.
With a roar, that fusillade landed, its destructive power violating the White Whale’s flesh.
The instant they hit squarely, the magic crystals embedding into it transformed into the magical power of their corresponding mana, be it fire, ice, or light, widening the wound Rem had created, causing soot-black blood to pour down onto the highway.
Amid the drizzle of blood, Subaru and Rem’s land dragon employed agile movements to circle around to the White Whale’s rear. The movement was just as arranged.
“I’ll get the White Whale’s attention, making it turn so that its back is to the expeditionary force…!”
“The sky! They are using Night Repel! Please close your eyes!”
Rem took in the state of the battle, looking up and gazing at the horn on the White Whale’s brow as she shouted. Subaru hurried to follow her instructions, lowering his face and closing his eyes—and the next moment, the world became bright.
A white light exploded in the sky above, and that white glow instantly burned the night away. The light was so powerful that it permeated Subaru’s optic nerves through his closed eyes, making his throat catch in surprise.
“Whoaaa! It’s just as incredible as you said!”
All trace of night had completely vanished from the Liphas Highway. Whatever had happened during those several seconds, the worlds of night and day had swapped places, and a light as bright as midday shone onto the plains.
Above their heads, separate from the attacks on the White Whale, a special magical stone with an effect called Night Repel had been launched to shine in place of the purportedly sunken sun. Normally, it was simply a collection of light proportional to the mana infused into it, unable to shine with much more than a dull light, but…
“So when you abuse assets to put a mountain of ’em together, you’ve got a mini-sun on your hands?”
“It is difficult to track the White Whale in a dark sky, after all— Now, it has only just begun!”
Putting together two of the top merchants, even by the royal capital’s standards, and having them run around gathering magic stones was playing to their strengths.
The effective range was the area around the Great Tree, and the time limit was a bit under an hour—more than enough time to end the decisive battle.
Having lost the twilight over the plains, the huge body was distinct as it floated overhead. That was—
“That’s…!”
To that point, he had not been able to clearly make out the White Whale even once, but now, it was exposed under the light of day.
“!!”
The White Whale’s enormous frame shuddered as it bellowed, seemingly enraged at having been dragged out of the night sky.
The roar it unleashed surpassed the level of noise, closer to an act of raw destruction. The atmosphere rumbled, frightening even the trained land dragons, causing them to roar violently.
Though it appeared to be bleeding from its entire body, its swimming showed no effects from the wounds. The White Whale’s head traversed the sky over the plains, calmly gazing down at the puny humans daring to challenge it.
“What…size…?”
Subaru’s voice shook as it trickled out, unable to stop the feeling that his limbs were going numb, unable to move.
To that point, Subaru had seen, brushed against, and come to hate the menace of the White Whale, but faced with the full sight of it, he understood for the first time that he had seen only a fraction of the being.
The White Whale: Just as its name suggested, the demon beast’s figure was covered all in white. Countless body hairs sprouted from hide that resembled finely chiseled bedrock. The pectoral fins extended from the underbelly like grim reapers’ scythes, with the smaller dorsal and caudal fins shaped similarly.
Setting aside the disparity in savagery, the shape of the White Whale very much resembled that of the whales Subaru knew—but its size betrayed his expectations twice over.
As far as Subaru knew, the blue whale, the world’s largest whale, was almost one hundred feet long, give or take, making it literally the largest mammal on Earth. However, the enormous body of the whale he saw in the distance easily surpassed one hundred feet, probably large enough to be close to one hundred sixty-five. Its giant frame was closer to a mountain than a living creature.
By some cosmic joke, a white mountain was leisurely swimming in the sky above.
“Subaru.”
With Subaru trembling even then, unable to align his teeth as he bit down, a voice called out to him. It was the voice of Rem, her back facing him as Subaru clung to the hips of her small figure. She was already right in front of him, close enough for him to hear her breathe, so she didn’t look back at Subaru when she asked the question.
“Are you scared?”
It was not a taunt but a call for trust.
Firmly, Subaru clenched his teeth and twisted his mouth as he answered.
“Yeah, I’m scared—of my shining future, and the praise I’ll get for bringing that thing down!”
Subaru met Rem’s expectations by cracking a joke, patting her shoulder from behind.
“I’m putting my whole life in your hands! Now, let’s make a run for it!”
“My life is yours as well, Subaru—now then, let’s go.”
When Subaru, his resolve hardened, declared they would run away in manly fashion, Rem softly made
a little smile as she sternly cracked the reins. The pitch-black land dragon neighed, running across the ground, undaunted by even the fantastical White Whale.
The White Whale turned toward them as they galloped low and to the right of it, aiming to circle around to its tail. They dashed away from the expeditionary force, and the White Whale’s giant eyes turned toward Subaru and Rem as they approached. The maw that could swallow a large dragon carriage whole opened wide, poising its mouth, lined with millstone-like teeth, for a roar.
Subaru, sensing baptism by destructive sound, braced himself against the land dragon he was riding.
And above their heads—
“To turn away, you must have greatly underestimated me—!!”
A moment after the valiant heroine’s voice, the White Whale’s head was shallowly cut by a single, horizontal slice. The invisible slash, grazing the solid, stone-like hide, drew blood from the White Whale’s enormous frame once more.
When Subaru looked back toward the source of the attack, he saw a white land dragon running after him at the front of the vanguard—and Crusch, standing tall, with her arm out after following through the swing. But in her hand…
“She’s not holding anything…?!”
“A formless sword that ignores range—Lady Crusch’s famous swordsmanship is able to fell a hundred men in a single blow.”
Rem replied in a low voice as Subaru gawked.
The anecdote Rem spoke concerning Crusch was news to Subaru, but the display was equal to the words. Though she appeared unarmed, such a statement was fitting for Crusch’s skill and combat strength.
The invisible slash stopped the White Whale’s initial response; with its movement halted, more attacks followed. The magic crystal cannons went to work once more, concentrating firepower on the White Whale and landing hit after hit, causing its altitude in the sky to drop as the damage and agony to the demon beast piled up.
The White Whale was at the same height as a cloud, but so long as its head was not pointed straight up, it was—
“Within…blade distance.”
A single land dragon ran across the ground and leaped, displaying agility that clashed with its large frame as it launched into the air.
Even so, compared with the White Whale, it had little size to boast. The land dragon soaring before its nose must have seemed little more than a fly to the White Whale.
—The vertical sword flash running straight ahead cut deeply up the White Whale’s nose.
The sight of the flash of metal rending the white, stony hide with such ease made the sound of cannons, echoing across the battlefield, vanish.
This was no spell, no magic crystal cannon, nor even the slash of an invisible blade, but human training, proof that steel swung by man could reach even the demon beast.
Proof that human willpower, expended over the course of many years, had indeed reached the Demon Beast of Mist.
“—Fourteen years.”
The figure crouched as he thrust a sword into the split tip of its nose.
He maintained his posture, poising the cutting blade as the other sword thrust deep, and he waved off the demon beast’s blood from his blade. Behind him, the hostility he gave off was enough to warp the very air.
“For all that time, I dreamed only of this day.”
As the figure straightened his back, the White Whale twisted its body, trying to fling off the figure that had embarked upon the tip of its head. The White Whale let out a groan as it barrel-rolled in midair.
But…
“—!!”
The White Whale arched as it screamed in pain, its tail dancing wildly in the sky.
A single, horizontal cut was added to the vertical one from before, carving a cross-shaped wound into the White Whale’s brow; the figure stomped on the White Whale’s back with a light sound of his foot.
Malevolent laughter came over the Sword Devil as bloodlust glimmered in his blue eyes.
“Here you shall fall, and your corpse shall rot—filthy monster!”
Spitting those words out, Wilhelm poised his swords in both hands as his body became the wind.
He ran across the back of the White Whale from its head to its tail, slashing the demon beast’s stone hide left and right with the blades in both hands. As he rent the purportedly hard, resistant hide with ease, sprinting as soot-black blood smeared the sky, he truly looked like a Sword Devil.
With Wilhelm clinging to the White Whale’s body, it had no good method of shaking him off. Unable to dislodge the aged swordsman, even as it moved to somersault in midair with the force of a whirlwind, he proclaimed:
“Good of you to help me slice you more!”
A moment before the White Whale turned its body, Wilhelm made a short leap and stabbed his sword right under him. When the White Whale whirled its body, the thrust blade created a vivid slash down it, using the White Whale’s own body in service of the blade.
Amid a scream and a mist of blood that mottled his own torso, the Sword Devil laughed. Laughing, his old bones continued swinging both swords as he headed for the giant frame’s flank. With a swing, his blades carved a V shape into the flesh, leaving a reddish-black laceration behind.
A bellow tore through the sky as the White Whale aimed to slap the falling Sword Devil with its tail. But a moment before the tail was to strike him, a leaping land dragon snatched Wilhelm’s body away. He had slipped away from the menace of certain death.
Upon landing, the land dragon instantly broke into a run. The White Whale gave into anger and chased after the elusive Sword Devil.
“Hey, don’t look away, moron! Yer facin’ the lot of us, too!!”
The single swing of the huge cleaver struck the White Whale squarely on the jaw with enough force to knock out several of the White Whale’s enormous teeth, making a dull sound as yellow molars were sent flying.
It was Ricardo, riding a liger, who bellowed as they galloped onto the White Whale’s face at an angle. Just as he’d said, the ferocious dog had greater agility than a land dragon, and it was using that nimbleness to the fullest extent, master in tow, traversing the White Whale as its body rose into the sky.
“Hey now, we ain’t done with you yet!!”
Atop the sprinting liger, Ricardo gave a cry more bestial than a beast’s as he swung the massive cleaver. The outer hide shattered and flesh was gouged, all in a single charge. And following after Ricardo…
“All riiiight, let’s goooo!”
“Big Sis, you are too far out in front! Everyone, now!”
The lieutenant twins, both on the backs of small ligers, split apart, issuing commands to the mercenary band behind them. With ferocious leaps, a pack of ligers grappled onto the White Whale and began to run rampant with its giant body as their foothold. They swung sword and spear, inflicting damage to the White Whale like a swarm of wasps.
Save for making its enormous frame dance, the White Whale had no countermeasure for shaking off the interlopers clinging to it. Its very size made small movements difficult, a weakness that was being exposed. Furthermore, at that point—
“All hands, move away!!”
When Crusch’s order cracked across the field of battle, the Iron Fangs clinging to the White Whale leaped off its body as one. All the ligers landed agilely, and the White Whale, now freed of them, made a large turn, believing it was finally time to counterattack—but it was mistaken in that judgment.
“So you’ve exposed your flank—!”
Crusch’s second attack struck far overhead, her diagonal slash running along the White Whale’s side at an angle, and that stroke of her sword was the prelude to yet a third attack—this time, from the magic squad, which had not attacked until that moment, devoting themselves solely to concentrating on chanting.
“—Al Goa!!”
From the compounded chants from multiple squad members came a red-hot aurora. In that world, with both a sun and a moon floating in the sky, a new, second sun was born, low in the sky and clad in incan
descent flames.
Even knowing that it was the power of fire magic bundled together, Subaru could not turn his eyes away, gawking at the conflagration scorching the world before him. The waves of heat given off by the huge fireball, over thirty feet in diameter, could burn the skin even at a distance well removed, burning with enough heat to rob the moisture of his eyes, even with his eyelids protecting them.
That great fireball wavered, then it gained velocity.
“Uoooo!”
Velocity gave way to acceleration, and acceleration, to high speed. The fireball headed for the White Whale’s side, then slammed it right in the belly. Through its accumulated wounds, the fire burned inside its body, and the White Whale screamed while its internal organs boiled.
Mercenaries hurriedly evacuated so as not to be caught up in the fragments of flame scattering over the plains. Subaru and Rem took part in that evacuation, even as their eyes continued to track the burning White Whale.
That overwhelming, even one-sided, circumstance meant nothing less than that the surprise attack had borne fruit. At that rate, might not the demon beast be subjugated without it being able to do a thing?
“Feels like that hit it pretty hard! Maybe it’ll all go like this?!”
At a distance beyond the flames’ reach, Subaru watched the White Whale from the back of the land dragon, shaking a closed fist.
Until that point, they’d completely overwhelmed the White Whale, surely inflicting no small amount of damage. With the failure of the Great Expedition fourteen years prior as precedent, he’d been on his guard, but this put him into an easy-win mood. It had bitten on the prearranged plan hook, line, and sinker, making him feel exhilarated that a quick victory was just before his eyes.
However, with regret, Rem shook her head at Subaru’s optimistic viewpoint, glaring up at the flame-engulfed demon beast.
“No—were that the case, the surprise attack would have caused it to crash to the ground.”
Her words made Subaru’s eyes go wide. He turned his eyes to the White Whale, wondering what she meant.
Even then, half of the demon beast’s body was being burned by the great magic, with no sense that the flames, spreading over its body hair, were dying out. The magic crystal cannons’ direct attacks had inflicted many wounds, and the sight of blood trickling from them was downright painful.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 7 Page 9
