Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, Vol. 7

by Tappei Nagatsuki

  “It hurts not to have Wilhelm and Ricardo, but I’m not asking the impossible. We’ve gotta win this without them.”

  “So we must kill three White Whales. It is easy to say but a high wall.”

  “We don’t need to kill three—killing one should be enough.”

  With a twitch, Crusch raised an eyebrow at Subaru’s words.

  Subaru returned her look of deep interest with a nod and pointed at the demon beast in the sky above.

  “Whaddaya think that bastard’s doing, making its two offshoots fight every which way while it watches from high up there?”

  “Perhaps it is refraining while it heals its wounds…?”

  Subaru shook his head at Rem’s unconfident reply.

  From what Subaru could see, demon beasts were not so different from other creatures. At the very least, the White Whale didn’t seem to possess any kind of off-the-charts self-regeneration ability.

  If that was so, the role of the White Whale high in the sky was—

  “That is the main body, then?”

  “That’s how I’m seein’ it.”

  Subaru nodded, concurring with Crusch, arriving at the same conclusion as he.

  Put plainly, it was all no more than a guess. But it was pretty certain that the White Whale high in the sky was the original out of the three. And when considering how to defeat the additional White Whales, the fact that it was playing a waiting game was beyond all dispute.

  “I think the fact that it doesn’t come down and help either of its buddies can only mean one thing—that it can’t let itself get taken down.”

  “The reasoning matches up. However, put differently…”

  “It might mean that killing the bottom two might not even hurt the main body.”

  Even if they defeated one at great pains, there was no guarantee the corpse would not simply be replaced by a new version. If that was so, the battle would plunge into an infinite loop with no end in sight. As a result, in contrast to the White Whale, playing with infinite continuations, he could see them crying uncle soon enough.

  Hetaro, quietly observing, posed a very realistic question.

  “So the reason it does not descend is linked to how to defeat it. But what should we do, then? We don’t have any way to fly that high and attack it.”

  The little cat’s question made Crusch shift her sharp, amber gaze to the White Whale overhead as she said, “Even using my blessing, my blade cannot attack at that range with appreciable force. I might be able to strike it, but the White Whale shall not fall from that.”

  The White Whale had fled to the upper sky, reaching an altitude roughly equal to the clouds. It was as if the White Whale was displaying its nastiness by occupying a position higher than when it had first appeared.

  At that range, even the accuracy of magic crystal cannons would surely take a heavy hit.

  “Rem, could you, say, float a mountain of ice right up close to the bastard…?”

  “I am sorry. Mana is more difficult to control the farther away it is. I think it would be possible for Master Roswaal, but my skill is…”

  Rem appeared chagrined, feeling the limits of her own power with a plan to break the deadlock before their eyes.

  Subaru gave her reply a wave of the hand to say, It can’t be helped, and looked up to the sky.

  —He’d thought up a plan.

  Given Crusch’s reply, Hetaro and Mimi’s reply, and Rem’s reply, the best plan was out, leaving the next best, one he hadn’t wanted to use.

  “I have a plan, but it depends a lot on rolling the dice… Wanna give it a shot?”

  Closing one eye, Subaru checked how far the girls were willing to go before revealing that next-best plan. But one might even call it a rude thing to ask.

  The very fact that they stood in that place meant they would not shirk from any gamble…

  …for they were a pack of great fools—a fact of which Subaru was well aware.

  5

  —From far in the sky above, the White Whale quietly watched the conflict below.

  The battlefield was neatly divided into two halves, right and left, by the tree at the center that seemed to pierce the sky.

  On both sides, little humans were clinging to the demon beasts’ enormous frames, stabbing with the steel they gripped in their hands, brandishing stones that created light, defying the beasts in a superficial manner.

  As flames rose up and the demon beasts’ anguished cries reached it from below, the White Whale swam through the sky, spewing mist.

  The mist it poured onto the plains was the ally of the offshoots beneath its gaze, steadily but surely whittling down the diminutive foe.

  The figures scurried around, but as time passed, their numbers dwindled; one here, one there, swallowed by the mist, their existence erased from that world.

  Everything would be swallowed up, and the end of that fruitless battle would not be long in coming. It was only a matter of time before the opposing fighting force began to develop fatal cracks and collapse.

  If the White Whale possessed human intellect, it would surely have thought this, certain of its own victory. But in fact, the White Whale possessed no such thing.

  The White Whale was simply following instinct, acting to destroy the opponent so as to preserve itself. There was no use asking a beast’s instincts why it delivered such a judgment.

  In accordance with its instincts, the White Whale calmly, purposefully set about toying with and killing its prey.

  “—!!”

  It spewed mist, progressively dyeing the surface white.

  Though pests had interrupted it, the White Whale’s mission was to cover the world in mist. This, too, was the command of its instinct, and doing so was the purpose of the White Whale’s existence.

  Thus, the White Whale’s mind pulled away from the spectacle below when suddenly, its enormous eye shifted about, its mind reorienting toward the earth once more.

  Having detected mana gathering with enormous force, it looked at the flow with its naked eye.

  “Al Hyuma.”

  A blue-haired girl was standing in the center of the vast vortex of mana.

  Over time, the mana swirled around her legs, building up as the girl gave it direction, gently constructing a very long lance of ice with a sharp tip protruding from it.

  The vile frozen weapon was in the thirty-foot range, and its sharp spear tip was aimed at the center of the White Whale.

  Even from a distance, its might appeared menacing, but the White Whale noticing it before she fired it was fatal.

  “—Please!”

  The girl shouted a prayer as the icy spear launched from the ground toward the sky.

  Of course, its target was dead center in the torso of the swimming White Whale. The icy bloodlust accelerated rapidly with force sufficient to break through the sky—but the time it took to achieve that acceleration, and being seen at the moment of its launch, meant the plan had failed, its objective unfulfilled.

  The White Whale waved its tail, swimming through the sky by slicing the wind. That alone threw off the icy spear’s aim. The pathetic spear of ice sailed wide of the mark, passing by the White Whale’s flank on its way to the distant sky—

  “……?”

  The instant the icy spear passed by, the very gentle sound of something shattering reached the White Whale’s hearing. Taking into account the vast disparity in mass between the two, that was little short of a miracle.

  That devil-wrought heavenly miracle told the White Whale that it was the sound of an irreparable mistake.

  “—Heya. I’ve gotta say, it feels real icky seein’ you up close like this.”

  An exceedingly light sensation mounted the White Whale’s nose.

  At the same time it realized that a being had landed atop its brow, the icy spear, supposedly flying past, vanished without a trace, and the White Whale caught a scent of the wave of scattering mana.

  —And next, he discovered the source of the unbeara
bly foul odor was right on top of it.

  “You’re coming with me. Gotta warn you, I’m a man considered too annoying to ignore.”

  A wicked smile came over the source of the foul odor as the White Whale listened to his words.

  6

  To summarize Subaru’s wild scheme, he’d ride an ice spear from Rem’s magic up into the sky, whereupon he would break a mana repulsion crystal to get off it—and climb aboard the White Whale.

  Of course, Rem fiercely objected, but he got his way with repeated cries of “I trust you, Rem!” wearing Crusch and the others down by insisting it was not reckless, procuring a mana repulsion crystal from them in the process.

  They’d anticipated that the White Whale would evade obvious great magic, and it was therein that Subaru laid his trap. To the contrary, had the White Whale not evaded, it was possible the icy spear, with Subaru clinging to the end, might have hit squarely and smashed to pieces. In one sense, it was the greatest danger to befall his life in that battle.

  “But if I’m gonna say that, I’m in a pretty big pickle now—this is really scary!”

  Desperately clinging to the tip of the White Whale’s nose, Subaru got a good feel of its rough hide and body hair on his palms while his face grimaced from the wind in the upper sky and the raw scent of the mighty creature.

  The clinging Subaru—in other words, the concentrated scent of the Witch—brought an about-face in the state of the White Whale. From its posture of solemn observation, the demon beast had clearly fallen into an agitated state, with mist, drool, and loud laughter flowing out of the entirety of its mouth, giving the rude Subaru a hearty welcome.

  “—Okie.”

  Accepting the White Whale’s unhappy greeting, Subaru took a deep breath and calmed his heart.

  Of course, Subaru did not have any special attack with which to send the White Whale crashing to earth. He wasn’t naive enough to think that a bit of enlightenment and resolve were enough to bring that about, and even if he smacked it with Shamak at great cost to his body, he’d probably slip like a brain-dead idiot, falling to his death—so that was out.

  So Subaru was clinging to the White Whale for one thing.

  “Well, let’s give this a try—hardened resolve an’ all.”

  Before the White Whale shifted to action, Subaru let go and slid down the body’s stony hide—entering a free-fall course. He hadn’t slipped like a brain-dead idiot, but he’d begun falling to the ground nonetheless.

  The White Whale shifted its head toward the sight of Subaru committing a spectacular act of suicide, making a slight movement of its body to pursue, but then, it stopped, as if something had made it hesitate.

  If it just watched Subaru go, its advantage from air supremacy would remain unshaken. The White Whale instinctively understood this, halting, as if it was resisting the lure of the scent.

  I see, stubborn instincts. Well, that’s inconvenient.

  Accordingly, he played his trump card.

  “At this height, there’s no worry about anyone else hearing. Listen up! Big freebie here. Thanks to you, Rem died and I went through huge trauma, you bastard!!”

  The instant he said it, Subaru’s flesh, buffeted by the gale, was disconnected from the world. All the senses of his body grew distant, and his mind, ruled to that point by the feeling that his internal organs were floating upward, lost track of reality. He was invited to a place where the notion of time did not exist.

  The next moment—

  “I love you.”

  He felt like someone had whispered in his ear.

  An instant later—ferocious pain shot through Subaru’s entire body, as if a thunderbolt were turning him to ash.

  From a place he could not see, the hands had invaded from the back side to grab his heart, wringing it roughly, but with care, as if checking to make sure it was still there.

  He truly felt the organ that governed his life being treated roughly, the foreign sensation of having someone else freely manipulate such a vital part.

  At the end of the world, not even allowed to let out a scream, the sounds of the wind and his own scream told him that…

  “I’m…baaaack!!”

  “!!”

  Before Subaru’s eyes, the White Whale’s huge mouth was open as it ferociously plunged after him.

  His confession of the taboo had increased the scent of the Witch, and the increased hatred had overridden the demon beast’s instincts.

  It let out a roar, its eye losing all sanity, seemingly forgetting about the conflict below as the White Whale came rushing, seeking to erase Subaru’s existence alone.

  Shrouded by a whirlwind, the White Whale rapidly closed the distance between them, making Subaru afraid. In that situation, unable to do anything but free fall, Subaru had no way to evade the charge. At that rate, before ever reaching the ground, the White Whale would catch him, and he’d hurdle toward BAD END 11: “Whale Food.”

  At that rate, anyway.

  “—Rem!!”

  “Yes, Subaru!”

  Subaru’s shouting voice seemed to die on the wind, but she replied loud and clear.

  Simultaneously, with the White Whale focused exclusively on Subaru, a flying spear of ice flew in right from the side and collided—intruding upon its open mouth, breaking a number of its yellow teeth, and dulling its movements.

  Seizing the opportunity, Rem, on Patlash’s back, wrapped her morning star around Subaru’s free-falling body.

  The chain wrapped around his hips, forcibly twisting him off his crash course and sending his innards to one side. “Gwah!” was the cry Subaru raised as he remembered tasting the same impact once before.

  It was the second time Rem had saved his falling body in that fashion. The first time was when Subaru’s feet had slipped from the dragon carriage on their way to the royal capital.

  “I guess you can get used to anything…”

  After all, this time he had managed to avoid fainting.

  Manipulated by the chain, Subaru’s body fell somewhat roughly onto Patlash’s back. With Rem spreading her arms wide to receive him, Subaru ended up flying into her bosom.

  With a soft impact, Subaru’s head was buried in a warm sensation as he exhaled.

  “I’m saved!”

  “You are getting a treat.”

  “What are you saying?!”

  Subaru’s cheeks reddened, and he hurriedly lifted his face from the embrace of Rem’s breasts.

  Right beside them, the face of the White Whale moved past—

  “—!!”

  The White Whale had crashed into the ground headfirst, its momentum undiminished. With a great roar, the surface of the ground exploded in a cloud of dirt, the force making the earth shudder.

  As they became enveloped in a gust like a blast of wind, Subaru directed Patlash to sprint full force—and behind them, the White Whale was taking flight, bursting out of the dirt cloud.

  The incredible force had messed up its head, and on top of that, the White Whale forgot itself, raising a scream as it bore down on Subaru.

  In its tremendous excitement, he saw not even the slightest trace of when it leisurely swam in the sky. Its swimming had grown choppy, and its speed, outstripping the wind, was a good match for Patlash.

  But in raw vigor, it was overwhelming.

  The earth split, and as its tail slapped the earth, the White Whale ferociously chased them from behind.

  Subaru put all his weight forward, entrusting his life to Patlash’s reserves of strength. This was the land dragon that had earnestly and desperately exhausted all efforts for Subaru so far. Though it had been a short time, Subaru held enough faith to put his life on its shoulders.

  “I’m counting on you, Patlash! You’re a dragon, right?! Show me how cool you are!”

  “—!”

  Patlash neighed, and it felt like the speed went up a notch.

  The roar of the White Whale resounded, and from the violent shaking of his eardrums and the world goi
ng blurry, he knew.

  Straight ahead. Straight ahead. We just need to run and go right past it.

  The White Whale swam, ferociously chasing down Subaru to devour him whole.

  And then—

  “Take this, damn it—!!”

  “!!”

  A second roar reverberated, and right after, there was a series of sounds like something was being ripped apart.

  The intervals between the flagrant sounds narrowed, drew closer, and finally, a mighty shadow was born, making a very heavy sound as it—the Great Flugel Tree—fell straight toward the White Whale.

  “!!!”

  Magic crystal cannons, invisible blades, roaring attacks—destructive forces piled one on top of another had gouged out the roots of the Great Tree, which had grown over the course of four centuries and had been planted by a sage. As it came down, it crushed the enormous body of the demon beast flat.

  The great weight of the tree jutting to the heavens crashed straight into the White Whale, pressing into it from above. Against an attack that was in a different dimension compared to everything that came before it, even the defense from White Whale’s tough outer hide was rendered meaningless.

  A scream and an incredible shock wave ran across the Liphas plains, with the blast blowing the mist away.

  Crushed under the Great Tree, the immobilized White Whale shrieked in anguish, curling its tail. And yet, its vital energy was such that its body had sustained a blow so great, but its life had not been extinguished.

  The White Whale writhed, trying to escape from the super-heavy mass, when at the tip of its nose—

  “—I dedicate this to my wife, Theresia van Astrea.”

  Raising above his head the treasured sword he had borrowed from his master, a lone Sword Devil swooped down—to lower the curtain on that ferocious battle upon which hung life or death, vindictiveness spanning fourteen years, and a history of conflict between man and the White Whale spanning four hundred.