Chapter 97: Battle! White Whale! (Patreon)

"Subaru! Get back!"

Crusch's cry was torn apart the instant it left her, shredded by the savage wind pressure.

In Natsuki Subaru's vision, the White Whale's mountainous bulk was swelling at terrifying speed. That abyssal maw, big enough to swallow anything, was right in front of him. He could even see the dark-red buds of flesh squirming slowly inside its mouth.

And the smell was nowhere near pleasant, either…

The sight would have turned any normal person's legs to jelly. Subaru's face showed no fear at all. He only drew a deep breath and let the threat set the blood in his veins boiling.

"Lend me your shape to put on a show! Mad dragon!"

Subaru patted Patrasche beneath him and leaped off her back. The tail of his coat flared out in midair, and in that instant a scalding black-red mist erupted from his body like a volcano, wrapping him completely.

The mist swelled and reformed, and a roar that could shatter souls exploded across the sky. The black fog was ripped to pieces by the violent force of a pair of huge wings, and a jet-black dragon nearly a hundred meters long emerged from within.

Its obsidian scales gleamed with a clear luster in the gloom of the gathered storm clouds, and a magma-red glow seeped faintly from the gaps between them. Its body matched the White Whale's in size. Its canopy-wide wings spread slowly, the flame patterns on the membranes blazing brilliantly.

Atop its head, sharp horns curved back from the crown like two black scimitars piercing the heavens. Its golden slit pupils burned like twin balls of gold-red flame, and in their depths destruction and fury churned together. No one dared meet that gaze.

"That is…?!"

Crusch's pupils contracted. She could hardly believe her eyes.

"That is the strongest power within Subaru, Lord Crusch. It's also the curse he carries."

Reinhard brought his land dragon alongside Crusch and looked up at the great dragon in the sky, his expression grave.

"Either way, it's proof that he's giving this everything he has."

Heh heh, so we're finally using our true power, hm?

"Don't get the wrong idea. I just thought your look wasn't bad, so I'm using it to boost morale."

Subaru shot the retort back at Deathwing, who was still speaking in that girl's voice. Facing the White Whale as it dove at him, he raised a forepaw and smashed it down on the creature's head.

Tsk. What a dishonest man.

"Okay, shut up!"

With a thunderous crash, the White Whale let out a shrill scream. Against the Black Dragon King's unrivaled strength, its colossal body was as fragile as a goldfish scooped from a pond. One swat sent it flying, and it plummeted onto the plain like a gigantic meteor.

The earth shook violently, and dirt and rubble sprayed across the sky. The great dragon threw back its head and roared, spewing a blazing breath straight into the heavens. It scattered the sun-blotting clouds in an instant and let the light of the morning sun return to the land.

Then the dragon's body shrank rapidly, dissolving into a wisp of black mist. It became Subaru again and landed lightly on the back of Patrasche, who had come racing up beneath him.

A strange silence fell over the battlefield.

The elite soldiers of House Karsten and the seasoned veterans of a hundred battles all stood rooted to the spot, dumbstruck. Honestly, a human-to-dragon magic trick was just far too much for anyone to process.

Then someone, no one knew who, broke the silence with a jarring cry. A soldier stepped out of the ranks and dropped to his knees, shouting in a voice full of reverence and fear:

"The Divine Dragon… Lord Divine Dragon Volcanica has descended!"

"Lord Divine Dragon! Lord Divine Dragon has come to save us!!"

"Lord Divine Dragon never abandoned us after all!"

At his shout, many of the soldiers around him joined in, their faces full of awe. After all, in Lugnican legend, only the Divine Dragon who had made a contract with the kingdom possessed power this terrifying and this sacred.

For Crusch, this was absolutely unacceptable.

"Stand up! All of you, stand up!!"

Crusch barked the order and drew the sword at her waist. She rode her land dragon to the very front of the ranks, her long green hair streaming in the wind, and in her emerald eyes burned a fire and resolve unlike anything before.

"Open your eyes and look properly! That is not the Divine Dragon Volcanica! It is not some empty legend!!"

"That is Natsuki Subaru! A mortal boy of flesh and blood, just like us, who bleeds and gets hurt!!"

As she spoke, she exchanged a glance with Reinhard beside her. When he gave a nod in return, she raised her blade high over her head and called out:

"We have no need of a Divine Dragon's charity! Sword Saint Reinhard van Astrea fights shoulder to shoulder with us, and neither he nor his dear friend relies on a Divine Dragon's alms, or waits for fate to take pity on them! They stand here on their own strength!"

Her voice rose higher and higher:

"If a mortal boy can have the courage and strength to face calamity head-on, then what right do we, who call ourselves the kingdom's elite, have to kneel here and pray to some empty deity?!"

"Grip your weapons! Follow the boy who charges at the front! Today we need no protection from a Divine Dragon. With our own hands, we will end this four-hundred-year nightmare for good!!"

"All forces, charge!!"

As Crusch's command rang out, the battlefield fell silent for a brief moment, then erupted into a deafening, earth-shaking roar.

"Ooooohhh!!"

The soldiers thrust their weapons overhead, faces flushed, bellowing wildly. They surged forward in great strides, an unstoppable torrent of steel, and charged at the White Whale in the crater.

"Heh… That Crusch really knows how to stir a crowd."

Subaru rubbed his nose, a little helplessly, though he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from curling upward.

He could feel it. After Crusch's speech, the whole expedition's morale had reached a peak it had never known.

That had been his aim from the start. Against an epic beast like this, they couldn't afford to lose the momentum in the opening.

But Deathwing seemed to have other opinions.

Oh, my dear host, why not hold the dragon form a little longer?

Wouldn't showing these mortals more of our might kill two birds with one stone? Look at how they knelt just now. How delightful.

That sweet girl's voice drifted through Subaru's mind, brimming with smug satisfaction, as if to say "this is how it should be."

"Sorry, I'm not into making people kneel to me."

One day you'll get hooked on the feeling of being a ruler. Hee hee hee…

Hearing that wicked dragon giggle like silver bells inside his head, Subaru shivered. As far as he was concerned, nothing was creepier than this.

Had that mad dragon gotten addicted to playing a little girl?

He had to admit, when it came to mental contamination, Deathwing had succeeded. At the very least, Subaru was now truly afraid of how far she would go.

"Forget it… Let's move too, Patrasche!"

He shook his head with a wry smile and tugged the reins. The black land dragon carrying him let out a high, ringing cry and charged toward the center of the battlefield once more.

Meanwhile, the White Whale, which Deathwing had slapped into the ground with one claw, finally struggled back up into the air. It belched out a thick mist that spread toward the expedition forces around it.

"Father, Grandfather, please let me clear the path for you!"

Reinhard's voice was clear and steady. He leaped from his land dragon's back, his Wind Evasion Divine Protection manifesting around him. A powerful current of air wrapped about him and sent him racing to the front of the ranks.

At his waist, the Dragon Sword Reid shimmered with golden light, a sign that it acknowledged the Mabeast before them as a worthy foe.

Fifteen years ago, his grandmother had lost the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint and never got to draw the Dragon Sword against the White Whale. He would atone for that regret himself!

"Dragon Sword, unsheathe!"

Reinhard gripped the hilt of the Dragon Sword with both hands. In a dazzling light like a supernova, the blade of the Dragon Sword Reid slowly slid free of its scabbard.

Then he swung!

The mana in the air was forced together, becoming part of an unstoppable golden sword strike. It effortlessly swept away every wisp of the mist the White Whale had released and left a gash on its huge body, deep enough to show bone.

The White Whale writhed in pain and crashed back down into the crater. Before the roar of its landing had faded, an aged figure on a red land dragon galloped up to it.

"Fifteen years! I've been waiting for this moment all that time!"

"Hey, old man, don't forget about me!"

Heinkel gave a hoarse laugh and rode hard on the old man's heels. Wilhelm didn't look back, but the flicker in his eyes made it plain that the old man's heart was far from calm.

"The tragedy of three generations of us, everything, it's all because of this beast!" A cold fury flashed in Heinkel's eyes. "Let's go together, old man! For Mother, for all of us, we'll get justice!"

"Yes!!"

Wilhelm gave a great shout and vaulted off his galloping land dragon, soaring into the air like a nimble hawk. His weathered face was full of steel-hard resolve.

"I was waiting for you to say that!"

Heinkel knew his footwork couldn't match his monster of an old man, but he pulled hard on his land dragon's reins and urged it faster, letting out a roar charged with a fighting spirit he'd never had before.

"Reinhard! Come with me and the old man! The unfinished work of the previous Sword Saint will be completed by the current one!"

"Understood!"

Reinhard nodded gravely. In that moment, he realized with joyful surprise that nothing remained of the frivolity and decay that had marked his father for fifteen years.

Heinkel glared at the huge Mabeast. In his mind, the grief he'd felt fifteen years ago, when he heard his mother had fallen in battle, turned into an endless fire of vengeance.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!!"

The rage and bitterness he had suppressed for fifteen years became the greatest drive to surpass his limits as an "ordinary man." Roaring and bellowing, he sprang from his land dragon's back and followed his father Wilhelm toward the White Whale in the great crater.

Almost at the same moment, all three generations landed on the White Whale's back. Their perfectly synchronized movements made Subaru, watching from afar, clap and cheer without meaning to.

"Yes! That's how you fight!"

"Theresia… watch me!!"

The moment he landed, Wilhelm drew one of his six swords and drove it deep into the White Whale's thick hide. Roaring, he dragged the blade behind him as he ran the length of its body, leaving a crimson line of blood in his wake.

From its spine all the way to its head he ran. With a furious shout he drew another sword, flourished it in midair, and plunged it down once more, cleanly severing the great artery atop the White Whale's skull. Blood poured out like a rainstorm and drenched him until he looked like a man made of blood.

Not far away, Heinkel had also begun his assault.

He had none of Wilhelm's exaggerated movements and footwork, but he was still a member of the Astrea family, with swordsmanship and combat skill far beyond ordinary men.

And now, driven by the rage of vengeance, that skill had become even deadlier!

"Damn beast! Give me back my mother!!"

Heinkel swung a heavy, powerful blow and cleaved open a wound on the White Whale. He drove the blade into the flesh and twisted hard. The White Whale's huge body convulsed in agony, and its enormous tail slammed toward its back, trying to sweep away the threat there.

"Don't even think about it!"

Reinhard, who had been quietly watching his two elders, finally acted again. He swung the Dragon Sword. Though he had deliberately held back his strength, hoping to leave the honor of slaying the White Whale to his father and grandfather, that offhand slash still carried earth-shaking might and cut the sweeping tail off at the root.

Amid the White Whale's shrill wails, blood fell on the ground like a waterfall. The severed tail crashed down, and the expedition's soldiers cheered.

Seeing the three members of the Astrea family fight so desperately, the soldiers were fired up too. They drove their land dragons toward the White Whale in the pit and left the marks of mortal fury on its body with their own swords.

Looking around at everyone fighting side by side, Reinhard's eyes grew slightly red, and at last a smile of pure happiness spread across his lips.

It had been fifteen years.

Three generations of the Astrea family were finally standing together again, giving everything they had for a common purpose!

For Reinhard, this was without doubt the happiest moment of his life.

But the White Whale had no intention of going down without a fight.

It let out an agonized cry, and the spray vents hidden across its body all opened at once, emitting a deafening, piercing noise. Then it beat its huge flippers violently, trying to force itself into the air.

"Damn, everyone scatter!!"

Heinkel shouted, but before the words were out, thick mist spread rapidly from the vents on the White Whale's body. The instant it touched him, an intense pain surged through his mind, and he clutched his forehead.

"Ugh…!"

Even Wilhelm, whose will was unshakable, frowned deeply. His thoughts fell into chaos from the mist's mental contamination, and cries of agony rose one after another from the people who had climbed onto the White Whale. Taking advantage of the moment, the White Whale finally shook off the small pests on its back and began to drift slowly into the sky.

"You won't escape!"

Wilhelm's eyes blazed wide. He plunged his sword deep into the White Whale's body and gripped the hilt with both hands, refusing to loosen his hold even slightly.

Just then, whether it was an illusion or not, he seemed to see a red-haired girl with a sword leap into the air, trace an elegant arc, and bring her blade down on the White Whale's head.

"Theresia?"

Wilhelm's eyes went wide.

"Have you… been watching me this whole time?"

"Hey, hey! You okay, Old Man Wilhelm?"

But the girl's figure vanished in an instant, fading like a dream bubble. When he came to, the one standing before him was just a black-haired boy in a tattered black coat.

"Stand up!" Subaru held out a hand to him. "In this fight, you're the only protagonist!"

"I understand!"

Wilhelm clasped the hand Subaru offered, forced himself to his feet through the pain in his body, and pulled his sword out of the White Whale.

"It's time to give this monster the final blow!"