Now the dense fog covered the sky again, and three White Whales appeared.
And the White Whale wasn't going to just sit there and let itself be killed—another tremendous impact slammed into the formation.
Crusch's soldiers were instantly knocked sprawling. Shouts and screams erupted everywhere.
"Watch out, Crusch-sama!"
Crusch was swinging her sword, using wind to disperse the fog and save her men, when Felix suddenly cried out.
Crusch's face changed—one enormous White Whale was charging straight at her.
She abandoned her mount and barely dodged, stumbling aside.
"SKREE—!"
The White Whale let out a smug cry. It wasn't the earlier psychic attack, but the situation alone was enough to terrify the troops.
That ambush hadn't killed it. Now the biggest problem was this:
They still had fighting strength—but which one do they hit?
If they picked wrong, they'd waste stamina and get ground down until everyone died.
"Damn beast!"
Crusch swung again—One Blow, One Hundred Felled!
The sword wind cleaved into one White Whale… and did nothing.
A decoy.
"Attack the one watching from the highest point—nineteen o'clock!"
At the critical moment, Hayashi Maki's voice boomed across the battlefield.
He lifted his hand, and a crimson beam of light blasted straight into the sky, striking that White Whale dead-on.
PFFT!
"SKREE—!"
The White Whale shrieked. Bright red blood rained down from above—and with it, the troops' fear broke.
The White Whale wobbled, then crashed to the ground. Hayashi Maki's strike not only broke the stalemate and identified the true body—it also punched through its defenses.
"Thank you, Hayashi Maki-sama!"
Wilhelm roared with laughter, moved with all his strength, and landed on the howling beast.
Swordlight flashed, becoming afterimages.
THK-THK-THK-THK!
Flesh ripped. The White Whale, pinned to the ground, was cut apart by Wilhelm's blade.
And to be clear: Wilhelm's cuts were landing right along the wound Hayashi Maki had opened, which made the kill far easier.
In the end, the White Whale was still "just" a mabeast—a gigantic beast.
So big it was a living target.
And arrogant, too. It thought no one would find the real body, so it floated high above to watch, sending its decoys to fight.
It never even tried to evade.
Another Night-Dispeller was fired into the sky, turning night back into day.
The White Whale's mangled, blood-soaked corpse filled everyone's vision.
Wilhelm's carving damage and Hayashi Maki's crimson blast wound were the most obvious.
"Hayashi Maki-sama… thank you!"
Wilhelm dropped to one knee, took Hayashi Maki's hand, and pressed it to his forehead, tears streaming.
Ever since his wife vanished because of this mabeast, he'd carried grief for over a decade.
He despised his son for lacking talent and ambition.
And his grandson—Reinhard, the current Sword Saint—had never once tried to avenge his grandmother.
So it was only the old man who'd clung to that wish all these years.
Hayashi Maki nodded.
"It was nothing. Congratulations, Wilhelm-san. You finally fulfilled your dream. I'm sure your wife would want you to step out of that shadow and face life again."
Wilhelm nodded hard. "I will try to start again. From now on, if you ever need this old man—anything at all—just say the word!"
Crusch watched all this and didn't overthink it. She smiled and gave Hayashi Maki a small nod.
"So this is your strength… Thanks to you, the White Whale subjugation was a complete success!"
They still lost people, but that couldn't be helped.
And she could frame it as "training."
Some soldiers had lost the will to fight at the worst moment—that was unacceptable. Fear was human, yes, but once you chose to join a subjugation force, you were supposed to fight to the end.
…Honestly, that was partly self-comfort.
Even Crusch herself had been afraid.
Thankfully, Hayashi Maki acted in time, broke the deadlock, and saved her face.
She owed him a huge debt.
After resting, Crusch counted heads and ordered the corpse loaded onto dragon carriages to be hauled back to the royal capital.
Subjugating one of the Three Great Mabeasts had to be publicized. She needed the world to see that Crusch got things done.
This wave of prestige was going to be massive.
Of course, she didn't forget the truth:
The person who created that glory for her was Hayashi Maki.
In this subjugation, Hayashi Maki had contributed the most—the intel, the appearance location, the decisive armor-breaking strike.
Crusch's side was basically support.
Anyone with eyes could tell Hayashi Maki hadn't taken the "finishing glory" only because he wanted Wilhelm to fulfill his long-held wish.
So, in Crusch's eyes (and the others'), Hayashi Maki became someone upright, noble, and high-minded.
Hayashi Maki didn't really care.
To him, the White Whale was just a bigger "animal."
The real fish he wanted to hook was the Witch Cult Archbishop who would come investigate once the White Whale was dead.
Gluttony wasn't that big a deal.
The main threat was Regulus Corneas, the Archbishop of Greed.
That guy's Authority gave him an invincible state.
As long as you didn't find all of his "wives" and make every one of them lose signs of life, he could remain unhurt forever.
Sure, Hayashi Maki could drag him into a 1v1 space and lock him down.
Inside that dueling space, Hayashi Maki could spam abilities freely and also be invincible.
But that wouldn't solve it—only restrain him.
Still, "cannot be harmed" didn't mean "cannot be affected."
Hayashi Maki's old man had said it best: fight magic with magic.
To beat an Authority, you need a higher-grade Authority.
Like Pandora's Authority of Vainglory.
She could simply declare Regulus had never been somewhere, or declare he was already living peacefully with his wives in the Kingdom—then reality would reshape itself to match her words.
Her power was basically cheating:
Speak → destiny rewrites → the world fills in the process however it must.
Regulus, meanwhile, was a brat with a broken power—violent, irrational, and small-minded.
Which meant he might be vulnerable to mental or soul-layer interference.
In the original story, Subaru used Petelgeuse's Unseen Hands and managed to expose the "lion-heart" core—Regulus's Authority, housed inside Emilia's heart.
So maybe something more esoteric—soul attacks, spiritual interference—could influence Regulus.
At the end of the day, Witch Cult Archbishops were just thieves of the world's core—stronger humans, not gods.
And stealing Authority came with curse-like backlash, which was probably why so many of them were mentally broken.
Would it work?
Only a real fight would tell.
But Hayashi Maki wasn't worried.
With Beatrice around, he was invincible. In the duel space, he was also invincible.
He couldn't "flip" the fight by accident.
At that point, it would come down to who could endure the stalemate longer—
And Regulus didn't look like the patient type.