Hedin's eyes fluttered open when they were near about the Flugel tree.
He absently looked outside, having finished his share of training for today. Prying open the curtains, the dim moonlight shone into the carriage.
He thought of Rem who had been driving the wagon for so long and felt that he should take over, but then, remembering her Oni origins made him shake his head.
There weren't many clouds in the sky at the moment. What was visible, however, was a tiny bird flying through the air.
Noticing Hedin staring, it came down and landed on the wooden windowsill and croaked.
Hedin instantly understood raven's words.
'3 more clones died,' it said.
"How?"
'Cause: unknown.'
"You didn't see anything?"
'They were flying through the air. Then they simply died. They were crushed. Like being squeezed by something.'
"Squeezed?" Hedin held his chin in thought. "How long ago? What were their locations?"
'Directly above the cave. 3 minutes ago.'
They're making their move, are they? Ab invisible threat? One that can fly? Or is it something like telekenises? Hedin narrowed his eyes.
"Have the villagers been evacuated?"
'Not all of them!' Raven croaked, flapping his wings. 'Dozens are still left! Some are at the mansion and the rest are being gathered to be led into the sanctuary!'
"Sanctuary?" Hedin caught the peculiar word. "What's the sanctuary?"
'Don't know! Don't know!'
Hedin heaved a rough sigh.
He could feel troubled emotions from Rem who sat driving the carriage. With her senses, he would be surprised if she didn't hear the conversation. Not that she could understand raven, but hearing the word, 'evacuation' would ring some bells.
Hedin didn't say anything else.
Just then, Raven croaked again.
Hedin turned his head, seeing that Raven was looking outside.
"Fog! Fog!"
"Fog?" Hedin asked, feeling wary and puzzled.
Just then, the small gap in front of the carriage opened up and Rem peeked back.
"Hedin, there's a lot of Fog up ahead."
His eyes a narrowed and he pushed his head out of the window to see properly.
Outside, the road stretched to the horizon, visible under the silver moonlight. Yet, just about 200 meters ahead, a dense Fog was gathering.
It blocked off vision and nothing could be seen beyond it.
"That's not normal." Hedin said. Without wait, he pushed himself out and hoisted himself up the carriage. The protection provided by the ground dragons proved especially useful when doing stunts like these.
Standing up on the carriage, he moved to the front and leaned down.
"Keep driving. If anything comes up, I'll deal with it."
Rem nodded under him.
With a serious expression on his face, Hedin donned his hat and pulled out his revolver.
Been some time since I used you. He thought, giving the revolver some spins.
In just a few seconds, the ground dragons had already covered the distance and dashed right into the fog!
Raven went up top, avoiding the fog altogether.
Whooooooo~
The fog encased the carriage. The wheels kept turning, the ground dragons kept running, tearing through the ocean of Fog that had crept up from nowhere.
Hedin stayed alert, the revolver in his hand poised for whatever it was creeping in here.
An ambush? Or... Just then, he felt something.
Something watching.
"Bwahoooo!" A sound reached his ears, almost riipping apart his ear drums. He covered his ears with a wince as the carriage trembled under his feet, the dragons becoming confused.
As felt a liquid drip from his ear. Seeing his hand, his finger tip was covered in blood.
His crimson eyes trembled as he turned his head to the side.
The carriage trembled again. A phantom light seemed go escape Hedin's body, creeping up beyond the fog and lighting something up.
A giant eye.
It was a sickly pale yellow, bright and giant; almost the size of a house. The pupils was a dark void of black, staring right at him.
Whatever this creature was, wherever it came from, it was travelling along the ground dragons, no doubt in flight.
Scales white as bone shimmered under the faint light brought on by Hedin's glory. In the distance behind them, he saw a giant tail sweeping the fog.
He felt strength surge under his skin yet he held his ground.
His eyes bore into those of the beast's.
And the eye closed.
It disappeared right into the fog.
As the tension eased from his shoulders, Hedin realized what this was.
"The white whale. Haha." He chuckled dryly. What a sick joke. He cursed his own luck and fought the urge to massage his temple.
Silently, he grabbed the small cloth that hung at his neck and wrapped it around his mouth.
Now, only his crimson eyes were visible; glowing an ominous red.
His eyes shone with the light of the sun, piercing whatever distance they could into the fog. Not finding the whale, Hedin called upon the miracle.
Instantly, the fog seemed to clear up under his eyes. And he saw the beast.
It was up above, right atop the carriage. It's giant body, while not the largest Hedin had ever seen, came disgustingly close to being just that.
Hedin felt his stomach churn yet pushed it down and walked silently to the front again.
Jumping down to stand beside Rem, he spoke in a serious tone.
"Rem." He said. "I will ask you this one favour. The mansion is in danger. There's witch cult lurking there. I ask you this, remember, Do. Not. Stop. Whatever happens, I want you to keep driving."
Rem's hands trembled but she didn't stray her eyes from the road. Her voice was meek, almost unintelligible, "What is happening?"
"It's the white whale."
Hedin didn't pull any punches.
She had to understand the situation. Only then could Hedin trust her to act accordingly.
Rem's eyes went wide. Hedin looked up. The white whale was still there, silently watching.
Why it had not attacked was beyond him, but if it was so, he intended to have the first strike.
They could, after all, under no circumstances lead it back to the Mathers Domain.
"...what do you intend to do?" Rem's voice trembled.
"Fight it. Drive it away or kill it." Hedin said simply.
"No!" Her quaking voice passed over the sound of the carriage wheels. Even the ground dragons roared out, feeling the gaze of the calamity. "You'll die! We can escape! You don't have to fight it!"
"There's no time." Hedin shook his head. He climbed back onto the top.
"Besides, if we just let it go, it'll cause more loss of life. Better to kill it here than that."
"Then let me stay with you!"
"No!" Hedin suddenly yelled, making Rem flinch where she sat.
"Go back." He said, holding his sword and pulling it off his back.
"I've faced more dangerous threats. I won't die from this... Hopefully."
Extending his hand, he aimed his revolver at the whale's belly.
"A hunter must hunt."
With that, he jumped off.
And a gunshot followed.
BANG!
...
...
A/N: Apologies for the wait everyone. Somewhere along writing, I got really really sick and then when I recovered, I had to prepare to go to college, move away from home and all that, and within that time, writing fanfic wasn't the first among my list of priorities.
My Patreon was basically dead when I got sick, so that may have helped with the fact, because if I actually had to keep writing, I would've after I recovered from sickness and it wouldn't have resulted in a complete stop in uploads for well over a month.
I realize that this famfic may not be popular in any way, mainly because of the way it's written just throws people off because it's too serious in some ways and web novel readers tend to read more casual stories, as far as fanfictions go; but I will still try to take it as far as i can. I'm not sure if this will be finished at any point soon.
I had a plan, I really did, but with some of the stuff happening in the re zero novel, a lot of those plans have been thrown off course and suddenly, I don't what to do anymore post arc 5.
Regardless, at least this will continue until then.
I realize that I should've put on an announcement on this fanfic as I did on tower of God, but what's done is done.
This too is kind of a note. 'I'm back' and all.
Anyways, let's see where the road leads us.
Cheers~
(Image Here)