Have you ever had moments in your life that you wonder, why exactly are we here? It's one of life's greatest mysteries, after all. Why are we here, alive and kicking? Were we the product of some cosmic fluke? Or was there really a God, capital G and all, watching over everything?

Those moments of existential dread are what keep me, and I assume many others, awake at night.

But no, I wasn't talking about those parts.

I was more so thinking, why am I here, sitting down in the middle of a field, freezing my ass off in the middle of the night, waiting for a flying whale?

That kept me awake, less for the philosophy, and more because the rocks kept digging into my back whenever I tried to lie down.

It was the same, I suspect, for Natsuki, who I could see trying to lie down, only to get back up with a wince. The men that Karsten brought with her, meanwhile, were used to this, and were quietly milling around, keeping their eyes peeled for anything amiss.

As if we'd miss a giant, fuck-off whale.

Even in the darkness of midnight, I would expect we'd see it long before it could realistically do anything.

It was why I was both relaxed and tense at the same time. Relaxed in the knowledge that I'd at least have a bit of warning before shit hits the fan, and tense for the reason that I would still be in the crosshairs of the White Whale.

It's been a couple more hours since I finished the preparations on the artillery, as well as briefed the people firing it to follow Natsuki's instructions when the time came. It was closer to two in the morning now, and there was still no sign of the Whale.

I was tempted to say that he was wrong about the Whale, but then again, he wasn't wrong with Granhiert before. For now, I'll trust him, as odd as that may sound from someone like me.

Besides, unlike these morons, I can always get out of dodge if need be.

…Maybe I'm just being unfair. Honestly, I do think that Natsuki was telling the truth, and that he was right. After all, just because you believed something to be true didn't necessarily make it happen. But I digress, I believed that whatever he said would happen, would happen.

I've already narrowed down his abilities to some sort of limited precognition. It would have some sort of crippling weakness, like it can only be used within a certain period, because if it didn't have that, then he would've likely done something about Rem's obvious animosity.

Unless that was part of the plan, where he needed Rem to be ice-cold towards him and more than willing to literally throw him to the wolves.

Gah, this is why future sight is such an annoying concept! If you had it, then you could use it to be the best, like no one ever was! And if you didn't, then what crippling weakness did the author slap you with?! That you needed to die to activate it?!

That's cruel even by shitty light novel standards, dammit!

I scowled as I fought off the wave of tiredness seeping into me. I had spent the entire day running around, finishing everything I needed to do, right before I had to expend my energy to fix those artillery pieces. It was no wonder I felt so tired.

It was all that I could do to think shitty ramblings so that I didn't fall asleep.

I-

Fog.

My eyes flew open.

Everyone in the camp came to a sudden halt, just as sudden as the fog rolling in. Everyone knew what this meant.

In an instant, everyone was wide awake, including myself. Shouting, organized panic as the knights assembled into formation.

I heard a bone-chilling moan come from straight above. Moonlight pierced through the fog, highlighting the silhouette of the massive beast floating there.

The White Whale.

As I stared at it, I couldn't help but think: how? How did it manage to get here so fast, without anyone noticing? How did it fly up to being right above us, surrounded by its fog, without so much as a single scout seeing it?

Ah.

That was the point isn't it?

We did have scouts. We just didn't remember. They even likely screamed for us to notice.

The battle to take down the White Whale had started who knows how long ago, and we didn't even know.

…

"First line, FIRE!"

The sudden onset of realization that I had was broken at Natsuki's shout. The kid had this look on his face that screamed 'terrified', but had snapped out of it before even the veterans could. He called up the first line of artillerymen, who took a moment to realize what he said, before they hurriedly followed the order.

Night turned into day as a line of night banishers with no payload, were fired. Miniature suns lit up the sky, the blast from which dispersed the fog, giving me a glimpse of the Whale properly.

Monstrous.

The descriptions that Karsten, Argyle, and even Astrea didn't do it justice.

On the surface, it did look like a whale from back in my world. That is to say, it was shaped like one. The differences were too numerous to say otherwise.

Beady red eyes, which, even from this distance, I could see peering down at us. Almost wing-like appendages cutting a swathe through the fog it produced from the top of its head. And while it looked smooth on the surface, I knew for a fact that its skin was anything but.

I froze for a moment as I took it in.

Not even Granhiert had instilled such a primal fear as this thing.

Granhiert was a psychopath that killed people because she was insane. The Whale was a monster that would devour me.

"Second line, ready up!"

I snapped out of it as I let out a shuddering breath. The rest of the entourage were still moving about, preparing to fight the Whale as best as they could. And by that I meant standing around doing nothing.

After all, what were they going to do while it was flying up there?

That just meant we had to bring it down first.

"FIRE!"

I opened up portals just before Natsuki shouted, the exits appearing above the Whale, pointing downward. The erasing fog was the Whale's biggest threat. Sure, we could get crushed, eaten, or even impaled on its horn, but nothing would ever beat the fog that erased you from history.

And looking at where it was coming from, the obvious target would be the top of it.

The artillery fired, with payloads this time.

It shot directly into the White Whale's hide, and now, closer that I was comfortable with, I could see that it really was covered in hairs. It didn't matter though, as the metal shot right through it, impacting into its body. I quickly closed the portal as I noticed just where exactly the mist was coming from.

Honest to god vents on its body. Vents that were quickly opening, and against all odds, pointing directly into the portal.

I closed them just in time, and from the ground, I could see that the Whale had spewed out a mass of fog where the portal had been.

That was close. I needed to be careful then. Those vents needed to be destroyed if we wanted the Whale to be killed. And even then, we needed to bring it down with even more firepower. The artillery we shot didn't even look like it had phased it.

"Third line, ready up!" And for a third time, Natsuki yelled at the artillery. He was getting into now, seeing the lack of effect that the first volley had, and was seemingly determined to keep up the assault. Our eyes met, and he gave me a shaky thumbs up.

Emilia was waving towards me, and I turned to her. She, along with the maids, had a bunch of spells prepared and ready to fire.

I obliged them with a portal, in front of the Whale's eye.

A blast of wind, and two spikes of ice meatily sunk into it.

The howl of pain it gave was oddly satisfying.

"Hikigaya-dono!" Wilhelm came riding with his ground dragon, wielding a sword. I already knew what he wanted. And in most cases, I wouldn't have bothered sending someone to their death. Wilhelm was not just anyone though.

I opened a portal, right onto the side of the Whale.

Without hesitation, the Sword Demon leapt into it, stabbing right into the flesh.

I closed the portal as it started to thrash, trying to wriggle Wilhelm off. I couldn't see the butler from this distance, but I could see the damage he did. Bloody wounds started to appear on the Whale, large enough to be unmistakable.

I snorted.

Maybe Karsten's idea of me portalling them all on top of it would have worked if everyone was the Sword Demon.

Rolling my shoulder, I glared at the Whale.

This was going to be a long night.

…

Portal after portal, opened, closed, moved.

That was my reality. I had already lost count of how many volleys we had to fire before the Whale truly focused on us.

Having Wilhelm tear out its eye was the breaking point, I guess.

Still, we pelted it with wave after wave of damage. Artillery shells, Wilhelm's assault, and the barrage of various other spells hurled at its vulnerable points.

It wouldn't last forever though.

I could feel my mana starting to run dry, even though I had already eaten that mana stimulant that Argyle had given me. We needed to end this soon, or the tactics we've been using would be gone.

The Whale dove at us. I grimaced as I traced the path it would follow. There. Now I just needed to-

It opened its mouth.

Big mistake.

A portal.

Three lines of artillery, and every single person who knew magic firing right into it.

The Whale backed off with a roar.

This wasn't the first time that it had tried that, and it wouldn't be the last. The first time it did, we had almost lost a couple of people before I had done what I just did.

The fact that it continued to try and dive at us, despite us doing the exact same thing to fend it off every time, gave me the slightest bit of hope.

Monstrous as it may be, it wasn't smart enough to try something else.

Maybe-

"Come on, just a little bit more and we'll beat this thing."

Ah. Fuck.

Natsuki, you fucking moron! You can't just tempt fate like that!

I snapped my head towards the Whale, fearing the worst. And right there and then, as if hearing Natsuki himself, flailed around even more. Wilhelm, who was still on it, was shaken off. I saw at the corner of my eye Ram helping to slow the man's descent, but I was still focused on the mabeast.

It hadn't done this before.

That was the worrying part. It was an animal, through and through. Injured, one eye gone, half of its mist vents forced closed, one of its fins missing, yes. It was slowly but surely dying.

That was the problem.

It was an animal, and the most dangerous animals were the ones that were cornered.

With one final thrash, it spewed out the most mist we'd seen since the initial fog rolled in. It fell quickly. I covered my mouth, the acrid stench invading my nostrils. Was it trying to get away? I ope-

"Ah. AHHHHHH!"

"IT HURTS, PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP-"

"MY EARS, I CAN'T TAKE IT!"

What the hell?!

All around us, Karsten's men fell like dominos, clawing at their faces, the ground, or even both. They held their heads in their hands, screaming all the while.

"Argyle!" I shouted, even as the knight went to work, a panicked look on his face as he tried to stop a man from scratching at his ear, "What the hell is going on?!"

"I-I think it's the mist!" He replied, even as he struggled to keep the man still. I pulled my gaze from the Whale, hidden from view, and helped to keep the man still. With a nod of gratitude, Argyle managed to put the man asleep.

"No shit it's the mist." I bit out as we hurried along to another person, "I'm asking why the fuck the mist is affecting them and not us."

"It's not just us, look." I lifted my head up and looked around. While many were on the ground writhing in pain, just as many were trying to help them. The only thing that differentiated the ones still standing was the fact that they were mages.

"Mana poisoning, or something similar." Argyle nodded as I scowled. We weren't immune due to some plot contrivance like in a light novel. We were immune because mages tended to have some more control over their mana.

The common man did not, trained soldiers as they may be.

A gust of wind.

"Grab the affected and set up a triage, quickly!" Karsten ordered. For once, I was on the same page. I grabbed the man we were helping and gestured for Argyle to lead. He did so, setting up a small area with some rudimentary cots near the base of Flugel's Tree.

The Whale was still hidden from us through the mist, but that also worked in our favor. It wouldn't see us dragging our injured here, preventing them from being easy targets.

Soon enough, we had dragged the affected into safety, but what was left of us were few and far between. The morale had taken a massive hit, and the prospect of running had never been more attractive.

Even Karsten had a pinched look on her face, eyes narrowed at the dispersing mist.

"We need to end this, now."

"You think we don't know that?" I scoffed. Did she think we were idiots? That we didn't know how dire the situation just became?

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Her eyes shifted to me, and I could see the desperation in her eyes. She may try to hide it under a veneer of anger, yet it was obvious to someone like me, "Believe me, Hikigaya, when I say I am willing to try anything at this point."

Tch.

"It's on its last ropes. It wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't desperate enough." I started, "We need to keep up the pressure, focus on its weakest points. Eyes, or eye in this case, mouth, and those vents."

"A sound plan." There were the barest hints of sarcasm there, and despite the situation, I couldn't help but smirk. Looks like even the duchess has limits, "But how exactly do you propose that? We're lacking as it is."

"It's still weak to physical damage. Just need to…" I trailed off as the mist finally cleared.

My eyes widened.

Someone fell to their knees. I would have joined them if my legs didn't lock up.

Bile rose to my throat as I saw the mabeast.

Or rather, the mabeasts.

High above us, three White Whales circled.

…

A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.

And a special thanks to: FireRogueWolf25, brutalcrab and Tassimo.