A chill shot up from Ram's heels to the back of her skull.
She yanked hard on the reins and snapped them across the Earth Dragon's back with a sharp crack.
"Hey!"
The Earth Dragon understood at once and burst into a faster run.
"Grin! Look behind us. What is that?"
Ram crushed down every stray emotion, narrowed her focus to its limit, and drove the dragon carriage off the open road and onto a narrow path leading into the forest.
Her instincts were screaming at her to get off the empty road immediately.
At the same time, alarms were going off in Grin's head.
He turned to look back and saw a vast wall of fog descending from behind them.
At the center of that fog was a long, swollen black shadow.
"My word! Master, what an enormous fish!"
The magic mirror sensed the danger and appeared before Grin on its own.
Fish?
Grin's thoughts jolted.
Then it clicked.
Holy hell. Don't tell me it's that thing.
It had appeared ahead of schedule.
No—more accurately, that giant monster had likely been wandering near Flugel's Tree this whole time. It was just that, by the law of survivor's testimony, anyone who saw it had already died.
That was why, at this point in time, nobody yet knew the monster had already emerged.
The wind died.
Even the chirping of insects vanished.
Only the thick air remained, sticking to the skin with a salty, rotten smell.
Tiny ice crystals drifted through the mist. But instead of melting on contact, they stabbed into the flesh like needles, cold enough to reach the bone.
As Ram took in the changes around her, one dreadful thought rose in her chest.
"Don't tell me it's really the White Whale. Damn it… Ram has no desire to be buried alongside that filthy creature."
The peach-haired girl spoke with forced firmness while the dragon carriage twisted skillfully over the uneven forest path.
"Don't flatter yourself, Ram. I'm not planning to die either."
Grin fought to hold down his fear, then scrambled back into the carriage and began throwing out every bag, box, and loose item he could find to lighten the load.
Boom!
A massive cylindrical blast of mist erupted from the monster's mouth and struck the rear of the dragon carriage like a beam.
Clang!
The impact shook the earth.
Trees meant to hide the road toppled over in an instant.
The White Whale's attacks were less like attacks and more like the land itself being flattened, tearing apart the entire ecosystem of the area as it advanced.
Awwww!
The Earth Dragon screamed and ran for its life.
The creature's strong, muscular frame meant nothing in the face of that monstrous pressure. Right now, it was no different from an ant.
If it could, it would have bitten through the reins and bolted on its own.
Boom! Boom!
The intelligent White Whale kept firing blasts of mist, forcing the dragon carriage into an ever-shrinking space.
"It's over. It's over…"
Grin's face had never looked this grim.
He bit at his fingers, mind racing for any way to survive.
If he used Shamak, it would probably be torn apart in an instant.
And every other offensive method he had was completely useless against something like this.
"Magic mirror—I remember you can refract light, right?"
A flash crossed Grin's mind.
A dangerous idea.
A slim, miserable chance at survival.
If he could not outrun it, and could not fight it, then the only option left was to hide.
The magic mirror floated into the air and looked at him.
"I understand your thoughts, Master. I can indeed create invisibility through light refraction. However, once the effect is in place, I cannot move. Even the slightest disturbance will ruin the already balanced light."
Grin licked his dry lips.
"Nobody controls whether they live or die. Wealth and honor are up to fate. Let's do it, magic mirror."
The mirror went silent for a few seconds, then answered,
"Master, this ability cannot cover a large area. At most, I can conceal one person."
When Ram heard that, a bitter smile tugged at her mouth.
The sudden appearance of a talking golden mirror had startled her, but by her understanding, it was probably some kind of unusually shaped Great Spirit.
A moment later, Ram had already steadied herself.
"Live, Mr. Mouse. Struggle and keep living. Don't worry about Ram. Ram's vitality is far stronger than any rodent's. If… if Ram does not make it back to Mathers Domain… then please… look after Rem."
Grin blinked.
So that was her plan.
Ram meant to draw the White Whale away by herself.
Looking at her now, the proud and icy Ram suddenly seemed a little more likable.
"You really have been underestimated, Ram."
Grin got to his feet and stretched, pressing his palms together until they cracked.
The White Whale came diving straight down toward the dragon carriage.
From Grin's point of view, it looked as though the entire sky had collapsed.
"Jump, Grin!"
Ram's voice turned sharp.
But Grin ignored her.
Instead, he grabbed Ram around the waist and hurled her bodily to the side.
Ram's body drew a long arc through the air.
"El Fura!"
Just before she hit the ground, Ram cast wind magic. A violent current blasted downward beneath her and slowed her fall.
Even so, she still rolled several times across the earth before the force finally bled away.
As she pushed herself up, she felt something strange in her arms.
Looking down, she found the source.
The talking golden mirror.
"Idiot, curl up!"
The magic mirror cursed, then immediately released rings of colored light, twisting the light around them and distorting the surrounding view.
Without a second thought, Ram tucked herself down, hiding beneath the barrier the mirror created as her presence gradually disappeared.
AWWWWW!
On the other side, a deafening roar came crashing down together with thick fog and howling wind, swallowing the dragon carriage whole.
The White Whale opened its enormous maw.
Two rows of blade-like teeth shone inside it.
As the monster descended, its lower jaw gouged into the earth like a shovel, plowing forward toward Grin at terrifying speed.
Grin tore the restraints free from the Earth Dragon, setting the exhausted creature loose.
Freed from the carriage, the hardworking beast stumbled forward, then turned back to look at him with something that almost resembled gratitude.
The empty dragon carriage screeched to a halt where it stood.
And now the White Whale was right in front of him.
Scalding breath crashed over him.
"Trying to dodge me head-on?"
With that, Grin made the leap of his life.
He jumped straight into the White Whale's mouth.
The instant those massive jaws snapped shut, a burst of black smoke exploded outward.
It was like biting into a compressed smoke bomb.
The vast black fog filled the White Whale's throat, pouring from its nose and jaws without end. Even the organs inside it that exhaled white mist began choking on the black smoke.
"Grin Andersen…"
Ram did not dare shout too loudly.
She only forced his name out in a heavy whisper.
In her eyes, Grin's body had been swallowed whole by a mountain-sized White Whale.
She could not understand it.
Why would that man throw away his life for her?
Was he really that kind of person?
The White Whale choked violently on the black smoke.
It was so dense, so real, that the beast nearly suffocated on it.
Its enormous body twisted several times on the ground before finally regaining enough control to rise back into the air.
The White Whale smacked its jaws, trying to find that tiny morsel of flesh in its mouth.
Why does it feel like I didn't eat anything at all?
It thought for a long time, got nowhere, and eventually gave up. It had probably swallowed the prey while choking and simply failed to notice.
It had seen clearly just now.
There had been two people in that carriage.
So the White Whale lowered itself again, hovering close above the ground as it searched.
Its millstone-sized pupils gleamed with danger.
Its immense body did not only grant it overwhelming strength.
It also left it with endless hunger.
Only by feeding, over and over, could it snatch a few brief moments of relief.
This time, it would chew carefully.
This time, it would savor the burst of warm flesh in its mouth completely.