"Then I suppose I'll play with you a bit longer."
Tsukasa's voice wasn't loud, yet it clearly pierced through the surging sea of mist below, sounding as if it were right next to the ear of the frantically fleeing White Whale.
At the same time, suspended high in the air, his right hand remained raised, but his fingers slowly curled—clenched into a fist toward the deep blue vortex, Blue, which was still spinning in mid-air and devouring the white mist.
This movement had once, under the night sky of Arlam Village, sucked in countless monsters and their surroundings, turning them into dust.
"Phase."
"Twilight."
"Eye of Wisdom."
The deep blue vortex suddenly paused, and then—
Vrrr!!!
The vortex's rotation speed surged several times over. The gravitational collapse at its center climbed exponentially. The blue halo flowing at its edges gradually became blinding.
Even though the size of Blue did not expand, its deep center seemed to transform into a cosmic black hole, its suction power becoming like an all-consuming devourer.
Rumble!
Below, the already dilapidated earth hundreds of meters away let out a wail. Cracked clumps of earth, fallen trees, scattered rocks, and even the previously spilled pools of blood were all forcibly pulled up by this terrifying gravity, turning into a mixed torrent that swirled toward the deep blue abyss in the sky.
As for the pure white sea of mist that the White Whale desperately spewed out to conceal its escape...
In less than half a minute, the mist field that had once covered half the sky was now like cotton candy being sucked in by an invisible giant mouth, contracting toward Blue at a speed visible to the naked eye. Eventually, it completely disappeared into the center of Blue's deep blue vortex, leaving not even a trace behind.
The White Whale's massive, frantically writhing body was exposed without cover under the cold moonlight and Tsukasa's gaze.
Tsukasa narrowed his eyes slightly.
At the very moment the White Whale's body was fully revealed, in his pupils, the reflected image suddenly split.
One, two, three.
Three identical, mountain-like off-white bodies appeared simultaneously in three different positions. Their postures were identical, but their escape directions deviated slightly. Even their presence and mana fluctuations were almost perfectly replicated, making it difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood.
"Is it this move..."
Tsukasa murmured to himself, a nearly mocking curve tugging at the corner of his lips, "You're too easy to read. That's why you're nothing more than a beast."
The true body was still frantically fleeing, while the other two clones were on the left and right, slightly lagging behind, clearly existing to cover the main body and confuse the line of sight.
"Well..."
Tsukasa's raised right hand didn't lower, only his hand gesture changed. His ring finger pressed tightly against his middle finger, both fingers pointing straight up, forming a simple seal.
"Let's use this move then."
At that moment, Tsukasa's Six Eyes firmly locked onto the true body positioned ahead of the two other White Whales.
"Phase."
At the tip of his index finger, an imperceptible red starlight quietly lit up.
"Paramita."
The red light didn't spread, instead condensing sharply inward, converging toward that single point at the fingertip like flowing water.
"Pillar of Light."
The moment the final three words fell, the red light, compressed to its limit, broke through a certain threshold.
A violent repulsive force, diametrically opposed to the attraction of Blue, was gestating within the core of that red light, about to burst forth.
Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!
The moment Red was fired, the White Whale sensed it. It wasn't based on sight or hearing—it was a shudder born from survival instinct.
A violent power capable of distorting space was rapidly approaching from behind.
Its only remaining eye subconsciously turned backward. In its vision, a streak of red light was rapidly expanding. At first, it was just a tiny dot, like a burning star at the edge of the night sky. But in an instant, that red dot seemed to stretch in its pupil.
The red light reflected into the White Whale's remaining bloodshot brown pupil, which shrank to the size of a needle. It watched the crimson orb approach in its vision, feeling the destructive energy behind it that made space itself wail.
The two clones on either side used for confusion and cover dissipated, turning into wisps of thin white mist that were easily blown away by the crimson repulsive force attacking from behind.
BOOM!!!
The White Whale's mountain-like body instantly snapped into two.
Dark red, nearly black internal organs, shattered bones, torn flesh, and that head with half of it missing, mixed with blood and tissue fluid...
At this moment, they turned into a crimson rain of unprecedented and terrifying scale, pouring down onto the already ravaged earth below.
There was too much blood—so much that under the reflection of the lingering fiery red light of Red, the entire wilderness covered by the blood rain reflected an eerie, heart-palpitating dark red hue.
The remains and fragments crashed down one after another like meteorites. Dull thuds rose and fell as the earth shook continuously. Each time a heavy object hit the ground, it splashed up waves of mud and blood several meters high.
Tsukasa hung in mid-air, slowly lowering his finger.
The White Whale's remains, blasted in half by Red, were still twitching slightly. Organs and bones were exposed at the severed ends, gurgling from the wounds and pooling into an expanding, reflective sea of blood beneath it.
It was not yet completely dead. Its only remaining, undamaged eye slowly turned, finally fixing on the white-haired figure not far away.
Life force was rapidly draining from every crack in this massive body, like irrevocable sand in an hourglass.
Tsukasa's boot soles stepped on the blood-soaked ground mixed with shredded meat and mud, making a slight squelching sound. He walked to the White Whale's only remaining head and stopped.
He didn't deliver the final blow. He just stood there, looking down at that eye that was gradually losing focus.
Tsukasa spoke, his voice relatively soft, "Fighting you was truly a pleasure, White Whale."
He paused, his gaze falling on the other party's pupil, which was about to dim completely.
"Perhaps in this lifetime, I will never forget you."
As his words fell, the White Whale's only remaining eye seemed to tremble, ever so slightly. Then, those bloodshot eyelids began to close slowly.
Tsukasa stood in place until the White Whale's eyelids were completely closed, until even the slight ripples on the surface of the blood pool stopped.
He raised his eyes, looking toward the eastern horizon that was gradually turning white. The morning light was attempting to pierce the night, painting a very faint layer of grayish-white onto the silhouette of the Flugel Tree.
One of the Three Great Mabeasts of the world—the White Whale.
Here, it perished.