"Where?"
Betty's head snapped around, eyes sweeping the area for any sign of this supposed Sin Archbishop of Gluttony.
She'd barely finished turning before Gojo's hand settled on her head and steered her back to face him.
"Relax. That one seed a bit timid. I already chased him off."
Her eyes rolled so hard they nearly disappeared.
Of course. He was winding her up again.
"If he's already gone, why bother ntioning him at all?"
"I didn't say he was still here. I only said I missed you while you were away."
"And besides, we didn't sign so slave contract. What's all this 'always ordering you around' business?"
"Good that you know."
Betty tipped her chin up, all haughty pride.
"I hope you keep knowing it."
"Speaking of which, Betty, there's sothing I was..."
Her voice cut off. Her eyes went wide, fixed on him.
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted you."
"Co now, don't sweat the small stuff."
He leaned in closer, dropping his voice.
"Yin Attribute magic deals with alternate spaces and that sort of thing, doesn't it?"
"There is magic like that. What are you scheming now?"
She watched him sidelong, already certain he was about to drag her into sothing.
"Helping Reinhard, naturally."
Gojo's smile widened as he gestured toward where the knight stood.
"Helping?"
"That one's not an easy mark. If he were, I'd have finished him already."
"The only reason I held out for you lot to arrive is that neither of us could put the other down."
"If Reinhard doesn't happen to have so Divine Protection that works against him, I suspect he won't manage it either."
"That Sin Archbishop of Greed is really that strong?"
For all the bickering that passed between her and Gojo on any given day, Betty had a clear read on what he was capable of.
And what he was capable of was a great deal.
If even he couldn't handle the man, fine. But that Reinhard might also co up short?
That strained belief.
Unbidden, her thoughts drifted to the old Witch Factor bearers, the beings rembered as the Witches.
Setting aside the Witch of Envy, a handful of the others had been monstrously strong as well.
The forr Witch of Sloth, for instance. Powerful enough to stand toe to toe with the Divine Dragon.
"Of course. You think I'm so pushover?"
Gojo ruffled her hair and then turned his face toward the distant fight, raising his voice so it carried.
"Reinhard! That man's Authority fixes his physical state at a given mont as long as his heart is still beating. Nothing about his body can be changed..."
He laid out everything he knew about Regulus in a clean, carrying shout, including the theories he'd been turning over.
"What are you doing, you bastard! That's a violation of my privacy!"
Gojo's voice had carried far enough that not only Reinhard and Regulus heard it.
The convoy, still a distance off, caught every word too.
Put plainly: unless Regulus could murder every witness on this plain today, the secret of his Authority was about to belong to the whole world.
Fury boiled over first. His hand swept out toward the distant line of carriages.
The current of air kicked up by that motion locked into a fixed state and tore across the open ground with unstoppable force, racing toward the carriages.
He wanted them silenced. Every mouth that might carry his secret, closed.
"I see."
"That's what Satoru ant."
Reinhard moved faster. In the split second between Regulus's gesture and the air reaching the convoy, he was already there.
The Dragon Sword Reid, still sheathed, ca up sideways in front of the Sin Archbishop. The thick scabbard absorbed the blow that had been ant for the carriages.
"A re Sword Saint."
"And you think you can stand in the way of soone as perfect as , as complete as , as unshakable as ?"
Gojo's mockery had been chipping away at him for a long while already, and then he'd been played for a fool. Whatever patience Regulus had clung to was in tatters. Reinhard blocking him now was the final insult.
He threw himself at the knight without a pause.
Reinhard t him with the sa unhurried calm, stepping in to answer each strike.
While the two of them traded blows in the distance, Gojo pulled Betty closer and kept his voice low.
"If we can't kill him, we change the approach. Dying isn't the only outco on the table."
"Like the Witch of Envy. Seal him?"
Betty was quick. A hint was all she needed.
"Exactly. I'm fairly sure Yin Attribute magic has sothing that banishes a target into an alternate space."
"It does."
"But how do you plan to actually get him in there?"
Her brow drew tight.
Regulus wasn't so statue holding a pose. Exiling him to another dinsion was going to be a tall order against a man moving at that speed.
"Reinhard keeps him occupied. That's the window."
Gojo said it as if it were obvious. "Reinhard may not be able to crack the Authority, but by the sa asure, Regulus isn't going to have an easy ti putting Reinhard down either."
"It won't be simple. If I try to send him into the alternate space, Reinhard could easily get swept in as well."
"Unless I find a chance later to release him. But then Greed cos tumbling out along with him."
"Is that how it works."
Gojo had only read about the magic in passing. He knew the shape of it, not the particulars.
He thought for a beat. "In that case, let's deal with the White Whale first."
As he spoke, he patted the flank of the vast corpse beside them.
"I knew it. You just want to put to work!"
Betty glared up at him, every word barbed.
"Co on, don't be stingy. I'm thinking of our future. You don't want to end up back in the slums, do you?"
The White Whale was far too large for her to teleport whole. So while Reinhard tied Regulus up, Gojo set about cleaving the body into pieces.
Betty ferried each piece across to Felt and the others.
The distance wasn't great, and with Gojo beside her topping up her mana as needed, the teleports ca easily.
Before long, both mountains of flesh had been broken down into manageable chunks and set out in front of the convoy.
Felt needed no prompting. She was already rallying the others, directing the crew to further butcher the pieces and load them onto the wagons.
With the White Whale in hand, Gojo and Betty turned for the convoy. Felt and Subaru ca running to et them.
"How'd it go? You're all right?"
Both of them wore the sa worried look.
"Fine, fine. Just a bit of a nuisance. Neither of us could do much of anything to the other."
He shrugged, faintly rueful.
"That man must have sothing else up his sleeve. Otherwise there's no way he's this strong."
"So what do we do now?"
"Finish loading the White Whale, then have Reinhard stall a little longer so we can run?"
Subaru had caught Gojo's earlier words. The hesitation in his voice said he wasn't entirely sure.
"More than that."
"We also take care of him while we're at it."
Gojo gave them a small smile.
"You're serious?"
"Didn't you just say nothing could even scratch him?" Felt looked baffled.
"Can't hurt him doesn't an we can't deal with him another way."
His tone stayed level. "The only knot to untangle is making sure Reinhard doesn't get caught up in it."
Banishnt to an alternate space, as Betty had described it, was essentially using a pocket of space itself as a cage. Lock the target inside, and unless they could shatter space, they weren't getting out.
From what Regulus had shown so far, for all his power, he hadn't reached that tier.
Seal him in, and this life was over for him.
Of course, as long as his Authority kept ticking, he wouldn't actually die in there. Whether he'd keep his sanity was another matter entirely.
The problem was if Reinhard got dragged in with him.
Regulus could fix his own state. Reinhard could not.
Reinhard was, at the end of the day, only human.
Locked away with no release in sight, he'd starve.
The four of them exchanged a look. None of it was promising.
The fight unfolding in the middle distance made the scale of the problem plain.
Reinhard and Regulus were going at it full tilt.
Just like with Gojo, no matter what Regulus threw, Reinhard turned it aside without visible strain.
And by the sa token, the strikes from a sword that could cleave a White Whale in two glanced off Regulus as if he were carved from bedrock.
A true stalemate. Nothing to pick at, nothing to exploit.
"Even Reinhard can't handle him?"
Felt stared at the fight, taken aback.
"Which is why we have to co up with sothing."
"Except we can't even get close."
Subaru's voice carried a weary edge. "A fight at that level, none of us can step into, except for you, Satoru..."
He trailed off, then tried again. "How about this. We try everything we can think of. If none of it works, I'll bow out?"
That last bit was aid squarely at Gojo.
Reset and try again.
"It hasn't co to that. We've still got ti to think."
Fair words, but even Gojo couldn't pull a clean plan out of thin air on short notice.
"Maybe Reinhard picks up another Divine Protection on the spot and finishes him."
"You might be right. For now, let's focus on the White Whale."
Felt turned and flagged down a man who'd been directing the convoy.
"That's Russell. Treasurer at the Royal Capital Comrce Guild."
"He's the one who scrounged up all these carriages for us. Says he has sothing he'd like to talk to you about."
"Royal Capital Comrce Guild? I don't recall knowing anyone from there."
"Couldn't tell you. It's just a conversation. Without him we'd probably still be running around the Royal Capital trying to find Dragon Carriages."
"Bring him over, then. Nothing else we can do at the mont anyway."
Gojo glanced across the plain at Reinhard. That fight wasn't ending anyti soon.
A few minutes to spare wouldn't hurt.
Russell appeared in front of him soon after.
"Mr. Gojo. A pleasure to finally et you. I'm Russell Fellow, Treasurer of the Royal Capital Comrce Guild."
He carried himself with polished refinent.
Every word courteous. Every gesture asured.
A corporate operator, through and through.
"Felt tells you wanted to talk."
"Yes, Mr. Gojo."
"Let's keep it short. Don't want Reinhard getting knocked around for too long."
Gojo's smile had a teasing edge.
"Of course. I've been rather curious about the abilities you displayed at the conference. I was hoping you might be willing to tell more."
"Oh?"
Gojo's eyes hooded a fraction.
A guild treasurer curious about that sort of thing?
The short list of reasons narrowed quickly. There was only really one: using such ans against soone else.
"If you're here to ask to deal with soone for you, save your breath. That kind of work holds no interest for ."
"No, no, Mr. Gojo. You misunderstand."
Russell gave a small shake of his head, smile still in place. "Nothing like that. Besides, I can't imagine a man of your standing bothering with such trifles."
The man had read him well enough.
Even a storied assassin like Elsa worked for a fee that ca out to a handful of Holy Gold Coins.
Serious money for an ordinary person. Pocket change to Gojo.
With Felt for a cash cow, money was never going to be an issue.
The Knight Order still hadn't been properly fleeced this loop. That alone would bring in a fortune.
And once the White Whale's carcass reached market, to say nothing of the ripple effects of killing both the White Whale and the Sin Archbishop of Sloth, more backers would co knocking at Felt's door with coin in hand.
"So what do you actually want?"
"A trade, Mr. Gojo."
"I'd like you to withdraw the punishnt you levied against Lord Bordeaux Zergef."
"Who?"
Gojo turned his head to Felt, blank.
"Don't look at . He's the one who asked."
Felt's expression said she was entirely in the right.
"That na does ring a bell."
Subaru was frowning, working it through.
"Three idiots. He's talking about the bald man you humiliated at the conference."
Betty had clearly heard enough, and delivered the answer with the full force of her exasperation.
...
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