Chapter 520: The Hour of the Dog and Wolf - 8
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 520: The Hour of the Dog and Wolf - 8
Jizan possessed a weight comparable to a great mountain. Yet, to the one chosen by Jizan, it felt no heavier than a hefty club. In truth, it was the Divine moving according to its owner's will, but in any case, the Regressor was, in effect, swinging a mountain.
So, let’s indulge in a childish thought experiment. What would happen if you dropped a mountain from high up in the sky?
The mere thought seems to conjure a terrible disaster, but the reality is different. Jizan is a Divine of Mother Earth. Jizan, too, is a part of the land. It would simply fall and rest upon the ground like an ordinary club, without shattering the earth.
However, the Regressor forcibly twisted that principle.
“Aerith Blade Supreme.”
Qi Art is the power to impose one's will upon the world. The Regressor poured a massive amount of Qi, fortified by all manner of elixirs and tonics, into Jizan. When performing a Qi Art upon Jizan, which was the land itself, would it be considered a Geon Qi Art or an Gon Qi Art? One thing was certain: a Qi Art that could move the very earth needed no grand embellishments.
Soaring into the sky, the Regressor aimed Jizan at the ground far below. Held between two fingers, Jizan swayed like a plumb bob before slowly coming to a stop. When its movement ceased completely, it pointed precisely at the heart of the earth. As if sensing the event to come, Jizan’s handle trembled.
Using this technique will earn me the Grand Master’s ire, and Jizan’s power will weaken slightly, but… I have no choice. I’m sorry.
After offering a silent apology, the Regressor released Jizan and muttered.
“Earthfall.”
There was no sound.
There was no presence.
The fall of a mountain toward the earth below was surprisingly quiet and serene. Until it struck the ground, it was just like any other object, simply obeying the law of gravity.
…Until it struck the ground.
The battle between Azzy and Fenrir had left great scars upon the land. They slammed each other into the ground, bit, and clawed, battering one another relentlessly. A single blow sent one tumbling a hundred meters, a distance the other would cross in an instant to swing a forepaw. When their paws struck flesh or missed and hit the earth, massive clouds of dust erupted and scattered in all directions.
Unfortunately, it was Azzy who was mostly on the receiving end. As she curled her body, Fenrir’s paw crashed down. The ground around Azzy sank with her. Fenrir bared its teeth as it chased Azzy, who rolled down a slope before scrambling to her feet.
“Dog! Show your fangs!”
“Woof…!”
“Awoooo! We weren’t born to protect anyone! No one protects us. Only we can protect ourselves!”
Fenrir is a star of calamity. Azzy is one of constancy. No matter how much power they unleashed, their domains were different. And that difference led to a disparity in their strength.
Fenrir, the Wolf King, led a great pack, as befitting a wolf. In contrast, Azzy’s pack consisted of humans, who could not directly contribute to her strength. In a pure one-on-one fight, the wolf was structured to win.
And until now, Fenrir must have always won that way.
“You protect humans? You think humans will protect you? How many times has it been? How many times must I kill you? How long must you wait for the humans who never come? How much biting and scratching will it take for you to finally learn?!”
“…Woof. I won’t learn.”
Azzy, though panting heavily, stood up again. She was far filthier and more wounded than Fenrir. But she hadn’t given up yet and barked back.
“Made a promise. I protect human. Human protects me. Like flower and bee, we help each other.”
“They haven’t helped you until now!”
“They will, this time.”
Azzy’s gaze turned toward the humans. She had been betrayed and reborn time and again, but this time, her faith had been rewarded. Even if that reward was far from enough, what mattered to Azzy was that the promise had been kept.
“Grrr! Those humans?! The cowards who claim to tame with violence, yet hide behind you in fear! You think they will help you?!”
Fenrir let out a great bark, its voice a mixture of a sneer and a sob. Was it distrust for humanity, or self-loathing for the dog that still believed in them?
Channeling it all into ferocity, Fenrir glared at the humans with blazing eyes.
“Awoooooo! If your ignorance is because of a promise, then I will tear that promise to shreds!”
Killing the Dog King would not end this wretched fight. What needed to be killed… was the human.
Its animosity shifted from the dog to the humans. Did it intend to kill them to erase the promise itself?
Fenrir, wearing its half-crown, charged toward us. Realizing its intent, Azzy shot forward like an arrow to block its path. In the chaos of the wolf’s onslaught, the dog’s barking, and the humans’ shouts as they rushed in…
Jizan fell into the center of the battlefield.
At first, it was quiet. Jizan gently pierced the soil. Dirt and sand flew up, and only then did the wolves and humans register that ‘something had fallen.’
It continued to burrow deep, not stopping. The mountain pierced the skin of the earth, aiming for its heart. It tore through soil hardened by alternating floods and droughts, through the dormant sprouts that dreamed of blooming next year, through the burrows dug by small animals to escape predators.
Penetrating them all, Jizan fell deeper still.
Imbued with the weight of a mountain, Jizan’s speed barely decreased as it collided with the earth. Not fast enough to pierce through cleanly, yet its momentum never waned. Churning the earth below like a hook, Jizan continued to fall.
Falling and falling, Jizan finally reached the bedrock far below, the solid foundation that supported the land.
As heavy as a mountain was, it could not be heavier than the entire world. At last, Jizan met a collision worthy of the name.
And the very axis of the earth twisted.
“Aaaaaaaargh!”
“Awoooooooooo!”
Humans and wolves alike screamed in unison. A massive fissure formed, centered on the epicenter of the Earthfall. As if someone had thrown a stone onto a thin sheet of ice, the ground shattered like a pane of glass, sinking and surging.
The fractured earth shot upward, and the ground collapsed into the voids left behind. The land was not a single entity. Divided into countless pieces, the earth moved, each piece finding its own path.
Before this disaster, wolf and human were equal in their desperate struggles. They slipped, fell, clung, wailed, screamed, cried, and trampled one another in a cacophony of chaos.
The Obeli Guard Dogs, the wolves, the dogs, the Beast Faction warriors and Obelisks a short distance away, even the Baskervilles and other priests still lying in wait—though the degree varied, none could escape the aftershock.
The battlefield was buried in immense chaos and shock.
I don’t know how many slipped and fell. The densely packed Obeli Guard Dogs and other dogs took a near-direct hit and were buried. They slipped, rolled, and were covered in falling dirt and rock, yet they held on with grim tenacity.
The seemingly eternal shock finally ended. Amidst the tangled mess of hundreds, the Obeli Guard Dogs came to their senses and staggered to their feet.
“Cough, hack!Cough, cough!”
“Whimper, ruff! Ruff!”
“Boksil, you’re safe… Is everyone alright?”
“Thankfully, we only slipped.”
A beastkin trained in Qi Arts wouldn’t be injured by a mere tumble. But even the toughest beastkin couldn’t say their current situation—buried dozens of meters underground—was a good one. An Obeli Guard Dog shivered as he looked up at the precariously interlocked boulders in the darkness.
“Looks like we got lucky. The rocks piled up like a roof and created a space. I don’t know whether to call this fortunate or just a slight delay of the inevitable. I don’t know what happened, but with things like this, the plan is shot…”
“No. It’s all according to plan.”
“Huh? What did you say, magician?”
It was a close call, but we succeeded in luring the wolves into the trap, just as planned. I pushed myself up and said.
“We were the bait to lure the wolves and their king. We drew them in as scheduled, and we were buried in the trap as scheduled.”
“Wh-what? So the plan was to bury us in a trap…?”
“To be precise, it was to bury the wolves. We’re just collateral.”
Realizing the true nature of the plan, an Obeli Guard Dog grew indignant. Unable to contain their anger, the Obeli Guard Dogs approached me, their ears twitching furiously.
“You bastard! You think we followed you just to die a dog’s death like this?!”
“You won’t die.”
“We only survived because we were lucky! What would you have done if key fighters like Theia or Kito had died?!”
“Luck? No.”
I raised my hand and swept it across the ceiling. The roots and vines that had been hidden beneath the earth were supporting the rocks and soil like a net. A quick glance around revealed that a boulder that had landed upright was bearing the load like a pillar.
It’s all a little too convenient to be a coincidence, isn’t it?
“Our survival wasn’t luck, fate, or a miracle. It was an inevitability.”
“An inevitability? Are you saying the rocks recognized us and moved out of the way?”
“Yes. Because this is the inside of a trap.”
A trap. Hearing that word, the Obeli Guard Dogs turned their heads as if they’d remembered something. At the end of their gaze was Ende’s trap designer, Kito.
She was called a trap designer, but she was, in fact, a magician who had awakened her Unique Magic. Given the right situation and materials, she could become more powerful than anyone.
Maximilien, one of the Military State’s Six Generals, created his gear contraptions to utilize his Unique Magic, and the Primarch of the Fallen Dominion reigned using the Juggernaut that maximized his. A magician is the master of their own world. The more precisely they construct that world, the closer they come to being a god.
“Uh…”
People tended to underestimate Kito because she was a gentle rabbit beastkin, but that was only possible in the ignorant lands of Ende. What a magician can do depends entirely on the situation.
And inside this massive trap, Kito’s Unique Magic took control of the state of near-collapse.
“Everyone, um…”
The moment everything fell apart, Kito had unleashed her Unique Magic, saving the lives of the Obeli Guard Dogs. Amidst the collapsing earth and falling rocks, she didn’t stop the collapse itself but maintained it in its precarious state, with herself as the trigger, ready to be activated at will.
That was Kito’s Unique Magic, Miss Goldberg.
Her Unique Magic spread out. The ground, on the verge of caving in; the vine roots, about to snap; the teetering boulders; the traps that had been set beforehand and were now scattered everywhere—everything achieved a delicate, hair-trigger balance.
Grasping the chaotic power of the Earthfall’s aftermath with her Unique Magic, Kito realized what she was capable of. Trembling with a thrill, she slowly unfolded her flattened ears.
“I’ve… become a goooood.”