Chapter 525: The Hour of the Dog and Wolf - Finale
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 525: The Hour of the Dog and Wolf - Finale
Azzy had no time to intercept him. Grul had no chance to block. Fenrir charged straight for me, intent on unleashing all his ferocity.
Reacting after seeing him would be too late. I couldn't see him in the first place. Trusting only in the wolf's ferocity, I timed my move and drew Jizan.
Hidden just beneath a layer of earth was a trap over twenty meters deep. I used both Earth Art and my Unique Magic at once to capture Fenrir.
I willed the trap into existence—a feat that would have been impossible without Jizan, and without the fissures I'd created earlier. The ground split open with a great crack, threatening to swallow Fenrir whole. Even the Beast King can't stand without ground beneath his feet. Fenrir’s body plunged into the pit.
Just as Fenrir had said, human ferocity lies in turning everything into a weapon—be it a Divine, an ideology, or even a nonexistent illusion. All are honed for a single purpose.
The earth crumbled. Even as he fell, Fenrir leaped off the falling rocks to ascend. A net of tree roots descended upon him, but he shredded them effortlessly with his claws. Overwhelming power can overcome any number of cheap tricks.
Still, the advantage gained from those tricks, however slight, was real.
“Azzy.”
I murmured, tossing a small pebble limply into the pit.
“Fetch.”
“Woof!”
Azzy, who had been chasing Fenrir, took a great leap. Her shadow fell over Fenrir, who was momentarily delayed as he bounded off the falling rocks.
They collided in midair. Unable to find his next foothold, Fenrir began to fall in a wide arc.
“Grul, you too. Use all the ground you’ve chosen.”
“But that’s open air!”
“Exactly. Which means the wolf can’t move either.”
A place where I can’t move easily is a place where my opponent can’t either. Grul had already realized this and was charging forward. Reaching the edge of the pit, he gritted his teeth.
If I’m not on the ground, I can’t stop. He wants me to throw myself in. That magician… you son of a bitch!
Being unable to stop also meant he could fall with the same velocity he used to move. The recoil would be immense, but it was also an opportunity. Grul leaped, instantly deploying the ground he had prepared. The sound of a gunshot erupted from beneath his feet. Wielding the Axiom as his weapon, he gripped two daggers and pierced Fenrir.
“Awooo…!”
Flailing in midair, Fenrir’s only choice was how he would be hit. He twisted his body desperately. The dagger that had been aimed for his throat went slightly astray, piercing his shoulder instead. Grul’s massive frame slammed Fenrir into the opposite wall of the pit.
Even with the dagger tearing through him, Fenrir swung his arms and legs in a counterattack. With nowhere to dodge in the open air, Grul took the blow and was sent crashing ten meters to the bottom of the pit.
He had thrown off his attacker, but the Qi-infused strike had left Fenrir with a grievous wound. How could he move properly with a blade stuck through his shoulder?
Still in the air, Fenrir’s first instinct was to pull the blade from his shoulder. By then, I was already taking aim.
Human hands and shoulders are made for using tools. The first weapons were stones and branches, and throwing was the only way to use them. I used the Divine in the most primal way possible.
Thrown with all my strength, Jizan went spinning through the air. In the void, there was no way to dodge it. Worse, with a blade in his shoulder, he couldn't even block it properly. Jizan slammed into Fenrir, pinning him against the opposite wall.
Jizan wouldn't shatter the earth unless one used an immense amount of Qi, like the Regressor. But it cared little for any creature caught beneath it, just as a great mountain pays no mind to the insects it crushes.
The same held true even for the Beast King.
“Keheeng!”
Jizan bore down on Fenrir. It wouldn't stop until it hit the earth, regardless of whether its target was the Beast King or anything else. Caught between Jizan and the wall, Fenrir’s body was crushed.
A human might have dodged by shattering the wall instead of trying to block Jizan, but… it was too much to expect that kind of improvisation from a wolf.
Jizan finally struck the wall and ricocheted away, leaving Fenrir half-embedded in the stone like a fossil. Cracks spread out from his body, and with a great shudder, the wall collapsed.
Dust filled the deep pit. At the bottom, Azzy and Grul stared into the debris, their fur still bristling. Then, emerging from the dust, Fenrir appeared, his ferocity undiminished.
“Awooo…!”
“Give up, wolf. It’s over.”
But the long battle was finally nearing its end. The figure of Fenrir that emerged from the dust was a wretched sight. The dagger in his shoulder shifted with every movement, tearing the wound wider, and one of his arms was visibly crushed. His balance was gone; his gait was unsteady.
Even in this state, he could still rip apart hundreds of humans in an instant, but his opponents now were Azzy and Grul—monsters he couldn't easily defeat even at his peak.
We’d won. Sensing victory, Grul spoke.
“An easy victory, considering the reputation of the Wolf King. You played a large part, magician.”
“Easy for you, maybe. You spent half the fight choosing your ground and only jumped in at the end. I was the one who almost died.”
“It was the best way to ensure our victory. Weren’t you prepared for that? Besides, for someone who’s supposedly at death’s door, all your limbs seem to be attached.”
“I almost died several times! You just swooped in at the end to take the credit. I’m the one who did all the work.”
“Not yet. The most important contribution is yet to be made.”
I was the one who stalled for time and basically killed him, what is he talking about? Brimming with ambition, Grul held his remaining dagger in a reverse grip and approached Fenrir.
“A wounded beast is dangerous. Stay back. I’ll finish this.”
“You just want to land the final blow yourself…”
Grul grinned, dagger in hand, and closed in on the snarling Fenrir. But just then, Azzy stepped forward. With the half-crown hovering above her head, she approached Fenrir as if in a trance.
“The promise has been kept. Thank you, human.”
Unused to being called human, Grul answered a beat late.
“…Are you talking to me?”
“Yes. You too.”
“My thanks. I was only fighting to survive. Our intentions just happened to align.”
“Still, thank you.”
After expressing her gratitude, Azzy approached Fenrir alone. Grul, who had been eyeing the final blow, looked on with regret.
“Wait. If you’re going to take my glory… no, I suppose you, the Dog King, deserve it most. Hmph. Still, any chance you’d let me have it?”
“I’ll let you take the credit, so just be quiet and watch.”
Grul scratched his chin and stepped back. Azzy continued to approach Fenrir, her gaze fixed on him. As if sensing the end, the half-crown began to hum.
“I won. You lost, wolf.”
“Not yet, dog. I’m not dead.”
Even bleeding profusely, Fenrir lunged forward, his ferocity intact. But the Beast King was still a beast. And a beast bound by flesh, no matter how powerful, cannot escape its physical limitations.
His paw clearly didn’t reach as far as he’d intended. It swiped uselessly past Azzy. Fenrir didn’t stop, baring his fangs, but Azzy pinned him to the ground in a single motion.
Pinned beneath Azzy, Fenrir panted but answered with defiance.
“And the wolf… ferocity never disappears. It’s a mirror. It exists in humans, in dogs, and in wolves. As long as there is a will to survive, ferocity will always exist.”
“Woof. Maybe. But the promise was kept.”
Azzy took the dagger embedded in Fenrir’s shoulder in her mouth and pulled it out in one swift motion. The dammed-up blood spurted like a fountain for a moment. Azzy gazed down at the wound on her other half.
“You and I are the same. There is only one difference: a promise. A promise made with humans.”
“That is your promise, not mine.”
“Woof. No. You are me.”
With those words, Azzy began to lick Fenrir’s wound.
The saliva of the Beast King possessed minor healing properties. The bleeding from Fenrir’s wound gradually subsided. As the Beast King, his powerful life force would have stopped it eventually, but in his human form, he couldn’t have licked his own shoulder. Azzy was helping him heal.
“The human and I kept our promise. Now, the promise is gone. So, now you are me.”
“You want me to abandon my ferocity and be tamed?”
“No. The ferocity is me, and the tamed is me. It’s all me. There’s no need for us to be divided and fight.”
Beasts groom one another. It is an act less of service and more of goodwill, a gift from the one with more to spare.
Fenrir would never have done it, but goodwill can coexist with ferocity. Instead of finishing Fenrir off, Azzy spoke.
“A beast can be anything. It can be ferocious. That isn’t wrong. But it can also be tamed. That isn’t wrong, either.”
Azzy’s crown resonated. The Beast King is the embodiment of the species’ will. On behalf of her divided half, Azzy conveyed her intent to Fenrir.
“It’s strange to think one must be ferocious, or that one must be tamed.”
“A wolf cannot be tamed.”
“No. It can. Woof. Because I am a tamed wolf.”
Azzy pressed her head against Fenrir’s. The two halves of the crown touched. With a shudder, the thorny crown began to vibrate violently.
“The promise had to be kept. That’s why we were divided. The promise has been kept. We don’t need to be divided anymore.”
With no strength left to resist, Fenrir bared his teeth pathetically.
“…Ferocity doesn’t disappear. You will bite a human one day.”
“Woof. That’s fine. I can bite if I want. But it will be on my own terms.”
And the half-crown moved.
The two halves, once broken by someone, merged into one. It shifted from Azzy’s head to Fenrir’s. With a soft click, the pieces locked together as if they had never been apart, becoming whole once more.
Long ago, in a past no one now remembers, there was a wolf cast out from its pack. Starving and weak, it could only pant before its prey—a human.
Wolves are ferocious and dangerous. The logical thing to do would have been to kill it in its moment of weakness. But that day, the human felt pity for the dying wolf and shared their food.
Life is precious, even to a beast. The wolf came to see the human who had saved its precious life as one of its own pack. It stayed by the human’s side, protecting them. They groomed and cared for one another, protecting each other for a long, long time.
That is how the dog was born. Or rather, it was simply that the name for the wolf had changed. The dog made a promise with humanity, and because of it, dog and wolf were split apart to fight one another…
Now, after so much time and so much bloodshed, they had finally returned to the beginning.
Fenrir’s crown was now whole. Looking down at him, reborn as the undisputed Wolf King—both dog and wolf—Azzy declared, her voice still full of gentleness.
“You be the king.”