WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 520: Hour of the Dog and the Wolf - Finale

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Azzy had no time to catch her. Gruel had no chance to stop her. Fenrir ran straight at me, intent on unleashing all her savagery on me.

By the time I saw her and reacted, it would be too late. I did not even have the ability to see her coming. I simply trusted in a wolf's savagery and drew Jizan in time with her charge.

One layer beneath the ground lay a trap more than twenty meters deep. To catch Fenrir, I used earthcraft and innate arcane at once.

Without Jizan, without the fissure Ground Drop had created underground, it would have been impossible to make this trap. I moved it with my will. The earth split apart with a crack, trying to swallow Fenrir. Even a Beast King could not stand without somewhere to set her feet. Fenrir fell into the trap.

As Fenrir had said, humanity's savagery turned everything in the world into a weapon. Whether it was the Demon God, an ideology, or even an illusion that did not exist, everything was honed into a weapon for a single purpose.

The ground crumbled. Even as she fell, Fenrir stepped on falling rocks and leaped upward. Tree roots descended over her like a net, but she easily tore them apart with her claws. With overwhelming strength, you could overcome any petty trick.

Still, however slight it might be, the advantage gained from a petty trick was real.

"Azzy."

I weakly tossed a small pebble into the trap and muttered,

"Fetch."

"Woof!"

Azzy, who had been chasing Fenrir, made a huge leap. Fenrir had been briefly delayed while using the falling rocks as footholds, and Azzy's shadow fell over her.

The two collided in midair. Unable to reach the next foothold, Fenrir began to fall in a gentle arc.

"Gruel, you too. Use all the ground you leveled."

"That's open air!"

"Which means the wolf can't move there either."

A place that was difficult for me to move through was difficult for my opponent as well. Gruel had already realized that and charged in. Reaching the edge of the trap, he gritted his teeth.

'I can't stop unless my feet are on the ground. You're telling me to throw myself in. You bastard of a magician!'

Not being able to stop also meant Gruel could fall at the same speed Ground Leveling moved him. The recoil would be tremendous for Gruel as well, but that was an opportunity too. Gruel spread out all the ground he had leveled in advance and leaped.

The sound of gunfire rang beneath his feet. Using the Principle as a weapon, Gruel gripped two daggers and pierced Fenrir.

"Awo...!"

All Fenrir could choose while flailing in midair was how she would be hit. She desperately twisted her body. The dagger aimed at her neck missed slightly and pierced her shoulder instead. Gruel's huge body drove Fenrir into the opposite wall.

Even as the dagger tore through her body, Fenrir swung her arms and legs to strike back. With nowhere to dodge in midair, Gruel took a hit and crashed into the ground ten meters below.

She had shaken off her enemy, but the qi-infused blow had left Fenrir critically wounded. She could not move properly with a blade lodged through her shoulder.

Even in midair, Fenrir first tried to pull the blade from her shoulder. By then, I was already aiming at her.

Human hands and shoulders existed to use tools. The first weapons had been stones and branches, and throwing them was the only way to use them. I used the Demon God in the most primitive way possible.

Jizan spun through the air as I threw it with all my strength. There was nothing in the open air to dodge with. With a blade lodged in her shoulder, Fenrir could not even block properly. Jizan struck her and slammed into the opposite wall.

Jizan would not break the ground unless it was driven by qi as monstrous as the regressor's. But the creature caught beneath it was another matter, just as Mount Tai did not care about an insect trapped beneath it.

Even if that creature was a Beast King.

"Keheeng!"

Jizan crushed Fenrir. Beast King or not, Jizan did not stop until it reached the ground. Fenrir's body, trapped between the earth and Jizan, was crushed.

A human might have broken the ground to escape instead of trying to block Jizan, but it was hard to expect that kind of quick thinking from a wolf.

Jizan eventually struck the wall and bounced away, leaving Fenrir half embedded in it like a fossil. Cracks spread from Fenrir, and with a tremendous rumble, the wall collapsed.

Dust filled the deep pit. Azzy and Gruel, who had fallen below, still had their fur standing on end as they stared into the rubble. Then Fenrir emerged through the dust, still baring her ferocity.

"Awooo...!"

"Give up, wolf. It's over."

The long fight was finally nearing its end. Fenrir looked miserable as she emerged from the dust. The dagger lodged in her shoulder shifted about, widening the wound, and one arm was visibly crushed. Her balance seemed to be off, and even her gait was unsteady.

Even in that condition, she could tear hundreds of humans apart in an instant. But her opponents now were Azzy and Gruel, monsters Fenrir had not been able to defeat easily even when she was uninjured.

We had won. Sensing victory, Gruel spoke.

"For someone with the name of King of Wolves, that was an easy victory. You deserve much of the credit, magician."

"It was easy for you because you spent so long leveling the ground and joined the fight late. I almost died."

"That was the best way to win. You were prepared for that too, weren't you? Besides, for someone claiming to have nearly died, all your limbs look intact."

"I nearly died several times. You're the one who only showed up to take the credit. I was the one who prepared the whole table."

"Not yet. Does the most important contribution not remain?"

Come to think of it, I had bought time and practically killed her myself. What was this nonsense? Gruel, overflowing with ambition, held his remaining dagger in a reverse grip and approached Fenrir.

"A wounded beast is dangerous. Stay back. I'll finish it."

"You just want to land the final blow..."

Gruel grinned and approached the snarling Fenrir with a dagger in hand. Then Azzy suddenly stepped forward. With the half crown on her head, Azzy walked toward Fenrir as if entranced.

"The promise was kept. Thank you, human."

Gruel was not used to being called human and answered half a beat late.

"...Were you talking to me?"

"Yeah. You too."

"Thanks. I only fought to survive as well. Our interests happened to align."

"Still, thanks is thanks."

After offering her thanks, Azzy walked toward Fenrir alone. Gruel, who had been aiming for the final blow, looked reluctant.

"Wait. If you're taking my credit... No, the one with the greatest merit is you, King of Dogs. Hm. If it's all right with you, could you let me have this one?"

"I'll say you killed her, so just watch quietly."

Gruel scratched his chin and stepped back. Azzy continued forward, staring directly at Fenrir. As if sensing the end, the half crown began to hum.

"I won. Wolf lost."

"Not yet, dog. I'm not dead."

Even while bleeding heavily, Fenrir charged with the same savagery as ever. But a Beast King was still a beast. No matter how powerful a creature with a physical body was, it could not escape its limits.

Fenrir's arm clearly had not extended as far as she intended. Her forepaw passed uselessly beside Azzy. Fenrir kept coming, baring her teeth, but Azzy instantly overpowered and pinned her down.

Trapped beneath Azzy, Fenrir panted and replied with the same savagery.

"And wolf too. Savagery doesn't disappear. Savagery is a mirror. Humans have it, dogs have it, and wolves have it. As long as there is savagery that wants to protect itself, it will keep appearing."

"Woof. Maybe. But the promise was kept."

Azzy bit down on the dagger lodged in Fenrir's shoulder and pulled it free in one motion. The blood that had been blocked briefly spurted out like a fountain. Azzy quietly looked down at the wounds on her other half.

"You and me, same. Only one difference. Promise. Promise made with humans."

"That's your promise, not mine."

"Woof. No. You, me."

After saying that, Azzy began licking Fenrir's wounds.

The saliva of a Beast King had a slight healing effect. The blood flowing from Fenrir's wounds gradually stopped. The bleeding would have stopped eventually, given a Beast King's tremendous vitality, but Fenrir, in human form, could not exactly lick beneath her own shoulder. Azzy was helping her recover.

"Human and me, promise kept. Now no promise. So now, you are me."

"You're telling me to abandon my savagery and be tamed?"

"No. Savagery is me. Being tame is me too. It's all me. We don't need to split apart and fight."

Beasts licked one another. It was less service than kindness, a gift given by the one with more room to spare.

Fenrir would never have done it, but kindness could coexist with savagery. Instead of ending Fenrir's life, Azzy said,

"Beast can do anything. Can be savage. That's not wrong. But can be tame too. That's not wrong either."

Azzy's crown resonated. A Beast King represented the will of its species. Speaking for the divided half, Azzy conveyed its will to Fenrir.

"Strange. Having to be savage, or having to be tame."

"Wolves aren't tamed."

"No. Tamed. Woof. Because I'm a tamed wolf."

Azzy pressed her forehead against Fenrir's. Their half crowns touched. The thorny, vine-like crowns shook violently.

"Promise had to be kept. So we split. Promise kept. No need to split."

Fenrir, with no strength left to resist, bared her teeth pitifully.

"...Savagery doesn't disappear. You will bite humans."

"Woof. That's okay. Can bite. But on my terms."

Then the half crown moved.

The halves of the crown someone had broken joined into one. It moved from Azzy's head to Fenrir's. With a click, it fit together as though it had always been whole.

Long ago, in a past no one remembered now, there was a wolf cast out from its pack. Starving and weak, the wolf panted even with a human, its prey, right before its eyes.

Wolves were savage and dangerous. It would have been reasonable to end its life while it was weak. Yet that day, a human who felt pity for the dying wolf shared food with it.

Life was precious even to a beast. The wolf regarded the human who had saved its precious life as part of its pack, staying by the human's side and protecting the human. They protected each other for a long time, licking and stroking one another.

That was how dogs were born. No, only the name for wolves had changed. Dogs made a promise with humans, and because of that, dogs and wolves split apart and fought each other...

Only after a long time and the shedding of so much blood did they return to where they had started.

Fenrir's crown became complete. Looking down at Fenrir, reborn as the unmistakable King of Wolves, king of both dogs and wolves, Azzy declared with the same gentleness in her eyes.

"You be king."

Footnotes:

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