Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint-Chapter 526: One Mountain After Another

The King of Beasts represents the beasts—it does not rule them.

Yet, pack animals naturally follow the strongest among them. And the King of Beasts is not only powerful but possesses an innate leadership. It was only natural that a pack would form around it.

Thus, the wolf pack was created. Led by the King of Wolves, an entity born of savagery and a sworn enemy of humankind, the pack waged war against all humans.

But now, the King of Wolves had become the King of Beasts. The gentleness of a dog and the savagery of a wolf—both belonged to Fenrir. No longer a vessel of malice, Fenrir had lost the reason to burn itself out fighting humans.

And when there was no absolute need to fight, battle was hardly a favorable choice. The human army was simply too powerful to face with reckless abandon. Wolves were an anomaly—beasts, by nature, would rather flee than let their entire pack be slaughtered.

The wolves howled. Over and over, their heads raised toward the sky, their cries filled with pain and fear.

They began to retreat. The wolves that had been trapped by the crumbling earth dug tunnels to escape, and as soon as they heard the howls, they fled.

It was the dog's victory.

Blanca Baskerville also heard Fenrir’s howl. As a canine beastfolk, she could roughly guess what had happened to the King of Wolves.

"...Damn. So our king has fallen. Even in the wildest lands, wolves are destined to fade away, it seems."

Before her, the regressor stood, gripping Tianying, his body marred with light injuries, yet his blade still pointed at her.

To use Earth Drop, he had let go of Jizan. Weakened from expending his energy, he was about to rejoin the hunt for Fenrir—when Blanca Baskerville had intervened.

The King of Wolves was strong. Without an absolute principle or a relic of power, one could not hope to kill it. And the regressor, wielding Tianying, was the most dangerous enemy to that cause.

Having just used a major technique, he was vulnerable. Blanca and the elite warriors of the Baskerville clan seized the opportunity and attacked.

But a regressor on the defensive was an immovable mountain. With the Heavenly Reversal Sutra, the ultimate defensive technique, and Tianying, which controlled space itself, he managed to fend off the Baskervilles' deadly techniques while still protecting his loop.

As the battle dragged on, Blanca Baskerville sensed defeat.

"I should have at least killed you. Ahh... in the end, I've failed again. What am I supposed to do now?"

"What do you mean? Fenrir is dead, so your long-awaited king is gone, isn’t it? Go crawl into a hole and survive however you can."

"I can’t do that. My life was discarded long ago. If I don’t use it for something, it’ll just vanish into nothingness."

"Good! Then let it vanish into nothing! Stop making a mess of the world!"

Even a heartfelt cry cannot reach those standing on opposite sides. The divide between them was simply too vast for words to bridge.

"You wouldn’t understand," Blanca murmured. "The wish for the world to simply end."

"Understand? Understand?! How the hell am I supposed to understand you?!"

No matter how many times he was wounded, no matter how often he faced death, no matter how many times he was ultimately defeated by his enemies—he would always regress, determined to save the world. A regressor like him could never even attempt to comprehend Blanca’s despair.

"You were abandoned by humans? Yeah, I bet that was painful! Betrayed? Sure, that must have hurt! You want revenge? Fine, I get it! But why should the humans of Ende die for it?! Why does your despair have to be paid for in their blood?!"

Blanca suddenly asked an unexpected question.

"Have you ever buttoned up a shirt?"

She fiddled with the buttons of her dress shirt as she spoke.

"Sometimes, when you button up a shirt, you realize too late that you did it wrong. You missed the first buttonhole. When that happens, no matter how much you try to fix the ones after, it’s all misaligned. So you have to unbutton everything and start over."

Her fingers slid down the buttons near her throat, slowly working their way downward.

"The buttons themselves aren’t at fault. But what can you do? If the first button was fastened wrong, the only way to fix it is to undo them all and start again."

Click. Click. Click. Blanca unbuttoned her shirt from the bottom up. The neatly buttoned fabric loosened, revealing the skin beneath—pale, yet marred with grotesque scars.

No one could mistake those wounds for accidents. Each scar was meticulously carved, a deliberate act of malice seared into her flesh. Blanca quietly rebuttoned her shirt with a murmur.

"The world is the same way. Civilization—built higher and higher like a tower of gold. But what if, from the very start, it was built wrong? Then it has to be torn down. And built again, from the beginning."

"And what about the people who live inside it? Who get caught in the destruction?"

"I never thought too much about that. But... even if they all died... I don’t think I’d feel sad about it. Woof."

Blanca Baskerville turned away.

The King of Wolves. A ruler of boundless savagery. A useful tool.

But Fenrir had fallen, and Blanca had failed.

It was something she had anticipated, at least in part. From the start, the King of Wolves could only be accompanied by beastfolk—humans would never tolerate it. And a pack of beasts, as an army, was too strategically weak. Even against smaller, weaker forces, they crumbled easily. Just like now.

But... Fenrir had played its role. It had made the savagery of wolves known. That was enough.

"Let’s not see each other again," Blanca said, her voice laced with quiet sorrow. "Looking at you makes my fur feel like it’s all going to fall out."

With that, Blanca Baskerville left.

The regressor, having finally caught his breath, gazed at the empty space where the Baskervilles had vanished and whispered a reply they would never hear.

"Same here."

Fenrir, now bearing the complete crown, vanished somewhere.

Grull seemed a bit disappointed, but he didn’t argue over what had already been decided. After a quick discussion with me, he went on to announce that he had personally taken down the King of Wolves and took charge of handling the aftermath.

The battle had shifted from war to cleanup and relief efforts.

Kito’s unique magic had saved human lives, but it hadn’t granted them freedom. The Obelisk soldiers and the Beast Faction warriors worked together, hauling away rubble and rescuing trapped civilians.

Meanwhile, I climbed down into the pit to retrieve Jizan.

Azzy stood there, vacant, stripped of the crown. I called out to her.

"Azzy."

"Woof?"

"Are you alright? You won, but you ended up giving away the throne."

Azzy, as if shaking off sleep, answered cheerfully.

"Woof! I’m fine! Me, up! Wolf, down! Work, dumped!"

"Dumped? So the throne is just some chore you can push onto someone else?"

"Woof!"

Well. That makes sense for her.

Fenrir was, after all, a part of her—her other half.

Being the King of Beasts wasn’t necessarily a good position. It was a conceptual existence, bound to the archetype of beasts whether they liked it or not. Few Kings of Beasts were as shackled by promises and ideas as Azzy was. Maybe she had longed to break free of them.

But... what does a conceptual being become when it loses its concept?

"So what happens to you now?"

"Woof? Dunno?"

"Yeah, I guess if I don’t know, you wouldn’t either."

Would she disappear?

No, she was still standing here, so that didn’t seem to be the case. Maybe she had just lost the crown and its duties, nothing more. But that would be too convenient.

Would she become... like me?

That seemed the most likely.

Wait.

"You little mutt. You’ve been acting all high and mighty just because you were a little strong, huh? Throwing tantrums when I didn’t play with you. Running just out of reach whenever I tried to discipline you."

"Woof?"

"A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even after ten years. Time for you to learn how normal people suffer."

Now that Azzy wasn’t so overwhelmingly strong, this was my chance. I needed to establish our hierarchy properly. I reached out and flicked °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° her forehead.

Bonk.

"Boof!"

"Haha! How does it feel? Now you finally underst— ugh!"

Before I could finish, Azzy balled her fist and smacked me square in the head.

Even though she didn’t use her claws, getting hit by something that big was disorienting. My head rang from the impact. I barely regained my senses before I shouted,

"A dog just hit a human!"

"You hit me first!"

"But even if I hit you, you shouldn’t hit me back! You’re a dog!"

"Reciprocity!"

"Don’t start quoting international treaties at me!"

Wait. Hold on.

Azzy had always been strong. And she had always acted freely because of that strength.

But she had never hit me before.

The hardest she had ever pushed me was when she was trying to save me. That was the strongest form of violence she had ever used on me.

And yet, just now—whether she meant it or not—she had hit me.

"Hughes!"

A voice called from above.

The regressor suddenly peeked down into the pit.

About time.

Seeing an ally’s face in this mess made a surprising warmth swell in my chest. I never thought I’d reach a point where I’d actually miss the regressor. No wonder people get sentimental about their comrades.

"Fenrir was taken down, right?"

"Yeah. While you were slacking off, Miss Shei."

"I wasn’t slacking! I was keeping the Baskervilles from interfering! More importantly, what happened to Fenrir and Azzy?"

The regressor landed lightly beside me, glancing at Azzy before asking.

I answered in her place.

"We pushed Fenrir to the brink, and when I was about to finish it, Azzy gave Fenrir the crown instead. Fenrir, now complete, ran off."

"So the wolf and dog became one?"

"Something like that."

"Hmm..."

She didn’t seem particularly surprised that the crown had become whole. Instead, she stared at Azzy, lost in thought.

"In the previous regression, the crown also became whole. But back then, I heard that Fenrir... devoured the King of Dogs.

"Does the outcome change depending on who wins?"

So, the crown becoming whole had happened before? That meant I needed to hear about it.

Only the Holy Crown Church could tamper with the concept of the King of Beasts.

And the regressor’s abilities were similar to those of the Saintess. In the previous timeline, she had been deeply involved with the church.

If I wanted to know what had happened to Azzy and me, and what would happen to my power, I needed to ask her.

A brief silence settled before Grull’s voice echoed down into the pit.

"Hey! You lot! You can use that cudgel to manipulate the earth, right? Help out! Clearing the rubble without hurting the trapped civilians is going to take over a week at this rate!"

Well, first things first.

I handed Jizan to the regressor.

"Here, Miss Shei. Go move some rocks. You’re the one who collapsed the ground in the first place."

"You use Jizan. I’ll handle it with Tianying."

"I’m too injured from fighting Fenrir to lift Jizan."

"Injured? You look fine."

"I look fine? Someone like me, a normal person, is already at death’s door with these wounds, you know?"

"Injured? It just looks like you’ve got a bit of dust and blood on you."

That’s just from the surface. Underneath, my ligaments were stretched, my bones creaked, my arms had lengthened—I was practically a whole new species at this point.

The regressor eyed me suspiciously before sighing and taking Jizan from my hands.

"Alright, fine. Take a break— kyaah!"

The moment she grabbed Jizan, her body sank into the ground as if she had stepped into quicksand.

Just moments ago, Jizan had lent her its power. But now, it rejected her completely.

The regressor stared in shock at Jizan, which had fallen to the ground.

"Wh-what?! Jizan, why?! Is this because of Earth Drop? That was necessary! It was to save people!"

"See? That’s what happens when you don’t treat it with care. Asking the Earth’s deity to destroy the earth was bound to have consequences."

"But you agreed to that plan too!"

"Yeah, but the mastermind never takes the blame. It’s the one carrying it out that gets all the flak—same reason why the Holy Crown Church, despite all its meddling, still has a good reputation."

The ones who step forward always take the hits, while those one step behind reap the benefits. That’s why pioneers get all the praise—because the rest of us need someone else to take the fall first.

"Heh heh heh. It’s fine, Miss Shei. I’ll take good care of Jizan for you. You just sit back with Tianying and watch."

"Jizan...!"

Oh wow. She looked genuinely heartbroken.

I could milk this for so much teasing—

But then Grull’s voice boomed from above.

"Magician! Quit yapping and start working! If we don’t hurry, hundreds of people will be having dinner underground!"

"...Hey, Jizan. Can we just make up already?"

I didn’t really feel like working.

Eventually, Jizan would probably forgive the regressor.

But for now, it refused her.

So, I had no choice but to work too.

Even after a historic battle, there was no proper rest.

Azzy, the regressor, and I reluctantly climbed out of the pit—

And found an unexpected guest waiting for us.

"Miss Shei. There you are."

A man in a deep purple cloak emerged.

His lavish furs, luxurious enough to be unseen in Ende, and the sheer number of accessories covering his body made it seem as if he were wearing the wealth of several houses.

He bowed deeply to the regressor.

"I am Moore, representative of the Violet Trading Company. I congratulate you on your victory in Ende. As per our contract, we will now begin establishing the trade route through Ende."

The regressor gave a simple nod.

"A contract must be honored."

"Our company does not break faith. The agreement will be carried out as promised."

Then Moore added,

"But before that... there is something I must inform you of."

He paused, then spoke gravely.

"One of the Five Generals of the Lilac Duchy is marching on Ende."