Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint

Teia ran. She carried the lives of tens of thousands on her back, but she ignored them, running only for herself. Teia was a legend in racing history, a mythical figure whose very shadow being stepped on was considered an achievement. She sprinted as if the vast plains of Ende were too narrow, leaving the world's scenery blurred behind her.

But her opponent was the King of Beasts. The pounding of heavy paws against the ground closed in dangerously. Hot breath seemed to graze the nape of her neck.

Teia didn’t rely on her senses—her instincts told her everything. She wasn’t getting any farther away. If anything, she was barely keeping ahead.

Was it more impressive that Fenrir was trying to catch up to Teia, the legend of racing history? Or was it more astounding that a mere human was trying to escape the King of Beasts?

Perhaps both were remarkable. But in that moment, neither Teia nor Fenrir cared about how others saw them. They ran—one to survive, the other to kill.

No one was ahead of her. A terrifying presence pursued her from behind. The goal was not yet in sight, but the pressure was closing in.

So this was the fear of leading the race. Teia finally understood why racehorses hesitated to take the front. Enduring that pressure while fleeing from an unseen opponent was unimaginably difficult.

Still, there were times when even the most difficult things had to be done.

For the first time in her life, Teia fled.

"They're—They’re coming! The wolves are coming!"

The guard dogs, feeling the tremors in the ground, shouted. Beastfolk hurriedly abandoned their futile bear traps, scrambling to regroup. Holding their spears with tense grips, their eyes widened at the sight before them.

"...Dear gods."

Two figures raced toward them, kicking up clouds of dust. Teia, gritting her teeth in a desperate sprint, and behind her, the King of Wolves, relentlessly closing the distance. The space between them seemed vast at a glance, but at their speed, they appeared practically neck-and-neck. Distance was relative—for those two, it might as well have been nothing.

The guard dogs stared at the monstrous presence tailing Teia.

"Is that... the King of Wolves?"

And then, moments later, hundreds of wolves emerged over the ridge, following their king.

Wolves formed packs. But without a structured political hierarchy, their numbers could only grow so large. Too many mouths to feed, too many conflicts—no mere beasts could manage such exponential complications.

And yet, beneath the overwhelming strength of the King of Beasts, the sheer size of this pack was beyond belief.

The wolves, following their king, howled fiercely, brimming with raw savagery. Each one was massive, their strides swift. They advanced with the speed of cavalry, their howls reverberating through the battlefield.

[Awoooooo—!]

[Awooooo—!]

The howls spread outward. Other wolves, lurking in the vicinity, turned their attention toward them and began closing in. Witnessing their numbers swell, an Obeli guard dog shouted in terror.

"The wolves are coming! There’s too many! We have to retreat—"

The words barely left his mouth before he turned around and recoiled in horror.

"They’re behind us too!"

"What? Behind us?!"

"They flanked us?!"

Hundreds of beasts were storming in from the opposite direction. Running away was already difficult—but now they were surrounded. Staying here meant certain death.

A dire situation. One of the Obeli guard dogs yelled in desperation.

"Magician! Kito! Do you have anything?!"

They were coming. But before that—

I waved the flag high. This was the finish line. Once Teia crossed it, everything would begin.

Teia spotted the finish line and clenched her teeth, pushing herself into a final burst of speed.

She had run at full power from start to finish. Her legs trembled, having reached the absolute limit of human endurance, of human martial prowess. Yet, just barely, she managed to shake off the King of Wolves and threw herself forward.

"I MADE IT—!"

Thud. Teia stumbled upon reaching the finish line. Relief nearly made her collapse, but she gritted her teeth and forced one more step forward. She slowed slightly, gasping for breath, and turned to look behind her.

"Fenrir?!"

This finish line was something we had arbitrarily decided. The wolves had no reason to respect it. She anxiously searched for the pursuing beast—only to find that the King of Wolves had stopped long before reaching her.

The King of Wolves looked as if someone had dipped Azzy into a different-colored paint. His features, his fur, his physique—everything was identical to Azzy. The only differences were the color of his coat and the aura surrounding him.

The monstrous presence that had been charging forward mere moments ago now stood still, eyes locked on something beyond our position.

Teia, still gasping for air, muttered in confusion.

"What... is he looking at?"

It had to be his other half.

Following the King of Wolves' gaze, I turned and looked at the beasts approaching from behind us.

"Woo! Woo!"

"Bark!"

"Grrrr!"

The movement was less coordinated than the wolves. Their appearances were oddly varied. Yet, despite their differences, the beasts ran as one, united under a single will.

And at the front of the pack, leading them, was the King of Dogs—Azzy.

"That's Matthew’s Fluffy, isn't it? Those aren't wolves... They're dogs?"

They finally realized. The ones approaching from behind us weren’t wolves. They were reinforcements.

Ende was a city of beastfolk. But beastfolk, too, ate meat and raised animals. Just as some raised pigs for food, many also kept dogs. In a place like Ende, where theft was rampant, dogs were primarily used to guard homes and property.

Though individually weak and incapable of complex tactics, Azzy had united them under the power of a king.

"Awooooooo!"

Azzy sprinted on all fours. Just as the King of Wolves had pursued Teia with intent to kill, Azzy sensed that murderous intent and raced to save her. His speed was equal to that of the wolf king.

Azzy’s monstrous presence did not affect humans. It could influence other creatures, but as the King of Dogs, whose nature was inherently gentle, it rarely manifested.

But against the King of Wolves—his natural rival, the embodiment of primal instinct—Azzy would fight with all his strength.

Crunch. Crack. A crown began to form on Azzy’s head. Facing his destined opponent, he was now standing as the champion of all dogs, ready to fight the wolves.

And the King of Wolves responded in kind.

"Dog...!"

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Flames flickered in the King of Wolves' eyes. His monstrous presence, restrained until now, fully unfurled as he glared at the other half of his kind—the one he loathed even more than humans. Crack. The air above his head split apart as a crown of his own began to emerge.

A half-crown, mirroring the one on Azzy’s head.

"Awooooooooooo—!!"

The King of Wolves changed his target. The beast ruler, who had been charging toward humans, now turned his fury toward the dog. The world trembled as it bore witness to the wrath of the wolf.

Even other wolves hesitated in fear. Some of the charging dogs stumbled and tumbled, but Azzy's eyes burned with resolve as he accelerated.

And in the final moment, a brown blur shot forward, crashing into the King of Wolves.

Thud, thud, thud. The two beasts rolled across the ground dozens of times. Their front paws, claws unsheathed, pressed against each other. Their razor-sharp fangs lunged for the other’s throat. In the mere seconds it took them to complete a single roll, they had already exchanged dozens of blows. And then, as they both went for a finishing bite, their foreheads collided.

The half-crowns clashed. Shockwaves spread like black cracks through the air. Compared to the power behind that collision, a mere girl’s body was too light—both kings were thrown back in opposite directions.

Azzy tumbled across the ground, rolling all the way to my feet. Covered in dust, he scrambled to his paws with a disheveled look. The King of Wolves, on the other hand, swiftly regained his footing and lunged again.

Sensing danger, Azzy’s fur bristled. He looked... rushed.

"Azzy. Take it easy. You don’t have to win alone."

"Woof!"

Azzy barked confidently and leapt forward once more. Whether he heard me or not, he clenched his teeth and hurled himself at the King of Wolves again.

Perhaps because it was so obvious, the King of Wolves had been staring at Azzy closely—he moved in a flash. Boom. His massive front paw slammed down, striking Azzy square on the head. Azzy's body was driven into the ground, dust bursting into the air around him, as if revealing the sheer impact of the blow.

"A...wooooo!"

Yet, even as he was buried in the earth, Azzy shot back up and tackled the King of Wolves. Dragging the fight into a chaotic brawl, Azzy continued to push forward, even as he took hit after hit.

"The King of Dogs is being pushed back...!"

"He’s not just getting pushed back—he's also trying to protect us!"

Azzy endured the wolves’ attacks while working to keep them as far from the humans as possible. His struggle, breaking out in the heart of the wolf pack, caused their momentum to waver. In that brief moment, the dogs of Ende and the Obeli guards rallied together, countering the wolves' assault. The wolves' ferocity was overwhelming, but the combined forces of man and dog stood firm.

Dogs and wolves had once been the same. At some point, they diverged—some became friendly to humans, while others remained wild and dangerous.

Yet dogs could still bite humans, and wolves could still form bonds with them. They had once been one. No beast inherently obeyed or opposed humans. They were not simple forces of nature.

But someone had changed that.

"Someone artificially divided dogs and wolves."

They had poured pure instinct into the "wolf" and blind domestication into the "dog." By exploiting their shared origins, they had turned the two into forces, rather than mere species.

So they °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° were identical, yet polar opposites. The feral wolf and the tamed dog, doomed to fight each other to the death.

"There's only one person capable of doing something like this... but I'll think about that later."

The front lines were crumbling. More and more dogs were getting bitten by the wolves. The Obeli guards tried to support them with their spears, but as soon as their formation broke, the wolves surged in, lashing out with claws and fangs.

"Agh! My arm! My arm!"

"Throw the nets!"

Both sides were inflicting wounds upon each other, barely holding the line. But if the pack personally led by the King of Wolves struck, it would all be over. The situation was hanging by a thread.

Then, from both flanks, reinforcements appeared. From the direction of Ende, the main beastfolk army arrived, led by the Obelisk soldiers. On the other side, the warriors of the Beast Faction, led by Grull, stormed onto the battlefield.

"Magician, you insane bastard! Who gave you permission to use someone as bait?!"

"Hmph. It wasn’t part of the plan, but we’ve ended up surrounding them. Now is the time! Warriors! Charge before your blood cools!"

Both Sapien and Grull gathered their forces and pressed forward. No doubt the humans who had sided with the wolves would also make their move.

This was the battlefield. Everything was in place.

I turned my gaze skyward, toward the one hiding in the shadows.

"Shei! Now! Do it!"

Even if I didn’t fully trust that regressor’s plan, right now, we had no choice but to rely on it.

Let’s see what she’s got.