Chapter 293

The serene moonlight shone on the man and woman. The young man stared silently at the woman with her head down. Her penetrated chest heaved up and down with occasional spasms.

“I…” The queen managed to mutter, “lost…” Surprisingly, she didn’t sound defeated or negative, but her voice didn’t sound positive either. It was a calm tone of acceptance. “Yeah…” She strained to lift her head. “You were being truthful…” She stared up at Chi-Woo, whose face was almost touching hers. “It wasn’t a sudden awakening…” Although her blank, spazzing eyes look like those of an insane person, her gaze was still focused on him. “Or going berserk… You can return… Don’t overdo it… Go back to the way you are…” The queen continued with difficulty, her eyes fixed on him. “I’ll…soon…anyway…” However, before she could finish, her body tilted downwards.

The old trees, which were once big enough to cover the Hala Forest, began to collapse one by one. The withered leaves turned yellow and fell, and the branches dried up and twisted before scattering into a handful of ashes. Eventually, the queen, who only had her upper body left, fell to the ground.

“I don’t know what it is…” she continued while looking up at the moon in the night sky. “You shouldn’t…use that if you can…” She sounded worried for him. “It looks…very tiring…”

It was only then that Chi-Woo’s outstretched arm finally dropped. Slowly, very slowly. And the glow began to fade, including his s.h.i.+ning eyes and the light brightly shooting out of his body. It completely disappeared as if he was fading away.

When he returned to his original state, the queen gave him a small smile. “Thanks…” Then she let out a long breath. “For making…me….understand…” Then with those last words, she stopped moving. Her eyes were half-closed, and the pupils of her eyes were blurred and faded. Her last words were thanking him for giving her a defeat that she could acknowledge.

Chi-Woo’s expression was bitter as he looked down at the queen. He didn’t feel good. Although he had defeated a strong opponent, rather than feeling relieved, he felt uncomfortable. It felt like he had killed a child who was pushed into a war without knowing anything. He wanted to close her eyes for her, but he was not in the position to do so.

Thud. Chi-Woo also collapsed. He really didn’t have the strength to even lift a finger. When he had gone to the future, he had gone berserk after being swept away by his surroundings, but he was firmly prepared this time. Of course, after releasing the second stage of his seal, he realized that his resolutions had been useless. Control it? It wasn’t possible. He wouldn’t dare think about it; it was difficult to even not lose control of his consciousness. In fact, it felt like he had lost himself for seven or eight seconds every ten seconds. Still, he tried to suppress the power that controlled his body whenever his consciousness returned. Although the queen was pushed back continuously, this was also the reason why the queen could keep trying new moves against Chi-Woo.

On the other hand, Chi-Woo’s hard efforts to stay in control paid off in the end. Chi-Woo, whose mind had been hanging on a tightrope, heard the queen’s voice while his consciousness was gradually fading and was able to recover himself for a while. And he used his last remaining energy to seal his second stage again. Although he was successful, this wasn’t the end; it was now time for him to pay up.

“Chi-Woo!” Evelyn hurriedly came running to him. The expedition members, who followed behind her, halted after reaching him. They looked around blankly, speechless. The entire Hala Forest was turned over; there was no other way to describe it. It was a devastation caused by two absolute beings fighting against each other. It wasn’t like this even when the Sun King blew himself up.

“No…” Worry filled Evelyn’s face as she quickly tried to heal Chi-Woo. Divinity was not getting through to him. All the holy energy she pushed into him was swept away and disappeared; this was how serious his condition was. However, one fortunate aspect was that his internal structure was not completely shattered; although it felt as if it was about to break, it was still maintaining its basic form.

“I’m all right…” Chi-Woo muttered in a barely audible voice. “I didn’t seal…my first stage abilities yet… If I rest a bit…”

“Don’t talk. Save your energy.” Evelyn generously poured out divinity while sweating profusely.

Should he close his eyes like this? Or hang in there a little longer? When his eyes were almost closed, Chi-Woo suddenly realized something. ‘Come to think of it…’ He realized that he couldn’t hear a wolf howling anymore.

‘No way.’ Something might have gone wrong due to the shock of the battle with the queen. Although there was normally no way Hurodvitniru would be injured by this, she was giving birth. She was greatly debilitated, and her condition couldn’t be guaranteed because she was in an especially sensitive state. Chi-Woo couldn’t help but worry and tried to lift his body.

“What’s wrong? Why are you getting up?” Evelyn was trying to stop him when she heard a presence and turned around. Then her eyes widened. “You…” A huge shadow emerged through the rubble. Although her luxurious, silver hair had become matted and coa.r.s.e, and she had lost a lot of weight and became skinny with her sharp claws gone, the figure strolling towards them on all fours was undeniably the last fenrir.

“Hurodvitniru?” Evelyn called out her name and couldn’t speak anymore because she saw a baby fenrir following her. Although the fenrir was only about the size of a dog, the beautiful silver-white fur that seemed to have absorbed the moonlight and their n.o.ble presence marked them as a fenrir. The fenrir cub was finally born. Although they were still just a newborn cub, the new G.o.d of fenrir, who would be responsible for the future of their tribe, had been born. Hurodvitniru unsteadily walked towards them and looked around after collecting her breath. She looked between the corpse of the queen, who only had her upper body left, and Chi-Woo, and then she slowly approached him and dropped something from her mouth. Chi-Woo felt something heavy hit his chest. Without even the strength to lift his head, Chi-Woo blinked. Meanwhile, Evelyn looked surprised because she saw a sharp fang containing the moonlight.

Evelyn asked, “Why are you…?”

“A day when the lunar eclipse lasted for a long time,” Hawa spoke up. She went on to tell a story: the G.o.ds who were fearful of the fenrirs’ rough and fierce power gathered and conspired against them to start a war. Although the fenrirs bravely fought against the G.o.ds, they were at the crossroads of destruction. At that time, an apostle of a neutral G.o.d suddenly appeared and stood by the fenrirs to fight alongside them. The apostle defeated the armies of the G.o.ds with terrifying powers and succeeded in repelling their opponents. The apostle’s sudden intervention led to many G.o.ds hating their denomination, but in contrast, they earned the fenrirs’ grat.i.tude. The fenrirs, who were famous for their solitude and pride, expressed deep grat.i.tude to the apostle and bowed to ask for future protection.

“As a token of grat.i.tude, the head of the fenrirs pulled out their fangs and offered it to the apostle…” Hawa breathed out and continued, “It’s an ancient story from unofficial records. Although it hasn’t been proven…it’s the only record of the fenrirs bowing to anyone.”

Evelyn now knew why Hurodvitniru dropped her fang; she must have been grateful that Chi-Woo protected and fought for her. And…

Thud! Hurodvitniru suddenly fell with a loud impact. Her tongue rolled out, and she breathed so roughly that it felt like she was going to choke. Everyone who was looking at her, including her cub, were startled and quickly ran toward Hurodvitniru. No—the cub tried to, but Hurodvitniru pushed them away. She pushed the cub away so firmly that it seemed even cold-hearted.

The cub kept trying to get closer despite the rejection, but Hurodvitniru pushed them away every time, especially toward Chi-Woo. Later on, she strongly swung her legs while mustering her last remaining strength. When the cub rolled back several times, but stood up and tried to approach their mother again even while groaning, Hurodivituru growled fiercely with her fangs bared. The baby Fenrir flinched at their mother’s ferocious growl. They looked around and glanced back at Hurodivituru, but her intention was clear.

“Arf…” Eventually, the cub lowered their ears and tail and made a whining sound. However, Hurodivituru didn’t even glance at the cub. It was a truly unfortunate situation, and Chi-Woo recalled what the queen had said to him. Hurodvitniru would die after giving birth; after fulfilling her duty, she would go back into nothingness. Recalling that, Chi-Woo could understand why Hurodvitniru was acting this way.

‘She’s probably…’ Hurodvitniru probably felt sorry for her cub. Although they were going to become fenrirs’ new G.o.d, the cub was still her own baby that she gave birth to with a lot of pain and effort. She probably felt sorry that she had to leave them without providing them with proper guidance and care as a parent. They would be left alone as soon as they were born with the heavy burden of reviving their species.

Chi-Woo could understand a bit why Hurodivituru was purposely withholding affection from the cub, but he decided to speak up instead of staying silent. “Please let them…approach you…”

Hurodvitniru, who was looking away, glanced at Chi-Woo.

“This is their first…and last meeting with you…” He kept talking with involuntary pauses. “Even if they miss you for a long time…every time they think of you…they’ll remember it…as a good memory…”

Hurodvitniru’s face became increasingly conflicted at his words. Then she swiftly turned around when she saw her baby’s mournful eyes. She was more stubborn than he thought, but for some reason, he had a feeling that she wouldn’t push her cub away anymore if they came near her.

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“Arf….” The fenrir cub seemed to have also gotten the same feeling as they took a step forward their mother with a whine. Hurodivitu sighed like she thought it couldn’t be helped and looked at them with softer eyes. The baby fenrir’s complexion brightened up.

“Woof!” The cub barked loudly and ran as if they were flying towards their mother when—

Swiis.h.!.+ Suddenly, thorn-like things fell from the sky, and Chi-Woo and the others all witnessed what happened next clearly. Hurodvitniru, whose whole body was penetrated by the thorns from head to toe, wriggled once and then drooped down and stopped moving. She didn’t show any signs of movement with her eyes wide open. Soon after, her whole body radiated moonlight and scattered. The baby fenrir, who had been running excitedly, slowed and eventually stopped—while Hurodvitniru returned to the moon with her tongue sticking out.

“Hahaha! Hahahahahah!” Then a loud, boisterous laugh filled the silence. Everyone’s eyes widened when they turned back towards the direction of the sound. “I ate it! I ate it! Ahhh! This power…!” The queen, who they had thought was dead, was standing still and cheering with her arms wide open.

Chi-Woo was sure he had killed her, but how… No, she wasn’t the queen he just killed. The new queen didn’t have the n.o.bleness that seemed to contain the s.h.i.+ning moon or the purity that felt holy to anyone in her presence. She didn’t possess the dreamy aura that felt elegant, either. She didn’t have any of those characteristics. On the contrary, she had the grotesque bizarreness of a being merely imitating another by cramming an array of things together. Her similarity to the queen ended at her appearance, and her true nature was something else entirely.

“It’s over! It’s all over! I’m the queen now!”

Evelyn was stunned to hear the ensuing cry. She quickly looked where the queen’s corpse had been and saw nothing. Without anyone knowing, the body had disappeared. It seemed the new queen had absorbed the queen’s corpse while everyone was focused on Hurodvitniru and her cub.

“I, who was the weakest among the candidates, have managed to…no! It’s not that the strong survives, but the one who survives is the strong one!”

There were a total of five king candidates. Four of them had died, so there was still one left. When the tree queen was alive, the other queen was nowhere to be seen, so no one had expected her to be aiming for this opportunity.

“I’m the strongest now!”

Evelyn became despondent as she looked at her opponent jumping in joy. Most of the expedition members were in no condition to fight. Chi-Woo, Ru Amuh, and the other Celestial Lights had already fainted or could barely move. There was at least her and Hawa left, but it was impossible for the two of them to win this fight alone.

“Just in case, I also took care of the mother. Now, if I just eat the baby…!” The queen, who had been laughing madly, smacked her lips when she saw the fenrir cub.

Then Evelyn clearly saw what happened next. Chi-Woo, who had been staring at Hurodvitniru with a blank face like the fenrir cub, clutched the fang on his chest and looked back at his opponent. “Ugh…” He had no idea where he got his strength from, but he shouted with all his might and ran towards the queen like a wild animal, “Stop messing around! You f.u.c.ker!”

Evelyn called out to him, “Chi-Woo! Chi-Woo!”

Chi-Woo couldn’t remember what happened for a moment. He just needed to stab, cut, and pierce something to let out the anger wreaking havoc inside him.

“Stop! Sir, stop!”

Chi-Woo could hear several voices behind him and also felt several hands holding him back. He noticed them, but he didn’t want to stop. However, he had no choice but to do so.

“Teacher! Teacher! Please…!” It was because Ru Amuh, who was in great pain, stopped him. When he looked down, the last candidate who mimicked the tree queen was in complete tatters, to the point that her form was unrecognizable. Covered in liquids, the fang inside Chi-Woo’s hand dropped. Chi-Woo’s mouth trembled as he breathed hard and collapsed.

‘I…again…’ He had sealed his second stage’s ability for sure, but he couldn’t hold it in. He was driven by emotions and impulse. His body trembled, and he felt like he was becoming less like himself. Maybe it was because he used the ability again before he fully recovered, his already messed up body became even more devastated. Feelings of weakness and fatigue doubled tenfold. Chi-Woo lay down and squeezed out his last remaining energy to turn his head. He saw the fenrir cub, which was still standing frozen like a stone, and Hurodvitniru, who had already disappeared half-way. Her eyes seemed to be telling him to take good care of this child. With this last memory, Chi-Woo closed his eyes under a night sky in which the moon was softly glowing.