Jizan possessed a weight comparable to Mount Tai. However, to the one chosen by Jizan, it felt only like a slightly heavy club. In reality, the Demon God moved according to its master's will, but either way, the Regressor was essentially wielding Mount Tai.
If so, let us entertain a childish imagination here. What would happen if Mount Tai were dropped from high up in the sky?
Just imagining it seems like a horrific disaster would occur, but in reality, that is not the case. Jizan is the Demon God of the Earth Mother Goddess. Jizan, too, is a part of the earth. It lands on the ground like an ordinary club. Without shattering the earth.
However, the Regressor forcibly twisted that logic.
"Cheonjigeomgon."
Qigong is the power to imprint one's will upon the world. He infused Jizan to the brim with qi enhanced by all sorts of elixirs and spiritual medicines. Is the qigong manifested through Jizan, which is the earth itself, Geongigong or Gongigong? One thing is certain: qigong that moves the earth does not need grandiose epithets.
The Regressor, who soared into the sky, aimed Jizan toward the ground below. Held between two fingers, Jizan swayed like a plumb bob before gradually coming to a halt. Eventually, Jizan, which had completely stopped moving, pointed exactly at the heart of the earth. Perhaps sensing the event about to occur, the handle of Jizan trembled.
'If I use this technique, perhaps because I incur the Grandmaster's displeasure, Jizan's authority weakens a bit... but it can't be helped. Sorry.'
The Regressor, having finished his apology inwardly, let go of Jizan and muttered.
"Earth Drop."
There was no noise.
There was no sign.
Mount Tai plummeting toward the ground below was surprisingly quiet and peaceful. Until it struck the earth, it was exactly the same as all ordinary things following the law of gravity.
...Until it struck the earth.
The fight between Aji and Fenrir left a massive scar on the earth. They slammed each other into the ground, bit, and struck wildly. A single strike easily sent the other rolling a hundred meters, and they would catch up as if that distance were a stone's throw, swinging their forelegs. When their forelegs struck each other's bodies or missed and hit the ground, a massive cloud of dust rose and scattered in all directions.
Regrettably, the one primarily being attacked was Aji. Fenrir's forelegs rained down on Aji as she curled her body. Along with Aji, the ground around her caved in deeply. Chasing after Aji as she tumbled down the slope and struggled to her feet, Fenrir bared its fangs.
"Dog! Bare your fangs more!"
"Woof...!"
"Awoooo! We weren't born to protect anyone! No one protects us. Only we can protect ourselves!"
Fenrir is a Hyungseong. Aji is a Taseong. No matter how much they exerted all their strength, the domains they governed were different. And that difference led to a disparity in full power.
The King of Wolves, Fenrir, led a massive pack like a true wolf. In contrast, Aji's pack consisted of humans, who could not become Aji's direct strength. If they fought purely one-on-one, it was a structure where the wolf had no choice but to win.
And until now, Fenrir would have won that way.
"Protecting humans? Will humans protect you? How many times is this? How many times do I have to kill you? How long must you wait for humans who never come? How much must you be bitten and torn before you realize it?!"
"...Woof. Can't realize."
Panting, Aji stood up once again. Compared to Fenrir, she looked much dirtier and more wounded. But Aji had not given up yet and barked back.
"Made, a promise. I, protect human. Human, protect me. Like flower and bee, help each other."
"They haven't helped until now!"
"Help, this time."
Aji's gaze turned toward the humans. Although she had been betrayed numerous times and reborn, this time, her faith was rewarded. Even if it was a rather insufficient reward, what mattered to Aji was that the promise had been kept.
"Cowards! Those humans?! Claiming to tame with brutality, yet they are cowards terrified out of their wits, pushing you forward, and they say they're helping!"
Fenrir barked loudly with a voice that made it unclear whether it was scoffing or crying. Was that distrust toward humans, or self-hatred directed at the dog who still believed in it?
Fenrir, having turned all of that into brutality, stared at the humans with glaring eyes.
"Awooooo! If your ignorance is because of a promise! Then I will tear that promise apart!"
Killing the King of Dogs would not end this loathsome fight. What needed to be killed... was humans.
Hostility turned from the dog to the humans. Was the intention to kill the humans and erase the promise itself?
Fenrir, wearing a half-crown, charged at us with a target lock. Aji, having read Fenrir's intent, rushed over like an arrow and blocked Fenrir. In the midst of the chaos where the wolf stormed, the dog barked, and the humans shouted as they charged in.
Jizan fell right in the middle of the battlefield.
At first, it was quiet. Jizan softly dug into the dirt. Dirt and sand splashed, and only then did the wolves and humans perceive that 'something had fallen.'
Even as it dug deep, it did not stop. Mount Tai pierced the skin of the earth and aimed for its heart. The soil hardened by alternating floods and droughts, the sprouts underneath holding their breath in anticipation of blooming next year, the burrows dug by small beasts to hide from predators.
Piercing through all of it, Jizan fell even further down.
Jizan, harboring the weight of Mount Tai, barely lost its speed even as it collided with the ground. Not fast enough to cleanly pierce through, yet without losing its momentum. Raking through the underground like a hook, Jizan continued to fall.
Jizan, falling and falling, finally touched the bedrock far below, which was firmly packed and supporting the earth.
However heavy Mount Tai may be, it cannot be heavier than the entire earth. Finally, Jizan met a collision worthy of being called a collision.
And the earth's axis twisted.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
"Awoooooo!"
Humans and wolves alike screamed in unison. Centered on the epicenter of the Earth Drop, a massive crack formed. As if someone had thrown a stone onto a thin sheet of ice, the ground shattered like a glass window, sinking and surging.
The fractured ground sprang up, and into the resulting void, the earth collapsed. The earth is not a single mass. The earth, divided into multiple objects, moved to find its own path.
Wolves and humans alike had to struggle equally in the face of the disaster. They slipped, fell, grabbed, hung on, roared, screamed, wept, and cried out as they trampled each other.
The Oberly guard dogs, the wolves, the dogs, the Beast Faction warriors and Obelisk a little further away. Or even Baskerville and the other priests who were still holding their breath. There were differences in degree, but no one could escape the aftermath.
The battlefield was buried in massive chaos and shock.
I don't know how many slipped and fell. The densely packed Oberly guard dogs and canines took a direct hit and were buried. Even amidst slipping, rolling, dirt falling, and rocks pouring down, they tenaciously held on.
The shock that seemed like it would last forever ended. In that place where hundreds were tangled together, the Oberly guard dogs regained their senses and staggered to their feet.
"Cough, cough! Cough, cough!"
"Yelp, woof! Woof!"
"Bokshil, you're safe... Is everyone alright?"
"Fortunately, we only slid down."
A beastperson who has learned qigong to some extent wouldn't get hurt just from rolling and falling. However, no matter how tough a beastperson was, they couldn't say the current situation of being buried dozens of meters underground was good. The Oberly guard dog trembled as they looked at the precariously interlocked boulders on the dark floor.
"Fortunately, it seems the boulders piled up like a roof and created a space. I'm not sure if I should consider this a blessing, or just a slight delay in dying. I don't know what happened, but with the situation like this, the operation is down the drain..."
"No. It's going according to the plan."
"Huh? What did you say, Magician?"
It was precarious, but just as planned, we succeeded in dropping the wolves into a pit. I said as I raised my body.
"We were bait to lure the wolves and the Wolf King. We drew them in as scheduled, and got buried in the trap as scheduled."
"W-What. Then the operation was... to bury us in a trap...?"
"Strictly speaking, it's to bury the wolves. We're just a bonus."
The Oberly guard dogs, realizing the true nature of the operation, were outraged. Unable to contain their anger, the Oberly guard dogs approached me with their ears trembling.
"You bastard! Do you think we followed you to die a dog's death like that?!"
"We won't die."
"We survived because we were lucky! What if an important force like Ms. Teia or Kito had died!"
"Luck? No."
I raised my hand and gently swept it across the ceiling. Grass roots and vines hidden beneath the ground were supporting the rocks and soil like a net. Glancing back, a rock that had stood upright during the fall was bearing the load like a pillar.
It was too perfect to be a coincidence.
"Our survival is not luck, fate, or a miracle. It's inevitability."
"Inevitability? Did the rocks recognize us and avoid us or something?"
"Yes. Because this is inside a trap."
Trap. Hearing that word, the Oberly guard dogs turned their heads as if recalling something. At the end of their gaze was Ende's Trap Designer, Kito.
Trap Designer by title, but in reality, a magician who had awakened a Unique Demon Dao. If only the situation and materials were prepared, they would become more powerful than anyone.
Maximilian, the Yukjangseong of the Military Nation, created a cogwheel device to utilize his Unique Demon Dao, and the Cult Master of the Yeolguk reigned using a Juggernaut that maximized his Unique Demon Dao. A magician is the master of their own world. The more intricately they construct their world, the closer they get to godhood.
"Uh..."
We had been implicitly ignoring Kito because she was a gentle rabbit beastperson, but that was only possible in the ignorant Ende. What a magician can do depends on the situation.
And inside the massive trap, Kito's Unique Demon Dao controlled the state right before collapse.
"Everyone, um..."
Kito, who had unleashed her Unique Demon Dao the moment everything collapsed, saved the lives of the Oberly guard dogs. Even as the ground crumbled and rocks poured down, she prevented the collapse itself and maintained that state. With Kito as the trigger, so it could be activated whenever she wanted.
That was Kito's Unique Demon Dao, Miss Goldberg.
The Unique Demon Dao stretched out. The ground that seemed ready to collapse at any moment, the vine roots that seemed about to snap, the swaying rocks, the traps that had been set in advance and then scattered in all directions as they fell—everything formed a precarious balance.
Kito, who was grasping the aftermath of the Regressor's Earth Drop, that chaotic power, with her Unique Demon Dao, realized what she could do. Kito trembled with thrill and slowly unfolded her folded ears.
"I've become... a gooodddd."