He said he did not love humanity.
He said he could not give humanity the freedom they wanted, and so he was unfit to become a god.
Yet in the end, he chose to pour his power into the land of Mondstadt, regulating its ley lines and quelling all manner of hidden disasters, granting Mondstadt an unseen peace and stability.
It left behind only a Remnant Soul and a wisp of power in the Trial Ground.
He thought he could offer trials to future generations this way.
He thought he could watch over the wolves this way.
It thought it could remain in Wolvendom as this last Remnant Soul, watching over the land it had once protected.
Perhaps he did love humanity, and this land as well. He simply understood that he could not give people the freedom they longed for, and so chose to relinquish godhood.
But now...
As he looked at the wolves' corpses on the ground, at the land of Mondstadt shrouded in a black calamity, at the countless monsters rushing toward Mondstadt City...
The weary old wolf let out a sigh weathered by the ages.
He had lingered in the world in this form because he wanted to watch this land he had protected, and the living beings who made their homes upon it.
But now, disaster had devoured everything.
What meaning was there in his lingering in this world?
He lowered his head and looked at Razor, who lay gravely wounded on the ground, barely breathing, on the brink of death.
Over the years, he had taken in some abandoned human infants.
But without exception, those children had returned to human society after growing up, never coming back to the wolves.
Yet he had seen how Razor and the wolves protected one another.
Once, he