The Sun of the Origin
The Magic God of Dimensions looked up at the Sun Spirit God floating above his head as though stepping on it. From below, through the hem of her flowing skirt, he could just barely glimpse the crimson undergarment known as silk between her pale legs. Her underwear is showing! Whether she knows it or not, she always hovers in that exact spot whenever I summon her.
True to her nature as the Sun Spirit God, she delighted in tormenting the dark mage-turned Magic God of Dimensions at every turn. Yet she remained close at all times, scolding him like family, making her the only Spirit God he could actually converse with. Unable to contain her earlier anger, the Sun Spirit God produced a new golden fan in place of the one she had broken and covered her mouth with it, gazing down at him with seductive eyes.
“What shall become of the sun that sustains this tiny world? Surely you do not intend the rudeness of keeping me on constant standby? Or perhaps you have finally resolved to submit to me. In that case, I would have no reason to refuse—provided, of course, that you cast aside that insignificant body and the shackles of a Magic God to pledge yourself to the Sun God Clan.”
“……”
Cancel that ‘like family’ remark.This is not the Spirit God of Light and Sun. This is a Demon King who keeps demanding my soul at every opportunity. She keeps urging a man who still has attachments to the Middle World and has even sealed his own divine rank to abandon his body and die.
Her offer to make him her subordinate god and turn him into a lower light god upon death was tempting. Yet if he became a subordinate god of a Spirit God and restarted as part of the god clan, he would be trapped in the Spirit God Realm unless a contract was formed. Looking at these Spirit Gods, I can roughly guess what the atmosphere there must be like. The Spirit Realm, for all its lofty name, was little more than a gathering place and prison for thugs, blockheads, and senile gods waiting to fade away.
If I had known Spirit Gods were like this, I should have raised obedient lower spirits who at least listened. The real problem lay with the Spirit Kings of the High Elf Queens. They blocked all spirits from approaching me. No matter how many times I tried to summon one, nothing worked. I only learned the truth after calling an old dark spirit that had been living in the Great Cavity. That was why he had contracted with the Spirit Gods, who ranked above the Spirit Kings, intending to keep them under control.
Because the Spirit Gods were superior to the Spirit Kings, they naturally answered the summons. Yet they proved even more foul-tempered than demon gods. They attacked without warning and, the moment the fight turned even slightly against them, fled back to the Spirit God Realm in the most cowardly fashion. These are the ones I forced into contracts while they were on the verge of extinction, having exhausted all their divine power without fleeing.
Later he discovered that the first thing they did with the vitality gained from the forced contract with the Magic God of Dimensions was to hunt down and brutally beat the very Spirit Gods who had fled earlier, turning the Spirit God Realm upside down. Ah, what a hollow feeling that was. Of all things, otherworld Spirit Gods? It was the terrible side effect of karma.
The Magic God of Dimensions had been the first dark mage capable of contracting with Spirit Gods, so the phenomenon had been entirely unknown. Back then, the negative effects of karma really did drive me to the brink of madness. Forced to endure constant interference from his own Spirit Gods instead of receiving help, he had gritted his teeth and persevered to build the world he desired. Given the Sun Spirit God’s past, would anything really change if I abandoned my body and transferred into the Sun God Clan? There is no way a Magic God shunned by every god clan could ever do such a thing.
The Magic God of Dimensions had once seriously considered abandoning his body entirely and transferring into the light god clan because of the continuous drop in karma caused by the negative perception of him as a wicked dark mage. Yet it had been obvious that a former human dark mage turned light god would be harassed by those around him and quietly imprisoned or erased in the Spirit Realm. I realized that long ago after watching the High Elves attack me without a word, simply because I was a wicked dark mage. Would gods be any different?
He had known since childhood that the world was not fair enough for the common sense of “no crime means no guilt” to apply. I just want to live quietly doing magic research, but Granzoa’s fraudulent contract is driving me insane.
As the strongest dark mage in the Middle World, the Magic God of Dimensions had become the leader of all dark mages. The problem was the infamy the dark mages continued to accumulate. Their evil reputation is dragging my own karma down. At this rate I will have to contribute to the world almost for free just to maintain a good alignment.
In the Middle World, no one could ever claim that all dark mages were not evil. Damn those dark mages. They should at least hold back a little. Considering how often they summoned demons and even Demon Kings to commit mass slaughter, he had nothing to say in their defense. I know all too well how terrifying dark mages can be, thanks to memory transference. Even my only respected master once slaughtered over hundreds of thousands on the battlefield.
Being a dark mage who had never done anything bad and was actually kind only earned one the label of lunatic. The fact that I am the strongest dark mage in the Middle World is also an unavoidable truth. I bear responsibility for the tyranny of dark mages. This too was part of the fraudulent contract, so he had no choice but to endure it. One day I will thoroughly destroy all of them. If they ever give me a proper opening, I will show them what a true leader of dark magic looks like.
Setting aside his resentment toward dark mages for the moment, he prepared for the next step. Turning the Survival Magic Tower into a self-sufficient ecosystem was no easy task, but it was progressing well. The past is the past. A comfortable and hopeful future awaits ahead. If this plan succeeds, I can finally say goodbye to this rotten karma and the Middle World forever.
Encouraging himself, he ignored the Sun Spirit God who kept fanning herself overhead and urging him to die and be reborn. Time to prepare the sun.
A sun was a mass of ultra-high-temperature, ultra-high-pressure gas whose core was currently impossible to measure with magic. According to otherworld knowledge, however, the most abundant element in the atmosphere—hydrogen—underwent rapid compression and fusion reactions, producing helium and generating enormous energy. Some mass was lost in the process, violating the law of conservation of mass and converting into energy that produced vast heat.
How does a mage know such otherworld knowledge? He was the Magic God of Dimensions, holder of the authority of dimensions. With a divine rank related to dimensions, he could even manifest magic beyond them. His unique authority allowed him to cross into any dimension. Of course, he never recklessly crossed over because of the danger. Crossing dimensions is originally the ability of Creator Gods, possible only because their bodies can withstand it.
Occasionally, sentient beings cross over from other dimensions, but they are all brought here under the protection of a Creator God’s power. Yet most Creator Gods found it too troublesome to raise those beings into something useful and simply abandoned them to grow on their own. The world truly was a frightening place. Even if I, still only at the tenth circle, layered protective magic on myself, dimensional travel might be possible—but if a Main God attacked in that state, I would become a lost child of dimensions or simply vanish.
Because direct travel was dangerous, the Magic God of Dimensions had chosen instead to move materials and books from other dimensions or open dimensional gates to observe. Using the memories of the contracted otherworld Spirit Gods, I deduced the coordinates of their dimensions. After countless attempts I obtained the coordinates and searched thoroughly. What I sought was simple: knowledge that would allow me to reach the tenth circle.
The magical knowledge up to the ninth circle obtainable in this world was already nearly perfect in his estimation, so he needed knowledge from other dimensions. The knowledge I obtained then was what they called science. Some components differ, so direct application is limited, but it has been extremely useful as reference. The concept for this self-sufficient Survival Magic Tower was also inspired by the large-scale human habitats they planned to build in their universe.
For reference, the otherworld Spirit Gods did not know that the Magic God of Dimensions could travel to the coordinates of the dimension where he had once been their God King. Nor did they know that their own divine realm had been almost completely devastated by human civilization called science, leaving behind only a nominal existence. There were almost no humans left who could become devout believers to empower the gods, and the natural vitality needed to manifest supernatural abilities had vanished along with the destroyed environment.
Even gods and demons had been forced to live as humans, barely surviving. Above all, nature had been so thoroughly destroyed that the life force of the stars was steadily declining; they were expected to become dead stars within roughly ten thousand years. Even the Main Gods and Demon Gods, who should have prevented the stars’ extinction, had lost most of their divine power and were simply waiting for the end. There had been no desire to spread the knowledge called science. Still, it has been incredibly useful for my personal purposes.
By combining otherworld knowledge with current magic, the power had increased dramatically. “Gigantic Meteor.”
- Magic Type: Spacetime and Dimensional Magic, Offensive
- Effect: An enhanced version of the conventional Meteor spell that summons meteors or small planets via spatial transfer to attack large areas. Instead of the usual method of dropping a summoned star from outside the atmosphere, this spell uses dimensional authority to compress the star and teleport it directly inside the target before releasing the compression to cause rupture. Because of this, it is extremely difficult to counter. Originally designed for destroying super-giant planets, it consumes relatively little mana for a ninth-circle spell yet exceeds tenth-circle destructive power. The limitation is that the summoned meteor must be comparable in size to a giant planet, requiring the caster to have perfect understanding of space.
Defense method: Place spatial-transfer restrictions on the surrounding space. Development purpose: Created with the mindset of “If the god clans threaten to erase me when my karma becomes extremely evil, then I will blow up the planet we all live on together.”
- Restriction: Tenth-circle mages and below without dimensional authority cannot manifest it.
- First manifestation, protagonist’s remark: “Now you won’t be lonely anymore. Go ahead and try to kill me.”
A magic that transcended the limits of ninth-circle spells through fusion with science manifested and searched for a distant star in the universe. The target was neither the meteor nor small planet used in ordinary Meteors. What I am aiming for is a red giant on the verge of becoming a sun composed of vast amounts of hydrogen. I will turn it into a young sun to illuminate this place.
He had already scouted giant stars capable of destroying their planet in a single blow in case he lost the war against the Main Gods and god clans, so preparation was quick. My home planet is extremely large, so searching every corner for a star of similar size turned out to be very helpful.
The Main God Star was roughly ten thousand times the size of an ordinary planet inhabited by otherworld sentient beings. Wouldn’t the gravity be too strong to live on? It was embarrassing to say, but the planets of their main universe were truly abnormal compared to those in other universes. The Main God Star was directly created by a Creator God. Its size is ten thousand times larger, and its vitality is abnormally strong, so gods, demons, humans, and other races exist in overwhelmingly greater numbers than in other dimensions.
In otherworld stars, elves who lived in remote regions where humans never came numbered over one hundred billion, and the High Elves who evolved from them exceeded one billion. There were hundreds of human empires with populations over one hundred million, and countless small nations with around ten million. Roughly more than five hundred billion sentient beings live on this Main God Star.
Because the star was so enormous, when empires waged war, armies on horseback took over three years just to reach the border, another three years to cross the middle region, and yet another three years to reach the enemy capital. If a siege occurred along the way, the war could easily last more than twenty years. There were occasionally ambitious emperors who shouted about turning the Middle World into a human realm, but after spending ten years invading a neighboring country, ten years fighting to win, and ten years returning, they became old men and died—an anecdote that exists.
It is a super-giant planet where humans cannot even estimate how long it would take to cross a continent on foot. With a human lifespan of only two hundred years, conquering hundreds of scattered empires is impossible. In the end, wars were fought only between small nations with populations around ten million clustered together, but true to the warlike nature of humans, endless conflicts continued even now. Naturally, managing the planet was extremely difficult. Even the Dragon Clan, the administrators, could not accurately gauge the scale of this Middle World. The Dragon Emperor and Dragon Kings felt such a severe manpower shortage that they did not merely encourage but outright forced their people to reproduce. How much the lazy and selfish dragons will actually increase remains unknown.
The reason they went so far as to force reproduction was because the Main God occasionally imposed penalties on the Dragon Clan when they were slow to deal with gates to the Demon Realm opened by irregular dimensional distortions. The Holy Dragons who patrol the vitality continent are so overworked that some die in mid-flight. After the Dragon Emperor complained to the gods about this, he was threatened with mass dismissal if they did not want to manage it.
With so many sentient beings, many gods had secured a billion devout believers and reached the rank of Highest God. Because there were not enough suitable positions for them, they had become a headache in the Divine Realm. There was even talk of firing all the Dragon Clan who could not properly patrol and having the god clans descend directly to the Middle World to create management positions.
If the god clans dismissed them, the dragons would have to worry about extinction, so the Dragon Clan’s ruling class felt as though their blood was drying up. The Dragon Emperor rushes to be the first to arrive and charge whenever a gate to the Demon Realm opens. I cannot tell whether he is setting an example for his clan or trying to look good to the Divine Realm. Well, that is the hardship of those who live in groups. There is no need for a lone wolf like me to understand.
The Demon Realm was in a similar situation. The Demon Gods who ruled eternally executed any Demon King who challenged their absolute authority, or banished defeated stragglers from succession wars into the Middle World. This had been the cause of the Great Forest’s Hundred Years’ War. The number of demons banished as stragglers always exceeded one million. Can you not imagine the enormous scale of the Demon Realm? The Demon Realm possessed military strength equal to that of the Divine Realm.
Let’s just live quietly. No matter how strong I become, I cannot win alone even if I die trying. While thinking various thoughts, the Magic God of Dimensions located a red giant composed of hydrogen in the distant universe. When he cast magic on the discovered gas giant, its volume rapidly shrank and it became a primordial star emitting faint light. He then embedded a giant comet the size of a small star made of helium into it.
Puhahahahahaha—! The compressed hydrogen planet began to burn red. Thus the sun that would illuminate the Survival Magic Tower was completed. When he endlessly compressed it with a dimensional barrier down to a radius of one kilometer, the newly created sun emitted tens of thousands of times the intense heat of an ordinary sun and burned rapidly. Excessive burning shortens the sun’s lifespan.
Because the Magic God of Dimensions wanted a sun at the level of perpetual power, he used time magic to slow its consumption to a near standstill, returning it to its original brightness. Its lifespan had been extended from the original ten billion years to nearly infinite. “I shall name it the Sun of the Origin.”
Using the dimensional barrier, he precisely adjusted the transmittance and some of the sun’s components so that it emitted light identical to that of their world. “Now then—! Come forth. O sun that shall be with me for eternity.”