The Only Path to Survival
The ten circles of magic power orbiting the Substitute God flared to life, radiating a brilliant white glow. Puhahahahaha—! From the eleventh circle, countless Lord Slayer spears erupted like thorns bursting from a stem.
‘Any attack below my divine power level consumes a tiny amount of mana each time it is reflected. So what happens if I keep firing an endless barrage of minuscule attacks?’
It wasn’t a matter of getting drenched by a drizzle. It was being swept away by a flood.
‘Continuous Fire—!’
He tore open another dimensional hole beside the barrel of his God Destruction Cannon and unleashed a deluge of Lord Slayer spears.
Pa-pa-pat—!
A torrential downpour of Lord Slayer spears slammed directly into the Substitute God Lord. The reflected counterattacks were deflected by subtly altering the trajectory of the Dimensional Divine Annihilation Cannon’s barrage.
‘No matter how small the Lord Slayer spear is, the damage doesn’t vanish.’
The Dimensional and War God was mobilizing every possible means to dismantle the enemy’s defensive authority.
‘Damn it! This is insane! How can my supposedly perfect defensive magic have so many holes?’
Struck in a genuinely vulnerable spot by an effective assault, the Substitute God found himself unable to laugh or cry. At last, the defensive authority shattered.
Kwa-rung—!Urrrrrrrrr—!
“Kweeeeeeek—!”
The Substitute God Lord’s scream echoed across the cosmos. Struck dead-center by the kilometer-wide super-giant God Destruction Cannon, not only was its bio-armor obliterated, but its core was laid bare.
Gogogogogo!Urrrrrrrrr—!
The instant half of the planetary bio-armor was blown away, the Dimensional and War God summoned a colossal Lord Slayer spear and teleported directly to the Substitute God Lord.
“You won’t get a chance to regenerate. My strike opens a path that pierces through the past, the present, and into the future!”
He layered the maximum tenth-circle offensive magic onto the Lord Slayer spear, drove it through the shattered planetary bio-armor, and stabbed it straight into the main body’s core.
Puuuuurk—!
Even a Highest Lord God, whose restorative power far surpassed that of an Upper Lord God, had its regeneration halted the moment its past was sealed.
Drdrdrdrdr—!Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa—!
The core writhed violently after being impaled. He suppressed it with all the brute strength of the Giant God Tribe and amplified divine power, but the surrounding bio-armor transformed into countless thorns and lashed out in retaliation. Yet the Giant God Tribe’s indomitable physique endured the barrage without faltering.
Then something arrived—an unimaginable fusion of magical and divine power.
“Dawn of Genesis—!”
The Dimensional and War God screamed inwardly, but the slowly approaching sphere of light began to devour and erode the Substitute God.
‘Damn it—! Couldn’t you at least give a warning before throwing that?! Even if you told me not to hold back, isn’t this a bit much?’
Gogogogogogogogooooong—!Drdrdrdrdr—!
The Substitute God Lord shrieked in desperation as it faced annihilation. The colossal Lord Slayer spear embedded in its divine power core began to crack and shatter. The spear then tried to crush him using the main body itself.
Yet in this incomprehensible situation, the main body’s face twisted in confusion.
Puuuuurk—!Purk—!Puuuuurk—!
Instead of one giant spear piercing its body, there were now three.
‘Within the domain of my bio-armor, spatial movement by any deity other than the Substitute God Tribe is impossible.’
Only the Substitute God Tribe could do so. Yet suddenly, without any authorization, three super-giant spears had teleported in and pierced the divine power core once more.
“I am not a warrior. I am a mage. Specifically, a black mage of the Root School. Did you really think I would charge into this deadly trap without any assurance of survival or any desire to do so?”
The Highest Lord God of the Substitute God Tribe watched as the Dimensional and War God—who wore a triumphant grin—ripped out the divine power core from its main body and tossed it into a sub-space.
“!!!”
Only then did it finally see clearly. On his forehead shone the radiant core of a Highest Lord God from the Substitute God Tribe.
‘I named it “False Authentication.” Using a Substitute God core, I temporarily registered myself as a member of the Substitute God Tribe within this world. The previous core I obtained was only of the highest tier, so the information I gained was limited. But a Creator God-tier Highest Lord should be different, no?’
‘I will thoroughly absorb it as the foundation for my own eleventh-circle magic. Next time, I won’t show him such a flawed, easily copied piece of trash magic. I will prove to this universe an invincible sorcery that even he would admire. As an Absolute Being who has earned a title, I declare my eternal right to survive in this universe.’
“Uuuuuuuuung—!”
The divine power and aura of the Highest Lord God of the Substitute God Tribe surged once more. It could not accept defeat at the hands of a lower-ranking deity.
“Damn you! Just die already—! Gods, Demon Gods, the Substitute God Tribe, even Absolute Beings with titles… in the end, we are all each other’s foundations. Only the most outstanding ones survive!”
At that moment, the Substitute God Lord made its resolve.
‘I can feel that lesser deity tearing out my main body and throwing it into the “Dawn of Genesis.” I must steel myself as well. If I suffer such a hollow defeat, it will be a disgrace to the Substitute God Tribe and will work against his judgment.’
Puhahahahahaha—!Goooooooong—!
The Highest Lord God of the Substitute God Tribe caused both its bio-armor and main body to go into complete overload. If even the main body self-destructed like this, even a member of the Substitute God Tribe would suffer at least a one-rank drop in divinity.
‘Self-destruction is foolish. However, I absolutely cannot allow this lesser deity to accumulate any more power. At the very least, I will drag him down with me.’
Only now did the Dimensional and War God seem to grasp the situation. His face crumpled horribly. He tried to escape in a hurry, but his Dimensional Authority refused to activate.
‘That’s right. It canceled all authentication, even for the Substitute God Tribe, making spatial movement impossible. It poured every last ounce of divine power from the remaining bio-armor into it. There won’t be another opportunity like this.’
All combat data was shared simultaneously among the Substitute God Tribe. The same trick would never work again.
‘The Substitute God Tribe is both individual and collective. To become that, we abandoned personal will and the beautiful image of divinity. Our resolve and our willingness to sacrifice are on a completely different level from yours.’
Crack—!Urrrrrrrrrrng!
The face, formed of mountain ranges, began to collapse under the dual assault of the Dawn of Genesis devouring it from the outside and the Lord Slayer spears piercing its divine power core.
‘Even if I am extinguished like this, I have exhausted every possible means. My Creator God will surely resurrect me, and when our Substitute God Tribe rules this universe, I shall return in my former glorious form.’
When the Highest Lord God of the Substitute God Tribe began to self-destruct at the same speed as him, the Dimensional and War God could not help but panic.
“You stubborn bastard—! Just accept your defeat quietly!”
“Uuuung—! Uung!”
‘One failure is enough! Let’s die together and fight each other alone again in the next racial war.’
The mountain-range face of the Highest Lord God of the Substitute God Tribe crumbled with a final smile.
‘As if I would lose to some Absolute Being who only grew strong after receiving a title?’
Kwaaaaaaarrrrrr—!
The Dawn of Genesis and the self-destruction of the Highest Lord God of the Substitute God Tribe shook the entire universe. The vast wave of divine power was so immense that the Creator God and the Demon God King hurriedly erected a barrier around the entire solar system.
“Uung—! Uung—!”
A resonant sound like the weeping of the Substitute God Creator God echoed. It had realized that its cherished confidant had self-destructed its own main body, causing its divinity to plummet.
And then came the cold, impartial recognition of karmic victory.
Demon God Alliance Victory. Substitute God Tribe Defeat. Well done.
Thus ended the certification war between the Substitute God Tribe—which had even mobilized the Mercenary God—and the Demon God Star.
The gods and demon gods, having poured in their full strength excluding the Creator God and Demon God King, had triumphed against the strengthened Substitute God Tribe. In accordance with the outcome, the Substitute God Tribe once again entered a period of authority sharing to fully digest the powers granted to them.
A heavy silence wrapped their domain, as if foretelling that the next time they moved, a decisive battle against the gods and demon gods would erupt.
An era had begun in which the gods and demon gods, seeking to recover the vast amounts of vitality consumed in the war, would intervene in the Middle World on an unprecedented scale.
Once this brief peace ended, a racial war staking the fate of the entire universe awaited. The life-or-death struggle against the Substitute God Tribe was not over—it was only just beginning.
“Only the strong survive.”
This was the moment his very first declaration was once again recognized across the entire universe.
The Demon God King shook his head as he watched the Substitute God Creator God absorb every last remnant of the debris left behind by the self-destructed Substitute God before vanishing.
“We barely managed to win. But has the Dimensional and War God been annihilated as well? Hoho— What a shame. I was planning to congratulate him in person.”
“Kukuk—! You’re not going to kill him, are you?”
At the Creator God’s frivolous laughter, the Demon God King shook his head again and continued, grumbling that this Creator God was strangely sharp about the most unnecessary things.
“Hmph! You should hurry up and create the next Main God Star! We’ve only just turned a profit, but with results this meager, when exactly do you plan to ascend?”
“Stop nagging like a wife. Even if I ascend, it won’t change the fact that I live here. This victory was evaluated as merely ‘adequate,’ after all.”
The Demon God King clicked his tongue. He had honestly been hoping this absurdly powerful yet lazy Creator God would get promoted so a more manageable one would take his place. He turned to return to the Demon Realm.
“Just you wait—! Next time will be different. And I’m not speaking to the gods anymore.”
“Ah, that would be troublesome if you stopped working. I’ll create another Main God Star like that one in ten thousand years, so stop sulking. You’ll get wrinkles on that pretty face.”
“Ha? Who do you think is human here? Wrinkles?”
“Then the next certification war will be in ten thousand years.”
“Hmph—!”
After the Demon God King snorted and disappeared, only the Creator God remained. He smiled brightly, gazing at a certain spot in space, and spoke.
There lay a fragment of the giant Lord Slayer spear that had been shattered by the Substitute God’s self-destruction. It still radiated powerful divine power, as if the authority of the Dimensional and War God lingered within it.
“You may go now, young junior.”
“…….”