Blood at the Round Table
The brief moment of confusion among the Goddesses of the Goddess Department passed quickly. They moved to their seats at the round table and spoke as if spitting out the words.
“Still playing political games? I’m tired of this and want to stop.”
“You underestimate us. Threatening us with the execution of the War Gods changes nothing.”
“Even in the worst case, the Divine Realm will endure as long as we are here. Maintain your neutrality.”
“We’ll make the choice you want. But it won’t go the way the male gods intend. We won’t reveal our own intentions either.”
The Goddesses focused their will on the round table seats and cast their votes. When the motion was complete, it passed unanimously. Their voices echoed once more throughout the Divine Realm.
“The crime of disturbing the Divine Realm for personal gain and desecrating the War God and Combat God is grave. We approve.”
“If they cannot resolve the chaos they themselves created, we approve the revocation of their divine power.”
“Unauthorized mobilization of military force for collective action is rebellion. Of course we approve.”
“Attempting to alter another god’s divine status threatens their very existence. When done collectively, there is no room for debate on punishment. I approve.”
“If a group acts wrongly rather than an individual, the entire group must be punished. We approve the Goddess Department’s punishment.”
The Goddess Department had unanimously approved its own punishment. This stripped the gods in question of all rights to choose or resist, leaving them at the mercy of the Divine Realm’s judgment. The only way out now was to offer a solution to the chaos they had caused moments earlier—but no such solution existed.
‘Usually when they caused trouble, the male gods would yield and end it. But now every male god who might have yielded is waiting for judgment, prostrate on the ground.’
‘Moreover, the primordial War Gods have already drawn their divine weapons, ready to carry out executions the moment the voting ends.’
Only then did the expressions of the Goddess Department’s Main God-level goddesses and the three hundred Highest God goddesses turn deathly pale. They realized that if the other Goddesses had not sided with them, they would all have faced the revocation of their divine power. The image of Granzoa, reduced to a Lower God by a single miscalculation, filled their minds. The one small mercy was that the Goddesses had chosen to stand with them even at the cost of declaring war. The Highest God goddesses’ divine power surged to its peak as they realized there was no longer any room to retreat.
At that sight, the War God’s voice rang out.
“Does the Goddess Department have a solution? Present a resolution to the division of the Divine Realm caused by your reckless words.”
“Don’t toy with us, War God! If you want war, let’s begin at once.”
The reply was once again a declaration of war. Yet the Dimensional and War God showed no reaction, merely directing his gaze toward the War Gods.
“The Goddesses of the Goddess Department have acted divisively without offering any solution. I hereby classify the current situation not as peacetime but as a civil war under quasi-wartime conditions. In such circumstances, the insubordination and collective desertion plotted by the Combat Gods and War Gods warrant immediate execution, revocation of divine power, and either demotion to the lowest rank of War God or expulsion. If even one of you refuses this judgment, all executions will halt and you will be permitted to depart with your divine power intact as compensation for your past wars. This is the greatest mercy the War God can show.”
“……”
The Goddesses’ faces darkened at the Dimensional and War God’s declaration. If they intervened to stop him, the enemy’s forces would be preserved. If they did nothing, the Highest God goddesses who commanded those forces would waver. The Goddesses exchanged thoughts once more.
‘What do we do? Does he truly intend to kill them all before fighting us?’
‘That can’t be. Fifty Highest and Upper Combat Gods are enough to hold off two of us.’
‘He would discard them so easily? We can’t even abandon the fools of the Goddess Department who share our faction!’
‘It’s a ploy to shake us with familial bonds. Surely he wouldn’t.’
‘R-Right…’
It was the same tactic they had once used to threaten the male gods by asking whether they would purge even their wives and daughters. Yet the fighting spirit and killing intent of the primordial War Gods were anything but ordinary—profoundly sorrowful, yet utterly calm. Moreover, their divine power was steadily intensifying without anyone noticing.
“Once more, we choose to fight for the Divine Realm in which we were born and raised. Our War God, carry out the judgment according to the rules. Exactly as you did to our subordinates.”
“There is no need for exceptions or consideration toward the War Gods and Combat Gods. We willingly accept punishment for our wrongs.”
The bodies of the primordial War Gods began to tremble.
‘We raised them to be righteous and drove them onto the battlefield.’
‘Even after countless deaths and extinctions on the Boundary, the War Gods and Combat Gods accepted sacrifice as natural.’
‘Yet we, claiming to be the guardians of the Divine Realm, remained in the round table chamber to watch the Goddesses and engaged in meaningless debates.’
The only things the primordial War Gods received upon returning victorious from the Substitute Race war and the authentication battles were the humiliating title of “Guardian Gods” and the discrimination of “Goddess Only” facilities. They had endured and endured until the Goddess Department’s reckless words finally made them explode—only to find themselves with divine weapons aimed at their own throats. In that moment, they realized they had lived wrongly.
The Dimensional and War God’s divine words reached the ears of the regretful primordial War Gods once more.
“If even one of the primordial War Gods refuses to carry out the execution, I will stop. I also promise there will be no further consequences.”
The primordial War Gods tightly shut their eyes and began chanting in unison.
“A War God proves their existence solely by slaying the enemies of the Divine Realm. The glory of a Combat God lies in a worthy death, while the glory of a War God lies only in victory. Therefore, we fear neither sacrifice nor condemnation and seize victory. Even if that path earns no recognition and brings only suffering, we fight to the end.”
The God of Knowledge, still seated at the round table, closed his eyes and chanted softly as well. The primordial War Gods were not asking what would be done to them, as they always had. Their hearts were already prepared and decided. They could see their own partners standing on the side of the Goddesses, the enemy.
‘The daughters are fortunate—they are only Upper Gods and could not participate.’
The female family members of the primordial War Gods stood with the Main God of the Divine Realm and the Goddesses who had turned against the Divine Realm, while their sons, who were War Gods, now faced execution by their own divine weapons so their power could be reclaimed. The bitter waves of emotion from comrades they had fought alongside for eons crashed painfully against them. Furthermore, their subordinate-god connection to the Main God of the Divine Realm had nearly vanished for some reason, leaving them hollow. Thus, they could only repeat the oath passed down solely to War Gods since ancient times.
“For the prosperity of the Divine Realm that gave us birth and the glory of the Main God, we accept endless battle as our honor.”
Fwoooosh—!
Ten circles of light appeared above the heads of the primordial War Gods—the full release of a Highest God’s divine power. Their wild fighting spirit and divine power surged. At that moment, the War God’s divine power expanded without limit as well, and eleven circles of divine power engulfed them all within his domain of authority.
“I heard the ‘War God’s Oath of Loyalty’ clearly. In the army of the Divine Realm, insubordination or desertion against a lawful order can never be tolerated, regardless of circumstance. However, in consideration of your past merits, I permit your reappointment as Upper Gods. There will be no additional sanctions.”
The divine power of an Intermediate Lord began to spread through the War God’s authority. A faint eleventh circle of light formed above the heads of the primordial War Gods included within it, and their divine power exploded upward.
“Through the true War God’s authority, ‘War God’s Authority Sharing,’ I answer your resolve as true War Gods and Combat Gods. I will dispose of the entire Goddess Department that insulted the War Gods and Combat Gods without any sacrifice or resolve, and I will eliminate every threat to the Divine Realm. Those who defy or desert a lawful order will be executed on the spot in the name of the War God, and we will fight to the end to claim victory. Even if the enemy triumphs, all they will gain is death and ruin.”
The faces of the Goddesses, who had never imagined such an outcome, twisted in horror.
“Carry out the execution!”
“No!”
“Madness!”
The divine weapons of the primordial War Gods mercilessly severed the necks of the male gods.
Slash! Slash!
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Aaaagh!”
The heads of fifty Highest and Upper Combat Gods were severed simultaneously and sent flying into the air. Their bodies shuddered briefly before fountains of shining divine blood poured onto the floor. Divine blood flowed across the round table chamber, past the feet of the Goddesses, and toward the goddesses themselves.
Drip… Drip…
The floor of the round table was now carpeted in crimson divine blood. Goddesses screamed at the horrific sight, while others stared blankly, their minds shattered by the sight of their sons slain by their own partners’ hands. The flowing divine blood soon transformed into divine power, becoming orbs of light that drifted toward the round table. From there, the divine spirits were drawn to the regeneration device at the center of the Divine Realm.
Tears streamed down the faces of the primordial War Gods as they watched.
‘Even if they are revived or regenerated with the same divine status through the Divine Realm’s support, they will suffer immense damage to mind and body and require long-term recuperation.’
‘If they revive one rank lower without additional divine power or vitality support, part of their memories will vanish and their bodies will become imbalanced.’
‘We do not know which memories will disappear, and complete recovery will demand enormous amounts of divine power, vitality, and training.’
Death at the hands of a higher being changes one so profoundly that they can no longer be called the same existence—comparable even to the death of a human. Yet they had used their own hands to execute their direct descendants, their sons whom they had raised since childhood, and lost them forever.
‘We should have ended it from the beginning.’
‘Because I hated conflict within the family, I dragged things out until I personally killed my own successor.’
The more they dwelled on the wretched situation, the more their fighting spirit and killing intent boiled over, their divine power rising. The primordial War Gods longed to throw themselves into endless battle as they had when they first obtained planets. It felt like the only escape from this miserable emotion. The goddesses before them no longer seemed like family, but enemies, and their killing intent grew ever sharper.
Separately, as the circles of divine power shone atop the round table, the War God’s divine words resonated throughout the Divine Realm and reached the Goddesses.
“Goddess Department. This is the result of your actions and the beginning of resolution. The War Gods and Combat Gods who plotted collective insubordination and desertion because of the Goddess Department’s reckless words have offered their own divine power in atonement—five hundred billion in total. Do the highest-ranking Goddesses at this round table still intend to defend the Goddess Department that caused this chaos to the end? If so, I will judge it as rebellion against the Divine Realm and dispose of you under the War God’s authority.”
The Goddesses’ lips were pressed so tightly that blood seeped out.
‘The Dimensional and War God continues to press us with justification and righteousness, driving us toward defeat before we even fight.’
‘Every god in the Divine Realm is watching this scene, and anyone can see that we are in the wrong.’
The Highest Combat Gods who plotted collective insubordination and desertion had offered their divine power themselves, yet the Goddess Department that had caused it all could offer neither reflection nor action. There was no need to deliberate which side would become the guiding force for the Divine Realm’s next transformation.
‘At this rate, even if we defeat the male gods, we cannot lead the Divine Realm afterward.’
‘No matter how completely we have seized control of the goddesses, defectors will inevitably appear.’
‘Now that we have turned the male gods into complete enemies, if opposition arises among the goddesses, this Divine Realm is finished.’
They would not have been cornered like this if they had simply fought without hesitation, but the overwhelming disadvantage in justification left them no way out. Moreover, the primordial War Gods, who had been unable to exert their full power due to family ties, had just executed their own direct descendants with their own hands and returned completely to being War Gods. Furthermore, supported by the “Authority Sharing” of the Dimensional and War God, an Intermediate Lord, they now surpassed Main God level to some degree. The advantage had vanished in an instant.
‘If the Main God of the Divine Realm joins the fight, we won’t be completely overwhelmed, but it will be a desperate struggle.’
Yet they could not simply charge into battle. The situation grew even more frustrating as light suddenly flared from the round table and a transmission arrived.
“By the will of the Creator God, I relay the decision of the Main Divine Realm. Dimensional and War God, and the eight Goddesses—listen well.”
“…Hmph.”
The Dimensional and War God reached into a pocket dimension, produced a teapot and cups, and began pouring tea, completely ignoring the bewildered gazes of the gods around him. He poured a cup for the God of Knowledge, then began filling a cup at every seat around the round table. Ten cups of steaming tea now sat before the ten round table seats. He took a sip and spoke quietly.
“This is a truly ruthless world. Tea is appropriate for hearing this decision.”
His words were filled with indifference toward the world, yet also with deep lament.