The Goddesses' Reckoning
The Goddess Department goddesses felt their faces burn with shame every time the Dimensional Lord let out a long, wordless sigh while staring at the Karma Contract between them. They could guess exactly what he was thinking, and the humiliation was so intense they wished they could simply vanish. Worse still, his sighs grew longer with each passing moment, and even his divine power began to carry more exhaustion than fighting spirit, making their bodies shrink further in on themselves.
At last, the Dimensional Lord reached his decision. ‘I cannot afford to lose the goddesses if I want the Divine Realm to function.’ No matter how he looked at it, his own greed for the shortcut of the Devotion Pledge and the enhanced Blessed Breastmilk instead of proper training had made the situation far worse. ‘If not for that, I would have crushed their rebellion the moment it began. Letting it slide only encouraged them to push further.’
He also knew that leaving the Divine Realm for an extended period to travel to the Spirit Realm would require their presence. Sending the goddesses there as proxies would only multiply their private factions. After all, they would never abandon the pride they once held as the Divine Realm’s ruling goddesses. ‘The management goddesses may look as though they have abandoned combat training in favor of this universe’s priorities, but they have been secretly training to the point of reaching Intermediate Main God rank. Even if I send them, they will only bring back gods loyal to their old factions.’
Finally, he spoke aloud, almost to himself, and activated his divine authority. ‘This is all the result of my own sin—coveting power through shortcuts instead of proper training. Who else can I blame? Without any supporting faction to back me, I am always left in this state. Yet I can never give up on increasing my divine power. The gods of the Spirit Realm must not repeat the mistakes of the former sly raccoon Main God. I must personally verify, select, and bind them. I will place a control that lets me read their hearts before sending them out. I will complete the contract and finish this matter.’
Even among the harsh mercenary-god days of the Dimensional Lord, such malicious contractors were rare.
“Huuu… For now, while you remain in your personal temples, you are contractors rather than the Main God of Divine Realm Management, so I will speak formally. First, I will transmit as much vitality and divine power as can be absorbed here—though it will be weaker than what is available in your own temples.”
Whiiing—!
Necklace-shaped magical tools appeared in the air before each of the goddesses.
“These necklaces are engraved with my dimensional authority and linked to this place. Wearing them will replenish your divine power and vitality through the connection. They contain no other control functions and will be loaned to you free of charge while you provide the Blessed Breastmilk. In exchange, I will no longer permit you to remain in your personal temples.”
The goddesses lowered their heads. They could no longer even trust themselves, and if the Dimensional Lord chose to punish them for attempting to frame the Main God, they would have no defense. More than anything, when they calmly reflected on what they had done on the day they were supposed to ascend to the highest divine realm, even they themselves shuddered.
‘Granraha, with whom we worked so hard to maintain friendly relations, must be even more disappointed.’
From the Dimensional Lord’s words, they understood that any remaining expectation or warmth toward them had completely vanished. ‘That cold Dimensional Lord has chosen to abandon any further thought of us rather than rage at our betrayal.’ The former Goddess Kings knew better than anyone which was colder and more terrifying.
Given his nature of valuing only power and survival, he would not harm them if they performed their duties well, but regaining his trust seemed impossible.
“Second, I will connect a communication function to each of you by placing a bond of affection toward me. If you harbor intense hostility or goodwill toward me, I will know. There are no other effects. Should you remove the necklace, I will immediately summon and investigate you. The term lasts as long as you serve as Main God of Divine Realm Management. Refusal to wear it will result in the revocation of your position. If you accept these three conditions, put them on.”
The bond of affection would only create a mild sense of goodwill toward the other party—something their level would barely notice. Its sole purpose was to distinguish hostility from goodwill, and they had no right to refuse. In a situation where they had to accept even restrictions on their divine power and authority, merely having their emotional changes reported was an act of mercy.
In the end, they had no choice but to wear the necklaces without exception. As they waited for the next measure, the Dimensional Lord finished speaking.
“Then leave at once. While I am absent, I will inform Gaiana, the Omnipotent God of the planetary Divine Realm acting as Main God, of the details. I expect you to carry out your duties faithfully. Remember that this is your final forgiveness. At this point, you are on the verge of forced enforcement for breach of contract. Do not forget the former Main God.”
The final warning sent chills down their spines, yet they no longer had the face to meet his eyes. Seeing each other’s faces in this situation would only bring mutual pain. As they lowered their heads and prepared to rise, the next words froze them completely in place.
“I intend to go to the Spirit Realm Waiting Area and the Spirit Realm itself to personally verify and recruit excellent gods. I will make the restoration of their fallen divine power a condition and have them swear loyalty to the Divine Realm.”
“That would mean almost no hiring costs. With your infinite vitality and divine power, recovery should be possible soon. And as a Creator Candidate, the compensation you would need to pay to the former affiliated Divine Realms or the Spirit Realm would be minimal.”
“The Spirit Realm and affiliated Divine Realms can be covered with the spare vitality I currently possess, but I plan to pay with divine power enhancement gems instead. I hear there are many problems there—gods causing trouble, damaged buildings, and insufficient containment facilities. When I inquired about their willingness to release gods, they said that as a Creator Candidate, I could take as many Lower and Intermediate Gods as I wished for a small price, while Upper Gods and above would require negotiation. Lower and Intermediate Gods can be filled in any number, and complete subordination is possible. However, Main Gods and above have mostly already been revived unless in special cases. The majority of those who died and fell to Upper God rank number fewer than ten million, averaging under five million. Since they lack factions, their revivals have been delayed or their godhood has fallen due to circumstances, making them even cheaper. I will supply them with divine power and vitality to restore them. To fill the lacking Highest God and Upper God positions as much as possible and prevent chaos, I will bind them in complete subordination to me. Subordination will be lifted once they repay twice the restored divine power to the Divine Realm and freely open useful authorities to advance the Divine Realm’s development. Selecting so many will likely require a long absence. Therefore, I entrust the Divine Realm to you. Should contact be lost or any anomaly occur in the Divine Realm, I will return immediately. This universe stands on the brink of great prosperity and is unstable, so you must be cautious. I have suppressed matters so no major problems should arise, but this universe is on the verge of change. Therefore, be wary not only of the Demon God Realm but also of the Main Divine Realm.”
“I will protect it with my life. It is your Divine Realm, after all.”
Watching Gaiana display a resolute expression while radiating the power of an Upper Main God, the goddesses felt their minds grow distant, as if they might faint. Their kneeling postures began to crumble and sway.
Whoosh—! Whoosh—!
The reason they had endured endless ages of hardship was to return as Main Gods of the Divine Realm, but that goal was now nothing more than a process. ‘The reason we lived so bitterly, opposing the former Main God, was to revive the subordinates who died fighting the Demon Race to the very end during the authentication war in our former Divine Realm.’
When the Main God war ended in a draw, their authorities were sealed and they were all sent to the Spirit Realm. Then, except for gods who abandoned their positions and fled to human-ruled worlds managed by Machine Gods instead of the more difficult-to-manage Middle World, all were forcibly sent to the Spirit Realm. Only those of Highest God rank and above remained in the Spirit Realm Waiting Area, hoping for an opportunity, until they arrived here while hiding their identities as Main Gods.
‘No Main God of any Divine Realm wanted powerful combat goddesses who might threaten them.’
‘Fortunately, this place is the most remote of the remote, and the newly created Divine Realm’s ignorant mercenary Main God did not thoroughly investigate us.’
The gods in the Spirit Realm, unlike those who fled to the human world, were loyal subordinates who chose to be imprisoned alongside their Main God. They had voluntarily provided divine power to maintain their Main God’s godhood and seal, entering the Spirit Realm one rank lower as Lower Gods. The goddesses could never abandon them.
‘They are gods who, because of incompetent Main Gods, died yet never stopped being loyal.’
‘Did we not live so bitterly to revive them?’
Excluding those who chose annihilation or fled, each goddess had over five hundred such subordinates. The price the goddesses, as ordinary Main Gods, would have to pay to the Spirit Realm exceeded ten billion per person. ‘Only a Main God could possibly bear that much vitality.’
Moreover, the total number of gods they needed to save exceeded four thousand, requiring over one hundred billion in vitality—an impossible amount. ‘An ordinary Divine Realm has neither positions nor enough vitality to operate.’
‘We tried to create positions in this Divine Realm somehow, but the former Main God and the primordial gods opposed it, and the seats for the newly born generation of gods were already saturated. There was nothing we could do.’
The salvation of the gods who had once been loyal to them was the very reason the goddesses had lived so desperately, yearning to return as Main Gods. The management goddesses felt the same, though their methods differed. Otherwise, they would never have resorted to stealing vitality—an eternal stain—just to find a more probable path.
‘To obtain the enormous vitality needed to pay the Spirit Realm, there was no choice but to become Main Gods.’
‘Yet if it is the Dimensional Lord, who qualifies as a Creator Candidate, he could bring back even Middle and Lower Gods from the Spirit Realm with only a small amount of wealth and compensation.’
‘He would gladly hand them over.’
The Spirit Realm was a place where the vitality allotted per god was extremely low, making the exercise of divine power inefficient, and where there were simply too many gods. Therefore, to earn the favor of a Creator Candidate like the Dimensional Lord, handing over several thousand Middle Gods and below—worth hundreds of millions each—would be something they could do with a smile.
‘The Dimensional Lord has the ability to pay lightly even with wealth rather than vitality.’
‘Moreover, now that this is the highest Divine Realm, there are more than enough positions and vitality to operate even after revival.’
‘The Dimensional Lord would have no difficulty returning them to their original godhood.’
Even without creating a new Divine Realm, they could have revived those loyal subordinates as glorious gods of the Divine Realm—specifically, as Highest Gods of the highest Divine Realm—and repaid their loyalty. The goddesses had unknowingly come closest to the goal they so desperately desired.
‘The string of difficult events was so relentless that we never thought that far.’
‘Hearing those words finally made us realize it.’
‘But the situation makes it impossible to ask him to bring back the gods who served us.’
Even if they tried to cooperate with the surrounding gods, they would be accused of increasing their subordinate gods to plot rebellion again, leaving them unable to say a word. In the end, even when such an irreplaceable opportunity arrived, they could do nothing but hate their own powerlessness.
‘If only we had controlled our hatred and emotions toward the male gods, this would never have happened.’
‘If we had not continued provoking them by flaunting the already-destroyed pride of our former Main God to gain the upper hand, this would never have occurred.’
The Dimensional Lord would likely have gladly agreed to revive the gods of their former Divine Realms—even if not as concubines, then as neutral cooperation. After all, increasing his own divine power and training mattered more to him than the power of the Divine Realm.
Yet they had thrown away that golden opportunity because of their resentment toward the male gods. An endless wave of self-loathing crashed over them, enough to make them lose consciousness.
‘What do we do? The Dimensional Lord will surely exclude all gods from our former Divine Realms, suspecting rebellion.’
‘What have we done?’
‘We have committed an even greater folly than the foolishness that destroyed our former Divine Realm.’
‘Have we ruined the perfect chance to gloriously restore the subordinates who offered us divine power and loyalty?’
‘Did I… do that again?’
Suddenly, tears they could not control began to flow. A sorrow and despair greater than what they had felt while watching their Divine Realm’s destruction washed over them. They had once blamed the male gods’ desires for nearly collapsing the Divine Realm Alliance, but now they saw that their own jealousy toward the male gods and hunger for power had been equally great causes.
The only thought filling their minds was that they must somehow save the subordinates who had sacrificed everything for such unworthy mistresses, yet there was no answer.
As the goddesses wept, the Dimensional Lord’s emotionless voice reached them.
“You are obstructing my departure preparations. Return to your respective homes. From now on, I would prefer not to see you except for Main God of Divine Realm Management duties and contract termination. The selection of gods from the Spirit Realm will be done without regard to you. I will not accept any objections.”
The goddesses could only sink deeper into despair at the coldly drawn line, so different from their own desperate feelings.