The Price of Neutrality
In the highest meeting place for demigods located in the Middle World, the demigods who belonged to the ‘Good’ faction and had been forgiven with only a single rank drop were letting out sighs of relief. Out of more than a hundred demigods, only these ten had managed to survive while preserving their divinity.
“Hooooooo—! Thank goodness I lived a decent life like usual.”
“Just changing the Chief God of the God Realm can lead to something like this. It’s truly terrifying.”
“You can say that again. It was absolutely horrific.”
“Who would have thought those gentle goddesses would kill so mercilessly?”
“I heard they used to be in the combat god line before switching to administrative gods?”
“Let’s be careful. One wrong move and we’ll end up just like them.”
A slight glance around at the empty seats sent shivers down their spines. All the gods had descended, and thanks to the Dimensional Lord’s authority activated across the entire Middle World, the power restrictions on the high gods had vanished. They had descended in full force.
The demigods who belonged to the ‘Neutral’ faction had secretly prepared a contract with the Demon Realm as insurance against the unstable God Realm torn by conflict between male and female gods. When they threw that contract in front of everyone and started the fight, the demigods finally understood with painful clarity why the divine race remained the ruling class.
Even the neutral demigods had reached the highest tier of divinity, with divine power exceeding one billion, yet they stood no chance at all.
“I will no longer submit to any upper god weaker than myself. I am a god now.”
“For daring to deceive and insult me, you shall die as a mortal.”
The demigod who had shouted those bold words was torn apart countless times by the enraged high goddess’s hands, repeatedly dying until he was stripped of everything and banished to the four realms as a mere mortal.
They had been completely outmatched. Although their divine power was higher, the problem was the parallel divine power connection. That basic authority possessed by all gods did not guarantee overwhelming strength, but it enabled near-infinite sharing and recovery of divine power. If it had been only a few, it might have been different—but every god in the entire God Realm had descended and activated it together.
No attack from the demigods could pierce that defensive barrier. Once their strength ran out, they were simply hunted down and disposed of.
The even greater problem was the female absolutes whom the Dimensional Lord had designated as his complete subordinate gods. Their divine power was lower, but their combat technique was so outstanding that even the strongest individuals couldn’t handle them alone. No one in the Middle World—their original domain—could withstand their search and assault.
Each death caused one’s divinity to drop by one rank. After being killed countless times, having all their divine power reclaimed and even their divinity confiscated, they were expelled to the four realms as insignificant creatures.
The demigods of the ‘Good’ faction who had witnessed the entire scene chose to voluntarily lower their own divinity by one rank and become complete subordinate gods. They had been terrified when the primordial war gods—supreme combat deities—surrounded them with divine weapons gleaming as they spoke.
“Wouldn’t it be better to reclaim their divine power for the sake of the new God Realm?”
“Still, they are children of the ‘Good’ faction. Aren’t they trying to become ‘Ultimate Good’ by becoming complete subordinate gods?”
“I’ll dispose of them for free.”
“If you want achievements, shouldn’t you go handle those ‘Neutral’ ones instead?”
“Tsk—! My spouse already went to help and rack up merits, and the direct-line war gods need to earn their own share too, so all the good spots are taken.”
“Then go clean up the divine kingdoms.”
“Everyone’s too busy surviving on the battlefield or mercenary requests to have time for wrongdoing, so they’re all ‘Good.’ I only heard them screaming that they’re dying from being pushed out by the war god kingdom’s priests. I even ended up granting them more holy power, so it’s a loss. That’s why I’m asking for your cooperation in cleanly disposing of these demigods to earn at least a little merit and help with my promotion.”
“Don’t the absolute beings who are the Chief God of the God Realm’s complete subordinate gods handle the demigods’ duties without any problem? Besides, they don’t seem to be complete subordinate gods yet, so let’s kill them all the way and offer their divine power to the God Realm.”
The primordial war gods slowly approached, their divine weapons flickering with light as if ready to hack them apart at any moment. Overwhelming fighting spirit and killing intent capable of threatening even the highest gods poured out, leaving the demigods trembling helplessly behind the high goddesses.
Even one-on-one would have been difficult, yet all fifty of them had come running because they had nothing better to do and wanted to earn even a small merit.
They were forces the demigods simply could not handle, and the high goddesses were the same. When the goddesses shouted at them in flustered voices, they immediately obeyed.
“What are you all doing? Become complete subordinate gods right now—!”
They lowered their own divinity by one rank and accepted the high goddesses’ divinity as it was. Their thoughts flowed directly into the goddesses’, and the goddesses’ ideologies were transmitted without filter. Fortunately, since they were ‘Good,’ there was no major issue, but if they had been ‘Neutral,’ it would have caused serious value confusion.
They felt and were imprinted with the fact that the will of the completely superior god took precedence over their own decision-making. Watching their lowered divine power being extracted and sent to the God Realm, they could only sigh in both relief and regret.
The primordial war gods also let out disappointed sighs.
“Tsk—! At least put up some resistance. To think demigods who even planned a rebellion are this weak.”
“Why is it so anticlimactic? They used to be war gods but couldn’t even beat administrative goddesses, yet they tried to rebel against the Dimensional Lord? They must be insane.”
“The direct-line gods must be having fun. After all, they’ve only been fighting tough battles against the demon race at the Boundary. Facing demigods who only have strong divine power must actually be entertaining.”
“The direct-line ones were called the highest low-tier even after revival, right? Their bodies got even stronger? In the past, without vitality support, a single rank drop would weaken the body too, but the highest God Realm is really nice.”
“If we accumulate merit this time, we’ll rise to mid-tier, so it won’t be long before we become highest high-tier again.”
“By the way, what about us? We’ve only been playing political games, so our bodies have grown weak and training isn’t very effective. It feels like we could reach lord god level authority with the highest God Realm’s support, but we’re slipping at the entrance due to lack of stamina—!”
“We’ll have to start from the basics again. The God of Knowledge is glaring daggers and making a fuss that we should train until we drop and quickly become round table lord gods. As if that’s easy? He couldn’t even become a lord god himself, yet he’s being so nasty about it.”
“More importantly, were there always this many lord gods in our God Realm? One high lord, four mid-tier, and eight regular lord gods. Even the top-ranked highest God Realm doesn’t have this many. Other divine realms are contacting us asking what on earth is going on. It’s absolute chaos.”
“The round table’s highest gods—no, now lord gods—have already reached nine. The God of Knowledge is getting completely crushed in both eloquence and numbers by the newly registered administrative lord goddesses. It’s almost pitiful.”
“The new generation gods are rising in rank nonstop, so at this rate we might even lose our seats as representatives of the highest gods. That’s why we need to kill at least these ones to earn some merit.”
“If you ever change your mind later, make sure to rebel. We’ll cleanly kill you, okay?”
The primordial war gods left with genuinely regretful eyes. Thinking about the high goddesses who had been drenched in the blood of the ‘Neutral’ demigods and were now violating them still sent chills down their spines. The fact that they were even encouraging them not to give up on rebellion—despite having become complete subordinate gods whose every thought was open to their superior goddesses and who were forced to follow their ideology—left them utterly horrified.
When the high goddesses told them to reflect and properly fill the emptied seats of the demigods, they nodded frantically and threw themselves into their duties. The workload was so heavy it was painful, but being sent to the four realms as mortals was something they absolutely refused.
Moreover, what they feared most right now wasn’t the distant God Realm.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAANG—!
With a single light punch wrapped in aura swung right before their eyes, an entire section of the mountain range vanished. It was a demonstration of power and a threat from a female absolute who had introduced herself as one of the Dimensional Lord’s complete subordinate gods and an administrator of a lower divine realm.
A silver-haired female absolute nearly two meters tall with a slender, muscular build had gathered them and performed this show of force. Something that would require them to pour in massive preparation and full power, she did as if it were child’s play. She clenched the fist that had just turned a mountain range into dust and casually brushed past their shoulders.
“Want to get hit once each and then do it properly? Or will you do it properly on your own?”
Even though it was a light blow, they couldn’t dodge it at all. The impact shook their divinity to its very roots. They immediately realized that even in their 10-Circle state, they were no match for her.
And behind her, over a hundred female absolutes stood watching them with expressionless faces. Those female absolutes had no one beneath them either.
‘Trying to rebel in a situation like this really was insane. We deserve to die.’
‘We should have listened when they tried to stop us. As expected, getting involved with those opportunistic ‘Neutral’ types never leads to anything good.’
The demigods regretted it. They should have just done their jobs well, become ‘Ultimate Good,’ and ascended to the God Realm. Instead, they had made a fuss about establishing an independent lower divine realm just for demigods in the God Realm’s administration of the Middle World, and now even they had ended up like this.
No matter how early regret came, it was always too late. The pain in their shoulders—which felt like they would shatter from just a light brush of that fist—proved it.
“We’re busy training. So contact us if anything comes up.”
“We will do our best—! Please trust us and leave it to us!”
“Do it well so we don’t get cursed at. If problems arise, we’ll just hit you once each.”
“Do not worry.”
With that, they simply tossed over a communication device and all disappeared. If they took even one hit from the fist that had erased that mountain range, the current 9-Circle demigods would turn to dust instantly. Since there were already a hundred female absolutes under the Dimensional Lord, they could be replaced anytime.
Yet they had simply given a light threat and left. In the end, it meant they were to handle all the work themselves and do it properly.
The work that a hundred people had once leisurely divided and played while doing was now being handled by only ten. The tasks piled up endlessly, leaving them no time to even feel sorrow as they were crushed under the workload.
Just thinking about the ‘Neutral’ ones who had insisted on an independent lower divine realm claiming it would be more comfortable made their teeth grind.
“Ugh—! If I ever get involved with ‘Neutral’ types again, I’m not a demigod.”
“Still, the high goddesses are managing things well. If we become ‘Ultimate Good,’ they’ll call us up to the God Realm and even raise our divine power to the highest god level. So let’s work hard.”
“Right. Let’s trust the completely superior goddesses and handle things quickly. Besides, this was mostly work we were doing anyway, wasn’t it?”
Fortunately, most of it was work they had handled themselves. The opportunistic neutrals had never done their jobs properly and had always dumped everything onto the ‘Good’ faction, so the tasks were relatively easy to manage.
Dropping in rank was annoying, but since most of it was administrative work and they could ask the female absolutes to handle any divine power usage, with them taking turns, it was actually more convenient. Their capabilities were truly immense, and there was no longer any need for the messy coordination with the ‘Neutral’ faction like in the past, so efficiency had skyrocketed.
With swift measures, the believers were thriving and faith was rising, causing their Karma to surge rapidly toward ‘Ultimate Good.’ Instead of the neutral demigods who had demanded all sorts of things from their followers, they now only asked for faith, so the number of believers was growing quickly.
As time passed, they increasingly felt that the present was far better than the past. The smooth handling of tasks and improvement in Karma made work feel rewarding.
At this rate, becoming ‘Ultimate Good’ and rising to the God Realm as highest gods was no longer a dream. The surviving demigods of the ‘Good’ faction were now working with even greater dedication.
“As expected, even if it’s hard, living virtuously was the right choice. Since it’s the same work we always did, even with more tasks, it’s manageable, we won’t get disposed of for being sloppy, and we can even get promoted.”
The surviving demigods were living with their own sense of satisfaction.