The Price of Arrogance
The Goddess Department’s war had left a foul taste in his mouth, so the Dimensional Lord didn’t hold back. ‘I checked with the Main Divine Realm. The stars in this sector fiercely rejected affiliation with either the Divine Realm or the Demon Realm and chose to pursue their own survival.’
Both realms usually respected a star’s wishes, since developing intelligent life and harvesting vitality without their approval or cooperation was nearly impossible. Yet some stars always refused any intervention whatsoever.
‘These stars achieved independence and poured all their vitality into their own growth. The problem is they have no administrators or guardians. That’s why they’ve been helplessly watching their lifespans get devoured while this abnormal, material-obsessed machine civilization flourished.’
If a Main God or Demon God were in charge, they would have exterminated this machine race the moment it threatened the star’s existence. But because these stars rejected all affiliation, they had simply been left alone.
‘We’re in an era of vitality shortage, so who knows what will happen next. And yet these same stars dragged me in while I was being bounced around by dimensional travel and now have the audacity to beg. They want me to clean up the machine vermin that have already spread across their entire solar system—vermin that are now too troublesome for the stars themselves to handle.’
From the perspective of a Dimensional Lord who fought as a mercenary god for massive compensation, the whole situation was laughably pathetic.
“Everywhere I go it’s either a rip-off or a freebie demand? Duty toward the strong? Don’t make me laugh! Did you ever lend me a spoon while I was eating? Did you ever apply medicine when I was dying? You turned your backs on me when you thought you could survive alone, and now you reach out your hands saying we should get along? Who do you think you are, the protagonist of some comedy?”
Wooooooooong!
Nine circles of magical power spun rapidly, creating an anomalous phenomenon. He selected appropriately sized super-giant meteorites around the star cluster.
“These aren’t even stars I was born on or manage. Why the hell would I waste divine power and shave off my karma for no reason? And if he shows up, who’s going to take responsibility? Shut up and take this—!”
He expanded his divine power and magical energy infinitely through the Authority of Dimensions, encompassing the entire territory of this machine empire’s universe.
‘Ninety life-bearing stars make up the machine race’s domain.’
Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!
He deliberately chose regions where negative karma had accumulated heavily and designated them as targets.
‘I should earn at least a little while I’m at it.’
Creatures that dared challenge a High Lord whose karma was Absolute Good were extremely rare, and carrying out justified punishment did not lower one’s karma. In the universe he ruled, there was no mercy for blind weaklings who failed to recognize the strong and attacked anyway.
“Circle of Stellar SystemMinimum.”
Type: Space Magic, Partial Localized Wide-Area Attack
Effect: Continuously casts Clash Planet to summon and destroy stars in succession. 10th Circle: 80 casts. 11th Circle: 160 casts.
Additional Effect (9th Circle): Expands range using surplus mana. 10th Circle covers solar-system scale. 11th Circle covers star-cluster scale.
Note: Full 11th Circle activation could expand to galactic scale, but currently impossible.
Purpose: Complete the 11th Circle ascension granted by him and efficiently clear large-scale enemies.
Restriction: Mass planetary destruction severely damages karma, so usage is limited or scaled down to destroy only the crust.
After the first activation, the protagonist had once said: I will show those who rely on numbers the bitter taste of reality.
He summoned meteorites precisely sized so they would not completely destroy the planetary crust and dropped them. The planets’ defense systems seemed decent; satellites attempted interception, but they lacked the power to fully neutralize meteorites of this scale.
‘The super-giant meteorites sustain only minor damage and slam directly into their target zones.’
Rumble rumble rumble—!
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gang!
Since the impacts landed in places thick with negative karma, even the Goddess of Light found the sight refreshing. The massive shockwaves obliterated everything within a hundred kilometers and scorched a thousand-kilometer radius. Dust and debris shot into space, and the deafening roar shook the entire star.
Rumble rumble rumble rumble—!
He dropped one on the star right before his eyes as well. The impact was considerable. He casually erased all damage outside the intended destruction zone and stabilized the planet.
‘It’s like giving both punishment and medicine, but if I, the Goddess of Light, commit mass slaughter across an entire star cluster without reason, I really will be disposed of. If my karma, which has reached this level and earned me a title, ever falls back to Absolute Evil, every Main God in existence will rush to kill me just to raise their own karma. Even Creator Candidates would rejoice at the chance to eliminate me while my karma is rising.’
Becoming a Main God meant planetary-scale mass destruction was tolerable, but solar-system scale was a serious problem.
‘At minimum, one must be a Creator God for it to be acceptable.’
That was why he had minimized all secondary damage except for the direct destruction caused by the super-giant meteorites. Still, the stars would be in considerable pain.
Having given them one solid blow, he sent them a mental message, thinking it might knock some sense into them.
‘Foolish stars. Stop being so obsessed with freedom and quickly swear allegiance to any Main God or Demon God. The world is not as easy to survive alone as you think. It would be best for you to join the regular management of the Divine Realm and grow under their protection.’
The Dimensional Lord conveyed his firm will completely, then clicked his tongue.
‘If they were the type to come to their senses from this, they wouldn’t have let the machine race run wild in the first place. Still, they’ve gone quiet, so it must hurt quite a bit.’
Most of the super-giant meteorites had been dropped on places with heavy negative karma, so a small amount of positive karma flowed toward him.
‘There are many, but they’re too low in rank to be very helpful. To rise one stage, I would need to justly kill a Demon God King candidate whose karma is Absolute Evil—at least one stage above mine—without causing collateral damage to the surroundings. Only then could I gain the equivalent of the karma I earned from disposing of the former Demon King and millions of dark mages. Only then would Absolute Good have any chance of ascending to Absolute Justice.’
However, in his universe there was no being whose karma was Absolute Evil yet possessed power on that level. Such entities had already been hunted or executed by those around them under various pretexts, precisely because their karma would provide enormous benefits if improved.
‘It’s exactly the same as when Granzoa and the Divine Realm tried to find any excuse to kill me after my karma fell to Absolute Evil.’
If such a target existed, the Dimensional Lord would naturally be willing to deal with them for free.
‘The higher one’s divinity rises, the harder it becomes for karma to increase, since it can no longer decrease. That’s why if an opportunity to raise it dramatically appears, Main Gods and Demon Gods from across the universe will swarm like flies. What if a Main God or even a Creator God above me falls to Absolute Evil? He would personally turn them into insects and deal with them, so there’s no problem at all.’
In the early days, countless beings above the Creator rank who had mass-destroyed stars belonging to the opposing faction had been dragged away and executed. The same thing was still happening now, so no such targets existed.
Therefore, the Dimensional Lord canceled all additional damage outside the impact points of the super-giant meteorites he had just dropped.
Gooooooo.
Only enormous craters roughly two hundred kilometers wide remained as proof of the destruction.
After confirming that the pillar of earth and dust that had shot into space from the star before him had vanished as if it had never existed, he moved toward the city.
‘I’ll take a light two-week rest, then head straight to the Spirit Realm. Otherwise I might end up making extra round trips between my own divine realm and the Spirit Realm.’
After giving them a good smack on the head, the stars had fallen silent. It seemed he could finally rest properly.
‘In this world, there has never been such a thing as a free lunch. It’s not even free—it’s usually a rip-off. So get your act together.’
As the Dimensional Lord grumbled and entered the city, the machine empire’s second capital, Einherz, had been hastily designated as the temporary capital after the original capital was annihilated by the fall of a super-giant meteorite.
The massive meteorite impacts had thrown the entire Machine Empire into utter chaos.
‘Absurdly, the primary megacities on every planet were simultaneously destroyed by meteorite impacts at exactly the same moment.’
The high-ranking machine beings who had gathered to assess the situation and take action fell into a state of panic upon hearing the unprecedented reports coming from each planet. Inside a gigantic dome-shaped palace, the highest-ranking machine beings from every planet projected themselves as three-dimensional holograms, holding meeting after meeting. They were frantically analyzing the damage and searching for the cause, but all they could confirm was destruction on a scale beyond their ability to handle.
“The imperial capital has been completely obliterated. The deaths of His Imperial Majesty and the entire imperial family have been confirmed.”
“The primary cities on every planet have been destroyed by suddenly appearing meteorites.”
“Total damage and restoration costs are incalculable.”
“All missing persons have been confirmed dead.”
In short, the Machine Empire was on the verge of collapse.
The most advanced cities on the empire’s colonial planets had naturally been home to the highest-ranking upper-class machine beings. Yet those cities had been wiped out without a trace by the fall of colossal meteorites that had teleported in from space. The empire had lost ten percent of its entire machine population.
‘Out of a population of one billion, one hundred million have been annihilated.’
‘This is an unprecedented catastrophe in the history of the Machine Empire.’
The highest-ranking leaders—the imperial family, dukes, and marquises—who had ruled over the most prosperous cities had been completely wiped out. All that remained were counts and lower nobles who had been protecting the provinces, along with a few imperial relatives who had been too far from the throne to be considered threats.
An emergency imperial court had been established in the second city of the home planet, and they were frantically trying to grasp the situation.
The high-ranking nobles, whose bodies had been almost entirely replaced with machinery except for portions of their brains, were pouring every ounce of their information-gathering and analytical capabilities into understanding what had happened.
“What is the cause of this disaster?! Who the hell attacked us?!”
“There is no force in this star cluster capable of attacking the Machine Empire.”
“Primitive humans who could launch an attack of this scale against us, who have conquered the entire star cluster, do not exist.”
The electromagnetic waves and violent movements of the high-ranking machine humans, enraged by damage that could not possibly be restored, were distorting even the display screens.
These were beings who had converted nearly their entire bodies into weapons, leaving only a tiny portion of their brains, all in pursuit of strength and immortality. Their fury was so intense it threatened the surrounding machine beings.
After analyzing every anomaly before and after the incident, the conclusion soon emerged.
“Contact with the 7th Legion was lost after they reported encountering an unknown lifeform in the border region and attempted to capture it.”
“A report of an unknown lifeform’s discovery was filed from the 7th Planet.”
“Display the data.”
A massive screen appeared in the air, showing a humanoid figure enveloped in light. Thirteen pairs of light wings that resembled rays of light endlessly cruised through space, teleporting as they approached the planet. The sight of the being slicing through the dark void with wings of light was so ethereally beautiful it almost seemed dreamlike.
The reactions of the high-ranking machine humans changed instantly. Though they could not understand the entity, they instinctively sensed danger.
“Is that truly a living being? Does a lifeform capable of repeated spatial teleportation at that scale even exist?”
“What kind of energy allows continuous spatial jumps?”
“How can something that large navigate interstellar space alone?”
“Enlarging the image and reconstructing the message the lifeform transmitted through will.”
A smaller video began to play in the air. It was an enlarged view of the being of light. Though blurred by intense brilliance, the form excluding the wings was clearly humanoid with arms and legs. As the faint outline of the face became visible, a mechanical voice flowed into their minds.
‘I am the Dimensional Lord, currently en route to the Spirit Realm. I request approval for a two-week stay on this planet from its managing deity. I will pay a fair price.’