The Exiled Lord's Grievance
The Upper Main God, who claimed to have volunteered to protect the Spirit Realm but was actually exiled for his rudeness toward the Creator God, ground his teeth in frustration. “Tch! If he’s a Highest Creator, he should just serve the Creator Lord properly! Why does someone of his lofty status have to barge into another universe and cause such chaos—!”
Grinding his teeth, he gazed across the front where countless gods from another Main Universe were advancing. ‘It’s already been ten thousand years since I was forced to hand over my divine realm to the acting Main God and was driven here. All I have under my command are these listless, incompetent Spirit Gods—tens of thousands of them—while I waste time training and killing time.’
Because any single mistake by another Main God of the Divine Realm could result in a change of post, he waited here, desperately hoping for a return to his own divine realm. Yet because these Main Gods were all battle-hardened warriors with an uncanny instinct for anything concerning their own positions, they never took the bait. It was maddening.
And to make matters even worse, a Highest Creator from another universe had led an elite divine army in an invasion—straight into his assigned sector, no less.
“Out of all the countless defense sectors, why mine? My karma is ‘Extreme Good,’ so why is this happening? Wait—! It’s been a while; let me check my karma value. What the—! When did it drop this low? I haven’t done anything—!”
It was a karma value he rarely checked because nothing ever happened and he did nothing at all, yet now it hovered at the very bottom of ‘Extreme Good.’ ‘A little more and it’ll fall straight into ‘Good,’ and my divine power will drop with it. The other Defense Main Gods are all perfectly ‘Extreme Good,’ so it seems my sector was the one that got chosen.’
The absurdity of it all drained the strength from his limbs, making him momentarily forget the invading Highest Creator. The conclusion was simple. His personal evaluation remained ‘Extreme Good’ with no issues, but the evaluation of the Upper Main God of the Divine Realm was only ‘Good.’ Combined, his ‘Extreme Good’ status was teetering on the edge—and the reason was crystal clear.
“These bastards, entrusted with the divine realm, are being pushed back by the Demon Realm. And my Main God Star is running a deficit? It was in surplus before I left— this is ridiculous, it’s too much! What the hell are the Divine Realm Management Main Gods even doing? Huh? They leased out ten Machine Gods—! And the vitality tax rate paid to the Main Divine Realm is twenty percent—! Are they planning to squander everything just because it isn’t theirs?”
His hands trembled with rising fury. ‘I left it in the care of the most reliable Intermediate Management Main God, and this damned situation happens.’ If the acting Main God of the Divine Realm had handed management over to the Machine Gods and was slacking off because it wasn’t his own realm, he would have gone and killed him on the spot—but that wasn’t the case either.
‘They’re barely holding on while fighting countless battles against the Upper Demon Gods of the Demon Divine Realm.’ As a result, many gods had died and been reborn, lowering the overall level to the point where it was hard to even call it an Upper Divine Realm. ‘All because I refused to bow at the waist and only lowered my head in greeting to the Creator God, I was exiled to the Spirit Realm’s Defense Main God position. After being neglected for so long, it’s come to this.’
Indeed, in this universe, even a moment of carelessness sent one plummeting straight to the bottom. Reviewing the records of battles between his divine realm and the Demon Realm sent by the Cyber Realm made his eyes roll back in rage. The evaluation of the Main God of the Divine Realm was so wretched that even ‘Good’ was in jeopardy.
Coarse words burst out toward the culprit. “I’ll kill them right now, you rotten Demon God bastard—!”
It had been a mistake to barely win the certification battle against the Upper Demon God and let him go. ‘I should have killed him somehow and demoted him to an Intermediate Demon God.’ The Upper Demon God had recovered from the blow of losing the certification battle, and after the Main God was exiled here, he had been pressuring the acting Main God—an Intermediate Main God—and wreaking havoc in the Middle World.
He was about to file a leave request, determined to go kill all those Demon Gods immediately, when the gods under the Highest Creator, who were already swarming in black, didn’t even register in his mind. ‘Originally, my abilities outside would be those of an Upper Creator God. Because this universe is receiving his support and contending with him, the ability standards have been raised by one stage each, so I’m only an Upper Main God. Moreover, I’ve come this far through countless certification battles. But those guys are mostly direct descendants who were born to the right parents, young masters who’ve never experienced life-or-death struggles where blood sprays and flesh is cut away. They’re laughable creatures whose only strength is high divine power. If given enough time, I could sweep them all away as long as I avoid anyone above Upper Creator God.’
If a Creator God participated in the war, it would no longer be a localized conflict but a full-scale war, so there was no chance of that. The Main Gods of other universes beneath him were merely cute in comparison. So what mattered now was managing his own karma and divine realm.
‘If I fight those incompetent fools here and my ‘Extreme Good’ drops to ‘Good,’ my divine power could be halved.’ That level of force could be handled if the Spirit Gods simply converted their divine power into a defensive system and held the line. Thinking this, he was about to shout and charge out when he looked around and felt a chill run down his spine.
“I need to take leave—! Those guys just need to maintain the barrier properly and respond accordingly, so do your best!”
The Spirit Gods stared at him with rotten, pig-like eyes, devoid of any hope or enthusiasm, which drained even his own motivation. ‘If I leave, they’ll definitely mess it up.’ Then he would truly be driven out from the position of Main God of the Divine Realm that he had worked so hard to obtain and become a permanent Defense Main God.
‘There’s no one else to trust. I can’t rely on these Spirit Gods steeped in defeatism. I forgot that the Spirit Gods aren’t gods of the divine realm but merely sources of vitality and divine power needed to maintain the Defense Divine Realm.’ With subordinates like this, he couldn’t bring himself to feel any attachment.
“Agh—! This is driving me insane.”
Complaining once more, he sat in the glorious seat of the Defense Divine Realm and began strengthening the barrier. No matter how they attacked as usual, he—an Upper Creator God in their eyes—couldn’t penetrate the nuclear barrier of the Defense Divine Realm. Yet they periodically came and unleashed attacks before leaving. He knew the reason, of course.
“Did the Creator Lord get pissed off by that universe’s Creator Lord’s gaze again and beat him up? Why do the Creator Lords keep making their underlings fight instead of settling it themselves? And why is that Highest Creator going overboard with his excessive loyalty and causing this uproar? Don’t delude yourself into thinking that having an executive appear on the front lines will boost morale. It only makes things worse because everyone gets annoyed trying to protect the high-ranking figure—! You lot just come to enjoy yourselves for a while, but the ones below suffer bone-chilling hardship—!”
Sure enough, the firepower pouring into the barrier was different from before. ‘All that attack power is divine power—directly vitality—yet they don’t seem to mind wasting it.’ The Cyber Realm immediately provided information on who that Highest Creator was. Reading the output information made him click his tongue.
“Tsk! He’s a direct descendant of that universe’s Creator Lord. So he’s the young master of some high-ranking figure! His father got beaten, so the son came to vent his anger? Since he can’t handle our Creator Lord, he’s taking it out on the subordinates instead. Rotten bastards—!”
It didn’t seem like this would end as a simple localized conflict, so his rough mercenary Main God speech habits resurfaced. ‘I thought it was strange that a Highest Creator showed up on the front lines, and sure enough, he’s just a young master. I haven’t lived a soft life where I’d lose to some inexperienced young master whose divine rank is higher than mine but who has almost no combat experience.’
As long as it wasn’t the Creator Lord himself, he could win, but even with the support of the Defense Divine Realm, he wouldn’t lose. That was why Upper Main Gods were sent here to become Defense Main Gods. Of course, subduing the enemy was all that was required, but for him it was impossible. No matter how proven a powerhouse he was after completing all certification battles as an Upper Main God, he couldn’t overcome a difference of two or more stages in divine rank.
In times like this, a simple report would suffice. “Connect to the Main Divine Realm. Reporting the current status of the Spirit Realm’s Defense Divine Realm. Expecting deployment of a Highest Creator from another universe. Requesting combat directives and support.”
He sent the brief message through the Cyber Realm to the Main Divine Realm. ‘Now if I just wait, they’ll handle it on their own.’ The Cyber Realm would take care of any additional reports. ‘The Cyber Realm and Main Divine Realm are truly wonderful. In a crisis or predicament like this, they’re incomparably convenient and reliable. In another universe, everyone would be busy fleeing right now, and even if allies came to help, it would take an enormous amount of time.’
In the meantime, divine realms and planets were routinely reduced to ashes. But in this universe, with the Cyber Realm and Main Divine Realm, as long as you paid your taxes, you received protection, information, communication, and spatial movement support on the scale of the Creator Lord’s Main Universe. Moreover, vitality flowed abundantly on every planet, and the Main God Stars received as compensation for serving as mercenary Main Gods created a truly paradisiacal environment for gods.
‘The improvement in divine power and living conditions are incomparable to other universes. If you just focus on your own training and the prosperity of life, everything works out. And because of his control, there are no rampages by overpowerful beings that can’t be handled, so once you secure a position as a Main God of the Divine Realm, it’s a perfect path forward. So even if it’s hard, I have to endure—but what the hell is this pride of mine? Just because I refused to bow at the waist and only lowered my head, it’s come to this.’
While he was lamenting, a response came immediately. ‘They’re all battle-hardened warriors, so their decisions are swift and decisive.’ He unfolded the list of supporting forces that appeared right before his eyes and began checking it.
“Let’s see who’s coming. Even if just one Highest Main God comes, it should be enough to sort this out. HUUUUEEEERK—!”
A scream burst out involuntarily, and the Spirit Gods, looking puzzled, turned to stare before screaming along with him. The names listed in the supporting forces were existences they didn’t even dare to judge.