The Almighty's Rampage
The Dimensional Lord’s gaze shot skyward as he pieced together the situation from the distant sounds of war echoing out of the Spirit Realm. He turned to the senior administrator god, whose face had now turned completely black, and spoke.
“So the barrier over the Defense Divine Realm in the Spirit Realm hasn’t fallen. Those feeble gods from other universes couldn’t possibly manage it. This isn’t an enemy invasion—it’s a rampage by someone who caused an accident. And you want me to stop it? While every other Highest Lord has cut communications and fled? You’re asking me to face an opponent even they can’t handle?”
“Heh… heh heh heh…”
The Dimensional Lord let out a hollow laugh. He had half a mind to fire the Dimensional Divine Annihilation Cannon straight into the administrator’s face, but he changed his mind. If I want a good contract, I can’t go around beating up the person in charge. I need to stay on decent terms. He had already lost his temper once with the Cyber Realm’s handler, and ever since then the requests had been nothing but nightmarish. Suppressing his fury as best he could, he asked, “Exactly whose rampage am I supposed to stop? A Creator God wouldn’t lose their temper over something as trivial as another universe’s Highest Creator, and no other Creator can cross into this territory without violating boundaries. Wait… don’t tell me—”
“……”
By process of elimination, only one possibility remained. The two gods exchanged looks of utter dismay. If the being I’m thinking of has truly gone berserk, there’s no way I can handle him. Even at my current level, I’d be dead within five minutes.
Preliminary Creator Almighty Hwi has finally snapped! Even if every other Highest Lord joined forces, they couldn’t beat him. Ten minutes at most before they’re finished.
And if he’s really in the middle of a full-blown rampage, telling me to stop him is the same as telling me to die. They won’t even help with resurrection or vitality afterward. Ridiculous.
After exchanging glances in silence, the Dimensional Lord reached a swift conclusion. He flashed a bright smile and wrapped things up.
“Hoo-hoo—! Once his anger cools, he’ll clean up after himself. Good luck with that. I’m afraid I’ll have to pass on this request. I’ve got my own divine realms to manage and personal matters to attend to. I still need to wrap things up with the Machine Empire and the machine goddesses as well.”
“Please wait just a moment—! The compensation will be—”
“Ah, I’m busy! So busy—!”
Click.
The Dimensional Lord severed the Cyber Realm connection and set it to full receive-block, then let out a sigh of relief. Phew. That was close.
Thanks to the authority he had gained upon becoming a Creator God candidate, he could roughly observe the current battle unfolding in the Spirit Realm beyond the screen. His divine power is tearing space, time, and dimensions to shreds in ways that defy imagination.
It was a vivid demonstration of why a being needed amplification techniques for over 100 billion divine power just to stand a chance in the certification battle against the Substitute Gods. His maximum innate divine power exceeds 200 billion. The gap in strength is so vast it can’t even be measured properly.
A quick glance at the still-connected Main Divine Realm feed revealed an even more horrifying scene.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Almighty Hwi, the Preliminary Creator, was gripping two Highest Creators from another universe, one in each hand, and smashing their heads together in a brutal beating. Beneath his feet, several more Highest Creators—beings whose status far exceeded their actual strength in this universe—were being stomped into the ground.
That side’s finished. No stopping him now.
The surrounding Highest Lords were at a complete loss. They all tried to intervene and got smacked around for their trouble. Look at all those injuries.
Listening to the bitter words spilling from Almighty Hwi as he swung his fists and feet in blind rage, the Dimensional Lord could guess what had set him off.
“That’s right! I’ve been retaking the Creator God certification exam for ten thousand years! So what? You worthless trash! You’re Highest Creators in name only—your abilities are worse than any Highest Lord, yet you dare run your mouths? In our universe, you’d be disposed of on the spot! Disposed of!”
Someone had clearly touched the one thing Almighty Hwi could never tolerate. Running their mouths when they’re that weak—they deserve to get beaten to death.
Still, the other Highest Creators were rushing in to rescue their own, even as they were being crushed. This is going to get loud. I should sneak into the Spirit Realm, grab the gods I need, and get out.
No amount of compensation could make him face Almighty Hwi, who was already being evaluated as comparable to a full Creator God. The authority of the Almighty God Tribe was outright cheating against Lords of the same level. And if the fight somehow dragged in Highest Creators from other universes, winning would only create more problems.
“Why on earth did they have to touch that reverse scale of his? This time, I’m pretending I know nothing. Getting caught in the crossfire between those lofty beings never ends well.”
He shook his head, recalling his mercenary-god days when he had been dragged into proxy wars over divine grudges, only to be cast aside even after victory. Anyway, there’s no chance he’ll lose, but this feels like it’ll turn into a long, messy quagmire.
Fights like that came with so many restrictions that even generous rewards weren’t worth the risk—different from ordinary wars in the worst possible way. The Dimensional Lord turned his attention to the battlefield on the Machine God’s mother planet and found the sight utterly absurd.
The Magic Machine Idols I created have lower base performance than planetary suppression weapons, yet they’re still Machine Gods. Their metal bodies evolve and develop on their own, even manifesting divine power and authorities.
Though their reality-warping ability was extremely limited, when paired with 6th-Circle pilots they shouldn’t have been getting crushed so badly—yet five of them had already been rendered combat-ineffective and were in the middle of restoration.
“You pathetic fools. If I’d actually appointed you as proper gods instead of idols, I’d be embarrassed right now.”
The real problem was that the Machine Gods’ egos, the planetary management AIs’ egos, and the pilots’ egos all refused to accept the predetermined outcome of the first match and were still bickering, dragging down overall performance. The solution was simple: leave them alone.
“They’ll only come to their senses after dying countless times and tasting real pain. Let’s see how far they’ll push this.”
Anticipating exactly this, he had already linked the Machine Gods’ and AIs’ egos to feel every bit of pain the Magic Machine Idols’ bodies endured. Naturally, the pilots felt it too. Those who refuse to admit defeat and keep scheming behind the scenes are too weak. This is the only way to wake them up.Only by acknowledging your own weakness can you truly strive to improve.
Sure enough, after being torn apart several times due to poor coordination, they finally began working together on their own. But they had already been completely pushed back on the battlefield, so recovery wouldn’t be easy. The planetary suppression weapon, now transformed into a massive crocodile, snatched up a Magic Machine Idol and swallowed it whole. The moment it fired its heat-ray cannon from inside its mouth, the first decisive blow landed.
Crack-crunch! Rumble!
The defeated Magic Machine Idol, reduced to scattered parts, reappeared on the outskirts of the battlefield. The instant it tried to return, a giant mechanical goddess’s finger blocked its path. Three machine goddesses who had recovered their Lord God status—each now piloting silver-gray Machine God bodies hundreds of kilometers tall—floated in the planet’s atmosphere, observing the fight like judges. With a casual reach, a single finger was enough to separate the two combatants.
Idea, restored all the way to Intermediate Lord, had taken the form of a goddess-type Machine God larger than the planet’s moon and was quietly watching the battle unfold. Then she made a declaration that echoed across the entire star system.
“Losers are immediately barred from re-entering the battlefield. Defeat another Magic Machine Idol to earn another chance. Winners must also refrain from interfering in other fights and simply enjoy the glory of victory.”
Vwoooom!
Light burst from the eyes of the beautiful giant mechanical goddess, overlapping with the moon, and shone upon the crocodile-shaped planetary suppression weapon. It vanished from the battlefield and reappeared on the outskirts as well.
“As per the Dimensional Lord’s command, victors will be granted a one-stage increase in physical strength and power. Losers will drop one stage from their current level. The defeated shall become the foundation for the victor’s evolution.”
Her divine proclamation became law. The Magic Machine Idol’s promotion was revoked, returning it to the lowest tier. A mournful wail resonated across the battlefield as the idol felt its divinity decline, and its pilot dropped from 6th Circle to 5th Circle. The power and youth that had filled their body diminished accordingly, reverting the pilot to middle age. The pilot screamed in shock.
‘No way! This can’t be happening! Give me back my youth! My power!’
The victorious crocodile-shaped planetary suppression weapon was enveloped in light, growing larger and more powerful as it evolved. Its pilot’s soul also advanced one stage, and they let out a cry of ecstasy at their expanded presence.
‘Puahaha! So this is the power of a god!’
What had evolved and strengthened them was the vitality and divine power once possessed by the Magic Machine Idol—now reclaimed from the loser and made their own. Witnessing this cold conclusion, the remaining planetary suppression weapons and Magic Machine Idols shuddered and charged at one another, intent on landing lethal blows. No more words or mercy could be found among them. They desired only to defeat their opponent for the sake of their own survival and growth.
This is what war looks like. The victor takes everything; the loser loses everything. What the victor gains is exactly what the loser loses. There is no deeper meaning—only the struggle for life. And struggle is life’s endless instinct to grow stronger and evolve. Only death grants rest. Gods are great because they make even death not the end, but the beginning of eternal evolution.
The Dimensional Lord nodded as he watched the authorities radiating from the Magic Machine Idols and the destructive material attacks of the planetary suppression weapons. From now on, they will have only one goal: to grow stronger and become useful in this universe. I wonder how far beings with only 100 billion vitality can go, but at the very least they’ll serve as the foundation for strengthening the Machine Gods and maintaining the subordinate divine realms.
The planets were already recovering now that his intervention had ended the plundering of resources and vitality. He could expect good results for the subordinate divine realms. The dimensional coordinates have stabilized completely. Now I need to head to the Spirit Realm, which is turning into a mess thanks to the Preliminary Creator’s rampage and the intervention of outside Creators.
He issued additional instructions to Idea, now a subordinate Lord God, and prepared to move. Of course, I’ll have to move in secret. Getting involved there would be pointless. Yet an ominous feeling told him he shouldn’t go at all.