The Golden Hammer of Love
In the Spirit Realm's war, a colossal golden hammer the size of an ancient tree cleaved through the void of space. Thoooooooom! Strangely, it moved at an unhurried, almost leisurely pace. Its target was none other than Hwi of Omniscience—the Preliminary Creator God who had just finished beating all five of the Highest Creator Gods from the external Master Universe into submission and forcibly reclaimed their vitality.
The gods from the other Master Universes who had invaded were hastily pulling back every last ounce of their forces. They had watched in horror as the Highest Creator Gods were stripped of their vitality without being able to put up any meaningful resistance. Yet the Preliminary Creator God, eyes bloodshot with rage, was still unsatisfied. The beings who had been taunting him with such bravado and the gods who had come to support them had fallen far too easily. His fury unquenched, he now turned his attention toward the Highest Main Gods who were gathered with fighting spirit radiating from their bodies.
It was then that Hwi of Omniscience spotted the golden hammer drifting toward him as if on a leisurely cruise.
“!!!”
The attack was coming at an agonizingly slow speed straight toward his forehead, yet he felt an overwhelming sense of mortal danger. Reflexively, he moved to block it—only to snap back to his senses at the last moment. He had no choice but to regain his composure. Even a defensive barrier would be shattered, and the hammer was still slowly but surely aiming for his forehead. The threat was simply too great.
‘My accumulated combat experience is too high for me to lose my mind and rampage here. I’ve come back to my senses, but it’s useless.’
He desperately overlapped space and repeated instantaneous movements, trying to evade the slow golden hammer. Yet it followed him as if it had always been there. Come to think of it, he had never once succeeded in dodging it. Realizing this, he curled up, wrapping both arms around his head to minimize the damage.
And then, the golden hammer lightly touched the arm covering his forehead.
Crack—!
Whaaaaam—!
“!!!”
Thud—!
Hwi of Omniscience couldn’t even scream. He was sent flying like a ball struck by a club swung with full force, and the place he landed was the Seat of Glory within the Defense Divine Realm of the Spirit Realm.
‘Even though I poured every bit of divine power I could into defense, my arm bones are shattered and it still landed a clean hit on my forehead.’
The hammer remained stuck to his forehead, positioning him perfectly as if he were seated upon the Seat of Glory. The absurd impact had driven him into the seat, and the golden hammer had shrunk down to cling there as if it belonged on his brow.
The battlefield fell into complete silence. The mighty Preliminary Creator God—who had been rampaging like a madman, wringing the Highest Creator Gods of the external Master Universe dry like rags—had been knocked unconscious by a single lazy strike that he couldn’t even defend against properly.
In particular, the expressions of the Highest Main Gods—who had tried to stop Hwi’s rampage and ended up suffering critical injuries from the aftershock of his divine power—turned deathly pale the moment they saw the golden hammer stuck to his forehead. They knew that hammer all too well. They had been struck by it countless times themselves.
And sure enough, a voice filled with familiar dissatisfaction echoed throughout the Defense Divine Realm.
“Tsk—! Even when you focus solely on training, progress is difficult. To think you can’t even handle something like this properly. How pathetic.”
“We greet the supremely great and noble Creator God!”
Hwi of Omniscience and all the Highest Main Gods immediately bent at the waist in a bow exceeding ninety degrees. They knew all too well just how sensitive this Creator God was about etiquette and how long he held grudges.
Watching an Upper Main God of the Defense Divine Realm immediately prostrate himself and perform a full kowtow the instant he sensed the Creator God’s divine power was almost pitiful.
‘A quick check shows that this Upper Main God’s own divine realm has been evaluated terribly due to neglect of management. His Karma is barely hanging on at ‘Extreme Good.’ If he loses all his believers, he could drop to Intermediate Main God.’
Well, if they had been exiled to the Spirit Realm’s Defense Divine Realm, ruined their own divine realm, and were on the verge of falling from ‘Good’ Karma, they would probably be doing the same.
Everyone kept their heads down, staring only at the ground in extreme tension. Unexpectedly, the Creator God did not reveal himself. Only a hand reached out from the void to retrieve the ‘Golden Hammer of Love’ that had struck the Preliminary Creator God’s forehead.
Having taken back only his divine artifact, he transmitted his voice alone.
“Handle this properly. And since you have training partners, learn all of these techniques from them. These are the Creator General’s special teachings, so you must master them without fail.”
“……”
Thwack—!
A disc-shaped video projector fell from the air and struck the unconscious Preliminary Creator God’s head once more before projecting an image into the empty space.
‘He must be extremely displeased with how this situation was handled.’
If it had been a Main God instead of a Preliminary Creator God, they would have been permanently dispatched to another universe. But since it was a Preliminary Creator God, it seemed he was letting it slide. A three-dimensional hologram immediately began to play.
“This is the divine-demonic joint ultimate technique ‘Ayuta,’ developed to counter the strengthened Substitute Gods.”
In the air appeared a scene of two gods—one divine, one demonic—unfurling twenty-seven pairs of wings each as they battled a Preliminary Creator God of the Substitute Gods who shone with golden light the size of a solar system. Shockingly, the two were fighting on equal footing.
The Highest Main Gods, stunned by the sight, cried out in unison.
“Just two people can face a Substitute God?”
“Those are the Creator General and the Demon Emperor. This is the priceless technique they bestowed upon us after achieving victory against the strengthened Substitute Gods last time.”
The two were undeniably the strongest of their respective races in this Master Universe, excluding the Creator Gods themselves. Indeed, on screen, an overwhelming mixture of divine power and demonic energy was neutralizing the Substitute God’s divine annihilation ability.
Then, in the next scene, everyone’s eyes widened to the point of nearly tearing.
Of the Creator General’s twenty-seven pairs of wings of light, twenty-six transformed into blades of light and gathered into the divine spear he held. He then charged straight at the Substitute God’s Preliminary Creator God and drove it deep into his body. At the exact same moment and with identical force, the Demon Emperor concentrated his wings of darkness into his own divine weapon and struck from the opposite side.
The screen was filled with a massive explosion, and the video cut off. The Highest Main Gods were left speechless. They understood at a glance just how vicious this joint technique truly was.
Yet the Creator God, seemingly unmoved, continued in an emotionless voice.
“When combining attacks with a demon race that possesses opposing-attribute demonic power, the destructive force is generally increased by about ten times. If the power of demonic energy and divine power is perfectly matched and fused simultaneously, it can reach over a hundred times. With the Creator General and the Demon Emperor working together, they were able to display destructive power on the level of ‘Nayuta’ and thus defeated a Preliminary Creator God of the Substitute Gods. This has been elevated to an essential technique that all gods must learn. Be grateful for such boundless mercy. It has not yet been downgraded for Main God use, but real combat is an invaluable opportunity to grow stronger. You must all master it completely using them as your training partners. The Creation Realm is currently busy learning these techniques, so you are to handle this matter well. Additionally, I appoint the Preliminary Creator God Hwi as the Main God of the Defense Divine Realm in the Spirit Realm until these matters are resolved.”
“U-understood. Everything shall be as the supremely noble and great Creator God wills.”
With no interest whatsoever in the chaotic state of the Defense Divine Realm, the Creator God vanished. The gods stared at the repeating video and began to lament.
“Divine-demonic joint ultimate technique ‘Ayuta’? Isn’t this more like a joint suicide technique?”
“It’s suicide from the very start—ripping out all the wings of light that store your own divine power and absorb external divine power. It really is the end, isn’t it?”
“Without the wings of light, our divine power is weakened. How are we supposed to break through the Substitute Gods’ concentrated wide-area divine power barrage? We’d all die just trying to get close. What’s the point?”
“No, the divine power gathered by the wings of light is meant to be fired at the opponent. The power drops significantly, but it can definitely deliver a critical hit.”
“But even if we reach the target and fire, the slightest error in activation timing or power discrepancy with the demon race partner will kill us both. If the fusion explosion fails, it detonates over a wide area, and of course we won’t have the strength to cancel it out or dodge.”
“No matter how positively you look at it, this is way too dangerous.”
Everyone clutched their foreheads with both hands, drowning in despair and the agonizing question of ‘Do we really have to live like this?’
‘Because of the countless direct-line descendants undergoing certification battles against the strengthened Substitute Gods, all the vitality we’ve painstakingly accumulated has been wiped out. We’re already on the verge of death from austerity measures. And now they’re telling us to learn a suicide technique on top of that.’
There was no denying its absurdly overwhelming power. But there was zero consideration or safety guarantee for the user. Of course, a being with a Creator God’s level of senses could use it without issue, but for an inexperienced Main God, it would most likely result in mutual destruction.
‘If the demon race partner activating it at the same time makes even the slightest mistake or harbors any malice and disrupts the timing or attack position, we die instantly.’
And of course, that included the demon race partner and the Substitute God on the receiving end.
“It’s a technique that says if you’re going to lose to the Substitute Gods anyway, at least inflict maximum damage—and if possible, take a demon race with you.”
“It’s a joint mutual destruction technique. We have to learn this?”
“If it gets nerfed when it comes down from the Main Divine Realm, we could learn it, but the Creator God will definitely check, so we have no choice.”
“Those guys are in a state where all their Highest Creator Gods are dead and nearly all their vitality has been taken. They’re ready to fight to the bitter end, and we’re supposed to use them as practice dummies?”
“To the Creator Gods, this must look like children’s squabbles.”
“They train with such brutal techniques on a daily basis, so even when other Master Universes launch what’s essentially an all-out war, they remain completely unfazed.”
“They aren’t the type to care when weaklings who aren’t even worth their time come swarming in.”
It really seemed they wouldn’t bat an eye unless the Creator himself came knocking. And the power gap was so vast that rebellion was impossible.
‘Just now, we Highest Main Gods rushed in to stop the Preliminary Creator God’s rampage and still suffered critical injuries from the mere aftershock of his authority and divine power.’
‘The Creator God turned him unconscious with a casual flick of his divine artifact.’
‘The conclusion is that we have to resolve this situation with our own strength no matter what.’
They didn’t understand why they, the Highest Main Gods, had to step up to clean up the massive mess caused by the Preliminary Creator God’s rampage. But once an order had been given, they had no choice but to obey.
‘If we refuse, it’s immediate annihilation. If we say we can’t, it’s immediate revocation of our Main God position in the divine realm.’
Having received their Main God stars from the Creator God, they had no choice in whether to participate in the war. No matter how high their position, they were ultimately just foot soldiers. Thinking about the independent divine realm’s Main Gods who were probably lounging around without participating in this mess made their blood pressure spike.
“As always, we have to do as we’re told, right? Haaaa—! Should I go back to being a mercenary god?”
“How many subordinate gods do we have to feed? Are you planning to let them all wither and die without vitality?”
“What about the nagging from our consorts and concubines? If you become a mercenary Main God, they’ll cancel the contracts immediately.”
“Are our direct descendants supposed to handle the certification battles all by themselves?”
“How many gods under us depend on our care to survive? How can you say something like that again—!”
“You’re driving me crazy!”
“Exactly! When did things get this hard?”
“Since we’re all in the same boat, let’s stop complaining and wake up the Preliminary Creator God. We have to do as ordered.”
The Main Gods who still had enough energy left to complain found their eyes growing red as they spoke.
‘In terms of total military strength, they have numbers, but in individual capability, we hold an overwhelming advantage. There’s no need to worry.’
‘Yet it feels as if the Master Universe has been waiting for this moment, as its forces are being endlessly reinforced.’
They were on the verge of receiving an additional total mobilization order extending all the way down to ordinary Main Gods to match the overwhelmingly superior numbers from the other Master Universes.
Thus, the flames of war in the Spirit Realm showed no signs of dying down. Instead, they only grew fiercer.
Meanwhile, the Dimensional Lord remained in the Spirit Realm Waiting Area, showing no signs of leaving.
“Your chant is too weak—! Would you like to make another round trip? Shall we continue the round trips?”
“No, sir—! I can do it properly!”
“You only get one chance. I will re-evaluate after hearing your voice. Show me your will. Fire a powerful war cry toward the front!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah—!”
He had even changed into the Spirit Realm Waiting Area’s uniform—half red and half white—and was extremely busy putting the pathetic Intermediate Main Gods and below who had collapsed from this level of training through intensified conditioning. Of course, he was doing it exactly the way the management gods usually ran the Spirit Realm Waiting Area.
Thanks to having stolen the mark that had been suppressing the authority of Yugyeok Volcano, these gods were now in a state where their spare vitality and divine power were being forcibly absorbed. Being subjected to the same harsh treatment they had once inflicted on the spirit gods naturally left them panting with their tongues hanging out, begging to be allowed to die.
‘Now I feel a little better. I’m even starting to enjoy this a bit.’
It was both admirable and comical to see them desperately repeating affirmations in hopes of slightly reducing the difficulty of their training. A sly smile crept across his face.
‘Heh heh heh! There’s something strangely addictive about giving orders like this.’