The Volcano's True Purpose
The Main Gods imprisoned in the Spirit Realm Waiting Area had been drained of their surplus vitality and divine power for so long that they could not even maintain their appearance. Their hair had grown long enough to cover the floor. Only their wretched faces remained visible, the rest of their bodies bound tightly by chains of restraint. The moment they saw the Dimensional Lord, they unleashed a torrent of curses.
“You vile creatures! What kind of gods of light are you supposed to be!”
“The moment I am freed from this place, I will report you to the Main Divine Realm and make you pay the price!”
“I will surely repay this grudge!”
They seemed to have mistaken the Dimensional Lord for one of the gods assigned to the Spirit Realm Waiting Area. Of course, the Dimensional Lord was not the sort to lose his temper over a few insults from criminals.
‘It is strange that they have maintained their divine power despite being trapped here for such a long time without moving.’
The Yugyeok Volcano was structured so that without constant tempering, one’s vitality would be continuously siphoned away, weakening the body to its absolute limit. Prolonged imprisonment should not have left them in such a condition.
‘What have I overlooked? It is good that my power has increased, but my diminished vigilance and caution are a serious problem. If I continue to let my guard down like this, I could be finished in a single blow, just like on the Creator God’s mercenary battlefield. This overconfidence stems from the release of my physical restrictions.’
The bound Main Gods thrashed violently, trying to do something upon seeing the Dimensional Lord. The chains rattled and shook.
Clang—! Clang—! Clang—!
‘Two ordinary male Main Gods and one ordinary female Main God?’
The chains that bound every inch of the Main Gods’ bodies convulsed. The barrier had been released, and since the Dimensional Lord appeared to be a Main God, this should have been the perfect opportunity for escape. However, the binding authority created by an Intermediate Main God at full power was not something to be taken lightly.
‘Ordinary Main Gods will have difficulty breaking free.’
He could end this immediately, but the fact that these Main Gods had maintained their divine power without any tempering struck him as odd, so he remained lost in thought.
‘There was a saying that demons mix poison into pleasure while gods prepare medicine within pain. The Creator God is not so idle as to create such an authority merely to torment others. What if this Yugyeok Volcano is not simply meant to harass the Spirit Gods? And what if the absorption of surplus vitality that naturally drives one to the brink is not only for maintaining the universe and charging decisive weapons? Then this must be a forced training ground.’
The answer came to him lightly. When he observed the flow of divine power and authority around him once more through the Creator God’s senses, he saw that absorbing vitality while continuously tempering the body resulted in reinforcement.
‘Merely maintaining one’s divine power and enduring here strengthens the body. This is the Creator God’s final mercy granted to gods who come to the Spirit Realm.’
In this place, overcoming the nearly impossible wall of divinity became relatively easier depending on the countless extreme situations one faced. Simply enduring the pain of having one’s divine power drained away made one stronger.
‘If one achieves even a single stage of promotion, they are granted the right to remain permanently in the Spirit Realm Waiting Area. It is a mercy given to the defeated, allowing them to wait for selection by another divine realm.’
However, such mercies and regulations had already been ruined by those who boasted of their own cliques, like the family before him, turning the authority into something that merely tormented the Spirit Gods.
“I see. The Spirit Realm was a divine realm on the verge of collapse due to nepotism.”
The Dimensional Lord nodded and deactivated the dimensional authority that had been protecting him.
“Dimensional Net. Authority isolation released.”
Crack—! Crack—!
The absorption authority that had discovered the Dimensional Lord distorted space and lunged at him as if to tear him apart.
‘Since he is using all his magic to avoid detection from the Absolute Realm, he is currently only an Intermediate Main God. The absorption authority concentrated here places an enormous burden on the body.’
Crunch—! His joints twisted as blood was forced out from his entire body. A pain so intense that it made his consciousness grow distant washed over him.
‘This is the Creator God’s wrath toward the defeated! I cannot simply endure and dodge here. If I do, my vitality will be drained until I am truly on the verge of death. The victor is the one who surpasses others by enduring pain and sacrifice.’
Thud—!
He clenched both fists and struck them together hard against his chest. Gathering all his strength into the colliding fists and pouring every ounce of power into his body, the seemingly frail boy’s physique revealed finely honed muscles as veins bulged beneath his skin. Then, concentrating all the strength in his body, he pulled back the divine power that was being sucked away.
Whooooosh—! Shuuuush—!
His thirteen pairs of light wings blazed with maximum brilliance, condensing the scattering divine power. The Creator God-level authority trying to extract it and the Intermediate Main God’s divine power desperately trying to resist collided head-on. The wings of light radiated brilliance unlike anything before, proving the divinity of an Upper Main God.
Yet an unexpected error occurred.
‘This is bad! My divinity is that of an Upper Main God, but without using magic, I am nothing more than an Intermediate Main God. Yet this Yugyeok Volcano has recognized me as an Upper Main God and activated its absorption power. Even a Creator God-level body cannot withstand this level of divine power.’
His relatively delicate skin could not endure the suction pressure, and blood sprayed out like mist. It was as if a massive black hole were trying to pull him in while he resisted clumsily.
‘There is no time to increase output with magic! If I am not careful, I will die and become a mummy.’
Whoosh—!
An Intermediate Main God’s divine power could not block the Creator God-level authority that was absorbing him as if he were an Upper Main God.
‘I could use magic, but somehow it feels like I should not.’
His combat intuition desperately warned him. If he activated magic to overcome this, he would face an even greater crisis.
‘Then there is only one way to survive. I must manifest the aura that is taboo for mages. Right now, the Root School’s rules and whatever else can be dealt with after I survive. If I die, I will not go peacefully to the Realm of the Dead but will be directly disposed of by him, so I absolutely cannot die before that.’
More than anything, the Dimensional Lord had lived longer than him and had the duty to settle his end. Therefore, even if he ignored the school rules, there were no Root School black mages left to argue with him—they had all died when he subjugated the Demon King, and the souls of previous heads had been extinguished during battle.
“It is fortunate in times like this to be a black mage rich in flexibility. Wizard Aura.”
Vrrrrrm—!
He poured all the remaining magic power—after using it to avoid detection from the Absolute Realm—into his body. The purified demonic energy from the Great Forest and the minuscule amount of Great Demon God’s magic power given as a contract fee by the eternally reigning Demon God wrapped around and reinforced his body.
‘It is inferior to the aura of pure martial artists or swordsmen in terms of physical reinforcement, but as expected of the Root School, its recovery rate is exceptional.’
Shhhhh—! Vrrrrrm—!
The spraying of blood like mist stopped, and healing began. However, this was only the beginning.
‘Even if I reinforce my body with Wizard Aura, it is only at the level of an Upper Main God at best—merely buying time. I have to use that!’
It was still incomplete and under testing, but to survive, he decided to use it regardless of stabilization tests.
“Wizard Machine God Blend—!”
Crackle—!
From his extradimensional space emerged a biological armor Machine God made by grinding down most of the bodies of 10-Circle Demon Kings—precious material that could not even be replicated with magic—and infusing it with Demon Adamantium. It wrapped around his body.
‘Success!’
The glossy black metallic body enveloped him completely and further reinforced his physique.
Vrrrrrm—!
His magic power sang with joy at the additional fusion. In the past, the magic circle that had started in his head now emanated from his entire body, bringing a dramatic increase in efficiency.
‘Computational power has not increased, but the activation range and power have improved by roughly twofold.’
Because it was still incomplete, the fusion was not smooth—it was more like embedding metal into the body. Each time the biological metal armor dug into his flesh, extreme pain surged through him. However, since his body had already been ravaged once by the Creator God’s authority, the damage was relatively minor.
‘Pain is everyday life anyway, so it does not matter. The effect on my mind is also minimal.’
Finally, when the armor and body achieved complete synchronization, metal seeped beneath his pale skin, reinforcing bones, blood vessels, and muscles.
‘The formation of armor covering the skin is still far off. Research on magic power and metal materials is insufficient to apply it to an Upper Main God.’
Even the Demon Adamantium armor made from grinding the bodies of two 10-Circle Demon Kings who had foolishly challenged him in the Middle World at only ten percent of their power had been the limit for an Upper Main God. In any case, the first stage of defense enhancement proceeded without issue. Once his body reached the durability of an Upper Main God, the decomposition of his flesh stopped.
Vrrrrrm—! Vrrrrrm—!
The magic circle that had been in his head spread throughout his entire body and resonated anew. The authority born from the grimoire he had been given was dimensional in nature, so it mixed magic power and divine power, converted them back into divine power, and collided with the Creator God’s authority to cancel it out.
Whooooosh—!
The divine power that had been amplified through cancellation further strengthened his body. It felt as if he were tempering his fighting spirit and divine power through countless life-and-death struggles. Although the pain was immense, the effect on his physical tempering was dramatic.
“Huuuuh—! So this is the true application of the Yugyeok Volcano. To grow stronger, endless struggle is necessary. It creates an environment where struggle is everyday life, drastically shortening the training period and making it easier to overcome the wall of divinity. Is this analysis correct?”
“Y-Yes, it is, Upper Main God.”
The Main Gods’ tone and attitude were excessively polite, a stark contrast to the curses they had hurled earlier. This was because the sound of the Creator God-level authority and his divine power fiercely colliding inside his body resonated faintly through space, and his thirteen pairs of brilliantly shining wings proclaimed his divinity.
Although the biological armor Machine God made from the Demon Kings’ true blood and Demon Adamantium had been sucked beneath his skin, his hair now shone with a brilliant golden light mixed with a black metallic sheen that would not lose to it, becoming black-gold hair.
‘This is probably a younger version of my past appearance.’
More than anything, the fusion of his Main God body with the Machine God’s body made him feel as if his sharp rationality had been restored.
‘Until now, as a god, I had been unconsciously influenced by the desires and emotions of my followers in a popular, positive way. Now my purely personal emotions are returning.’
Furthermore, the pain of divine power cancellation crashing over his entire body was sharpening his mind. He felt as if he wanted to make a suitable opponent taste this pain right away.
Thus, his body and divine power continued to undergo maximum reinforcement through their desperate, ongoing cancellation with the Creator God-level authority.
Rumble—! Rumble—!
The aftershock faintly vibrated the interior of the barrier, exerting an overwhelming sense of pressure.
‘Now I have recovered the divinity of an Upper Main God. No lower god will dare to look down on me and attack.’
Even without using magic, his body alone now possessed the defensive power of an Upper Main God through the dual activation of Wizard Aura and Wizard Machine God Blend. Of course, his offensive power remained that of an Intermediate Main God unless he used magic, but if necessary, he could fully open his magic and prepare to be dragged into that worthless political battlefield, so it did not matter.
‘Surely a situation as urgent as the one just now will not happen again?’
It had been a sudden experiment, but the completely unexpected perfect success made him praise Karma’s “extreme good fortune” as he extended his hand toward the bound ordinary Main Gods.
“Hand it over for now.”
“Pardon? What do you mean? As you can see, we have nothing.”
The Main Gods wore expressions of incomprehension at being asked for something while bound so thoroughly. He smiled faintly and kindly explained.
“Hand over all your Karma, divine power, and vitality.”
“……”
Faced with the Dimensional Lord’s demand for everything, the rebellious Main Gods wore expressions of utter disbelief, and he merely smiled softly in response.
‘My body still feels as if it is being shattered by the cancellation of divine power and authority, but since I will not die now, it is time to work and reap the benefits. If I do not squeeze out every possible gain while I have the chance, I will truly regret it later.’
More than anything, the partial suppression of his divine mercy due to the fusion with the Machine God, combined with the excruciating pain of divine power cancellation, caused fighting spirit and killing intent to stir within his heart and surge forth.