The Rot at the Heart of the Spirit Realm

The side effect of becoming the complete physical body of the God of Light during the Spirit Realm War was the application of excessive positive emotions. 'In any situation, as long as it isn't apostasy, I am unconsciously compelled to show mercy and gather believers. It would probably apply in reverse if I changed jobs to a demon god, but the Wizard Machine God Blend shattered that control.'

Since a Machine God was literally an emotionless being that performed only its assigned tasks, merging with the Main God had restored the cold intellect of a dark mage. With that icy reason, he pronounced judgment in a voice as cold as frost.

It was an utterly natural verdict. 'Even without regulations forcing a god's mercy, I am truly generous. Didn't I swear to live this way when I was forcibly elevated to the highest god as the true Lord God of Light? Of course, it helps divine power rise nicely.'

He was simply supplying extra vitality to the Divine Realm and sending these beings to the Spirit Realm to make them contribute. 'Locking them up like this only drains maintenance vitality. I truly don't understand the concept of prisons. Why would beings who commit crimes if merely locking them up comfortably would make them repent? Shouldn't we force them into labor or productive suffering so they think the outside world is better and become more cautious?'

From that perspective, the Spirit Realm—which continuously absorbed vitality and divine power—was remarkably efficient.

“No way—! Are you not the new Main God of the Spirit Realm waiting area? Have you come for an inspection?”

“Please listen—! The management gods are treating the spirit gods far too harshly.”

They were still spouting nonsense. 'Do they really think I would grant a vacation to gods who failed the certification battle and lost planetary control to rival forces? If they were demonkind, I would kill them immediately and reclaim every drop of vitality.'

Of course, candidates for Demon God King were an exception. If the number of demon gods fell below that of the main gods, a disgustingly lucky main god would rise by default, so no matter how furious one felt, they apparently had to overlook it for now. 'Even if I die, I refuse to watch someone rise through a bye.'

Then a female main god delivered a particularly strange report.

“The spirit goddesses were forced into divine power exchange. We filed formal protests, but no action was taken. Instead, they tried to retaliate. On top of that, they attempted it as a group, so we had no choice.”

“The God of Light committing rape? Gang rape, at that?”

“Rape? By human standards, yes.”

“Ridiculous. They must have gone without seeing goddesses for too long. These bastards are on the verge of turning into demon gods.”

Morality could never be emphasized enough to the God of Light. Demon gods might deny the weak any rights, but the God of Light had to protect even criminals because of the concept of mercy. Violating that would make any distinction between gods and demon gods meaningless. No matter how ‘extremely good’ one’s karma was, repeating such acts could lead to ruin, just like the main god who had only tried to scam everyone.

“Divine Realm. Transfer to me the list of everyone involved in the incident the female main god just reported.”

“The data has been deleted.”

“……”

His hand rose to cover his face on its own. 'These insane fools even erased the Divine Realm’s official records. How do they plan to handle the consequences of arbitrarily deleting management data?'

The data structure of the Chief God of the God Realm could only be deleted by the Chief God himself, so it would unconditionally become his responsibility. No matter how out of his mind he might be, he would never do such a thing. It would become a serious stain on an eternally living god.

“Did the Main God of the Divine Realm delete it himself? What about the double automatic backup and internal records?”

“The management gods did not input the data. We use our own independent storage method and are currently organizing the existing management systems for later archiving.”

“Hah—!”

It was the ultimate display of misconduct that a competent management god could commit. In short, they organized the report data nicely by excluding anything problematic, while handling regular data through their own method. No matter what happened, as long as the report data was neatly organized later, everything would be fine. Creating an entirely new data structure for the Divine Realm required tremendous effort, yet they had done it flawlessly.

“There must be compatibility issues. Was this officially permitted?”

“It was proposed as a development matter for the Spirit Realm waiting area’s divine structure and has been approved during the test operation period.”

“Test period?”

“From the creation of the Spirit God Realm until now. One hundred two thousand years have passed.”

“……”

It was a cunning ploy by the management gods, taking advantage of the gods’ loose sense of time. They had reported it as a minor supplement to the existing divine structure and, under the pretext of a test period, had been operating their own independent structure for a long time. Even if someone tried to inspect it, without knowing the independent structure it would only be a superficial check. This was why even the Chief God of the God Realm helplessly followed the management gods’ words.

'If this were my personality before returning to the past, I would summon them immediately and start beating them, but after all, I am the God of Light. I must oversee evolution and development while following regulations and policies.'

They had hidden their misconduct rather cleverly, but the Dimensional Lord was a main god who had once been a dark mage. Ordinary management gods’ tricks were useless against him.

'I am the one who revived even the data the former scammer main god personally deleted within my management divine system, and caught the management-line female ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠main gods who had been stealing vitality by embedding misconduct into the very creation of the divine structure. Any concealment is meaningless before my sorcery. Because my magic is based on ‘dimensions,’ I can freely control ‘space’ and ‘time,’ and with superior computational power, such interference holds no meaning whatsoever.'

To human management gods it would have been perfect concealment, but for the Dimensional Lord, it was over the moment he rewound time to just before the independent divine realm specification was deleted.

Papapapapa—!

Accessing the fact-finding dimension of the ‘Lower God Disciplinary Authority’ within the divine realm data, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he rewound to the moment just before the fat god had deleted the records and extracted every piece of information. As a bonus, he recovered all the other deleted data as well.

Yet the volume of deleted data was staggering—well over several million cases. Well, even if only ten incidents occurred every ten thousand years, over a hundred ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thousand years that would still reach a million.

“This is truly fascinating—!”

It was vivid proof of what happened when the Main God of the Divine Realm lost the initiative and the management gods seized control. They skimmed their own vitality as a baseline and even cleverly redistributed the support provided by the Main Divine Realm. There were no crude acts like data manipulation; instead, through their independent divine structure, they portrayed completely ideal operations that bore no resemblance to reality.

'They skimmed more than half the total, dividing it amicably among themselves, while placating the Main God of the Divine Realm with what amounted to pocket money. They had been playing the henpecked, lovesick Chief God of the God Realm like a fiddle after he was dumped by the female main god.'

No wonder the temples of the Creator God-level Spirit God Realm looked so shabby—they had diverted an enormous amount. 'These bastards are completely insane. No wonder management gods who never train can still accumulate divine power reaching nine hundred million.'

In the beginning, management gods had trained alongside everyone else without markers to avoid the authority of Yugyeok Volcano. But they had offered massive amounts of vitality to the Main Divine Realm and received exemptions through proposals.

'If they were demon gods, they possess the qualities to achieve greatness. But since strength is mandatory for demon gods these days, they apparently had no choice but to remain as gods.'

The important point was that the female main god’s words were true, and after their rebellion, the Main God of the Divine Realm seemed to have strictly forbidden forced divine power exchange. These management gods had also performed forced exchanges until the already broken spirit gods finally exploded. The resistance had been so fierce that they grew afraid and now lured goddesses or demigoddesses from outside with offers of vitality to form families, or created and maintained places similar to the red-light districts of the human world.

It was so absurd a sigh escaped him. Even the Demon Realm was not this bad.

“Is this the Demon Realm? Or the Divine Realm? Seeing this mess, of course the spirit gods go crazy once they’re released into the Divine Realm. These were the root of all evil.”

It finally made sense why the female main gods had acted as they did right before and after he became Chief God of the God Realm. Having seen the state of the Spirit Realm they once lived in, conspiracy and rebellion were only natural.

What was even more ridiculous was that management gods were now trying to leave the Spirit Realm waiting area without permission. Sensing the ominous atmosphere, they were attempting to flee.

“These fools have truly lost their minds. They aren’t even becoming demon gods—where do they think they can run inside the main universe overseen by the Main Divine Realm? Do they believe they can fool the senses of a supreme main god? Dealing with them directly is annoying.”

In any case, what the Dimensional Lord needed was an alliance with this Main God of the Divine Realm—who could become a supreme main god once he regained his senses—and the excellent spirit gods under him. He hardened his resolve to eliminate everything that stood in the way.

“Release all marker authorities except for those above main god level. It is a mandatory requirement of the ‘Lower God Disciplinary Authority.’ Restrain every management god.”

“Command received.”

Ugaaaaaaaaagak! Uwaaaaaaaaaak!

The screams of management gods who had just been about to slip through the front gate of the Spirit Realm waiting area echoed. All the fighting gods, who had grown far too comfortable, could not even scream beneath the authority of Yugyeok Volcano and were slammed face-first into the ground. The excessive divine power they had hoarded compared to their divinity—built from all the vitality they had skimmed—was being forcibly reclaimed.

When his lower gods suddenly fell into such a state, the Main God of the Divine Realm rushed over in panic. Naturally irritated, the Dimensional Lord grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up.

“Wh-what is this? Kugh—!”

“Stop worrying about punishing them and do your damn job! If the selected spirit gods encounter even the slightest problem, you’ll end up just like them. I’ll deal with you now—alliance or not.”

Whiiiish! Slap!

As a bonus, he snatched several documents from the mountain of deleted misconduct records piled up like a hill and shoved them in front of the man’s face. The Main God of the Divine Realm’s eyes widened dramatically as he read the contents. Releasing the throat, the Dimensional Lord watched him frantically flip through the pages with trembling hands, then tossed him the newly recovered protest records regarding the forced divine power exchanges and group attempts. The man was completely stunned.

'Even though he is a Main God of the Divine Realm with guaranteed autonomy within his own realm, this level of problem is far beyond what he can handle.'

The Main God of the Divine Realm could keep hundreds of concubines without issue. Most acts were forgiven so long as they maintained and developed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠divine power and vitality. Even if they lost to the Demon Realm and all affiliated gods were sent to the Spirit Realm waiting area, he would still give the Main God of the Divine Realm another chance.

But the complete corruption of the divine realm under his direct responsibility was an unforgivable sin. 'It hasn’t reached that point yet, but if it does, the Creator God will personally steal all vitality and divine power and erase him. His very existence as a god would vanish.'

From a quick glance, in roughly ten thousand years the corruption would reach a level that would make even the Demon Realm look clean. So he simply stared at the misconduct records in helpless panic, unsure what to do.

“Th-this…”

He seemed to want to say something but could not find the words. It was not something he could dismiss as false—these were not records an outsider who knew nothing about the Spirit Realm waiting area could have fabricated.

Staring at the millions of misconduct cases piled beside the Dimensional Lord, he staggered, unable to steady himself. The direct-line general main god came running as well. He snatched the documents his father was reading, opened his mouth wide in shock, then erupted with fierce fighting spirit and roared.

“You spoke of one family to our faces but did this behind our backs—! I’ll kill them all!”

“Th-this can’t be. They were the only ones who comforted me in difficult times. They cared for me more than my own family. They can’t have done this.”

A sigh escaped the Dimensional Lord’s lips automatically. 'Sigh—! He’s still saying things like that. Can a powerful fighting god capable of becoming a supreme main god really break down this badly just because his partner betrayed him?'

It truly drove home how carefully one must choose a partner.

Thud—! Crashhhhh—!

The Dimensional Lord struck the mountain of misconduct records, causing it to collapse onto the Main God of the Spirit Realm. The man could not even weakly dodge the documents raining down on him and took every blow. His outstanding divine senses were surely reading every detail contained within—all the misconduct committed by the lower gods he had believed were closer to him than family.

Thump—!

The knees of the Main God of the Spirit Realm buckled. He planted both hands on the ground. He might wish to deny it, but he was a god outstanding enough to serve as Chief God of the God Realm and a supreme main god. Even if shock had rendered him temporarily helpless, he could still distinguish truth from falsehood. He acknowledged that he had been completely betrayed—not only by his eternal partner but by the lower gods he had considered family.

A beast-like groan leaked from his lips.

“Uuuu—! Uuuugh—!”

Whoosh—!

The divine power of light began to stain with darkness. Overwhelming betrayal and despair toward the divine realm were turning the god into a demon god.

'Since gods and demon gods are originally two sides of the same coin, they can change like this. It is the same principle as pouring thick black ink onto white paper until it becomes black paper.'

Of course, once black paper is painted white it can never become pure white again. Completely converting to a demon god was the end; there was no returning to being a main god. 'Only those above the Creator God could turn them back into gods.'

So the direct-line main god beside him rushed forward in panic.

“Father—! You mustn’t!”

“Grrrrrrk—! I’ll kill them all. Every last one who betrayed me—! That bitch too—! These gods here too—!”