The Spirit Realm War
The Spirit Realm War was nothing less than the fury of Creators whose pride had been wounded. “No matter how vast the gap in divine rank and authority had grown, we forced ourselves to look the other way.” “After all, no matter how high a god’s divine power climbed, we Eternal Beings could always step in and settle matters whenever we wished.”
The problem was that we had assumed the only threat was that absurdly power-obsessed Creator of the 499th Master Universe. Never did we imagine there existed a Creator General whose innate divine power exceeded ten trillion—something even we could not immediately handle. On top of that, despite the lifting of all power restrictions, ten Highest Creators each surpassing five trillion divine power had appeared. Worse still, half of them had originally been our own direct bloodline. The realization was enough to drive one mad.
“Our remaining heirs cannot even carry out simple orders and have all been slain by a mere Creator Candidate; they are currently in the midst of resurrection. Meanwhile, the direct descendants we sent into that Master Universe have become beings even a Creator cannot treat lightly.”
No matter how one looked at it, this only proved our own incompetence.
“Is it true? They were all slain by a single Creator Candidate?”
“Their official rank is Creator Candidate, yet their divine power exceeds one hundred billion. They have been confirmed as an Omnipotent God of Creator-General caliber.”
“What nonsense are you spouting? So their wings numbered twenty-six pairs, the mark of a Creator God?”
“That is… they possessed only thirteen pairs, the mark of a Main God…”
Rumble—!
The Creator’s rage shook the very heart of the Master Universe—the Creation Realm itself. The reporting Creator General hurriedly lowered his head. It was the first time in eons, since the great war, that he had heard such violent fury in his master’s voice.
“Have you fools lost your minds in your petty power struggles? You know full well the difference in authority between twenty-six pairs of Creator wings and thirteen pairs of Main God wings, yet you offer such excuses? This was not even a proper battle—merely a provocation. Yet you could not even retreat and were felled in a single strike, losing five hundred billion vitality in the process. With what face do you dare resurrect after that?”
The Creator’s voice, grinding out each word like chewed gravel, echoed through the divine hall. Before him, the Highest Creators and Creator Generals who had just finished resurrecting could only press their foreheads to the floor, unable to lift their heads.
The Highest Creators felt genuine injustice. Their attackers had clearly been Omnipotent Gods like themselves, yet the strike they received while off-guard had been beyond anything they could withstand. “We suffered a fatal blow in one strike and died. If we faced them again, we cannot be certain how long we would last.” “It is hard to believe that such a powerful being has remained a mere Creator Candidate for over ten thousand years without advancing.”
Under normal circumstances they would have immediately sought revenge, but lacking confidence in victory, they had instead focused on reinforcing their bodies with vitality and entered a standby state. Now they had been summoned without warning by an enraged Creator and did not know what to do. The Creator’s gaze upon their pathetic figures was ice-cold.
“Even though they are our direct bloodline and heirs, we treated them too leniently. They have no fighting spirit. Even if I review the battle results myself, they are clearly stronger than any Creator Candidate. Their divine power and authority should be more than enough for a Highest Creator to overwhelm a Main God—yet they were crushed by the enemy’s fighting spirit and combat experience.”
The Creator could almost offer praise for the way the enemy had identified the gap between formalized divine power usage and lack of experience, then ended the fight with a single maximum-output strike to the opening. But because the ones who had been so easily defeated were his own bloodline, the humiliation was unbearable. And now, despite their superior abilities, they dared not even attempt a counterattack. His rage only grew.
“Mobilize every other Highest Creator! And based on the outcome of this incident, I have made my decision.”
“Father—!”
The Creator General, an heir, cried out in shock, but the Creator’s decree had already been issued.
“Break through the Spirit Realm’s defensive line with the full might of the Creation Realm! Your absurd weakness has made me lose all desire to provoke or interfere with those lawless beings. Now I will question the very meaning and value of your existence. If you cannot even overcome a single Creator Candidate, you would do well to relinquish your position as the ruling race and start over. Replacement races have already been prepared. I will permit migration to certain undeveloped regions.”
Hum—! Hum—! Hum—!
A pleasant, resonant vibration echoed through the air. A massive planetary lifeform appeared above the Creator’s head—the Main God of the Substitute Gods. Hum! Huuuuuum! Hundreds of them performed simultaneous spatial jumps into the hall. Every god present began to show fear on their faces.
The Creator looked upon the Substitute Gods and the terrified divine races with open displeasure and continued.
“They possess more than twice the defensive power of gods of the same rank and more than twice the offensive power of the Demon race. Their vitality is ten times greater. They can produce ten times the vitality and faith of an ordinary planet while maintaining the manufacturing capability of a Main God Star, yet their vitality consumption remains the same as gods of equal rank. Because he granted them these gifts, I refused them. Had you not been the race I personally created, I would not have hesitated to choose them. I endured for your sake. But this latest display of utter incompetence has exhausted my patience. I will grant the Substitute Gods a portion of our territory. Should you fail to break through the Spirit Realm’s defensive line, I will hand everything over to them. I despise that arrogant being for showing such generosity even to his enemies, yet there is one thing I approve of. He said, ‘Defend your own glory with your own strength.’ Go to the front lines, fight, and wash away your disgrace!”
The Creator vanished, unable to hide his displeasure. The Creator General and Highest Main Gods bit their lips and stared at the Substitute Gods who had appeared.
“The Substitute Gods are beings with whom no dialogue is possible—mere crystallizations of overwhelming divine power and authority.” “Even defeated Creators who fled or lost their will to fight have been judged worthless for a rematch and had their bodies remodeled. Their strength and utility are something no divine race can match.” “The assessment that a minimum of one hundred gods of equal rank would be needed to defeat even one of them—how terrifying was that?”
Yet the enraged Creator had accepted them and permitted competition with his own people. Even if only a portion had been allowed, if everything were eventually approved, the ruling race would be replaced by them in an instant. For a Creator, beings who could revive and manage the universe without complaint or war were irresistibly competent. The Substitute Gods’ Main Gods looked down upon the flustered divine races, their cheerful humming never ceasing.
“Hum—! Hum-hum-hum—! Huuuum—! Hum-hum—!”
“This will be easy! Far too easy! There’s no need for even the Creators to step in.”
“Hum—! Hum—! Hum—! Huuuum—!”
“But we will never be careless. This time we will not drag things out like we did in the 499th Master Universe and give irregular transcendents time to appear. We will devote our full strength to evolving the territory entrusted to us and subjugate the local divine race so the Creator will recognize us as the ruling race.”
“Hum-hum-hum—! Huuuum—!”
“The Creators said they would move here as soon as they suppress the 499th Master Universe. Finally, the time has come for us to escape this hideous appearance and the prohibition on conversing with other races.”
“Huuuum-hum—! Huuuum—! Huuuum—!”
“After such a long wait, our chance at rebirth has arrived. We will seize it by any means necessary. We will sweep away those incompetent fools!”
The divine races could not understand the humming, yet they grasped its meaning. “It must be mockery toward us and joy at finally obtaining an opportunity.”
The Creator General, who had been stunned by the Highest Creators’ shocking defeat and the Creator’s wrath, felt heat and killing intent slowly rise in his eyes. His twenty-six pairs of light wings spread wide, shining brilliantly. Fwoooooosh!
“A divine race’s foremost duty is to serve the Creator, but second only to that is the survival of the entire race.”
He had arbitrarily decided the order, and the conquest of Master Universes beginning with the Absolute Realm had continued for forty billion years, reaching the 499th. This long war, named the “Eternal War,” was not merely about domination. Had victory and rule been the sole goal, he possessed the power to end it in an instant. Yet this war was different.
“Who is more competent and beneficial to this universe?” “Is the existing order truly the best?” “Is there nothing better?”
It was an eternal war to answer questions no divine race could retreat from. “By establishing the standard he called ‘Karma’—judging everything solely by the results of universal evolution and development—he showed us the very depths of misery.” “Replacing the ruling race to the point where gods become followers and followers become gods is a trivial matter.”
If even a Creator was branded incompetent, they would be reduced to that state and endlessly recycled until they won as the ruling race. “In the universes he had completely seized, the fate of long-idle divine races was as precarious as a candle in the wind.” “Only ten Master Universes still had divine races as the ruling race; all others had fallen to minority races and were struggling desperately to return.” “Considering that those ten belonged to the Origin Lords of the divine race, it was practically annihilation.” “Now, more than half of the ruling races are the Substitute Gods—more horrifying than the hated Demon race.”
Those who became ruling races and regained their original forms while retaining their power did not return to the divine race. Instead, they banded together under the pretext of being the true ruling race and treated the original divine race as a subordinate species. Even more cruel was the fact that the Creators had approved all of this as the legitimate result of struggle, leaving no room for protest. In the universes he had completely seized, the divine race had been reduced to a minority race numbering less than one hundred millionth of their former glory. Therefore, facing this crisis threatening the entire divine race, the Creator General’s duty and instinct to protect all divine races had fully awakened.
Whoooooosh—! Huuuuuuum!
It was so desperate and intense that it swept away all previous desires for power and personal emotions. If they could not break through the Defense Divine Realm guarded by Omnipotent Gods whose divine rank was merely that of Main Gods yet whose strength was nearly equal to a Creator General, then the divine race—lazy and unprepared, relying on the Creator’s favoritism—would have to compete against the Substitute Gods across every domain. “That would clearly mean annihilation. We can no longer afford to be selective about our methods.”
They had to buy time to strengthen the divine race by any means necessary.
“Mobilize all the Creators and Transcendents bearing his title that we have kept imprisoned. If they can break through the Defense Divine Realm, I will grant them positions commensurate with their divine power.”
“Brother—! They are traitors who bowed their heads to him! How can you give such people another chance—!”
Crackle-crackle-crackle—!
The Highest Creators’ eyes widened. The Creator General’s divine power had suddenly surpassed its limit of five hundred billion and was rising endlessly.
“Ooooooh!”
“It is a re-awakening!”
His twenty-six pairs of light wings grew without limit, threatening to push even the Substitute Gods back. Yet the Creator General, showing no joy at his increased power, gritted his teeth and answered.
“It is the Creator’s answer. He has lifted all restrictions on the Creators’ divine power. His command is to fight without regret and accept the results. And…”
He could not bring himself to say the rest. As the literal representative and guardian of the divine race, the Creator General could not voice the fact that the entire divine race’s will had accepted the Substitute Gods into even a portion of their territory, filling him with unimaginable dread, and that he was forcibly raising his own divine power in response.
“Even with one hundred billion divine power, if one receives the support of the Creator-level Defense Divine Realm of the Spirit Realm, their power can rise endlessly within the limits of what their body can endure. Anyone capable of becoming a Creator Candidate in that endlessly competitive universe must be a first-rate battle god. If that battle god is an Omnipotent God, they would clearly be able to handle divine power in the trillions. Sending these people back in would be pointless—they would not stand a chance.”
Compared to his own increased power, the Highest Creators showed only negligible growth. Their bodies were the same as his direct bloodline, yet because they had lived solely on overwhelming authority without undergoing any extreme training or struggle, he had no expectations of them. “He is strengthening only me. In the end, he is forcing me to step forward personally.”
It would have been nice to have a few more strong individuals, but fearing they might become competitors, he had eliminated them all—now he had to handle everything alone. “Bringing along these useless Highest Creators who posed no threat and were therefore spared, I must break through the defensive line of the Spirit Divine Realm in that Master Universe, which is overflowing with vicious battle gods whose strength surpasses even Creators despite their divine rank being merely that of Main Gods. What a truly troublesome situation.”
If a breakthrough was possible, the number of Creators on their side was incomparably greater, so regional suppression would be feasible. But whether they could overcome the wall of a Creator-level Defense Divine Realm guarded by Omnipotent Gods equal to himself—he could not be certain.
“In the end, there is only one answer. We must mobilize every force we have and settle this in a single decisive battle.”
What had begun as a simple emotional provocation had now become a matter of survival for the entire divine race of this Master Universe. “Whether they are traitors or criminals no longer matters.”
Suddenly, the faces of the direct descendants he had eliminated for showing greater talent than himself flashed through his mind, but he forced the thought away. Watching the desperate expressions of these divine races, the Substitute Gods’ Main Gods continued to enjoy the situation with leisurely ease.
“Hum-hum—!”
“So there was at least one decent battle god after all.”
“Huuuum—!”
“Even so, if that is the level of their Creator General, we can already tell what kind of place this Master Universe is.”
“Huuuuum—!”
“Their Creator General is barely below the level of an ordinary Creator in the 499th Master Universe. We can look forward to the results with pleasure.”
The Substitute Gods watched the Creator General forcibly teleport the immature Highest Creators—who still did not fully understand the situation and were reluctant to go to the battlefield—using his increased power, already looking forward to enjoying the upcoming battle as spectators.
Because it was a confrontation between the Master Universe managed by the Creator General and the minor sector universes ruled by ordinary Creators, common sense dictated that the opponent stood no chance. The number of gods of equal rank already differed by more than ten thousand times, so in an all-out war, victory was naturally impossible. However, the 499th Master Universe was the place that had momentarily halted his accelerating conquest. Its Creator had become so absorbed in the struggle against him that, in addition to what he had been given, he had forcibly and harshly applied various measures of his own, resulting in far more powerful battle gods and Transcendents than in other already-conquered Master Universes.
“Even a Substitute God Creator Candidate was defeated by the combined attack of just two beings—the Creator General and the Demon Emperor of the 499th Master Universe. Every powerful being who knew the true strength of the Substitute Gods had been shocked by that news.”
If such an irregular existence blocked every path with a Creator-level Defense Divine Realm and only guarded the narrow main gate, even the Substitute Gods would be helpless. Therefore, they merely smiled, already certain that the outcome had been decided.