The Peaceful Divine Realm
Meanwhile, during the Spirit Realm war, nothing particularly eventful occurred in the Dimensional Lord's divine realm. Though the Dimensional Lord himself was absent, Gaiana, acting as proxy for the Main God of the Divine Realm and a member of the Almighty God Tribe, had restored her divine power to its original state and announced her return as an Upper Main God. In response, celebratory messages arrived from the Main Divine Realm, while other Main Gods of the Almighty God Tribe sent enthusiastic welcomes and lavish gifts. Hera and the other female gods, who had been anxiously watching for interference from the Main Divine Realm, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Even though the Almighty God Tribe's former glory has faded, it remains one of the highest-ranking divine races and is slowly reclaiming its former prestige. Most importantly, since All-Powerful Hwi, the most promising Creator Candidate, belongs to the Almighty God Tribe, they are extending every courtesy."
Thanks to the vitality of the Cosmic Tree and the divine temples of Adamantium, Gaiana's divine power was recovering at an astonishing rate, rapidly approaching the level of a Highest Main God. The Main Divine Realm, eager to witness the birth of another powerful Highest Main God, had even increased its support. "Above all, her impeccable reputation built during her time as the former Main God's consort played a significant role."
The combat-oriented female gods had now reached five billion in innate divine power, fully attaining the strength of Intermediate Main Gods. They continued to grow stronger by absorbing the mixed vitality stored in the divine power circles engraved on their lower abdomens through the magical authorities. With the Dimensional Lord's absence, they had obtained Gaiana's permission to use the training grounds beneath the Grand Temple.
"Originally, entry was forbidden, but there was no choice if it was for training the Dimensional Lord's fully subordinate gods."
The gap in divine power and authority was so vast that, aside from the three Main God-level individuals, no one could withstand even a moment. Gaiana, acting as proxy for the Main God of the Divine Realm, had granted permission under a single strict condition based on the principle that the contract with the Main God of the Divine Realm must be fulfilled. Since then, daily battles had raged for the training of the thousand subordinate gods and eight female gods.
"It is a training space created by a Highest Main God where neither death nor annihilation exists, so the clashes are fierce enough to resemble real combat."
At first, the opponents stood no chance, but as they grew accustomed and the other Main God-level beings gradually recovered their strength, the battles reached a stalemate. Moreover, the three representatives of the divine race, demon race, and Absolute Being—granted magical authorities by him—were holding their own against the female gods. When they compensated for each other's weaknesses with their respective authorities and restricted the female gods' movements, a barrage of area attacks would rain down. In this state, with the divine race using parallel divine power connections and the demon race using series magic power connections, combined with the Absolutes charging in with their bizarre authorities and strength, the female gods were actually being pushed back.
"At first, even a single one of us could suppress them, but now even all eight of us joining the fray only results in a draw."
No matter how dulled their combat senses had become from long periods away from real battles, being pushed back like this was unforgivable to the female gods. They began activating their Main God authorities and pressing forward. Crackle-crackle-crackle! Zap-zap! The highest-tier authorities of each attribute trampled through space, clawing and tearing at the ranks of the divine race, demon race, and Absolutes. Excluding the gap in raw divine power, the female gods displayed power worthy of their title as the worst calamities among Main Gods, possessing the strongest authorities and combat prowess.
The most prominent attacks were, of course, those of the lightning attribute. Hera, fully manifesting her true form as the "Queen of the Sky," enveloped the entire training space in her domain and unleashed a barrage of lightning from a cylindrical lightning barrier.
"Sky Lightning Corridor!"
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble! The highest-tier lightning authority that had once ravaged male gods across battlefields in its prime now revealed its full majesty. Indiscriminate Sky Lightning attacks that spared neither ally nor foe covered the battlefield like rain, instantly shattering the formation of the fully subordinate gods who had been pressing their advantage. They had been unable to respond to the sudden, ambush-like activation of the authority.
Yet as the fully subordinate gods were flung about, the battlefield fell silent once more. The aftershocks of the lightning filled the space with swirling dust and ash, obscuring vision. Then came the furious voices of the female gods who had also been caught in the sudden lightning authority. They had taken damage from an authority unleashed without any warning to them. On top of that, their freshly donned full-body armor was scorched and damaged in multiple places, making it impossible to contain their anger.
"Tch! You crazy bitch! Were you trying to kill all of us too? If you're going to shoot, at least say something first!"
"If it were you lot, I adjusted it so there wouldn't be much damage and no deaths. Besides, if those kids had time to prepare, it wouldn't end."
"Even so! If you wipe everyone out without warning, how are we supposed to train? And what about my armor?! Pay for it right now!"
The black-haired female god shouted in fury at Hera's nonchalant reply. Of course, the greater reason was that the combat armor worn by a Main God, which she had brought out after so long, had been damaged. Lightning of this level could never harm her, who possessed the lightning attribute, but armor and clothing were another matter.
"After becoming the Divine Realm Management Main God, the vitality provided by the Main Divine Realm is incomparably more abundant than during the Round Table God era. I put my heart into recreating it, only for it to be ruined. I don't even know how long it will take to recreate it again."
That was why she was demanding compensation so loudly. However, Hera paid no attention and simply shook her head, pointing toward the battlefield as the dust settled. There stood subordinate gods who had endured even the highest-tier wide-area attack of a lightning-attribute Main God. They were the four who had additionally reached Main God level during training and the three representatives.
"Not a single one has died. They've all stopped at severe injuries and are getting back up."
The female gods were so shocked they couldn't speak. They had never imagined there would be Main God-level beings capable of enduring like this with zero fatalities. Even they, as Intermediate Main Gods, couldn't fully block it and had suffered damage to their armor. It was astonishing.
"Heh? You're right. This level should be unbearable even for ordinary Intermediate Main Gods, yet they somehow blocked it with enough strength left to keep fighting?"
"It was the combined activation of the magical authorities he granted them."
Hera's brief explanation captured the situation perfectly. Geometrically glowing magic circles had risen from the hearts of the three Main God-level racial representatives, forming triple-layered barriers that blocked most of the lightning authority. It was absurd, but the three Main God-level beings had nullified most of the highest-tier wide-area lightning authority that even combined Intermediate Main Gods would struggle to handle, preventing any deaths. And they had done so against a lightning authority boasting the greatest speed, activated as a surprise attack.
"The defensive power shown by that makeshift magical authority, reflexively activated without full power, is simply staggering."
"That magical authority could have been granted to us without any cost as well."
The Dimensional Lord would have been willing to provide it if it was for strengthening the Main God of his own divine realm. That would have been the case if they hadn't made those consecutive misjudgments and mistakes. Yet regardless of the regret welling up within them, seeing the black-haired female god, who shared the lightning attribute and was closest to her, mournfully caressing her damaged armor with a tearful expression gave Hera a headache.
"I want to see what kind of divine realm she came from. She's a female god, yet she reeks of poverty and swears like a sailor."
"I want to check her past to see if she's really a proper female god."
Originally, becoming a Main God required reaching the pinnacle of the gods through exceptional talent and training that transcended limits, maximizing one's abilities in every aspect. This was an unchangeable fact, even for their direct descendants. Yet that ability clearly included intellectual capacity, and no matter how generously one looked at it, her mind didn't seem particularly sharp.
"She must have climbed up by covering her lack of intellect with brute force."
Well, that might explain why she approached so friendly despite always coming out on the losing end in their interactions. She tried using her creation authority to repair the damaged armor somehow, but as a combat-oriented female god, delicately repairing a Main God's armor was absolutely impossible. It also required an enormous amount of vitality to recreate. Moreover, having maximized only their combat power, they were honestly inferior to ordinary Main Gods in material creation. Thus, when the other female gods confirmed how pitifully damaged their armor was, they couldn't contain their anger and nearly erupted, but since they had failed to defend due to their own insufficient authorities, they wore expressions of forced restraint. From the perspective of female god pride, passing on damage caused by one's own weakness to other comrades was unacceptable. So the black-haired female god was merely grumbling as their representative.
"Agh! If it were that filthiest, most despicable bitch, she could fix something like this easily with magic, right? I should have learned magic back then! When she offered to teach me, I listened for a bit but got a headache and quit. I really regret it now."
Even though it was swearing, it had become routine among female gods, so it passed without comment. There were no longer any gods who would rush in claiming it damaged the dignity of the highest gods, as they had during the Round Table God era. These days, they even received respectful greetings and the honorific "Madams" from the God of Knowledge and the Primordial War Gods, which felt absurd.
"It's hard to believe that until recently, we were trading venomous remarks trying to find and create each other's weaknesses."
But upon thinking again, something about the unusually long adjective that had come out of the black-haired female god's mouth bothered her. She usually spoke in simple, crude tones like "rotten" or "cowardly," or at worst "goddamn," so this suggested quite a deep grudge.
"The filthiest, most despicable bitch?"
At Hera's question, the reply came with clear irritation at the mere memory.
"There was such a bitch. Despite being from the ignorant giant race, her mind was disgustingly clever. She was good at magic too, stronger than a Main God, yet in the war against the giants, she never fought fair. She only schemed, never took any damage herself, and cowardly struck from behind!"
"Hmm? That sounds like a truly outstanding god. Learning magic, which is opposite to divine power, to that degree isn't something ordinary talent and effort can achieve. In my divine realm, no god had mastered magic. And if she could win against the giants without suffering losses herself, that would actually be incredible."
"No! That bitch was nothing but cowardly and evil! She used ignorant allies as bait to lure enemies! And she did it multiple times!"
Seeing her react so violently to a complimentary tone, Hera could roughly guess. That "bait" was obviously herself.
"Well, being sturdy and strong while also having lightning authority and being loud and eye-catching, she'd be perfect as a decoy to lure enemies."
"Moreover, with beauty like hers, she would have been the ultimate bait on the battlefield."
Enemies would have swarmed like bees. Not knowing that beneath that beautiful exterior lay a true scoundrel, they would approach only to be slaughtered by that ignorant strength and lightning authority. That was how she had been able to remain as a Main God here.
"Torina is a true powerful war god who has massacred countless enemies of the divine realm—monsters, demons, and giants—with her peerless numbers."
That much was truly worthy of recognition. If only it weren't for that filthy mouth, she would be perfect, but that was already a lost cause. Besides, she had no divine realm to rule now, and as the current Divine Realm Management Main God in charge of military force, it hardly mattered.
"Agh! I should have settled things with that bitch directly! But she went and got herself killed by charging at that rotten Main God with her eyes rolled back in a way that didn't suit her at all! Damn it!"
Her tone was somewhat bitter, an expression that didn't match her usual optimistic self. There seemed to be some circumstances involved.
"She died?"
"Yeah. After that, I never saw her again, whether she was annihilated or not. She's a tenaciously persistent bitch, so she's probably still alive somewhere. She didn't appear again until the battle with the demon gods ended in a draw."
"Then she might be in the Spirit Realm?"
"I looked for her too, but she wasn't among the Highest Spirit Gods, so she must have been annihilated. The war was so fierce that she couldn't have survived alone. Besides, having made so many grudges without distinguishing between allies and enemies, there was no one to help her."
"……"
She had probably met the same end that scheming strategist gods often faced. The final fate of gods who cared nothing for their reputation and pursued only victory for themselves and their divine realm by any means necessary was always the same.
"A miserable end, abandoned by their allies before their enemies."
It was merely one of the tragedies that always existed. The female gods had already discarded such sympathy when their divine realms collapsed before their eyes. Losing interest in her past reminiscence, they needed to go see Gaiana. Yet at that moment, his fully subordinate gods were reorganizing their formation and preparing once more.
"The battlefield imbued with magical authority had restored all injuries, divine power, and even the armor and clothing they had created themselves. They were back at full strength."
It was staggering how they could restore and heal even Main God-level beings so limitlessly. "Granzoa's 'Infinite Restoration' is incomparably superior for recovering divine power, but it cannot restore matter like that. Moreover, restoring even divine artifacts worthy of higher Main Gods to wear— the more I learn, the more overwhelmed I feel."
Now they were back to square one. If they had landed finishing blows earlier, it would have taken time for resurrection and paused training briefly, but they had never expected such thorough defense. And just as they wouldn't be caught off guard like before, when the magical authorities were maximized, they covered the entire formation. With this, wide-area attacks couldn't deliver critical damage.
"Gaiana will be angry about being late."
There were no female gods who would retreat, explain the situation, or beg before opponents raising their fighting spirit. They simply reignited their Main God authorities and charged once more.
Rumble-rumble-rumble! Roar-roar-roar! Once again, thunder and lightning raged as a fierce battle commenced. His divine realm was this peaceful at present.