The Spirit Realm Fugitives
The war in the Spirit Realm meant the Dimensional Lord needed to wrap this up quickly and leave. He had to return to the precarious Divine Realm and begin its revival. If he got dragged into that mess, he would be stuck in an endless war with no end in sight.
‘My predicted timeline puts full-scale war within a month. The Defense Divine Realm led by All-Powerful Splendor Hwi will never withstand the full military strength of the 500th Master Universe.’
Hwi’s personal ability was more than sufficient, but the problem lay in his style of combat. No one could match him when it came to smashing enemies at the front lines, but he was absolutely not the type to command from the rear. That would allow the Defense Divine Realm to be breached, giving Creator General Sangharama—who had been waiting for any excuse to invade other Master Universes—the perfect justification to move. At that point, the opposing Master Universe would be reduced to ashes.
‘Victory is obvious. What follows is the tedious process of regional suppression, and that’s the real headache. The enemy won’t stand a chance, but hunting down every single rebel faction hiding across that vast universe… I have no idea how long it will take, yet I know Creator General Sangharama will never give up.’
Sangharama’s very nature was that of a God of War. As invaders, there would be no negotiation, no mercy. With territorial expansion also at stake, he would pursue total annihilation to the very end.
‘In a way, he is the most terrifying being in this Master Universe.’
It was Sangharama who had annihilated the previous Creator Gods who rebelled against the Creator God King, and carried out the Great Purge—replacing every resisting high-ranking Creator God with pure vitality. His power as a Creator General who had reached 13-Circle with over 10 trillion innate divine power was nothing short of horrifying.
Setting aside his ability to obliterate an entire regional universe in a single strike, his defensive power and authorities manifested on a regional-universe scale. As an Origin, he received parallel divine power connections from every god’s authorities and divine energy support. He could fight with infinite divine power and perfect bodily regeneration until every last god in the opposing force was wiped out.
‘He can spam regional-universe-level authorities indefinitely. Even a true Creator would struggle to endure that. So if he leads a massive divine army into war, only someone of equal divine rank could possibly oppose him. And yet some Creator God who barely crossed 1 trillion dares to challenge him? They must be suicidal.’
Even though becoming an Origin granted a massive surge in ability, it still wouldn’t be enough to defeat Sangharama—who had survived countless life-or-death battles against the Substitute Gods, ultimately achieving the unbelievable feat of slaying a Preliminary Creator God from the Substitute Gods alongside the Demon Emperor alone. Sangharama had already destroyed an Origin-level Creator General back when he himself was not yet an Origin. Now that he had become one, a mere 1-trillion divine power Creator God stood no chance whatsoever.
That was why the Dimensional Lord found himself clicking his tongue. These fools were digging their own graves.
‘Crazy bastards. They’re pathetically weak, yet they dare provoke him? Are they all trying to die? Do they seriously think their shared divine race will earn them mercy? Have they forgotten that the weaker a god is, the more vicious they become—far crueler than the demon race? And do they really believe breaching the Defense Divine Realm ends everything? Are they hoping the enemy will only defend and never counterattack? If it were me, I would have offered to cede one Defense Divine Realm sector in exchange for a slightly larger territory. That would buy time from the Creator and give a perfect chance to purge all opposition. Why don’t they see that? Ah—whatever. I’ll just do my own job. Let the high-and-mighty ones who want territory handle the boring rebel suppression campaigns. I’ll finish recruiting my gods.’
He summoned the will of the Divine Realm within the Spirit Realm Waiting Area. To be honest, the Spirit Realm was no place for a Lord God. By human standards, it was a hell where souls were imprisoned. Of course, since they were gods, they didn’t suffer the same torment, but it was still a prison. Every being here existed as a pure spirit without a physical body.
Countless coffin-like devices for those few gods who still retained some physical form were stacked endlessly, creating a vast graveyard and prison. In this state, they supplied the Spirit Realm with vitality and divinity, handling the expansion and external defense of this Master Universe—completely against their will.
‘They live on the faint hope of recovering their bodies using external vitality gained through contracts and returning to godhood. But that never happens.’
Even lower gods had more than enough obedient angels at their disposal, and anything below that was covered by Spirit Kings and lesser spirits. There was simply no need to form contracts.
‘Unless it’s a completely twisted case like the High Elf Queens who have contracted every spirit god under my command, who would even bother?’
With no contracts available, most spirits eventually gave up their will entirely and faded away. The former subordinates of the female Lord Gods trapped here in the Spirit Realm Waiting Area had all vanished without exception. Therefore, the only high-ranking beings worth taking were the contracted spirit gods from the Otherworld.
It would be so convenient if things were always this simple, but the world was never that kind.
“I request the extraction of five individuals from the Spirit Realm. Payment will be provided in vitality.”
“Request approved. Please state the names of the desired spirit gods.”
“Sun Goddess Amaterasu, Nuwa the Second God Emperor, Artemis the Divine Wolf Moon Goddess, Enlil the Storm Annihilation, and Medeia the Betrayal Selection.”
"Request received."
"However, processing is impossible."
“What? Processing impossible?”
A sudden chill of foreboding ran down his spine. His karma was at the pinnacle of good, but it only applied to his own affairs. The real problem was that he was currently isolated from this world, using his dimensional authority to avoid detection by the Absolute Realm. With no detection, there was no support. Everything that happened from now on would be treated as a natural occurrence.
There shouldn’t be any issues with those women trapped in the Spirit Realm without physical bodies. Yet that expectation was brutally shattered.
“They have escaped. They are currently fleeing while evading pursuit from the Spirit Realm.”
“What—! Escaped? How could they escape in spirit form?”
The Otherworld spirit gods had broken out of the Spirit Realm. Without Karma’s support, such an absurd event had occurred.
‘Is this the negative influence of their karma?’
Escaping the Spirit Realm was an unforgivable felony. If discovered, they would be immediately erased.
‘If they had just waited a little longer, they could have left normally. They couldn’t hold back and caused a catastrophe.’
He hadn’t contacted them, so it was pure coincidence. But coincidences did not exist for beings above gods. Everything was the price of the karma they had accumulated.
‘Their karma values were below neutral. They did contribute to the ruin of the Divine Realm, so I can’t complain, but it seems they won’t be released so easily. Not until they’ve paid the full price of their sins—!’
He stared at the sphere of light that embodied the will of the Divine Realm.
‘I have to handle this carefully. It’s enough to bring tears to my eyes, but spirit gods of this caliber in each attribute are extremely rare. No—more accurately, there are no spirit gods at a level worth contracting with me. So I need to change this from an escape to something else. Even the highest-ranking administrator among the Master Universe’s managers, a High Lord God, is pulling every trick in the book.’
He needed to assess the situation and take immediate action. Under no circumstances could spirit gods who had escaped the Spirit Realm be accepted into the Divine Realm.
“How far has the report gone?”
“It has been placed on hold until the previous administrative gods resolve the matter, so no official entry has been made.”
Corrupt administrative gods would never report their own mistakes immediately. Given their habitual practice of concealing and downplaying incidents, his assumption proved correct. There was still hope.
“They did not escape. This was an operation I ordered as a test.”
“Pardon?”
There were times when those rotten administrative gods proved useful. In a perfectly managed Divine Realm, he would have needed to reverse time and fabricate records. But if they had avoided inputting anything at all to protect themselves, this would be much easier. All he had to do was manipulate the facts.
“Notify the Spirit Realm. In the name of the highest-ranking Lord God of Dimensions, we are recruiting capable spirit gods. The recruitment method is to locate and capture the spirit gods who have already contracted with me. I have already instructed them to hide, and any who discover and subdue them by any means necessary will pass the test.”
“That is unreasonable. There has been no prior notice of such a test, and the Spirit Realm cannot accept a trial that disrupts its order. They will be treated as fugitives and formally disposed of upon discovery.”
A perfectly natural response. For the will of a normal Divine Realm, this was the only logical course of action. This was regulation. This was proper procedure.
‘But it’s hilarious. The will of a Divine Realm that has tolerated all these irregularities is now lecturing me about rules. Besides, I became a Lord God as a dark mage. It would be a mistake to think I’m some idiot warrior god who can be manipulated by the Divine Realm’s ego. My computational power surpasses yours, and above all, my efficiency is superior.’
Wiiiiiiing—! Wiiiing—!
He concentrated his divine power and summoned a single sphere of light. It resembled the sphere that embodied the Divine Realm’s will, yet it was incomparably more brilliant and radiant.
Siiiiik—!
With his divine power fully unleashed, he smiled brighter than ever and raised his energy. The divine power of a High Lord God pressed down on the sphere of light. The Divine Realm’s will flickered as if flinching, but soon a resolute voice rang out.
“Threats will not work. I am an artificial ego designed to devote everything to the revival of the Divine Realm. To me, there is no pain, no emotion, no death, no annihilation. Everything exists to be sacrificed for the Divine Realm and its gods.”
“This is called a dark-magic Divine Realm ego. It is a masterpiece I created by investing both dark magic and divine power. One of my proudest master pieces.”
“Pardon?”
Ten circles of magical power rose from the sphere of divine power he had summoned and began to rotate. In the center, the sphere of divine light spun furiously.
‘The next-generation Divine Realm ego created by fusing magical power and divinity. Its beautiful speed and overwhelming functionality fill my chest with pride. I really need to deploy this in my own Divine Realm soon, but I haven’t had the chance. No—honestly, it’s so revolutionary that introducing it would probably cause chaos, so I’ve been holding off.’
It could only display its full performance in a Divine Realm of at least Creator God rank or higher. Moreover, since the Dimensional Lord himself currently lacked the power to protect it, it remained sealed.
“This performs dual computation using both magical power and divine power that have reached Lord God rank. The dual computation mutually supplements data and carries out management and development of the Divine Realm. No errors can occur. Because they cross-reference and operate records, it enables divine realm management without any corruption and highly efficient vitality operation. Furthermore, since it does not possess a solitary ego, it even possesses self-evolution and development functions through the ‘Opinion Judgment’ system. Its basic processing speed and functionality are more than double that of previous Divine Realm egos, with perfect stability. Most importantly, the multiplier increases dramatically according to the authorities and computational power of the Lord Gods, so the higher the Divine Realm, the more explosive the effect. If the existing Divine Realm provides 32 times the divine power support efficiency, this improvement would raise it to at least 76 times. Finally…”
“……”
The Divine Realm ego fell silent. Or rather, judging by how its light continued to tremble endlessly, it seemed to have roughly understood. But there was still more.
‘My own Divine Realm ego completely surrendered to me because of this. It even ignored the Lord God who created it and reported everything to me, allowing me to root out all corruption.’
No matter how artificial an ego was, if it could think, it would inevitably possess a desire for survival. The terror of knowing that death meant the end of everything was a universal fear shared by all beings.
“Once it absorbs all previous Divine Realm egos, it will activate immediately and maximize its functions. It can be applied without any additional cost or modification. If you want even better results, absorbing the previous Divine Realm egos is absolutely necessary. However, the problem is that creating them is quite troublesome and they are expensive, so they remain in standby. Still… perhaps I should sell just one at a discount to the Main Divine Realm? They might buy it even at full price. This would be a good testing ground, wouldn’t it? I believe a new model of Divine Realm ego was already being tested here? Don’t you think the Main Divine Realm would eagerly adopt it right away?”
"Notification of test protocol to the Spirit Realm has been completed."
"The spirit gods are praising it as a fair method."
"I also judge this to be an extremely innovative and efficient selection process."
As expected, the response was impeccably polite and immediate. The Lord Gods who had been watching the situation from the surroundings stood with their mouths agape, unable to close them.
‘This is how the world works. If you’re incompetent, you get trampled. If you’re competent, even your mistakes become achievements.’
And if you had power on top of that, there was nothing you couldn’t do. The only reason the Dimensional Lord always ended up in situations like this was because he lacked that power. Of course, once he established and stabilized his own Divine Realm, the subordinates bound by contract would become his true force. It wasn’t time to despair yet.
‘They aren’t my bloodline, so I can’t expect complete loyalty. But at the very least, a contractual relationship based on aligned interests is possible. So I must lead them well and establish my Divine Realm no matter what. For now, I’ll erase all the past records that could cause problems. This level of manipulation won’t invite disciplinary action from the Main Divine Realm against a High Lord God, but I still need to reduce the infamy of these spirit Lord Gods who will become the backbone of my Divine Realm. Their reputation is already the worst. If their records go up as they are, they’ll be treated worse than the demon realm. There’s no choice. No—they’re already more notorious than the demon realm.’
To keep the combat-type female Lord Gods in check, he had to deploy standard Lord Gods and drive the Divine Realm to the brink of civil war. It was an utterly absurd situation. If the past infamy of the spirit Lord Gods were added on top of that, even the demon realm would shudder. The Dimensional Lord himself was no saint, but the important thing was to reduce their notoriety while he still had the chance.
“What happened to the past erroneous records and data?”
“Errors are set to be permanently deleted by default. After re-evaluating the disciplinary actions and punishments, it was determined that there was no evidence or victims, so all charges were dropped and the facts themselves were erased.”
“How competent. In that case, there’s no need to replace you.”
“Thank you. I will do my utmost to serve the convenience of the highest-ranking Lord God of Dimensions. I have already received instructions from the Chief God of the God Realm and will serve without any restrictions.”
“You recorded all the footage up until now, correct?”
“It has already been properly edited. Would you like to review it?”
“Show me. After all, it looks like there will be time until the spirit gods complete the test.”
A massive screen appeared in the air, displaying every scene he had handled so far. The will of the Divine Realm was designed to record everything to prevent corruption, but since it ultimately operated under the hands of administrative gods, it was not perfect. Most importantly, absolute editing authority was built in to prevent rebellion by artificial egos. That was why unilateral editing like this was possible.
‘They don’t even stop this kind of corruption. Because the ones who are supposed to manage crime need it too.’
The beings who were supposed to monitor corruption needed a convenient tool to adjust reports, so the system persisted.
“Enlarge the scenes where I am rendering judgment and add more light. Make sure the scenes where they attack me are captured clearly and increase the volume. Yes, make it look like they came at me with the intent to fight to the death. Change the tone of their voices too.”
The Dimensional Lord’s one-sided punishment was transformed into an unavoidable outcome of fierce resistance. He continued editing everything to his advantage and wrapped it up.
‘No matter how I think about it, I have to go myself. It doesn’t seem like the spirit gods will be able to safely capture the escaped Otherworld spirit gods.’
They would need to be exceptionally vicious and competent to subdue them. As far as he knew, there were almost no spirit gods whose martial prowess or authorities surpassed those women.
‘Among the highest-grade spirit gods I summoned back then, they were the only ones who charged at me until the very end.’
Ignoring the spirit Lord Gods who couldn’t hide their dumbfounded expressions, he called for Lokina, the Lord of the Flipside.
“Manipulate the footage and past records with extreme precision. This is power you will possess permanently from now on. So use whatever means necessary to make sure there are no flaws. However, it must not be detectable by the Main Divine Realm.”
“Manipulation is my specialty, but this is no ordinary task. Their pasts are such a complete mess…”
At those words, everyone’s expressions grew strange. They seemed to be debating whether they should be happy that the past could be rewritten, or whether they should live with dignity as gods of light.
‘I don’t care. Go to another Divine Realm and live with that kind of power. I doubt the Chief God of the God Realm would welcome you with open arms.’
He ignored the Lord Gods whose senses had completely dulled after spending so long in the Spirit Realm Waiting Area and continued giving instructions to Lokina, who was still capable of rational conversation.
“If there is a plausible reason, most problems can be overlooked. So create a situation where it truly could not be helped!”
“Haaaa—! I’ll do what I can. That is my value, after all.”
“As expected, you’re the only one I can talk to. If you ever want to become my concubine, just say the word.”
“I must decline. I’m already being worked to my absolute limit like this. Anything more would be impossible for me. Honestly, I have no idea how I’m supposed to turn their worst records into those of model Lord Gods. They really did commit the most horrific acts without restraint. I thought I had quite a few problems myself, but this is just…!”
Watching Lokina sigh even as she began the modifications while muttering about their basic power, the Dimensional Lord moved toward the Spirit Realm.
‘I need to drag them out before the Otherworld spirit gods cause even more trouble.’
He had barely managed to block the Main Divine Realm’s report on the escape of the Otherworld spirit Lord Gods by forcing the issue, but the situation was truly horrific.
‘What kind of subordinate luck is this? Some people become kings of their bloodline and live in glory, yet when I try to recruit even one subordinate, this is what happens. I don’t even expect loyalty anymore—just do your jobs properly and please, for the love of all that is holy, stop causing incidents. Just stay quiet.’
With a truly desperate wish, he set out to capture the Otherworld spirit gods who had escaped from the Spirit Realm. They had hidden so well that even the Dimensional Lord—their contractor connected by vitality—had no idea where they were.