War in the Spirit Realm and Grinding His Teeth Once More
The war in the Spirit Realm. Once again, the Dimensional Lord ground his teeth.
“Grind—! So they really stole a massive amount of information about my authorities while I wasn’t looking. To think they even perfectly copied the unique wave pattern of my dimensional divine power.”
What should have been here was definitely present, yet he couldn’t detect it at all. No—the countless varieties of dimensional divine power saturating the area, all clearly belonging to the otherworld’s spirit gods, were being recognized as the Dimensional Lord’s own. Even he couldn’t tell them apart. That could only mean their wave patterns were now identical.
“Is this Medeia’s Betrayal Selection and her illusion sorcery? Her specialties were always illusion and transformation, weren’t they? But to think she could fool even me?”
This entire scene was an illusion. Enlil’s concealment authority using water and wind had merged with Medeia’s fantasy sorcery to hide them completely. On top of that, dimensional sorcery itself was preventing precise scans. The omnipotent spirit emperors of the transcendent god race were also employing similar concealment authorities while fighting Enlil, making immediate confirmation impossible.
But there was a way to break through it. A very crude one, admittedly.
“No matter how strong a regular Lord God becomes, they cannot exceed the authority limit of one hundred kilometers. I have already isolated the entire region—including the full thousand-kilometer zone—using my dimensional authority. If you don’t come out immediately, I will annihilate everything here with a dimensional divine power cannon.”
Whooooooosh—! Crackle—!
As expected, there was no answer. Only the sound of wind filled the brief lull in battle caused by the Dimensional Lord’s words.
These bastards never listen when asked nicely.
They clearly didn’t believe he had trapped an area ten times larger than a Lord God’s authority zone with his dimensional power.
Wooooooooong—!
The Dimensional Lord’s solar authority spread across the empty sky. A massive spherical wall shimmering with golden light fully materialized. There was no longer any hope of escaping with crude dimensional authority.
Maintaining eleven circles is putting a slight strain on me, but after they attacked me again, I won’t let this slide.
Keeping nine circles of magical power active, he began the incantation.
Polymorph of Gigantes Lord
Whooooooong—! Fuhahaha—! Thud! Thud!
A colossal heartbeat echoed through the void. The Dimensional Lord’s magical power formed flesh and bone, then covered them with muscle. Based on his own airborne form, the appearance of a giant god race Lord God was completed in an instant.
My computational power is incomparable to when I only had ten circles, so the transformation finishes the moment others perceive it. Having reached a maximum output of one hundred billion, I could make myself larger than the original thousand kilometers, but for now I’ve limited it to one hundred.
Even the planet-sized Substitute Gods were not his opponents, but growing too large would make suppression difficult. Even in this compressed state, his defense and speed were more than ten times greater than those of an ordinary giant god race Lord God.
Kuuuuuuuuuung! Kuuuuuuuuuung!
When the giantized being of light swung his wings and planted his feet on the ground, the earth-shaking roar reverberated. He immediately released a divine power wave that slammed every inch of space, forcibly canceling Enlil’s concealment and battering the targets until they lost consciousness. Not knowing what else they might try, he instantly isolated and suppressed them within a dimensional separation space.
No matter how much dimensional authority they learned, it is still my own sorcery that I granted them. They can never become stronger than me.
Now transformed into a giant god race Lord God, the Dimensional Lord swung his hand and swatted the wolf that was leaping around in panic. Baaaaang—!
“Kyen—!”
The wolf was crushed flat against the ground beneath his palm. It was once a colossal wolf god said to have reached the heavens, but to the Dimensional Lord in his current giant god form, it was no more than a puppy. He grabbed the wolf god in his palm and lifted it into the sky.
Guuuuuuuung!
The goddess who had been firing light arrows naturally couldn’t withstand the sudden overwhelming physical force either. She fainted and hung limply, buried against his forehead. He suppressed her in the same layered manner as Enlil and tossed both into the dimensional isolation space.
Yet even though the wolf god hung limp like a newborn puppy, its unique defensive power kept its mind perfectly clear. This level of resilience was exactly what allowed it to infiltrate enemy lines and survive, but it was also incredibly infuriating.
“Agh—! A mere subordinate god of a contracted spirit god dares to challenge a Creator Candidate who is your contractor? Should I roast and eat you right now? How dare a tiny thing like you run wild? Let’s start by snapping your neck.”
He gripped the wolf’s head with one hand and its torso with the other, beginning to apply force. Its spine straightened and its body started to stretch. Just a little more pulling and this puny wolf pup’s head would fly off and that would be the end.
“Kyen—! Kyeng-kyeng—! Kyen—!”
I was wrong—! Please spare me—! I only did as I was ordered!
The frantic screams and desperate telepathic pleas for mercy suddenly gave the Dimensional Lord a good idea. When he lightly released his grip, the wolf’s newly revived body—having just faced death—revealed a head drenched in tears and drool.
“You saw everything, didn’t you? How they ran away and plotted? Answer my questions properly and I’ll spare you. I’ll even give you more vitality.”
“Kyen—! Kyen—!”
Just say the word! Master—!
The wolf god looked ready to wag its tail furiously and roll over to show its belly in submission.
As expected of the incarnation of survival. It switches to the winning side in the blink of an eye. Though… is it just my imagination that this sly wolf and I seem to overlap?
The Dimensional Lord decided to at least keep his principles and asked,
“How did you evade my dimensional search? Where are the other three?”
This was the real problem. The moment he transformed into a giant god race Lord God, he had swept the entire space with a divine power wave that avoided allies, yet they were gone. Even the omnipotent spirit kings who had copied Enlil’s authority now wore bewildered expressions, unable to read the enemy’s presence.
The wolf god respectfully sent its will.
They already fled outside. The moment you entered the Spirit Realm through the opened entrance, they left through it. Because of the capacity limit, we stayed behind for a moment.
“What—!”
Our role was to distract the administrators and you here, while they opened an exit from the outside.
Ding—!
The Dimensional Lord felt as if his head might crack.
If they escaped the instant I entered the Spirit Realm, of course I wouldn’t have known.
They must have anticipated that if trouble arose, he would personally rush into the Spirit Realm and prepared accordingly.
After spending so much time together, this is the side effect. As expected, scams work best between close associates.
Knowing the Dimensional Lord’s tendencies to some degree, such an escape was possible. Moreover, the gods’ entry pass was their divine power wave pattern. If they had copied it perfectly and crossed at the exact same moment, even a high-ranking Creator Candidate like himself—who was also in transit—would not have performed any re-verification, allowing them to slip out safely.
Wait, were they even on such good terms?
Escaping simultaneously the moment the entrance opened was feasible, but with the Dimensional Lord still inside, the same wave pattern should have made reopening it from outside impossible. Having two identical gods—one inside and one outside—would cause a serious error. Therefore, opening it from outside would require bypassing an enormous authentication process.
No matter how much Medeia specializes in illusion sorcery, that shouldn’t be easy.
There was another question. These beings were absolutely not on good terms with each other.
“How could you trust one another? You lot are from the same otherworld, yet you were worse than mortal enemies, weren’t you?”
The situation changed slightly, so we formed an alliance. We even signed a karma contract promising not to betray each other within the 499th main universe sector. That’s why we trusted one another.
“The situation changed? What the hell are you talking about? What situation could possibly change for spirit gods trapped in the Spirit Realm? Can you fall any lower than you already have?”
After becoming enemies with all the spirit gods here and fighting them, we had no choice but to become comrades.
“…”
The Dimensional Lord was so dumbfounded that he glanced at the two otherworld spirit gods slumped unconscious inside his dimensional space.
Waking them up to ask would probably lead to more schemes, so I’ll pass.
They had been caught so easily because they didn’t know about his sudden surge in power. If they had known even a little, they would have fled immediately and he wouldn’t have caught them.
Yet the surrounding spirit kings nodded with expressions of understanding and spoke.
“Are you looking for them? Then yes, it is correct that they became enemies with every spirit god. The ‘Gangster Girls of the Apocalypse’ are quite famous.”
“They caused so much chaos that there isn’t a single spirit god who doesn’t hold a grudge. Watching them from inside a coffin was truly a spectacle. They picked fights at the slightest provocation, escalated to brawls, and even triggered massive battles. It was exhausting.”
“…”
The Dimensional Lord was momentarily speechless.
What the hell is that ridiculous nickname? What exactly did they do to earn the title ‘Apocalypse’?
Here, “apocalypse” absolutely meant “death or annihilation that ends one’s existence.” It did not mean “retiring quietly to live out one’s remaining years.”
Those girls have personalities that would rather fight to the death than hide away, and the people around them whom they’ve wronged wouldn’t allow it anyway. I can understand the ‘gangster girls’ part, but what kind of incident made them enemies with everyone?
Questions piled up one after another.
Why the ‘Apocalypse’ moniker on top of ‘gangster girls’? It’s not like they’re some delinquent gang… Wait. Actually, that’s exactly right.
When he pictured Amaterasu—the Sun Goddess—laughing behind a gorgeous fan while brandishing solar authority and a sword, combined with the otherworld spirit gods running wild, the “gangster girls” label fit perfectly. They were the kind of self-centered delinquents who wouldn’t listen to reason. These were the same beings who had wiped out five hundred million—half the population of the High Elf Empire that had even subdued demon gods—in less than half a day.
“Huuuuuuuuuuu—”
A bone-deep weariness washed over the Dimensional Lord, and a long sigh escaped him. He didn’t even need further explanation.
Thinking about it, the otherworld spirit gods—who regained power surpassing even spirit kings thanks to the high-purity vitality of a newly ascended high-ranking Lord God like me—were never going to behave themselves quietly in the Spirit Realm. They probably did whatever they wanted and caused absolute mayhem.
Given Amaterasu’s arrogant personality, she might have even tried to establish her own divine nation here, causing an uproar. Since they were not native spirit gods, they would never have been accepted. Harsh punishment and resistance would have followed. It was obvious they would have rebelled repeatedly, accumulating enormous numbers of enemies through constant disciplinary actions.
Given the nature of large-scale battles and their specialized authorities, even if suppressed as a group they would never have backed down. It seems they ended up fighting every spirit god.
Being outnumbered, they naturally resorted to hit-and-run guerrilla tactics using concealment authorities. The very concealment authority that even the Dimensional Lord found difficult to detect was merely a byproduct of that chaos.
Upon double-checking, it is a top-grade authority even among Lord Gods. Within my own dimension it should have been recognized without much difficulty. Yet it has settled in so naturally that it’s proving troublesome.
He couldn’t imagine how much chaos they must have caused—running, fighting, and fleeing—to reach this level of mastery. And while he had caught two, he had let three escape.
Since they possess my divine power wave pattern perfectly, Medeia should have been able to escape without issue.
What those three would do upon returning to the otherworld was obvious.
They’ll become the Destruction Gods of the Apocalypse, won’t they? How much will they break and kill? How much of my karma will they devour? Their nature is absolutely not helpful for karma accumulation. The later I deal with this, the greater the damage. I haven’t even finished organizing the god recruitment, and now I have to go there too?
Given the situation, sighs that felt like his soul was being vomited out kept rising.
“Haaaaaaaah—! Just my luck. Do I really have to go all the way to the otherworld to catch them now?”
Fortunately, having captured two, analyzing the concealment authority that had fooled his dimensional search would make tracking possible. He released the wolf god who had faithfully answered, canceled the giant god race Lord God polymorph, and descended.
Looking at the wolf god’s expression of pure relief, a sudden question occurred to him.
It’s definitely this sly wolf, and it should be part of their alliance, yet it answered far too quickly and obediently.
Violating a karma contract came with enormous penalties, after all.
“Did you not sign the karma alliance contract? Why are you providing information so easily?”
The answer came immediately, as if it were obvious.
The one who made the alliance contract was my previous master. Not me. I am merely a subordinate god. There’s no way I would make such a dangerous contract. Besides, making one with them? That would be ridiculous. I am not that foolish.
It was a perfectly logical answer, yet it filled him with irritation. It essentially meant his master could make foolish and dangerous contracts, but the wolf itself had neatly avoided them.
“Oh? Is that so? Then are you also thinking that I—who formed spirit god contracts with all of them—is an idiot?”
That couldn’t be further from the truth. In an equal relationship it would be foolish, but in a superior-subordinate relationship, it’s actually quite a useful contract. After all, they are incredibly strong and capable. If you can handle them properly, it is an excellent contract.
The Dimensional Lord briefly considered stomping the wolf god to pieces—after it had called its own master foolish for allying with the otherworld spirit gods, then casually switched sides for survival—but ultimately gave up.
Considering it’s a wolf god who ascended from an animal, those words aren’t exactly wrong for a knowledge-type deity.
There was no time for that now. He needed to begin the pursuit immediately.