Cataclysm of a Hundred Suns
The Spirit Realm war. By summoning exactly one hundred compressed planets and creating a zone where the attractive and repulsive forces of gravity clashed, the spell completely sealed the movement and actions of any being possessing less than two trillion in divine power. It had originally been devised to subdue groups of Creator God level or higher, though it remained imperfect and fell short of that goal. Even so, it could annihilate the entire internal orbital space of the summoned planets. It was an 11th-circle spell designed to shatter an entire stellar system in a single strike—the very requirement for establishing oneself as a Main God.
The activation time was far too long and left the caster completely defenseless, making it impractical for real combat. Yet after taking a critical blow to the neck—a fatal weak point even for gods—and barely surviving thanks to his bio-armor, the Dimensional Lord’s eyes had rolled back in pure rage. He was now unleashing it without restraint.
‘With the Authority of Stealth and Karma’s protection of the weak, I cannot locate them.’
Without a clear target, the spell’s power was cut in half and suffered extreme restrictions. There was only one way to defeat an opponent he could not perceive: erase everything around him. That was why he had launched the 11th-circle spell—an absurd overkill even against Main Gods—without warning.
Gwoooooooooong—!
The subordinates he had only just recruited and the irreplaceable facilities of the Spirit Realm Waiting Area had already been moved to safety before he lifted everything into the air. There were no longer any limits.
‘No Main God can escape beyond a hundred kilometers in an instant. Since they cannot leave the 11th-circle domain activated at the moment of the attack, they are definitely still here.’
Gwoooooooooong! Vrrrrrrrrrm!
Unable to sense the enemy, he dragged every last thing into the void and froze all space and time within it using his Dimensional Authority. If he shattered them all like this, the irritating game of tag would finally end. He had also blocked the special-grade Cyber God’s ability to freely adjust the past. This would be total annihilation.
“Ughhh—! I should have done this from the beginning. When have I ever bothered with careful reconnaissance on a battlefield? In war, instinct comes before thought. Since when did I start playing Chief God of the God Realm and weighing every little thing? And to think I actually listened to the Cyber Realm’s advice again—I must have lost my damn mind! Look where it got me. Now it ends—!”
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang—!
The compressed planets vibrated as though they would explode at any second.
‘The fully liberated gravitational waves alone have already pulverized all matter. The only thing still floating is that sly wolf god. The otherworld spirit gods must be trapped somewhere in there too, but they cannot move an inch.’
Kyeeeeeeng! Kyeeeeeeng!
The wolf god must have regained its senses; it flailed its four legs wildly and whimpered, but it was far too late. The Dimensional Lord still remembered how the beast had tried to bite him on the sly while he was creating the Survival Magic Tower.
“This is the perfect chance to clean them all up. Disappear before my 11th-circle spell—the evolved form of the 9th-circle Clash Planet.”
Gooooooooo—!
Watching the surrounding space contract under the crushing gravity capable of destroying stellar systems, the Dimensional Lord—now a Creator Candidate—poured even more power into the spell. Inside that zone of ever-increasing destructive gravity, even spiritual bodies were on the verge of disintegration.
“It doesn’t matter whether they’re material or spiritual. Everything will vanish without a trace.”
The Main Gods and Spirit Lords watching this unbelievable scene could not close their mouths. They had already fled to a safe distance and were frantically analyzing the unprecedented scale of power.
‘If the complete domain extends beyond a hundred kilometers and affects a full thousand, it already possesses enough strength to annihilate several ordinary planets outright.’
‘It’s unbelievable, but since he can freely manipulate hundreds of massive planets, the scale itself is meaningless. Still, controlling it so perfectly defies common sense.’
The ancient gods of the barbarian tribes were especially stunned. In their era, even the Creator Gods could at best manipulate planets using a mere tenth of this power. Adjusting authority on a stellar scale had been beyond their wildest dreams.
“Hiiiik—! Are all the high-ranking Main Gods of this age this monstrous? They’re on a completely different level from our time. Absolute freaks.”
“Why does the Chief God of the Light God Realm give off an even more vicious killing intent than I did when I received human sacrifices? Wasn’t he originally from the demon god faction?”
“We must never provoke him. We could actually be erased.”
The shock was even greater for the Spirit God Kings who had once reigned as the Origin of the highest divine clans. The confidence they had gained from obtaining temporarily superior bodies was being ripped out by the roots.
‘Even in our prime, we rarely saw anyone this strong.’
‘I’m not even sure the old Creator General could have subdued him.’
Yet he was supposedly only a high-ranking Main God, not a Creator. The evolution of the outer world into a pure survival-of-the-fittest system left them sickened and drained of all confidence.
“This can’t be right. No matter how much the standard rises, there should still be limits.”
“At that level he would be considered one of the strongest among the highest Creator Gods of the old universe. Is he really treated as nothing more than a high-ranking Main God?”
“More importantly, what if he actually becomes a God of Destruction and goes on a rampage? With Dimensional Authority, we couldn’t even stop his spatial movement. If he starts destroying planets left and right, there’d be nothing we could do.”
“That’s not our problem. We can barely take care of ourselves. How many beings with such overwhelming authority even exist in this Master Universe?”
“Then what happens to us? At this rate, will we never escape the rank of Main God? If a mere Creator Candidate is already this strong, there’s no hope.”
“No way! No matter how much the world has changed, there are still fundamentals. We who were once Origin becoming mere Main Gods? That can’t be!”
Though they spoke such words, the anxiety would not fade. Seeing the end result of the survival-of-the-fittest universe they had once opposed left them feeling as if the future had gone dark.
‘The hope that we could regain our original bodies, return to our clans, and reclaim the seat of Origin had become nothing more than a distant dream flying away.’
Huuuuuu—! Huuuuuuu—!
Unable to hide their bleak moods, they looked at one another and could only sigh. When the Spirit Realm Waiting Area itself began shaking from the activated 11th-circle spell, the Main God of the Divine Realm who rushed out from within felt his mind go blank.
‘Fortunately, the main buildings of the Spirit Realm Waiting Area are intact and all the administrator gods have evacuated. But those hundred planets humming and vibrating in the sky are anything but ordinary.’
In short, they were on the verge of exploding. If a hundred planets detonated at once, the resulting force would surpass even a stellar explosion. Every Main God would die; anything below that rank would be annihilated.
‘Although spiritual bodies are unaffected by the physical laws of the material realm, any physical force strong enough to alter their very structure still affects them.’
After briefly calculating the destructive power, a scream escaped him involuntarily.
“Huuuuurk—! Gravity suppression and wide-area annihilation through planetary destruction at the Creator God level or above? If those detonate, the entire Spirit Realm Waiting Area will be blown away! We have to stop it—!”
“That can’t be. He would never survive such an explosion either, so he wouldn’t activate it simultaneously.”
Of course, it was common sense that anyone short of a true Creator God would perish in a stellar-scale detonation. But the Main God of the Divine Realm had once been a mercenary god himself.
‘Direct descendants might not know this, but battles don’t always follow logic. And from the look of it, some insane Spirit Lord managed to wound his neck with a surprise attack. For a Creator Candidate, that is absolutely unforgivable.’
He had seen more than once or twice how these battle-crazed gods, when pushed to their limit, would abandon all reason and transform into Gods of Destruction, rampaging on pure instinct. He had also witnessed countless beings who, once their creative power reached planetary scale, would simply destroy everything first, restore only what they needed, and resurrect the rest while growing even more violent.
‘And right now, the Dimensional Lord is exactly in that state. Still, I can’t just tell everyone that an allied higher god with Creator Candidate status is about to go berserk. They might hear me, and their grudges are no joke. Why is it that in this Master Universe, those who reach Creator God level only become more frantic and savage? In other universes the Creators are practically fossils who have lost all emotion. Strange. Is it because this environment constantly demands life-or-death struggles? Come to think of it, I trained only in fighting spirit for so long that even after becoming an Intermediate Main God my temper has only grown worse. No wonder some factions are already suggesting we abolish the distinction between god and demon god clans—since the only real difference is wing color—and unify them into Battle Gods and Administrator Gods.’
It was no coincidence that the vicious demon gods of this universe acknowledged the divine gods’ supremacy. They were overwhelmingly outnumbered, and whenever war broke out, the battle gods and Creators who fought even more brutally than demons were simply too numerous.
‘This survival-of-the-fittest Master Universe is far too cruel to the weak and the defeated. That is why so many refused to accept defeat in certification battles and chose mutual annihilation in the worst cases.’
The moment they were even slightly disadvantaged, the once-gentle divine gods would suddenly go mad and charge in, preferring death together over defeat. Since the divine gods naturally held superior numbers, mutual destruction was a disaster for the smaller demon god faction. In the early days, the elite few demon gods suffered countless annihilations and their forces were drastically reduced. Only after that did they stop waging large-scale wars. On top of that, their opponents fought with such ferocity and treaties prevented planetary plunder, so some demon gods even began taking on the role of Chief God of the God Realm to gather faith and secure more resources.
While he was lost in these thoughts, a panicked voice from his direct descendant burst out.
“F-Father—! What is that?! Is that even possible?!”
“What are you so shocked abou—?!”
Hwarrrrrrrk—! Kwrrrrrrrrk—!
The hundred planets had indeed exploded, but instead of releasing destructive force they compressed even further until each was only the size of a house, then transformed into suns. The Dimensional Lord, both hands raised to the sky, continued his chant from within an endlessly shifting circle of divine power.
“The authority of the sun saves all life that follows it,”
“but if defied, it burns even gods and demon gods to nothingness.”
“There is no existence that will not turn to ash before it,”
“and it governs the life and death of all things the sun’s light touches.”
⟨ TRUE SOLAR AUTHORITY ⟩
Hahahahahaha—! Puhahahahaha—!
The hundred suns simultaneously emitted identical divine power wavelengths and released their heat in a single instant. Every planet had been compressed into a miniature sun, orbiting at tremendous speed and forming rings of flame that created a zone of ultra-high temperature. At the center of that inferno was, of course, the wolf god. Its body burst into flames immediately.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang—!”
The wolf god that had endured a direct divine power cannon with all four limbs intact now let out a miserable scream. It had originally possessed resistance to solar divine power, yet the combined output of a hundred suns linked in series produced heat beyond common sense. The fact that it had not been instantly reduced to ash was already a miracle. But the fur and hide that had carried resistance and defense against divine power were now burning away entirely. The beast had no choice but to endure the agony and focus desperately on regeneration.
Puhahaha! Grrrrrrrr—!
Watching more than half the wolf god’s body turn to ash only to regenerate again, the Dimensional Lord ground his teeth.
‘Ugh! Anything below Main God rank should have been erased without even leaving ashes, yet it’s holding on. So it really is a giant monster fortress created for the Substitute Gods. How tenacious. Is my 11th-circle spell too weak? I can’t even erase a single giant animal god at Main God level. Did I choose the wrong direction? No, it’s because the spell is incomplete and can’t display its true power. It’s not even reaching a tenth of the force I originally designed. Then I’ll end it with this. Since it’s not fully perfected, I’ll be careful when detonating it.’
Gwoooooooooong!
He brought both hands together before his chest and concentrated his magic power once more. He began preparing another chant to summon the additional hundred planets he had kept in reserve.
‘Once completed and on target, it will guarantee the annihilation of any being of equal or lower rank. It will cleanly erase all matter, divine power, and magic power.’
The inherent weakness of mages—the long activation time—could not be helped, and this spell required an especially lengthy chant. Using it on the battlefield would likely make him the first target and end him instantly.
‘It is still unfinished, but if I maintain extreme focus it can be activated. And if it lands properly, even a Main God will be annihilated on contact.’
It was a finishing move prepared specifically to destroy Substitute Gods of equal or higher Main God rank. He now directed it at the giant wolf god.
‘Once activated, everything inside the solar rune, starting from the center, will be annihilated.’
No matter how powerful the Main God, there would be no exceptions.
“First, die cleanly once more. We can talk afterward.”
Crackle!
Vrrrrrrrrrm!
Although his neck had already been fully restored, the phantom pain still lingered. Unable to suppress the killing intent surging up, he began the activation.
Hoooooooong! Vrrrrrrrrrm!
The Dimensional Lord’s body naturally rose into the air as his magic power skyrocketed.
‘This is the crucial part. Since it’s my first time using this spell, I must maintain it with absolute precision.’
But then the space directly in front of him rippled faintly and a loud noise rang out. Interfering with the Dimensional Lord’s authority domain required considerable spatial power.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah—!”
“What the—? Ugh—!”
Thwack—!
Along with a long scream, something suddenly popped out right in front of his face, blocking his vision and causing the targetless spell to cancel. On top of that, something soft had latched onto his entire upper body.
‘Some goddess? Even though I was casting a rather delicate spell, if there had been any killing intent or hostility I would have reacted and dodged. Yet I didn’t sense even the slightest hint, so I couldn’t avoid it. The divine power feels as pure as a newborn baby.’
Her rank seemed high, yet he felt no danger at all, leaving him with no reason to react. As the solar rune vanished uselessly in mid-cast and the wolf god plummeted to the ground, his face twisted on its own.
‘About half its body was burned, but it’s regenerating. Since it has lost consciousness and stopped moving, it probably can’t resist anymore.’
If even the giant fortress wolf god had been reduced to this state, any otherworld spirit gods operating outside would have died instantly. For now, the situation was resolved.
Kwaaaaaang—!
Perhaps frightened by the tremendous crash and shockwave of the giant wolf god’s fall, the goddess who had been thrown at him suddenly clung tightly to his upper body and began shrieking.
“Kyaa—! Kyaa—!”
The sensation of the body pressed against him and the voice confirmed she was indeed a goddess. Yet the screaming voice sounded strangely familiar.
“Who are you? You dare interfere with my spell and battle? Do you wish to die horribly?”
Upon closer inspection, it seemed the one who had interfered with his Dimensional Authority was not her but someone else.
‘Her rank is nearly that of a high-ranking Main God or above, yet she cannot resist the authority suppression at all.’
Her aura was so pathetic that his killing intent and fighting spirit weakened slightly. He grabbed her by the nape and yanked her off.
‘Her rank seems high, but she clearly never trained her physical body. The soft, squishy feeling is even worse than an Administrator Main God.’
With one hand still gripping the back of her neck, he pulled the intruding goddess in front of his face. Her chest and hips were modest and slender from complete lack of physical training. The way bright primary-colored clothing clung to her body while lines of light sparkled across it looked extremely familiar.
‘Beauty is a basic requirement for goddesses, so that’s no distinguishing feature. Golden hair that looks like solid gold itself is also too common. The distinction is subtle.’
The Machine Gods who served as helpers for contractors in the material realm usually wore uniform outfits and possessed beautiful appearances, making it even harder. However, this particular outfit belonged to the good-for-nothing Cyber Goddess who, ever since his days as a mercenary Main God, had nagged him through blurry, static-filled screens, set up fraudulent contracts, and laid traps whenever he refused to listen.
‘Until now I had only seen her voice and silhouette. It was only when the special-grade Cyber God showed me a clear screen that I learned this was her outfit.’
It seemed the level of clarity they could display depended on their rank. Considering the absurd scope of the Cyber Realm’s jurisdiction, it made sense.
‘Why has a goddess of the Cyber Realm come to the material realm? Direct interference should be impossible for them. Has policy changed? Still… this body shape feels incredibly familiar. Where have I seen it before?’
“Hik—! Hic! Hic!”
The way she stared at his face, hiccupping with both hands clamped over her mouth, only made his killing intent rise further. It felt as if he were facing an old enemy.
‘What is this dirty feeling? No, what is this hot emotion surging from the depths of my heart? Am I… happy? Why am I reacting like this?’
Squeeze—!
The Dimensional Lord tilted his head in confusion as his hand unconsciously tightened around the back of the suddenly appearing Cyber Goddess’s neck.