Contracts Signed in Blood and Flames

In the searing agony of their bodies burning from the inside out, the otherworld spirit gods bit down on their own tongues until blood flowed, forcing themselves to remain conscious as they read through the documents line by line. The sight was nothing short of harrowing. Even the spirit main gods—who had dispelled the absurdly potent Rain of Pregnancy and pursued them with pure venom—and the Spirit God King, whose fury at losing the peak power he had only just regained after the sudden drop in magical potency, plummeting back to main god level, were both silenced by the wretched display.

Huuuuurgh!Fwoooooosh!

Even as their bodies blackened, crumbled into ash, and regenerated in unrelenting torment, blood dripping steadily from their mouths, they mechanically flipped page after page. The towering stack of their own spirit god contract documents compared against the beast main gods’ contracts—which were barely the thickness of a single booklet—overflowed with bitter, desperate resentment.

The sight was so pathetic that the surrounding forces did nothing but maintain their encirclement and guard the perimeter. Lokina, the Lord of the Flipside, had been livid enough to explode after nearly losing her head to Enlil when she approached the massive mobile fortress she herself had created—the giant monster-type ground warfare stronghold Fenrir intended for the Substitute Race. Yet even she fell silent. She turned to the Dimensional Creator Candidate, who had sealed the outer gates of the spirit realm so tightly that no one could pass.

“Who exactly are they? They don’t seem like ordinary main gods.”

“They’re just irredeemable scum,” the Dimensional Lord replied curtly. “They’re main gods from another world, so there’s no need to revise their records. Since they’ve contracted with me, it’s no different from complete subordination. Once our contract ends, they’ll return to the otherworld, rampage as they please, and eventually disappear. I only need their authorities and capabilities. They have nothing to do with the divine realm here. Keep that in mind.”

The Dimensional Creator Candidate cut the conversation short. Speaking any further would only raise their guard. Everyone already knows the truth, but discussing a problematic past only creates more problems.

The contractor knew the past of these otherworld spirit gods all too well. There are parts I can sympathize with. Parts that even make me angry on their behalf. But their path is one of revenge, while mine is the path of survival.

They had endured the same suffering, yet their roads diverged. In the end, they could not walk together to the finish. This was the correct answer.

If I hadn’t met him and received the eighth-circle magic and title, I would have lived exactly like them.

The image rose unbidden. Himself, having reached the pinnacle of the seventh circle within the darkness of the Great Cavity, contracting with a demon god to become a limited eighth-circle lesser demon god, then waging endless war against the High Elf ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Empire. And finally, after decades of battle, his lifespan exhausted, falling into despair and dying.

With only limited eighth-circle power, no amount of effort or magic could ever break through the High Elf Queens who had reached the extreme of the seventh circle, nor the High Elf Empire itself. I would have died trapped in the Great Cavity. That was my original future.

It had been a fixed destiny—one that would have come to pass had the Dimensional Lord not answered his despair and desperate craving for hope. It was also the natural price for choosing the path of the black magician for the sake of the strongest being on the battlefield and his only acquaintance, his master.

It is the image of a lonely beast driven mad with vengeance, raging to escape the darkness in which it was forcibly imprisoned.

The way that image overlapped with them was no coincidence. It was the pain bestowed by the misfortune of his past karma, back when he had been ‘evil.’ The more I look at them, the more it feels like staring at my own miserable fallen self.

A sense of relief washed over him, yet stray thoughts kept intruding. Lately I keep thinking that might actually be better, and it’s driving me insane. Even I have to ask—what kind of divine realm is this? Twelve main gods constantly plotting rebellion, ten defective main gods who ruined an otherwise decent realm, and ten more who can’t adapt to the system. Add five more scumbag main gods and what are we even running here? Only Gaiana is remotely respectable. And even she is barely holding everything together by scraping up every last resource. One slip and it’s over. Will I even manage to ascend safely to the Creator Candidate Realm? Or will I break first and run? If I flee to the otherworld, would the gods there treat me kindly? Still, my karma is already ‘beyond extreme good’ and my power exceeds that of a highest creator god. Maybe they’d at least prepare a comfortable seat for me? Sigh… No, it would probably be no different there. A god who began as a human—and a black magician at that—where could he possibly find comfort?

If the Demon King hadn’t obsessively tried to kill every absolute who held a title, the power-focused side might have been better. No, that won’t work. I must learn creation to complete the eleventh circle. In the end, there is no path but to take these creatures with me, whether we live or die. It’s checkmate no matter which way I look.

Even taking their individual pasts into account, the spirit gods were rebels and delinquents with no room for excuses—system malcontents and outright scum. Any divine realm would tremble with even one such main god among its ranks, yet here every single member was exactly that.

No wonder Lokina—who had once received a promise of generous treatment only to be given the cold shoulder, stripped of every resource, worked to the bone, and threatened with death, prompting her to revolt—had lost her composure and screamed at them to do their jobs properly. Seeing her now, nearly senseless and muttering to herself, she appeared to have reached the absolute limit of her patience.

Indeed, with those numbers they had still failed to contain five spirit gods and allowed them to escape. Even her sole source of confidence—her ability—seemed to be crumbling into doubt.

Hmm. Looking at Lokina now, she resembles what my own future might have been. No, as a human and former black magician, I would have been even more miserable. He clicked his tongue. If I had known this divine realm was such a complete mess, I would have contracted with a demon god long ago, swept everything clean, and simply reset the contract. Instead, believing it was a proper realm, I spent seventy years preparing only to end up like this. Becoming a direct mercenary main god taking commissions from the Main Divine Realm would have been far better. Managing problem children is exhausting.

The stream of negative thoughts finally grew too much. He stopped and shook his head. But then his gaze fell on the beast main gods standing demurely behind him, and his head ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠began to throb again.

If they had possessed even a little combat experience earlier, the otherworld spirit gods would never have been able to desert. These are beast gods of overwhelming power. At that level, they would rank among the top ten of their respective beast races. They have grown astonishingly strong.

It was the result of the Dimensional Lord’s infinite vitality, the addition of dimensional authority, and the support of karma, enabling transcendental growth. They have probably nearly reached the level of the yellow dragon that suddenly burst out during the beast contract inside the Survival Magic Tower.

In any case, the surplus vitality from Origin’s Sun and Moon was not a major issue. The real problem was the information-gathering authorities they carried—powers that could not be detected without senses above the creator god level. And they had come adorned with them again.

Oh, for the love of— They sent them with these attached again. At this rate I’ll be impeached for acting as an otherworld spy. I suspected something when that old man slyly handed them over while muttering about sons-in-law and primary wives, but they are the highest royalty among the beast gods. Is this really acceptable? Well, if it’s only one out of hundreds, perhaps. The gods of this main universe are so powerful and combative that they probably intend to assess the situation and harvest vitality while they’re at it. Fortunately I’ve already blocked all observation with dimensional authority, so they won’t learn anything precise. Still… it is a problem.

Crackle. Crackle.

With a casual gesture, he stripped the information-gathering authorities from the beast main gods without their knowledge. The beast main gods who politely called him “Husband” and attempted to act as his “primary wife” were, to put it nicely, exchange students here for cultural exchange. To put it bluntly, they were spies sent to gather intelligence.

Damn it. Why does it always have to be me? When we made the contract, my karma was at extreme good. What is this nonsense?

No matter how skilled a black magician might be at summoning beasts, the limit at seventh circle was still just seventh circle. Beyond that, one became a lesser demon god and could command demonic beasts for free, so there was no need to pay the price for contracting beasts. The beasts a seventh-circle black magician could handle were little more than mindless monsters, but a tenth-circle black magician could naturally contract high-ranking beast gods. They must have passed these along as a convenient bonus.

Of course, since I have become a god of light, I cannot use demonic beasts normally. They must have predicted I would summon beast gods to increase my combat strength.

No matter how exalted the position of a highest god, it could not compare to the royalty of the beast god realm. Even a powerful Dimensional Lord was roughly equivalent to a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠provincial noble’s knight standing before a princess.

I should have refused when they suddenly tried to hand over five. I accepted without knowing anything and now I’m paying the price. They were clearly targeting the rarity of a tenth-circle black magician who wields dimensional authority and has become a god of light. I was the fool who thought contracting five main god-level beast gods so easily was a windfall. The world truly is beautiful. As expected, nothing is ever free.

Each world was separated by dimensional ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠walls. Without the dimensional authority possessed by the highest rulers or a Dimensional Lord, freely gathering information and assessing situations was nearly impossible. Yet the rulers could not lower themselves to spy personally, so they resorted to this method.

If the highest rulers were caught peeking into another world and received a formal protest, the humiliation would be unbearable. The funniest part is that the contracted beast main gods themselves have no idea. They genuinely believe they have all married me at once through these contracts. They think their current time in the beast realm is bridal training to create bodies suitable for coming to our main universe.

On top of that, the contract contained an oath that they would stand entirely on his side unless the beast realm itself went to war with him. However, gathering information without their knowledge circumvented that clause. Thus they had been sent with extremely discreet search and information-gathering authorities embedded in their bodies.

Just like the decayed old rulers they are, they’re excellent at manipulating the young. But if I get caught, I might end up forced to act as a double agent.

He could not afford to let his guard down. Releasing the contract would mean losing the powerful elemental force essential for a creator god. Yet approving it felt like embracing a live bomb. If this continued, he would eventually march into the beast realm and beat some sense into those old fossils.

So my direct forces will gain five scumbags and five naïve spies? There is no minefield quite like this. The Main Divine Realm probably knows the general situation but is only observing since it is currently confined to my own divine realm. The moment it affects them or an incident occurs, they will swarm in all at once. They’ll come ready to tear into me with all their accumulated grievances. As expected, I need to prepare an emergency evacuation plan. Once I become a creator god I can learn how to create main god stars. At that point I can immediately abandon this dangerous position as a divine realm main god.

The otherworld spirit gods finished their analysis and signed with trembling hands. The Dimensional Lord nodded. No matter how thoroughly he examined them, there were no discrepancies or unfair terms compared to the contracts with the beast main gods. What the Dimensional Lord required was the development of his divine realm in order to raise his karma.

My personal karma value has already reached the absolute maximum. Only the collective evaluation remains. If I supplement my ranks with competent main gods capable of developing the divine realm and operate it normally, I will finally become ‘absolute good’ and challenge for the position of creator god. If I defeat the demon king candidate and triumph over the substitute race’s creator candidate, I will ascend.

Once he became a creator god and began producing main god stars, the stigma of being a middle world-born deity would mean nothing.

Main god stars are ten thousand times larger than ordinary planets and possess immense vitality. That is the fundamental reason the divine realm of the 499th Main Universe can fight the Substitute Race on equal footing. If anything goes wrong, I can simply return to the otherworld, mass-produce main god stars, and live comfortably.

Since his ultimate goal was ascension to creator god, he did not parcel out vitality to his subordinates bit by bit, nor did he demand various favors in exchange for loyalty. Although the contract contained many restrictions, providing this level of vitality and preferential treatment naturally earned not only absolute obedience but eternal loyalty. It was the same relationship that had once existed between the greatest main god in history and the primordial war gods.

Of course, that only works with normal main gods. For someone like me who originated from the middle world, I must give even more just to maintain their allegiance.

After all, these were higher gods who nevertheless had to bow their heads to a former human. No matter how desperate their situation, they would never have accepted such terms if the conditions had not been this generous.

“The past contract has been completed under mutual consent, and the establishment of the new contract is approved.”

A resonant hum filled the air. The old karma contract vanished, and a new one forged a fresh bond between them. In truth, not much had changed from before. The sole difference was the absolute requirement to obey the Dimensional Lord’s commands—but obedience to a divine realm main god was only natural.

Yet these beings continued to enjoy the full benefits of their previous forced contract even after receiving proper compensation. If other main gods learned of this, it would cause enormous problems.

In the end, my attempt to forcibly restore our contract to its original state was an effort to preserve fairness as the main god of the divine realm.

The otherworld spirit gods, now freed from negative karma through their contract with him and fully restored, radiated fighting spirit. They showed no sign of halting their complaints. But the position of a divine realm main god was utterly different from that of the black magician he had once been—the man who had used any means necessary to fight the High Elf Empire and the divine realm. He could not stop now. The moment a ruler granted special treatment to anyone, the organization began to rot from within.

In response to the otherworld spirit gods’ fighting spirit, the Spirit God Kings—who had accumulated endless grievances from their scumbag behavior—looked ready to charge at any moment.

Gogogogogogogogo—!

Fighting spirit and killing intent spread like wildfire, flooding every passage of the spirit realm.