The Price of Creation
The Spirit Realm war erupted in a deafening roar. The Magic God of Dimensions unfurled all twenty-six pairs of wings of light granted by his Dimensional Authority, blazing like a newborn sun across the cosmic void. The radiant wings carved out their own domain, asserting absolute sovereignty over the surrounding space.
Yet this was no ordinary ascension earned through rigorous training. Having clawed his way to the realm of a Creator God through every shortcut and dirty trick imaginable, he could barely muster a tenth of his true power. At best, he could only fend off the aftershocks. Without the support of Infinite Restoration, simply maintaining his current state demanded every ounce of his strength. Any thought of attack or defense was a pathetic fantasy.
All of this stemmed from the peculiar nature of Dimensional Authority.
They call it world creation, but compared to ordinary transcendent authorities, it’s insanely difficult and the pinnacle of inefficiency.
Only after temporarily reaching the level of a Creator God did he truly understand its overwhelming power and versatility—and why the authority had been abandoned by everyone else. It would be far more effective to develop several additional transcendent authorities instead. That was why they had all given up on it. He had learned this by thoroughly ransacking the memories, authorities, and knowledge of the Origins he had captured as divine spirits.
Why does this authority require ten times more computational power and divine energy than any other transcendent authority? And why does it insist on building its own world first before anything else? What kind of insane waste is this? Even after burning through that much power, the actual increase in strength is only two or three times at most. This is ridiculous—!
But this was the authority the Origin of the Mage God had personally selected as the most suitable for him as a prospective Creator of Dimensions. He could never abandon it. That determination had brought him this far. Squeezing out every last drop of divine power and computational capacity, he finally invoked the twelfth-circle Dimensional Authority.
“Dimensional Genesis—!”
A deep, resonant hum shook the cosmos. The defensive barrier of the Spirit Realm, which had been pierced like paper by the coordinated assaults of the Creator Gods and Divine Realm guardians, began to transform as Dimensional Authority was layered into it.
Crackle—!Groooaaan—!
A thunderous roar echoed through the Spirit Realm’s defensive divine system as the spatial barrier underwent a fundamental change. The provocations of the Creator Gods and the counterattacks of the Divine Realm guardians were gradually nullified.
Shock rippled across the faces of the Creator Gods, and the Divine Realm guardians’ expressions twisted with utter disbelief. Even though the exchange had been little more than playful sparring, blocking and disrupting the attacks of thousands upon thousands of higher beings was nothing short of miraculous.
The Magic God of Dimensions could barely contain the surge of ecstasy rising in his chest. He wanted to scream in triumph.
Dimensional Genesis works even against those monstrously powerful bastards. There are almost no other authorities that can match its range of application and raw power. Or rather, considering how much divine energy it consumes, that’s only natural, isn’t it?
The ninth-circle Dimensional Net could rewrite one law of reality, while Dimensional Genesis could rewrite two. Even if the opponent tried to defend with a similar authority, the effects would cancel each other out and neutralize the defense.
That’s why I can stand toe-to-toe against the Substitute Gods’ Divine Annihilation, which forcibly drops two circles across a wide area.
But with a complete twelfth-circle Dimensional Genesis, he could instead force a one-circle drop on his enemies.
Even a Creator God from the Substitute Gods faction could be reduced to a mere Main God. If he could fully commit his forces, victory would be all but guaranteed. At long last, the title of strongest could be added to the worst and most vicious Magic God of Dimensions.
Now I’ve finally become someone worthy of paying him back. That’s how it should be, right? …Wait, what the hell is this? Hrrk—!
Crack. Creak—!
The prospective Creator of Dimensions had never been this shocked in his entire life. His mind went blank with terror.
My feet won’t move. No—movement itself has been completely sealed.
He had charged straight into the enemy headquarters, where tens of thousands of beings above the Creator God level were gathered, yet he could not move an inch.
I can still shift in place, but any attempt to actually travel is like being chained down. It’s not an enemy attack or suppression. The moment I activated Dimensional Genesis, I became the nucleus of this world—like the core of a cell—and was fixed to this spot as the price.
Creeeeak!Hummmmm—!
When he tried to force movement, cracks began to form across his body, and the activated Dimensional Genesis grew dangerously unstable, as if it might self-destruct at any moment.
The only thing I can still do is transmit my will and fuse divine power. Everything else has been reduced to mere magic power. At this rate, I’m no better than a ninth-circle dark mage at the Main God level. If I try to fight them like this, I won’t last ten seconds. No—I’ll be dead in three.
Because he had no way to dodge, he was forced to cast spells while standing completely still. Of course, he already understood the reason. The knowledge, experience, and computational power he had stolen from the Origins provided the answer. No matter how crude they had been, their accumulated wisdom could not be ignored.
Have I become the nucleus of creation itself? Since I’m rewriting reality completely around myself as the center, it makes sense that I, the core, can’t move at all. To maintain it, I have to pour in every ounce of my divine power and authority? And no matter how strong I become, there’s no escaping this? What the hell is this nonsense?
He genuinely felt like coughing up blood and ending his own life.
I was so happy for a moment thinking Dimensional Genesis could reduce even a Substitute God above the Creator level to a mere Main God. But the price for activating it was that I myself have been reduced to a ninth-circle dark mage at the Main God level. And to make matters worse, I’ve become a completely immobile stake in the middle of the battlefield.
On top of that, as the Magic God of Dimensions who could adjust the circles of every being across the entire battlefield, he was now the highest-priority target for elimination. Since he couldn’t move, it was as if he were screaming, “Please kill me!”
Damn it all! What kind of transcendent authority for a Creator God and God of War is this?!
What was he supposed to do with this? He had become a fixed target in the middle of the battlefield. Beings of that caliber could invade even the domain of Dimensional Genesis and resist its effects. Even if they defended with authorities above the Creator God level, they would still suffer at least a one-circle drop. But that alone wouldn’t be enough to defeat them.
They were beings above the Creator God level. Even after being reduced, they would still be Main Gods. Moreover, judging by their level of training, a drop in divinity probably wouldn’t affect their combat power much. So was he just supposed to die?
Is this the inevitable restriction that comes with such power? Something about world balance? I’m on the verge of death here, and you’re slapping me with these ridiculous constraints? What kind of absurd divine authority is this—!
He desperately drew up his magic power, barely managing to maintain ten layers of magic circles.
Divine power is already hanging by a thread, so that’s out of the question. Only magic—! I have to do something with magic—!
Even this would have been impossible without the fragment of vitality he had received from the Eternal Sovereign Demon God—the candidate for Demon God King—as compensation for the Substitute Gods’ participation in the war. The title of Origin had squeezed out this magic with everything it had.
But he doubted how long he could hold out like this. He racked his brain for solutions while relentlessly questioning the Cyber God.
He had already reached his limit alone.
Did you know Dimensional Genesis was like this? That if I just stand here and get killed over and over, I’ll eventually surpass them? How the hell am I supposed to win like this? Give me a solution! I’ll do whatever it takes—just let me move—!
In response to the Magic God of Dimensions’ desperate, near-screaming protest, the only reply was a stunned mutter from the Special-grade Cyber God, Le Salvia.
What kind of bullshit is that?
How is this powerful? I’m a sitting duck here, and you call it dangerous?
……
Click—!Bzzzzzzzzzt—!
The connection to the Cyber Realm was unilaterally severed. The typical administrator’s evasion of responsibility left his mind momentarily blank. The absurdity of it all nearly made him laugh.
Haha… so this is where you cut your losses?
To think he had trusted these beings and thrown himself into a battlefield like this. He was on the verge of despair at his own foolishness. The enemy consisted of tens of thousands of Divine Realm guardians who had attained power above the Creator General through pure training alone. And the Dimensional Genesis he had trusted turned out to be this crippled authority. There was no countermeasure.
For a brief moment, he sank into an inescapable swamp of emotion. Then, from the depths of his chest, a flame fiercer than any inferno blazed up as he glared at the enemy.
The die has already been cast. No matter how bad the situation gets, there’s nowhere to retreat—and I have no intention of doing so.
After all, he had never been confident he could manage the Divine Realm’s operations for eight hundred million years. That was why he had jumped into this battlefield with the intention of ending everything in one decisive stroke. His resentment lasted only a moment. In the end, this was his own choice.
Even if movement is impossible, if I mobilize every spell at my disposal, something should happen.
Within the domain of Dimensional Genesis, their reduced divinity and his own were now equal. With that realization, he spread both hands with genuine resolve and beckoned.
Even though he had become an isolated, immobile target deep within enemy lines, the Magic God of Dimensions had not lost his fighting spirit.
Yet the faces of the watching Creator Gods had turned completely rigid.
An unimaginable situation has occurred.
At someone’s sigh-like remark, the Creator God of Light wanted to deny reality itself.
They tried desperately to downplay the truth, but the situation remained unchanged. The fact that the prospective Creator of Dimensions’ authority had momentarily overwhelmed them was undeniable. It wasn’t a matter of divine power difference, but purely one of authority level.
Thus, questions and problems continued to pour in without end.
With every answer came another sigh-like conclusion.
There’s a limit to wordplay.
The result is simple.
The straightforward conclusion was that Dimensional Authority was stronger than any authority they possessed.
……
A certain thought flashed through the Creator Gods’ minds, sending chills down their spines. It seemed he himself still didn’t fully realize it, but an authority this dangerous was something they had never encountered before. Moreover, it was being activated in conjunction with the fully released title of Origin. There was a chance even the Creator Gods might find themselves unable to handle the situation.
Suddenly, they recalled how the Main Divine Realm’s automatic processing had reclaimed all that vast vitality and granted them a divine realm and planets above the Highest Creator level.
We thought the treatment was so absurd it must have been a system error, but seeing Dimensional Genesis, it actually feels insufficient.
Yet when we investigated his past, it’s clear he has no reason to feel any goodwill toward the Divine Realm.
His karma is the worst. He was forced into truly cruel and unfair contracts, exploited mercilessly, and even the Main God of the Divine Realm dumped a complete mess of a divine realm—on the verge of rebellion from gathering only the Spirit Realm’s troublemakers—onto him.
No matter how they thought about it, forming a good relationship seemed impossible, so they had considered disposing of him. But now it looked like that wouldn’t be possible.
After roughly coordinating their opinions, they finally had some breathing room to observe the battlefield. One of the Divine Realm guardians, enraged at the mere prospective Creator God’s light provocation, was charging forward in a fiery rage, calling it insolent for a weakling to act so boldly. His armor, which only covered a few vital points and wasn’t a complete set, resembled that of the Demon God race. He was likely not an official guardian but a candidate. That was why they had permitted the release of a Divine Realm guardian’s authority while being extremely reluctant to do so.
As expected, the Divine Realm guardians have spent all their time training alone in the training rooms. Their discernment is lacking.
To think they couldn’t sense the danger of that authority and responded so carelessly.
To properly deal with him, at least four of the highest-level Divine Realm guardians would need to surround and attack together. And that was only if the Magic God of Dimensions agreed to a frontal confrontation. If he used his specialty of hit-and-run guerrilla warfare while fleeing, even mobilizing everyone would be difficult.
He had no choice but to activate it because he couldn’t even handle the aftershocks of canceling Dimensional Genesis. But if the prospective Creator of Dimensions—who had become a fixed target because of it and was desperately trying to come up with countermeasures—heard this conversation, he would probably scream that it was incomprehensible nonsense.