The Fury of Ego Ayuta
Separate from the war in the Spirit Realm, high above Wind Star a battle was about to erupt between the Creator Great God of the Substitute Gods and the highest-ranking warrior of the Black Flame Race. Yet the atmosphere was anything but even. It was completely one-sided.
Puhahahahaha—!Hwarurururu—!
The Black Flame Race was the one doing all the pushing. No matter how strong the Creator Great God of the Substitute Gods might be, he is still just a god. His combat ability is nowhere near that of the Black Flame Race, which exists solely for battle.There is even a fivefold gap in their divine power.
Still, the fact that a being with only a single trillion in innate divine power held the number one rank among the Substitute Gods—where high-ranking Creator Great Gods with far greater power overflowed—nagged at the mind. But the outcome would not change. The colossal axe-shaped Pahoton, which sliced through and destroyed everything regardless of whether it was material or spiritual, left him utterly helpless.
On top of that, the brute strength behind each swing came from Exploding Blood, an amplification of physical ability that pushed the body to the highest level found in the Absolute Realm. Its power was enough to settle a match against an equal existence in a single strike.
As expected, the roar that erupted when Pahoton struck the planet-sized giant body of the Substitute God shook heaven and earth. The colossal form was flung backward like a dry leaf before a storm, unable to offer the slightest resistance.
Kwadudududuk—!Puhwaaaaaak—!
Watching the Creator Great God collapse miserably while vomiting blood, the Black Flame Absolute’s face twisted into a hideous scowl.
By every law of common sense I know, this is impossible. That Creator Great God took a direct hit from Pahoton and still isn’t split in half.
Worse, he had sensed the Magic God of Dimensions slipping behind the highest-ranking clan member using Absolute Dimensional Maneuver.
Even I can barely track the Magic God of Dimensions, so there’s no way they noticed.
When it came to raw destructive power, the combination of Exploding Blood and Pahoton stood at the pinnacle of the Absolute Realm. The price, however, was unavoidable: immediate stiffness and a drastic drop in divine power. An unexpected attack in that state would inflict catastrophic damage.
Even I, the Black Flame Absolute, could only manage five consecutive uses. That was enough to drive the other eight Absolutes to the brink of death. But afterward my body was in no condition to continue, so I had no choice but to end the ranking match. That is why I stand at fourth.
Yet the highest-ranking clan member could only handle two uses.
If used as a finishing blow, a period of extreme exhaustion cannot be avoided.
Puhwaaak!Gugugugugugung!
The Creator Great God was sent flying in a spray of blood. The sight of him gasping roughly, a victorious smile on his face, told the Black Flame Absolute the situation had reached its worst possible state.
They’ve completely forgotten about the Magic God of Dimensions. Well, even I wouldn’t spare a glance at a mere Creator Candidate from the Main Universe with only ten billion innate divine power.
But that Magic God of Dimensions possessed the body of the Black Flame Race. Whatever magical method he had used, he was producing more than a hundred times the expected output. In other words, his maximum output had reached one trillion.
If he took the next strike undefended, he would be in the same danger the Black Flame Absolute had faced moments ago.
“No—! Behind you! Behind—! Look behind you, damn it!”
“……”
There was no way the brutish Black Flame Race could pierce the complex dimensional stealth. No matter how many times he warned them, it only came across as the pathetic act of a third party butting into someone else’s duel. As the Black Flame Absolute rampaged, killing intent slowly rose from Jinri’s entire being.
No matter how urgent the situation or how high their status among the 10 Centers, interference with the Eternal Judgment under my direct supervision cannot be forgiven. It may be wiser to dispose of this fool now and save both time and vitality.
Tuuuuk—!
The right hand gripping the Sword of Ruin and Soul drifted toward the Taegeuk Heavenly Sword strapped across his back. At the same moment, killing intent powerful enough to choke even the 10 Centers began to surge outward.
Sasasasasasasa—!
The Sword of Ruin and Soul could never kill, but an attack delivered by this blade was different. Whether it killed or spared life rested entirely in the owner’s heart.
One strike and even the current 10 Centers would be erased.
Just as Jinri moved to kill the Black Flame, someone spoke before the Golden Absolute could rush forward to stop him.
“Father. This violates the law of Non-Killing. As the head of the Wind Family, you must set the example.”
He paused. Behind him he saw their blood relatives bowing their heads in perfect deference.
His own son, grandson, and great-grandson. True Origins born after pouring in every possible effort.
Their abilities and contributions could not be ignored. He stayed his hand, yet the fingers wrapped around the Taegeuk Heavenly Sword did not loosen.
“Do you know how many lives I have killed and destroyed across more than five hundred billion years? What meaning does the Wind Family’s Three Non-Counts still hold? According to family law, the current head would be justified in executing me.”
In answer, the Origin of the god race on the right bowed even deeper.
“You yourself taught us that war and personal struggle are different. Large-scale killing that occurs during the process of rule is a necessary evil and therefore permitted, but killing through personal duels is forbidden. This is both the shackle and the honor of the Wind Family.”
The Origin of the demon god race added a further supplement.
“Killing between individuals is prohibited as murder, yet killing on behalf of the organization one leads is encouraged as war. Therefore, we ask that you render a correct judgment regarding the Black Flame. Re-creating him would place an enormous burden upon you. However, we wholeheartedly support the elimination of all eight Absolutes. We will replace them at once.”
The tone was impeccably polite, yet the conclusion was singular.
If he is to be disposed of, then all eight Absolutes must be disposed of as well.
The Absolute Realm led by those eight Absolutes was an eyesore and an obstacle even to the Wind Family, a gathering of true Transcendents and Origins. Yet at the open declaration that every one of them should be eliminated, killing intent slowly surfaced in the eyes of the eight Absolutes. Seeing his own grandsons answer that intent with fighting spirit, a faint smile rose to Jinri’s lips.
They glared as though they would kill one another, yet none stepped forward first.
They know that if they clashed, neither side would emerge unscathed. Or rather, they had already learned that truth through countless collisions while exercising their veto and rendering each other’s actions void. That is why these beings are never lonely. They have opponents worthy of competing against for all eternity. Only far in the future would they fall into the same foolishness that claimed the first-generation 10 Centers—boredom and twisted ideals leading to self-destruction.
This was precisely why Jinri had created the 10 Centers, investing vast amounts of vitality and effort despite opposition. He had needed an Absolute Realm capable of checking and opposing the Wind Family that had expanded and strengthened to its limit. They had finally reached a point of true parity.
The sole remaining concern was the absence of Grey, the strongest among the sage-type 10 Centers. Without him the group caused problems in every direction and progress stagnated. Still, the experiment had been remarkably successful so far.
Therefore, disposing of the Black Flame Absolute now would be far too hasty. It was more urgent to discipline the young ones who dared to radiate killing intent right in front of him and stir up trouble.
Thud—!
He released the Taegeuk Heavenly Sword and once again took up the Sword of Ruin and Soul, the very proof of the non-killing law.
The moment he set the blade down according to their wishes, both his blood relatives and the eight Absolutes brightened. Yet among them, two slowly began to show fear.
The Golden Absolute, representative of the eight Absolutes, and Yuil Yongsinje, current head of the Wind Family. Having spent so long at his side, they seemed to have guessed what was coming.
“We eight Absolutes will take full responsibility for disciplining the Black Flame. Urk—!”
“We will re-educate the children’s manners, so please quell your anger. Kwaek—!”
Both men had already been struck by the Sword of Ruin and Soul Jinri swung and were slammed into the ground.
“I have no need to endure. Nor do I need to involve myself in the education of children. After all, you are the leaders of both the Absolute Realm and the Wind Family, so handle your own affairs. The young ones have grown bold enough to talk back, which is both unpleasant and absurd. Therefore, a beating is in order. Exactly how do you conduct etiquette education?”
Seeing Jinri raise the Sword of Ruin and Soul into the air while radiating killing intent, the Golden Absolute and the Wind head wore expressions of pure despair and screamed desperately.
“Truth—! They have all grown up! Now that they’ve grown strong, they hardly listen to me anymore! So why are you only doing this to me? You can handle it yourself! Huuuuurk—!”
“Father—! Calling already independent children ‘kids’? They are mature adults! They can endure your direct instruction! Wak—!”
Puhwaaaaaak—!Puhwaaaaaak—!
“Shut up! Then should I personally beat the weak ones? You who have already grown up, deal with it yourselves—!”
The sight of the Golden Absolute and Yuil Yongsinje frantically leaping left and right to avoid the indiscriminate barrage while making every excuse under the sun unfolded like a comedy. The attacks were on an entirely different level from the earlier “education” given to the Black Flame Absolute. The two could not even scream; they simply defended with everything they had. It was a pitiful spectacle.
At that sight the other eight Absolutes and the Origins of the Wind Family took one step back, then another. In particular, the Origins of the Wind Family had forgotten the terror because Jinri had spent most of his time quietly in the Main Universe and the Black Flame’s Wind Star. Now that old fear came roaring back.
In their younger days, when they still possessed youthful recklessness and stubbornness, whenever they caused trouble and offered excuses, Jinri would always say the same thing:
“The Wind Family is a martial house. Therefore, prove yourselves with strength. Running your mouth when you have no power simply means you get beaten. My little ones. But you who are still uneducated and weak bear no fault. It is the parents who left you unsupervised who are to blame. So come along. It has been a while—let us spar.”
The father, face the color of dirt, would be dragged to the backyard, and the sound of merciless beating would echo without end. After that, training and education were reinforced to a truly miserable degree. Since the entire Wind Family consisted of blood descendants, every parent had experienced it firsthand. Fortunately, once the children married and grew up, he no longer intervened directly, but the memory remained utterly terrifying.
A single sincere blow was enough to make anyone understand why Jinri was the absolute strongest of both the Absolute Realm and the Main Universe.
Watching the Golden Absolute and Yuil Yongsinje—who could no longer even think of dodging and could only curl up and endure the merciless beating—the 10 Centers and the Origins of the Wind Family shared one common thought.
Being the one in overall charge under Truth is truly not a position worth having. The representative gets blamed for everything. Let’s just stay comfortably in second or third place.
In the long history of the Absolute Realm and the Wind Family there had never been a rebellion against the current head, Yuil Yongsinje, or the representative, the Golden Absolute. On the contrary, there had been countless attempts to pass those positions on to others in order to escape the burden of responsibility—only to be rejected by Jinri and the rest.
The fact that the Black Flame Absolute, having regained his composure thanks to the Golden Absolute suddenly receiving the beating in his stead, subtly slipped between the eight Absolutes proved the point.
While Jinri and the 10 Centers carried out their usual routine, the Eternal Judgment continued.
“Huuuuurk—! This—! I’m losing? To a mere Creator Candidate from the Main Universe?”
The highest-ranking member of the Black Flame Race swung Pahoton in panic, forcing his exhausted body into action. Always Coin Heads warned him that the crisis had returned due to critically depleted stamina and divine power. The future it showed was his heart being ripped out by a strike from the Magic God of Dimensions approaching from behind.
He must not allow close range. It made no sense that the highest-ranking member of the Black Flame Race—the strongest in close combat—would lose if he failed to maintain distance. Yet in a state where he could not even see the enemy, the only thing he could trust was Always Coin Heads.
To prevent that future he mobilized every authority he possessed, pouring everything into full-power attacks while enduring the internal damage that made him vomit blood from his rigid body.
Pajijijijik—!
But the confirmed target Always Coin Heads had provided blurred and scattered. Pahoton missed the hazy objective and vanished. An impossible event had occurred.
The reason became clear at once. With full support from the Cyber Realm, the analysis result arrived instantly. It was one of the three reality negations possessed by the Dimensional 12th Circle authority combined with Absolute Dimensional Maneuver.
“What? You turned a one-in-ten-thousand chance of missing into perfect evasion and maintain it constantly? And it’s area-wide? What kind of authority and computational power does it take to make that possible? And you’re telling me that’s only a 12th Circle authority of dimensions? A mere 12th Circle authority works against me—a 13th Circle with five trillion divine power? No, that’s not all. This bastard feels far too familiar. It’s as if I’ve fought him dozens of times.”
There was no existence that could surpass the Black Flame Race in consecutive close-range attacks. The instant the full-power Pahoton missed, he had already shredded every inch of surrounding space as though weaving a net. Yet the opponent slipped through every strike like flowing water and closed the distance. He read the gaps and intervals of every attack, evaded them, and approached like water soaking into sand.
This was impossible without having fought him an enormous number of times. Even the Cyber Realm struggled to analyze it. They only possessed past and present data—what had been shown openly. They knew little of authorities that had never been revealed.
The enemy had already drawn adjacent. The vision of his heart being torn from his chest was becoming reality.
“Fine—! Come at me, you bastard. If the Main Universe has any attack capable of piercing the strongest body in the Absolute Realm, then try it!”
He concentrated every last scrap of remaining divine power into physical reinforcement through Exploding Blood. The creaking body was pushed to its absolute limit. In this state, nothing short of a direct hit from Pahoton could cause a penetrating wound.
But a voice that sounded like it was smirking rang out directly in front of his chest.
“Individually, there definitely isn’t one. But as a cooperative technique, there is one—though it’s a bit lacking.”
The moment he looked down in alarm, he saw the Magic God of Dimensions holding both hands forward, shimmering with gold and black, smiling as he spoke.
“Heh heh—! Why do you always react in exactly the same way every single time? As expected, the highest-ranking clan member with a stiff head is far easier to handle than babies who keep throwing unexpected situations at you. If the opponent is weaker, you simply push with raw power.”
“What—! Have you fought the highest-ranking members of the Black Flame Race before? No, this isn’t the time! Die—!”
“Even the final line and reaction are identical. You die.”
Pajijijijijijijik—!Uuuuuuuuung—!
The reflexive counterattack caused a momentary crack in his defensive posture. Something penetrated the gap. As if he had been waiting for exactly that moment, the Magic God of Dimensions drove both hands into the now-defenseless chest with full power.
Naturally the difference in body strength was too vast; instead the Magic God of Dimensions’ hands were crushed, spraying blood across both bodies. The impact itself achieved nothing. But the extremely refined divine power and magic power that had been projected pierced inside and fused together.
The target was his heart.
“Ego Ayuta—! Target confirmed at last!”
The aggregates of magic power and divine power fused at the heart went berserk, attempting to explode. Suppressing the detonation, the highest-ranking clan member seized the Magic God of Dimensions. The fusion of divine and magic power inside his body was no ordinary thing. If it detonated in his heart, even he would suffer a fatal wound.
All authorities would cease the moment their manifester died. So every desperate attack he launched began missing again. Even though the enemy stood right in front of him, slight evasive movements and dimensional authorities allowed every strike to be avoided. A continuous stream of incomprehensible events.
“Approaching the enemy with Absolute Dimensional Maneuver and activating the divine-demonic cooperative suicide technique alone! No—its true name is the deadly technique Ayuta. This is the greatest power the Main Universe’s Magic God can wield at present. It is the foundation for his claim that, in the distant future when he can freely release his title and no longer needs the vitality of Wind Star, he will become Grey, one of the 10 Centers. So endure it if you can.”
“You madman—! Stop! Something like this cannot kill me, the highest-ranking member of the Black Flame Race! Above all, you are already finished! Have you forgotten you are in the middle of the Eternal Judgment? You have taken damage. You failed to fulfill the conditions of complete victory and one-hit kill. You are done! Kuuuurk—!”
Puhwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak—!
The Ego Ayuta detonating inside his body surpassed even the durability of the Black Flame Race. With destructive force that crushed his internals, the highest-ranking clan member vomited a fountain of blood and was blasted backward. Yet the heart at the center of his authority remained safe, protected to the very last instant by the Black Flame authority. He could not, however, prevent his chest muscles and ribs from being utterly shattered, exposing the heart.
And it was the Magic God of Dimensions—both hands already perfectly restored—who now gripped that exposed heart tightly.
“Injury? Where? Have you forgotten that before I am of dimensions, I am the Origin? As long as fighting spirit and the will to live remain, my vitality is infinite. Moreover, even the modest regenerative power and physical toughness of the Black Flame body make full recovery from this level of damage trivial. No injury holds any meaning for the current me who has completely opened the title of Origin. And do you think I, who volunteered to face the Eternal Judgment presided over by Jinri, would forget the passing conditions? One-hit kill is already on the verge of completion. This is merely the process. Kk kk kk kk hahahahahahat—! There is no longer any path for you to escape.”
Kukukukukukukung—!
A colossal shadow roared as it tore through space, charging forward. It was the Creator Great God of the Substitute Gods who had been reduced to a wreck by the full-power combination of Exploding Blood and Pahoton earlier. He had already completely recovered from wounds that would have been fatal even to a god race and was returning to the battlefield.
“Allow me to introduce him properly. His name is Seongmyeol. He is the existence that extinguishes stars, the root of life. He is my body—the Substitute God I desperately reconstructed over twenty thousand years inside accelerated time. Through my magic of False Authentication he has become the Creator Great God of the Substitute Gods and receives their full racial authority support. That is why they swarmed to punish me. It was unexpected that he would seize the number one rank and rampage like this, but since he can receive the highest level of racial authority support, it doesn’t matter. Khuhuhuhuhuhut—! The Substitute Gods who receive the same racial authority support can no longer kill or stop me. I poured everything I had not yet absorbed from the Black Flame’s Wind Star into him. Excluding what I absorbed directly, I invested more than one trillion in Black Flame vitality obtained by defeating every other Black Flame life form, along with every last ounce of power I possess.”
Hwarurururururuk—!
Black flames, the very embodiment of fighting spirit and killing intent, erupted from the Creator Great God’s hair and wrapped around every wing of light. In an instant the giant god clad in black flames caused even beings with other titles to hurriedly vacate the area. Simply by releasing his divine power he began to purify and annihilate everything around him like a sun god.
What faintly glowed upon those wings was unmistakably magic power. It was clearly a Magic God identical to the Magic God of Dimensions. A Magic God possessing magic power that should not exist within the Substitute Gods had appeared.
The voice of the Magic God of Dimensions—bone-tired yet overflowing with pride—echoed across the universe.
“Even using the vitality of the Black Flame’s Wind Star, what I barely managed to complete is a Black Flame Creator God possessing more than one trillion in divine power and a Magic God at the same time. It is the ultimate fusion of the Black Flame Race, which possesses the finest body, and the Substitute Gods, which possess the finest spiritual body. A mere tenfold difference in divine power is laughable. Whether it is the Substitute Gods, the Absolute Realm, or anything else—come at me with as many as you wish. I am confident of victory even against a hundredfold difference. Now experience for yourselves exactly how great that power is.”