Finally, Normal Ones!
The eyes of the primordial war gods from the Otherworld War converged on the Beast God. Every deity in the realm knew that he was teaching the Hero God something deep within the forest of the Main God Temple. They had been curious enough to want to see for themselves, but their wives had insisted they first repair the temples where their families lived. With no room to argue, they had spent a frantic week building those temples only for the latest incident to reduce them all to rubble. Fuming, they had stormed toward the Main God Temple, only to witness a mere lower war god ascend to intermediate rank in the span of a single week.
For an ordinary god, such progress would have required at least three thousand years of proper training. The answer was simple.
“The Main God of the Divine Realm expanded the training time using the Dimensional Lord’s authority.”
“Huh? Is that even possible? Even if you stretch time, the intake of vitality shouldn’t change, right?”
Gods who possessed authority over time were rare, yet many had seen its effects. In theory, anyone with enough divine power to maintain the ability should enjoy near-infinite training time and lifespan compared to others, producing countless powerhouses. In practice, such beings were almost nonexistent. No matter how much time was extended, the amount of vitality flowing in from reality remained fixed. Only experience accumulated; the body and authorities themselves did not grow stronger. Moreover, the vitality consumed simply to sustain the time expansion made normal training in real time far more efficient. Of course, if a higher being provided wholehearted support, those limitations could be partially overcome, but no superior existence would waste effort on something so inefficient.
“It worked surprisingly easily. The Main God of the Divine Realm created the space himself after saying he needed to assign the Main God Selection Tournament. The Hero God’s talent was decent too, so he caught up quickly. Tsk—! That guy sure has it good. Becoming an intermediate god looks so easy. But why is there no reward for me, the one who actually did the hard work of teaching him? Even if it was just training a lower god, this feels too unfair.”
The Beast God’s casual tone—treating the feat as obvious while complaining that he himself had received no compensation—left the others drained. Still, if this was the power of the Magic God of Dimensions, a being who already eyed the Creator rank, creating a special space capable of raising a lower god to intermediate rank in a week would indeed be simple. The lack of visible side effects suggested the Beast God had installed some device that excluded only the Main God. Yet for those who had spent thousands of years painstakingly training their direct disciples, the sight was utterly absurd. To achieve in one week what should have taken millennia left them speechless.
Before long the Hero God reached the foot of the glorious throne. He dropped to his right knee. Immediately afterward, the Magic God of Dimensions drew a glowing cup filled with luminous liquid from thin air and offered it to him.
“I hereby officially appoint you as the person in charge of this Selection and the Main God Tournament. Your divinity is now that of an intermediate god. As preparation, I bestow upon you the sap of the Cosmic Tree. Fill yourself with divine power befitting your new station and ensure your success.”
“Thank you. I will certainly live up to your expectations.”
The Hero God drained the cup in one gulp. From his back sprouted three pairs of wings of light—the mark of an intermediate god. The Magic God of Dimensions, as if to perfectly stabilize the amplified divine power surging through him after drinking the Cosmic Tree sap, manifested thirteen pairs of radiant wings behind himself. The breathtaking surge of divine power was immediately followed by further action.
“I declare to the entire Divine Realm and Middle World: At the responsible party’s suggestion, the Selection shall no longer be decided through war between races. Instead, it will be determined by superior achievement. The clan that produces the greatest number of Transcendents capable of defeating higher beings shall obtain residential rights within the Dimensional Creation Divinity.”
“As the Main God of the Divine Realm desires, I shall produce even more Transcendents to serve as lower gods for the Divine Realm. Furthermore, I swear upon my own authority that the strongest clan shall without fail claim the Dimensional Creation Divinity. All of this shall be the fairest and highest achievement. This I pledge to the Main God of the Divine Realm.”
Before the bewildered gods could utter a word, the declaration had already spread throughout the Divine Realm and Middle World and taken effect. The necessary measures were already complete.
“Begin the preliminaries on the moon at once. Your opponents are already prepared and waiting. I will now summon every Transcendent of 7-Circle or higher across the Middle World.”
“By your command.”
Watching the Hero God vanish toward the moon, the gods stood in stunned silence. In the blink of an eye, additional proclamations and measures concerning the very core of Divine Realm administration—the Selection and the Main God Tournament—had been completed simultaneously. The Main God Temple fell into a brief, heavy quiet. Even the measures regarding the Divine Realm’s destruction had been handled with a few storm-like words. In any other divine realm, even one of those tasks would have required centuries of preparation. Here, none had taken more than a few minutes.
The speed was so dizzying that the gods struggled to understand what had just happened or why they had even come. The destroyed temples were to be rebuilt to the highest standard, and the Main God of the Divine Realm had personally appointed a director for the Selection. There was no reason to interfere. Yet something felt profoundly off. It was as if the Main God of the Divine Realm was deliberately bypassing every other god in the realm. No—that was exactly what he was doing. No matter how loudly he declared he would handle everything alone, such matters had originally required the entire Divine Realm to act together. The Goddesses and Spirit Main Gods were about to protest this arbitrary decision when the Magic God of Dimensions spoke first.
“These are the new Main Gods. Their individual combat ranking is the lowest, but the utility of their authorities is of the highest grade. They are designated as special entities. Should anyone provoke them without cause, I will personally administer punishment.”
The gods’ expressions shifted back to utter bewilderment. It seemed he had recruited yet more Main Gods, and the ease with which it was done defied comprehension. The Spirit Main Gods were one thing, but the mention of “protection” suggested an entirely different category this time.
‘More Main Gods—! Where are these ones from? We already brought every Main God from the Spirit Realm.’
Unlike the Spirit Main Gods and Goddesses who knew the full story of what had occurred in the Spirit Realm, the ordinary gods and primordial war gods had slightly different thoughts. Anyone was fine. As long as they weren’t combat-type war gods who threw hysterical fits at the slightest provocation. After the Main Gods’ rampages had shattered the Divine Realm twice, expectations had plummeted to rock bottom.
‘Please, just let them be Main Gods who don’t cause massive accidents…’
‘This time, please let them be normal…’
The arrival of new Main Gods in the Divine Realm was a major event that shook the entire power structure. Yet even the primordial war gods had moved beyond tension; they no longer had the energy to be surprised. They simply hoped nothing would happen. The lower gods around them wore identical expressions of exhausted dread. The phenomenon was the result of having far too many lofty, exalted beings. In other divine realms, one Main God was standard and two was considered exceptional. Here, one could spot them simply by walking down the street. Even the highest-ranking war gods, who once could not dream of becoming Main Gods, now stood among their number. Of course, this was only possible because of the enormous vitality, authority, and support the Magic God of Dimensions had poured into the Divine Realm.
However, both the existing Goddesses and the newly incorporated Spirit Main Gods were battle-crazed war gods who had caused catastrophic incidents in the past. Even the highest gods who served as the main force and ruling class of other divine realms could only bow their heads meekly in their presence. And now the Main God of the Divine Realm was picking up even more of these problematic Main Gods like stray dogs and cats along the road, constantly increasing their numbers. The rest of the gods were at a loss for how to behave.
‘Please, let them have gentle personalities…’
Whenever these violent Main Gods ran amok, the Divine Realm was half-destroyed. Longing for a gentle light-type Main God like Gaiana grew stronger than ever. Therefore, the eyes of the gods watching the spatial gate open behind the Main God of the Divine Realm could not help but be filled with tension. Even the Goddesses and Spirit Goddesses who had been about to raise their voices in anger were watching closely. They wanted no more rivals. The number of Main Gods had already reached a state of oversupply; no one could even tell who was supposed to keep whom in check anymore. Power struggles, old grudges—none of it could be resolved when there were simply too many. The primordial war gods, having fought them personally, knew better than anyone that while there was a hierarchy, it was not absolute and could shift at any moment.
Thus, the instant the newly arrived Main Gods fully materialized through the spatial movement, cheers erupted from the primordial war gods.
Along with the primordial war gods’ cheers, the new Main Gods revealed themselves to be goddesses. They wore elegant dresses that shimmered with a unique silver-metallic luster, clearly not combat armor. Nowhere could one sense fighting spirit or killing intent—only the pure divine power of the creation lineage. They were the non-combat female Main Gods that the exhausted deities, weary from the destruction of the Divine Realm and the constant clashes between war gods, had longed for. There was even one who appeared to be a young girl. The new goddesses radiated a gentle, warm aura that moved the cheering gods to tears. Their flustered reactions to the sudden applause were so adorable that even the Goddesses and Spirit Goddesses—who had initially looked slightly offended—softened and began to smile.
Watching the joyous gods, the Magic God of Dimensions hid a satisfied smirk beneath his robe. No one noticed.
Sheesh. I have no idea why I have to go this far with the whole ‘cover your eyes and play dumb’ routine. Still, this should tide them over for now. If we throw a week-long welcoming ceremony that includes even the Spirit Main Gods, the recent incidents will naturally drop in priority. Gods who never forget, my ass. In the end, ignoring annoying things and pretending not to know is exactly the same as what humans do. There are still two weeks left until the anticipated end of the ranking war. Plenty of time. After all, I am dimension, origin, and magic itself.
Seeing the gods crowd around the newly arrived goddesses with welcoming words and bright expressions, he recalled the starkly different reception he had received when he first ascended to the Divine Realm.
The hostility toward the unfamiliar Goddess Department that ruled the realm, the surveillance and checks from the existing gods, and ultimately the duel with the Main God of the Divine Realm after I lost my temper… It really is different. If I had been welcomed like that, would my thoughts have changed even a little?
A faint bitterness rose, but he knew such warmth had never been permitted to him.
Just as I told the Divine Realm’s ego, the welcoming ceremony will begin immediately and all attention on me will vanish. In the meantime, I must finish every remaining procedure.
The Magic God of Dimensions sat upon the glorious throne of the Main God Temple, deliberately ignoring the noisy celebration around him, and began restoring the Divine Realm’s temples. He copied the designs Hephais had created and simply multiplied them. The work maximized creative power with the support of the Divine Realm’s ego, constructing every temple simultaneously.
High above the Divine Realm, Shuddering March and the Sage of Omniscience were still locked in a desperate exchange. The Incomprehensible Eight Founders was an omnipotent authority with no equal for war gods, yet it had terrible compatibility with Shuddering March’s own powers.
Her transcendental authority ‘Shudder’ forcibly reduces the opponent’s very existence along with their power the moment it activates. Anyone short of a Main God would immediately vomit blood and wait for annihilation.
To defend against it, one had no choice but to activate their own authority at full strength, consuming massive amounts of vitality. That alone erased the greatest advantage of the Incomprehensible Eight Founders. Once both sides fought at full power, the battle would become a short, decisive clash—yet that was exactly when her other transcendental authority, ‘March,’ came into play.
It creates dozens of avatars possessing the exact same power as the original. Unlike my own ‘Root School Descent,’ there are no restrictions whatsoever.
If dozens of entities equal to a near-Creator high-ranking demon god attacked at once, even a Demon God King would break into a cold sweat. Moreover, even if one was destroyed, it could be replaced with almost no burden. They were racial authorities granted to the entire species.
‘Shudder’ was the same. She wielded two transcendental authorities as easily as breathing while her true body remained completely unburdened, commanding the war and engaging in direct combat. Because the avatars were literally extensions of her own body, their coordination produced absolute power. She could single-handedly face an army and still fight the Sage of Omniscience—who had become a Demon God King—on equal footing. She was truly an ultra-demon god who threatened the Demon God King rank.
That ultra-demon god had now been reborn, strengthened, and freed through the dimensional authority and magic granted by Jinri. Growing stronger was only natural.
The sight of the Sage of Omniscience surrounded and struggling desperately against dozens of Shuddering March’s avatars is truly pitiful.
Of course, the avatars could not inflict fatal wounds on a body tempered by the Incomprehensible Eight Founders, resulting in an intense, prolonged slugfest. Even so, the new Creation Realm had to be completed safely despite the aftermath of their fierce battle. It was one of the most critical parts of the plan. The Magic God of Dimensions poured every ounce of his power into construction, contrasting sharply with the noisy celebration around the new goddesses. He had to finish while they were distracted by the welcoming festivities.