The Dragon God's Silent Fury
A week had passed in the Otherworld War.
In the Dimensional Divine Realm, Transcendents, the Machine God of Magic, and planetary suppression weapons were being utterly crushed by two hundred Main Gods from the 500th Master Universe’s Origin lineage. Yet thanks to the immortal and indestructible magic array granted to the battlefield, they kept resurrecting endlessly and throwing themselves back into the fray.
In the battlefield of the Absolute Realm’s hierarchy war, the Dragon God race could not even approach the 10 Mainstays. However, after a desperate barrage of infinite breath attacks, the Golden Age finally shattered. The Great God had rushed forward in panic to block the assault, but there was a limit to what he could do alone.
The other eight Absolutes had no choice but to abandon their recovery and attempt a reversal, yet they could do nothing against the continuous long-range barrage of infinite breaths. If they had been uninjured, they might have managed somehow. But the curse inflicted by the Grey Absolute was proving fatal, leaving them with no strength to counterattack.
What followed was a blood-chilling stalemate—who would collapse from exhaustion first? As expected, the Dragon Gods were the first to falter. Unable to withstand the aftermath of activating their racial authority, they began dying one by one.
A single activation might have been survivable, but without any recovery, when their turn came around again they could not trigger it a second time. That inevitably led to death. Starting with the weak and young Dragon Gods who vomited blood instead of breath, it took only an instant for the carnage to reach even the Holy Dragons.
What was strange, however, was the reaction of Yuil Yongsinje. Even as the Dragon God race joined the battle, he remained completely still, wooden sword pointed at the eight Absolutes, pretending not to notice. Watching him coldly turn away from his kin as they coughed up blood and died, the Grey Absolute clicked his tongue.
They say a good man’s anger is terrifying. This is exactly what they mean. A premonition flashed through his mind that no one involved in this incident would escape unscathed.
As he muttered to himself, the space in front of him split open and the Origin of the Mage God appeared. After the descendant who had smashed through the main gate and fled to the Otherworld was captured alongside the other Origins, he had been injured by the trap installed at the Otherworld entrance. He had just finished healing at Wind Star and returned.
He spoke with a look of pity.
“You’ve returned? Are your injuries fully healed? Will you be able to fight at full power?”
The moment he appeared, the question was purely to assess his combat readiness. The complete lack of concern for anything else brought an involuntary, wry smile to the Origin’s face. It seemed he had no intention of taking any responsibility at all.
“That is something my past self will handle, so it has nothing to do with me.”
He cut the matter off cleanly, boldly declaring that even if he caused the incident, the responsibility would be left to his past self. There was truly nothing left to say. There were mountains of things he wanted to say, yet it was true that the current situation was far more perfect than the original Black Flame trap plan he had once devised. He had no choice but to let it slide.
The Substitute Gods who had entered the Grey region could not be denied entry simply because the Origin belonged to the Wind Family. In the end, everything was clearly benefiting the Wind Family, yet the situation had grown so large that he could not help but worry the entire Absolute Realm might be destroyed.
The Grey Absolute laughed along with the Origin of the Mage God, who had neatly summarized the headache-inducing past. When a superior showed this much trust, one could push beyond their limits. If the Golden Absolute had been the client, the moment the Substitute Gods were brought in, the request would have been canceled and he would have faced impeachment instead.
No—he already knew that, which was precisely why he would never have accepted the Golden Absolute as a superior in the first place. Analyzing his own personality, authority, and that of the Golden One, even without the grudge of being erased, this outcome had been fated from the beginning.
“Indeed. You’ve done well.”
The Origin of the Mage God nodded with deep satisfaction as he checked the current state of affairs, but his face suddenly hardened when he confirmed the Dimensional Mage God’s preparations. On the other side of the screen, the Dimensional Mage God was visibly scowling while mass-producing Lower God artifacts.
He hurriedly checked every detail. Not a single part of the original plan was being followed. It was a complete mess.
“……”
The Grey Absolute kept his mouth shut. Everything the Origin said was correct. His past self was indeed preparing with everything he had. The problem was that he was doing it completely alone. That was why it looked sluggish and unreliable. The fact that his current self could not understand his past self’s thinking was another major issue.
He had been erased one week after passing the Eternal Judgment. After being ambushed and defeated by All-Powerful Splendor who had led the Main Divine Realm’s Creator Candidates in a punitive expedition, he was subsequently erased by the Golden and Black Flame Absolutes. Only after being regenerated by the Origin of the Mage God and trained until he became the Grey Absolute had he reached his current state.
Yet the Dimensional Mage God had already been at it for three weeks. Given his personality—extreme emotional swings and a tendency to improvise on the fly—three weeks was enough time for him to have become practically a different person. Moreover, having been guaranteed three complete revivals, there was no telling what kind of insane risks his past self might be taking. The Grey Absolute could not predict it at all.
During the week he had been watching, he could not make sense of what the man was thinking or how he was proceeding. The preparations made no sense whatsoever. Even if he asked, there was no way the Dimensional Mage God would kindly explain his schemes.
All plans have a higher chance of success the fewer people who know about them. That is only natural, but it is still frustrating. He had no choice but to remain silent regarding the Dimensional Mage God. It was honestly ridiculous that his current self did not know what his past self was thinking. But when he considered how many times his past self had revised and overturned his own plans just to survive, it made perfect sense. Living while clinging to one’s convictions had simply been too difficult.
“Judging from the preparations, it seems he intends to strengthen those Lower Gods with artifacts and promote them using the Authority of Dimensions. That would barely make them Main Gods. Beyond that, I am not certain. However, one thing is clear—he is doing this to increase the success rate of the request. The original plan was to fight in the Main God Battle using the Authority of Black Flame, forcing the Black Flame clan to participate for the sake of their pride. It looks like he plans to push them even further, reinforcing them until they go completely mad and charge in themselves. You may look forward to the results.”
“Hmm.”
A low groan escaped the Origin of the Mage God involuntarily. Listening to the Grey Absolute, he still could not quite grasp the plan, but it seemed something worthwhile might come of it. Still, there was no point in asking. That stubborn Dimensional Mage God would never answer. Seeing him pour his heart into producing useless artifacts for the Main God Battle, he would probably just snort if called.
There was nothing to be done about it. Sacrificing everything for one’s goal was simply the nature of a Mage God. The Origin could hardly complain about a trait he himself had failed to correct. Above all, it was thanks to the shoddy introductory book on magic the Origin had written in order to gain even the slightest pretext to intervene in reality that the man had grown this strong, defeated even the highest ranks of the Black Flame clan, and endlessly elevated the fame of the Mage God.
Moreover, he had even allowed the man to claim the position of Grey Absolute. He could not afford to lose him over something this minor. The problem was that the targets of this rage were eight Absolutes. Even with the Grey Absolute and himself, they could endure but not stop them.
“……”
For a moment, the Grey Absolute was at a loss for words. The achievements of the Origin of the Mage God, who had taught magic and combat to countless descendants of the Wind Family over five hundred billion years, were immense. His pure combat ability now surpassed even the Origin’s, placing him at the true tenth rank. The talent and authority to teach beings stronger than oneself was truly terrifying, and he had sacrificed all of it for the Wind Family. That was why he could even talk back to Jinri and receive some measure of forgiveness.
But Jinri’s judgment was utterly terrifying. He deducted merits one by one within the scope of the other party’s achievements, and when they ran out, he would forcibly capture them and make them work anyway. The current miserable state of the Substitute Gods—who had once boasted as Creator Gods, grown lazy, and been unable to endure subordination to Jinri’s domain, only to be defeated and recycled—was the perfect example.
To live comfortably under Jinri, one needed an enormous amount of positive karma, but only the 10 Mainstays and a handful of others could meet that standard. And the Origin of the Mage God was one of those rare beings who had accumulated such vast positive karma.
Yet here he was, prepared to give up that enormous reservoir of positive karma just to save a single clansman—and that clansman was his own past self. How could the Grey Absolute not be moved?
“You trust him?”
At those words, he looked back at the screen and felt his blood pressure rise again. Watching the man holed up alone in the Main God Battle preparation room, grunting and fiddling with artifacts, only a sigh came out.
His subordinate Main Gods were celebrating the arrival of promising new recruits, while he himself was being completely ostracized. The only ones preparing for battle were the half-baked Main Gods from the 500th Master Universe’s Origins and a bunch of Lower Gods.
When he thought back to his own past—when he had possessed the absolute-level authority Troop of Creation God yet still struggled bitterly because he lacked trustworthy subordinates—it was fortunate that he at least had these Lower Gods who would listen to orders.
Still, he could not understand how the so-called Main God of the Divine Realm could look so pathetic. There was no way that man could defeat the Main Divine Realm led by All-Powerful Splendor in his current state. His past self had been thoroughly destroyed despite having made thorough preparations inside the divine realm and receiving help from a fair number of subordinate Main Gods. There was nothing more to say.
Just what kind of pathetic Main God of the Divine Realm is this? Where are your subordinates? Why are you suffering alone? Ah, right. That guy is me. I really can’t trust him at all.
After thinking for a moment, he reached a conclusion.
At the Grey Absolute’s declaration that he was certain of failure, the Origin of the Mage God’s face crumpled completely. Even the Grey Absolute could not trust his past self. The headache was only getting worse. Yet they had already gone too deep to change the plan now. There was no choice but to push forward, whether it led to life or death.