The Silent Siege and the Tournament's Dawn
No matter what was happening inside the Main God Temple where the Dimensional Mage God resided, the festival prepared for the new gods outside continued without interruption. He had ordered the Divine Realm's ego to keep it running and do nothing else, so there was no chance of it stopping. Above all, the gods were utterly exhausted from the rapid promotions and constant shifts in membership. Rest and recreation were something they had desperately longed for.
The female main gods, who had been stretched to their limits maintaining reality by offering half the vitality produced in the Demon Realm as the price of their alliance, were finally able to relax. The spirit main gods, who had spent countless days yearning to return from the Spirit Realm, needed no further explanation. Yet for himself—the Main God of the Divine Realm—there was no such comfort.
His rapid development and acceptance of this request had created far too many wary eyes. They were not exactly enemies, but beings who now regarded him with caution. The Divine Realm was essentially wide open. However, the Main God Temple, with its defense authorities concentrated to the limit, maintained a security posture as impenetrable as an iron fortress. Unless someone entered directly, no one could know what transpired within. Even the beast god, guardian of the Divine Realm, would need to stare straight through the front gate to discern anything.
Furthermore, all the surrounding temples had been demolished and replaced with transformed Cosmic Trees. As purifiers of life vitality, the Cosmic Trees created physical barriers that manifested planetary shields through divine power. Any spirit-body god race member who approached through illegal routes instead of the designated path would be instantly detected, and their power would be suppressed to one-tenth its strength.
The information defense system focused entirely on the Main God Temple—rather than the whole Creation Realm—combined with the Cosmic Trees' physical barriers formed a double layer that ordinary gods could never breach. Yet those attempting to pierce this iron wall had to be among the foremost entities in computational power and related authorities across both the Main Universe and the Absolute Realm.
For three weeks now, he had been locked in another grueling silent war against such beings. Even after having their divine power and authorities reduced to one-tenth by the Cosmic Tree barrier, the management gods still tried to break through the Main God Temple's defensive shield. He was growing sick of their capabilities. Since breaking through by normal means was impossible, they were now resorting to sheer numbers.
Each one charged forward with desperate resolve, attempting to disable the barrier using their authorities as pure force. 'They're coming again? The Cyber Realm? Or the Main God Realm? No, the management gods of the Main God Realm have all given up. Then it must be the Creation Realm. Have even the cyber gods of the Ten Centers mobilized en masse? The most problematic is the Cyber Realm. Still, is this because it's the Cyber Realm? But this is my Divine Realm. This is my Main God Temple—and now my Magic Tower. No one will break through easily. All of you, get lost.'
Tadadadadadak—!
The sound of piano keys being struck echoed around the Dimensional Mage God where he sat upon his throne of glory. He intricately reset the defensive shield protecting the Main God Temple once again.
The battles of management gods differed from those of combat gods. Combat gods transcended reality using their trained bodies and authorities, turning their own power into hammers that shattered existence itself. Management gods' authorities, however, were more like keys that unlocked doors. The laws of the world were the locks, and personal authorities were the keys. The essence of authority lay in opening and utilizing the world's laws with these keys.
It was common sense that higher laws were protected by more complex locks. The superiority among management gods was decided by how diversely, intricately, and swiftly they could transform their authorities. In this regard, there were almost no gods who could surpass the Dimensional Mage God, who even treated magic power as a tool. From the beginning, his starting point differed from gods and dark gods who specialized in only one field—either divine power or magic power.
His pure destructive force might be weaker, but the gap grew extreme as one reached higher realms. At the very least, in terms of management-god authorities, there were almost no beings who could surpass him after he had reached Creator God status as the Dimensional Mage God. Moreover, under these defensive conditions, he was confident he could defeat anyone.
'Kaaaaah—!'
'Kuuuugh—!'
The screams of those whose authorities—carefully crafted keys meant to break the divine power barrier—were instantly crushed and repelled by the suddenly altered shield rang out through the flow of divine power. It had been a delicate authority manipulation designed to pierce a divine barrier surpassing even that of the Creation Realm. Suffering such a complete defeat meant they would be unable to move properly for at least several days.
Yet he had already processed over a hundred management gods and cyber gods this way. The other management gods posed no real burden, but the Cyber Realm was the problem. The Cyber Realm's primary purpose had always been information management. An enormous number of cyber gods operated to manage information across the Absolute Realm and Main Universe, and the special-grade management gods at their peak possessed the highest management authorities in the Absolute Realm—excluding combat capability.
Because of this, no secret in the Main Universe could escape the Cyber Realm, and everything was provided and operated with karma's approval. The fact that the Main God Temple remained a complete exception, its secrets perfectly maintained, seemed to have triggered a sense of existential crisis. At first, low-grade cyber gods had attempted infiltration, but now higher beings were appearing. One at a time was manageable, but now multiple entities were charging in desperately, making it increasingly difficult to respond.
'If four or more special-grade management gods step forward at once, the barrier will be breached immediately. But perhaps due to pride, they're still taking turns challenging one by one. That in itself is incredibly troublesome.'
That was why he could not leave the Main God Temple. 'Damn it! These bastards—I'm a major protected target with extreme positive karma, yet they interfere like this?'
He did not know what was happening in the Absolute Realm or what any of it meant, but this had gone too far. They were trying to uncover information at any cost, even knowing it would cause severe self-depletion. But if he called his assigned special-grade cyber god, Le Saluvia, to complain, everything would be exposed through their connected authority. He had already driven away the previously dispatched cyber god out of that very fear, telling her to enjoy the festival instead. To call her back now would defeat the purpose.
In the end, the only option was to defend this Main God Temple to the death while reinforcing the divine device. The most pressing issue at the moment was that he had no idea how Almighty Hwi was preparing for the Main God Tournament. His own desperate information defense meant he could not discern what strategy Hwi would employ—but as a result, Hwi also knew nothing of his defenses.
If he could entrust the Main God Temple's information defense to someone else, the problem would be solved immediately. Yet the fact that he was alone once again held him back. Now both sides knew nothing about each other's full power or strategies and would have to settle the matter on the battlefield.
Although he could not confirm the details, one thing was certain. 'Ultimately, I have no choice but to do everything I can and stand at the forefront myself. The opponent will do the same. That is the surest way to respond to any variables.'
That put him at a disadvantage. His close-combat ability was far too weak to face Almighty Hwi, who had mastered the Incomprehensible Eight Founders, in a direct frontal confrontation on the front lines. The clumsy, conditioned-reflex defense of the Incomprehensible Eight Founders—whose acquisition method he did not even understand—and the Black Flame that crouched within unconscious instinct, not even reacting to any stimulus as if annoyed, offered no chance of victory.
Using magic against him was no better; the chanting time was far too insufficient. To inflict damage on Almighty Hwi, who had become a Creator God, through magic would require at least a full minute of serious incantation. Yet in the close-quarters combat of Creator Gods—where offense and defense were exchanged faster than the speed of thought—such an approach was tantamount to begging to be killed.
Jinryul's army, which could buy him the time needed for chanting and specialized in area suppression and defense, could not participate in the Main God Tournament because it belonged to the demon race. 'In the end, I must once again bear everything alone and overcome it.'
If they were of equal rank, he might have found a way. However, the Dimensional Mage God's true innate divine power was only slightly over ten billion—less than a tenth of Almighty Hwi's. Against an opponent with a hundred billion in innate divine power, who surpassed him in both authority level and battlefield experience, there was no path to victory.
The conclusion was singular. 'The close-combat ability of Almighty Hwi, who has mastered the Incomprehensible Eight Founders, stands at the highest level even by Absolute Realm standards. The only authority that could allow someone of equal or lower rank to defeat that is the Authority of Black Flame. But it is absolutely not enough to bridge the current gap between myself and Almighty Hwi. There is only one method. Because Almighty Hwi became a Creator God through the permission of the Creator Gods rather than a proper certification battle, a weakness was born. An existence who has perfectly mastered the Authority of Black Flame must strike that opening. In the end, the only one I can trust is the Black Flame Absolute.'
Yet strictly speaking, the Black Flame Absolute had no reason to help him—the one who had trampled the honor of the highest clan by defeating its members. No, seeing what Grey was doing in the Absolute Realm and the ranking wars, it was fortunate he had not come to kill him directly. The reason he had not stepped forward yet was likely due to the uneasy fact that Truth was observing because of Grey's past. How long that restraint would last, however, was anyone's guess.
'This is the first request the future me who became Grey accepted of his own will. He protects all three lives of complete reality denial. If it doesn't work, I have no choice but to force it to work. Whether that makes me a mortal enemy of the Black Flame Absolute or not, I will make it succeed first. Worries about a future that may or may not come can wait until later.'
Grinding his teeth once more, the Dimensional Mage God continued scouring the past records of the Black Flame Absolute that the Cyber Realm had made public. He checked again for any missed details, searching for weaknesses. At the same time, he monitored the transcendents who had lost consciousness and collapsed. One by one they were regaining their senses, absorbing the high-density dimensional authority flowing through the Main God Temple and falling into a state of no-self. He checked on each of them carefully.
It might have looked strange to others, but this was his best. Time flowed on like that.
It was a long period during which even the Ten Centers—who had been confronting each other at full power while preparing killing blows in the ranking war—began to break out in cold sweat. Since the Wind Star existed, death itself was not a major issue, but reaching extinction would require enormous effort and time to recover from. They all agreed that this confrontation could inflict fatal wounds on one another. That was something they absolutely had to avoid.
After the ranking war ended, unlike the other clans, the Ten Centers would have to treat their own injuries. The reason was that if they—the very symbols of power in the Absolute Realm—were injured in battle and had to bow their heads to Truth requesting recovery, it would be utterly undignified. In the past, excluding the top-ranked Golden Absolute, Yuil Yongsinje, and Daeshin, the remaining Ten Centers had needed a billion years of recuperation due to the injuries they suffered when the Black Flame Absolute had gone berserk at full strength.
The resulting administrative and military vacuum had prevented them from stopping the rapid expansion of the Substitute Race, supported by the Origin of the Wind Family in the Main Universe. The ruling race had changed, causing a catastrophe with massive casualties. Rapid structural changes had to be endured by the existing powers and rulers. Last time, they had barely managed to halt the imbalance at the 499th Universe. The recurrence of such an event had to be prevented at all costs.
The moment when they all sensed this full-power confrontation had reached its limit finally arrived. Maintaining the reinforced divine power and authorities they had gathered at full strength was now impossible. They had to decide whether to proceed with full-power attacks that could lead to mutual extinction or simply determine superiority.
But the ranking war existed to establish hierarchy—who would command as representative and who would serve as the lowest rank. The lowest rank had already been decided as Grey. The representative position had been managed solidly by Gold for more than five hundred billion years. There was no meaning in fighting each other to the point of extinction.
Ultimately, Yuil Yongsinje proposed a ceasefire.
Though it was an incarnation body, it was another self in which he had invested and trained for over five hundred billion years. He could not allow extinction in a ranking war whose outcome was already nearly decided.
This proposal came from Yuil Yongsinje, who had suffered no damage from Grey's self-destruction and had barely consumed any divine power. It was the worst possible time, during which the other Ten Centers had agonized endlessly over whether to simply explode and die or head straight into extinction. The eight Absolutes responded immediately.
In any case, even if they opposed each other, the adjustment of the Absolute Realm and Main Universe required both sides. The strongest existence in each field implied they complemented one another. There was no deep-seated grudge that would drive them to kill each other and perish together. Moreover, they were all direct subordinate forces of Truth. They shared enough familiarity to grant reasonable requests.
"It's all that self-destructing Grey bastard's fault."
"A newcomer in the Absolute Realm acting far too arrogantly."
"We really ought to teach him a lesson."
"His behavior has indeed been excessive."
They formed a consensus by complaining about someone, and a harmonious atmosphere flowed. But at that very moment, voices resembling cheers burst from the mouths of the three mage gods who had grown tired of waiting.
There was no disagreement this time. The mage gods were not ignorant of the fact that peace simply meant the absence of war. The longer and happier that peace lasted, breeding complacency, the more tragic the war that followed would be. Therefore, to mage gods who always prepared for war and lived fiercely, peace was the golden opportunity for the enemy to reveal carelessness and weaknesses.
And this was the signal that the Main God Tournament—upon which the Dimensional Mage God had bet everything, fully mobilizing even his own divine realm—had begun. At the same moment, within the Dimensional Creator Divinity, a figure of even greater stature opened a dimensional gate and appeared.
Whether the integration of divine power had been somewhat completed or not, even his appearance and attire were far too similar to the Dimensional Mage God's. He wore a black robe that covered his head, and behind him, twelve brilliant circles of magic power emitted radiant light. Above them, thirteen pairs of wings of light and thirteen pairs of wings of darkness majestically split the universe.
It was clear that a Creator Great God was powerful, but this was simply nonsensical. The 499th Universe had even formed an alliance with the demon race to oppose the Substitute Race that sought to replace the god race as the ruling species. To mobilize the Substitute Race—and even their pinnacle, the Creator Great God—in the desperate offensive and defensive battles and certification fights of the 499th Universe's Main God Tournament was an utterly absurd act.
The Origin of the Mage God and the Grey Absolute were momentarily rendered speechless by this ridiculous development.
"......"
"......"
They were simultaneously contemplating whether to step forward immediately and beat some sense into the fool or simply give up on everything and leave him to his own devices.