The Uneasy Calm Before the Main God War
Even the Main God Realm belonging to Almighty Hwi remained quiet before the Otherworld War. Yet it was a different kind of silence altogether. The administrative Main God’s face had turned deathly pale as he kept dabbing at the cold sweat beading on his forehead—sweat that should never have appeared on a god’s body—with a handkerchief. One casual order from Almighty Hwi had buried him beneath an avalanche of duties that threatened to crush him.
“Move everything. This place is going to become a battlefield.”
The command was absurd: relocate the entire Main God Realm because the Dimensional Mage God was coming to attack. This is insane—! What kind of challenger would dare strike the Main God Palace itself, the heart of the Main God Realm where all forces are concentrated? Everyone has always clashed inside their own well-defended divine realms or in neutral territories!
When he thought about the staggering cost and labor required to move the Main God Realm, every fiber of his being screamed to protest. But he could not. He bore his own sins from this incident, and the moment the Main God War had been declared, it became wartime. Defying the ruler of the God Realm in wartime meant summary execution, right or wrong.
“As you commanded, we have relocated everything except the Main God Palace and the core facilities to the preliminary Main God Realm. The movement of all gods, excluding those Main Gods who declared direct participation and the Creator Candidates, is also complete.”
In the end, evacuating every facility and god from the Main God Star had taken nearly a full month. Considering the millions of High Gods voicing their displeasure while being relocated along with the facilities, the speed was nothing short of miraculous. Yet neither Almighty Hwi nor the Creator Candidates under his command showed the slightest change in expression.
They simply sat fully armed around the round table, never leaving the Main God Palace, reviewing only past battle records. Lately they had been obsessively replaying the defensive battle the Dimensional Mage God had waged in the Spirit Divine Realm not long ago. Even more astonishing, the divine power and authorities of Almighty Hwi and his Creator Candidates were rising at a terrifying rate.
The observation of the battlefield halted the moment the destructive influence of the Annihilation World—unleashed after the Dimensional Mage God fully opened his title—made further viewing impossible. Then Almighty Hwi spoke again, his face visibly hardened.
“As expected, even back then his area-of-effect authority already surpassed that of a Creator God? Having passed the Eternal Judgment and experienced a sharp rise in personal strength as well… only I can face him now.”
At his words the other Creator Candidates answered in perfect unison, as though the answer were obvious.
“If we don’t give him time to cast, he’s barely at the level of a top-tier Main God.”
“We will give him neither interval nor time.”
“We will absolutely repay the grace you have shown us this time.”
Hearing the Creator Candidates—who had grown explosively stronger under the temporary protection of the Origin of the Almighty God Tribe—speak as one, Almighty Hwi gave a bitter smile and replied.
“I know. I’ll stand at the absolute front line. The rest of you Creator Candidates spread out and focus on containment. Considering his dimensional movement range, giving him even a single chance to cast will turn this into a war of attrition. Block him at all costs.”
“Trust us—!”
“I do.”
But his true thoughts were different. If the Dimensional Mage God avoided direct confrontation, fled, and simply bombarded him from range, even he would have no answer. Only after turning the man into an enemy and devising countermeasures had he understood why the main forces of the 500th Master Universe had collapsed so pathetically.
They had not been incompetent. The Dimensional Mage God had sacrificed precious Origins and taken divine spirits hostage, forcing them to charge into the kill zone of his area-of-effect authority. Yet the sheer scale and power of those mage attacks had exceeded all imagination, until the losses became unbearable and they self-destructed.
It’s exactly how I feel right now. When you combine his wide-area dimensional movement, his mobility, and those ultra-wide attacks using entire planets as weapons, losing sight of him even once makes him impossible to fight. To win, we must force close combat no matter the sacrifice and never let him slip away. That’s why they had no choice but to push forward despite knowing the catastrophic losses.
In the end, the optimal strategy was to deny him any window for dimensional travel or to weave an inescapable net. So he had summoned the Main Gods of independent divine realms using both personal connections and his status as a newly ascended Creator God. Only their divine weapons arrived. The message was clear: they would provide armaments but refused to join the war.
To reliably prevent and capture the Dimensional Mage God’s dimensional movement, we need powerful independent-realm Main Gods. Yet these cowards won’t move no matter what price we offer. What is this? That ominous feeling again? Could the Absolute Realm actually be interfering with the Main God Palace? No, I understand the situation, but this is too much.
The faces of the independent-realm Main Gods he had called directly and observed through the screen were completely haggard. The one who reigned in the heavens directly beside the Dimensional Mage God’s realm in particular looked as if he wanted to faint on the spot. The desperate tone of his pleading revealed an urgency even greater than that of the one actually conducting the Main God War.
“They say the past of that mad Grey—no, the Grey Absolute—is the current Dimensional Mage God. The Cyber Realm has issued an extreme caution notice. I’m truly sorry. I must also consider relocating my own divine realm, so if you’ll excuse me—!”
“Hey—! Wait, let’s at least talk—!”
The heavenly ruler had cut the transmission in panic, and the other independent-realm Main Gods were in nearly identical states. Since most independent divine realms clustered near the outskirts, they could not fail to realize they would be the first to burn if a true Main God War erupted. Moreover, the forces under the Dimensional Mage God were anything but ordinary.
When they first heard that his harem and divine-realm administrators were the very female Main Gods of the Goddess Blood Alliance who had massacred male gods during the previous Main God War, they had laughed it off. Now that those same goddesses were enemies, there were no Main Gods capable of facing them. Even factoring in the Dimensional’s one-circle promotion ability, only direct intervention by Creator Candidates might suppress them.
The greatest problem lay elsewhere. While the other 10 Mainstays were immobilized by their ranking battles, the Grey Absolute was causing unimaginable upheaval. After purging every rebellious ruler in the grey domain of the Absolute Realm and still finding it insufficient, he had dragged in every Creator Substitute God of the Substitute Gods race and overturned the entire region. The fact that this monstrous being’s past was the Dimensional Mage God was the biggest issue of all.
Furthermore, though their numbers were small, the news that he had mobilized the entire Dragon God race—men, women, young and old—under Yuil Yongsinje, the second-ranked Absolute, to strike the other 10 Mainstays sent genuine shudders through them. There was no predicting what he would do next.
Pure madness. He no longer recognizes any line that should not be crossed. To think such a being is one of the 10 Mainstays? Truly terrifying.
Yet the situation also clearly illustrated how the Dimensional Mage God had changed after obtaining absolute power. Deducing from his past tactics and current authorities, Almighty Hwi reached a conclusion.
The Dimensional Mage God will definitely attack here. Even during his mercenary god days he never fought waiting defensive battles. He relied solely on thorough surprise attacks and mobile warfare based on superior mobility. That is why his defensive battles are relatively weak. Since this is the fight of a lifetime, he will choose the method in which he holds the greatest advantage. But how will he break through the Main God Realm?
That was the question. Logically, a Creator Candidate could not pierce the Main God Realm, the very gateway to the Creation Realm. Yet he was certain. During the Spirit Realm’s defense, even though the realm’s ego had not forced him into a frontal assault, he had bypassed the Creator General of the 500th Master Universe and shattered the main base.
Any long-range authority user with a normal mind would have rained attacks from the safe, glorious position within their divine realm. He had rejected both common sense and safety, single-handedly incinerating the main base, taking Origins hostage, and sweeping away even the reserve forces thrown in desperately. A single mistake or miscalculation should have meant annihilation, yet he had succeeded.
Therefore the conclusion was clear.
It was obviously not his first time. Though young, he is a battle-hardened mercenary god who has been isolated behind enemy lines countless times and survived. So this time too, he will definitely seize the initiative with a surprise attack. But how does he intend to pierce the Main God Realm? Even a true Creator God cannot do so—what method could a mere Candidate possibly use? For now, the best approach is to catch him the moment he tries to slip inside.
The Main God Realm was incomparably different from the Spirit Realm. The difference in defensive power exceeded tenfold, making any comparison laughable.
“Display the Main God Realm’s terrain. We will re-examine all intrusion prevention measures using dimensional authority.”
“Yes!”
The screen the administrative Main God projected into the air showed seven colossal Main God Stars clustered together. At the center floated a Creator Star ten times larger than a normal Main God Star, with six Main God Stars orbiting it at regular intervals like satellites—above, below, left, right, and in between.
The Main God Realm itself rested upon the central Creator Star, protected by the combined divine realms of the six surrounding stars. The sight of one Creator Star and six Main God Stars fused into a single celestial body was beautiful, yet the defensive barrier of divine power it radiated was so overwhelming that even he could not easily withstand it.
The administrative Main God’s voice rang with pride.
“The Main God Realm, centered on the Creator Star with six Main God Stars serving as auxiliary foundations, possesses fundamentally more than ten times the capability and defensive power of the Spirit Realm. It was designed to stop the highest-ranking Main Gods of the Substitute Gods race; therefore no Demon God King or Creator God can force entry. It is the core of the barrier originally created to prevent Substitute Gods from entering the Creation Realm, and it functions as an impregnable fortress. Since its construction it has never been breached even once. No matter how powerful the Dimensional Mage God’s dimensional movement may be, he can never overcome this wall. In the end he will choose a specific location and demand a duel, just as he has always done. Your concern was excessive.”
After suffering terribly from the order to relocate most of the Main God Realm’s facilities, the administrator was beginning to talk back. Normally Almighty Hwi would have beaten him into a pulp, but since the man had indeed worked hard, he let it pass. Besides, he himself understood the facts perfectly.
Even he, who had mastered the eight primordial concepts of the incomprehensible, had only managed to settle matters with the previous Main God King in a neutral zone. Yet his instincts were screaming. The Dimensional Mage God would launch a surprise attack right here.
A normal god might act that way, but looking at the case of the future Grey Absolute, that man is clearly not sane. He will definitely come here. And that is the only path for him to become the Main God King.
Even defeating him did not guarantee becoming the Main God King. That glorious victory had to earn the support of the gods within the Main God Realm. Surpassing the predecessor in power was the bare minimum. He needed to demonstrate overwhelmingly superior achievements that surpassed the previous Main God King’s feat of defeating both his predecessor and all supporting forces alone in a neutral territory.
The Dimensional Mage God still lacked far too much—power, authority, and established forces—to become a Creator God. Power alone was insufficient. Only verified gods who had spent long years building forces and support networks could pass the round table of the Creation Realm and receive recognition.
However, the position of Main God King of the Main God Realm—the gateway to the Creation Realm—represented the highest station among Main Gods and served as gatekeeper. It therefore carried authority and qualifications above those of a Creator God. For the Dimensional Mage God, currently burdened with multiple prohibited acts such as the resurrection of the Demon God, becoming Main God King was the sole path to obtaining absolution.
Yet even after requesting information through the Sage of Omniscience and checking the state of the Dimensional Divine Realm from every angle, the situation was shrouded in mystery.
They claimed they would select the races of the Dimensional Main God Star after its promotion to Creator Star. While strengthening the divine realm was the correct choice, the method—selection through inefficient, cumbersome competition—was bizarre. Natural disasters such as floods or volcanic eruptions would have been far simpler.
After internal factions clashed in what resembled a civil war, a festival of drinking and merrymaking hosted by the newly ascended Main Gods had already continued for over two weeks. Meanwhile, on the moon, hundreds of thousands of Transcendents who had become Lower Gods through the selection process were locked in desperate combat against the divine spirits of the 500th Master Universe’s Origins.
The Main God of the Divine Realm—who should have been the festival’s central figure—remained hidden inside the Main God Palace and could not even be seen. Yet the divine realm continued to function smoothly, which made no sense.
Administrative gods who had secretly infiltrated using their authority to discover what exactly he was doing alone inside the palace had all returned coughing blood from severe internal injuries and subsequently given up. It looked as though he was preparing for war by himself, but from the outside the divine realm’s situation remained completely incomprehensible.
Emergency. The self of the Dimensional Divine Realm has just delivered a notification. They state that the Main God War will now commence.
Thud—!
The expressions of the Creator Candidates—faces that said “it’s finally here”—intersected with the look of open relief on Almighty Hwi’s face. Had he known how exhausting waiting would be, he would have unilaterally imposed a strict time limit. Still, it was unexpected. A polite notification before launching a surprise attack? His prediction had been wrong. It seemed that aiming to become Main God King had at least taught the man some basic etiquette.