The Black Flame Awakens

The cheers of the gods of the Main Divine Realm erupted as they watched the Dimensional Mage God, transformed into a colossal giant, collapse helplessly beneath Almighty Hwi's strike.

With a single blow that had pulverized the giant's massive arm, the Dimensional Mage God had no possible counter. It was the moment that once again proved his weakness lay in close-range attacks that prevented him from chanting. And the Dimensional Divine Realm now lay directly before Almighty Hwi.

A divine realm's battle ends the instant its core—the Chief God of the God Realm—falls, or when the Seat of Glory that serves as its control point is seized, stripping away all dominion. This was the moment that decided who claimed victory in this Main God War.

The moment the gods' triumphant roar shook the heavens, a siren-like alarm screamed from within the Main God Temple of the Main Divine Realm.

The realm ego's intrusion warning shook the entire Main Divine Realm to its foundations. In perfect sync with that tremor, part of the massive spear exploded.

With a sharp crack, every Main God witnessed it. A section of the giant spear's tip split open, and from within emerged the Dimensional Mage God clad in his black robe. From beneath the hood that concealed his face, uncontrollable laughter burst forth in mad glee.

Whoosh—! As he spoke, he tilted his body and began free-falling straight toward the Main God Temple below. His intention was obvious: to seize the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠temple itself.

"Stop him—!"

"You bastard—!"

This was the supreme Main Divine Realm, guarded by Almighty Hwi—a Creator God possessing absolute authority—and over thirty Preliminary Creator Gods who were his direct lineage. Hundreds, even thousands of higher Main Gods protected it, yet its core defense had been breached by a single Preliminary Creator God's solo assault.

If we let him invade the Main God Temple so pathetically, the humiliation will never end.

The Main Gods, throwing caution to the wind, unleashed both physical assaults and divine weapon strikes at the falling Dimensional Mage God. Yet his descent speed never faltered, and only his laughter echoed in response.

He didn't even need a long chant. The moment his will manifested, the Main Gods' faces turned deathly pale. Countless spears brimming with murderous intent had materialized around the Dimensional Mage God.

It was a downpour of spears. What began as thousands quickly surpassed ten thousand, then a hundred thousand, piercing through every domain. Lower Main Gods screamed as dozens of spears riddled their bodies, sending them crashing to the ground. Even higher Main Gods who could deflect the spears with their physical durability or authorities fell with shocking ease.

These were Main Gods. They shouldn't be dying from a few spear thrusts. But when their defensive barriers failed to withstand the barrage and shattered, allowing even a graze from the spears, they understood why.

"Guh—! It's the God-Slaying curse—!"

"It's specialized against Main Gods, just like the demons' god-slaying curses. But even god-slaying requires a high-ranking demon to slaughter countless divine beings first. The Authority of Light of the divine race? How many Main Gods would a Main God have to kill to obtain such an authority? How could such an authority even exist? No... it can't be...?"

This authority felt vaguely familiar, a curse they had known all too well in the past. The higher Main Gods had accumulated experience across countless eras. From that experience, they knew exactly which gods could possess such an authority. Some had even fought them directly or indirectly during the Main God Wars. Just remembering the damage they had suffered back then made their hair stand on end.

These gods charged at any Main God they saw on the battlefield like predators spotting prey, slaughtering without restraint. There was no stopping them. No time to stop them. Facing them, lower Main Gods lost their bodies and perished even more easily than against the highest gods. It was utterly absurd. Later, they could only assume it was some authority specialized for combat against Main Gods and did their best to avoid them.

They had laughed at the other Chief Gods of divine realms who had fallen to female Main Gods lacking such combat specialization. Only after the intensified Main God War led to their planets' destruction and exile to the Spirit Realm did they feel true relief. When they heard that one of them had become a harem member for the God Realm Administrator in a remote independent divine realm, they were so dumbfounded they could barely speak.

Since a failed Main God returning to power was nearly impossible, they had tried to ignore it completely. In fact, they had taken thorough measures to ensure it. Yet now that old nightmare had come back to life.

"The Goddess Blood Alliance—! It's undoubtedly that cursed power of the female Main Gods—!"

"The slaughterers of male Main Gods—!"

"What the hell have they done—! They passed this on to a sorcerer god with wide-area authority?"

The higher Main Gods who realized the truth gnashed their teeth and desperately blocked the approaching spears. The divine power contained in each spear was only around two billion. Yet thanks to the curse, they displayed destructive force exceeding six billion. No matter how much divine power they themselves possessed—over ten billion—if they failed to avoid this curse that targeted higher divinities, they could die as easily as the lower Main Gods.

As the higher Main Gods fell into panic, the Dimensional Mage God's laughter rang in their ears.

Even the higher Main Gods were too busy blocking the pouring storm of spears to stop the Dimensional Mage God's descent toward the Main God Temple. Their desperate physical strikes, even at the cost of injury, were missing for incomprehensible reasons. No, even their perception of the enemy was gradually blurring.

The bizarre phenomenon made it impossible to lock onto the Dimensional Mage God right in front of them as an attack target. The more they tried to focus their awareness to attack, the more his form blurred, making it impossible to even consider striking. Their instincts simply knew it would miss.

The higher Main Gods' faces twisted in utter despair at those words. They were already struggling to endure the barrage of spears carrying the Main God-Slaying curse. There was no way they could manage attacks requiring such extreme concentration. In the end, the defensive line the higher Main Gods had formed in that instant was breached just as pathetically.

But from the Main God Temple rose attacks resembling blooming lotus flowers of light, striking the Dimensional Mage God directly.

BOOOOOOM—!

The impact slowed his falling speed. In the Dimensional Mage God's eyes, he could see the Preliminary Creator Gods seated at the round table within the now-open-ceilinged Main God Temple beginning to move. Harsh voices, practically curses, rang out.

"A mere human-born Main God dares to run wild in the Main Divine Realm—! We are here!"

"Wide-area bombardment across all time periods and spaces."

"It's a stealth authority that rejects recognition. Those with close-combat authorities will handle direct strikes—!"

"We'll completely obliterate that damn sorcerer god bastard."

Several Preliminary Creator Gods from the Main God Temple drew their divine weapons and soared into the air. From their seats at the round table, receiving support from the Main Divine Realm, they began unleashing indiscriminately amplified authorities capable of Creator God-level power. This was the maximum force the Main Divine Realm could display—amplifying the Preliminary Creator Gods at the round table to unleash continuous Creator-level authorities.

Under normal circumstances, it was an assault that could defeat even the highest Creator Gods. Yet only a deeper smile formed on the Dimensional Mage God's lips. No, even while facing attacks concentrated on him, he did not forget to offer a polite greeting.

The Preliminary Creator Gods flinched momentarily at the unexpected words, but soon charged forward with even greater killing intent and fighting spirit, as if it made no difference. At their cold response, the polite smile on the Dimensional Mage God's face transformed into a thick aura of murderous intent as he spat out words sharp as blades.

It was then. A cacophonous sound like bones shifting and grinding against each other began ringing from the Dimensional Mage God's body.

Crack. Crunch.

His black-gold hair slowly began to flicker like flames. The Dimensional Mage God couldn't stop the bitter smile forming inside at the physical changes. This was the Black Flame Authority he had struggled so hard to find a way to activate. It had been hiding deep within his instincts, expanding its influence, leaving him no way to control it. When he had consulted the Origin of the Mage God, the only response was the perfectly obvious advice to control his instincts. The only hint given was that it would likely activate naturally in the face of death. He had also rarely given a warning that the body possessed by the Black Flame Authority would naturally be impossible to control.

As expected, those words had been correct.

Heh heh—! So it only shows itself a little when thirty Preliminary Creator Gods of my level, supported by the Main Divine Realm and wielding Creator God power, attack with everything they have? It really is picky and aloof. Still, at least I've avoided the humiliation of having to dodge pathetically while entering.

Though he claimed to be stronger than a Creator God as a Preliminary Creator God, fighting four or more beings of equal rank simultaneously was impossible. A head-on battle against thirty Preliminary Creator Gods supported by the Main Divine Realm—which surpassed the divine realms ruled by ordinary Creator Gods—was tantamount to death. But the moment the situation turned truly desperate, it activated. In the end, it proved that activating the imperfectly learned Black Flame Authority required both a crisis on the verge of death and absolute resolve.

Even with this level of crisis, the activation was incomplete, representing only an extremely small portion of the Black Flame Authority. The saving grace was that its weak activation allowed him some degree of control over his body. Still, he hid this fact from the enemy and fully revealed the black flames now flickering across his entire body.

The mention of the Black Flame Authority caused a brief flicker of alarm, but the Preliminary Creator Gods immediately added even more ferocious attacks. And before anyone realized, his heart began pounding violently, releasing a unique resonance. It was accompanied by an amplification of solemn divine power that seemed to claim the very space as its domain.

BOOOOOOM—! BOOM—!

The Black Flame Authority—which used the Black Flame Tribe's vitality, a concentration of fighting spirit and murderous intent, along with body training that disregarded life and death to explosively circulate blood through a body and heart possessing immense power, achieving absolute physical reinforcement—began to reveal its true form.

A battle cry resembling an incantation automatically burst from his mouth.

The Black Flame Authority within his instincts had fully activated, moving his body as if it belonged to someone else. He could see the desperate attacks of the nearby Preliminary Creator Gods with his eyes, but he did not perform the defensive movements himself. The activated Black Flame Authority simply manipulated his body, unleashing endless fighting spirit and murderous intent as it poured out attacks.

And it shattered all the divine weapons of the Preliminary Creator Gods—filled with their full-powered divine energy upon contact—using nothing but his bare body.

CRAAAAAASH—!

The sight of divine weapons shattering upon contact with the flickering black flames, without even touching his body, caused the Preliminary Creator Gods' defensive line to waver in terror.

"Is that really—! The Black Flame?"

"Don't fall back—!"

"We must stop him here even if we die. If we lose the Main God Temple like this, we'll never be able to raise our heads again."

The Preliminary Creator Gods steeled their resolve, ignoring their shattering divine weapons as they blocked the black flames that destroyed and annihilated everything. But there was nothing they could do. The activated Black Flame Authority refused to allow any material or close-combat authority to approach, crushing them all. The Preliminary Creator Gods' ability to hold the line, now unable to compete directly with divine weapons and enhanced bodies, only weakened further.

And so the black sun slowly descended once more toward the Main God Temple of the Main Divine Realm. To stop the Dimensional Mage God's descent, the Preliminary Creator Gods at the round table charged desperately, unleashing their authorities wildly.

The expression of Almighty Hwi as he watched this scene twisted in utter agony. He spat out a hollow voice.

The giant god-form of the Dimensional Mage God that he had destroyed vanished like an illusion. It was an illusion that partially incorporated a physical form created through sorcery. It had been perfect enough to deceive even his senses as a Creator God. But he had no room to admire it. The fact that he, the Main God Commander, had been so easily deceived had led to this currently fatal situation.

On top of that, the Main Divine Realm was on the verge of being occupied by the Dimensional Mage God who had infiltrated alone. The Preliminary Creator Gods were holding him off well for now, but the one who knew better than anyone that it was only a matter of time was himself, having participated in the Spirit Realm battle alongside them. He knew all too well how overwhelmingly powerful this being was at breaking through and evading enemy lines in such wars.

That was why he had immediately rushed to deal with the Dimensional Mage God, only to be deceived by the illusion and end up isolated after leaving the Main God Temple empty. Even now, as he tried to return to the Main Divine Realm to kill him, hundreds of thousands of Lower Gods had drawn their divine weapons and were blocking the path. Satellite-sized mechanical masses had appeared from somewhere, creating an impenetrable defensive barrier.

I am a God of Combat specialized in close quarters who has mastered the Incomprehensible Eight Founders. My body knows no fatigue and is immortal. Therefore I am invincible in one-on-one combat, but facing such a large army will take an enormous amount of time. To kill them I must do it with my own body, but that would be too slow. Breaking through while ignoring them is also impossible.

Several Intermediate Gods at the very front were using wide-area authorities to combine the divine power of all the Lower Gods, creating an absolutely solid barrier. Though each Lower God possessed less than a hundred thousand divine power individually, the combined strength of hundreds of thousands could not be ignored even by a Creator God.

He briefly considered making an example of a few by brutally disposing of them to scare the rest into fleeing. But for some reason, they all seemed resolved ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to die here. If he killed them one by one to open a path, it might take days. Of course, if he had mastered the higher Incomprehensible Eight Founders that included wide-area abilities it might be different, but he had only mastered up to the third. Moreover, the forcibly learned third stage was placing an enormous burden on his body. It meant the duration he could maintain full power had become extremely short.

Above all, he could not win against the Dimensional Mage God, who had consumed all of them, revealed the Black Flame Authority, and was waiting. No, he would lose. The Black Flame Authority clearly surpassed the Incomprehensible Eight Founders in close combat ability. Unless he was in perfect condition, he would be defeated.

"This... this—!"

Turning his gaze away from the Main Divine Realm's defensive barrier that was helplessly crumbling under the Black Flame Authority, he looked toward the Dimensional Divine Realm. Forcing his rage-heated mind to cool, he finally made his decision.

This too could be part of the Dimensional Mage God's scheme. But he had no choice. Breaking through in time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was impossible. He had to occupy the Dimensional Main God Temple with everything he had. Before his own Main God Temple collapsed. Moreover, the conditions were the same.

To break through the enemy's divine realm alone and occupy their Main God Temple. It's insane. But right now, this is the only method left.

Even if he won this way, the Dimensional Mage God could not ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠become the Main God Commander. But this was a battle waged on the pride of a Chief God of the Divine Realm from which he could not back down.