The Otherworld War: A Battlefield of Endless Death
The Otherworld War! Snap—! Paaaah—!
The screen shifted at blinding speed, and the battlefield he had just manifested appeared above the round table as a perfectly miniaturized three-dimensional projection. Strip away the trivial numbers attached to each force and what remained was ultimately a clash between an army of one million lower gods and an army of ten thousand high gods. A hundred-to-one numerical disadvantage that looked laughable on paper, yet in terms of pure capability the two sides stood on equal footing. As a rule, ten lower gods could handle a single first-circle high god. Against one two circles above them, however, a hundred were required. Of course, the arithmetic only held if the lower gods possessed authorities comparable to their opponents.
Lower gods with ordinary authorities facing high gods whose superior authorities more than doubled their power would need twice that number again. Two hundred ordinary lower gods would have to wage a desperate struggle against a single high god two circles their superior. On top of that, most high gods of the Main Divine Realm were direct descendants of gods from the Creation Realm and therefore carried superior authorities by birthright. For those aiming at the position of Main God, it would not be strange if they even wielded transcendental authorities.
In contrast, among the army of transcendents who had only recently become lower gods, the only ones who had properly awakened their authorities were the Indomitable Hero God and the handful of companions who had received his concentrated support. Under those conditions, conventional calculations of military strength became meaningless.
The current combat power of the lower gods is barely half that of the gods from the Main Divine Realm. When you factor in the disparity in authority quality, it falls short of even thirty percent.
If the number of opposing high gods exceeded ten thousand—more than ten percent of the total—any strategy would be pointless. A difficult battle was therefore inevitable. Yet a secret plan existed.
The one and only advantage of lower gods without proper authorities was that no matter how many times they died and revived, they suffered no side effects. High gods, however, sustained severe damage to both authority and divine rank upon resurrection; they therefore clung desperately to life. He had promised them staggering rewards if they cooperated. Opposing him meant bearing only annoyance with zero benefit, yet those who still chose that path were the privileged elite—beings convinced they would never die and that they already possessed everything he had offered.
But death’s damage to authority and divine rank translated directly into a fall in status. They had made their choice out of raw emotion, unable to stomach the idea of a human-born god becoming Lord of the Main Gods, yet they were not prepared to shoulder such a catastrophic loss. Even dying once would make their return to the battlefield unlikely. The lower gods could die a hundred times and still maintain their numbers, while the high gods would diminish with every single death.
Moreover, because the lower gods’ levels were so low, they could learn and grow even in the midst of battle against high gods. If that cycle repeated without end, victory was possible. All he needed to do was create a situation in which they could neither retreat nor surrender.
Complex calculations and considerations flashed through his mind, but the conclusion was singular. A desperate formation that cast aside the fear of death and the instinct for self-preservation was the army of lower gods’ sole path to victory. And as the Main God of the Divine Realm, his own role was already decided.
It was coercion.
The simple threat sent the entire army of transcendents into upheaval. Therefore, what they directed toward him—the Main God of the Divine Realm—was not goodwill or respect, but open hostility.
Now that the Main God Star had ascended into a Creator Star, the sentient beings of the planet could not escape the harvest. The very selection they resented was an act of profound mercy on his part, one that had required him to shoulder an enormous burden. Above all, had the Main God of the Divine Realm been any other entity, these planetary beings—who possessed neither the hope of entering the Divine Realm nor the qualifications to become gods—would have been committing an act of utter ingratitude.
Yet such behavior would have been impossible had he been born a proper member of the god race, ascended to the Divine Realm, and thoroughly learned and internalized every lesson before rising to become the Main God. He would never have tolerated such insolence, nor judged them all and created this troublesome, humiliating situation in the first place. Every part of this mess stemmed from his own weakness and inadequacy.
Still, he could not change it. He had grown used to receiving malice for that weakness. Or more precisely, he had abandoned any lingering attachment to the idea of obtaining what he could not have.
He sent a secret will to the Indomitable Hero God.
This battlefield and situation were created exactly as you wished. I’m used to playing the villain, so I’ll take that role. Therefore, as the hero, display your full capability.
I am truly grateful. In that case, I will definitely secure victory—! I shall open the path for you to become Lord of the Main Gods.
He watched the Indomitable Hero God bow deeply, expressing respect and gratitude. Through scheming he had succeeded in an impossible request, earning the support of the client while drawing the enmity of every other being. Later, when circumstances changed, even the client would come to resent him. This was the fate of the Dimensional Mage God who had mastered dark magic and whose personality had been warped into this shape. No matter how much goodwill he offered, the world’s treatment of him never changed. Any kindness given by someone unworthy only invited misunderstanding and backlash.
A beggar has no right to offer alms to another beggar. Fine. I accept it. I will remain faithful to the role assigned to me and see this request through to complete success.
Now the only one he could trust was himself. This conclusion had been drawn after observing the actions of his future self—the Grey Absolute—whose behavior differed so greatly from his current self. The survival-oriented, passive, and defensive nature he had originally possessed was completely different from the Grey Absolute’s conduct.
The Grey Absolute had unilaterally deployed the Substitute Race—something the other ten Centers would never tolerate—into the Grey Realm and openly treated them as enemies. As a sage-type being, the Grey Absolute could never face the other ten Centers alone. Cooperation and alliances with them were essential, yet he ignored cleanup and his own survival, unleashing malice without restraint. And the purpose behind it all was absurd. He sought nothing but revenge against the Black Flame, the one who had erased his future self.
Revenge? If you die while killing your opponent, is that really revenge? It’s nothing more than mutual destruction. Don’t make me laugh.
No matter how he thought about it, reaching that level of madness required far more than ordinary experience. Because he could see exactly what kind of horrific future awaited him, he could no longer cling to stubbornness or greed.
Were you betrayed by everything you tried to obtain? Is that why you deny all of reality, even denying yourself? Future self… my end will probably be no different from yours. Even though I know the miserable result, I will still walk that path. Because that is the choice dictated by my nature, and therefore my fate.
The army of lower gods began its advance. The opposing faction, which had been bewildered by the unexpectedly small numbers, finally started moving as well. They too were powerful enough to serve as the Main Divine Realm’s main force. Their only real flaw was a severe lack of actual combat experience.
They showed no tension whatsoever at the lower gods’ greater numbers. Instead they carried themselves like a pack of wolves eyeing a flock of sheep, sharpening their killing intent. On the contrary, the lower gods were gradually being overwhelmed by the high gods’ divine pressure. The resolve not to surrender under his threat existed, but nothing beyond that. There was no burning determination that they must fight and win.
No matter how the Hero God tried to raise their morale using the Indomitable authority, maintaining formation and forward momentum was already the limit. You’re struggling, Indomitable Hero God. No matter how beloved you are by everyone, this will not work. Even though the fate of your entire race is on the line and you must win, this is ultimately my war to become Lord of the Main Gods. In the end, it’s someone else’s fight. Besides, who cares what happens to a superior who does nothing but issue threats? Heh heh—! Heh heh—! Excellent. It’s going perfectly.
Everything had proceeded far too smoothly. In a few moments the advancing forces that had been cautiously closing the distance would collide. The truly dramatic moment was at hand. He even found the leisure to lament his own future.
Good grief… To think I’m watching my future self, betrayed by the ideals he once pursued, his divine life a complete failure, sulking at the world and deciding to drag everyone down with him in his madness. How utterly disgusting. What am I supposed to do about this?
The more he looked, the more the bleak image of his future self made him feel like a world-weary old man. He sank briefly into emotion, then ground his teeth.
Damn it—! No matter how I calculate it, following my future self’s methods won’t just cost me extra lives; one wrong move and I’ll face erasure. This is in the red—! This request was forcibly created by someone thinking only of his own feelings of revenge. Above all, while it has a process and a result, it completely lacks any follow-up measures. It’s only half a plan. He overturned the ten Centers, his clan, and even the Absolute Realm itself, so the cleanup will be monstrous. Even if he succeeds, there’s no way they’ll let it slide. Even if the Wind Family offers protection, an enormous burden will fall on me, yet he showed zero consideration for that. In the end, this bastard plans to vent his feelings and dump everything on his past self—me—while he conveniently disappears from reality. But did you really think I would let myself be done in by me? You’re already finished, so stay that way. At least let me live well. You just quietly finish your revenge and disappear. Seeing you like this, I no longer want anything big. That’s that, and this is this.
This request had been devised by the Origin of the Mage God and the Grey Absolute. Yet for two of the greatest mage gods and sages, the plan was far too inadequate. The reward of extra lives was excellent, but to his future self it was treated as nothing more than disposable bait rather than proper bait. Of course it made sense for him to act as the bait, but working alongside a future self who had completely given up on life gave him the unpleasant certainty that they would both be ruined together.
Moreover, he could not trust a plan without any follow-up measures, which was why he had endlessly imagined and inferred the consequences. My future self intends to be erased alongside the Black Flame. In that case, there is no way I would remain safe.
That was why he had abruptly changed course from the passive “just do as ordered” attitude and was now pouring everything he had into the task with ferocious tenacity. He continued to soothe the anger and irritation that surged against the flow of events.
When I first ascended to the Divine Realm, I thought I would simply secure what benefits I could, stay quiet, and focus on raising my circles. That was the original plan, wasn’t it? So just endure a little longer. It will be over soon.
Calming himself this way, he regained his composure. When the human-born god confronted the oppressive Divine Realm head-on, a path that had not existed before appeared—a needle-thin hole through the seemingly impossible barriers of winning an election where gods who neither trusted nor accepted human-born gods held seventy percent of the votes, and defeating Almighty Hwi, who ruled the Main Divine Realm.
By pushing himself to the limit he had reached this point, and the election had already passed. If he followed the plan that discarded obsession with victory and emotion, success lay right before his eyes. Becoming Lord of the Main Gods on equal footing with the Creator Gods, officially receiving authority over all the problems he had caused while transcending divine rank in the past—this was the path of success as a god of light, different from his future self.
Yet his future self was the same as his past self. Choices accumulated according to his nature and essence, and the approaching fate did not change; it could only be delayed through bone-carving effort. Right now he was merely resting beside the path. The moment he began to live according to the movement of his heart, he would once again walk the path of ruin his future self had trodden. The Dimensional Mage God never forgot that fact for even an instant.
His divine power fluctuated in response to those endlessly shifting emotions. Negative chaos toward the present was itself magic power and the way of the dark mage. The dark magic of the Dimensional Mage God, who possessed the authority of reality denial, had reached a height greater than ever before.
And Almighty Hwi, who had tried to read the Dimensional Mage God’s thoughts with his own authority, clicked his tongue. As a close-combat god, he cleanly acknowledged and gave up on the fact that he could not pierce the storm of emotion and mental barriers.
Tsk—! This isn’t even mental illness; I don’t understand how a psychological state can be this complicated. Why not just decide on your convictions and live by them? What’s with all these considerations?
Though still immature, he had tried to peer into the Dimensional Mage God’s heart using the Creator God authority of the Almighty Race, only to come face to face with the countless desires and negative emotions swirling within. As a god of light, such anguish and torment should have been impossible, yet they continued to overlap and intensify without end. Simply glancing at it had been enough to make his stomach churn; breaking through the mental wall to read the actual thoughts was out of the question.
How are you even maintaining your sanity like this? No… are you already insane?
It was a mental state that could be called more normal than that of a destruction god, let alone a demon god. It would not be strange if he went berserk at any moment. Naturally, Almighty Hwi’s gaze transformed into one of wariness toward a madman.