The Absolute Power Gap
The war in the Otherworld had driven him so far beyond the edge that he no longer even recognized when he had gone mad. KWOOOOOOONG—!
The Magic God of Dimensions moved his power once again. He had clearly exhausted most of his strength during the assault on the Main Divine Realm, yet his recovery rate was monstrous. The target of that surging magical energy, however, was not the enemy he had just fought. It was aimed squarely at the army of high gods who had opposed his appointment as Lord God.
And this was no ordinary spell. It was a pitch-black light condensed from unimaginable hatred.
The Magic God of Dimensions specialized in wide-area divine authority. Anyone below the rank of Lord God would be annihilated the moment they were caught in it. Even an army of high gods would be in mortal danger if they allowed even a single strike to land.
“What the hell are you doing—!”
Hwi tried to stop it in a panic, but he was already too late. The speed of the incantation was incomparably faster than what he had seen during the battle in the Spirit Realm. The openings in the man’s body control that had been visible before had almost completely vanished. His movements were now so flawless that one could believe he was a war god specialized in close combat rather than a mage. As proof that he had reached the pinnacle of using both divine power and magic as tools, there was no visible strain or limitation even while casting a spell of this magnitude.
At the same time, another beam of divine authority equal in power to the first descended upon the army of lower gods. Judging by the activation range and destructive force, it was undoubtedly a transcendent authority. He had just activated two transcendent authorities simultaneously.
Before the shock of that power could even register, an explanation for his actions arrived.
“This is a battle to select the Lord God. Shouldn’t we clearly demonstrate what kind of blessings the Lord God can bestow upon the gods of the Main Divine Realm in combat? I have finished my part, so All-Powerful Splendor, as the origin of the Almighty God Tribe, please bestow your blessings upon the high gods as well.”
“Ugh—!”
It was a perfectly reasonable statement. If this were merely a contest to determine a winner, such behavior would be absurd. But if the goal was to establish superiority as the Lord God, then it was only right for each candidate to display their full capabilities. Even so, this kind of direct comparison of wide-area authorities was a bitter pill that Hwi was being forced to swallow in the current situation.
What kind of wide-area authority is this? Could it be the absolute-rank ‘Troop of Creation God’ that the Creator God King mentioned? Even then, raising lower gods who possess no authorities by a single circle would only bring them up to intermediate god rank. There’s no way they could defeat the highest-ranking gods who possess superior authorities.
That momentary doubt was resolved in an instant.
Sudden screams and groans erupted from the army of high gods struck by the Magic God of Dimensions’ spell.
“My divinity is being forcibly lowered!”
“This can’t be—! My authority resistance isn’t working at all!”
“Gaaah—! My body has dropped more than one circle!”
The army of high gods included many 10th-circle Lord Gods, yet they were instantly demoted to 9th-circle or below. The gap between them and the 7th-circle lower gods had now shrunk to only two circles. One could visibly see their momentum crumbling under the curse.
A two-circle difference was not an insurmountable gap when numbers were involved. But the anomaly did not end there.
“Ooooh—!”
“This is the divinity of a Creation God—!”
“Is this the true power of a god?”
Admiring exclamations rose from the lower gods as their physical abilities skyrocketed under the Magic God of Dimensions’ blessing and their divine power became immeasurable. As expected, the beam of authority poured over the million-strong army of lower gods had raised them by one full circle. Most of them, who had been 7th-circle, were now 8th-circle in an instant.
He had applied a one-circle demotion to the high gods’ army and a one-circle elevation to the lower gods’ army. An authority capable of overcoming a two-circle difference was called an absolute authority. This was undoubtedly one.
He had just displayed power that surpassed even the absolute-rank wide-area authority ‘Troop of Creation God’—which raised allies by one full circle but only up to the caster’s own level.
This is insane—! No matter how much of a Magic God he is, he’s simultaneously casting a curse and a blessing that can alter an entire army’s circle rank across such a wide area? Even I, the origin of the Almighty Tribe, would struggle to bless ten thousand of my own tribesmen at once, yet he’s doing it to millions? What kind of absurd magic and authority is this?
Hwi’s mind went completely blank. He was supposed to bestow blessings on the high gods’ army as well, but the thought now felt impossible. Since they were not of his own tribe, the effect would be drastically reduced. Forget strengthening their forces—he wasn’t even sure they could resist that curse.
So the Magic God of Dimensions specializes in these kinds of wide-area authorities? But my blessings as the origin of the Almighty Tribe are restricted unless the targets are members of my tribe.
No, this comparison itself is unfair.
Even so, he could not afford to show weakness and back down. Of course, no other Creation God could curse over ten thousand high gods while simultaneously blessing a million lower gods either. A few might manage something on the scale of ten thousand, but for most it was simply impossible under normal circumstances.
If the Main Divine Realm were to clash head-on with the Dimensional Divine Realm while leading its war gods, even victory would not feel like victory. The gap in army-related authorities was simply too vast.
It’s only been two months—! No matter how freely he can manipulate time with his dimensional authority, there must be limits to talent. Who could possibly strengthen someone this much in such a short time? If we had officially launched a subjugation war citing regulation violations and abuse of authority, it would have caused a catastrophe. It’s a tremendous relief that I refused because my instincts warned me against it.
Any force caught in a wide-area attack while their circles are lowered like that would be completely annihilated. Even if the Lord Gods somehow survived, they would be gravely wounded and unable to defeat the elevated Lord Gods and high gods of the Dimensional Divine Realm. And if I fail to stop the Magic God of Dimensions himself, everything ends. In the end, every being below his divinity would be wiped out.
When he imagined the goddess blood alliance’s female Lord Gods and the Spirit Lord Gods—who had tried to stop him when he went alone to attack the Dimensional Divine Realm—raising their circles to challenge him, the prospect was horrifying. He finally understood why the Creator God King had deliberately created the special position of Special Duty Creation God and treated it so preciously.
From beneath the robe that covered the Magic God of Dimensions’ face, his lips curved into a smile as he spoke.
“The authority is called ‘Innate Nature of the Magic God.’ It’s a simple trick that curses enemies and blesses allies.”
“You call this a trick?”
It was already an absolute-rank wide-area authority rather than a personal one, yet he was downplaying it as a mere trick. Hwi was at a loss for words. Still, he spoke the truth in a calm voice.
“This only lowers or raises circles. The grade of the authorities they possess remains unchanged. At my current 11th-circle magic level, I cannot yet alter the grade of an individual’s inherent authorities. I have merely reduced their physical abilities by more than ten times due to the one-circle drop. Therefore, their actual combat power has decreased by about seventy percent, not ninety. The lower gods’ army is slightly different. Since most of them possess no authorities at all, they have become roughly ten times stronger in full. Considering the high gods’ reduced capabilities, their actual power increase is only about fifty times. If they had possessed authorities, it would likely be around seven times. Furthermore, this only affects targets other than the caster. An absolute authority should display at least a hundredfold power without any restrictions, so this is still lacking. It cannot even be called absolute-rank like the ‘Troop of Creation God’ which can strengthen authorities themselves.”
“……”
Though he called it “only that much,” an authority that blessed one’s own forces while cursing the enemy would bring terrifying results in war. It meant that to have any chance of victory against the Magic God of Dimensions, one would need to mobilize at least a hundred times more lower gods. Or one would need to deploy more than fifty times as many high gods with superior authorities. When Hwi calculated the corresponding forces based on the current number of high gods in the Dimensional Divine Realm, the resulting figure was staggering.
There are more than twenty Lord Gods with transcendent authorities, so we would need to mobilize eighty of them. Eighty Creator Candidates? And for the rest of the Lord Gods, just calculating the ones I’ve faced plus the origins of the 500th Master Universe brings the number to at least three hundred. That means we would need to prepare at least twelve hundred Lord Gods with superior authorities? And even then, victory is not guaranteed?
The conclusion was clear. With the current forces of the Main Divine Realm—which did not even possess half that strength—there was no way to win.
There was only one path to victory.
Even the full elite forces of the six Creation Divine Realms gathered in the Main Divine Realm cannot handle this? This is no longer a matter of pride. The only option is to somehow separate the Dimensional Divine Realm from its gods and launch a surprise attack targeting only the Magic God of Dimensions.
This was exactly why the Grey Absolute had suffered that painful surprise attack from Hwi in the future timeline. It was a defeat that should never have happened. The justification was so legitimate that there was nothing to say, and the decision of the Creation Divine Realm had been absolute.
Anyone who uses authority beyond their granted limits shall be sent to the Spirit Realm, regardless of who they are. Only the power that has been legitimately granted and can be properly controlled must be used. This is an ironclad rule of the divine realm with no exceptions. Send the Magic God of Dimensions, who restored the Dark God, to the Spirit Realm and place him under house arrest.
It was only natural that the Magic God of Dimensions, who had restored the Dark God, would be transported to the Spirit Realm and forced into confinement. However, transport to the Spirit Realm meant death—the loss of one’s physical body. The vitality composing the body would be forcibly reclaimed, and only the divine spirit would be sent. Since no god would obediently comply, the newly ascended Creation God Hwi had been given the order to carry out the enforcement by force.
It was because he was the Lord God of an independent divine realm managed within the territory inherited from his predecessor.
But when he actually tried to fight, the damage and risk were too great to bear. No matter what forces he mobilized, he would have to accept near-total annihilation. And if he let the man escape, the unique nature of dimensional authority would turn it into a disaster that could not be stopped.
That was why Hwi, as the great origin of the Almighty Tribe and a Creation God, had cast aside all pride. He took only the gods of the Round Table and the elite Lord Gods, silenced the divine realm’s ego using the authority of the Main Divine Realm, and secretly breached the defensive line. They destroyed the main gate with full force, launched a surprise assault on the Lord God Temple, and paralyzed even the Round Table. Then, all elites except himself formed a barrier to trap the Magic God of Dimensions.
Most of the Lord Gods and high gods of the Dimensional Divine Realm who had rushed over gave up the fight after receiving a promise backed by the divinity of a Creation God: they would retain their current positions and be allowed to maintain autonomous districts.
After that, they engaged in a desperate battle lasting several hours before finally killing the stubbornly resisting Magic God of Dimensions and completing the transfer of his divine spirit to the Spirit Realm. Of course, it was not a permanent seal.
A war god possessing the absolute-rank wide-area authority ‘Troop of Creation God’ that could fully raise allies by one circle was an invaluable asset. Moreover, this was the 499th Master Universe, where the Substitute Gods and the dominant races were engaged in a racial war. They could not afford to discard such a powerful war god. The plan had been to grant him the position of Special Duty Creation God immediately after a certain period of confinement.
The problem was that Golden Absolute and the other members of the 10 Mainstays had witnessed the entire duel after smoothly concluding the ranking battle.
The Magic God of Dimensions had automatically become ranked 10th because he lacked the qualifications to participate in the ranking battle. He had only come to observe the situation firsthand in order to pass on the Otherworld cleanup mission he had received from Jinri to the lowest-ranked member. Thanks to that, he ended up watching the entire process of his own humiliating defeat.
Betrayed by every god in the divine realm he ruled, trapped inside an impenetrable barrier that even his dimensional authority could not escape, he had mobilized his black flame authority and still suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a Creation God of the Master Universe. It was an utterly shameful sight.
Though he currently held no power among the 10 Mainstays and this was merely his stance from a distant future, such a defeat could never be tolerated.
Enraged beyond measure by the unthinkable disgrace, the rank one Golden Absolute had decided on the erasure of the Magic God of Dimensions, and everyone had agreed. On top of that, the Black Flame Absolute, furious at the defeat of his tribesman at the hands of a close-combat Creation God of the Master Universe, had even ordered his deletion.
The rage and desire for revenge held by the Grey Absolute now were entirely justified.
Betrayed by the divine realm and the gods in which he had invested everything, thoroughly sealed away, unable to do anything, and brutally defeated before being killed. In the midst of that despair, when only his divine spirit remained and he was being dragged off to the Spirit Realm, the appearance of the 10 Mainstays—his future comrades—had at first seemed like salvation. But they had immediately condemned him and erased him as well. In the end, being deleted by the Black Flame Absolute, who was the origin of the Black Flame Race even if not a formal member, had been more devastating than the shock of being abandoned by one’s own parents.
If he had only suffered one of those things, or if he had been given even a moment to collect himself in between, he might have been able to regain some composure and maintain his sanity. But because it had all happened in rapid succession, every emotion and all his patience had completely collapsed.
When the Origin of the Mage God had restored the Magic God of Dimensions—who was still only a Creator Candidate—from his deleted state, at first he could not think of anything and simply wished to be erased again. If he had not seen the ridiculous sight of his past self, who had not yet experienced those events, struggling in vain, he would never have even considered revenge.
The past version of himself, who desperately scrambled to obtain worthless things like trust, love, and respect—emotions that would betray him the moment the situation changed—had seemed so pathetic and infuriating that revenge had become both his purpose and his life.
“Heh heh… Kekekekek—! Now that I see the final result, I really was a pitiful sight. Well, whatever. Fine. Without any prior payment or conditions, I will follow the words of the Origin of the Mage God, the only one besides Jinri who ever helped me. I will undergo whatever training you desire. No matter what it takes, I will become the Grey Absolute. So please help me with my revenge against the 10 Mainstays. Isn’t it truly reckless and admirable to attempt to change one’s predetermined fate? After all, it’s completely impossible.”
“Making the impossible possible is the creed of the Wind Family. Revenge against the 10 Mainstays and changing your own fate? That too is a fittingly impossible goal for the Wind Family. I accept.”
Having intruded into the present, the Grey Absolute—who alone along with the Origin of the Mage God remembered that past—pulled his robe even lower over his face.