The Reversed Blessing
The war in the Otherworld was like a swarm of fire ants driven mad after attacking the nest of a massive elephant. More than a million lower gods hurled themselves at ten thousand high gods, channeling every last ounce of divine power into their divine weapons. No one had taught them this tactic, yet they had instinctively realized it was the only way to inflict any damage on the high gods. Countless lower gods gripped their divine weapons and slammed into the wall of authority surrounding the high gods, exploding on impact yet still pressing forward in an endless tide.
“Hah—! This is absurd. Do you lower gods truly believe you can break through the protection granted by the Creator God? And not just any protection—the blessing of Almighty Hwi, Origin of the Almighty Race. Even we would find it impossible to pierce.”
The high gods could not contain their laughter at the sight of the reckless lower-god army. The Creator God’s blessing bestowed upon them sat two full circles above their own rank. It granted over a hundred times the protective power of ordinary gods. No matter how many ants gathered, they could never scale a mountain. No matter how high they raised their circles or how fiercely they threw their bodies forward, the two-circle gap in divinity could never be breached.
Although Almighty Hwi specialized in close combat and personal authorities rather than wide-area effects, the broad blessing now enveloping the entire high-god army was at a level that only a main god could hope to penetrate.
“Foolish. While Almighty Hwi may be a close-quarters specialist who has only mastered personal authorities, the blessing of the Almighty Race lies in its absolute immunity to both authority and divine power. Mere lower gods cannot overcome it. The situation might differ if you were main gods, but you lower gods are nothing more than eggs smashing against an iron wall. Sheer numbers mean nothing against a higher being of two circles or more.”
The high gods’ contemptuous will washed over the lower gods like a wave. Yet the lower-god army, eyes bloodshot from the staggering rewards promised by the Hero God—rewards so tempting that even they struggled to maintain composure—showed no sign of stopping. Their advance was meaningless. No army, no matter how vast, could cross a two-circle gap. Suppressed by the Creator God’s blessing, their fate was to exhaust every drop of divine power before they could even reach their targets, then perish.
That was why the high gods at the forefront did not even consider responding. They simply stood and watched, waiting for the tragedy to unfold.
The lower gods began colliding with the luminous barrier of Almighty Hwi’s wide-area blessing. Their bodies should have burst apart from the repulsion of the superior divinity barrier. Instead, they started piercing straight through it. Like fish returning to water, their advance only accelerated. It was as if the lower gods themselves were receiving Almighty Hwi’s blessing.
“Huh—!”
“Kgh—!”
“Divine power nullification—!”
“No, it’s assimilation—!”
“Why is the blessing of the Almighty Race applying to them as well?”
Screams erupted from the high gods as their own blessing began protecting the enemy. The lower gods’ speed and power continued to climb. The very blessing of the Origin that should have shielded them was now empowering their foes.
There was no time to process the shock. The lower gods had already closed the distance, and their divine weapons began flying in a simultaneous barrage.
“This is our only chance—! Throw everything you have—!”
The Hero God’s command rang out with such force that it reached even the enemy lines. The fever of battle and lust for reward had infected the entire army, fusing their wills into one and allowing them to display transcendent coordination.
Every lower god poured their full divine power into their weapons and hurled them at the high-god army at once.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack—!
For a moment the sky vanished behind a storm of divine weapons. There was no need to assign targets. One million divine weapons flew together, rearranging themselves in midair as if following predetermined laws, forming a vast net. The high gods at the front were struck by hundreds of them simultaneously. Weapons pierced through bodies or detonated on impact.
“Ughhh—!”
“Kaaaah—!”
A few might have been manageable, but no high-god body could withstand such a concentrated barrage of explosions. Though each individual lower god possessed less than one hundred thousand divine power, when a thousand of them struck together it surpassed a billion and overwhelmed the high gods. Factoring in the amplified power of the divine weapons, enduring the focused assault was nearly impossible—especially when the attackers ignored their own bodily defense and committed every ounce of power to the strike.
Even more chilling was how they continued charging forward without pause, drawing personal weapons after throwing their divine artifacts. The high gods swallowed the screams rising in their throats as they witnessed the lower gods’ frenzied, almost insane desperation and finally understood the dire situation they were in.
They realized their formation had been completely shattered. They were scattered in every direction—the inevitable result of each trying to dodge the enormous net of divine weapons that had blanketed the sky moments earlier.
“This is dangerous. Everyone, regroup!”
But regrouping was impossible. They had scattered to avoid the concentrated attacks and lingering explosions, and the lower gods were already exploiting the chaos. They had closed in, rushing past the high gods to swarm those who had already been gravely wounded.
The formation was beyond repair. The number of high gods who remained completely unharmed could be counted on one hand. The sudden nullification of their overall blessing had left them completely defenseless when the first strike landed, and the damage was catastrophic.
‘If we fight individually and get surrounded, we’ll never win.’
‘How did they nullify the blessing of the Origin of the Almighty Race?’
‘The lower gods received the same application.’
They had underestimated the lower gods for lacking authorities, but the reality was far more brutal than they could have imagined. Moreover, the divine power contained within those weapons was somehow different. It ignored the mighty authorities and divinity of high gods and pierced their bodies regardless.
From every direction came the sounds of high gods being slaughtered. Even Almighty Hwi’s wide-area blessing could no longer endure the explosively increased number of targets it had to support and finally collapsed. It had barely held with ten thousand high gods; adding a million lower gods had shattered it completely.
The sight of the Creator God’s scattered wide-area blessing writhing in its final moments before fading away left the high gods—who knew its true power—utterly stunned. Far from helping them, it had delivered the decisive blow of defeat.
“This is impossible—!”
“How could the Creator God’s blessing collapse like this?”
“What is this—?! What kind of divine power is inside those weapons?”
“Kgh—! We’ve been had. It’s the divine power and blessing of a main god from the Almighty Race. Do not get hit at any cost!”
After personally analyzing the divine weapons that had bypassed their body’s defensive authorities and inflicted severe wounds, the high gods finally understood the truth. Something that should never have happened had occurred. A rebellion against the Origin had risen from within the main gods of the Almighty Race.
It was the racial authority of the Almighty Race—the power to manifest the authorities of all god races. It could block any divine power or authority, nullifying or minimizing damage. Attacks from lower gods without authorities should have been easily deflected. Conversely, when that same power was applied offensively, it nullified the target’s authorities.
Yet this mighty blessing had become the deadliest poison, causing the high gods’ bodies to receive attacks as if they were ordinary, unprotected mortals.
“This is the divine power and authority of a main god of the Almighty Race?”
“At least upper-main-god level. We cannot endure it with wide-area authorities alone—!”
“Dispel the blessing—! Replace it with our personal defensive authorities!”
“Which member of the Almighty Race would dare rebel against Almighty Hwi, the Origin—!”
“Who would have the audacity—! To challenge the Origin at a time like this—! What are you trying to accomplish—!”
The seriously wounded high gods immediately reached the same conclusion. There was only one upper main god among the Almighty Race right now: Gaiana, Acting Representative of the Lord of the Dimensional Divine Realm. Only she could have done something like this.
“Is it Gaiana, the upper main god and representative of the Dimensional Divine Realm? Why would she suddenly do this? Even if the Main God of the Divine Realm is her former partner, betraying the Origin like this is unthinkable—!”
It was not even a crisis that threatened the collapse of the entire Divine Realm, yet she had sided with the Main God, betrayed the Origin, and nullified his blessing.
But the high gods were not the only ones shocked. The main gods and high gods of the Dimensional Divine Realm watching the battle were even more stunned. For one’s own main god to nullify the Origin’s blessing that had been granted to allies and redirect it to the enemy in a war of this scale was an act of treason that went beyond simple betrayal.
Gaiana was famous for her gentleness—she had never once lost her temper in the eternity since the gods’ birth. That such a being would do this was simply unbelievable. Her personality was so soft that without the cheat-like racial authority of the Almighty Race—which allowed her to manifest and nullify the powers of all god races—she would never have been able to serve as representative of the Lord.
This event completely overturned that assessment.
Lokina, who had always viewed Gaiana’s indecisive and weak nature as placing her outside of combat relevance, felt her mind race.
‘Don’t tell me she truly intends to stand completely with the Magic God of Dimensions? No… but if she’s willing to betray the Origin, then it must be true.’
If Gaiana, the representative of the Lord, abandoned her previous neutrality and fully sided with the Magic God of Dimensions, the balance of power would collapse entirely. No—it would become meaningless. The Goddess Alliance had maintained a precarious edge through the sheer numbers of the Spirit Main Gods, allowing them to act freely. Now they risked being isolated. Suffering political defeat like in the past was something Lokina refused to accept.
That was why she removed the robe that had covered her face and spoke with a soft voice and gentle smile.
There was not a single main god who criticized or mocked Lokina’s extreme attitude shift—as though she might suddenly cling to Gaiana and act cute. In the past, the Almighty Race had mostly followed the Creator Gods. Although Gaiana currently held the rank of main god, she had originally been a Creator-class being. The main gods of that era knew exactly what kind of power and position she would reclaim once she fully restored her divinity.
Still, the goddess main gods could not hide their disbelief at the sight of Gaiana—a main god of the Almighty Race—openly showing hostility toward Almighty Hwi, the Origin. If she had shown this level of boldness when she was still the partner of the Main God of the Divine Realm, she would never have been able to act so openly against him.
All eyes turned toward her, yet Gaiana seemed completely out of her senses. After a moment of helpless confusion, she finally answered.
“It wasn’t me. I don’t have the ability to do something like that. Infusing authority into more than a million divine weapons with enough power to surpass the Origin’s wide-area blessing? That’s impossible even for an upper main god.”
“What? Gaiana! What are you saying? The results are right in front of us!”
“I told you it wasn’t me—! How could I possibly dare to rebel against the Origin? The divine power injected into those weapons definitely belongs to the Almighty Race, but it has nothing to do with me.”
Her tearful denial seemed genuine, yet the results spoke for themselves. Nullifying the Origin’s blessing and even modifying it would normally require the power of a main god. The reason the Origin was nearly invincible against their own race was the overwhelming density of their divine power and authority. If the Origin was a solid block of ice, the rest of the race was like water—any attack would simply flow off. But if that ice had been shattered into countless fragments by the strain of maintaining a wide-area authority, what then?
Authority from another race would be repelled by the natural resistance. But the same authority? It would seep between the fragments like water through cracked ice and shatter everything. It was only natural that the wide-area blessing deployed by the Origin of the Almighty Race could not withstand the divine power and authority of an upper main god from the same race. Furthermore, because the control of the wide-area authority had been imperfect, it had mistakenly judged the power of its own race as allied reinforcement and amplified it instead.
A groan tore from deep within Almighty Hwi’s heart as he watched the unfolding battle.
‘Ugh… It’s over. There’s no way to reverse this.’
The worst aspect of the current situation was that stopping the countless divine weapons of the lower gods required a protective barrier above all else. Trusting in the Creator God’s blessing, they had committed everyone to the offensive. Now that the wide-area blessing had been pierced as if it never existed, they were left completely exposed—like standing naked in a hail of arrows.
That was why so many high gods were dying, pierced by countless divine weapons. The army that had received the full-powered wide-area blessing of the Origin had been decided before they could even fight properly. And the cause was betrayal by a main god of their own race.
There was no greater humiliation for an Origin.
Kwaaaaaaaaang—!
A tremendous explosion erupted from the body of Almighty Hwi where he sat at the head of the round table. Fighting spirit swept across the surroundings like a storm.