The Final Gambit
The surface of the Antares, already blazing with crimson flames as if the war in the Otherworld had been prepared in advance, hurtled toward the Main Divine Realm at terrifying speed. The moment it arrived, an ultra-high-temperature radiation that could engulf the entire surface of the realm slammed straight into the Black Flame Absolute.
The massive body that had been hurled into the air by Hwi’s unexpected push was struck by eighteen streaks of crimson flame. Each one carried enough heat to evaporate an entire star.
Puhahahahaha!Fwoooooooosh—!
Yet the black flames swirling around his body refused to let even a single spark through. They simply danced around him, untouched. With perfect control, he seized every one of the eighteen flame streaks and reflected them right back.
“Kuh—! Pathetic. You think a mere Machine God can touch me? Do you even know who I am? You really believe fire like this would work on me?”
As one who had reached the absolute extreme of the fire attribute, such an attack could never affect the Black Flame Absolute. With a casual flick of his hand, he sent every last ember flying back at his opponent.
“Go ahead. Struggle some more.”
Rrrrrumble—!
The moment the spatial transfer occurred, the full-powered attack that had been unleashed came flying straight back. The surface of Antares cracked and splintered with audible snaps. At a glance, it looked ready to shatter apart.
But the Creator God’s Jewel dragged every reflected flame streak along with it and charged straight at the Black Flame Absolute, barely averting disaster.
“My body of black flame can only endure the racial authority for fifteen seconds at most. Do not retreat. We charge—!”
Flash—!
That charge was like a scarlet line carved across the universe itself. Every ounce of mana and divine power had been funneled into the Creator God’s Jewel, propelling it forward at blinding speed.
Spatial movement would have been ideal, but the area around the Black Flame Absolute was warped and burning so fiercely that it was impossible. Even at this velocity, the Black Flame Absolute found it so unbearably slow that he nearly yawned.
“Dimensional Mage God—! I thought you’d be cowering and trembling somewhere, but you actually chose to charge me? Is this your final burst of courage? How admirable—!”
Yet the closer his enemy came, the more certain death became. Something about the all-out assault felt off. No—his Always Coin Heads authority was growing clearer by the second, and the vision it showed him triggered every alarm in his mind.
It was the image of himself, chest brutally pierced, clutching a gaping hole as he collapsed in the vacuum of space.
Me? Getting my heart pierced, bleeding out from my entire body, and losing? Ridiculous—! I was chosen and educated by Jinri himself. There is no way I would lose to some nobody who isn’t even one of the 10 Mainstays.
Still, he could no longer dismiss it as a mere one-in-twenty-five-thousand error. The outcome shown was too horrifying to ignore out of sheer stubbornness.
The Authority of Black Flame, sensing danger, rampaged wildly, yet he completely suppressed it and immediately devised a countermeasure.
I’ll subdue him safely. First, I’ll keep him from getting any closer and smash that Creator God’s Jewel protecting his soul. That should be enough.
He lightly flicked the thumb of his right hand in rapid succession, launching shockwaves.
Paaaaah—!Crack—!
What seemed like a casual strike left cracks running across the Creator God’s Jewel. The blow dealt massive damage to the Dimensional Mage God, whose entire soul resided within it. It was the first time he had ever felt his soul splitting apart, and the scream tore out of him involuntarily.
“Kuh—!”
But the Black Flame Absolute was even more shocked. The attack had definitely landed, yet instead of shattering, the jewel had only cracked.
I stood at the peak of the 14th circle. Only something of the same circle could possibly withstand that impact.
The fact that a created object had endured even one strike meant it had been forged by a Creator God who had fully reached the 14th circle.
“It didn’t break? A mere object from a Master Universe withstood my attack? How dare you—!”
Papapa—!
Repeated flicks of his thumb struck again and again. The jewel slowly began to crumble into powder, yet it still held firm. And now it was right in front of his face.
“Don’t tell me… this is truly a creation of a 14th-circle Creator God?”
The Creator General of a Master Universe could barely scrape the 13th circle. The idea that a 14th-circle Creator God existed within one was absurd. It violated every rule of rank and distribution among the god tribes.
Moreover, 14th-circle Creator Gods were extremely rare even in the Absolute Realm.
The only beings capable of creating a Creator God’s Jewel of this caliber are those who received direct instruction from Jinri.
There were only two Creator Gods from the 499th Master Universe who had been personally educated by him.
Sangharama and Jinmyeol.
And among them, only one had any realistic chance of reaching the 14th circle.
Higher circles were not realms one could reach simply by thinking about it. That was why Jinmyeol had abandoned every title, every honor, and chosen pure power alone. At the time, despite being only 12th circle, his unique capacity for mass destruction had allowed him to single-handedly repel the invasion of the Substitute God Clan at the scale of an entire Master Universe. He was the god of war among gods of war.
“Jinmyeol—! Is it you? Did you really side with the Wind Family and Yuil Yongsinje?”
The Black Flame Absolute’s roar shook the void as his fist clenched tight. Jinmyeol might be low in circle, but his destructive potential was anything but ordinary.
I had taken notice of that 12th-circle Creator God. If he had stayed in the Absolute Realm, he would have become one of the rulers.
He was not an opponent to be underestimated, unlike the Dimensional Mage God.
He raised his right hand and swung it down without hesitation. He intended to erase him completely.
“Take this.”
Krrrrrrrack—!
The Creator God’s Jewel currently served as a temporary vessel for the soul. If this breaks, it won’t just be death. It will be an injury beyond annihilation.
The moment the Black Flame Absolute’s serious strike threatened to shatter the jewel into pieces—
—his attack stopped cold at the sight that appeared, projected from the jewel’s surface.
“Huk—!”
It was the sight of the Origin beings of the 500th Master Universe’s god tribe, screaming in terror as the jewel began to split apart.
If they were from the demon god race or any other god tribe, I would have smashed them along with the Dimensional Mage God without a second thought. But Origins are different.
The Origins of the god tribes strengthened the authority of their entire race simply by existing. They were vital pillars supporting the karma of development itself. Erasing an Origin—not even an ordinary god—would require immediate follow-up measures.
And since they were not of the black flame race, they had no resistance to the Authority of Black Flame. They could be erased entirely.
If I erase these Origins, the corresponding god tribe will weaken dramatically. It will cause chaos.
Restoring Origins from erasure was an overwhelming task even for one of the 10 Mainstays, especially for the black flame race, which possessed almost no creative power.
“Over fifty Origins from the 500th Master Universe?”
“Krrgh—! If the black flame race, already lacking in creative contribution, were to erase them, we would never escape punishment. Jinri would be furious.”
That was certain. Even a member of the 10 Mainstays who erased dozens of Origins inside a Master Universe they were forbidden from entering would be forced to restart basic education from scratch. And that basic education was not something even the 10 Mainstays could endure easily.
Recalling past training, the Black Flame Absolute’s face twisted in disgust as he twisted the trajectory of his fist at the last moment.
The Creator God’s Jewel, narrowly avoiding a direct hit, now floated right before his face.
The Dimensional Mage God, having barely escaped the threat of his soul shattering into oblivion, was in terrible condition. The aftereffects of the Authority of Black Flame were eroding his soul from the outside in. If he hadn’t specialized his creative power far beyond others, it would have already ended him.
What horrifying destructive power. Unless one belongs to the same tribe, even lower-ranked gods can’t even approach? If Antares hadn’t neutralized some of it with its high-heat radiation, even a member of the black flame race would have been unable to endure it.
Without Antares’s high-heat radiation and the Authority of Black Flame, he would have already been annihilated. Even the reinforced Creator God’s Jewel was nearing its limit against the Black Flame Absolute’s casual attacks.
But just a little longer… and he could settle this.
“You pathetic Origins of this worthless Master Universe—! What kind of disgrace is this in front of a single Creator Candidate? And you—your last resort is taking hostages? Have you no shame?”
“I don’t have the luxury of worrying about that. I am weaker than you. Therefore, I must use every means available to win.”
There was no time to feel shame if he wanted to defeat the Black Flame Absolute. To send the shock back to the main body, he had to settle the fight within the fifteen seconds the racial authority could be maintained.
As he poured every ounce of his divine power into the effort, the nearly shattered Creator God’s Jewel flew back toward its original body like a magnet and attached itself to the forehead.
Clack—!
The Black Flame Absolute twisted his face in panic and tried to shake it off, but he couldn’t apply full strength for fear of erasing the Origins, and the opportunity slipped away.
The Dimensional Mage God used every last bit of strength to pin the body—his own original vessel now possessed by the Black Flame Absolute’s soul—firmly in place.
Logically, even the slightest control should be impossible, but because this body originally belonged to the Dimensional Mage God, it can be done.
Besides, no matter how powerful the Origins were, the racial authority itself only supported divinity and divine power. In this descended state, there were inevitably openings in his control.
If not for this exact moment, he would never have been able to restrain the Black Flame Absolute like this.
“Prepare to fire—!”
Kwoooooooooooooong—!
At the command, the cracked crimson surface of every Antares peeled away like shed skin. Beneath the surface appeared a form bristling with countless silver spikes, like a metallic hedgehog. All eighteen Antares transformed into silver hedgehogs in an instant and began amplifying their divine power.
Then the millions of long spikes all swiveled to aim directly at the Black Flame Absolute.
Their purpose was obvious.
Looking closely again, what appeared to be spikes were actually silver pillars, each with a tiny hole like a dot in the center.
Thudududududuk!
From those holes, beams of brilliant, multicolored light began to pour out. It was absurd in this situation, but those were clearly gun ports. And judging by the way they only flashed with light instead of firing energy, these were not divine-power radiation weapons—they were artillery cannons that launched physical shells.
Against a Main God or higher, purely physical attacks without divine power were completely ineffective. A transcendent divine body reinforced by divine power could only be destroyed by divine weapons or physical strikes that had condensed equal divine power to the extreme.
Yet here was a physical barrage aimed at him—the very pinnacle of such bodies. It made no sense.
“What kind of ridiculous stunt are you trying now?”
“Ten seconds left. All cannons, fire simultaneously—!”
His soul was already beginning to disintegrate under the pressure of the higher-tier Authority of Black Flame. With no time to spare for conversation, the Dimensional Mage God gave the order.
At the same moment, the surfaces of the Antares vibrated with thick gun smoke and deafening roars.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—!
The countless gun ports hidden beneath the inner hulls of the eighteen Antares all spat fire at once, launching their shells. The shells were accelerated to incredible speeds by barrels of enormous length and hurled forward in unison.
Judging by their velocity, a direct hit would carry destructive power that even a High God could not withstand.
The sight of millions of such shells detonating simultaneously was a spectacle beyond compare. It was questionable whether they would affect the Black Flame Absolute, but the sheer overwhelming firepower was undeniable.
An attack of this scale would reduce most divine realms or planets to ash in an instant. This was not power that mere Machine Gods should be able to display.
The Creator Gods, who had been on edge while confronting the Black Flame Absolute’s combat-rank-one Creator Great GodSeongmyeol, were thrown into an uproar.
“When did the Creator God-class Machine God Antares turn into mobile artillery batteries? Weren’t they supposed to be for planetary management?”
“They look less like mobile batteries and more like stellar defense fortresses. They might struggle against the Main Gods of the Substitute God Clan, but they should work reasonably well against regular members.”
“If we can control them properly, they’ll be quite useful.”
Even after attacking the Black Flame Absolute and having the attack reflected, they had remained mostly intact. On top of that, they were displaying firepower capable of wiping out an entire stellar system in one go. Considering their planetary control and creative power as well, their majesty far exceeded what one would expect from machines that had been discarded after going out of control under a Main God’s operation.
At that level, it might be worth seriously considering purchasing them.
Meanwhile, the Creator General and the Demon Emperor were serious for entirely different reasons. Sangharama wore an expression that refused to relax as he debated whether to petition Jinri, while the Demon Emperor fidgeted restlessly.
“Jinmyeol. Did you really side with the Wind Family and Yuil Yongsinje?”
That wasn’t the question the Demon Emperor truly wanted to ask. For now, they were allies because of the Substitute God Clan, but the god race and demon god race were originally enemies. He wanted to ask if he had truly reached the 14th circle, but directly inquiring about another’s exact realm carried the weight of a declaration of war, so he avoided it.
Besides, while the being before him was clearly superior, he was definitely not 14th circle.
“No. I wish that were the case, but there’s no way the Origins of the Wind Family or Yuil Yongsinje would pay any attention to a mere Master Universe Creator God. It would be nice if I could at least meet Yuil Sinhwang.”
“That’s true.”
The Demon Emperor understood instantly. The Wind Family also housed an Origin of the demon god race. Yuil Masinhwang, the Unique Demon God Emperor, had reached a level approaching the 10 Mainstays purely as a demon god. Every demon god who encountered him submitted and followed without question.
And within the Wind Family were gathered Origins representing the ultimate evolution of every race. Meeting such a being would provide immeasurable guidance for one’s future path, so he longed for it, yet almost no one was granted an audience.
Most of them never left Wind Star, where they trained.
Wind Star is a place where even the insects and beasts undergoing Eternal Judgment possess strength surpassing Main Gods. No one can approach it. Meeting them is practically a miracle, let alone forming a connection.
Because so few members of the Wind Family operated outside, almost nothing was known about them. It was as if they were shrouded in thick fog.
However, it was an undeniable truth that the Origins of the Wind Family represented the final stage of evolution that every race desired and continued to develop toward. Thus, all races held them in boundless reverence.
A family where countless such Origins gathered, the Wind Family existed on a completely different level of supremacy from even Jinri.
Jinmyeol, unlike his usual self, showed no sign of lying down or dozing off. The moment the enraged Black Flame Absolute called out his title directly, he had snapped to full attention.
In fact, ever since the Black Flame Absolute had descended, all the Creator Gods had been completely frozen, overwhelmed by his murderous fighting spirit and killing intent.
If they were below Main God rank, they wouldn’t even be able to sense it, but because they are strong enough to feel the Black Flame Absolute’s fighting spirit and killing intent, they have no way to endure it.
That was why the Dimensional Mage God’s continued defiance left such a deep impression.
“By the way, that guy really fights well.”
“Is he fearless? There’s not even a hint of hesitation.”
Not a single Creator God criticized the Dimensional Mage God for using hostages. The 10 Mainstays were an insurmountable wall—an absolute existence. They were the ultimate warriors that Jinri had carefully selected and perfected over 500 billion years from across every Master Universe and the Absolute Realm.
They had felt such a vast gap in power that the mere appearance of such a being filled them with despair.
Yet the Dimensional Mage God continued to resist, fight back, and even launch attacks.
That fighting instinct, which defied all common sense, was almost awe-inspiring. They could only watch in admiration as he refused to give up, biting down on his opponent’s ankle and refusing to let go.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—!
The shells fired simultaneously from the Antares struck the Black Flame Absolute, and the shockwaves of the explosions began to surge outward.