The Weight of a Tarnished Reputation
I had grown extremely cautious after witnessing the Main God of the Divine Realm and the other employer gods suffer endlessly for their past mistakes during my days as a mercenary god in the Otherworld War. Yet despite all that caution, rumors still painted me as a lecherous god thanks to the blunders of my human days, and my brutal attitude from my mercenary days had earned me the far worse infamy of being the worst and most vicious Magic God. No matter how hard I tried afterward, that terrible reputation refused to change.
‘I led the elite forces of the 500th Master Universe to victory in an all-out war. What rebellion are they even talking about? Because of those damned nicknames—lecherous god and the worst, most vicious Magic God—I end up in these ridiculous situations despite all my achievements.’
With a reputation like that, evaluations of my military exploits were slashed dramatically. Forget recognition or help from those around me; I was lucky if they didn’t actively sabotage me. Even to my subordinates who didn’t know my past, maintaining dignity as their superior was impossible. I considered myself fortunate if they didn’t revolt. When I put myself in their shoes, their behavior made perfect sense, which only made my reckless past sting even more.
‘Damn it—! How was a black mage born from mere humanity supposed to know I’d be officially accepted into the Divine Realm, rise to Main God of the Divine Realm, and even become a Creator God? If I’d known I’d climb this high, I would’ve behaved more moderately…’
There was plenty I could say to justify my extreme actions from my mercenary god days, but in the end it all came down to weak willpower. When the easy path to satisfying my desires and securing immediate victory lay right in front of me, ignoring it had been nearly impossible. Claiming I had no choice but to act that way to survive as a mercenary god with no clan or support was nothing but a pathetic excuse—one I understood even better now that I had become the Main God of the Divine Realm. The realization left me feeling suffocated.
But then something even more infuriating reached my ears. Riasna and Feminist had started arguing.
The two of them grew more heated, faces flushing red as they dragged up the past and launched into a full-blown argument. The sight made blood pressure surge straight to the back of my skull. A male god with beauty so overwhelming it could be called a nation-toppling visage, along with proven ability and status, begging for forgiveness like that? It was hard for any woman to resist. Even someone as clueless as Riasna would know that converting from the demon race to the divine race made it nearly impossible for her to be recognized as his official partner. She would probably settle for being accepted as a concubine. That was why I had predicted she would eventually fall for Feminist’s advances again.
It was exactly the happy ending the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension had spoken of—reconnecting with a past love.
‘Aah—! She’s going to pretend she can’t win and side with him. Here I am struggling desperately just to survive, and over there it’s all love and youth. What a damned world where face, talent, and power decide everything.’
Stepping in to stop them would only make me look like the villain from a third-rate romance novel. Besides, the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension was personally overseeing this. Getting involved would guarantee I wouldn’t like the outcome. The Origin of the Wind Family’s Magic God had been willing to wait until the results came, but the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension was different.
‘His playful words and actions hide a cold, cruel perfectionist. Well, if he weren’t that type, he could never have become the Origin of Dimension. Looks like Riasna and Feminist are in for some serious hardship.’
The ultimate expression of Dimensional Authority is the creation of an entirely new world. It means creating a world completely different from the current one and reigning over it as an absolute being. That is why it begins with a thorough analysis of reality and starts from absolute negation. For example, investigating the fact that water extinguishes fire and creating a completely opposite new law is the very beginning of Dimensional Authority. A world filled with completely new rules becomes a dimension.
‘It’s only natural that the being capable of such a thing would be a perfectionist with cold reason, wisdom, and the disposition of a researcher and explorer. And they must also possess a madness that surpasses all reason.’
The proof that the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension possessed such traits was the fact that he had predicted the actions of a Creator God-level Magic God like me. Even my future self, the Second Generation Grey Absolute, couldn’t predict my current self’s behavior and could only wait for the results. Yet the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension had prevented the situation from escalating by stopping the disposal of Riasna and Himejina in advance.
‘Predicting me means he and I are ultimately the same kind. I don’t know what kind of past the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension went through to become like this, though.’
Even now he watched Riasna and Feminist with an expression of genuine amusement, but no one could predict when that would flip. All I could do was hope the fallout wouldn’t hit me.
‘The important point right now is that the threat posed by Feminist’s possible participation has almost completely vanished. I don’t know why he’s doing this, but the 2nd ranked Main God Lord, Feminist, is desperately clinging to Riasna—a mere Intermediate Main God—begging for forgiveness and trying to persuade her with everything he has.’
He was pleading so earnestly and sincerely that Riasna, who had been trembling with betrayal, already looked like she was almost completely won over.
‘He’s really good at this—! She’s falling for it so easily. Did she get tricked this easily in the past too? Even I, who has nothing to do with it, find this absurd. The Origin of the God-destroying Black Lightning demon race who lost such a promising direct descendant must have collapsed from pure rage.’
Himejina said something while watching my face twist more and more in displeasure, but Riasna was already too deep in his sweet talk to listen. Her replies were growing softer by the second. The match was already over. Seeing Feminist slowly building a romantic atmosphere with Riasna left me utterly speechless. His woman-specialized authority really let him progress at an absurdly fast pace.
‘Aah—! I suppose what the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension wants is the happy ending where past lovers reconcile and reunite. And my role is to magnanimously congratulate them and wrap things up? Since the Origin of Dimension called it a happy wedding, I guess it’ll end in this warm, harmonious way? I get nothing but losses from this, so it’s giving me a headache. Still, I already beheaded one Main God Lord for committing rebellion and nearly destroyed another Main Divine Realm, so I’ve more or less met my objectives. At least they won’t dare challenge me again while I’m dispatched to the Otherworld. Since it’s already over, even fighting those Main God Lords whose defeat was practically guaranteed has lost its appeal.’
The other Main Divine Realms had become complete chaos, torn apart by the raging Goddess Blood Alliance’s female Main Gods and the Spirit Main Gods who seemed to be venting all the anger they had accumulated from years of being ignored. The Main God Temple had already nearly collapsed, and the damage was increasing exponentially. Having already shown what happens when someone commits rebellion, no Main Divine Realm would dare challenge me again unless they were prepared to die.
‘I’ll lose two Main Gods, but they were just immature children and the foolish nanny who indulged them. They weren’t even acknowledged as comrades by the Spirit Main Gods and never tried to earn that acknowledgment. This outcome might actually be better.’
At least I wouldn’t have to personally dispose of my direct subordinates and send them to the Spirit Realm. Still, my boiling emotions made it hard to calm down, so I summoned my pipe from subspace, lit it, and took a long drag.
Click—! Puff—!
The Main God Lords, who were seething with murderous intent after watching one of their own get beheaded by the Dimensional Magic God, stared in utter bewilderment at the sight of him leisurely smoking. He wasn’t even in a combat stance—completely defenseless, as if inviting them to attack whenever they wanted. He was exposing fatal openings left and right, yet none of them dared to step in.
‘That final headbutt from the 10th ranked Main God Lord was the highest level of power a War God of the same rank could produce.’
‘A perfectly timed strike aimed at a vital point that the opponent hadn’t even noticed was completely blocked by the Dimensional Barrier. Instead of dealing damage, he was knocked down by the rebound and had his throat cut.’
If there was no way to penetrate the Dimensional Barrier that could casually deflect even a Creator God’s attack, it meant they could never inflict damage—only suffer it themselves.
‘They say he’s the Origin of the Dimensional Clan. That defensive barrier is truly monstrous.’
‘There’s no way we can break it with our power.’
When you added in the Magic God’s Reality Negation, which could inflict fatal wounds comparable to a Demon King-level God-slaying Authority, there was no chance of victory. Especially not when the 2nd ranked Feminist had been reduced to that state because of a past grudge.
…….
He took another long drag from his pipe and exhaled. His tone was that of someone speaking to a clear inferior, yet none of them could refute him. They had finally realized the fact they had overlooked.
‘There is no way to stop the magic he can perfectly cast with full incantations inside the Dimensional Barrier.’
The weakness of Magic Gods and Administrator Gods lay in their long casting times. However, the longer the incantation, the more explosively powerful the spell became. That was why typical War Gods tried to close the distance and settle fights with close combat before Administrator Gods could finish casting. A War God who strengthened their body to activate authorities was naturally faster than an Administrator God who required incantations and calculations, giving them higher odds of victory.
But if an Administrator God had a means to secure enough casting time, a War God’s chances would plummet. And the Dimensional Barrier of the Origin of the Dimensional Clan was an insurmountable wall for them right now.
‘Until we find a gap in the Dimensional Barrier, there’s nothing we can do.’
No authority is perfect. Therefore, even that Dimensional Barrier that seemed invincible against Creator Gods must have a weakness. But for those of us who were not Administrator Gods, analyzing and identifying it would require an enormous amount of time. Clinging to an unwinnable fight was something for inferiors. As superiors, we had to quickly abandon battles we would lose and seek out battles we could win.
Having reached that conclusion, the Main God Lords sank to the ground where they stood.
Thud—!
It was a display that they had no more will to fight and were submitting. However, immediately dropping to their knees and begging for forgiveness would have been the behavior of the weak. Even though they had no choice but to retreat because they couldn’t break the Dimensional Barrier, they were still the strong. Their conviction that they could win if not for the Dimensional Barrier had not yet been shaken. So they lowered their own gaze and looked up at the Dimensional Magic God as a sign of conceding the match.
When the Dimensional Magic God saw all eight Main God Lords sitting down and looking up at him, he nodded and took another long drag from his pipe.
With the Main God Lords abandoning the fight, the war that had begun with rebellion ended anticlimactically. Since the Dimensional Magic God was now the 1st ranked Main God Lord, he had to stop the war before any more damage was done to the Main Divine Realm.
‘The war is over. Now is the time for the Administrator Main Gods to step forward in earnest to begin restoration.’
Yet even though the war had ended, the Administrator Main Gods who had been promoted to Creator Candidates were still desperately fleeing in every direction across the Main Divine Realm, chased by those who sought only their heads. It was the duty of Administrator Main Gods to oversee the Main Divine Realm’s defense system and block enemies, but this war had erupted inside the Main God Temple itself. Half-baked internal defenses were useless against Creator Gods. So running was their only option.
It was pathetic to see Administrator Main Gods fleeing without even assessing the overall situation just to save their own lives, but it was understandable, so I gave the order to stop.
At those words, the Creator Candidates and Main Gods of the Main Divine Realm immediately stopped fighting. Although their bodies were still on the battlefield, they had seen one Main God Lord die far too pathetically and the rest submit. The objectives of the war had all been achieved. Therefore, it was better not to create unnecessary grudges that could harm their clan and future.
However, the female Main Gods of the Goddess Blood Alliance and the Spirit Main Gods did not stop. Whether it was the Goddess Blood Alliance, who were shunned as male-god-slaughtering fanatics, or the Spirit Main Gods, who were looked down on as losers, they harbored deep resentment toward the other gods. They were reveling in the overwhelming power granted by their promotion to Creator Gods, smashing apart their opponents’ divine realms and Main Gods as if they had finally found water after a long drought.
In the end, foreseeing the unnecessary and rapidly increasing damage along with the inevitable protests that would follow, the now furious Dimensional Magic God shouted.
It was the Dimensional Magic God’s voice, carrying killing intent that pressed down on his opponents. The female Main Gods of the Goddess Blood Alliance and the Spirit Main Gods, startled by the sudden display of overwhelming dignity so different from before, turned to look at their own Main God Temples and froze. Only then did they see one Main God Lord lying dead with his throat cut and the others subdued and sitting on the ground.
‘Nine Main God Lords represent an enormous force even compared to us who have been promoted to Creator Gods.’
‘To single-handedly handle and subdue such a force is truly incredible.’
They were disappointed they couldn’t destroy everything, but when such a powerful Main God of the Divine Realm had publicly declared that he would dispose of them if they disobeyed his order to cease combat, they had no choice but to stop fighting. Seeing them all halt combat according to his command and begin returning through the dimensional gates, the Dimensional Magic God felt relieved. The troublesome subordinates who in the past had only moved for compensation or negotiation were finally starting to listen to him. It might look pathetic to successful outsiders, but to him it was a tremendous step forward.
The Dimensional Magic God, who had exhaled a long trail of smoke, turned his gaze toward Riasna and Feminist. Then his teeth clenched hard around the pipe.
Crack—!
At some point, two more dimensional gates had opened in the space before the Origin of Dimension. The loud sound of his cherished pipe shattering rang out and fragments flew into his mouth, but he didn’t notice at all. All he could see were two figures desperately struggling not to be dragged out of the dimensional gates.
‘Presence on the level of a Creator God and Demon King? Who the hell are they?’
No matter how hard they resisted, they were incomparably weaker than the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension, so it was futile. The more they struggled, the more violently they were slammed into the floor.
Whoosh—! Boom—! Thud—!
Riasna and Feminist, watching the two figures crash straight into the floor of the Main God Temple without even managing to brace themselves, froze completely solid. They recognized them instantly. There was no way they wouldn’t. They were none other than the Origins of their respective clans—their fathers.
The two who had been forcibly dimensionally transported and resisted, now writhing in pain after being slammed into the ground, were the Origin of the God-destroying Black Lightning demon race and the Creator God Civil Rights. The supreme rulers of the Master Universe, beings infinitely precious to them, had been forcibly dragged out by the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension.
And then the bright voice of the Origin of the Wind Family’s Dimension rang out, wearing an innocent, childlike smile.
…….
…….
The two offered no reply to such an utterly obvious statement.