The Artificial Planetary Barrier
The God Destruction Cannon filled the entire field of vision with its blinding light, launched without any detectable origin point or firing trace. It was a simultaneous omnidirectional assault made possible through Dimensional Authority.
‘The God Destruction Cannon annihilates the physical bodies of spiritual beings. Once it hits, it’s over.’
The Dimensional Divine Annihilation Cannon materialized at random points in empty space, an attack that would normally leave ordinary gods unable to even react before being erased. Yet the Origins had dodged it. Not only that, they had explosively amplified their divine power and magical energy for a brief instant to resist the cannon’s authority, creating enough space to evade.
The shockwave from the collision between the Dimensional Mage God’s God Destruction Cannon and the Origins’ surging divine and magical power shook the entire area.
The Origins who had endured the God Destruction Cannon vanished from the Main God Temple, yet their presence could still be felt vividly just outside its perimeter. They hadn’t been repelled—they had swiftly escaped the attack range. The proof lay in the two holes torn into the temple walls, each far larger than the one that had sent the Dimensional Mage God flying.
The cracks spreading from those holes were no ordinary fractures. He must have controlled his power with surgical precision.
‘The Main God Temple is about to collapse. They struck it hard enough to damage it without instantly pulverizing the structure.’
Watching the temple walls crack and crumble from holes created by someone other than himself made his vision turn red with rage once more. If they fought, he—the one who possessed the power of a ‘99-Second Hero God’—would obviously win. Yet these opponents he had dismissed as irrelevant had reduced him to this state. An endless wave of self-loathing crashed over him.
‘That was an all-out attack, and not only did I fail to finish them, I let them escape. On top of that, they destroyed the Main God Temple and forced their way into the heart of the Divine Realm? To be pushed this far by opponents I looked down on? How am I any different from those incompetent fools, the Main God of the Divine Realm that I mocked?’
Ever since his days as the God of Mercenaries, he had always triumphed by striking at the weaknesses of the Main God of the Divine Realm and the Demon God of the Demon Realm, who had underestimated his low divine power. To end up in the exact same pathetic position as those he had ridiculed for having too many openings made his stomach churn. Even as he ground his teeth, a groan escaped his lips.
‘Uuuuugh! The way the Main God Temple’s walls are cracking, splitting, and opening up… it feels exactly like my current situation.’
If he ignored it and gave chase, the entire temple would collapse. If he stopped to repair it, he would be giving his enemies time to recover. After a brief moment of hesitation, he immediately took action.
“Ugh—! Uwaaaaaah—! If it’s going to be this precarious, then just shatter completely!”
Unable to hold back his fury any longer, he transformed his thirteen pairs of wings of light and thirteen pairs of wings of darkness into gun barrels. He fired God Destruction Cannons wildly in every direction as he shot into the sky after his enemies.
Every wall of the Main God Temple that had been on the verge of collapse shattered into powder. Even the roof that had been falling was caught in the barrage of God Destruction Cannons and disintegrated into dust.
Behind the cracked Seat of Glory, the Origin of Dimensions could be seen nodding with a satisfied expression. The bewildered parties involved in this incident, along with the Main God Enforcers who had no idea what was happening, were fortunately unharmed. And the Dimensional Mage God stood there, grinding his teeth as he stared at the now-flat ruins of the Main God Temple.
“Grrrrrr—! So it’s come to this?”
He completely erased every last building of the Main God Temple, leaving not even a speck of dust, then charged at the Origins while radiating murderous killing intent.
“I’ll kill you all miserably as payment for destroying my Main God Temple.”
Although the Origins had endured the God Destruction Cannon by explosively releasing their divine power and magical energy, smoke was still rising from their bodies. The radiant full-body combat armor they wore was now riddled with holes and injuries, yet their momentum had not diminished in the slightest.
This was because becoming a Creator God or Demon God King required experiencing concentrated barrages of God Destruction Cannons from the Substitute Gods countless times—it was practically part of their daily routine.
‘Dimensional Divine Annihilation Cannon? So he used Dimensional Authority to randomly scatter the standard God Destruction Cannon of an ordinary Main God-level Substitute God across all of space?’
‘If the range or power had been any stronger, it would have been dangerous.’
To the Creator Gods and Demon God Kings of the 499th Master Universe, the standard God Destruction Cannon of an ordinary Main God-level Substitute God could inflict damage, but it was not a fatal blow. Thanks to their killing intent and danger sense, they had mostly avoided direct hits. The injuries they suffered came only from the aftershocks of the shots that had detonated inside their bodies.
Because it had been difficult to exert their full power in that state, they had damaged the Main God Temple enough to threaten its collapse in order to buy time to recover.
‘The Main God of the Divine Realm would definitely pour his divine power and time into repairing the Main God Temple. And since the Origin of Dimensions from the Wind Family is here, as an Origin of the Dimensional Clan, he would naturally have no choice but to exert his full strength to prevent even a single speck of dust or fragment from flying about. This buys us time.’
By normal reasoning, the Dimensional Mage God should have stopped the collapse and begun repairs, allowing them to recover. Never in their wildest imaginations had they expected him to completely shatter his own Main God Temple and immediately give chase.
What was even more absurd was that he was the one who had destroyed the temple, yet he was trying to pin the entire blame on them.
“You crazy bastard—! You’re the one who nearly destroyed it all, so why are you blaming us?!”
“It’s your own Main God Temple! What the hell are you doing? Don’t you have any affection for your own Divine Realm?”
The Dimensional Mage God’s swift response was ridiculous yet effective. The Origins no longer had any breathing room to recover. They hurriedly created defensive barriers despite their weakened state, attempting to collide with the incoming dimensional barrier to push it back and suppress him—when something strange occurred.
The barriers they had created were emitted with absurdly weakened power.
“What—!”
“What is this—!”
PAAAAAAA—!
PUUUUUU—!
The moment the generated barriers collided with the dimensional barrier, they vanished like pebbles swept away by a wave. The defensive barriers—essentially the crystallized form of their own authority that had been mercilessly pushing back and attempting to crush the Dimensional Mage God just moments ago—disappeared without a trace. The now completely defenseless Origins were immediately engulfed by the dimensional barrier.
However, these were veteran gods of war who had already begun to regain their combat instincts. Even though they didn’t understand why, the instant their long-range attacks were nullified, they immediately switched to close-quarters combat.
The moment the barriers became useless, they poured every ounce of their divine power and magical energy into strengthening their bodies. They transformed into something resembling massive drills and slammed into the oncoming dimensional barrier.
“Kugh—!”
“Hng—!”
“Kr—!”
The close-range assault from two Origins and one High-ranking Creator God, each possessing over one trillion in innate divine power, was terrifying. They warped and pushed back the dimensional barrier, which normally rendered ordinary physical attacks completely ineffective.
The three of them were sent flying backward from the impact and shock that exceeded their tolerance levels. The short groans that rose in their throats were swallowed down as they clenched their lips, refusing to show weakness.
Because it had been a full-power clash where each side aimed for the other’s openings, all three sustained injuries. Blood flowed from the fists the Origins had used to deflect the dimensional barrier, and their stances faltered as if their bones had been shattered. The Dimensional Mage God, having taken internal damage from the physical impact that had pierced through his dimensional barrier, was spitting out thin streams of blood from his mouth.
Even though they had nearly gone all-out, rather than ending the fight, they had simply traded blows. The three who had been furiously brawling now had eyes that cooled with chilling focus.
‘The Dimensional Mage God isn’t just some lucky weakling who received powerful authorities despite having low innate divine power.’
‘The Origins of the 499th Master Universe aren’t just old men with high innate divine power but weak authorities.’
Their basic responses and combat methods were razor-sharp. Even after only a few exchanges, it was clear that a single mistake could have been fatal. Thanks to that, the sense of crisis—that they could be taken down absurdly easily—rose within all of them.
A single conclusion was reached.
‘They’re no pushovers.’
After adjusting the distance to look for openings in their opponent, the Origins finally identified the reason their authorities had suddenly plummeted so drastically. It hadn’t been the Dimensional Mage God’s authority. It had been applied so naturally that they had nearly fallen for it without realizing.
When they checked their surroundings, they finally noticed the bizarre sight.
The area around the Main God Temple should have been densely packed with the personal temples of the subordinate Divine Realm Administrator Gods, forming the very center of the Divine Realm. Yet this Dimensional Divine Realm was composed entirely of a vast jungle made of enormous trees. They weren’t true Cosmic Trees, but countless World Trees of comparable scale filled the area.
The forest was so vast that even a Creator God could only see the faint outlines of other high-ranking gods’ temples in the far distance. It was a truly bizarre divine realm structure, but the most important thing right now was identifying the authority that was restricting their power.
‘The terrifying, unrefined vitality generated by the cluster of World Trees is artificially forming something that is limiting the authorities of both the divine and demon races.’
‘It feels exactly like fighting directly on a planet’s surface while enduring the drop in authority? No way…’
With their vast combat experience, the Origins instantly identified the phenomenon and were left stunned.
On a planet’s surface, spiritual beings such as gods and demons had their authorities and physical abilities reduced to less than ten percent. This was due to the effect of unrefined vitality known as the Planetary Barrier and the planet’s own rejection response.
For gods and demons who required refined vitality from sentient beings to maintain their created bodies, direct intervention was extremely difficult and painful due to this harsh restriction.
The Dimensional Mage God had created something almost identical to that barrier outside the Main God Temple using a forest of World Trees.
“An artificial planetary barrier? The Main God of the Divine Realm deliberately created a planetary barrier inside his own realm that reduces the abilities of all spiritual beings to less than ten percent? And over such a vast area? Are you out of your mind?”
“You built another planetary barrier inside your own divine realm? Why would you do something so useless and insane? Does this even make sense?”
From the Origins’ perspective, they could not fathom why anyone would need a planetary barrier—one that naturally reduced the abilities of divine beings—around the Main God Temple, the very heart of their own divine realm.
If it was meant to be a defensive system against external invasion, it was useless because it would weaken not only the attacking enemy but also the defending gods of the Dimensional Divine Realm. Of course, Dimensional Authority could offset it to some degree, but neutralizing a planetary barrier—which was essentially the planet’s own resistance—was no easy task.
No matter how strong one’s barrier abilities were, it would require an enormous consumption of divine power. Since investing this much effort held no real value, it was a natural question. But the Dimensional Mage God, his face twisted in a deep scowl, roared back.
“Shut up if you don’t know anything about someone else’s circumstances—! For someone in my position where every single day is a razor’s edge, this was obviously the very first thing I had to do! It’s completely different from the position of you bastards who are already well-established and doing well—! Just take this again, you bastards—! Dimensional Divine Annihilation Cannon—!”
“What?”
“He can still activate the God Destruction Cannon in this state?”
The Origins found their divine power and authorities reduced to roughly ten percent, just as if they were standing on a planetary surface. Naturally, using high-level authorities should have been restricted. Yet even inside the same planetary barrier, the Dimensional Mage God had once again unleashed a full-powered omnidirectional Dimensional Divine Annihilation Cannon with the exact same force as before.
Considering that the God Destruction Cannon consumed extreme amounts of stamina due to its need for intense divine power concentration, this should have been impossible. A spiritual being should not be able to exert such extreme authority from within a planetary barrier.
However, there were always exceptions.
Transcendents born from a planet’s sentient beings were unaffected by planetary barriers. This was why they steadily recruited Transcendents, whose unstable mental states often made them objects of disdain, as they were highly efficient for planetary suppression.
That left only one conclusion.
“That bastard isn’t affected by the planetary barrier—! He’s a Transcendent. Dodge—! Huk—!”
“That’s right—! The Dimensional Mage God was originally human. Uuuugh—!”
Inside a planetary barrier, even a Creator God could not condense enough divine power or magical energy to block a God Destruction Cannon. And it was impossible to dodge every single shot of the energy cannons that leaped across space, striking indiscriminately from all directions—front, back, left, right, up, and down—using only physical ability.
This time they were struck directly with no defense, but they managed to deflect the attacks and avoid fatal wounds from direct hits. However, the crisis they felt reached its peak as their full-body armor was reduced to rags from the damage.
Because of that, their information exchange was lightning-fast. The interesting and critical pieces of data about the Dimensional Mage God that rose in Civil Rights’ mind were instantly transmitted to the Origin of the Demon Race. It was astonishing.
‘Is that really a human-born Transcendent with an estimated age of less than two hundred years? No matter how fast human-born sentient beings grow, how could he become this strong in such a short time? Above all, even if he possesses the title of Truth or receives help from a higher being, combat operation at this level should be impossible. Combat experience cannot simply be handed over.’
Authorities or power granted by a higher being could make one extremely strong in an instant. However, power that one was not accustomed to and that exceeded one’s capacity was naturally full of weaknesses and would eventually strain and break the body.
Yet the Dimensional Mage God was operating it perfectly. And not just any power—he was using Dimensional Authority, which was said to require tremendous computational power and physical ability, to a degree that rivaled absolute authorities.
If it was Dimensional Authority—the power that freely fused time and space to create worlds—then the answer was immediately clear.
‘It is estimated that he trained for a long period using the time compression of Dimensional Authority. If he has someone’s support, it is possible.’
‘Hah—! As expected, it really is an absurd authority.’
The Dimensional Authority itself was impressive, but the way he shamelessly prostrated himself to avoid joint attacks or freely used the planetary barrier—which caused enormous discontent among the gods—was enough to make one feel dizzy.
Watching the Origins desperately dodge the barrage of Dimensional Divine Annihilation Cannons, the Dimensional Mage God wore a bitter smile.
‘Tsk—! So there really are Creator Gods who remember me. Well, I did go a bit too wild during the Spirit Realm battle.’
In the past, the Grey Absolute had manipulated and erased all memories and records of the gods of the 499th Master Universe regarding his own past mistakes and problems. However, he had not touched the memories of high-ranking Creator Gods and above who had been collectively summoned to the 1st Master Universe to repair the boundary membrane between the Dimensional Divine Realm, the Master Universe, and the Absolute Realm.
The Creator Lords had no interest in matters concerning Main Gods, and any mistake would cause massive repercussions, so it had been a natural measure. But the previous battle with the 500th Master Universe and the Spirit Realm must have left quite an impression, as some Creator Gods still remembered.
But it didn’t matter. Only half-baked powerhouses would be shaken by such criticism.
‘That’s right! I was originally a human dark mage. Thanks to that, planetary barriers have no effect on me, so of course I should use them. From now on, I won’t deny it. No, I’ll actively use it as an advantage. If anyone wants to complain, come at me anytime. I’ll crush you all with full power.’
Now that he had obtained the temporary power of a 10-Center level through the ‘99-Second Hero God,’ the mistakes and faults from his life as a living being or as a Main God were nothing more than tiny memories. No, simply being the Origin of the Dimensional Clan meant he no longer needed to shrink back or worry about his past being revealed.
It was time to stand tall.
“That’s why—come! My Survival Magic Tower—! Creator God-level mechanical god, Antares—!”
Creator God-level Mechanical God
Antares
Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung—!
A colossal black cube that covered the entire Main God Temple and its surroundings tore through space as it appeared, blocking the sky above. And the mechanical gods of the Creator Gods—appearing as enormous dark-red planets but with brilliant magical circles engraved across their surfaces—revealed their majesty in outer space and began charging toward the Dimensional Divine Realm.