Welcome to My Hometown
The Origins gritted their teeth at the sight of more than ten Creator God-level mechanical gods—each one larger than a giant planet and wielding authorities that surpassed those of a Lord God—swarming toward them. 'Ugh! In normal conditions, the numbers wouldn't matter, but the current situation is far too unfavorable. This is going to be tough.'
The memory of the Spirit Realm battle flashed through their minds, where hundreds of Origins from the 500th Master Universe had been so pathetically overwhelmed. Though they were fellow Origins, being so disgracefully defeated by mere Creator Candidates had left them too ashamed to speak, even as their divine essences were sealed away. Yet that same fate could easily become their own. No—in this planetary barrier that drastically suppressed the power of divine beings, it would definitely happen.
'We have to break out of here somehow.'
Woooong!Thuuuud!
They gathered every ounce of divine power and mana they possessed and shot straight upward. With spatial teleportation sealed off, their only option was to burst through the skies above the Dimensional Divine Realm at maximum speed.
'The basic structure of all divine realms is essentially the same—a fortress layout.'
'Penetrating from the outside is difficult, but breaking out from within is easy.'
But the moment the Survival Magic Tower floating in the void emitted a sinister wave of magical energy, everything twisted.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
Every visible space and timeline distorted. A sound like shattering glass engulfed the entire sky above the Dimensional Divine Realm. The Origins charging at high speed took the full brunt of the shockwave. The result was horrific.
“Gwaaaaaah—!”
“Kwaaaaaah—!”
Crrrrrrack!Cr-cr-cr-cr-crack!
Even inside the planetary barrier, the bodies of these powerful Creator Gods split open with horrifying cracks. From their skin to their muscles, the sound of razor-sharp blades slicing through flesh echoed as blood sprayed into the void like fountains.
Yet far more serious than these critical injuries was the fact that the phenomenon was trying to forcibly transport them somewhere.
Whooooosh—!Fwoooooosh—!
'Forced spatial transfer?'
'It's a dimensional shift!'
They had no desire to learn where this forced relocation would take them. They simply resisted with desperate fury against the overwhelming sense of crisis.
While the Origins struggled against the spatial severing phenomenon triggered by the Survival Magic Tower’s magical power, the Dimensional Mage God floated calmly in the air without any disturbance. In fact, he was using his dimensional authority to accelerate the spacetime severing effect even further.
With the ease of long familiarity, he controlled the spacetime distortion and spoke slowly.
“The Great Cavity in the Great Forest. My hometown, where the demonic energy constantly pouring from the gateway to the Demon Realm reacts with the condensed vitality of the Great Forest to create endless storms of dimensional distortion. Welcome to this nostalgic sight of mine.”
Wooooooooooooooong—!
When the Origins saw countless objects resembling black bricks slicing through space and materializing around the Dimensional Mage God, they didn’t hesitate for a second. They immediately descended into the forest.
“Now then! A proper welcome—!”
The closer they got to the surface, the more they felt their authorities and divine power declining under the influence of the powerful planetary barrier. Yet they had no time to hesitate. The dimensional distortion storm unleashed by the Survival Magic Tower’s magical energy completely ignored physical toughness and inflicted direct damage. On top of that, they sensed an even greater threat from the black bricks he had just pulled from subspace. They had to act immediately.
Thud—!Splaaaaat—!
The moment Civil Rights landed on the forest floor, he broke into a sprint, searching for an escape route. Despite only fighting twice, he had taken damage exceeding even a deathmatch against a Lord God from the Substitute Race. This made him painfully realize just how foolish it was to fight in the Dimensional Mage God’s fully prepared domain. And since this was the man’s home base, the situation was even more dire.
'We must escape this cursed artificial planetary barrier and divine realm at all costs. This is no battlefield where we can fight properly.'
'This is the Dimensional Mage God’s divine realm. Who knows what other preparations he has?'
'Damn it all—! He really is the Mage God—! The longer the battle drags on, the less we can handle him. We should have killed him when he was still letting his guard down!'
'The main gate of the divine realm is this way. Move faster—!'
'Huk—! A massive amount of divine power is shifting.'
'How many? Straight lines? He’s turning the entire area into his attack zone again.'
'Just what kind of authority does this guy have that everything is wide-range and long-distance—!'
'You can’t dodge the Dimensional Mage God’s authority by sight or sensation. Predict with everything you have and perform evasive maneuvers—!'
Piiiiing!Wiiiiiiing!
The Origins, who had been fleeing in straight lines, suddenly began drawing bizarre, intricate curves. They exchanged information with one another as if they had never been enemies, responding with incredible speed. They had no choice—if they didn’t, their lives would be snuffed out in an instant.
When the Origins’ once-straight escape paths twisted into dizzying curves to avoid his aerial bombardment, a smile formed on the Dimensional Mage God’s lips.
“Pfft—! You call that evasion? To me, the one who threw bricks into a dimensional distortion to build the Magic Tower, that’s laughable.”
He extended his right hand in a grasping motion, and the black bricks all froze at once. Then, as if adjusting their attack trajectories, their angles shifted.
“Even the Black Flame Absolute couldn’t ignore this attack. Try receiving it. At your level, there won’t even be any space to dodge.”
Fwooooooooosh—!Swish-swish-swish-swish-swish—!
The instant the Dimensional Mage God made a throwing motion, the black bricks vanished from the sky. The moment the bricks that had filled the heavens disappeared, even the dimensional distortion storm seemed affected, and a brief silence fell.
The Origins didn’t know what was about to happen, but the instinctive shudder of crisis racing across their bodies refused to fade. They continued their maximum-effort evasive maneuvers.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble—!Grrrrrrrrumble—!
Most of them managed to avoid the attack, only to witness black rain falling from the sky to the ground. The black bricks emerged from the earth and shot upward at ultra-high speeds, punching perfectly square holes through everything they touched. Countless square holes were being drilled through the World Tree forest and the very fabric of space.
'He’s using dimensional transfer as an attack?'
'He’s forcibly transferring any body part that makes direct contact with the black bricks.'
There was no explosion—only a faint sound like a plane shaving wood. Yet the fact remained that a direct hit to a vital spot meant instant death. Even a Creator God would die if a brick-sized hole was punched through their head or heart. And with tens of thousands of such attacks erupting from the ground simultaneously, it was utterly terrifying.
'Under normal circumstances we could deflect them all with barriers, but inside the planetary barrier it’s impossible.'
'We have to dodge!'
Worse, the attacks came without warning from directly beneath their feet like landmines, completely outside their familiar field of vision. Blocking or evading them was even harder. Still, they quickly found a countermeasure—concentrating barriers only beneath their feet to defend while immediately resuming their sprint.
Shuuuuuuuuuuuu—!
The barriers under their feet barely managed to block the rain of black bricks. The Origins increased their speed even further. As they used footholds created by concentrating the Dimensional Mage God’s own authority and magical power to defend against the rising bricks and distance themselves, his expression hardened.
'Even though the opponents are this strong and fighting with everything they have, not a single thing is going as planned.'
On top of that, this had been a carefully devised trump card attack, yet it had failed to inflict any damage.
'It gets blocked that easily? The Black Flame Absolute struggled to avoid it, so how are they responding so effortlessly? Is this not a matter of raw power but of combat experience?'
The Creator Gods and Origins of the 499th Master Universe were the strongest of the strong—beings who had stubbornly survived for a billion years through endless deathmatches and certification battles against both the Substitute Race and the Demon God Race. Their ability to improvise and survive was truly ferocious.
'They’re strong in direct confrontations, but the moment they’re even slightly at a disadvantage they flee. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t kill them, and I can’t capture them. Yet they haven’t given up on the fight either. They’re constantly looking for an opening in my defenses.'
Even though they were running away, he couldn’t let his guard down. Their intent to launch a surprise attack the moment even the slightest gap appeared was blatantly obvious. They never let their vigilance toward the enemy slip for even an instant. The Dimensional Mage God knew this well because he had faced such opponents himself. He now understood bone-deep the feelings of his past enemies who had ground their teeth in such bitter resentment.
Moreover, the Origins were escaping so quickly that they had already crossed the forest and nearly reached the boundary where the temples stood. The Dimensional Mage God shook his head as he watched.
'It was surprising enough that those two who had been trying to kill each other immediately joined forces the moment a common enemy appeared. But to see them resort to both surprise attacks and flight without hesitation—they really aren’t easy opponents. Was I this annoying too? I can’t finish this with my own power. What now?'
At this rate, he might actually lose them. If that happened, there was a chance they would return with the entire Extinction Black Lightning Demon God Race and the Ideal God Race for a full-scale invasion.
'Would the divine and demon races really go that far? No, judging by how they’re acting now, they absolutely would.'
Facing upper-tier Origins who each commanded their entire clans alone was an extremely dangerous prospect, no matter how strong he was.
'Sending a dispatch to the Otherworld to avoid direct confrontation is an option, but I might return to find both the Dimensional Divine Realm and the Main Divine Realm destroyed, leaving me as a mercenary god with nowhere to go.'
The days when he had struggled desperately to earn recognition after ascending to the divine realm felt like yesterday. He had risked his life countless times, earning military merits and mercenary achievements to reach this point. He could not allow himself to fall back into such a state. He would soon have to head to the Otherworld; he could not leave such a threat behind.
'No choice then. It’s a bit uneasy, but…'
He glanced at the Dimensional Origin of the Wind Family, lightly raised his head, and looked at the Creator God-level mechanical god Antares that had already arrived. It had perfectly established an encirclement formation.
He raised his right hand and pointed with his ring finger at the backs of the desperately fleeing Origins. Then, in a slightly pitying tone, he commanded:
“That’s enough. Fire.”
Thudududududu!Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble—!
The instant the order was given, beams of light poured down from Antares’s surface with enough force to completely engulf the area around the Origins. The overwhelming barrage was impossible to avoid. The Origins were struck directly. Of course they tried to resist by creating barriers, but it was futile.
Shukagagagagagagaga—!
Thus, the battle ended alongside the countless meteor shower raining down from Antares onto the Origins. This time they could not dodge. The sight of the Origins pierced by countless wooden swords, collapsed on the ground and groaning, filled the air. The countless meteors embedded in the ground and the World Tree around them were all Swords of Ruin and Soul.
The attack—fired at ultra-high speed from Antares using the Swords of Ruin and Soul, which carried the immortality of Truth, as ammunition—had even pierced the body of the Black Flame Absolute that had descended upon the Dimensional Mage God. There was no way the Origins of a Master Universe could withstand such an absolute assault.
Watching the battle end so easily, the Dimensional Origin tilted his head.
“Huh? You lent those out and didn’t retrieve them? Is that really okay?”
The Sword of Ruin and Soul possessed the property of immortality in exchange for the trait of non-killing. Within its indestructible durability range, it was an absolute weapon, yet it would never kill its target.
'Since it is a top-tier absolute weapon, it contains some of the user’s own authority, but only at a negligible level, so it doesn’t provide much help.'
Therefore, they were all stored at the main house except when disciplining young ones who could not yet control their power properly or when training successors who might accidentally use power beyond their limits. They were not weapons but unchanging memories of childhood and symbols of being a member of the Wind Family.
'That’s why when the Mage God grandfather requested five million Swords of Ruin and Soul from the main house to make the Second Generation Wind Absolute the top-ranked being in the Absolute Realm, they were handed over without resistance.'
However, seeing them used merely as ammunition made it difficult to judge what to say. The Dimensional Mage God’s Origin had always been exceptional even among the Wind Family Origins active in the Absolute Realm and the Master Universes. He would accept any sacrifice or effort to achieve his goals and had reached an almost unrivaled level in the fields of discipline and operational execution. The Dimensional Origin wondered whether he should be angry that such a person had used the Swords of Ruin and Soul he had personally lent for nothing more than capturing Origins of a Master Universe, and whether he should demand their return.
It would certainly carry a high chance of provoking rage.
'Ah—I don’t want to be hated by the previous generations…'
The personality of the Wind Family’s Dimensional Mage God’s Origin was even more frightening than his authority. Moreover, as the one in charge of disciplining the problem children of the Wind Family, he held significant influence over the younger generation. If he were labeled as a rude problem child who didn’t even recognize his ancestors, he might end up spending his entire life preparing ancestral rites and burning incense.
'If I’m seen in a bad light, it definitely won’t end with just getting my ears grabbed and being dragged away for a scolding.'
Of course, even a Dimensional Origin of the Wind Family had no power to stop it. If only one or two ancestors came, he might somehow escape, but once five or more gathered, no member of the Wind Family could withstand them. And fundamentally, the number of ancestors above him was not five but well over several million. Most of the Wind Family who remained in the main house training solely to increase their own strength were extremely conservative traditionalists who would never tolerate any disruption to the current order.
'If those people decide to move, no being could possibly endure it.'
For these various reasons, no matter how powerful a member of the Wind Family might be, treating one’s ancestors carelessly would never end well. In the end, they all became filial children. The moment even the slightest hint of rebellion appeared, tens of thousands would come running as if it were their own business to teach proper manners. There was simply no way to resist.
“It should be fine, though. Most of them aren’t even used properly anyway…”
In the end, he decided to let it slide.
“If it cannot kill the enemy, then it is not a weapon but a tool. That is why, once one reaches adulthood and finishes educating their successor, they usually create their own absolute weapon. There is almost no need for these, so they are simply kept in storage. I never imagined they would be used as ammunition, but it is rather amusing. It seems better than leaving them as unused decorative pieces, so I shall continue to turn a blind eye.”
After creating his own justification and pondering for a moment, he soon leaned back in his chair.
“In this world, all that matters is that it is fun. As long as endless progress continues and Truth Grandfather does not grow bored and give up, everything is good.”
As long as the prerequisite condition of maintaining endless development for eternal happiness was upheld, there was no problem. And if the role of the 10 Mainstays was to break through obstacles to achieve their goals, then it was the job of the Absolute Realm and the clans to widen the path that had been opened. Minimizing the damage that would occur during that breakthrough process was precisely the primary duty of the Wind Family’s Origins.
'Worlds and clans that are too weak cannot endure endless progress, so we strengthen them.'
The Wind Family had voluntarily sealed their gates, but the reason they were permitted to create new clans and help them prosper was exactly this.
'Of course, once a clan’s Origin is created, autonomy is granted. So my main task is to support from behind so that Truth Grandfather’s and the Wind Family’s affairs go well.'
Therefore, it was time for him to do what he needed to do. This was also why he had deliberately intervened directly in the 499th Master Universe—not even the Absolute Realm—while providing critical information about the 1,001st Master Universe.
In a serious tone, he called out.
“Ram.”
The instant the words left his mouth, a being with twenty-six pairs of light wings appeared from space, knelt, and answered respectfully.
“Sangharama of Garam, Creator General of the 499th Master Universe.”
The Dimensional Origin, who had casually abbreviated the title of Creator General, showed no hesitation.
“Ran.”
“Aranya of Jinma, Demon Emperor of the 499th Master Universe.”
The strongest of the Demon God Race, the Demon Emperor possessing twenty-six pairs of dark wings and one pair of light wings, also immediately appeared at the call and knelt respectfully.
He had called the two representatives of the Master Universe, but that was not the end. He summoned one more Creator God.
“Ra.”
“Vihara of Jinmyeol, Intermediate Creator God and Special Duty Officer of the 499th Master Universe.”
The three who now knelt side by side before the Dimensional Origin, heads bowed as they awaited orders, were warriors who could be called the strongest in the Master Universe without any shame. They were renowned powerhouses who had earned their titles and strength through life-or-death battles even in the Absolute Realm, then returned to the Master Universe to develop and maintain it to this level. They were not the type to show such obedient attitudes simply because their opponent was stronger.
Yet Sangharama the Creator General and Aranya the Demon Emperor could say nothing and only remained tense. Even Vihara—who had received a vacation directly from Truth, ignored the world, and spent his time resting and playing—was the same.
The Dimensional Origin’s eyes as he looked at them—the ones who best fit Truth’s standards for favoring the strong—were extremely warm. Then he suddenly burst into laughter.
“Pfft—! Ram, Ran, Ra? Lalala? It sounds like the names of singers. But why are you all in such precarious states? The titles you worked so hard to earn and your training conditions are really strange, aren’t they? Are you doing it on purpose? Someone once spouted nonsense about how suffering in one’s youth is a good thing, but you don’t actually believe that, do you? If you suffer when young, you’ll collapse from chronic illness when you grow old.”
“……”
“……”
“……”
If anyone else had mocked their names and titles like this, they would have killed them on the spot. However, the other party was an Origin of the Wind Family—an existence said to stand at the very peak even among the supreme Eternal Beings who had evolved from Spiritual Beings.
'As those who directly serve and meet the Creator, we know the terror of the Wind Family better than anyone.'
'The power and presence of the Wind Family heads surpass even the Creator.'
'They can erase a single Spiritual Being in the blink of an eye.'
The moment he even mentioned their physical conditions and authorities as laughable, their minds snapped to full alertness. At this rate, all the weaknesses they had hidden because there was no way to fix them might be completely exposed. What they feared even more was being forcibly sent to the Wind Star under the pretext of insufficient training to make up for it.
'I don’t want to become a dog or a sparrow. That would truly be the end.'
If dragged to the Wind Star, their accumulated training meant they probably wouldn’t become bugs or birds, but the probability of starting as a dog rather than a human was extremely high. In fact, it was an established truth proven by the precedent of the Demon Emperor, who in the past had relied solely on his strength and acted arrogantly toward the Eternal Being Creator, only to be taken to the Wind Star as a sparrow and barely allowed to return.
And while they were recognized as the greatest powerhouses in the Master Universe, reaching the Absolute Realm made even high-ranking warriors struggle.
'Eternal Beings find it easy to resurrect or regenerate lower Spiritual Beings, so they act without restraint.'
'If the highest ruling class of Spiritual Beings lets their guard down, they can literally be disposed of like insects.'
Thus, even though they were far beyond Lower Gods, cold sweat that they would never normally shed began to form on their backs.
“Kahahahahahaha—! Insufficient training? Aren’t you just too surprised? Shall I help? As expected, the Wind Star really is the best place for beings from the Master Universe or the Absolute Realm to train. Is there a Wind Star that catches your fancy? Shall I arrange it for you?”
“!”
“!”
“!”
The Dimensional Origin was clearly speaking with goodwill and laughter. But to the three warriors, it sounded like a death sentence dragging them into a purgatory where they might be taken as dogs and never know when they could escape. Their hearts felt ready to drop. The three of them grew even more flustered.