The Moment the Stars Vanish
The moment the stars began to disappear in the Otherworld War, a roar that should have been impossible in the vacuum of space thundered across the cosmic void. KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA—!
The sound, born from the vibration and tearing of space itself, resembled the bellow of some colossal monster. The sheer number of stars caught in the power just unleashed was so vast that their forced translocation to Wind Star appeared as translucent phantoms stretching across dimensions. Though they lacked tangible substance—like shadows—the sight of those enormous planets converging upon the Wind Family was utterly terrifying.
No god of the Otherworld should be capable of spatial translocation using entire planets.
Yet the ability was devouring every major celestial body within the local stellar region. The overlapping translucent planets already numbered in the hundreds, far beyond dozens. As the stars’ relocation neared completion, a trembling voice delivered its report.
Number of planets successfully translocated: OVER 1,000
“Kuh—!” A groan escaped the supreme commander’s lips.
The position of overall supervisor for the Void Realm Sealing Barrier was the fastest route to becoming a committee member. It also served as a deliberate warning: even though the Void Realm restricted the power of the Current World’s ruling class to one ten-thousandth of its full strength, one must never underestimate Truth’s terror. The predecessors who had safely completed their terms and ascended to the committee had emphasized this during the handover, and now he felt it in his very bones.
“Never place absolute faith in the Void Realm Sealing Barrier. They could shatter it anytime they wish, but they refrain because they have no need to. Should they truly decide to destroy the barrier, order an immediate full retreat to prevent unnecessary casualties. Remember that the forces stationed here represent nearly all of the Current World’s elite combat strength. The supreme commander’s greatest duty is not desperate defense—it is preserving that strength and ensuring an orderly withdrawal.”
That was why, when an Eternal Being from the Wind Family had attempted to swallow the entire barrier, he had been ready to trigger the self-destruct and order a total evacuation. Doing so would erase the entire stellar region containing Wind Star.
Whether it would actually work on Truth remains doubtful, but the self-destruct mechanism was installed precisely to provide that sliver of reassurance.
Fortunately, other members of the Wind Family had dragged the offender away before the worst occurred. This was already the second such crisis. The first had struck without warning, leaving him clueless. Witnessing it now, fully aware, was truly horrifying.
The divine power surging from Wind Star like a tidal wave had already surpassed several hundred billion. Is this the strength of the Void Realm’s War Gods under Truth’s direct command? Their divine power and authority are monstrous. Should I order the self-destruct and retreat?
Detonating the barrier created through the Otherworld’s total war effort would leave an indelible stain on his career. Yet the steadily rising waves of divine and magical power were far more terrifying. The surrounding War Gods had fallen completely silent, bodies trembling. Seeing the elite troops—selected specifically to block the Void Realm’s inhabitants and avoid ridicule—now paralyzed with fear, the situation was clearly beyond saving.
Once the sudden planetary translocations ended, only pitch-black space remained when they looked around. He had no idea what would become of the absorbed stars, but this was the absolute worst-case scenario.
Every star and planet that once emitted light in this stellar system has been completely swallowed. Such authority is beyond all expectation. Above all, the Void Realm Sealing Barrier is designed for power defense and anti-personnel use. It cannot counter an authority on this stellar-system scale—! Retreat is the only option.
He immediately decided on withdrawal and reached for the barrier’s self-destruct device. It was not because he was incompetent or wished to flee. The position of supreme commander here was never granted without genuine ability. No matter how rampant corruption and the buying and selling of offices might be in the Current World, such things could never happen in this post. Truth herself proved that fact.
If Truth, who occasionally ventures outside, passes through the barrier and judges that the defense force commander is weaker than his subordinates, she kills him on the spot.
Absurd as it was, a supreme commander who failed to earn Truth’s recognition would be erased. Commanders weaker than their own troops were deemed useless and eliminated by the highest ruling gods for that very reason.
Even when the committee protested to stop this practice, Truth would simply smirk and continue the erasures, declaring that she could not tolerate the ugly sight of the weak pretending to be strong and lording over others.
Yet they could not station weak War Gods to seal the incredibly powerful Void Realm while under the reincarnation constraints. As a result, only the strongest among the carefully selected true Main Gods from the ruling class could be assigned here. And even then, half were erased for falling short of Truth’s standards. Simply surviving an audience with Truth as supreme commander was proof enough of one’s qualification for a committee seat.
That is why, despite being the shortest path to becoming a committee member, no Main God below the absolute elite ever volunteers. And I, having met Truth directly and survived, am the very best.
Even he—who was praised as the greatest War God in the military—had accepted this mission at the risk of his life. To be acknowledged as supreme commander in a place where one had to face the unpredictable Truth, personal strength was the baseline. Far more critical was one’s crisis sense. And right now, that crisis sense was screaming at full volume.
No—the scene unfolding on Wind Star left no room for further hesitation. The vanished stars had reappeared, blanketing the space around Wind Star in utter blackness. Moreover, the surfaces of the planets were writhing ominously, as if ready to explode at any moment.
If even a single planet detonates, a Main God cannot avoid fatal injury. If hundreds explode simultaneously, total annihilation is inevitable.
It was not only their own sacrifice that concerned him. He feared to even imagine how far the blast wave would reach. Still, the troops had to be preserved intact. The retreat order had already been issued, and desperate voices rang out as spatial gates opened everywhere.
“The stars are going to explode! Retreat via spatial translocation—now! Hurry—!”
“Huuuuaaaaah—!”
“Retreat—! Hic—!”
“Guh—! What the—?!”
Just as he finished ordering the withdrawal and prepared to escape through spatial translocation himself, an involuntary scream tore from his throat. The instant they tried to interfere with space, an overwhelming repulsive force shook their internals and inflicted critical damage.
The high-ranking gods’ frantic, shrieking reports followed immediately.
All stellar coordinates in this system have been distorted!
Every spatial coordinate has been nullified!
Spatial translocation for retreat is impossible.
The supreme commander ground his teeth. The crisis he had felt upon first seeing those wings of light now stood fully revealed.
“Krrgh—! Was this the work of that golden-winged authority earlier? It has seized every spatial coordinate in this stellar system—! I never imagined the authority of those light wings—which pierced the barrier without destroying it and merely expanded its meaningless territory—could also seal spatial translocation. No, I could scarcely believe such an authority even existed: one that could relocate thousands of planets at once while simultaneously blocking everyone else’s spatial movement.”
I must trigger the self-destruct and flee, but it’s already too late. If I detonate it now, we will all perish. Then what? Should I reinforce the barrier and request reinforcements instead?
The moment the commander abandoned any hope of a clean retreat and shifted to a desperate defense, his face turned deathly pale as he stared at the barrier. Something was continuously slamming into it.
BOOM—! DOOM—! BOOM—! BOOM—!
Although the reincarnation constraint limited them to one ten-thousandth of their power, the Void Realm Sealing Barrier had still managed to block most of the mighty beings living on Wind Star. Yet the planets that had vanished earlier now reappeared inside the barrier, immediately reversing direction to collide with and crush it. The supposedly absolute barrier was crumpling like a sheet of paper being pushed aside by a massive boulder, on the verge of tearing apart.
The sight of it fracturing nearly drew a scream from his throat.
“No—! The barrier is nearly perfect against authority-based attacks and impacts, but it has no countermeasures against such colossal mass! Once the barrier vanishes, the stars will explode. Everyone, retreat under your own power!”
The barrier, lacking any defense against the immeasurably vast mass of those giant planets, was already at the brink of rupture. They had been completely outmaneuvered; there was no longer any possibility of fortifying behind the barrier. Worse, the planets colliding against it in a chain reaction looked ready to detonate at any second. If the barrier completely collapsed and the planets exploded in a chain of blasts, the entire local stellar region—perhaps even the whole sector of the universe—could be obliterated.
This could not be allowed to continue.
Neither retreat nor defense is possible? Then we must attack… but against whom? Attack Truth? That’s absurd—! Calm down. I must stay calm.
SLAP—!
Cornered beyond reason, the commander had even considered the unthinkable for the sake of the Otherworld’s safety. He struck his own forehead with his right hand. His rationality had partially returned, yet he still could not see any viable response. Then another bizarre phenomenon caught his eye.
A colossal Creator God wearing a robe enlarged to the scale of the space around Wind Star had unfurled thirteen pairs of wings of light and thirteen pairs of wings of darkness. It was the Otherworld god who had dared to claim the title of Truth Deputy without any credentials and attempted to pass through.
“That illegal intruder from earlier—! You actually survived on Wind Star?”
Any being who escaped the Void Realm and fell onto Wind Star would naturally be dragged back or disposed of immediately. Since the intruder had been sent to the surface of a Wind Family planet, the commander had assumed he would have been dealt with at once by the Wind Family or killed outright. Yet here he was, alive. Beings from the Current World were treated no differently. Therefore, it had been perfectly natural for anything that collided with or touched the barrier to be forcibly transported to Wind Star’s surface.
The reason this property existed was that Truth’s standards for “beings worth keeping alive” were extraordinarily high and strict, far beyond common sense. Moreover, anyone who entered Wind Star without permission and was judged too weak would be disposed of immediately, regardless of status. Even in Truth’s absence, the unpredictable nature and criteria of the millions of beings living there made survival impossible.
It is estimated that a single being from that planet—completely infested by the Otherworld and able to wield its full power without the reincarnation constraint—could single-handedly destroy the entire Otherworld. Over five million such powerful entities have already been observed. And he survived their grasp?
Furthermore, thanks to the Void Realm Conversion Barrier constructed from those enormous black monoliths, those beings could exert their original strength in full. Falling illegally onto Truth’s Wind Star, teeming with such powerhouses, meant no one could possibly survive or return. That was precisely how they had dealt with destruction gods too powerful for the Current World to handle, or troublesome entities whose divinity was too high to erase. The process was so swift that death was instantaneous upon being thrown in. To see him alive and well was simply unbelievable.
“Impossible—! Did you actually earn Truth’s recognition to the point that your illegal intrusion onto Wind Star was forgiven?”
As if he had heard those words, the giant robed Creator God’s illusion ground his teeth and roared.
Demanding credentials by citing regulations, then slamming him into the barrier to send him crashing onto Wind Star—it had all been a trap meant to have him killed by Truth.
They knew about Truth and Wind Star perfectly well and still did this. I was the fool for hesitating, thinking the ruling class should set an example by following the rules and going to obtain proper certification from Truth, just as the books said.
He could have endured it if the opponent had been stronger, but to be stabbed in the back by those far weaker than himself was infuriating.
At the same moment as the enraged shout, the collisions between the planets accelerated violently, accompanied by deafening roars.
KWAAA—! KWAAA—! KWAAA—! KWAAA—!
CRAAAAAACK—!
Unable to withstand the continuous impacts and overlapping mass, the barrier finally shattered completely. And then the colossal planets descended upon the gods of the Otherworld waiting behind it.