The Otherworld's Rotten Core

The screams and roars that had echoed across the Otherworld War for so long gradually faded, until at last they fell completely silent. In their place, a long line of figures stretched across the void of space. It was the gods of the Otherworld, now standing in single file before the Dimension Creator God Coa.

“Stand properly according to your actual ability—!”

Thwack—!Thud—!

The Transcendents of the Otherworld who hesitated or dawdled while trying to join the line saw the killing intent and fighting spirit vanish from Coa’s eyes. What replaced it was nothing but pure contempt.

‘Why are these so-called Transcendents folding so quickly? Shouldn’t they at least last a hundred years? If these really are the elite, it’s a complete waste of vitality. They should’ve been wiped out by planetary explosions and my direct strikes.’

Still, as the one in overall command, the man at the very front of the line—his face now swollen and covered in bruises—lifted his head. Coa stared at him and spoke.

“What exactly was your original rank and formation? For Transcendents and War Gods, strength is everything. How can there be superiors weaker than their own subordinates? Do you people wage war with nothing but your mouths and fancy poses? The higher-ups are supposed to focus on strategy and tactics after proving they’re stronger than those below them! Isn’t this a completely broken army?”

After testing them personally, Coa had discovered that the Otherworld did not assign ranks based on ability. The extremely rare few with genuine talent—those who could perceive and endure or counter the attacks of the Sword of Ruin and Soul, which bypassed the limits of time and space through Dimensional Authority—were mostly stuck in low positions. Yet even with talent, their low divine power made any counterattack impossible. The higher ranks were even worse. Most of them screamed after a single blow, ordered their subordinates to block for them, and then collapsed.

Once the superiors crumbled so pathetically, it was only natural the lower ranks surrendered just as quickly. Coa had no intention of recognizing such disgraceful behavior as belonging to the upper echelons. Even the overall commander—who had blocked relatively well but kept protesting until ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his lips were the only thing left massively swollen—finally shut his mouth at the sight of his so-called superiors.

‘At least the overall commander is somewhat useful. Everyone below him is trash.’

Coa looked over the line he had arranged strictly according to the abilities he had personally tested. The upper ranks who had fallen first were pushed all the way to the back, while the lower ranks with comparatively weaker divine power but greater endurance stood at the front. In the 499th Main Universe, where strength determined everything and even qualification tests were conducted under the strong-first principle, this was an impossible state of affairs.

He now understood bone-deep why Jinri had suddenly asked him why countries and organizations collapsed.

‘The upper gods are weaker than their subordinates in every way except divine power. This is clear proof that positions in the Otherworld are inherited purely by status and faction. If this really is the best condition of the Otherworld’s elite forces, then the situation is extremely serious.’

While personal effort mattered for divine power, it ultimately rose sharply through surrounding support and authorities. Even in the 499th Main Universe, acknowledged as the strongest among the Main Universes, only by intensively nurturing those with the greatest talent and most powerful authorities could one barely cross the wall of a Lord God. And those chosen were, just like in the Otherworld, mostly direct descendants of the ruling class.

The direct descendants of the 499th Main Universe at least had the highest chance of growing stronger than ordinary gods thanks to talents inherited from the best Transcendents and fierce competition among heirs. That much was understandable. But this… this was a complete mess. Coa was starting to doubt his own plan of reviving the Otherworld and adding it to his career achievements.

Pouring all that emotion into his next action, he threw the appointment letter he had received from Jinri at the overall commander standing right in front of him.

“Here’s the appointment letter I received directly from Jinri. Now do you understand that I am the Truth Deputy? That means I have to verify all of your qualifications—and every single one of you has failed! Are you people even real Transcendents?”

As he spoke, the irritation from what he had suffered at the hands of the Wind Family flared up again. He swung the Sword of Ruin and Soul and smacked the overall commander’s head once more.

“If you’re a real Transcendent, you should at least last a hundred years!”

Wham—!

“Guh—!”

The blow was so powerful that the commander’s forehead swelled endlessly. After being hit only on the lips several times before, the sudden strike to another area made stars explode before his eyes and his vision go completely black. Yet he couldn’t fight back. The gap in authority and divine power was simply too vast.

‘The innate divine power he’s displaying with that body is at least twenty billion. Considering the Reincarnation Limit that reduces divine power by a factor of ten thousand, his original power must be over two hundred trillion? No, that can’t be right. If someone with only ten billion like me can measure his divine power, it means he’s removed the limit with his authority? There was an authority in the Void Realm capable of解除 the Reincarnation Limit? This is absurd…’

The planet where that Void Realm existed was completely off-limits to beings from the Otherworld, so they had no way of knowing what went on inside. The only place the Otherworld could investigate with its full force was the Main Universe. The Absolute Realm, wrapped in layer after layer of Main Universes, was unknowable to them.

That was why they had judged the gods of the Otherworld by Main Universe standards, believing they could handle the Reincarnation Limit. After all, even if one’s innate divine power was ten trillion, it would drop to a mere billion upon arriving in the Current World.

But seeing the terrifying abilities of Jinri and the beings on that planet, it was entirely possible such an authority existed. For the Current World, which had grown complacent relying only on the Main Universe and the Reincarnation Limit, this was an emergency of catastrophic proportions.

‘But now I see it was a serious miscalculation. This needs to be reported again and measures taken. Still… what am I supposed to say when the Truth Deputy active in the Otherworld possesses such an authority? It’s good that our side has strong forces and no restrictions. But is this guy just going to resort to violence at the drop of a hat?’

As far as he knew, the Truth Deputy was a powerful asset that the Supreme Committee and the Committee had begged Jinri to grant them. Yet here was that same deputy, swinging violence around without warning. It was almost as if he feared people would doubt he was Jinri’s representative if he didn’t immediately try to destroy the entire Otherworld while chasing down fugitives.

‘Even if I try to investigate his authority, there’s no way he’ll cooperate obediently.’

On top of that, he possessed an authority that let him simultaneously beat over a hundred thousand Transcendents with a wooden sword, ignoring all limits of time and space. Watching the elite forces of the Otherworld collapse and surrender so easily to mere strikes from a wooden sword left the commander utterly dumbfounded.

But after taking a few hits himself, he immediately understood why. The power contained within that wooden sword was an unimaginably high-level authority. If even he—a Lord God evaluated as one of the very best—could barely endure it, expecting lower gods to hold out was simply unreasonable.

What was even worse than the authority was the man’s personality and mouth.

“Report on the Otherworld’s military strength again! You mouthy bastard who only knows how to talk. How dare you call an army something that folds so easily to pain, you bunch of weaklings?”

“……”

‘The level difference is just too much—!’

There were many things he wanted to say in response to such tyranny, and he certainly couldn’t reveal classified information in public, but the other party wouldn’t take no for an answer. Still, if it was Jinri they were talking about, even the Supreme Committee gave that name the greatest weight. Of course Jinri had never once attended a committee meeting, but the power of that name had been continuously proven and acknowledged by the committee members who had carried out their duties on the front lines.

‘Even after being weakened to one ten-thousandth by the Reincarnation Limit, that power easily erases Lord Gods. Everyone feels awe toward it.’

That was why a position that had originally been nothing more than a member of the Supreme Committee had now become, both officially and unofficially, the de facto number one seat.

‘That individual is nearly equal to the Creator himself. And with the Creator currently asleep due to a lack of vitality, this person is practically the supreme ruler. Naturally, their security clearance is also the highest level.’

Combat-related matters were originally highly classified, but so much had already been made public that there was no longer any point in hiding it. No—if the god of the Otherworld before him truly was the Truth Deputy, then the first thing to do was deliver a current status report.

The overall commander in charge of the Void Realm blockade was a core figure in the military. He understood the severity of the situation better than anyone.

‘At this point, even our deterrent force is insufficient. If things continue like this, we’ll be finished by the surrounding rebel factions. We must expand our forces by any means necessary. But those idiots on the other committees don’t understand that. They’ve never fought a war, so they only try to cut the budget. They don’t know what it means to die. Bastards who deserve to be slaughtered.’

Most of the committee that controlled the budget weren’t Transcendents, so communication was impossible. Still, this god of the Void Realm who called himself the Truth Deputy had started with violence. That alone proved he really was a Transcendent.

Convincing a Transcendent Truth Deputy to understand the military’s need to expand forces and increase the budget was now the military’s top priority.

“The Transcendent forces consist of 100 Lord Gods and 550,000 High Gods.”

“……”

There was no reply as he reported their strength. The only response was a terrifyingly twisted scowl.

“In case of emergency, we have approximately three million reserve forces. These are individuals who completed the regular Transcendent training course and returned to life as ordinary gods. With simple retraining, they can display their original combat power.”

“Hah? Does that even make sense?”

A sarcastic snort and short question escaped, as if something had gone terribly wrong, but since nothing more was said, the commander continued his report.

“For defensive purposes, 400,000 are currently deployed. The elite forces used for defense and special operations number around 100,000, and there is a 50,000-strong unit for covert assault operations. This is the total current military strength of the Otherworld.”

“……”

Crack. Crack.

By the time he reached that point, a spine-chilling sound rang out from the wooden sword gripped in Coa’s right hand. The bulging muscles and veins made it look like the sword itself was itching to be swung. The commander shuddered as he remembered being beaten senseless by that very club just moments ago. He had received blows that should have annihilated him, yet he hadn’t died—only suffered unimaginable pain he had never experienced before.

‘Come to think of it, it’s exactly like the wooden sword Jinri always carries.’

“Total forces of 550,000 with 3.5 million in reserves? And 100 Lord Gods? From the average level I see in you and the rest, I can already guess. Is this really everything? Still, the Otherworld is supposed to be on the same scale as the Absolute Realm, so there must be hidden forces, right?”

The words dripped with pure contempt and disdain. Just listening to them made rage boil up naturally.

‘Who else but the Truth Deputy would ask such a ridiculous question in exactly the same way!’

After his new appointment, he had never dared visit Jinri directly. But whenever Jinri appeared during an outing, this was exactly the kind of formal report he always gave. And just like now, he would always receive that same question at the end. He had answered honestly while tense with nerves, only for Jinri to laugh and leave. The memory made his blood boil.

‘Hehehehe—! It may be hard to develop, but it’s ridiculously easy to collapse.’

He was furious at being mocked, but he didn’t dare show it. The facts were the facts, and as a powerful individual appointed overall commander, he had no choice but to acknowledge them. Yet personally, he had already sensed how precarious his position was.

He absolutely could not end up like the more than half of his predecessors who had been branded as weak and erased.

‘I only heard about it, but the results of more than half the previous ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠commanders being erased the moment they met Jinri were clearly displayed on the desk right in front of me.’

The office inherited by generations of overall commanders was strangely decorated entirely in red. The massive desk and reporting devices were all blood-red, and the room was filled with a thick scent like a woman’s boudoir. The moment he sat at the desk, his shock only grew. Every commander’s desk had the names and histories of their predecessors engraved upon it—a reminder not to be satisfied with the present but to aim even higher.

‘The overall commander of the Void Realm blockade is supposed to be someone who has reached the pinnacle in both status and ability. Naturally, all of them had gone on to become committee members or hold similarly high positions. Their glorious careers were written beside their names.’

Yet when listed in order of appointment, more than half the names had been erased. Next to them was written:

The number exceeded three hundred. With each term lasting a hundred million years, that meant more than half of five hundred commanders had been erased over five hundred billion years.

He had been dumbfounded reading the records, but experiencing it firsthand was like being struck by lightning. Moreover, on the back of the chair, a message resembling the lamentations of his predecessors had been deeply engraved.

Only then did he understand why his office was red and why it smelled so strongly of perfume. The red was to hide indelible bloodstains. The thick fragrance masked the stench of blood.

‘They were the traces left by predecessors whom Jinri had judged as substandard weaklings and erased.’

Jinri appeared without warning, so most encounters happened in this office where the commanders spent most of their time. If judged weak on the spot, their bodies would have been torn apart and their divine spirits erased right here.

‘When a body is shredded and a divine spirit shattered, blood naturally sprays everywhere. The subordinates must have tried desperately to clean up the horrific traces, but blood spilled by an erased Lord God is filled with resentment and carries high divinity. Lower gods’ powers can’t easily remove it.’

Replacing the entire office would be prohibitively expensive, so they had simply painted the floors and furniture red.

‘To the point of giving up on replacement, I can’t even imagine how much blood and how many corpses of overall commanders have been spilled in this office.’

To boast of being the greatest Transcendent only to be branded weak and erased—there was no greater shame. That was why the families of the erased had begged for the truth to be thoroughly concealed. As a result, accurate statistics didn’t exist and names couldn’t even be properly recorded.

In a world where one’s very existence rose and fell according to personal strength, there was no room left for pride. For the first time in his life, he had trained to the extreme and perfectly awakened the authority of a Lord God, yet he still felt uneasy. He wasn’t particularly stronger than the other candidates the military had selected to send here.

That was why he had reported as the overall commander of the blockade forces.

‘It was a close call. When Jinri looked at me and asked a few questions, my legs shook for the first time in my life. That says everything.’

If he had stuttered or collapsed while making that report, he would have suffered the same fate as his erased predecessors. Yet hearing the Truth Deputy—who stood before him now—make the exact same remark of completely disregarding the Current World filled him with burning rage.

‘But even if I attack, I can’t win. I have no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠choice but to give up and fulfill my duty as the overall commander of the Void Realm blockade and one of the highest leaders of the military.’

Of course, the Otherworld still possessed powerful forces.

“In addition, there are 300 Lord Gods at the Creator Candidate level within the Committee, and 100 Creator Gods in the Supreme Committee.”

Four hundred Creator Gods was truly a formidable force. If the entire parliament mobilized, they could suppress over six hundred thousand Transcendents. That was why they were the actual power maintaining the Current World and the highest governing body.

Yet from the mouth of the Void Realm god who was the Truth Deputy came a long, exhausted sigh.

“Huuuuuuuuuu—! If you’re the highest level of Lord God, then the Creator Gods must be nothing special either. They’re almost an entire Circle below the level of the Main Universe, aren’t they? Looking purely at authorities, the gap with the Absolute Realm and the Main Universe is enormous. How could the Otherworld, which was supposed to be equal in scale to the Absolute Realm, end up like this? Well, I did suspect something when I heard that the spirit gods of the Otherworld, who had become a problem, couldn’t be eliminated due to lack ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of ability and were instead pushed off to the Absolute Realm. But should I be happy about this? Or should I despair? I can’t even tell where to begin fixing this. Huuuuuuu—!”

Dimension Genesis God Core continued muttering to himself in a drained voice, sighing endlessly.

‘There must be more hidden forces, but due to budget issues they definitely won’t exceed total strength. At most, maybe ten or twenty percent.’

At this point, the conclusion was obvious.

‘It’s not even close to the Main Universe. It’s barely on par with the combined forces of my Dimensional Divine Realm and the Main Divine Realm. I didn’t understand why they would take such enormous risks to beg for Jinri’s help, but now I get it. The Otherworld is already finished. It’s done. It’s reached the end and is just waiting for destruction, so they can’t afford to be picky about anything.’

Reviving the Otherworld? That was out of the question. The situation required starting over from scratch.