The Goddesses Who Executed Their Kings
The Goddess Department’s war. If the Dimensional and War God, whose Innate Divine Power stood at two billion, could raise it to six billion, he would have been able to fight on equal terms with the Main God of the Divine Realm. The goddesses therefore reacted with intense emotion, their expressions complex and subtle as they stared at him.
“The contract reward will be paid in advance—five hundred million first. In return, grant Granzoa’s promotion to Main God, the promotion of the high-ranking goddesses, and one star. For every goddess who obtains a star, another five hundred million will be paid. When the final star is granted, I promise an increase of at least eighty in divine power. Of course, the details of this contract and the method of power transfer must remain absolutely secret.”
A golden scroll unfurled in the air, radiating bright light. Whooooosh—! The dreadful Karma Contract had appeared once more, and the Dimensional and War God’s mind spun furiously.
‘I’m sick of contracts with gods and Karma. Yet nothing is more trustworthy than this. How terrifying.’
The Karma Contract proceeded. The goddesses hesitated for a long while as they read the terms before signing, and finally the scroll came to him. The Dimensional and War God stared at the contract until the very end, but there was only one path forward.
“Haaah… To win, I need more power.”
With a heavy sigh, he hesitated for a long time before finally beginning to sign.
‘With this, I cannot sever ties with this Divine Realm until the contract fully expires.’
It was an enormous contract in exchange for a forty-billion increase in Innate Divine Power. The goddesses wore truly strained expressions, and he himself felt as though he were dying from the strain.
‘If the increase in Innate Divine Power falls even slightly short of forty billion, I’ll overturn everything.’
He had no idea how much hardship lay ahead; the future looked pitch black. So he made his demand without hesitation.
“The war begins in two months. I’ll take the advance payment first. Tell me the method to increase Innate Divine Power.”
When he looked at Hera and the other goddesses, they all blushed and turned their heads away.
‘Does such a method really exist? If it were simply sharing vitality, these goddesses who have seen every kind of battlefield wouldn’t react this way. They’re either married or keep entire male harems.’
What made the Dimensional and War God so urgent was the fact that there was indeed another way to raise Innate Divine Power.
‘Divine power raised through followers can be increased easily and in large amounts, but recovery is poor. Innate Divine Power recovers quickly and raises the upper limit of maximum output. The only way to increase Innate Divine Power is through training; it decreases if one becomes dissolute. That is the law. The reason the Main God of the Divine Realm has grown weaker compared to the past is because his Innate Divine Power has declined as the price of his indulgence.’
The lack of Innate Divine Power was why he had been so miserably overpowered by the Demon Goddess who possessed two hundred billion in magic power.
‘According to my measurements, if the Main God of the Divine Realm’s total divine power is two hundred billion, his Innate Divine Power is fifty billion. The remaining one hundred and fifty billion is power created through followers. So if it’s true that he was on equal footing with the Demon Goddess who has one hundred billion in innate magic, then in the past his Innate Divine Power must have exceeded one hundred billion. Yet both the Main God of the Divine Realm and the Demon God of the Demon Realm possess one hundred billion in Innate Divine Power and ordinary magic? What kind of monsters are they?’
Compared to an ordinary Main God with two billion Innate Divine Power, they were indeed monsters.
‘I wonder how much training and combat it takes to reach one hundred billion in both Innate Divine Power and innate magic. It took me seventy years just to raise my Innate Divine Power by one billion! And after that, it barely rises at all.’
Raising Innate Divine Power is relatively easy at first, but becomes exponentially harder as the numbers grow larger.
‘I nearly perished obtaining one billion of the sun’s Innate Divine Power through an expedient method. Yet the goddesses claim there is another way besides training and cultivation, which is why I accepted this contract. If it’s truly new knowledge, it might even become the key to the eleventh circle.’
When the Dimensional and War God demanded an explanation and fell silent, Hera spoke.
“Once one becomes a goddess, she can give birth to a Main God. By receiving a male god’s vitality and fusing it, an even stronger Main God can be born. However, male gods once slaughtered newborn infants to prevent the birth of gods stronger than themselves. When that was forbidden, the goddesses in turn prevented the sharing of strong vitality so that no powerful gods could be born. Extremely powerful goddesses were even forced into marriage with humans.”
“Madmen not even worth annihilating. Instead of thinking about growing stronger through their own training, they blocked the very possibility? They completely denied the Divine Realm the chance to become stronger through powerful successors. They somehow managed to evade Karma’s judgment.”
At the Dimensional and War God’s words, the goddesses’ expressions brightened slightly. They looked at him as though he were an ally, and some even seemed moved.
‘It’s an obvious statement, yet I don’t understand their reaction.’
Then came an unexpected remark that surprised not only the Dimensional and War God but the goddesses as well.
“Those male gods have all disappeared. They were our partners and lovers, yet we annihilated them all for the sake of the Divine Realm.”
“!!!”
“Granraha—! Why bring that up now!”
“Too soon!”
Thud—! The Dimensional and War God felt his heart sink.
‘They call their authority Lord Slayer. I suspected as much, but it was a post-acquired authority gained by killing male gods.’
Unlike innate authorities granted from birth, post-acquired authorities obtained through training were not easily gained.
‘How many did they kill to obtain such an authority? Certainly more than one or two.’
As if reading his thoughts, Hera continued.
“We killed every male god who was our partner and lover. We also killed every Main God who tried to punish us for that sin. I alone killed over twenty. After that, I stopped counting.”
“……”
The Dimensional and War God had stepped squarely on a landmine. Yet he forced himself to remain calm and offered a rebuttal.
“You exaggerate. The world would never permit the god race to kill so many Main Gods whose Karma is extremely good. They would have become demon gods themselves.”
“Back then, the exploitation of humans was nearly the same in both the Demon Realm and the Divine Realm. The only difference was whether one obtained vitality through human faith or by killing them. He changed the standard to development and evolution, reorganizing the world into the Divine Realm and Demon Realm. Finally, he announced that he would make the Main Gods fight over planetary ownership.”
“Was that the origin of the Authentication War?”
“We called it the Main God War. Those who wished to possess their own star had to prove their qualifications and power. He would not interfere with how the stars were managed, but if they went against development and evolution, he would punish them. No one could defy his resolute decision, so the Main Gods had no choice but to prepare for an all-out war with the Demon Realm. Since the Demon Realm held the initiative to start the war, we desperately united the god race to protect one another. The four Divine Realms within the planet formed an alliance strong enough to defeat any Demon Realm or Demon God, and we were finally at ease. But then……”
Grind—! Grind—! The goddesses began grinding their teeth, their expressions so vicious it seemed they would spill blood at any moment.
“The God Kings, now with leisure, began harassing and raping goddesses from other factions. They annihilated lower gods who protested and defiled middle gods while throwing them scraps. They simply repeated in the Integrated Divine Realm what they had done in their own absolute monarchies. No matter how much we tried to stop them, they refused to listen, continuing under the pretext that they needed to birth many strong gods for the war. Even when gods born from unions with those who were not their own God Kings grew powerful, they did not stop annihilating them for lacking proper affiliation. Eventually the alliance collapsed and nearly went to war. The very alliance of Divine Realms created to oppose the Demon Realm was now targeting one another.”
Hera’s voice trembled with tears as she continued, and the surrounding goddesses were also sobbing. Every goddess gathered here shared a similar fate.
“Because the cause of the war was the God Kings, control was impossible. The highest-ranking gods whose wives and daughters had been violated demanded the God Kings’ annihilation and went to war. The God Kings, admitting their mistake, tried to step in and stop it themselves, but when even the highest-ranking gods began siding with the Demon Realm, nothing could be done. It would have been better if the God Kings had come to their senses then, but instead they grew even more frenzied, claiming they needed to fill the shortage of gods. The Divine Realm was driven to the brink of destruction.”
“……”
Four unruly God Kings had each caused chaos, turning the alliance they had painstakingly built into the spark of war. It was an absurd progression.
“The four Goddess Queens who had been the God Kings’ consorts made a decision. They would kill the problematic God Kings as quickly as possible and demote them to highest-ranking gods. Instead of a loose alliance among God Kings, they would select a single Main God of the Divine Realm to form an Integrated Divine Realm. Driven by the fear of being destroyed by the Demon Realm before it could attack, the plan moved swiftly. Then, one by one, they seduced the God Kings who had persistently demanded Essence Exchange, combined their strength, and killed them all.”
Shhhhh—! A chill ran through the Dimensional and War God’s body.
‘These goddesses killed their own God King consorts. They chose the Divine Realm over their partners.’
A dreadful venom and cold resolve sent shivers down his spine.
‘Even if a god dies, they can be resurrected. But death lowers one’s divinity, so one does not forgive enemies.’
The goddesses had resolved to become eternal enemies with their partners, prepared to live with that hatred forever unless annihilated.
“When the execution of the God Kings was announced, the Divine Realm was shocked, but the highest-ranking gods returned to their proper places. The Integrated Divine Realm was once again solidified under the four Goddess Queens, and Karma recognized their actions as good. What we did not expect was that Karma refused to allow the dead God Kings to regenerate and completely annihilated them instead. We became unforgivable poison wives who had killed our husbands to seize the Divine Realm. We faced endless challenges from God Kings of other planets who had finished their own Authentication Wars.”
“……”
Mountain after mountain. ‘Their fates seem even more twisted than mine. Still, mine is a solitary burden I can bear, while theirs is complete ruin.’
Condemned endlessly as Goddess Queens who had killed their God King consorts to obtain the Divine Realm, they had to bear responsibility for the entire Divine Realm. He could imagine how difficult that must have been.
“The Integrated Divine Realm endured countless invasions from other Divine Realms and grew extremely impoverished. Then the four allied Demon Realms within the planet, which had been watching for weaknesses, finally issued an Authentication War. We fought desperately, but the planet reached the point of destruction and the war ended in a draw. The Divine Realm and Demon Realm were disbanded, and those responsible lost all their divine power, either hiding in the human world or being imprisoned in the Spirit Realm. Karma imposed the price of a war with neither victory nor defeat upon everyone.”
Here, Hera, who had been shedding tears, looked around at the other goddesses and spoke. They were all sobbing as well. Every goddess gathered here shared a similar destiny.