The Guillotine of the Incompetent
The war cry of the Substitute God Clan shook the heavens.
Guooooooo—!
Using the vitality and magic power of the Divine Realm’s Demon God as fuel, eleven circles of magical power finally materialized. Above his robe, eleven brilliant rings of light spun with a deafening roar.
‘It’s only a temporary eleventh circle because I lacked vitality. My magic power is recovering rapidly now that I’ve reached the eleventh circle, but I haven’t created any eleventh-circle spells yet. Even the degraded version of the “Deathblow of the Gigantes God” I used earlier is impossible due to insufficient magic power.’
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t see a path to victory. And the fact that some unknown entity had struck him from behind and forced him into this contract only made him sigh.
“Haa… This is driving me insane. Do I really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel now? Whoever you are, just wait until I find you.”
He truly didn’t want to do this, but it seemed he had no choice. He sent his will toward the Survival Magic Tower.
‘Pope of Dimensions, Saintess of Dimensions, and Saintess of the War God.’
The situation had grown so dire that he was forced to borrow even these children’s hands.
‘To think I have to ask for help from the very beings I tried to seal away as useless just a few months ago… I feel like I’m going to cry. This is utterly ridiculous.’
The quiet, warm scenery of his Survival Magic Tower came into view.
‘I really need to return there quickly… Wait, what is this? Why is everyone naked?’
Inside the Survival Magic Tower, even the spiritual entities had stripped off their spiritual clothing. Nearly three hundred thousand young women were walking the streets completely nude. In various places, spiritual entities and students had formed groups and were training together.
‘Now that I think about it, I was the one who stripped them. I never gave the order to put their clothes back on.’
The prisoners had been stripped as punishment for waging war inside the Survival Magic Tower, and he had never commanded them to dress again.
‘The only ones still wearing clothes are the Pope of Dimensions and the Saintesses. Don’t tell me they used their power to prevent everyone—including all the spiritual entities—from wearing anything?’
Right before his eyes, the highest-ranking Main God of the Substitute God Clan was preparing to fire the God Destruction Cannon, yet the Survival Magic Tower had turned into a nudist colony. The sudden absurdity made his connected consciousness reel.
‘Damn it—! Who cares about a nudist colony right now? Whether they’re naked or not, just stay quiet!’
His own situation was far too precarious to be shaken by something like this. When his powerful will reached the Pope of Dimensions, the Saintess of Dimensions, and the Saintess of the War God, he saw them kneel at once.
Facing their endlessly reverent gazes, he barely managed to speak.
‘Grant me your authorities.’
As the Dimensional and War God, he was now forced to reach out to a Pope and Saintesses. It was humiliating.
‘Right now, scraping the very bottom like this, what I need is the War God’s Saintess’s authority “Battlefield Sharing,” the Dimensional Pope’s “Probability Prediction,” and the “Divine Power Integration” from the Dimensional Saintess.’
True to her nature as the spirit of a sage, the exchange of dimensions allowed her to instantly grasp the entire situation from the information he had sent. Based on that, the Emperor Spirit issued commands to all the Saintesses using “Mental Confirmation” and “Noblesse Oblige.”
Aaaaaah—!
Their reverent hymns were sucked into the Cosmic Tree.
The elevated divine power of the Cosmic Tree was gathered by the Dimensional Saintess and offered to him.
Guoooooo!
All of his nearly depleted divine power surged back in an instant. The integration of divine power from the nearly fifty thousand Saintesses and divine maidens gathered there exceeded one hundred billion.
Huuuuuuung—!
His thirteen pairs of wings completely transformed into dimensional divine power and shimmered with light.
Then the Saintess of the War God activated her authority of “Battlefield Sharing.”
Every combat technique and authority belonging to the more than two hundred thousand spiritual entities who had sworn themselves to him as the God of Dimensions and War now belonged to him.
‘It feels like I’ve become an absolute master who has permanently repeated countless training sessions.’
Not just his fingertips, but even a single strand of hair moved exactly as he wished.
And the unique authority of the gray sage—“Probability Prediction”—granted him a new field of vision.
‘The trajectory, power, and method to block the Substitute God Clan Main God’s God Destruction Cannon all appear before my eyes.’
Because it was based on his own direct combat experience, the predictions were almost perfectly accurate.
‘May fortune be with you! Our God!’
The earnest cheers of the Saintesses and the Pope reached him.
‘One hundred billion in divine power and one billion in magic power is nowhere near enough to face that enemy.’
Even with only the information he had sent, they could probably predict that much. But in this current state, blocking it was possible.
After all, the divinity of Dimensional Authority guaranteed nearly double the power against any opponent.
‘Above all, I may be a Main God, but I am also a dark mage. I am unaffected by the Substitute God Clan’s God Slayer. Moreover, the Main God of the Substitute God Clan has lost most of his clan and has lost his mind, appearing in his true form. If I were to die to a mere beast that only knows how to charge, I would be a laughingstock as a mage.’
‘It looks like sealing them is no longer an option. Would the result have been different if I had received the goddesses’ innate divine power all at once instead of in stages? Still, the situation wouldn’t change. In the end, even Dimensional Genesis only reduces the divinity of a highest-ranking Main God of the Substitute God Clan by a single stage.’
He smiled bitterly as he charged toward the God Destruction Cannon of the Substitute God Clan’s Main God.
Having already received the down payment on the karma contract, there was no way to run.
‘I don’t know who the bastard is that hit me from behind, but I won’t let him get away with it later.’
Kwaaaaaaaaang—!
A tremendous shockwave of divine power erupted. The God Destruction Cannon of the Substitute God Clan’s highest-ranking Main God, who possessed twenty billion in total divine power, blazed with light as it attacked both the Main God of the Divine Realm and the Demon God of the Demon Realm.
The two of them could only watch the attack, maintaining their joint technique.
‘They’re planning to endure until their joint technique is complete. A correct decision.’
Right now, ordinary attacks from the Main God of the Divine Realm and the Demon God of the Demon Realm could not inflict fatal wounds on a highest-ranking Main God of the Substitute God Clan. Therefore, the only option was to dodge the trajectory of the God Destruction Cannon or endure it with their bodies while aiming for a killing blow with their joint technique.
“Clash Planet.”
Nine circles of magical power shone brilliantly. Although it was only a temporary eleventh circle, the speed and efficiency of his magic operation were incomparably faster than before.
Uuuuung—! Uuuuung—!
Ten rocky planets were summoned at once to block the God Destruction Cannon that was flying straight toward the two gods.
‘This is the maximum number of planets I can summon with my current magic power. No more planetary magic after this.’
Kwaaaaaaaaaduduk—! Puuuuaaang—!
The massive planets, which could not be destroyed by an ordinary Main God, were pierced like paper by the overwhelming God Destruction Cannon and exploded.
‘According to my calculations, exactly eight planets will be destroyed by the God Destruction Cannon. One, two, three, four… eight!’
Kwaaaaaaaaang—!
Exactly eight planets were pierced by the Substitute God Clan’s Main God’s God Destruction Cannon and detonated.
‘The combination of Probability Prediction and combat foresight is excellent. However, my magic power is now completely exhausted. What remains are two stars, twenty-five billion in innate divine power, and seventy-five billion in reserve divine power? It’s still nowhere near enough to face a highest-ranking Main God of the Substitute God Clan.’
He miniaturized the two remaining stars using his magic and Dimensional Authority and stored them inside his body.
‘Now it really is do or die.’
If the control of his magic or Dimensional Authority was released, those stars would regain their original size inside his body. In other words, he would end up like an overinflated balloon—just like the Demon Kings he had executed by turning them into planets.
‘I don’t even have the magic power left to maintain the exterior. I can only squeeze out magic power at the cost of my own physical body.’
The moment the shattered debris and explosions from the destroyed planets obscured the Substitute God Clan’s Main God’s vision, he analyzed the joint technique of the Main God of the Divine Realm and the Demon God of the Demon Realm. The result came instantly. The sage’s Probability Prediction and his own combat experience revealed the true identity of the technique.
“Execution Authority?”
The words slipped from his mouth before he could stop them. The Main God of the Divine Realm and the Demon God of the Demon Realm looked at their joint technique in shock at his words.
“This is ‘Dawn of the Beginning,’ isn’t it?”
“Execution Authority? What are you talking about?”
He let out a hollow laugh despite himself.
‘I never thought I’d see his trace here.’
One of his hobbies was to create authorities that others would call miracles, then disguise them with completely different functions and throw them out for anyone to use. Those who realized their true purpose were guided to a higher existence.
‘Those who fail to realize it are simply ignored.’
This joint technique was one such creation.
“It is an authority created to deliver the final verdict when a highest-ranking Main God of the Divine Realm and a highest-ranking Demon God reach a stalemate and cannot defeat each other. Its official name is ‘Guillotine of the Incompetent.’”
“What—! You mean this is…?”
“He created this?”
The expressions of the Main God of the Divine Realm and the Demon God of the Demon Realm changed drastically. Having lived through eons, they had witnessed countless scenes of Main Gods striving to become Creator Gods and Great Demon Gods challenging the Demon God King.
‘Qualification to become a Creator God is not determined by something as trivial as stars. One must win a life-or-death battle against a Demon God capable of challenging the Demon God King.’
Strong beings who would be remembered across past, present, and future would not yield easily. In the end, they fought for eons to clearly establish superiority.
‘Whether the victor becomes the one who manages the universe as the Demon God King or as a Creator God, he does not interfere. He only needs an existence that will develop and strengthen the universe. He is a colder being than even the laws of karma he himself created.’
And so, tired of the inefficiency of those eternal battles, he had created this very authority.
‘Once this authority activates, the match ends in an instant. If they cannot produce a victor, both sides will perish.’
Whether by good fortune or bad, he had once witnessed it being used on a battlefield he had visited as a mercenary. The two gods before him simply didn’t know about it because they had been in a distant frontier.
“Gulp… So this is what it was. No wonder it felt like I was being forced to learn it.”
“Why hide something like this?”
The Main God of the Divine Realm swallowed hard as he stared at their joint technique, his body trembling. The Demon God of the Demon Realm analyzed it again with sparkling eyes. Yet even with their full power, they could not decipher it.
‘It is neither magic power nor divine power. The combined strength of the Main God of the Divine Realm and the Demon God of the Demon Realm is merely reproducing an extremely small portion of his authority.’
As a mage, his high analytical ability—directly linked to the Pope’s “Probability Prediction”—presented the method with the highest chance of defeating the Substitute God Clan based on his knowledge.
Fortunately, if it was this, there was at least a chance of victory.
“Activate it now.”
“What? Who are you trying to designate as the target? If we activate this, we’ll only be as strong as Lower Gods!”
“Any being within this authority returns to their most basic state.”
That was the most terrifying aspect of this authority.
‘They return to their fundamental abilities and fight using only pure talent, fighting spirit, and authority.’
It was an exceedingly fair yet cruel measure. It was like making them fight in the state of a newborn baby.
‘However, the God Clan and Demon God Clan can never defeat the Substitute God Clan with basic abilities. That is because the Substitute God Clan was originally created to be that way.’
The Substitute God Clan could never be defeated unless the Demon Gods and Main Gods attacked jointly. But the Dimensional and War God had a method.
“I will do it. Set the target as the Main God of the Substitute God Clan and myself and activate it.”
“……”
“……”
The Main God of the Divine Realm stared at him silently for a moment before letting out a sigh.
His expression said he truly couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Well, even he would feel the same if someone said they would fight a highest-ranking Main God of the Substitute God Clan one-on-one.
“You’re going to fight a highest-ranking Main God of the Substitute God Clan one-on-one? I was called the craziest God of War in the Divine Realm, but now I see I’ve been dethroned. This is absolutely insane.”
“A Main God can never defeat a Main God of the Substitute God Clan of the same rank. Against a higher-ranking one, it’s suicide. Besides, aren’t you completely out of magic power?”
The Demon God of the Demon Realm accurately pointed out his current condition.