The Skies Belong to Me
The loss of control over the Great Firmament wasn’t because Yogur-tosoth was incompetent. It was simply the law of this fantasy world: the thicker the Great Firmament became, the weaker its connection to the Great Universe inevitably grew.
Thankfully, the celestial magic he already possessed had let him maintain at least some grip on it. Once I personally went over and punched holes in the sky with my divinity, the Milky Way finally reconnected to this place.
Only then did Yogur-tosoth let out a sigh of relief and slowly ask me a question.
“What? Sorry about that, by the way.”
It didn’t seem like he was fishing for an apology, though. The giant bubble-and-tentacle monster shrugged his massive shoulders (or at least attempted something resembling a shrug) and asked again.
“Huh? Well, the Milky Way is yours, and all the major terrain features connected to the various spirit realms on the ground belong to you too. Why?”
Yogur-tosoth asked naturally.
The entire sky? Ah. I hadn’t said it explicitly, but I had made a similar promise before. Was he getting greedy now?
“A manager is definitely needed… but can you really take responsibility for all of it?”
Ah. I see.
The basic landmass granted in the Divine Realm was 20,480 square kilometers.
Adding the Great Nature no-man’s-land and the territory I had further expanded brought it to roughly 230,000 square kilometers.
Combined, that was 250,000 square kilometers. Using World Shaping to expand it by another 170 percent.
Then factoring in the Great Ocean, Great Underworld, and other expansions, my total territory came to about 700,000 square kilometers.
That was bigger than France but smaller than Turkey, right? Considering that other worlds had also begun expanding their no-man’s-lands by now, most territories at this stage would only be around 50,000 square kilometers. This was truly a transcendent scale.
From now on, my opponents would have to face an area seven times larger than South Korea using only the productive capacity of Jeollado and Gyeongsangdo combined.
Anyway, separate from that, the sky was just as vast. It was impossible for Yogur-tosoth to control the entire thing.
“Huh?! Don’t satellites normally grow over time?”
When I sounded surprised, the angel spoke in a slightly scolding tone.
“Normally they would. But not at this stage. You haven’t connected to outer space yet.”
“But that Terasion guy was growing his satellites just fine.”
“That is because he possesses a special trait for it. The satellites we seized from the Milky Way will not grow until at least the fourteenth collision, when indirect connection to outer space begins.”
“I see… Then is there a way to make them grow?”
“You would need to handle Celestial mysteries far better than you currently do…”
No can do. Yogur-tosoth already had too many abilities. Giving him even more would only scatter his strengths, turning him from versatile to completely mediocre. Unless he abandoned some of his existing authorities entirely…
“Hm?”
“But abandoning abilities like that feels like such a waste. Wait, actually… now that I think about it, it’s not bad at all. The abandoned authorities can be used as materials when creating a new legion commander.”
Yogur-tosoth nodded at that.
“No, we’re going with the plan of abandoning those abilities and creating a new legion commander. One in charge of dominating the Great Firmament.”
Did he think he had created a rival by bringing it up? Well, too bad. The number of legion commanders had to keep increasing.
“Think of it as making a child. Doesn’t that make you feel better?”
“Oh, really?”
Still, a new legion commander was going to be made…
When I told him the plan to create the new legion commander using celestial power and the remains of Umjeory, Yogur-tosoth’s expression became extremely subtle.
Well, of course he’d be sensitive about his territory not developing. I really needed to pay attention to this.
“Can’t we use World Shaping to ride the satellites and explore outer space or something?”
When I asked the angel, she shook her head.
“That would be difficult. World Shaping can only manipulate areas you have personally expanded. It is possible to retrieve them after going to Terasion’s world, but moving them again is impossible.”
I see…
“Then how about going back to Terasion’s world and plundering more satellites?”
“……”
“?”
“No, well… that doesn’t actually sound impossible.”
Really? Then let’s do it. Yogur-tosoth, use some space-time magic like last time.
“He’s not a person.”
“Yogur-tosoth was never a person to begin with.”
When Yogur-tosoth tried to cross into outer space using space-time magic like before…
“Blocked?”
“Well, the opponent isn’t an idiot. They would have prepared at least that much. If it’s a method they haven’t been hit with before, maybe it would work.”
Instead of using space-time magic, the Pan-Dimensional Pirates simply used their own mythic-grade trait to instantly fly to any coordinates they knew. They began ruthlessly sweeping through the space colonies that Terasion had painstakingly rebuilt.
Incidentally, the reason they knew the coordinates was because Biin had sold them the information last time. The mythic-grade trait allowed them to cross into unexpanded space without issue.
Still, Terasion had stationed the minimum number of troops just in case. But the pirates’ forces were far fiercer and more intense. In the blink of an eye, all sixteen satellites were seized. Terasion felt like his insides were being torn apart.
The silver lining was that, unlike Biin, they didn’t possess World Shaping, so they couldn’t instantly transport the captured terrain back to their main base. Terasion had also realized that the invaders this time weren’t the same ones who had attacked him before. There was no colossal monster destroying cities, and it was impossible for them to rip away and relocate the satellites in an instant.
“This sector now belongs to us!”
Unfortunately for him, even without World Shaping, there existed a mythic-grade trait capable of similar feats.
All Things Plunder
When seizing something that does not belong to your divine domain, you may instantly plunder it and transfer it to your own world. This applies to conceptual entities as well—anything is possible.
It was a trait normally used to steal dominion over higher entities or to kidnap god fragments and the buildings attached to them “as is” into one’s own world.
Of course, it worked perfectly for kidnapping satellites too.
All sixteen satellites vanished at once. The very satellites he had worked so hard to develop.
“What is this?! That player isn’t even involved—how are they taking all my satellites?!”
“Well… while the direction is different, they possess a trait even more specialized for this.”
And using the power of those satellites, they plundered the ego and intellect of every beast race within the world. Half the beasts on the ground lost their sense of self and died. The other half lost their intelligence and memories but retained their instincts, and began indiscriminately attacking the humans who still possessed intellect.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~~~~~~! Why do I have to suffer like this?! Why?! Why must I endure such tragedy!”
Player ‘Dimanto’ has declared war on player ‘Terasion’. The two worlds will collide in the next World Collision.
Due to ‘Dimanto’’s trait World Collision Controller, the collision will begin immediately.
World Collision Controller
Ignores the opponent’s protected interval or ongoing collision state and allows immediate entry into the enemy world. Any stage between dimensional gate and dimensional rift can be unilaterally designated as desired. Additionally, if the user still has a protected interval remaining, they may interact normally with other players. The player who has been declared upon cannot do the same. This trait is strengthened during the ‘fixed interval’ after the 14th, 22nd, and 26th collisions.
It was like being kicked while already down. With all his satellites lost and the entire nation in chaos, the pirates ignored even his protected interval and immediately began their plunder so that Terasion couldn’t even stand back up.
As expected, it was once again one versus many. An utterly brutal matchup where Terasion alone had to face the entire group of pirates who kept receiving support.
They had literally come to kill him.
Well. They would probably accept his surrender.
“KRRRRAAAAAAGH! Angel! Please make a reservation! After this collision ends, I’ll buy the World Collision Controller with my remaining points! Please reserve it!!!”
“Y-yes, of course.”
Terasion’s angel thought to herself, ‘If you manage to survive until the next collision, that is.’
Still, there was no need to worry too much. After round fourteen, such plunder would become impossible. If he could endure the thirteenth and fourteenth collisions, he would no longer have to suffer such unreasonable pain.
Probably.
Far away in outer space, the battle between the Holy Emperor of Utopia, Terasion, and the Pan-Dimensional Pirates had begun. Biin had no idea.
And Terasion had no idea that the reason he was suffering this unreasonable pain was because of Biin, who had sold him out.
Even without exchanging a single word, the two were exerting enormous influence on each other through invisible interactions.
While I was pondering, someone suddenly sent me a message…
It was a name I knew well.
The mythic trait Deceiver of the World that allowed scamming other players wasn’t omnipotent. If they made a contract where the goods were given first and points received later, even if the contract was canceled, the delivered goods wouldn’t return.
By simply changing a clause in the contract, they could avoid it as much as they wanted.
That was why I first received the sixteen satellites into the Milky Way, dramatically boosting its weakened potential, then handed over the roughly 100 million points I had saved up to buy a mythic-grade trait.
Now I was completely broke. If it had been a scam I would’ve been pissed, but thankfully it wasn’t. The goods were genuine. It was only a temporary measure, but I had successfully secured potential for the Milky Way.
“Yogur-tosoth. The potential of this place has been secured. Now we just need a way to turn celestial power into a legion commander and we’ll be set.”
And the method to turn celestial power into a legion commander seemed to have been obtained by one of the clones currently consulting Mihun.
Good. Let’s see what this technique for turning stars into living beings is all about. The appearance of the sixth legion commander was imminent.