What is a God?

If you ask someone this question, everyone would have different answers. Someone would say that a God was a Supreme Existence, a being who created the world. Some might say that Gods were a symbol of divine and objects of faith, thus giving peace to a lost one. They were powerful and lofty existences who presided over the world, indifferent to the suffering of the mortals.

Every such description was only a piece of imagination, only for the person himself to be believed for his own convention. After all, without being one, how could a mortal dare to say that they understood Gods?

In fact, to many mortals, Gods were illustrous existences that only appeared in ancient myths and had already left the Mortal World. Nobody had proof of their existence and could only guess.

Then what he, Rihan, who was now experiencing the feeling of being a God, thought?

"How interesting."

These words involuntarily escaped his lips as he experienced a scene he had never thought was possible.

He was actually remembering all his lives he had ever lived since his Soul was born.

Actually, he had thought that it was quite strange. The Karma accumulated he could sense in the depths of his Soul—whether Good Karma or Bad Karma—was presumably many times greater than he had accumulated in this life.

But now, after sorting through his past lives like a kaleidoscope flashing past his eyes, he was now certain of a particular fact he had once heard as a mortal.

*The life you live, the lives you will live, and the lives you have lived all culminate together and guide you towards the Divine.*

This was a phrase he had found in an ancient text. At that time, he was not sure of the exact meaning behind those words, but he now.

Your every life through Samsara was a long journey to accumulate experience and Karma, and when this Karma accumulates past a certain point, your Spirit sublimates and your Soul transforms into a Divine Entity.

It could be said that all existences consciously or unconsciously seek the Divine Realm, but actually becoming one was excruciatingly hard.

Nevertheless, he had now become one and was at the end of this journey; thus, he was no longer in the Cycle of Reincarnation and was free from its Laws.

If you look at it another way, he was now a 'free' being, but at the same time, death to him means complete and utter annihilation for him.

But it was not a concern for now.

Still immersed in the memories of his past lives, he abruptly cut them off with a wave of his hand.

"Past means nothing to me. The present is important and the future even more meaningless to worry about. I have no use of these memories."

His present life and all his karmic relations were what interested him. The past had already happened and was not meaningful. He might watch it as a form of entertainment, but no more than that.

Instead, he brought his attention to the current situation.

His expression was calm, but irritation was growing inside of him because of the voices that were too grating to hear for him.

|A mere mortal dares to seek our position?|

|What shall we do with him?|

|Now that he has become a God, it will be impossible to kill him without harming the world|

|What about the damage to the Saha World's Vitality and Fortune?|

|Should we seal him?|

Numerous voices buzzed in his head as if he were in the middle of a jammed road with cars relentlessly honking.

|You are talking too loud. My ears are buzzing.|

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

As soon as his words left his mouth, it was as if silence enveloped the whole world.

After some moments...

|Is this possible?|

|A Mortal God can spy on our conversation?|

|He dares to order us?!|

|We should seal him at all costs|

|He is dangerous|

|He will definitely encroach on our Authorities and disrupt the Saha World|

|...|

There was a brief silence, which did not lingered for long as it was broken by Rihan's amused voice.

|Who would have known that Innate Gods were such worrywarts, hmm?|

|Know your limits, Mortal God|

|Even if you're a God, you are not on the same level as us|

|Don't become arrogant yet, oh ignorant one|

|We can seal you even if we can't kill you|

|You will never be able to surpass us in our world|

He chuckled lightly at the last remark, as it sounded quite funny in his ears.

|Surpass you in your own world? Hmm, what a... bad thing to say to me. As if I would want to stay here any longer. I am going away from this world this instant|

A chorus of laughter went off in his head. They were so in sync that he irritably found it quite pleasing to hear. Indeed, every gesture and movement of a God was elegant and perfect.

|Do you want to run off?|

|Where can you go?|

|Do you think we will sit by and watch?|

|Your ignorance interests me, Mortal God|

|If I seal you, Where can you run off to?|

|Hahahaha|

The Innate Gods laughed maliciously at his seemingly ignorant remark. But, it was quite understandable from their point of view.

Even if his origin was not of this world, which was most accurately described as Karma of Birth, he had still plenty of karma scattered across this World, as well as the Karma of being the first ascended God on this land. His very existence was deeply connected to the Saha World—though not to the extent of sharing Life and Death—like the Innate Gods.

And, even if he escaped from this world, the Universe was incomparably vast, and finding a Living Planet was almost impossible. In fact, no two Living Planets could be found in a close proximity of at least a million light years.

Even a God could only move at a speed a little less than the speed of light. Crossing such distances in a short period without special means was impossible.

That's the reason why the Innate Gods assumed that he would never be able to leave this World, much less find his home World.

... Well, they were their own conclusions.

|Suffer for eternity|

|Repent for your sins of harming this World|

|Be burned in your own Karma|

|Pay for your ignorant self|

|Be sealed!|

A vast pressure engulfed the Valley of Death, and the Pure Death Energy began to converge and coalesce with Rihan as the centre. The weight of the whole world pressed down on his body, and the Death Energy began to ground down his Godly Presence.

|You plan to seal me in this Valley of Death?|

He said nonchalantly, but inside, he was a little intrigued and fearful.

'As expected, Gods are not easy to deal with.'

'And this Valley of Death, it certainly does not belong to this world. I can't feel the slightest connection to this World from it.'

But then, how could the Innate Gods control this Death Energy which was essentially a part of the Valley of Death?

'Well, it does not concern me. More importantly, I better escape from here.'

The Death Energy was suppressing his vitality and presence, and if it succeeded in completely suppressing him, he would fall into Eternal Sleep with all his Existence sealed. It was not so different from a death to a God.

'To escape from here I need...'

Contrary to what the Innate Gods believed, Rihan had a definite way to escape from this world and find his home world—all thanks to his Divine Position as the Space Ruler.

He could effortlessly shift his Body and Soul through space-time fabric, and with his comprehension of Karma and Aura, he could locate and establish a link to Earth.

'First.'

He looked into himself, where the Divine Seat of Space Ruler was magnificently placed. It exuded an aura of immense vastness and mystery as it was in the form of a throne of an ancient being, overlooking all of the Universe with a single gaze.

Even his Divine Self felt tiny in front of its immense aura.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of the throne that looked exactly like him. It was the materialistic form of his Divine Consciousness, and a part of his Godly Soul.

It walked towards the throne and sat on it. At that moment, he felt his senses expand out to infinity as his consciousness wandered the whole Universe in but a single moment. He felt as if he could travel to any corner of the Universe no matter how far. A false sense of omnipotent power over space overwhelmed him and stretched his Godly Soul to the limit.

But in the next instant, he came to his senses as his thinning consciousness and strained soul started to accommodate the power of the Divine Seat of Space Ruler. Strangely, Roland could feel the laws of his physique aiding him in gaining control of his power.

'Hoo...'

He surprisingly found that his physique had also evolved and had already escaped the confines of mortality along with his existence.

It helped him assimilate with the power of the throne much more smoothly as the vast aura emitting from the throne was seamlessly absorbed into his existence.

'There is not much time left.'

The Death Energy was already bearing down on him pretty hard. He had not much time left.

Immediately after gaining the Authority of Space, he first isolated himself from the Death Energy by twisting the space around himself and stretching it to the limit just before it's breaking point. The Death Energy was still congealing around him, but now at an infinitesimal rate.

It was the same celestial phenomenon seen around a black hole. Light was the fastest concept under the laws. And it also traversed in a straight line. But when it passed by a black hole, it seemed to slow down.

It was a phenomenon that happened due to the bending of the space-time fabric.

What Rihan was doing was the same thing. By forcefully bending the space, he was essentially increasing the distance between him and the Death Energy exponentially and slowing down the sealing process to a halt.

'Hmm...? A barrier? What's it for? Well, anyway, it doesn't restrict me.'

And just like that, he disappeared from the Valley of Death, effortlessly bypassing the barrier surrounding the Saha World.

*****

"Now then, for the second step."

He concentrated and increased his focus to the limit because what he was trying to do needed that much of his conscious efforts.

As was known, the universe was vast, and finding a particular planet was almost impossible even for a God.

By calling upon his comprehension on the Dao of Karma, he grasped his Karma of Birth. By sensing and analysing this Karma, he roughly pinpoints the direction of Earth.

"Hmm...?"

'What's this? Why is it so far away?'

Breaking his expectations, Earth was too far away from Saha World, so much so that it didn't look natural to him.

He knew that he was teleported to Saha World through a space-time fluctuation tunnel. Though rare to happen, such natural occurences couldn't distort the laws much to teleport to such an unusually large distance.

If that was so, then only one possibility remained.

'There was some kind of external influence, and a strong one at that.'

Intentional or not; maliciously done or not, he was resentful that he had to live in this hellhole of a place for two thousand years because of someone else.

"Heh, what wonderful news, indeed."

What was his experession at that time?

There was an unusual coldness in his voice. He looked happy, but a strong Killing Spirit malevolently melded with his Godly Presence. A strong sinister presence enveloped millions of kilometres of space around him.

"I was wondering what to do with this frustration of two thousand years."

But now...

"Wait for me to find you and give back the due payment. Of course–"

He laughed just imagining how he would be able to let out all his inner malice without suppressing it.

"–with full interest included."

Just like that...

𝘙𝘪𝘪𝘪𝘱!

... the space was ripped and razed with the pressure from his Spirit alone.