Prologue: The New God’s Trial

Sighs could be heard around the room as no one present wished to deal with the matter at hand. The room, so to speak, was less an enclosed space, as one would believe with the definition of the word, and more of a gap in the void. There, several Elder Gods gathered to discuss what was to be done with the newest God added to their ranks.

"Munich has already proven himself capable enough, but given the pesky Akashic Decrees, a final test of sorts must be decided upon by our council." Deznit, one of the Elder Gods, said. He looked at the other Gods around him in mild depression as he continued saying, "Everyone already knows the drill. Start listing off ideas until the Akashic Decrees accept."

With slight optimism, Hanns, a different Elder God, commented, "Maybe the Decrees will take it easy on us. Even before Denaire's expected death, we had already been discussing the matter for half a century. So, it can't be much longer before we toss a trial that the Decrees find suitable..."

Alas, the rest of the council knew better than to count on the Akashic Decrees being merciful. It wouldn't be the first time several centuries or even millennia passed before they would be free from this responsibility. To impossibly powerful and virtually immortal entities like them, the kind of isolation this task instilled was one of the worst tortures possible. Left with nothing but each other to discuss the trials, it wasn't uncommon for one or two Elder Gods to grow unstable or even insane before the Akashic Decrees were offered a good enough trial.

Thus, the Elder Gods got to it, discussing away as they literally had nothing better to do. However, after enough time passed and frustrations boiled over due to the constant rejections from the Akashic Decrees, more and more Elder Gods stopped to meditate or engage in any activity they could think of to inspire thoughts of new trials to propose.

Deznit, the de facto leader who endured the task of picking a trial for the Akashic Decrees the best, eventually caved as even Elder Gods weren't omnipotent. Even the strongest of beings would tire from engaging in an activity if forced to do so for a long enough period of time.

Deznit, having taken the role of providing moral support, wandered around the void the Akashic Decrees had so graciously forced him and his peers in until he stood before the last Elder God to be sworn in by the very same process. Originally, Deznit intended to help Shikong settle as he had a high risk of going insane before the matter of the trial was settled; this being his first time partaking in the task and all.

However, Deznit was surprised to find that, unlike most newcomers, Shikong couldn't care less about being trapped in the void. Even more surprising was the coping method that the relatively young Elder God used.

"Oh, this?" Shikong smiled as he gestured to the holographic screen before him. "Luckily this accursed void can't bar my influence with Spatial Laws, so I'm making use of not just my inspiration, but all the inspiration I can find across the multiverse!"

Gesturing Deznit to come look with him, Shikong gave an all-too-happy explanation of his process. To summarize, the titular Elder God of Space used his reach to project images from across the multiverse. He would study literature and arts from wherever his influence reached to not only draw upon an unlimited source of inspiration, but also to never get bored.

Eager to spread the word, when Deznit told all the other Elder Gods of Shikong's ability, it induced a paradigm shift. It was arranged that every Elder God held a portion of Shikong's projection ability, if not to help inspire them to leave the void faster, then to at least indulge them enough to not grow unstable due to a lack of stimulation.

Miraculously, it only took a 'short' decade before one of the Elder Gods proposed a trial that pleased the Akashic Degrees. Ironically, the Elder God responsible for making the proposition that ended the council's anguish had taken inspiration from viewing the literature of a world within a spiritually inert universe, of all places.

Without even thinking about it, his interest in the humans of Earth within this spiritually inert universe led him to develop a fondness for their Portal Fantasy (Isekai) genre of literature. Whilst going over what had to be the eight or nine hundredth book on the subject, he had carelessly muttered, "How interesting would it be to have one of these funny concepts be realized for a trial, eh?"

Just like that, with the ever-fickle nature of the Akashic Decrees, a mild buzzing indicated to the council what Munich's final trial would be.

[Akashic Decree

Subject: Munich's Advancement

Trial: Munich is to seek a representative capable of proving his worth as a God. According to Elder God Laxin, the proposal involves taking a mortal from a spiritually inert universe and subjecting them to living a life in conquest of power.

Stipulation 1: Demands a representative that falls outside the bounds of average or normal within their home universe.

Stipulation 2: Demands the representative come from a world without Magic.

Stipulation 3: Demands Munich choose a starting point for the transmigrated representative.

Stipulation 4: Denies Munich the ability to physically influence his chosen representative after the point of transmigration.

Trial Completion Condition: Completion of Munich's Ascendance will be met when the chosen representative becomes the strongest entity within Munich's decided starting point.

Failure Condition 1: Munich chooses an unfit starting point; e.g. transmigrates his chosen representative into the body of an already-powerful being, reincarnates his chosen representative into a being rated higher than Common, etc…

Failure Condition 2: Munich's chosen representative dies after the transmigration/reincarnation, before Trail Completion has been achieved.

Failure Condition 3: Munich violates any of the given Stipulations.]