It's like a conflict between ocean water getting sand wet.

The sand will get wet, then dry off then get wet again. A never ending cycle that can't be stopped

A big bad destroyed his home so he went far back into the past to what can be considered to be the beginning of time to cause a butterfly effect throughout multiple different species and planets to help his home. And he just keeps regressing into multiple species to get a certain job done. If he fails he repeats that life until he succeeds. And the current mission he has is naturally to save earth.

Author did a great job with outlining and foreshadowing, the plot twists were surprising and kept me on the edge of my seat.

Author also made their own mythology in the story in a way; most novels just borrow from existing pantheons like Greek and Norse. The gods in the novel felt more inspired from Lovecraft and Cthulhu mythos which I'm very much a fan of.

My huge disappointment in novels like this are the ENDINGS. Mostly since they often feel very rushed and there's too many plot holes left. But the author tied it up nicely though there's still some plot HOLES, the ending doesn't feel rushed and more open-ended. Heck I even felt hopeful for the future of the universe lol.

Examples of what I would have liked to know at the end:

• There is no romance, but there were clear hints that Hibiki had a crush on Mr. Seo. This affection turns to worship as the MC’s divinity grows. Does she decide to give up or to pursue him?
• Does he restore the emotions of the original’s father now that he has the power to? Feels like him and other seed victims were forgotten about compared to the active Marcasius.
• A glimpse of the original getting his happy ending would have been nice rather than the way he was seemingly discarded after being given a few blessings.
• Wait, the senator wasn’t an awakened this entire time??? I suppose his talent does lie in politics and management. I wonder how the original gatekeeper guild leader felt when the successor he chose gave up power to another ageing old man like him. They should train someone from a young age. Maybe someone like the newly baked original Mr. Seo? He chose not to be an awakened and his subconscious might give him the management talent he needs.
• The final original companion never appears even after a few years pass. I suppose he would naturally join the same guild as the main cast once he awakens considering Earth consolidates all guilds into Celestial Dragon, but he will never get the Devil’s sword this life. He feels so forgotten.
• The MC getting called the new God of Mind is a bit cringe even to him. I’m shocked Secretary Kim didn’t decide to just title him ‘Celestial Dragon’. It’s the name of the guild that he raised. Celestial refers to his new status. Dragon would refer to his even more imminent status as the Successor of the Empire.

Honestly it makes sense for it to end the way it did, because it highlights the MC’s own disconnect from who he was before he spent countless years in isolated battle without break. He just became a little too detached and the things I started to care about through his character were suddenly no longer important. It’s hard to adapt to the change in mindset since it happens in the last few chapters.

The plot is deeply interweaved with the mythological lore of the story. The end reveals that there is a never ending battle between a force of creation and a force of destruction. This means that each universe has a certain lifecycle due to end from the inevitable invasion of the ‘Void’. The mythological age is the presumed beginning of this universe. Eight gods reigned during this period, until the Void’s invasion wiped out almost everything and exiled the gods before it retreated with it’s troops severely decimated.

Each god lost a piece of themselves that defined them upon exile. Both their power and memories slowly degraded over time, for all but the God of ‘Mind’ or ‘Spirit’. He already had no physical form, so he was directly driven mad when he suffered such mental damage. What remained of him somehow parasitised itself upon the Void Entity and became it’s agent.

The material world suffered just as much damage from the loss of the gods. The creatures there were apparently considered an extension of the diety itself, like cells. Not all of them could successfully develop into independent races and the ones that couldn’t died out. Eventually the races would come to form an impressive empire. Unfortunately, the threat of Mercasius went nearly undetected ushering in total defeat. They decide to send a soul to the past to fulfill various ‘destinies’ (ie missions) to change things enough to strengthen the empire enough to handle the final battle. They and the ‘successor’ both fail to account for the variables caused by the fall of the god of luck and the true danger of Mercasius.

The story starts after the MC has already experienced some twenty-three thousand odd reincarnations and just over a million regressions. This life is the first time he has been granted someone else’s body. It turns out that Mercasius’ pollution of the God of Luck gave our MC a body that would be completely unable to succeed at his mission even if he regressed twenty or even forty million more times. He could never fight against the power of prediction with only 10 mana. So the God of Time decided to shake things up a little by offering a deal for the original Mr. Seo to loan his body, at the price of being unable to regress again for this lifetime. He took the major risk of only having a single chance to give the only chance. MC is obviously unaware of the concerns and starts with only a strong desire to take down Angelica to protect the earth. Angelica turns out to be something called the ‘immortal’, a failed byproduct of Mercasius creating its unique skill. Finding her was actually harder than killing her this life and the constant threat of the SSS-level curse kept the MC moving forward to find the real target after it was confirmed Han-Seol was not the propagator. It wasn’t hard to figure out that his father was also under the curse, but he was actually the largest tragedy after you find out he was stripped of key emotions by Mercasius. He was essentially lobotomised and brainwashed into being a human tool. Granted, it was only possible due to a moment of weakness. He wanted to be stronger, but how much of that was actually the desire to protect his family? He became absolutely twisted once that familial affection was stripped away.

MC also has to fend off the advances of the mad gods who want to take his soul and body, even if by coercion. He is naturally unwilling to deal with them... at first. A series of events cause him to start generating and using divine power of his own. He also starts to absorb the power of each Mercasius turning him into a half-god. Rom, the god of life, advises him that further reincarnations leave him too weak to fight the void. He had only done so due to the diversity of needed changes and each races limited lifespan. Now his body and soul are now strong enough to handle a much longer eternity. Rom stops his ageing process so that he will no longer die of old age. MC decides to agree with Rom, especially once each deity starts to recover their sanity.

The biggest issue at the end is that Mercasius corrupted the system who has been culling races under its influence. The system would have been fine with endless isolated work without rest, but had developed emotions. It became frustrated and lonely despite its massive power, a perfect target and ally for Mercasius. MC will ‘save’ the system. I like that he apologizes to it and promises to not leave it alone for long periods of time again.

The ending is one of hope. The system is running properly now with Mind’s pollution cleared. Luck is no longer skewed for the worst outcome. Life will propagate even more strongly. Space is no longer shredded. Time has escaped the time loop. Magic has restored its eighth arm/leg. The Sword is no longer rusty. I’m forgetting a diety, but I think the author may have too..

Order of finding missing pieces as I recall:

• Time (escapes in future, first)
• Magic (first ‘black hole’)
• Sword (second bh)
• Luck (third bh)
• Space (‘empty’ bh, revisited after the system)
• Life (beach)
• Mind (system red door)

Regardless, the end is full of hope. They will build a strong and diverse empire now without interference of the betrayer. Even the devils join the Union now that the system no longer tries to eradicate them. It gives the feeling that MC will fight another few million years without regret. He soberly realizes that the current group is far from strong enough.

Tbh I have a feeling that the empire is doomed to fall. The obvious way is once the void wins. What if the empire wins? Can they remain unified once there is no longer an external threat? A universe wide organization is almost doomed to have internal issues at that point, even without Mercasius. The presence of real interactable deities may keep them stable afterall? Tbh the lack of romance line is the best option for this kind of story. The current existence can’t afford for him to be too biased or distracted.