Authority was not the same as divine authority.
Isaac had only understood this after studying virtual deities.
Divine authority could be understood simply as a properly mixed potion, while authority was the basic ingredient used to brew it.
Thus, divine authorities often overlapped in their names and abilities, such as Meixiukante's earliest divine authority and the racial divine authorities of Cuisti and the others.
The reason such power existed was also quite simple: it was the gods' attempt to circumvent dominion.
Dominion was a power above authority, but unlike authority, a complete dominion could have only one holder, just like an Advanced Magic Spell.
The difference was that an Advanced Magic Spell's uniqueness came from [Mystery], whereas dominion itself was [Mystery]!
Isaac was not particularly unfamiliar with dominion, either. The ancient Evil God contracted to the Magic Eye between his brows possessed a portion of the [Illusion and Reality] dominion. Even though Isaac could borrow only the tiniest fraction of that power, it still counted as a trump card for him now!
This also showed that the path of divine authority had actually failed. Authority was still authority; no matter how it was combined or how much was added, it would never match true dominion.
But it was not a complete failure. At the very least, divine authority had indeed given the gods room to grow stronger, allowing them to advance beyond their existing heights.
And according to the information Isaac had found in the Flesh Cult's records after returning, divine authority was no longer the endpoint of a god's power.
After discovering that divine authority fell far short of dominion, the gods had not given up. Instead, they had made divine authority a path toward dominion!
After all, the gap between authority and dominion was simply too great. But