I see, this complicates things quite a bit.
" Soma spoke as Mittlelt finished her explanation regarding the supernatural and especially the three factions.
The world he lives in is truly vastly different to others, especially if the stories of his teachers were to be believed regarding their worlds.
Soma could already feel in his skin the political mess this world was, so many factions and groups were in a constant struggle for supremacy, and just imagining it was enough to make Soma feel a gigantic headache. But, currently, he only had to care for four groups.
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The first would be the Heavens/church. In this world they worked in a somewhat similar vein to that Soma was used to from the stories and what he was taught, even if they seemed to be trying to keep the appearance of 'good guy' a bit too much and it cost them a lot in efficiency.
Their threat level is quite low for Soma, just not step on their toes directly and if possible find a backer that they are not in any specific relationship with and would thus not want to provoke into becoming enemies. They were honestly kinda weak and could only truly defend, as long as Soma did not actively go against them (or be found doing so at any rate) he would be safe.
The second is the fallen angels in the Grigory. They were angels who committed a sin, which really didn't mean much for Soma since he knew that sins were just a part of human nature so the fallen who committed sins felt like they would be easier to approach or at least reach an understanding.
Soma wouldn't blindly trust them, but they did have that school designated to Sacred Gear users to learn about said items and they did not force said users to work for them later or become the fallen's servants. Sure, indoctrination wouldn't be strange in such a place to foster a desire to work for the fallen's interests is to be expected (even if Mittlelt did not say any such thing happened), but that is common sense to be done and Soma wouldn't really complain about it.
You are getting an education, what you take from it and what you do with it afterward is up to you. If you choose to become sheep that follows someone else then that is up to you, it isn't Soma's responsibility to save someone from their own stupidity.
The third group that Soma worried more about was the Shinto Pantheon. They were the actual owners of the land but they did not put much pressure on humans and even created several human powers like the Four Great Families to look after humans.
They were honestly the ones more to Soma's tastes, Gods and other such beings that did not screw up humanity and just took care of their own business without messing with humans as much. It also helped that Soma was quite close to Tamamo when he was in the Throne of Heroes and she was an incarnation of Amaterasu.
If the Goddess was like Tamamo then Soma was confident he could get along well enough with her, as long as she didn't try to make him her 'hubby' like Tamamo did in the past. She is hot, but he did not want to get into these talks of marriage since in the throne talking of such a thing looked like a surefire way of causing a disaster one way or another.
And then there is the fourth group, and decidedly the most troublesome of the bunch, The devils. Just hearing about them was enough for Soma to classify that faction as easily the most troublesome and the one he wanted the least to be close to.
No, not because of their nature or anything like that. If what Mittlelt said is to be believed (which Soma will need to see with his own eyes while also searching for other sources of intel to counter check) then the Devils of this world are rather unlike the ones he heard about or interacted with in the Throne of Heroes.
They were intelligent and not overly brutal or prone to bursts of fancy that would lead to the deaths of many for no other reason than for the laughs and sadistic pleasure. They did not feast on human's soul or created wanton destruction while demanding human sacrifice to satiate their most depraved desires.
In general, they would be a group he could ignore quite easily since he did not care for a group that he could very easily just not interact with if he wanted to, if not for one of the most disturbing and disgusting things he ever heard.
The Evil Piece System. A system created to make other people join the devil race, something Soma could understand being done if you consider that they were close to complete collapse after their wars and they needed to reinforce their numbers but doing it naturally wouldn't work with their low fertility.
The system makes sense for that angle and Soma could understand it well enough.
However, the fact that these pieces can be used in those unwilling to go through the transformation or those already dead meant that any devil king could find a way to kill someone and then that person would forever be that devil's slave.
Slavery was nothing new to Soma, many of the heroes in the Throne had those in the past or interacted with people that had slaves. Slavery isn't that big a deal, as long as it is during only the life span of a normal person.
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Being a slave for 50 or so years until you die, or be a slave for 5000 years with no options but listen to the one that killed you before or anything of the sort. Even with the extra benefits of being a devil, like their neigh-unlimited life span and increased magic powers, it still was not enough a trade-off to being the bitch of whoever turned you into this.
Just the thought of it made Soma remember the stories of Spartacus and wonder if the devils, while behind closed doors, were like the slave masters of the hero's time.