"A mille-feuille with its centre crushed by an iron ball..."
Yukino Yukinoshita and Miko Yotsuya stared in stunned bewilderment at Nia's creation, falling into deep thought.
Meanwhile, Luo Shu gazed silently at the collapsed centre of the mille-feuille and the fist-sized iron ball before asking after a moment:
"If we're comparing this mille-feuille to our world..."
"Then what does the iron ball represent? Where exactly is our world in this? And what about Kotori Itsuka's situation?"
"Excellent questions."
Nia clapped her hands together before tilting her head:
"However, I can't explain many of these."
"What is the iron ball? Where did it come from? Why has it pierced through so many worlds? These are all unknowns~"
"Perhaps our sealed mother, the great Spirit of Origin, knows something. But unfortunately, in our current state, freeing her would be suicidal for both you and me~"
As she spoke, Nia leaned her hands on the table's edge, staring at the giant mille-feuille at its centre.
"However, there are some things I can explain."
"For example, our world is actually located here!"
Hearing this, Luo Shu followed Nia Honjo's pointing finger and saw the very bottom layer of the layered cake.
Seeing this, Luo Shu was slightly surprised:
"We're at the lowest level of this world cluster?"
"Yes."
Nia Honjo nodded, then said meaningfully:
"In the general knowledge of True Hell's upper echelons, our world is called the Abyss!"
"And this 'Abyss' is a derogatory term, just like how we refer to Hell."
"The Abyss?!!" Luo Shu's expression instantly became extremely peculiar.
Their world, in the eyes of those demon Grand Dukes from True Hell who rivalled gods, was actually the Abyss?
So, in the view of the demon Grand Dukes, our place is some remote, frozen wasteland?
"Though it's a bit hard to believe, that's the reality."
Nia spread her hands and said helplessly:
"Though the reason isn't clear, the demon Grand Dukes of True Hell do call our world the Abyss and regard it as a land of calamity."
"So under normal circumstances, even if demon nobles want to invade worlds, they'll target other places rather than coming here."
"On one hand, our world strongly suppresses them. On the other hand, this place is considered countless times more terrifying than exile in their eyes."
"This is also one reason why Truth Astronomy - who worship demons and try to steal their power - frequently hold demon summoning rituals but rarely summon high-ranking demons."
"Similarly, it's why the demon nobles behind the Hell Sect support local powerhouses to do their bidding."
"After all, no one wants to be a cleaner inside an operating crematorium's furnace~"
Hearing this analogy, Yukino Yukinoshita's expression became very strange.
Having the world you live in regarded as some terrifying death world by demons... the feeling was somewhat too peculiar.
"Having covered how our world is viewed by True Hell, let me explain another term."
At this point, Nia cheerfully uttered a phrase:
"Faith Anchors!"
"Powerful beings from other worlds mostly remain in their own worlds. Apart from those unlucky souls captured by the iron sphere's gravitational pull and dragged to other worlds, other existences can be pulled into this world using a method called Faith Anchors."
"And this method should be quite familiar to Miko, right?"
Nia said this while smirking at Miko Yotsuya.
"Me?" Miko pointed at herself blankly, dumbfounded.
Then Nia said with a giggle:
"Right, don't you see them every day? Those unlucky ones stranded in other worlds."
Hearing this, Miko's face instantly paled. She thought of the terrifying Evil Spirits she saw with her eyes, her teeth chattering:
"Miss Honjo means... the Evil Spirits I see are those unlucky ones captured by the iron sphere's gravity?"
"Correct!" Nia nodded, then added: "To be precise, they're otherworldly beings captured and corrupted by the iron sphere's power."
"I'm not entirely sure why they manifest as Evil Spirits, but it's common knowledge that passing through the iron sphere's channel to other worlds results in contamination by some terrifying force."
"This channel formed by the iron sphere is the Abyss Passage—the same place where Miko sees the Evil Spirits residing."
"And from the perspective of the demons in True Hell, using the Abyss Passage to descend into other worlds is something even the most insane demons wouldn't do."
"Because they have safer and more convenient methods to reach other worlds."
At this point, Nia Honjo smirked and explained:
"The Spiritual Power of living beings!"
"Or rather, extreme emotions mixed with a certain force from that world!"
"Using this power to form what we call 'faith' is the method they've discovered—also known as the 'Anchor of Faith,' or coordinates."
"As everyone knows, demons can consume and digest the emotions of sentient beings to grow stronger. So, it's only logical to use the 'scent' emitted by their food as coordinates~"
"After all, they're demons. Having a keen sense of smell is only natural~ Even if it's the scent from another world, it's not unusual for powerful demons to detect it."
At this moment, Yukino Yukinoshita narrowed her eyes and asked:
"But in practice, couldn't other non-demonic entities also exploit this to anchor coordinates and descend?"
"Correct." Nia Honjo nodded with a smile. "However, even ordinary people can instinctively sense when someone is angry, right?"
"The principle is similar!"
As she spoke, Nia playfully broke apart a mille-feuille in front of her:
"Because the Phenex Society knows about the existence of the Anchor of Faith, and because I leaked Kotori Itsuka's existence while disguising her as a phoenix..."
"This led to the Phenex Society's fanatical members relentlessly exploiting their brainwashed Familia, using the extreme emotions of their dying moments to form an Anchor of Faith. This anchor would latch onto Kotori and pull her from the Abyss Passage into the real world!"
"Though cleansing the Abyss's influence from Kotori afterwards might be tricky..."
Nia turned her gaze to Luo Shu, smiling brightly:
"...it shouldn't be too difficult for a Calamity Priest to handle, right?"
'Using the Phenex Society's suicidal summoning ritual to bring Kotori Itsuka back from the Abyss Passage...'
Luo Shu gave Nia a deep look:
"So this is your plan, Nia?"