"No way..."
Nia Honjo kept flipping through Raziel - the black-covered book with a cross design in the middle - over and over:
"Spiritual Power consumption nearing 80%, overload rate exceeding 60%! I only lent you those pages a few days ago!"
As Nia complained, Luo Shu sat calmly on the sofa with arms crossed and said:
"So you can't grant higher access permissions now?"
"It's not that I can't..." As Nia spoke, she reached out and grabbed. The main body of Raziel appeared beside her, gently held in her hand.
Meanwhile, the copy she'd lent Luo Shu reverted to being just a page, which she released to return to the main volume.
Then, Nia pulled a search page from Raziel's main body, transforming it into a new copy before saying to Luo Shu:
"Well, since what I gave you before was a blank page, the Raziel copy you had did possess some degree of future-recording power. That's how you successfully ambushed that Hell Sect's Lady Greed."
"But honestly, forcibly activating future recording by doubling Spiritual Power consumption to control a Hero Rank strongly carries considerable risk."
"You only got away with it because you were controlling a Hero's avatar at the time. If it had been the real deal, that blank page would've probably overloaded and self-destructed."
"Tch, you don't look the type, but Luo Shu, you're actually quite reckless, aren't you?"
"Just acting entirely on intuition!"
As she spoke, Nia tossed the new Raziel copy toward Luo Shu.
With a snap, Luo Shu caught Raziel and then looked up at Nia.
At that moment, Nia spun Raziel on her fingertip and said with a smile:
"This time, I'm giving you a search page enhanced for intelligence gathering. With this, you can investigate my actions - with my permission, of course."
"Though my advice remains the same - don't rely too much on omniscience. The risks of using such power are still quite high."
"Risks?" Luo Shu suddenly looked at Nia when he heard this.
He was reminded of Nia's tragic fate in the original story - being used as experimental material.
Noticing his expression, Nia showed understanding:
"Come to think of it, in your memories, Luo Shu, my outcome probably wasn't very good, was it?"
"Although the specifics aren't clear, overusing an omniscient power like Raziel actually carries risks from variables."
"The so-called 'butterfly effect' where a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can cause a typhoon in the Pacific - that's the principle here."
"The more detailed the information retrieved through Raziel, the more susceptible you become to variable influences."
"For example, when I previously used Professor Agasa's gathering to isolate Conan."
"Suppose I wrote about Professor Agasa receiving an invitation to a scientists' gathering, but then he got food poisoning from expired instant noodles eaten the night before, causing him to miss the event."
"This would lead to Conan not going to Ran Mouri's house, which in turn means he wouldn't appear at the Sawamura residence."
"Without Conan's presence, Robert's faked death would immediately arouse Luo Shu's suspicions, prompting an investigation."
"After all, in Luo Shu's eyes, Conan's presence at a scene makes even the most absurd deaths seem reasonable. Without him, your vigilance would increase exponentially."
"In that timeline, you might still track Enigma's movements, but wouldn't be able to directly apprehend her like now."
"More seriously, if Conan hadn't encountered you at the Sawamura residence, the power within him wouldn't have transformed into the Calamity Jade Seal under the influence of calamity energy."
"Such variables could directly jeopardise your ascension."
"See? Just expired instant noodles could trigger multiple variables that derail a whole sequence of events."
"And variables like these are practically infinite."
"Maybe stepping out with your left foot first, or someone's sudden inspiration - the future could change in countless ways."
"The so-called future is inherently uncertain like this."
"And omniscience is an especially risky form of uncertain power."
"Because you can't guarantee constantly monitoring all variables related to yourself, and without that constant vigilance, mistakes become inevitable."
Hearing Nia Honjo's explanation, Luo Shu remained silent for a moment before responding:
"So that's why your approach is only intervening at critical moments, right?"
"Exactly!" Nia snapped Raziel's cover shut with a cheerful smile. "Like how I influenced the Phenex Society this time - that's exactly the method I used."
"All we need to do is have someone pose as an information dealer and casually mention in some Akihabara maid cafes that someone spotted a phoenix near the deeper layers of the Abyss around Akihabara. Just that one sentence could disrupt the Phenex Society's entire layout across Japan."
"Thanks to them constantly recruiting brainwashed low-level members to die in central Tokyo, little Kotori is already very close to our level of the world."
Hearing this, Luo Shu glanced at Nia Honjo while flipping through a fragment of Raziel and asked:
"Is the method used by the Hell Sect similar to the Phenex Society's?"
"Pretty much." Nia Honjo pondered briefly before continuing: "You've seen Miko's ability before, right, Luo Shu?"
Luo Shu nodded silently, waiting for Nia's explanation.
"Actually, the so-called Abyss is very close to our world. In some ways, you could think of it as a mille-feuille."
"And since it's a mille-feuille, there's naturally a concept of layers above and below."
As she spoke, Nia tore a page from Raziel and casually tossed it, transforming it into a basketball-sized mille-feuille pastry.
This was the inverse power of Raziel - the other side of knowledge, the power of the Angel Beelzebub.
The ability to materialise imagined things.
Using Raziel's power and with Luo Shu's permission, Nia had secretly observed Mio Takamiya multiple times, obtaining information about utilising this opposing force. This was why she could now wield the partial power of Beelzebub.
But that wasn't important right now. What mattered was that this ability helped Nia illustrate her point more vividly.
Nia tore another page and transformed it into a fist-sized iron ball, which she then dropped onto the mille-feuille.
Pointing at the now collapsed centre of the pastry, Nia said with a cold, grave expression:
"This is the current shape of our world!"
"A cluster of worlds partially overlapping after being crushed and pierced through by an indescribable calamity!"
"This is the truth of our world!"