"As expected, even hearing it again, I still find it utterly baffling."
Nia Honjo stroked her chin with a smile, as if she had seen something amusing.
"When I was searching with Raziel, I discovered that the spread of the Bloodline Dominator Class was related to members of the School of Life."
"For that reason, I sought out little Kurumi and, based on her description, locked onto some of the high-ranking members of the School of Life she knew."
"Although I confirmed through Raziel that they were the ones spreading information about the Class worldwide, surprisingly, the reason for spreading the Class just came up as a jumble of garbled code."
As she spoke, Nia Honjo summoned Raziel, opened it, and showed the page to everyone.
Luo Shu looked closely and saw that Raziel's page was filled with all sorts of meaningless symbols.
Whenever Nia Honjo asked for the School of Life's reason for spreading the Class, the answer Raziel gave was a mess of garbled code.
This situation was not entirely unfamiliar to Luo Shu.
"Which is to say, the being that issued the order to spread the Class has an authority that exceeds Raziel's search range... which means..."
"Angel Rank," Kuesu Jingūji stated indifferently, uttering the term that symbolised the divine realm.
After Nia Honjo's promotion to Demigod, the only ones who could interfere with Raziel's searches were beings whose authority was far greater than her own—that is, high-ranking individuals of the Angel Rank.
Those beings who grasped and wielded divine authority could, by their own lofty authority alone, be immune to the encroachment of lower-level powers.
Information about them was, moreover, protected by divine authority.
Using means such as divination or scrying to probe such an existence would, under normal circumstances, even provoke a backlash from the other party's authority.
It was only because Nia Honjo conducted her investigations of such beings from within the Hidden Management Zone, a Divine Kingdom, that she could use its high authority to conceal herself.
Otherwise, the moment Nia Honjo activated Raziel to investigate the other party, divine punishment would likely have descended upon her in an instant, responding to the use of authority.
At that moment, upon confirming that the culprit spreading the Class was a being of at least Angel Rank, Kisara couldn't help but complain:
"Speaking of which, why have so many Angel-related things suddenly popped up in this world? And why do we always run into them?"
At this, Kisara muttered under her breath:
"Can't they just quieten down for a bit and let Luo Shu get some proper rest?"
'Are you sure you just want Luo Shu to rest?'
Nia Honjo looked at Kisara and Mira Tsubakihara with a knowing smile. If she remembered correctly, hadn't these two recently been adding a lot of zinc-rich foods to Luo Shu's daily meals?
Although due to too many sudden incidents, that increased energy ended up being spent on Kuesu Jingūji, this prior offence alone was enough for Nia Honjo to laugh at them for a lifetime.
Their carefully prepared dishes ended up benefiting Kuesu Jingūji. It was truly hilarious.
While Nia Honjo was snickering, Kurumi Tokisaki said thoughtfully:
"I think rather than them appearing suddenly, it's more that as the world's restrictions are gradually lifted, those Angels have begun to intentionally deepen their infiltration of the mortal world?"
"After all, when I was still in Europe, those factions within Truth Astronomy that served demons had already been serving their demon gods for many years."
"But back then, so-called prayers often went unanswered, and the power the demon gods bestowed upon their followers was also very scarce."
"At least in my memory, until I came to Japan, the followers empowered by the demon gods were at most equivalent in strength to an Elite Rank Class user."
At this point, seeing Kurumi Tokisaki's description of the demon followers, Kuesu Jingūji immediately corrected her:
"An Elite Rank Class user is comparable to at least some self-taught Hero Rank individuals. This is true in both the past and present environments."
"So, the power of these demon god followers isn't weak at all. In fact, it's excessively strong."
"After all, just by receiving a response, one could leap to the pinnacle of humanity at the time. Even if some were subpar, a large enough number would be sufficient to subvert the existing order of the great powers... hmm?"
Speaking to this point, Kuesu Jingūji immediately realised something:
"I see. Is it to restrain these demon god followers that the Five Great Powers used the Scales of Order to set the rules?"
Nia Honjo glanced at Kuesu Jingūji in surprise, then spread her hands.
"That's more or less it."
"Based on my probing so far, the Scales of Order does indeed have rules restricting Angelic power and mystical blessings."
"Essentially, whenever a demon god projects power into our world to create some lucky individuals, it triggers the Scales of Order's countermeasures."
"The specific restrictive countermeasures can't be determined yet."
"But it's likely because of the Scales of Order's countermeasures that these demon gods rarely create such lucky individuals who ascend in a single step, thereby suppressing the power of these demon god followers below a baseline where they can't endanger social order."
Hearing this, Luo Shu also understood the actions of these demon gods, especially the God of Life and Domination.
"So, those demon gods, like this God of Life and Domination, changed their approach under the restrictions of the Scales of Order. Unable to project power on a large scale, they began trying to spread problematic Classes?"
Hearing this, Tabane Shinonono couldn't help but blink.
"In that case, don't the Hero or Demigod Rank individuals who advance through a Class like Bloodline Dominator have a high probability of being influenced by the God of Life and Domination?"
"It's just like a main server and signal receivers..."
Hearing Tabane Shinonono's words, Mira Tsubakihara, sitting next to Luo Shu, couldn't help but hypothesise:
"Using that analogy, what if in the future the number of signal receivers—that is, these problematic Class users—increases? Could it form something like the internet?"
"Just like in alchemy, where adding an excessive amount of silver and iron can refine mithril with special effects?"
Hearing Mira Tsubakihara say this, everyone present fell silent.
If this theory held true, then suppressing these heretical Class users seemed to be an inevitable measure.
After all, who knew what those demon gods planned to do to the mortal world after completing this so-called network?
At the end of the day, those demon gods were, in essence, demons who had reached the Angel Rank.
Thinking of this, Luo Shu suddenly felt like he had been walking past a mango tree on the street and had been hit by a falling mango.
Although he was only hit by one dangerous mango by chance, it had allowed him to see the dense clusters of mangoes on the tree.
He was just investigating which idiot was randomly spreading Classes, so why did it lead to a world-level crisis involving an extra-dimensional demon god?
'Is this also the Calamity Bringer's attraction to calamity?'
'What is this?'
'A protagonist's halo from a novel?'
Luo Shu scratched his hair, sighed softly, and then said to Kirika Tachibana:
"Perhaps we might have to convene a United Nations conference!"
"Convene a UN conference... us?" Kirika Tachibana was taken aback, not quite following Luo Shu's train of thought for a moment.
At this, Luo Shu said, half-jokingly and half-seriously:
"After all, we have to clearly distinguish between black and white."
Hearing this, Nia Honjo immediately understood Luo Shu's meaning and blinked.
"Classes acknowledged by us are righteous Classes, and unacknowledged ones belong to evil god followers?"
"Seizing the right to define righteousness and evil? Luo Shu, are you really going to do something so cool?"
Luo Shu rolled his eyes and then retorted:
"I'm more inclined to call it being forced into a corner."
After venting his feelings with that complaint, Luo Shu's expression turned serious, a confident smile appearing on his face.
"However, you're not wrong, Nia."
"Next, we shall define the world!"