[Bad Woman: "Angels, Fallen Angels, and devils—all the factions recorded in the Bible came into being only after God appeared. The Bible's God is Lord of Hosts, King of Kings; Devil King Satan only needed Michael to deal with Him, and even the Beast of Revelation was sealed by a Seraphim-led host."]
[Bad Woman: "From start to finish, God never took the field personally; yet even Michael, His proxy, swept away nearly every being that opposed Him."]
[Bad Woman: "The one who died was merely the DXD World's god; Lord Rosen is the God of the Bible—there's no comparison."]
[Fallen Angel: "Exactly! Never thought I'd hear such words from a devil's mouth."]
[Goddess of the Moon "340": "What… difference does that make?"]
Artemis looked utterly lost.
Why is the Bible so hard to understand?
[Bad Woman: "It's the difference between having a qualifier and not. Just take it that Lord Rosen is the True God and the rest are false gods."]
[Avenger: "Got it."]
[Magic Old Man: "Got it."]
[I Don't Want to Eat Monsters: "So that's how it is."]
Rosen wasn't paying attention to the chat group's chatter.
He had already found the way to Heaven's gate.
Ever since God vanished, the gate had been sealed by the Seraphim led by Michael.
With the Life Tree System disrupted, anything connected to the Church was heavily affected.
Take believers' prayers, for instance.
Previously, the System logged prayers, routed them to the appropriate functions, and judged whether to grant miracles.
Once the System glitched, prayers could no longer be recorded.
The malfunction also impacted Divine Artifacts.
Normally, only pure-blood humans could host an Artifact.
Half-breeds with human blood had drastically lower odds.
Non-humans couldn't use Artifacts at all, let alone host one.
Now, however, non-Human Races could not only wield Artifacts but also host them; some even carried both holy and demonic attributes.
Examples: Yuuto Kiba's Holy-Demonic Sword and Aisia's Mother's Smile, which can heal devils and Fallen Angels alike.
The latter case is especially striking.
Aisia, a Saintess, had been the most devout believer.
Yet she was exiled over a trifle.
In the past the truth would've surfaced quickly, but to keep the System stable the Church branded her a heretic.
The Seraphim, Michael included, sealed Heaven's gate to prevent angels from falling.
With God gone they could no longer birth new angels; they could only seclude the existing ones in Heaven and manage the situation with lies.
Entering or leaving now required rigorous checks.
Rosen, however, didn't need the gate.
Every barrier in Heaven had been forged by the God of the Bible before He vanished; as master of the Bible Loligoddess, Rosen held the highest clearance.
Heaven is divided into seven spheres.
The First and Second host angels' offices and dwellings.
The Third is the common Paradise: after death, believers' Souls ascend here; the sinless are housed following inspection.
The Fourth is Eden; the Fifth is a training ground plus a prison for Fallen Angels.
The Sixth is where the Seraphim reside.
The Seventh holds the miracle-working System and God's own abode.
No deity has dwelt there for centuries.
Yet today—
Heaven's most secret and vital Seventh Sphere finally welcomed a new guest… and master.
When Rosen opened a gate of light and let Rias, Akeno, and Xenovia step through, the group was transported straight into Heaven.
Brilliant Holy Light showered down at once.
Himejima Akeno and Koneko flinched, instinctively bracing to resist.
To devils, Holy Light is poison; a mere touch scorches skin, and prolonged exposure can reduce them to charcoal.
And this was Heaven's ultra-pure radiance.
Yet they quickly realized nothing was happening to them.
"Relax—I've already registered you in the System. You could sunbathe in Holy Light now."
Rosen certainly hadn't forgotten such a detail.
If he had, the joke would've been on him.
"So… so bright, so warm, so sacred a place!"
"This… is this really the place where God once lived?!"
"Xenovia, I feel so happy right now!"
"I-I feel the same, Irina. I'm so honored that someone like me could be blessed enough to come here!"
Xenovia and Irina held hands, moved to tears of joy.
"You two look around for now; I'll run some maintenance on the System."
When Rosen reached the Seventh Heaven, his sense of the "System" grew even stronger.
Meanwhile, the Bible Loligoddess within the quanta revived and sighed, "Never thought the day would come when I could return here."
"If you want, you can live here again from now on."
Rosen said with a smile.
Hearing that, the Bible Loligoddess was tempted, but quickly shook her head.
"I now serve you as my master; this place is no longer mine."
"Suit yourself."
Rosen said no more.
Apart from girls like Yotsuya Miko and Sakurajima Mai, Rosen left the rest of his Familia to their own devices.
He didn't mind letting Esdeath and Makima stay in their original worlds.
Then Rosen's figure flickered; when he reappeared, he stood on an endless plain.
Before him hovered a pure-white sphere, drifting slowly like a planet suspended in mid-air.
As Rosen approached, the faint light on the sphere flared up as if boiling.
At the same time,
when the System reacted, the Seraphim in the Sixth Heaven also sensed the irregular fluctuation coming from the Seventh Heaven.