Was it Creereere? Or Shalba? Could it be Vali Lucifer?
But they had only just convinced Vali to join, and his only task was to provide coordinates. He shouldn't have known about the witches or the plan to capture the Time Stop user.
Katerea had wanted Rhodes to speak, but now she wished she hadn't heard a word. When a total stranger can strip your top-secret plans down to the underwear, it's terrifying.
She felt a genuine flicker of fear toward the man standing before her.
"How... how do you know these things?!" Katerea's grip on her chair was so tight her knuckles turned white.
Rhodes only gave her a cryptic half-smile. "You don't need to know how. You just need to know that if you attack them during the summit, you will die. And you will die without an ounce of dignity."
"Impossible! I have the power of the Infinite Dragon God! Serafall and the others cannot possibly be stronger than me!" Katerea shouted.
The core of their plan was Ophis's power. If they could kill or capture the current Satans, the government's morale would crumble. Then, they would use Ophis's power to pick off the remaining Demon Kings one by one and take over the Underworld.
"Borrowed power is just that—borrowed," Rhodes countered. "The moment that energy runs dry, you're finished. But hey, talk is cheap. Let me show you some data."
As he spoke, Rhodes reached behind him and, under Katerea's bewildered gaze, produced a full-sized blackboard.
Katerea blinked, stunned. Where did he pull that from?
She then noticed a chart drawn on the board with various names and categories. Titles like "T0: Evil God Tier," "T1: Quasi-Evil God Tier," and "Transcendental Dragon Tier" were scribbled everywhere.
Even though it was written in Chinese characters, as a descendant of Leviathan, Katerea could understand any language. However, while she could read the words, she had no idea what the hell they meant in this context.
"EXE Three Pillars of Machine Gods"? The names sounded menacing, but she had never heard of them.
It wasn't until she looked further down at "T2" that she saw familiar names: Great Red, Ophis the Infinite Dragon God, and the long-dead God of the Bible.
"Ah, I wrote too much. Don't look at the top part."
Rhodes pulled out an eraser and wiped away the T0 and T1 rankings. These were just power-scaling tier lists he'd made out of boredom, based on templates from internet forum experts back in his old world.
He had meant it for the "Power Scaling" nerds to argue over, but he never expected to actually show it to the "local natives.""What is this?" Katerea asked, her expression blank.
Although Rhodes had wiped away the names, he still felt a lingering chill when he recalled the Three Pillars of the Machine Gods from the EXE world.
"A power tier ranking of the world of High School DxD," Rhodes replied.
"What... High School DxD?"
"Oh, just a name I came up with. Don't worry about it."
Rhodes had let the original title of the series slip out of habit. Fortunately, Katerea seemed a bit dim-witted and easy to fool. Besides, any normal person would be more focused on the term "power rankings."
"I won't beat around the bush," Rhodes continued. "This is a list I've compiled, ranking everyone from strongest to weakest."
"Oh? Similar to the Top Ten in the world?" Katerea asked, reaching an understanding.
This world did have its own power rankings, but they only covered the top ten individuals. Anyone on that list was a powerhouse of immense strength. However, many people—Katerea included—didn't necessarily agree with the rankings. She didn't believe she was any weaker than the likes of Odin, Zeus, Hades, or Sirzechs. With the power of the Infinite Dragon God, she felt she should at least be in the top three, if not number one.
"Something like that," Rhodes said without blinking. "But those are just unofficial lists. Mine is professional."
"Then where am I?" Katerea scanned the blackboard. She noticed that even in the Satan-class rankings, her name was nowhere to be found.
"You? You're too weak, so I didn't bother writing your name down." Rhodes had stopped the list at the Satan-class level; there was no point in ranking those below it.
"You—!" Katerea's fury flared.
But before she could react, an electronic voice chirped: "Clock Up."
The man who had been standing by the blackboard vanished, reappearing behind her in an instant. Rhodes placed a hand gently on her neck. The sensation of his fingertips against her skin caused a thin layer of goosebumps to ripple across Katerea's flesh.
This guy! When did he move?!
Katerea stared at him, her eyes wide with disbelief. What had just happened? Why hadn't she been able to react?
"Standard procedure. Sit down," Rhodes said, pressing her back into her seat as she instinctively tried to stand.
From his current angle and distance, Rhodes' view was dominated by a sea of tan skin. Being a gentleman, he didn't stare too closely, though he did note that Katerea's deep-V neckline seemed about thirty millimeters lower than before.
He walked back to the blackboard. Katerea watched him, her eyes filled with a complex mix of emotions.
"If you're this strong, why did you accept my recruitment back at the Khaos Brigade?" This was the first time Katerea had faced an opponent outside of Shalba and Creereere. Usually, the three of them compared themselves to one another, and as the strongest of the Old Satan Faction, they naturally assumed they were at the peak of the Satan-class.
"Because of love..."
"What?!"
"Sorry, I started singing instinctively."
"..."
If she weren't so clearly outmatched, Katerea would have loved to give this man a thorough thrashing.
"It was just a whim," Rhodes said, shrugging.
He then began a formal explanation of the true power levels of the leaders of the Three Great Powers. He made it clear that even if Katerea swallowed the "Snake," she would only barely reach the entry-level of the Satan-class. Serafall, whom Katerea was most obsessed with surpassing, was at the very pinnacle of that class. As for Sirzechs, his power was at least two tiers higher than both of them combined.
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High School DxD : Reincarnated into the Multiverse, but it's High School DxD (216 Chapters – Ongoing)
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