Today began with me working on a locating device. One that can locate anyone, as long as I have their name, and show me their location on a map. Yes, it is to locate those who summon demons by sacrificing others. Admittedly, the device really wasn’t that difficult to make. I have the cards needed to find someone just by their name, but that does cause some problems. The first being that plenty of people have the same name. And unfortunately, the demon info doesn’t come with locations. It does have some sort of ‘soul number’. I don’t exactly know what it is, and even the Demon God couldn’t explain it to me. For demons, it is an inherent understanding that that ‘number’ means that specific individual. And no, it isn’t actually a number I could decode, more like a … signal. Like a sort of wave. Then again, you can decode sound waves. And light waves. And all kinds of waves. So it is theoretically possible. I asked Janina about it and she told me that it has something to do with soul resonance. Sadly even she didn’t know it that well. But she did tell me that spirits know a bit about it, since their synchronization relies on soul resonance. So I asked the spirits about it, but even they only knew it by instinct. Like they can understand someone’s soul wavelength if they synchro with them, and can adjust their own match the wavelength of the person so the synchro is as good as it can be. Sadly they can’t make a perfect match, except in very rare cases. Because of that, there are no permanent synchros. Again, except rare cases like Cailie. Anemoi made that greater spirit based on Cailie’s soul, thus the two have a perfect synchro with no mana or stamina drain. But if it was even slightly off, it wouldn’t work. All of this to say that we have no way of decoding the soul wavelength and searching people based on that. Which sucks. So names are really the only choice until I figure out how to decode the soul wavelength.  ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novęlfire.net But that is where we run into the next problem. As I recently learned, this world has four continents. And all four have intelligent life that use the System, and thus can use Summoning Magic. Including demon summoning. And I have a list of every contract between a demon and a human. And I can’t sort by continent or anything like that. So I quite literally get every single contract by every single human who has formed one. So if I just search by the name, I not only end up with tens or even hundreds of results, some of them are on different continents. Luckily it does seem that the naming convention on other continents is slightly different, so most names aren’t shared. But some still are, thus causing even bigger problems. So all I can really do for now is check out the worst of the worst, mark every single hit as a potential psychopath, and have someone follow them around to hopefully confirm who is the person who sacrificed a village worth of people to get a few skills. … Actually, I should just look for reports about a village being lost. That could help narrow it down. I need to make some sort of investigation team for this stuff. That night, as I slept, I … well I didn’t wake up to it, but I did realize it was happening. I felt my soul being pulled out of my body. I just let it, as I can think of only one reason it would be happening without HomeBase alarms blaring. In just a second, I was in a parlor room I haven’t visited for a while. And waiting for me there was the rainbow haired Goddess. I didn’t expect us to meet without any warning, but I’m not going to say no, so I quickly walked to the table and sat down. “So. You have answers for me?” I got straight to the point. “Sadly no.” She said. She noticed my face going into a frown, so she quickly explained. “I wish I could, I really do, but the other three didn’t agree.” “So you know that I know about them?” I asked. “I do talk with Ibu from time to time. So he told me he talked with you, and filled me in with some of the details.” “Ibu? Like Ibuprofen? Holy fuck, is that really the Demon God’s name?” “It is a common medicine back on Earth. Like probably the most common. Maybe second or third, but still. Who decided that naming demons after medicine would be the thing?” “... we don’t know.” She admitted. “Well, it doesn’t really matter. So … the Hero’s party made you, huh?” I began. I wanted to see just how much I could fish out of her. “... That is true. At the time, we had no choice. You heard for Ibu, but the God before us didn’t deal with the demon king appropriately. He didn’t care if the people died, as a land ruled by the demon god would still be filled with people. Just ones following the demon king.” The Goddess said. “But wouldn’t the Chaos God Energy cause massive problems? It caused problems in the demon world, and I bet the regular world had even more leaking into it.” “Yes and yes. But the All-Mighty didn’t care. He let more of it seep in as the demon king was using it to make people, people who followed him. But those people didn’t, they couldn’t, use the System. And while there is a small chance the continent would have survived if more Chaos God Dungeons were founded, it would have been a bandaid at best.” She explained. “We knew it couldn’t continue, so when the other Three gave us the power to do what was needed, we didn’t hesitate. We took the power we had, used the Hero’s skill for even more power and did what we could. And since we dealt with an issue the other Gods agreed could have ended the world, we were able to take the role of this continent's God. They approved of us and helped us get rid of the All-Mighty, permanently.” “I see.” I muttered. Nothing much new there, but still good to hear. “What about the device you gave the Demon God?” I asked. I almost called him Ibu like the Goddess does, but I haven’t gotten his permission for it yet, so I’ll wait until I meet him and ask if he would allow it. “... admittedly, we aren’t sure about it.” She responded. “It is something the Hero had in his Inventory. We know where he obtained it, but its true origin is a secret. In a way, it is the same as his Holy Sword.” “... wait. You don’t know where his sword came from?” I asked. “We do but at the same time we don't. There is a lot we don’t know or remember about the Hero. We, no, everyone in the world lost all memories related to his time before he came to this world when his skill was sacrificed. That includes all the Gods who were in power at the time.” “But he got both the sword and the device while in this world, right?” I confirmed. “Unless they were a gift from the God who gave him his unique skill?” I theorized. “Both the device and the sword originate from this world. At least as far as we know. They were given to the Hero.” The Goddess said. “We simply do not know who made them. And he obtained them before he was given a System Support, and he himself said he obtained them from a demon. The demon told him to save the world from the demon king, and make sure someone worthy of being a god for the demons would obtain the device. He asked her why she didn’t choose one, but she responded that she can’t go against the demon king, and he was not fit to be a God.” “She? So a female demon?” “A succubus of sorts, from what we heard.” “So maybe someone like Cetiri. A succubus who grew to become a war demon.” I noted. “But where would someone like them obtain a holy sword?” “We would also like to know that.” The Goddess admitted. “This world really needs some Akashic Records. I could use a skill like that.” I said with a sigh. “Yes. We too would appreciate complete access to unaltered world history.” “You don’t even have that? … of course you don’t.” “Our apologies.” She responded. “... okay. This has gone on for long enough.” I said, bringing out my serious voice. “Are you going to tell me who ‘We’ is, or do you want me to start theorizing?” “.....” After I asked that, the Goddess went silent, so I continued. “When I first heard you referring to yourself as we, I assumed you were referring to yourself and the System Agents. That is because you also used I when you were referring to yourself. But during this conversation, basically since the start, you’ve been using ‘we’ for things that are clearly about you, as an individual, not the collective of you and the System Agents.” As I talked, the Goddess’ hair which usually flowed in a rainbow of colors stopped doing that. The colors simply stopped moving, leaving them static as if someone had hit the freeze button on the color changing RGB hair. “So you are not a you, but You. … stupid language having you be both the singular and the plural coming to ruin everything.” I complained to myself, since the Goddess was still seemingly freezeframing. “And thanks to the Hero’s diary, as broken apart as it is because of the memory issue, I know that three Ultimates were used to summon you. And because of the Demon God, I know you weren’t just summoned, but made. So what three ultimates could it have been?” I asked, not expecting an answer. Because I think I know what it is. “It isn’t an ultimate skill, as I first assumed. I’ve run tests on tests in the Factory, and I’ve never been able to form an ultimate skill. But know what I did manage to make? A Divine Skill. It was clearly the next step beyond unique and racial-unique skills. Unless I skipped a step, but I don’t think I did.” I let that sink in since the Goddess might not know everything that goes on in the Factory. Also, the reason I don’t have a single divine skill is because they can’t actually be installed into a human. I’d die if I tried. The only success I had was with an altered copy of Janina who had a pseudo System I made in the Factory. It was nothing much, but it did manage to somewhat work, and it was able to show me the Divine Skill. Sadly you need a Divine Race to be able to hold one, and Janina is the only one who has that. At least as far as I know. And even then, the install could kill her as it killed Factory copies I made of her. It took nine tries for the install to finally go through without killing the Factory copy, and that was after I adjusted her Factory copy to be more durable when it came to the manipulation of her pseudo System. “So. What else would the Hero’s party have had? Something that could reach the ‘ultimate’ level? When I thought about it with all that info, it really wasn’t that complicated. Each of them had a System Support. I mean, I’ve met all of them. Joan, Sicily and Tamaki. And while I didn’t at first think about it, I realized that you, well the System really, hides a lot of information behind the perfect System Support rank. And you really don’t want to give that out to people. So why would that be?” Again, I let the Goddess think of the answer, but she didn’t feel like talking. But at least her hair colors began flowing again, even if at a slower speed than usually. “Maybe what you want to hide is how to overthrow a God. Three ultimate System Supports would be needed, and with that any of the Gods from any of the four continents could be overthrown. So you hide the existence of that fifth System Support rank.” The Goddess didn’t answer, but I could see it in her eyes that I was correct. “You were a special case. The Hero and his companions saved this continent, and likely the entire world, by taking down the demon king. But the other Gods didn’t realize how messed up the dimensional barrier got. So they likely had no choice and granted all three of you the ultimate rank needed. The other Gods must have assumed that just having a new and active God could fix the damage. But as you gained that power, that knowledge, you realized it wasn’t enough. You needed more so you used the power that originated from outside of this world, the Hero’s unique skill, given to him by a God outside of this world’s influence. And with that, you solved the issue and the other Gods approved of you, and you took the position of a System God of this continent.” “So. Are you going to tell me I’m wrong?” I asked. Instead of a verbal answer, I got a shown one. The Goddess in front of me began to glow, and after just a few seconds, she began to split into three. Three System Agents. The ones I listed before. And as she split, a System screen popped up in my peripheral vision. I focused on it and quickly read it over.