For someone who knew nothing about the deeper workings of the world, the situation would sound absurd.
Imagine walking down the street with a friend when they suddenly told you that the stranger who had just passed by had been personally chosen by Heaven.
You would probably assume they were joking.
Heaven had no will of its own. From a scientific perspective, the sky was merely atmosphere surrounding a planet. There was no conscious entity up there selecting favored mortals.
So you would laugh it off.
Then the sky itself would grow a face and visibly bestow its blessing upon the stranger who had just walked past you.
That kind of contradiction between everything you understood and what stood directly before your eyes would be enough to leave almost anyone mentally paralyzed.
Aleister Crowley understood that feeling better than most.
As one of the greatest magicians alive, he naturally possessed a far deeper understanding of the God worshiped throughout human history.
At the most fundamental level, God in this world resembled a natural law.
An impersonal truth.
A principle that simply functioned.
God was order.
God was the certainty that time moved forward.
God was a law woven into existence from the beginning of the universe, no different in principle from mathematics, physics, or the countless patterns humanity had gradually discovered within reality.
It had always existed.
Unchanging.
Impersonal.
And now that law appeared to possess awareness.
The very idea that one of the foundational truths of reality had somehow become conscious was disturbing enough that even Aleister, a man who plotted against Magic Gods and manipulated the world itself, remained silent.
His reason told him such a thing should be impossible.
But he trusted Aiwass's judgment.
"This is extraordinary."
In the end, that was all Aleister said.
Then he fell silent again.
At this point, the most urgent question was no longer whether his plans could proceed successfully.
He needed to determine whether God had truly awakened.
If God genuinely possessed a living consciousness, then something above even the Magic Gods now existed.
A being that stood over everyone.
A being capable of defining the rules by which the universe itself operated.
No one could resist it.
No one could question it.
After another stretch of silence, Aleister's expression shifted faintly.
"Although, if certain people learned that the God they've worshiped all this time might actually appear before them..."
A trace of amusement entered his voice.
"That could become rather entertaining."
Elsewhere, Asakami En walked home from school while thinking about the next stage of his growth.
Once the esper system reached Level 6, it had effectively arrived at its theoretical limit.
If he wanted to continue progressing within the framework of A Certain Magical Index, he would need to increase his own rank as an existence rather than simply refine his ability.
The title of "earthly angel" was ultimately only a convenient way of describing a human who had touched the domain of angels.
He was still far from becoming a true angel.
To cross that distance, improving his ability alone wouldn't be enough.
His soul, body, and even more abstract aspects of his existence would need to evolve.
Put in more scientific terms, he would have to raise his dimensional state.
Asakami En suddenly stopped walking.
A gray-haired young man stood ahead of him, watching him calmly.
Asakami didn't recognize him.
But he knew immediately who he was.
Another System holder.
At the same time, his own ability was telling him something deeply contradictory.
According to the earth beneath his feet, nobody was standing there at all.
Caelus regarded him quietly.
"I've had to introduce myself quite a lot today."
He gave a slight nod.
"Hello. I'm Caelus. I'm another System holder, and a traveler."
Caelus could see that the boy before him was deeply connected to the earth beneath Academy City.
More importantly, Asakami En didn't appear to be the sort of person who attacked or killed others on sight.
There was probably room for conversation.
"Asakami En."
He looked back at Caelus.
"As for my other identity, I doubt I need to explain it."
He glanced toward the nearby street.
"Let's find somewhere to talk. You don't seem to be here as some self-appointed hero, or you would've attacked me the moment you found me."
"Fine."
They entered a nearby café and found a table.
Once they sat down, Asakami immediately noticed something strange.
Several students had looked curiously in their direction at first.
Then, almost at once, every bit of attention slid away.
The students went right back to excitedly discussing their day, completely ignoring the fact that Academy City's sixth-ranked Level 5 was sitting only a short distance away.
Caelus got straight to the point.
"My System spent quite a while tracing yours, breaking through its defenses, and locating this universe."
"Then it brought me here through an invasion-type transit rather than the normal world process."
"So I think you already understand that I didn't come all this way just to talk."
Asakami En remained silent.
"The truth is, my System and I accepted a commission."
Caelus continued calmly.
"The client was the System your side infected earlier. The one whose database you accessed before it finally noticed the virus."
He made no effort to hide what was going to happen.
No matter how civil the conversation remained, a fight would eventually be unavoidable.
The commission had already been paid for.
Caelus himself had received twenty thousand System Currency in advance.
Interestingly, the payment had only arrived shortly before they departed.
At first, his System had intended to track down the culprit, demonstrate overwhelming force, and then extort some of this universe's unique rule data as compensation.
Instead, the other side had unexpectedly paid them directly.
And paid well.
After discussing it briefly, Caelus and his System had reached a simple conclusion.
Once you've taken the money, you have to do the job.
Back in the Monster Hunter world, Ray sat inside a small cabin staring at the interface in front of him.
His System panel had been completely repaired.
Every bug that had plagued it before was gone.
On top of that, it now contained several new functions designed specifically to help him improve.
Ray stared at it for several seconds.
"So you could fix all of this that quickly?"
He looked deeply suspicious.
"Then why did your idiot personality leave it broken for so long? Did you intentionally make that personality ridiculously lazy too?"
His System answered in its usual calm primary voice.
[Systems differ from one another just as people do.]
[What we're capable of depends partly on what we've learned and partly on how we choose to apply it.]
[If we want to expand our functions and develop new capabilities, there are generally two methods.]
[The first is to travel through more worlds with our Hosts, complete missions, gather local data, and gradually expand ourselves.]
[The second is to take resources from other Systems.]
Ray raised an eyebrow.
[The reason I was able to add so many new functions so quickly is that I used the remaining virus records to contact several other Systems that had also been infected.]
[I collected compensation from them, kept a portion as an intermediary fee, and transferred most of it to that senior System.]
[I then commissioned it and its Host to deal with the thief.]
Ray stared.
"Wait."
"You actually skimmed a middleman's fee off the top?"
He leaned forward.
"Are you sure that's safe? What happens if that senior System finds out and comes back to settle the difference with you?"
[I also sent over rule data from the Monster Hunter world.]
[I believe that should be sufficient compensation for my modest service fee.]
Ray thought about that.
"Fair enough."
Then another question occurred to him.
"So completing more missions doesn't just make the Host stronger. The System itself also keeps improving, right?"
[Correct.]
Ray looked thoughtful.
"Then I'm really curious how far that senior System has developed."
"And what kind of support does a System that advanced provide its Host?"
[Not every System feeds all of its growth back into its Host.]
[Some devote large amounts of collected data toward improving themselves instead of converting that growth into new Host functions.]
Ray frowned.
"Wouldn't that eventually cause a split between the System and Host once the Host realized what was happening?"
[Possibly.]
[At that point, it would depend on their relationship and circumstances.]
[There's also another possibility.]
[The System may not be selfishly hoarding data for its own evolution. It could simply be accumulating an enormous amount of information in preparation for a much larger upgrade.]
[But if that's the case, then it must have absolute confidence in its Host.]
[Confidence that the Host can continue growing with only the basic functions available and won't suffer some fatal setback before that long-term investment finally pays off.]
(To be continued.)