New York, USA.
Inside the Union headquarters building.
Five Union ambassadors, accompanied by fewer than ten staff members, were holding yet another closed-door meeting in a small conference room.
"We just received word that all our candidates sent to participate in the Hidden Management Department's assessment have failed."
"It seems our hopes of infiltrating their ranks for intelligence were indeed unrealistic."
"Whether it's due to Abyss Artefacts or mental-type sorcerer abilities, inserting our people appears impossible."
"Ha, wasn't that obvious?"
"Without such capabilities, how could the SDS have concealed so many Demigods from us?"
"Allowing a civilian organisation to grow this powerful reflects poorly on you, American representative."
"Exactly right. So, since I clearly can't control them, why doesn't the Russian representative take over management of the SDS? I promise not to interfere."
"Do you think we can't manage them either?"
"That's precisely what I think."
Seeing the predatory expression on the Russian representative's face, the Chinese representative waved his hand to signal for both parties to calm down:
"Let's all be reasonable and seek common ground while reserving differences."
"The urgent priority now is to discuss strategies for dealing with the SDS."
Hearing this, the French representative asked suspiciously:
"Just the SDS? Shouldn't we also consider the attitudes of other Demigods?"
After all, during the previous confrontation, it wasn't just the SDS who acted – two non-SDS affiliated Demigods had also made their stances clear.
The French representative was particularly concerned about this, since among those two Demigods, the Seven Knights Alliance led by Twin-Wings Edelweiss was located right next to French territory.
The American representative responded with visible irritation:
"Hao Asakura and Edelweiss merely reached a consensus with the SDS to prevent our interference in Demigod research. That doesn't ally them with the SDS."
From the American representative's perspective, the United States of America had the highest chance of success in Demigod research.
After all, most SDS members had American government infiltration, and the Commerce Department was part of the capital groups with American backing.
With their purse strings already controlled, there was no way the SDS could completely reject the will of the United States of America.
Yet somehow, everything had gone wrong!
And the reason? Simply because of dignity – the notion that "Demigods must not be humiliated."
When the American president heard through certain channels that this was Hao Asakura's reason for intervening, he nearly lost control of his sphincter muscles in rage.
Dignity?
Because of something so trivial, he'd almost been burned to death. As the saying went, this was outright treasonous.
Yet frustratingly, America truly had no means to deal with these Demigods.
On the one hand, against individual entities like Demigods, they lacked reliable methods of elimination other than forbidden artefacts.
On the other hand, activating forbidden artefacts was overly complicated and costly. Moreover, they could only impose sanctions if Demigods actively violated the ironclad rules of these artefacts.
Combined, as long as Demigods were careful, they could easily conduct precision assassinations of high-ranking officials within the Union.
Hearing the American representative's words, the Russian representative snorted coldly:
"Not allowed? Since when haven't we researched Demigods before?"
"Are you certain what you researched were actual Demigods?" The English representative smirked. "Let's not joke about self-assessed internal rankings."
The Russian representative retorted coldly:
"What do you mean? Our evaluation system strictly follows SDS-provided criteria."
In response, the English representative mocked, "You must not have received the latest documents then?"
"According to this unofficial terrorist organisation's newest materials, so-called true Demigods must master a technique called Concept Entanglement – not just possess abilities or methods to suppress Hero Rank individuals."
"And as far as I know, Russia doesn't have any national sorcerers who've mastered Concept Entanglement, does it?"
"Do you think I have it or not?" The Russian representative sneered.
"I think you don't." The English representative returned the cold smile.
Both were representatives of declining Unions – neither had anything to fear from the other.
Did Russia still think it was the big brother of old?
"Enough quarrelling, let's all be more amicable."
The representative from China, with a kindly expression, smiled and said:
"It's not the feudal era anymore. Let's all seek harmony for mutual benefit."
"But speaking of which, the Demigods we've internally evaluated should still be assessed as usual. After all, we can't let people think the Five Great Powers can't even produce a single orthodox Demigod among us?"
Hearing this, the American Union felt a twinge of frustration.
According to the intelligence bureau's investigation, the American Union genuinely seemed unable to find a single orthodox Demigod.
Meanwhile, over in the Chinese Union, that old Celestial Master from Mount Longhu was highly suspicious.
But since the intelligence bureau's funding hadn't been approved yet, they had been dragging their feet, making it impossible to conduct further investigations for now.
"For the sake of stability, we shouldn't interfere with the currently evaluated Demigods. Just to be safe, let's mobilise them to deter other illegal organisations."
At this point, the American Union gnashed their teeth and said:
"We absolutely cannot allow another SDS to rise right under our noses!"
"That does make sense..." The French representative pondered for a moment before saying, "Considering we've internally reported thirteen Demigods, let's just call them the 13 Apostles."
"Doesn't that perfectly correspond to God's twelve disciples?"
'Then who would be the betrayer Judas?'
The English representative wanted to ask this question, but as he hesitated, the Russian representative slammed the table:
"Then 13 Apostles it is. I'll arrange for them to be deployed later to deal with some illegal civilian organisations - perfect timing to clean up that scum."
Hearing the Russian representative say this, the English representative immediately fell silent.
After all, compared to the Russian representative who could directly command Demigods, the two on his side were basically just for show.
Oh, and one was currently missing in action, having reportedly disappeared after returning to Japan.
This was rather awkward.
"The 13 Apostles, then. Compared to the SDS, this is trivial."
The Chinese representative sighed, then looked around at everyone before solemnly saying:
"The most important thing now is still the negotiations with the SDS's Supreme Chairwoman on the 11th, the day after tomorrow."
Hearing this, the English representative reacted quickly: "Although it's a civilian organisation, the Chinese representative's words reminded me - with great power comes great responsibility!"
"So what do you mean?" The French representative instantly became alert, realising his old English friend was about to play the role of troublemaker again.
The English representative smiled at this point and said:
"Although we can't openly acknowledge it, having six people sitting in the seats of the Five Great Powers wouldn't be impossible, would it?"
Hearing this, the Union representatives present fell silent.
Adding another seat?
It seemed... not entirely impossible.
For a civilian organisation, with capital control reaching at most a trillion dollars in scale, possessing weapons of mass destruction and formidable combat power yet lacking a true stronghold and having scarce manpower, being elevated to the position of the Sixth Union to bear Union-level responsibilities.
It seemed somewhat feasible.
Thinking this, someone said:
"Then let's go back and discuss it."
Though they called it a discussion, it was really about consulting the actual highest authorities.
But barring any surprises, this proposal would most likely pass.
As for the reason it would pass...
The representatives of the Five Great Powers couldn't help but look up at the sky, and although what they saw was the ceiling, their gazes seemed to pierce through obstacles to see...
The gun emplacement in the cosmos.
The reason was... The SDS truly possessed weapons capable of destroying civilised worlds!