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Cedric's consciousness touched the barrier of this world, which is the Purgatory Realm.
Roughly a month or so ago, doing this would've consumed a lot of his energy and placed an immense burden on his mental faculties, but right now? It's as easy as breathing for him; he doesn't even need to try.
If he wanted to, Cedric could put the entire planet under surveillance, and even though that wouldn't take much from him, he'd be able to do that all day. After all, compared to the worlds that the Divine Council had, Prime Earth was relatively small.
But doing that isn't necessary right now. What he wanted to do was study the structure of the purgatory realm to have a better understanding of it.
So far, he knew that Acala, in a brave move to save herself and her citizens, created this realm and was forcibly tied to the Demon Race's Soul Network, the key to their false immortality.
That said, knowing what she did is different from understanding how it actually works. And if Cedric wanted to tweak things in the Purgatory Realm, it would be imperative for him to understand its existence first.
The process, which Cedric thought would take some time, is actually far simpler than he anticipated.
"I see..." Cedric opened his eyes, releasing a relieved sigh. "At the end of the day, it all boils down to runic symbols, huh? My, isn't that just fantastic? I happen to be an expert on that!"
That's right, it's all about runic symbols again.
Cedric discovered pretty early that runic symbols worked similarly to written language, which translates the profundity of heaven and earth. This discovery was proven to be correct, especially when he made contact with the Tower of Prodigies and mastered the Runic Heaven Records.
Acala essentially baited and forced the Demon Race to sign an agreement that put hers and their people under controlled aggression. She did so to give humans time to develop and prevent demons from going all out. It was a risky but extremely rewarding move. Alas, it aggrieved many people. Moreover, even with these shackles, the means of the demon race were plenty.
How could a recently developed species contend with that?
Thanks to his mastery over runes and symbols, the 'agreement' or 'oath' that both parties signed—tthe contract, per se—became visible to Cedric. And while he couldn't 'edit' it without alarming the opposing parties, he could certainly exploit some obvious loopholes to make it more advantageous for humans.
See, this 'contract' is what's causing and forcing humanity to do their monthly Hell Dives, and the Hell Dives is what made humanity place a monitoring chip into each other for the sake of security.
In the 'agreement' both forces will be pulled into the Purgatory Realm to fight. Humans see this as a test of their abilities, while demons see it as a form of entertainment or a chance to learn more about humans.
If the human participant wins, great! They get to live another month and get rewards like Demon Souls—the essence of demons plucked from their very origin. Humans could then use demons souls to make themselves stronger.
"Three days is enough, my lord," Granitas replied. "But if you desire my movements to be hidden from our enemies' senses, I will need no more than two weeks."
"Alright. Two weeks it is." He nodded. "Isolate this solar system and make sure that they can't run away. Also, reinforce the Grand Solar Laws as much as you can without them knowing while you do that. Report to me after you're done."
"As you wish, my lord." Granitas then sank into the ground and began performing his duties.
Meanwhile, an ocean of runic symbols poured out of Cedric's body. One by one, they turned invisible before fusing to the Purgatory Realm.
Cedric wasn't 'editing' the clauses on the agreement between Acala and the Demon Race. What he's doing is simply reinforcing the already existing rules in it and adding some clauses here and there without their knowledge.
He made it so that humans could still turn into spatial nodes, but when they did, they wouldn't open up within humanity's territory. The node will appear on the Lost Continent instead. That place is already literate with demons anyway, so why not dump them in there?
This was something that wasn't specified in the contract before and was something that demons exploited greatly. Not anymore, though.
Cedric reinforced the rules and added more clauses that he thought necessary to even out the situation without alerting the Demon Race. He also added additional rewards to those who are performing well in their hell dives since he's super freaking rich right now.
On the surface, nothing seems to have changed, at least for now. It will take some time before anybody notices this, and by then, it'll be too late for them to do anything.
Truthfully, with Cedric's foundations right now, he could just simply flip the table and tell them to 'fuck off'. He's strong enough to challenge them anyway.
He didn't do so because, as much as others see this as an existential threat, it is also an opportunity.
Even Cedric couldn't refute that, without the presence of the Demon Race, humanity wouldn't have come this far.
Besides, the Demon Race is just one of the many space pirates roaming around. Any other space pirate could cause as much suffering as the demon race could. Some are even scarier than them, so, in a sense, humans are fortunate that they're only dealing with demons.
That said, this has gone longer than either party wanted to. Cedric himself wants this to end in his era. He doesn't want the younger generation to deal with the same sh*t they're dealing with right now.
He wants them to broaden their horizons. See far greater sights than their ancestors ever did. See and experience real prosperity beyond the oppression of the Space Pirates.
Cedric wants to show them what's beyond this place. He wants to lead everybody into a bright tomorrow, and he himself wants to explore that world too.
Obviously, the first step to do that was to get rid of some nuisances.