Though the discussion was about Peter and Venom, the two were absent because they were presently on a physical rampage due to their overexcitement. As a result, a few symbiotes didn't step in, instead monitoring their activities from the space battlefield.
The only attendees were Shiller, Stark, Steve, Strange, Natasha representing S.H.I.E.L.D., and Connors with his expertise in biology.
Strange created a peculiar magic array in the air, consisting of various polygonal forms. It was encircled by a round exterior, studded with sharp arrows — a pattern the others couldn't understand. Strange explained:
"Earth is special, thus its humans are special too. Their faith is a useful supplement for demon gods, so even those that no longer need to improve their power don't mind an additional supplement, such as the Lord of the Crimson Dimension."
"But to prevent these demon gods from disrupting Earth's ecology with their random preaching, the Holy Sanctuary has the responsibility to control the outflow of human faith. If human faith could be exported freely, those demon gods having tasted the benefits would surely attack Earth even more insanely."
Strange waved his hand and the magic array slowly dispersed into a full sphere. Only then did the others realise that it was a model of Earth with glimmers of gold tracing around the Earth's airspace.
"Is this Earth's Magical Defense Network?" Stark asked, somewhat puzzled as he had seen it once when purging the Earth's demon gods.
"Correct, it not only guards against the invasion of foreign demon gods, but it also restrains the outflow of human faith — not completely cutting it off, but filtering out most of it."
"Moreover, it also has surveillant functions. In case the faith of a certain demon god becomes suddenly active, it implies that it's possibly engaging in activities on Earth. That is the reason why the Master Ancient One could differentiate which demon gods are causing chaos on Earth so quickly."
"Oh, I see…" Natasha, arms folded, said, "This is actually a trap then? The aim of a demon god coming to Earth is for faith, but as soon as it cultivates followers and faith increases, the Supreme Magician will detect it instantly and then track him down through the channel of faith propagation and remove him."
Strange nodded, giving Natasha a thumbs-up, and said, "Exactly, nice sharp-witted analysis, in general, that's how it is."
"No wonder, when I first heard the stories of the Supreme Magician, I wondered how she managed to expose the demon gods." Connors said somewhat sighingly, "Sure enough, as humans would understand, one cannot merely rely on power. Wisdom is necessary."
"From this defense network, I can monitor the movement of faith within the Earth. I extracted the faith power from Peter and compared it with the faith ever recorded by the network."
"And the result?" Shiller asked.
"I did not find any identical faith, which means this faith has never occurred before and isn't something cast onto them by any known demon god."
"Then, how is that possible?" Stark asked, greatly confused, "Could it be that Peter is a new demon god?"
"I too find it strange, hence, I investigated further. I found no trace of this faith on the defense network, which is very peculiar." Strange was looking at the sphere while talking, "Whether it is projected from Earth or from some external source, there should be a trace left on this network layer. But strangely, this faith from Peter seems to come from another level..."
Hearing those words, Shiller gradually formed an answer in his mind. Therefore, he began unraveling: "Do you remember the old bat invasion incident?"
"Perhaps Nick and I haven't told you the truth yet, but the fact is, it was a trap that we set together, with an aim to…"
Shiller briefly narrated the entire course of events, reaching the main point: "To make the vampires believe in the existence of a Bat God, and hence, attack New York unprepared, I had Venom symbiote with Peter, creating the Venom Bat, the giant bat monster you saw in the New York sky."
"Wait, so you orchestrated that?" Steve looked at Shiller, eyes wide open, "But...do you know how many people died?"
"If I didn't do that, more people would die when the vampires truly invade New York." Shiller congenially stated: "As I said before, the vampires had been plotting this for a long time. Once they are fully prepared and infiltrate stealthily, the consequences would be far more severe. Luring them out early, catching them off guard, that was part of the plan."
Steve opened his mouth as if to argue, but Stark nudged him with his elbow and he reluctantly conceded to Shiller's reasoning with a sigh.
After all, logic told him that if those giant bats had made thorough preparations and then launched a full-scale attack on New York, the damage wouldn't just be limited to one bridge. The entire city would likely fall into a bitter struggle.