Genuinely interesting setup let down by sub par writing. I can't remember the last time I was so torn on a manga. The world is unique and interesting, characters, plot and magic system all above average with some really great ideas and developments. The art is great as well. This should be an easy 9/10 yet it gets one of the fundamentals so consistently badly wrong that it hurts: Every bit of exposition and background info is given through some of the most cringe unnatural Dialogs i ever read. "Yes, as you know we are a secret cult and that's why we have to meet secretly, causeour plan is to do X and then Y" "hello my close friend who I will now address with their full title and some background info plus family tree for no apparent reason" "oh this must be character A which we all know but I shall now talk about who it is and how strong he is and how he is connected to us"

Bond villains have nothing on the inhabitants of this world.

That aside everything else is genuinely fresh and great, the main protagonists are new and interesting takes on known tropes and the way it manages to keep tension even though the main character is basically an Eldridge God deserves some applause. Here's hoping the anime fixes the exposition dump issue somehow.