When watching through Astrea Record in Danmemo, I had the impression that Zard and Alfia (along with the cannon fodder members of Evilus) would decimate a god's familia and then Erebus would yeet them back to Heaven. I was also under the impression that Astrea yeeted Erebus back to Heaven at the end of the story. However... How, exactly?

I'm pretty sure a mortal can't kill a god (with the potential exception being attacking them with a divine weapon, but since the only example of that is essentially official fanfiction, I'll ignore that). So, it definitely wasn't any mortal member of Evilus who sent those gods back to Heaven. And, if that's the case, what method do gods in the Lower World have to forcibly send other gods back to Heaven? It feels like it sorta has to be Arcanum, right -- gods killing other gods using god magic? Otherwise, why wouldn't gods who're at odds with each other just be forcibly sending each other back willy-nilly? What other methods could they possibly have to force another god to leave the Lower World?

But then, if it's Arcanum, what does that mean? I thought Phobos getting pulled back to Heaven despite being in Rakia at the time was evidence that you didn't need another god to actually kill you (or just nearby enough to sense Arcanum usage and report you to the fuzz back in Heaven, so to speak) in order to get yoinked back to Heaven by the gods who remained up there. Now, I'm not familiar with that example too intimately, but under that case, shouldn't Erebus have been yoinked back the second he used his Arcanum to expel other gods by force? Under the same presumptions, shouldn't Astrea have been yoinked back herself when she sent Erebus back?

Another example of a god returning to Heaven that I am intimately familiar with is Apollo seemingly just up and leaving the Lower World after losing the War Game with Hestia familia. This would indicate to me that a god can willingly return to Heaven of their own volition. However, why would the gods of the defeated familias just opt to leave Orario just because their familias had been reduced to scraps? There doesn't seem to be any rule saying a god can't stay in the Lower World after losing their last familia member (though clearly, if you've never had a familia member before, you're allowed to just lounge around for years without getting one *cough cough* Hestia *cough cough*). Astrea herself is a comparable example of a god losing their familia and remaining in the Lower World -- as is Zeus, though I hesitate to bring him up because he's disguised himself so well that only a handful of the gods in the Lower World know he's still around.

So why, if this was the reason they returned to Heaven, would the gods leading the familias defeated by Evilus decide to willingly return to heaven at the outset of a terrorist incursion? It's not like Erebus could threaten them with anything if the info in the previous paragraph is true -- his underlings couldn't kill the gods, and he couldn't use his Arcanum without getting pulled back to Heaven by the god-cops. Plus, by the story's own admission, Orario needed all the adventurers it could get at the time, so a bunch of gods just deciding to peace out seems, at best, highly inadvisable. For these reasons, I just can't believe those gods would just decide, "Sure, Erebus, ol' buddy ol' pal -- this isn't an official War Game where I agree to return to Heaven if things don't go my way, and you have nothing you can effectively threaten me with... But sure, I'll just return to Heaven for ya!" There just has to be Arcanum involved, it seems.

So which is it? Is Arcanum use monitored by the gods back in Heaven, or by the gods nearby on the Lower World? Doesn't it also have something to do with the contract with the Dungeon itself -- wasn't too much unpunished Arcanum usage the reason the monsters started moving up from the lower floors in AR, or am I misremembering? If it's the gods in Heaven who have jurisdiction over it, is it just overlooked as long as a) the god's definitely evil and doesn't have any regard for the rules of the Lower World or b) is enforcing those rules and punishing a god who broke them? Or, if it's the gods in the Lower World who have jurisdiction over it, does that mean it's totally possible for a god to just use their Arcanum without getting caught -- and at what point would doing so cause the Dungeon to rebel by sending strong monsters up towards the surface?

What is going on? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Thanks for coming to my incredibly confused TED Talk.