The Next morning : 

     Shido woke up and  got up from the bed. Rather , it would be more accurate to say that he transferred his soul from the outside body to this clone in his bed. The time taken for his soul to move from one clone ( or shell as he preferred to call them ) was so miniscule that it was completely negligible, even on the quantum scale. Last night had been a profitable one for him as he was not only successful in killing that bastard responsible for Nia's torture, but also with that act he had infiltrated the military. Soon he could have all the high ranking officers in the military at his command. 

        While he already had made some plans for the current prime minister, in case things didn't go according to him , he could just use the entire strength of the army to cause a Coup D'état ( overthrowing the government ) and snatch all the power . While the Coup D'état may seem sudden and out of nowhere and would certainly cause suspicions worldwide leading to some to believe that perhaps there was some secret backer or mastermind to the whole thing, it wouldn't matter much to him since who in their right mind would even suspect a powerless 17 year old kid ? 

      While moving downstairs, he mulled over his thoughts. His current aim was to gather as much power and influence as possible. He had already created a short list of the rich people in the world. Devouring their souls and assuming their identity would help to further increase his influence on the world. This was because while the rich may not have direct influence over populace , what they have is monetary power. 

       They could act as excellent tools for threatening governments. For example, let's say if somehow suddenly all the world's largest corporations suddenly, for no apparent reason, decided to sell all their stocks. This would undoubtedly cause a stock market crash leading to a recession. The recession will lead to massive unemployment , shutting of business, and if it did happen on a worldwide scale, a sure and heavy blow to the entire monetary system humans created over the centuries. Of course, this was purely hypothetical as the possibility of a single individual having control over the entire stock market was completely out of the question , right ?..... 

        Shido internally chuckled on his plans . How ironic. The systems that humans created to support themselves and facilitate development just became reins for him to control them. And if they did happen to Try to go against him ; in his hands these reins would very well become a noose around their necks.

      Shido however shook his head to get these thoughts out of it. Minor things like World domination could wait for later. For now he had more important things to focus on, like what exactly should he make for breakfast and the bento . He got down towards the kitchen and saw that kotori hadn't woken up. Tohka and the other girls within the spirit mansion hadn't showed up yet and it was quite early in the morning, so it was understandable. He finally settled on making some grilled bacon along with some simple yakitori sandwiches for breakfast. As for the bento for lunch, he decided to splurge a bit and thought of making kaiseki for everyone . It may seem excessive to make 9 kaiseki , even when most people would consider a single kaiseki for lunch as an overkill ( and a huge waste too ) but for him , his family only deserved the best food. So it hardly mattered. He quickly started to prepare the various dishes cumulating to form a kaiseki with speeds that would make even the most veteran itamae ( Japanese chef, especially in high end restaurants )  jealous. He made sure to leave out some of the parts like those involving usage of sake. To a purist , this may seem crime, as most chefs believed that a kaiseki was in essence sacred and while it's components could be switched a bit , none of them should be removed. However when you considered that underage people were going to consume it , it was a whole another thing altogether. 

[ Author's note : Kaiseki are traditional Japanese cuisine where multiple dishes are served at a single time . They are considered a work of art just as much as a food. In case you are wondering what the typical kaiseki comprises of, here's the list : 

-Sakizuke – an appetizer (often a bite-sized hors d’œuvre) served with sake 

-Hassun – the second course, usually seasonal, which sets the theme of the meal

-Mukozuke – seasonal sashimi

-Takiawase – vegetables served with fish, meat or tofu

-Futamono – typically a soup

-Yakimono – grilled seasonal fish

-Su-zakana – a small vinegar-based dish used to clean the palate

-Hiyashi-bachi – chilled, lightly cooked vegetables served only in summer

-Naka-choko – a small, acidic-tasting soup, used as another palate-cleanser

-Shiizakana – main dish such as a hot pot

-Gohan – a rice dish made with seasonal ingredients

-Ko no mono – seasonal pickled vegetables

-Tome-wan – a basic offering of miso soup served with rice

-Mizumono – a seasonal dessert of fruit, confection or cake ]

         Once he was done he took a moment to admire his work. In the time it takes to make a single kaiseki for a normal albeit veteran chef, Shido had prepared nine. This was especially impressive considering this was without any weird powers like cloning or any other thing. This was from pure speed , coordination of movements and perfect knife work ( perhaps killing a few hundred people on a daily basis with a sword for nearly a decade really does improve your skills. After all, a knife is just a shorter sword ) . He made sure that the soups in the airtight containers were sealed perfectly. He then wrapped the boxes with a string in a traditional square knot . 

          Soon tohka and kotori entered the dining room. As if on cue, he saw kaguya, Yuzuru, origami, natsumi, yoshino and mukuro coming too. They greeted him good morning like everyday but kotori was the one who first spoke as she said, " Oni-chan ! What are all those huge boxes for ?! " He was slightly surprised by her upbeat attitude early in the morning, but then noticed she had white ribbons. He wondered how exactly she chose when she wore which ribbons. Did she alternate between them or she wore each of them on specific days or just wore whichever she felt. Regardless, he decided to not pay heed to it as he replied , " These are actually lunch boxes for today. And yes there is one for all of you. " 

       Natsumi spoke in her usual unconfident self and said, " Was it really necessary to make these large meals and that too for everyone ? " Kotori nodded her head in agreement and said, " I agree. You never made such extravagant things when we were alone, then why are you making it now ? Is there some special occasion ?" Shido sighed and said, " Because earlier when it was only the two of us , so I had no motivation to make good food. I mean there's no fun in making fancy food for just two people, especially when one of them happens to be you yourself. It's fun to cook food when there are more people to enjoy and appreciate your food. And on that note, how about all of us meet up together at the rooftop for having lunch ? " All of them agreed to it but kurumi said in a flirtatious tone, " Hmm…. Inviting all of us to have lunch together, I thought you had a date with Reine-San today , Shido-San ? " 

        Shido flinched hearing her statement and replied hurriedly " It's just lunch ! And I am going on a date with Reine. Don't say it like I'm cheating on her or something ! " Kurumi merely chuckled on Shido's response. Shido internally sighed and decided to not pay heed to it and get on with the breakfast. He didn't want to be late for school on the first day after more  than a century. 

                              -------X-------

Local : Raizen High
Time : First period 

        Shido had seated himself on his bench. He took a look around him. The students were chatting with each other, some were desperately trying to finish their homework by copying it from others at the last moment. He smiled gently as a wave of nostalgia hit him. He saw tonomachi spending time with his virtual girlfriend, the trio of ai,mai and mi chatting with tohka as apparently they got along with her pretty well. In his class along with tohka, there was also origami, kurumi, kaguya and Yuzuru in his class. Natsumi and mukuro were in the same class as kotori and yoshino, so the only time he could interact with them in school was at lunch. He was broken from his thoughts when he saw his homeroom teacher, Tamae had entered the class. The students rushed to their seats in a hurry. Everyone then stood up and bowed to greet her. 

      She greeted everyone back and said, " Due to special circumstances, we are having a transfer student today. I hope everyone can get along with her. " Hearing that the new student was going to be a girl, the boys cheered in unison. Shido internally sighed at their childish behaviour. The matter of the transfer student hardly mattered to him. For all he cared , the goddess he killed in his past life, that bitch Gaia herself could show up and he would be hardly bothered. He could just find a way to kill her again. There was absolutely nothing in the entire cosmos that could currently bother him. And with these words, Shido had just tempted Fate.  And as he himself said, ' Fate truly had a bad sense of humour ….' 

     Soon there entered a girl in the class wearing the preassigned girls uniform. However even the seemingly bland uniform couldn't hide her beauty. She had long bluish purple hair in a hime cut, while the color of her eyes was light indigo. She stepped beside the Tamae and said in a cheerful tone ," Hello everyone. My name is Miku izayoi. I hope that we can get along well ! " 

       This caused a mixture of shock and ecstasy among the students. Miku izayoi, one of the most popular idols of Japan, whose concerts had only recently started to admit men too. Before only girls had the opportunity to visit her live concerts. Though that didn't affect her popularity in the slightest. Most people would consider themselves lucky if they got a chance to meet and interact with her. And here she was , right in front of them and she was going to be a permanent part of the class. Every boy in the class cheered in unison, all except for one. Shido's face had completely frozen . There was only one word that kept repeating in his mind , " SHIT ! " Miku then turned her eyes towards him.  At that moment Shido realized , he was fucked. The situation would turn from bad to worse because of one simple fact, Miku hardly if ever called him by his name. She preferred the word ' Darling' to address him. And while that word may be endearing, if she called him by that term in front of the class, saying that a scandal would occur was an understatement. 

       Miku called out in a cheerful tone as she said, " Shido ! I hope that you can help me show around the school ! " At that moment, all eyes turned to Shido. The boys looked at him with envy and hatred , while the girls looked at him in suspicion as if he was a criminal offender. Tamae however inquired miku in a curious tone , " Um, miku are you familiar with Itsuka-kun ? And how long have you known each other that you are on a first name basis ? " Miku cutely tilted her head and said, " Of course I'm familiar with him. It would be a terrible thing if I didn't know the name of my own manager, right Sensei ? " 

       And this was of course, the breaking point. 

Every boy screamed on top of his voice in pure unbridled rage , " Itsuka !! Die ! " Tonomachi screamed and said, " First tohka-chan, then the super genius tobiichi, then the sister pair of yamai's . And now you extend your hands to an idol too ! Damn you , You harem having bastard ! " Then if that wasn't enough, the trio too joined , with ai saying, " To think that he's not only cheating on tohka-chan but also on origami, kurumi and the yamai sisters. How low could a person fall." Mai too joined her and said, " Itsuka is definitely a man-whore ." ( Shout-out to anyone who gets the reference ) Mi ended it with her catchphrase by simply saying ," That's so lame. " 

       Shido mentally screamed in his head,
 " I'LL RIP YOUR GUTS AND STRANGLE YOU WITH THEM UNTIL YOUR CHOKING ON YOUR OWN BLOOD AND SET YOUR BODY ON FIRE AND THEN I'D LIKE TO SEE HOW YOU THINK IT'S LAME !"  He held his head in tension. He hadn't travelled a hundred years from the future to see a bunch of horny teenagers scream about their inability to get a girlfriend. Worst of all they were talking about them as if they were some objects that they wanted to collect. If it wasn't for the fact that the girls were present here, the classroom would have gotten a brand new fresh paint job today by his hands. 

        Calming himself he went to the blackboard. He then gestured towards the girls to cover their ears. Origami and Yuzuru saw this and understood it. They asked tohka and kaguya to do the same. He glanced towards Tamae and miku and asked them to do the same. He then placed his hands on the metallic edge of the blackboard. Strengthening his nails so that they were as hard as an abalone shell, one of the toughest occuring substances in nature. He then proceeded to drag his hands across the metal surface as slowly as possible, causing a horrible sound. 

        Upon hearing it, everyone shrieked and tried to cover their ears. Most could still hear the sound ringing in their ears, even after he had stopped. Shido then spoke up in an extremely monotone yet swift voice with a stiff smile on his face, vastly contrasting from his usual self. He said, " This behaviour is very disappointing guys. We are not presenting a good self in front of miku here. Come on guys , is this the best you can do? Please don't behave in such a way which may cause others to take actions which can cause harm to everyone…. " Even after he had finished speaking, his left eye keep twitching while he still maintained a stiff smile , as if he was forcefully trying to control his rage. However he  turned and saw that reine had been standing behind him with a wide eyed expression on her face. Before he could say anything, reine spoke up and said to everyone, " Now that itsuka has gotten your attention, I'd like to remind everyone to put on your best behaviour and not cause any trouble to miss. Izayoi. Swift punishment waits should anyone try to pester her. Keep that in mind. " Saying this, Reine steeped out of the class. Shido made his way towards his seat without saying anything, with miku following him . 

Time : Third lecture

       After the debacle early in the morning, everyone kept their distance from Shido and Miku. No one mentioned the incident, nor did anyone comment on it. Currently Ellen was conducting a lecture on mathematics. No one did any kind of misconduct in her class since despite her beautiful appearance, she was extremely strict. Word was that she had been nicknamed ' The Demon Queen of Raizen High ' by the students. Hence, almost everyone tried their best to pay attention to her lecture,with the exception of course, Shido. While from an observer's perspective it may seem that he was just doodling things in his book, what he actually was doing was that he was directly controlling the clone of General Ieyasu and was having a meeting with the commanders and generals of the military. Luckily for him , Ieyasu had already made a presentation along with the speech to accompany it , so all he had to do was parrot it in front of everyone. His main goal however, was to discreetly kill and replace every person in the room . While everyone was paying attention to the false Ieyasu's presentation, his cells had already started to invade their bodies. The air that they breathed , the water that they drank , everything had small amounts of his cells that would infiltrate their bodies. The cells would stay dormant for the whole day and at night, they would replace them on a cellular level from the inside. And since he had no enmity with the other generals, he would not torture their souls like Ieyasu, but simply devour them and absorb their knowledge and information. 

      However Shido soon saw a small projectile approaching his main body. He could of course , dodge it but it was a mere chalk piece. Add to that the fact that he was in class in front of everyone, so he chose not to do so. The chalk hit him right on his forehead and he acted by slightly wincing. Ellen spoke in a stern yet sarcastic tone and said, " It seems that you have already mastered all the concepts of mathematics, Mr. Itsuka. It would be unfair of me to not give a genius his due opportunity. So I'd like you to please demonstrate your capabilities by helping me to solve this question. I hope you don't mind. " 

       Shido sighed and went towards the board . He picked up the chalk in his hand and started to solve the question. Ellen was not truly angry at him but she still wanted him to pay attention in class. She didn't want to be soft on him and cause him to underperform in his academics. This would at least teach him a lesson to pay attention in class. The question she had selected was a relatively tough one by the standards of students. Even she herself would have to pay attention while solving it or she was bound to make a mistake somewhere. 

        However what surprised her was Shido was solving the problem without any difficulty. He was writing in a continuous ,unbroken manner. He neither paused for making calculations nor did he stop when integrating the larger parts of the equation, which was usually where most people made a mistake. He was writing with such a fervour as if he was either possessed or he had memorised the entire answer, both of which were equally terrifying. Once he finished, he placed the chalk down and asked Ellen in a polite tone , 

" Will that be all Sensei ?" Ellen composed herself and said while fake coughing, " Erm, yes . However please keep in mind to pay attention in class. " Shido nodded and then bowed to Ellen before returning to his seat. The students and especially the girls were in complete shock seeing Shido's new attitude. 

                         ----------X---------

Time : Lunchtime 

          Upon hearing the strike of the lunch bell, the students rushed out of the class in a hurry. Shido however merely took out his lunch box and made his way to the rooftop. He was followed by tohka, origami, kaguya, yuzuru, kurumi and miku. Upon seeing their quiet faces , Shido decided it was best for him to hold his silence and speak only after reaching the rooftop. Their group was soon joined by the group consisting of kotori, natsumi, yoshino and mukuro accompanied by Ellen and reine. 

       Upon reaching the rooftop, Kotori shut the door behind her and asked Shido in a stern tone, " Alright, spill it Shido. You have been acting strange since the morning . What's the deal with you today? " Kotori and everyone was worried about Shido because they didn't want a second Itsuka disaster on their hands . The last time Shido's internal mana went out of balance, he had undergone a strange personality shift. Due to the amount of mana and Qi inside him, and him nearly going berserk, kotori was on the verge of using a special weapon that ratatoskr had created to kill him. Of course while she didn't end up doing it, the thought still scared all the girls. Shido took a deep breath and spoke, 

" First things first, no I have not become crazy. I don't think there's any problem with my internal energies so you don't have to worry about me going berserk once again. As for how I managed to answer the question in your class Ellen, well I don't mean to brag but the thing is, I've always been better than others at studies. I think I'm only slightly inferior than origami. " Kotori shouted as she said," Do you even know what you are talking about Shido ?! Origami is a straight up genius. Just compare your test scores to her . Compared to her you are at best an average student ! " Shido only calmly replied to her by saying, " Of course there is a difference between her and mine test scores. Well remember how I used to be at the top of my class for a few years when I was young? Well , as I got older I decided it was too boring so I started to deliberately score less marks and make myself average compared to others. That's why there is a difference between mine and origami's marks." Reine then said, " Why would you do something so stupid and counterproductive ?" Shido replied with a nonchalant tone and said, " Because there was no need for me to try hard . I think origami herself can attest to the fact how difficult it is when people flock around you. If you are good at something, anything , people tend to elevate you in their eyes. They tend to think you are perfect and place their expectations on you and due to pressure, you end up maintaining a false image to maintain their opinion of you. There's also the fact that I realized quickly that my marks made no difference to me. My family consisted of only me and kotori. There was no one to praise me for performing well , nor was there anyone to berate me for performing poorly. So I just ended up being average. That means I can perform well , provided that I had a clear motivation to do so. " 

      Kotori pondered over his words for a moment. What he said made logical sense. It was true. Shido's grades had slightly declined from his earlier years, but she didn't pay much attention to it. Kotori then said in an unsure tone, " I guess that's true. Well then what about the crap that you pulled in front of the class when miku showed up ?"  

        Shido raised a brow and said, " Are you forgetting I was part of the drama club along with the kendo club for 3 years. I may not have been the best but for someone who had stupid dreams of becoming an actor someday , I did put in efforts. So yes, everything in the morning was just an act. " Kotori let out a groan considering that he once again held the logical high ground in his favour. 

       Yoshino or rather yoshinon was the one who asked him," Oh ?Does Shido-kun dream to become an actor ? "

        Shido sighed and replied ," Did is the key word here . And which kid doesn't ? When you're young and naive you have these stupid dreams of becoming an actor and having a glamorous life or maybe a sword welding hero of justice  but then you grow up and realize the harsh truth of life. Then just like your hopes, your dreams die too. " 

       Shido found everyone was staring at him. Dumbfounded, he asked them, " Why are you looking at me like that ?"
Reine replied and said, " No, it's just that…. You sound like a grumpy old man complaining about his past. "
Shido was slightly taken aback as he thought to himself, " Damn , that hurt more than it should have ."
He quickly retorted in slight embarrassment, " Hey ! I'm still young !" 

     The others only stifled a small laugh , much to Shido's frustration. Yuzuru then asked him , " Question, Shido . Does that mean that what you did in the morning was an act too. " Shido nodded and said, " Of course. I was really annoyed how everyone was treating her, like she was some object they wished to claim. So I thought, why not put my experience as a drama club member here ? Come to think of it, now that everything has calmed down and I can have a normal life, maybe I should join the kendo club again ? " 

      Upon hearing Shido's response, miku was genuinely happy. She was glad that Shido stood up for her. However at the same time, all the girls were slightly ashamed of themselves because they had quite literally no idea about Shido's past. While they certainly loved him , they didn't exactly know much about his past life before he met them. They all made a mental note to talk to kotori and learn everything about Shido , his likes, dislikes, his quirks, his proud moments , his embarrassing moments, everything. 

       Shido then clapped his hands to get everyone's attention and said, " Well , with that out of the way, we should have our meal too. Luckily, I happened to pack extra large meals for everyone today, so miku can share food with me instead of eating from the cafeteria.  I think reine and Ellen can join us too , right ?" 

Reine then said, " Hmm…  I guess there won't be a problem since usually the students tend to spend their time on the playground rather than the rooftops, so no one should notice us. I'll just get some food for me and Ellen from the cafeteria. " Shido however quickly replied and said, " I don't think that should be necessary. The bento's today are extra large so if we take small portions from everyone's food, we should have enough for two additional people. 

      While Reine and Ellen found it difficult to believe how there would be enough food for them , they decided to not refuse Shido so as to not make him feel bad. They then seated themselves on the ground like everyone, with Miku sitting beside Shido as everyone took out their bento's. While everyone could see that the bento boxes were quite large ( to the point that they were more like small chests rather than Tiffin boxes ) but they decided to brush it off. 

        However as they opened their boxes , all of them were shocked and had their mouths wide open.  In front of them were nearly arranged and beautifully crafted dishes which culminated together to form the Kaiseki. Ellen remembered that when she once tried one at a restaurant it was hellishly overpriced. Of course considering that it took nearly 1.5 hours to make and the work involved in making it, perhaps it was priced properly. However the most important question was how did Shido manage to make something that required a high level of skill and finesse not to mention how he managed to make ten of these for lunch . 

       Seeing everyone's surprised faces , Shido had a victorious smirk on his face.  With folded hands and his head raised high he said, " Yup . That's right. I managed to make multiple kaiseki in just under a few hours. And don't worry, there's no sake in it so everyone can enjoy it. " 

      Reine sighed in slight frustration as she said , " I know I told you to pursue cooking as a career, but that doesn't mean you start with these antics of yours so early. At Least wait until graduation. " Shido only smiled in response and said, " Yeah , yeah I get it. But that aside , I think we should finally have our lunch now. Miku , you can eat from my box. Come on now, we don't have the whole day to waste !" With that, everyone soon started to enjoy their meals together, happy and wishing that these peaceful times would last forever.
 
Time : Seventh period 
Location : The hillside overlooking Tengu city

       Shido was rapidly climbing up the hilltop. He was going through the forests instead of the constructed route to avoid being spotted. He had sneaked out of school because the art teacher, Mr. Natsugawa had decided that the students should sketch scenery from the school grounds to learn about ' Artistic Appreciation ' . While returning from the roof, he silently released a small droplet of blood from his body which moved itself to a corner before multiplying the cells and rearranging itself to take the form of a raven. Once the students had begun to sketch, he quickly shifted his soul from his current body to the raven. He then instructed the clone body to sketch the trees and the flower bed near it. Sketching what exists in front was such a simple task that even a human made robot could do it. So it was extremely easy for his clone to do it. After all , it was just copying the scene in front of him, and copying things was something that he excelled at. Using his raven form , he then proceeded to travel to the hilltop. This place held quite an importance to him since this was where he first kissed tohka. 

      While scaling the mountain, his thoughts wandered to the revelations he received when he gained the knowledge of the cosmos. While he didn't mean to brag, he was still proud of the fact that he had managed to kill a true goddess regardless of not being a cultivator. But he soon realized that he was just a frog in a well. Gaia , the goddess of earth, who had plotted the death of reine and the others , and then absorbed their divine core and sephira crystals to gain even more power , was capable of destroying entire continents. However, on the cosmic scale, she was quite literally, at the bottom of the food chain. 

        Reine is a true goddess. She is strong enough to take on multiple grand magus or warriors at the Return to the Void realm . She was even strong enough to completely wipe the floor with the spirits, who were at the demigod rank. However, considering that the spirits were artificially created and hence inferior versions of real demigod rank individuals, their true capacity was at the supreme Magus or at the Dao fusion realm. However, if one took into account their combat capability, or lack thereof, it was even lower. In Spite of all this , Reine was so weak that she isn't even worthy of being given a place on the pyramid of cosmic hierarchy. This was because reine was an alchemist ( someone who makes elixirs and pills helping in cultivation ) , not a fighter. Sure , she is a prodigy , but that doesn't add up to her combat potential. In terms of combat capability, gods like her were as common as grains of sand on a beach in the heavens. 

      On the bottom of the cosmic hierarchy lied the gods who focused on combat ( this was where Gaia would rank ) . Warriors and Mages who joined cultivation sects , the heavenly army , the inquisitore department which was established specifically to hunt down rogue gods and such . While they could easily kick the ass of each cultivator on earth, they were nothing on the scale of the cosmos. Above them were of course,
' The Heavenly Twelve ' . The Heavenly Twelve were 12 gods who were considered among the strongest in the heavens . They served as an advisory council to the heavenly Emperor. Of course, while the emperor's word was final, they still held considerable influence in the heavens. The only gods who were capable of even holding their ground against them were a few select sect elders of a few prestigious sects. The Heavenly Twelve were strong enough that if they utilized all of their energy completely, they could obliterate earth . 

     Then there were the forces of hell. While there existed multiple dimensions which called themselves hell, there was only one true hell. They just happened to share certain characteristics and names with True Hell. The Heavenly Twelve were roughly equal in strength to the Demon Lords. Demon Lords were beings who hailed from hell. Two of the Heavenly Twelve working together could defeat a single demon Lord.  Like Heaven, hell too was its own dimension, hence it was divided into small regions ranging in size from as small as planets to being as larger than solar systems. Each Demon Lord ruled over a particular region. The difference between gods and demons was that while gods could cultivate to ascend and grow stronger, demons did not have that privilege. The strength of a Demon was determined by birth. The child of a Demon Lord would be as strong as him , neither stronger nor weaker. Hence each Demon was like their own species classified on the basis of strength. 

      Above the demon lords were the The ones who commanded them , which held a large portion of power in hell , The 72 Demon Gods , also known as the Demon Pillars of hell. Even if all the members of the Heavenly Twelve were working together, they could at best , only stall a Demon God for a short while. The power difference between them was too large . Of course, this raised an obvious question in one's mind, ' If there are only Twelve members of the Heavenly Twelve and they are not only outnumbered by the demon lords but also overpowered by the Demon Gods, how didn't heaven get defeated by hell ?" 

     The answer to the question was a two fold one. The first being, that the founder of heaven , The aura guardian, or izanagi as he was known commonly at the time, was someone who held his own against the forces of hell. He was quite strong even before he regained the memories of his past self as the Mahakala ( more on that in a bit) . The second was that the Heavenly Emperor, the son of izanagi and izanami was as strong as a Demon God and was capable of defeating one on his own. However that didn't solve the issue that he was vastly outnumbered. This is where his two trump cards, his sword ' Ame - no - tsurugi - no -  murakumo ' which was capable of wiping entire planets in a strike and his battleship , 
' The Pushpak Vimana ' came in. While his sword was impressive , the Pushpak Vimana was his real ace. Pushpak Vimana was only the size of a large mansion , which was absolutely tiny compared to other battleships. However, that was hardly an issue. This was because it was made for close quarters combat, not wiping out armies. When seated on the Pushpak Vimana, The Heavenly Emperor was strong enough that he not only held his ground against all the seventy-two demon gods, but also managed to push them back. The Heavenly Emperor with the Pushpak Vimana and the murakumo sword was easily capable of obliterating a galaxy. The reason Shido used destruction as a measure of strength because it was most appropriate. As a rule of thumb, the destructive power of an individual was a good measure of their strength. Also while his strength was only on the level of Demon Gods, he was still a Higher Being due to being the son of Izanagi, who himself was a Higher Being.( See next paragraph for more details.)  Regardless, the Heavenly Emperor was not a person to be messed with and there was a reason he has been holding onto his seat for nearly twelve yugas. The other person who safe guarded Heaven was Izanami, the youngest wife of the Mahakala ( Youngest was a relative term as even she was at least several Yugas old ). While she too possessed a fragment of the Third Eye which was implanted into her by the Mahakala when she was on the verge of death, she wasn't capable of utilizing its power fully due to her lack of experience. She herself was only slightly stronger than her son , the Heavenly Emperor, but while she couldn't utilize the power of the Third Eye in direct combat , if she used it solely for causing destruction, she could destroy a single universe with only a slight load on herself. 

 [ Author's note : A Yuga represents the Average age that a dimension can exist before being destroyed . This duration is around 10^149 years. After its destruction, the cycle of creation begins once again and the phenomenon known as the Big Bang occurs. Note that the Yuga only represents an average. It is possible for a dimension to last longer than a Yuga or be destroyed even before it. The causes for destruction may range from those of its inhabitants or even from powerful multidimensional beings or phenomenon ]

          The tiers above the Heavenly Emperor and the Demon Gods were occupied exclusively by Higher Beings. Higher beings were….  Well first off, they were a headache to explain. The easiest way to define them was to say that they were individuals whose strength the cosmos itself had acknowledged. Higher beings were heavily resistant to the effect of the laws. However resistant was the key word here. They were resistant, not immune. For example, let's imagine the world to be an RPG. In it , if a character uses the law of Death, the opposing person will die without fail provided that his skill level ( representing his degree of control over the law ) exceeds the resistance provided by the opposing person's soul. However in the case of higher beings, regardless of the degree of control over the law, it would never kill the Higher Being. It will only cause damage. Of course the damage would certainly be enough to make them flinch, it would be far from life threatening. Another characteristic of Higher Beings was the ability to manipulate reality ( with certain limitations,of course. ) Of course, by this definition, reine too should be counted among Higher Beings since she can manipulate reality inside a fixed region with her angel 'Ain Soph Aur ' , right ? No. While reine and Higher Beings both are capable of manipulating reality, there exists a fundamental difference. Reine's angel was under the classification of a domain type ability.  With it , she could manipulate certain aspects of reality by utilizing mana. The amount of mana was directly proportional to the deviances from true reality inside the area affected by the angel. Of course, not all aspects of reality could be manipulated. Certain ' Truths ' remained consistent as they were directly etched into the fabric of existence itself. For example, reine couldn't just make it so that under the area of influence of the angel, all magic and applications of mana would cease to exist. No , this was fundamentally impossible since the ' Truths ' of mana, Qi and magic were etched into existence itself. What she could influence was things like gravity, the interactions of physical matter , like making it so that upon falling on human skin , water instead of flowing harmlessly would instead dissolve humans ( Of course, such a large degree of deviation required a large amount of mana to sustain it ). 

        The Higher Beings on the other hand, had no need to utilize mana or Qi. They could simply manipulate reality with an intrinsic awareness of it. For them reality was like clay , which could be molded with certain limitations. Even for them certain rules had to be followed. Along with the above mentioned ' Truths ' they couldn't violate the law of equivalence. They could, say for instance, make it so that the statue of liberty  being of a woman in robes was instead a humanoid lion with a gun in its hand. And no one would find it odd, since by altering reality , they had effectively made it so that it had always been a lion statue. When someone used mana for transforming something (like how natsumi did with her angel) , mana was used to alter the physical structure of the object. This could be reversed by one of two ways. One , use a specific spell or array which cuts off the mana connection to the object thereby making it return forcefully to its prior state. The second more complicated method, was to use the law of time. It would essentially rewind the time for the object making it return to its former state. However if one were to use the law of time on an object whose reality was changed by a higher being , it would not work since the object had always existed in that state. The degree of manipulation of reality differed with each higher being, ranging from the teacher of Demon Gods, Shukracharya , who could manipulate the reality of an object the size of Tokyo tower  , to his employer and new boss, Nyarlathotep, who was capable of changing reality of entire planets and if he really put his mind to it, entire solar systems. Also all Higher Beings had their position by birth. A son of a Higher Being would always be a Higher Being, regardless of their strength. This was the exact case with the Heavenly Emperor, where while his strength was only around Demon God level, he was still a higher being. 

     A Large number of Higher Beings consisted of Abstracta, of which Nyarlothep himself was a part of. Abstracta were beings who were the manifestation of various phenomena. For example, Nyarlothep was an Abstracta who was the manifestation of all of humanity's vices. Another peculiar property of Abstracta was that as long as the phenomena existed, even with the use of soul destroying weapons like the ones capable of killing gods ( or even Higher Beings like Shukracharya ) would not be able to kill them. As long as humanity's vices existed , Nyarlothep would continue to exist too. However, even among Abstracta , there was an elite group consisting of nine Abstracta which was considered the most powerful. These were known as Herscherrs. Herscherrs were Abstracta who were the manifestation of The laws themselves. The nine Herscherrs were : 

The Herscherr of Flame

The Herscherr of Storms

The Herscherr of Lightning

The Herscherr of Frost 

The Herscherr of Land

The Herscherr of Void ( representing space ) 

The Hercher of Time 

The Herscherr of Life

The Herscherr of Death - NYX

   The main thing to remember here was that , while all Herscherrs were Abstracta, not all Abstracta were Herscherrs. However, they all were Higher Beings. Due to their immense strength, most gods or even Demon Gods would never even dream of going against them. The Herscherrs themselves had agreed to an unwritten pact to not interfere with each other, since a battle between them would be nothing short of a cataclysm on a cosmic scale. 

       Above the Herscherrs was a place solely occupied by one person , or three if you wanted to be technically correct. The person who stood at the top of the cosmic hierarchy, at least from a normal perspective, was the Demon Goddess, Daityayani. She was the daughter of the first Demon , the founder of Hell, Inferno himself. She was trained by the Mahakala himself and was one of the first few entities that came into being in the cosmos. She also had a fragment of the Third Eye , which was implanted in her before birth when her father Inferno requested and prayed the Mahakala to do so. She was so powerful that she could destroy the entire cosmos, without breaking a sweat, several times over. The only reason she hadn't done so was because her husband, the Mahakala cared a lot for the cosmos and for her , her husband's word was law. From what Shido had learned from Nyarlothep, she didn't even care for her own kind, the demons. The only people she cared for was Her husband, his two wives and her stepson, the Heavenly Emperor. If her husband asked her to destroy the cosmos, she would do so without any hesitation. Nyarlothep had described her, as he put it  ,
" A woman who had some serious yandere tendencies. While she was always ready and happy to lay down her life if her husband asked it, she was also ready to take lives . However for her , her husband was never at fault. If a woman tried to seduce ( or if she thought that the woman tried to seduce ) her husband, it wasn't her husband at fault. No , rather it was the woman, her family, her species , her world, her entire dimension….." 

       According to nyarlothep, she had come close to eradicating an entire dimension because of this exact reason on nearly three separate occasions, before being stopped by her husband. Referring to the previous example, if the cosmos was a video game,  she was someone so strong that she was playing with cheats enabled. 

      And then of course, were the Mahakala, the First Being to come into existence in the cosmos and second, Maya , The paramount Dao herself. If Daityani was a player who was playing the game with cheats enabled, these two guys were the equivalent of the Game Devs saying, " Screw it. We are going to insert our own custom characters into the game and the rules will always benefit us !" The Mahakala was an entity who was so strong that his power could only be described in this way : He could destroy all of the cosmos and recreate it again multiple times over without any trouble. The reason for his strength was the existence of his Third Eye. The Third Eye was less of a weapon and more akin to a part of the Mahakala himself. The Third Eye had one simple function. Upon its use , whoever it is used on , it will simply let out energy required to destroy it. That was it. No matter how strong you were, once the Third Eye is used , you'll be dead . No questions asked. When he first learned about it, he cursed on top of his voice. What sort of shitty Dev creates an ability this broken ?! Truly life was unfair. However, despite his strength, the Mahakala was not omnipotent. There was one thing he couldn't do.  That was, after destroying the cosmos and recreating it, while he could recreate all the physical matter, the various forces and phenomena without any difficulty, what he couldn't do was to recreate the destroyed souls. Once a soul was lost, it was lost. Sure if he wanted, maybe he could resurrect 10 maybe in the absolute best case scenario a few hundred even after being completely destroyed, but according to nyarlathotep, that was his limit. It was quite easy to destroy a soul compared to rebuilding it. When he returned to the past,  Nyarlothep didn't exactly rebuild the souls of his family. That would have required for no part of their soul having survived. No what he did was regenerate their soul fragments, which while difficult was still doable. This was a proof that even the strongest being in existence had things he couldn't do. Regardless of it, the Mahakala was still the strongest being in existence. The second person who was close to his strength was his first wife  Maya , or as she was better known, The Paramount Dao. Her power was difficult to measure, since she was existence itself !  All the cosmos, it's forces, it's laws , were all part of her. She could destroy the cosmos by just wishing it, since she was the cosmos itself. However, upon the destruction of the cosmos, she would not cease to be. She was existence itself. She could not die. Of course, after listening to this, the logical question arises in one's mind. " Who would win in a fight between the Mahakala and the paramount Dao ?" 

 The answer : The Mahakala.

 This was because of two things. First was that the Mahakala predated the cosmos itself. As a result, the power of his Third Eye was absolute. There was no stopping it. The second reason was that since he predated the cosmos and existence itself, he was simply out of the domain of the forces of the cosmos. It's magic, it's forces, it's laws , everything; the Mahakala could simply negate their effects by his existence alone. And this was the reason, he stood at the pinnacle of the cosmos itself. 

       As one could infer , Shido was quite literally nowhere on the cosmic hierarchy. He wasn't even worth dirt. Sure he had a gimmick in his existence as the Abhorrence of the paramount Dao, but that was hardly enough. That made him durable like a cockroach, not stronger. From the knowledge he received from Nyarlothep about the nature of his existence, he found he was something that should never have existed. A glitch in the system . A bug , if you will. One of the abilities of him being the Abhorrence of the paramount Dao was that he was free from certain phenomena of the cosmos. For the sake of simplicity, let us assume the cosmos to be a closed system, like a sealed box. Everything inside the box is affected by the various phenomena in the box. However, what if there was another box separate from the first box ? By default, the second box was an entirely closed system in and of itself, hence the phenomena of the first box simply could not affect the second box. This was the case with him . He was simply an existence that the paramount Dao had no power over. However to say that he was completely immune from all magic, laws and phenomenon would be wrong. While the essence that formed his existence, his soul was indeed immune from the powers of the cosmos by virtue of its existence, his physical body, which was formed from regular matter , still was a part of the cosmos. As such, he could freely negate phenomena such as the law of Death, he was still susceptible to destruction via magic or even good old fashioned physical attacks, provided they were strong enough to obliterate all of his body. This ability, while making him durable against reality manipulation and the powers of Herscherrs, Higher Beings and such, was quite useless in combat against normal cultivators. It was weird. He was like a video game character who could shine against the endgame bosses, but was only average against the beginner content. 
 

      Another ability that he was proud of was him having near infinite mana or Qi supply. This was because he was a high ranked Fool. Not all members of the fool arcana were awakened equally. And the fool's who were on the same level as him had a special ability gifted by the collective unconscious, a premium membership benefit, if you will. The collective unconscious had a single function, to facilitate reincarnation of all beings ( except for Demonkind ) through the cosmos. For this, there existed a sort of invisible connection from every living being to the collective unconscious. What fools like him could do was, from every being in existence, they could harness an infinitesimally small amount of mana or Qi through them. And when he said infinitesimally small, he meant it. It was the equivalent of dipping a needle into an ocean and the water which was deposited on the needle tip, that's how small of an amount it was. Of course, extracting it from one being, a hundred beings, hell , a million beings hardly made a difference. But when you consider that the fool was drawing power from every being, every god, every ant, every human, every swallow, everything that had a soul, the numbers reach an absurd amount. Because of this, he had in a sense, infinite mana or Qi. However even this system had its limitations in the form that the drawn power was not directly utilized, but rather first deposited in a container, that being the soul and then used by the user. As a result, if he drew too much energy beyond his limits , the container would quite literally burst. However, there were ways to counter this ability of his. The easiest way was to temporarily cut off his connection to the collective unconscious. This could be done by certain specific spells and a few arrays. And considering his whole fighting style involved overwhelming his opponents with techniques and spells capable of causing large scale destruction which had huge energy requirements, having a limited energy supply could be dangerous. As such he needed something that could not only give him a bit more versatility but also make him stronger. Thus was precisely the reason he had come here. 

       Shido had found from Nyarlathotep that he was indeed a cultivator in his previous life, thereby confirming his earlier hypothesis. However he had never managed to reach the demigod rank and condense divinity due to which he had no recollection of his past self. Or at least that was what he thought. If this assertion was true, then why did he still retain his memories as shinji despite not even being a cultivator ? The truth he learned from Nyarlothep was that he had , for reasons unknown to him , sealed all his memories from his first life. However what his past self  had also done, was to  put together an assortment of various techniques and knowledge that would be available to him once he had reawakened his bloodline,  sort of like an emergency survival kit. Among the techniques and knowledge was a special technique that he before returning to the present had dismissed as too dangerous and useless. However he now understood the true value of it. 

       The technique was a cultivation method known simply as the " The Heavenly Demonic God's Path " . Of all the individuals in the cosmos, he was the only one who could use it. This was because it could only be harnessed by someone whom the paramount Dao had no control over. This was most likely created by his past self to use on himself. The technique allowed the user to manipulate Demonic Qi . Demonic Qi was something that was different from normal Qi . It was violent , chaotic and uncontrolled. It was made originally by the Mahakala and was given as a gift to the Demon God Inferno. The ability to use Demonic Qi was only possessed by Demonkind only. And since he was not a part of the paramount Dao, the Will Of The World had no control over him. The Will of the world was fundamentally different from the paramount Dao. While the paramount Dao was the actual manifestation of the cosmos, the Will of the world was akin to a program that the paramount Dao, Lady Maya had created to supervise the cosmos without her direct interference. What he was currently going to do, to make Demonic Qi a part of himself , was something that went against the rules of the cosmos. As such, even if he had been given permission by lady Maya through nyarlathotep, the Will of the world would still try to oppose him.

       After arriving at the mountain top, Shido started to place a tier six spatial array. The array had two functions, first to stabilise the fabric of space around him so that while releasing his Qi around him would not cause a spacequake. The second purpose was to conceal his spiritual signature, so that neither ratatoskr nor reine could detect him. 

      He then seated himself on the ground with folded legs. He then , in accordance with the method of the ' Heavenly Demonic God's Path ' began to manipulate the Qi inside him. While instinctually one might try to harmonize the normal and Demonic Qi. However it was completely wrong. Trying to harmonize Demonic Qi, something that by nature was chaotic, was nothing but a futile attempt. What one was actually meant to do was for both of them to be together while still maintaining their nature. For the technique to succeed ,Order and Chaos were meant to coexist. This was the essence of The Heavenly Demonic God's Path. 

      As soon as Shido started to practise it, his body was engulfed in an indescribable pain. He knew what pain was. His body had been blown to smithereens, burned , impaled , chopped and countless other things that would make a person lose his sanity out of sheer pain. However the greatest pain he had experienced was when Nyarlothep did a meridian and magic circuit transplant on him. The meridian and magic circuit transplant was as the name suggested, a process where the meridians or magic circuit from one individual was transplanted to another. A normal individual could only undergo either one, since every cultivator, even if they were a Higher Being or Herscherr , was only capable of either being a warrior or mage. To utilize both was simply not possible. However due to him being the Abhorrence of the paramount Dao, this rule didn't apply to him. However since in this lifetime, he didn't have either meridians or Magic circuits, he had to undergo the procedure where both were transplanted inside him. 

        While the meridian and magic circuit did not come from an individual, but rather a gift from Lady Maya for aiding his quest. Still , that didn't make the procedure any less painful. Most gods in heaven could testify that a transplant was the most painful procedure that one could undergo since the soul was involved. If one were to tell them that a person had undergone both a meridian and magic circuit transplant, they would either mock you for making such a distasteful joke or question the sanity of the person undergoing the transplant. Still, for the sake of meeting his family, Shido underwent that torture. And, while he had never experienced that degree of pain before, he still gritted his teeth through the transplant. 

     However, this was much different. He would happily undergo a thousand transplants than to endure the pain he was currently experiencing. No words or screams came out because he was in so much pain , his body was quite literally unable to express it. Still, he barely held on to his own self and tried to endure the pain.

       But to the Will of the world, his actions were unacceptable. At that moment, the Will of the world, to maintain balance in the cosmos, engulfed Shido and teleported him into the Void Space, the gap between Dimensions. At that exact moment, all laws across the entirety of the cosmos halted . Time froze for every individual, space halted , life and death stopped in their tracks. This was because, at this moment, The Will of the world was concentrating all the strength of every law in existence as a last ditch effort to stop Shido. Qi and Demonic Qi were not meant to coexist. Once Shido would be successful in making the two energies coexist, the Will of the world would be unable to do anything to him , since after that point, it would become a part of Shido and once something had been integrated into his existence as the Abhorrence of the paramount Dao, it would be impossible for the Will of the world to affect it. However, while the cosmos was halted for every god and demons other individuals, the Higher Beings could feel the spectacle that was undergoing in front of them. While they didn't exactly understand what was going on, they knew that the Will of the world was trying its level best to eliminate someone or something. A chill went up their spine thinking about what sort of horrifying being would be strong enough to threaten the Will of the world. Although not all Higher Beings were unaware of the truth. 

                       -----------X----------

 
Location : The courtroom , The Heavens

      The Heavenly Emperor, Ziwei was conducting a meeting with the Heavenly Twelve. This was nothing new and the usual order of business which he had been following for Yugas. However today something strange happened. Suddenly, Ziwei felt the laws leaving the fabric of existence itself. Everyone and everything around him had frozen. Time and space had ceased to be. The gods were neither alive nor dead, since life and death themselves had deserted the cosmos for the time being. Ziwei immediately understood what was going on. With a shocked yet pensive expression, he muttered to himself, " So you have finally made your move, Rhadamanthus. What path will you choose this time,a new era of  peace or the old path of destruction….." 
   

                       -----------X----------

Location : ???? , Hell

        Inside a dimly lit cave in hell , there seated an old man. He was currently meditating. With white beard and locks, his face clearly showed signs of age. However his body structure was anything but old. He seemed to have a body which didn't show any signs of age. No wrinkles, so contorted back, no nothing. He was, of course, the teacher of the Demon Gods, Shukracharya himself. He was engaged in secluded meditation for many millennia now. However he suddenly opened his eyes with a snap. He had a terrified expression on his face. He sensed the absence of the laws which caused him to wake from his meditation. And he knew exactly the person who would be responsible for this phenomena. With a trembling voice he spoke as he said , " So, after all these millennia, you have finally awakened, Rhadamanthus ! Will the cosmos once again bear the brunt of your hatred ?..."

                       -----------X----------

   Location : Philemon's Domain, The collective unconscious

      One could see two individuals standing side by side. The room and everything in it was completely blue. From the carpet, to the furniture, to the books, everything . One of the individuals was of course, the crawling Chaos, Nyarlothep. Beside him stood a man who was dressed up in a Velvet blue coat with black trousers and an ornate Cape attached to his coat. On his head rested a large blue hat with a feather attached to it. The man along with nyarlathotep seemed to gaze intently at the distance. The man let out a deep sigh. Even though many Yugas had passed, he still preferred his clothes as the aura guardian. He was of course, Philemon. While he was known by many names like izanagi, Abe no seimei, the Mahakala, his title as the Aura guardian still held a special place in his heart. Nyarlothep looked at him with a worried expression and asked him, " We both can see the truth in front of us , Philemon. Don't you think you should go and save him ?! " Philemon however, only replied in a calm manner as he said, "  One choseth their fate of their own free will. As such one must also be ready to bear the consequences of their choice. Leave him be. Rhadamanthus's own actions will define his fate. " Nyarlothep clicked his tongue in disapproval, but did not say anything. He prayed in his heart and hoped that Rhadamanthus would be safe. 

                         -----------X----------

Location: The Void Space

        Shido was currently in the void space in the dimensional gap. Earlier he had thought that while the pain was hellish, at least it couldn't get worse than that. But boy was he wrong. The pain he was currently experiencing was even greater than what he was experiencing before being pulled into the Void. The will of the world was utilizing every possible power of the laws in an attempt to destroy his soul and prevent his success. Before he used to wonder whether fate hated him , but now it was pretty much confirmed that fate did truly hate him.

        However cursing fate wasn't going to help him with the pain. And while he was barely holding on , he was still fighting a losing battle. He could not retaliate in any way since everything he had, magic , laws , blade force were all part of the cosmos itself and wouldn't be useful since the cosmos itself was against him. A part of his consciousness screamed that he should just give up and let his soul be destroyed. After all , he wasn't going to truly die since unlike other beings, due to him being the Abhorrence of the paramount Dao, his soul would assemble itself eventually. Not only that, he had made a few preparations on earth that if he did end up failing, a failsafe would activate eradicating all life on earth except his family and turning earth into a booby trap for the upcoming polluters. His family would be safe and sure, the paramount Dao would most likely imprison and torture him for eternity for not fulfilling his part of the deal of saving humanity, but hey, if his family was safe, it was a small price to pay for salvation.

       However his train of thought was interrupted when a single thought arose in his mind. That if he gave up now, he would never have a chance to fight against the polluters. Those goddamned alien species which devoured all planets in their path and were responsible for Reine and the others death in the past. Sure , that bitch Gaia may have been pulling strings from behind, but the polluters were the ones who technically killed his family. And was he just going to let them meet their end like that ? No ! He had to survive ! No matter what would happen, the rage in his heart would only be satisfied after he had tore the flesh of each of those bastard's with his own hands ! 

        However, in order to succeed, he had to figure out some way to stop the assault on him. However, as previously stated, all magic and techniques were useless here. However, he had one trump card up his sleeve which was currently his only option. While summoning this would definitely put an even more pressure on his soul, he hardly had a choice. He was going to summon his martial spirit. Martial spirits were manifestations of the soul's which could be summoned exclusively by warriors and not Mages. Or as Shido liked to call them, " Stands based on animals " . And he was not completely wrong since all martial spirits were in the form of beasts, ranging from the mundane like beats and tigers to the mystical like chimera and Hydra. The user could summon them and use certain abilities of theirs. And while it didn't require any Qi to use them , summoning them put a strain on the soul of the user , so they could be summoned only for short periods. 

       Shido once again gritted his teeth and screamed on top of his voice and said, " You think that you , a mere program can stop me , The Abhorrence of the paramount Dao ?! You , the Will of the world are nothing more than a mere program and how dare you even have such foolish delusions you damned AI ?! " He then screamed his chant and began to summon his martial spirit. He screamed as he said, 
" Curse this blood of mine, Curse these sins of mine , Curse this existence of mine ! For my sins are those which can never be forgiven ! Thou who art trapped in a cage of madness and I thy summoner who holds thy chains ! I call upon thy name and release thy rage ! Come forth , the Great Serpent of Terror, Shin no Orochi !"

        As soon as Shido finished his chant, a black blob began to emerge behind him. The blob then began to assume a form and take the shape of a multi headed serpent. The serpent was the picturesque view of terror itself. Anyone who dared to meet eyes with this abomination would have their mind's gripped from terror and despair.  However what was strange about the serpent was that the middle three heads , seemed…. out of place. While the other five heads on the side were serpentine in look, the middle three seemed out of place, as if someone had placed them there by stitching them together. One of the heads seemed less like that of a Serpent and was more along the lines of a canine. The other head on its position on the other side was, while still the head of a Serpent, fundamentally different, as if it came from some other serpent. The central head however, was the most eye catching. It was clearly the head of a draconic being . The mismatched heads, it's huge size and unnatural movements made it a terrifying, yet awe inspiring sight to behold. 

       The serpent then began to spew out some sort of energy towards the attack of the cosmos. The energy was his own Numen , which due to belonging to him, the Abhorrence of the paramount Dao, was able to successfully push back against the attack of the cosmos. Shido screamed in a mocking and spiteful tone as he said,
" Witness this , Will of the world ! I am the Abhorrence of the paramount Dao ! I defy the heaven's and trample over the Will of the world ! And I ….. Shall not bow down to you  !!" 

After this a terrifyingly huge explosion resulted. However, it was an explosion unlike any other, as the Void Space itself twisted and contorted due to the clash of the energies. However, Shido had indeed succeeded. 

       Soon Shido's body returned to earth as the laws started to flow normally once again. The array was a bit damaged, but that was to be expected. However he had succeeded. He stretched out both his hands and in one he manifested normal Qi while the other contained Demonic Qi. He truly was ecstatic. However he felt another change inside him. He crouched slightly as six , black wings sprouted from his back. While he was shocked at first, his shock soon turned into hysterical laughter. This was because, on his back were Demonic wings. And for Demons , the number of wings represented their status. Four wings represented a Demon Lord while six wings represented a Demon God. This meant that Shido was now effectively a Demon God. However this did not mean that he was now as strong as a Demon God and could challenge anyone on earth. No. He was now only the same species as a Demon God, so to speak. His power had only increased slightly, but it was a far cry from the strength of a Demon God or hell, even a true God. However, what this meant was that eventually, he was guaranteed to surpass gods and could be as strong as Demon Gods. The addition of demonic bloodline to himself was certainly a fruitful thing as was like winning an unexpected lottery for him. And he didn't have to worry about being discovered since with the technique that he had gotten from the Akakshic records, ' The Shadow Assailant's Technique ' , meant that as long as he was under the demigod rank, he could hide everything from the fact that he now possessed the Demonic bloodline to the fact he was a cultivator in the first place from everyone individual in the cosmos except for Higher Beings. 

       Shido then walked towards a tree in front of him. He wanted to test the special ability of Demonic Qi. He placed a hand on the tree trunk and let the Demonic Qi flow through it. Soon , the tree began to rapidly shed its leaves while it's entire body twisted and contorted as it took on a blackish purple hue. The branches of the tree then started to flail around as if they were limbs . One of the branches caught a small swallow which was flying above the tree and slammed it to the ground, immediately crushing it and thereby causing it's death. Upon noticing Shido , the tree instead of attacking him , gave him a bow as if to show his loyalty to him. Seeing this Shido laughed hysterically. What he had just demonstrated was the special ability of Demonic Qi. Once Demonic Qi had invaded the body of any living being, if the being did not have enough soul strength to resist and filter it out of their soul, they would be transformed into a Demonic being. However, this transformed being was something even lower than lesser demons and hence could only act on its feral instinct. However, since it was still a demon and demons by nature of their existence are bound to obey demons higher in hierarchy and rank than them, it was following Shido's commands since , while he was not as strong as a Demon God, he was still a being who had the rank and bloodline of a Demon God. 

        Shido then released his essence flame to burn down and destroy all traces of the tree, since if reine or ratatoskr got the slightest hint that a demon had appeared here on earth , things could get complicated. His laughter echoed through the surroundings.  In one fell swoop, he had not only gotten the power of Demonic Qi, but was also transformed into a Demon God. At this point, he had nothing to worry about ! There was no being on earth he was afraid of ! 

       His laughter however was interrupted when he saw through the eyes of his clone that tohka and the others were approaching the clone. The clone was only ordered to paint and he hadn't given it any instructions for complex things like responding to speech. He thought that he could repair the array placed here at night. For now the most important priority was to hastily transfer his soul from here to that clone body at the school. He could let the others grow suspicious. He hastily transferred his soul to the clone body and joined everyone. The girls weren't even aware that in the span of  less than an hour, Shido had went from a

 ( supposed ) human to a Demon God.

   Finally the chapter is done ! Honestly, this was the longest chapter I ever wrote . It's almost approaching 13,000 words right now! Sorry for the delay, but since the chapter is lore heavy it took some time to write. If there are things about the lore or anything that you don't quite get , feel free to ask me about it. I'm always happy to talk about it. Also the next chapter will not be a story chapter, but rather a chapter that will explain the creation myth of the cosmos in brief. This will help the readers to better understand how the Mahakala, Philemon, izanagi are all the same person. And how in spite of fighting demons for so long, he is still married to the Demon Goddess.