Author's note : Just to clarify, in this book, kotori and yoshino have no romantic interest in Shido. He is just a brother figure for them .       
           Everyone soon returned home from the mall. Shido took care to place apart a portion of the groceries for the' competition ' which was going to take place, while placing the additional stuff in the refrigerator. He then took out the additional stove tops that he had kept for the emergency while he had asked Nia to bring the cooktops from the spirits residence neighbouring the house. While none of the girls actually cooked and just used to either eat ready made meals or eat in either restaurants or at Shido , ratatoskr nonetheless supplied the house with all the necessary appliances. After Nia had returned, he then placed the ingredients on the table in the kitchen table . He asked everyone to gather around and said, " Since all of you are so enthusiastic for this competition, I think we should atleast lay down some rules. First, the ingredients are laid in front of you. Second you have two hours to prepare whatever food you want. After you have prepared it , remove the food and divide it into thirteen portions so that everyone can have a taste. After tasting everyone's dish you can then vote for the person whose dish you think is the best. Do remember that you can't vote for yourself. Oh , and just in case you start a fire , don't panic, just give me a shout, I've already kept the fire extinguisher ready. "

          Kotori scoffed at Shido and said ,
" Come on Oni-chan , you talk as if you're sure we're going to start a fire. " Shido retorted to that in a deadpan tone as he said, " Remind me who was the genius who once thought that deep frying chupa-chups in batter could be considered as a proper
meal. " Kotori embarrassedly replied ," Stop making things on your own. That never happened ! " Shido sighed and said , " Yeah , yeah , I get it. Now start with your work . I too will start with my dish. I hope you don't mind if I join too. "

          The others didn't mind it since probability wise , the odds were not in Shido's favour. After all, what was more likely, one person, that being Shido winning or the rest of the group of girls winning. Even if either kotori or yoshino won the challenge their date would basically sum up to and spending some time playing games in yoshino's case . With her and kotori, there would be no romantic angle involved since for Shido , they were just his sisters. The group of girls however had one person that they were careful of, that being Ellen. She was an excellent cook and could make quite good meals. Each of the spirits wanted to beat her. The spirits while certainly liked Shido's food more , knew that while his food was certainly delicious, he hadn't taken any sort of formal course and was basically self taught. Compare that to Ellen who had only recently completed a full culinary course in three months ( although it usually took upto six months for an average person to complete it ). Hence , in a certain sense, Ellen was confident her victory was certain. However what she did not know, was that a certain fool was going to act like a wildcard and completely shatter her expectations.

          The girls then went to different rooms and began to cook their dishes. Shido too, thought that he should hurry up, since he was going to make two dishes instead of a single one, so he had to be quick. He took out the different meats that he was going to use. He then started to cook the dishes . The dishes he was going to make were ,
Soupe à l'oignon and Coq au vin . The dishes would definitely blow their minds since they were never made in this world before. This was because they were not from this world to begin with. After gaining most of the cosmos's knowledge from the library of Akaksha , he had the knowledge on every dish in existence across different civilizations , spanning different time periods of various species across various dimensions. So , with his slightly above average cooking skills and a the recipe in his hand , he could cook any dish in existence. The Akakshic records, the library of the cosmos, containing almost all of the knowledge of the cosmos, was something gods and sometimes even entire civilizations spent their lives trying to grasp a miniscule amount of its knowledge and commited every kind of unspeakable acts to gain a tiny portion of its knowledge..... And here it was being used as a cook book...... Well, he wasn't exactly unhappy about doing it. After all the Akaksha was just another tool for him to use. And it definitely was one of his most useful tools currently. And yeah , sure nyarlothep may have fucked up by almost sending him to the wrong dimension
' by accident ' and he definitely was lucky he had won nyarlothep's cane which allowed him to travel across dimensions, thus allowing him to return to the special room with nyarlothep where he Finally sent him back to his proper dimension. He sweared that if he was stuck in that dimension and he had to go on some sort of treasure hunt to find maybe some artifact in that dimension which could allow him to return back to the room , he would definitely Beat The Shit Out Of Nyarlothep. While he was engrossed in his thoughts, his hands continued to move naturally as normally, as he was used to multitasking at this point. Fighting an army with multiple clones of yourself while having a few of your clones play Tchaikovsky's Overture had given him quite the good practice with multitasking. He then put a lid over the pot containing the Soupe à l'oignon and started to prepare the chicken for Coq au vin . He was pretty confident in his skills and hey, even if he lost , he was technically still winning as he was still going on a date regardless. This was a win-win situation for him.

* One and half hour later *

          Everyone soon gathered at the table with the various dishes lined in front of them. All of them were happy with their dishes, except for natsumi. Even though there were no difficulties or problems in her cooking, she still believed she would lose. She was about to throw her food thinking it was no good but Shido appeared in the nick of time and prevented her from doing so. He had already anticipated something like this would happen and had come to just check on her. There were various dishes lined up . Tohka had created some simple rice balls. Kotori tried to make some sort of stir fried vegetables, but the vegetables were unevenly cooked, with them being burned in some places while being slightly raw in some others. Yoshino had made some sandwiches which were neatly cut and presented. Kaguya and Yuzuru had made curry and rice which was delicious indeed despite of a rather bland presentation. Origami had.... Made some kind of....Stew....
It had an air of ominousness to it and no one dared to taste it. Shido however didn't hesitate and ate it. Everyone was surprised by him but he didn't mind it too much. After all, to a man who had been hungry for more than a century, everything tastes good. Especially if it is by the hands of the women he loves. Miku had made the classic British dish , Fish and Chips. How she got the idea was beyond him , but it was definitely well made for a beginner. Natsumi had made some shrimp tempura. The coating had binded perfectly to the shrimp as the spices had permeated deep into it. The coating had the perfect crunch to it making it perfect in every sense. It was even better than what was served in most restaurants. Kurumi had made some croquettes, all in the shape of cute cat faces , which was expected from her. Nia had made simple ramen. She definitely wasn't going to win any points for creativity. However, considering she has never cooked even once for her own self , this was definitely a great achievement for a shut in neet like her. Besides, the ramen was tasty and Nia had put so much effort into it , so Shido wasn't going to complain. Mukuro had went for a more traditional route by making, some salmon Teriyaki, glazed with a coating of soy sauce, mirin and sugar. The fish was grilled to perfection while the sauce gave blended harmoniously the flavour of sweet and salty. All in all, it was an amazing dish. Reine had made some dorayaki. Shido internally sighed as he thought, " This woman and her sweet tooth." Well, she herself was as sweet as the dish and the dish was delicious, so he nonetheless enjoyed the slightly unorthodox dish at the table. Ellen who was the last , definitely had made perhaps the most fancy dish. She had made Chicken Cordon bleu. Upon cutting it open, the cheese had melted perfectly, the ham was well done. And the chicken was absolutely perfect. The dish was served with a side of steamed broccoli and a slice of goat cheese. In terms of professionalism, this dish had put Ellen leaps and bounds of others.

           Ellen watched in amusement as everyone consumed her dish. While most of them consumed it willy nilly, like tohka and the others without any proper expected manners ( which was fine in her opinion, as not only they were still young , they had not been exposed to proper etiquette as most of the time they were spending their time running from the AST. ) What surprised her however, was that Shido had got down each and every step of etiquette perfectly. His manner, movements, all gave him the appearance of some rich old man who was used to eating such novel dishes in a high profile environment. She didn't mind that , if anything this only made Shido more perfect in her eyes. Not only was he courteous and kind to others, he could also bring out a more formal and elegant persona when required. He was in every sense of the word , The Perfect Man .

         Once everyone was done with Ellen's dish , Shido got up and went towards the kitchen. He then brought out on a large trolley a multitude of plates. He then layed out a bowl on a small plate and another dish along with it. He then clapped his hands to get everyone's attention as he said " Considering we had everyone with us today for a meal , I thought, why not make something new ? The dishes are something that I have made for the first time, so forgive me if there are any issues with it. The first dish , which is the soup in front of you is known as Soupe à l'oignon with a side of buttered and toasted bread. The soup is made of caramelized onions and beef stock with croutons on top. Then there is the other dish, Coq au vin. It's a dish made with braised chicken accompanied by bacon , mushrooms and caramelized onions and garlic. I could have added a bit of brandy, but considering the number of underage people here , I chose not to . With that said , please enjoy ! "

                       ( Soupe à l'oignon )

                             ( Coq au Vin )

          Even with surprised looks on their faces, everyone still dug into their food. And a single thought went through the minds of every person there , " It's delicious ! " None of them had tasted anything like it before. And sure while most of them couldn't even pronounce even the name properly, everyone could certainly appreciate the delicately crafted dish in front of them .
In just a few minutes, the plates and bowls were empty. Shido smiled in satisfaction, seeing that everyone had enjoyed his food. However his satisfaction was short lived as everyone was looking at him with a wide eyed stare. He asked in an unsure voice,
" Um, why is everyone looking at me like I'm some homicidal maniac ? " And this was the truth. He wasn't some crazy homicidal maniac, of course not. He was  a Genocidal Maniac. There was a clear difference between the two.

          Ellen was the first to speak up as she said or more specifically, shouted , " How the hell did you make something like this ?! " Shido furrowed his brows and said, " Oh come on. I've been cooking for years now. Of course I know how to make a decent dish. " Ellen stood up and once again shouted in a raised voice, " That's not what I'm talking about ! Tell me how you managed to make a dish so professional ! The cooking, the spices , the flavours, the aroma, the presentation, you've nailed everything perfectly !" Shido asked in an unsure tone,
" And how, is that a bad thing ? " Ellen facepalmed and said , " What I'm saying is when did you join a professional course ? Or maybe you studied under some renowned chef and if so, when exactly did you do it ? I don't want you going alone to god knows whose house alone ." Shido , now slightly frustrated, " Oi , all of this was self taught. I didn't study under someone. Even the dish you are eating has never been made in this world until now. I'm the first person in the world to make it . " And this was the truth. Since the dish was from a different dimension all together, Shido was the first person in the entire world to make it. So for all intents and purposes, he was the original creator of this dish on this particular earth.

           Ellen groaned and facepalmed. There were a multitude of complex and contradictory emotions bubbling within her. While she was happy that Shido had made such an amazing dish and was proud of his sheer talent, of all the times, he had to make this dish now. Reine spoke up as she said,
" I know as your teacher I'm not supposed to tell you this, but if I'm being honest, I think you should just drop out of school and open your own restaurant. I'm sure ratatoskr could finance it and given your talent, I don't think you'll have a problem running it. " Miku chimed in as she said, " I agree darling ! This dish is just too delicious ! And if you want, I could advertise it among my fans to gather a crowd . And I'm sure, they would definitely be happy after tasting your food." Shido scratched his head in embarrassment and said, " You don't have to go that far, miku. Still I'm happy for your consideration ." Nia spoke in a slightly flirtatious tone, "Geez Shounen, first you surprise me by being a good mangaka , now you impress everyone by being such an excellent chef ! Man, you are good at housework , with your skills you can earn pretty well in the manga industry and you're hard working too ! I sometimes doubt that after marriage whether we'll be of any use to you in housework or even on a professional level ! "

      Upon hearing this , Shido quickly turned his face the other way while being red from embarrassment. He internally screamed, thinking, " I can resist the charms of a succubus without any difficulties , but can't handle a single compliment from Nia ?! What the actual fuck is wrong with me ?! Fuck ! Fuck ! Goddamn it ! "

        Seeing Shido's embarrassed face , reine , who was sitting beside Nia, calmly placed a hand on Nia's shoulder. She spoke in a complete monotone voice as she said with a smile on her face, " Nia , are you forgetting our agreement ?" Of course, that smile wasn't fooling anyone. She was angry and everyone knew it. And only a crazy person would dare to go against a True goddess. Since the girls knew that Shido did indeed love all of them but was unable to express it openly due to his shy nature, they had made an agreement that they  would not make too many advances about marriage and such to him. And it was natural since as his memories from past life as shinji had not returned , from his point of view, he was a seventeen year old teenager. And any normal seventeen year old would hesitate to a commitment like marriage to a single woman, let alone multiple women like in Shido's case. And it was slightly understandable from the point of view of some of them as some of them were much older than Shido and thus in a slight hurry to marry ( not that it mattered since they weren't going to age ) . Like kurumi being a bit over 30 , Ellen and Nia being approaching their fifties while, reine being the oldest among them , at ten thousand years old.

         Nia remembering the agreement, hastily apologized as she said, " Ah - I was just teasing you , Shounen! Please don't worry about it too much, okay ?! " She gave a hesitant laugh as Shido took a deep breath and calmed himself. He then spoke ,
" Regardless, we are forgetting an important fact . We have yet to choose the winner of the competition ." As he finished speaking, once again everyone stared at him with a blank eyed expression.

          Shido clearly frustrated by this , nearly shouted as he said, " Oh come on! Again ?! Is this a cooking competition or a staring competition ?! " Ellen sighed and said, " It's just that after presenting that dish , how can you expect anything made by us to win ? I thought that with my dish , it would be like bringing a gun to a knife fight but then you just show up with your dish like an automatic rifle of all things." Shido slightly taken aback by her answer scratched his head and said, " Ah.... But I genuinely enjoyed all the dishes you all made . I think they were certainly better than mine !" Kotori replied in a calm manner,
" Regardless of what you think Oni-chan, everyone here agrees that your dish won. So I think it's fair that you get to decide who you go on a date with . It's not too difficult of a task , right ?"

           Shido screamed internally as he said,
" This little ! " in his mind. He took a deep breath and thought about it carefully, as he had to choose his words very carefully. After some time, he sighed and spoke, " I've made my decision. " All the girls were in anticipation about whom Shido would choose while kotori just grinned , eager to see the drama that would unfold, regardless of Shido's choice. Shido spoke calmly and said , " Tomorrow, after school, I'll go on a date with reine. And before any of you object, hear me out. She is the one whom I've gone on the least dates with. We have had so little dates, I could count them on hand. All this time, she was the one who was supporting me the most when I was trying to seal all of you. This I think it's only natural that she gets the chance tomorrow. "

         The girls all had some doubts initially upon hearing Shido's choice, but after listening to his reasons, they accepted it. Besides, technically speaking, she was Shido's first love and was the reason why they were able to meet with Shido and fall in love with him. The fact that she allowed the others to share Shido instead of hoarding him all for himself, just went to show how much she cared for his happiness.

         Reine upon hearing Shido's decision was definitely happy. She had a tinge of red on her face, as she replied in a slightly stuttering tone, contrary to her usual calm manner as she said, " I-I see. I don't mind... That's if you have no problems. " Shido smiled gently seeing her embarrassed like this and said , " Now that's done, let me just clean everything . Oh , and before I forget, Kotori, keep in mind, from now on, you aren't getting chupa-chups for a month. " Kotori screamed on top of her voice as she said, "This is unacceptable ! You can't do that ! "
Shido replied in a blunt manner ," Yes I can , young lady !" Kotori held her head and groaned , while the others merely had a hearty laugh at her misfortune. What they didn't know, was that kotori in her mind had said, " Just wait Shido ! Tomorrow, you'll see what happens when you go against me !"

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

         It was the middle of the night. The moon shone in all its elegance with a gentle glow. The stars still sparkled with their beauty accompanying the moon's brilliance. Under the moonlight, a single raven flew . With its fluttering wings , it guided itself gracefully through the buildings. It soon cane reached the outskirts of Tengu city. Soon it reached a small military outpost, just a few kilometres from the city.

Location : ??? Military outpost , 34 km from Tengu city

          He was asked to patrol this area by his superiors. When he joined the military, he dreamed of being a brave soldier , protecting his country from an onslaught of enemies !.... instead he found himself serving in this tiny outpost outside Tengu city. He groaned, thinking about how boring his job was. He had to patrol this particular section of the outpost which was close to the forest, thereby making it a likely target for infiltration. But who the hell would have the balls to come in to infiltrate a military outpost. And let's say, even if someone did , the outpost was tiny and insignificant and held absolutely no strategic importance. The only reason this wasn't abandoned was because General Ieyasu , who came to visit here frequently and had made this essentially into a private property of sorts when he wanted to relax and have a few free attendants for himself.

           He however was suddenly alerted when he heard a sound. He quickly removed his pistol from his holster and aimed it at the source of sound out of pure instinct, drilled into him by countless hours of training. However he found out that the source of the noise wasn't some intruder , but rather a simple bird , a raven. It's black feathers glistened under the moonlight, which perfectly matched the darkness of the night, almost as if the darkness had birthed it.

           The soldier let out a small laugh as he put his gun back in its place and said, " You almost gave me a heart attack buddy ! What the hell are you doing here this late night, did your boss make you do overtime too ?" The bird merely tilted his head sideways, as if to express it's inability to understand the man's words. Not that he expected it to , of course. He was just bored and would go so far as to engage in conversation with a bird of all things just to relieve him of his boredom. He soon had an idea , as he smirked and began to recite one of the stanzas from a poem he learned in college. He spoke with an exaggerated and dramatic tone as he said,

" Then this ebony beguiling my sad fancy         into smiling,
    By the grave and stern decorum of the
        countenance it wore,
     " Though thy crest be shorn and shaven ,           thou ," I said, "art sure no craven ,
      Ghastly grim and ancient raven        wandering from the nightly shore -
  Tell me what thy lordly name is on the      Night's Plutonian shore !"
         Quoth the Raven - "

       Before he could utter the last iconic word of the stanza , a single, shrill voice resonated through the air as it said ,
" Nevermore !"

       The man shocked to see the bird answe , tried to act , or rather do something, anything, but before he could act , the bird flew towards him after which he was encased in a red blob of some sort. Before he could even have the chance to resist, the blob of blood dissolved him in its entirety. His life, had ended. However, soon one could see that the blob shortened and began to take on a vaguely humanoid shape. Soon the blob turned into a human , the same exact soldier who had been their moments ago. His uniform was the same, made from the very blood that made his body, however no one could tell the difference between actual fabric and the simulated fabric that he was currently wearing. From his shoulder, another small blob emerged which turned into a raven. The bird flew and perched itself on a high tower.

         The raven if course, was Shido. He had just used one of the signature abilities of his bloodline, the ability to create clones of yourself and freely changing their appearance. The clones however were not clones in the truest sense. They were more akin to puppets , that could be freely controlled by the main soul of the person. The puppets however could also be given set instructions like a robot how to act in a particular way , or how to respond to certain phrases in communication, or certain actions with certain predetermined responses. This also enabled him to slip out of the house as a copy of his body was on the bed at home. The copy mimicked his heartbeat, his breathing pattern , his movements while sleeping, everything. The only way someone could find out it was a clone was if for some weird reason, reine of all people decide to visit his room at night and used her divine sight on the body. Divine sight was a special ability True gods possessed which allowed them to gaze at the souls of others . And since this was just an empty shell without a soul ( which being him , was present here ) would quickly be found out. But the chances of this were non existent, so he didn't worry too much about it.

          The  bloodline also gave the user the ability to turn whatever the user touched into more blood. In a way it was a twisted version of king Midas's touch. However instead of turning everything to gold, he could turn anything he wished into blood. Blood which he could freely manipulate. The blood could also be given the appearance of  something not biological in origin. For example the clothes on the soldier as well as the metallic medals on his shirt were now recreated with his blood along with the body of the soldier. If course, it wasn't real metal or cotton, just his blood converging and  compressing to act in a certain manner. His simulated creations could mimic physical properties like , texture, colour, weight, hardness , lustre, and tensile strength and sonorous property ( when mimicking metals ).

        Of course, he couldn't mimic the chemical properties and some other properties, like for example, if he used his blood to make a gold bar appear in his hands, the gold bar he simulated would have the same weight, density, temperature, texture and softness, malleability and ductility as a normal gold bar. However if someone were to say , dip the bar in a solution of Aqua Regia, a chemical mixture capable of dissolving gold, it would not yield the expected reaction and products. Thus , simulating chemical properties was out of his reach. However, it hardly ever mattered , since most of the time , the physical properties and appearances are enough to deceive others.

      His train of thought was broken when he saw another soldier approach the copy of the soldier he had made , which was now kneeling on the ground on a single knee. The new soldier rushed to the the one kneeling on the ground, unknown that it wasn't his friend , but just an empty shell. He shouted , " Ren ! Are you alright ?! " The clone of ren  then spoke in his voice as he said, " Yeah , I'm fine , tatsumi . I just stumbled after drinking a bit too much than normal. " The clone already knew thame name of the  other soldier, since he was already inputted with all the data of the original body. This was because, the cursed bloodline allowed Shido to not only dissolve and assimilate the physical bodies of others , but also absorb their souls. Once the souls of someone were absorbed, their memories, skills and knowledge was all obtained by Shido. The second soldier, tatsumi sighed as he said,
" I always remind you bastard to not drink while patrolling, but Someone just doesn't want to listen to me. " The clone of ren laughed as he said," Yeah , yeah mom . I get it. Atleast help me get up ya bastard. "

        Tatsumi sighed then smiled. He had known ren after they were in the same division in military academy. Since then they were practically inseparable. At this point, he had gotten pretty used to ren's bullcrap. He extended his hand to lend support so that ren could get up. What he didn't knew was that the friend he knew had already died and what was in front of him was just a counterfeit, pretending to be him. The moment the false ren took his hand and their hands connected , tatsumi's fate was sealed. Before he could even react or perceive the notion of pain , the cells that formed the clone had already started to invade his body. In an instant, in his place stood a red blob, which soon transformed once again into tatsumi. This wasn't tatsumi, just a counterfeit mimicking his appearance as his soul was no longer present, but was absorbed by Shido. Once he had finished absorbing tatsumi's soul, Shido pieces together the whole picture about their friendship. However he didn't feel an ounce of mercy. He was long past the point where he would feel mercy for taking lives. Regardless, he let the one of the pawns of his travel inside the base. The first one acted as if he was resuming his normal duties of patrol.

          The second soldier soon reached the canteen area of the base. There were a lot of people there even though it was the middle of the night , since soldiers often had to change shifts to be on the lookout. The clone headed towards the counter where he ordered a small meal and paid for it in cash. What the cashier didn't knew however, was that he had already begun to die. The moment when their hands met to hand over the tray of food, a few of the cells on the clone's hand burrowed and made their way inside the cashier's skin. Once inside, they multiplied at a monstrous rate. They could of course, dissolve and reform his whole body in a few seconds, but that would lead to the body having to be dissolved which resulted in a blob like structure, which would immediately attract everyone's attention. Thus what the cells did , was to target the less important internal organs like the digestive system, the reproductive system, then moving towards the respiratory system and the cardiac system. Then they would move towards the skull where the brain would be dissolved and reformed within a few microseconds. The process happened so quickly, there was no registration of pain , nor would the person die. Sure , while almost more than 80% of his body was replaced on a cellular level, his soul still rested within him and continued to operate the body. In the final step , while taking over and replacing the skeletal system, would the soul be finally dissolved and lead to the true end of the poor victim. The entire process of discretely replacing and absorbing the soul of a person took a measly 108.49 seconds.

       However the one's who didn't have any physical contact with the clone weren't safe too. The moment the clone had entered the room, individual cells began to separate from his skin , hair , and clothes in the form of microscopic particulate matter. And unlike normal particulate matter which just kept floating in the air and following the direction of the wind , this could float freely of its own accord ( or rather according to predetermined directives ) and could search for the targets like a hunter looking for prey. Each and every one of the soldiers experienced the same fate as the cashier as they met their end and replaced right in front of their friends and allies without so much as having the chance to let out a cry of pain or despair. Their death was swift and terrible. By the time the tatsumi clone had finished ingesting the meal , every single individual within the canteen was just like him . All of them got up suddenly and started to move out and spread to different parts of the base , so that the others could suffer the sane fate as the appearances that they had copied. The cursed bloodline was named cursed for a reason. It was no different than a disease, a plague that fed on all manner of life itself.

        The pestilence showed no mercy and soon every living person had started to die. The soldiers didn't get a chance to raise their weapons or to even alert their allies of their impending doom . Their lives were snuffed out in a single instant. All by the hands of a a single old man, who only saw them as mere tools , something that would help to reach his end goal.....

Location : Inside the outpost, General                                  Ieyasu's office

           The old general was reading a few documents . He sighed and reached for a glass of beer that sat near the lamp. Even though his doctor had advised him to cut down on his alcohol intake, like hell he was going to listen to him. Especially with all this shit going on. His close friend, Ryouma, head of the AST told him that they had essentially lost a lead on all the spirits. The realm of the mystic arts , of cultivators had always been an unknown territory for the government. Because of this , project Eve , the project to create humanity's first true God was attempted on subject Ellen Mira Mathers. However, even after multiple attempts, they were only able to turn her into a supreme Magus. And even then due to her not possessing meridians essential for cultivation, she had to use an external tool in the firm of realizer to fight. All subsequent attempts to recreate the project led to inferior models like the ones that formed the forces of AST , or in death . Because of her inferior nature, she was only capable of going up against a cultivator of Grand Magus realm and that too with much difficulty.  And even then they ended up losing an important test subject like her to ratatoskr.

        The government was shocked at first by the appearance of multiple goddesses. However they soon realized the immense potential that they held. If they got their hands on these goddesses and found out what made them tick , they could perhaps hope to finally make their own gods. This would be a huge asset to the military strength of the country. When they had captured that short , white haired goddess, maybe her name was Nia or something, his own team was the one that took care of the experiments. He himself presided and supervised each test.  They truly were ecstatic . They tried to experiment on her and ran countless tests, cut through large chunks of flesh to test the regeneration limits , pain tolerance , electrocuted her, gave her enough burn damage to make third degree burns look like a joke, everything. But inspite of their best attempts they were unable to find out how to create a goddess on their own. And they list her too at the hands of ratatoskr. The organisation apparently had some secret weapon or tool which allowed the goddesses to hide their energy signatures. They had currently no leads on the organisation. It's members, its higher ups, nothing. The only reason they had any information about its existence was because they had gotten cryptic untraceable messages from the organisation itself. He genuinely was tired.

        He then heard a knocking sound on his metallic door. He responded with a simple order of, " You can come in ." He then saw that miyuki and another soldier entered the room while restraining a person whose hands were tied and had a black sack on his head. He knew miyuki and had taken quite an interest in him. The boy regardless of his young age was extremely skilled in all fields and had an attitude to always exceed his own past accomplishments. He knew that with such an attitude, he was bound to reach great heights someday. He asked miyuki in a formal tone , " What is the meaning of this soldier ?" Miyuki responded in a clear and firm voice, " Sir ! I found this infiltrator trying to sneak and steal essential documents from the files. We interrogated him and found information that we believe could concern national security . He did attempt suicide, but luckily I was able to stop him from consuming the poison pill.  "

        Ieyasu was definitely impressed with his behaviour. While he did think that he should have atleast informed him as his superior about this infiltrator, he still applauded his courage and quick thinking. The fact that he had managed to apprehend the infiltrator alive was certainly a notable accomplishment. He still maintained a strict face for appearances sake and got up from his seat and said , " Excellent work miyuki. It's things like this that solidify your worth as a soldier. However in future, do try to inform me of such matters before proceeding with interrogation. " Miyuki responded and said,
" Duly noted, sir.  I apologize for any misconduct. " Ieyasu then moved towards the restrained man kneeling on the ground and placing his hand on the cloth sack over his head and said, " Now let's see who this rat is now , shall we ?"

       He then proceeded to remove the cloth , but what he saw shocked him to his core . He saw in front of him, the spy having the exact same face as him , as if he was looking at a reflection. However it wasn't entirely accurate. His own body could be classified as along the lines of slightly stout . However the spy's body was frail and thin. It was almost as if someone had taken his face and poorly photoshopped it on a frail man's body. He screamed loudly as he said," What is the meaning of this ?!"

       However the man simply got up and began to laugh loudly like a madman. Soon miyuki and the other soldier joined him and began to laugh in sync. Then the infiltrator's fave turned into some form of viscous red mass before rearranging itself to form a new face , of what seemed to be a teenager with blue hair. The boy stopped laughing as he said, " I'm glad that I  finally had the opportunity to meet you face to face, General Ieyasu ! Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Shido itsuka , a .... Well , let's say a field agent of Ratatoskr. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. "

          Ieyasu was definitely shocked upon seeing the strange sight in front of him. He didn't knew what to make of the fact that an imposter of him appeared and then turned into a kid claiming to be a member of Ratatoskr. However, one thing was certain, the soldiers in front of him had betrayed him and were working with the enemy. He quickly tried to pull out his gun so that he could atleast force them to a standstill. However, before he could act, four fine thread like structures emerged from the boy's chest and before he even had the chance to comprehend what had happened, his hands and feet were cut off. His body stumbled and fell on the ground where he screamed in pain.

       The boy walked towards him with a disappointed look and said, " Here I am trying to engage with you in a normal conversation, and you try to pull out a gun on me? Geez, What are you, an American ?! "
The general gritted his teeth and spoke up and said, " Why ....are you doing this ?" At this point he was just trying to stall for time, as he knew the room was monitored by cameras and in just a few seconds the soldiers would come busting in through the doors. The boy made a thinking expression, then smirked as he said, " Oh ! I get it ! You are trying to stall for time ! Eh, don't worry about it buddy, no one's coming for you. I made sure of it before coming here . "

       The general made a wide eyed face upon hearing the disheartening news. The boy then spoke again as he said, " That aside, I have a question. Would you help me answer it ?" The General unsure of what the boy was telling did not respond. The boy spoke again, regardless of his lack of response as he said, " Say, how many swipes does it take to get to the centre of a human ? "

       Before the general could even make meaning if his words , the boy shouted in a sinister and playful tone , " A One ~ " After counting , he ran over his hand over the general's torso in a swiping motion which resulted in a large chunk of flesh being carved out of his body. Before the general could cry in agony, the boy once again screamed, " A Two ~ " and took out another chunk with his other hand. He then kept on counting  " A Three ~ " "A Four ~ " " A Five ~ "
" And finally, A Six ! " , All while continuing to slash away large chunks of his flesh with his bare hands, like a feral beast. Once all his flesh was scrapped away and only his spine was visible in the centre, the boy got up with a victorious smirk on his face while the general's body fell flat on the floor , while the boy shouted triumphantly, " Thus , I conclude, That it takes six swipes to get to the centre of a human !" The general Kay on the ground, groaning in pain as he knew that he would soon die from blood loss.

      The boy then looked at the general and made a slightly surprised face as he said,
" Oops , sorry about that kid ! I almost forgot about you. Don't worry, Because I Am Here !"
Saying this he let a few drops of his blood on the general's body. Soon the general felt as if his entire body was burning and an indescribable pain coursed through him. He was brought to tears due to the sheer pain he experienced. However he saw that something miraculous had happened. His arms and limbs along with his entire body had regenerated . They seemed to have never been separated from him .
   
      The boy then gave a victorious smirk as he said, " Surprised ? You should be. See , that's one of my special abilities. I can not only regenerate my body , but also forcefully induce regeneration in someone else with my blood, although it's s slightly painful process. Of course, the regenerated portion, may be genetically identical to your cells, but they are actually under my control. Because of that, I can do some interesting things, like this ! "

      The boy then snapped his fingers after which suddenly a wolf head grew out of the general's arm . The head then proceeded to gnaw at his face like a rabid dog, until the bones of his skull were visible. The general screamed while the boy merely smiled, as if he was watching some show while the soldiers maintained an emotionless face. The boy then shouted , " Alright, we are done with the demonstration !" After which the wolf head disappeared and the general's body regenerated once again, causing him a great deal of pain once more.

        The boy then kneeled down and saw the general face to face as he said with a smirk ,
" If you thought that was the end of your troubles, then boy o boy are you mistaken. What , you thought that after torturing Nia for so many years I would let go of you with such an easy punishment ? Of course not ! "

      Shido then stretched his hand as the general's body dissolved slowly into a blob of blood before a small , light emerged from it.  This was of course, the general's soul. He then proceeded to form his blood into an oil lamp on his other hand. He then inscribed a small soul supporting array so as the soul could persist for many centuries before being destroyed. Then he finally placed the soul in the centre of the lamp. After that , a small brilliant blue flame emerged on his fingers. This was an essence flame. Essence flames were a mystical type of flame that came into existence naturally. Finding one through the entirety of the cosmos was extremely difficult and was akin to randomly searching the world in hopes that somehow one could find a diamond on the ground.

        They were highly coveted, even by god's as they were the best possible Flames for alchemy. Not only that , they also possessed the property to damage souls, so they had quite a use in combat. Shido then lit the general's soul on fire using the essence flame. Under normal conditions, the essence flame would lead to the immediate destruction of a tiny and insignificant soul like that of a mortal human. However, with Shido's high degree of control over the flames and the array formations inscribed on the lamp , the soul could continue burning for upto multiple centuries, provided that one supplied tiny amounts of mana to the array every few decades. Thus the soul would undergo a terrible torture for several centuries. The burning of the soul by essence flames was one of the most painful things in the cosmos one could experience, aside from a meridian or magic circuit transplant. Hence, if the heavens found out that a mere 130 year old child could be so cruel as to make someone undergo that torture for several centuries, even they would be horrified.

       Shido smirked as he said, " This will make a fine addition to my collection." He laughed internally at his joke. He then morphed the blob into a clone of Ieyasu. He had already found that the general was about to engage in a high level meeting with multiple high ranked officials in the government. Once inside the meeting room , there were no cameras, no observers. Thus he could have the clone infect them just in the same way he had turned every person on this base into a puppet. The officials then would further continue to infect only other high ranked officials ( he had no interest in low ranking grunts ) . Thus in due time, he would have most of the Japanese military under his control. However this was just a stepping stone to his end goal. The base here would serve him well as this outpost was made as a spot where off duty solders trained and some  military documents from the main bases were handled here. This would give him an easy access to each of those documents and secrets. This night truly had been, a fruitful hunt for him ...