Shido lay rested on a bed in one of the resting cabins of Fraxinus. He had put up what can only be termed as a ' Dramatic show ' outside just now. He wasn't injured in the slightest by accessing the Formless Realm, not by a long shot. He was someone who had already reached the state where he could harness blade force , how could he be injured by merely entering the Formless Realm ? But , in order to convince everyone that he was still a normal human, he had to do it. Still, perhaps he went a little bit overboard with the kid . Sure , she broke the rules of the duel, even if by accident so he was genuinely pissed off at her. But maybe he should have just carved out her stomach, maybe ? He had in fact considered it , but considering that there was a high chance that he would accidentally take out a few organs due to the stomach being made out of purely soft tissue unlike the rib cage, he went against it. 

       The reason he cared for the formal duel between swordsmen was because he deeply respected the craft. His swordsmanship  was one of the few things that he was gifted with since birth and he was deeply engrossed in it. Of course, when he was nine years old, he had given up on the blade. It wasn't because he was bored with his kendo classes like any other kid his age would have. No , the reason, just like him was strange in every sense of the word. 

      He remembered staring at not just the kids but also adults for hours whenever he himself was not training. He remembered observing them practice their swings or engaging in mock fights with each other. And whenever he stared at them, he always thought of their actions as foolish and futile. He saw them swinging their blade. They thought of it as a sport , a way to clear their minds and train their bodies. However, even in his youthful eyes, their actions were not just useless , but also disrespectful , for in his opinion, since their blade never drew blood, it was a useless blade….

       He always thought that the blade only has a single purpose, to take a life. All other paths upon which a swordmaster could tread were inefficient and futile. Any deviation from this path will only lead to your blade rusting and your skill perishing. At the age where most kids could barely understand death , his young self had already established a preconceived notion of imparting it to others ! Such was his dedication to the blade. 

           For him , that was all a blade could accomplish. Taking lives was all a blade was capable of and all it should ever be capable of. Of course, he wasn't an idiot and knew that his thoughts went against the established common sense of the masses. As such, he kept his thoughts to himself. The reason he gave up on the blade was because he knew that any other path that he would try to tread with the blade would never be possible for him. Perhaps he could do it , but he himself would never be satisfied. And perhaps it was appropriate too. After all, what use is the power to  kill another ? The systems that exist in place have laws that put limits on a person's actions. As such, one does not have a necessity to kill another or be afraid of someone else killing you. As such, he had discarded the blade under that pretense. 

        Of course, this sort of thinking would be strange for any human, let alone an eight year old child. But now that he had a basic idea about what kind of person he must have been in his past life as Rhadamanthus, perhaps this sort of thinking made sense. Even after his memories were sealed, certain aspects of his personality  and his ideals of the blade must have still been retained which manifested as his strange thoughts. After all, from the knowledge he had received , he was the one who had created the ' Slaughterer's Path ' swordstyle that he had used extensively throughout his life and was still using even now. Upon gaining the memories and skills of the swordstyle, there also was a message along with it. Like a small post it note that you write to remind yourself of something in the future, this too was the same. It read , " To my future self I leave this message. The following is a culmination of years of my skill and experience. If you choose to walk this path , great power awaits you. However do keep in mind that the path you walk on will only be treaded with blood. If you lose hope and stop midway, that same blood will drown you ...."  In the past he used to think that he had become a monster after his family had died. But knowing and thinking about his acts as Rhadamanthus, it seemed that he had always been a monster….

       Still, the first and biggest reminder to him about the beast within him came to him during the Tengu fire. The fire caused by kotori when Reine turned her into a spirit. He still remembered that hellscape even today. After sealing kotori, he had carried her unconscious body in his arms. An eleven year old kid carrying his eight year old sister in his arms through burning flames and smoke. He remembered running past multiple people who lied on the ground, screaming and praying for help , for someone to reach out to them , but no-one did. He simply turned away his face and ran past them . At the time, he was more worried about saving the life of his sister after all. Soon , he came across a spot where multiple people had gathered. He came to know that a top section of a building had collapsed. Only a small gap was left through which only one or maybe two people could pass. As such, the people who had gathered there were arguing who should pass first. With the fire approaching fast behind, some of them had even started to get physical with each other. 

         All of them wanted to be the first to escape from there. None of them were ready to step behind and let the other women and children . The women too were not much better. They demanded that they should be given priority and screamed that it was better that the others should die rather than them dying. At that moment, in that Chaos, Shido heard a voice. He looked at the other side and saw a small scrap of metal on the ground. The scrap was triangular in shape and seemed to have a sharp edge. Seeing it, in his mind, the voices began to ring louder. The voices screamed to him, repeating the words continuously , 

" Pick up the knife and kill them all. 

Pick up the knife, it'll set you free .

Pick up the knife and it'll save kotori." 

        No matter how hard he tried, the voices wouldn't stop. The voices kept telling him to kill all the people there and there would be no problems. He could save kotori ! And even then , he could easily do it. He had already marked their vitals in his mind, and there were only four other people there. It would at best only take him less than ten seconds. Ten seconds and his sister's life would be safe. As he was pondering over to pick it up , he suddenly heard the voice of a helicopter above. The helicopter belonged to the rescue team who had come to save them , just in the nick of time. The rescue team had just saved the lives of all those people and inadvertently prevented their blood from being spilled. 

       After that incident, he was visibly shaken. He was just brought face to face with the monster within him. Every time he stared at his reflection, he would not see the face of a human, but rather the monster who was going to take the lives of others to fulfill his goals. However, what truly terrified him was the fact that even then , he had no remorse for the actions he was about to take. As if killing someone was a perfectly ordinary act. He knew that his thoughts were morally wrong, he knew what he was supposed to feel and regret his thoughts, yet he never did. He had always known that all of his actions weren't normal in any way. Even running through the flames while carrying kotori, he wasn't the slightest bit afraid of his own death. His sister's life was the only thing he was afraid of. He never feared anything in his life. Neither death nor anything else. At that time he was oblivious to the truth but now he knew that it was aspects of his personality as Rhadamanthus that were surfacing. 

       Still, to better mold and fit himself with others , he began to emulate emotions. He never truly felt fear , but he would simulate the fear in his expression. They were like masks behind which he hid his true self. Even during his first date with Kurumi, he had come across a bloody massacre by her. At that moment, he truly did feel nothing on seeing that sight. Neither disgust nor fear. Nothing. He had to take a moment to compose himself to simulate fear on his face to convince others. He was no different than a beast , an emotionless monster devoid of all emotions….

        Of course, even this beast still had an ounce of humanity in him . His laughs that he had around tohka , yoshino, natsumi , Ellen were genuine. His smiles around Reine was true. They truly did come from the bottom of his heart. Like the single lighthouse that illuminates the darkness, his family was quite literally the thing that anchored both his humanity, and more importantly, his morality….

        And this light of course, was stolen from him . The polluters were the ones responsible for it. They were a race of interdimensional creatures who only killed and devoured planets in their path. When they attacked earth, Reine and the other girls lost their lives trying to defend earth. Of course, Reine did manage to close and seal the portal that brought them here , albeit at the cost of her own life. 

       He still remembered her dying in his arms. However, even after her death, things didn't get better. The polluters had placed a curse on all of earth before leaving that killed all of the plant life and as a result, other animals on earth. They had achieved this by working in tandem with Gaia , the goddess of earth who had been the real mastermind behind the deaths of Reine and the other girls. She had absorbed all their powers after death and was the one who had led the polluters on earth with the expressed purpose of defeating and killing the other goddesses and Reine. 

        After this , humans had to resort to unconventional sources for food. Not only that, they had declared all cultivators as criminals and released orders to capture all of them. Even though he himself was not a cultivator, after awakening his bloodline and memories along with his powers after Reine's death, he too had to be on the run. During that time, he did kill quite a lot of soldiers and armed personnel who tried to arrest him. He exclusively used the sword techniques of the ' Slaughterer's Path ' and yet …… he felt that something was amiss. 

     He wasn't satisfied with it , like an empty void that was nagging his mind, preventing his blade from reaching the Zenith . Like there was something holding him back. However, he soon found out what it was. 

       It was during his visit to the city  Admah near the Dead sea , which was built up as one of humanity's greatest cities after the attack of the polluters. It served as a hub for most of the world's trade. But when he had finally visited it , he saw the true face of humanity. Their sins, their crimes, he saw it all . How they had squandered the sacrifice of Reine. Until that point, he had never felt rage of that sort. And in that moment, the beast within him was truly unleashed. At that moment, he had truly rejected his Humanity. And at that moment, the true strength of the Slaughterer's Path was released….

        The Slaughterer's Path , as the name suggested, was a sword style created with a single purpose, to kill your target as quickly and brutally as possible. Every part of it was dedicated to that single purpose. And the reason why he was unable to make full use of it was because until that point, he still had regret in his heart. He still held on to his humanity. But after seeing the disgusting acts of humans , how they turned on their own kind as disaster struck , he was disgusted by them. He had let go of all hesitation and regret. He had truly embraced the beast within. Admah was also the site where his sword  Sakura was forged. With  his own blood and the souls of every citizen of Admah , it was created with the infusion of the Five Primary Laws. Sakura had always been by his side, even when he slayed the goddess Gaia. 

        Until that point, he had been thinking that he had turned into a monster after Reine and the others' deaths. However, as he killed everyone in Admah , he came to the realisation that he had always been a monster. The beast was always within him, clawing and scratching at his mind, screaming to be let out. The only thing keeping it in place was his family. And now that they had gone , he had become what he always was , a beast. 

        Of course, embracing it released the true potential of his swordstyle. Not only that, it was he , Rhadamanthus the Blood Demon that defeated Gaia , not Shido Itsuka the human . No , Shido Itsuka had died the moment the monster had awakened. He was now all that was left. A cold blooded murderer, a monstrous beast who had only one purpose, to protect the people he cared for. That was all that mattered to him…..

         His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sound of the door being opened. Through the door stepped Miku and mukuro. Miku had a pensive look on her face rather than her usual cheerful one. She and mukuro seated themselves on the bed beside him. Miku asked him hesitantly, " Are you alright Darling ? " Shido saw that both Miku and mukuro were worried about him. 

       With a gentle smile he said, " I'm fine. See, even all my wounds are gone ! Don't think small injuries like that are going to keep me down ! " After he had finished speaking, he saw that both Miku and Mukuro had tears in their eyes. Before he could say anything, Miku spoke up in a loud voice and said , " How can you say that you are fine ?! Only a few minutes ago your body was covered in all those injuries ! There was blood everywhere ! From your eyes, mouth , arms….. It was horrible ! I thought that I was going to lose you ! Please, please don't abandon me like others, you promised that you would always be by my side , right ?......."  Saying this, Miku burst into tears. She was sobbing bitterly. Before Shido could say anything to comfort her, Mukuro too had begun to speak with teary eyes and said, " Nushi-sama , you mustn't do something like this . Muku doesn't want you to get hurt. Muku doesn't want to be left alone again… Please don't hurt yourself Nushi-sama….." 

        Shido quickly embraced both of them in a tight hug. He now understood the reason for their tears. Both Miku and Mukuro had experienced loneliness and it had been a large part of their lives. And while it could be said that it was the same for the other girls too, both of them had it much worse. After the scandals, Miku had developed a fear and hatred of men and was afraid of connecting to humans in general. As such, she stopped thinking of humans as meaningful individuals that you could establish relationships with but instead thought of them as slaves and toys. Mukuro on the other hand was hurt by the only people she cared about, her foster family. As such, she was so afraid of getting hurt and losing others that she sealed all her emotions with her angel. As such their fear of losing him was rational. 

       Gently ruffling their hair, he spoke softly and said, " Hey, it's alright, okay ? I'm not going anywhere. I promised you that I'd never leave you, didn't I ? And no matter what happens, I'll always be by your side , remember that. '' Miku spoke up angrily and said, " How can I believe you when you throw yourself in danger at every turn ! You have the habit of putting yourself in danger for others ! I'm not saying you to stop helping others, but stop putting yourself in danger every time at least ! " 

           Shido was slightly taken aback by Miku's outburst. Was she holding all her anger in all this time ? Miku began to speak once again and said with tears in her eyes , " I still remember how you put yourself in danger to save all of us, especially me and Mukuro . I sent an entire city behind you to hunt you down while you had to battle in outer space to have a shot at even approaching Mukuro ! Why do you do this ! Why do you always risk your life for others ?! Why must you be so selfless ?!......" 

        After she had finished speaking, tears flowed on her face. Shido took out a napkin and wiped both her and Mukuro's tears. He sighed and said, " I'm….not selfless Miku. If anything, I'm more selfish than anyone else. I wanted to save all of you. I wanted all of you to have a normal life, a second chance. That's all I wanted for all of you. And if you are worried about me hating you , then don't. Not once has the thought of hatred for any of you ever come across my mind. I've loved you , cared about you and at times been angry at you , but no . Never once was there a shred of hatred for any of you in my heart. So don't worry, okay ? " 

         Miku and Mukuro had now stopped crying. However, they still snuggled in Shido's chest in a hug. Shido didn't mind it and kept gently ruffling their hair. After a while, Mukuro separated herself and asked in a hesitant tone, " Nushi-sama, why were you angry with us ? Has muku or others done something wrong ? " 
Shido chuckled softly and said, " I guess you could say that. I do get angry at times you know ? Like the time when I and Kurumi raided the facility where tohka was held hostage by the government and Miku had shown up there yet she still refused to listen to me. Or how you , tohka and origami sometimes butt heads and worst of all, Nia's incessant alcohol intake. That's the most worrying to me. And as your well-wisher, it is my right to get angry at you and to correct you . " 

      Miku was slightly embarrassed by his words. She remembered that in the past she genuinely was not exactly the most likeable person. How Shido had managed to fall for her and have the will to save her by putting himself in danger was beyond her. Still, she was happy with his words. However, before she could say anything, the sound of the door being opened reached her ears. 

       The door opened with Reine, tohka , Ellen, yoshino and everyone walking in. Reine had an angry expression on her face as she said, " I believe I TOLD you to rest , didn't I ? So pray tell me, why are up even now ? "  Yoshino or rather, Yoshinon spoke up and said, " Ha ha ! I think Shido - kun must have a hard time resting when he's busy with two women by his side, isn't it right Shido - Kun ? " 

      Shido panicked a bit and said hurriedly, 
" Oi ! I had just gotten up because Mukuro and Miku came to check on my condition ! Nothing more ! " Yoshino, slightly surprised said , " Forgive me, Shido - San …"  Shido smiled and said, " You don't need to apologize , yoshino. I and Yoshinon were just having fun, right Yoshinon ? " Yoshinon perked up on yoshino's hand and said, " Of course we are ! " Hearing this, yoshino too smiled gently. 

       Reine spoke up, with her anger having slightly subsided and said, " That aside, I wanted to inform you that your training with Chiyome will begin from tomorrow. It will happen after school for about three hours. Of course, one of us will be with you for supervision. For tomorrow, it will be just Natsumi who'll be keeping an eye so that you don't get Too close to her. " 

      Shido , slightly irritated by this , said " Why the hell are you so suspicious of
me ?! " Reine replied in a complete monotone voice and said " Because we don't want you to seduce more girls . Are we not enough for you ? " Shido screamed as he said angrily , " What do you think I am , some kind of professional seducer ?! " Hearing this, everyone stared at him with a blank eyed expression. Soon , the realisation of his words hit him. He facepalmed and said, " No wait, maybe that was a wrong example. But still ! I'm not the sort of guy to just randomly chase after girls ! " 

      Ellen sighed and said, " We know that. But still, at the end of the day, you're a man.  We don't want you to fall for another woman's charms. " Shido's eye twitched slightly in annoyance. He was someone who had the knowledge of nearly all the spells and techniques in the cosmos. He could control not just the laws that formed reality but also change reality itself ! And yet he sometimes couldn't understand how women think. Truly women were a strange mystery……

       Reine spoke up and said, " Regardless, you must rest for now. Don't worry about dinner, I and Ellen will take care of it. After we're done, I'll contact kotori and she'll teleport you and the others at home. And after having dinner, you are going straight to bed . And that's final. " Shido protested and said, " That's unfair ! I'll have wasted my whole day sleeping then ! " Reine sighed and said, " Then you should give it more consideration while trying The Stupid act of harnessing the power of the cosmos
itself . " 

       Shido sighed and laid back on the bed as the others left the room. Like hell he was going to stay indoors. Sure, his body was going to stay in place, but he had a ton of clones not just in Tengu city but around the world ! He could just shift his soul and in a single second he would be in France ! Or maybe America, China , Quebec , Antarctica, The Mariana trench , hell anywhere on this planet ! And he was going to do just that. Still, he had to first put this body in ' standby mode ' so that from the outsider's perspective, it would seem as if he was asleep. 

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

Location : Itsuka residence

Time : Midnight 
    

           Shido was currently in his room . He was ready to leave his body at home and explore some other nation. Perhaps he could mess with Australia, or maybe he could steal the Crown and sceptre of the British monarchy. After all, he had done it once in the past , so what's to stop him a second time ? And sure, it wouldn't help his plans in any manner, but it was always fun to annoy the people in power . Besides, it would make for a good night time exercise ! 

        Before he could take any further action, Shido's phone rang. There was a simple notification on it that notified him that there was a message. He opened the inbox and saw that the message was from Nia. While he was surprised why she would be texting him so late in the night , he still opened it. The message simply read , ' I need your help, please come over now . ' 

           Reading this, a thousand thoughts raced through Shido's mind. Was Nia okay ? Was she being held hostage ? Was it a demon , a god , a higher being, an Abstracta , or the AST  ? Had they hurt her ? Still, there was no time for thinking. Without hesitation, Shido jumped out of the window and started to dash through the rooftops.  As he was just beginning to sprint, he quickly placed some simple primordial runes of invisibility which would make him invisible to even other cultivators for a couple of minutes. Simple of course, was a relative term, considering that most expert rune casters would take at least a few minutes not a few seconds to cast such a rune. 

        Still, Shido kept dashing and leaping through the rooftops. His feet however, seemed to be floating and not touching the ground. This was because he was using magic to form a basic barrier on the ground in front of him every time he took a step because at the speeds at which he was running and leaping, the force from his legs would most likely cause a sinkhole to appear with his every step. 

      Shido was currently running at speeds most cultivators would never approach in their lives unless they reached the topmost realms or the divine level. His speeds were well beyond shattering the sonic barrier and the only reason he wasn't causing sonic booms to appear because of him was he was controlling all the wind around him with the law of storms to form a natural vacuum that prevented air from hitting him thereby completely removing the issue of a sonic boom. 

        Another thing he was doing that was noteworthy was his movement itself. In normal circumstances, the neurons of the brain conduct impulses which travel through the spinal cord and through the various nerves and then the muscle fibres which give rise to movement. The speed at which these impulses travel are around 120 m/s ( or around 270 miles per hour ). However, at the speeds that Shido was currently traveling and the speeds at which he was used to fighting, these speeds were quite literally a snail's pace. Of course, as one's cultivation increased, the connection between the soul and the body became more refined as the body and the soul underwent a metamorphosis of sorts. As such , at reaching the Divine Realm, the individual could reach speeds what was best described as ' Godspeed ' . But the thing was, Shido was still at the bottom of the cultivation realm. So this was a distant dream for him. 

          So how do you reach speeds rivalling gods without entering the realm of the gods ? Simple, you don't. It was quite literally impossible. However, Shido was the fool for whom the concept impossible held no meaning. So he found a workaround with the help of his Cursed bloodline. What he did, was instead of a command originating from the soul and creating an impulse in the brain which would then travel to the limbs, he would directly command the individual cells of the part he needed movement in. Of course, this meant that he had to individually control every cell of the organ he wanted control over,rather than just thinking about doing an action and letting his nervous system do the rest. Because of this, most of his commands for the body arose from his soul, not from his brain. Hell , at times during serious fights, he would essentially turn his body where only a limited part of the brain was left intact and useless organs like the digestive system and others would completely disappear for the duration of the fight. It not only saved his energy resources during regeneration after injuries, but also on the mental resources. 

       It was a bit tricky at first but he had gotten pretty used to it at this point. It was a far cry from the first time he had tried doing it and he accidentally grew a femur inside his left lung. Still, he had no time for such useless thoughts. He kept sprinting towards Nia's house. Soon he came across it. With a dagger made from his blood in his hand, he cautiously stepped inside the house. He had expertly picked the lock by duplicating the pattern of the key with his blood and creating a false key as he had conveniently memorised the pattern of the key  while back. 

      As he stepped inside the room , he saw multiple papers strewn across the floor. There were mangas and figurines placed neatly placed on the book shelves. In the centre of the dimly lit room, he saw Nia slumped on the ground, seemingly unconscious. He rushed towards her and picked her up in his arms and nearly screamed, " Nia ! Nia , are you alright ?! Wake up Nia ! " To his surprise, Nia groggily opened her eyes and quickly embraced him in a hug. She said in a sultry tone , " Shounen ! I knew you'd come ! Hehe ~ It feels so nice to hug you like this . It's like you are my knight in shining armour ~ " 

           Shido sighed as he came to the realisation of what had happened. Nia wasn't injured, but rather, judging from the thick scent of alcohol on her, she was drunk. She perhaps had typed the message in her drunken state. Shido sighed once again and separated Nia from himself and looked at her in the eye. He then asked her in a firm tone, " Why did you call me so late at night , Nia ? " Nia paused for a few moments, before having an embarrassed expression on her face and turned the other way. She said in a flirtatious tone, " Ah Shounen, you mustn't ! ~  If you stare at me like that , then I can't hold myself back you know ! " 

      Shido popped a vein at her words. He flicked her forehead and said, " Enough with the jokes Nia . Tell me why did you call me ? " Nia sighed and said, " Geez , you're no fun ! But to answer your question, I called you because I needed your help in completing my manga. I know that you are skilled, so can you please help me in making this manga before morning ? Please ? " 

       Shido gave Nia a defeated look. He should have expected this from her. Still, he wasn't angry at her in any manner. If anything, he found this side of her endearing. Sure , had it been someone else who had called him in the middle of the night only to tell them that they just wanted his help in an errand, he would have probably stabbed that person to death a few hundred times and make enough holes inside him to rival a block of Swiss cheese before promptly resurrecting that person to torture them again. But with Nia ? She could have asked him to steal the declaration of independence of America and he would have happily done it ( Besides, he had already done it once too , so it wouldn't matter that much ) . 

        Sighing, he gently lifted Nia and placed her on the ground. He then said, " Alright, I'll help you out. But don't make a habit out of it, okay ? " Nia leaped towards Shido with a joyful expression on her face and said while hugging him, " Thank you Shounen ! Oh what would I ever do without you ? That aside though, I have a question . "  Shido raised a brow at her words but held his silence. Nia began speaking again and said, " I messaged you less than a few moments ago. How did you reach all the way here then ? Did kotori teleport you here ? " 

      Shido was caught off guard by her question. Still, trying his best to keep a poker face, he replied casually, " Oh , I was just around your home when I received your message. I quickly rushed here after reading  it. "  While Nia was still slightly suspicious of the fact why Shido was wandering around her home rather than resting at home after the act that he put up during the fight this afternoon, she let it slide considering she trusted him. 

      Shido then sat down on the ground and took the rough drafts that Nia had created and began inspecting them. He was trying to get a better grasp of her artstyle so that he could replicate it while creating the final copy which was to be sent to the publisher . Suddenly, without any warning, Nia jumped and sat on Shido's lap. Shido , surprised by this , shouted  " What the hell was that   Nia ?! " 

       Nia replied with a smirk on her face and said, " Now , now Shounen, you shouldn't be angry at me , you know. Or do you not want your cute Waifu to sit on your lap ?...." 
Nia then had an expression of mock hurt on her face. Shido was completely caught off guard by her words. Shido replied hesitantly, 
 " F-Fine. Just warn me next time . " 

        Nia merely chuckled on seeing Shido's embarrassed face. After that,  both of them began to draw manga together. They consulted each other on parts that they thought they could improve or change or parts that had any errors. While Shido did have slight difficulty in drawing when his field of view was limited due to Nia sitting in front of him, it didn't pose too much of a problem. 

            However, after a while, Nia suddenly took out a small crate of beers which contained ten cans. There were two empty spots , most likely having been drunk by Nia before he came here. Seeing this, Shido gave a deadpan stare at Nia. Nia retorted him by saying , " Oh come on ! You know I can handle it well ! Besides, I need it to function properly, kinda like how some people need coffee everyday you know ?! " 

        Shido sighed and said, " You know what, screw it ! " Saying this, he picked up one of the Cavs and emptied it in a single gulp. He made a satisfied sound after drinking it. Now , horrified seeing this, said " Shido ! You're not supposed to drink ! You're underage ! " Shido raised a brow and said, " Have you already forgotten that technically speaking, after resurrection, I'm already over forty ? "  Nia hesitated slightly after hearing this. A d this was certainly true. Sure , he had currently no memories of his past, but   Reine - San had herself confirmed that she was the one who resurrected him. 

      Regardless Nia said hesitantly , " I guess that's true…. But I really don't think you should do that..   ". Shido sighed again and said, " Ah, it's fine. Regardless, I will be turning an adult legally in just a few months, so it's not that big of a deal. "  While Nia was still against the decision, she decided to let it slide considering she literally had nothing to retort against. She sighed and quietly drank her own beer. 

       In a few moments, she spoke in a gentle tone and said, " Shounen… I have a question. Can I ask you about it ? " Shido was puzzled by her query , so he merely nodded. Sitting on his lap, Nia said, " I'm not a burden on you, right , Shido ?........ " Her voice had a slightly depressing and self deprecating undertone to it. Shido was surprised by this as he said , " Why do you think that ? " 

        Nia replied quickly by saying , " Because I don't think I help you in any way. I can't help you in any household work ,  I can't help in your studies , nor do I have a charismatic personality. I mean, even my combat potential is pretty useless. "  The last part was completely true and factual . Nia's powers were only related to information gathering. Not exactly great combat potential. Still, Shido gently ruffled her hair and hugged Nia tightly. He then said, " I really don't need help in things like housework or studies. I even enjoy cooking for all of you. Seeing all of you smile after eating my food is one of the greatest joys of my life. And as for your charisma ? You literally bring smiles across the faces of thousands of people with your books. For me , all of you are special in your own right and I love each and every one of you ,
okay ? " 

           Nia turned to face him and quickly engaged in a deep kiss with him. Shido wasn't just surprised by this, he was quite literally on cloud nine. Sure , her kiss was sloppy, with her tongue movements being strange and there was the distinct taste of alcohol, but it hardly mattered to him. He was kissing the woman he loved after nearly 130 years. He truly was relishing every moment of this act. After a few seconds, Nia separated from him. While Shido's face was completely red, Nia only had a small blush on her face. 

       Nia spoke up and said, " I'm  so-sorry . I thought that it was too good an opportunity to pass and I really wanted to do it. And thank you for saying all that . I needed it. " Shido looked the other way, and said while embarrassed , " It's alright. Just warn me next time…"  Nia had a smile on her face. She really loved these simple moments of happiness with Shido. She didn't need any extravagant dates or gifts. All she needed was simply drawing or reading manga with Shido and that was enough to make her happy. That was all she wished. Regardless, the couple kept on with their work through the night until Nia herself fell asleep. However, Shido didn't sleep as he had some other work to take care of…..

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

Location : ???? , Dragons Den 

           It was the middle of night.  In the centre of a large valley , one could see multiple large beings resting lazily. Some of the beings were dozing off, some were chatting with others of their kind while some were eating some kind of small animal of sorts. These beings were of course, Dragons. Dragons were beasts who stood at the top of the Phantasmal Species. Unmatched in raw power, their sheer strength could topple hills , their spear-like claws could tear through castle walls, their flapping wings heralded storms themselves and their fire infused with mana was no different from a raging inferno. It was a death sentence to anyone caught in its path. A single Dragon could destroy an entire kingdom in a matter of hours. Such was the terrifying power of the Dragons. 

         The animal that the dragons were eating were of course, none other than humans. Dragons had ruled the world for millennia and had reared humans as a food source. The dragons stayed on the ground, while the humans lived in underground dungeons beneath the surface, where the lesser brethren of dragons, wyverns tended to them and took care of them. And wyverns were truly considered lesser species as they were so weaker than dragons, that a large enough group of humans could kill them. But of course, none of the humans that they raised ever tried it , since if they did so , their entire community could incur the wrath of the Dragon that owned that particular farm. And what could humans do against dragons ? Throw their sticks at them ? The difference between their strength was so large that a couple of dragons could eradicate all humans in the world. 

       At that moment however, all the dragons attention was drawn when a single human stepped forward in front of them. The human wore some kind of strange colourful clothing, vastly different from the hides of the small animals that humans hunted for their clothes. The human, seemingly a young boy, had blue hair. The dragons were surprised seeing a human that had perhaps escaped from a farm. However, they soon began to roar with laughter at the poor insect's luck that it had walked right into the den of dragons after escaping from who knows where. Some of the younger dragon children watched the human with curiosity. After all, they had only seen dead humans when their mother served it to them as food. On top of that ,  this human was strange and seemed out of place. One of the dragons spoke while trying to hold back his laughter and said , " Oh look, we have received a free toy for today ! I don't think he's worth eating, after all, he looks so thin ! I reckon there might only be bones in him ! Let one of the kids have him , maybe he'll make a exotic pet ! He could even amuse us with tricks ! 

      The kids were ecstatic on hearing this. They would have a new pet , unlike any other. They would teach him to run , to jump and various other tricks. However, everyone's attention was drawn to the human when he spoke something. He said , " Ygnihrg , frhyfg dvtoaqh . Txk dgeonf slexga ….." While speaking, the human had a crazed smile on his face. Everyone was both surprised and enraged by hearing this. The human had not spoken in the language of humans , but rather the noble language of the dragons. He had said , " Oh , how delightful. The dinner speaks ……" 

     The dragons were enraged because how dare a mere human speak their noble
 tongue ?! How he had managed to learn it was beyond them , but he had to be punished and later killed. They roared in rage. However, the human stretched out his right arm and had his index finger curved slightly like a claw while his other fingers were closed in a fist. Under the moonlight, a red string glistened which was tied to the human's finger. The human then tugged his curled finger backwards . As soon as he did it , they noticed that some strange red thread was around the necks of the young ones that encircled the human. However, before they could say anything, the heads of the kids tumbled down on the ground and their bodies fell limp. There was a clean cut at their necks. The string retracted back into the human's finger and disappeared. 

         The kid's mother screamed on seeing her dead children's bodies. She rushed towards the human but the human had quickly reached the height of her head in a single leap. The human had two red curved swords in his hand which seemed to be made out of some crystal. With a single cross slash , the human had chopped the head of the mother in four parts. The dragons were both alarmed and afraid by this display. A human , a mere human had killed multiple of their kind. In rage , all of the dragons spewed forth fire at the human. However, this was a deadly mistake on their part and more importantly, the last mistake of their lives.  Their fires roared with primal , uncontrolled energy. There were no complex magic circles to guide it. As such, Shido seized control of all the flames with the law of Fire. For him , it was easier than chopping the head of a human. 

       The fire instead of burning the human , seemingly turned back on the dragons and entered their bodies through their mouths. The fire then erupted out of their orifices . Their eyes, their ears , their nose and all the orifices spewed forth flames as they were burned from the inside out. The dragons which tried to run and escape were killed by more strings that were attached to additional arms that had sprouted out of the human . The strings kept chopping their bodies which quickly fell to the ground with a loud noise. The human's laughter filled the valley . No mercy was given to beasts who considered themselves supreme in the world. 

        However, a large dragon soon descended on the battlefield. The dragon dwarfed all the other dragons and made even the adults look like children. With a large flap of his wings , he pushed the human back . The human crouched slightly and held his position. The dragon, who was the elder of its kind, and functioned as the leader of the dragons looked around him and saw something strange. The bodies of his fallen brethren had disappeared. Not even their blood stains remained on the ground. It seemed as if they were cleaned suddenly. However, these things could wait for later. 

       He looked towards the human and screamed , " Tswuvdr , Wkysn aptl yjq ? T kycej ynr'ev ns hrmeab . Thndja aptl yjq ? " The dragon elder had said , " Tell me , what are you ?  I know you are not human . Then what are you ? " The human cackled with mad laughter. He said arrogantly , " Ifek rj Dekaw ! Atf tyq ogst rfqich T cyhst hspx ijs fqn rpdwxhds ! " Shido had said, " I am Death ! And the only reason I've come here is for resources ! " 

           The dragon elder couldn't make sense of his words. What did he mean ? And what resources required the lives of his kind ? However, before he could do or say anything, in each of the six arms of the being , a golden light began to emerge. After the light dispersed , there in the boy's hand were six identical swords. While the boy held each sword with a single hand , from its structure, it seemed to be a  two-handed, golden greatsword with a blue jewel embedded in the hilt that boasted magnificence and enormity. Upon seeing the swords , the elder dragon felt something he had never felt in his life, Fear. He was the strongest of his kind , the dragons who themselves stood at the apex of the world. Even among his brethren, few had the strength to last against him , let alone defeat him. Yet here he was, being gripped by fear and paralyzed , just after seeing mere swords ! 

                           ( Balmung )

      Of course, what the dragon didn't know was that these were no ordinary swords. They were Balmung(s) , the swords used by the great hero Siegfried, who's story was enshrined in the Nibelungenlied , to defeat the dragon Fafnir. After killing it, the sword had bathed in the dragon's blood, giving it an absolute advantage against draconic beings. 

       However, the saga only mentioned a single Balmung. So we're the other five swords fake ? Of course not. Each of them were real and the same swords that took the life of Fafnir. Of course, what seperated them was the fact that they came from different universes. Each sword was from a different dimension. One from a world where Siegfried didn't die by the hands of his friend, Hagen, or another from a world where his friend instead of attacking him from behind, faced off against him in a honourable duel and lost his life. All of them were different realities yet all of them were true. They all were Balmung(s) and all of them were wielded by Siegfried. Shido had gotten all of them after winning against Nyarlothep. Even the staff that he had used to visit this earth of alternate dimension, had once belonged to Nyarlothep. Nyarlothep was the one who had collected all of the swords. That's right. The reason why all the great divine weapons like Balmung, Gram, Caliburn , Durandal , Gae Bolg, Tauropolos etc. disappeared from the world was because a single being who went by the title of  ' The Crawling Chaos ' went around collecting all of them ( including their versions from different universes ) like a scavenger. That bastard didn't even have a need for them ! They were at best divine weapons, capable of wiping entire continents, perhaps ? But he was someone who could simply erase planets and entire galaxies from existence with a single thought. If he actually tried, wiping out a few universes wasn't impossible for him. Yet , the only reason he collected the weapons and artifacts was because he found it fun. However, even he must have been unaware that all of the treasures he had collected would slip away from his hands against a particular blue haired boy in a single game of poker……

            Regardless, Shido began channeling energy through the swords. He proclaimed loudly and said , " The Evil Dragon will fall. All will be separated into light and shadow. The world will now reach the twilight. Fall ― Balmung! " After he had finished the chant , the gem began to glow. The light then began to swirl around the swords and in a single instant, all of it was released around him in a large done of energy. Shido had overloaded the swords to the point that they were destroyed and turned into Broken Phantasms.  Of course, whole they had been destroyed, their powers were amplified by a significant magnitude. Besides, losing six swords hardly mattered to him, he had a few million more of those in his soul storage. More than enough. He himself was safe from the blast as he had forcefully made the swords to recognize him as the owner by quite literally taking them apart and ' reprogramming them ' in a sense. 

        The dragon elder however, was not so lucky. In a single instant, his body was engulfed by the light. The light devoured the dragon and destroyed his body. He was dead before he even understood what had happened. The done of light however wasn't going to stop after taking the life of a single Dragon. The current world that he was visiting, was a world where Dragons had ruled supreme over humans. Not only that, the world wasn't seperated into different continents, but was in the form of a single landmass , a supercontinent like Pangaea. And Shido had just channeled a large portion of the energy of the collective unconscious onto a sword which normally could wipe out Entire battlefields. And he had done it with six of them. At the same time. Without any restrain in the power. This had resulted in the dome covering the entirity of the landmass of this world. And all the Dragons and other beings that were caught in the radius of the dome had died. In a single instant, an entire species which had survived and reined supreme for millennia was wiped out. And all because a single human wanted resources for the construction of his base. ( That and the fact he was bored and wanted to do something fun ) 

Location : Nia's house

Time : Early Morning

        Nia woke up feeling groggy. She had a small blanket on her which most likely Shido had placed after she had fallen asleep. She herself was currently on the futon , which too must have been paid out by Shido considering that she fell asleep halfway through the night . She walked towards the table and checked the manuscript and saw that all of them were completed . She sighed as she understood that Shido must have done all of the remaining work on his own. She felt guilty and promised herself that she would make up for it in some way. 

       Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the knock on the door. She went and opened it and standing in front of her was Reine and Ellen. She welcomed them inside. Ellen was the first to speak as she said, " I heard from kotori that Shido was here from last night based on his communicator's location. Why is that ? " 

       Before Nia could answer, Shido came out of the kitchen wearing an apron and said , " Because I was helping her with her manga , nothing more. " Reine sighed and said, " Fine , but inform us next time onwards before leaving so late at night . Also , don't make a habit of pulling all nighters like this, okay ? " Shido nodded at her words. Nia then crouched and reached for the crate beneath the table. However, she was met with a surprise when the crate and the other crate alongside it was completely empty. 

      She cried out loudly and said , " What the hell happened to my beer ?! " Shido replied her simply by saying, " Oh that . I drank all of it while drawing the manga. I wasn't paying attention, so sorry about that. " Nia screamed once again and said , " That was nearly a week's worth of stock ! " Reine too screamed and said, " Shido Itsuka ! Did you drink beer ?! Did you drink beer while knowing you are underage ?! " 

      Shido screamed and said, " First of all, Calm Down ! Secondly, don't worry Nia , I'll purchase it for you. And third , technically speaking, counting my past life, I'm already way beyond the legal age. Besides, I'll once again turn an adult legally in just a few months. " 

      Ellen spoke up and said, " By that logic , yoshino is nearly forty years old. Do you want her to drink too ? " At that moment, both Shido and Nia spoke up in sync as they said , " Just because you're correct doesn't mean you're right ! " While Ellen and Reine had confused looks on their faces, Shido and Nia stared at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. After having a hearty laugh, Shido looked towards Ellen and said, " Don't worry, we aren't making fun of you. It's a quote from a franchise that we enjoy and we laughed because we both said that at the same time. " 

     While Ellen understood Shido's words, she was still unused to all the references that he and Nia sometimes made. Shido spoke again and said, " That aside, I've already prepared a breakfast for all of you, so you all should have it before it gets cold. I also have to get home to prepare everyone's lunchboxes , so better hurry up. " All of them then sat down for breakfast as Shido began to serve the food to them. A pretty idyllic and normal morning for them , but a novel experience for Shido. One had hadn't experienced in a long time…...

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

And the chapter is done ! I know that I've changed a bit of Shido's past to fit better with his personality . And yes , as you might have noticed, I wasn't kidding in the last chapter when Shido said that he has multiple divine weapons. Of course, he can't use most of them in his own dimension, as the fabric of space is so weak that releasing a single noble phantasm is enough to cause a spacequake. So no, Shido can't np spam like Gilgamesh, even though technically he has more noble phantasms than him. Also , I kinda forgot to put an image of Yagyu Shichirou and his daughter Yagyu Chiyome in the last chapter. Sorry about that. So I'll post it here.

                       ( Yagyu Shichirou )

             ( His daughter, Yagyu Chiyome )

Word count : 9123 words