The Burning Fiend

Reynolds was looking through the interspatial rings expecting to find a few surprises, he did find millions of inkstones and several books which he thought could be quite valuable, and a few items that he could not identify at all. He could only sigh thinking that he would need to visit the Jadefloat Palace to identify these items before deciding what to do with them.

A few of the books, that Reynolds suspected had belonged to Aruko, were actually notebooks filled with what seemed to be musical compositions that, he could not understand at all, could be useful for Koral. The rest of the books were maps and intelligence reports that might turn useful, but he decided to look through them later.

He was slightly disappointed, but after thinking about it he did not know exactly what to expect. He decided not to think on this issue anymore and returned to his training, it would take a few years to return to Silver Blade City.

While his three divine avatars were attacking the fusion of the four laws, his saint body started pondering the mystery of 'Explosion'. He thought that gaining insights on this mystery and having experience the way that Yura had used the 4-way fusion would be quite useful to him, but he would need to start from the very basics again... pondering the new mystery and then trying to fuse with one of the other laws, this time it would take him close to a 50,000 years to achieve the bottleneck to complete the fusion of 5 laws.

He almost felt disheartened thinking that he was not even a 1,000 years old and the thought of 50,000 years of hard work seemed almost not worthy. Reynolds shook his head and chuckled trying to disperse those depressing thoughts and took consolation in thinking that his power would reach another level within 300 years when he reached the bottleneck to fuse the 4 laws.

News of his victory were traveling far within the Silver Prefecture and even the Jadefloat Continent, but it will take a few decades for the recording orbs to reach to other continents. The Lord of Silver Blade City sent his wife to visit Reynolds's family and let them know of his victory and that he would be coming back soon.

Talia was extremely happy, not only because her father was safe but because they would resume their travel soon, and she wanted to visit the Crystal Cave City without being pressured like they were on the forest below the Jade Floating Mountains. She focused her saint body to understand the 'Earth Essence' constantly asking Windsor questions and bugging her for demonstrations while her fire avatar trained along with her mother.

Her water avatar however did not have much talent and would take thousands of years to master another mystery, just like Catherine's lightning avatar leaving both women with too much free time, so they would often play games and even explore the city together. Now that Reynolds's fame has grown to the current point, they would no longer need to worry too much within the city.

---

"Grandfather, what are your plans?" The blue haired girl noticed that the gray haired man was smiling and asked with curiosity. "There is no rush... I think I will invite him to fight before he leaves the continent. Most likely he would go to the Bloodridge Continent to meet with Beirut, but they seemed to be exploring the continent leisurely before the conflict with Yura." His smile turned brighter before saying.

"He would have to go to the Crystal Cave City to leave the continent, I will wait for him there and have a good battle with him. I think that by that time he would have grown stronger". The blue haired girl sighed, her grandfather was battle maniac, and she could not relate to that.

"If you stay, you could talk with the elf girl when they arrive at the Crystal Cave City. After all you plan to go to the Life Realm eventually, it might not be a bad idea to get closer to her". The blue haired girl seemed hesitant but nodded, she had grown quite close to her grandfather... but she wanted to go and meet her parents in the Life Realm, perhaps having a travel companion would be a good idea... 'Is she even thinking of going to the Life Realm?'

---

A gray haired youth was walking towards the main hall to attend the summons of the Patriarch, he was still depressed for his encounter with the Burning Fiend, even if he was extremely grateful to Reynolds for having spared his life, he felt that he had failed the family.

Soon he entered the main hall and bowed to the white haired man sitting on a comfortable chair. "Lord Patriarch". The white haired man looked at him and smiled kindly surprising the young man. "Anton, come and sit. We have being lucky!" The white haired man seemed relieved as if they had escaped a great catastrophe.

Anton sat quietly and waited for the patriarch to speak, he felt confused to said the least. "It turns out that the ring I asked you to steal was the property of Dunnington, you might not have heard of him... but tens of thousands of years ago he became famous when he reached the Paragon realm through the Edicts of Death. The ring contained the soul strips that Beirut had requested from Dunnington... so we almost ended offending two Paragons".

Anton started trembling, he realized what that meant... he was dead, he was the only link to the family, and he could be recognized. He looked to the roof and cursed his faith and specially the patriarch. The white haired man sighed and said. "I'm sorry child, the family takes precedence".

Anton did not resist when he started feeling dizzy and soon everything become darkness, the smile on the white haired man remained unchanged while a couple of servants came to retrieve the corps. One of them stayed and bowed. "What is it Leo?" The smile of the patriarch always managed to sent shivers to his very soul, the servant thought that perhaps it was a trait that one could gain after becoming a 7-star Fiend while training the Edicts of Death.

"Lord Patriarch, news have just arrived. The Burning Fiend killed Aruko and Yura and forced Onnel to escape. The recording orb will take a few years to arrive, but it is said that he toyed with them and was a one sided slaughter. Your orders?" The servant's voice was calm and waited respectfully.

The white haired man was frowning, he had expected Reynolds to die and that would have been the end of the matter. But now it seemed that the new kid was stronger than him and it would be a bad idea to start a conflict, he turned to look to the chair where Anton was sitting a few moments ago and muttered. "Child... it seems that I killed you for nothing... hahahahaha". His amused laughter resounded on the whole palace causing all the deities to tremble and the majority hurried to hide, they had learned that the Lord Patriarch was an extremely cruel and vicious person, and they wanted to be out of his way especially when his laughter sounded so cheerful.

---

A few years passed quickly and Reynolds could already see the Silver Blade City in the distance, as soon as he entered he used his telepathic link to talk to Koral. "Wife, I'm back... is everything all right with you and the family?" He could instantly feel the excitement and happiness passing through his telepathic link.

"Master! Everything is good, the City Lord's wife came to visit a few years ago with news of your victory". Reynolds blinked at that, the City Lord should also be a 7-star Fiend, but he had not bothered to greed him when he had arrived to the city as he surely had thought that Reynolds would die shortly. Perhaps this was his way to rectify the situation, he chuckled and said. "Alright, I will go to hand over the mission and I will return to the courtyard in a few hours".

He had grown used to the looks directed at him, but he felt slightly annoyed. 'Perhaps that is the reason why most 7-star Fiends and higher level combatants prefer to live in seclusion'. He thought as he made his way towards the Fiend Castle to deliver the mission.

The clerk was a black haired woman who looked surprised when he also returned the ring. The mission had stated that it was optional as they had no guaranty that the ring had not being destroyed. In her experience, greed will normally prevail and the ring would not be returned... she suddenly understood that this ring should contain something so valuable that even a 7-star Fiend did not dare to keep it in fear of attracting trouble beyond what he could manage.

She trembled and thought that she might never hold something that valuable in her hands again and sighed in depression. Reynolds observed the changes on her expression as was thoroughly amused, the clerk realized this and blushed deeply not daring to look at him again when returning his medallion and his payment.

Reynolds was walking towards his courtyard thinking on seeing his family and that they would be leaving this city soon, he even considered to return to the Jade Floating Mountains again, but felt that their chances of finding a jade floating boulder were too thin and not worthy. 'It might be better to just continue our travel toward the Crystal Cave City'. He thought smiling as he entered the courtyard.