The Burning Fiend

A few days after his visit to the Jadefloat Palace, Reynolds was sitting on the garden with Jenne on his l.a.p, he was teasing her while they both listened to the music Koral was playing a few meters away from them. Windsor was practicing sculpting with Talia while Rosarie was working in a new runic array.

Only Catherine was sitting on her own while reading an introductory level book of runes and arrays, she had become extremely interested in the topic after watching Koral controlling the 'Green Dragon Construct Attack Formation' and suspected that her power could reach a significant upgrade through the use of runes.

Jenne was explaining quietly to Reynolds how the poisons that could track all the avatars of one person worked. "... then the most inner structure of the soul resonates through space and that is how souls are connected to the ones in different avatars. This way, when the poison attacks this inner structure, it makes it resonate echoing the damage to the other souls connected".

Reynolds was holding Jenne's waist with one arm while his free hand explored her b.r.e.a.s.ts, but he was still following her explanation with rapt attention. "Then... is this inner structure something similar to a runic array?" He muttered while thinking out loud, Jenne startled unsure of how to respond to that and started comparing her understanding of the most inner structure of a soul with the runes and runic arrays she had seeing Rosarie use.

Her voice was also low as if muttering to herself. "I... I think so". Reynolds smiled, he felt he was getting closer to something extremely important, but he was still a little distance away from grasping the mystery. Their thoughts were interrupted when a bell sounded indicating they had a visitor, Reynolds frowned for a moment a little upset of being interrupted, but he limited himself to release his frustration with a simple sigh.

Before he or anyone could react, Catherine was already answering the door with curiosity as they rarely have visitors. The beautiful woman with blue electric hair opened the door to find a muscular man with gray hair in a warrior outfit accompanied by a beautiful girl with blue hair. Catherine was confused for a moment as she felt a bit of a resonance with the girl, something she had not felt in thousands of years... the call of blood.

It was only a moment, and she did not reveal anything knowing herself protected by the runic array engraved on her necklace, she smiled politely waiting for the people to state their business. The gray haired man looked curiously at her trying to find if this girl in front of him was the little elf girl that had caused so much grievance to him, but he could not feel anything from her. "Hello young one, my name is Kendrics. I believe I received an invitation from the man living here."

Catherine blinked for a moment and allow them to enter, after all no one in their sane minds would try to do something inside a city. "Then come with me please". Catherine said as she stole a few quick glances to the blue haired girl who was also inspecting her with apparent disappointment. As they approached the garden, they walked into the peaceful environment where music seemed to be complemented in harmony by the sounds of metal clashing against stone as the two beautiful women sculpted.

They were instantly drawn into the spell of music and peace, and he stopped for a moment with his eyes closed to enjoy the music and the clear feeling of family. Reynolds was slightly startled as he recognized the visitor and smiled in victory thinking that he would obtain the battle he wanted after all. He patted Jenne's leg gently and told her. "Love, I need to greet our visitors. We will continue with this discussion later, alright?" Jenne smiled and went to sit next to Rosarie.

Reynolds approached the Lord Prefect and nodded to Catherine who returned to her study of runes after stealing another glimpse of the blue haired woman. A moment later the City Lord opened his eyes to find Reynolds waiting in front of him. "Welcome to my temporary home, please come with me". He pointed to a table a little distance away on the garden.

He took a bottle of wine and offered a glass to each of the two visitors. "I'm happy that you received my invitation, to be honest I was not sure if I would be able to spark your interest for battle". Reynolds said smiling while the blue haired girl tried hard not to laugh only to end convulsing slightly under the angry glare of her grand father and the curious eyes of their host. She was thinking of all the planing her grand father had made only to be asked for a sparring match by the target he was trying to lure.

"Forgive my grand daughter, she has the strange habit of laughing in inappropriate situations..." This time it was the turn of the blue haired girl to glare angrily at her grand father who ignored her completely, so she limited herself to pout and swearing to take revenge later. "To be honest I'm curious... from my understanding you are clearly stronger than most 7-star Fiends, but you have not yet reached the Asura rank". He said with curiosity looking at the young man while trying to conceal his expectations.

"Well, what you said is not entirely true... I think that by my mastery of the 'Elemental Laws of Fire' has reached a 'half step Asura' rank, only lacking the final insight to step firmly into the new realm. But with my understanding of runic arrays I should be able to fight in equal terms with an Asura level combatant... but I have yet to try that". Reynolds said with confidence surprising the gray haired man and the blue haired girl.

"You are more powerful using runic arrays than the Elemental Laws..." He muttered to himself surprised, he had always thought that the runic arrays were a waste of time and only recently he had started to doubt his belief. "I would like to see that..." The gray haired man smiled deciding that it was a good idea to have a battle with this kid and was already preparing to make to tell him that they should leave the city for the battle when his grand daughter coughed a couple of times next to him to draw his attention.

He sighed and said to Reynolds. "Well kid, you have got yourself a battle... but before we go any further with that topic, I need to ask for a favor. My grand daughter here is half an elf, and she was looking forward to meeting the elf girl that was traveling with you, can you let the girls talk? Don't worry, she will not steal your pet". He said teasingly making the blue haired girl frown and, a few meters away from them, Catherine who was reading her book trembled and started cursing in her mind.

She had yet to get over the trauma created by Beirut's sons when they started the rumors of her being a martyr that had to use her body to satisfy the evil divine serpent for the sake of her people. Being called Reynolds's pet almost caused her to throw the book at the gray haired man in a fit of rage and her face turned red as an apple. The blue haired girl had being looking at her while studying her, and smiled in victory as she saw her reaction.

Reynolds smirked thinking of teasing Catherine a little, knowing that she had already blown her cover with her reaction, but he felt her eyes fixed on him. She was not threatening, it was more like if she were begging. He chuckled unwillingly and said. "She is not my woman, she is a friend that travels with my family... and it is up to her if she wants to speak with your grand daughter, but I guess we can let them deal with that on their own".

The blue haired girl smiled and walked towards Catherine who was relieved of the explanation, still she could not help but frown slightly wondering what the girl wanted. While the two blue haired girls started their discussion, Reynolds and the Lord Prefect decided to leave the city to start their battle in order to avoid panic and damage.

---

The City Lord was enjoying his time playing with the beautiful pink haired maid when he was interrupted by a frantic knock on his door. He frowned in disbelief, but he knew that no one would dare to interrupt him unless something urgent have happened. He sighed in frustration and gave a gentle spank to the girl's perfect b.u.t.t.o.c.k.s making her yelp as he stated to get dressed while the pink haired girl looked angry for the interruption.

Alfont opened the door and looked at the blushing maid that was having trouble not fixing her eyes to the n.a.k.e.d woman in bed or at the half n.a.k.e.d City Lord. "What is it?" He asked slightly annoyed and decided that this maid would join them in bed as punishment if she lacked a good reason to interrupt his fun.

"L-Lord, this message just arrived and the man who delivered said that it was ranked as urgent by your own instructions". The scared maid said while trembling, she bowed deeply and extended her hands to present an envelope. He frowned at not being able to remember an issue so important to comply with her description, but he still took the envelope and read the message.

"... The Lord Prefect visited the Burning Fiend in his villa, and after half an hour they left the villa. They seem to be leaving the city for a possible battle, they moved toward the north".

The City Lord stood there in confusion for a full minute, and then he started laughing out loud, and without explaining anything he flew out of the mansion traveling at high speed toward the direction where the Lord Prefect and the Burning Fiend should be, there was no way in hell that he would end up missing this battle.

The pink haired beauty was left glaring at the maid while placing her hands in each side of her h.i.p.s and taking deep breaths due to her anger causing her full b.r.e.a.s.t to move up and down, the maid was half hypnotized by the sight for a short moment before fleeing the place. Leaving the pink haired beauty pouting and without anyone around for her to release her frustration at being abandoned half-way through her playing time.