The Burning Fiend

After a moment, he felt a chill running through his spine. He wondered why he had never heard about this, even if his understanding on runes could be considered at the advanced level, he was sure that many people might have tried this at some point after learning runes and having enough understanding of the laws or edicts to make the relation.

Then he remembered the feeling he had that he should never mention this to others or even express his opinion out loud. He had the vague feeling that if he were to do that, an Overgod might descend and in the best of the scenarios he could think of... he might lose his memory of this incident and perhaps the ability to continue exploring this idea. Whoever created this universe didn't want everyone to know about it, but he left the window open to see if someone finds out and manage to take advantage of it. Why? That elude him completely, but he understood that the 'feeling' telling him not to talk about this issue was not something inside him... it was more like a warning from the 'system' or the 'creator'.

He was confused by this, but he decided to trust his instincts. He would continue with his research, but he would do it alone and in seclusion when trying to test his ideas. Reynolds startled as he suddenly felt as if he had just passed a trial of sorts and an invisible eye had turned away from him, he had not realized that something was watching to see if he decided to head the warning. He couldn't help but tremble, he took a deep breath trying to calm down but it took him a few minutes after experiencing the complete helplessness of his situation.

A few days later, Reynolds was floating in front of Alfont nearly a thousand kilometers from the city while Kendrics watched form a few hundred meters away, this time he was accompanied by his grand daughter and Reynolds's family that had come to watch the battle under the protection of the Lord Prefect.

Reynolds was holding his spear looking at Alfont with caution, this man had witnessed his previous battle with Kendrics while Reynolds only knew he practiced the 'Elemental Laws of Lightning', he was at disadvantage, but he did not care much as he was excited about testing his new strength. The red haired man was holding a rapier, a weapon commonly used for fast attacks in the form of piercing, and while Reynolds was paying attention to his weapon Alfont suddenly disappeared and attacked Reynolds's left flank.

Reynolds reacted without trouble and the weapons clashed propelling both combatants backwards, the first clash made Alfont frown as he found that his soul defense artifact was being constantly attacked by the purple flames within his sea of consciousness, he reacted assisting his soul protecting artifact with his divine power to avoid the damage that would come from the continuous exposure to the flames.

Reynolds was smiling after finding out that this time he was not at disadvantage, he would be suppressed by Alfont's superior speed but his soul attacks would force Alfont to consume divine power in great quantities. Alfont seemed to realize this as well and charged delivering a barrage of attacks while Reynolds responded in kind, they both had mastery over their weapons and took full advantage of it but Alfont had superior battle experience giving him a slight edge.

For a moment, Reynolds had considered applying the same tactics he used to fight the 7-star Fiend who practiced the 'Elemental Laws of Wind', but Alfont did not use his speed to move around and deliver occasional well-placed hits. He used his speed to attack directly making every piercing move of his rapier akin to a lightning bolt that Reynolds tried to match one by one, but he only managed to parry half of the attacks while he was forced to create fire shields to take care of the rest without exposing his half-sovereign material defense artifact.

He did not fear exposing it, but he was saving it as part of his battle strategy... he might decide to take a hit exposing a weakness on his defense to take advantage and press the attack. To the women observing the battle on the distance, it seemed like Reynolds and the City Lord became blurred figures releasing flames and lightning bolts as they were unable to see the actual battle.

Talia was very excited and holding her mother's arm to anchor herself and avoid jumping embarrassing herself in front of strangers, the blue haired girl interrupted the silence and asked. "Grand father, did he already reach the realm of Asura?" She could not believe that in less than a thousand years the purple haired youth had passed from 7-star Fiend to Asura. The gray haired man was smiling and nodded while saying to her. "Technically, he already was an Asura a few decades ago when I fought with him... but it was due to his mastery over runic arrays, now he already reached the realm by his understanding of the Elemental Laws combined with... his innate ability?" To him, Reynolds's purple flames were an innate ability even if they were originated from a soul mutation and not from a divine beast inheritance.

The battle continued, but Reynolds had the absolute advantage due to his three half-sovereign artifacts. Alfont had thought that they were in a similar situation having to fend off soul attacks as he was using moves based on the mystery of 'Judgement', but Reynolds's soul defensive artifact did not even tremble while resisting the barrage of lighting bolts trying to breach the barrier protecting his soul within his sea of consciousness.

A moment later Reynolds seemed to make a mistake exposing his left flank while preparing a specially heavy attack, Alfont hesitated for a moment in suspicion but decided that he could interrupt Reynolds's attack by taking advantage of the mistake, he attacked with his fastest and most insidious rapier technique piercing the fire shield that Reynolds's had materialized at the last moment, the attack continued unimpeded and touched Reynolds's black long coat causing a ripple on its surface without managing to damage him in the slightest while Reynolds delivered a heavy attack sending Alfont flying backwards while a dent appeared on the barrier protecting his soul.

The City Lord realized that he had being baited and chuckled in annoyance while Reynolds pressed forward without giving him a chance to catch his bearings. Alfont noticed that the cracks on the barrier protecting his soul were increasing and growled in frustration before saying. "Stop brat! I don't want to lose my soul protecting artifact, do you even know how expensive these trinkets are?" He sounded annoyed, but he was trying hard not to laugh.

Reynolds stopped and looked to the side avoiding the glare the City Lord was giving him as he was unwilling to mention that he had used deceit to obtain victory. The Lord Prefect laughed out loud making Alfont sigh in frustration, but he ended laughing as well thinking he had being tricked by a kid.

"Reynolds, that's a powerful material defense artifact you got there... if you don't mind me asking. How did you get it? I don't think I could make one of those myself". The gray haired man asked with curiosity making Reynolds smile before saying. "It was a present from a friend and mentor called Lord Leylin, he gave it to me before I left the Yulan Continent".

For a moment Alfont and Kendrics exchanged glances and pretended not to know anything. In their view, this Lord Leylin must be a Sovereign and perhaps the one who created the Necropolis of the Gods that Beirut managed for him. They were sure that Lord Leylin had seen the potential of the kid and made him an informal envoy taking a claim on him before other Sovereigns would take an interest and make their move, it was only that Reynolds was unaware of it as he was quite young.

Reynolds was completely clueless to the fantasies of the two Asuras and said. "Alfont, Kendrics would you mind helping me test the power of my 'Ba-Serpent Attack Array'?" He had not test it before, but he was sure that its power would have increased significantly, the two Asuras smiled with interest and nodded.

Then Reynolds produced the four bracelets and four flame doppelgangers appeared surrounding him before melting into a sea of flames that obscured their sight, and a moment later a giant 'Ba-Serpent' had appeared in his place. Rosarie's eyes were shining at the sight of the masterful use of the runic array while Koral felt pride that she had helped him to find the correct beast-like battle style while using the serpent form.

The last time he used the attack formation, space seemed to tremble with every breath the construct took. Now, the space around the 'Ba-Serpent' seemed unstable and a great sense of danger befell the two Asuras as they felt the eyes of the behemoth focused on them, they turned extremely serious feeling that their life were in danger.

This time when the serpent used its tail as a whip at incredible speed, the only reaction the two Asuras could make was to block with their weapons, and they were instantly propelled backwards for several tens of meters before managing to regain their balance and bearings, but then they started panicking when they realized that their soul defenses were almost breached by a single hit, and that their soul defensive artifacts would not survive a second attack.

But the most terrifying thing was that they lost track of the giant serpent and without thinking twice they moved on different directions at high speed for safety reasons, only to find out that the very instant in which they escaped a giant mouth had closed where they were floating a moment ago. This time they felt true fear and but their battle maniac tendencies kicked in, and they both smiled while dashing at great speed towards the 'Ba-Serpent'.

After several rounds of attack, they found to their horror that the only thing they could do was running away. Their soul defensive artifacts had already become dust and their weapons were starting to take damage from the many times they tried to cut through the serpent's body. Frustrated, they had to stop the battle but demanded a new round in a few months.

They both were excited at the new-found sense of danger while fighting what they described as a peak Asura beast, and they could not wait to push their limits to hopefully find new insights.