The Burning Fiend

Reynolds was sitting on the villa's living room drinking wine while planing his training, his fire avatar would concentrate in pondering the mystery of 'Explosion' and probing for fusion points with the other four laws. He knew that the process would be extremely long, as he had to work first on 2-way fusions before proceeding with 3-way fusions and finally with 4-way fusions always taking the mystery of 'Explosion' as a base, before he could start comparing the five 4-way fusions to look for a common point that would allow him to start fusing the 5 laws.

Due to the large amount of work and the long time this endeavor would take, he decided to avoid learning anything regarding the final law to avoid becoming a Highgod before completing the 5-way fusion. If he were to become a Highgod before completing the fusion, then the time and difficulty it would take him to work on fusing laws would increase significantly... he even suspected that he might never be able to become a Paragon.

His death and life avatars will continue pondering the Edicts and trying to reach the Highgod level, but his low affinity with the Edicts would ensure that he would not be able to achieve this before he completes the fusion of the five Fire Elemental Laws, and he would not be surprised if he even managed to reach the Highgod level with his fire avatar before he is even close to reach the bottleneck to become a Highgod within the Edicts.

He sighed in frustration just thinking how slow his progress would be from now on and wondered how the old monsters managed to not go crazy about it. 'Perhaps that's why it is so important to have a hobby...' He thought. His saint body will continue to spend time with his family and working with runes, his current project would be to successfully reproduce a runic array able to completely manifest and control each of the Fire Elemental Laws that he had mastered and all their possible fusions.

He felt that this was the best way to improve his understanding and control of runes as he would gain better control and, perhaps one day, he might even manage to create his own 'code' to manipulate the system, this exercise should be repeated for the two Edicts. He could not even start estimating how much time this endeavor would take him, but then again he could jump from one system to another as he was working on the runic arrays for his entertainment and curiosity and had no plans to use this new path for power in battle anytime soon.

Reynolds was not quite satisfied with his plans, but it was the best he could come with... He sighed and decided to take his family to visit a restaurant. Unknown to Reynolds, news of his new rank started spreading like wild fire, not only in the Jadefloat Continent but, to all the continents within the Infernal Realm.

The recording orbs would take nearly a century to reach every important city, but the description of the battle was already available in all official information centers that had a respected reputation within the Infernal Realm... On a luxurious library, a seemingly old man was reading a doc.u.ment describing the power shown by Reynolds during his last battles against Alfont and Kendrics and his use of runic arrays which allowed him to defeat two experienced Asura level combatants, at the same time, with certain ease.

Beirut smiled satisfied with progress shown by his protegee, and directed his attention to the green haired devilish youth who was standing in front of him while wearing an elegant armor showing his family ensign. "You did well bringing this to me Tarosse, thank you. Tell me, have you adapted to the life in the city? To be honest, I have never really pictured you as a guard... really". The old man chuckled while the green haired youth seemed slightly uncomfortable before sighed and saying.

"To be honest myself, I did not know that the life on the Infernal Realm could be so difficult. I was overconfident of my strength and paid the price for it... fortunately there was no permanent damage, just a well taught lesson to my inflated ego". Tarosse seemed uncomfortable with the current topic and tried to change it while looking at the file he had brought to the Lord of the Indigo Prefecture. "The kid seems to be moving toward the Bloodridge Continent, do you think his destination is this city?" Tarosse wanted to see Reynolds again, after all he owned his freedom to the kid and the old monster sitting in front of him... he still had nightmares which reminded him how happy and eager he was with the idea of serving his master, and for once he was grateful that the old monster did not have strange hobbies.

Beirut chuckled, he had never asked what happened to Tarosse and his group, but he had a decent idea of their situation. "I'm pretty sure it is... after all, he had no clan or family within the Infernal Realm, and he did ask for general information before starting his exploration". The old man frowned in frustration and muttered. "My own grand son did not even ask for general knowledge to either me or his uncles, knowing that we made our names in this place thousands of years ago..."

Tarosse resisted the urge to laugh after remembering how care free Bebe could be, perhaps simple might be a better word to describe the brat. Tarosse could help but wonder how did that kid even manage to become a Fullgod before leaving the Yulan Continent.

---

The Lord Prefect was sitting with Alfont and Reynolds drinking a precious crystal blue wine, they were within a Hall at the City Lord Mansion. The three of them talked animatedly while enjoying the wine, Alfont was telling them a story about his earlier years while a beautiful pink haired woman sat on his l.a.p listening to him with rapt attention.

Reynolds had learned that Alfont was similar to him in the ways they enjoyed life, good food, good wine and beautiful women while Kendrics seemed as an old proper warrior that was always looking for a good battle while avoiding to fall to deep into such distractions. Reynolds thought that the Lord Prefect had a similar personality that Linley, and suddenly found himself wondering what would his stupid brother might be doing right now.

He decided to pay a visit to the Jadefloat Palace to ask if there was information available on Linley, that would be easy... the problem would be getting news of Yale and George, for that he would have to wait until meeting with Lord Beirut. As Lord Beirut always had an avatar in the Yulan Continent to manage the Necropolis of the Gods, and it would not be difficult for him to obtain news of Reynolds's two brothers.

"... Reynolds, are you sure that you don't want me to make a few demonstrations on the last Elemental Law?" The gray haired man asked with curiosity and Reynolds blinked trying to detach his attention from his thoughts. "No thank you, I appreciate the intention but... I have heard that fusing laws becomes more difficult as one progresses in ranks. I'm sure that pondering the last elemental law will be faster than fusing the mystery of 'Explosion' with the other laws I have mastered and I might end up becoming a Highgod before completing the fusion of the laws, I think that would do me more harm than good". Reynolds replied half absentminded but the two old monsters blinked with envy.

"Annoying kid, I wish I was that smart when I was younger... who knows? I might have become a Paragon long ago if had used my head like that then". Alfont was annoyed and started playing with the pink haired bimbo on his l.a.p to distract himself.

The gray haired man laughed for a while before saying. "Not everyone is lucky to be strong enough to work calmly on fusing the laws instead of worrying about survival. Becoming a Highgod after fusing 2 o 3 laws is already quite uncommon within the Infernal Realm". He seemed to be looking at the past and remembering dangerous situation, Reynolds was sure of that due to the elated smile that the old battle maniac was sporting.

"Are you leaving then?" The Lord Prefect sobered up and asked. Reynolds smiled and looked through the window taking in the beautiful lights that adorned the city. "Yes, I plan to visit the peak of the mountain before crossing the Starmist Sea toward the Bloodridge Continent. We will leave in a couple of months, I have noticed that your grand daughter and Catherine seems to be quite close recently... I wonder if she would stay here or continue to travel with us".

The gray haired man frowned and said. "I am not sure, but I have the feeling that instead of loosing your blue haired pet, my grand daughter might want to join her in your group... we will know soon enough". Reynolds was surprised at that, but in the end he did not really care. They continued drinking their wine while making light conversation and plans for the next Planar War, Reynolds was not sure if he would participate but the two Asuras were decided to take part and gain sovereign artifacts.

Reynolds thought that he had another thing to ask Lord Beirut... in a few hundred years that is.

---

Later that day, he had told his family his plans, and they agreed to leave in a couple of months. Catherine seemed undecided and spent a few days deciding what to do, staying within the Lord Prefect family would be less tiring and perhaps she would become a Highgod early, and she was happy to have found a member of her family... even if they could barely be considered as family, it was the closest to that feeling she had experienced in thousands of years.

One day she approached Reynolds while he was alone reading a book, and she sat in front of him with a slightly fearful visage. Reynolds closed the book and smiled at her. "Have you decided to stay?" She managed to avoid trembling and nodded noticing that Reynolds's expression did not change but his eyes shinned with purple light for a moment, she knew what he was doing and felt whit terror as he activated the soul seed he had planted on her a long time ago, after moment later Reynolds said. "This might be unfair to you, but for the safety of my family I used the soul seed to forbid you of passing our secrets... that includes the runic array that hides your bloodline". Reynolds's voice was not apologetic, he was just informing her. He considered her a friend, but he would not create risks for himself, and even if he was strong enough to face any Asura, the power of Paragons and Sovereigns was not something he could take on right now.

Catherine sighed with relieve as she was trying to check that she had her free will intact, but shook her head a moment later realizing that she would never be sure... but he had not forced her stay and that was already a good indication. She hesitated wondering if her previous decision was truly hers or if it was planted on her mind by him. She sighed in frustration while muttering. "Womanizer". Reynolds blinked in surprise at her with clear confusion in his eyes, that calmed Catherine and smiled thinking that either it was her own decision or that he was a good actor.

She stood up and said while frowning, "I still want to thank you for your help and care..." At that moment the girl with blue electric hair was replaced with a beautiful green haired woman with pointed ears, she had changed to her life avatar and after a short moment of hesitation she let her clothes fell to the floor while she waited silently for him to take the initiative.

Reynolds was stupefied for a moment admiring her beautiful body, her face was the one she had shown him the first time she took her mask at her home in the Yulan Empire, her complexion was slender but that gave her an alluring fragility that instantly ignited his d.e.s.i.r.e. He suddenly awoke from his momentary confusion and chuckled before starting to walk toward the beautiful elf waiting for him. He c.a.r.e.s.sed her face gently with his hand making her tremble, Reynolds smiled at her deciding to enjoy his last encounter with this beautiful woman.

---

A few years later, Reynolds and his family were standing at the peak of the mountain watching in silence the seemingly never ending ocean of clouds. The beauty of this scene was breathtaking, and Reynolds thought that there was no better way to start their new adventure than taking a few moments to enjoy the last magnificent view that the Jadefloat Continent had to offer.

The clouds took different colors as they filtered the light passing through them, they stood there quietly taking in the view while Talia was turning around slowly with a recording orb in her hand and a bright smile on her face.

(A/N- Guys, this is the end of Volume 4 and I will take a short break to plan the next volume, but I will surely continue the story on Wednesday at the latest.)