The Burning Fiend

Reynolds experience with both soul type runic arrays increased his mastery over the Edict of Death and perhaps more importantly, his understanding of how Edicts or Elemental Laws could be interpreted as a runic array. He did not make this exercise consciously, but after gaining enlightening for translating his understanding of the soul type runic arrays into Edict of Death techniques, he obtained a better grasp on how to translate his mastery over the 'Fire Essence' into the 'Fire Essence Runic Array'.

It took him only ten years to finally create a perfect runic array that could manipulate perfectly the 'Fire Elemental Essence', with this array not only he could engrave it into the sea of consciousness of a person allowing that perfect control to gain full mastery of the Elemental Law, in theory. He also suspected that if he managed to engrave the 'Fire Elemental Essence' into his 'Ba-Serpent Attack Formation' he will be able to use of the 'Fire Elemental Essence' while using his flame construct form. This would increase his power as the attack formation would no longer be sorely dependent of physical strength to fight.

Reynolds had never met a Paragon, but he understood from Mosi's descriptions that the most feared aspect of a Paragon was the usage of 'Will' that seemed to nullify the ability of others to access to the Elemental Laws and Edicts, this 'Will' would also increase the strength and speed of the user but the main effect was the restriction that could be imposed on others. Reynolds could not really believe that a Paragon could use 'Will' to restrict his giant Ba-Serpent Attack Formation... or at least not completely, and he was excited at the idea and hoped, that by the time he reached Lord Beirut's place, he would be able to compete in battle prowess.

Currently, all the slaves that Reynolds had bought for experiments were already killed under Jenne's experiments and only the raven haired maid remained. Reynolds smiled while admiring the beautiful woman, he took his time to enjoy the view as he was not completely sure of what might happen when he engraved the 'Fire Essence Runic Array' within her sea of consciousness. He took a deep breath and started to work.

Reynolds was seating cross-legged while the maid knelt in front of him, she was not allowed move or even breath in hope of avoiding all possible variables that might disturb the engraving process. Engraving the new runic array inside the modified 'Soul Brand' array was not complicated process as this runic array was not of the soul type, so there was no need to force the runic arrays to coexist or be anchored to each other, the 'Fire Essence Runic Array' would be completely independent and unrelated to the modified 'Soul Brand'.

After what seemed like an eternity to Reynolds, he managed complete the runic array and retrieved his divine sense from the woman's soul. He waited a moment and started reviewing his work not been able to find anything wrong with it. Reynolds sighed and ordered the raven haired beauty to stand and start manipulating the new runic array.

She did not know she had a runic array engraved within her soul, but she suddenly knew how to control the 'Fire Essence'... even if she did not remember how she learned or when she learned. But using her spiritual sense to gather and manipulate the 'Fire Elemental Essence' on the environment was suddenly as easy as breathing for her.

Suddenly, the Elemental Laws descended locking the maid in place in what seemed complete fury and judgement. Reynolds was surprised as he had never experienced such a thing, the Elemental Laws scanned through her soul and mind easily finding the runic arrays and identified that the woman did not know of them and that any manipulation of the runic arrays would cause her death destroying all evidence of the 'Fire Essence Runic Array'.

The fury released by the Elemental Laws disappeared instantly and a divine spark appeared in front of the beautiful woman. Reynolds smiled delighted while instructing her to create a new avatar, this part was the most important for him as he would have a first-hand opportunity to witness how the soul is divided and, most important, he would know if the runic arrays were subject to damage during the process.

A moment later, her soul started the process of division under the protection of the Elemental Laws as the beautiful doll screamed due to the excruciating pain she was experiencing. The process only took a few seconds, which limited what Reynolds could learn from it, but he found in delight that the arrays were not damaged at all, even better... he found that the moment her new soul fused with the divine spark, the inner structure of the soul, where the runic arrays were engraved, resonated and the runic arrays were copied perfectly without any damage or mistake.

Reynolds was ecstatic, and he did not even pay attention to the n.a.k.e.d new avatar of the beautiful woman, he suspected that only the compatible runic arrays would be copied... that is to say that if this woman managed to create a water divine avatar, the modified 'Soul Brand' will be copied but the 'Fire Essence Runic Array' would not.

"A good way to be sure of this would be to give her a divine spark to fuse with, I wonder if she would be able to do so... or if the 'Fire Essence Runic Array' would simply dissipate from her saint body. I guess I will play with her a little longer before returning her to Mosi" Reynolds muttered to himself, finally appreciating the perfect body of his favorite maid.

He commanded her to use divine power to improve her saint body while her fire avatar turned into a black kitten that curled on the girl's shoulder. Her perfect body was even more enchanting, and he couldn't help but laugh while thinking how Mosi would not be able to play with her until he managed to control her soul, and he had hopes that he never would.

Reynolds had been paying attention to see if other deities reacted to the fury he sensed from the descent of the Elemental Laws, but it seemed that the phenomenon was only noticed by him and the girl. "Perhaps I only noticed because I was connected to her soul due to my runic arrays..." He muttered unsure of his reasoning.

But he had asked Koral through his telepathic link, and she did notice the descent of the Elemental Laws, but she found nothing out of the ordinary in the event. Reynolds decided not to think much of this event as he could not find any clue, he smiled satisfied and took the small kitten in his arms as he started petting her.

"From now on, you will only respond to the name 'Shade'." The kitten purred happily in acceptance, he then instructed the woman to fuse with the kitten as he started to walk towards the house, he was hesitant to go directly to Mosi and start his prank... he thought it would be better to continue with the experiment and give Shade a divine spark to fuse with it. Perhaps it would better to not only give her a water type Demigod divine spark, but also a fire type God divine spark to see if her fire avatar could fuse with divine sparks as it should and how would it affect the 'Fire Essence Runic Array'.

As soon as he entered the living room, he found that both Talia and Sasha were looking at Shade with eyes full of love, and he chuckled giving the kitten to his daughter while he started petting Sasha's head in place of the kitten. Talia was extremely happy while Sasha was horrified and blushed deeply, Reynolds chuckled and said.

"Little one, remember that this is Mosi's pet... do not grow attached to her as she would not stay with us much longer. Oh, right... her name is Shade". Talia's eyes portrayed her horror as she understood that this was the gorgeous raven haired girl who had being their maid for around 30 years. But after a short moment she remembered that Mosi had planned this from the beginning and calmed down, then looked mischievously at Sasha who was struggling to free herself and trying to avoid being petted by Reynolds.

"My dear Sasha... since Shade will no longer be our maid, are you sure you don't want her maid uniform? I'm sure you would look lovely in it". Sasha's face was completely red and she growled. "Talia! When I escape from Lord Reynolds I will punish you! Just you wait!" Reynolds chuckled and released her, the next moment she was pursuing Talia, who was laughing happily without letting go of the kitten in her arms.

As the two girls played around, he went to sit with Windsor who was reading a book. She jumped into his l.a.p and rested her head on his c.h.e.s.t without taking her eyes from the book, he kissed her forehead and decided to take a moment to rest. The engraving of the 'Fire Essence Runic Array' had taken a lot of spiritual energy, and he felt tired, but extremely satisfied by his progress.

He couldn't wait to continue experimenting with new runic arrays, he smiled remembering that he had only completely mastered the arrays portrayed in one of the books, and that he still had two more tomes to explore.

(A/N- I'm still having trouble with the Internet at home... hopefully it will be fixed soon...)