The Burning Fiend

Bluefire frowned considering several paths that might allow him to escape the foretold ending of this battle that seemed to close upon himself slowly, but he was still cursing Beirut in his mind when he saw that the eyes of giant Ba-Serpent brightened with blinding purple light. In Leylin's surprise his soul defensive artifact, that was at the sovereign level, trembled slightly but suffered no damage, but this was already enough testament of how powerful that mental attack was.

Realizing that things would not end well if he just staled, he was preparing to release his Sovereign aura when an idea appeared came to him, and a relieved smile appeared on his face. Mosi, who was watching on the distance, thought that the unknown Paragon was quite valiant as he smiled calmly at the behemoth preparing to attack him, being an authority on the Edicts of Death, Mosi could tell that the soul attack that Reynolds had used would have caused great damage to him if he had been the target... that idea terrified him as he realized how much the power of the attack formation had increased.

Reynolds, on the other hand, was preparing to unleash all his power trying to find the limit that his current mastery over the Elemental Laws and his attack formation could provide, he was not aware that he had put his 'teacher' in an awkward situation due to him having no idea of just how powerful a Paragon was, what he could gather from Leylin's facial expressions and the calm smile on his face was that he was not worried at all. A moment later, Reynolds was taken by surprise when a simple bucket seemed to appear out of thin air and remained floating at the side of the Paragon. Reynolds was curious and stopped for a moment trying to figure out what kind of artifact that was and noticed that Mosi in the distance was looking at the bucket with eyes wide open, and had forgotten to close his mouth due to the surprise, he clearly knew what that artifact was and it seemed to be something dreadful.

From the bucket a drop of red liquid floated out and entered Leylin's body, a moment later his aura changed to a whole new level and Reynolds remembered that Mosi had possessed a similar aura at one time when he was trying to force his way into gaining control of Shade's soul. Reynolds had no idea what that strange drop of red liquid was but felt danger the moment it was absorbed into Lord Leylin's body.

Still, this was a good opportunity, and he knew that Lord Leylin would not hurt him, thus he decided to attack. The Ba-Serpent charged at incredible speed becoming nothing but a blur to Mosi's eyes, but the speed was completely within Leylin's range of response either due the blessing of the drop of 'Sovereign Might' he had just consumed or the 'will', and he used his dagger to meet the tail whip attack creating a huge explosion that caused both combatants to be repelled. To Reynolds disbelief, it was the giant Ba-Serpent the one that ended retreating farthest from the collision.

Leylin smiled satisfied at his idea of using a bucket of 'Sovereign Might' to hide his Sovereign power and was even grateful for Mosi's presence and complementary reaction to his disguise, he felt himself relaxing as the perspective of being bullied by a kid was not something he was looking forward to experience and simply declaring himself as a Sovereign was too much trouble at the moment.

Reynolds was excited and decided that he might not find a better opportunity to test his limits and just a moment later the Ba-Serpent blurred turning itself into a javelin of pure purple flame that appeared instantly in front of a bewildered Leylin who was forced to use his 'will' and a bit of Sovereign power to repel the attack, but this time it was only him who was repelled backwards while Reynolds pressed on the attack. What they both failed to see was that the repulsion provoked by the collision affected the waters below them creating an inverted dome that took a moment to be refilled again. And as both combatants were using the Fire Elemental Laws, the high temperature had caused the water to vaporize creating a thick curtain of steam that would have blocked the view of most witnesses.

It was at this moment that Reynolds was thinking that perhaps using a Ba-Serpent as a model for his attack formation might not have been the best idea he ever had, as he could not use weapons in this form. Perhaps a humanoid form as a base for the formation would have been a better idea, he would need to consider that for future research... 'Perhaps I could add another form to this current attack formation for situations like this'. He thought while smiling.

Reynolds and Leylin were exchanging attacks and, now that there was not need to worry, their laughter could be heard by Mosi, who was floating a safe distance away. Leylin was using the complete fusion of the Fire Elemental Laws powered by the 'Sovereign Might' and the 'will' forcing the Ba-Serpent into a passive defense, but it would take him a long time to break the attack formation without unleashing his Sovereign power without restrictions.

Reynolds was not having any luck in getting insights on the last mystery of the Fire Elemental Laws, but he was gaining the much-needed practice that would help him to control the attack formation effectively as well as improve the use for battle of his mastery over the 5-way fusion of the Fire Elemental Laws. He found it odd that the more one advanced on the fusion of the laws, the attacks became simpler and more direct, instead of the fancy and exaggerated techniques lower level combatants were too fond of using in battle.

The power of the fused laws was easier to use when aligned with the most basic attacks and weapon mastery than creating complicated constructs or flashy attacks. He had already figured this out when he managed to complete his 5-way fusion, but he got confirmation of this when he saw how Lord Leylin fought. He had never used complicated techniques or exaggerated displays of power, his attacks were concentrated and focused.

This might also be forced due to the powerful artifacts that were normally used at this level... Sovereign artifacts, one would actually need to make physical contact to try to overpower the artifact, and Reynolds could not do that so his attacks as a Ba-Serpent were limited to physical techniques hoping to use his substantial mass to overwhelm his enemy and either gain the opportunity to escape or continue pressing the offense.

Reynolds noticed that Lord Leylin took a drop of red liquid from the bucket every few minutes and absorbed it into his body, he stopped his attack when the process was about to be repeated realizing that those drops of red liquid should be extremely expensive, and that he had already gauged his current strength managing to achieve the main purpose of the battle. The Ba-Serpent dissipated leaving in its place a purple haired youth who was smiling brightly at Leylin, the once ruler of Bluefire City smiled back in response and returned the bucket full of 'Sovereign Might' to his interspatial ring satisfied with the outcome of the battle. He was still cursing Beirut in his mind and swearing that he would not be taking any more of his requests for a long while.

Before Reynolds could say anything else, Leylin appeared by his side and after putting a hand on his shoulder they were enveloped by his 'will' and moved at a speed high enough to seem, under Mosi's perception, like they teleported away. Leylin did not want to talk to the tall and muscular man who took orders from a cute kitten, he was a firm believer that avoiding things that one do not need to know was good for the soul.

Mosi smirked understanding that the Paragon had no intention to get acquainted with him, and he made his way towards Miluo Island without taking offense. He had done similar things to those weaker than him too many times. While flying at high speed, Mosi was busy engraving the battle into his soul in order to avoid losing a single moment of it thinking that it might become a valuable reference when he became a Paragon himself.

---

Reynolds could not believe the speed in which Lord Leylin was moving, he could not tell if it was provided by the fusion of Elemental Laws, the 'will' or the strange drop of red liquid, but it was beyond what he could understand. It took a short time for them to reach Miluo Island again, and before he realized they were already standing in the garden within his courtyard.

"So many things are still beyond my reach and understanding..." Reynolds muttered to himself impressed by the tremendous speed and was glad that Lord Leylin had gone easy on him during the battle, but felt curious as to what was his real power. He had so many questions, but he did not know if it was rude to inquire or not, so he decided to wait and see what would Lord Leylin would say.

Leylin was still smiling and took a bottle of green wine from his interspatial ring and offered one cup to Reynolds before concentrating his attention in his own cup to enjoy the fragrance of the wine, a moment later he took a small sip of wine and his smile relaxed as he enjoyed the flavor of the wine. Reynolds on his part was aware that this was a special wine and took his time to enjoy both its fragrance and taste, unlike most wines, it produced a refreshing feeling and it seemed to activate the mind instead of numbing it.

He was soon lost on the new experience and managed to calm down his curiosity while waiting for Lord Leylin to speak. Leylin on his part was enjoying the wine and arranging his ideas knowing that his 'disciple' would have many questions, he had seen his surprise when he had produced the 'Sovereign Might' and that it had made more of an impact than the moment he had started using 'will' in the battle. Both topics were important, but he understood that explaining the 'Sovereign Might' was more urgent as he could face Asuras or Paragons that could use 'Sovereign Might' without making a show of it as he had done... and that could prove fatal for his 'disciple'.

There was as well the demonstration of the final Fire Elemental Law and perhaps it would be a good idea of making a show of the different fusions that could be obtained with it, but his 'inner teacher' was hesitant to do so... where was the fun in that... showing only the single law would perhaps be more educational, so he could explore the possible fusions on his own. After all, even if he became a Paragon within a few thousand years would not affect their plans, the central piece of their plans was still Linley.

Only when Linley became a Sovereign, would the three of them might dare to 'acquire' more Sovereign sparks, and he was sightly worried about the fast progress that Reynolds was showing. He was a soul mutate, his main talent was clearly the Fire Elemental Laws while his talent was average at best regarding the Edicts of Life and Death... would he then concentrate on runes? His progress on this art was quite impressive, but after reaching a certain level of power... would it be something else beyond a simple hobby?

He sighed and made his decision, there was no hurry regarding Reynolds. If his talent with the Elemental Laws were focused on water or earth affinities, both Beirut and him would be in a hurry for him to become a Highgod and fuse with the Sovereign spark. But reality was not going to change, it was better to let the kid find his way for the moment. The other kid would not reach the Asura realm anytime soon.