The Burning Fiend

Its been a few days since they left the Dunstan Mansion, Jenne had decided to come with them and Reynold decided that he would try to help her find a way to reach the saint level... perhaps death magic which according to Zassler could extend ones life to 900 years before reaching the saint level and if she had above average talent for warrior training she might become a saint warrior after 400 years. But that would have to wait until they had found their own place to avoid unwanted eyes and greed of power like the Radiant Church or one of the empires. He suddenly felt a little closer to Jenne after making the decision and started meditating on that, trying to understand his own self better.

Koral was walking at normal pace towards the Anarchic Land and she was happy when her Master told her that they will find a secluded place not far from the Dark Forest so she could go and play whenever she felt bored, she enjoyed becoming stronger through training but from time to time she would need a good hunt just as her Master battle with Windsor every night, it was just natural.

Windsor was enjoying the scenery while seating on Koral's back and was already imagining what kind of place their new home would be, curiosity won and Windsor asked. "Master, do you have any ideas for our new home?" Reynolds smiled and took a moment to decide what he wanted. "Well, a small island within a lake but we do not need to look for such a place, if we find a location that feels right we can create the lake and the island with a little bit of work... you know, being a magus and warrior is not only useful for battle".

Windsor was smiling as she imagined living in a secluded place where they could train together and what kind of sculptures she would make to fit the place, soon she was deep in her own thoughts while enjoying the wind which c.a.r.e.s.sed her face and danced with her hair.

Reynolds decided to go to the Anarchic Lands as the empires did not pay much attention there and his family would not suffer the pressure they would if he made his home within enemy territory, still Reynolds had no intention to interact with the powers within the area, he would create an isolated place for them.

It took a month to enter the Anarchic Lands as they were traveling on Koral's back at good speed for 5-6 hours a day, Reynolds decided not to enter any city and kept moving towards the Dark Forest. The Anarchic Lands were not desert or barren but they were semi-desolate due to the magical beasts invasion that every year reduced human activity on the area, it was as if someone did not want too many humans on the land.

Now they would travel with leisure again while taking time to search for a suitable place to built their lake, ideally it will be close to the Dark Forest or within its outer areas, every time they made camp Windsor will probe the ground with her spiritual essence as she would do while sculpting, she was looking for an underground lake and hopefully a small volcanic vein. Jenny would enjoy this moments as Bolt would seat on her l.a.p and play with her while her dazzling smile was almost hypnotic. 'This baby panther is always sleeping and eating but somehow girls found it adorable' Reynolds thought while watching Jenny petting it.

Like every night Windsor was seated in meditation as she infiltrated her spiritual essence on the ground and after spending a couple of hours she looked up in disappointment, Reynolds smiled at her and said. "Don't worry, we would be moving along the outer area of the Dark Forest until we find a suitable place to build our new home".

They kept traveling leisurely along the Dark Forest for two months while training and playing until one day Koral found an oddity before Windsor started searching for an underground river. 'Master, this place seems to have more elemental essence that any other place we had visited before but I don't know why'.

Reynolds was curious and they decided to make camp and search the area, perhaps they would be lucky, Windsor started her meditation to search below the ground while Reynolds petted Bolt who purred in happiness every time he scratched behind its ears while Jenne looked jealous as if she wanted to take the baby panther from him.

Windsor found it odd that the rocks on the area created noise for her probing but it did not hinder her in an important way. After a couple of hours of searching she found an area where her probing was blocked but it was not that big of a place so she took it out of her mind. After another 2 hours she smiled as she found an underground river that was 400 meters below the surface and it seemed to move from the Dark Forrest towards the O'Brien Empire, she explained her findings to Reynolds waiting for his decision.

"Koral try to see if you can burrow towards the area where Windsor could not probe, but be careful we can always find another place so stop if you feel any danger". Reynolds said looking at the giant velocidragon that nodded in agreement and started burrowing through the earth, Reynold was already imagining how to move most of the earth on the ground to create small mountains around a big circular area and then block the underground river to fill the area with water and create another channel at a higher altitude on the ground to reconnect the flow towards the underground river.

This project would be big an perhaps it will occupy the next 3-4 months, he was excited and already imagined how he would try melting rock with his fire and use his impose realm to give it form to get the materials to build the small castle, and it might take a while but with abundant water the grounds surrounding the castle would become gardens where the three of them could train and relax.

He was interrupted by Koral as she reported through their telepathic link that there were many strange rocks with elemental fluctuations and that might be the reason for Windsor's probe to fail. 'Well done, come back. It is time to make camp and tomorrow we will start building our new home'. Reynolds mood was good and his happiness and expectations were transmitted along with the message to Koral who could not help feeling infected with emotion as well.

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Reynolds was explaining his ideas while using fire elements to create a three dimensional map with Windsor instructions to replicate the terrain. "So we take the area where most of those elemental rocks are gathered and mark half a kilometer diameter as the outline of the island, then we start excavating around and use the rocks and dirt to create a few mountains that surround the area of 2 kilometers around the island. This project will take time but I think we should finish in a couple of months if Koral and I work together..."

The very next morning Reynolds was using giant 'fire claws' to move the earth and bake it into boulders that Koral would be moving to the peripheries of where the lake would be. It really took a couple of months just to create a 300 mts deep valley and bake the floor so that it could hold water, creating the entry and exit of water was relative easy for Koral and Reynolds and suddenly they just need to wait for the water level to rise.

Windsor had been working in searching for a volcanic vein in the area but her spiritual energy could not reach deep enough, so their thermal baths would have to be heated by either Reynolds or Koral. On the other hand, the construction of the small castle turned out to be a good practice for either controlling the temperature of fire or using the impose realm to give form to the walls, Reynolds and Koral soon found themselves invested in this training.

After another 3 months of hard work, a small castle was already completed and the water had already covered the valley. During this time several groups of people have come to the area but left as soon as they saw the giant rank 9 velocidragon, there were no saints on the Anarchic Lands and soon the area had become forbidden to all people in the area, and as the lake was touching the borders of the Dark Forest it will not take much time for it to surround the lake making it even more secluded.

Reynolds had paid a few visits to the nearest city to buy things like furniture and cooking appliances, soon the small castle was completed and the sculptures that Windsor had created provided a sense of elegance and mystery to the place. At the main gate were two identical sculptures of a beautiful woman riding a velocidragon while wielding a spear, Jenne and Koral had proudly modeled for the sculptures. They had created a big pool inside the castle to use as a bath when they failed to find a volcanic vein, Windsor had created sculptures of beautiful maids that seemed to be pouring water into the pool providing a sense of luxury that would make kings jealous, and this place soon become their favorite spot for Windsor, Jenne and Reynolds to relax and play after training everyday.

Their life suffered a few changes as Reynolds insisted for Windsor to start warrior qi training and to learn how to use a weapon, in his opinion by the time she reached rank 9 as a magus she would not be far from the same rank as warrior and it will help her to secure her entrance into the saint realm. Jenne also started weapon training and death magic meditation and Reynolds was surprised to find she was quite talented on it as her soul was extremely pure.

After a few days Windsor was trying to practice with a sword while pouting and complaining next to a smiling Jenne who seemed in love with her new spear. "Master, I really do not like this... please I would rather go sculpting". Reynolds smiled and said. "Don't be like that Windsor, just imagine that you are both dancing for me and forget that you are practicing the sword. I assure you that I'm really enjoying the view". Reynolds said shamelessly as he drank wine from his cup while watching Windsor and Jenne dance with their weapons while sweat made their clothes adhere to the perfect curves and felt half hypnotised every time their b.r.e.a.s.ts shaked while changing from one stance to another. Windsor blushed and suddenly felt that practicing the sword might not be such a bad idea.