The Burning Fiend

After calming down from the excitement Reynolds decided to take a rest as he had been exploring the Necropolis of the Gods for 20 days and it appeared that the tunnels connecting each floor were safe, so he seated down again an took a bottle of wine from his interspatial ring. As soon as the bottle of wine appeared he felt that the attention of the giant snake was focused on him again, a little started he smiled and took another bottle of wine that floated towards the exit of the tunnel landing gently on the ice floor.

The Ba-Serpent disappeared and a young man with a devilish air to him appeared on his place as the bottle of wine floated towards him, he opened it and enjoyed the fragrance of the wine. "I was thrown into this place thousands of years ago and those damned saints who came rarely had wine on their interspatial rings, how more inconsiderate can they be? What use I have for gold and weapons for mortals? Hmmp!"

Then the young man turned to look at Reynolds who was inside the tunnel and smiled. "Kid as thanks for the wine I will tell you a few useful things, so pay attention". Reynolds's eyes had never left the young man surprised at how fast his appearance had changed.

"Well... what should I said? Oh, I know... I think that you are not far for becoming a deity yourself, when the time comes the elemental laws will descent and create a divine spark for you. Then you can choose to fuse with that divine spark or create a new body. If you create a new body your soul will slipt in half and it will be extremely painful but your saint body will remain unchanged and you will be able to continue training in other laws while if you fuse directly with the divine spark you will no longer be able to sense any of the other type of laws or edicts. That is if you fuse with a fire attribute divine spark you will only be able to train the laws of fire in the future".

Reynolds eyes were shining as it was the first time that he had news of the next realm and instantly decided to create a new body. 'Surely the refined souls that I'm collecting will help me heal my soul and there should be no problem'. "Thank you Lord". Reynolds said as he bowed to the young man.

The Ba-Serpent then started drinking the wine while smiling lost in his own world, Reynolds also enjoying his own wine slowly and started thinking on the laws of fire, from now on he will address the mysteries as elemental laws just as the divine beast had done. 'I wonder why I have only gained inspiration on the laws of fire and remain ignorant regarding the mysteries of life and death... perhaps it is because I mainly train with the spear and it is somehow easy to emulate the behavior of fire but understanding of life and death would be difficult to approach like this. Well I will worry about that after I became a deity with the laws of fire'.

While enjoying the wine he started creating different fire constructs on his other hand... a small version of Windsor suddenly appeared on his palm and it started dancing with her sword, soon another small version of Jenne joined the dance with her spear and no long after a fire woman that looked like Koral when using her fire avatar started playing against both girls using a spear.

He kept watching the fire constructs with a smile on his face and concentrated into making them more lifelike, their expressions became clearer as the details of their clothes and weapons. After a while even their b.r.e.a.s.ts shaked slightly as the 3 miniature women panted from apparent exhaustion due to the sparring. He was soon lost on his own world while deepening his understanding on the fire element as the figures looked more alive by the minute.

After a while the three women disappeared and a small sleeping Ba-Serpent took their place while breathing fire with each snore, as time passed the snake seemed more realistic and the details on the scales were more defined. The real Ba-Serpent had been paying attention with an amused expression before growing bored and changing back into a real sleeping Ba-Serpent.

Curiously enough the small fire serpent corrected its posture and imitated the original one as the details on its body continued to improve, Reynolds remained in that trance for a few hours until a smile appeared on his mouth and decided to continue with his exploration.

He again turned into feathers and made his way towards the exit, he soon found that the 4th floor was also a covered in snow and reduced the temperature of the feathers as much as possible until a thin layer of ice formed over them once again making them look like snowflakes as he started exploring the new floor. He soon found three bears that were resting on the snow oblivious of the snowflakes approaching them with the wind.

Suddenly the a snow flake landed on each of the bears and they turned instantly into ashes before the snowflakes continued to travel along with the wind. He repeated this operation with the scattered groups of bears he found collecting around 50 saint level souls until and angry voice resounded on the area.

"Who dares to kill my brethren! Show yourself!" A 1 meter tall bear holding a bamboo flute was screaming angrily when he suddenly noticed the snowflakes moving in his direction and took the bamboo flute to his mouth. A melody that seemed to invite Reynolds into sleep was filling the area in a calm atmosphere scaring Reynolds as he had never experienced a soul attack of this nature.

He understood that the reason that he did not lose conciousness immediately was because his soul was stronger than most saints due to that accident while practicing death magic, still he could not negate the effect completely and decided to change his pattern of attack. The feathers burned at high temperature and regrouped together forming a Ba-Serpent that was 20 meters long and Reynolds's fire-body was seated cross-legged inside the fire snake using its body to dilute the effect of the soul attack finally reducing the effects to a minimum while charging towards the bear.

The bear seemed surprised and continued to play his flute with adding more power into it while moving at high speed to avoid the attack of the fire construct, Reynolds soon found that he could not catch the saint on speed alone and started making his way towards the rest of the bears on the distance.

If they could not do anything to each other, then he will ignore the musician and continue collecting souls, the bear grew frantic and his attacks became more aggressive while pursuing the fire snake. He was slower that the bear musician but faster that the other bears and he soon started devouring them turning them into ashes and collecting their souls.

In his anger, the bear musician did not notice that a snowflake that looked like a feather had appeared next to him and was terrified when the fire snake disappeared and suddenly a giant mouth was closing on him without giving him the chance to attack. This bear trained on the laws of music and the fast aspect of the wind but his defense had no particular advantage and just like the rest of his brethen he was turned into ashes along with his flute and his soul was captured and started burning slowly within the belly of the fire Ba-Serpent.

By this moment the surviving bears were running for their lives and burrowing under the snow leaving a lonely fire snake floating on this desolated world of the snow. Reynolds smiled as he knew that the bear was no weaker that the four most powerful saints that entered the Necropolis of the Gods and he calmly started looking for the stairs leading to the 5th floor while the fire Ba-Serpent turned again into fire feathers.

It didn't take much time to find the tunnel and made his way through it, he soon found himself in a world of fire where his thin feathers looked almost invisible and he keep moving along with the burning currents that carried ashes and fire sparks within.

He soon noticed that the saints that had entered the Necropolis of the Gods with him, only about thirty people remained, were seated either in groups or alone training. Reynolds felt curious about the situation and moved towards one of the weaker saints that was training alone in the distance.

Reynolds smiled as he recognized him as one of the disciples of the War God. 'Surely a warrior without a powerful spiritual power'. Reynolds suddenly recovered his human form appearing in front of the saint who opened his eyes alarmed only to found a pair of bright purple eyes that seemed to encompass the whole world and then he knew no more.

"What is happening here? Why are you all doing?" Reynolds asked with care that no one would notice him. "Master, we are to train here for 8 years before proceeding towards the next level to fight the Flame Tyrant who leads an army of Flame Demons on the 6th floor". The mechanical voice responded leaving a stupefied Reynolds who took a moment to understand what was happening.

'Three thousand years ago they were defeated by that Flame Tyrant and they are afraid or even without expectation to defeat him. Instead of going now and retreat in case of defeat to train for 8 years trying to find a way to success they are betting everything on this one attempt? No wonder they had remain as saints for thousands of years... really'.

Reynolds turned again into fire feathers and joined the wind as he made his way towards the 6th level careful to avoid being found out by the other saints while wondering why his third brother was waiting with them.

He soon found the stairs leading to the next level and moved towards the tunnel following the wind, soon he had left the 5th floor and none of the saints there had found out that someone had passed through them and even obtained information on their plans ending disappointed and full of disdain towards them.