The Burning Fiend

Time passed slowly and the fire Ba-Serpent coiled at the bottom of the lava lake became more detailed and after a year it seemed almost alive, by this time the souls were already refined and Reynolds started digesting them slowly while continue to ponder the fire element and the fire body making slow progress on each law their fusion.

Inside the fire snake Windsor, Jenne and Koral keep playing with each other some times they were bathing, at others they were sparring and sometimes even sleeping and their bodies seemed more real as time passed. It took Reynolds another year to fully digest as many refined souls as he could before he found that his own soul seemed to have reached the maximum size that his current level allowed.

He only consumed a quarter of the refined souls he had but felt that, after his soul reached its maximum power, his fire could contain more souls than before and decided to continue hunting as preparation for the god realm that he would reach in a few years. He suspected that the current limit growth of his soul would change at that moment and he would also need as much refined souls as he could get to repair his soul from the creation of his divine fire body. Getting souls within the Yulan Continent could lead to problems due to politics and hypocrisy, thus preparing now was the best option.

The fire Ba-Serpent surfaced from the lava lake and made its way towards the tunnel, this fire construct seemed like a real Ba-Serpent with different shades of red making the details more realistic. Reynolds was happily surprised when he found two artifacts on the entrance that should be the rewards for completing the 6th floor. The first artifact was a blood red scimitar and the second one was a magic-staff with a strange gem on top, he smiled as an idea passed through his mind and cut his finger to release a drop of blood on the staff.

He felt the connection with the staff and how it seemed to help on the control of his fire constructs while wielding it, but that was not his intention and soon he started using the staff as if it was a spear covering it with fire elements to made the staff into a spear, surprisingly the power of this improvised spear was better that his fire construct alone and Reynolds smiled as he kept the artifact on his hand and moved towards the next floor.

He found himself on an oasis surrounded by endless desert, he suddenly missed the environment of the 6th floor but at least it was not an ice world again, he floated leisurely adapting to the environment while suddenly several sharp grass blades grew from the oasis binding his fire construct as they tried to grind it into dust, the pressure created by this vines was surprisingly great and if his understanding of the fire element had not grown during the past two year he would have been forced to disperse into feathers to escape, but the red Ba-Serpent did not suffer any damage and the vines catched flames that immediately extended along the grass blades reaching below the ground causing a miserable scream that filled the area as the oasis turned into ashes and soon another soul started the refining process within his fire.

Reynolds was surprised at how powerful this plant type creature was, just like the Magma Demons they could depend on their mere bodies to subdue one of those four powerful saints. The red Ba-Serpent started moving leisurely on the air looking for prey and the entrance to the next level. He found several oasis along the way and all of them grew grass blades trying to kill him but all of them ended becoming ashes.

He continued hunting these plant monsters for 10 days while slowly approaching where he suspected the stairs to the 8th level should be. As soon as he approached several grass blades formed tendrils growing from the ground and a 10 meter female plant humanoid appeared blocking the way.

"What are you? I don't think I have ever seen a fire snake like you... I wonder if your blood would taste delicious, by the way my name its..." The melodious voice of the plant monster was interrupted as the red Ba-Serpent exchanged places with a thin feather that was a couple meters away from the plant creature and started coiling around her burning her body while constricting her.

A high pitched scream accompanied by the smell of burned grass filled the area while several tendrils made their way to the red snake trying to cut its body, her efforts proved useless as the red serpent body was extremely durable and being a fire construct it regenerated immediately after the blade like tendrils passed through its body. Reynolds noticed that there was a space freezing effect where the blade like tendrils passed that allowed the plant creature to damage his fire construct but he still managed to gain the advantage.

Reynolds suddenly materialized over the head of the snake wielding the staff artifact as if it was a spear and started attacking the body of the plant monster while teleporting to different locations over the fire construct. He frowned when he found out that the burning speed of his attacks could not gain much advantage over the regeneration speed of its prey and he realized that he might end up consuming all his energy before he could destroy this strange creature.

Releasing a sigh he changed his plan while the red Ba-Serpent constricted the guardian of the floor, several thin fire feathers made their way towards the countless plant monsters that were watching the battle. Then he teleported exchanging places with a feather and releasing a spear thrust to the closest plan monster before continue to teleport to the next target, before the plant monsters reacted he had killed 10 of them and several fire feathers had started to burn another 50 of them.

They screamed in terror and buried themselves as deep as they could trying to escape death, the female plant monster was going crazy from the pain and seemed not to care about the other plant monsters dying. Reynolds was unwilling but he only managed to kill another 20 plant monsters before they escaped and he knew they would not be showing themselves anymore.

He returned to the fire construct and tried to drill the through the body of the plant monster with the head of the snake causing the pain that the plant monster had to endure to reach a new level and her tendrils started attacking her own body under Reynolds's incredulous eyes severing her own head that moved at high speed diving to the sand while the rest of her body turned to ashes a few seconds later.

Reynolds remained stupefied inside the red Ba-Serpent because he saw that a quarter of her body was already regrown by the time she reached the sand and drilled underground escaping. He was aware that if the plant creature had braved the pain and endured for a couple of hours he would had been the one forced to run towards the tunnel before he ran out of energy.

He released a sigh and the red snake made its way towards the tunnel and coiled itself as soon as it was inside to recover energy and visualize the battle that he had just experienced. This female plant creature was on a whole new level not only for the strength of her body and her incredible regeneration powers, but she had gained understanding in a law that seemed to be a grade higher than the ones he had received insights on. He was just lucky that the application of her attacks was only physical and limited to improve the sharpness of her tendrils while freezing the space around her prey, those two traits were useless to the fusion of fire body and the fire element.

'Was that regeneration due to the laws she understood? Or perhaps it was due to a treasure... that seems to be the case as there was no treasure at the entrance of the tunnel. Well I cannot win every time and I did gain almost a hundred saint level souls on this floor'. Reynolds comforted himself as a smile grew on his face and he started meditating to restore his energy and preparing to study the laws of fire for a few days before continuing his exploration.

After 10 more days Reynolds was seating on the head of the Ba-Serpent while drinking wine feeling a little upset as he had been apart from Windsor and Jenne for more than two years now, he missed his family and he certainly wasn't a monk like his third brother... he was growing restless. He couldn't help but look towards the floors below thinking on the beautiful woman that was training on the 5th floor. 'Damn it! If I wasn't sure she had something to do with Lord Cesar I would definitely try to capture her'. He shaked his head while smiling lightly.

He then concentrated in creating his three favorite fire constructs and soon Windsor, Jenne and Koral were playing with each other in a way that would make any healthy male restless while his smile turned deeper and with a trace of fondness, he kept drinking his wine slowly while watching the show.

A couple of days later he again entered the body of the Ba-Serpent and the previously sleeping snake raised its head and started moving towards the 8th floor and soon to his great dislike he found himself once again in a world of ice.

He created a few fire feathers that soon were covered by a thin layer of ice that made them look like snowflakes as they hovered around the red snake as it started to made his way leisurely looking for prey. He was disappointed after a few hours as he did not find any living been and this time he suspected that besides the mandatory guardian he would not find any other living thing on this floor.

He sighed resigned as he started looking for the stairs leading to the 9th floor while keeping his senses at maximum alert, he did not feel comfortable in these cold places and he suspected that the guardian would most likely be a practitioner of the elemental laws of water.

After a few hours he found the entrance to the tunnel connecting to the next level and prepared himself for battle. "Oh... little snake did you kill Lapachale? That is quite good did she suffered?" A gentle male voice resounded but Reynolds could not find who was speaking.

"Well she suffered yes, but she did not die. She severed her own head to escape and drilled to the sands escaping for her life, I did not expect her amazing regeneration rate". The mischievous voice came from the mouth of the Ba-Serpent showing the degree of improvement of the two fused laws that Reynolds had reached.