The Burning Fiend

Five days had passed since Reynolds arrived to the 11th floor of the Necropolis of the Gods and each day he spent it by killing metallic creatures and practicing the laws while resting, at this point he had killed nearly 5,000 metallic creatures but that was a drop of water in the ocean as there was a million of them within this floor.

On the sixth day the red Ba-Serpent made its way to a valley were he found a group of a hundred metallic creatures and decided to kill them, it was obviously a trap but with his teleportation and his fire body he did not think they could present any danger to him and soon the red snake was devouring the metallic creatures that seemed happy to serve as bait, then he found that half a kilometer around him nearly a 50,000 metallic creatures were surrounding him and all of them released an energy attack.

Reynolds smirked and teleported outside the encircling ready to start killing more metallic creatures but he felt terrified when he realized that even more energy attacks were hitting his fire construct at this time. Apparently the 50,000 metallic creatures that released the energy attack before were also bait as 200,000 metallic creatures were surrounding them and released the same energy attack along with the other 50,000 that would surely die.

There was not even an opportunity for him to react as he was hit by the energy attack and forcing him to experience tearing pain as the fire construct was riddled with holes and even his fire body was destroyed only leaving half of his head, he had never felt death so close and yet he survived as he could reform his fire body with fire elements and the 'Pearl of Life' started working at incredible speed. While his body was being repaired he focused in reforming his fire construct before the fire elements dissipated and the red Ba-Serpent released and infuriated roar as anger seemed to burn his very soul.

The temperature of the flames forming the red snake increased beyond his current limit not only increasing its power as its speed reached the same realm that the red metallic creatures had shown before, the red snake started devouring the metallic creatures at high speed and teleporting from time to time. The temperature of the flames could now kill the metallic creatures that entered its body within two or three seconds increassing the rate in wish he hunted.

After a while his anger seemed to subside and the Ba-Serpent disappeared looking for a place to rest, Reynolds had not been in control of his actions for a while due to the fear of being so close to death and the anger and humiliation he felt for his own stupidity, he should have known that these creatures will not hesitate to sacrifice his own even in high numbers. He had jumped into the trap like an idiot and almost ended up killed.

Half an hour later he was seating on a metallic cave visualizing the entire fight, the ambush, the terror he felt when he realized that only half of his head remained and the relief as he felt the 'Pear of Life' regenerating his body at high speed... 'did my fear and anger increased my power? and how the power of my fire construct increased so much? Why?'

He fell into meditation and felt as if something was tearing a thin cover that had not allowed him to see clearly before. "They are alive! The fire elements responds to emotions... anger releases their power and … calm increases control." He muttered surprised as his lips formed a brilliant smile when realization dawned on him. He remembered when and old looking saint had tried to take Windsor from him and the burning anger had increased the power of his 'fire body thrust' allowing him to kill him in a single hit but he had not realized the effect of his emotions before.

His smile grew as he started to experiment, Windsor and Jenne appeared in front of him but he directed his love and possessiveness towards them into the fire constructs making them reach a new realm of realism and realized that this two fire constructs were not too far in power from those 4 saints that were supposed to be the strongest within the Yulan Continent.

He remained practicing for 3 days improving his control on the fire element and adding his new understanding to the fusion with the fire body and then... the hunt resumed. From this day onward he killed nearly 10,000 metallic creatures every day and then returned to rest and practice. The numbers of the metallic creatures finally started to dwindle and after a month and they tried to negotiate and tell him where the divine spark was located but Reynolds was not the forgiven kind, they had almost killed him and they would all die... 'who cares about the divine spark? I will find it myself after killing them all!'

As time passed he spent more and more time fused into his Ba-Serpent trying to increase his understanding of the fire body, he meditated as the Ba-Serpent 'slept' releasing fire with each snore in a good imitation of the real Ba-Serpent and his understanding keep growing as well as the fusion of the two laws.

Six months after entering the 11th floor he finally gained entrance to the elemental law that contained the 'heat emission' allowing him to burn thing without touching them, his understanding was low as this mystery was of a higher level and it will take a long time to fully deploy it but the extreme temperature that his fire construct could now generate was able to travel without much lose through the air either to the surrounding area or a fixed direction.

This allowed him to find the metallic creatures, that now were hiding pretending to be metallic rocks, as they started screaming whenever the Ba-Serpent floated a kilometer from them, At his point he didn't need to high anymore, after 'eating' metallic creatures the giant Ba-Serpent would coil itself on an open area to sleep as is challenging the metallic creatures to attack, no attack come at all though.

After a full year he was still looking for the last red metallic creature but decided to give up, and started to travel leisurely looking for the entrance to the next level to see if he could find the divine spark, it took him three days to finally locate the entrance to the next level and not far from it there was a ring, a spear and a black rock that emitted the aura of the fire elements. He didn't know that Beirut was angry that he had destroyed the opportunities that would have helped Linley and Bebe to grow but he had not broken any rule and his talent was something he wanted to nurture so he had limited his punishment by reducing the rewards for clearing the first 11th floors of the Necropolis of the Gods.

Reynolds was excited on his ignorance and threw unceremoniously the divine spark into his interspatial ring and then proceed to bound the two artifacts, he was especially hopeful for the spear. His elated laugher filled the area as he found that the spear was an artifact nurtured with fire elemental laws increasing his fondness to it and he regained his human form and started dancing with his new spear. He detected that the law used to nurture this spear was not one of those he already gained understanding and his happiness increased hopping that later it would be useful to gain entry to a new elemental law.

He then turned his attention to the ring thinking that it might be a interspatial ring but felt surprised when he realized that the ring was a soul protecting artifact and decided to wear it immediately, he had been lucky to resist without much trouble the soul attacks he had encountered until now but this artifact will protect his soul from the attack of a deity level figure, he did not understand the levels within the deity ranks yet but he would ask one of the other deities as soon as he left the Necropolis of the Gods, he felt that he would reach the deity realm within two years and he sighed as he figured out that he would need to remain here for almost 5 years after that.

He transformed back into a red Ba-Serpent and coiled near the entrance to the next level while releasing fire, with each snore, that would block the entrance to the stairs wondering if when the idiots below managed to arrive here, if they survive the plant woman of the 7th floor, would try to go to the next level as they did on the third floor. He smirked before starting meditating while his new spear and the ring remained on the Ba-Serpent mouth being baptized with the fire elemental laws each time the giant snake snored releasing its fire breath.

On the third floor the Ba-Serpent had transformed again into a young man who was smiling and laughing as his attention was focused on the kid. "He did it! I only need to wait less than seven years and I will be free!" his laugher resounded on the third floor. He looked again at the 11th floor and felt amused by the kid's wise imitation also wondering if the other saints will try to enter the 12th floor.

As time passed Reynolds felt more comfortable in his Ba-Serpent form, the breathing seemed calm and rhythmic and the temperature of the fire released with each snore was higher and the fire even remained for a moment on the air blocking the entrance before dissipating. After a year the temperature around the coiled snake started increasing and soon the metal floor ten meters around the snake started to melt forming a lake of red molten metal that keep releasing hot gases to the air forming mirages from time to time. Soon the scenery changed and a red coiled Ba-Serpent was sleeping on a small metal island surrounded by a lake of molten metal that extended 300 meters from the island.

The surviving Abyssal Demons died miserably as, unknown to Reynolds, they were hiding bellow the ground on a sealed cave near the entrance to the 12th floor. When the molten metal lake appeared the temperature started to rise slowly and they understood the danger too late, but been terrified of the demon waiting just outside their last refuge they remained within the cave until they melted becoming part of the lake. Reynolds was surprised when another 4,000 souls joined his collection and sighed understanding that those creatures had died in pain and terror but such was the fate of the weak and he would do his best to avoid joining them ever.

From this day onward the Ba-Serpent become the only living being on the 11th floor and became the new guardian... at least for the next 6 years.