The Burning Fiend

On the 11th floor of the Necropolis of the Gods a red Ba-Serpent seemed to be comfortable sleeping while releasing fire breath with every snore in a rhythmic way that created a peaceful environment despite being surrounded by a lake of molten metal that released poisonous gases that created optical effects as they ascended through the air.

Some days three women danced for the big snake, these women seemed made from flesh and bone and if it were not for the different shades of red on their bodies one would not think of them as fire constructs.

One day, after almost two years since the Ba-Serpent started sleeping in this place, the three women started to change as they danced. The hair of one of them turned white as she danced and then her eyes turned white as well, the eyes of one of the other women turned green and the skin of both of them turned a very pale shade of red as their warrior outfits turned gray with black cloth belts on their waists. They smiled and their teeth turned white, then the other woman started to change as well her hair and horns turned black then her skin turned a very pale shade of red while her warrior outfit turned black and her red eyes gained white around the irises, finally she smiled and her sharp teeth turned white.

The three women kept dancing while the Ba-Serpent turned green and the patterns on its body turned blue. It opened its eyes that had gained white around the now blue irises and opened its mouth showing its white sharp fangs. A satisfied growl filled the entire 11th floor as the Ba-Serpent closed it eyes again returning to its sleep but now its snores were accompanied by a dark dense fire that resembled mist.

'The fusion of the two laws has made good progress, I think that I'm only a step away for reaching the deity realm... I must remain calm and not be like those saints that remained a step away from becoming gods for thousands of years'. Reynolds smiled was immersing himself in the peace he felt on this place focusing on the currents within the molten metal lake.

After two days and incomparable pressure descended on the 11th floor catching the attention of the Ba-Serpent sleeping on the 3rd floor that was surprised when he saw the new Ba-Serpent on the 11th floor and his laughter filled the entire floor.

Reynolds was so immersed on his meditation that he did not realize that the laws had descended until a overbearing force started searching his soul and mind putting together everything he knew regarding the laws of fire, he felt terrified for a moment until he realized with happiness and apprehension that the moment to become a god had come.

The Ba-Serpent dissipated and Reynolds remained floating while waiting patiently, not long after a dark stone appeared in front of him radiating a burning aura. Reynolds smiled and extended his hand pushing away the new divine spark.

He felt apprehension as his soul left his body and floated above his head for a moment before the laws started splitting the burning tree in half. Reynolds could not avoid screaming as the rendering pain seemed beyond endurance, he breathed deeply a few moments later when the process ended and watched as one of the two smaller burning trees made its way towards the divine spark and merged with it.

He felt marveled as the laws created a divine body while his soul returned to his saint body. The laws left as quickly as they had arrived while Reynolds was occupied examining his new body that was identical to his own the only difference was that his hair was dark red instead of black with purple shades.

He concentrated a moment and a dark red warrior outfit covered his new body, he realized that his divine sense could extend to a hundred meters and imagined that the range would be larger once he returned to the Yulan Continent.

He was about to use divine power to strengthen his saint body when by some sort of instinct he understood that he should not do it before he created the two divine bodies for the life and death edicts or his power would go out of balance and he will lose the abilities that the accident of many years ago provided.

He sighed without annoyance as his saint body was already quite strong, what worried him at this point was to find that his soul seemed weak. He found that the speed on which he visualized and studied the laws had dramatically reduced due to the splitting of his soul, so the two bodies joined together.

His divine body was on the exterior and the Ba-Serpent appeared again coiling itself and returned to its sleep. He could visualize that in his sea of conscience his saint body floated cross-legged below a small flaming three that was the soul of his divine body.

A purple flame appeared on the hand of his saint body and the refined souls started to flow to the flaming three above him as they were also absorbed by the saint body. Reynolds could feel how his two souls were growing making him feel comfortable and relaxed, his saint body started to indulge on the experience of refining souls while his divine body returned to ponder the fire elements and the fire body somehow knowing that he would reach the next level once he completely understand the two laws.

But he also knew that the time needed for that would be very long and perhaps he would manage to create his other two divine bodies before that time arrived. He smiled when he realized that he was thinking on the next realm instead of enjoying the success of the moment, he blocked the distracting thoughts and continued pondering while consuming the refined souls.

After a whole year Reynolds felt that both of his souls had reached the same level he had before his soul was splitted but they both could keep growing and this discovery made him happy as the speed on which he could ponder the laws would increase. By now 7 years had passed since the group of saints entered the Necropolis of the Gods and it will be no long before Linley and the rest will start their journey towards the top. 'I wonder how will third brother fare with that plant woman... he should be fine, at least he will be able to escape along with Bebe and I don't really care about the others...'

During this time the molten metal lake expanded to a kilometer in radius taking the small metal island as a center changing significantly the environment on the 11th floor as the temperature rose due to the gases expelled from the lake, even Reynolds would feel suffocated if he wasn't using his fire body all the time.

Now that he had obtained his fire divine body it was a common occurrence to find his saint body pondering the spells of both life and death. He focussed on the healing aspect of the life magic and compared its effect against the 'Pearl of Life' trying to dissect the spells to find the useful parts as he realized that most of the spell was a prayer directed to the Sovereign to gain its assistance to release the magic and he lost himself for a moment wondering why would the Sovereign would want prayers and redirected his wandering thoughts to the Radiant Church and the Church of Darkness remembering that the Sovereign would answer to their prayers and sacrifices.

He also pondered the slaving spells of the death magic as it was the magic that he had used the most while neglecting most of the necromancer inheritance, now that his soul has surpassed the limits of the saint level everything seemed clearer and pondering the edicts of life and death was not impossible anymore, difficult yes but not impossible.

Soon the eight years passed since the opening of the Necropolis of the Gods and Linley along with other 10 saints finally made their way to the 11th floor, the beautiful woman with jade hair was flying along with two of the prime saints, Linley and another young man, they were the only humans that had survived against the strange plant creature of the 7th floor. Along with them Bebe floated with a black scorpion and three six-eyed kittens.

All of them made their way depressed looking for the divine spark while remembering the happiness they had felt for not encountering the Flame Tyrant, the terror they felt as Lapachale toyed with them killing them one by one until Linley had managed to have a breakthrough on the laws of wind creating a new powerful attack that allowed them to kill the plant creature and gain the 'Pearl of Life'.

By that time only 11 of them remained and keep exploring the Necropolis of the Gods, they felt happiness when they did not meet a guardian on the world of ice that was the 8th floor, when the situation repeated on the 9th floor they felt apprehension as the understanding that someone had gone before them started to take root and their fears were confirmed when on they found the destruction on the terrain near the entrance to the 11th floor.

They were exploring in fear keeping absolute silence until several hours later their hearts stopped as they found a molten metal lake on which the Ba-Serpent was sleeping releasing the same black mist that had covered the entrance to the third floor just this time it was covering the entrance to the 12th floor.

'How is that possible? the Ba-Serpent should be on the third floor, why would the divine beast be here?' The terrified Fain expressed his doubts by projecting his thoughts to his 10 companions. One of the kittens responded. 'It is not impossible, Father said that a God can have more bodies as long as they understood laws of different elements'.

Bebe was angry. 'That's cheating! I will tell grandpa you see... hmmp!' Rosalie was unwilling and asked 'should we go to the next floor? Perhaps the divine spark is within the tunnel'. Their eyes lit up as the humans remembered having experienced this before and explained to the magical beast. Making her resolution Rosalie did not wait for them and charged towards the tunnel with perfect timing to avoid the black mist but found herself frozen in the air as terror griped her heart as a mischievous voice filled the lake as the Ba-Serpent opened its eyes and lifted its head lazily.

"Now, now... you don't want to go there pretty thing or are you planning to stay within the tunnel for the next two years? Wouldn't that be boring? Why don't you better stay here like a good girl and make me company? At least you are not as useless as the other fools over there, no wonder you idiots had remained as saints for thousands of years. Training for 8 years on the 5th floor... Who was the idiot who proposed that? What difference it makes from training here for 8 years instead of training 8 years on the Yulan Continent? Didn't you lot enter this Necropolis 3,000 years ago?"

The saints trembled in fear, specially Rosarie, while Bebe and Linley were paralyzed as they reconized the voice. Linley finally managed to speak between tears and laughter. "F-fourth brother? Is that you? W-why can't you greet me, your ELDER BROTHER, IN A NORMAL WAY!?" The last part of his speech was an angry roar making all the saints even more terrified before they realized that Linley was referring to the Ba-Serpent as 'fourth brother'.

Rosalie had tears in her eyes while Bebe was laughing delighted at the misery of the others as he jumped around the snake head while asking excitedly. "Reynolds! How did you turn into a Ba-Serpent? Are you also a divine beast? Did you get the divine spark? Did you get other treasures? Can I see them?"