The Burning Fiend

'L-linley... this is your 4th brother?' Desri transmitted his thoughts to all the saints while Linley blinked realizing that they were still in panic specially Rosarie and he could help but laugh. 'Yes, we grew together at the Ernst Institute and we even graduated together. I did not see him since we entered the Necropolis of the Gods and thought that he might had remained on the 2nd floor... I never guessed he left us behind and ended arriving here before all of us'.

Rosarie was calming down now realizing that she had being teased by a child who had not even been alive for 50 years and blushed in shame while looking away. She did not say anything as she was still scared by the feeling of complete helplessness she experienced when he released the divine field.

"Well, yes... I found a spear that was baptized by the elemental laws of fire and a ring which serves as a soul defensive artifact". Reynolds calm voice said as a spear and a ring floated out from the serpent mouth and floated in front of Bebe that was jumping excitedly. "And I am not a divine beast I just created this fire construct and fuse with it to practice the elemental laws of fire, the Ba-Serpent made an impression on me while I met him at the 3rd floor but it turned out to be quite the nice guy and even gave me advice after we drank wine". The Ba-Serpent said with its eyes half opened as if remembering a good time.

The saints, including Linley stay frozen with their mouths wide open in disbelieve and were awakened by Reynolds mischievous voice as he said to Rosarie. "You don't have to look at me like that pretty thing you are making me blush". Rosarie blushed again and stamped her foot on the ground wondering how to react to the teasing of a child provoking laugher from Reynolds and Bebe.

"L-Lord Reynolds, d-did you said that we were f-fools that stayed as saints for thousands of years? W-what did you mean?" Fain said in a respectful voice as he realized that the aura realized by the kid in front of him was more powerful than the aura of his Master.

The Ba-Serpent looked at him and blinked. "Who are you again? Besides third brother and Bebe I don't think I know any of you?" Fain blinked in astonishment but realized that it was probably true and the kid was so young that it was no wonder that he did not know of the prime saints.

"R-right I am Fain the first disciple of the War God". Fain said immediately. The Ba-Serpent nodded and said. "Wel Fain, did you came here 3000 years ago? Then why did you waste 8 years training on the 5th floor? Wouldn't it be better to try whatever plan you guys had made in preparation and return to the 5th level with enough time to make another attempt?" Reynolds voice was disdainful and Desri, Rosarie and Fain blinked in shame.

"You have no hope of wining the battle that's why you were wasting time... you might be able to defeat the Flame Tyrant but you did not believe that you will be able to conquer the next floor, I will even dare to said that the reason that you lot managed to survive against that strange plant creature should be because either my third brother or the other guy who I don't know had a breakthrough during battle."

The three prime saints lowered their heads as Reynolds words stabbed through their hearts. "In fact you already gave up on becoming Gods the moment that you decided to put your hopes on the divine spark, didn't you? But you did not even dare to really use the Necropolis of the Gods to experience life and death situations that might help you get enlightenment and reach a new level. That's why I said that you are useless fools... although I would not mind to enjoy the company pretty thing over there even if she has given up on becoming stronger on her own..." Reynolds said the last part while watching Rosarie from feet to head in a appreciative way lingering for a moment on her legs and full b.r.e.a.s.t making her blush again.

"Well... third brother do you have wine? I drank my last bottle a year ago and being here on my own has become a little boring... I will never understand your monk ways as I really miss my two wives..." Reynolds said as the Ba-Serpent disappeared and a young man with dark red hair took his place as he floated towards Linley.

Linley was again aggrieved. 'Why does he keep calling me a monk? Is it really that difficult to train for 8 years without thinking on women? Hmm... although it is true that I have not thought much about Delia in this 8 years...' Linley seemed between pensive and aggrieved for a moment before releasing a sigh that seemed to contain frustration and relief. "Yes I do have a few bottles. Should we go to the 10th floor? The environment here doesn't feel adequate for drinking wine..."

Reynolds eyes were shining now as he laughed. "Yes, this used to be a world of metal but after I killed around a million of those annoying metal creatures I got bored and created my molten metal lake to practice. But the 10th floor seemed to be very nice for drinking wine if I remember well."

"Why did you kill a million metal creatures?" Linley was aghast and Reynolds looked at him with a mischievous smile. "Well, they almost killed me so I decided to kill them all once I had my breakthrough... they started begin once I had killed a third of them, but since they tried to kill me I had no reason to show mercy, don't you think?"

The answer made Linley uncomfortable but could not find anything to argue about it so he kept quiet while all made their way towards the 10th floor. Bebe asked with curiosity. "Reynolds did you fused with the divine spark? For what you said to Fain I think you will not do that, right?"

Reynolds smiled and said while nodding. "You are correct I became a God on my own right about two years ago, I kept the divine spark thinking that maybe Windsor, Jenne or Koral might needed but I guess Koral would become a God by her own right within a hundred years. I do not know about Windsor and Jenne though so it is better to keep it as an option I think".

The four magical beast and the three prime saints seemed to be considering if they should ask for the divine spark but after he mentioned his wives there was not room for negotiation and the three prime saints were also thinking on the reprimand they had just received and felt it was justified, perhaps they should train by themselves looking for a different path... drinking wine with someone that become a God two years ago seemed a good opportunity to ask questions and advice.

A few hours later they all were seating on the grass with a cup of wine that Reynolds held in his hand as if it were a precious treasure... he only had been without wine for about a year and he could not imagine the suffering that the Ba-Serpent had to endure by been trapped in the Necropolis of the Gods without wine and women. He smiled and enjoyed the fragrance before taking a small taste of the wine. "Well third brother tell me of your adventures on the 7th floor, would you?"

Linley sighed and said. "We were happy thinking that we had avoided the Flame Tyrant and rushed to the 7th floor where we were attacked by plant creatures that used grass blades to trap and cut us. We lost half of our numbers by these monsters alone. The prime saints had no problem avoiding and killing those creatures but the 'Queen Mother' was a hundred times stronger that the normal monsters and her tendrils froze space making it difficult to avoid".

He continued with a sad tone that surprised Reynolds. "We lost to many people before we realized that we were not her opponents and escaped with the help of the magical beast here as they are faster than most saints. We had to hide for months while training as the passage to the previous floor was blocked, until I gained enlightenment and developed an attack that could restrain the Queen Mother and we were able to kill her with the help of Cleo and his brothers as they could paralyze her for a moment".

Reynolds was surprised by the sadness that Linley was showing and reflected on himself. 'I only care for the people that are close to me and I doubt that it will affect me if someone that I know, but I'm not close to, were to die. Perhaps is the influence of that gal Delia? Or the camadery from fighting side by side?'

"Fourth brother tell me about the other floors, what kind of creatures did you find?" Linley asked curiously and all the saints paid rapt attention, Reynolds was still in his thoughts and answering distractedly.

"Well, on the 8th floor there was only one guardian that called himself the Beholder King. In the end it was only an 'eye' type creature who could release soul attacks through its innate ability and used ice constructs to fight wielding a spear artifact with ice attributes". He paused to take another sip on his wine and continue.

"The 9th floor was guarded by a strange man that seemed made of liquid metal that was immune to the elements... I was lucky that I attacked immediately to try my new soul attack or I would have been in great disadvantage there, he had a 'Pearl of Life' as well. This floor had a guardian that seemed a person made of metal, his arms and legs where blades and could produce energy attacks... I guess he was slightly below in power if you compare it with the prime saints".

He smiled ruefully as he took another taste of his wine. "The 11th floor was the scary one... a million of that same type of creature plus 3 especial ones that were above in power to the prime saints. All without fear of death and willing to sacrifice their own just to kill me. I had a breakthrough when they almost manage to kill me otherwise It will had taken me around 3 years to kill them all."

He turned to look at the prime saints for a moment but maintaining his eyes on Rosarie while enjoying the view. "In short I fought then trained reviewing what I did. I improved and fought again. Now if I were to be bold, you pretty thing and the old guy over there had been saint magus for thousands of years but had never tried a different path, correct? You did not train as warriors or even started pondering a new law, you just remained as you were... frustrated for not advancing but refusing to try a different path. The same applies to you Fain, isn't it?"

Then he looked at the magical beast and said. "I do not understand the way you train but I can tell you how Koral trains and I'm sure that she will became a God in less than a hundred years. Koral is a velocidragon by the way, she started training by applying the realms of wielding weapons to her tail and surpassed her limits becoming a saint that should not be weaker than any of you. She trains by creating a human body with fire elements and using it to train weapons while increasing the details and realism of her fire construct, she usually is inside the fire construct trying to connect with it to understand the 'fire body'. Do you understand?"

The magical beast and the prime saints were stupefied by that, on one hand the prime saints had received what they wanted but felt humiliated at how simple it sounded. They had been limited by their own egos and refused to start again blocking themselves from advancing. The magical beasts were also annoyed as they felt pride of being magical beasts and despised human beings to some degree, they understood how training like that would help but the thought had never crossed their minds as it would had been humiliating for them to even consider training like humans would do.