The Burning Fiend

Dylin was amused by the eagerness of his children and they purred while seating on his shoulder due to the happiness of him agreeing to their request, he was floating calmly over the Forest of Darkness until he finally found a lake at the edge of the forest with a small island on the middle.

He was about to contacts Reynolds thinking of being polite as he had given hope to his children but stopped in his tracks surprised as he saw three women sparring near the edge of the lake, the two women were exceptionally beautiful... 'perhaps only that Rosarie is a little above these two'. But what really caught his attention was the other woman, he had not really believed his children when they told him of how they wanted to train but he was witnessing a velocidragon that reduced to a size of 10 cm and coiled itself inside a fire construct in the form of a beautiful woman with horns and pointed teeth.

She was suppressing the other two while using the 'impose' realm as if teaching them how it should be done, the control of the fire elemental essence was already enough to award her the rank of a peak saint but the emotions that the fire woman showed, the control of her strength and her reactions... 'she is already touching the point of merging the fire essence with the flame body but she doesn't seems to be aware of it'. Dylin thought surprised and finally understood why their children were so motivated to the new way of training.

'Perhaps they still have hope to reach the deity realm on their own'. Dylin smiled and sent his greetings to Reynolds who was soon floating near them. "Dylin, what a surprise. Come lets drink a cup of wine, should we?" Reynolds voice was cordial and relaxed, he knew that Dylin was stronger than him even though both of them were Demi Gods but his instincts told him that there was something dangerous. 'Perhaps he has an innate ability? He is a divine beast after all'. Reynolds thought and he saw that the three kittens were locking at Koral and the girls with undivided attention.

He chuckled and said. "If you want you can go and see how they train but you are not allow to bully my companions, understood?" The three kittens nodded in understanding and made their way towards the girls paying rapt attention to the instructions Koral gave to the two human girls.

Reynolds took Dylin to a table on the garden and took a bottle of wine offering a cup to his unexpected visitor, they both took a moment to enjoy the fragrance of the wine and then had a small taste before Reynolds asked. "To what do I owe the p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e of your visit, Dylin?" His voice was calm with a hint of happiness as he was smelling his cup of wine with his eyes half closed.

Dylin smiled realizing that the kid had just been released from the Necropolis of the Gods, might had suffered from lack of wine during the past 10 years, was treating his cup as if it were a treasure. "My children told me of their conversation with you and I was curious about your idea of training, to be honest I wasn't fully confident of it until I saw the velocidragon training with your... wives? How did you came with that idea?"

Reynolds took a moment to enjoy another sip of his wine and smiled. "Yes they are my wives... but I told them I would not recognize them as such until they at least became saints". He laughed mischievously as if proud of his antics. "And about Koral... well she became my companion when we were both rank 7 combatants and I defeated her using the second realm of wielding weapons, she became curious of how my power had increased as there was not much difference in our realms and performance in battle, so I taught her and she then started imitating the way I usually trained at the time with a few modifications to adapt it to her needs. But she is the most hard working of the women in my family".

Dyling and Reynolds talked for hours while drinking wine, Reynolds learned of the Gebados Prison and how difficult life was there and that other gods might be appearing on the Yulan Continent as they would probably follow the example of Dylin and escape through the gap on the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.

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A few days later Reynolds was flying towards the Yulan Empire, but he planned to made a small visit to his mother on the O'Brien Empire on his way there. It had been nearly 20 years since he had seen his mother and knew that perhaps this would be the last time they met, the life of mortals was short and there was nothing he could do about it.

He arrived at the Dunstan Mansion and expanded his spiritual sense finding his mother drinking tea on her garden, she still looked the same as the last time they met. He entered the mansion without alerting anyone and soon was near his mother smiling. "Mother, you look as beautiful as I remember. Have you been well? Can I join you for a cup of tea?" His voice was calm but full of attachment as he looked at her while his mother was surprised but soon smiled and ran to hug him.

"You little devil, you finally came to visit me? Do you know how worried I have been? Where are those two girls? Have you been bullying them?" Her voice showed endearment and her eyes were moist, Reynolds's smile turned mischievous and say. "Yes, I guess, at home and you can be sure that I bully them every day as much as I can."

Her mother blinked at him and started hitting him on the c.h.e.s.t while laughing, he spend a few hours with her and told her that if she needed to contact him the Dawson Conglomerate could help her to find him as they still send news to him every week. He left without meeting anyone else and made his way towards the Yulan Empire.

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Reynolds had never visited the Yulan Empire and felt fascinated by the different style of architecture and how much their culture seemed to be based on magicians. 'Perhaps the High Priest herself is fond of magicians'. He thought and decided that before returning home he would find his second brother as they have not met for nearly 30 years and wondered how life had treated him all these years.

As soon as he was in the Capital he felt Catherine's spiritual signature and headed on the direction she indicated, soon he found himself on a forest that seemed to be forbidden for the people of the Capital and understood that this should be the place where Catherine lived. She was seating cross-legged on a garden next to a wood cabin that seemed practical but not luxurious, the environment on this place was relaxing and seemed to suit her personality.

"Welcome Reynolds, you seem surprised?" Catherine neutral voice would made difficult to help anyone identifying her gender and the calming effect it had seemed ever present. Reynolds showed his characteristic mischievous smile and said. "Hello Catherine, to be honest I expected a temple of sorts as you are known as the High Priest. So it is slighty disconcerting I guess." Cathering laughed for a moment and seemed as if birds were singing surprising Reynolds that even felt a slight urge to add his own laugher to join hers.

"In my early years I did that... but I had always felt uncomfortable around humans and the forest seems more endearing to me than the city. To be honest I would not care much for the Empire if it were not for the faith it provides me, you would have found already that practicing the edicts of life is much more difficult than practicing the elemental laws but even with thousands of years of faith I'm still unable to become a Full God. Sometimes I feel like I would remain in this place trapped forever." At the end of her speech the sadness seemed tangible confusing Reynolds.

"I'm sorry Catherine... I'm still too young I cannot understand your situation. But as long as we are alive there should be hope, isn't it? I don't mean to be rude, but for what you said... are you not human?" He felt surprised as he understood that Beirut was a divine beast just like Dylin and they would never consider to spend their lives surrounded by human mortals... 'so what kind of creature are you Catherine?'

Catherine took off her mask showing a beautiful face with pointy ears and a sad smile adorned her face. "My tribe arrived at the Yulan Continent 5000 years ago to enter the Necropolis of the Gods, I was a saint back then... a child according to my tribe traditions. Being the only saint I was not allowed to enter the Necropolis and remained on the Yulan Continent waiting for them... but they never came out and I cannot return to the Life Plane as all my people died here and my situation would become disaster as it would for any female elf Demi God without a clan. I would probably be captured and sold."

Reynolds was taken aback as understood her situation and the only thing he could do was sight, the loneliness of been the only one of her kind on a foreign plane was not something he could relate at all. "Well, I did not invite you here to talk about my past I was hopping we could exchange experiences in training the laws of life. Even if you are just beginning perhaps with time having conversations would help us both to improve". Her mood seemed to improve significantly and her smile seemed dazzling, Reynolds smiled back and said with a hand resting on the back of his head.

"Forgive me but I do not know anything about the traditions of the Elf tribe I had brough you one of my favorite bottles of wine, but now I feel that perhaps I should have brough tea?" She laughed at this and said. "I indeed prefer tea over wine, I will have you taste my favorite tea... perhaps you will find it more adequate for training than wine".

Her laugher was truly unsettling and he had to shake his head slightly to clear his mind. She soon was serving two cups of tea and they started their conversation of the mysteries of life as she made occasional demonstrations helping Reynolds to increase his understanding.