The Burning Fiend

Reynolds made his way through the tunnel being careful of not using his spiritual sense to explore ahead, his experience within the Necropolis of the Gods, where one's spiritual sense would be reduced to the extreme, had helped him to be patient and careful.

He was wearing the material defense artifact he exchanged from Beirut and his spiritual defense artifact as well before he had turned into a cloud of feathers, so he felt that as long as he did not met a Full God he should have no problem. He felt excited as this would be his first battle since becoming a Demi God. 'It has been a while since I felt the trill of battle'. He thought forcing himself to clear his mind and focus on the hunt.

At the end of the tunnel there was a heavy door but the feathers entered slowly one after another surrounding a fragile looking man covered in black robes, he seemed completely entranced observing a crystal ball full of mist. The d.e.s.i.r.e and urgency were evident on the old man and he was so focused on whatever he was doing with the crystal ball that he did not notice the feathers before he was already surrounded.

He suddenly startled and looked around while releasing his divine field but failed to cause any effect on the feathers as Reynolds released his divine field as well nullifying each his. Reynolds was surprised that he was allowed to surround his prey and thought this was a trap.

A cold voice devoid of emotions seemed to fill the dark underground chamber. "Who are you? What business do you have with me? If you think that stealing these souls from me is going to be easy you are in for a surprise". The last part of his speech was accompanied by a mocking smirk.

Reynolds did not waste time talking and started the battle as one of his feathers turned into a flame body reinforced with elemental essence and wielded his spear artifact that also turned into pure fire. The old man seemed annoyed to be ignored and a scythe appeared on his hand preparing himself for battle while releasing a grey mist around him that then moved towards the flame warrior in front of him.

Being protected by the defensive artifacts, and figuring out that his enemy was also a Demi God, Reynolds decided to charge head on and passing though the mist causing the old man to move upwards trying to avoid him.

The mist seemed to disappear as it infiltrated Reynolds's body causing him a moment of panic but he soon calmed down as the mist was blocked from reaching his soul by a barrier projected by his ring. Seeing that his prey wanted to leave he teleported to one of the feathers closest to the old man and attacked with his spear as the old man tried to parry with his scythe but he attack was so unexpected that he was forced down.

The old man was scared now, his soul was wounded long ago and he had just noticed that his soul attack was completely ineffective, denied of his greatest advantage and forced into a physical battle was out of his expectations. "Are you the War God? I was careful not to have anything to do with your territory, why are you attacking me?"

Reynolds smirked and his cold laughter filled the room. "Does it matter? You only need to know that I want to kill you... don't look for a righteous reason". As he spoke the feathers started turning into identical humanoid flame bodies and they started speaking with the same voice as soon as they formed, at the end of the speech the old man found himself surrounded by ten flame bodies and he could not identify which one was the real one.

"Now lets see how long can you entertain me, should we?" One of the flame humanoids charged attacking with the fire spear forcing the old man to respond with the scythe, he was very skilled as he moved the scythe in circles with perfect patterns and timing not giving any opportunity to the fire spear to reach his body.

Reynolds was fascinated as it was the first time that he had found someone with such magnificent mastery of a weapon, the old man was even better than him. The scythe was protected with a gray mist that reminded Reynolds of the previous soul attack but within a lesser degree and it was constantly bombarding the barrier around his soul without managing to cause any damage, still Reynolds focused and willed a thread of fire elemental essence reinforced by his understanding on the flame body to join the barrier and felt satisfied as the barrier seemed more flexible and resistant.

He then focused on improving his control of the spear while his saint body, that was seated on the island within the Forest of Darkness, was paying rapt attention to every move the old man performed and trying to understand the gray mist soul attack but he could not gain insights without actually getting in contact with it and he would not be doing such a reckless thing.

The old man seemed desperate as he was completely supressed and was looking for opportunities to escape, he thought that the person in front of him should be someone with a grudge against him perhaps for someone he had killed or slaved in the past couple of years but he had not given any clue and he could not even use that person as a hostage.

Reynolds noticed that the old man was trying to escape and decided that he would not be gaining much from fighting him in any case and as long as he manage to obtain his scythe he might gain a clue to the aspect of the edicts that the old man was using, five of the flame humanoids turned translucent as their eyes glowed in brilliant red and then dissipated after releasing red beams from their eyes that impacted the bewildered old man.

He screaming as his soul started to burn from the soul attack and Reynolds took the opportunity to attack his head trying to kill him, he was surprised that the old man still managed to block 4 hits with his scythe as he fought through the pain of having his soul burning. Still he could not last much longer and the fifth thrust of his spear pierced between his eyes and impacted the divine spark burning it connection with both soul and body. The old man released a piercing scream, he was unwilling of not been even allowed the opportunity to release his last card to take this demon along with him on the road to Netherworld... soon his body turned to ashes and a black divine spark that released death aura, a ring and the scythe fell to the ground.

Reynolds released his spiritual sense at his maximum trying to find if there was a saint body hiding, but he found nothing besides that Yale was kneeling and clutching his hair in desperation as tears filled his eyes. Reynolds collected everything that seemed remotely useful in the underground chamber and make his way up appearing next to Yale releasing his spiritual power forcing him to calm down and cleared his mind.

"Eldest brother are you alright?" The concerned voice seemed to wake up Yale and he looked up. "Fourth brother? Did you kill the Great Warlock?" His crackling voice had a hint of hope and his eyes shinned with madness making Reynolds sigh. "If he was the old man on the underground chamber then yes, I killed him". A crazed laughter filled the room accompanied by his muttering. "Good... it is good".

Reynolds sighed again and increased his spiritual coercion trying to calm him. "Can you tell me what happened?" He knew that perhaps it would be better to wait for Yale to recover but curiosity got the better of him and could not help but ask.

"The Great Warlock came two years ago and took control of me... I don't know how he did it but from that moment all I knew was that my reason to exist was to serve him, that to die for him would be my great honor... he make use the Dawson Conglomerate to buy slaves and constructed special chambers in which all the slaves would be killed... but I don't know why... he made me kill my father and my brothers... I..." His voice seemed growing in madness and Reynolds once again released his spiritual coercion and calmed him down regretting asking so soon.

When he decided to kil the Great Warlock he thought that he had threatened his elder brother but it did not occur to him that he had controlled him and forced him to kill his family, he was sad and angry as he could see in how much pain his brother was right now.

"It was not your fault brother, he is dead and you don't need worry about this again... do what you can to save the Dawson Conglomerate I believe that your father would not like it if you to let his work to crumble into dust. Focus on what you can do and start from there, ok?" Under the spiritual coercion Yale seemed to calm down and the madness in his eyes faded turning into determination as he nodded.

---

Reynold's saint body opened his eyes as the battle was over and pondering the fighting style of the Great Warlock seemed useless before he begin to study the secrets within the interspatial ring and the scythe. He found that Rosarie was standing a couple of meters from him looking at him as if guarding him, her arms were crossed below her b.r.e.a.s.ts raising them slightly producing an alluring effect.

"Is everything all right?" Her melodious voice carried curiosity. He smiled and patted his leg making her blush as she went to sit on his l.a.p. "Everything is fine, I just experienced my first battle at the deity realm through my fire divine body. But I was victorious... I did not expect that more deities had appeared within the Yulan Continent. It seems that Dylin was not the only one to escape from the Gebados Planar Prison". His voice seemed more directed to himself than to Rosarie and she remained quiet to avoid interrupting his thoughts, he smiled after a moment while c.a.r.e.s.sing her hair.

After witnessing what had just happened to Yale he decided to protect his companions, they all need to become strong but also refused to get caught in craziness to become strong without living the moment... much how his third brother had done before destroying the Radiant Church, he will have to check on him after ensuring that Yale was fine and a short visit to George and his mother.

"Why were you waiting for me? Did you decided wich weapon you want to learn?" His voice now was cheerful and carried his usual mischievous tune. Rosarie seemed entranced for a moment and her blush increased as she nodded. "Master, I want to learn the sword with Windsor".