The Burning Fiend

It didn't take long for Reynolds to intercept the bewildered trio and join them on their way towards the Baruch Empire. "It is good to see you three are fine, are Torosse and Dylin alright?" They smiled at Reynolds and Cesar answered. "Yes, they both went ahead to rescue Linley... do you know what the heck happened?"

Reynolds sighed and said. "Well, during the decade you were gone Linley, Desri and Oliver became demi Gods and they seemed to believe they had the responsibility to control the Yulan Continent. When one of the deities that escaped the Gebados Planar Prison started slaughtering mortals to harvest souls they when to fight him and killed him breaking a week point that connects to the Gebados Planar Prison allowing an unknown number of deities to enter the Yulan Plane, among them many full Gods and at least one high God". His tone was depressed and could see the surprise on O'Brien and Catherine while Cesar only frowned.

"You did not join the battle?" Asked Catherine in her neutral voice. Reynolds blinked as if the question was unexpected and smiled. "I did not see the point, I did not know how long had that person being a deity, they didn't even know if he was a demi God and he was already respectful enough to avoid targeting the O'Brien Empire, The Yulan Empire, The Baruch Empire, the Northern Duchies and the Forest of Darkness and more importantly Lord Beirut didn't seem to care..."

Catherine just nodded in understanding and soon they made their way towards Linley's castle to found Linley and Oliver talking with Dylin and Tarosse. Tarosse smiled as he saw Reynolds and said. "My boy! It is good to see you are alive". Reynolds smiled as well and said. "Lord Tarosse you seem to have become stronger... it is good to have you all came back. Lord Dylin congratulations on becoming a full God".

Soon the atmosphere turned somber when O'Brien learnt that all his disciples had died and his empire was now under the control of a high God. Catherine just sighed at her loss without much concern and went to met her disciples that were living within the castle.

Reynolds sent a mental message to Linley. 'Third brother I'm happy to see you are fine, I was already resigned to avenge you after I became stronger... just please stay put for a good while on your house training, all right?'

Linley could feel the concern and the lack of chagrin on the exchange, he just sighed and nodded but not long started frowning when he noticed that from time to time Sasha looked curiously at his fourth brother and shaked his head. 'Surely she is only curious as she is a little mischievous herself... nothing to worry there, still I should perhaps warn Delia about her'.

Suddenly Reynolds startled and disappeared living behind a purple fire feather making everyone stunned while Dylin directed his divine sense towards Reynolds's island and chuckled. "That was a clever move indeed and he seems to have no problem dealing with a demi God by himself".

Linley looked at him and asked. "Lord Dylin what happened? Where did fourth brother go?". Dylin smiled and said. "Someone was visiting his home and decided that he would take possession of it and the women living there so his saint body created a fire construct that switched places with his divine avatar and he is fighting the uninvited guest... but don't worry he has absolute advantage." While he was speaking the rest of the deities on the table directed their divine sense towards the Forest of Darkness and looked at the battle with curiosity.

Still they all heard Cesar mumbling. "How did the brat managed to tame that woman and force her to accept the two others as well?" Causing a chuckle from Tarosse who then said. "Cesar, Cesar... it seems that your 5,000 years of experience were defeated by a kid." Causing Cesar to laugh and raised his glass.

---

Reynolds's saint body was sitting cross-legged on the garden while drinking wine, he was not training as he needed to be alert since his divine body was not around. Suddenly one of the surviving demi God that had attacked Linley's group appeared in front of him. Reynolds realized that he could not feel the probe of his divine sense as his saint body did not have divine sense.

"Kid I like this place I will be taking it as my home... the three woman stay as well. You can leave now." He seemed to be annoyed and in no mood for discussion so Reynolds's divine body exchanged places immediately with the already prepared fire feather thinking that if the demi God had decided to kill his saint body he would had suffered a huge loss, he was regretting his overconfidence as a shiver ran through his spine as he thought of the consequences.

Living within the Forest of Darkness was not enough to ensure their security as Lord Beirut had said clearly that he did not allow slaughtering within his territory but did not mention other restrictions. This demi God was not breaking his rules while forcing him, a saint, out of the island and keeping the women as his. It seemed that if he leave in the future it would be his saint body and not his divine avatar.

The man seemed bewildered as he found another demi God in front of him and the saint had merged immediately with him. "You were just beaten a few moments ago and decided to come here to vent your frustration? That doesn't seem smart." Without waiting for discussion Reynolds body turned into flames along with his spear artifact and seven identical flame humanoids appeared surrounding the unwelcome guest.

The man was frustrated an annoyed, he had just lost the support of Ojwin who was beyond angered for the death of his son and told them to scram. Now he was again in battle and suddenly became aware that he was within the Forest of Darkness and panic started growing in his heart. 'This man was allowed to live within the Forest of Darkness and I came looking for trouble? Flee!'

But before he could do anything four of the flame humanoids had turned transparent as their eyes glowed red and dissipated as soon as their eyes shot red beams that came at him from 4 different directions. He wielded a dark long blade and intersected the four red beams instantly creating illusory blades but the red beams continued unobstructed and reached his body in an instant, he screamed in agony as he felt his soul burning.

Reynold recognized this man as the one who had killed Desri and without hesitation he started attacking with his spear along with the other three flame clones while the blade wielding demi God struggled to parry, soon wounds started to appear on his body and these wounds started burning slowly extending over his body while he seemed unable to use his divine power to counter the flames as the pain on his soul numbed his senses turning him into and enraged beast.

After a few seconds a spear finally pierced between his eyes and the demigod turned into flames leaving a divine spark, a dark long blade and a ring among the ashes. Reynold took a deep breath and collected his spoils of war.

---

"How did he became so strong? He had not been a demi God for even 20 years..." O'Brien muttered in disbelieve as Linley remembered that Reynolds had said that he could kill him along with Desri and Oliver without much effort, he was surprised at the variety of his attacks, the accuracy, the timing and the destructive power.

"He is fusing laws and developed soul and material attacks. He is ruthless and attacks with the intention to kill since the very first strike... and I think he is wearing at least a material defensive artifact at the full God level making the attacks of a demi God almost useless." Tarosse voice explained calmly gathering the attention of the others.

"Fusing laws?" Catherine asked making Tarosse chuckle. "Well you are practicing the edicts of life and the edicts are not divided as the laws, as you already understand, but the elemental laws are clearly separated within each element and can be fused together increasing one's power to another level. I will said that Reynolds is already slightly stronger than you Catherine. Of course if you had fused with that full God divine spark you obtained you will gain advantage over him quickly but you would lose any possibility of advancing any further".

Catherine nodded she had no much understanding of the elemental laws and as far as she knew the edicts were different. Even high Gods would have different strength depending on how much they understood the edict of life and would become a paragon when understanding the edict completely having no need to fuse aspects as they were already part of the whole.

---

Reynolds's saint body was checking on his wives who were completely unaware of the danger that had almost befall them causing him to sigh in relief and decided not to tell them. 'Ignorance is a blessing at times, it seems'. He thought.

His divine avatar started reviewing his loot within the interspatial ring, he found Desri's divine spark while the rest of the space was full of wine and delicacies making Reynolds frown. 'What is it with this people and food?' But then remembered how Tarosse had complained that none of the saints he killed on the Necropolis of the Gods had wine on their interspatial rings and chuckled. 'Things without much value for me could be valuable treasures to others'.

He took the dark long blade and couldn't identify what law or edict was used to nurture it meaning that he had close to no affinity towards it. 'Well now that I think about it I was lacking an artifact for Rosarie for when she becames a demi God. This would do I guess...'

Unknown to him Beirut had witnessed the battle as it had occurred within his territory and nodded satisfied with the Reynolds's growth. 'Perhaps I should consider a path for him... but that Blue Fire seems to be just a step away from being a Paragon.' He sighed while looking towards the distance making his decision. 'This kid is good but who knows where his path will take him and if he manage to survive to become a high God... Blue Fire is already as good as one could ask for.' He then recovered his divine sense and frowned when he found that Bebe seemed to ignore him and refused to even look at him in retribution of not helping Linley personally. 'I am too old to be taking care of children...'