The Burning Fiend

On a desolated desert, where lightning often crashed against the sand forming glass surfaces that were soon broken by the powerful winds, stood a giant tower that was hundreds of meters tall. On one of the floors of this tower, an engraved teleportation array glowed from time to time announcing the arrival of either visitors or immigrants to the Infernal Realm.

There were many saints and deities seated on the floor afraid to make the slightest noise as it would anger the two Gods wearing green plate armor that seemed to be in command of 'receiving' the people traveling to the Infernal Realm. Not long ago, what seemed to be a young woman had appeared through the teleportation array and after looking at her with smirks on their faces they said that all new arrivals needed to be thoroughly inspected, she was forced to a room nearby where they took tuns 'inspecting' her.

The trembling woman was now among them with empty eyes and seemed unaware of her clothes being damaged. She was a Demigod while most of the people here were saints, but even her was completely helpless and ended forced to submit to the abuse of the guards. The depressing atmosphere was broken as the teleportation array glowed again revealing a young man and 6 beautiful woman... well at least five of them were beautiful while the other one covered her face with a mask and her body seemed genderless, like an oversized little girl.

"Well, well... it seems that we would have to thoroughly inspect the new arrivals, lets start with the little elf. I love how they always end showing their true bodies after torturing them for a while, and how they start begging to be allowed to serve..." His words were interrupted as he swallowed the saliva that almost fell from his mouth but his eyes keep jumping from one woman to the next while his smirk keep growing.

His companion laughed and said. "Look, that little thing is not even a saint... perhaps we should keep her as a pet, don't you think?" Catherine trembled as this was precisely why she had not dared to travel to the higher planes as a Demigod and looked with hope towards Reynolds noticing that his eyes had turned cold and murderous the moment they started talking about Talia.

Before another sound was made, the two Gods turned into ashes without knowing how they died, they only managed to see that the youth's eyes had shinned purple for a moment before everything became darkness. A couple of divine sparks and two interspatial rings floated towards Reynolds while the two plate armors were left discarded on the floor. Reynolds started bounding the rings while motioning the women to move from the teleportation array.

All the people on the room felt terror at the sudden death of those two who had abused them with impunity, even the young woman's eyes seemed to regain a bit of light. Reynolds smiled as he found a small metallic life form in one of the rings and turned to look at the entrance when another two Gods wearing green plate armors had just appeared looking in horror at the two discarded plate armors on the ground.

"Do you know what you have done? The great Sovereign will not let you..." The voice of the red haired man was interrupted by a chuckle from Reynolds who was smirking at him. "The Lord Sovereign care as much for you people as you care for these saints that you seem to enjoy abusing. Now, would you mind telling me in which continent we are and point the direction to the nearest city." The indifferent voice stupefied the two newly arrived Gods and one of them suddenly woke up from his stupor looking at the saints trembling on the floor, his eyes rested for a moment on the woman with destroyed clothes and then turned his attention to the women behind the young man who had just spoken.

He sighed and responded. "Lord, we are in the 'Crystal Desert' within the Jadefloat Continent. The nearest city is the 'Silver Grass City' in that direction, a metallic life form would take around 20 years to arrive." He bowed while his companion was frowning but remained silent. The guard who had just spoken noticed the reluctance of his companion and sent his thoughts to him. "Don't be reckless, that man killed two of us with a single look, and he seems to understand the Infernal Realm while the way he spoke of the Sovereign means that either he is an idiot, has great background or he is an extremely powerful combatant. I don't intent to find out which one is the case."

Reynolds nodded and floated away followed with the six women, once outside the tower he took a moment to look at the desert where glass was constantly created by lightening and then destroyed by wind. He shook his head forcing himself to look away from the magnificent scene and took the metallic life form that he had just obtained. it grew in an instant to the size of a 100 meters long while taking the form of a sword, the blade had a symbol which Reynolds imagined would be the Sovereign mark, that would be useful to warn bandits that they would be attacking the Jadefloat Army and avoid wasting time killing them.

A door appeared at one side of the hilt and Reynolds instructed the girls to enter and started explaining the situation as the giant sword was already moving at high speed. "As you can see, the Infernal Realm is not a peaceful place... only one's power matters here and saints are viewed as life stock. When Lord Beirut explained this to me I did not really understand it until a few moments ago, you know what your fate would have been if those two were stronger than I."

He waited a moment as the girls, especially Catherine who was trembling, to digest his words. "Now, for what Harry and Harvey told me my own power is still high, even on a place like the Infernal Realm, but we still need to be careful. We will go to the 'Silver Grass City' and sell the divine sparks and artifacts to rent a place where we will live while we grow stronger."

After explaining things the girls started training with newly found urgency and smiled as they found that pondering the laws and edicts were much easier within the Infernal Realm. Reynolds could not help but steal a look at Catherine with curiosity wondering what that man had meant with her real body, he knew that a deity would normally look the way he or she d.e.s.i.r.ed as their bodies were made by divine power and it could be modified at will, he had always thought that Catherine looked the way she wanted under her own aesthetic standards.

He shook his head and concentrated on inspecting the metallic life form, it had its own consciousness and he did not need to control it all the time. As long as the gems that it consumed for energy were sufficient it would move on the instructed direction and let him know when they arrived at their destination. He decided to keep the Sovereign's ensign for a while and erase it once they approached the city. It will help them to avoid bandits and a few years was too short of a time for a Sovereign to even care about someone to forget erasing it from a looted metallic life form.

The lightning and wind were impressive and Reynolds could only laugh with a little depression as no one in his group could practice these two sets of elemental laws. Talia was extremely happy as her mage training was easier than it was on the Yulan Plane, she would be able to advance simultaneously as mage and warrior and perhaps even become a saint within 50 years, she ran and told Jenne who blinked and started meditating. Soon Jenne was holding Talia in strong embrace while tears filled her eyes, she would be able to become a saint magus within a few decades due to the high density on the elemental essence that existed on the higher planes.

Even with their new urgency to become stronger, the girls could not help but interrupt their training and look at the 'Crystal Desert'. The lightning crashing against the sand had a hypnotizing beauty which was breathtaking and caused them to shiver as they understood that most of them would die if such a lightning were to fall on them.

It took 8 years for the metallic life form to leave the 'Crystal Dessert' and Reynolds finally deleted the Sovereign's ensign, on one side he did not want to provoke the anger of the Sovereign and on the other, being attacked by bandits could lead to great profit. He remained vigilant to intercept any attack that might damage the metallic life form as they did not have a replacement.

Reynolds was enjoying a cup of wine with Rosarie, who was resting on his c.h.e.s.t, as they both looked curiously at the new scenery that changed from dark rocks to grasslands time and time again. Rosarie was slightly frustrated as she had not found insights to a third law. "Don't worry too much, after we take residence within the 'Silver Grass City' we will be able to look for books and perhaps even recordings of battles, we might get inspiration there... and if you are bored I can always help you". His voice had turned mischievous, and she blinked in surprise finding that her full b.r.e.a.s.ts were already exposed and captured by his warm hands.

"Y-you... what if Talia were to enter?" Rosarie was blushing but did not resist his advances. "Don't worry, I have just instructed the metallic life form to keep her door closed for a while and asked to tell her to wait if she tries to leave." He explained gently before blocking any further complaints by kissing her lips.

---

On another continent a blond young woman had been refusing to talk to her parents for 300 years and focused mostly on training, she had sworn to herself that she would escape from them once she became a Demigod, and then she will look for a way to return to the Yulan Continent.

She had managed to gain insights on the Elemental Laws of Light, but she was still a distance away from reaching the prime saint level. She looked at the city through the windows and cursed her fate as even if she were to walk within the city, the people would look at her as if she were a missing pet and a couple of times she was even asked why had she taken her 'collar' off, and last time a devilish female God had used her Godrealm to fix her in place while she petted her head as if she were a kitten.

Sasha bit her lips and returned to ponder the 'Essence of Light' while Delia was looking at her from another room feeling remorse as she had no idea that saints would be treated so badly within the higher realms, she had not joined Linley and Bebe for the Fiend examinations in order to stay with Sasha who still refused to acknowledge her existence, she sighed realizing that they had been living on this city for nearly 200 years while Linley and Bebe took short and nearby missions.

'Why is she so stubborn? Even refusing a divine spark...' Delia thought distressed and wondered when her husband would come back.