The Burning Fiend

Reynolds and his group continued traveling without trouble after leaving the 'Crystal Desert' behind, the girls trained alone or rested while talking to each other as they watched the scenery or spent their time attending to the evil Master who controlled the metallic life form.

It took nearly 2 years after leaving the desert for they to meet the first group of bandits, Reynolds had been pondering the insights he got on the aspects of 'healing' and 'nurturing' from Leylin's demonstration of the law of 'Vitality'. He had decided that his three divine avatars would continue fusing laws until all two-way fusions of the 4 laws were completed before allowing two of his divine avatars to focus completely in pondering the edicts... he suddenly startled and created a fire shield outside the metallic life form to block an attack and halted the metallic life form advance turning his attention on the attackers.

"Brothers, this fool should have some interesting things on his interspatial ring... but most importantly we will be enjoying those women tonight, It's been nearly 3000 years since the last time I played with a woman." A bald man with thick black beard and a muscular body seemed to be the leader as he talked to the other deities.

He was the only Highgod while the rest of the group consisted of 5 Gods and 15 Demigods, Reynolds sighed a little disappointed, but then he thought. 'I should be grateful that we are not facing a true powerful enemy or the girls might be in danger'.

A door opened on the side of the metallic life form and Reynolds floated out with a lazy demeanor. "Kid, if you know wha..." The bald man's voice was interrupted as he noticed that all the deities surrounding the metallic life form had turned into ashes and the divine sparks and interspatial rings were flying towards the youth. It only took a moment for 20 deities to die, and before he could even try to escape he felt fear growing in his heart as his soul started burning. He screamed unwillingly while, as if by instinct, his hands tried to protect his head but soon he also turned into ashes.

Reynolds sighed, he was sure that this man had just become a Highgod as a true Highgod will not likely end like a low level bandit, according to what Beirut said even someone who had become a Highgod by fusing with a divine spark could become a 3-star Fiend and have a good life without encountering much danger. He returned to the metallic life form to continue their trip but found that his 4 wives and Catherine were there waiting, only Talia had remained training in her room.

He smirked, making Catherine frown, and said. "Well I killed 20 deities between Gods and Demigods and these are their rings, but this one belonged to a Highgod, lets play a little game... the one who makes the most melodic sound while play with you girls gets to check what is inside this ring". The four women blinked but soon started laughing out loud when Catherine ran from the room while muttering. "Evil womanizer! Bastard..."

Reynolds could not hold his laughter either and divided the rings for the girls to star inspecting them. "Lets separate inkstones in this place, demigod-level artifacts here, god-level artifacts her, demigod-sparks here and god-sparks here. If there is another valuable thing let's put it aside for now, and we will check it out later." The five of them started working with happy expressions and Talia joined after a few minutes. "Why is aunt Catherine so angry?" The women turned to look at Reynolds with amus.e.m.e.nt while he faked a cough and then started to whistle an innocent tune making them all laugh.

At the end they had 60 Demigod sparks, 30 God sparks, 3 Highgod sparks, 80 demigod-level artifacts, 25 god-level artifacts, 2 highgod-level artifacts and 1500 inkstones. "Well, according to Lord Beirut a highgod artifact is valued around a million inkstones... so the inkstones we have will allow us to enter the city without trouble and sell our loot, then we will be able to afford to live in the city".

He said as if talking to himself and then looked at them. "We might even be considered rich after selling all this but wealth is meaningless if we are not strong enough to keep it. You girls will remain in the City training while I take the Fiend examinations to get a better understanding of the Infernal Realm. It might be annoying for a while, but you will not be allowed to leave our residence." He said specially looking at Jenne, Windsor and Talia.

"You saw what those guards and these bandits wanted to do with you and even if the city would have a better environment... I will not take things for granted even there, do you understand?" His tone was serious and his words were also transmitted to the angry Catherine who nodded her head in another room.

Rosarie had a frustrated expression and she was biting her lips. "In the end we will only be maids and playthings until we become strong..." She muttered more to herself than for the others, but the other four women heard her and her expressions turned gloomy. Reynolds chuckled and embraced Rosarie from behind with one arm while the other started teasing her b.r.e.a.s.ts and he said while biting her ear gently. "Oh... does that mean that you no longer want to be my little slave?" His tone was playful and the blushing Rosarie muttered. "N-no Master".

"Father stop bullying my aunts!" Talia was angry but Reynolds only chuckled as he carried the blushing Rosarie to his room.

---

Along the way they encountered 3 more attempts of robbery, but they no longer met Highgods, so Reynolds did not have any trouble killing the bandits and increasing their traveling funds. After another 10 years they finally arrived at 'Silver Grass City' and recovered the metallic life form while taking their place along the people waiting to enter the city.

At the city gates stood two guards, wearing the familiar green plate armor, collecting fees from the people wanting to enter, the process was fast and soon Reynolds had paid 7 inkstones. They started moving towards the Jadefloat Palace where they expected to sell their treasures, Catherine had felt uncomfortable by the mere sight of the Jadefloat Army guards at the gate and felt relieved as they were granted access to the city.

"Remember that we are not allowed to fly within the city, l would not let anyone bully you but it would be for the best if we follow the rules and avoid unnecessary trouble. Now, let's go to the Jadefloat Palace." Reynolds transmitted his thoughts towards the 6 women and Talia smirked at them as she was the only one who could not fly, and she seemed to like this particular rule.

The city was gigantic, Reynolds thought that the mere size of it was not smaller than the entire Baruch Empire back in the Yulan Plane, he used his divine power to carry the women along as they move fast towards one of the three palaces on the distance. One of them was made by flowing dark sand and Lord Beirut had warned him to avoid that place, the other one was the Fiend Palace that seemed like an adventurers' guild association recognized along the entire Infernal Realm. The last one was the trade center that took the name of the Sovereign ruling of the continent, in this case Jadefloat Palace, where they could sell and buy at fair prices and relative safety.

Along the way they reduced their speed several times and even stopped for a while to admire the architecture, several stores, a couple of expensive restaurants and other curious places, but they did not go to explore them. They knew that there was a curfew every day and wanderers would be killed, they needed to sell their treasures and find a place of residence before anything else. They would have a long time to explore the city in the days to come.

It still took them a few hours to arrive at the Jadefloat Palace as they found too many exciting things on the way as well as some terrifying views... one of the stores had a notice that read 'Exotic Saint Level Creatures For Sale' and showed chained creatures with soulless eyes laying in cages, there were infant divine beast and even elves. This time Reynolds understood what the 'true body' meant as the elf girls were exquisite bombshells and wondered what experiences had forced Catherine to hide her face and body as she did.

Catherine trembled but she remained silent, and they continued their way trying to forget what they have just seen. They soon arrived at a lavish palace with the size of a small city, they remained together protected by Reynolds Godrealm to avoid one of the girls to get lost in the colossal place.

They soon understood the rules of the place, the first floor dealt with demigod-level goods, the second floor was for god-level goods and the third floor was for highgod-level goods. At the entrance of the third floor, two guards wearing the familiar green plate armor blocked the entrance as they approached.

"If you want to enter the third floor you have to prove that you have at least a million inkstones or goods to sell". A muscular man with dirty yellow hair said while eyeing the girls discretely. Reynolds chuckled understanding that this measure would prevent loiters and ensured a luxury environment, he took a highgod-level sword artifact and showed it to the guard. The guard looked at the artifact for a moment and nodded stepping a side to let them enter the third floor.

They followed the instructions and waited for an appraiser to receive them, soon a beautiful silver haired girl approached them and asked. "Hello distinguished guests, what would you be selling to our Jadefloat palace?" Her voice was melodious and Reynolds suspected for a moment that she was using a soul attack, but after a moment he realized that it was only an innate trait of hers and wondered what type of creature she was.

The woman chuckled guessing his thoughts and said. "My kind is known as 'Heavenly Fox', many lower planes had legends that mention my people stealing young husbands to play". Reynolds chuckled slightly surprising the woman as people would normally blush and felt uncomfortable after being caught staring, but this young man was as shameless as they come and the one who ended blushing was her.

He took six interspatial rings and placed on the table after unbinding them and smiled at the beautiful silver haired woman who started checking the contains of the rings and taking notes as she calculated. After a few minutes she smiled back and said. "Dear guest the amount our Jadefloat Palace offers for your goods is 6.5 million inkstones, would you be willing to sell?"

Reynolds smiled calmly and nodded, it was close to his own calculation after taking in consideration Lord Beirut's explanations. He received the payment and took the girls for a quick look at the goods on the third floor before they started looking for a place to live.