The Burning Fiend

Reynolds spent the next 10 hours observing how the effects of the soul poison appeared, then increased, changed and finally become stable... the maid he was petting was like a terrified kitten not willing to breathe loud in hopes to avoid the anger of the smiling monster that was playing with her.

Konnos was terrified as well, and he could only hope that the monster would keep his word and spare him, he was smart enough to realize that the man in front of him did not fear his master at all and that he was not watching how Goonny contorted and screamed for the p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e of it. No... 'He is trying to gain insights on the Edict of Death! That is the reason he took this mission, to observe the effects the poison has on the soul and try to understand it'. Right now Konnos could only gain as much information as possible and then report to Lord Temark hoping to survive, he started recounting what he knew.

'He doesn't seem to care for wealth'. He thought while stealing a quick look at him noticing the beautiful maid on his l.a.p while adding. 'He cares more for his training than for p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e'. He continued in that manner while Reynolds focused on studying the poison.

He knew what Konnos was doing and allowed him to do so, after all everything most of what he was showing right now was fake, after a while he found that he would not gain anything more from remaining here and decided to take his leave. Reynolds stored the recording orb and patted tenderly the maid's head while saying. "Pretty girl, you can go now". The girl soon stood next to the other two maids while her feelings were changing from relief to fear as she wondered if she had done what was expected of her, but she could only wait to know her fate.

"Konnos, was it? I will be leaving now, thank you for the book!" Reynolds disappeared leaving only a feather floating on the air and it dissipated a moment later, however it took nearly two hours before the chains started to crumble as well, and only then Konnos released a sigh as he celebrated being alive and having regained his freedom.

Reynolds have changed to his real form and was sitting inside his metallic life form while already on the way back towards Silver Grass City, he felt a little disappointed in how few insights he had gained from this mission and decided to show the recording orb to Jenne before reporting the task to the Fiend Castle. He smiled imagining Jenny struggling to concentrate while he teased her, he chuckled happily and took the book he had just obtained.

He had liked studying runes since he was very young, but he had interrupted his hobby to concentrate in his training... 'Perhaps it would be a good idea to start fiddling with runes again'. Reynolds thought as he started reading the book and soon a relaxed smile appeared on his face forgetting his training for a while as his divine avatars kept working hard on pondering the Fire Elemental Laws and the Edicts of Life and Death.

The usage of runes he had studied during his time on the Yulan Plane were reduced to simple applications like stealth and sealing both auras and scents. He had noticed that the Teleportation Array that Hodan had used to sent them to the Infernal Realm was made by runes, but he was not able to understand them at all. It was like if a four year-old who had just learned to read was trying to understand a high level dissertation on the application of saint level spells written with the most exquisite calligraphy, and he wondered if one day would he be able to reach that level. 'Why not? I have the time... there is nothing to stop me reaching that level'. He thought as he smiled and returned his attention to the book.

The rune arrays contained in this book were too advanced for him that he was only able to learn the purpose of the portrayed arrays, so he decided to find more books on runes to study. The book showed defensive rune arrays that were more powerful than the one Dylin had destroyed when he attacked the Radiant Church, at that time Reynolds was still living within the Holy Union and remembered the scene clearly.

Another array allowed to increase the elemental essence of a single element on an area to facilitated training or the d.e.s.i.r.ed living conditions, there were also arrays that could create illusions to hide whatever was contained within the array. He felt fascinated by the possibilities but his level in runes was too lacking, he soon sighed and put the book within his storage ring returning to his training in pondering the Fire Elemental Laws.

Another 20 years passed soon, and he was already arriving at the Silver Grass City, he had not managed to complete the last 3-way fusion but he had made great improvement and he expected that it would not take more than 50 years to complete the fusion. He arrived at his courtyard and smiled at the 6 women that were sitting in the living room.

His four wives and Talia were excited to see him, while Catherine only seemed relieved to find he had come back. "Did anything important happened while I was gone?" Reynolds asked as he petted Talia's head while smiling kindly at his daughter, he was happy to learn that Talia had started fusing two laws and would become a God within 50 years while Windsor expected to become a God within 10 years but had not managed to find how to fuse laws, but she did not seem to care much for it and was simply happy to be able to advance. Reynolds did not care either, as long as he was strong they could do as they pleased and Windsor had never showed love for training and becoming stronger like Koral and Rosarie... she was more of an artistic soul than the other girls.

They started enjoying a few delicacies that Reynolds bought before arriving at the courtyard and spend hours talking, Koral seemed specially proud and excited when she heard of how her husband had pretended to be another person while doing evil things causing Reynolds to chuckle. He had realized long ago that Koral had being very young when she became his magical beast companion and ended being influenced by his personality. Catherine on the other hand looked at him with as if she was watching a bandit and murmured a few things like. "Evil womanizer, bad influence, rotten bastard".

Reynolds chuckled before appearing behind her almost biting her ear as he asked her. "Are you talking to me? Do you want to see how much of a rotten bastard I could be?" Catherine trembled and escaped to her room while his four wives were laughing happily, only Talia sighed and went to console the upset elf while glaring at his father.

---

The next day Jenne was sitting on Reynolds's l.a.p while slightly struggling to escape to be able to concentrate on watching the images that the recording orb was projecting, but all her attempts were useless as she found that her clothes were already opened while a pair of warm hands explored her b.r.e.a.s.ts gently, she resigned herself while stopping her attempts to study the images showing a young man that suffered from excruciating pain.

"M-master! You have to promise to let me watch the orb after we are done playing!" Jenne half demanded half begged but Reynolds only chuckled and said. "Jenne, that orb is not mine... I will return it in a couple of hours, so you should really try to take advantage of the time and study hard". Reynolds sounded like an elder instructing a young girl to not waste food making Jenne scream in frustration while Reynolds looked at her with a devilish smile.

After playing for a while, he finally allowed Jenne to concentrate with her study of the orb for a couple of hours before taking Rosarie with him to deliver the evidence requested and complete the mission. As usual, they took their time before entering the castle and delivered the orb to the clerk along with his medallion for it to be upgraded to 6-star Fiend level.

An hour later, people looked with worship at Reynolds who was walking proudly with his new 6-star emblem and a gorgeous woman with jade long hair that reached almost to the ground. Rosarie was remembering his days as the Priestess of the Frozen Goddess Shrine and smiled thinking how proud she had felt at that time, she shook her head realizing that she was on a complete different level of power now but instead of being almost worshiped as a goddess... she was living in complete submission to a man she had learned to love, and blushed thinking that she liked this life better.

They entered the third floor of the Jadefloat Palace and walked towards the area where books were on display, this time a beautiful red haired m.a.t.u.r.e woman approached them. "Dear guests, what kind of books are you looking for?" Her voice was business like and with certain touch of impatience as if she could not wait to go back to her reading.

Reynolds smiled thinking that he preferred this beautiful clerk after remembering the apparently old man that was working here last time he visited. "I'm looking for books on runes, from basics to complex. Can you show me what you have on the topic?" Reynolds was surprised when he noticed that the eyes of the red haired woman started shining when he mentioned runes and wondered how expensive would those book be that even this book-lover woman seemed excited at the idea of selling those books.

She soon returned with three books that were classified as beginners, advanced and mastery over rune lore, but before he even looked at the books she was gone again only to return a few minutes later with another three books again divided on beginners, advanced and mastery over array lore and started presenting the books.

"These two series were written by a Paragon, but they are not expensive due to his fame but because he spent almost a billion years doing research after he became a Paragon and seemed to have nothing else to do. They are the most complete collection we currently have and the cost is 5 million inkstones".

She suddenly looked more beautiful to Reynolds, not because her looks had changed but because she seemed to release a special aura while talking about a topic she loved making him smile. 'The books are expensive, but she is more excited due to the topic than for the commission she would gain from this transaction. I guess she works here to be able to read books for free... smart choice'. He thought and chuckled while delivering an interspatial ring with exactly 5 million inkstones, he took the books and looked at them as if they were treasures before leaving with a chuckling Rosarie that suddenly felt that studying runes with her husband seemed a very good idea.