The Burning Fiend

Time seemed to have lost its influence on Reynolds's family as they soon get used to a new routine, Reynolds would spend his time studying refining techniques with Jenne, studying runes and arrays with Rosarie, playing games with Talia, watching Windsor work on her sculptures and discussing the Elemental Laws of Fire with Koral and the Edicts of Life with Catherine.

He did not take missions again as he had enough things to entertain himself with, and he enjoyed spending time with his family. In the Infernal Realm there were not seasons or changes of weather, so one would have to think for a moment if he or she wanted to recount how much time has passed if one got caught on something interesting, but there were a few events that helped them notice the passage of time.

Talia and Windsor had both become Gods, while Jenne remained the only Demigod of the group but Reynolds was sure that she was not far to reaching the next realm on the Edicts of Death, even him could feel his own progress on both Edicts but he expected to take him at least a couple of centuries before he managed to upgrade his Demigod avatars.

He had already completed all the 3-way fusion of the four laws he had mastered and Reynolds felt specially happy due to having found the starting point to fuse the four laws. He knew that this effort would cost him a very long time but once he managed to achieve the fusion his strength would touch the Asura realm.

(A/N- Asura is the realm above the 7-star Fiend, and example would be a Highgod who had fused 5 out of 6 Elemental Laws.)

Unknown to them, two hundred years had passed since Reynolds returned from his last mission and they were discussing what places they would like to visit once Jenne became a God. Reynolds had no much preference as the only place that came to mind was the Indigo Prefecture where Lord Beirut ruled, but he felt it was too soon for him to visit.

"Father, I heard that there is a place where these amethysts are mined and that it is a fantastic view. Why don't we go to that place?" Talia's voice expressed her expectation making Reynolds smile and frowned while looking at Jenne for a moment before responding to Talia.

"You know that golden pearls are created by refining the souls of mortals, right? And that an amethyst contain the same amount of soul essence as one of those golden pears... then what does that meant?" He looked seriously at Talia who was now frowning while thinking, Reynolds smiled noticing that Jenne was paying attention as well and continued.

"It means that the amethyst are also created from refining souls, and souls do not grow on threes... that place, the Amethyst mountain could be an extremely dangerous place that from time to time captures the people trying to mine the gems and use their souls to create more amethysts... or perhaps there is a powerful existence there that performs the refinement. I don't feel confident to protect our family, with my current strength, in such a dangerous place. So before deciding our destination we need to understand what dangers could be on those places, do you understand my dear child?" Reynolds spoke with care and patience while Talia blushed a little ashamed of being lectured.

"In that same note, we should avoid places where powerful people suddenly decided to stay and settle down... it could mean that someone stronger is forcing them to stay there. The most dangerous places are usually the most profitable and after millions of years I will guess that they are already under the control of powerful families or individuals... perhaps even a Sovereign, so we must be careful". This time he was speaking to the 6 women as they frowned remembering the unpleasant sights they witnessed when they arrived at the Infernal Realm and nodded in understanding while taking more care to try to understand what would make a place special and why.

They soon reached the conclusion that the wonders of the Infernal Realm that seemed to have no powerful presence in control of them, were probably too dangerous or there was nothing of value to pay for the effort it would take to settle there. Perhaps their most viable plan would be to visit different cities while they moved towards another continent and visiting those wonderful places from a calculated distance.

After a long discussion they identified two places that they wanted to visit, the Floating Jade Mountains that according to the rumors was the place where the Jadefloat sovereign was born and even some tales went as far to speculate that the Sovereign was herself one of the floating mountains that gained sentience after billions of years. The second place as a city built inside an enormous cave full of crystal stalactites that shined like stars during the night, the name of this place was Crystal Cave City and one could travel to the Bloodridge Continent by passing through this two famous places without much deviation.

One day, Reynolds was holding Rosarie on his arms while sat on his l.a.p as they both read the book she was holding. The title of the book read "Intermediate Level Arrays by Jaredhisse" and one could say that it was a rare sight to see Reynolds well-behaved as he limited himself into resting his arms on Rosarie's waist without exploring the beautiful mounts that were just a few centimeters above his arms.

They both seemed entranced with the array they were studying but suddenly they felt the Elemental Laws descending on their courtyard and turned to look towards Jenne who was smiling brightly as a divine spark floated out of her forehead to be baptized by the Elemental Laws allowing her to reach the God level on the Edicts of Death.

Reynolds smiled proudly and soon he was standing next to the other woman with Rosarie still in his arms waiting for the smiling Jenne to end her promotion and congratulate her. Talia was the most excited one as she knew that soon they would be leaving this Silver Grass City to start exploring the continent, her smile was so bright that Koral ended hugging her from behind in fear that she ended interrupting Jenne due to her emotions. The process was fast and the Elemental Laws simply dissipated returning the courtyard to its original calm.

"Congratulations Jenne, It seems that we should star preparing for our trip". Reynolds kissed her forehead delighted while thinking that he might need to take a couple of missions to gain enough inkstones to buy a Highgod artifact set for each of his wives and his beloved daughter, he did not consider Catherine though... as he had no responsibility towards her.

---

A couple of days later, Reynolds was sitting in the office where the Fiend missions were released while a curious Windsor was sitting obediently on his l.a.p holding the book that described the available missions as Reynolds's arms hugged her gently.

The clerk looked at them from time to time shacking his head in jealousy while muttering. "Children". There were a few missions that caught Reynolds's eye but the one that seemed to be the most interesting and profitable was to kill a 7-star Fiend named Temark.

Reynolds chuckled and rested his chin on Windsor's shoulder while muttering. "It seems that my dear friend Temark did not accept the request or conditions asked by the previous contractor... this could be fun and it would not be bad to become a 7-star Fiend directly, don't you think my beautiful Windsor?" Her voice was playful as Windsor's face showed confidence on him, and she smiled before answering.

"Master, a 7-star Fiend should have a few valuable treasures... perhaps even a collection of poisons or books about poisons, after what you did to his brother he might have tried to help him". She said full of hope and Reynolds felt that her idea might come to be true, he kissed her forehead and indulged on the possibilities.

He smiled and turned his head to face the clerk who was waiting for his selection. "Would you help me to register that I'm taking this mission please?" The clerk seemed excited as he took his medallion to go through the procedures and a couple of minutes later he returned it to him along with a file containing all the information the contractor had left on the target. "Lord Reynolds, I wish you success on your mission. Hopefully I will be here to receive the proof of success and upgrade your medallion to the 7-star level at your return!"

The man seemed sincerely hopeful, it was not every day... not even every 10,000 years that someone took a 7-star promotion mission, and he truly hoped for Reynolds' success.

Before returning to the courtyard, they made a trip to the Jadefloat Palace to buy another hundred amethyst, this time he would not refine them. The task would go to Jenne in order for her to use the exercise as an opportunity to understand the technique used by the practitioners of the Edict of Death to refine and condense soul essence, he would take a long time to come back and this might keep her busy and provide help to the other girls.

After a few hours of touring through the city, they finally returned to the courtyard.