The Burning Fiend

A giant serpent rested coiled over a mountain completely made of rocks, there was not vegetation or any form or living creatures around, even stranger was that the giant serpent had a big door on its neck and a few windows along its body.

Reynolds and his family had interrupted their journey and camped on this mountain to practice for a while, two identical women were fighting using spears and almost the same moves to apply the Fire Elemental Laws, the only difference was that one of them had black horns while the other did not.

Reynolds looked at them for a moment and smiled, he was currently sitting with Rosarie as they both studied an advanced tome on arrays, and he truly enjoyed the feeling of losing himself in concentration when studying runes. He returned his attention to the book and rested his chin on Rosarie's shoulder trying to understand how the engraved array drawn on the book worked.

Not far from them, Jenne was reading a tome on poison manufacturing and from time to time she used the recording orbs to see the images of powerful Highgods begging for death as they suffered the effects of different poisons. The gentle smile on the beautiful silver haired woman would make most men lose their bearings, but that would change the moment they realized she was smiling at the recording of a poisoned man begging for death.

Another beautiful woman, this one had dark red long hair, was working on creating a sculpture with one of the strange rocks of this mountain. She seemed completely immersed in understanding the Earth Elemental Laws as she worked, and a light smile was ever present as she danced around the rock that was starting to look like a winged creature.

"Mom, how long are we going to stay in this mountain?" Talia asked as they stopped their sparring, she was happy to stop and play for a while, after several years of being surrounded by blue sand, but the idea of staying in this place was not very appealing to her.

"Do not worry, I think we will stay here only for a few months. And that is only because Windsor seems to have gained enlightenment on this place, but we will soon continue our journey. Perhaps we should ask your father to give us some demonstrations of how he uses the Fire Elemental Laws... that would be helpful". Koral's voice seemed to have the d.e.s.i.r.ed effect, and Talia was already running towards her father while Koral smiled in delight. 'Having a daughter is useful'. She thought.

---

On a luxurious hall on the top floor of the highest building in Silver City, the Lord Prefect was smiling as he watched the newly obtained recording of the 'Burning Fiend'. His eyes seemed to shine as he muttered. "He is using 4 combinations of 3-way fusions... and from time to time he even shows signs of the having starting fusing 4 laws". He stopped the recording and started walking on the hall while thinking, it was an old habit of his to walk on this hall whenever he was trying to figure out something.

He was still muttering to himself while he walked. "He has only mastered 4 laws, and he is fusing them already... but he is only a God. How can he fight a 7-star Fiend and gain a dominating position from the very start? The artifacts might help his defense but not his offense... then the purple flames... an innate ability? Is he some sort of divine beast? Then as soon as he fuses this 4 laws he would have the same level as me." He suddenly stopped his walk and a bright smile seemed to reflect the excitement on his face. "I cannot wait to fight him when he does".

---

On a luxurious palace a man was sitting in the shadows while a young man with green hair watched a recording of another young man killing a few Highgods with a single glare. An ancient voice awakened the young man from his thoughts. "Tarosse, do you know this man?"

Tarosse looked respectfully at the man hidden in the shadows and said. "Yes Master, the kid's name is Reynolds, and we came for the same lower plane". Tarosse's voice seemed to express his joy of being able to respond and being useful.

"Tell me about this kid, does he had allies? What about his power?" The man in the shadows seemed excited because he had the feeling that the kid in the recording might be a soul mutate, and he wanted to add him to his collection.

"Master, as far as I know he had four wives, and he cares dearly for them. For allies... he got along quite well with another kid that seemed to be from the 4 Divine Beast Clan, but perhaps his major backing will be Lord Beirut who is the ruler of the Yulan Continent. He did not declare him under his protection, but he allowed him to live in the Forest of Darkness where he lived and was a forbidden area for deities".

The man in the shadows seemed restless and angry. "Tell me of this Beirut, how did he look like?" Mosi felt his heart tightening as he listened to Tarosse description and sighed in resignation. He did not want to anger a Paragon, then another thought came to him and asked unwillingly thinking that he not only will not be able to capture the kid in the recording, he will most likely lose another subordinate.

"What relationship did you and your group had with this Beirut?" Tarosse did not seem to notice the unwillingness of the question, but he almost jumped in joy of being able to answer so many questions for his Master. Mosi face fell further as he listened how Tarosse was tasked but Beirut to guard a castle along with Beirut's children and stopped paying attention while cursing under his breath as he started to think how to release Tarosse and warn him to keep his mouth shut.

---

"Well, you both had mastered the fusion between the 'Fire Elemental Essence' and the 'Flame body'... I will show you the examples of 'Heat' and 'Mirage', perhaps you will be able to gain insights into one of these two laws". Reynolds smiled as he lifted his finger and used 'Heat' to create a distortion in space, if he were on the Yulan Plane this would have been enough to create a hole in the fabric of space, but 'space' in the Infernal Plane was much denser and caused restrictions on the effects of the laws, as well as his divine sense and speed while flying.

He shook his head as he realized that his mind was going away from the intended demonstration. He saw the two women frowning trying to gain some clues while looking at the distortion of space above his extended finger.

After a few moments the distortion disappeared and he said. "Now I will show you an application of 'Mirage'." Soon both women startled as they found themselves on a garden full of life, but they soon overtook their surprise understanding that this was an illusion and tried to find out how is it that 'Mirage' worked.

Koral's eyes shined as she suddenly understood that the illusion was not created inside her head, but the environment was modified to create the illusion and she started relating the phenomenon to the visual distortions that flames and gases created.

Reynolds smiled as he saw that Koral had gained enlightenment and took Talia away to avoid interrupting her, with a little luck she would be able to gain entrance to the 'Mirage' mystery. Talia was a little jealous, but she smiled brightly with pride thinking of her mother's success.

While they walked away, Reynolds asked her. "Have you tried understanding laws from another system?" Talia looked at him while frowning. "Not really, I feel that I have not much affinity towards the other elements besides fire". She felt a little depressed but Reynolds smiled at her.

"I have told you before that the Elemental Laws have many similarities between the different elemental systems. If you cannot find insights for a new law... then why don't you try to use the Fire Elemental Essence and see if you can find an equivalent with the other 6 systems? You will surely find success but it might take you a lot of time and it might help you to take your mind of not being able to understand a third law and actually help you do it". Reynolds said while smiling.

"I find that when I'm studying runes my mind clears and forget about the Elemental Laws, but when I focus again... the blocks seems to have disappeared and pondering the laws becomes easier". Reynolds felt a little jealousy thinking that he would not be able to ponder another system and then shook his head reminding himself that one should not be greedy... he was lucky enough and even if he was jealous, the fact that he was not able to ponder other systems was not going to change.

Talia's eyes seemed to be shining as she imagined herself having 7 different divine avatars all laughing proudly side by side. Reynolds soon realized that Talia was already on her own world and stopped talking while shaking his head.

He returned to where Rosarie was still studying Runes and took seat next to her to joining her, but before he even looked at the book she jumped to his l.a.p without thinking and placed the book where both of them could see it with comfort. Reynolds placed his arms around her and soon he was lost in a world of runes and arrays while a smile started to form slowly on his lips.

Life in this rock mountain was calm and happy, but they soon resumed their travel and the rock mountain was left behind with a couple of fantastic sculptures that might be discovered in the future by a passing traveler. A master level sculpture was not hard to find while exploring the Infernal Realm, but finding one in a deserted place was always a pleasant surprise. Windsor had proudly engraved her name at the base of the sculptures but felt no unwillingness to leave them behind as she was convinced that they worked better with their current environment and might lose artistic value if seen out of context.