The Burning Fiend

After reaching a distance of a thousand kilometers from the Jade Floating Mountains, Reynolds and his family stopped flying within the metallic life form and started moving on their own. The place was a gigantic forest that extended for millions of kilometers and some areas were covered in shades produced by the floating mountains on the air blocking the sun. Due to the enormous size of the floating mountains, Reynolds imagined that there might be some areas of the forest where the sun would never reach.

Windsor took a recording orb from her interspatial ring and started to use it to keep a remembrance of the fantastic scene. Her eyes shined brightly and might have even forgotten to breath as she looked at the mountains, and soon all of them were smiling. "The long travel was truly worthy... If someone had told me when we were in the Yulan Plane that such a place existed, I would have never believed it". Reynolds said while the 6 woman nodded.

They started floating on the outer areas of the forest looking for the rare jade floating boulders, apparently these boulders could appear from time to time, and they were expensive. They did not care for the wealth, but the curiosity of understanding what made these mountains remain in the air was motivation enough.

Unknown to them, a green haired Highgod smiled as he found them in the distance and started using a recording orb to engrave their appearances. The first image he took was the whole group with only distance enough to identify that they were 6 women and a man, then he approached cautiously while taking close-ups of the six women being extremely careful of remain out of their sights. He had no trouble performing his task as Reynolds group had no Highgods among them, so he was able to remain invisible to their divine sense probes.

He started to make his way back to report to his companions and start the next stage of the of their plan. The green haired man smiled feeling that this mission will be extremely easy.

---

The Lord Prefect was standing facing the window of his studio while keeping his hands behind his back in a relaxed but dignified posture while a saint was making his report behind in an extremely respectful demeanor. This saint looked identical to the blue haired man who was in charge of the mission at the Jade Floating Mountains.

"... the group has already arrived, and we had proceeded as planned due to them showing no intention to approach the castles, I would dare saying... he seems to be taking his family on a leisure trip". The saint trembled as the Lord Perfect started laughing happily releasing a bit of his aura without realizing it but got himself composed immediately as he noticed how uncomfortable the saint was.

"I am sorry Donaro, I forgot that you only left your saint body behind in order to facilitate reporting... thank you. Tell me about the kid, would you?" The Lord Prefect voice was sincere and the saint smiled gratefully.

"No problem my Lord, the kid... I would say he looks young. For what we heard from their conversation, the seven of them came from a lower plane called the Yulan Plane and apparently deities are not a common occurrence there. Four of the women are his wives and one of them also seem to be a magical beast companion, the youngest of them is his daughter and the elf woman just seem to be traveling with them. He... seems to be studying runes, arrays and the Edicts of Life and Death".

The Lord Prefect's eyes shined at the last comment. "The Edicts of Life and Death? Are you sure?" Donaro looked confused and reflected for a moment before answering. "Yes my Lord, he talks with the elf woman about the techniques for healing and illusion from the Edict of Life and with one of his wives he talks about the techniques for refining poison and souls from the Edict of Death".

The eyes of the Lord Prefect seemed to be gaining understanding in something important making Donaro extremely puzzled, and he heard him muttering. "But of course... the purple flame, Life, Death and Fire..." He then started laughing again but this time he remembered to control his aura to not overwhelm the saint in front of him. "Good, this is so good!"

---

Reynolds and family keep exploring without having much hope of finding the rare jade floating boulder, but they enjoyed the feeling of exploration and played among themselves from time to time. Even if there seemed to be no danger, Reynolds always remained vigilant and did not allow them to separate from the group.

After a while they decided to make camp and soon found a place next to a river that seemed comfortable enough while not at plain sight from a passing metallic life form. They sat together and the girls started talking among themselves while Catherine and Talia started playing chess, Reynolds just took a moment to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and unexpectedly he managed to enter into a light trance as he attuned himself with the life energy that was extremely abundant in the forest.

The girls did not found out as they all were enjoying their rest and a time passed quickly. Reynolds felt extremely relaxed and safe while in sync with the life energy, and he started pondering the Edict of Life specially the techniques of healing managing to slowly improve his understanding on the Edict of Life, and a light smile appeared on his face.

---

A man was bowing to a young man who was sitting on a 5 meters wide bed where two beautiful female saints lay n.a.k.e.d and unconscious with a few bruises on the otherwise perfect bodies. The youth was frowning for the interruption and said. "This better be worthy, Karias!" The man bowing was a God and his disgust for the young man was hidden behind his smile as he produced a recording orb and said.

"Young Master, we received important news from one of our scouts. I'm sure you will be interested". The young man looked at him in annoyance but a moment later he took the orb and poured his spiritual sense into it to watch the images it contained. He first saw the image of a group of deities, floating on the outer areas of the forest below the Jade Floating Mountains, only managing to discern that six of the seven deities were women. He looked at the girls with appreciation but not extreme interest, after all a deity could take whatever form he/she d.e.s.i.r.ed or was ordered to, he liked to play with female saints because he considered them natural beauties.

A moment later his smile grew as he almost dropped the orb in excitement, the last image on the recording showed a masked woman with genderless appearance. "An elf woman!" He muttered and then turned to the man who was waiting for him and asked. "Do you know their level of power?" The young man was serious now and growing impatient.

"The seven of them are reported to be Gods, we were assured that there was no Highgods on the group". At this point the young man was smirking thinking of the possibilities that the future might hold for him. He was the son of a 7-star Fiend that ruled over one of the most important castles on the Jade Float Mountains, but he lacked talent. He was not able to become a deity after thousands of years of training and ended fusing with divine sparks to become a Demigod and later a God.

The young man remembered the look of disappointment on his father's eyes and from that moment onward, he was never allowed in his presence again. He was still treated like a young master of the clan, but he had lost his greatest support. He had no chance of obtaining a Highgod spark with his current position, but that elf woman could change things for him.

It all depended on how talented she was, but if she was a God and had not fused with divine sparks... if she still had a saint body... 'It might be enough of a contribution to the clan to obtain a Highgod spark and a set of Highgod artifacts, then I could leave on my own'. He thought excited at the opportunity of leaving the place that he used to love but now seemed more like a prison where his shame was always in display.

He looked at Karias and said. "Lets prepare, be sure to that no harm came to the elf woman... you can give the other women to the men who take the task". Karias looked emotionless as he bowed before leaving the room.

---

After a couple of hours, Reynolds woke up from his trance with slight regret as he did not manage to reach the necessary level of understanding on the Edict of Life to promote his divine avatar into the God level. He sighed and walked towards his wives who were happy talking about the floating mountains.

They planned to stay on this place for a few months, so he took Rosarie with him to create a defensive array that would work more like practice to them than anything else. They have practiced many times but the results were still not to their satisfaction, however practice makes master and that was what Reynolds kept repeating to himself.