The Burning Fiend

Rosarie and Reynolds took close to 10 hours to place the array around their camp, the work consisted only in carving the runes and their connections on the ground before using divine power to fill the array. Once it was working, they used the same kind of gems that powered the metallic life form to keep the array running but the consumption was almost negligible as the only active function was a glamour that would disturb a foreign divine sense trying to probe.

There was not much of a defense, but in case of a Highgod entering the array they would at least know it and avoid getting caught by surprise. They had a long way to go before they could reach a mastery level on runes and arrays, but both Rosarie and Reynolds felt pride and nodded satisfied by their progress.

The girls had being paying attention and cheered when the array glowed indicating their success, Reynolds held Rosarie in his arms and kissed her forehead, she rewarded him with a gentle smile as they made their way towards the girls to settle in what would be their home for the next few months.

They soon entered their usual routine... Windsor sculpting, Jenne playing with poisons, Koral and Talia sparring with each other and pondering the laws, while Rosarie and Reynolds keep concentrating in runes and arrays.

The life energy was extremely abundant in this place, making it easy for Catherine to enter a deep trance while pondering the Edicts of Life while Reynolds only managed to enter a light trance from time to time. Still, their improvement could be clearly felt day after day.

---

A blue haired Highgod had an incredulous look as he looked at the distance along with his companions. "They managed to create an array that can cheat my divine sense, I know they are there but I cannot feel them. How are those fool going to find them like this?" His voice carried slight annoyance but his curiosity over the new 7-star Fiend increased as well.

"You don't have to worry, we know that the Yura Clan already took the bait, and they already sent a group of hunters. They will scout the whole forest if their fame is accurate, the problem is... would he kill them on sight? I'm not sure that he would care enough for them to try to find why they are attacking him". A green haired Highgod who looked like a middle-aged man said.

"Don't worry too much, for the moment we only need to watch... if things don't go the way we expect, then we will simple create other opportunities". Another Highgod who looked like a young man with brown short hair said as they keep watching with expectation and had a few recording orbs prepared to be sure of not loosing a single moment of action.

---

A beautiful gray haired young woman was sitting cross-legged on a crude stone bed on a small room that had nothing besides the bed, her face showed annoyance at her situation. She understood that her trying to force a 7-star Fiend was a folly, but her pride had leaded her to take the wrong decision. Worst of all, she could not forget the picture of her smiling cousin as she mocked her when she came to visit her last month. Clarras could do nothing against her as her cousin was stronger than her, she had fused two laws, her political and commercial contacts were superior and her relationship with their grand father was on much better terms.

"Damn you!" She murmured with anger as she found herself unable to concentrate in pondering the Elemental Laws. "Did they really had to even take my interspatial ring? Am I suppose to spend the next thousand years without food and even water? It seems that grandpa is really angry this time". She felt relieved that her punishment had come before she had managed to post the task to kill the new 7-star Fiend and trembled thinking that she might even have ended being expelled from the family.

"It seems that I'm going to need to behave for a while... after I am released from this cursed place". She thought depressed and started planning her revenge. She did not care about Reynolds anymore, she didn't even know his name or his appearance... her target for revenge was her cousin, but she could not do anything extreme to her. This was utterly depressing. Clarras sighed in resignation and finally managed to calm herself enough to meditate.

---

A group of Gods and Highgods had being moving through the forest as if looking for something with extreme dedication. Reynolds and the girls could see them from inside the array, invisible to their eyes and their divine sense. They did not fear them, and they even had thought that a jade floating boulder had appeared. But soon Reynolds frowned having the feeling that the group was looking for him or his family. And he wondered if the people from the Lord Prefect had finally decided to take revenge.

Still, they decided to remain on their camp for the time being and spend their time training and resting, from their position they could enjoy the view of the Jade Floating Mountains making it quite a relaxing place to live.

Catherine was slightly uncomfortable and this confused Reynolds, this place has an abundance of life energy that would have being impossible to find either on the Yulan Continent or any other place they had visited before in the Infernal Realm. He realized that perhaps there was more to the elf people than their beauty, but he decided not to ask... perhaps he would buy a book on it the next chance he got just to calm his curiosity.

He shook his head and returned to ponder the Edict of Life while the 'hunters' were growing impatient on their search. They were led by a red haired young man with strong muscular arms that seemed to be frowning all the time. "Terak, are you sure of the reliability of the scouts? We know for sure that our prey had not left the forest, how is it that we cannot find them?"

Terak was a young man with purple eyes and gray hair, he remained pensive for a moment and said. "Perhaps the prey will not be as easy as we thought, they might have noticed us and took measures to hide from us. They might have a treasure that can hide from our divine sense, after all... a God who travel alone with seven females should have something to relay on, I don't know if we did good at taking this task. The longer we take in finding them, the more I think that they are not something we should not sink our fangs on."

The red haired man frowned, he did not like what his subordinate and friend was saying. His instincts were something that both of them had leaned to trust, but they had already taken the task and failing was not an option.

"It is too late for that, we can only hope that you are overthinking things my friend". He said with a softer voice as they both resumed their search.

Suddenly, a God who was part of the hunter squat was flying lower than the others and startled as he felt as if he had passed through some kind of membrane and seven people appeared on his divine sense. He was about to call the others when he felt a splitting headache and the excruciating pain of his soul burning.

When he managed to regain his bearings he found himself bound by black chains that burned both his flesh and soul with the mere contact on his body, he looked in horror as he found a young man with dark purple hair and bright purple eyes wearing a long black coat smiling kindly at him. He felt his heart pounding when he realized that the 6 women they were looking for were standing behind him with calm looks on their faces, showing only a slight curiosity... but there was no fear at all.

He then noticed that his companions were on plain sight flying around and apparently unaware that their targets were right below their noses. The hunter startled again when the young man started talking.

"Apologies friend, but I am a bit overprotective of my family and I felt annoyed at your intrusion to my camp. I apologize in advance as I am going to torture you in order to gain the information I need before deciding if I kill all your companions or just ignore them. Don't worry, I will kill you as soon as I'm satisfied with your answers and your pain will end then".

He felt terrified that he was not even given the chance to explain or try to lie his way out, he had being sentenced to torture and notified that his only release would be death. Before he could react, a beautiful silver haired woman approached while muttering. "I'm pretty sure that this poison will not kill a God, but perhaps it is a bit too much, and he will go insane and useless... I'm sorry Master!" She seemed truly dejected and the purple haired man chuckled.

"Don't worry Jenne, it is a good opportunity to experiment. If it ends rendering our new friend insane... well, we will just need to capture one of the Highgods, don't you think?" His calming voice produced a radiant smile on the face of the silver haired woman while the poor God trembled in horror, soon a murky green substance was poured on his mouth, and he realized what pain was and that he had never truly experience pain before.

But he managed to barely keep his bearings and begged for death causing a chuckle of pure happiness from the silver haired woman who said. "Master, it worked well!" He saw in despair that the purple haired man ignored him as he walked towards the silver haired woman and kissed her forehead.

Then he finally turned to him and said. "Well, my dear friend... it seems that we will have a chance of having a pleasant conversation after all. I'm truly happy that you did not turn insane. Now, would you be kind enough to tell me what you and your companions are doing here?" His gentle unconcerned voices seemed like the voice of a demon to the miserable God who did not hesitate to speak the truth in hopes of being granted killed as soon as possible.