The Burning Fiend

The girls watched in horror as Reynolds convulsed from the pain due to the purple flames destroying his body that a moment later was reconstructed with divine power in a seemingly never ending circle. Koral calmed them down explaining that he was fine and becoming stronger, if it wasn't for the telepathic link she had for being his magical beast companion she would have trouble believing it herself.

This destruction and reconstruction process continued for 20 days without abating, and after the flames finally disappeared he remained on the ground breathing heavily. The pain he went through this time was on a higher level than his last experience with the flame baptism, and he refused to think on what would happen when his three avatars reached the Highgod realm.

He sat up while examining his body, his hair was a shade darker and his eyes seemed brighter. His body did not change in appearance beyond that, but he could feel that it was as hard and resistant as a God level artifact. He could feel the raw strength on his muscles and smiled satisfied, he turned his attention to his family and smiled reassuringly to them before he returned to adapt to his new power.

The first think he did was to absorb the soul essence he had prepared for his two new God avatars and his saint body that was now at the God level in all aspects, allowing his soul to grow as well. The second thing he did was to inspect his artifacts, he had not stored them away and hoped that the flame baptism could attune them to him as they experienced the flames along with his body.

His three half-sovereign artifacts seemed completely undamaged and understood that with his current power would not be able to make a dent on them, but they shined with a slight purple aura, and he felt 'closer' to them. As if they were made specifically for him taking in consideration his own traits and his current understanding of the Elemental Laws and Edicts.

It was clearly different to use a powerful artifact that was created by someone else than using an artifact that one have created and nurtured since the very beginning. His three artifacts now felt closer to the second category which was a good improvement.

He smiled as he stood up and started to dance with his spear as he had not done in a long time, he felt instantly how he was getting better at controlling his body and the laws he had mastered felt easier to apply the more he practiced.

Soon Koral, Talia, Jenne and Catherine were looking at him while trying to gain insights, he was using the different Elemental Laws of Fire and their different combinations of fusion, but in every move his flame carried the traits of the Edicts of Life and Death adding to his application of the laws and increasing his power. Only Rosarie and Windsor looked at them with weird expressions and a little jealousy but ended chuckling before returning to their own activities knowing that they would be resuming their trip soon.

---

A fox shaped metallic life form was traveling at high speed and every time they crossed paths with another metallic life form, or passed over the site of a group of bandits, people started fleeing for their lives without even wasting time to consider another option.

News have traveled fast, making it known that this metallic life form carried three powerful 7-star Fiends that were extremely cruel and lacked patience, they had destroyed a few unfortunate merchants and bandit groups that had crossed their path, and they soon become infamous in the area.

Inside of the metallic life form, in a luxurious room, servants were in waiting ready to attend to the three people sitting there. "Yura, I'm sickened at the very thought of what you plan to do with that poor elf woman. Have you already given up on your descendants? I seem to remember that you had almost 50 children in the last thousand years... really! None of them had the slightest talent?"

The feminine voice openly mocked the red haired man, stabbing on his most annoying concern, and he glared at the green haired woman before releasing a sigh. "Aruko, how could a human like you understand the difficulty of reaching the deity level for the descendants of a divine beast like myself? If the girl manage to give me a talented child I will treat her as a queen... hmp! Is it true? I heard that your son escaped with a whore of another clan, is that why you are being so annoying? To release your anger?"

Aruko growled at the red haired man who was glaring back at her with a satisfied smirk on his lips while the blue haired man who was sitting in front of the two just shook his head thinking. 'This two idiots should just marry and stop barking at each other'. He took a small drink from his glass enjoying the wine while doing his best to ignore the glaring competition and wondering how had he ended traveling with them.

---

A winged serpent shaped metallic life form moved at high speed towards Silver Blade City, Reynolds planned to make a stop here to solve the problem with the Yura Clan. He suspected that his whereabouts were already known, and he will fight them and perhaps even exterminate the entire clan once his family was safe inside the city.

Even a 7-star Fiend would think twice before making trouble inside a city as the Lord Prefect would get involved as it was a challenge to his authority, so he felt assured that as long as his family managed to take refuge in the city he will have no problem killing his pursuers.

His plan was to take residence on the city, buy information about the Yura Clan and take a couple of tasks from the Fiend Castle in order to bait them and engage in battle. He suspected that his current power was not enough to be truly considered an Asura, but he was no longer a simple 7-star Fiend. This battle would be a good way to gauge his own strength, and he was looking forward to it.

They soon were able to see the city on the distance and Reynolds increased his guard in order to avoid falling into an ambush on a moment when they were nearing to what looking like a haven. They flew out of the metallic life form and Reynolds directed his group without paying attention to the deities waiting for their turn to enter the city.

He threw the required inkstones to cover the cost of his companions entering the city and pay no more attention to the guards. Neither the guards nor the deities waiting to cross the gates dared to complain as they recognized him even before he had reached the gates of the city. Reynolds walked with his family and after a few hours they found a medium-sized courtyard that would be their temporary residence.

Talia had being complaining silently as she knew that their travel was temporarily suspended, but she did not voice her annoyance as the measure was taken for their protection as well as for Catherine's sake that seemed extremely guilty already.

The courtyard had a beautiful garden and Talia's mood improved when she found out that she would have her own room, still she demanded to accompany his father to the Jadefloat Palace. They soon felt comfortable on the courtyard and Reynolds took Talia and Koral with him to visit the Jadefloat Palace in order to sell the treasures they had obtained during the last few decades and hoping to inquire about the Yura Clan.

Reynolds was surprised at how similar this Jadefloat Palace was to the one he had visited on the Silver Grass City, they reached the third floor without problems and were approached by a bright-eyed young man who smiled at them. "Welcome to the Jadefloat Palace, may I know what treasures you want to sell?"

Reynolds delivered a few interspatial rings and the young man soon was making calculations, Talia was excited as this time she had contributed and good part of those treasure were obtained by her after killing their previous owners, she waited impatiently under the amused expressions of her parents, but she seemed oblivious to it and did not allow anything to destroy her good mood.

Soon they accepted the inkstones and made their way to the adjacent hall and started looking for an area that sold intelligence. They soon found a door with a notice that read 'Intelligence and Information', they assumed that this would be the place to visit if one wanted information on the different factions within the Infernal Realm as well as news and description of powerful combatants. As soon as they entered the small hall, a black haired man looked at them and smiled.

"Sir, I assume that you want to know about the Yura clan... I think I have the information you are looking for." The man had recognized Reynolds and knew of his current situation, he was surprised to find that he had managed to enter a city without trouble and this showed that their understanding of the Burning Fiend was lacking.

Reynolds smiled and said. "Yes, I want to know about the Patriarch of the Yura Clan and his allies. Do you know who is the third party that started this conflict?" The black haired man startled and interrupted his search for the files on the Yura Clan, he looked at Reynolds with a wide eyes understanding that the intelligence they had on the conflict between Reynolds and the Yura Clan was incomplete, and they had missed the most important part.

"I'm sorry sir, it seems that we are not as well-informed as we thought... this is the information we have on Yura, Aroko and Onnel, the three 7-star Fiend that are coming to fight you. The price is 10 million inkstones". Reynolds frowned and paid for the information giving a quick look to the file before returning to the courtyard with his wife and daughter. The two women were silent after learning that he would be fighting three 7-star Fiends in the days to come.

He was also surprised as he had assumed that the pride of the Yura Clan Patriarch would not allow him to look for help. He had asked about his allies thinking that it would not hurt to know if someone would be looking for revenge after Yura's death. It seems that his d.e.s.i.r.ed to capture Catherine was beyond what he had expected and smiled thinking in what face Yura would make after learning that Catherine no longer had a saint body.

He chuckled and felt exited at the idea of the battle that was to come. He started reading the information and was happy to find that Yura practiced the Elemental Laws of Fire meaning that he would have a good chance to gain enlightenment during this battle. Yura would either use the complete version of the fusion he was working on or use the two laws that he had not started to explore yet.