The Burning Fiend

Reynolds was organizing the information he got from the file regarding the three 7-star Fiends he would be fighting soon. Aruko, who trained the laws of wind, was most likely focused on mental attacks. Onnel, who trained the laws of earth, seemed to be pure attack type with both mental and material attributes. Finally, Yura himself was similar to Reynolds but favoring material attacks over soul attacks.

He imagined that his artifacts would be enough to render their attacks useless, but he had no information regarding Yura's innate ability if he had one. He remembered seeing Tarosse's devouring ability, and he was not sure to be able to survive such an attack.

Reynolds sighed, there was not much to be done, and hoped that his 'teleportation' would be enough to escape if such an attack was used on him. A few days later, he was sitting on the task office at the Fiend Castle looking for suitable task that would not require him to travel too far from the city, and he finally found one.

"Destroying a bandit's lair on the Silver Canyon... 4-star mission. If possible, recover the interspatial ring with the ensign of the Borag Clan that was stolen 10 years ago."

Reynolds assumed that the ring was still bounded to another person and the bandits had not been able to obtain the treasures stored in it, but it was unknown it the ring was destroyed or not. He walked towards the young woman who was responsible for registering the task and delivered his Fiend medallion.

"I will be taking this mission please". The young woman was looking at him strangely, apparently she thought it was stupid to take a mission when three 7-star Fiends were trying to kill him. She did not respond but soon returned his medallion along with a map marking the location of the bandit's lair and returned to her own business ignoring his presence. He chuckled as he realized that this woman already thought of him as dead.

He was soon back into the courtyard and decided to stay with his family for a few days, his purpose was to lure Yura and the others to him and if he delayed there would be a greater probability of him not needing to take another mission. Reynolds joined Rosarie in studying runes and arrays and Jenne with her study of poisons, and also played chess with Talia while listening to Koral playing the flute and stealing a few glances of Windsor working on her sculptures.

He enjoyed these moments and was reluctant to go, but the sooner he ended this the more time he would be able to spend with his family. A few days later a winged serpent shaped metallic life form was flying in direction of the 'Silver Canyon', which was a rock depression that extended for thousands of kilometers. Inside a river flowed and there was abundant vegetation on both sides of the river.

A few small tribes lived in this place and Reynolds suspected they had to pay 'rent' to the bandits controlling the area in exchange for their peaceful life, this sparked his curiosity as normally one would have to be at least a Highgod to be able to establish a tribe and that would mean that the bandits should have at least a Highgod on their ranks.

---

On a fox shaped metallic life form a servant approached the three people sitting within the luxurious compartment and waited to deliver his report. "What is it?" Yura's annoyed voiced urged the servant to be quick with his answers. "Lord Patriarch, one of our agents on Silver Blade City reported that the Burning Fiend arrived with his family and took temporal residence there. But he is traveling in the direction of the Silver Canyon apparently on a task from the Fiend Castle".

Before Yura could answer, Aruko said. "I like him... he is not hiding and this is clearly an invitation. Would this mean that he is prepared to fight the three of us? Or perhaps... his confidence comes from the support of another party?". Yura frowned, but he knew that even if it were to be a trap he would still go and fight the Burning Fiend directly.

After killing him, no one would object for him taking the elf woman from the city. But as long as the kid remains alive, then the Lord Prefect would likely get involved. He ordered to change the direction and head towards the Silver Canyon, they would take 10 years to reach there while the Burning Fiend would likely take only 5 years... but if he was challenging them to battle, he would likely wait for them.

Onnel and Aruko were discussing how little information they had on the new kid. He had only performed a couple of missions after his participation on the Fiend's trial managing to reach the 7-star level. "Perhaps he was lucky and depended on artifacts". Said Aruko who refused to recognize the Burning Fiend as an equal.

"You already saw the recording of his battle with Temark... he is skilled, but I don't train the Elemental Laws of Fire... tell us Yura, what sort of attacks he used? What level you think he has reached?" Onnel's voice was serious as he did not like to underestimate his enemies, he would rather end up disappointed after founding that the enemy was weak than suffer for not being prepared.

Yura cleared his thoughts and said. "I am not sure, he seems to be using several combinations of 3-way fusions of 4 laws and at times he seems to be using a partial fusion of 4 laws". He paused looking at the frowning faces of the two people in front of him and then said.

"I'm sure he had mastered 'Fire Essence', 'Flame Body', 'Heat' and 'Mirage', and completed all the possible 3-way fusions of those laws, but he had not completed the fusion of the 4 laws. We know he is a God, so it is likely that he had not mastered more laws... but the main issue is that his flames are purple and I think that might be an innate ability". He paused and enjoyed the curiosity and impatience on Aruko's face before chuckling and continue with his explanation.

"You know that some divine beast can use their innate ability along with the laws and that would explain his rank as a 7-star Fiend... to be honest I'm jealous of the kid as he had already started fusing the four laws and would likely reach the realm of Asura in less than a thousand years. But that it is also the reason that I think that the elf woman is still with him... just under disguise".

Onnel was frowning and Aruko growled angrily. "You maniac divine beast... only a bunch of rapists! And you are worse than he... you are trying to steal a woman who is already a slave and **** her". Yura's face fell and his anger was rising, but he managed to keep silent as he could not deny what she said, and he needed her help.

'Do you think that I'm happy about this? But where could I found an elf woman with a saint body in this Infernal Realm!' He screamed in his mind but did not voice his frustration. Onnel just shook his head and said.

"I think you are wrong... there are two identical women in his group. The one with horns most likely is a magical beast and the other girl is her daughter, she is clearly a God and had even managed to start fusing laws. He had no reason to keep the elf woman as a breeding mare... I think it is more likely that his flames are being powered by a treasure. I have heard that Sovereigns are likely to have treasures that provides abilities that can be fused to the laws, and they are normally reserved for their most talented descendants... are we trying to kill the child of a Sovereign?"

Onnel's words caused both Yura and Aruko to start trembling, but Yura refused to believe it. Still, he could only compromise fearing to lose the support of these two disloyal monsters. "We would ask as soon as we meet him, no one would deny their relationship with a Sovereign as it would be considered an insult... if he is the descendant of a Sovereign, then we will apologize and I will pay compensation. You have my word. And no one would dare to pretend to be the descendant of a Sovereign... so there would be no danger, right?" Yura's voice was unwilling but his words calmed Onnel while Aruko seemed happy to the idea of not having to fight a rapist, and Yura was sure that she would love it if the Burning Fiend turned out to be the child of a Sovereign only to saw him, the great Yura, grovel and bleed even more to pay compensation. He felt anger rising to his head and his eyes turned red.

---

Reynolds arrived at the Silver Canyon and stored the metallic life form deciding to travel leisurely. He had a few years to spend before Yura and his companions could catch up, so he planned to explore the Silver Canyon slowly while making his way towards where the bandits were supposed to be.

He sighed while thinking, he had noticed that the speed in which he was able to ponder the Edicts was extremely slow. "Perhaps I should focus in fusing the four laws as it seems to be the most effective way to increase my power. Instead of 800 years... it will take me around 300 years to reach the bottleneck if my three divine avatars focus only on that... and after I reach the bottleneck, my avatars could return to ponder the Edicts... yes, more efficient I think". He muttered to himself making a decision and continue to move towards the first Tribe curious of how they made a living in this place.

The Silver Canyon was without a doubt a beautiful place, lots of vegetation and the river seemed to contain many life forms at the saint level and below. He guessed that it was not a bad place to live, not extremely rich but not poor.