Under the setting sun, burning wings turned into shooting stars.
Famu stopped Bloodburn.
The Child of the Earth Furnace Core consumed too much energy sustaining the high-temperature Domain, and he had not yet fully mastered it. But this was Bloodburn's first real battle, and Famu believed that a new tool should be put to the test, so even though these Crowned Herons posed little threat to him, he still simulated Bloodburn and created the Day of Death's high-temperature Domain.
The results were outstanding.
Against these creatures flying at high speed, the high-temperature Domain could easily set their feathers alight.
That's about enough.
Famu thought.
The remaining Crowned Herons were like stray dogs running blindly into things.
They had lost any chance to resist.
"Your Excellency Jiuxun, high-energy Earth Vein Energy fluctuations detected. Distance: 200 meters... 120 meters... 10 meters!"
Famu looked up and saw a huge shadow sweep across the sky.
It was not Ronan; Ronan was not nearly so large. Nor should it have been the old Crowned Heron, because he was not so robust.
Famu felt the thing did not even look like a living creature.
It was roughly the shape of a Crowned Heron. Its body was enormous, and its skin hung loose. As it flew, the wind billowed out the loose skin, like a giant draped in robes.
The white behemoth had an exceptionally rare two pairs of wings. The larger, pure white wings on its back carried it through the air, while the pair on its chest hung down, their tips forming weapons as sharp as spears.
It rose into the air, seized a Crowned Heron, bit its head off, and swallowed it feathers and all.
The other Crowned Herons could not escape the white behemoth's hunt. It kept devouring them, its body growing fuller and fuller, its muscles bulging until it looked full of strength.
Famu turned to look in the direction the white behemoth had come from.
Wriggling drag marks scored the ground, and farther away from Famu, the charred corpses of the Crowned Herons had all disappeared.
"Rumble—!"
The behemoth beat its white wings, driving the fleeing Crowned Herons back. It pierced their chests with its claws and chewed them up, bite by bite.
Before long, every Crowned Heron that had survived in the sky had become food for the white behemoth to replenish itself.
After eating every living thing before it, the white behemoth lowered its head and tilted it, its dark eyes fixed on Famu.
Famu knew the thing had set its sights on him.
"Biological level four. Identified as a life-form highly adapted to Earth Vein Energy. Species name: Titan Feather-Crested Heron," the Scepter said. "Your Excellency, I do not recommend that you enter into conflict with it. It is transforming toward biological level five, while your Furnace Core Energy has less than half its energy remaining after you simulated Bloodburn."
"Biological level five? Isn't that a biological level only Typhon's Muerjia possesses?" Famu observed it as he and the white behemoth faced each other.
Both realized that the other was not an opponent they could easily deal with, and waited for an opening.
"It is only in the process of transforming," the Scepter explained. "This is a temporary state. If the Mara River's Muerjia in his normal state were used as the standard, this creature's Earth Vein Energy would have to be simulated at ten times its current level."
"Biological level five is measured by the maturity of the Furnace Core. Its Furnace Core has been depleted for too long. It has only retained its vitality through prolonged exposure to Earth Vein radiation and grown into a highly adapted life-form. In essence, this Crowned Heron is eating more than it needs. It can never fill its stomach, and its long-depleted Furnace Core organ can never reach the standard for biological level five."
"It sounds like it died a long time ago, and the Furnace Core is driving this body," Famu said.
"Your Excellency, your guess is quite accurate. This Crowned Heron has already been killed by Earth Vein Energy, but the high concentration of Earth Vein Energy has given its body vitality."
Famu coiled himself up, the muscles beneath his iron scales bulging as the dragonified structures in his cervical vertebrae slowly exerted force.
The white behemoth beat its wings. It was covered in the blood of its own kind, and the ground was littered with Crowned Heron limbs it had bitten apart.
The blood-red setting sun closed at the edge of the sea of trees.
Night fell, and the eyes of both the white behemoth and Famu lit up in the darkness.
Ronan had returned.
The young Crowned Heron had returned, unwilling to accept it.
He could not believe that his own father had been deceiving Typhon.
His father actually dared deceive Typhon?
There was nothing in the cavern, not even a trace that an Earth Vein had ever been born there.
If that was the case, how was his father to answer Typhon's accusations? In a cave where no Earth Vein had ever been born, he would not even have a chance to claim it had dried up. His father would die in the jaws of the enraged Typhon, and what had he himself done?
Abandoned his family for an empty cavern?
No, there was still time.
He had to go back and take his warriors away.
Typhon could do nothing to the Crowned Herons. At most, a few careless companions would be lost now. But as for his father, Ronan dared not imagine what would become of him. Without the second baptism brought by Earth Vein Energy, his current strength was nowhere near enough to carry his father away.
He could only leave his father before Typhon.
Ronan swiftly crossed the valley, hurrying toward where Black Typhon and the Crowned Herons had been entangled. The sun went out in the sky ahead of him.
Night had arrived.
Ronan did not see his companions.
There should have been flocks of Crowned Herons here, looking like a cloud from a distance. The air could not possibly have been so empty.
Ronan flew high into the sky and watched carefully.
Typhon could not possibly have killed those Crowned Herons. The possibility had never even occurred to Ronan. He cried out, calling for his companions.
"Whoosh—!"
A fierce wind swept in from behind Ronan.
Ronan turned to look, but there was nothing behind him.
But from his position, he could not see above himself. Above Ronan, behind the clouds, a pair of enormous white wings spread wide, beating in time with his own.
It was a terrifying behemoth, its eyes glowing.
"Rumble—!"
The behemoth swooped down to kill.
Two iron claws pinned Ronan's wings, and the pair of wingtips on its chest stabbed straight into his body. Blood gushed out, scattering toward the ground.
"No!" Ronan wailed in pain. He was pinned fast and could not turn around. He could not even see what was attacking him.
But he knew this was a hunting method the Titan Feather-Crested Herons took pride in. Once pinned, prey found it hard to struggle.
What on earth happened here?
Ronan shrieked and twisted his body wildly. His Furnace Core exerted force along with him, and Earth Vein Energy erupted.
The white behemoth sensed the Earth Vein's fluctuations, and its eyes grew brighter still. It reached out, plunged its beak into Ronan's body, and stirred it around repeatedly, paying no heed to the fact that Ronan was still alive. Its eyes were fixed solely on Ronan's Furnace Core organ.
"What are you doing? No... no!"
"Don't! I beg you!"
"Crack!"
His spine broke. The white behemoth raised its head, a bloody Furnace Core dangling from its beak.
Ronan's pleas caught in his throat, for the moment the Furnace Core was torn free, the white behemoth's wingtips sliced through his body, and its iron claws twisted off his wings.
Half the Crowned Heron's corpse fell from the sky. The white behemoth did not let a single scrap of flesh go. It swallowed the Furnace Core organ, beat its wings, and swooped swiftly downward, catching the remaining half of the corpse in midair and stuffing it into its mouth.