Time passed.
In this terrible, oppressive despair, the number of guardians dwindled steadily until only twenty or thirty remained.
Orn and Angelina grew increasingly anxious as well, because their combined academic technique was becoming unstable, and signs of repulsion and separation were gradually appearing between them.
"There!!"
At last, Orn spotted the blue-gray shadow that had been making him feel as if he were sitting on pins and needles. It had been hiding in the shadow of a young Strange Bird. The moment Orn noticed it, it seized its perfect opportunity, darting out of the shadows to try to kill the two of them with a single strike while they were fused together!
Chirp!
The Fire Phoenix let out a piercing cry.
As if it had been waiting for this moment, it suddenly spat a black-and-red fireball from its mouth.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The black-and-red fireball, only twenty centimeters across, exploded into a sea of flames dozens of meters wide in the distant sky. The flames were so intensely concentrated that the Strange Birds caught in the blast were burned to ashes, without even a cry or a corpse left behind.
And yet!
With a sharp pfft,
to Orn and Angelina's despair, the blue-gray streak of wind perfectly avoided the fireball's trajectory, then tore through the weak point where their true forms were fused, splitting them apart completely.
It vanished again in an instant, leaving no trace.
The high-temperature domain around their true forms abruptly cooled. The two, now separated, wore expressions of utter despair.
The ferocious creature's intelligence and perception surpassed even those of many scholars. It had actually detected the weakness in their combined true form and split them apart with a single strike!
"Ah..."
A fallen scholar let out a final, agonized scream, echoing the two of