"Lady Ishar, severe interference from the star has temporarily caused us to lose track of the target.
Based on its projected course, it will clear the stellar envelope in five minutes, and our radar will reacquire it in fifteen minutes and thirty-two seconds. Of course... that's assuming it hasn't been burned to ash..."
The adjutant reported to Ishar in a relaxed tone.
Although the target's course did not take it into the inner plasma masses with their extreme temperatures and pressures, even the temperature of the star's outer layers was far beyond anything a tree could withstand.
Rather than relaxing, Ishar looked even graver. "Fleet, advance at full speed. Alive or dead, I want it found!"
She did not believe the target would be foolish enough to use a suicidal method of acceleration. But if it had done this deliberately... perhaps that enormous biological fortress was even tougher than she had imagined...
Sure enough, fifteen minutes later...
"Signal detected! It's... it's still there!" Everyone stared at the reappearing red signal in disbelief.
"P-perhaps it's already been burned down to a pile of wreckage?" the adjutant suggested hesitantly.
Ishar offered no opinion, but a vague unease stirred within her...
On the far side of the star, beyond the Winged Race fleet's optical instruments, an enormous burning torch appeared in the silent cosmos.
Against the star behind it, it was as tiny as a flickering spark, leaving only a trail of smoky ash particles in its wake.
As its distance from the star rapidly increased, the smoke and flames gradually dispersed, revealing the body within, burned beyond recognition...
This was, of course, the Long-Lived One after undergoing the "Extreme Trial." More than ninety percent of its surface was now blackened and carbonized, with some areas even crystallized. Its original appearance was