"Shari!" Nana cried out toward her with a look of despair on her face. C.C., Kallen, and the others stared in stunned disbelief at the scene before them — Shari had been on the verge of coming back, only for everything to be destroyed at the very last moment by the Flame Bird.
Rulu stared blankly at Shari's body, split in two, a look of helplessness spreading across his face. C.C. said to him with a pained expression, "It's over, Rulu. We've failed."
Rulu froze — and then suddenly, a fierce and manic look swept across his face. He said through gritted teeth, "Over? No. It's not over. Not unless I'm dead. I am not giving up!"
With those words, Rulu turned his gaze to several large boulders nearby. They rose into the air on their own and came crashing down onto the Flame Bird lying near Shari, shattering the bones in its body. The boulders continued to hammer it again and again, smashing it to pieces — and before long, under the relentless barrage, the Flame Bird was reduced to a pulp.
Though the Flame Bird had been dealt a devastating blow, it did not die immediately. Its shattered body erupted in an intense red radiance and burned with even greater ferocity. Rulu shifted his gaze to Shari's severed body — and it rose into the air on its own and came to rest atop the fiercely burning Flame Bird. The moment Shari's body made contact with the Flame Bird, it burst into violent flames.
"Rulu, what are you doing — stop it!" Kallen saw that Rulu was actually using fire to incinerate Shari's remains and rushed toward him, trying to intervene.
"Don't go near him. He cannot be disturbed right now." W.W. said urgently. She whipped her long serpent body outward and struck Kallen, sending her flying — then positioned herself close to Rulu and drove away everyone and everything that attempted to approach him, so that he could continue his work undistracted.
"What is that man trying to do?!" The Emperor watched Rulu's direction with deep confusion. Those around him on the slab stared in wide-eyed shock at Shari burning within the flames, utterly unable to comprehend what Rulu intended.
The crimson fire consumed Shari's body. Her torso, limbs, and head dissolved slowly within the blaze as though melting away, until at last her entire form had disappeared into the flames without a trace, leaving nothing but the red fire still burning.
Watching Shari's body vanish completely into the flames, Nana's tears came flooding out. Through her sobs she said, "That's enough, Rulu — Shari is… she's already gone. Stop tormenting her. She's dead."
"Heh… ha ha ha — Shari is not going to die. I won't let her die!" A wild, frenzied grin spread across Rulu's face as he stared with feverish intensity at the roaring crimson blaze. Seeing the look on his face, everyone present was convinced Rulu had lost his mind — why else would he have incinerated Shari with his own hands, leaving not even her body behind?
"Wait — that woman is still alive. He succeeded…" W.W. suddenly let out a gasp of astonishment, her eyes locked unblinkingly on the crimson flames that had swallowed Shari.
The blaze began to rise slowly, floating upward until it hovered about five meters above the ground. It blazed with a radiance far more intense than before, and its shape began to transform dramatically — what had been a bird-like form of red fire shifted into something that was part human, part bird.
"This — this is impossible!" The Emperor's pupils contracted sharply. He stared at the humanoid blaze with an expression of genuine horror, as though he were witnessing something that simply could not exist.
"Let me show you what true divine power looks like—" A look of fierce elation lit up Rulu's face as he called out to the humanoid form blazing in midair. Then suddenly, the flames engulfing it contracted and vanished entirely — and in the place where the blazing figure had been, a woman appeared.
She had long orange-gold hair and skin of pure white. She hung suspended in midair without a stitch of clothing, her body vertical in the air. From her back grew six broad orange-gold wings.
"It's Shari — she's alive!" Kallen cried out in jubilation. She recognized immediately that the figure with six wings growing from her back was the same Shari who had been swallowed by the flames moments before.
As though she had heard Kallen's cry, the woman suspended in midair slowly opened her eyes. She looked down at the people gathered below with a bewildered gaze, then raised both hands before her face and examined her own palms and arms carefully. She parted her lips and spoke clearly: "What happened to me — just now I was clearly already…"
"Shari — you're finally back…" A joyful smile broke across Rulu's face as he called up to her. At the sound of his voice, Shari immediately turned her gaze toward him. Her body descended slowly from the air and came to rest at his side.
"Rulu, what is going on — what exactly am I…" Shari began — and at that moment, Rulu vomited a mouthful of blood and collapsed straight to the ground. Shari caught him at once. She looked at his face and found his eyes vacant and glassy, his complexion ghostly pale, blood streaming from both his nose and mouth.
"Let me." C.C. rushed to Rulu's side and pressed her palms against his temples. "His body has been pushed far beyond its limits," she said. "I have to seal his power and knowledge immediately — otherwise his life could be in danger at any moment."
Gradually, the look of suffering faded from Rulu's face. His eyes closed slowly, and he sank into unconsciousness. C.C. said, "There — he's stable for now. But he won't be waking up again anytime soon."
"Oh — as long as Rulu is all right." Shari didn't fully understand what had happened, but hearing C.C.'s words brought her a measure of relief. Nana, Kallen, and the others gathered around at that moment, their eyes moving over Shari from head to toe with expressions of wonder and astonishment.
"What is it — is something on me?" Shari said. She could feel the strangeness in the way Nana and Kallen were looking at her, and instinctively glanced down at herself — and the moment she realized she was completely bare without a shred of clothing, she let out a startled cry of alarm. The six broad wings on her back folded inward swiftly, wrapping around her body to cover her nakedness.