After his successful transformation into a phoenix, Kael eagerly wanted to test his legendary new abilities.
He lightly flapped his wings—effortlessly rising into the air, feeling absolutely no heaviness or strain.
He instinctively felt he could easily lift and carry hundreds or even thousands of pounds while flying without difficulty.
His feathers suddenly bristled. The golden plumage began glowing and heating rapidly, radiating intense heat as his wings burst into blazing golden flames.
With a single powerful flap, the golden flames surged outward toward the ground in a controlled wave.
The flames danced beautifully, flickering, but the temperature they radiated proved extremely hot—easily capable of melting solid steel.
More importantly, these flames radiated a bright, sacred aura—like sunfire itself, naturally suppressing dark creatures. The released firelight could also threaten and harm light-averse orcs, trolls, and other creatures of shadow.
When the red feathers began emitting soft red light, Kael's entire body erupted with golden-red flames. Completely enveloped in flames, he instantly vanished from his location. The next second he reappeared in a burst of light elsewhere across the room.
This was the phoenix's remarkable teleportation ability, possessing all the advantages of both Apparition and Portkeys—not only bypassing Anti-Apparition wards but also unbound by distance limitations, able to travel instantly wherever he wished.
After enthusiastically experiencing these phoenix abilities, Kael prepared to revert to his human form. But then he noticed the remaining Balrog heart fragments scattered on the ground. He instinctively felt overwhelming hunger and a compelling devouring urge toward them.
Perhaps because becoming a phoenix had temporarily diminished his human reasoning, he didn't hesitate much before swooping down eagerly, pecking at the Balrog heart fragments with his sharp beak.
Eating these Balrog heart fragments, Kael felt warmly comfortable throughout his entire body, sensing his inner rebirth fire gradually strengthening and growing more powerful.
But the next second, sudden catastrophic change occurred without warning.
Flames spontaneously appeared all around him, becoming completely uncontrollable, beginning to burn with increasing intensity.
Kael felt alarmed, desperately trying to control these wildly spreading flames, but flames continuously surged from deep within his body, growing increasingly vigorous and consuming.
He had become like a mobile fire source, ready to explode at any moment, threatening to devour everything around him.
Panicking, Kael hastily attempted to teleport outside the castle to avoid destroying it. But during the attempted teleportation, affected by the wildly erupting internal flames, a terrible accident occurred—he teleported straight into the mithril furnace instead.
The mithril furnace contained concentrated Balrog fire crystals with temperatures hot enough to resemble a small active volcano, capable of melting even pure mithril.
Materializing inside the mithril furnace, Kael was like a match thrown into a powder keg—the reaction was instantaneous and explosive, detonating with a deafening bang.
Kael felt scorching heat erupt from deep within. His entire body burst into flames from the inside out.
This unbearable agony made him involuntarily release a mournful, agonized cry that echoed through the workshop.
"Kael!" Arwen screamed in shock, her face instantly draining pale. She rushed desperately toward the furnace to somehow rescue Kael from the flames.
But Gandalf reacted quickly, stopping her with a firm grip on her arm, trying to sound calm. "Arwen, don't panic! Kael's Felix Felicis effects haven't expired yet—he'll definitely be fine somehow!"
"Moreover, I have a strong premonition this accident actually benefits him in the long run. Let's quietly wait for the results rather than interfering."
Hearing Gandalf's steadying words, Arwen forced herself to stay calm, though she continued gazing worriedly at the closed furnace.
Inside the sealed furnace, Kael was like a living inferno. The surrounding Balrog fire crystals' concentrated energy continuously absorbed into him, accelerating his burning speed.
Balrog fire crystals were pure crystallized fire elemental energy—like the most efficient combustion fuel imaginable, making Kael burn hotter and more intensely.
Kael endured the excruciating pain but found himself unable to stop this catastrophic situation.
His consciousness faded until everything went black.
Waiting anxiously outside, Gandalf and Arwen both sensed the furnace's violent tremors gradually quieting, finally becoming completely silent.
Long-worried Arwen couldn't wait any longer. She hastily ran to the furnace, disregarding the internal high temperatures that could severely burn her. She directly opened the heavy furnace lid with desperate strength.
But after opening it, the internal situation completely stunned her into shocked silence.
Following close behind, Gandalf also showed a profoundly surprised expression.
Inside the furnace, those previously glowing Balrog fire crystals had been completely drained of all flame energy, crumbling into lifeless powder without any remaining temperature.
The entire furnace no longer held any trace of its previous scorching heat. Not a single flame remained, the space becoming completely empty and cool.
Only at the furnace's bottom lay a small pile of fine grey ash.
Gandalf's and Arwen's eyes stared intently at that ash pile. They both sensed a definite life force's existence within, rapidly reviving and growing stronger.
Finally, in their eager anticipation, a small bird head emerged from the ash pile.
It made tender, melodious cries, its eyes looking around curiously. Seeing Gandalf's and Arwen's large faces hovering overhead, it showed a distinctly humanized expression of astonishment.
It was a hatchling phoenix about the same size as a newly hatched chick, with sparse golden-red downy feathers.
"Kael?" Arwen looked with amazement at the tiny hatchling, asking hesitantly with hope in her voice.
The hatchling nodded its small head, making tender cries in response to confirm its identity.
Seeing this confirmation, Gandalf smiled knowingly and speculated, "I believe Kael just experienced true phoenix rebirth through flames. His current state represents a truly completed transformation, reaching the most perfect condition possible."
Arwen carefully extended her hand into the now-cool furnace, gently picking out the fragile hatchling with infinite tenderness.
She gazed at the adorably ugly baby phoenix resting in her palm, asking with genuine concern, "Kael, can you revert to human form now?"
Kael nodded somewhat uncertainly, then signaled Arwen through gestures to please place him on the solid ground.
Once safely on the ground, Kael recalled his human body's magical circuits clearly in his mind.
His internal magical circuits rapidly changed, reconstructing themselves according to his will.
Simultaneously, Kael's tiny body began rapidly transforming, expanding dramatically.
In an instant, Kael successfully recovered human form as intended.
But before he could feel any happiness about this success, Kael discovered with absolute horror that he had become a two- or three-year-old toddler!
Arwen, seeing Kael's diminutive appearance, looked startled at first. Then a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, displaying an amused expression she couldn't suppress. Her eyes sparkled with eager brightness, her maternal instincts clearly awakening.
Gandalf seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the show.
"Well, I didn't expect young Kael would look quite this adorable as a child. But now you've become so very small—can you still properly attend next year's wedding ceremony? Otherwise, perhaps I should discuss with Lord Elrond the possibility of postponing your and Arwen's wedding until you properly grow up again?"
Kael was currently stark naked. Seeing both Arwen's and Gandalf's amused gazes fixed upon him, his small face immediately flushed bright red with embarrassment. One tiny hand covered key areas while the other quickly performed wandless magic, summoning his wand and hastily conjuring fitting children's clothes.
Then he glared at Gandalf with clear annoyance. "No need for that, thanks! Worst case scenario, I can still brew Aging Potion to artificially grow up. Moreover, phoenixes naturally grow quickly—one year proves sufficient to reach maturity, and my body can fully recover to adulthood."
Kael spoke forcefully, but unfortunately he currently possessed just a tiny child's body with a very young, high-pitched voice. This made him sound exactly like a child trying to act grown-up.
This made Arwen's eyes shine with delight, filling her with an almost irresistible urge to hug and pamper him.
Kael looked warily at Arwen, sensing she had awakened some strange maternal instinct he'd never seen before.
"That's truly unfortunate for our entertainment. Actually, I think your current appearance is quite endearing and cute," Gandalf continued teasing cheerfully, clearly enjoying himself.
Thanks so much, Kael thought sarcastically. He had absolutely no kind words for this playful old wizard Gandalf right now.
Then he awkwardly climbed back toward the furnace, waving his wand to carefully extract the internal ash pile, storing the precious material in crystal bottles.
This was genuine phoenix rebirth ash—an extremely rare and powerful healing resource in the magical world, not only a key ingredient for making revival potions but also possessing extraordinarily strong restorative power, capable of repairing severely damaged precious magical items.
After completing this important collection, Kael looked at the furnace's empty interior and couldn't help feeling some regret.
Those Balrog fire crystals had been very rare, valuable materials. Now completely absorbed and exhausted during his rebirth, future mithril smelting wouldn't be nearly so easy without them.
But fortunately, having these Balrog fire crystals had allowed Kael to smoothly complete the phoenix rebirth, truly possessing the phoenix Animagus without any hidden dangers or flaws.
So overall, the trade proved very worthwhile.
After successfully gaining the phoenix Animagus, Kael's life-saving abilities had undergone earth-shaking changes.
Even without relying on the Philosopher's Stone and Elixir of Life, depending on the phoenix Animagus alone, he could possess a genuine degree of longevity.
He could undergo phoenix rebirth—when aged, choosing to spontaneously combust into purifying flames, then be reborn from the ash as a young bird, starting a completely new cycle.
The only significant drawback was constantly cycling through infancy to old age repeatedly, and the rebirth process proved extremely painful—far more agonizing than being burned alive over and over.
When ordinary people are burned to death, they quickly die, no longer feeling pain once consciousness fades.
But the phoenix rebirth process meant clearly experiencing flames burning through flesh and bones until the entire body became ash before the pain finally stopped.
So each rebirth was pure agony.
This was the price of phoenix immortality.
But the benefits were clear. Besides rebirth in old age, when encountering severe or even fatal injuries normally, one could choose rebirth to recover injuries and become healthy again.
Even if hit directly by the Killing Curse, phoenixes could survive through rebirth—making them almost impossible to kill permanently.
So if Kael ever encountered fatal injuries in the future, he wouldn't need to worry about death—he could simply choose rebirth as an option.
The only inconvenient side effect was experiencing a temporary period as a child afterward.
Of course, Kael understood he couldn't act recklessly just because he possessed phoenix immortality abilities.
Though phoenixes could undergo rebirth, each rebirth required a very long recovery period.
If phoenixes continuously suffered Killing Curse attacks in a short time, even with rebirth abilities, they couldn't withstand such devastating repeated trauma.
The Phoenix Rebirth ability stemmed from the internal rebirth fire. After one rebirth, the rebirth fire became dangerously weak, needing slow, patient cultivation to recover to peak strength before the next rebirth.
But if forced to continuously undergo rebirth in a short time, the rebirth fire grew increasingly weak with each cycle.
When the rebirth fire was completely exhausted and extinguished, that was when phoenixes truly died permanently.