Yes.
Phoenix.
An enormous Giant Phoenix.
Ian stood at the highest point of the ruined clock tower.
The morning wind brushed past his slightly tousled hair.
The wind blew in from the sea, carrying a salty dampness.
His Legendary Level gaze could pierce the thin morning mist, and on the horizon he clearly caught a strange glimmer of light—it was at first only a tiny dot upon the surface of the sea.
However.
That tiny dot expanded rapidly within just a few breaths, so much so that Ian saw it more and more clearly—that was a colossal creature that could not be measured by common sense.
Its wingspan was several times wider than the largest plane in the city, its entire body seemingly wreathed in never‑dying golden‑red flames, without the slightest scorching heat, instead radiating a gentle, warm radiance.
Its tail feathers trailed a long stream of flame, drawing a brilliant arc of light through the sky.
Every time it beat its wings.
Ripples spread through the air like circles upon water.
As if space itself were trembling.
And with each beat of its wings, it raised waves dozens of meters high upon the sea.
As though it set the rhythm of the wind itself.
More wondrous still, along its flight path, countless star‑lights fell from between its feathers, paving a resplendent road of light upon the sea, with pearl‑like points of radiance dancing upon the tips of the waves.
"That is…"
Ian's pupils narrowed slightly.
As the Giant Phoenix drew near, it was not only he who sensed the anomaly.
The first to notice something amiss were the Shining Sparrows foraging amid the ruins; they suddenly took flight all together, letting out urgent cries. Immediately after, some of the herbs in the pharmacy's backyard abruptly burst into a dazzling glow.
Swaying in the wind.
As though responding to something.
At the same time, the townsfolk all raised their heads to look toward the sky.
"Look quick! What's that on the horizon?"
The blacksmith's booming voice instantly roused half the small town. People surged into the streets like a tide, and all the sleepy faces lit up with astonishing brilliance when they saw the scene at the edge of the sky.
"No way… is that Lord Phoenix God?!"
"It really is her! When I was little my grandma told me, every fifty years the Phoenix God will fly over the island and bring blessings."
"Look at the Holy Fire on its feathers! My grandpa said that's the Divine Flame that can purify all illness!"
"Hurry, hurry, go tell everyone, the Phoenix God has descended!"
An old woman with snow‑white hair stood in her doorway, leaning on her cane, tears shimmering in her eyes: "I've lived eighty‑nine years, and I finally see her again… Lord Phoenix God has returned."
Even the usually steady town chief had his white beard trembling with excitement. With shaking hands he took off the Phoenix Feather Amulet hanging from his neck: "Bless the forebears… this time she's come two years early."
The crowd in the street began to stir.
The adults who had been busy repairing houses, the children who were playing or sleeping, and the elderly out on their walks all stopped what they were doing and lifted their heads to gaze at that vast silhouette drawing ever closer.
"Mom, that bird is so pretty!" A child clutched his mother's hand, pointing at the sky.
"Shh—" The mother hurriedly knelt down, whispering softly, "That is Lord Phoenix God. You can't speak loudly, you must pray devoutly."
"Lord Phoenix God, please bless us!" A fisherman knelt on the ground, hands pressed together, his forehead touching the earth.
"May Your radiance forever shine upon our homeland." Another elder murmured under his breath.
People set down the work in their hands.
They knelt to the ground.
Their faces filled with awe and gratitude.
Including those unruly Combat System Fantastic Beasts.
Like the humans, they spontaneously lined up in neat ranks, their hands—or forelegs—crossed before them, forming some kind of ancient gesture of prayer.
Xiao Ya pulled Odin down to kneel in the very front row; the little boy's eyes were round as saucers, his mouth open in an "O".
"That's a Wizard too! I know it!"
Odin spoke to his elder sister.
"That's the Phoenix God."
Xiao Ya tried to correct her younger brother.
"No! That is a Wizard! I can… see it!"
Odin still stubbornly stuck to his own view.
He kept mimicking his sister's motions of prayer, but his eyes remained wide open, locked upon the second figure in the sky that had ever filled him with such shock.
Different from the other Fantastic Beasts.
The Fantastic Beast companions of the other townsfolk certainly possessed Magic.
However.
Odin felt there was a great difference—the difference between a Wizard's Magic and a Fantastic Beast's Magic lay in that "infinite possibility" that only he could see, perhaps only he could sense.
As for this.
Xiao Ya, who had no such perception at all, could only sigh helplessly.
She could not understand what her younger brother was talking about.
She, together with the other townsfolk, knelt in utmost devotion before the Giant Phoenix that had appeared.
This was, after all, understandable. After all, this small town had always had stories of a Legendary Fantastic Beasts guarding the island; faced with the Patronus of the island, they would naturally hold faith in their hearts.
Even if the object of that faith was only a Fantastic Beasts. The entire town seemed to fall into silence, with only the rustling of wind through leaves and the faint tremor of the Phoenix's wings cleaving the air remaining.
The Phoenix slowly flew over the town, its body unimaginably vast, blocking out half the sky. Sunlight filtered through its semi‑transparent feathers, casting mottled shadows upon the ground.
Like a flowing scroll of painting.
"What a powerful wave of Magic Power…" Ian too sensed the Magic Power within the Giant Phoenix, a Magic Power comparable to a Legend, far stronger than that "Sky Splitter" he had encountered in the storm before.
It was ancient.
Holy Magic Power.
Of a magnitude that the small Phoenixes of the Dumbledore family simply could not compare to—how should one describe such a gap? Roughly equivalent, perhaps, to the difference between domesticated chickens of later ages and their ancestor, the Dinosaur?