Seeing the flame speed past his eyes, Noah quickly looked up and was stunned by such a majestic sight.
The phoenix hovering in the air above his head, causing the ceiling above her to smolder in flames thanks to its intense heat. And before her was the flame, with its strange but beautiful icy blue color.
On one side of that room it was as hot as a huge furnace, on the other as cold as Alaska. On one side the icy fire, which despite being a flame, was causing everything around it to slowly freeze. And on the other, the phoenix, which with each beat of its wings, made everything around it quiver and light up in flames.
However, despite the fact that the room was in that strange situation, one side of it being frighteningly too hot and the other equally cold. Noah was strangely okay. He wasn't even feeling very cold, let alone hot. For him the room was literally at a normal temperature.
"This must surely be thanks to the phoenix… So that means I also have… oh shit!" thought Noah.
Noah was starting to think about the advantages of apparently having immunity to heat and cold. But he had to interrupt his thoughts, as looking at the girl's bed he realized that she was slowly freezing.
He quickly tried to find some way to help her, not least because only a few seconds had passed since the flame and the phoenix left their bodies, and if she was in that state being exposed to the cold for a few seconds, imagine if she stayed there longer.
However, it was not necessary for him to do anything. For when he was about to get up. The phoenix, with its great claws, caught the icy flame and brought it close. And after having done that, it spread its huge wings and, after opening its golden beak, it hooted.
And that was so loud that people from all over the kingdom, and beasts from all over the forest, trembled to hear it. But after he had done that, the phoenix was slowly turned back into Noah's body by the icy flame.
After she was back inside his body, Noah rose and took a single step towards the bed. But in doing so he noticed that his vision immediately became strangely blurry. Noah continued walking slowly towards the bed, but he was only able to take two steps in total. And on the third and final step, with his vision growing more and more blurry, Noah found himself falling to his knees beside the bed.
And after that, for some unknown reason he had no strength in his legs, and with his eyes now slowly closing in complete darkness, he fell to the floor beside the bed, while saying "…Shi…t…"
*********
Moments before, outside the house
"…What is this, Sir?" asked the woman as she struggled to bear the pressure being put on her.
"I don't know..." replied the old man, kneeling on the ground a little behind the woman.
The woman was still shaking and her expression clearly showed how panicked she was. The old man, despite that pressure being really terrifying, after having calmed down a little, he managed to realize that he could walk to the bedroom, obviously trying very hard, since that pressure was too much even for him, but he could.
He then stood up, and forced himself to his feet as he felt literally every part of his body being pushed down by an overwhelming force.
"…Where are you going?…" asked the woman, after seeing the old man walking past her slowly.
"I'll go to the lady... You, however, should try to get away and be safe..."
Upon hearing that order, even though she knew she couldn't, the woman tried to force herself to get up so she could follow the old man. And as she stood up she said "But Sir… (Cough! Cough!…)"
After having heard the woman coughing, the old man turned quickly and said "What are you..." And after seeing the blood on the floor, he exclaimed "Hurry up and get away from here!"
After having said that, the old man opened the door and continued to crawl into the house, aiming to reach the room at some point.
But after he had taken a few steps into the house and had come a little closer to the bedroom, the old man stopped for a moment and thought, 'Is this… a flutter of wings?…'
He knew there was probably something there, but he hoped that "something" was a person and not a beast. And there were two more things he couldn't stop thinking about, no matter how hard he tried. How could such a powerful beast be in this forest, and to this day I haven't realized it? And why didn't I feel her destroying the barrier, or coming closer to get here?
But he couldn't even think of any answers to his questions, as he heard a peep just after he thought about them.
And after listening to him, the old man who was struggling to get there even the bedroom, while withstanding all that pressure, fell to the floor. That high-pitched, super-loud sound echoed through the old man's ears, and after that he just fell. While he felt pressure several times more than before, and the only thing he could do about it was to try not to pass out, and end up succumbing to all that pressure.
Already the woman, who was trying to move slowly away from the house. As she crept away, she heard what the old man did, and that was surely the end of her.