Not only Ifrit but many other very strong GF say things like that.
"From legends to reality is a long way"

Whatīs the rush with the transformation thing?
If you wanna to know PARTIALLY how they transform go see the FMV where Edea transforms.
If you say so, but still there is no transformation from a Propagator and thas a Magic related transformation, like all other from other games.

and still, there's no transformation from the characters to a Propagator