An Owl's Rise

"AHHHH-HHAAAAAA!"

As the giant plant woman peeled back the pod she had been within, she let out an earthshaking yawn.

This simple act held behind it more power than Evelyn had ever seen as waves of magical energy came off of this creature and created the same force as a hurricane.

'Damn it!'

Being assaulted by the waves of energy Evelyn along with what remained of her squad had trouble staying airborne and Braulia, Rehni, and Bylur, were even swept away and smashed into the ground.

Eventually, the waves of magical energy started to settle down as the monstrous plant woman stopped yawning.

However, this only made the situation far more frightening, as Evelyn could fell a terror she had not experienced since her escape from the human's laboratory. Absolute helplessness.

She could fell that there was nothing she could do against this entity.

'There is no way. We cannot even hope to run from that thing.'

Falling into despair, Evelyn could not fathom anyway out of her current situation and shutdown as she prepared for the end.

"What are you doing. You said you would be able to break out of this barrier if you drank that potion. Hurry up and do it. I will stall it even if just for a couple seconds. I am leaving getting everyone else out to you." Adolophine said as she charged towards the unbeatable enemy that had appeared before them.

Evelyn hearing and seeing this snapped out of her overwhelming hopelessness and focused on what she could do.

'She is right. It is not over yet. I doubt that this point will be enough to give me any chance of winning. But if it gives me even a millionth of a chance of escape, I have to fight to the end.'

Evelyn with the unleash potential potion in her claws broke the top off and prepared to down the contents, as Adolophine flew off to by whatever measly time she could.

Yet before either of them could accomplish what they were trying to do. The giant plant woman exercised the tyranny of her overwhelming power.

She did not even throw a glance at Adolophine and burst past her at an incredible speed which caused the leader of Evelyn's squad to spiral out of control and go crashing into the ground.

Unable to even bring the potion to her beak, Evelyn was now being stared down by a being more than twenty times her size and that was immeasurably stronger.

"My, at first I thought all these years of recovering might have dulled my senses. But you really do possess a heavenly flame!"

Her lips curving up into a smile, it was clear that this giant plant woman was quite pleased to find that her mind was not playing any tricks on her.

Gulping, Evelyn could tell that this woman was looking at her like prey.

"Wh- who are you?" Evelyn said, finding the courage to establish a magical connection to speak with the monstrous entity before her.

Taken aback, the plant woman had never expected Evelyn to try to strike up a conversation.

"Oh, you are certainly braver than I thought you would be. I do not believe that a fiend beast has ever been able to remain lucid in my presence. Normally they either freeze up, fall unconscious, or try to run away as fast as possible."

Seemingly amused by Evelyn 's ability to not completely fold to terror, the giant plant woman did not simply grab her and be done with it as she had planned.

"Now, I am a bit curious as to how a simple fiend beast got their hands, or in your case claws, on something so rare and valuable as a heavenly flame. Please go ahead and tell me, and if your story entertains me, I will do my best not to kill you while extracting it."

Hearing this Evelyn went wide eyed and felt her heart starting to speed up even faster.

This overwhelming entity before her had just plainly stated that it was going to steal the heavenly flame within her.

'Calm down. This is not over yet. It thinks it has won already, but I might still have a chance. I just need an opening to drink the potion Melisandre gave me and I might just be able to somehow escape. If I play along for now and wait for now, I will get my chance. I already know that if it tries to remove my heavenly flame I am likely to die in the process. And even if it somehow could keep me alive, I doubt the Aethersphere would not react, and it would definitely kill me if she tried to remove that.'

Gathering what nerves she could, Evelyn steeled herself to keeping fighting for any chance she might have to survive this situation.

"Su- su- sure, I will tell you how I got it. But will you answer my question first?" Evelyn said, trying to keep this monster talking.

"Ha, ha, ha. To think that you would ask something like that of me. I cannot tell if you are fearless, or just stupid. But I do find you entertaining, and it has been over two centuries since I last had a conversation. So, I suppose I could indulge you for a bit." She said with her smile growing wider.

"I believe you asked me who I am. To answer that my name is Hollis, and I am the strongest being of nature. An empress dryad. Now go ahead and tell me where you got that heavenly flame from. little fiend beast owl."

With her initial question answered, Evelyn could tell that stalling any longer was not going to work and began relaying how she obtained her heavenly flame.

Once she was finished, Hollis started laughing profusely. Obviously finding the tale funny in some way.

"I do not think I have ever heard something so out there. But I can tell that you really believe what you just said to me. Your mind must have been turned to mush at some point. Even I have never heard of people coming from another world and being reincarnated into this one. It is beyond farfetched. Ah, this has been a bit entertaining, but I think that it is time I finish up here."

Slowly reaching out her hand, the empress dryad moved without any haste or worry to pluck Evelyn out of the sky.

"Wait! Before you do this. You said you had spent the last two centuries recovering. Before you take the heavenly flame from me, could you tell me what happened?" Evelyn said in a desperate attempt to keep the conversation going.

Immediately after she asked this question. The jovial demeanor of the empress dryad changed, and an aura of wrath began spreading out from her.

"Yes, I did mention that earlier didn't I. Fine since you so thoroughly entertained me, I will tell you. A bit more than two hundred years ago I fought for a fruit that had fallen from the heavens onto this continent. But when I was to be the victor, that bastard dragon appeared and caught me off guard. That little runt barely managed to beat me when I was already exhausted and stole the fruit from me. But I am not so easy to kill. I have spent all this time regaining my power by siphoning the magical energy from this miserable continent. Truthfully, I probably need another century to make a full recovery. But once that heavenly flame is mine, I shall have enough power to easily crush that dragon and take my place at the height of the world once again."

'Now!'

The opening she was waiting for here Evelyn took her shoot. For just a moment, Hollis took her attention off of her as she monologued. And in that window of opportunity Evelyn downed the unleashed potential potion.