An Owl's Rise

Evelyn once inside the specially prepared advancement chamber, took a deep breath and steeled herself.

She did not want to die, but she also did not want to waste away, so this was her only real option other than hoping for a miracle.

'I just have to believe that if I die here, I will get to start over again just like last time. And who knows, maybe if I eat it here, I might end up wherever Mason is.' Evelyn thought in order to give her some amount of comfort.

Still after this one thought she strengthened her resolve and prepared for the evolution that would either fix or break her.

"I have set everything up from outside. In three minutes, the chamber will be flooded with an immense amount of magical energy to help facilitate the process. If all goes well your body should use the energy to fix your damaged cores and bring you up to the awakened rank." Melisandre said as she entered and sealed the chamber.

Nodding her head, Evelyn thanked Melisandre for all she had done and was going to do to give her the highest possible chance of success.

'I guess it is time.'

Taking out the three items she needed as catalysts for her evolution, Evelyn placed them in front of herself and prepared to absorb them.

For the first time she removed the hellfire rose from its case and felt immediately that it was most definitely one of items she needed as a catalyst.

With everything now set up, she and Melisandre both waited until the chamber began being flooded with magical energy.

When the magical energy began pouring in Evelyn approached the wind pearl, float stone, and hellfire rose, and began spreading out her magic energy around them.

It was a difficult process that created a sharp pain where her damaged cores were, but she managed to do it and the three items along with her body began glowing as they resonated.

Slowly but surely her magical energy became intertwined with theirs and the magical properties sealed within each of these items began flowing into Evelyn.

Within around thirty minutes all three of the items lost their lusters and became nothing more than mundane items.

The hellfire rose had lost its flaming petals and its stem was brown and shriveled up, the float stone had crashed to the ground and stopped glowing, and the wind pearl was no longer a vibrant green and had shattered like glass.

This completed the first step of Evelyn's evolution as she had now absorbed the power she needed from these three catalysts.

'I can feel it. I just need to let go, and the evolution will take over.'

Evelyn feeling it was time allowed the overwhelming magical energy that she had absorbed loose. And the evolution process from a fiend beast to an awakened beast began.

To start, all the magical energy she had been absorbing wrapped around her like a cocoon, and she began glowing brightly with light green, crimson, and purple light.

The powerful magical energy of the three times she had absorbed began melding with her own affinities and making them stronger.

Yet it was at this point when the first sang was hit.

Evelyn's damaged cores were unable to keep up with this level of power and the changes going on in her body and she began to shudder violently.

Some of the magical energy went out of control and she felt something snap in her body, before her breathing became incredibly labored.

It was a moment later that she realized that her ribs on her left side had broken and pierced her lung.

Blood began flooding out of her mouth and she felt that she was moments away from succumbing to unconscious.

That was when she saw a single drop of golden liquid hit her in the chest and she was enveloped in a new light.

The damaged to her body was instantly recovered and the evolution process continued.

'Whew, I nearly met my end there. I really am going to need to find some way to thank Melisandre after this.' Evelyn thought as she continued to guide the magical energy around.

On two more occasions her body received critical damaged as she absorbed more and more magical energy, but Melisandre's intervention prevented her from dying.

When she finally had fully absorbed the magical energy, she felt her body begin to shift and change, as it began the process of becoming an awakened beast.

Not only would her cores become much stronger her physical form would be drastically different.

Unfortunately, things were not going to be so easy.

While so far there had only been minor snags, what happened next was practically the worst-case scenario.

Evelyn being flooded with magical energy and beginning to evolve had triggered the Aethersphere. Which had been in a dormant state since she used the unleashed potential potion to forcibly activate more of its power.

The item had already been damaged when she originally obtained it, but her reckless action had caused it to end up in an even worse condition than when it had first melded with her, and now it wanted to repair the damage.

All of the magical energy within Evelyn began being sucked in towards it, and her body started being crushed and broken by its overwhelming force.

Unable to do anything about this, Evelyn began screaming out in immense pain that was on the same level as when the divine item had originally rearranged her body.

However, this time the damaged Aethersphere was not doing anything to keep her alive and was simply trying to absorb enough magical energy to activate its auto repair function.

Watching this happened, Melisandre began to panic.

What should have been the most dangerous phase of the evolution process should have been over with only a few incidents, but now Evelyn, or more precisely the Aethersphere was going out of control.

Immediately Melisandre tossed another of the golden drops at Evelyn and it began enveloping her in its light and healing her.

Except while this did fix Evelyn, the damage to her body continued. And soon she actually started to noticeably sink in as if she was begin sucked up by a black hole.

In response Melisandre threw in another golden drop while pulling out dozens of red magical crystals. She noticed that Evelyn had a lack of magical energy and was trying to increase the ambient amount in the chamber.

But what happened next was outside her expectations. The magical crystals broke down on their own and were sucked towards Evelyn just as soon as they were brought out.

It was something that should have been impossible, but the Aethersphere was bringing in all the ambient magical energy and absorbing it and had no problem breaking down magic crystals on its own.

Melisandre quickly realized that the red crystals were far from enough even though what she had already used would have already been overkill for any other fiend beast going to the awakened rank.

With haste she pulled out the next grade being purple crystals and watch them disappear just as fast.

By the time she pulled out a dozen and tossed the last golden drop she had in reserve to heal Evelyn with, she knew that drastic actions were going to be necessary.

'The amount of magical energy she has already absorbed would be enough to kill any awakened beast, but she can still take more. I will have to bring out everything I have and hope it is enough.'

Having no other possible recourse, Melisandre opened up her own storage cuff and took out fifty silver magical crystals along with three golden ones that were the highest possible grade.

These were her own personal stores that she had been planning to use when she attempted to evolve to the calamity rank but decided to bet on them being enough to help Evelyn out. As she acted as a funnel draining all of the magical energy in the area.

As soon as the immense magical energy held within these crystals started being broken down, Evelyn let out a sigh of relief.

The force behind the Aethersphere began to wane slightly now that it was finally receiving the power that it needed to begin repairing itself.

Nevertheless, Evelyn's body was still under great strain, and as the evolution process began, she felt her body being drowned in magical energy while also begin broken apart and reconstructed once again by the Aethersphere.

Her consciousness quickly began to slip, and she felt that it was only going to be a few moments until she could no longer keep ahold of herself.

'I did not give in last time and I will not give in this time! This is not going to kill me!'

Internally shouting Evelyn summoned up all her will power and began channeling the magical energy that was flooding her.

She sent what was needed to her beast core and magic core, while also making sure that the Aethersphere received the proper amount it was greedily sucking in.

At the same time, she had to endure a pain that would have driven most mad.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, pain was something she was well acquainted with, and even the mind shattering suffering was something she had grown somewhat used to.

Days went by this way as she was enveloped in a cocoon of magical energy and dunging this time Evelyn needed to keep her will strong while Melisandre did what she could to manage her condition externally.

Then after the third day she felt a shift in her chest and the Aethersphere started to calm down.

It had finally absorbed all the magical energy that it deemed necessary to begin repairs and finished straightening Evelyn's body.

Her cores had also been repaired by the process and soon the glow around her body faded as the evolution finished.