An Owl's Rise

After her evolution Evelyn felt completely different.

Not only did she feel much physically stronger, but she also felt the magical energy within her had grown exponentially.

Before she felt like she just had a small pond of it, but now it seemed that the power within her had increase to the size of a lake.

This was just the massive difference in power between her form as a wild beast and her evolution into a fiend beast.

However, as she was inspecting herself, a sudden wave of pressure passed over her, and for the first time since it had first been implanted in her, the purple sphere surrounded by four rings began to move.

She finally had the bare minimum amount of energy within her to activate its powers, and it was now time to communicate with its new host.

Immediately she felt a sharp pain in her head as information was sent directly into her mind from the divine item that had fused with her body and soul.

Falling back over, Evelyn had a terrible headache as she processed what was being sent to her.

Luckily the process did not last very long as she feared it might have, and the splitting headache she had a moment ago turned into a dull pain that was slowly disappearing.

Shaking her head, she managed to disperse the lingering befuddlement from the information she had just received.

Unfortunately, most of it from what she could tell was a diagnostic report that the Aethersphere, which she assumed was the name of this item. Was heavily damaged and running at minimum capacity due to lack of energy.

Still, it had not all been useless as it had also told her what kind of magic was sealed within this object, and Evelyn could only smile at it.

She had come up with some theories during her time in captivity and this was probably the best one she could have hoped for.

'So, this thing really does give me the power to control gravity.'

However, what it could do right now was limited to simply creating a field around her that either increased or lowered the gravity in an area.

Nevertheless, she thought it was pretty impressive to be able to control gravity which was still a pretty big mystery that people back on Earth had barely scratched the surface of.

Practically dancing around as she learned this, for the first time in a while she had something to be happy about.

Having already experienced how cruel this world was, she knew she would need power if she never wanted to end up bound and at the mercy of others ever again.

With her spirits rising, Evelyn felt like going to test out her new powers when her stomach began rumbling.

It had at this point been several hours since her last meal, and even with the immense amount of energy that had been stored within the silver plum she ate. Almost all of her reserves had been used for her evolution.

Needing something to eat and wanting to test out her new powers, she jumped from the nest she had appropriated, and began flying back down toward the floor of the forest.

She really wanted to see what she could do now, and needed a worthy beast to see how much stronger she had become.

Flying around the area, she searched for one of the three largest predators she had seen so far in this area of the forest and soon spotted one.

Currently feasting on some type of deer, was a large male tiger.

It was a massive beast that was two to three times larger than Evelyn after her evolution and was considered one of the top predators back on Earth.

Yet, while she had felt fear and wariness when she had spotted this tiger the other day while flying overhead, now it seemed about as threatening as an old house cat.

She did not know why she felt this way, but instinctively she knew she was in a realm above this tiger.

Swooping down, she caught the tiger that was busy eating its hard-won meal by surprise and slammed her claws right into it with her full force.

Astonishment on both Evelyn's and the tiger's face as this happen was apparent, as her claws ripped into the top predator, and the strength of her blow sent it skidding a few feet across the ground.

'What the hell!?'

Seeing this Evelyn could almost not believe what had happened.

She had just launched a tiger that was much larger than her, and sliced through its thick fur and muscle like they were made of tofu.

Getting up and growling, the tiger looked for the being that had just attacked it, and quickly spotted Evelyn hovering in the air about twenty feet above it.

As soon as it spotted her, the anger in its eyes turned to fear as it felt the overwhelming difference in their power.

This tiger was only an upper wild beast, and it could feel the dense mana and strength that Evelyn had as a beast that had evolved to the next stage.

Turning around with its tail in between its legs, the tiger did not even think about the notion of fighting back and ran away as fast as it could.

Confusion all over her face, Evelyn had figured that a beast as prideful and violent as a tiger would attack immediately, but instead it ran in fear like a scared kitten.

'Wait, I haven't even test out my magic yet.' Evelyn thought as she flew after the tiger.

At least as she gave chase, she figured this would be a good time to test out her greater power over the wind and her new gravity magic.

Creating a field around herself, Evelyn lowered her own gravity by around ten percent and with each flap of her wings sent a gust of wind behind her to speed up.

However, the results were more impressive than she thought they would be, and she shot forward at a tremendous speed and easily overtook the tiger she was chasing.

'Looks like my power output with wind magic is a lot greater than it had been before. I wonder if I can use attacks like parents had now.' Evelyn thought.

Though as she remembered her parents from her second life. A sense of sadness she had been suppressing welled back up, and she paused in the air for a few moments and closed her eyes.

After taking a few seconds to calm down and push her trauma back into the depths of her mind. She turned her attention back to the tiger that had changed directions and was continuing to run away from her.

Luckily this hunt was the perfect thing to take her mind off of the despair she did not want to and had no intention of facing right now.

Flapping her wings with gusts of wind behind her and lowering the gravity around her even more, Evelyn launched forward right up to the tiger.

Once she was next to it, she switched from decreased to increased gravity, and used all she could muster.

In just an instance the tiger that had been experiencing normal gravity was suddenly under three times as much pressure, and its sprint soon turned into a struggle just to walk.

Of course, her own power excluded her if she wanted, and while everything else around her in a ten foot diameter was under the effects of three times normal gravity, she was unaffected.

Easily keeping pace with the tiger that had basically slowed to a crawl and was panting, Evelyn wanted to see just how long it could keep up.

Unfortunately, she soon felt that her magical energy had dropped to an alarmingly low level, as using the gravity powers of the Astrosphere drained her quickly.

Turning off the increased gravity field around her, she watched the tiger suddenly burst forward with renewed vigor as its body felt three times lighter.

'I guess it is not even going to try and fight back.' Evelyn thought as the tiger ran away again.

She had purposefully stopped near it to see if it would attack, but the poor beast was far too scared of her to even think about fighting.

Realizing that all she was doing now was being cruel to the tiger, she flew above it and prepared to unleash a finishing blow.

Pulling out almost all of the magical energy she had left, she threw her wings forward and sent out the strongest gust of wind she could.

Unable to even hope to avoid the attack that came from above it, the fleeing tiger was flattened into the ground by the strongest blast of wind Evelyn could use, that even cracked the ground under it.

Still, this had not killed the tiger or really injured it much. Only immobilizing it for a moment.

Nevertheless, Evelyn had already known that this attack would not kill the tiger and swooped down on top of its immobile form and slid her talons through its neck.

Almost instantly the tiger died, as she cut right through its spine with her talons that were now as sharp and sturdy as the best swords back on Earth.