An Owl's Rise

As the glow around their identification cuffs began to grow, Evelyn allowed herself to finally feel a sense of relief now that safety was soon to be at hand.

Watching Otis die and seeing the horrible state Melisandre had ended up in had taken its toll on her mental state, but for now all she could think about was escaping. She could unpack her traumas later.

Yet, even while things seemed to be coming to an end and the Roost would successfully reestablish a connection to a separate domain, Diomed was not going to just let his prize be whisked away.

He had to take a hit from Silas that destroyed one of his lungs, but the leader of the Deamhain Sect slipped by his adversary and raced towards Evelyn.

Naturally, as a practitioner of space magic he realized what was going on and was not going to simply let his quarry escape.

"Dimension Lock!" Diomed yelled, quickly weaving his spell.

Blood poured out of his mouth as he did so thanks to his heavily damaged lung, but he disregarded the pain and focused on the task at hand. It would take a lot more than a single functioning organ to stop someone at his level.

The space around Evelyn and her companions that had been warping as they were pulled into the new Roost stabilized once Diomed cast his spell.

An even brighter light began emitting from the identification cuffs as the widespread magic meant to rescue them attempted to break through the interference. Unfortunately, it had no chance of breaking through Diomed's magic.

Evelyn's and her compassions' identification cuffs began to crack under the strain. They were strong magical items, but they could not take being pulled in two directions by powerful space magic.

All at once the owls in the surrounding area along with the still standing structures began to blink away and the hectic battlefield became devoid of one side of the conflict.

The only ones that failed to get away were Evelyn, her companions, and the injured Melisandre in their care.

Diomed smirked as he watched the other owls rapidly disappear. It would have been fortuitous if they could have killed or captured as many as possible, but he had at least secured the main objective of this attack.

Except as he relaxed, thinking that his troubles were over, he felt a sense of extreme danger coming from behind him and launched himself to the side just in time to avoid being torn apart.

Several giant black hands slashed through the area that Diomed had been just a second before.

Most of them missed completely but one hit Diomed's right arm and tore it from his body.

The now severed arm quickly disintegrated and was reduced to less than dust by Silas' surprise attack.

Diomed had expected his latest adversary to have warped away with all the other owls, yet Silas was still here.

He had willingly taken off his identification cuff to stay and continue the battle when he saw that Melisandre was not going to get away.

"I told you that you were not going to get away from me. I won't be satisfied until every one of your atoms are scattered to the wind." Silas said.

His numerous hands of destruction then resumed their assault and began chasing after Diomed as he fled.

As he ran Diomed felt his concertation on the spell locking Evelyn and her companions down waning. And he soon realized why.

Just flying around should not have been putting such a strain on him even in his injured state, but Silas's magic was imbued with a curse.

Where Diomed's arm had been torn off the powerful destruction magic continued to eat away and would not stop until it completely consumed him.

Even cutting away the afflicted area would not stop the curse from spreading and it was only a matter of time until Diomed was destroyed.

"DAMN IT ALL!"

With his life on the line Diomed could not continue to focus on keeping his current magic up.

Wearing a grimace on his face he dropped his dimension lock spell and cast a new one that sectioned off his disintegrating arm from the rest of his body.

This spell took a great deal of concentration and even once what remained of his arm was gone, he could not end the spell, or the curse left by Silas' magic would resume. He was having to keep it trapped in a separate space outside normal reality to prevent it from killing him.

Still, his situation was far from hopeless. Now that the majority of the Roost's population had disappeared the entire force brought by the Tyrannis Union was converging on where Diomed was fighting Silas. All he needed to do was keeping evading until help arrived.

"It is unfortunate that I will not be able to see you die today. But I promise I will come for you soon enough." Silas said with a vexed expression.

All of the resolve he had previously displayed to kill Diomed right now had vanished, and he took out his identification cuff and put it back on. He knew when to retreat.

He had just watched Melisandre along with Evelyn and he companions warp away now that Diomed's spell was no longer active and was satisfied with the results. 

Staying and trying to kill Diomed would only get him killed in the long run even if he succeeded.

A moment after he put the identification cuff back on, Silas vanished from where he had been floating in the air and left a livid Diomed heavily injured and with nothing to show for his efforts.

"No! No! No!" Diomed screamed as everything fell apart around him.

Not in his wildest dreams did he think that Evelyn would get away when the entire Tyrannis Union had brought their best forces for this attack.

He figured the worst-case scenario would be incurring heavy casualties and Evelyn ending up dead. Leaving them with no test subject to gauge the divine items powers. Never had he thought the main target would escape. Especially when he fully devoted himself to capturing her.

'What kind of reparations am I going to be expected to pay for this failure.' Diomed thought as he watched the top-ranking members of the Tyrannis Union flying towards him.