An Owl's Rise

'Okay time to get started on round two.' Evelyn thought once she had finished resetting up the advancement chamber.

She swiftly entered the magical device once again and waited for it to start up and begin releasing the concentrated magical energy into the chamber.

As it did, this time she could easily tell the difference in the quantity and quality of the magical energy that was being produced that was more than double what she had used last time with ten blue magical crystals.

'Oh, I see that it is not just the quantity of magical energy sealed inside, but also the quality. This magical energy is even more refreshing.'

Closing her eyes Evelyn quickly fell back asleep and allowed her body to absorb the magical energy with the help of the Aethersphere.

Quickly she felt her body being filled up and the energy being distributed to strengthen her two cores, the Aethersphere, the heavenly flame, and her physical body.

As the process continued, she felt her power swelling, and she could tell that both of her cores were getting close to a breakthrough and would reach the next tier.

This would make her much stronger, and she was waiting with anticipation for it to happen.

Yet what she did not know was how dangerous what she was doing really was.

She had long since absorbed more magical energy than what a normal mid-tier friend beast should have been able to handle and had even gone beyond what a peak fiend beast could take.

It was only thanks to the Aethersphere regulating the magical energy and taking in any surplus into itself or redirecting it to the heavenly flame that kept her from essentially going into shock from over absorption.

This however, also came with the side effect of making the quality and speed of her growth exceptionally beyond normal measures. Especially thanks to the two cores that resided in her body which was an absolute anomaly that was only possible to the duality of her existence.

'Hm what is going on. Neither of my cores are receiving anymore magical energy. It is all just being sucked into the Aethersphere.' She thought as the magical energy was no longer being directed where she wanted.

Little did she know that the Aethersphere was saving her life right now, as she had reached her absolute limits and would need time to properly adapt to all the magical energy that she had absorbed.

However, Evelyn just thought the divine item was acting up and taking in more than its fair share of magical energy in an attempt to repair itself since it was apparently heavily damaged.

'I suppose I will just have to let it do as it wants. Not like I really know how to control the thing.' Evelyn thought while lamenting her perceived halted progress.

Though while she just sat there letting the Aethersphere take in what it wanted so as not to waste the magical energy, she lost track of time and eventually the platform from the first floor of her room began to descend.

'Whoops, I guess I should have gotten out sooner. I think that Anneli mentioned that I should wait until Melisandre came back.'

Sadly, realizing her mistake now was not going to help, so she decided to simply play dumb and say that she had not fully understood Anneli's warning.

Unfortunately, as she exited the chamber trying to put on her best innocent face, Melisandre's glare was so intense that she recoiled and felt the urge to bow head down against the floor and ask for forgiveness.

"What have you been doing in here?" Melisandre said with her face twitching in obvious anger.

She was already in a bad mood from receiving a sudden summons, but when she came back and went to check on Evelyn, she found that her room was empty.

At first, she thought that maybe she was in the washroom or perhaps had gone somewhere with Anneli or Katrina. Yet when she talked to her two attendants it became clear that was not the case.

This left only one logical place for Evelyn to be, and that was in the lower level of her room which she really had no reason to be in right now.

Except when Melisandre came down, she found her engaged in possibly one of the most dangerous things she could have been doing.

Gulping Evelyn had no choice but to come clean here under Melisandre's gaze. She could tell that her foolhardy plan to claim ignorance was not going to work under her master's sharp gaze.

"I am sorry. I got excited about raising my rank and figured I could test out the advancement chamber. Anneli said that I would need to reach at least the high tier of the fiend beast rank quickly in order to be truly accepted as your disciple." Evelyn said while hoping to get off lightly.

Worst case scenario, Melisandre could probably make her disappear for good and not leave any trace that she had ever existed.

Of course, these were just Evelyn's dark thoughts swirling in her head as she often went straight to the worst case scenario that might happened to her.

Yet right before Melisandre was about to lecture Evelyn about how she had been stupid and what she had done was dangerous. She noticed and anomaly in the room that should have not been there.

The magical energy leaking out of the advancement chamber was far stronger than it should have possibly been with the five blue magical crystals that had been left behind to help Evelyn advance to the next tier.

'No, there is no way she would do something so stupid.' Melisandre thought.

She then moved over the advancement chamber and began inspecting it. There she found exactly how many and what kind of magical crystals Evelyn had been using.

As she discovered this, her eyes went wide, and she looked over at Evelyn in astonishment.

The amount of magical energy she had been absorbing into herself should have been enough to kill her three times over. But she was just bowing her head and did not look even the slightest bit in distress.

'Even a low tier awakened beast would have gotten sick if they tired to absorb that much magical energy at once. How is she still moving around without any problems?'

It was absolutely baffling to Melisandre that Evelyn could be still alive, yet she was not even unwell at all.

Seeing Melisandre moving around frantically and that her expression had changed from anger to one of disbelief, Evelyn became worried about what was happening.

'Did I do something completely unexpected?' Evelyn thought seeing the look on Melisandre's face.

"Evelyn, I have to ask you. Did you truly use ten blue magical crystal followed by two red ones, and did you spend the entirety of the time within the advancement chamber?" Melisandre said with a grave expression.

Nodding her head Evelyn acknowledged that was exactly what she had done, seeing that any attempt at deception was likely to be caught by Melisandre's seasoned eyes.

Though as she admitted to this, Melisandre just hung her head, and said, "How is this possible?"