An Owl's Rise

Once Melisandre was finished lecturing Evelyn, she let out a sigh and slumped back a bit in her chair, while contemplating something.

Evelyn for her part was stiff as a board as Melisandre had just scolded her thoroughly for nearly half an hour and continued to explain why what she had done was stupid and dangerous, while expanding on many other ways she could have hurt herself.

'I suddenly feel really tired.' Evelyn thought as the tension released from her body.

She then teetered around and barely kept herself upright as she slumped against the table for support.

Melisandre seeing this got up and moved over to Evelyn with a frown on her face.

"I figured something like this might happen. You took in enough magical energy to go up to the next tier, and now your body is having to absorb all that energy at once." Melisandre said as she looked Evelyn over.

"Unfortunately, it will not do for you to go to sleep as you are now. This is not a process that is normally supposed to happen all at once." Melisandre said as she took out a bell from her storage device.

Quickly she disabled the magic circle that was creating the sound blocking zone and rang the bell which let out a pleasant chime that echoed through the room and beyond.

"Now drink this." Melisandre said as she took out a bottle with some sort of potion in it.

Forcing herself up Evelyn took the potion in her beak and poured the liquid down her throat.

Though the second it hit her tongue her eyes went wide and the sleepiness vanished from her body.

Yet it was not because the potion had any sort of magical effect, it was just so extremely bitter and horrible tasting that it brought tears to Evelyn's eyes.

She desperately wanted to spit it out and throw up, but Melisandre having already expected this gripped the potion and forced her to drink it all.

After Evelyn had finished drinking all of the most vile liquid she had ever had, she looked towards Melisandre with a glare.

"Yeah, I imagine that was not pleasant to consume, but consider that your punishment for entering the advancement chamber and being so reckless." Melisandre said as she gave Evelyn a dismissive look.

"That potion will give you the nutrients you need to sustain your body while it advances. I imagine you would have woken up quite malnourished otherwise, and I doubt you were in any shape to eat a proper meal before falling asleep."

As Melisandre said the word "sleep", Evelyn began wobbling with drowsiness again, as even the bitterness of the potion no longer was enough to shock her system into staying awake.

Her body had absorbed the absolute limits of magical energy that I could, and now it needed time to rest and acclimate to the new power.

'I cannot stay awake any longer. Evelyn thought as she began to fall over.

Normally an owl would be fine sleeping upright, but the stone she was currently standing on was too hard for her talons to pierce and grip, and she was more tired than she had been in a long time.

But right before she fell over, a large figure caught her and she looked up sleepily to see that Anneli was here after being summoned by Melisandre, and that she had fallen against her body.

"Now Anneli, take Evelyn back to her room, and let her get some rest. I imagine she will be asleep for some time, so simply check up with her ever two hours, and report back to me when she has awakened." Melisandre said.

Nodding her head Anneli acknowledged her mistress' orders and propped Evelyn up on her back.

"Try to stay awake until we get to you room okay." Anneli said to Evelyn who had already closed her eyes and was drifting off to dreamland.

'But I just want to sleep.' Evelyn thought as she forced herself awake a bit long as Anneli instructed her.

The next couple minutes felt like an eternity for Evelyn as she fought off the extreme drowsiness that was assailing her.

Still, she managed to stay awake until Anneli brought her back to her room and placed her atop the large branch that had been shaped into a tree.

Once there Evelyn gripped tightly into the wood with her claws that locked into place and leaned back against one of the branches before drifting off to sleep.

'Ugh my mouth feels dry, and that bitter taste is still lingering.' Evelyn thought as she was just coming to consciousness.

However, these thoughts swiftly left her, as her eyes shot open, and she realized she had just woken up after being forced to sleep by her body needing to properly absorb all the magical energy she had accumulated.

Immediately she felt a huge difference in her body, and she could tell that she had easily grown at least a foot taller.

As she looked down, she saw that her claws had grown a slight bit longer and her grip on the wood was stronger.

Flexing her feet, she released the tight hold on her perch, and looked at the holes she had left in the wood.

Next, she stretched out her body that felt a bit sore and swiveled her head around to get somewhat used to her increased size.

'Yep, I must have advanced to the next tier.' Evelyn thought with a smile.

She could feel the profound difference in her body and magical energy from having reached the next tier of her rank. Having gone from a mid-tier fiend beast to high-tier one.

Yet it was not just her beast core and body that had advanced, she could feel that her magic core that she had formed thanks to her human soul had gone up to the next tier as well, and that the heavenly flame had grown stronger along with it.

'Wow, I feel much stronger now than I did before.' Evelyn thought as she moved around and got used to her new power.

Though as she thought about how much stronger she felt from the jump of one tier, she wondered why the other beasts she had fought seemed so weak in comparison.

'I thought that my extra core was making up the difference, but I can tell the amount of extra strength I got just from going up one tier was a lot. Why did even the peak fiend beasts I fought not seem all that strong?' Evelyn thought now that she knew the great difference between a mid-tier and high-tier fiend beast.

Of course, what she failed to account for was how the Aethersphere had rearranged her body and was managing her growth to be the best it possibly could be.

It was very rare for a beast at her level to actually achieve one hundred percent of their potential, but with the Aethersphere aiding her, she was as strong as she possibly could be, on top of having a human's magic core. Making her impossibly strong for her current level.

'Well, whatever. Things like that can wait. I need something to drink and get this bitter taste out of my mouth.'