An Owl's Rise

Littered around the Forest of Giants were a dozen bodies of recently slain beasts.

Thanks to Evelyn's explosive battle with the brown furred giant ape, several other powerful beasts had come to investigate and attacked her and Lucia when they arrived.

The battle quickly devolved into a massive free-for-all of the strongest beasts in the forest with Evelyn and Lucia in the center.

Of course, while the two of them were outnumbered, they far outclassed the beasts living in the forest. There was a massive difference between tyrant rank beasts that had evolved with a human's magic core as a catalyst versus those that had not. Evelyn and Lucia had not only greater quantities of magical energy, but more refined and potent magic.

After they had dispatched enough of the attacking beasts, the rest fled back into the forest. They were able to clearly tell that Evelyn and Lucia outclassed them and had no intention of getting killed.

"You really are a trouble magnet. All the time I've spent in this forest, and not once have I seen a rampage like that. Were lucky that killed a few of them was enough to get the others to back off. If every tyrant rank beast in this forest was drawn in by the commotion, we would likely have found ourselves overwhelmed." Lucia chastised.

"Sorry, I'll be more careful next time." Evelyn said, lowering her head.

She easily could have easily killed the giant gorilla without causing as much of a scene as she had. Also, if she had left immediately after finishing it off instead of leisurely sticking around, she could have escaped before any other beasts arrived.

"It's no big deal. Now let's go. Your friends and sister will certainly want to see you."

Once the two of them had collected the cores from the beasts they had defeated, they flew directly to the entrance to the Verdant Warlord's Domain.

Upon arriving, they entered the warp portal and found themselves transported to the crystal dome on the first level of the domain.

"Okay, go ahead and send a message to each of them. If they're on the first level it should reach them, and they'll come rushing back here. If they're on the second, well, we'll just have to wait for them to come back."

Nodding her head, Evelyn excitedly pulled out her flying message pad and wrote to Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee.

Luckly all three of the messages flew off into the first level's woods. Indicating that Evelyn's friends and sister were nearby.

"Sister!"

The first to arrive was Aralee, though she looked remarkably different from the last time Evelyn had seen her.

Now that she had evolved into a tyrant rank beast, Aralee had attained a humanoid form and was currently in it.

She now had long light pink hair and a cherubic face. Along with the wings sticking out of her back, she looked like the very definition of an angel.

When she finally reached Evelyn, she flew directly towards her and wrapped her up in a hug.

"It's good to see you too, Aralee. You've certainly changed a lot since we last met." Evelyn said, returning the hug.

"Of course I have. I worked hard to get stronger so that I could be of help to you. And it looks like you are also vastly different from when we all went to train on our own. Though, that's to be expected."

Aralee continued to hug Evelyn for over a minute, and slowly increased the strength in her grip. Had Evelyn been a normal person, she would have found her spine snapped from the force.

However, their touching reunion was cut short when another individual came flying in at high speed.

This time it was a male owl in humanoid form. He had pure white hair like freshly fallen snow, and a face that bordered between handsome and cute.

Without a doubt Evelyn knew that he had to be Bylur, since the only guy in their group was Verrader who had already left to follow his own path.

"Evelyn, I missed you so much!" Bylur bellowed as he swooped down towards Evelyn and Aralee.

He attempted to join in on their heartfelt hug, but both Evelyn and her sister jumped back and avoided him.

Missing his target, Bylur continued flying forward and crashed into the wall of the crystal dome in an almost cartoonish manner.

Seeing this happen, Evelyn could not help but chuckle at the comical display. She was already in a cheery mood from meeting back up with Lucia and Aralee after such a long time, that the emotions she would normally keep under control were rising to the surface.

"It's good to see you again too Bylur. Still, you shouldn't just rush towards someone like that. Especially now that you look completely different from the last time, I saw you. Anyone would jump out of the way if they saw a random stranger coming right for them."

"Sorry, you right. I won't do it again." Bylur said, crestfallen.

"We're celebrating our long-awaited reunion, so here. Just this once." Evelyn said, opening her arms and gesturing to Bylur to hug her. Naturally she knew how he felt about her and did not want to stoke his feelings, but considering the situation, she figured that right now it would be fine.

Bylur did not hesitate and ran over to Evelyn at breakneck speed so that he could embrace her.

Obviously, she did not hug him for anywhere near as long as she had Aralee and stepped away after just a couple of seconds.

Nevertheless, Bylur's expression clearly showed that he was on cloud nine. This was not an experience he would soon forget.

Disregarding Bylur's euphoric state, Evelyn turned her head and saw the last of her companions approaching.

Rehni had likewise appeared in her newly acquired humanoid form. Her hair was shoulder length and dark black like the night sky. While her face gave off the air of an intellectual beauty rather than cute like Aralee's.

"You know, you really had us worried with your long silence." Aralee said, first thing upon her arrival.

"Sorry, it was out of my hands. But I'll tell you all about it. We've all got a great deal to catch each other up on." Evelyn said, a bright smile blossoming on her face now that she had reunited with everyone.

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