An Owl's Rise

Chapter 357 The Return of Despair (2)

"NOOOOO!"

Evelyn screamed out in rage and sorrow as she watched Otis ripped to shreds by the attack that had been meant for her.

She watched blood spray from his sundered body and knew that without a doubt he was dead.

His head was flying off in a separate direction from his torso and not even the greatest magic in the world would be able to save him.

It had all happened so incredibly quickly that Evelyn could not process what had happened.

One minute they were celebrating their victory over a tough foe, and the next Otis was dead.

Two powerful emotions began a war inside Evelyn.

A part of her was consumed by fury and she was seeing red, and the other part was overwhelmed by the anguish of losing a friend.

Evelyn had lost so many people that she cared about in the past, and seeing another one be mercilessly killed without being able to do anything was enough to shatter her will.

'I have to avenge him. I have to!'

Feeling herself losing a grip on her emotions, Evelyn decided to give into the one that would at least allow her to continue fighting. Fury was better than hopelessness.

She ignored her drained magical energy and simply exploded with her different magic affinities and wreathed herself in their powers.

In her current state she was too far gone to worry about any limits and ignored the pain creeping into her body and mind.

Yet, when she turned to face Otis' killer, her rage subsided almost immediately. What was waiting for her was a sight easily as horrific as what had happened to Otis and too much for Evelyn to bear.

Tears began streaming down Evelyn's face and she shook her head as if hoping to dispel an illusion, but what was in front of her was reality.

Diomed, the leader of the Deamhain Sect was hovering above her with Melisandre bound in barbed chains.

The scene before her was heart wrenching and looked like what would happen if an angel was captured by a demon.

Melisandre's wings had been cut from her back, spears were pierced through her hands and feet, and spikes had been jammed into her eyes and mouth.

Blood was slowly trickling down Melisandre's body and her head was slumped over.

At first Evelyn thought her master was dead, but the slight rising of her chest as she breathed proved she was still alive. Whether this was better or not, Evelyn did not know, as Melisandre's current condition was beyond terrible.

Unfortunately, while Evelyn stared at her master in a daze, Diomed made his move.

With the flick of his wrist, he sent the dozen rods that had killed Otis hurtling straight towards Evelyn.

She was currently in no condition to respond, and she only registered what was happening when she was hit.

Her nervous system alerted her to a searing pain as the rods pierced through her wings and legs.

The powerful magical aura that had been erupting around her faded an instant later, and Evelyn was almost entirely immobilized.

Other than being able to turn her head slightly, she could not move at all.

Reflexively, she tried to release her heavenly flame and melt away the rods, but her best efforts were in vain as she found her magical energy being drained faster than she could channel it through her body.

There was nothing she could do but allow the dozen rods to keep her helplessly suspended in the air.

"Finally, I have caught you. You made this far more of a pain than I was expecting, but it is over now."

Diomed looked quite pleased now that he had achieved his goal.

However, his attention soon left the restrained Evelyn and he gazed on at the battles between his subordinates and Evelyn's companions that were still raging on.

"I suppose that I will lend them a hand since I am in a good mood. I already lost too many promising members of the sect today, and I must punish that traitor anyways." Diomed said with his hand outstretched.

Seeing this, Evelyn summoned up all of her strength and began to screech as loudly as she could. With her magic sealed she could not speak, but perhaps she could draw Diomed's attention away from her friends.

Thankfully, he turned around to look at her before using his magic to kill, Bylur, Rehni, Verrader and Aralee.

A bone chilling grin formed on Diomed's face as she looked towards Evelyn again.

It was a terrifying expression that brought a cold chill to Evelyn's body like she had not felt since her first death.

"You must really care about your friends. Perhaps I might be able to spare them. In return though, I will need your cooperation. It is much more difficult to work with a subject that is resistant. If you agree to these terms, shake your head within the next five seconds. Otherwise, I will put those four little owls struggling over there down."

Having an ultimatum forced on her, Evelyn looked past her capture and towards her friends and siblings that were fighting for their lives.

She hesitated until the last second, wondering if it might better that they simply died and were spared the pain of what was to come if they continued living.

Surely Diomed would not just let them go, he would make sure that they remained captives to keep her in line.

Nevertheless, Evelyn could not watch anyone else close to her die and nodded her head towards Diomed before slumping over in defeat.

He looked incredibly pleased by her obvious despair, and said, "Very well, we have a deal. I am sure you know what will happen should you ever go back on it."

An instant later he disappeared and swiftly warped next to Evelyn's companions and trapped them in some sort of spatial barrier one by one.

In the distance Evelyn watched him wave his subordinates off before flying back over to where he had left Evelyn suspended in the air. Her friends in tow behind him.

"Now it is time that we make our departure. I have no intention of fighting anymore meaningless fights."

Holding out his free hand, Diomed began dragging a glyph in the air in order to warp all of them away from the battlefield.

Except before he could activate his magic, a palpable wave of rage rolled over the area.

The raw emotion that was backed up by a terrifying amount of magical energy and even though she was not the target Evelyn felt an intense instinctual fear.

Diomed turned around to face the unbridled fury being directed towards him and saw a black beam of energy flying directly towards him.

He hastily through up a barrier around himself, but the attack had never been aimed at him.

The black beam split apart when it reached Melisandre and disintegrated the magic items that were binding her.

No longer held in the air by the chains that Diomed had been keeping ahold of Melisandre's limp and unconscious body began plummeting toward the ground.

But she never reached the ground, as before she fell too far, a dark form blurred by intense speed raced across the sky and caught her.