An Owl's Rise

Evelyn could only sit with a shocked expression as Melisandre explained what little she knew about the beings known as elementals, which come from another dimension from the one Evelyn has found herself in.

"A few expeditions have been made to enter these rifts, but none ever came back so such foolishness was halted quickly. Now all that is done is that the powers closest to each rift monitors them and tries to keep whatever comes out under control. For the ones in control of the rift that created the inferno fields, you will not have to worry. We are not really allies but neither are we hostile. You need only leave any tortoises you see alone, and everything should be fine."

Nodding her head, Evelyn took it in stride that a group of tortoises similar to the Roost were in charge of the territory and agreed to not get involved with them.

"But this actually sounds much easier than trying to steal a float stone. All I have to do is go to the place and get the flower. No humans involved at all." Evelyn said with a pleased smile.

Yet Melisandre narrowed her eyes and gave Evelyn a harsh look for thinking this would be easy.

"Did I not just tell you about how dangerous the elementals are. Even the weaker ones are pretty strong, and they attack with extreme ferocity whenever they spot any living creature. Being overconfident will lead to your downfall." Melisandre warned.

Still, Evelyn had pretty much figured out that she was immune to fire and figured that she would have no problem dealing with beings that were comprised of it.

"No need to worry Melisandre, fire cannot hurt me. You were watching when that other owl attacked me. I got off without even getting singed." Evelyn said confidently.

"Very well, let us put your theory to the test. Certainly you took the flames of another fiend beast without any problems, but how will you fare against mine."

Seeing the dangerous glint in Melisandre's eyes, Evelyn almost slammed her head onto the floor to ask for forgiveness. But she managed to stay strong and hold her ground.

A larger part of her really wanted to fine out if her resistance to fire would go so far as to protect her from even Melisandre's flames.

"If it would be no trouble, then I would be happy to test it out with you Melisandre." Evelyn said with as much confidence as she could muster.

In fact, she surprised Melisandre who figured that she would back down.

"Okay, let us head to the training room then." Melisandre said as she lifted into the air and began flying towards the exit of the room.

A couple of minutes later she and Evelyn were in the large training room that was reinforced to be able to take powerful attacks.

"I will start off with a fairly small and weak attack." Melisandre said as she lifted up her left index finger and a small ball of fire burst up out of it.

"This is around the strength of an attack from your average mid-tier awakened beast give or take a little. If you cannot at least come out unscathed from this, you have no chance of taking the attacks from an elemental."

After giving this warning Melisandre launched the small ball of flames at a speed Evelyn could barely keep track of.

In an instant it connected with her left shoulder and began expanding until it covered the upper part of her left side.

For most owls at Evelyn's rank this would leave them horrible burned with melted feathers and flesh fusing together.

However, just as Evelyn had said, she seemed immune and had come out completely unharmed. Much to Melisandre's surprise.

"You really are highly resistant to fire. This just renews my wanting to know what makes your flame so special, but I shall hold off since you are not ready to tell me."

Melisandre then conjured a much more intense ball of fire that emitted enough heat to raise the temperature of the entire room by a dozen degrees.

"This has the intensity of heat from of newly evolved tyrant rank beast. This is quite the jump up in power from before, so brace yourself since it might really hurt." Melisandre said before firing out the small ball of flame.

This time it moved even faster, to the point that Evelyn could not keep track of it, and she did not know it hit until she felt it impact against her shoulder in the same spot as the last one.

This time though it did not expand, as Melisandre wanted to be careful and not really harm Evelyn by keeping the affected area condensed.

Except her worry seemed for not, as when the intense flame died down Evelyn was still perfectly fine.

"Now this is unprecedented. That flame was over four thousand degrees and would have melted steel easily. But you are completely unharmed without even deploying any form of defenses." Melisandre said with an astonished tone.

She knew already that Evelyn seemed unnaturally resistant to fire and heat, but this was beyond what she originally thought possible.

Certainly, she had held back a lot on the area of effect from her attack, but the intensity of the fire was still around the level of a newly evolved tyrant beast.

"I see that your claim was not just bravado. Now allow me to test exactly how far it goes." Melisandre said with a serious glint in her eyes.

The next small ball of fire that she conjured was far brighter than the others and the heat it radiated felt like a small sun.

Even the reinforced flooring around Melisandre began to lose its solid structure under the immense heat she was generating.

"This is as hot a flame as I can currently create. You will find that it is around ten thousand degrees. Judging from how well you have resisted my flames so far, even if this does affect you it should not be lethal. But still, before we proceed, I would ask that you reconsider. I truly do not wish to hurt you." Melisandre said with worry in her eyes.

Up to this point she had been confident that Evelyn would get off with just a few burns, but now she was exerting the full intensity of her fire magic even if she was holding back heavily on the area of effect.

Even her attendants Anneli and Katrina would start to burn just by being within the vicinity of the flame she was currently using, and she was very afraid to do something horrible to Evelyn.

"No, I want to keep going. This is to not only prove to you but myself my immunity to fire." Evelyn said while tension formed throughout her body.

She believed she would be able to take any sort of flame and come out without any damage, but it was still initiating seeing the intense ball of fire hovering above Melisandre's finger.

With Evelyn's stalwart desire to test out her resistance to flames, Melisandre steeled her heart and fired the ball of flame at Evelyn.

As it traveled the ground below it began to melt just from the heat it radiated, and when it hit Evelyn the area around her quickly turned molten and she became unseeable in a bright flash of light.