An Owl's Rise

Clenching her first slowly, Evelyn tested the responsiveness of her new limbs.

The feeling was a little unnatural after having been an owl for several years, but she had spent a longer period of her two lives as a human so she became accustomed to her new body far quicker than most beasts would.

'Though if there is one, or should I say two big differences, it's definitely these.' Evelyn thought cupping her hands under her sizable chest.

Back on Earth she had not had much in the way of breasts. She had not been flat as a washboard, but her former chest was not even close to comparable to what her current humanoid body had on display.

In terms of size, she guessed that her body now had breasts that would be considered on the larger end of E-Cup. Not the largest, but certainly above average.

'I'd say that they are pretty useless, but it seems that they are actually helping with my balance.'

Turning her head, Evelyn looked at two wings that were sprouting out of her back.

Like all the beasts in humanoid form she had seen before, she still sported some clearly inhuman features. With the beautiful wings sticking out of her back she honestly looked a bit like some depiction of angels.

'Looks like they work well. It might take a bit of time to get used to them like this since I'm used to my wings taking the place of my arms, but I have to admit that it will be nice to have hands with apposable thumbs again.'

Up to this point she had used either her beak of claws to grip things, and while she had gotten by, there was no doubt that the ease with which humanoid hands could grip things was vastly superior.

After being completely focused testing her new body out for a few minutes, Evelyn remembered exactly where she was and looked out at the hundreds of burrowing owls that were staring at her.

A sense of embarrassment swiftly came over her as she had been naked this entire time.

Thankfully each and every one of them were just tiny owls that did not even reach a half meter tall, so it was not too bad. If it had been a group of people or humanoid beasts, she definitely would have felt more self-conscious.

'I suppose now is the time to try it out.'

Focusing inwardly, Evelyn imagined herself turning back into an owl and her body began to rapidly expand.

The feeling was incredibly hot, and she could feel her magical energy pushing up against her body and forcing it to change shape.

At first it was quite uncomfortable, but near the end she got used to the sensation for the most part.

Soon she had fully returned to her form as an owl, though there were very noticeable differences from when she had only been at the awakened rank.

Her body now stood at a towering eight meters tall and she felt much heavier than before.

Still her increase in size came with an exceptional growth in strength. Evelyn felt that she was easily twice or possibly three times stronger physically.

As for her magical energy, she could feel that both her beast core and human magic core now held a higher quality to them. Her magic core especially seemed different now that it had melded together with the core she had used during her evolution.

'How is the speed and quantity I can channel through my body? Having more power doesn't mean anything if I can't use it properly.'

Evelyn closed her eyes and extended her awareness to her beast core first. From there she focused on the magical energy stored within it and expanded it through her body to enhance herself.

'Whoa!'

Like a rush of water from a damn that had just been opened, Evelyn's magical energy poured out of her core and into her body faster than she had ever experienced before. Her newly evolved form had far stronger and more numerous pathways with which her magical energy could flow.

All at once Evelyn felt every aspect of her body being improved by the magical energy coursing through her.

Still, this wasn't the place for her to test out her full capabilities. The water's surface that she had been standing on with her gravity magic was beginning to tremble and she could tell that one wrong move and she might collapse the cavern.

There was also the fact that Po and the other burrowing owls were waiting for her on the shore of the spring. They had so far kept their distance and were just watching her with reverence in their eyes, but she could not expect them to wait around all day.

Dropping her gravity magic Evelyn sunk into the water that now did not reach her head and waded back towards the shore.

When she arrived, she reached out her left foot and grabbed her storage items which she had taken off during her evolution. She had been afraid that the Aethersphere would break them like it had to the storage amulets that Mason had left when it went out of control in the past.

'Now, it should be in here somewhere.' Evelyn thought extending her senses to her storage cuff.

Locating the item she wanted, Evelyn pulled out a dark violet bow and wrapped it around her neck.

Now wearing the bow, Evelyn transformed back into her humanoid form.

However, instead of being completely unclothed, the magical bow changed as well and turned into a beautiful dark violet blouse, black pants, and sturdy boots.

'I'll need to thank Lucia for preparing this in advance for me. Not having to worry about changing in and out of clothing each time I switch forms is a godsend.' Evelyn thought, relieved that she would not have to run around naked when in her human form, or having her clothes explode whenever she changed into her owl form.