An Owl's Rise

*"Now, shall we begin."*

After saying this and receiving enthusiastic nods from his assistants, the researcher clicked a button on the side of the box and opened it.

Immediately the sphere that was surrounded by four rotating rings began moving.

It headed straight towards Evelyn's mom like it was magnetically attracted to her.

As soon as this strange object touched her it began passing through her feather, skin, and bones.

It pressed through like there was nothing in its way and was soon inside Evelyn's mother.

Yet it had not caused any damage, having gone through as if it did not have any mass and was just an illusion.

"Scrawwwwwwwwww!"

However, the pained screeching and thrashing of Evelyn's mother were certainly not caused by and illusion.

Her body convulsed and her bones started creaking as soon as this item entered her.

Blood began pouring out of her mouth, eyes, and ears, all the while she screeched out in ungodly pain.

Seeing this Evelyn felt a spine-chilling terror, and like another hole was being ripped through her already torn apart heart.

She had already seen one mother die and did not want to watch in happen again.

However, as she tried to turn away, her body simply would not move. Whatever magic that was keeping her and her brother paralyzed preventing her from even closing her eyes.

Realizing that her only option was to continue watching. Evelyn stared at her mother with concern as she continued thrashing about as bones broke and blood flooded out of her body.

All the while the researcher and his four assistants were just watching intently, while taking the occasional glance at the devices they were holding.

This went on for a good fifty minutes as Evelyn's mother tried her best to survive whatever the item that had entered her was doing.

But eventually, she gave out.

It was heartbreaking to see as the last will to struggle to survive left her mother, and Evelyn was certain she had died.

The last spark of life leaving her as she glanced over at her children one last time.

Now all that was left was her mangled corpse that sat in a pool of its own blood and had broken bones jutting out of it.

Tears welled up in Evelyn's eyes seeing this, and flowed down her face as the grief of what had just happened overcame her.

Again, she had watched helpless as her mother died due to brutality outside of her control.

It was all too similar as to what had happened to her before, and the emotional strain was enough to make Evelyn weep.

*"Oh now this is most fascinating!"* The researcher said as he looked over at Evelyn.

It seemed that he could care less about her mother who he had just run his vile experiment on, having already expected this outcome.

He quickly moved over to Evelyn and began prodding around her eyes, and looking intently at her.

*"I never expected to see this. To think that a wild beast would cry over its dead mother! I have only ever observed this response in other people. How truly fascinating."*

Pulling out a notebook he kept on him, he began writing down all kinds of notes about Evelyn's abnormal emotional responses for a beast.

Eventually though, he stopped as the short assistant came over and handed him a sheet of paper, presumably with the results of the test that had been performed on Evelyn's mother.

*"I see. The time she lasted was on average eight times more than the wild beasts we normally use and three times more than the average fiend beast. Still her time was only in the top ninety percentile. I had hoped for a bit more."*

He then received more reports from his other assistants and looked them over before nodding his head.

*"Well I believe that at least my hypothesis is partly correct. Let us try again with the other one and collect some more data."*

After the researcher said this, his four assistants went to work, and started by grabbing the blades and saws that hung on one of the walls.

They cut out a large incision into the chest of the corpse of Evelyn's mother and sawed away the bone.

Soon they had made a large hole, with which they placed the glass box over.

Slowly the sphere that had entered Evelyn's mother and certainly killed her, floated back out into the center of the box which closed automatically once its contents were returned.

With the object that they were testing now returned to its container, they began cleaning up the area and carted the remains of Evelyn's mother away.

When things were clean once again, they started the process over again.

First securing Evelyn's father before strapping him down to the table and preparing their instruments.

Once they were fully prepared, the professor opened the box again and the dark purple sphere surrounded by four rings floated towards Evelyn's father.

Just like before it entered into his body without a trace, and moments later he began convulsing and screeching out in incredible pain.

Quickly the same ghastly injuries that had occurred for Evelyn's mother began to happen to her father.

Blood poured out of every part of his body and his bones broke and pierced through his skin.

His feather even began to fall out like an animal shedding its winter coat as the pain was to much for him to take.

Still, he fought and fought hard to stay alive.

Now that his partner was gone, he was the only hope his children had. And while he knew whatever had been put inside him was killing him, he could also sense that it also had great power.

If he could somehow subdue it, maybe he could wield its power to free himself and his children.

He struggled for over three hours which had very much impressed the research and his assistants.

At this point he had already passed the greatest amount of time any of the other subjects had survived by over twenty minutes.

Then for the first time the researcher and his assistants watched as one of their subjects' bodies began to heal.

It appeared that the integration of the item had been successful, and the broken bones began to pull themselves back into Evelyn's' father's body.

Not long after this process began his body was fully restored, and the researcher and his assistants looked at him with eyes full of hope and intrigue.

Yet this look swiftly vanished, as they all realized that even though this was the closest they had ever gotten, it still ended in failure.

*"Great it died even after all that. Looks like its soul just could not keep up even though its body was compatible."*

Chapter 13 Another Family's End