An Owl's Rise

Of course, things did not go one hundred percent smoothly, as the maze was constantly moving around and multiple times both Rehni and Evelyn had to stop to fight powerful enemies.

'Rehni is just on the other side of this wall. Now it just comes down to if we are lucky or not.'

After reaching a dead end that was between them Evelyn and Rehni felt that their hopes were dashed, but there was one possibility that could end up helping them.

Flapping her wings, Evelyn sent out several blades of wind towards the wall and hoped. 

'Looks like we are in luck.' 

After her magic hit the wall, it began to shift and turned from an unmoving hedge into a monstrous form with several branches writhing out of it like hundreds of arms and a giant mouth splitting across its center. While it was certainly one of the most annoying monsters that populated the maze, in this case Evelyn was happy to have encountered a false maze wall.

Within a few seconds the giant monster that had been occluding the maze's passageways was nothing but a pile of ash thanks to Evelyn's heavenly flame. And on the other side of the corridor was Rehni.

"I know it has not been long since we last saw each other on the first floor, but I am truly happy we have finally been able to meet back up in the maze." Evelyn said, wearing a warm smile. She had few things in this world that she considered precious, but her closest friend was one of them.

"Yes, it has been harrowing traversing this place on my own. I do not know if I could have held out without being able to meet and share information on the first floor. Thank you for guiding me this far. It would have been far more difficult without you."

Once Evelyn and Rehni had a brief heartfelt reunion, they turned their attention back towards the way that Evelyn had come from. If they were lucky, it might not have changed much.

Unfortunately, the maze was not a kind construction, and the two of them found the path back was already vastly different. Forcing them to maneuver around the center of the maze looking for a way to approach it.

For several hours they flew around in what seemed like circles before finally finding an entrance to the final stretch of the corridor that would take them to the center of the maze.

Except this was not the same one that Evelyn had exited out of when going out to meet Rehni. The two of them were now at the southern entrance and faced with another of the six-armed wooden knights. 

"I figured there would be another one." Evelyn said with a sigh.

"Oh, have you already dealt with one of these. How did you deal with it last time?" Rehni asked, a curious look on her face. 

Sadly, the answer she received would not be much help to them in this situation. Last time Evelyn had simply blasted it with her strongest attack since it was not reacting to her since she had come from the center of the maze. But this time they were approaching it from the front, and it was not going to simply stand there and wait for them to charge up their magic.

"Honestly, I have no idea what its capabilities are. But I am sure you can feel the magical energy coming off of it. Fighting it will not be easy." Evelyn said, a scowl on her face. She was certain that this construct would be difficult deal with in a straight up fight.

"So, how do we want to deal with it? I could keep it distracted while you prepare something big to take it out all at once." 

However, Evelyn shook her head and shot down Rehni's suggestion. It would be far too dangerous for her to engage this wooden sentinel alone.

"Our best bet is simply to wait. This part of the maze does not change so there is nothing forcing us to enter a disadvantageous battle. It is only a matter of time until help arrives." Evelyn said.

Now that they were this close to the center of the maze, it was only a matter of time before Aralee and Otis noticed them.

While Evelyn had the map she had been sharing with her sister in her possession, Otis had his own map, and it was planned for Aralee to periodically monitor it to keep track of the situation. 

When she noticed Evelyn and Rehni staying in one place for so long just outside the pathway that connected to the center of the maze, she was bound to come and investigate with Otis in tow. Then the two of them could attack the wooden sentinel from behind and make the fight trivial instead of harrowing.

Eventually things went nearly how Evelyn had expected, except Otis rushed ahead of Aralee and began attacking the construct blocking Evelyn and Rehni's way without formulating a plan.

This caused the ensuing battle to be quite a bit messier than Evelyn had envisioned it would be, but once the four of them began to coordinate together the fight became easy enough and they took down the last obstacle preventing them from reaching the center of the maze.

"What is that thing?!" 

The moment that they reached the center of the maze Rehni was naturally alarmed. 

Sitting at the northern end was the leafless tree that had crackling red lightning coming out of the cracks in its bark.

"That is the guardian blocking the way to the next floor. It will not attack as long as we stay away from it, so do your best to disregard its presence." Evelyn said. "Now we need to plan on our moves going forward."