"Look out!"
He turned around to see what looked like a scythe made of complete darkness heading his way.
He tried teleporting only to realize that he was being kept in place by multiple hands made of shadows.
Nox braced himself for the attack but realized that it never reached him.
"Aren’t you going to open your eyes, little light?" someone spoke up, amusement evident in their voice, "after all, don’t you want to see your friend’s sacrifice?"
Nox, trembling a bit, slowly opened his eyes, only to be greeted by a familiar scene, Elias was hanging on the scythe, his blank eyes indicating the lack of life.
Blood dripped from Elias’s stomach to the forest floor, as he remained suspended midair by the scythe.
It then suddenly pulled back, dragging Elias’s corpse into the darkness and Nox instinctively tried reaching out to grab it, but it was useless.
The hands refused to let go.
"To think that even an Eclipsed fiend couldn’t kill you all, even after I revived it," the person spoke again, "but it doesn’t matter, I guess if you want something done, you’ll just have to do it yourself."
Nox heard none of what they said, all he could hear was ringing in his ear, only to be woken up when the shadows pulled him down, slamming him to the forest floor.
"Still in shock, I see," the person continued, "then let me wake you up."
A second scythe approached him at blinding speeds and that was when Levi appeared, with both daggers in hand.
Unlike the dream, his uniform was fine and blood wasn’t dripping down his face but that didn’t mean the outcome had changed.
Before Nox could warn him to run, he felt a warm liquid raining down on him. A second later, Levi’s body fell to its knees and he realized that its head was gone.
"Ah, I wasn’t aiming for him," the attacker spoke up again, seemingly a bit surprised, "but this works pretty well."
"Now then, little light," they continued, "it’s your turn."
But Nox’s eyes were still stuck on Levi’s headless body, laying on the forest floor, blood pooling at the neck.
Of course he had seen multiple deaths during Eclipsed waves in Zone 9, it wasn’t even his first time seeing a headless corpse, but this felt different.
In the slums, there was no one he actually cared about, but the two that had died right before him?
They had died trying to protect him.
They were people he had survived two dangers with already, only for them die just like that.
And instead of thinking of avenging them, what did his instincts scream at him?
’Run!’
He wanted to run, to escape whatever monster was speaking to him, but he couldn’t.
He was firmly kept in place as their attacker approached, and that’s when he realized, he really had lucked out, and was going to die here.
"Now now, little light," The attacker spoke up, "I get a little jealous when my prey gets lost in their thoughts even though I’m standing right in front of them."
"At least lift your head and show a bit of surprise."
The attack finally stopped right in front of him and that’s when Nox realized, their...no, her voice was familiar, extremely so.
Slowly he lifted his head as much as his neck allowed while being restrained only for his eyes to widen.
"Y-you?" He let out in disbelief.
"There it is," she crouched down a little before patting Nox’s head, "you didn’t see this coming, did you?"
Nox had expected everything, a new type of Eclipsed, an even more intelligent Fiend or maybe an anomaly, never what he before him.
Crouching before him was their teammate...or someone he had thought was one of theirs, Lorenne.
"...y?"
"Hmm?" She leaned down a bit trying to get his question.
"WHY?!" Nox raged, "why the hell are you doing this?"
Lorenne looked at him for a second before letting out an amused chuckle and replying, "why indeed."
"This should answer your question," she stood back up and the shadows started pooling behind her, enveloping her entire form.
Nox watched in horror as her form grew a few meters taller and when the shadows dissipated, he was faced with a creater that only vaguely resembled human.
Lorenne...or whatever this was, now stood at three meters and instead of her previous two arms, she now had two more just below her original two.
Instead of feet, she now stood on what looked like hooves and behind her was now a tail.
Like all other Eclipse, light refused to reach her, making her form look like some kind of shadow with depth.
She...or rather, it looked at Nox still on the forest floor before saying, "how’s this, does it answer your questions?"
"W-what the hell are you?" Even with the heavy aura descending on him, Nox managed to let out.
"You could call me an Eclipsed Fiend, but that wouldn’t be right," she placed a hand on her chin as if thinking of what to call herself before shrugging, "I guess you can just call me the master’s perfect creation."
Nox had no idea what she meant by that or even who the master was, he didn’t even know how the hell am Eclipsed was able to take a human form.
"Ah, you must be wondering how I got into the academy, had a core implanted in me and joining you on this mission without the Oracle suspecting me right?" She said looking at the expression on his face.
"You see, I’m what you’d call a Chimera," she started, "a creature created from perfectly merging a human with an Eclipsed and I can switch between both forms as I please."
"As for hiding from the oracle’s eyes," she continued, "that’s because I’m under the master’s veil and unfortunately, Lady Oracle can peer through that veil."
Nox’s eyes moved towards the corpses of Elias and Levi laying nearby, an unimaginable rage bubbling within him.
Yet, it was all for naught....
"You want revenge don’t you, little light," she said with a chuckle, "fine then, let’s give you a fighting chance shall we, after all, I’ve got all day."
With that, the shadows let go of him and the moment they did, he disappeared, the next second, his katana was swinging for the Eclipsed’s neck.
But without even giving him a glance, its lowered arms slammed into his side, sending him barreling towards a tree.
"I must warn you that it’s useless though," she said, turning to him, "after all, I’m at tier 5."