As Elias had said, the moment they stepped into the rift, they took the closest to a diamond formation, they could, with Lorenne tucked between them.

The air had immediately changed the moment they stepped into the rift and they immediately started feeling light headed.

"This is normal," Lorenne informed, "just allow your SE to flow freely, you should be back to normal in a few seconds."

Following her instructions, the trio allowed their solar energy to move freely within them as their lungs slowly adjusted to the air and they finally had the chance to look at where they were.

The first thing they noticed was trees, lots and lots of trees.

There were trees as far as the eye could see....well, as far as the darkness allowed them to.

The next thing they noticed was that the sky blanketing them was dark.

Not dark like nightfall or anything like that, it just seemed like some type of black miasma hanging over them.

There were no stars or any source of light as far as they could see.

The moment they stepped in, Nox immediately started feeling the same sense of dread he had been from Ayla, but this one was different.

This one felt like whatever it was, it really was trying to kill him unlike Ayla, but he just chuckled it to the fact that it was because this was his first time in a rift.

"Be on guard," Elias warned, "we don't know what might jump out from the darkness."

Well, they didn't have to wait long to find out because soon enough, a shadow detached itself from one of the trees and pounced, aiming for Lorenne, the one it identified as the weakest.

Unfortunately for it, seconds before it could reach her, a golden line appeared on it and the next second, it exploded into flames.

"Thanks," Lorenne muttered, turning to Levi, whose dagger was now in his hand.

Levi just nodded before focusing back on listening to their surroundings.

"Light," Elias suddenly muttered.

"No wait," Lorenne tried stopping him, but it was already too late as he had tossed something in the air, and the next second, a blinding light washed over them, illuminating the entire forest.

"The hell," Nox muttered as looked at what was surrounding them. He immediately took Morphos out of his inventory and transformed it into a sword.

Turns out, the Eclipsed that jumped at them wasn't alone, as the others had been waiting for the right moment to attack, only to be startled by the sudden burst of light.

It only took them a moment to shake off the sudden interruption.

And they all lunged at the quartet at the same time. The approaching Eclipsed were small, but their numbers more than made up for their sizes.

If Nox could count them, they'd number over a hundred or maybe even more.

"Hold on," Elias said as he pushed a button on one of his solar techs and a golden dome enveloped them, causing the Eclipsed to crash into it.

Nox finally had a good look at them, and ugly wasn't even the right word to describe them, though their looks was bad news in more ways than one.

They were as small as house cats, but they had four elongated arms, almost similar to a spider's.

The creatures also seem to be quadrupeds but he wouldn't be surprised if they were also capable of walking on just two of their limbs.

As was born for all Eclipsed, the body of these were made of complete darkness, even with the light source hanging directly above them.

At this range, Nox could see that their skin seemed to be moving, kinda like some type of goo, but at the same time, not.

The scanner on their watches told them that these things were tier ones, but based on their looks and the fact that they had seen one of them basically detach itself from the shadows, they were capable of using umbra energy.

Which placed them at tier 2, so they had to deal with them as such.

The creatures endlessly crashed into the barrier in futile attempts to get to their preys hiding within.

"Lorenne?" Elias turned to her and she immediately understood what he wanted.

"Those are Nightlings," Lorenne said quickly, flipping through her massive book until she found the matching sketch. "They're… um… supposed to be rare."

"Of course they are," Nox muttered.

"They're classified as Tier 1," she continued, "but that's misleading. Their bodies are technically Tier 1, but their use of umbra energy bumps them straight into Tier 2 territory. They manipulate ambient umbra to hide, stick to surfaces, and overwhelm prey in swarms."

"Fantastic," Elias muttered. "Weaknesses?"

"They're weak to Solar energy or even any SE powered weapons," she lifted her head to them, "so basically any solar tech."

"I see," Elias nodded before turning to Nox and Levi.... Who had disappeared again, they turned to see him out of the barrier and on the branch of one of the trees, quietly picking off the Eclipsed.

With a sigh, Elias turned to Nox and said, "can I leave taking care of them to you two? I'll stay here and make sure nothing happens to our encyclopedia."

Nox nodded before activating his boots and disappearing from within the barrier, reappearing on another one of the branches of the trees.

With Morphos in hand, he disappeared again and the next time he reappeared, multiple Nightlings froze before going up in flames.

Training with Astra, as torturous as it was, was paying off. You see, the boots had two modes, one of which he had no idea of.

Well, rather than having no idea of its existence, it was more like he had no idea how to access it, always preferring to go with the mode that came instinctively.

As much as they allowed him to teleport, they also allowed him to run just as fast and he could switch between either depending on what he needed.

Right now, he was using the speed mode, hence the reason the Eclipsed hadn't seen him coming until it was too late.

"Let's clear up these pests shall we," he muttered as time seemed to slow down and he disappeared the next second.

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