The team looked at the old lady with suspicion, as far as they knew, this was a newly formed rift.

So there was no way a human or a cabin would be in these woods already, which meant one thing,

The old lady wasn't human.

That much was obvious from the pressure on their shoulders as they looked at her.

"Identify yourself," Flint demanded as his hand wrapped tightly around his solar tech, a massive hammer.

"I wonder why it's not working," the old lady muttered, mostly to herself than the team before her.

Skye frowned, it was pretty obvious now that something was definitely wrong with this rift but before she could say anything, one of the solar knights rushed towards the old lady.

"STOP!" Flint ordered, but it was too late as the knight was already shadowing the old lady.

With his gauntleted fist, he threw a punch, aiming to cleanly separate her...no, it's head from shoulders.

"Since you're not human," the solar Knight said, "then you're just a threat."

His gauntlets let out a golden glow as they inched closer to the old lady's face, and that's when he saw it.

Her face, under the the glow of his solar tech was nothing like a human's. Instead, what his saw was a bony mask with two glowing red orbs within.

The solar knight's eyes widened but it was too late to withdraw his attack.

"Huh?" Was the only thing he could let out as his world flipped upside down and he saw his body just standing there, before the world faded to black.

Flint and the others watched in horror, they hadn't even seen her move before a stream of blood spurted out of the Knight's headless neck.

The body stood there for second, with the gauntleted fist still extended towards the old lady's face, before it fell forward with a wet thud.

The old lady moved her eyes from the body to the group, standing in shock before chuckling and slowly walking forward.

The shadows slowly started pooling beneath her feet as she stepped forward.

"This is the moment," she took a small pause, as the shadows started climbing up her legs, "you pick a god and pray."

"Ah… right," the shadows, at this point, had almost completely wrapped around her, "They abandoned you long ago."

The shadows swallowed her and the pressure on the shoulders of the solar Knights seemed to triple.

"Get ready!" Flint said as they all focused on the cocoon made of shadows.

"Let's retreat while it's going through whatever transformation it is," Skye suddenly said and Flint turned to her.

She was right, that creature had killed a radiant knight without even giving him the chance to register his death.

So this thing was at least tier 4, if not higher.

But before any decision could be made, one of the solar knights stuttered out, "w-what the hell is that thing?"

The group turned towards it and their eyes immediately widened.

The Eclipsed had completely shed the old lady's body, instead what stood before them was a creature that didn't seem the least bit human.

On its head were antler-like horns, similar to a deer's. It's face was covered with a white bone-like mask, where they could see two glowing red orbs in the eye socket.

Like most Eclipsed, this one seemed to absorb all light, seamless blending with the darkness1.

In its hand was what seemed to be a lamp, which had a whitish blue flame within.

But what terrified the group even more was what stood by the old lady. It was the solar Knight that had previously attacked.

But now, his head, that they all watched roll to the forest floor, was back on his neck, but instead of a face, all they could see was hollow.

He swayed as bit before launching himself towards the other knights. He was a lot faster then before, faster than even what was expected from a radiant knight.

Fortunately, Flint swung his hammer just in time to force the reanimated knight to block....or at least, that's what should've happened.

Instead, the knight dodged at blinding speeds and before Flint could react, his gauntlet was digging into his stomach.

Flint was launched backwards, his back slamming into a massive tree as the air was knocked out of him.

The other solar knights weren't in a better situation either, before they could react, the dead solar knight was already in front of them.

Another knight tried to intercept with a spear that was filled with Solar energy, but the hollow-faced thing ducked beneath the strike and drove its knee straight into his chest.

There was a sickening crunch as ribs collapsed inward, somehow damaging his core, causing the knight to crumple and coughing blood as his SE spiraled out of control.

Soon enough, it overloaded his system and a small explosion happened within, causing his eyes to go blank as he fell forward, blood streaming out of his mouth.

"Flint!" someone yelled.

Flint forced himself upright, blood running down the corner of his mouth. His vision was a bit shaky, but he managed to steady himself.

"Target the summoner!" he roared. "Ignore the puppet!"

As if amused by the command, the Eclipsed's lamp produced a brighter glow and the reanimated solar knight got even faster.

Before the knights could think of getting closer to the creature, they fell, as if a puppet controlled by strings.

Most of their hearts were with in the dead knight's hand, while others had their cores directly ripped out of them.

Flint continued watching in horror as all this happened and the realization finally set in, they had no chance against this this thing.

He looked around for Skye's corpse, but couldn't spot it among the corpses of his men.

The Eclipsed slowly started walking towards him, and with a sigh he also started walking towards it.

Since all his men had died, he might as well join them, but not before giving a final middle finger to this thing.

'At least, Skye got to safety,' was what he thought as he got closer to the Eclipsed.

But that's when he saw the darkness move behind the creature. Skye suddenly reappeared, he dagger aiming directly for the Eclipsed's lamp since she realized that it was what the reanimated creatures were reacting to it's glow.

But before her dagger could reach the lamp, a spear went cleanly through her chest, an attack from one of the fallen Eclipsed.

She looked down at her chest before looking back up at Flint and slowly her eyes went blank as the life left them.

"SKYE!" He screamed but even that was cut short when a spear also went through his chest, and he slowly fell to the floor.

The last thing he saw was the hooves of the approaching Eclipsed before everything faded to black.

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