The Eclipsed Order

Chapter 75: Chapter 75: The Shadow That Turned the Tide

The battle had already reached its final stage.

What had once been an organized army was now nothing more than scattered groups of exhausted soldiers, wounded knights, and commanders desperately trying to maintain whatever remained of their formation, while the Eclipse Order continued advancing through them without showing any signs of exhaustion.

The enemy had already lost far too many men.

At this point, even approaching the battlefield had become frightening for the surviving soldiers, especially after witnessing several of their strongest knights being defeated one after another.

Nyxaria, however, had no reason to remain among the ordinary soldiers any longer.

Her attention shifted toward the rear of the battlefield, where Count Velmorne and Viscount Randale were desperately attempting to reorganize their remaining forces.

She immediately headed in their direction.

The moment the knights noticed her approaching, however, none of them dared to step forward.

Instead, several instinctively moved aside, while others almost ran away from her path.

Nyxaria couldn’t help but smile beneath her covered face.

"Well, well..."

She stopped several meters in front of the two nobles.

"If it isn’t Count Velmorne."

Velmorne’s expression immediately twisted with anger.

"You!"

He pointed toward her.

"How dare you interfere with my plans?!"

Nyxaria tilted her head slightly.

"Hm?"

She let out a quiet laugh.

"What’s this? Are you angry with me?"

"Shut up!"

Velmorne’s voice echoed across the battlefield.

"I don’t know what organization you belong to, but you’ll pay for this!"

Nyxaria stared at him for a moment.

Then she suddenly laughed.

"Hahaha!"

Her laughter was loud enough to draw the attention of the surrounding soldiers.

"Pay for this?"

She looked around at the battlefield.

"You’ve already lost."

Velmorne’s expression hardened.

"Don’t get ahead of yourself!"

"Oh?"

Nyxaria smiled.

"Then let’s look at the situation together."

She slowly turned toward the soldiers standing behind Velmorne.

"Your army has lost thousands of men."

Several soldiers lowered their heads.

"Your High-Ranking Knights have been defeated."

A few of the remaining knights clenched their fists.

"And the people who are still standing here are so frightened that they won’t even approach us anymore."

Her voice became louder.

"So tell me..."

Nyxaria raised her voice until every soldier around them could hear her clearly.

"Why are you still fighting?"

The battlefield became strangely quiet.

Velmorne immediately shouted.

"Don’t listen to her!"

Nyxaria ignored him.

"You have already seen what happens when you continue fighting."

She pointed toward the bodies scattered across the battlefield.

"Your comrades are dead. Your friends are dead. Some of you have probably already lost brothers, relatives, or people you grew up with."

Her voice remained calm, but there was something strangely sincere behind her words.

"And what did your lord give them in return?"

Nobody answered.

"Nothing."

Nyxaria looked directly at the soldiers.

"Count Velmorne didn’t stand beside them when they died. He wasn’t the one taking the attacks meant for them. He wasn’t the one bleeding on this battlefield."

Velmorne’s expression became increasingly furious.

"You..."

"But you did."

Nyxaria continued.

"You followed his orders because you believed your lord would lead you somewhere worth fighting for."

She paused.

"Instead, he brought you here because of his own greed, his pride, and his personal hatred."

Several soldiers exchanged glances.

Velmorne’s face turned red.

"Enough!"

Nyxaria’s voice became even louder.

"So I’m going to give every one of you a choice."

The soldiers stared at her.

"Lay down your weapons."

She pointed toward Count D’Averon’s forces.

"Surrender yourselves to Count D’Averon, and become soldiers under his command."

The soldiers looked at one another.

"If you surrender, you will live."

Her voice suddenly became cold.

"But if you choose to continue fighting..."

She slowly raised her sword.

"...I’ll kill every single one of you standing here."

Silence.

No one moved.

Nyxaria lowered her sword again.

"Think about it carefully."

She looked across the soldiers.

"Who would you rather follow?"

Her gaze shifted toward Velmorne.

"A noble who sees you as nothing more than disposable pieces that can be thrown onto a battlefield whenever he wants?"

Then she looked back toward the soldiers.

"Or a lord who has every reason to hate the people attacking his territory, yet still chooses to spare the lives of those who surrender?"

The soldiers began whispering among themselves.

Nyxaria continued.

"You’ve followed Velmorne long enough."

Her tone softened slightly.

"Perhaps it’s time you followed someone who can actually lead you toward a better future."

Several soldiers looked toward Count D’Averon in the distance.

"He won’t throw you away simply because your life has become inconvenient."

She paused.

"Your families are still waiting for you."

That sentence struck them harder than anything else.

Many of the soldiers had joined the war because they had been ordered to.

They had never truly understood why they were fighting.

And now, after watching thousands of their comrades die, they were finally being given a choice.

Nyxaria smiled faintly.

"Choose wisely."

Velmorne suddenly stepped forward.

"Don’t you dare listen to her!"

He pointed toward his own soldiers.

"She’s manipulating you! She’s an enemy!"

Viscount Randale also shouted.

"She’s trying to turn you against your own lord!"

"Kill her!"

Velmorne’s face twisted with rage.

"All of you! What are you waiting for?! Kill her now!"

Nobody moved.

Velmorne froze.

"...What?"

He looked around.

"Did you not hear my order?"

Still, nobody moved.

Even the Knight Captain remained completely silent.

Velmorne’s expression became furious.

"Captain!"

The man slowly looked toward him.

"You heard me!"

The captain’s hand tightened around his sword.

For years, he had followed Velmorne’s orders.

For years, he had been shouted at whenever something went wrong, even when the mistake had not been his fault.

And now, after seeing so many of his own men die because of Velmorne’s decisions, something inside him finally broke.

He looked at the soldiers around him.

Then he looked at Velmorne.

"My lord..."

His voice was quiet.

"I have followed your orders long enough."

Velmorne’s eyes widened.

"What did you say?"

The captain slowly lowered his weapon.

"I will not order my men to die for your pride anymore."

Clang.

His sword fell onto the ground.

The sound echoed through the battlefield.

One knight followed.

Then another.

And another.

Clang.

Clang.

Clang.

Weapons continued falling.

Velmorne stared at the scene in disbelief.

"W-What are you doing?!"

The knights who had once stood behind him were now looking at him with something entirely different from loyalty.

There was anger in their eyes.

Resentment.

And for some, even hatred.

"Are you disobeying my orders?!"

Nobody answered.

Viscount Randale took a step backward.

His face had become pale.

"Velmorne..."

Even he was beginning to understand what was happening.

They were losing control of the army.

Not because the soldiers had been defeated.

But because they no longer wanted to fight for them.

Nyxaria watched the entire scene with a faint smile.

It seems they finally understood.

She then stepped forward once more.

"And remember one thing."

The remaining soldiers looked toward her.

"If you betray Count D’Averon after surrendering..."

Her smile disappeared.

"...consider it suicide."

Several soldiers swallowed.

"We live in the shadows."

Her voice became quiet, yet somehow more threatening than before.

"So wherever you go..."

She paused.

"...we will find you."

The soldiers stared at her.

"And if you decide to betray the Count..."

Nyxaria’s eyes narrowed.

"...we will appear from those same shadows and kill you."

The battlefield became silent again.

Then something unexpected happened.

The knights slowly turned toward Velmorne.

One after another.

Their expressions were no longer those of soldiers waiting for orders.

They were the expressions of men who had finally decided that they had enough.

Velmorne’s body trembled.

"W-What are you doing?"

Nobody answered.

"Are you ignoring my orders?!"

His voice became desperate.

"Answer me!"

Still, no one moved.

Even Viscount Randale began looking around nervously.

He had never imagined that the situation could collapse this quickly.

Nyxaria simply smiled.

The rest happened faster than Count D’Averon could have imagined.

One after another, the surviving knights and soldiers laid down their weapons and surrendered themselves to the D’Averon family.

There was no long struggle.

No final desperate charge.

The army simply stopped fighting.

For Count D’Averon, who had been preparing himself for the possibility of continuing the war for several more days, the sudden surrender was almost impossible to comprehend.

They surrendered... just like that?

He looked across the battlefield.

Only hours ago, he had been fighting desperately to protect his territory.

Now the same soldiers who had been trying to destroy it were standing before him, having surrendered their weapons.

It was almost absurd.

Yet the result was undeniable.

The war was over.

Count Velmorne and Viscount Randale were taken into custody and brought back to the D’Averon territory, where they were imprisoned rather than executed.

Their wealth, lands, weapons, and other assets were confiscated as punishment for their rebellion, while the surviving soldiers were given a new chance to live rather than being executed simply for having followed their former commanders.

Many of them had families.

Many of them had only been soldiers because they had been ordered to become soldiers.

Now they were given another chance.

And strangely enough, it was the enemy they had come to destroy who had given them that chance.

Count D’Averon looked across the battlefield.

He wanted to find the mysterious people who had turned the entire war around.

He wanted to thank them.

He wanted answers.

But when he looked toward the place where Nyxaria and the others had been standing...

They were gone.

The Eclipse Order had disappeared.

Not even a chance to properly thank them.

Only the faint traces of their presence remained scattered across the battlefield.

Count D’Averon stared into the distance.

"...They really disappeared."

Captain Rodan stood beside him, equally confused.

"We didn’t even get the opportunity to thank them."

Count D’Averon remained silent for a moment.

Then he looked toward the dark horizon.

"Perhaps that’s exactly how they intended it."

The Eclipse Order had arrived without warning.

They had changed the course of the war.

And when everything was over, they had vanished just as quietly as they had appeared.

Leaving behind nothing but questions.

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