The Eclipsed Order

Chapter 9: Chapter 9: The Eclipse Descends Upon Velmorne

The next day, night finally came.

Count Velmorne’s territory was unusually quiet from the outside, but the military camp stationed near the border was anything but peaceful. Hundreds of knights and soldiers occupied the area, with torches illuminating rows of tents and patrols moving between them.

They had no idea that four people had already entered their camp.

More precisely, they had no idea that the Eclipse had arrived.

The four figures moved separately, each approaching a different section of the camp. Their faces were concealed by the power surrounding their bodies, preventing anyone from identifying their appearances.

Aurora’s light-blue Eclipse power shimmered faintly around her.

Herrera’s violet power moved almost like thin strands of light.

Octavia’s power was pure white, although faint traces of the dark Eclipse color ran through it.

And Leonora’s light-green power spread around her like a quiet reflection.

Their hair colors were reflected in their respective powers, making each of them unmistakable to one another.

But to the knights?

They were nothing more than unidentified enemies.

The first explosion came from outside the camp.

BOOM!

The ground shook.

Several soldiers were thrown from their feet as a brilliant white explosion tore through the outer formation.

Octavia stood in the middle of the destruction, her white Eclipse power swirling around her.

"How disappointing."

She looked at the soldiers gathering their weapons.

"I expected Count Velmorne’s army to be somewhat more impressive."

"Enemy attack!"

"Form ranks!"

"Protect the command tents!"

The knights hurried into formation, desperately trying to maintain order while more explosions erupted around them.

Octavia raised one hand.

Another sphere of white power appeared above her palm.

"You’re forming a defensive line?"

She tilted her head.

"How considerate."

The sphere disappeared.

The next explosion tore through the formation.

Meanwhile, inside one of the command tents, a knight captain suddenly sensed something behind him.

His instincts reacted before he could properly understand what was happening, causing him to turn around while drawing his sword in the same motion. The moment he did, a strange blue blade collided with his own, and the force behind the attack pushed him several steps backward before he managed to regain his footing.

"What...?"

The knight captain stared at the figure standing before him. Her entire body was concealed by a veil of strange blue mana, making it difficult to see her face clearly, but her small frame was unmistakable. From her height and build alone, she appeared to be no older than a child.

For a moment, he couldn’t understand what he was looking at.

He had expected an assassin, perhaps an enemy knight, or at the very least an adult capable of infiltrating the military camp without being noticed. Instead, he was facing someone who looked like she should still be studying in some noble household rather than standing inside the command tent with a weapon capable of matching his own.

Yet the attack just now had forced him backward.

The knight captain tightened his grip around his sword, his expression becoming increasingly wary.

"Who are you people?"

The girl remained silent.

"How did you get inside this tent without anyone noticing?"

Still, she didn’t answer.

The captain’s suspicion deepened as he looked at the strange blue power surrounding her body. He had never encountered magic like this before, and whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t something an ordinary child should have been capable of controlling.

"Did Count D’Averon send you?"

The girl finally tilted her head slightly.

"Why would you assume that?"

Her voice was calm, almost indifferent.

The captain frowned. "Then answer me. Who are you?"

Aurora looked at him for a moment before calmly replying, "Does it really matter?"

The answer irritated him.

"You’ve invaded Count Velmorne’s military camp, attacked our soldiers, and entered the command tent. You think I will simply allow you to leave without knowing who sent you?"

Aurora’s eyes narrowed slightly beneath the veil of Eclipse power.

"I didn’t come here to explain myself."

The moment she finished speaking, the blue aura surrounding her body intensified.

The knight captain immediately felt the atmosphere around him change.

An invisible force descended upon his body.

His knees bent.

"What is this...?"

The ground beneath his boots cracked as the weight pressing against him continued to increase. He tried to move, but even lifting his sword suddenly required an unreasonable amount of strength.

Aurora slowly raised one hand.

"Gravity."

The captain’s eyes widened.

"So that’s your ability..."

He forced himself forward despite the pressure and swung his sword toward her.

Aurora didn’t retreat. Instead, the moment his blade approached, she manipulated the gravity surrounding his body once again, causing his movement to slow dramatically.

His sword passed harmlessly beside her.

Aurora stepped forward.

Her blue blade flashed.

The captain barely managed to block the attack, but the impact shook his arms.

"What kind of strength does a child like you possess?!"

Aurora smiled faintly.

"You’re still concerned about my age?"

Another strike came from the opposite direction.

The captain raised his sword again.

CLANG!

Then another.

And another.

Aurora’s movements became increasingly difficult to follow as she manipulated the gravity around him, slowing his movements whenever he tried to attack and releasing the pressure whenever she wanted to accelerate her own movement. Her blade continued to strike from different angles, forcing the captain to defend himself without ever finding an opportunity to counterattack.

His breathing gradually became heavier.

This isn’t possible.

He was a knight captain, someone who had spent years training with the sword and strengthening his body with mana. Yet he was being pushed back by someone who looked like a child.

Worse, the girl didn’t even appear to be struggling.

The captain desperately swung his sword once more, hoping to catch her during her next movement, but Aurora simply stepped aside and allowed the blade to pass by.

She then appeared beside him.

"What’s this? You’re way too slow."

The captain’s expression changed.

Before he could turn around, Aurora’s blue blade was already at his neck.

She stopped it just short of touching his skin.

For the first time since the battle began, the knight captain felt genuine fear.

Aurora looked at him calmly.

"Now, perhaps you’ll answer a question of mine."

She lowered the blade slightly.

"How many knights are stationed outside this tent?"

The sound of explosions and desperate shouting suddenly reached the command tent from outside.

BOOM!

The entire tent shook.

The knight captain’s face changed as he heard the cries of his soldiers becoming louder and more frantic. He could hear knights shouting orders, men calling for reinforcements, and the unmistakable sounds of weapons clashing in the darkness, yet none of it sounded like they were gaining control of the situation.

Instead, the voices were becoming fewer.

"What is happening outside...?"

For the first time, genuine fear appeared in his eyes.

He had commanded this unit for years, and he knew exactly how many knights were stationed around the camp. Even with an enemy attack, they should have been able to form a proper defensive line.

But whatever was happening outside was completely different.

Another explosion shook the ground.

The captain instinctively looked toward the entrance.

"How many enemies are there...?"

Aurora remained silent for a moment before answering calmly.

"Four."

The captain’s eyes widened.

"Four?"

He couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

Four people were dismantling an entire military camp?

Before he could ask anything else, another violent explosion erupted outside, followed by the desperate cries of several knights.

Aurora glanced toward the entrance.

"That’s enough."

She raised her blue blade.

The captain tried to move, but the gravity surrounding his body immediately became overwhelming.

"I—"

The blade flashed.

The command tent became silent.

Outside, the remaining knights were beginning to understand that something was terribly wrong.

They had already seen soldiers being defeated one after another, yet the attackers were not a single group.

There were four women moving through the camp, each possessing a completely different power, and none of them seemed interested in stopping.

One was surrounded by blue light.

Another moved through the battlefield with violet threads that appeared and disappeared before anyone could even see them.

A third was causing explosions with pure white Eclipse power.

The last appeared wherever the knights least expected her, leaving nothing behind except fallen soldiers.

The knights began to lose their formation.

"Who are these people?!"

"Where did they come from?!"

"There are only four of them!"

"Then why can’t we stop them?!"

Panic spread through the camp as quickly as the destruction itself.

Panic spread through the camp as quickly as the destruction itself.

The remaining knights had barely managed to regroup when reinforcements arrived from the outer perimeter, accompanied by several high-ranking knights who had finally realized that the situation was far more serious than a simple infiltration.

They rushed toward the center of the camp, expecting to find an organized group of enemy soldiers.

Instead, they found four young women standing together in the middle of the battlefield.

Their black dresses were almost completely untouched despite the chaos surrounding them, while the white robes bearing the mark of the Eclipse rested over their shoulders. Their faces remained partially concealed by the Eclipse power surrounding their bodies, but there was no mistaking their youthful appearances.

The knights stopped.

For a brief moment, nobody moved.

"Those are the attackers?"

One of the knights looked around in disbelief.

"There are only four of them."

"Four women?"

Another knight tightened his grip around his sword. "Don’t let their appearance fool you. They’ve already killed dozens of our men."

A high-ranking knight stepped forward.

"Surround them."

The knights immediately formed a defensive formation, weapons raised as they slowly closed the distance.

Aurora looked at them and gave a small smile.

"So many of you came."

Herrera glanced at the surrounding knights, her light-violet Eclipse power quietly flowing around her fingers.

"It seems they finally realized that sending them one at a time wasn’t working."

Octavia gave a soft laugh as the pure-white Eclipse power around her flickered.

"Should we be considerate and let them attack together?"

Leonora looked toward the knights with a faint smile.

"I suppose we should. Otherwise, they’ll complain that we didn’t give them a chance."

The knights exchanged uneasy glances.

They were talking about them as though the entire battlefield were nothing more than some amusing game.

"Don’t listen to them!" one of the high-ranking knights shouted. "They’re trying to provoke us! Attack!"

The knights charged.

Aurora raised her hand.

The moment they entered her range, their movements suddenly became sluggish. Several knights stumbled as the weight surrounding their bodies increased, while others struggled just to lift their weapons.

Aurora calmly walked between them.

"You’re moving much too slowly."

Her blue Eclipse power gathered around her weapon before she swung it once.

The pressure of gravity changed direction.

Several knights were thrown sideways, crashing into one another before they could even understand what had happened.

At the same time, Herrera extended one hand.

The violet threads surrounding her fingers spread through the battlefield almost invisibly. One knight raised his sword, only to suddenly find that his arm could no longer move.

"What is this?!"

Herrera smiled.

"You should be more careful about where you step."

The threads tightened.

His weapon fell from his hand.

Before the knight beside him could react, another thread had already wrapped around his armor.

Herrera pulled her fingers together.

The two knights were thrown to the ground, completely unable to fight.

"How are we supposed to fight something we can’t even see?!"

Herrera’s smile widened.

"My, my, how lovely."

A violent explosion suddenly erupted behind the formation.

Octavia stood in the middle of the smoke, her white Eclipse power shimmering around her.

The knights turned toward her in horror.

She casually brushed some dust from her sleeve.

"Sorry. I missed one."

"You call that missing?!"

Octavia laughed.

"I guess?."

Another knight charged toward her in desperation.

Octavia raised her hand.

A sphere of white Eclipse energy appeared before her palm.

The knight stopped.

His expression turned pale.

"Wait..."

The sphere exploded.

The impact sent him flying across the battlefield.

Leonora, meanwhile, had already disappeared.

One knight looked around frantically.

"Where did she go?"

A voice came from behind him.

"Hello?"

He turned around.

Leonora was standing directly behind him.

Her light-green Eclipse power shimmered around her body.

The knight swung his sword.

His blade passed through her.

"What?!"

Leonora’s figure distorted like a reflection on disturbed water before disappearing completely.

The knight froze.

Then he felt a presence beside him.

Leonora appeared again.

"How slow, are performing or something?."

Her blade flashed.

The knight collapsed before he could even turn around.

The remaining soldiers were beginning to panic.

They had fought monsters.

They had fought enemy soldiers.

Some of them had even fought powerful magic users.

But this was different.

They couldn’t approach Aurora because gravity itself became their enemy.

They couldn’t defend against Herrera because they couldn’t see her attacks.

They couldn’t get close to Octavia because every opening could become an explosion.

And Leonora was impossible to predict because every attack seemed to strike something that wasn’t really there.

"How are four children capable of this...?"

One of the high-ranking knights whispered.

Another answered through gritted teeth.

"Whatever they are, they’re not ordinary humans."

Aurora heard him.

She smiled.

"At least you’ve finally understood that much."

The remaining high-ranking knights exchanged glances before charging together.

This time, they attacked with everything they had.

Aurora increased the gravity around them.

Herrera’s threads spread across the battlefield.

Octavia gathered an enormous amount of white Eclipse power above her hand.

Leonora vanished from sight.

The knights fought desperately, but the difference between them was simply too great.

Their swords never reached their targets.

Their spells never found their marks.

Every attempt to break through the four women was answered immediately.

After several minutes, the battlefield had fallen strangely quiet.

The four stood together once again.

Aurora looked around at the fallen knights before speaking.

"I think this should be enough. What do you three think?"

Herrera looked at the battlefield and considered it for a moment.

"We have eliminated several experienced knights, including their high-ranking officers. I believe we’ve accomplished Master’s request."

Octavia smiled.

"Then we should leave before someone else comes along. I don’t particularly feel like explaining why the entire camp disappeared."

Leonora gave a small laugh.

"Agreed. Master probably wouldn’t want us wasting time here."

Aurora nodded.

"Then we’re finished."

The four women exchanged glances.

Herrera’s violet eyes gleamed beneath her veil.

"Shall we return?"

Aurora smiled.

"Yes. I’m rather curious to hear what Master thinks of our first real mission."

The four Eclipse users disappeared into the darkness, leaving the ruined battlefield and the remaining knights behind.

None of them noticed the faint smiles exchanged between the four women as they departed.

For them, it had been nothing more than their first assignment.

For the knights of Count Velmorne, however, it would become a night they would never forget.

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