The entire settlement was now completely silent, eerily so, especially given the fact that just a few minutes ago there had been the sound of battle.

The shadows wrapped around Nox suddenly dissolved, letting him fall to the rubble filled ground.

Fortunately, he got control of his SE again, just moments before he could reach the ground, so he teleported away and landed safely.

He looked back to the spot where Ayla was previously engaging the Eclipsed, the exchange had raised a lot of dust, so he couldn't fully see the outcome right now.

He closed his eyes for a while and when they reopened, they were glowing golden, though it wasn't visible through the mask.

He peered through the dust cloud and the first thing he noticed was a mass of umbra energy eminating from the creature Ayla had been previously fighting.

It was now standing behind her, and Nox didn't even get the chance to think before he felt himself teleport into the dust, grabbed Ayla and teleported to safety.

"Hmm?" She was a bit surprised at the action, but it didn't show on her face.

Nox instinctively placed himself between her and the monster as he watched the dust cloud settle.

Unlike what he expected, the creature didn't give them a chase, instead, it just stood there and that's when Nox noticed that something about it was different.

"It's dead," Ayla said, causing him to turn to her.

"Then the umbra energy—" he started in a questioning tone.

"It's now my shadow," Ayla calmly said.

Nox stared at her for a second, his mind struggling to reconcile what his senses were telling him.

"…Your shadow?" he repeated.

Instead of a reply, Ayla turned to the Eclipsed and said, "come."

Slowly, the creature walked towards them, its previous threatening aura was gone, all that remains behind was one filled with obedience.

The Eclipsed reached them and immediately kneeled before Ayla as she turned to Nox.

"See?"

Nox's brain still couldn't comprehend how what she did was possible, but if he thought about impossible.

He was the one with a sword made entirely of SE in his hand, SE which he was using without a core.

Logic didn't exactly apply to him either.

After a while of thinking and failing to come to a logical conclusion, he just let out a sigh, lowering his sword. "Guess that's one way to deal with a tier five."

"Pseudo tier six," Ayla corrected softly.

He looked at her, "right, of course."

He finally understood why she was calling him weak, after all, she was capable of dealing with a tier 5....no, pseudo tier 6 Eclipsed without a single scratch on her.

What rank did that put her?

Ascended? Or maybe just a bit away from breaking through to Transcendent.

She was the same age as him, and yet, was at a whole other level when they compared their abilities.

"Should we head back?" Nox asked, clearing his head of the thoughts that'd only cause him envy.

"Hmm," Ayla nodded, looking around the settlement, "we're done."

The settlement was now void of Eclipsed presence, even the ones that flee from Ayla had long since ran to other parts of the wasteland, least they risked being caught up in the battle of monsters.

"Before that," Nox turned to the pile of corpses before extending his hand.

Since it wasn't a large pile, he was able to easily envelope it in a golden barrier.

With a clench of his fist, the barrier shrunk turning the corpses into paste before they disintegrated alongside the barrier.

"That takes care of that," Nox muttered seeing the corpses disappear.

They still held a bit of umbra energy which might attract other Eclipsed to this place, hence the reason he had to deal with it before they left.

"Let's go," he said, turning to Ayla who just nodded.

He was about to teleport them before he paused and looked at Ayla as he asked, "you don't happen to have fought a dragon like Eclipsed, have you?"

Ayla serious thought about it for a while, before the shadows beneath her feet started spreading.

"This?" Ayla asked.

Lo and behold, what rose from it was a shadow in the shape of a dragon, one that made Nox's eyes turned stars.

Why had he asked for a dragon?

Well, it was definitely not because he saw a cool character riding one, definitely not.

"Great," he muttered, "my SE seems a bit restricted, so I can't teleport us through long distances, so we have no choice but to ride this back home."

Of course that was a lie, but she didn't have to know that.

"But I can teleport," Ayla said causing him to freeze.

He had forgotten she could, so he quickly came up with an excuse, "but your teleportation burns through your umbra energy right?" he said smoothly, "tnd after using that much umbra while fighting that Eclipsed, it'd be better if you conserved your energy."

Ayla looked at him for a while before shaking her head, "my umbra energy won't run out."

Nox coughed. "Right. Well. You know. Hypothetically."

She tilted her head. "You want to ride it."

"…Yes."

There was no point denying it now.

"Get on," she said and his eyes lit up.

He moved faster than he ever had in combat.

A moment later, the two of them were atop the dragon's back, its shadowy scales surprisingly solid beneath his boots. The creature lowered itself obediently, allowing them to settle before slowly rising.

The moment they were high in the air, the dragon stopped for a while and Ayla simply said, "hold on."

Nox was confused for a while before his confusion was soon replaced by a scream when the dragon suddenly blasted forward so fast a sonic boom was heard.

The last thing they heard was Nox's scream as the settlement quickly disappeared behind them.

What the duo didn't notice was the drone that had been watching them a while earlier, before it also followed in their direction.

Though, that wasn't the only thing looking at them.

***

"How surprising, I guess I shouldn't underestimate your kids, Aurielle."

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