"Why the hell am I the one they sent?"
A Lady with short silver-white hair muttered as she continued forward. Her pale violet eyes seemed completely unfocused as if she was lost in her own reality while she continued forward, into Zone 9.
But what would really draw attention to her was the uniform she wore, one which Nox would immediately recognize had he been around.
She had on midnight gray pants coupled with black boots and a white shirt tucked into the pants.
Hanging lazily on her shoulders was a jacket with the same color as her pants, the jacket also had golden cuffs.
On the left chest area was a half-sun crest, its lower arc hidden behind three rising rays, this was the famous insignia of Solar Academy.
The moment anyone saw that emblem, they'd know what she was an Academy Instructor. One of the elite few licensed to wield high-grade Solar tech and also proof that she was a really high ranking Solar Knight.
This was Astra Dawn, an Ascendant rank Solar knight and—
"Of course I know I was closer," she grumbled, replying to no one in particular, "but I'm supposed to be on vacation right now."
Honestly, someone that wasn't right in the head evident by how much she spoke to herself.
"My vacation," she muttered again, kicking a piece of rubble out of her way as if it had personally offended her, "I'm definitely asking for extra creds for this."
There was, of course, no one around. Yet Astra kept talking, as if there was.
"Oh, don't give me that look," she said to absolutely no one, gesturing vaguely beside her as though a companion was walking there. "I'm not the crazy one here. I'm just, vocally aware of my frustrations."
There was a short pause, before she added,
"…Yes, that's a thing."
She sighed, brushing a strand of silver hair behind her ear, her violet eyes scanning lazily across the devastation that was Zone 9.
Everywhere she looked was filled with dissected corpses of humans, but her expression didn't change in the least bit.
From afar, she could hear screams, only for them to be abruptly cut off and go completely silent.
"Guess it's still out here," Astra muttered as she let out a small yawn, "let's deal with it and get back to our vacation."
But before she could take another step , a deafening sound caused her to stop in her tracks.
BOOM!
"Hmm?" Astra tilted her head in confusion, "did the academy send another knight?"
"You're right, that's highly unlikely," she said after a short pause, "no one else would agree to come here.....wait, does that mean I'm being bullied into doing this?"
"Right, right, the explosion." She said as one of 'the voices' in her head reminded.
Crouching, she placed her gloves hand on the ground, closed her eyes and the next moment they opened, they had changed from pale violet to a golden glow.
"Solar Energy?" she muttered as her sight allowed her vision to see the explosion site.
She could see the particles of solar energy in the air, which was normal since she already expected that when the explosion went off, but the strange part was that it was quickly receding.
Her eyes follow where it was receding to until the landed on a figure sprawled on the ground.
"How strange," Astra muttered, which was surprising coming from someone like her...the definition of strangeness, "well, I better go check it out."
She stood up straight again, let out a small breath and before one could see her fully move forward, she was gone, leaving behind only a golden trail and a scorched ground.
***
A few minutes before the explosion went off, Nox, already coming to the realization that there was no no way out, did the only thing he could.
"If I'm going to die... I'm taking you with me."
Time seemed to slow down as the unstable capacitor flew into the creature's open maw.
It didn't even get a second to react before the Helion capacitor exploded, letting out a blinding golden light.
The shockwave immediately hit the trapped Nox, freeing him and at the same time throwing him backwards, knocking the wind out of him.
His face and arms were completely scorched, the skin on them completely blackening, making him unrecognizable.
The last thing Nox saw was the after maths of the explosion. The edges of his vision was blurry but he could see a huge crater caused by it.
The buildings left standing had all disappeared to ash...not that there was much to begin with anyway.
But within the crater, something began moving. The Abyssal Hound has somehow survived blowing up from inside.
Nice let out a hollow laugh, though even that felt painful right now as he let out, "I guess it was useless, after all."
With that, darkness took him.
***
A massive crater, a regenerating Eclipsed and a body burnt beyond recognition was the scene Astra arrived to.
"How interesting," she muttered.
The damage caused by the explosion was one thing, but what really caught her attention was the Solar Energy in the air..
More specifically, the fact that the particles were currently moving around, leading directly into the burnt body that lay on the floor.
Whenever Solar tech is used in an area, residue of Solar Energy always remained, but they dispersed in a few minutes, but that's not what was happening right now.
The burnt body was currently pulling all the solar energy in the air, towards it and absorbing it like a sponge.
Soon enough, a golden glow enveloped it and with the golden glow in her eyes, Astra could see as the body started healing.
But she wasn't given the chance to observe the process of whatever was happening till it completed, as a low growl was heard behind her.
Turning around, she noticed that the Eclipsed had fully regenerated as if it hadn't previously exploded from the inside.
The hound was crouching low, growling at the new arrival. It's instincts screamed at it to run away, that a bigger monster had just appeared.
but at the same time, it could see that there was no way out.
It was cornered prey — and cornered prey only did one thing.
Fight back.
And that's exactly what it was going to do.