Burning Eclipse

CHAPTER 2 - How bad can it be?

1.

Turns out, it could be very bad, and even that might be a bit of an understatement. Fotaris looked at the burning building next to a large forest in front of him, a sign at the front gate saying "Orphanage". Extremely bad. Fotaris stood useless on the side, the best he could do was help get the children as far away from the building as possible. Lyla and Elio used their Nature of water to try and put out the raging fire, huh, Elio's Nature was Water, the same as Lyla's, neat. However, the flame doesn't seem to die down, almost as if it was made from Prana, in which case, this wouldn't be an accident, but an attack. 'Tsk, I don't want to be useless here.'

"Iris, can you help take care of everyone here, I'm gonna go help the others." Fotaris turns and says this to Iris, who was nearby trying to calm down the children, for some reason, she wasn't as shy around them as she was around the group, or maybe around him and Elio.

"I...I got this!" she replied oddly enthusiastically with a nod of her head.

Nodding thankfully, he quickly dashes toward the others. Deciding to go to the twins first instead of Serenity, she can probably handle herself.

"Elio! Lyla! Can I help in any other way?" He yelled, though, annoyingly, it seemed like they were ignoring him at the current moment.

"[Water Nexus]: Streaming Rivers!" They yelled out in unison, a small stream of water shooting out of their palm onto the fire, but unfortunately, the water seemed to have been overpowered by the fire.

"Aris, we have a bit of a problem," Elio said, turning toward him, a serious look on his face.

"Why did you call him Aris?" Lyla asked Elio

"Later." He replied quickly

"Why do-"

"Later!" He yelled toward her, getting a pout and a 'hump' in return, huh, they act a bit more different than him and Enya.

"What is it?" Fotaris asked, curious and a bit worried.

"This isn't just normal fire, it has Prana in it making it difficult for us to put out. It doesn't help that I can smell Corrupted Mana coming off of it, meaning that it's likely there's a Vampnoid nearby. It might be one of the Shinzō, hopefully, it's a Pawn Piece and not one of the Upper Pieces.

"So the cause of this was because of a Vampnoid?" A calm but angry voice came from Fotaris's right, scaring him slightly, and to his surprise, Serenity was there.

"Serenity! Are you ok? Is everyone out of the building?" Fotaris asked her out of concern.

"Thankfully, there weren't any major injuries and everyone got out safe, I told Ms. Lavender to go get help in the village," Serenity answered with a breath of relief and a nod.

'Ms. Lavender? Is this place important to her? It would make sense as she was pretty despite getting here.' Fotaris thought to himself. "So, are we just wai-" Fotaris was cut off by a bone-chilling shiver, his breath going a bit shaky, Serenity's eyes also dilating. Both of them put their dominant hand onto their blade's handle. Contrary to them, Elio and Lyla stand slightly confused. However, a bone-chilling laugh gets their attention, in that instant, both Serenity and Fotaris pull out their blades pointing at where the sound originated, following shortly after them, Elio pulls out two hatchets, one in each hand while Lyla brings out two sickles both from their backs.

Standing on a tree branch, she wears a large black cloak that covers most of her body from the shoulder downward, her waist-length black hair covers one of her purple eyes, her elliptical pupils staring into their souls.

"What's with the cold look, little kids? Afraid?" She said, swinging her scythe.

"Were you the one who set the place on fire?" Serenity asked the Vampnoid, her voice full of seriousness.