The kunoichi finished off the last of the soul reapers that were surrounding them. Charlotte plunged her sword through the head of the last soul reaper and gritted her teeth. She looked back at her team who were all extremely exhausted and sweating profusely. Charlotte placed her sword in her dual sword sheath, which was located on the back of her belt. She wiped her forehead while hurrying over to Star, who was panting a lot harder than the others. Charlotte crouched down and lifted Star's head. Charlotte placed her free hand on Star's forehead and, after checking Star's temperature, Charlotte let out a relieved sigh.

"Luna, I need some of Star's medicine.". Luna was laying on the floor and gave a thumbs up to let Charlotte know she heard her, before searching through her duffel bag. Luna pulled a vial of a ruby red liquid and a gingerbread cookie. She created a small transparent floating platform, made out of mana, and lightly pushed it. The platform slowly floated over to Charlotte. She picked up the medicine vial and popped its cap off.

She tried to pour the medicine into Star's mouth but Star managed to muster enough strength to move her face away from the medicine. Charlotte got a slightly annoyed expression as she continued to attempt to give Star the medicine but to no avail. Charlotte was getting increasingly frustrated as Star continued to refuse the medicine. Charlotte suddenly felt someone tap her shoulder. She looked behind her and spotted Elizabeth, who showed no signs of fatigue or even a single drop of sweat on her body.

"Allow me.". Charlotte seemed a little conflicted but begrudgingly relented. Charlotte handed Star and the medicine to Elizabeth. Charlotte stood up and hurried over to check on the others.

"Urrrgh... sooo....hot." Ruby murmured before face-planting.

Meanwhile, Zalroth and Sophia entered the wagon. Akari sat down and handed Anthurium a bottle of spirit water. Zalroth sat down and, the moment he rested his head on the side of the wagon, Lola jumped onto him, causing some of his bones to click and his mouth to twitch. She rested her head on his chest and let out a yawn before closing her eyes. Zalroth chuckled while he placed his hands behind his head and closed his eyes as well. Iris sat up, on Lola's head, and stretched her arms. She spotted Scarlett and Snow who were both sleeping while being wrapped in a bedsheet and leant up against the wall of the wagon.

"Iris dear.". Iris quickly darted her head and looked over at Akari. Akari gestured for her to come over, and Iris flew over. Akari extended out her hand and Iris landed on her palm.

"Yo, what can I do for ya?".

"Oh it's nothing, It's nice to see the two of you are alright.". Akari scratched the bottom of Iris' chin, causing Iris' wings to slouch down and making her gleefully smile. Akari stopped, causing Iris to frown a little, and got a slightly serious expression.

"Is something wrong?". Akari just sighed while lightly stroking Snow's head, Snow smiled a little in her sleep.

"It's... just, I wished I could've gotten a better look at the thing that attacked our village.". Iris sprung up to her wings and started to fly again while waving her arms around. Akari requested Iris to calm down while gesturing to Scarlett and Snow. Iris apologised as she landed back on Akari's hand.

"So what did you want to say?". Iris paused for a moment, almost forgetting what she was going to say but managed to remember.

"Oh yeah, although it was brief and very dark, I did manage to catch a glimpse of the attacker.". Akari leaned forwards a little and asked Iris to elaborate. Iris explained that the figure was an extremely tall, dark and shiny creature with scary glowing ring-like eyes. Zalroth slightly opened his left eye when Iris mentioned the ring-shaped eyes.

"Is there anything else?" Akari asked. Iris thought about it but nothing else came to mind other than the eyes being red.

"Well..." Anthurium started to say while having a raspy voice. Everyone who was still awake, aside from Zalroth who closed his left eye again, looked over at Anthurium. Anthurium looked down at the bottle she was holding and cleared her throat.

"I... overheard the thing say... some... twisted things.". Zalroth opened his eyes and looked slightly perplexed by Anthurium's words. Akari noticed Zalroth had opened his eyes.

"Do you recognise the person Iris and Anthurium described, Zalroth?".The trio got a little excited waiting for his response. Zalroth shook his head.

"Na, well I thought I did but the guy I was thinking off is as silent as a rock, so it couldn't be him, plus his eyes are blue anyway.". The three of them got a little bummed out at Zalroth not knowing their village's attacker.

"Well no use worrying about that for now, at least we know what are attacker's rough appearance is.". The group continued to talk while Akari mentioned Snow was very upset about having to leave her cat plushie behind in all the commotion. Scarlett, who was pretending to be sleeping, looked away from the group with a sombre expression.

Later that day, at an abandoned and almost completely destroyed village, a tall, slim black metal robot slowly marched through the remnants of the village. Its appearance was similar in design to Zulcrestus' armour aside from its body being extremely slim, its arms have a diameter of two centimetres and its legs' diameter being three, having spikey black metal hair and having a single visor eye with two blue ring-shaped eyes.

It scanned the area for any signs of life but didn't immediately pick anything up. It took a step forwards and a squeak echoed from under its foot. The robot lifted its foot and picked up the thing it stepped on. The robot lifted the thing in front of its vision and scanned it; it appeared to be a plushie of an anthro cat from a popular show, that it happened to see its creator watching a few times. The robot stopped its scan when it received a call from its creator. It answered it, while it lowered its arm.

"Xero, how's your survey going?" Callie asked over the communicator. The robot sent her a text message.

"I see, so no one's there. I guess we won't be able to get any clues from the survivors and we'll have to wait for her to strike again.". Xero stood in silence and waited for new orders.

"Well, for the time being, you should assist Zuzu's daughters in tracking down that Phantom guy.". Callie got another message from Xero.

"It was a joke Xero, I was talking about his kunoichi subordinates, I'll send you the current coordinates of where they're camping," Callie said before telling Xero she needed to go and told him to follow Charlotte's lead when he meets up with the kunoichi. Xero made a confirmation noise before they both hung up. Xero received the coordinates from Callie. Xero looked up at the full moon and squeezed the anthro cat plushie making it squeak again.

At the kunoichi's camp a few minutes later, Charlotte was putting out the fire under the cooking stove when she heard a metal thud behind. Charlotte was spooked by the sudden sound and accidentally tossed the stirring spoon she was holding into the air. She spun around just to see the spoon hit the top of Xero's head. Xero lifted his hand and caught the spoon. Charlotte profusely apologised to Xero but he didn't respond. He simply extended his arm to Charlotte and she awkwardly took the spoon back and quickly placed it into a bag.

"So, you're the backup sent by lady Calloukus?". Xero nodded before bowing on one knee. She was slightly taken aback by him suddenly bowing and awkwardly looked side to side.

"Are you... waiting for orders?". Xero nodded in response. Charlotte tried to think of what she could have him do until tomorrow.

"I suppose you can be on night watch for tonight, is that ok?". Xero nodded. He stood up and walked over to the edge of the camp's boundary, activated his scanner and started to scan the forest. Charlotte went back to packing up all the equipment and let out a relieved sign, even joking she was glad it was just him. She heard a loud crunch followed by the sound of something falling. She turned around and saw Xero catch a tree, that looked like it had been kicked/punched in half, and slowly placed it on the floor while staring daggers at a rabbit that was running away from him. Charlotte awkwardly smiled, seeing how similar Xero acted just like Callie.

Meanwhile, Zalroth, with a sleeping Lola clinging to his back, was sitting on top of the wagon, that had come to a stop along with the others, and looking up at the moon.

"Why do I always have trouble sleeping on nights like this," Zalroth complained in a whisper. He glanced over at Lola as she started to chew on the fur of his coat. He let out a content sigh. He poked Lola on the nose causing her to raise her head while slightly opening her eyes; her head didn't stay up for long and she quickly rested her head back on Zalroth's shoulder.

"At least I still have you and Sophia," Zalroth somberly remarked, before looking back up at the moon. He started to slowly hum causing Lola to incoherently mumble the lyrics to the song in her sleep, making Zalroth grin.