Alex briskly manoeuvred between the yellow-leaved trees while humming a melody to herself.

"I can't believe I've got that show's theme stuck in my head again," Alex commented as she landed on the branch of a tree; she was about to jump to another tree when she heard multiple voices directly below her, causing Alex to glance down at the group of adventurers camping below her.

"I can't believe there have been reports of a giant fox in the Devian Forest," the female sword-wielding adventurer(a young adult female human who has long half black(right) and half-pink (left) hair tied into a braided ponytail, a pink right eye, a black left eye, pale skin and wearing light adventurer armour) mentioned as she stirred a wooden spoon in a cooking pot.

"I know right and given how many tails the report says the fox has it might be a divine spirit," the male mage(a young adult male merling who has blue lightning-shaped hair with a yellow lightning bolt-shaped fringe, yellow eyes, blue skin, fin-like fish ears, a fishtail and wearing a yellow mage robe) stated as he pondered something.

"Say, Olivia, do you think we'll be able to locate and investigate the fox within a single day?" the kid spirit(a kid demi-human armadillo spirit who has long glowing transparent scruffy purple hair, glowing purple eyes, transparent magenta skin, a long purple plated tail and wears an oversized scruffy black dress) asked as she floated over to the cooking pot. Olivia sighed disheartedly as she rested the spoon on the rim of the cooking pot.

"Hex, you ask me this every time we do recon quests, so what do you think?" Olivia sarcastically asked while placing her hands on her hips. Hex slowly scratched the top of her head before shrugging.

"Maybe?". Hex's response caused the merling mage to chuckle, and his chuckling made Olivia glare at him.

"What's so funny, Storm?" Olivia asked with a slightly ticked-off tone. Storm eventually managed to control his chuckling and cleared his throat.

"Well, given the location we're reconning, is on the outskirts of Talkia, it's possible we'll be able to," Storm remarked as he sat up straight. The adventurers continued to discuss amongst themselves as Alex continued to eavesdrop.

"A giant fox, now that's something you don't see every day, outside of Kalikose," Alex remarked.

"Indeed," the female-sounding tiger cub(who has glowing black and orange striped fur, ten long tails that are around double her height in length and ten pale orange feline-like eyes) said while sitting on Alex's shoulder. Alex nodded her head at the tiger cub's statement but, after a few seconds, slowly panned her head to look at the tiger cub.

"Umm, I don't mean to be rude... but who are you?". The tiger cub gave an apologetic bow, which Alex mentally commented was cute much to her own chagrin.

"My apologies, Alex-dono, for the late introduction; you can refer to me as Kai and I have been tasked by Master Zalroth with accompanying you for the time being, until you've retrieved your forgotten item," Kai explained while repeatedly bowing. Alex was about question Kai before remembering her original objective.

"Oh, shoot all that eavesdropping made me forget I wanted to get my sunglasses," Alex panically and quietly blurted out before rushing off, with Kai remaining on Alex's shoulder while being encased by an orange static-like aura.

High above the sky, a cloaked figure stood on top of a magic barrier while watching Alex parkouring from tree to tree with their black, spiral-shaped pupil eyes. The cloaked figure glanced upwards and noticed Zulcrestus finishing off the feather cluster; the figure then glanced over to a section of the forest before leaping in that direction, while leaving a trail of dark purple lighting from their legs.

Sophia, who was carrying a bag full of Heavenly Heroes-themed sweets, and Ruby arrived at a large plaza, with a giant mayjorka tree at the centre, filled with multiple festival stands.

"Fifi, look it's over there~," Ruby playfully cheered as she led Sophia over to a festival stand called Heroic Marbles.

"Heroic... Marbles?" Sophia puzzledly asked while Ruby gave her a beaming smile and nodded her head.

"Yeah, it says here in the flyer that you placed in the middle of the four tables and are given four different challenges, then you need to collect at minimum one set of coloured marble to win," Ruby reiterated as she carefully read the festival flyer.

"Right..." Sophia said as Kiki popped her head out from behind the stand's counter and startling Ruby, causing her hair and tail fur to puff up.

"Heya girls," Kiki cheerfully said as she climbed onto the counter and revealed she was wearing a knight-themed dress.

"O-oh, hi..., Kiki," Ruby said as she attempted to flatten her hair and tail but failed to.

"Soo~ are you two interested in having a go at Heroic Marbles?" Kiki cheerfully asked while holding her hands behind her back.

"That depends... is the prize for getting four sets in one go actually a limited edition..." Ruby said before beginning to whisper into Kiki's ear and making Kiki deviously smirk.

"You betcha," Kiki said while giving Ruby a double thumbs up.

Meanwhile, Minia slowly opened her eyes while quietly yawning. Minia quickly rubbed her face while Charlotte and the others were checking out some stands(Charlotte and Elizabeth were by a trinket stand and Luna and Heather were by a book stand). Minia yawned but slowly turned her head when she heard the complaining voice of Nola drawing nearer.

"Wait what do you mean I'm just the quote-on-quote getaway driver?" Nola whined as she stopped next to Minia while Vivo walked slightly further down the street before stopping and glancing back at Nola.

"Just be prepared to activate your Dimensional Portals in their square shape," Vivo stated before walking off, much to Nola's annoyance as she was about to say something but relented when Vivo disappeared into the crowd.

"At least dad hears me out before shutting me down," Nola quietly muttered as she float above Minia before she dropped onto Minia's gelatin hair and angerly groaned.

"So... what did he shut down exactly?" Minia tiredly asked as she rubbed her eyes to get the pink dust out of them. Nola buried her face into Minia's hair and groaned again.

"I asked if I could actively participate in the mission he was given but he told me, and I quote, given the person I'll be trying to get the attention of it would only put you in harm's way," Nola muffledly complained as she pressed her face even harder into Minia's hair.

"Well, you're not the best at fleeing without your portals sis..." Minia remarked before realising something and grinning.

"Soo... it seems you're back to calling dad, dad again," Minia cheekily remarked as she poked Nola's right cheek while Nola told her to shut it.

A blindfolded Ruby slowly hovered her hand over one of the wide marble containers, the other three being on other tables, with Kiki intently watching Ruby's hand. Ruby quickly grabbed one and placed the green marble with a glowing lime heart insignia in the jar filled with five other green marbles.

"So how'd I do?" Ruby worriedly asked as Sophia appeared to be spacing out while looking up at the sky; Sophia snapped out of it when Ruby concernedly called out to her.

"Huh? Oh, you managed to get six Immortal Sage marbles, Ruby," Sophia stated as she quickly glanced at the marbles in the jar. Ruby gave a quick fist pump before turning in the direction of Kiki.

"That counts right?" Ruby asked with Kiki giving a serious head nod.

"I suppose, the rules did state a set is either six of the same marble or six different marbles," Kiki explained as she instructed Ruby to take the blindfold off. Ruby aggressively took her blindfold off and, along with Sophia, glanced over at the large silver feathers that were descending from the sky.

"So which challa-," Kiki managed to say before the crowd in the plaza erupted into terrified screams as they fled past the trio.

"It's the Phantom!" one of the citizens yelled as they ran past Ruby. Ruby's eyes widened at hearing the Phantom's name before she quickly hopped over the table and onto the street.

"Let's go," Ruby said to Sophia, who gave a monotone nod. Sophia quickly handed all the bags of sweets to Kiki and asked her to look after them before she and Ruby sprinted to the centre of the plaza.

"Do you think it could be the same guy we fought in the cave?" Ruby asked with a serious tone.

"Who knows but if they are then it'll make things more complicated than just an impersonator," Sophia replied with a monotone voice. Ruby gave a nod as the two arrived at the foot of the plaza's giant mayjorka tree where at the top of the tree's trunk Vivo(with completely black feathers and four large crow wings in the shape of a cross) donning a similar outfit to the one Zalroth wore when he was being the Phantom, looked down at Ruby and Sophia as the duo braced themselves for combat.