Nola boastfully laughed, with the laughs rebounding off the walls of the large cavern, as she floated a head of Minia, Sophia, Charlotte and the other kunoichi, with Xelphia's mana tethers connecting them to their respective Zals.

"Hah! and you said that trick only works on kids," Nola remarked to Minia, as she was carrying a large bolder over her head using her gelatin hair in their large hand shape.

"You don't need to rub it in for the zillionth time, Nola," Minia said snarkily as she kicked Nola's foot, causing Nola to aggressively spin in circles until she crashed into a wall far off ahead of the group. Ruby commented to Sophia that the way Nola and Minia act really reminded her of how Sophia and her brother used to act before they went to the academy. As Sophia was nodding her head, Ruby noticed Zalina(who was laying on Sophia's head) was covering her nose as she was angrily staring at her.

"You stink!" Zalina stated boldly while sitting up. Ruby embarrassedly jumped at Zalina's abrupt shouting before slowly raising her arm and sniffing it. Zalina shook her head while stating she didn't mean that literally before she hopped from people's shoulders until she arrived at Elizabeth, who was close to the front of the group. Ruby defeatedly and meekly exhaled as the group arrived at the wall Nola had crashed into moments ago.

Minia inspected the wall before she heaved the bolder into the damaged wall and made a large hole in it. Nola disorientatedly flew through the hole with the others following closely behind her. While sketching in her notebook, Heather glanced around at the nearly pitch-black area as a light pale lime-coloured ring appeared around her iris'.

"There are no monsters here; it's safe to create a light source, Sophia," Heather mentioned as the lime rings faded away. Sophia nodded her head and raced her right hand. A cluster of small bright light mana spheres formed in Sophia's palm before they scattered around the large cavern and completely illuminated it. The group glanced around the area before Ruby, Minia, Alex and Zalina disappointedly sighed.

"Man... this is the six dead end," Minia snarked as she stomped over to one of the cavern's large stone pillars and layed down with her head resting against it.

"As much as I'd like to keep searching, if we move around too quickly we'll probably get lost; so, I think we should take a quick break while Heather finishes mapping out the area," Charlotte recommended with the group dispersing and checking out the cavern as Kai and Xinia climbed through the hole in the wall.

"Who would have thought I'd run into my academy buddies though it was bound to happen given who I work under," Xinia remarked in her head before phasing through Kai and strolling over to Charlotte and Elizabeth.

Kai glanced around at the various groups that formed from the original group with the separate groups: Charlotte, Elizabeth and Xinia; Sophia and Ruby; and Heather and Nola. Kai haphazardly strolled around the cavern whilst listening in on the others' conversations.

"I can't believe such a large cavern could be constructed underneath the coliseum without any of the city officials noticing anything," Charlotte remarked to Elizabeth and Xinia, with the two of them nodding their heads.

"It's hardly a surprise given how far underground we are," Elizabeth commented. Xinia exhaustedly yawned before abruptly glancing behind herself, with a startled expression, and spotted Kai staring straight into her eyes. Kai intently stared at Xinia before turning away and walking off. Xinia relievedly sighed while mentally commenting on how freaky that was.

"It felt like she was looking into my soul with those big eyes of hers," Xinia remarked while scratching the side of her arms. Charlotte and Elizabeth gave each other concerned glances before looking back at Xinia.

"I think it has something to do with the snail on your forehead, deary," Elizabeth mentioned while she gestured to the luminescent snail on Xinia's forehead. Xinia slowly placed her hand on the snail's shell and easily pulled the snail off her face before placing the snail on a nearby pillar; Xinia's body shivered before slowly and rigidly falling backwards, and landing with a loud thud. Xinia frantically squirmed on the ground while repeatedly whining about how gross slimy things are, with Elizabeth mentioning that Xinia lasted longer than she used to.

Kai strolled past Ruby and Sophia while making a b-line for a shiny azure-coloured glimmer on a far-off wall. Sophia sighed as Ruby was munching on some burnt chicken.

"It seems some things never change but I was kind of surprised to run into yet another person from the academy," Sophia mentioned with Ruby enthusiastically nodding her head and finishing her chicken.

"Yeah, I know right and, given the frequency between us and Xin meeting up, I wouldn't be surprised if a certain someone with a harem of spirits showed up," Ruby mentioned as she reached her hand into her chicken bucket and a single tear ran down her face, upon her realising it was empty.

Kai stopped in front of the glimmering gem that had caught her attention. She sniffed and prodded the gem lodged in the hall in the wall before pressing her face against it and getting a better look at the gem. Kai called out Zalina's name and Zalina yawned as she rolled off Elizabeth's arm. Zalina transformed into her tailed humanoid form and walked over to Xinia, who abruptly sat up while being visibly confused.

"Did that fox just...," Xinia commented but after thinking about it remembered transforming familiars was super common. Zalina rolled over to Kai before yawning as she unrolled from her fur ball. Kai pointed at the glowing gem inside of the hole in the wall while asking if it was an azure gem.

"Probably not, it's more likely the blue half of an azure core or a...," Zalina tiredly said as she peeked one of her eyes into the hole. Zalina squinted her eye at the glimmering gem before her ears joltingly perked up. Kai attempted to ask what the gem was but partway through her question Zalina grabbed the collar of Kai's fur coat and hurled her across the cavern right before the shine from the gem exploded and then literally exploded.

Kai hurtled through the air before landing in the arms of a, while still retaining his bird tails, humanoid Vivo, who was now sporting a tribal chief-like outfit(black fur trousers with a lime-coloured fluffy belt, a lime sleeveless exercise shirt and darksteel boots). Vivo slowly descended to the ground and placed Kai on her feet. Vivo landed on the ground before his wings wrapped around him and formed into a sudo-headless cloak. Everyone swiftly gathered around Vivo while summoning/unsheathing their weapons(Sophia wielding her bow, Elizabeth wielding a dawnite battle axe, Heather wielding dawnite throwing discs, Alex wielding her dawnite polearm and Xinia wielding a super long chain with a large spike ball on the end made from her mana strings). The group, excluding Xinia and the kitsune egos and visages, concernedly looked over at the dust cloud as the sound of Zalina coughing and choking on the dust echoed throughout the cavern.

"I don't know what's more annoying the dust or that explosion," Zalina commented as she walked out of the dust cloud and shook off the debris on her tails. The group's expression was slightly relaxed at seeing Zalina was unharmed and that there didn't appear to be an enemy.

The dust began to settle and revealed the enormous hole in the wall that led to yet another pitch-black cavern as Zalina continued to walk away from the dust cloud. The more lazy members of the group groaned in annoyance at yet another cavern appearing before them. Kai and Ruby's ears and tails flinched in unison as they spotted the multiple faint purple glimmers of light deep within the other cavern.

"Watch out!" the duo screamed out as the faint glimmers exploded into bright beacons before a giant tsunami of purple plasma engulfed the entirety of the other cavern. Zalina smugly smirk as she spun around on the spot and conjured an equally giant curved magic barrier. The plasma collided with the barrier and thanks to its shape it perfectly deflected the plasma away in the opposite direction.

"Even if you tried to hide your mana signature it won't matter when you're up against me," Zalina boastfully stated. Ruby tilted her head at Zalina's remark while commenting on how that worked. Heather tapped Ruby on her shoulder before she cleared her throat.

"Oh, it's rather simple, in the book I read on kitsune egos apparently they're able to detect people who are exhibiting the feeling they were formed from in some capacity; like if an ego was formed from anger then they'd be able to detect people's anger," Heather explained before looking over at Vivo and asking him if that was right, with Vivo nodding his head.

"Indeed, in Zalina's case her detection manifests in the form of smells which allows her to differentiate between different kinds of desire," Vivo added. Ruby nodded her head as she took in what Vivo said and a split second later completely encasing her body in a samurai armour made from her opaque red mana when she recalled Zalina calling her stinky.

"Are you alright?" Sophia asked as she shook Ruby's shoulder. Ruby let out a high-pitched, embarrassed yeah as Alex confusedly rubbed the back of her head while commenting on how she knows Ruby likes participating in tournaments but not to this extent, which made Kettle sound and steam start to come out from Ruby's samurai armour.

Zalina was still holding up the magic barrier as she looked back at the group and pondered if saying Ruby stinks was mean or not. She continued to consider if she should apologise but adamantly shook her head.

"No... it's not my fault her desire levels are on par with Chronia when she-" Zalina managed to say before a giant dark purple opaque viscous slime fist cut through the plasma beam and slammed into Zalina's magic barrier. Zalina frantically wrapped her tails around her body right before the fist managed to smash through the magic barrier and punch Zalina across the cavern.

Zalina pinballed and bounced between the stone pillars scattered across the cavern before uncurling from her tails and landing in front of the others as they all got into combative stances. The giant slime hand slammed into the ground before a second hand reached out from the pitch-black cavern and grabbed onto the wall that separated the two caverns. A low bubbly snarl slivered through the air as a swarm of giant slimy slime snake heads emerged from the darkness and loomed over the group.

"My-my, I didn't expect to receive such a welcoming party before, I truly am honoured," Crimson Moon calmly said with a condescending tone as he floated by the side of the giant slime monster. Crimson Moon surveyed the group before spotting Xinia at the back of the group with Xinia nervously waving at him.

"I suppose that will make the evacuation of the subject easier," Crimson Moon commented to himself as he returned to looking at the group as a whole. Zalina glared at the monster before shifting her glare to Crimson Moon.

"Care to explain why you've got the seemingly reanimated remains of one of Lake Vesovian's monster cores, Mr Crimzion? Zalina demanded with Crimson Moon letting out a defeated sigh as he commented to himself on how that name sounded way better than the ones he came up with.

"Crimzion huh? That does have a nice ring to it doesn't it; Kukou Crimzion The Crimson Moon," Kukou remarked to himself which made Zalina angry at him incorporating her nickname so quickly while demanding Kukou answer her question.

"As a sign of gratitude, I will gladly tell you since you know my plan won't change its success rate; As you can see, I have used the fascinating properties of angorthite to reanimate the body of this ancient monster which I intend on using against the illusive god of life and creation to further my ambitions," Kukou said with the group perplexedly scratching their heads.

"You... want to fight the single-handedly most unkillable and untraceable being in the world," Ruby asked with a concerned tone while adding that supervillains really do have bizarre goals.

"Call it bizarre all you like but this part of my plan is by far the most... unbizarre piece," Kukou stated before he raised his hand and snapped his fingers. The slime heathian's eyes lit up as the slime roared to life and roared at the group.