Vivo stared down at Ruby and Sophia as they stared back at him with equal intensity. Vivo quickly raised his hand which made Ruby flinch, with Sophia flinching a split second after Ruby did.

"Tell me, are you the same guy we encountered in the mountain, cuz you look nothing like him, or the previous Phantom me and my friends fought?" Ruby asked with a demanding tone.

"You are correct; I am neither the being you fought in the mountainy cave nor the Phantom you fought in Kalthorm," Vivio stated as he snapped a branch off of the giant mayjorka tree. Ruby relievedly sighed but her face slowly shifted to a perplexed expression.

"Wait..." Ruby mumbled as she scratched her head while heavily contemplating what Vivo had said. Sophia shook her head as she looked back up at Vivo with a cold glare.

"You know the way you said that implies there are multiple Phantoms, right?" Sophia coldly stated.

"What else would I be inferring, if not that there are multiple of us?" Vivo monotonously asked, which caused Sophia to wonder if Vivo was being sarcastic. Ruby confidently slammed her fist into her open palm as she appeared to come to a conclusion.

"Oh I get it, the name Phantom is more of a name that represents a group of people, that's why it's The Phantom and not just Phantom, am I right?" Ruby smugly stated while giving a confident smirk, and a wink to Sophia.

"You rather sharp," Vivo commented which made Ruby chuckle.

"What's so humorous?" Sophia asked with a worried expression.

"He said I was smart," Ruby remarked, much to Sophia's, all be it slightly endeared, dismay.

"Is now really the time for that?" Kiki worriedly shouted while peaking her head up from her stand before quickly darting back behind the stand's counter. Ruby embarrassingly slumped her head down while forcing a strained smile. Ruby quickly slapped both her cheeks before pounding her mana boxing gloves together as her opaque mana tendrils emerged from her back.

"Alright reskin you're going down," Ruby proclaimed with an embarrassed and shaky voice; she quickly entered her SMS(Surging Mana State) and lept at Vivo.

"How childish," Vivo commented as he waved his hand over the mayjorka tree branch, making it disappear, as Ruby rose above him. Ruby hurled a flurry of punches, including strikes from her mana tendrils, at Vivo, who easily blocked all of the attacks with a single hand.

"Even for you, isn't this a little too headstrong?" Sophia remarked before teleporting. Ruby threw one final strike with her mana tendril before Vivo grabbed it mid-air and causing the area around his feet to crack from the impact.

"All though I am... endeared by your vigour, the attack itself is rather lacking," Vivo stated, eliciting a chuckle for Ruby, making Vivo tilt his head slightly.

"Who said that was supposed to be an attack?" Ruby remarked with a grin. Vivo quickly darted his eyes behind himself, when he sensed Sophia's mana signature reappear, to see Sophia aiming her bow at him whilst charging a rapidly growing light arrow, in said bow.

Sophia stared Vivo in the eyes before instantly aiming upwards and firing the light arrow into the air. Vivo raised his hand with its index finger stretched out while tilting his head.

"It appears your aim-," Vivo managed to remark before Ruby wrapped her mana tendrils around his legs and swept him off his feet. Ruby, although struggling to lift Vivo with her tendrils, spun around on the spot before hurling Vivo into the sky and on a collision course for the light arrow.

"Oh, she was acting as a distraction-" Vivo remarked right as he was struck in the face by the light arrow before it exploded in a blinding flash of light. Sophia teleported onto the top of the mayjorka tree.

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"Ha! He didn't see it coming," Ruby remarked as she rubbed the tip of her nose with a smug look on her face. Sophia amusedly rolled her eyes at Ruby before regaining her serious expression as she summoned multiple light mana spears.

"Try not to drop your guard, Ru-ru," Sophia unintentionally stuttered as a faint tint appeared on the tips of her ears when she said Ruru. Ruby, with a bemused look on her face, slowly panned her head towards Sophia, which caused her ears to turn bright pink.

"OMGs, did you just give me a nickname!?" Ruby excitedly asked as her red tail, ears and mana tendrils happily wagged in unison; however, before Sophia could say anything a strong gale of wind mana erupted past the duo. The wind knocked Ruby off balance causing her to frantically flailed her arms around as she stabilized herself.

"That was close...," Ruby remarked before her eyes widened when she registered, the unharmed, Vivo hovering inches in front of her. Ruby slowly staggered backwards as Vivo raised his hand to her face.

"How odd..." Vivo commented as he strongly inspected Ruby's face and in particular her diamond-shaped pupils.

"Something catch your fancy?" Ruby jested as she forced a smug grin whilst a sweat drop ran down her face. Vivo continued to stare at Ruby's eyes while ignoring Ruby's comment.

"Where have I seen those before?" Vivo muttered to himself and causing Ruby's eyes to widen with intrigue.

"Wait you...," Ruby managed to say before Vivo was tackled off the mayjorka tree by an armoured stone golem. Ruby and Sophia confusedly darted their heads in the direction the golem came from.

They watched Iris, with a strained red face, as she struggled to carry Anthurium to the mayjorka tree. Iris exhaustedly dropped Anthurium onto the mayjorka tree before weakly slumping on top of Anthurium's head.

"Sophia, a magic shield has formed around the plaza," Anthurium calmly stated as Iris was heavily panting.

"A magic shield?" Sophia cautiously asked as she looked up and noticed the large magic shield as it emitted a faint white glow, along with the purple bioluminescent vines sprawled around it.

"And that's not all, everyone outside the barrier is acting like the barrier isn't even there," Iris added between her heavy breaths. Ruby perplexedly tilted her head while placing her hand on her chin.

"Why's that?" Ruby asked. Sophia continued to look up at the magic shield as she appeared to be pondering something.

"It appears the person who created the shield applied a noise cancelling magic to it and those vines may be emitting some sort of spores that cause visual illusions, making everything within the shield essentially imperceivable," Sophia explained, with the others nodding in agreement.

"Yeah that makes sense; if that wasn't the cause Charlotte and the others would have been here by now," Ruby remarked before the group quickly spun around as Vivo, still being grappled by the stone golem, ascended to slightly above the height of the mayjorka tree. Large dawnite feathers bursted out from the golem's body before it crumbled to pieces.

"That was a fairly impressive surprise attack, especially given the use of a stone golem; you know because they're the second slowest type," Vivo stated as the dawnite feather slowly retracted back into his body.

"That's.. weird," Ruby and Iris stated as the dawnite feathers fully retracted back into Vivo's body.

"You're ones to talk; now then..." Vivo remarked before black feathers formed on his forearms and quickly morphed into being made of dawnite.

"... why don't we step things up a notched?" Vivo smugly stated before pointing his arms at the group.

Female Zalroth exited the adventurers guild building and wiped her forehead.

"That went more smoothly than expected," Female Zalroth jokingly said as Lola was tiredly rubbing pink dust out of her eyes.

"But... it was very strange how mama didn't seem shocked to she you like this papa... mama... pama?" Lola sleepily mentioned before contemplating what she should refer to female Zalroth as, which managed to elicit a chuckled for female Zalroth.

"Ha, pama; I guess that would be pretty acc-," female Zalroth remarked as she noticed the massive magic shield covered in purple vines in the distance. Lola looked up and tilted her head.

"Do you see something, pama?" Lola concernedly asked as she poked female Zalroth's head. Female Zalroth let out a low aggravated groan as she activated Lightning Amp.

"Those nitwits," female Zalroth angerly muttered under her breath before leaping onto the roof of a building and speeding off for the magic shield right as Chronia frantically rushed out of the adventurers guild building.

"Wait you forgot the coin pouch Zal- huh?" Chronia yelled out as she spotted the giant magic shield female Zalroth was heading towards. Chronia shook her head with an unsurprised but amused expression on her face.

"They never change," Chronia defeatedly remarked before slowly strolling down the street that led to the plaza.