Istina and Ibada were in a state of utter panic as they ran through the yards of the facility. The night's usually quiet and peaceful atmosphere was now filled with chaos. The other caretakers were equally frantic, running from one room to another, desperately checking on the sleeping children along with the safety of the exterior of the premises. Every nook and cranny was being searched, every door and window being inspected, as the caretakers tried to ensure the safety and well-being of the children. The air was thick with tension and fear at the news that had just been told to them.

Hermes had told the pair of Split Race before dusk that some children might go out tonight, but they did not mind the news since some older children would go outside at night for various reasons. That was until they received a message from Hermes about who exactly had left.

Initially, they thought nothing of it; it was a rare opportunity to rein in Aster and his unruly friends with them knowing where the group was and the comfort of a Divine Knight protecting them, they felt comfortable enough to sit back and wait.

An unexplainable sense of worry kept tugging at them, preventing them from sleeping. When they turned their tired gaze toward the direction of the children, they saw a growing pillar of green light.

The sight of it was enough to jolt the exhaustion away, replacing it with anxiousness about what the children were going through. They thought, or more so hoped, it was a beast that the Divine Knight had killed to protect the children, but not long after the pillar rose, Master Hermes arrived and told them the Night Beast had returned and was nesting somewhere outside the village. They raised the alarms, sending the entire orphanage into alarm and panic. They would have loved to stay here and help with the situation, but they had a much more important task.

The pair ran through the forest as fast as they could, praying that the Divine Knight could hold off the plague of Night Beasts.

***

Night Beasts are creatures of mysterious origins but have a widespread reputation for being dangerous creatures and the ruin of many races throughout the history of Genisis. Because of this fact, if they are seen, alarms are raised, and many races, large and small, will set out to quell the pest before they can settle in, but they are very difficult to find until it is too late.

Once Night Beasts establish a nest, they reproduce at an alarming rate, making it extremely difficult to control their population and remove them. All Night Beasts can have offspring, and they can have thousands of offspring every month. Even though the survival rate of each offspring is minuscule, almost zero, the numbers can escalate quickly. There have only been two methods discovered to stop the spread of this plague: to end it before it starts or starve them so they eat themselves and finish them off when they have a manageable population.

***

Istina and Ibada found themselves standing where the Life Pillar had once been. As they looked around, a slight sense of calm washed over them. They examined the area and realized there was no sign of any beast's body near where the pillar once was.

"It seems like this was not one of the children. Then what or who died..."

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As the anxiety began to fade away, their sharp sense of emotions was triggered. The negative emotions that floated around them took their breath away; the pain, the loneliness, the betrayal, so many negative emotions floated around where the pillar once was. It shook the calm away.

"The children..."

As they dashed through the forest, the pair felt confused. They knew they needed to reach the abandoned Ambrosia Village where the children should be, but they were unsure of the location as it had been left for almost eight hundred years.

Even though the village had grown in the opposite direction exactly because the old village was located on this side, meaning that most in the village knew its location, they didn't even have a rough idea of where it might be. The fact that they had lived in this village for a little more than two years and that most of that time was spent in the orphanage instead of talking to locals was their only justification for their ignorance. Their minds were racing as they tried to piece together any clues they could recall, hoping it would lead them in the right direction.

The sound of deep grunting came from a short distance away. When the pair looked toward the grunting, expecting to see a wild beast, they instead saw a small path of ice. The morning dew had been frozen into a path. Their only thought was that the Divine Knight had sent one of his summonses to guide them to the children. If he had done something like this, the situation must have been more dire than they had thought, but they still had some time before dawn; hopefully, they could get to the children before anything happened.

Morin had already started to cast its light when the pair made it to the outskirts of the abandoned village. The summon that had led them there with a path of ice slipped into the shadows of the trees as it returned to its master. Ibada and Istina gave a small bow before rushing into the maze of buildings. It did not take long for them to find where the children were when a screeching and chittering beast was stuck in the door, squirming and clawing to escape.

The Spilt Race were not fighters; this was something that the pair didn't even think about as they rushed to save the children. Weapons were something that they had never learned to hold, but they had seen some of the children from the orphanage use them. They also saw others use them when they were students in Divine Gate, so their mentality was simple: beat the opponent until it could not move anymore.

The pair grabbed the largest pieces of wood they could find and beat the Night Beast stuck in the door until it stopped moving. After that, they pulled its tail from the door and rushed inside. The first thing to greet them was an impaled Night Beast lying in the lobby of the building, along with claw marks everywhere; they did not like the implications of the many signs of the Night Beast.

The pair rushed through the building until they saw strewn bodies decorating the edge of a single hall; there must be nearly twenty or more bodies of beasts of different sizes just at the edge of the hall. When they rushed around the corner, small piles of bodies dotted the hall, and their eyes locked onto an exhausted and disheveled Pit barely standing on his own against a door. His eyes seemed distant and glazed, and his clothes were just strings barely staying on his body, but by some miracle, he seemed uninjured. The most shocking sight was the other two that were sitting near Pit; the girl Priya kept poking at Pit's calf and appeared to be the only thing keeping him awake, while the boy Carter sat in front of him with his usual glazed eyes and bouncing head.

The pair of children looked at the new duo, seeming to acknowledge them before returning to what they were doing. Istina and Ibada sighed, seeing the children safe but worried about the other three.

"Pit..." Istina whispered as she kneeled beside Pit

"Are they safe..."

Istina caught Pit as he slumped over.

While Istina cared for Pit, Carter, and Priya, Ibada went to look in the room but was upset to see only two children sleeping soundly inside.

"Casper?" Ibada whispered as he looked around the room.