Within the Jade Forest—Zaross Ruins [1:32 PM].

Stepping foot into the ruins of Zaross, Roy's eyes glanced around the area, taking note of the rubble scattered around the broken down ruins. Besides the debris-covered in moss, stone-like monsters by the name of Rogra aimlessly walked around at the entrance.

"..." Roy closed his eyes as calmly sensed his surroundings. "...the cause of the mana overflow seems to be deeper into the ruins."

"Do you think the kids might be there?" Damian questioned as he eyed the monsters around the area. "...or, would they be somewhere else?"

"This place is so big... how do we go about finding them in such a short time?" Fei muttered out in worry. "Would shouting their names do any good?"

"...Fei, do you really want to attract the monsters around us?" Damian raised his brow.

"W-Well... if we don't do that, then what can we do? We don't have any signs or hints of where they're at..." Fei sighed. "At this rate, it'll take forever to find them!"

"For starters, the best place to check would most likely be deeper into the ruins," Roy calmly stated. "If anything, I think they'll be at the area in which the overflow started."

"E-Eh-" Before Fei could continue on her with her sentence, Damian quickly covered her mouth.

"Shh..." he whispered. "Keep your voice down!"

"A-Ahem, right... my bad," she mumbled out as her eyes turned towards the direction of the monsters that were slightly alerted. "A-Anyway... back to my question, wouldn't that place be the top one spot to avoid when you're running for your life?"

"...well, in actuality, that place would be the top one go-to spot when it comes to wanting to find safety," Roy reasoned. "Although the area would likely have a powerful enemy, it actually helps in driving the lesser monsters that you see around here away."

"Oh, I see..." Fei tilted her head. "But, I still don't get how this overflow thingie works. Just what's the cause of it?"

"You know how our pockets draw energy from our surroundings to allow ourselves to use mana, right?"

"Yeah?" Fei nodded her head.

"Well, to put it in simple terms, for an overflow to happen, instead of drawing energy from the surroundings, one would need to release an 'outside' source of mana into the area," Roy explained. "-and, for it to cause the occurrence of an overflow, the energy must be a powerful-enough source that can interrupt the natural flow of mana in the environment."

"So... what I'm getting here is that whoever we're dealing with is a powerful foe?" Fei continued to inquire.

"It is along the lines of what you say," Roy nodded his head. "Though, it won't necessarily be a powerful enemy. Sometimes, it can just the over usage of mana within the area. That can also cause an overflow."

"Ah, I get! So, with that understanding... which of the two would it be for the current situation?

"...for this one," Roy muttered to himself as he closed his eyes. "From what I can sense, it should be the-" The moment that Roy was about to answer Fei, a sudden loud shout rang throughout the ruins, quickly interrupting him.

"A-Ahh! Someone, help!!"

"...!" Alerted by the noise, the group quickly turned towards the direction of the voice in a frenzy.

"...Anaya, Teri!" Fei cried out. "They're in trouble!"

"Grock..." Murmurs began to resound through the entrance of the ruins as footsteps soon followed. The second Fei had shouted out, the stone-like monsters, Rogra, were alerted by her voice.

"Tch... way to go in alerting them," Damian clicked his tongue at the sight. Moments later, he began to unsheath his twin-swords.

"Ack-" Fei stuttered. "I couldn't just keep quiet like that knowing the kids could be in danger at this very moment!"

"From the direction of where the cry came from," Roy calmly assessed the situation. "It seems to be the area where overflow is happening."

"Even more worst!" Fei cried out. "What do we do?!"

"Calm down," Roy said in a calm demeanour whilst taking out his spear. In the next moment, droplets of water began to form around him. "We'll make our way there just as planned."

Taking a step forward over towards one of the monsters up front, Roy swiftly drew his spear in an arc, slashing at them. Soon after, from behind him, Damian followed up with his attack, lunging over to them as he quickly turned them into grey-ash.

"So, we're basically going to ignore the crowd of monsters and continue on?" Damian asked.

"Precisely," Roy nodded his head. "They won't be able to follow us so long as the overflow remains. Even then, these monsters won't pose a threat to us, so there's no worry."

...

Through the hallways of the ruins, the group rushed forward with Fei at the forefront of it. Whilst they ran, the monsters from within the vicinity approached them steadfastly.

"Huff... huff, how long till we reach there?" Fei shouted out whilst smacking away one of the monsters that were approaching her over to a wall.

"Just up ahead," Roy replied whilst piercing through the monsters in front of him.

"So we're almost there? Great!" Hearing the news from him, Fei's pace quickly increased.

"...hey, Fei. Don't do anything rash when we get there," Damian uttered out. "We don't know what might be waiting there for us."

"Yeah, yeah, I won't!" Shrugging off Damian's words, she continued on her with her pace until they finally reached over towards the main hall of the ruins.

Stepping foot into it, they were greeted by the sight of a large open space, with an almost non-existent rooftop. With Fei at the front, she was the first to scrutinize the area and look for kids.

"Anaya, Teri! where are you?!" Fei yelled out in a loud voice in hopes of finding the two kids. In her eyes, rubble and moss were the only things that she could see in the vicinity.

"W-Wah..." Not a second later, Fei could hear wailings from farther into the hall. "Fei... is that you?"

"Teri? We're here to save you!" Fei shouted out. "Where are you?!"

"B-Behind here..." A girl's voice muttered out.

"Over there?" Her eyes turned towards a large pile of fallen pillars by the end of the room and, without a second thought, she ran up ahead. "Stay there, I'm coming!"

From behind her, Damian and Roy rushed into the hall. Quickly, they were greeted by the sight of Fei rushing on ahead. "Hey Fei! Wait don't-" Damian's hand quickly tried to protrude forward in hopes of catching Fei, however, he was too late.

Without listening, Fei continued onwards as she neared the rubble. However, she was quickly stopped at her place as her legs were entrapped in a sticky ooze. "H-Huh?" she mumbled out as she turned to look at her legs, quickly noticing a substance of what seemed to be slime.

"Fei! Above you!" Damian continued to cry out.

"W-What?" Hearing the alert from Damian, Fei looked up as she soon spotted the same ooze of substance that was on the floor, dripping down to the ground. However, that was not the only thing that she saw.

Among all the slimy substance that was spread out across the ceiling, a large ball of what seemed to be made of pure slime began to move in an angered manner. Soon after, from the top, it leapt forward, making its way over to Fei.

"...!!"