A/N: Wow, I can't believe I haven't updated this fic in a whole YEAR... ah, I can't make that joke this late in January. Anyways, here's where things really start to go off. Prepare yourself for a cavalcade of call-forwards and foreshadowing that'll make you cry when I finally square this one away. But that won't be for a while, so feel free to theorize!

Three days had passed since the previous attack on the temple, and Master Tiera was busy preparing herself for the day ahead of her. She made her way down the steps and towards her own personal spot in the dojo, a training ground and meditation center in the middle of a molten lake of lava. But, when she arrived there already was somebody fast at meditating already there, his gauntlet activated and gently bubbling mana.

"Acolyte Chavez?"

He gasped and fell from his position, blushing bright red. Looking back around, he noticed the duel master, and took a few deep breaths before finally settling down his heart rate, and getting up to look her in the eyes from a higher viewpoint. She chuckled a bit at his attempts to make himself look braver, and then continued.

"I do appreciate that you're learning to channel your frustrations and whatnot, but don't you have a place of your own to do this? Not that I mind, but I'd prefer a heads up."

"I was waiting for you to come, actually!" Hector said. "I've been thinking about what you've said, and what I've seen, and I was wondering if maybe you could teach me a little bit more about the Fire Civilization? I just want to see it before I know what I think I should do… duel-wise?" His sentence wavered off a bit at the end, but Tiera understood the message.

"And has your Sensei agreed to this little field trip?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"It's Saturday, I don't really have much else to do…" He responded, kicking his feet and looking at the ground. "And I think she'd allow it if I used one of her creatures as a sort of stand-in."

Tiera rolled her eyes. "Alright then. I don't suppose that the other Masters would mind, considering we've already got enough Injured Order attack reports from Blastforge City." Hector's eyes widened in anticipation. He'd heard about the Fire Capital, but he'd never gotten to see it up close himself. "Just stay right by my side, and everything should go swimmingly."

What they didn't know was that there was another little 'field trip' happening today. Master Ezra, along with Kimora and Nadia, had been called into the Nature Civilization to try and settle a dispute between the Bronze-Arm Tribe and the Wild Veggies. The last thing that anyone needed was another fight, especially considering the amount of tensions rising between humans and creatures.

Kimora and Nadia weren't meant to come originally, but Nadia herself admitted to knowing the least about the Nature Civilization, and wished to know more than just what she had read from the library. Kimora on the other hand, showing great amounts of care and skills at controlling Nature thought that he could better perfect his abilities with a more direct approach. After quite a bit of begging, Ezra agreed and secretly allowed them to tag along.

"But a fight between the Bronze-Arm tribe and the Wild Veggies? It doesn't make any sense! Both of these tribes only ever fight out of self-defense!" Nadia was already making quick mental notes of the situation. "It doesn't make sense for wither one to attack either of the other."

"Could just be a huge misunderstanding!" Kimora said, trying to lighten the mood as they walked further and further into the thick underbrush of the forest. Master Ezra herself stayed quiet, only nodding at every two or three sentences absent-mindedly. Using her partner creature Mistvine Quartz, to guide them, she suddenly held out a hand in front of them as he began to sniff the air. His glowing white eyes flashed red as he hooted in alarm, and Nadia and Kimora took his as a sign to activate their own gauntlets.

And thus, the once peaceful forest was sent into chaos with a massive brawl suddenly emerging from above and around the trees. Beastkin and Wild Veggies alike both were going at each other, their swords and spears clashing loudly as they tumbled around the woods, trying to get a better stab (pun intentional) at each other.

Nadia and Kimora, without a moment's notice to prepare themselves hit the deck, covering their heads from any spearheads or cherry bombs. The entire fight was a chaotic mess, not incomparable to a herd of colts being unleashed into a salad bar buffet. Master Ezra, however, seemed to be handling it well, using Quartz to beat down and distract the battles from getting too intense.

But, this didn't last for long, as a misfire from a Veggie's weapon caused her feet to be glued to the ground, and Mistvine Quartz was skewered to a tree and trampled in the pandemonium. The two acolytes, now trench crawling away from the battle noticed this and began to internally panic. But, Nadia saw something suspiciously dart away in the corner of her eye, and turned to Kimora.

"All right, new plan. You save Master Ezra. I'll see what exactly why there's a sudden retreat." she said, getting up off the ground and darting off before Kimora could ask what exactly she meant by that, or how exactly he was supposed to accomplish this 'rescue' mission.

Nadia chased after the creature that had darted off from the battle and into the bushes as well as she could. She finally caught up to it as I stopped at a stream to take a drink. Peering from behind a tree, she glanced over the creature. It was a small faerie-like creature, with an Apple-shaped head and a small twiggy body. It held a tiny rapier on its belt, and wore a one-suited pitch black suit with boots.

A wild veggie abandoning its kind was rare enough, but the fact that it was seeming leaving its own kind to be tossed and diced was almost too weird to be true. Nadia was about to confront it, but a loud voice behind her prevented her from moving any forward. "Down with you! Do not dare hurt my sister in arms!" She immediately fell asleep after declaration, and the Veggie she was watching suddenly looked behind her.

Tricky Turnip picked up the girl in her leafy arms with a grin. "This rotten girl won't be picking on anybody that's not her size anymore, Bad Apple!" Bad Apple rolled her eyes, but was pleased to know that her little diversion trap had worked. Quickly, she darted back to the scene of the fight and whistled sharply to her fellow flora. "Retreat! WE have what we came for!"

The veggies dissipated into the brush as the bronze-arm tribesmen could only wonder what they meant by that. Kimora, who had dodged and weaved his way around the brawl, was now currently attending to peeling the sap off of Master Ezra with his gauntlet. A quick zap of mana freed her, and she got back up to her full height, stretching her legs a bit.

"Thank you, Kimora. I know this isn't exactly what you were expecting from your first first to the Nature Civilization, but things tend…" She started, but her voice quickly trailed off as she looked around the scene. "Wait a moment. Where is Nadia?"

Master Tiera and Chavez, after a good mile of walking, had reached the gates of the city. With a few kindly placed words (and secret bribes), they journeyed on through to the bustling square filled to the brim with Fire creatures of all sorts. The creature had Chavez had summoned as a 'stand-in' was Rojas' own personal partner creature, Cyber Lord Wakiki, who was currently advising him and pointing out several landmarks in great detail.

"Blastforge city was allegedly formed from the remnants of a massive Armored Dragon, one that was rumored to have been Lord Inferno's personal captain of the guard in the Great Kaiju War. From his skull came the castle, his wings the walls, and his organs made the ground rocky and coarse. Obviously, these claims come from an extremely flimsy and overall unrealistic fable, so they should not be taken with the slightest bit of reality in mind."

"Dear Lord," Master Tiera said, nudging the Water Creature. "I think you'd find it best to quit while you're ahead. Needless to say, the locals wouldn't appreciate you calling their beliefs fake."

Wakiki cocked an eyebrow, but she nodded and quickly changed the subject. "It's for the best, anyways. Young Chavez doesn't even seem to be paying attention." The acolyte was currently too busy absorbing in the architecture and examining every creature he could, trying to see which one was meant for him.

And then Tiera bumped into a rather large Drakon with bright green scales. Lord Skycrusher, who was most certainly pissed, for reasons beyond and possibly towards the aforementioned minor collision. HE growled and looked down at her as he pried on of her sleeves out of the cracks in his golden chest plate armor.

"I assume you have an answer for me!" He bellowed in his usual ear ringing tone. "At the very least, you could give me an excuse as to why you fleshy meat sacks have been whisking away my guards just to use them as punching bags!"

Master Tiera gave a very deep, very annoyed sigh. "We've already told you everything we know. It's only been a few days, just calm do-"

"Do not tell Lord Skycrusher to calm down! I am perfectly fine!" He screeched angrily. "Have you only come here to give me half-baked apologies, or are you actually planning on doing something constructive with your miserable life?!"

"Sir," Tiera continued, barely holding back her own rage. "I am only here with my own young ward to observe-!"

"What young ward?!" The Drakkon leader questioned, pointing behind Tiera. Tiera turned around and saw that where there once was a teenage boy and a water creature, there remained virtually nothing but ashen footprints leading to somewhere far away. She cursed under her breath, and ran in the direction where the prints were going, Skycrusher condescendingly following at a leisurely pace.

Hector and Wakiki were currently gazing over an arena, with a great display going on down below on its rocky floors. A bright red Drakkon, was blasting targets with massive agility and speed. His arm guards, covered in razor-sharp blades scraped the ground and caught fire to the dust as he sped. After punching and kicking the rest of the targets to shreds, he then knelt to the ground in front of a slightly larger and much more grizzled looking fellow Drakkon, who nodded knowingly.

"Hector!" Tiera gasped, as she finally caught up to them, with Skycrusher in tow. She grabbed Hector by the shoulders and turned him around to face her. "You- you were supposed to stay by me, remember?" She then turned to the Cyber Lord, who until this moment, had been describing exactly how fast the creature was going, and listing off all his possible skills and weaknesses. "Oh, and thank you very much for looking after him, Wakiki." She added sarcastically.

Skycrusher scoffed. "Like you could doubt a Water Creature to care more about itself and 'knowledge' than to be bothered with another life! Gilaflame down there would be a better caretaker than whatever mistake of a Cyber Lord this one is!"

While Tiera was attempting to prevent the two opposing creatures from pummeling each other, Hector looked back down at the arena. Gilaflame, as he'd now been named, was apparently preparing himself to duel again with a pair of robotic stompers. Of course, his attention was averted back to Tiera, as she dragged him back along with her and Skycrusher to discuss 'politics' back at his castle.