Oliver hadn't missed the frigide cold air surrounding Ringabell City. The city was currently going throught a raging blizzard and because of it the vision of the group had been severly diminished. Thankfully Xofamai knew this place like the back of his hand and was still able to navigate around.

But as they came closer to the entrance of the metro Oliver tripped on something and fell into the snow. Oliver groaned and peeked behind himself to see what he had trip on but he only saw more snow. That was until a batch of snow started to move and began to take a new shape before his very eyes.

The creature that appeared had a very thick body and black beady eyes. It had dozens of thin snow whiskers coming out of it's muzzle. It advanced toward Oliver slowly because it's only mean of transportation were two pairs of flippers.

''A snow seal?'' Clara asked in confusion.

''Careful Oliver. It might not look threatening but it's still an Elestia.'' Xofamai said in a warning tone.

Oliver nodded and called Sandy to assist him. ''Alright Sandy grab that Elestia with your vines and throw it far away from us!'' The Fawna tried to do just that but as soon as the vines made contact with the Ice Elestia they began to freeze and slowly whittered away.

''Huh?'' Oliver said in confusion.

Xofamai shook his head at this. ''Earth Elestia are weak against Ice. Sending Sandy in battle was really not the optimal solution.'' He said before walking in front of Oliver and blasting the Elestia with his dark energy. The snow seal was sent barreling a few meters aways from them and looked dazed and ready to black out.

''Alright then! Bolt finish it!'' Oliver yelled the lightning Elestia chittered loudly before sending a bolt of electricity toward the Ice Elestia. The creature yelped in pain before melting away before their very eyes. Clara looked away when she saw the pained expression of the Elestia. Once it was done she glared at Oliver.

''Did you really have to kill it? He was arleady dazed we could have just walked away!'' She yelled at him angrily. In response Oliver shrugged at her nonchalantly.

''It's a wild Elestia why would I spare it? We're here to get rid of them aren't we?''

Clara gaped at him and scoffed at him with disdain. ''I thought you were getting over your hatred of Elestia! If you hate Elestia so much you sure don't show it when you're with Sandy and Bolt!'' She protested with indignation in her eyes.

''Look I came to realise that Elestia that are trained by humans can become good. But that doesn't mean that wild Elestia aren't a threat to be dealt with. I know you like Elestia and you learned a lot about them by reading books on the subject. But you weren't there when they were destroying towns left and right. Entire settlements I used to visit are gone because of these wild monsters. I can't just let them live and let them kill people just because I like a few of them.'' Oliver said with a serious expression.

With that Oliver walked ahead of them. Leaving Clara fuming at him. ''I can't believe him! I thought he finally got rid of his hatred for Elestia but it look like I don't know him as well as I thought.'' She said with a huff.

Xofamai put himself in front of her and crossed his arms. ''He's not exactly wrong you know.''

Clara gaped at him. ''So you're taking his side?'' She asked with a betrayed expression.

Xofamai shook his head. ''No I didn't say that, you're not wrong either Clara. We should spare Elestia if we deem them harmless enough. But at the same time there are Elestia out there that we must kill before they become a threat to humans. It's not as black and white as either of you seem to believe. Telling what Elestia should or should not live is not always easy and it's something you will need to learn to do if you don't want to have innocents blood on your hands.'' After that Clara was left following Xofamai and Oliver in silence deep in thoughts.

It didn't take them long after that to reach the entrance of the metro. Oliver eagerly opened up the door and ran down the stairs. ''Careful Oliver! Someday you'll fall down the stairs and hurt yourself!'' Clara yelled at him.

Oliver rolled his eyes at her. ''Yes mom.'' He said before continuing to walk down the stairs in a slower pace. Once they were down Xofamai walked in front of the two teens and cleared his throat.

''I'm going to report to the General. In the meantime you can unpack everything you have in your backpack. Once I return we will meet someone that will teach you a lot of what you need to know about Elestia.'' Xofamai left the two alone. Oliver and Clara were left in an awkward silence after the fight they just had.

''I'll... Just go empty my stuff in the tent, see you there I guess.'' Oliver said before leaving her alone. Clara sighed and looked at him with a sad expression in her eyes.

''I thought you had changed Oliver... I guess it was too much for me to expect he would be okay with Elestia so soon after he got his own. How can I convince him that they're not evil?'' She asked to herself, but no answer came to her mind.

- - - - -

Once they had unpacked their stuff Xofamai came to their tent and told them to follow him and he also told them to bring their Elestia with them. They had to walk on the rails for about fifteen minutes to reach their destination.

The metro station they came into had been transformed into a large scientific lab. All the men and women were wearing white coats and were either completely absorbed in their work or walked around the lab with great purpose in their steps.

About a third of the station had been turned into an enclosure filled with grass and a pond in the middle and around a dozens of Elestia could be seen roaming inside of it. The group walked until they reached the furthest corner of the lab. There an ancient looking man was looking thoughtfully at a large range of Draconid Gems.

Oliver instantly felt like he knew this man from somewhere but he couldn't put a finger on it. Xofamai cleared his throat loudly catching the attention of the old scientist. ''Oh hello there! Sorry I have been absorbed into looking into these gems it's fascinating what power they hide inside of them. Oh I guess I forgot to introduce myself. I am Professor Benjamin Dogwood. Happy to make your aquaintance young ones.''

Both Oliver and Clara stared at him jaw agaped. ''Professor Dogwood?! You're still alive?'' Oliver exclaimed in shock.

At that the old scientist chuckle. ''Yes despite my old age I am not a fossil just yet. Say there's something familiar about both of you. have I met you before?'' He asked with a curious frown on his face.

''I'm Oliver, Oliver Wilden my father worked for you before the Invasion.'' Oliver said in a sad voice. Clara on the other hand looked angry but her anger wasn't directed at the Professor.

''I'm Clara Balsam, my father was the co-owner of your lab before he became a complete lunatic and started experimenting on his own people.'' Benjamin looked at the two teens in shock before he finally regained his voice.

''W-well I did not expected to see the children of two of my most trustworthy colleagues today.'' He said with a smile.

But Clara frowned and grumbled at his words. ''Trustworthy? my father is working for an insane cult how is that trustworthy?''

The old professor winced at that. ''Yes maybe that was a poor choice of words. I'm sorry about what happened to both of your fathers. They were both some of the greatest scientists I have ever met... When I knew them that is.'' He said the last part while looking at Clara.

Xofamai cleared his throat once again to catch the Professor attention. ''Sorry to interupt this touching reunion but I was hoping to use your vast knowledge on Elestia to teach these two Rookies how to handle their Elestia on missions.''

Benjamin Dogwood looked at the two teens in surprise and then sighed. ''I thought Olivia had stopped recruiting minors in the Resistance.'' He said in a disapproving tone.

Xofamai shook his head. ''She did but these two were really obstinate about joining us. And they passed my test, you know I never go easy on recruits, they are ready to do this.''

Benjamin sighed once again but nodded in understanding. ''Very well then where should I begin?''

''How about you begin with explaining Natures and all their strenght and weakness?'' Xofamai suggested.

Professor Dogwood nodded. ''Yes that is a good start I suppose. As you probably know Elestia are divided into eight natures. Fire, Water, Earth, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Mind and Death. Each one of them can do vastly different things and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. You are with me this far?'' Both Clara and Olive nodded.

''Very well let's begin with Fire. Probably the most straightfoward nature of them all, what it lack in versatility it more than make up for in raw power. It is strong against Ice and Earth but will have difficulty in winning if it is faced by Water or Wind.'' At that Clara hands immediatly went up in the air. The professor pointed at her. ''Yes?''

''Water I can understand but why Wind? Wouldn't it make the fire stronger?'' She asked confused.

''Very good question Clara, you're a smart girl. Well since you asked, I guess we should cover Wind next. As you probably know the vast majority of Wind Elestia have the ability to fly which can make them quite difficult to deal with. And they can control where the wind goes in a certain area. Which mean that if they confront a Fire Elestia they can create a dead zone where no wind can pass throught and thus the fire will die down because of lack of oxygen. That technique can also be useful to knock down enemies by making them unable to breath for a while.'' Oliver and Clara both gulped as they thought of what it would be like to not be able to breath because of an Elestia. ''Wind Elestia are strong against Fire as we just said and they're also strong against Mind Elestia. But they are weak against Lightning and Ice.''

Clara wanted to ask another question but Oliver gave her a light jab. ''If you ask questions all day we're never going to get out of here.'' The girl huffed at him but decided to let it go... For now.

''Our next nature is Water, this is one of the most interesting Nature we know of. Despite only having one name certain natures have multiple traits. For example while Water Elestia are known to control water there is a subgroup of Water Elestia that have very different abilities base on what their habitat is like. For instance if they live in water that's been polluted water Elestia can-''

''Professor Dogwood? No offense but if we cover all the small details about Natures we could literally be here all day and I wanted to teach them more than just Natures today. How about we just cover the natures of the Elestia they have?'' Xofamai said once he realised the old professor was truly going to explained all the little details.

Professor Dogwood seemed to deflate at Xofamai suggestion. ''Oh very well, what kind of Elestia do they have?'' Oliver and Clara called out their Elestia and the three creatures appeared in front of the Professor who examined them carefully.

''Ah, a Fawna, a Shockrirrel and a Rodair.''

Stolen story; please report.

Oliver winced at the names of each Elestia. ''Who named these things?! Whoever they were really suck at naming them.'' Oliver said indignatly.

Benjamin seemed to shrink at the comment. ''...As a matter of fact I was the one that named them.'' Oliver felt bad at seeing the defeated expression of the professor.

''Oh... I'm sorry but these puns are really... something.'' Oliver said with a forced smile.

Professor Dogwood cleared his throat and tried to regain some of his composure. ''Yes well... We arleady covered Wind so I don't think we will need to cover what the Rodair can do. Earth Nature is also special in it's own way. It's probably one of the most versatile Nature. Earth Elestia can sprout almost any type of plants and move them to attack their foes. They can also create rocks from the earth and use them to either attack or protect themselves and if they're powerful enough or numerous enough they can also create small earthquakes which make them really dangerous for small settlements.''

Then he turned toward Bolt and smiled after squirrel hid behind Oliver after the man got too close to him for his taste. ''Lightning Nature as you can probably guess can create electricity to attack their foes. They also have the ability to amplify the electric current in their own body and boost their own speed by a large margin. For that reason they are very hard to hit in battle. One other thing that make them unique is that a lot of Lightning Elestia tend to be part machine. Some are mostly made of flesh like this little Elestia here. But some are almost entirely made out of metal. In fact a lot of my collegues are in disagrement on whether or not some of them are even alive to begin with or if they're simply machine that can somehow reproduce. But I won't go into that here.''

Xofamai nodded. ''I guess I should also tell you, Earth is strong against Water and Death but is weak against Fire and Ice. And Lightning is strong against Water and Wind but is weak to Death and Earth.''

''Most of the other I can understand I guess but why is Earth is strong against Death?'' Clara asked curiously.

Professor Dogwood was the one to respond to her question. ''Well it make a certain amount of sense when you think about it. Earth represent life the complete opposite of Death and it is also in the Earth that we burry the dead. But maybe my logic doesn't make sense, the Death nature is the most mysterious of them all afterall. Even I can't explain everything about that particular Nature.'' He said while scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

Xofamai cleared his throat. ''I think that's everything you should know about Nature for now, I know that if we overwhelm you by teaching you everything now you won't remember any of this later on. So for now Professor can you talk about the mission?''

''The mission? What are you talking about?'' Clara asked her gaze shifting between the two men.

Professor Dogwood seemed excited about talking about this particular subject. ''Ah yes, there's a lot of thing we must learn here in the scientific division of the Ding Dong Community but the most important goal by far is completing the guide. You see I have written a book about Elestia but it is very far from finished in fact it's a task so monumental I'm not sure I will live long enough to complete it, but complete it we must. I am aiming to create a massive encyclopedia detailling every single Elestia in the world. This encyclopedia would come with a device that would scan any Elestia in the vicinity and give it's user all the information they need. This project could save millions of lives not just in the Resistance but in the entire world!''

Clara gasped and pointed at the professor with a knowing smile. ''You're trying to make a Pokédex!''

The old Professor sputtered at her remark and immediatly became defensive. ''I-I don't know what you're talking about! I am simply trying to help our fellow Resistance members to gain more intel on Elestia in the field so that-''

''That's totally a Pokédex admit it!'' Clara protested not bulging from her point for a second.

''-They can be prepared to face any threats they come across and...'' The old Professor was visibly sweating at this point and he saw that the girl grin had become even more smug. ''...Okay fine! You win, it is a Pokédex! You're happy now?!''

''Very.'' She said in a smug tone.

Oliver looked at the scene with confusion plastered on his face. ''Umm, I feel like I'm missing something, what's a Pokédex?''

Clara looked at him like a sad puppy expression for having to ask that question. ''It's... a reference from the Old World you wouldn't get it.'' Clara said in a depressed tone. Oliver was confused why the girl was so sad he didn't knew what she was talking about but he shrugged and moved on.

Seeing that Benjamin was clearly flustered about his project being compared to a children video game Xofamai decided to take over. ''Anyway as Professor Dogwood said this project is really important for the Resistance so from now on you will help him in completing his encyclopedia by reporting sighting of species of Elestia that aren't discovered yet.''

Oliver raised an eyebrow at this. ''So wait you're asking two Rookies to take on a mission as important as this? No offense but this will probably take years to do.''

Xofamai crossed his arm and shook his head. ''Of course not! I'm not asking just the two of you. Every members of the Resistance is expected to participate in this mission in some way or another. Like the Professor said this will probably take more than a lifetime to complete. But this must be done if we want to stand a chance in this new world.'' He let that sink in before contuining on. ''Now for the last thing on the list, I wanted you to learn about Draconid Gems.''

Clara hand immediatly went up. ''We arleady know about that! They're powerful gems that allow us to tame Elestia without putting ourselves in danger, it also allow us to heal Elestia and while inside it allow them to live freely in a simulated environment.'' Clara said in her lecturing tone.

Xofamai nodded his emotionless expression still in place. ''Yes all of that is correct but there two things you might not know, firstly where the gems come from.''

Oliver cocked his head at that. ''They were created weren't they? Now that I think about it, it's the scientists of the Ding Dong Community that created it didn't they? So that must mean they were created by Professor Dogwood.''

The old scientist chuckled and shook his head. ''I wish I could be credited with the invention of such miraculous precious stones. But I only found the Draconid Gems, I did not created them.''

Clara looked at him her eyes twinkling in curiosity. ''Where did you find such things Professor? As far as I knew there was no such gems on Earth before the Invasion.'' Professor Dogwood motioned them to follow him and the three of them obediently followed the Professor until they arrived in front of something big that had been covered by a large tarp. The professor pulled on it and revealed a machine that made both of the teens eyes widened in shock.

Oliver was the first to find his voice. ''Is that... The Starleap? The machine that was supposed to help us colonizing the stars?''

Professor Dogwood nodded and looked at the machine with a forlorn expression. ''Yes... And instead it almost led to humanity extinction.''

Both Clara and Oliver looked at him in confusion. ''What do you mean? The Starleap didn't do anything it was the Dragons that destroyed everything.'' Oliver said with anger hidden behind his words.

The old professor sighed sadly and in that instant he looked a lot older than he ever did before. ''How do you think the Dragons found this planet my boy?'' At that Oliver had no answers so Professor Dogwood continued. ''When we used the Starleap on that day the Dragons sensed our presence. For the Dragons our presence had solved a lot of their problems and they jumped on the ocassion.''

''Problems? What problems?'' Clara asked with a confused frown.

''The Dragons are ageless being that never grow old. Most people know that, what they don't know is what it cost to stay young forever. The Dragons gave their power to Elestia not to help them but to nurture their life force or ether as some less scientific people call it. Elestia become stronger by fighting and their life force increase exponentially when they go throught the process of Ageing.''

''Ageing? so when they grow old they have more life force?'' Oliver asked confused.

''Yes and no.'' The professor responded. ''Elestia grow up like we do obviously but they can also go throught transformations called Ageing and Boosting. The difference between the two is that Ageing is a permanent transformation that occur when an Elestia is strong and old enough to go throught it. Boosting on the other hand can be acheived even if the Elestia is not at the right age, but they revert back to their old form once the battle is over. Boosting almost never happen to wild Elestia it mostly happen with the help of a Chosen. But certain species like the Kitsubi have been observed to be able to Boost on their own without the help of any humans.''

Clara had a look of realisation and she looked toward Xofamai. ''So when you grew three tails the other day...''

Xofamai nodded at her. ''Yes I was Boosting myself, if I want to have three tails permanently I'm going to have to live until I'm three hundred years old.''

Oliver looked at him in surprise. ''So wait do all Elestia take this long to go throught Ageing?'' Oliver asked worried that his Elestia would remain weak for a long time.

Professor Dogwood shook his head and gave a reassuring smile. ''No Kitsubi are a very special case, most Elestia have a similar lifespan to humans. Your Fawna for example will be able to go throught her first Ageing when she has reached her twelfth birthday. And speaking of, I think she's very close to reaching that point, her fur seemed to have darken somewhat which is a sign of maturity among her species. As for your Shockrirrel I unfortunately cannot tell whether he is close or not. You're the first member of the Resistance to catch that particular Elestia so information is kind of limited.''

''Okay but can we go back on the subject of the Dragons?'' Clara asked with a surprisingly impatient expression plastered on her face.

Benjamin nodded in understanding. ''Very well as I said the Dragons are ageless. But staying ageless take a lot of power. So the reason why the Dragons gave power to Elestia is so they could expand their own life force. Once an Elestia die it's life force is consumed by the Dragon they swore allegiance to. That system worked for them for at least a millenia. But I assume eventually it wasn't enough anymore. The Dragons had forced the Elestia to reproduce at an alarming rate and even that wasn't cutting it anymore and with so many Elestia in one place it was only a matter of time before the Elestia ran out of ressources.'' The Professor sighed sadly for the next part.

''So when we opened a portal close to their planet and they sensed a source of energy unlike anything they ever felt before, the Dragons quickly came to a decision to kill two birds with one stone. They bought half of the Elestia population to our planet and killed billions of humans to eat their fill of life force and make themselves almost immortal. But they knew that if they killed all of us immediatly they would lose a very valuable ressource. Which is why the Dragons have left the smaller settlements alone for so long.''

At this point Oliver was boiling with rage. ''You mean to tell me that the only reason the Dragons haven't wipe us out. Is because they're using us as livestocks?!'' He screamed in a raging fit.

The Professor nodded sadly. ''I wish I could deny it, but it is the truth. The Dragons have never seen us as a potential threat to them, we're simply a ressource and nothing else. The same could be said about the Elestia when you think about it. They clearly have the inteligence to build a civilisation just like us and yet they stay in the wild like animals. The only reason I can think of is that they don't want to anger the Dragons who clearly have something against societies. What with the fact that they destroyed every major cities and governments as soon as they could.''

Professor Dogwood sighed. ''I have been banned from almost every settlements in Orchestralia because of my involvement in leading the Dragons to our world and honestly I can't say I blame them. There was times where I considered taking my own life to atone for what I had done...'' The two teens looked at him in a shock silence at the revelation. ''But the Ding Dong Community accepted me and I used the Starleap to give humanity a fighting chance. Draconid Gems were not invented on Earth we found them on the home planet of the Elestia.''

If they had been drinking at that moment both Oliver and Clara would have spit out their drink on the floor right then. ''W-what?! You went to the Elestia's world?!'' Clara asked in shock and excitement.

''Yes we did and we found out a lot of things there. But obviously the most important discovery were the Draconid Gems. Celeste is the name we gave to the planet, I thought it was kind of fitting. It is very different from Earth the planet stand perfectly straight and never tilt like Earth does and because of that the seasons never change on Celeste. There are four continents on the planet we called them Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Named after the seasons they are eternally stuck in.''

Clara had a look of wonder in her eyes. ''Will we be able to visit that planet?!'' She asked excitedly.

At that the old Professor immediatly shook his head. ''No! Absolutely not! This is a completely different world we're talking about! The two of you are not even ready to leave this country much less visit another planet entirely!'' Clara sighed in dissapointment but nodded in understanding.

''Now there one last thing I want to talk about.'' Xofamai said catching the attention of the two teens. ''In the wild it's very possible that you will meet Elestia stronger than your own. In those cases it is very important that you plan ahead and communicate a strategy with your Elestia. But sometime you don't have that kind of time to explain everything on the fly. And this is one of the most overlooked use of the Draconid Gems.''

''And that is?'' Oliver asked wondering what hidden feature he could have overlooked after all this time.

''The simulated world inside a Draconid Gem is six hundred times faster than the real world while a human mind is inside of it. When an Elestia is alone time pass normally. We do not know why it does, but it benefit us greatly.''

''What does it mean that the time is six hundred times faster? I don't get it.'' Oliver said while scratching his head.

Xofamai looked at Oliver directly in the eyes to make sure he was listening. ''What it means is that if you spent ten minutes with your Elestia in the Draconid Gem only one second will have passed in the real world. Which mean that if you get ambushed by wild Elestia you can project your mind inside the gem come up with a strategy and then enact that strategy with your Elestia before the wild Elestia even have a chance to attack you.''

Clara listened at all this with rapt attention. ''Wow maybe I should use my gem more often, right Marie?'' The Rodair squeaked in affirmation.

''You should because this will be your next test. The last mission made me realised that while I trained the both of you so you could survive better. I neglected to make you train with your Elestia more than strictly necessary. So tomorrow you should get ready.'' Clara and Oliver looked at each other with apprehension.

''Ready fo what?'' Clara asked she arleady felt shiver down in her spines as she asked the question.

Xofamai smirked while looking both of them. ''Tomorrow both of you will have to face me... in an Elestia battle.''