Preparation

Preparation takes place during the 5 days in-between the Abyssal raid and the war. It was a fairly short arc, considering that it doesn't really mean that much to the overall story, aside from the introduction of characters like Molten, Logan, and Justin. As well as introducing one of the main antagonists of the entire franchise, Samuel Aster.

Day 1:
Preparation starts fairly simple. The TRTDS is preparing for the war. Henry is in the process of creating a new ore out of materials from Jaqcues's realm. Nothing of interest here.

Day 2:
This is when it gets really interesting. A tall, purple bunny animatronic is spotted by the crew. Apparently, he's Dust's rival, and his name is Samuel Aster. He came through a rift into the city. Samuel claims to have one of Dust's friends named Jake as a hostage, which makes Dust try to attack Samuel.

Lu Menary, Jaqcues, and Henry join in on the fight. However, Samuel barley fights back, as he doesn't need to. He convinces Dust to follow him into the forest, in which the group follows. However, it was a trap, and Samuel isn't even there anymore. The group is attacked by a huge group of robots. They end up killing them all, but Samuel has escaped. However, Dust could sense kinetic energy coming from the robots to the Abyss. The robots were absorbing all the hits and powering Samuel, who was in the Abyss. Dust went down to fight Samuel 1-on-1. After a brief battle, Samuel escaped through a portal due to already getting what he wanted.

Day 3:
First of all, two newcomers are seen wandering the city. Their names are Justin Hipwell and Logan Howell. They claim to be friends who want to join the TRTDS. They both show excellent potential and are hired. Before Justin was hired, Henry gave him a tour of the entire area. This got Dust mad at Henry, and Dust placed Henry in jail. However, Jaqcues bailed Henry out. Meanwhile, Goro hasn't let go of his confrontation with Dust. While he is presumed dead, he is researching everything about Dust. Also, Negative visits Dust. He informs Dust that a traitor has already made their way into the group.

Day 4:
Dust gets a call from an old friend. They say they're in danger, but Dust ignores it because he knows they're strong. However, Dust starts to get scared when they say that's it Samuel, and the call gets cut-off halfway through talking. Dust tries to find his friend, but Samuel beat him to it. Samuel and Dust fight again, and Samuel ends up throwing Dust's friend to the ground. Samuel escapes carrying a briefcase while laughing like a mad man. Dust tries to heal his friend's wounds doing the best he can, however for some reason he is unable to. Molten seems to be fine however which confuses Dust, but he decides its best not to question it. Dust introduces his friend as "Molten Virtuous". She's one of Dust's longtime friends who fought alongside him against Samuel millions of years ago. Dust asks Molten what was in the briefcase and Molten responds by saying it was launch codes to an entire missile launch facility that she was protecting. Molten then asks where the briefcase is and Dust says Samuel took it. Molten starts to freak out but is calmed down by Dust. Dust shows Molten around the headquarters and gives her permission to walk around the entire building since Dust knows that she is trustworthy. Molten is the only person who isn't in TRTDS that can freely walk around the headquarters. This makes a lot of the staff dislike Molten since in their eyes all they see a random girl who was never hired, that now has permission to go places only higherups can go. They keep their dislike for Molten secret though, since they do not want to anger Dust. The rest of the group keeps preparing for the war. Lu and Dust also have a discussion about Cores. They figured that Cores were originally from Realm #0, but were sent out to human souls at a distress call.

Day 5:
Henry finishes up his ore, and ends up creating an armour out of it. The group gets ready. The TRTDS HQ is getting ready to lock-down, but Jaqcues is staying inside. Jaqcues was preparing something and only got out last minute. Jaq, Molten, and Henry are shortly met with Ira. Ira is easily able to scare Molten off due to Molten still being incredibly shy of everyone other than Dust. Ira torments Henry about his dead family, getting ready to kill him. However, Ira is hit away by Varia. Varia expresses interest in Henry and declares the war to officially start.

Characters
Steve Lstnam Henry Xaxier Dust Metzo Molten Virtuous Lu Menary Jaqcues Logan Howell Justin Hipwell Samuel Aster Varia Ira