Valum had first met Leodus three years prior to this excursion, when Valum was fourteen. The Leopard King was eight years his elder, but they'd become fast friends despite the age gap. They related to one another over their shared experience of growing up without one of their biological parents present; for Leodus it was his father, and for Valum, his mother, who'd been taken by a mysterious illness when he was young. 
    Leodus had confided in Varn and Valum that his mother was actually Leia, the leader of Leopard Intelligence. While it was a strict custom in the Leopard Tribe that the current King must be the son of the previous Queen, and so Leodus had been forced to lie to his own people about that, the Vulture royals had no problem keeping a secret (and no interest in meddling in another tribe's inner politics). They appreciated the mutual trust between themselves and Leodus that had grown over the past several years, and had also agreed to assist in the hunt for his fugitive half-brother Logos; the slayer of the previous Leopard monarchs.
    It was through this hunt in the Iron Mountains and Arctic areas, however, that the Vultures and Leopards 'incidentally' (though Valum suspected that his father had used this as an excuse to do so) began to observe more of the Sabertooth-Mammoth alliance and its growing power over the years. 
    The Lion King was particularly worried about this, due to his tribe's rocky relationship with the Sabertooths; the tension in the air had been almost thick enough to cut when Valum saw the Lions handing the Sabertooth delegation their supply of chi a few months back. It was on that day that Aeon Gulikovsky, heading the Gorilla delegation, discussed all this (and brought up the Elemental Rupture) with Varn, Valum and Leodus on the steps to the Lion City.
    Thus, one thing led to another, eventually bringing the Vultures, a hopeful Aeon, and Leopards Leodus had sent down into the depths of Chima--
    "Looks like it's up ahead?" Varn interrupted his son's inner recounting of events, with a statement that was some sort of midway between confident and uncertain.
    Valum looked ahead to see a blue glow emanating from an unseen cavern just around a curve. However, it looked indistinguishable from the glow of chi that one would find in the Lions' chi pool. It had been long since theorized that natural chi sources other than Mount Cavora existed around the world. Perhaps this was one of those chi springs--?
    Valum's theory was erased from his mind mere seconds after it was formed, along with any doubts he'd had about the existence of the Elemental Rupture.
    When the group rounded the curve, they entered into a large cavern; a sight that would've been generic, if not for its floor being torn open in the middle to reveal a monstrous, gaping chasm, its sides lined with glowing blue crystals that were almost overwhelmingly bright. 
    "I knew it," Aeon said, smiling. "The Elemental Rupture does exist!"

    Valum nodded politely, yet privately thought, I'm not so sure if mining crystals that may be able to freeze things will convince a neutral king to join a military alliance, but I won't dash on your hopes, Aeon. In addition to being a diplomat, Gulikovsky was an advisor to the Gorilla King; quite a high standing in the tribe. So, who am I to say how easy or difficult it'll be to 'advise' the Gorilla King into joining?
    The Vulture Prince turned to where the leopards were setting up, and joined the other non-miners in securing the stakes they'd drilled into the ground. While two of the leopards and Aeon stood watch over the three planted stakes, ready to pull up those descending on ropes at the slightest sign of looseness, the other three leopards descended into the Rupture; with them went the four vultures, flying down and vigilantly hovering next to the miners to grab them in case, gods forbid, the ropes broke.

Luckily, that didn't happen. The mining went smoothly, and in under an hour, those who'd descended into the seemingly bottomless crevice came back up with over twenty Rupture crystals. The crystals were cold, but not freezing to touch directly. Valum pulled a jagged crystal out of one of the many filled up bags, jabbing it forward as if it were a sword. "It's not shooting any freezing beams out," he observed.
    "I'm sure there's a specific movement to get them working, and it's not what you're doing," Varn replied dryly. 
    "I'm mostly just messing arou--" Valum began, but stopped as he and the other vultures stared at their gorilla companion, and the spectacular thing he'd just managed to do. Whilst the prince had been talking, Aeon, who'd also grabbed one of the Rupture crystals, had made a swift downward swing with it.
    A streak of blue energy as fast as a chi laser bolt shot out of the crystal, disappearing after making contact with a stalagmite at the end of the cavern...and instantly freezing it solid in a sheet of ice perfectly shaped to the rock's form.
    "Incredible!" the gorilla exclaimed as he looked back and forth between the frozen rock and the crystal that'd accomplished the feat. "I knew it! Imagine what we could do with--!"
    His statement was cut short as a small cylinder rolled up to his feet from behind him, exploding a millisecond later in a flash of light and fire. Gulikovsky and the crystal he held were instantly and fully enveloped in that fire. 
    "AEON!!!" Varn screamed, staring into the explosion before jerking his head back to look in the other direction. Valum, despite being almost too shocked to move, managed to turn his head, following his father's gaze. They watched as the leopard who'd thrown the fire chi grenade, already on the move, pulled a blaster from the holster on his right hip, his eyes locked on one of the dumbfounded vulture guards. One of his companions, however, beat him to his target, downing the vulture with a quick and precisely-aimed head shot.
    "NO!" the other guard cried.

    The critics had stated that the near-destruction of Lion City, while unfortunate, had also been an opportunity to make the chi falls 'neutral'. They claimed that, if the Great Illumination could terraform the land to such an extent, it could've created a river for the chi falls, flowing into a lake far from the grasp of the Lions. The Phoenix defended the way things turned out by reminding the tribes that the Lions had always carried out the duty of fairly dividing the chi between the tribes; that, if not for a tribe having taken up that role, the distribution of chi would've devolved into complete chaos long ago, with stronger beings inevitably grabbing more chi than the weak, and tipping the precarious balance of nature. 
    Valum, for his part, didn't much care either way. His grief for his father, having to abruptly grow into the role of Vulture King, and his alliance's own interior politics outweighed all of that. Assuring the Gorilla King that the Leopard Tribe hadn't slain Aeon Gulikovsky had also been enough of a headache for Valum to not bother himself over who controlled the chi falls, as long as the Vultures and Leopards still got chi. Though, while Valum and Leodus shared this stance, the one thing they disagreed upon was their perception of the Phoenix. Valum was among those now weary and less trustful of the so-called 'guardians of Chima' after seeing the fate they'd wrought upon the Sabertooths and Mammoths, especially the latter; whereas Leodus was one of the equally prevalent voices who trusted the Phoenix more.
    Valum had been baffled by the stance, until Leodus reasoned that the Phoenix had been acting in self-defense when Malgus' coalition invaded their isles (which was true), that they'd saved the Lions from extinction with the Great Illumination, and that exiling the hostile tribes instead of wiping them out said a lot about the Phoenix Tribe, morally. Both stances seemed equally understandable, and Valum noticed that the Vultures in general fell into the 'distrustful of the Phoenix' camp, while most of the Leopards were in the opposite camp. Of course, being allies didn't mean that the Vultures and Leopards were going to agree on literally everything. That's just politics, Valum thought.
    "Sire, look out!" one of Valum's guards suddenly yelled, leaping in front of him. Valum reacted in an instant, drawing his sword from its sheath on his hip, looking up at the approaching adversary, and leaping a couple feet backward all in one motion. He'd learned from the past, and would never freeze up again like he did ten years ago. 
    A second later, the airborne attacker had shot a very recognizable blue beam where Valum had been standing, instantly and fully freezing the guard who'd jumped in front of him. "I see your reflexes have improved," the hostile vulture noted, alighting in front of Valum. She wielded a glowing blue sword, but even more noticeable and bizarre were her light blue wings, which also seemed to glow.

    Valum blinked, then shook his head. "...You've gone insane."
    "You're the one who's gone insane, clearly!" she retorted, pointing the Rupture Blade at him accusingly. "I can't fathom why you would stay allied with the Leopards after their betrayal! After what they did to us!"
    Valum held her gaze unflinchingly. If Blue Wings here was trying to get him riled up, then she was clearly still living ten years in the past. "First of all, those were criminals who'd infiltrated their ranks, and Le--King Leodus immediately set about hunting them down; only someone with the mind of a child would see fit to destroy an entire tribe in response to the actions of a few lunatics.
    "Second of all, what's this about my being 'insane'? I thought you didn't have any quarrel with me?"
    "Right, I don't," she nodded, apparently coming back to her senses. "It's clear to me, Young Majesty, that you were manipulated into maintaining the alliance by the False King, and probably his mother as well. Those two, especially the latter, are quite the crafty beasts. Yes...we know all about them."
    "'We'?" Valum quoted. 
    Either she took the bait, or she was planning to state the name of her group in the first place. Valum guessed it was the latter. "The Ice Hunters!" she answered, with an unsettling amount of pride in her voice. 
    "From the name, I'm guessing you all use weapons forged out of Rupture crystals?" Valum speculated, flicking his eyes at her faintly glowing wings for a split second. If she got any sort of power herself by making contact with the bottom of the Rupture... "Wait a minute," he continued, "last I saw you, you had a husband and seemed like a normal member of society. You're what, thirty-nine, and now you up and decided to become a terrorist?"
    "Thirty-four," she corrected, "and I prefer the term 'justice seeker'. The leader of the Ice Hunters saved me from the cave-in after you fled--which, again, I don't blame you for--so I owe him my life, in addition to our goals aligning anyhow. 
    "Please, King Valum, join us to avenge my husband and your father--No, you don't even have to help directly if you're so opposed to it. But at least relinquish your alliance with the Leopards. I'm...I'm trying to help you here, Sire. I'll have you know, I'm not letting my fellows slay a single vulture."
    "Gee, thanks..." Valum said dryly. "It's very reassuring to know that you only want to wipe out our allies of seventeen years, and not us." 
    "Even 'wipe out' isn't the correct terminology," she insisted. "We'll destroy the Leopard Tribe, not the entire species. Only the vile ones, like the miners and the False King's mother, will be punished; a new, better Leopard Tribe will eventually result."
    "And how do you define 'better'?" Valum growled. This terrorist's self-righteous preaching was finally getting to him. "How do you define which ones are 'vile'? Just how many across history have used those same pretty words to justify starting wars?"

    Valum saw the attack coming and dodged accordingly, dashing to his left without taking his eyes off the Ice Hunters. The blast from the Rupture Vengious (this time a curving shape akin to a boomerang, rather than a straight line) hit the nearest rock behind Valum, instantly freezing it. The Vulture King glanced at his two frozen guards for a second, and another memory of the Rupture Incident flashed in his mind: the stalagmite Aeon Gulikovsky had frozen, surviving the explosion through which the gorilla had met his end.
    Icescale grinned toothily. "Seems you're sharper than I thought, Valum," he observed. "Usually the 'get out of my territory' intimidation tactic comes from kings who're all roar and no bite...but it looks like you can actually back it up. Still..." he twirled his double-bladed sword around at incredible speeds, "...can you adequately fight us, without an elemental weapon yourself?"
    "No," Valum admitted, sheathing his sword at his hip and crossing his arms, "but freezing me won't do you any good, unless maybe you want to capture me and hold me for ransom? In which case the Vultures will most certainly be your enemies after that, without the shadow of a doubt. Doubly so if you simply kill me."
    Icescale licked his sharp teeth, seeming to consider Valum's words, as Icewing looked back and forth between the two men. "He's right," she said, "there's no point to this. Let's leave for now and--"
    "'Leave'?" Valum echoed, interrupting Icewing with a deadly coolness to his voice and expression. "'Leave', you say? It seems there's been a misunderstanding here; if you think I'm going to let you terrorists, who're planning to go to war with my allies, leave this desert... 
    "I simply stated that you capturing or killing me would be pointless...not the other way around."
    And with that, Valum pulled the chi grenade out of his back pocket, jumping backward whilst throwing it into the Ice Hunters' midst. Icewing and Icescale dove in opposite directions just as fast as Valum had dodged the latter's attack earlier, and the chi grenade detonated; though the enemies escaped the small blast range, the explosion fulfilled its secondary purpose, shattering the ice around the two nearby vultures. Valum allowed himself a sigh of relief as his two guards shakily got up, still in one piece each. He'd been worried that the ice prisons around them wouldn't have protected them from the blast, but it seemed his gamble had paid off. 
    The two vultures blinked and looked around before their eyes settled on Valum. They quickly dashed to his sides.
    "Clever," Icescale muttered as he spat sand out of his mouth, "but this is still a stalemate; if all you can do is throw more grenades, we'll see them coming now."
    As if in answer, the distinct sound of whirring helicopter blades came into their field of hearing from the south. It seemed the Border Patrol that the Vulture Army always insisted on sending forth finally served a purpose.