Once everyone woke up in the morning, Rex had the idea to go straight to the world tree to continue their journey. Unfortunately all the ships in Torigoth were being heavily guarded by Ardainian troops so Tora told Rex about his Uncle Umon who builds ships at the tail end of the titan, so everyone is currently travelling their now.

Once they arrive Umon allows them to use his ship only if they can get the resources to upgrade the ship and get the titan back that was originally Umon's. It took them a bit of time but they eventually did all these tasks and were able to set sail for the world tree.

As they get closer to the world tree a large mechanical snake pops out from the cloud sea.

"Ophion!"

"Ophion?! Whats an Ophion?!"

With that Ophion swats the titan out of the sky and everyone gets eaten by a large titan. As everyone wakes up they all look to Pyra as to say 'What just happened?'

"That was Ophion, he's my artifice but I thought he died 500 years ago during the war. Someone must've revived him and is now controlling him."

"What is an artifice?"

"It would take to long to explain."

"Well then, I guess we'll try to find our way out of this titan."

As Rex and co travel deeper into the titan they see a large man with a couple of other guys following close behind him.

"Oi kid, hand over the Aegis."

"First off no, second off how could you tell?"

"The green core crystal gives it away."

"Darn, I guess we'll have to fight this guy."

With that Rex and co attempt to fight these mercenaries but Rex ends up using to much of Pyra's power and is then swiftly defeated.

"You were using to much of her power kid."

"Aren't you gonna take her away or something."

"Me naah, I've got Roc and that's all I need. The names Vandam. Yours kid?"

"I'm Rex. This is Pyra, that's Tora, that's Poppi, Dromarch, and Nia." Rex points to each person as he says their names.

"Come on kid, I'll bring you back to our camp."

With that Vandam takes them all to his camp.

As the group enters the camp Rex notices that there are a lot of kids and drivers around.

"Yeah the kids are war orphans who we took under our wing, once they come of age it's up to them to decide what they want to do. Some become drivers like us and others want to be tailors, it's all up to them what they want to pursue. Anyways I'm startin to get hungry, why don't we get a bite to eat?"

With that everyone goes to get some grub. At one point Pyra gets up to get some water and asks Vandam: "Do you want anything?"

"Could you get me a beer lass?"

"One beer coming up."

As Pyra goes to get drinks Vandam notices that Rex looks saddened.

"Oi kid, you were a salvager weren't you?"

"Yeah I was."

"So did you ever sell any military supplies? It's a market that sells well."

"I never believed in selling for war, it just feels wrong."

"Kid, no matter what you sell its all for war. The mechanical parts, Compasses, scopes, all of it can be used for war. That bread you're eating was made from flour shipped from the Ardainian Empire. It doesn't matter where you go there will always be war. Kid your the driver of the Aegis, everyone will want to scalp you for that blade. The easiest thing to do would be to ditch that girl."

There lays an awkward silence after that as Rex takes in everything Vandam just said. Vandam decides to get up and show Rex the ways of a driver.

"Come on kid."

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

With that Rex follows Vandam and everyone else follows suit.

"Alright Rex how would you like to become a mercenary for a day?"

"Uuuuhh sure, but only if we get paid."

"Yeah, yeah you'll get your pay kid."

With that everyone sets out on a mission. On the way to there target, the group sees a strange cloud blocking there way.

"What is that?"

"It's a miasma cloud. It's a buildup of ether from the titan, works similar to gas. The stuffs extremely poisonous."

"Then how do we get past it? I see no way around it."

"Like this. Roc your up."

Roc then blows the miasma away and everyone is shocked.

"Woah."

"Yep amazing isn't it? Anyways let's keep pressin on yeah?"

As the group continues to press on they see an Ardun in the way. Vandam sees this as an opportunity to help teach Rex a new trick.

"Oi Rex, You see that Ardun over there?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Let me see your grappling hook."

"Uuuhh, ok?"

Vandam then proceeds to lay out the Ardun and everyone looks shocked.

"You see that? It just takes a little timing. Now you try."

With that everyone fights the Ardun and Rex learns how to topple his foes by catching them by surprise.

After that Vandam teaches Rex another lesson in arts and how drivers and blades work off each other and not just the blade.

"You see Rex we drivers use arts to protect our blades and to gain strength from them."

After that the group continues to go to there location which was where they found a dead titan.

"It's terrible isn't it? Seein a titan killed like that. Wonder what did him in?"

All of a sudden an Arachno appears with a beastly looking blade.

"Oi how much do you wanna bet these two had somethin to do with this?"

With that the group fights off the Arachno and kill it. This forces the beastly blade to go back into its core crystal.

This is the first time Rex sees what happens when a driver dies and there blade returns to there core.

"Hey what happened to that blade?"

"You don't know? When a driver falls in combat there blade goes right back to there core crystal. The blade is all healed up and fine but..."

"But what?"

"The blade loses all memories of there previous life. They don't remember a thing."

Nia looks uncomfortable at this and Rex can't tell why.

"That... sounds terrible. To lose all your memories. I couldn't imagine it."

"I don't know, it might be a blessing to forget. When one has so many bad memories it might be nice to just forget."

"Oh Pyra."

After that exchange Pyra wishes her condolences to the fallen titan and the group heads back to camp.

As the group gets back to camp Rex and Pyra clean each others wounds. As Vandam watches he comes to the revelation that Pyra has wounds. At this Vandam walks over to them to get a better look for himself.

"Well I'll be damned. I've never seen a blade have wounds before. Why aren't you healing up? Why do you have the same exact wounds as Rex?"

Vandam takes a closer look at Rex's core crystal.

"I didn't want to believe it but you really do have a core crystal in your chest boy."

"Well, well, well if it isn't the Aegis and the traitor."

to be continued...