"Rex! Get down!" Nia called out a snap warning just before the thrashing of a massive fin forced the Gormotti girl to roll out of the way.
The boy only had a moment to react, diving to the deck as the massive crimson body of their opponent rushed through the air where he had been only seconds earlier.
He rolled to his feet the moment he felt the creature pass over him, bringing the Aegis Sword into a ready position as he considered how they would handle the current situation.
Over the last few days, the party had spent much of their uptime training, trying to put into practice the lessons that Vandham had imparted on them during his brief time working with them.
For the most part, they were satisfied with how they had been doing. There were natural limitations to how much they could safely do while on a boat, especially when it came to their bigger attacks, but after almost a week, all of them had made at least some headway with their training goals.
Despite that, however, everyone in the group had expressed annoyance that the deck was too small for them to get a proper spar in. After how spoiled they had been by the facilities on Tadbir, restricting themselves to individual training exercises felt like a downgrade.
At several points during the trip, Rex had joked that 'maybe they would get the chance to unload on some unlucky monster', which was not a particularly uncommon occurrence while at sea. When he had said that, the boy had very much been thinking of the normal sort of monsters he was used to encountering while salvaging—Crabbles, Crustips, Mendooz, maybe even the occasional Aligo.
Their current opponent, on the other hand, was a little more than he had in mind. Perhaps he would have been better served keeping his mouth shut.
With a loud, resounding roar, the crimson Lexos spun around in the air, its eyes glaring at them with animalistic fury.
How exactly were you supposed to fight one of these again? Azurda had taught him at one point—even if Rex himself had never faced one before, Lexos were a realistic enough threat on Leftheria that even the militia had to fight them every so often—but from what he remembered, the lesson had mostly boiled down to 'run away and let Azurda or Corrine handle it.'
"It's charging up an attack!" Nia called out again, breaking the boy from his thoughts. "Don't let it hit the Titan!"
She was right. The massive serpentine monster had turned its attention to the Titan propelling the ship, coiling its body as it prepared to lunge again. They couldn't allow that to happen; they were still close to half a day out from Mor Ardain. If the Titan died now, they were dead in the proverbial water.
"Poppi not let meanie monster hurt Titan!" The artificial Blade cried out, her voice nearly drowned out by the sound of her thrusters as she rocketed directly at the Lexos' face.
Before the monster could so much as react, Poppi slammed into the side of its head, just below its right eye. The Lexos let out a pained roar, the impact strong enough to send the creature spinning, its own flight capabilities unable to deal with the sudden addition of force.
As the Lexos struggled to bring itself under control, Poppi quickly backed off, getting herself clear from the creature's wild thrashing. She didn't remain back for long, however; the moment it began to right itself, she shot forward again, this time headed for the monster's tail.
"Monster get ready for nighty-night time!" She declared, sweeping under a swipe from its right-hand fin. "Maybe next time know better than to attack ship minding own business on-!"
Unfortunately, while the Lexos had lost sight of the artificial Blade, the monster was more than able to hear her monologue. As she swooped out from under the shadow of the creature's massive fin, she found that going to its tail would be unnecessary.
Rather, it had come to her.
The party on the deck could only watch helplessly as the Lexos swatted Poppi out of the sky, sending the artificial Blade plunging into the Cloud Sea below. As they looked on in horror, Azurda merely let out a resigned sigh, crossing his arms as he muttered over her performance. "I keep telling them." He shook his head. "'No unnecessary flourishing', 'no calling your attacks', and most of all, 'no monologuing'. But do they listen? No, of course not!"
Dromarch shot the Titan a look. "While I agree with the sentiment, Azurda, perhaps this isn't the best time to be lecturing them?" He said.
Ignoring the exchange between the ostensible adults of the group, Tora raised his Drill Shield at the Lexos, his eyes burning with righteous fury at the way it had manhandled his Blade. "Meaniepon monster go down!" He howled, the shield boss popping open to expose the multifunction equipment port beneath. "Eat Boom Biters!"
With a loud bang, a large, finned cannonball—with a section cut out to resemble a mouth—shot out of the center of the Drill Shield, crossing the distance between the nopon and his target in an instant. The Lexos had barely a moment to recognize the incoming attack before it exploded against the creature's scales, the force enough to push Rex and Nia back a step even from close to fifty feet away.
"Architect, Tora!" Nia spat, shielding her eyes. "How much explosives did you pack into those things?!"
"Tora not lying when said could take out Titan weapon." He replied. "In general, require big boom."
Before the Gormotti girl could state her opinion on the matter, a loud, pained roar echoed through the smoke cloud. "Eyes up, you two!" Rex warned, gathering ether for an Art. "I think that Tora just made it mad!"
As the smoke began to clear, the boy felt a tug from his Core Crystal as the ether around the monster distorted subtly. It wasn't particularly strong—certainly nothing like a Blade preparing one of their Arts, but more like those of a Driver…
Nia spit out a curse as the creature came back into view. It had its head pulled back, like a serpent preparing to strike. Its mouth was open, bubbling with water ether as it prepared what could only be a rough approximation of an Art, one aimed at them based on the hateful glare it was giving them.
"Crap, that's it's jet breath!" Nia called out, looking at him. "Rex, Dromarch! Barriers up! That'll cut through the whole ship if it lands!"
Without so much as a moment of hesitation, Dromarch leapt forward, landing next to Rex at the railing of the deck. "Let us prepare, Master Rex." The tiger stated, his eyes locked on the monster. "These attacks are backed by a substantial amount of power."
The Lexos roared furiously as it unleashed the attack—a compressed beam of water ether—directly at them. Rex had only a brief moment to appreciate how much the attack resembled a massively scaled-up version of Nia's Gemini Loop Art before he and Dromarch raised their barriers into its path.
Golden light burned in front of them as the water jet met the pair of protective fields. The attack was strong, enough so that Dromarch's barrier overloaded after only a few brief moments. Rex's, on the other hand, endured. The boy squeezed his eyes closed, forcing as much energy as he felt comfortable with into the barrier as he struggled to maintain it.
After a moment, the energy demands fell dramatically as the monster's attack petered out. Rex released his hold on the barrier as he stared up at the Lexos, plotting out the next move.
"Gramps," he asked, his eyes locking on the burned spot where Tora's Boom Biter had exploded. The creature's scales were blackened with soot and cracked, with some in the center missing entirely, but otherwise it seemed that they had succeeded in protecting the monster beneath. "Do you have any idea what we can do about it?"
The Titan made a contemplative noise, scratching his chin thoughtfully as he watched the Lexos glare at them. "We'll need something with a little more of a kick than plain old Driver Arts." He mused.
"I think we caught that." Rex replied sarcastically, even as he continued to gather ether. "Do you think that Blade Arts would do it?"
"Of course." Azurda scoffed. "But not on their own. Do you remember what I taught you about synergistic element charges?"
Rex pursed his lips. "Not really?" He replied. "We were kind of busy at the time, what with-! Woah!" He was interrupted as a sudden charge by the Lexos forced the boy to roll out of the way.
Azurda rolled his eyes. "Typical." He groaned, a little more melodramatically than necessary. "Sometimes, I wonder why I even bother! Back in my day, children-!"
"Gramps! Enough with the old man act already!" The salvager begged as he got back to his feet. "Just tell me what to do!"
"If you insist." The Titan replied. "I'll need you to hit it with…" He paused for a moment, considering the group's options. "…Let's say two of your Blade Arts. A weaker one first, then a stronger one as quickly after it as you can manage."
The salvager considered the order, even as he watched the Lexos wheel around for another attack run. "I'm not sure how fast 'as fast as I can' is yet." The boy pointed out. "Is there a time limit for this, or…?"
Azurda rolled his eyes. "The second attack needs to land before the elemental charge of the first dissipates, so the faster the better." He explained. "Ideally, you want a different Blade landing each attack so they hit one after the other, but unfortunately Poppi's current element isn't synergistic with yours and Dromarch's, so you'll have to handle the first two yourself."
"Got it." Rex nodded, his eyes narrowing as the Lexos prepared to charge once again. "You might want to get out of my helmet for the time being." The boy warned, raising his anchor shot in anticipation. "This is going to get bumpy in a moment."
He didn't need to tell the Titan twice. Just as he finished speaking, the Lexos surged forward again, wind ether swirling around it to propel the monster's bulk at great speed. Aimed at Nia and Dromarch, Rex didn't even need to move as it raced past, snapping its jaws at anything within range.
Just as the monster's head was about to pass him, Rex fired his anchor into the creature's mouth. The metal hook on the end traced a textbook arc through the air, catching between two of the Lexos' teeth.
Rex had just long enough to appreciate just how cleanly he had landed the shot before an ungodly amount of force applied itself to his shoulder as he was yanked off of his feet. Even with heavy ether reinforcement, even with enhanced regeneration, he couldn't help but cry out in pain at the sensation.
Fortunately, as much as it hurt, that very same enhancement and regeneration meant that his shoulder was not, in fact, yanked out of its socket as the Lexos pulled him along with it. Instead, the sharp pain was little more than a distraction as he hurled through the air, at least a hundred feet above the rolling sea of clouds below.
There was no time to appreciate the view, however. Quickly overcoming the pain, Rex activated the winch on his anchor shot, slowly pulling him toward the massive monster. Even as he approached, the boy began gathering even more ether, the lines on his skin glowing emerald with power as they charged up.
As the Lexos came out of its charge, it spun around again, bringing its head to bear against the unarmed vessel. The sudden movement was to Rex's benefit, as it threw the boy over the monster's head.
Reaching out with his free hand, the salvager caught ahold of one of the spikes poking out from the creature's head. Despite the size disparity between the two of them, using one of the Lexos' spines to arrest his movement was still enough to noticeably shift the monster's aim. It paused for a moment, as if unsure as to how it should react to finding something suddenly atop it.
Before it could make the decision, Rex decided to give it some motivation. Deploying the stability spikes from his boots, he pulled the Aegis Sword free from his back. With one hand still occupied by the anchor lodged into the Lexos' teeth, he was forced to raise the massive sword over his shoulder with a single hand.
"Cross Flash!" He cried out, sweeping the energy blade across the crown of the monster's head. It let out an agonizing roar, thrashing violently in an attempt to dislodge him from his perch. However, with both the spikes of his boots deployed and his anchor shot still lodged in the creature's mouth, the boy remained in place.
He brought the sword back into its second strike, diagonal to the first. As it cleaved into the Lexos' bone-like cranial plate, the sword released a burst of ether that scoured the flesh of the monster's scalp. Rex couldn't help but grin as he felt the cloud of light ether released by the attack begin to cling to the creature, stubbornly retaining its elemental charge.
That satisfaction didn't last for long, however. Before he could even think about gathering more ether for the second attack, the Lexos inverted itself entirely, trying desperately to fling him off. This time, it was more successful than before. Without the assistance of gravity, the spikes on the soles of his boots did little to keep him in place, and his anchor, wedged between two of the monster's massive teeth, was able to easily slide free.
With a mighty shake of its neck, Rex was sent flying into the air. He was thrown clear of the Titan ship, sailing over it entirely as he arced toward the rolling waves of the Cloud Sea.
Rex spat out a curse, gathering ether again even as he attempted to right his position. He ignored the twinge of discomfort from his ether lines, still tingling from the last Art, as he charged them even more. Maybe if he could pull all of that ether together fast enough, he could tag the monster with an Arc Flare before going into the clouds?
As he considered the option, movement beneath him caught his eye. A dark shadow was moving beneath the clouds, almost exactly where he needed to land.
Great. Just what he needed. Being thrown from one monster just to get gobbled up by another.
Swiveling his angle further, the boy aimed his sword at the dark mass within the sea. Gramps was going to be furious with him for this, but better that he avoid being eaten than…!
Before he could even fully aim, the shadow burst up from beneath the clouds. As it cleared the surface, the loud whine of thrusters filled the air as the source, a very familiar artificial Blade, raced up to him.
"Poppi?!" He exclaimed, hastily aiming the Aegis Sword away from her.
The artificial Blade didn't respond. Instead, she flew up to him, wrapping an arm around the salvager's waist as she passed. The sudden obstruction arrested his momentum in an instant, with sufficient force to drive the air from his lungs. He let out a harsh wheeze, struggling to maintain his grasp on the growing levels of ether within his body.
"W-wait, slow-!" He struggled to speak, only to abruptly stop as a jet of compressed water thicker than he was cut through the air he would have occupied had Poppi not grabbed him.
Maybe… it was better not to say anything.
Looping over the attack, Poppi flew over the deck of the ship, cutting her thrusters just as she passed over the railing. Rex's stomach lurched once again as they landed, jostling hard against the deck as the artificial Blade came to a stop.
She looked around, quickly locating where Tora was standing as Rex leapt to his feet. Even as he stumbled slightly, the salvager ignited the Aegis Sword once again, pointing the tip up at the looming monster.
"Gramps," he asked the Titan, currently hovering above Dromarch's head. "Is there still time?"
"A few more seconds, yes." The Titan agreed. "Just be quick about the followup!"
Rex didn't respond, instead dumping the built-up ether into his weapon. Distantly, he was aware that Dromarch was gathering ether as well. He wasn't completely sure what Azurda had planned, but he said that Rex and Dromarch's elements were synergistic, so presumably this required the tiger as well.
"Arc Flare!" He yelled as the sword sputtered, the energy blade releasing from the sword's physical form. It shot toward the Lexos like a missile, seemingly more like a beam than a projectile as it closed the distance between its starting point and target.
The monster howled in agony as the projectile speared into its flesh, striking the scaleless patch caused by Tora's Boom Biter dead center. The blade held its shape for a brief moment before detonating, causing even more damage and, more importantly, releasing the constituent ether into the growing cloud around the beast.
Despite the danger of the situation, Rex couldn't help but be fascinated by the sensation his Core Crystal felt as the ether from this attack mingled with the lingering cloud from the previous one. Although they were the same element, they carried entirely separate charges that sparked and conflicted with one another. Even as he watched, the boy could feel small bursts of elemental energy flare around the Lexos, causing telltale scoring on its scales.
But it didn't last for long. The elemental charges had only just begun intermingling when Nia cried out behind him. "That's it! Now, Dromarch! Wild Roar!"
Rex instinctively covered his ears as the familiar column of water and sound burst forth from the tiger's maw. Even shielding against it, the salvager could feel the harsh reverberations in the air just as strongly as his Core Crystal could feel the water ether it was carrying.
The column struck the Lexos in the face, forcing the monster to reel back in pain. Once more, it let out a deafening roar of irritation as the attack struck. Water ether pounded against its scales, the energy fluctuations tearing at the flesh beneath.
Yet that wasn't the most important component in this case. As the attack began to die down, the supercharged cloud of water ether clung to the monster, intermingling with the already conflicting charges of light ether.
For a brief moment, Rex felt the process occurring. While the water ether was conflicting with both charges of light, at the same time, it almost felt as if it was moderating the two. Just as he was about to ask Azurda about it, seeing the Lexos glare hatefully at them once again, there was a sudden shift in the intermingling clouds as all three charges, now thoroughly mixed, reacted with each other at once.
And the Lexos exploded.
It felt as if all of the elemental ether had suddenly vanished, discharging the entirety of the built-up energy at once. The resulting explosion was only slightly less than the sum of all three attacks, except occurring all at once with the monster in the middle.
Rex could see Nia and Dromarch shield their eyes as a dazzling display of water and light erupted around their creature, orchestrated by the monster's wail of surprise. He, on the other hand, was unbothered by the flash and was instead able to observe the outcome in full detail.
The display only lasted for a brief moment, however. Almost as fast as it had occurred, the ether dissipated, and the Lexos—too far away to tell if it was dead or merely knocked prone—fell bonelessly into the clouds beneath it.
"And that, my boy, is why you want to take elemental synergies into account." Azurda stated smugly, landing on the salvager's shoulder, just softly enough to not irritate the faint burning from his ether lines. "Any questions?"
Beside them, Tora stood slack-jawed at the spot where the monster had fallen. "Tora… Tora not realize how powerful elemental boomy-blast is." He breathed, a look of appreciation in his eyes. "Not think could make Boom Biter with even fraction of power…"
"I should hope not." Azurda chuckled, hopping into Rex's helmet. "Any such weapon would be so massive that we would struggle to carry it!"
The motion was enough to draw Rex from his observation. "Good work, everyone." He congratulated them, turning around to face the others. Tora was still staring out into the Cloud Sea with an awed expression, while Nia was giving Dromarch an appreciative scratch on the head for his work. "We should probably go let the crew know that it's safe to come out now."
"Poppi think already know." The artificial Blade stated, pointing at the window looking out over the deck. Inside, a number of the crew members—who had apparently been watching the battle from the interior lounge—were giving the party an enthusiastic cheer at their victory over the monster.
"Right…" Rex scratched the back of his neck. It had been long enough since he had fought in a public setting that he had forgotten just how prone people were to rubbernecking. It had been bad enough back on Argentum, when all they were seeing was him putting down some creature that had followed him up from a dive, but now?
"I believe it would be in our best interest to inform the captain to make haste." Dromarch stated, padding away from his Driver. "Should the Lexos prove to be less deceased than expected, then it will undoubtedly attempt to enact vengeance on us, should the opportunity arise."
"That's… not a bad idea." Nia agreed, shooting a glance over at Rex. "Why don't you go ahead and do that, Dromarch? I'm going to make sure mister reckless here didn't destroy half his body with that stunt of his."
"Oh, come on!" Rex protested. "I'm fine, see?" He raised his right arm, waving it around for emphasis. "Everything's all healed up already!"
She gave the boy a deeply skeptical look. "Oh really?" She pressed, her eyes shifting to his left shoulder. "Then why don't you try that with the other arm?"
"I, um…" He trailed off, glancing down at the shoulder in question. The boy wasn't able to repress the wince he made in reaction to the sight; a massive, purple bruise was poking out from his diving vest, crawling down the upper third of his arm.
With his level of regeneration, it was already beginning to lighten, but the fact that it was so visible cut a hole in his argument so big that you could fit a continental Titan through it.
"…Fine." He relented, suddenly aware of the throbbing pain from both the shoulder and his abdomen now that the adrenaline was leaving his system. "I guess there isn't much point in arguing, is there?"
"Nope!" The Gormotti girl agreed, popping the 'p' for emphasis, as she walked up to him. "Now take a seat and let me work."
Rex knew better than to argue at this point and followed her orders. He slumped down to the deck, crossing his legs as Nia kneeled next to him. Water ether flowed around her hands as she ran them over the bruise, a frown forming on her face as she did.
"You've got to stop doing this!" She chastised him as she worked. "One of these days, you're going to do something to your body that even I can't heal!"
"It's not like I had much of a choice." Rex grumbled, even as he restrained a sigh of relief as the pain began to fade. "I needed to hit that thing somehow, and it wasn't just going to sit still for me."
The Gormotti girl gave him a level stare. "I get that." She agreed. "But there are other ways to go about it! You could have waited for it to finish a pass to climb on, or tagged it while it was lungeing at us!" She pointed out. "But latching yourself onto it with an anchor in the middle of an ether-enhanced charge like that?"
For emphasis, she poked the bruise in a spot she hadn't healed yet. A sharp throb of pain raced through his body in response. "Even with your own enhancement, you damn near tore your arm off!"
He opened his mouth, preparing to refute the statement, but as much as he wanted to, the boy couldn't articulate an argument. After all, Nia wasn't exactly wrong in her assessment. Why had he gone about it like that?
Yes, Azurda had told him to hit the Lexos with a lower-power Blade Art, and his only one required him to be within melee range to use, but the way he had gone about it wasn't necessary. It was more that he had seen the thing preparing to charge and had decided to be clever.
But… wasn't that the sort of behavior that Azurda had always tried to warn him off of? Of leaping into a situation without thinking first? Hell, Vandham had basically said the same thing: that he needed to take a step back and think things through rather than charge in head-first.
Taking his silence for acceptance, Nia opted not to continue berating him. Instead, she focused on her work, accelerating the repair of the injured tissue. After only a brief moment, the bruise had faded entirely, leaving healthy pink skin behind.
Nodding in satisfaction, she withdrew her hand. "There." The girl stated. "That should be all better."
Rex didn't reply, too caught up thinking the issue over. He'd be the first to admit that introspection wasn't exactly his strong suit—well, after Azurda, at least—but he understood the basic issue he was facing. Unfortunately, just knowing what the problem was didn't immediately produce an answer for him.
As he tried to consider it from another angle, however, he was broken out of his thoughts by his name being called again. "Rex, are you okay?" Nia asked, a concerned look on her face.
A face that was far closer to his own than he was expecting.
The boy startled back, his cheeks heating up slightly as he pulled his head away from hers. "W-what…! Nia, you…!" Why had she been leaning in so close to him?! Was the girl trying to give him a heart attack?!
In response, she offered him a mischievous grin. "You're the one who wasn't responding." She replied, leaning back as well. "You didn't take a hit to the head, did you?"
He scowled, letting his heart rate return to normal. "Of course not!" The boy insisted. "I was just… thinking."
Nia rolled her eyes. "A skill that you are obviously well known for." She replied dryly. "Now, do you have any other issues, or…?"
"Yeah, actually…" He said, pointing to his abdomen. "Poppi grabbed me around the waist when I was falling and stopped all of my momentum. It was a bit more spread out than the arm, but with how fast I was going…"
"Right, right." She replied, cutting him off. "I'll take a look." Under her breath, she muttered, "I don't know how we're going to deal with Ophion if something a fraction of its size gave us this much trouble." She shook her head, water ether building around her hand again.
The sentiment wasn't something Rex could disagree with, especially considering what they had learned from the notes Alexandria had given them…
It hadn't even taken half a day for the group to finally crack open the notes that the headmaster's Blade had given them.
After their less-than-stellar attempts to find verifiable information on the nature of the guardian serpent in the public area of the library, having a relevant compilation of the information from the private one dropped into their collective laps was practically a godsend.
With all of their belongings stowed away and the crew fully occupied with the task of operating the ship, the party had assembled in the lounge, pulling out the notebook to read between them.
Compared to the contents of the many books they had reviewed, Alexandria's notes were far more dense. The light Blade had dispensed with any pretense of adapting the information into prose, instead clearly listing out the information in dry yet easy to understand tables.
Yet, despite that, there was an astonishing amount of information. The first twenty pages were dedicated to a comprehensive list of reported encounters with the serpent, the first appearing a mere thirteen years after the conclusion of the Aegis War and the final being a little less than a year before Rex had accepted the salvaging job from Chairman Bana.
Many of these were accounts that the party was already familiar with after their foray into the library. Most of them were, even—they had weeded a substantial number of potential leads out during the course of the investigation, and that had required looking over as many potentials as they could find.
However, there were several on the list that were new to them. Most of those were from the last five years, the knowledge having not made its way into publicly available sources yet, but there was one in particular, an encounter from twenty-seven years ago, that was noticeably different from the rest.
It didn't take long to figure out why. Unlike the other encounters, this was no happenstance. Rather than accidentally drifting into the exclusion zone, or trying to sneak in to reach the World Tree, this had been a dedicated research expedition to examine the mysterious guardian.
One that had been both funded and conducted by Alexandria's Driver, at some point prior to him taking the post of headmaster.
Upon reading that part, Nia had been incredibly smug that she had accurately guessed why the light Blade wanted them to keep the information to themselves.
The book detailed the extensive setup that the expedition had required, from the equipment and supplies that they used, to the research specialists brought aboard, to the means they had used to evade detection during their time within the exclusion zone.
While all of that was certainly interesting (and potentially useful for later, especially the part about evading the patrols), it paled in comparison to the description of the encounter itself.
Alexandria's graceful, looping handwriting told the tale—which, from the sound of it, was almost certainly a first-hand encounter—of the moment that the serpent had risen from the sea. How, even with at least half of its body still submerged, the guardian had towered over their vessel as if it were little more than a bath toy, a baleful glow building in its mouth.
On its own, the account wasn't much more useful than any of the others. The description that she had given fell within what they already knew, and none of the features that she had identified were particularly noteworthy in identifying it.
Until they turned the page to the first of the inserted objects within and found it to be a photograph.
The party huddled close as Rex carefully removed it from the clip, giving them their first view of what may well be their ultimate obstacle. The photo was black and white, but it was clear enough to make out details.
It was… not what Rex had expected. With how differently all of the stories had portrayed it, he had built up a mental image of a great, Titan-like monster with a finned frill, massive horns, and dark, glistening scales.
What the picture displayed, while just as impressive, was substantially different. The guardian was still massive—even if the picture made it hard to accurately judge the scale, he couldn't imagine that even the part sticking out of the sea was any less than two hundred feet long—but rather than sinister and imposing, it merely seemed… enigmatic.
Rather than scales, the bulk of the body was covered in armor. This wasn't exactly unexpected after what they had learned already, but with the picture in front of them, it was hard to believe that anyone could have mistaken it. While the neck certainly had spikes, they were nothing like he imagined. They were very obviously mechanical, much like the rest of the body, although he lacked the engineering expertise to figure out their purpose.
As for the head, well… he didn't know what to think about it. The bottom half of the jaw was the only part that matched his expectations. The top half, in an inversion of the setups he was familiar with, was tiny in comparison. What was really interesting were the 'horns' that he had so frequently seen described in accounts.
Except... those were clearly not horns, but a humanoid torso—one that had to be at least twenty feet tall.
"That's, um…" He trailed off, trying to think of a way to describe what he was seeing. He didn't want to call it bizarre, but that was really the only thing that popped into his head at the sight.
"No kidding." Nia said, staring at the picture. "Anything you recognize, old man?"
"Hmmm…" Azurda mused, his eyes locked on the photo. The Titan remained silent for a moment, considering the sight, before slowly answering her question. "That… is definitely Ophion." He confirmed.
"So the Artifice remains functioning after all." Dromarch inclined his head.
Azurda gave a hesitant nod. "So it would seem." He agreed. "I cannot for the life of me imagine how, but it is difficult to argue with the evidence."
Rex bit his lip, staring at the picture. On the one hand, the idea that their path was being blocked by a massive, possibly divine war machine was more than a little intimidating. On the other hand, it was one of Mythra's Artifices, which meant…
"That's a good thing, though. Right?" He asked. "If it's Ophion, then I might be able to control it."
"Perhaps." The Titan allowed, crossing his arms. "But even if that is the case, it doesn't help us in the short term. As it currently stands, we aren't completely sure that you even possess that ability. After all, I suspect that you have at least attempted to reach out to Siren since learning of its existence?"
He had, as a matter of fact. It hadn't been until a few days later—the day he had learned about the Artifices had been a little too… hectic to consider trying—but he had at least made the attempt.
Unfortunately, it had been met with little success. He hadn't even known where to begin, besides looking up and softly calling out the name over and over again. In the resulting silence, he could almost swear that he heard somebody laughing at him from the back of his head.
The look on his face was all the confirmation that Azurda needed. "You can see my concern." The Titan stated. "While it is entirely possible that, one day, you will be able to control Ophion, until you have at least demonstrated the ability to command even one Artifice, I do not believe that it would be wise to attempt an approach on the World Tree without a different plan."
"But… maybe easier if Rex-Rex can see serpent?" Tora suggested, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Rex-Rex maybe not able to connect with floaty Artifice because not know where is or what look like. If in front of Artifice, maybe have better luck."
Azurda gave the nopon a level stare. "And if that were to fail, then it would leave us at the mercy of a weapon capable of sinking entire fleets of the strongest Titan ships Alrest has ever produced." The Titan pointed out. "That is not a position I am currently willing to risk."
There wasn't much that any of them could say to refute that. As the silence stretched, the party considered the situation, Rex's mood fell.
"…Why don't we keep reading?" He suggested after a brief pause. "Maybe we'll find something in here that will give us a new lead."
Unfortunately, they had found no such thing. The remainder of Alexandria's account had been about the expedition's hasty withdrawal—one that only barely avoided capture by the cordon forces—followed by about thirty pages summarizing what little the various members had determined from the encounter. None of it proved to be of use.
But even knowing the identity of the guardian was a major improvement. It meant that, rather than fumbling around in the dark, they could start making actual plans for how to get around it and reach the World Tree.
Well, in theory at least. Azurda wasn't able to provide them with any ideas as to how they could get past, and he was probably the most knowledgeable source of information about Artifices on Alrest.
Save for Malos, of course, but they obviously couldn't ask him.
At the moment, it wasn't really an issue—they had agreed as a group to look into this artificial Blade business with Tora—but once that was resolved, the hunt would be on again.
For the time being, perhaps the best thing that Rex could do was keep trying to contact Siren. If he could manage that, then half of the difficulty of dealing with Ophion would be solved.
Letting out a sigh, Rex relaxed his abdominal muscles as Nia withdrew her hand from his torso. The pain had already long since faded away, but he knew by this point that wasn't a guarantee that everything was fixed. "Is that all?" He asked, looking up at her.
"Y-yeah." She replied, her cheeks dusted with a faint red hue as she averted her eyes. "You, umm, can pull your wetsuit back up now."
"Okay!" Rex snickered at her reaction as he complied, pulling his wetsuit back up over his chest. He hadn't planned it this way, but as far as he was concerned, this was perfect payback for earlier.
"Right then." He said, getting to his feet. "We should probably head back inside and figure out what we're going to do for the rest of the trip."
To emphasize his point, he gestured around the deck. The fight with the Lexos had done a number on it; many of the floor planks had been either shattered or torn off entirely, exposing the hull plating beneath. The rails had been largely destroyed as well, with only a handful of sections remaining. "Somehow, I don't think we'll be getting any more training done out here."
Nia coughed into her fist awkwardly, composing herself. "Y-yeah. It's not like we'll need to anyway. Even if the captain doesn't hurry up, we're only a few hours out from Mor Ardain at this point, and I'm pretty sure that battle counts for far more than any training we could do." She argued.
"I'm sure that it matters a great deal to the crew." Azurda rebutted. "Repairing the damage will push their timetable back immensely."
"Definitely." Rex agreed. "But that's just one of the risks of the trade."
"'Risks of the trade', huh?" Nia questioned. "I don't think I've ever been on a ship attacked by a monster that big before."
Rex nodded, heading for the door leading into the lounge. "Not normally, no." He agreed, "But smaller monsters are a pretty frequent encounter."
As they entered the ship, the boy began to regale her with a story of the first time a monster had boarded Azurda, back when Rex was just starting out as a salvager.
It was still several hours before they finally reached Chilsain, although it would have been easy to think they would have reached it far earlier.
The last few times the party had arrived on a new Titan, they had been greeted by the sight of it rising across the horizon only a short time before arriving. In the case of Voltis, it was around half an hour. With Tadbir, by the time they had reached the observation deck a mere fifteen minutes prior to arrival, the Titan was already well in view, but they had been assured that it could be seen from nearly an hour out, depending on the speed of the vessel.
Mor Ardain, however, crested the horizon nearly five hours before they pulled into port.
When it first became visible, less than an hour after they had defeated the Lexos, it was little more than a speck on the horizon. Upon being informed of what it was, Nia had even scoffed at how unimpressive the sight was, being little more than the very top of the Titan's elongated crest.
But her opinion quickly changed as they drew closer. Soon, more of the great humanoid Titan rose from over the horizon, looming ever higher over them as they approached.
By the time they were an hour out, close enough to begin maneuvering for their final approach, the ship was entirely within Mor Ardain's shadow.
Even at that distance, they could feel the oppressive waves of heat radiating from its body. On the Cloud Sea, the temperature was always fairly warm, but this close to Mor Ardain, the ambient heat level immediately spiked from 'pleasant mid-fall' to 'unbearable' within minutes.
For Nia, who habitually wore a full-body jumpsuit, the sudden change was absolutely agonizing. Within minutes, she was already starting to build up a sweat just standing still.
The girl had forgotten just how much she hated the heat. Even having spent the last few years on the run, she had lived on the comparatively temperate Gormott for most of her life.
She was definitely going to need to pick up an extra canteen or three. Maybe even a water tank. It would be a pain to cart around, but she was fairly certain that Dromarch wouldn't care too much about hauling it around for her…
Before she could pursue that line of thought any further, she heard Tora call out excitedly. "Friends! Look!" He exclaimed, leaning over one of the remaining sections of railing. "Naval patrol in distance!"
"A naval patrol?" Rex asked, glancing over in the direction the nopon was pointing. Nia joined in, her eyes tracing over the horizon in an attempt to catch sight of it.
Indeed, several miles closer to the Titan, she could make out the form of the ships. There were four of them—three smaller ships trailing after a larger one. It was hard to judge the scale from this distance, but none of them seemed to be anywhere close to the size of the battleship that had been moored outside of Torigoth. Even the largest, as far as she could tell, was maybe half the size at best.
"Ooh! That look like Freiceadan-class light cruiser!" Tora gushed, his eyes sparkling as he hastily pulled a spyglass out of his bag. "Those super new ship in Ardainian navy! First not even leave dry dock for sea trials when Tora last visit Mor Ardain!"
He shifted the glass to the escorts. "And those frigates look like Rubha-class!" The nopon explained. "Those slightly older, but Ardainians build many-many of them! They most common escort in empire!"
Dromarch gave the nopon an inquisitive look. "I must admit, Master Tora, I did not take you to be an expert on the Ardainian navy." The tiger stated, his tail waving lazily behind him.
"Ardainian Titan ships pinnacle of imperial engineering!" The nopon retorted, still watching the passing ships. "Of course Tora know all about! Was particularly interested in state-of-art signal cables Ardainians make use of! Transfer speed and throughput capacity much greater than other countries make!"
"And how exactly are you so familiar with the inner workings of an Ardainian Titan ship, Master Tora?" The tiger pressed. "I am surprised that such knowledge is available to one not affiliated with the military."
The nopon's eyes glimmered as he looked back at Dromarch. "Not available to public, no." He admitted. "But Tora not let teensy thing like that stop from studying!"
Nia stared at him, her eyes widening at the implications. "Wait a minute, Tora…" She muttered. "Are you saying you've been stealing tech from the Ardainian military?!"
He gave the girl a quizzical look. "Of course! Tora not know why so surprised." The nopon replied. "Tora sure said before."
"I thought you were joking!" She exclaimed, thinking back to the occasions where he had dropped such hints. The first time had been back during their meeting with the Special Inquisitor, when the woman was directing them to Tadbir. Tora had made a reference to stealing Ardainian tech then, but Nia hadn't taken it seriously at the time. After all, who would be dumb enough to admit that to Morag's face?!
Apparently, the answer was Tora.
"That not kind of thing Tora make joke about!" He replied seriously. "Was huge pain having to sneaky-sneak into military base so often! Nia-Nia not have clue how many time Tora almost caught!"
"Why did you keep doing it, then?!" Nia asked, quickly getting exasperated by his obliviousness. "Didn't you have anything better to do, like building Poppi?!"
Even as she said the words, the answer was already forming in her mind. "…Tora, please don't tell me you used parts stolen from the Ardainian military to build her."
"Of course Tora not do!" He insisted, crossing his wings petulantly. "Tora have pride as engineer!"
She let out a relieved sigh. "Thank the Architect." She muttered. "For a minute there, I thought-"
Before she could finish, Tora continued speaking. "Parts Tora took from Ardainians needed much upgrades before ready for use in Poppi!" He explained. "If used in same state as taken, Poppi not even able to function at one-quarter of current ability!"
Nia slapped a hand across her face. "Why am I not even surprised?" She said, shaking her head. Maybe it would have been better if she and Dromarch hadn't asked.
Looking over at Poppi, who was standing silently behind Tora, she asked, "What do you think of this, Poppi?"
The artificial Blade slumped forward. "Poppi suddenly feel unease at learning circumstances of birth." She replied sullenly. "Masterpon told that Poppi pinnacle of nopon engineering, but if made from stolen Ardanian parts, does that make it lie?"
"Perhaps you are overthinking the matter, Mistress Poppi." Dromarch consoled her, rubbing his head against one of her hands. "Does the intention of Master Tora's work not bear a greater weight than the means?"
Several paces away, still staring out across the surface of the sea, Rex gave them a skeptical look. "Um, guys?" He asked, crossing his arms. "I know you seem to be having fun with that, but are you sure we shouldn't be worrying about those ships? They're getting awfully close."
Looking back in that direction, Tora shook his head. "Tora not think so." He replied. "If wanted stop us, would be trying to intercept." He explained. "If look, Rex-Rex see that boats on path to pass by. That just normal patrol route."
Rex didn't look particularly convinced, but nodded regardless. "If you say so." He stated, staring back out over the clouds. "Where do you think they're headed?"
"Probably same place as friends." Tora shrugged. "From what hear, Chilsain have big-big naval base, bigger than Torigoth. Many-many boats of all sizes present."
"I suppose that makes sense." Azurda nodded sagely. "Chilsain is a major transport hub on the Titan; placing a base there allows the navy to patrol the nearby sea routes more effectively."
Nia looked around, a frown building on her face. "If that's the case, shouldn't we be seeing more ships around us?" She inquired. "This sea lane seems awfully empty for an approach to a major shipping hub."
"That's because we're not approaching it from one of the normal lanes." Rex spoke up. "Normally, ships will stick to one of the major Guild routes when moving between Titans, since those are generally safer. We didn't, because there isn't one between Tadbir and Mor Ardain at this time of year without going super out of our way, and, well…"
He trailed off, giving the ruined deck a shrug. "We got to deal with the obvious consequences."
Azurda crossed his arms. "Indeed, a prime example of the dangers one incurs by chancing unpatrolled seas." The Titan stated, shaking his head.
"We'll be seeing plenty once we get closer." Rex stated. "Just wait and see."
Indeed, he was correct. As the ship slowly swung around Mor Ardain's chest, bringing the Titan's right shoulder into view, lines of ships coming and going from the port could be seen in the distance, lifting out of the sea as they made their way to the city high above the surface.
Or at least, high above the surface as it stood at this hour. Even from here, it was evident that the cloud line could rise substantially higher. The port, where the lines of ships were headed, was set well below the rest of the city.
Long, spindly docks spiked out from a rocky shelf, like metallic fingers poking out of the Titan's skin. Behind them was a mess of sheet metal buildings, wedged between a massive shore battery on one side of the port, and the imposing metallic structure of the naval base on the other.
Behind the buildings were what appeared to be a series of elevators, allowing goods to be carted to the city above. At their angle, Chilsain proper was difficult to make out, but the Gormotti girl was certain that she could discern what appeared to be brick siding and metal roofs rising above the walls surrounding the city.
Eventually, their own ship began to rise out of the Cloud Sea as well. A loud, ominous creak echoed through the hull as the Titan carrying them began to ascend, lifting the ship out of the Cloud Sea's embrace.
Despite having traveled on plenty of Titan ships, even ones that never touched the Cloud Sea, Nia's ears folded back at the sounds of protest that the hull was making. She had never been particularly fond of heights—even ones she could survive falling—so the apparent precariousness of their position left her feeling more than a little uncomfortable. If the vessel had been damaged more seriously during the fight than expected, the surface of the sea was a long way down.
Fortunately, their ride did little more than groan at the change in weight distribution, and as they slid up alongside one of the docks, the vessel was still in as good a condition as was possible for a ship that had gone a round with a sixty-foot-long flying sea serpent.
That didn't stop Nia from being the first off the ship, though, jumping ashore even before it had fully come to a stop.
Rex raised an eyebrow at her upon seeing her jump. She gave the boy a glare, challenging him to make a comment about it, but he wisely held his silence. Dromarch, on the other hand, was not nearly as restrained.
"My Lady," he said, a note of disapproval in his voice, "While I understand that sea travel does not agree with you, the port will not vanish should you wait to disembark once the gangplank has been lowered."
Before she could retort, a familiar voice spoke up behind her—one filled with noticeably more mirth than the last time they spoke. "I can't say I blame her. In my experience, the highlight of sea travel is disembarking."
All of them turned to face the speaker, but it was Rex who greeted her first. "Perun!" He called out, a polite smile on his face as he caught sight of the disguised Flesh Eater. "Thank you for inviting us!"
Perun smirked, leaning against the man standing next to her. "It's hardly a problem." She dismissed. "After the assistance you gave me, Percy and I are more than happy to put you up for a few days." The dark-skinned woman glanced up at the man for emphasis. "Right, dear?"
The man, whom Nia assumed was Perun's mysterious husband, gave a curt nod. He was a remarkable contrast to his wife. On the surface, he seemed to be the model of an average middle-aged Ardainian man. Where Perun had dark skin and long, white hair, his skin was almost eerily pale, which stood in stark contrast to his short, black hair.
He was also significantly taller than her—nearly a foot so, in fact. He towered over the entire group, enough so that he would have seemed intimidating were it not for the warm gray eyes behind his round, understated spectacles.
"Of course." He replied, offering the group a small bow. "My name is Percival Wrotham. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Beside her, Rex scratched the back of his head, offering a hand to the man. "Oh, um, Rex, likewise!" He introduced himself.
As Percival accepted the handshake, the others around them introduced themselves as well. Nia chimed in with her own name among the others, her eyes narrowing suspiciously as she looked between their hosts.
Percival… he had to know that his wife was a Flesh Eater. She wasn't sure if he was the vigilante's mysterious partner—it would make sense if he was, but there was no guarantee of it—but even if he wasn't, Nia couldn't imagine he didn't know.
If he did, though, then why was he so accepting of it? As much as she desperately wished it were different, the Praetorium had done a very thorough job of poisoning the general population's opinion of their kind. It was hard to imagine the sort of circumstances that would have led to him being willing to accept her condition in defiance of the doctrine that Indol had been pushing for centuries.
She pointedly ignored the voice in her head—one that sounded suspiciously like Dromarch—pointing out that the same could be said for Rex, who was accepting of her nature. As far as she was concerned, that didn't count; he was a Blade Eater, after all. That hardly made him normal.
Whatever the reason, she'd have to ask Perun about it, if for no other reason than to learn exactly what the limits of the man's knowledge were. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally reveal the woman's Flesh Eater nature to her ignorant husband, should that be the case.
Unaware of her thoughts, Perun cleared her throat, drawing the party's attention over to her. "Well then, I suppose you're all probably pretty tired." She said, her eyes drifting over the damaged deck of the ship. "Especially considering that you seem to have had a much more… eventful trip than I did."
"You've got us there." Azurda agreed.
Rex laughed. "We're pretty beat." He agreed. "But I think we'd still be up for a little bit of exploring." The boy added, looking around. "What do you guys think?"
Nia shrugged. She wasn't that tired, especially since it had been several hours since the battle. "It's still pretty early." She admitted. "So why not?"
In contrast, Tora was much less enthusiastic about the idea. "Meh meh…" He muttered, his wings hanging at his side. "Maybe friends go to home of Perun first and drop Tora off?"
Perun chuckled, holding a hand over her mouth. "Why don't we just give you a short tour on the way there?" She suggested. "You will have time to explore more thoroughly tomorrow."
"That sounds like a lovely idea." Dromarch agreed. "Please, lead the way."
"Of course." She said, turning around. "We'll want to get to the elevators, then. Follow me."
She led the group off of the pier, weaving around the crowds of passengers disembarking from other vessels. There weren't that many, all things considered, but with the small size of the individual piers, even a handful of people presented a sizable obstruction to progress.
Once they had left the pier, the group was led through street after street of dockyard warehouses, largely simple buildings of prefabricated sheet metal. Surprisingly, for an Ardainian settlement, they were arranged with surprisingly little care, seemingly placed down wherever they fit rather than in orderly rows.
"It's because this area used to be part of the naval base." Perun explained upon being asked, gesturing at the walls encircling the port. "This was previously the muster yard for Titan weapons. About a century ago, a large section of the shelf supporting the base fell into the sea, so they were forced to relocate it. In the aftermath, the port facilities filled in the space, but it was never properly zoned."
Beyond the warehouses were the elevators, connecting the port to the city above. There were eight in total: four personal, four freight. There was a short line in order to use them, giving the disguised vigilante an opportunity to exposit even more about the city.
"On Mor Ardain, it's fairly common for the ports to be at a lower level than the settlements they service." She explained. "When the Titan was younger, its verticality made it prone to violent flash flooding, so settlements were always built atop buttes and plateaus."
She gestured at the landform across the bay. From here, it was easy to see how the terrain was multi-leveled. Close to what was probably the high tide mark, the ground was fairly flat, but large, towering pillars of stone jutted out every so often, supporting an upper level of land above.
"You can see how the land has been shaped by the erosion from that time, making the higher levels more preferable to build on." The woman continued. "But port facilities are much better built at the cloud line, so those naturally gravitated towards relatively calm areas of the lower levels."
"Not that flooding is much of a concern on Mor Ardain these days." Azurda added.
Perun quirked her lip. "Quite, but tradition remains."
Soon enough, it was their turn to take the elevators up into the city. Fitting the entire group in was a bit of a squeeze, but even with their extended group, they were well below the weight limits.
As the elevator ascended, they were given an overhead shot of the port through the metal grating making up the walls of the shaft. From their increasingly birds-eye view, the mess of warehouses and piers looked more like an undulating wave of sheetmetal than a collection of buildings and facilities.
If anything, it made them stand out next to the naval base even more. In contrast to the slapdash placement of the buildings in the port, the naval base was arranged with mathematical precision. Large, clean buildings dominated the bulk of the area, surrounding a large muster yard alongside the military docks.
This being Mor Ardain, those docks were filled to the brim with armed Titan ships. Even from here, Nia could pick out dozens of them. Frigates and cruisers, akin to those they had seen earlier, made up the bulk of the vessels, but she could count at least four or five massive battleships among their number as well.
She wasn't the only one to notice it, either. Perched on Rex's shoulder, Azurda shook his head sadly at the sight. "It would appear that Mor Ardain is arming itself for another conflict with Uraya." He observed.
"Indeed." Dromarch added. "I had heard the rumors that both nations were undergoing militarization, but to see the results…"
Percival, who had been largely silent up until now, watched the display with tired eyes. "It is an unfortunate fact of life here on Mor Ardain." He said quietly. "And not one that can be so easily rectified."
Next to him, his wife sighed. "We do what we can for the people of Mor Ardain, but even we have limits." She agreed sadly, wrapping her hand around his.
Well, that probably answered her earlier question about whether or not Percival was 'Vasara'.
Soon enough, the elevator reached the city. The party quickly filed out, leaving the car open for a group headed down to the port as they got their first view of the city itself.
In contrast to most Ardainian facilities she was used to, Chilsain was surprisingly rustic. Oh, there was more than its fair share of dark metal being used liberally as a construction material, but unlike their military bases, where it damn near coated every flat surface, the majority of the structures were actually composed of dark red bricks, with the metal serving as support.
Compared to something like, say, the relay base in Torigoth, Chilsain was actually quite welcoming, albeit in a still distinctly Ardainian way.
Perun continued to lead them on, away from the elevators and onto the main boulevard of the city. Much like on Tadbir, heading into the city center required a climb, although in this case a gentle incline rather than long, tall staircases.
As they progressed, flitting through the crowds, the disguised vigilante pointed out shops of interest to them; bakeries, armor smiths, general stores, even a machine shop that forced both Nia and Rex to hold Tora back from visiting. The proprietors seemed familiar with their hosts, offering polite greetings as they passed. It seemed that, even in their civilian guises, the vigilantes were quite popular among their neighbors.
Eventually, about halfway up the boulevard, they deviated onto a side street. Like the main one, this too was lined with shops, albeit smaller ones than previous. There was noticeably less traffic as well, a surprise considering how busy it had been just a minute ago.
They didn't remain on the street long, however. Soon enough, they turned again and proceeded even further up the hill. Nia was just beginning to wonder if they were going to be dragged through a veritable maze of streets before Perun and Percival came to a stop.
"Well, here we are." She said, gesturing to one of the buildings. It was a two-story affair, set on the corner of the street. The bottom floor was a shop, a sign over the door proclaiming it to be 'Wrotham Printing'. The windows displayed small signs with a selection of the printing packages offered within, but little else to invite potential customers.
Then again, printing wasn't exactly the sort of business that tended to draw in window shoppers, but Nia would have at least expected them to offer postage and stationary.
Presumably, the second floor held the couple's actual home, although it was impossible to discern any relevant details from here.
The woman didn't wait for them to comment, however, instead leading them into the building. The filed across the shop floor—fairly sparse; a small waiting area separated from what appeared to be smaller-scale mechanical printing machines by a simple service desk—and through a door leading to a steep set of stairs.
At the top was a moderately-sized house. The stairs opened into a comfortable-looking sitting room, dominated by a large couch. To one side was a kitchen large enough to serve a small family, while the other led into a short hallway with several more doors.
Noticeably, there were a large number of plants within the home. The collection was quite eclectic, too. There were Osirian Fennels, bonsai Azure Acacias, Choice Cherry bushes, and a few others she couldn't immediately recognize.
She didn't think those were common houseplants, but she was hardly an expert on the topic either. Maybe one of them was just an avid plant collector?
Perun smiled at them as they reached the top of the stairs. "Welcome to our home." She said. "We've prepared the guest rooms for you; those are the first two doors on the left-hand side of the hall. You're free to split them however you wish."
Looking at Rex, she continued. "I will not be starting lessons until tomorrow, so take the rest of the day to get yourselves settled in. If you have anything else you want to do in town, Percival and I will be more than happy to give you directions."
Rex spoke up. "Is there somewhere that I can send a message?" He asked. "I promised the Special Inquisitor that I would give her a heads-up when I came to Mor Ardain."
Oh, right. She had completely forgotten about that. Well, hopefully Morag wouldn't be too upset that they didn't warn her in advance.
"There is." Percival answered. "We can give you the directions later. For now, though, please make yourselves at home."
Author's Notes
And here we go! Three chapters into the new arc and we're already on Mor Ardain. I have a lot planned for this arc, so I didn't want to dawdle.
That being said, outside of the opening battle, most of this stuff is setup and settling in. But we're diving straight into the main plots of the arc starting next chapter.