After the whole incident with the artificial blades. We went to rex's home on the titan leftheria. It's the place where he grew up. We'd visit rex's old home while we tried to figure out another way to the world tree. The walk was what i'd expect. With monsters a plenty. Some producing gravestones like all special monsters do. The walk in that under cloud sea was beautiful and funny with poppi giving it to tora for staying locked up and not seeing the sun. got a good chuckle out of that. We made it near the village. We saw kids jumping off a cliff and into the cloud sea…well you gotta entertain yourselves somehow.

"That takes me back!" rex said with a laugh.

"What the hell? You wouldn't catch me dead doing that." nia said. Baffled by what she was seeing.

"Don't knock it until you try it! It's how we all learned to swim in the clouds!" rex said with a smile.

"You mean, you did that too?" pyra asked.

"Yeah of course, it came in really handy when I became a salvager." rex said.

"I can't stand it up there. It's not like water, feels like the clouds are wrapping all around you." nia said.

"Nia…you are such a scaredy cat." i said with a grin as she gave me the stink eyes.

"You get used it to it real quick, he want to give it a go?" rex asked with a smug smile as he walked towards nia.

"Wha-hey no! Get away from me! Don't touch me!" nia yelled as jumped away like a child. I snickered.

"Stop it rex. Don't tease her." pyra said. Reprimanding her driver.

"Right right." rex said…he was not sorry at all.

"Honestly. When are you gonna grow up a little?" nia asked.

"When are you scaredy cat?" i said with a grin.

"This scaredy cat can gouge your eyes out, remember that kaku!" nia yelled.

"Plenty of monsters worse than you have tried nia, but go ahead. Flip that coin." i said with a smug grin.

After that. We finally made it to rex's village. A bunch of kids immediately ran towards him. He was pretty popular here. No surprise considering he's been aiding these folks for a while. Hell most of that 100,000 gold went to these folks.

"That's our mark. He'll be going to school in indol soon, thanks to the help you've been sending us." an old woman who approached us said.

"Auntie corinne! Good to see you!" rex said with a smile.

"Wow, this is quite a welcome…" pyra said with amazement.

"I didn't realize you were sending your money home. That's very admirable for such a young man." dromarch said.

"Home. huh…" nia said somberly.

"Old lady have lots of littlepons!" tora yelled.

"Masterpon, these clearly not all littlepons of same parent." poppi said. Annoyed at her driver's stupidity. Corinne noticed the little dragon taking residence in rex's helmet.

"My word! Is that old azurda there? What have you gone and done to yourself?" corrine asked.

"Long story short. An airship riddled him with bullets. This was the only way he wouldn't die." i said. Corrine looked at me jin and lora.

"Oh my. I never thought i would meet three legendary heroes today. The berserker. The paragon and the samurai of torna." corrine said.

"You know about us?" lora asked. Corrine nodded and explained that when indol attacked torna years ago. Addam lead civilians here until it would blow over but those people made this place their home. Addam despite how things went down in the final battle. Addam still had respect for us…for me…heh. As everyone went with corrine to rest. I saw rex and pyra walking towards somewhere else. Me and mythra followed to find a graveyard.

"Where are we?" pyra asked.

"My parents graves…" rex said somberly. I made myself and mythra known as we approached. "Good timing…i wanted you two to meet them as well." rex said as he turned his attention back to the grave stones hey, mum…dad…it's been a while. A ton happened, you know. I became a driver! And this girl…is pyra. My new partner. I know you'd love her…and those two are kaku and mythra. The berserker of torna. He's been training me. It's quite an honor to have a legendary hero training me." rex said somberly…rex…i'm no hero…never was…never will be. "We're going to elysium. Me. him, pyra. Mythra. I don't know what's coming next…but i know you'll be watching over us, right guys?" rex asked. After a quick prayer. We all headed back to aunt Corrine's place to rest. there i saw poppi using tora as bongos which was pretty cute. Pyra was helping corrine do the dishes.

"I'm so sorry. Making you wash up like this." corrine said to pyra.

"No no. it's fine. Don't worry about it." pyra replied…i couldn't get what happened today off my mind. So i decided to ask corrine. After corrine was done teasing pyra about rex bringing a girl to meet him and about old stories about blades and drivers getting married. Causing pyra's cheeks getting red which was cute i decided to pop the question.

"Corrine…what happened to Rex's parents?" I asked. Outside the house. Corrine told me that rex was two years old when his mother stumbled into the collapsed. Was it war or a dying titan? All that was known was that their home was gone and they ended up assured here. Bringing rex here was the last amount of strength she had. His father was long dead three titanpads away. That night. While i was in bed. I can't help but look towards rex…someone so young. Has suffered so much. After hearing his story. I wanted him to get to elysium more than ever…so i stepped outside and activated my armageddon lord form. And flew close enough to the world tree for ophion to pop out his head.

"Long time no see ophion….i don't know who rebuilt you. But i don't care…if you don't want to end up scrap again…get out of our way!" i yelled. Ophion's response was a blast of laser. One i swiftly dodged. With a sigh. I summoned my sword of the wasteland and charged up causing to become incredibly long. I slashed at ophion. Carving him into two as his body exploded. I'm pretty everyone felt that explosion. So i headed back to leftheria. I reverted back after landing in front of the village. And sure enough that explosion woke up everyone.

"Kaku what the hell was that!?" mythra asked.

"Ophion…that dumb snake is out of our way now. Let's all head to bed. I'm tired." i said i didn't even listen to what they said as I headed back to my bed and crashed hard. Using that form took a lot out of me.

In my dreams I find myself back at the tree. Alongside mythra. At the tree was a familiar hooded figure…

"Addam…what the hell do you want?" i asked. Soon a vision filled me of a place not far from where we were…a tomb? Soon the dream ended. I told everyone about it. And they agreed to follow me and mythra. Going down the cavern. Our blades were all weakened due to the lack of either down here. We had to stop for breaks because of nia. I knew she was a blade. The fact that she was weak here should have shown that she was a blade. But alas I'm surrounded by idiots. Rex gave her an air can. It helped her a bit. During that break she opened up a bit to rex. And soon told us her story. No doubt she's leaving some parts out. But i knew that soon after her father passed away she was chased by amalthus's goons. And that's how she ended up on the employ of malos. A flesh eater on the run. The perfect recruit for malos. Despite feeling like the world was against her and dromarch. She didn't want to see it destroyed. Glad to see she was opening up to us. Soon we reached the end of the cave. I saw addam's crest in the wall.

"Alright. Addam. What did you want to show us?" I asked. As soon as i sad that. Shadow doppelgangers of our old friend appeared before us. Wielding dark copies of the aegis sword. We kept cutting them down. But they just kept coming. A bunch of them dogpiled on me and mythra. We were all getting overwhelmed. Rex was fighting his best only to get knocked to the ground wounded.

"Rex!" nia yelled. "No…kaku is right…if i stay back and let this happen…then i truly am just a coward…but i'm done…i'm done being afraid! I'm done hiding!" nia yelled as energy erupted from her body changing her into blade form. As the shadows were knocked off my back. I stood up and smirked at nia.

"Look at that…ready to step up to the plate nia?" i asked. She nodded as all of our wounds healed and she approached rex. And kneeled down to him.

"I am burdened no longer. Not by my past. Not by malos. Kaku was right. If i stood back and let you all die because i was too afraid…then i am nothing more than a coward. And i wouldn't be able to forgive myself…" nia said as she grabbed rex's hand. "I am no longer afraid. This is who i am. What's the point of living if I have to hide? Thank you for helping me see that. I love you rex." nia said. Leaving rex baffled. More shadows came our way. But nia stepped in and summoned her weapon. A scimitar and sent blasts of water at the shadows. Only for more to pop in. it was time for me to step in. not that i'm not being dogpiled. More of them came at an exhausted nia. Only for rex to step in and take them down.

"Nia..i love you too! I love you and all you guys! So let's do this together!" rex yelled as he offered nia his hand. I shook my head…rex you dense idiot. Nia giggled and took his hand.

(author's note: kaku is in for a big surprise at the end of this story ¬‿¬)

As the fight continued. A voice went off in my head. And judging from rex asking who's that. I'm guessing he was hearing it too. And soon a flash of light filled the room me and rex soon found ourselves back at the tree. And the hooded figure. Who soon loyal his hood to reveal addam.

"It's been a long time old friend." addam said. My response was to punch him in the face.

"That was for locking me up for 500 years you spineless coward!" i yelled.

"I apologize for that…pyra told me of the battle 500 years later…but still i should have had your consent first…i'm sorry." addam said only for me punch him again. "Ow! What was that for!?" addam yelled.

"For luring us into the never ending shadow deathtrap! Some warning would have been nice you fricking spaz!" i yelled.

"Right…sorry." addam said as he got back up rubbing his bruised cheeks. "Rex…kaku what is that you seek?" addam asked.

"What i seek…you already know. I want to free this world from malos. I screwed up royally 500 years ago as you well know. I seek to do it right. At first i only sought redemption. But after seeing how titans are dying off and how it left orphans." i said as i looked towards rex. "I want to find a solution to that. Even if we stop malos. He would get what he wants eventually. Which is why i'll see this through to the end. Finding elysium and saving this world from it's slow death…that's a cause i can get behind." i said with a grin. Addam smiled back.

"Nice to see you haven't changed in 500 years kaku…what about you rex? What is it that you seek? Wealth? Power? dominion?" addam asked.

"None of those really…but power might be useful then…power to protect," rex said.

"Protect what?" addam asked.

"Gramps, nia, tora, jin, lora, everyone in fonsett... kaku, pyra, and mythra." rex said. I don't need protecting. But i appreciate the sentiment.

"You are greedy,boy" addam said with a hand on his hip.

"Everyone in argentum used to tell me that." rex said.

"Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. Though there's a limit to what you can do rex. Even as the driver of the aegis…but that's why you're not alone. I can watch the backs of those you can't at the moment. While you watch my back. Rex. there's something i wanted to say for a while. A 15 year old salvager you may be. You have the potential to be an even greater driver of the aegis ever was. Hell we both do. Because we both have something addam never did." i said with a smile.

"Really? And what's that?" rex asked.

"The power to accept her." me and addam said at the same time.

"I was afraid of her power..but kaku wasn't. It's why I left her with him. For he had the strength to accept her. After all. He was the one who believed she could be better. And fought to do that for her. When we all gave up on her." addam said. As soon me and rex saw flashbacks to all of those memories. Of mythra's face getting red when i said she had goddess level beauty. Great architect. I was dense at that time. My rant on how she could be better. Our self improvement training. The laughs we had at addam's expense. And the two times mythra kissed me on the cheek. Soon was the memories of rex with pyra. The night at the camp. The meal she cooked at tora's place. The hilarious reaction to poppi's first boot up…honestly it did not surprise me. The time she was healing his wounds. And all the times he fought hard to protect her. I couldn't but help but smile.

"I'm sorry to leave this to you when you should be allowed to rest old friend." addam said.

"Even if i was. I'd probably come back from the dead…i refuse to die until my mission is complete. Besides who will tease lora and jin if i'm not around." i said with a smug grin.

"You really haven't changed at all…goodbye. Kaku. and good luck." addam said. Before disappearing before we returned to the real world. Both my sword of the wasteland and aegis swords began to glow. And move towards each other. And soon a bright light filled my view as the two swords merged. And we found ourselves back at the place where we fought those shadows. Though i looked down to see that there was a greatsword in my hand made of two different beams. Mythra's green blade and my sword's blue beam. Alongside that i was wearing armor that even came with a cool mask. how did i not notice that before. I noticed rex was wearing similar armor. To mine. His sword has turned into a silver sword similar to the one that was now dust after i tried to grab it. I noticed a change to the aegis girls as well. Pyra has changed into a girl with long green hair in a ponytail. Along with a crystal coming out of her head like a unicorn's horn. Wearing similar armor to what we were wearing. Mythra was a similar change except her hair changed to light blue one of her eyes was glowing a shiny red along side her green eye. Her armor was purple where it was blue for pyra and black as where it was white. And instead of a crystal like a unicorn she had two crystals in the form of devil horns.

"Rex. kaku. What the heck happened?" nia asked.

"Long story. We'll explain once were out of here." i said. It was time for long trek back..but hey. I'd say this dungeon crawl had a sweet sweet reward..not only did i gain a bit of power…but my chest does feel a bit lighter…thanks addam.