Last Exile (ラストエグザイル) is a steampunk anime series produced in 2003 and created by Gonzo Digimation.

The story revolves around Claus Valca and Lavie Head, a young courier pilot and his navigator, and their adventures in the floating world of Prester. In this romantic sky world based on stylized Victorian fashion and society, two countries, Anatole and Dysis (sometimes phonetically rendered as Anatoray and Disith), are engaged in a long and bloody war under the supervision of the mysterious Guild. Claus and Lavie, piloting their vanship (a small wingless airplane-like machine) find themselves involved in a plot surrounding a mysterious little girl named Alvis Hamilton, whom they must deliver as "cargo" to the much-feared neutral battleship Silvana.

The animation features a combination of 2-D and 3-D CGI sequences; several key staff members such as the character designer Range Murata and Gonzo veteran Mahiro Maeda had previously worked on the production of Blue Submarine No. 6 which was done in a similar style.

The series is also notable for having much of the text in English but written with Greek letters, with all numbers given in Roman numerals.

The story begins with a minor skirmish between the Silvana and the fleet of Dysis in the Grand Stream, the result of which has the Silvana destroying several assailants and exiting the Grand Stream.

Claus and Lavie are introduced as they wake up in their joint home in the peaceful city of Norkia in Anatole and prepare to start their day as freelance vanship pilots. After taking off, they fly to the cliff near their town where jobs are allocated to vanship pilots and take Job 11, which carries a 3 star danger rating.

Meanwhile, the Guild sanctions Duke David Madossein to battle between the Anatole and Dysis fleets over Minagis. (This would become the Third Minagis Battle.)

Per their contract, Claus and Lavie fly to the home of Duke Madossein and collect 2 letters - one official and one from his daughter - to deliver directly to the Duke. While they are en route, the fleets of Anatole and Dysis deploy their riflemen and engage each other at point-blank range.

The Anatole fleet's riflemen beat the Dysis fleet's riflemen. It is at this time that Claus and Lavie arrive near the battlefield. The Anatole fleet offer a cease-fire, which the Dysis fleet refuses. Thus, the fleets engage each other with inter-ship artillery fire. The Anatole fleet wins again and the remnants of the Dysis fleet retreat. Claus and Lavie then land on the Duke's flagship, the Claihm Solais. They are preparing to deliver his message when suddenly a new Dysis fleet attacks from above.

The Guild does not intervene and rescind the Dysis fleet's drive-units even though it is a flagrant breach of their rules of warfare. Claus and Lavie are removed from the bridge and are ordered off the ship. However, they had left the official letter they were supposed to deliver on the bridge. The Duke decides to fight against the Dysis despite the Guild's betrayal and the unfavorable odds.

As Claus and Lavie prepare to leave the ship, they remember the child's letter and decide to read it over the ship's loudspeaker. A bridge officer orders riflemen to remove them and to stop them from reading more of the letter.

Partway through the reading, Claus and Lavie are captured. They are only allowed to continue reading when one rifleman (Mullin Shetland) mutinies and threatens the captors' leader. Claus and Lavie finish reading the letter and the Duke decides to retreat. Claus and Lavie leave the ship and are about to exit the battlefield, when Claus notices that the Dysis fleet will overtake the Anatole fleet. He first flies to the Guild ship to ask them stop the battle; when that fails, he decides to use the vanship's smoke to mask Anatole’s retreat.

As he starts to buzz Dysis warships, a red vanship appears and orders Claus and Lavie to follow them. The red vanship is from the Silvana, which has arrived at the battlefield. The Silvana then fires on the Dysis fleet against Anatole’s wishes. Surprised by the Silvana, the Dysis fleet retires from the field and the Anatole fleet escapes. Because of their actions, Claus and Lavie missed the qualification round for the famous vanship race the Norkia Cup, which means that they will start at the end of the lineup at a considerable disadvantage.

As Claus and Lavie sleep, a Guild star-shaped ship chases an unknown vanship. This unknown vanship is driven by Ralph Wednesday and its passengers are a mysterious girl named Alvis Hamilton (known as "the cargo") and her caretaker, Geta. This life-and-death pursuit in progress does not yet effect Claus and Lavie while they wake up and start their day.

Arriving at the starting point for the race of the 75th Norkia Cup, Claus and Lavie are derided for being young and are widely expected to lose. The race begins, and Claus and Lavie fly through the town and the surrounding countryside while steadily moving towards the lead. After a daring move in the corkscrew, Claus and Lavie pass Hurricane Hawk, the then leader and winner of the last Norkia Cup. They then collide midair with Ralph Wednesday's vanship and send it crashing to the ground. They land to assist the badly wounded Ralph Wednesday.

He then transfers to them his incredibly dangerous 7 star mission: to deliver Alvis (Geta having died) to the Temple Ruins for pickup. He tells them the star-shaped ship can detect vanship engines and he will become bait with the ship so they can get away through the canal. Claus and Lavie escape with Alvis while Ralph blows up his vanship near the star-shaped ship.

Back at their house, Claus and Lavie debate whether or not to take Ralph's mission. Claus wants to take the mission and eventually prevails over Lavie's refusal; he plans a trip through the canals. Lavie then begins running the vanship's engine to clear out the water - against Claus's wishes who believes the star-shaped ship is still around.

The three then go to bed and prepare to leave in the morning for the temple ruins. During the night, the star-shaped ship finds them and destroys their house while trying to get at Alvis. All three manage to escape into the canal and give their pursuer the slip. After traveling through the canal for a while, the star-shaped ship finds them again and chases them all the way to the temple ruins, where it damages part of the vanship, forcing them to crash-land. The star-shaped ship takes Alvis and prepares to leave, but Claus fights it. The star-shaped ship knocks Claus down and prepares to kill him when Alex Row and his men appear and shoot the pilot of the star-shaped ship.

Alex Row then takes Alvis, and pays Claus and Lavie. He then boards the Silvana and leaves. Claus, wishing to protect Alvis, repairs the vanship and siphons fuel out of the downed star-shaped ship. He and Lavie then pursue the Silvana. Meanwhile on the Silvana, Alvis wakes up and meets Sophia. When Claus and Lavie catch up and try to land on the Silvana, the ship fires at them and they are forced to crash-land on the lower deck.

While trying to find the bridge, Claus is beaten up by the engineering crew (led by Ethan) until Tatiana Wisla and Alister Agrew, whom they had already met as the crew of the red vanship, show up. Claus and Lavie are then taken to bridge, where they meet Alex again. At this point, Claus succumbs to his injuries and blacks out.

In the temple ruins, two Guild members Dio Eraclea and his bodyguard Lucciola investigate the defeat of the star-shaped ship and discover, through the surveillance recordings on the ship, the image of Claus protecting Alvis.

Meanwhile, Tatiana and Alister arrive at the emperor's palace and inform him that "the cargo" had been safely delivered. Back on the Silvana, Alvis explores the ship until Sophia takes her back to Claus. Claus is then brought to the bridge to talk with Alex.

Their conversation is interrupted when a klaxon announces that the Silvana is about to be attacked by the Guild. Claus and Lavie head to the hangar where a Guild star ship comes aboard. The ship is destroyed by the mechanics, but it crushes Claus and Lavie's vanship. Claus and Lavie decide to pilot one of the combat vanship and they attack another Guild star ship when it enters the hangar. They expend all their chambered ammunition on it and then ram it out of the hangar. The mechanic crew relocates to the top deck to support the vanships.

Claus breaks the Guild ship up and they fall into a steep decent. He regains control and begins to actively engage Guild ships. Meanwhile, Guild ships infiltrate the Silvana's residential zone from its vulnerable rear. On the Guild command ship, which orchestrated the attack, Dio and Lucciola decide to launch their ships to "have fun". They begin to engage Claus's and Lavie's vanship while the Silvana provides cover-fire for them. Dio refuses to shoot down Claus's and Lavie's vanship twice so that they can continue to duel. Claus shakes Dio's tail and he maneuvers behind him. However, while maneuvering, Lavie reds out, and is unable to chamber more rounds in Claus's guns.

At this time, Tatiana and Alister's red vanship arrives near the battlefield. They drop their empty supplementary fuel tanks and begin to engage Dio's and Lucciola's ship. Dio and Lucciola then split their ship in two, with Dio attacking Claus’s and Lavie's vanship and Lucciola attacking Tatiana's and Alister's red vanship. This dogfight continues until Dio almost shoots down Claus's vanship, but he and all other Guild ships are recalled due to fuel restrictions. Claus and Lavie land and Tatiana derides Lavie for her failure. Later that night, while they are celebrating, Lavie apologizes for her red out.

The Silvana then heads for Walker's Dock - a floating casino and repair shop, for repairs, refueling, and R&R in general. On their arrival, some of the crew go to the casino, including Lavie. While she is there, Lavie meets Mullin Shetland, the rifleman who let them continue reading the letter to the Duke. It turns out that Mullin left the Claihm Solais and wants to join the Goliath; the Goliath's captain mocks him when he asks to join due to his low status.

The mechanics too have come to the casino, but are put off by the Goliath's officers and their dishonest tactics. They almost start a fight , but are restrained by other mechanics. This relative calm does not last long though. During a bird race, one officer uses a flash camera to stun the leading bird, thus allowing the bird which the Goliath's captain bet on to win. Enraged, Lavie then throws a chair at the captains' winnings, and one of his officers grabs her. The mechanics takes this excuse to start a fight. On the Silvana, Claus wakes up and discovers Lavie is gone. He goes to find her and ends up with Alister in an elevator. When they arrive at the casino, they find the place in a near-riot condition. Mullin, having been insulted by the Goliath's captain, takes the opportunity to attack him, but is stopped by his officers. He is about to be run through by the captain's sword, but Walker, the proprietor of the casino, shoots the blade in half. At this moment, Alex arrives and tells his crew that they are leaving. The captain of the Goliath is enraged at Alex's demeanor and challenges him to a ship-on-ship duel. When the captain of the Goliath realizes it is the dreaded Silvana, he panics and attacks the Silvana before he is supposed to. The Silvana shrugs off the damage and destroys the Goliath.

After welcoming Mullin to the crew as a new mechanic, the Silvana then heads to Horizon Cave, for an 8-hour endurance race, which Claus and Lavie will be participating in. Tatiana and Alister will be flying in it as well, but for a secret operation related to EXILE. As per the rules of the race, Claus and Lavie are given a vanship, which they will repair and then fly in the race. Alvis is with them and she picks their vanship by random. While they are preparing for the race, Dio and Lucciola show up. It turns out that they will be involved in the race, which begins shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, Alex shows up at a masked black market auction to buy EXILE-related material. He sits next to Duke Nouls, who later turns out to be the father of the late captain of the Goliath. When the piece of EXILE appears for bid, Alex bids 10 million Claudia, which shocks the Duke.

Claus and Lavie are continuing to race and are near the front, with Dio and Lucciola following them close behind. In the bidding room, the bidding keeps getting higher as Maestro Delphine (leader of the Guild) starts bidding anonymously. When it reaches 50 billion Claudia, Duke Nouls' associates show up and prevent Alex from bidding anymore, allowing Maestro Delphine to win. Meanwhile, Tatiana and Alister prepare for their operation by dropping navigational bits on the sides of the cave. At approximately 12 midnight, Tatiana and Alister drop a bomb that takes out the area's power. Using the opportunity, Alex shoots Duke Noul's associates and escapes. He meets the real seller of EXILE and pays him 500 million Claudia for a Mysterion (House Hamilton's Mysterion: "What lies beyond the furthest reaches of memory?"). Even though the power is out, the race continues and Claus and Lavie barely win it with Dio and Lucciola a close second. When Claus and Lavie go back to their pit though, they find the mechanic team gone. With no fuel, they are forced to sit and wait. While they watch the fireworks, Lavie tells Claus that she will no longer be his navigator during war. After the war is over, she promises to fly with him in the Grand Stream like their fathers had tried. At this point, Dio and Lucciola find them and offer to fly them back to the Silvana. When they arrived, Dio and Lucciola board the Silvana as well.

Dio and Lucciola are promptly taken prisoner and taken to the captain. They are then assigned to be watched over by Claus, who Dio has begun calling Immelmann for his maneuver during the previous battle. Delphine has been made aware of Dio's and Lucciola's "capture", but she allows it to continue. Meanwhile, the Silvana is sent a message, which Tatiana and Alister collected. It is from Vincent Alzey, captain of the Urbanus. It requests a meeting with Alex to discuss "the cargo". Alex prepares to go and request Claus to fly as his escort. This angers Tatiana but Sophia reminds her to follow orders. Since Claus has no navigator, Alister volunteers to be his. At the meeting, Vincent informs Alex that he has an imperial decree from the Emperor for him to return "the cargo". Alex refuses and it becomes apparent that the Urbanus and the Silvana will fight each other at some point. Back on the Silvana, Sophia receives a letter from the Emperor's aide. She tries to tell Alex about it when he returns, but it was swept aside as the coming battle with the Urbanus took precedent. While this is occurring, Dio and Lucciola go to the engine room and discover that the engine was taken off a sunken ship. They also meet an old member of the Guild who runs the engine. Dio then goes to Alvis and reads her one mysterion (House Eraclea's Mysterion: What lies beyond the furthest reaches of the sky?) This causes Alvis to go into a coma-like state and to say "That which will lead the lost child back to its mother's arms: Exile" . This also causes the pressure to drop abnormally outside and for it to rise exponentially inside the Silvana.

After the abnormal situation resolves itself and Alvis returns to normal, though unaware of what had just transpired, the Silvana sets course for the Dragons' Fang to battle the Urbanus. The Silvana is put into battle alert status and all crew go to battle stations. While Tatiana briefs the vanship pilots on the coming engagements, she unexpectedly orders Claus to be her navigator. In the Dragons' Fang the Silvana engages four other Urbanus class ships and though Vincent anticipates some of Alex's moves, the Silvana manages to sink two ships. Meanwhile Tatiana and Claus's red vanship has been hit and as they begin to go down, they see the Silvana sinking as well.

As the red vanship begins to go down, Tatiana and Claus are able to straighten it out and make a crash-landing in the desert. They discover that a pipe that the Claudia flows through is damaged and needs to be repaired if they want to take off. Claus begins to repair the vanship, but Tatiana takes on an apathetic view and insists the Silvana is sunk. Claus manages to convince her that all is not lost and they talk awhile. Claus discovers Tatiana is a noble and Tatiana learns about Claus’s and Lavie's famous fathers. Meanwhile the Dysis people escape their cold country in rocket-like migration capsules. Some of the capsules that are launched fail and fall back to the ground, including one that appears to hold the remaining people who lived on Disith. Back in the desert, Claus and Tatiana manage to fix the vanship, but cannot fly very high off the ground. With Claus piloting the vanship and Tatiana navigating they head towards the Silvana's emergency repair site so they can further repair the red vanship. At the site they are captured by Dysis soldiers and are to be executed. The soldier sent to kill them couldn't follow through so after firing off one round the soldier runs away. Claus and Tatiana pursue the soldier and when the soldier falls it is discovered that she is a girl. She had run to the landing site of the Dysis capsules, where the other Dysis soldier stand, but is reduced to tears and begins to fire her rifle into the air in a mourning salute to those lost, as it appears that none of the people have survived to make the journey to Anatole.

Meanwhile, on the Silvana, Alvis watches over a hurt Lavie who dreams about her past. It is discovered that Claus and Lavie were brought up together and their fathers worked together while Claus's mother took care of the house as Lavie's mother died giving birth to Lavie. At a very young age they were taught all about flying and each father instructed their child (Claus's father being the pilot and Lavie's father being the navigator) about their respective jobs. While they were growing up a new vanship crew arrived, a young man and a girl. It was then when Claus's and Lavie's fathers had to go on a dangerous mission through the grand stream and the other vanship crew would help them. Later, the young man returns to inform Claus's mother that everyone on the mission died except for himself. Claus's mother died 6 months after that. Claus and Lavie eventually learn how to fly well, but are forced to sell the house to keep their fathers' vanship and live downtown. Back in the desert, Dio and Alister search for and eventually find Claus and Tatiana. They are welcomed back heartily; Claus however has to inform Lavie that Norkia has fallen to Dysis forces.

The Silvana, now having been sufficiently repaired, takes off and heads away from Dragons' Fang. Their target is Maestro Delphine. At the emperor's castle, Vincent is demoted for his failure and given another mission. Meanwhile, Dio shows Claus a picture he found in Alex's room showing their Claus's and Lavie's fathers in it. Claus asks if they have been to Norkia, but Dio says it came from the captain’s room. Claus confronts the captain about this and it is discovered that he was the young man in the photo and that he was the one who had informed Claus's mother that they had failed. Also he informs Claus that their vanship is actually his, not their fathers'. He then goes on to tell Claus that he will try to destroy EXILE. Meanwhile, Sophia receives a letter from the emperor's aide telling her to return and be crowned queen. She informs Alex and he does nothing to stop her.

Sophia departs to Imperial City to reclaim her spot as queen. Back on the Silvana, Mullin grows tired of his mechanic duties and wishes to become a rifleman once again. He wants to leave the ship and asks Tatiana to go with him, as he has long held feelings for her. She respectfully declines. At Imperial City, a general pushes for the Dysis fleet to be wiped out. Marius, the emperor’s aide, however, pleads for mercy. He is put under house arrest and confined to his quarters. When Sophia arrives, she takes her place as queen and tries to prevent the emperor from destroying Dysis, but she fails and is locked up in the tower. The Dysis people, realizing they are running out of land, attack Imperial City in a sneak attack. They land troops and begin to rapidly take over and destroy Imperial City. Dunya, the Dysis soldier girl, is involved in this operation. The forces outside the city attack the Dysis fleet with the Scolopendra Cannon, but it is not enough to stem the tide. Marius having escaped from his arrest attacks the emperor and they kill each other. In the tower, a guard tries to kill Sophia, but he is stopped by Vincent.

Sophia is taken to the Urbanus, which she allows Vincent to command again. He orders the Scolopendra Cannon to surrender and when it does not he destroys it. At this time Duke Madossein and his fleet arrive and they offer a truce to the Dysis fleet. They accept it and withdraw from the field. Meanwhile on the Silvana a courier message has arrived from two old vanship pilots. After reading the message Alex orders the Silvana to return to Horizon Cave. Alex then talks to the Guild rebel who runs the engine and he receives another Mysterion (House Dagobert's Mysterion: The waves that stain the land in gold.) He now has in his possession all four Mysterion, but only knows three of them. When the Silvana arrives at Horizon Cave, Walker greets them, says he will repair the Silvana and then and informs them that the "thing" is ready. While Claus and Alvis are wandering around the hangar at Horizon Cave they find Ralph Wednesday’s brother, Michael. He also realizes that his racing friends (Hurricane Hawk, Fat Chicken, and Sunny Boy) from Norkia are there as well training to destroy Guild Ships. Duke Madossein got the idea from Claus's and Lavie's actions at the Third Minagis Battle.

Princess Sophia flies to Nestor, the leader of the Dysis forces and hands him a copy of the letter that Claus’s and Lavie’s father along with Alex and Euris tried to deliver to them for peace. She then proposes an alliance which he agrees with. He also agrees that Sophia should lead both Anatole and Dysis. As a good gesture he gives them a map of the Grand Stream and a sound recording of EXILE itself. Winna, the Silvana sound officer, listens to the sound of EXILE, so they can find it in the Grand Stream. The Silvana heads towards the coronation of Queen Sophia, but without Mullin, who decides to stay behind in Horizon Cave and be a rifleman and help take back the ships Claudia units, and because he met Dunya and has feelings for her. When the vanship pilots arrive at the coronation they fly in formation and spray colorful smoke over the sky. As Sophia is crowned queen, Maestro Delphine and her battleship arrive at the site and drop rose petals everywhere. Dio loses complete control over his vanship and flies erratically throughout the sky because he fears his sister Delphine. Alex, spotting Delphine's ship, comes alive and wants to destroy it because he wishes to exact revenge against the Maestro. Alex wants revenge for Delphine's mocking laughter when she could have prevented not only the deaths of his companions in the Grand Stream flight, but also the war between the nations. She knew that EXILE was about to attack the two vanships, but rather than step in and prevent the vanships from going within EXILE's defensive range, she watched their deaths with mild enjoyment. He is calmed down by his crew, however, and they do not attack the Maestro.

After the coronation, Sophia and Vincent arrive at the Silvana and plan their operation to capture EXILE. They plan to use Winna's auditory skills and sonic torpedoes to detect the sound of EXILE. In the hangar, the mechanics provide Claus and Lavie with a sturdier chassis to better cope with the Grand Stream, which they planned to fly through. Claus then discusses Alvis's role with EXILE. She states that Alvis is the key to unlocking EXILE. Back at Horizon Cave, Mullin continues to fall more deeply in love with Dunya as they continue their training. Meanwhile, the Silvana, with the Urbanus as her shield, depart into the Grand Stream, roped together, to find EXILE.

The Silvana and the Urbanus begin their search for EXILE using the Urbanus to launch sonic torpedoes. Even though the ship is in silent running, Alvis decides to bake Dio a cake to cheer him up. The mechanic crew and Claus pitch in gifts for him and they sing a unique birthday song. Meanwhile, the Urbanus uses her last sonic torpedo and Winna is able to locate EXILE. The Silvana scrambles all her vanships and prepares to attach ropes to EXILE so they can drag it towards them. As the vanships near close to EXILE, however, a defensive system is activated and large tentacles flow out from EXILE and try to destroy the vanships near it. All seems lost until Claus, with Dio as his Navigator, recklessly dives into the tentacles and manages to securely attach a line. Now that EXILE is under control of the Silvana Alex give Sophia the control of all the Mysterions. However, Maestro Delphine has other plans and manages to land many Guild Ships on the Silvana.

Claus and Dio return to the Silvana and find it to be empty and lifeless. They explore the ship and find hot drinks indicating whatever happened, happened very quickly. They make their way to the bridge and discover the Maestro there in control of the Silvana and Alvis. Dio is stunned and is to afraid to do anything, the Maestro proceeds to take Claus and Alvis to Guild headquarters. While en route to their ships they are attacked by Alex who had been hiding, He manages to kill a few bodyguards but not the Maestro herself. Now she has Alex in her control as well and takes him with her. The Guilds capture of the Silvana was not total as some crew members had hidden successfully. Tatiana and Alister in particular mange to escape from the Silvana with Sophia. They fly over to the Urbanus and the Urbanus detaches from the Silvana. At Guild headquarters the Maestro makes Claus and Alvis change into Guild clothes and have dinner with her. Meanwhile Dio is taken to a special chamber which appears to alter a person's mind. When Dio joins them for dinner, his behavior has changed drastically. At dinner Delphine explains to them the Guild allegiance ceremony that Dio will undergo, if he wants to become Maestro.

Back on the Urbanus, Sophia request to go back to the now relatively safe Silvana and continue their plan. At the Guild headquarters Delphine is elated with Dio's new personality, but Claus and Alvis are frightened and outraged by it. From there they go to an expansive hall where the Guild's ceremony to find the next Maestro - the Trial of Agoon - is to be held. Dio and many other boys of his age walk in with him, where they are to fight to the death to claim the odd shaped sword in the middle of the hall. Delphine then brings Alvis to what appears to be the bridge with EXILE outside the window. She then brings Alex into the room, he is bound by roses that secrete a truth serum and she makes him repeat the 3 Mysterion he knows, with Alvis repeating the answer and EXILE visually responding to it. He does not know the fourth one though. This enrages Delphine and she physically tortures him until she learns that Sophia knows it. At this point the battle in the hall is over and Dio is victorious taking the sword from the pediment.

Delphine proceeds to the hall and greets the bloodied Dio who is to become the next Maestro. Meanwhile on the Urbanus, Vincent is saddened by Sophia's decision to go back to the Silvana, but respects it. He radios the Silvana informing them he will be their shield for the coming battle. Near Horizon Cave, the battle to take back the ships' Claudia units is about to begin. Mullin and Dunya nervously await the order to attack. It is at this point that Mullin asks if Dunya would like to serve on the Silvana after the battle. Dunya agrees and they happily embrace. The attack begins shortly thereafter. All the riflemen storm the Claudia unit and attempt to take it from the Guild operators inside. Dunya is knocked down and Mullin and her become separated. The battle is very intense and is almost lost, but Mullin bravely charges into the unit, kills the last Guild operator, and prevents the Claudia unit from leaving the ship. He is however gravely wounded in the process. At Guild headquarters Delphine is informed of the operation and orders all Claudia units rescinded immediately. While Delphine is gone, Claus and Alvis manage to have Lucciola help them escape. He brings them and Dio to a vanship and presents Alvis with a pilot's hat and a Guild communicator. Lucciola then blows part of the headquarters off and Claus, Alvis, and Dio escape. Lucciola stays however and fights his way to Delphine's room to plead for Dio's freedom. There he meets Cicada, Delphine's aide and his brother, and kills him. Delphine give him a ring and he is disintegrated.

Claus, Alvis, and Dio escape from the Guild headquarters, but crash-land. They wake up on Duke Maddossein's property. Claus looks for Dio and discovers he is in protected care as he is a member of the Guild. Meanwhile Alvis wanders around the property and finds Holly, the Duke's daughter, she is assumed to be roughly the same age as Alvis though it is not known. Now with the operation to take back the Claudia units complete the Duke orders all the ships that survived to follow him and they ready themselves to attack the Guild. Claus and Alvis leave Dio at the hospital and return to their home in Norkia. Dio later escapes in a hospital vanship. Their home had been mostly destroyed by the rampaging Guild ship earlier. Claus manages to round up some food and Alvis finds Lavie's old technical flight journal and keeps it for later study. It is now dusk and in the sky Anatole and Dysis ships engage Guild ships, the Anatole and Dysis ships have inferior firepower to destroy the Guild ships, the vanships however manage to compromise the Guild ships and destroy them from the inside. Anatole and Dysis fleets do end up taking many casualties. Back in Norkia after dinner, Claus and Alvis discover the communicator given to them by Lucciola is working and they talk to Lavie and then Sophia aboard the Silvana. Sophia instructs them to heads toward the Dragons Fang, but she is suddenly cut off. This is because an energy device hit the Silvana and communications were knocked out.

Out in the grand stream the Silvana, Urbanus, and the combined Anatole and Dysis fleet pursue EXILE. EXILE indiscriminately attacks Guild, Anatole, and Dysis ships with its long tentacles, except for the Maestro's ship. Meanwhile Claus and Alvis fly towards Dragon's Fang. They stop off at an in-flight fueling area, where they switch vanships and Alister becomes Claus's navigator. Delphine back on her ship manages to intercept Sophia's transmission to Claus and dispatches two Guild fighter pilots to destroy them since she likes EXILE just the way it is. Meanwhile, a signal activates in Dysis and a massive hole opens up in the ground. The signal then fires what appears to be a laser beam towards EXILE. EXILE receives the beam and begins to follow it.

En-route to the next fueling station, they are intercepted by the two Guild fighters Delphine dispatched. Claus manages to destroy one by blowing up the reserve fuel tanks, while Walker's floating Casino destroys the other. Claus, Alvis, and Alister arrive at the fueling station and Claus and Alvis transfer to the red vanship navigated by Tatiana. They arrive at the final fueling station and Claus meets up with Lavie; they board their vanship and all three of them (Claus, Lavie, and Alvis) heads toward the Grand Stream to meet up with the Silvana in Dysis. As they enter the Grand Stream an unknown vanship closely follows them.

The ship is piloted by Dio who seems to be out of touch with reality as he relives his race with Claus and Lavie in Horizon Cave. As he attempts to beat Claus and Lavie he ask Lucciola to get off the vanship (even though Lucciola isn't there, this was what Dio suggested he'd do during the race). Dio "wins" the race and then looks back where Lucciola is supposed to be. He is of course not there. Dio despairingly climbs out of his seat towards the back of the vanship and is swept off by the Grand Stream.

The ships of Anatole and Dysis continue to fight the Guild. As the Silvana prepares to attack Delphine, every other allied ship there shields the Silvana from EXILE's tentacles. As the Silvana moves to attack Delphine's ship the Urbanus is severely damaged, and blocks the Silvana's path. The Urbanus is evacuated quickly and the Silvana blows it to pieces. On Delphine's ship, Delphine gloats in front of Alex, Alex however manages to free his hand and grabs her neck and snaps it, killing her. On board the Silvana, Sophia gives the command to fire at Delphine's ship and they manage to destroy it, but kills Alex in the process. Claus, Alvis, and Lavie then arrive on the field. Claus manages to land on EXILE’s hull and speaks all four Mysterions to Alvis. Alvis in turn repeats the corresponding phrase for each Mysterion. This activates EXILE, and pieces fall off it as Claus, Alvis, and Lavie leave. At this point the true nature of EXILE and the world which the characters inhabit becomes apparent. EXILE, it would seem, is in fact an interstellar transport vehicle. The world in which the Guild, Anatole and Dysis exist is in reality an artificial biosphere, drifting somewhere in the depths of space. The "blue world" spoken of in the Mysterion is the original home of the peoples now living in this space colony. EXILE, long guarded by the decadent technocracy of the Guild, is the only means of returning to this planet, where there is abundant room and resources for all, and thus it is the only hope of liberation for the Anatole and Dysis, two cultures held in economic and social bondage, forced to live in a state of perpetual warfare, as a means of population control and resource management by the Guild. In the end we see that many, including Claus and Lavie, choose to go aboard EXILE and journey to this Blue World in hopes of starting a new life there, though many others stay behind, choosing to continue living in the world they have always known.

From Wikipedia