The skeletal frame shimmered faintly in front of him, flickering in and out of form like a ghost caught between dreams and matter.
Karl stood silently, his breathing shallow but steady now. His hands ached from overuse — though there was no true flesh to ache — and his mind burned with focus so sharp it bordered on pain.
"Core conduits next," he muttered, brushing dust from his palm. "If the channels can't stabilize Vythra flow, the whole thing'll detonate again…"
The Nexus was a cathedral of motion and light.
Infinite blueprints hovered in the air — shimmering filaments of design, shifting with each breath Karl took. The forge's pulse resonated through the void, rhythmic and endless, like a heartbeat that belonged to creation itself.
Karl stood at the center of it all — visor dimmed, Drive Regulator faintly humming, his armor's glow reduced to a ghostly shimmer. The skeletal remains of his mech frame floated before him: incomplete, disconnected, waiting for a mind capable of sculpting life from code.
"Alright… torso assembly," he muttered under his breath, tightening his gauntlets. "Central frame… energy arteries… conduit spine… Come on, think, Karl. You've done this before."
He flicked his wrist — and streams of light erupted from his palms.
Blueprints unfolded midair, transparent and spinning — hundreds of layers detailing joints, pressure nodes, reactor sockets, nanite density ratios. Each projection overlapped another, until the air itself became a maze of floating data.
He stared at the wireframe torso floating midair.
Thin, faint threads of cobalt light ran through the spine — arteries of power waiting to be filled.
Karl extended his hands and projected a diagram beside it — hundreds of thin white lines mapping out energy currents, valves, and junctions. The blueprints hovered like constellations, constantly shifting as if alive.
Karl narrowed his eyes, tracing one projection with a finger.
"No, no, this section's off-balance. Needs reinforcement on the dorsal plate…"
He swiped left, and the entire schematic rearranged with a mechanical chime.
Nanites gathered around the forming torso, weaving metallic ligaments and spinal struts in the shape of what would one day be Erevos' heart.
The forge flared in recognition, golden embers spiraling upward — as though the realm itself was observing his work. Karl ignored it. His focus tunneled in on the growing structure before him, every gesture of his hand altering its form.
At first, it went smoothly.
The energy veins pulsed evenly. The joints connected. The spinal lattice held together.
Then came the hum — low at first, then louder. A vibration deep within the construct.
Karl frowned.
"No, don't you dare—"
The light spiked.
A surge of raw Vythra overflowed through the half-finished core, searing lines of blue across its chestplate. The mech's torso shuddered violently before detonating outward in a burst of nanite fragments.
The shockwave hit Karl square in the chest.
He stumbled back, coughing out a breath that shimmered with light. The debris dissolved into particles before hitting the ground.
He stood still for several seconds, eyes wide, heart pounding inside his synthetic ribs.
"Too much flow again," he muttered through gritted teeth. "The spine couldn't regulate output."
He opened his palms, summoning the design once more.
It formed slower this time — like the Nexus itself was watching, waiting to see if he'd falter.
Karl exhaled. Focus.
He reconfigured the internal architecture — reduced the pressure channels, reinforced the outer coil casing, and lowered the conduit resistance ratio by twelve percent.
> "Adjust the intake valves… reroute primary surge lines…"
The mech's chest reformed, this time glowing more softly.
Karl dared a small smile. "There we go—"
BANG.
Another explosion — this time smaller, localized around the rib structure.
The left plate shattered into dust. Karl shielded his face instinctively.
"Are you kidding me!?"
His voice echoed through the Nexus, bouncing back in metallic reverb.
Even here, in a divine forge that obeyed no laws of physics, frustration felt real. The forge dimmed briefly, as though embarrassed for him.
Karl sighed, lowering his head. "Right. Fine. My bad."
He crouched, dragging his hands across the metallic floor — tracing glowing schematics with his fingers. The blueprints shifted under his touch, showing energy diagrams, balance equations, kinetic sync ratios.
He stared at them silently. The light reflected in his cerulean eyes.
His mind wandered — back to the days in the hospital. The days before the accident. The nights he'd sketch endless machines in his notebook, only to tear them apart and start again.
Failure was part of it.
He knew that.
He just… hated that it still hurt this much.
"C'mon, Karl. You've built this before. You made the Erevos frame from scratch, for crying out loud…"
He forced a weak laugh. It didn't reach his eyes.
He stood again, rolling his shoulders. "Alright. One more time."
He spread his hands wide — nanites flaring to life, swirling in a massive halo around him.
The skeletal torso began to take shape again. This time, he spoke to it — almost whispering.
"You don't get to break this time, alright? You hold. You listen."
The nanites responded.
The channels glowed a softer blue, their flow even.
He added stabilizers along the ribs, reinforcing the pressure joints, then aligned the spinal ports until they clicked into perfect sync. The hum softened.
He dared to hope.
The torso flickered once — twice — then stabilized.
Karl let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. His hands trembled slightly as he reached out to touch it — the faint metallic surface still warm from the residual forge energy.
"There you are," he whispered, voice hoarse. "Still a little crooked, but you're alive."
He circled the construct, inspecting each joint. The stabilizer flow wasn't perfect — the left vent was leaking Vythra in microbursts, and the spinal alignment leaned a few degrees off-center — but it was stable.
Karl leaned against a column of light, exhausted yet proud.
For the first time in hours — or maybe days, time was strange here — the Nexus was quiet.
He looked up at the flickering blueprints surrounding him — fragments of designs for the arms, legs, and core. Each floated like stars waiting to be assembled.
"Torso done. Mostly."