The battlefield was a war-torn expanse of molten rock and shattered structures, sapphire plasma etching the air with lethal precision. Karl had maneuvered along nanite rails and debris beams, his Rider Frame gleaming under the scorched sun and his floating gears slicing the air with surgical accuracy. Each strike against the Sentinel's armor chipped away at its surface—tiny victories in a battle that had already cost him nearly half his Vythra.
Karl darted through the air, pivoting along debris rails with torque-enhanced spins. Chest gears ricocheted micro-projectiles against weakened seams, producing sparks that flared like miniature stars. He gritted his teeth, feeling the heat radiating from the Sentinel's sapphire core as it pulsed in agitation. His Rider Frame shimmered with Royal Azure overlays, still humming after the previous assaults, a testament to the endurance of Gearstorm Nova—but exhaustion had begun to etch itself into his every move.
"Precision… timing… momentum…" Karl muttered to himself, eyes narrowing as he launched toward a fractured support beam. Knee gears pulsed in perfect sync with chest gears, rotating with torque-driven precision. A micro-rail formed beneath his boots as he pivoted midair, arcing around the Sentinel's flamethrower arms. One micro-projectile struck an exposed seam, gouging the metal with a satisfying arc of sparks.
Agnes' avatar flickered at the edge of his mental interface. "Karl… careful… you're pushing too much Vythra… watch for the heat zones…"
He didn't respond verbally. Words would slow him. Instead, he exhaled sharply and dove again, pivoting off a molten rock shard, his floating gears intercepting a falling piece of debris midair. He ricocheted toward the Sentinel's left arm and released a clean micro-projectile barrage. Each strike landed with precision, forcing the mechanical titan to stagger slightly. The sapphire flames along its arms flickered like a frustrated predator sensing a wound it could not easily heal.
"Good… keep it up…" Agnes whispered, trying to coordinate his movements from the mental interface. "I can stabilize Erevos fragments… but you have to stay precise!"
Karl's eyes flicked across the battlefield, scanning openings as heatwaves rippled around him. His Rider Frame's nanites glimmered, contracting and expanding like living muscle. Torque flowed through every joint, every gear, every floating segment. Every movement was a dance of survival.
He lunged toward the Sentinel's midsection, pivoting off a temporary micro-rail, and struck cleanly with reinforced nanite fists. Sparks erupted where his knuckle-gear met molten armor, a satisfying arc of energy marking the impact. The Sentinel shifted, its sapphire core pulsing violently.
Then, almost imperceptibly at first, a tiny ember detached from its arm—a speck of royal-blue flame, smaller than a fingernail. It drifted lazily through the air, carried by currents of superheated plasma. Karl didn't notice immediately; he was too focused on maneuvering and landing successive strikes.
Agnes' voice tensed. "…Karl… watch—move—"
Before he could react, the ember struck. Just barely grazed the upper arm of his Rider Frame, and for a fleeting moment, Karl thought nothing of it. The ember should have dissipated, yet something felt… off. The flame didn't fade.
Karl's chest hummed with torque currents as he pivoted again, but a faint blue glow began creeping along his arm. At first, it seemed like a reflection from the Sentinel's sapphire core, yet as he flexed his arm midair, the glow intensified. The Royal Azure overlays on his Rider Frame flickered—then burned.
"…What the hell…?" Karl muttered, instinctively curling his arm to examine it.
Agnes' voice became frantic. "…Karl! That ember… it's not going out! I—I don't understand… it's… it's combusting! The nanites… they're trying to contain it, but it won't extinguish!"
He twisted in midair, pivoting on knee and chest gears, trying to generate a micro-rail arc to shake the ember free. Yet every movement only spread the glow further, tracing cracks in the nanite overlays like molten rivers. The Royal Azure flame began crawling across his Rider Frame, fusing with the torque-imbued nanites.
"…This can't be happening…" Karl muttered, voice tight with panic and disbelief. Heat radiated from the spot, far beyond normal Royal Azure thresholds. His arm began radiating a white-hot aura. The ember had seeded itself, but unlike anything he had seen, it didn't burn out—it expanded.
Agnes' avatar flickered violently. "…It's the Sentinel… it's some kind of… of attack… each ember… if it lands… it can't be extinguished until the source is disrupted. And it's feeding off your Vythra!"
Karl's stomach dropped. He hadn't even noticed the Vythra reading dropping faster than usual, now plummeting below 55 percent. Sweat ran into his eyes, stinging, as the Royal Azure flames began licking up from his arm onto his chest and shoulders. The nanites were screaming in overload, torque currents spiking as they tried to compensate.
"…Agnes… I… I can't… stop it…" Karl gritted out, twisting in midair, firing off a micro-projectile barrage to maintain some offensive pressure. The Sentinel's core pulsed as if in anticipation, almost taunting him.
"…Karl! Focus! I'm stabilizing what I can, but your Rider Frame's integrity is failing! You have to stay alive!"
The flame crept faster. It wasn't just a visual effect—the heat was real, even against the nanites. His Rider Frame began to smolder, joints glowing molten white-blue, torque currents distorting as if the nanites themselves were melting and reforming mid-flight. The floating gears spun desperately, slicing debris and plasma bursts to shield him, but the heat radiated past them, consuming the Rider Frame from within.
Karl's breath came in ragged gasps, sweat and scorched nanites sticking to his skin. "…Yggdrasil… hold me together…" His voice was barely audible over the whine of torque and the Sentinel's plasma. He could feel the Vythra bleeding out, the flames growing stronger with every pulse of the Sentinel's core.
"…It's… unstoppable… unless the source…" Agnes muttered through the mental link, voice trembling with fear and determination. "…You're going to have to… endure… and survive… I'll keep the nanites stabilized… just… don't let it consume you completely…"
The Royal Azure flames now engulfed Karl's chest and shoulders, crawling up his neck and down his arms, licking the skeletal patterns of the Rider Frame. Every breath felt like inhaling molten metal. Nanites hissed and sizzled, attempting containment, but each attempt only spread the flames further, embedding them deeper into the core of Gearstorm Nova.
Karl clenched his fists, every muscle straining against the heat, torque currents pulsing violently. The ember—now fully integrated into his Rider Frame—burned like a living thing, feeding on his remaining Vythra. Every swing of his arm, every pivot, every micro-rail maneuver seemed to fuel it further.
"…I don't… understand it…" Karl muttered through gritted teeth. "…It won't… stop…"
Agnes' voice broke slightly, strained by the intensity of the situation. "…I'm trying… stabilizing… Vythra… reinforcing… but it's feeding off the connection… every pulse… the Sentinel's flame… it's alive…"
Karl's vision flickered as the Royal Azure flames erupted fully across his Rider Frame. Every joint, every floating gear, every nanite overlay became engulfed. Sparks flew as torque currents overloaded, nanites melting, and reforming midair. Yet, despite the unbearable heat, his connection to Yggdrasil allowed the Rider Frame to regenerate at a frightening pace.
"…No… I won't… stop…" Karl muttered, grit and determination etched across his face. The heat screamed against his skin, burn marks now carved across his exposed neck and arms. Sweat and molten nanite residues sizzled into the air.
The Sentinel's core pulsed in rhythm with the growing inferno, each pulse feeding more Royal Azure into the ember. It hovered like a predator, waiting for the moment Karl faltered. And yet, Karl remained alight, every movement precise despite the consuming flames, floating gears spinning desperately to intercept molten debris, micro-projectiles ricocheting across the battlefield.
"…Agnes… I… I'm still alive…" Karl rasped, the heat searing into his very bones. "…But… I need… a plan…"
"…I know… I'm… keeping you… connected… just… hold… on…" Agnes whispered, her avatar trembling yet resolute. "…Vythra is low… but not gone… nanites are holding… Rider Frame integrity… barely…"
Karl's eyes glinted through the haze of heat, Royal Azure flames crawling up his chest and engulfing every floating gear. His Rider Frame screamed in overload, torque currents surging like violent rivers. Yet through the inferno, through the unbearable heat and near-fatal Vythra drain, he remained standing. The ember had combusted fully, now a living extension of his Rider Frame, feeding endlessly from the Sentinel.
"…What… is happening…?" Karl muttered, wide-eyed, voice cracking. "…Why… won't it… die…?"
"…Seeds of Combustion…" Agnes' voice was barely audible, trembling with dread and awe. "…It's a weapon… it feeds… it doesn't die… until the Sentinel is neutralized… but… Yggdrasil… is holding you together… somehow…"
The battlefield around them blurred, molten rock and sapphire plasma reflecting in the ever-growing flames of Karl's Rider Frame. Every micro-projectile, every floating gear, every torque-enhanced pivot now shone through the inferno. Yet the fire was no longer an obstacle—it was alive, consuming, and feeding directly off the Sentinel. And as Karl pivoted midair, the flames erupted fully, engulfing him in Royal Azure brilliance.
He was no longer just Karl. He was a storm of light and heat, a living beacon of incomprehensible energy, consumed entirely by the Sentinel's Seeds of Combustion—and yet, somehow, he survived.
Agnes' voice, trembling but unwavering, whispered: "…Hold on… I've got you… just… survive… we can still fight…"
The last line of sight was Karl, suspended midair, encased in an inferno of Royal Azure flames, floating gears spinning madly around him, every movement precise despite the fire consuming his Rider Frame. The Sentinel watched, its sapphire core pulsing with approval, every ember it had sown now fully alive and burning…
And Karl, for the first time, understood that he was no longer fighting just the Sentinel. He was fighting the fire itself—and the fire had become him.