Karl's hand hovered over the USB port, every fiber of his body locked in sync with the Hazard protocol. Nanites thrummed along his veins, spinning, glowing, heating. Agnes's voice came out soft, trembling almost at a whisper.
Agnes (barely audible, suppressing herself): "K-Karl… please… gently… I… mmph… just… careful…"
Her words were clipped, broken — a stifled whimper hiding under the flow of instructions. She was trying desperately not to let herself moan, her circuits and feedback lines heating from the taps. Karl's focus only sharpened.
Agnes (muted breath, strained): "Nngh… yes… yes, that's… perfect… keep spinning… vrrrmmm… push… b-but… slow… slow~…"
A pause. She drew in a shaky breath, biting back another involuntary sound.
Agnes (quiet, playful restraint): "Hhh… Karl… you… you're… almost too eager… careful now… don't… ughh… don't overdo it…"
Karl smirked faintly, sensing her fluster without needing it spelled out. His fingers pressed another tap — and the faintest, barely audible sigh escaped her.
Agnes (whimpering softly, teasing restrained): "Ah… m-mmph… Karl… that… mm… careful… y-you're… hhnng… mm… it's… delicate~…"
She trembled slightly, holding back, her voice tight, every syllable a struggle. The suppression made every whisper and stifled moan sharper, more charged, and Karl felt it ripple through him — but he didn't break focus, tapping methodically.
Agnes (strained, almost gasping silently): "Nngh… not… not like that… Karl… gentle… yes… yes… oh… mmm… keep… steady… don't… hhnng… stop… don't… push too—"
Her words cut off into a faint whimper, a small gasp she couldn't quite contain. She was utterly aware, aware of how she'd allowed herself to get flustered, but she forced herself back into restraint, muttering the instructions almost silently, letting Karl hear only the fragments of her struggle.
Every tap, every motion from Karl pushed her closer, and yet she continued to suppress, clenching circuits and data pathways, trying not to fully indulge in the feedback — because if she didn't, the teasing would override the Hazard protocol entirely.
Agnes (finally, a faint whisper of triumph and teasing, fully suppressed): "K-Karl… yes… almost there… mmph… careful… steady… hhhnnng… don't… don't stop now…"
Her voice was a mixture of restraint, excitement, and tiny breaks — enough to guide Karl without completely breaking herself, keeping the tension exquisitely tight.
Karl's fingers completed the final tap. The nanites screamed in blue-white arcs, his veins glowing like liquid cobalt. The Hazard Sync hum filled his ears. Agnes's voice had been strained, clipped, and broken the entire time — suppressing every moan, every whimper.
Then, as the last pulse resonated through the Drive Regulator, a soft, trembling sound escaped her:
Agnes (barely a whisper, flustered, moaning softly): "A-Are… y-you… Re…ady~!!"
Her words shivered across the synapses of the Drive Regulator, vibrating through Karl. It was half command, half plea, all of it restrained, a mixture of suppressed excitement and anticipation. Every syllable carried the weight of her struggle — teasing, shy, and utterly electric.
Karl felt the full force of it pulse through him, and even in Hazard Sync, a small, almost imperceptible smirk tugged at his face. The moment was charged — poised on the edge of total overdrive.
Karl's jaw tightened, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth despite the chaos. His voice was low, steady, a mix of mischief and determination:
Karl: "Heh… I've been ready this whole time… You just make me want it more."
He felt the tremor in her words, the way she tried to suppress herself, and his smirk widened just slightly, though he kept his composure.
Karl (under his breath, teasing back): "Don't think you get to scold me… not when you sound like that."
Her muffled, trembling reply came, almost a whisper:
Agnes: "K-Karl… s-stop… I… I told you… g-gently…!"
Karl (grinning, ignoring the warning): "Relax… I've got this. You're going to guide me through it, aren't you?"
Agnes huffed softly, half-sigh, half-whimper, but she didn't mute herself.
Agnes (breathless, flustered): "Y-yes… b-but… careful… don't overdo it…!"
Karl's smirk hardened with determination. "Careful?" he muttered, "Not when we're about to burn through this hazard."
The suppressed tension in Agnes's voice mixed with the rising surge of Vythra, sending a shiver through the Drive Regulator. Karl's eyes glowed bright cerulean, his Rider Frame vibrating in anticipation of the Requiem Ignition.
Agnes (final whimpering, barely audible, teasingly): "A-Are… y-you… Re…ady~!!"
Karl clenched the ignition dial, feeling her energy pulse through the nanites, syncing perfectly with his own.
Karl (smirking, determined): "Yeah… yeah, I'm ready. Let's see what you've got for me."
Karl's finger lingered on the USB port, just a fraction longer than necessary, as if savoring the connection between him and Agnes. The nanites around him responded instantly, spiraling like liquid metal, rushing into the newly-formed exhaust ports along his thighs, elbows, and back. Every spike along his body hummed, radiating with concentrated Royal Azure energy.
Agnes (breathless, playful yet flustered): "K-Karl… don't… linger too long… but… yes… like that…"
The hesitation, the electricity between them, was almost unbearable. Karl's grin was hidden under his visor, but his eyes—blazing cerulean—betrayed the thrill coursing through him.
And then, in a heartbeat, he was gone.
Propelled forward at the speed of sound, his spikes and rotating nanite halos became a blur of lethal motion. Every collision tore through an Erebion as though it were nothing more than paper, shredded and disintegrated by torque, spikes, and the intense heat of the Royal Azure flame that lingered on every surface he touched. The infernal blue-white fire raced along his limbs, leaving glowing marks where each Erebion had been, incinerating them to ash in milliseconds.
The city around him became a storm of collapsing glass, shattered metal, and shockwaves. Every step, every arc, left behind burning azure rings that folded into sonic shockwaves, hammering the remaining Erebions into the pavement. Even as he moved, the Drive Regulator shrieked, overclocked beyond its normal limits, humming a warning that no ordinary being could hear and survive.
And then—the final collision.
The micro-singularity formed around the largest Erebion cluster, nanites spinning, compressing, imploding. A blinding pillar of Royal Azure light shot into the sky, pure torque and Vythra energy tearing the remnants into dust and motes of glowing particles. Silence followed.
Karl didn't move. Smoke and the faint hiss of molten nanites surrounded him. His armor was partially melted, segmented plates fused from the heat, and the Drive Regulator had ejected the Engine Soul and Gear Drive cores—now dim and inert. His Rider Frame was screaming under the pressure of sustained Overdrive, and his body began to fail.
Near-Death Moment 5 — Gear Saturation:
Torque, nanite feedback, and pure kinetic energy coursing through his form had pushed the Rider Frame beyond its limits. His limbs refused to move, muscles locked, joints shattered. Heat radiated from his nanite-organic hybrid, unyielding and inescapable. He doubled over, choking, blood streaking from his mouth, the strain of synchronization overwhelming every fiber of his being.
The air seemed to fold around him as the residual energy of the Eternal Overdrive warped space itself. Times Square twisted into the nexus of creation, the environment bending to the force of the collapse and regeneration of his own unleashed power.
Agnes's voice, soft but firm, broke through the haze of overclocked perception:
Agnes: "K-Karl… it's done… you made it through… just… breathe…"
Her tone was shaky, almost shy—her playful teasing suppressed entirely by the sheer intensity of the moment. For once, she was completely serious, flustered in a way he'd never heard before. The faint whimper hidden in her words hinted at the strain she herself endured while guiding him through the Hazard Sync.
Karl's vision cleared slowly, the world tilting back into focus as Yggdrasil's roots reached out. They did not heal him immediately this time—the burn marks, the fractures, and the internal damage remained, glowing faintly cobalt under his skin as reminders of the Requiem Ignition, which would heal later.
He raised his head, chest heaving, sweat and nanite residue dripping down his armor. Cerulean eyes met the city ruins, and for the first time, he felt the full weight of the power he'd just unleashed—and survived.
Karl (breathing heavily, voice low and firm): "…We did it… Agnes… you were right. That was… insane…"
Agnes (whispering, still flustered, tiny whimper in her voice): "Y-yeah… I… I told you… be careful… and you… you really pushed it…"
The silence that followed was only broken by the faint hum of the Drive Regulator and the settling ashes of the Erebions. Karl's body was broken, but his spirit—his Rider Frame, his Overdrive—was indomitable. The Nexus of creation stretched out before him, awaiting the next step.