The orb in the USB port flared, flooding Erevos' armor with raw, unrestrained light. The bunker trembled under the sheer torque building within the Drive Regulator. Karl grit his teeth, the ignition dial still humming under his grip.
Then it happened.
"GEARSTORM NOVA — HALF SYNCHRONIZATION!!"
A shockwave ripped outward, pulverizing the shattered floor beneath his feet. The eight massive gears orbiting him ignited in a deep royal azure blaze, their edges glinting with nanite fire. For a second, the entire battlefield was drowned in cobalt light.
Steam roared from Erevos' joints—shoulders, elbows, knees—pouring out like a locomotive engine pushed to its limits. The spinning gears along Karl's back and spine accelerated, each one whirling at speeds that tore the air apart. The rotation wasn't just motion—it was pressure, a controlled cyclone of raw kinetic energy.
Agnes' voice emerged through the roar, low and feral yet utterly focused:
"HEAT LEVELS—RISING! 200… 300… 400 CELSIUS AND CLIMBING! CONVERTING EXCESS THERMAL MASS TO GEAR PROJECTIONS—NOW~!"
At once, new gears materialized from pure nanite vapor, each one forming over his shoulders and along his back like turbine fans. They spun faster and faster, venting plumes of blinding white steam. The smoke flooded the battlefield, cloaking Karl's silhouette in a hazy infernal glow.
Agnes purred through the comms, voice glitching between elation and madness:
"Hahh~ yesss… look at them burn… look at US burn. Torque stabilized, Karl! I'm pushing your heat out—spin it faster, let it flow!"
Karl clenched his fists, the gauntlets glowing molten blue. The nanites shifted along his armor, forming jagged Aegean and Cerulean tracery that pulsed with his heartbeat. The steam burst from the vents again—violent, rhythmic, almost like breathing.
"Gearstorm Nova active," Karl said calmly, eyes scanning the smoke. "Thermal feedback… mitigated."
"Mitigated?" Agnes laughed, a wild static crackle in her tone. "We're thriving in it! Come on—test it! Let's paint the city blue!"
He raised his arm; the forearm blaster whined. A gear shot forth, spinning faster than the eye could follow. The projectile struck the nearest demon—a Nyghoul—and the result was catastrophic. Torque energy exploded outward, shredding flesh, bone, and even the ground beneath. The nanites within the gear destabilized upon contact, releasing a wave of internal disintegration that left nothing but a blue smear.
Karl stepped through the mist, gears whirling like halos behind him, steam venting from his armor in heavy breaths.
"Fire rate's good. Output consistent."
"Hah~ consistent enough to kill everything that moves, Karl!" Agnes shrieked. "Lock on~ Lock on~ Lock on~—LOCKED IN!!!"
Three gears shot outward in perfect synchronization, tearing through the smoke. The city's edge lit up with detonations—blue light, fire, and flying debris. The air filled with the sound of grinding metal and shrieking demons.
Karl exhaled slowly, calm amidst the chaos. Every demon that lunged toward the smoke vanished into spinning azure light. The turbines on his back roared louder, converting his excess Requiem heat into raw destructive potential.
"Gearstorm Nova…" Karl muttered, raising his hand as steam curled around him, "…not just suppression tech—it's rebirth."
Agnes responded in a dark, almost reverent whisper:
"Then let's be reborn together, Karl… in the storm of gears and fire."
The steam thickened, cloaking them both completely. The last thing the demons saw before the slaughter began was the faint, cobalt glow of rotating gears cutting through the fog like halos of judgment.
The city's skyline was bathed in darkness, only the faint red glimmer of molten fires illuminating the streets. Kurogane Karl's eyes glowed Admiral Blue as he stood atop the crumbling rooftop, the massive form of Erevos looming behind him. Steam hissed from the spinning navy and cobalt gears wrapped around his shoulders, pumping residual heat from Requiem Ignition like a living furnace. Eight solid gear projections hovered around him, each spinning with deadly precision.
"Agnes… ready?" Karl muttered, his voice firm but low.
"Lock on~ Lock on~ Lock on~ Locked in!!!!" The AI's voice cut through his mind, sharp and feral. "Let's shred them, Karl! Don't hold back! KILL THEM ALL!!!"
Karl's hand rested on the ignition dial, fingers twitching with anticipation, while his other tapped the new gear activation button. A burst of kinetic energy ran through him as the first projectiles shot out — gears spinning, glinting navy-blue, slicing through the nearest cluster of Nyghouls. Each impact sent shards of blackened flesh and demon ichor spraying across the street, the metallic clang of gears meeting exoskeletons ringing in the air.
He leapt forward, landing with a mechanical precision only possible with Erevos's torque-assisted legs. A pair of Rendracer demons charged from the alleyway, claws scraping sparks from the pavement. Karl spun one of the hovering gears horizontally, the centrifugal force flinging it like a spinning disc. It connected with one of the Rendracer's heads — clean decapitation — then ricocheted back into the air, ready to strike again.
"Faster, Karl~ Vrrrmmm~!" Agnes urged, feral and commanding, guiding the nanites as they shaped every gear's spin and trajectory. "Push me harder! Keep the torque flowing! Let's paint the whole damn city BLUE!"
Karl smirked under the helm of Erevos. "You got it, Agnes… let's give them a proper welcome."
He extended his forearms, summoning twin gear knuckles from his integrated blasters. Each punch created spinning, edged gears that slammed into demons, cutting them apart while nanites hardened the edges into jagged teeth. A group of berserkers lunged at him simultaneously; he intercepted them with one hand, spinning a gear into the other, grinding two of the monsters together in grotesque synchrony as Agnes's voice roared in his head:
"YES! FEEL IT~ LET THEM FEEL OUR POWER~! EVERY BLOW, EVERY SPIN, EVERY KILL~!"
The streets became a blur of navy-blue chaos. Gears flew like missiles from his forearms, smashing into Nyghouls mid-leap. Each impact sent shockwaves, scattering groups of berserkers as swirling clouds of steam erupted from the vents on his back and shoulders, obscuring the demons' view.
Karl pivoted, placing flat spinning gears beneath Erevos's feet. The nanites smoothed the contact points, increasing frictionless speed. The giant mech surged forward, boots barely touching the ground as he barreled into a horde of Rendracer demons. With a single leap, he swung the massive gear projections above his head like a chain scythe, cleaving through the oncoming swarm.
"AGNES~! Don't let up!" he shouted, adrenaline burning in tandem with Vythra. "Keep the nanites flowing! Max torque on the shoulder turbines!"
"OH YES, KARL~!" Agnes snarled, feral and ecstatic. "MORE POWER! MORE SPEED! EVERY BLOW FEELS LIKE HELL—FOR THEM!!!"
Even as the first waves fell, more demons emerged from side streets, rooftops, and cracks in the ground. Nyghouls and berserkers, faster and more cunning than the last, surged in organized chaos. Karl gritted his teeth, sending gears spinning horizontally and vertically, launching them like a storm. The spinning navy-blue discs collided midair, forming temporary cages around groups of demons. Slowly, inexorably, the cages compressed, shredding armor and bone into dark red paste, each mechanical "crunch" synchronized with Agnes's guttural, gleeful growls:
"FEED ME MORE~! EVERY MOVE, EVERY SLASH, EVERY KILL~ IT'S ALL OURS~!"
Karl ducked under a lunging Nyghoul's claw, retaliating with a forearm gear blast. The projectile smashed into the demon's chest, knocking it back into a pile of fallen comrades. He spun another gear upward from the ground, letting it ride the steam from his turbines, striking two berserkers in mid-air, sending them crashing into each other.
The city trembled beneath them. Steam, smoke, and spinning metal combined into a deadly ballet, painting everything navy-blue in a storm of gears, torque, and Vythra-fueled destruction.
But as the last horde in this wave fell, Karl's projections began flickering, small wisps of light disappearing as the nanites powering them waned. Agnes hissed through the comms, panicked:
"Karl… rev me harder! NOW! We can't stop! Vythra… MORE! PUSH IT INTO ME! DON'T LET THEM REGENERATE!"
Karl's fingers tightened on the ignition dial and hovered over the USB port. His eyes narrowed, scanning the endless tide of glowing eyes across the city. He didn't speak aloud — he didn't have to. Both he and Agnes knew what was coming next. The final phase, the ultimate escalation, was only a touch, a turn, a press away.
Steam hissed around Erevos. The gears whirred on his shoulders. The city waited in silence, broken only by the faint, rhythmic vrrrmmm~ of engines spinning to life. Karl inhaled.
This was the calm before the storm.