The streets of Philadelphia were no longer streets.
They were trenches. Craters. Smoldering wounds carved into a dying city.
Karl staggered through the haze—body glowing, armor scorched from the Ignition Requiem he'd unleashed only minutes earlier. Nanites dripped from his legs like liquid metal, hardening and breaking apart as they fell to the ash-covered ground.
He could barely breathe.
Could barely stand.
Yet the demons kept coming.
Not just Erebions anymore.
From the shadowed alleyways and collapsed buildings, other forms crawled, slithered, and unfolded:
Glass Reavers, translucent demons whose skin refracted light like cracked mirrors, slicing through air with razor chirps.
Hollow Bellowers, huge, obese masses of flesh with gaping ribcages that exhaled sonic shockwaves.
Crawlbound Seraphs, winged horrors with needle-thin limbs twisted in perpetual prayer, humming discordant hymns that destabilized the air.
Gloom Tendrils, tar-like serpents that melted into the asphalt and reappeared behind prey with impossible speed.
And amongst them:
Merged Erebions—towering silhouettes of black sinew and molten slag metal, dragging chains of bone as they approached.
Karl braced himself, breathing raggedly.
His Rider Frame flickered. The Ignition Requiem had drained him almost to collapse. His skin burned. His bones felt hollow. His vision ghosted and doubled.
Then—
Agnes whispered into his mind like a shy ghost materializing at his shoulder.
Agnes (soft, trembling):
"K-Karl… you can't endure another wave like this. Your vitals are… I-I've never seen numbers like these."
Her voice quivered—still flustered, still shy from their earlier sync—but there was real fear beneath it now.
Karl looked up, exhaling smoke.
"Then give me something stronger."
A pause.
A small inhale.
A nervous tremor.
Agnes:
"…You don't understand. Hazard Mode isn't stronger. It's suicide. You're not ready, Karl."
He smirked.
"Was I ready for anything we've ever done?"
The demons roared as they advanced, claws and limbs scraping against the broken asphalt. The sky above the Philadelphia quarantine zone pulsed red from the dimensional crack that split the horizon like a wound that wouldn't close.
Agnes's voice shrank into a tremor, flustered and scared:
Agnes:
"If you mess up a single sequence… your heart could— I-I don't want to say it."
Karl wiped sweat and soot from his brow, hand shaking.
"Agnes… look at the situation."
He gestured at the sea of demons closing in.
"Do we have a choice?"
Agnes's reply came out fragile.
Agnes:
"…No. But promise me you'll be gentle this time. I-I'm still not fully recovered from… earlier…"
Karl raised an eyebrow at her quivering tone.
"Feeling shy again?"
A sound like a soft gasp escaped the comm.
Agnes (flustered):
"D-Don't say it like that! I—I just… if you tap too hard again I—"
A Hollow Bellower shrieked, sending a tremor through the ground.
Agnes squeaked.
Agnes:
"Okay! Fine! Hazard Mode! Just— just listen carefully, okay?! No teasing!"
Karl rolled his shoulders, nanites crackling.
"Hit me."
Agnes swallowed.
Agnes:
"Three revs… then ten taps. Carefully. Please. I'm… sensitive today…"
Karl froze mid-step.
"...Sensitive?"
Her voice cracked.
Agnes:
"K-Karl! Do the sequence! I'm serious!!"
He chuckled under his breath.
Even on the brink of annihilation, she made the world feel lighter.
THE FIRST REV
He gripped the Drive Regulator.
Twisted.
A cobalt pulse burst from his spine in a halo of light.
Demons staggered backward as the air warped from the sudden surge.
THE SECOND REV
He twisted again.
Aegean energy poured from his chestplate, soft but scorching-hot, as if a goddess of fire were exhaling against the armor from within.
Agnes shuddered softly in his mind.
Agnes:
"Mmm— K-Karl… d-don't rush…"
He blinked.
"…Are you okay?"
Agnes (embarrassed):
"I-I said I'm sensitive! Stop asking!!"
THE THIRD REV
He twisted the final time—and the world snapped.
Cracks of royal azure lightning erupted from the Regulator, spiderwebbing across the rubble. Shards of cracked pavement hovered off the ground under the gravitational distortions.
Agnes inhaled sharply.
Agnes:
"O-Okay… next step… USB port… ten taps."
Karl lowered his hand to the port.
"You ready?"
A tiny whisper answered.
Agnes:
"…No. But do it anyway."
THE FIRST TAP
His finger touched the port.
A pulse shot through him—clean, sharp, precise.
His muscles tensed, nanites rippling under his skin.
Agnes whimpered—
Agnes:
"Hnh— j-just nine more…"
He froze.
"…Are you sure you're okay?"
Agnes:
"KARL JUST TAP—!"
TAP TWO
Heat. Static.
The sensation crawled up his spine, like electricity threading along nerves.
Agnes inhaled through her teeth.
TAP THREE
His vision shook.
The Drive hummed in unstable cobalt.
TAP FOUR
Nanites poured from his arms, swirling around him like liquid mercury.
TAP FIVE
A faint chime echoed—
Heart Sync: 100%
Karl felt his pulse lock to the Regulator's rhythm.
Agnes's voice trembled.
Agnes:
"Perfect… just perfect… please keep that pace…"
TAP SIX
A blast of feedback struck him—his knee buckled.
TAP SEVEN
The world bent.
Streetlights twisted like vines.
TAP EIGHT
His skin glowed—royal azure searing through veins.
TAP NINE
Karl choked—his lungs seized, vision flashing white.
Demons lunged at him—
And were incinerated simply by touching the heat sphere surrounding him.
Agnes gasped in fear.
Agnes:
"K-Karl stop! This is your limit! One more and—"
He tapped.
TAP TEN
The world combusted.
A cone of blackened cobalt fire erupted from Karl's chest—flames so hot they devoured shadow and light simultaneously. Demons within twenty meters disintegrated instantly, their bodies vanishing into blue dust.
Every demon in the district froze.
Even the Hollow Bellowers fell silent.
Agnes's voice quivered.
Agnes:
"H-Hazard Sync… complete. Karl… your body…"
He rose from the crater.
His armor was not armor anymore.
It was forged light.
Nanites poured from his back and shaped themselves into molten gear-wings.
Lines of glowing sigils crawled across his body—ancient Hephaestus runes igniting like brands.
The air around him bent inward from sheer thermal pressure.
Ash fell upward.
Gravity distorted.
Demons instinctively backed away, hissing in fear.
Karl clenched his fist.
The motion alone sent a shockwave rolling across the block.
His voice came out as a distorted growl, layered with mechanical harmonics and divine resonance:
Karl (Hazard-voiced):
"…Round two."
Agnes whispered—no teasing, no playfulness.
Just awe.
Agnes:
"Karl… you look like a divine engine. A weapon forged by a god."
He smiled beneath the visor.
"No."
The ground cracked beneath his feet as he stepped forward.
"This is what we look like."
And with that, he vanished—
A streak of royal azure light tearing across the battlefield as Karl entered Hazard Overdrive for the fourth time.