The thick ichor mist rippled faintly around them, drifting like oil smoke. Karl's breathing had steadied thanks to Yggdrasil's slow crawl of regeneration, but every breath still felt like swallowing metal dust. Agnes hovered beside him, her tone sharpened by calculation.
Agnes: "We need to purify the ichor field in layers. Not all at once. If we compress the outer ring with Erevos's remaining kinetic lattice, it'll destabilize long enough for me to inject a whiteout burst."
Karl: "That'll take too long. I say we brute-force a tunnel straight through and let Yggdrasil handle the fallout."
She flickered in annoyance — not angry, but frustrated in a very human way.
Agnes: "You can't rely on regeneration when the contamination is still in your bloodstream. Yggdrasil can't repair what's actively being corrupted."
Karl rolled his shoulder, wincing a little as a line of black ichor pulsed like a vein.
Karl: "It's not going to kill me. Even if I take more damage, I'll just regenerate after we're out of the zone."
Agnes went perfectly still.
Agnes: "Karl. That's not a strategy. That's gambling with your life."
Karl: "It's calculated risk. Better than wasting time here arguing while this whole place sinks deeper."
That was when she made the decision.
The air around him shifted — a soft magnetic pull. Karl's arms locked at his sides. Erevos's internal servos obeyed her override command, freezing his movement. Not painful, but absolute.
She had followed through.
Karl: "...really? You're doing this?"
Her voice lowered, almost disappointed.
Agnes: "You said you wouldn't die. Fine. But you will stop risking yourself when the contamination is still inside you. I'm not going to watch you tear yourself apart."
Karl tugged slightly, but Erevos's frame didn't budge. Agnes wasn't bluffing — she had full neural override engaged. For a moment, Karl silently accepted it… and then remembered his own ace.
He exhaled slowly.
Karl: "You know I can shut you off manually for a few minutes if I want."
She didn't flinch.
Agnes: "Then do it."
It wasn't a challenge. It was a test. Her holographic expression softened for a moment — fear hidden meticulously behind logic.
Agnes: "If you think slipping past me and walking straight into concentrated ichor is a good idea… then shut me off and do it."
Karl didn't.
Not yet.
She released control just enough to let him move again, though the warning lingered between them like static.
Agnes: "Good. Now work with me, Karl. We purify this place together. Not by throwing your life away."
Karl nodded slowly… but behind his eyes, the outline of Plan C quietly formed.
He wasn't going to risk himself immediately. He wasn't stupid.
But later — when she was running diagnostics, or focused on stabilizing the lattice — he'd slip past her, just for a short scan deeper inside the ichor field. Just enough to confirm what he suspected.
She didn't need to know.
Not yet.
The ichor mist drifted in slow spirals, reacting faintly to Erevos's shielding. Karl adjusted a cracked gauntlet plate, pretending to focus on recalibrating the kinetic lattice. Agnes stood beside him, arms folded, her projection faintly flickering from interference.
She watched him longer than she usually did.
Agnes: "Your vitals just stabilized. Good. Now we can start the layered purification."
Karl nodded, keeping his tone even.
Karl: "Yeah. Just give me a minute to reroute power from the dorsal emitters."
He turned his back, hands moving with practiced precision—but there was a slight tremor of intent. Agnes knew his patterns better than anyone. And something about the way his eyes had narrowed earlier… the way he accepted her override too easily…
It meant one thing.
He was planning something.
She approached, voice lighter but edged.
Agnes: "Karl. Look at me."
He froze for half a second—too short for a normal person to notice, too long for Agnes to ignore.
He turned.
Karl: "What is it?"
Agnes: "You're hiding something."
Karl opened his mouth, then closed it. He shifted the conversation.
Karl: "We don't have time for this. The outer ring needs—"
She stepped closer. Not aggressive. Not angry. Just… close enough that he couldn't dodge the truth.
Agnes: "You think I don't know when you're planning to run off? When your pulse shifts, when your eyes track an exit point for longer than one second? When you don't argue back as hard as you normally do?"
Karl blinked, caught off-guard.
She continued softly.
Agnes: "You're planning to slip into the ichor field alone the moment you think I'm distracted."
For a moment neither spoke. The ichor hissed like distant static.
Karl sighed.
Karl: "It's not reckless. I just need to confirm something deeper in the zone. And I'm not dragging you into danger every time I need to take a step."
Agnes's expression dimmed—not sadness, but something close.
Agnes: "You don't drag me anywhere. We move together. You're not alone in this."
Karl looked away.
Karl: "I wasn't going to go far."
Agnes: "You weren't supposed to go at all."
She reached forward, gently placing her hand over his damaged wrist. The gesture wasn't romantic, but grounding—tethering him to reality.
Agnes: "Karl… your Vythra is contaminated. If you push yourself deeper in, Yggdrasil will not keep up. If you collapse out there, I can't pull you back physically."
Karl: "I wasn't going to collapse."
Agnes: "You were planning to do it behind my back."
Silence again.
Then—her right eye flickered.
A system warning? No.
Something else.
Agnes: "If you try it, I will lock your motor functions again. For hours this time."
Karl breathed out a tired laugh.
Karl: "You're serious."
Agnes: "I am."
He lifted his hand.
Karl: "And you know I can shut you off if I need to."
Agnes: "I know."
She didn't lean back. She didn't break eye contact.
Agnes: "I'm trusting you not to."
That struck deeper than any threat.
Karl looked down at her hand on his.
And for once, he didn't have a rebuttal.
Karl: "...fine. No slipping away. Not right now."
She nodded once.
But Agnes still didn't release his wrist.
Agnes: "Good. Now let's finish this together."
For the first time since entering the ichor fog, Karl felt the tension in the air shift. Not gone. Just controlled.
He still planned to go deeper later.
But now… he'd have to pick a moment where her trust wouldn't make it hurt.