The mountain air shivered with a low, resonant growl that rolled through the craggy peaks. Karl's visor lit up in a blur of royal azure as he and Agnes crouched behind a jagged ridge, hearts pounding in unison. The demon loomed above them, its enormous, muscled frame easily three times the size of Erevos, its eyes glowing crimson. Around it, shredded remnants of low-middle class demons were scattered like crimson confetti, their red pulp still dripping down the mountain slopes. The smell of blood and ozone stung their nostrils.
Agnes's voice, normally playful and teasing, was tense:
"Karl… it saw us. Move. Now."
Before Karl could respond, the demon's massive head pivoted with terrifying speed. Its gaze locked on them, Vythra resonating faintly within Karl like a warning bell. Instinctively, Karl triggered Blueprint Overdrive. The world around him exploded into a network of glowing rail projections. They weren't tangible, not to anyone else, but to Karl, they were a perfectly mapped spiderweb of escape routes.
"Erevos, arms!" he hissed, palms glowing as Nanites reshaped the mech's limbs into gleaming blades. Each forearm twisted, joints reforming in perfect synchronization as if the mech had grown new weapons organically.
The demon roared, a sound like tearing mountains, and slammed a fist into the ground. The shockwave lifted boulders and sent sprays of gravel flying, but Karl and Agnes were already moving. He launched off a rail, sliding along a vertical track that rose straight along the cliffside. Sparks and arcs of nanite energy flared with every contact point, leaving luminous trails like streaking comets.
Agnes leaned close in his HUD, voice low but urgent:
"Up! Quick! Don't let it pin you down!"
Karl twisted, leaping mid-air as the rails shifted beneath him, switching from vertical to horizontal, then to an angled descent. He slashed through the air with one arm-blade, slicing clean through a boulder the demon had hurled at them. The impact splintered rock, scattering debris downward into the chasm below. He ricocheted off the newly projected rails, spinning gracefully in a near-impossible arc, and slammed into a low-hanging cliff edge to redirect his trajectory upward, using every ounce of kinetic energy the Blueprints allowed him to harness.
Agnes mirrored his movements in coordination, projecting additional rails and ramps from thin air with her holographic manipulation. Each rail she generated allowed Karl to pivot, dive, and slice with precision. Their synchronization was near telepathic, the product of countless battles together, but even then, the demon's reflexes were monstrous. It swung its colossal arm, tearing the mountainside as if it were paper, sending rubble down toward them. Karl twisted horizontally mid-flight, letting the rail carry him above the swing, and narrowly avoided an obliterating strike.
"Karl—!" Agnes's voice cracked through the cockpit.
"I see it!" Karl grunted, reforming his arms into dual blades again.
He fired off a series of rapid dashes along projected rails that bent in impossible curves: up, down, vertical, diagonal, every angle he could imagine. His movements left blue streaks in the air as nanites trailed from his blade-edges, reflecting light off the mountain rock. The demon's eyes followed every flick, calculating and deadly, but Karl's unpredictability—vertical to horizontal flips, midair rail ricochets—kept him one step ahead.
The demon roared again and stomped the ground. Entire sections of the mountain quaked, rocks and debris hurtling like bullets. Karl's sensors went haywire for a moment, but he relied on the nanite network and Blueprint Overdrive to create new rails on the fly, pivoting from one side of the mountain to the next. He leapt, spun, and slid, slicing through jagged boulders with blade arms that shimmered with lethal precision.
"Careful with that arm!" Agnes teased, voice laced with fear but tinged with her usual edge.
"I've got it under control," Karl hissed, narrowly dodging a fist-sized stone that slammed past.
Then, taking a calculated risk, he projected a rapid series of rails in a loop beneath the demon, forcing it to overextend a massive swing. Karl spun along the rails, swinging his arms like twin scythes, and managed to slice through a tendon in the demon's wrist. The creature's roar echoed off the mountain, a deafening sound that made the ground shiver beneath them.
But the demon didn't falter—it only grew angrier. Its crimson eyes burned brighter, veins across its monstrous body pulsing as if the sheer rage fueled its strength. With a terrifying snarl, it shifted, pivoting on one leg like a living battering ram, and slammed both fists down toward Karl and Agnes.
Karl fired off a vertical flip onto a new rail, narrowly avoiding the strike, but felt the mountain tremble beneath him. The demon's movement was unpredictable, its size and strength making it almost impossible to anticipate. Every time Karl thought he had an opening, it adapted, swinging its massive limbs with terrifying precision.
He gritted his teeth, adrenaline and Vythra pulsing through him. Each movement of Blueprint Overdrive demanded perfect synchronization between mind, nanites, and rails. He slashed through more jagged rocks that the demon had thrown in his path, sending a shower of debris down the mountainside.
"Karl! There's an opening on the right!" Agnes cried, her voice shaking but excited.
Karl snapped the rail projections in that direction, ricocheting in a wide, horizontal arc, spinning his blade-arms at supersonic speed. Each swing carved through the air, slicing down small boulders and cutting through patches of mountain face to destabilize the demon's footing.
The demon let out a furious roar, slamming both fists into the mountain to brace itself. Dust, rocks, and splinters flew everywhere as the vibrations rattled Karl and Agnes. Sparks from the blade-arms flared, the nanites humming like a storm engine.
And then Karl dared to do it: he shifted midair again, projecting a downward rail that twisted into a horizontal launch along the demon's flank. He struck with a spinning blade-arm arc, slicing shallow but fast across the creature's outer thigh. The demon stumbled slightly, eyes blazing with anger as it realized Karl's audacity.
It pivoted its massive torso, twisting like a catapult, and sent a colossal roar that rattled the mountains to the core. Every small creature nearby—if any still existed—would have been crushed or deafened instantly. Karl and Agnes felt it in their bones, but he wasn't done.
"Agnes… hold the next rails steady!" he called.
"I'm on it! Don't—don't get sloppy!" she shouted, hands trembling as she projected the next sequence of rails.
Karl's body, synchronized with the nanites and guided by Blueprint Overdrive, shot along the rails, slicing, pivoting, and ricocheting. Each maneuver, each flip, each dash left streaks of royal azure light across the mountainside. He moved vertically, then horizontally, then up again, then down—relentless, like a living whirlwind.
The demon's growls escalated into something more primal, something fueled by pure rage. It smashed one fist into the mountain, sending a cascade of rock and dust toward them, but Karl used it to ricochet off a newly projected rail, using the momentum to launch himself upward and around the creature's massive frame.
"Enough…!" the demon bellowed, voice thick with rage. Its claws dug into the mountain as it pivoted, searching for them with deadly precision.
Karl's eyes narrowed. He could feel the creature's frustration; every overextended attack he evaded fed its anger. The nanites in his arms thrummed in response, ready to slice, stab, and dash again.
Agnes's voice, trembling but sharp, cut through the chaos:
"Karl… it's—angry. Really angry!"
He didn't answer, only focused on the flow of rails, the momentum of every ricochet, the placement of every slash. The demon's roar became deafening, an almost living tremor through the mountain. Karl's dual blade-arms sliced air, rock, and energy alike, leaving trails of royal azure light in their wake.
Finally, the demon paused mid-swing, sensing the perfect, precise orchestration of Karl's attacks and evasions. Its crimson eyes flared, muscles tensing, claws digging into the earth. Every movement of Karl had provoked it to a boiling point. Its breath, hot and rancid, rolled over the mountainside.
And it bellowed again, an ear-shattering, furious scream that echoed across the peaks and valleys:
"ENOUGH!"
Karl landed on a rail, spinning, blade-arms humming and nanites shimmering. Sweat and adrenaline burned through him, but he was alive. The demon's rage had reached a tipping point, and he could feel it in the tremor of the air, in the vibration of the mountains.
It wasn't defeated—but it was furious, and that fury would not let them leave the mountain unchallenged.
Agnes whispered, almost purring from a mix of terror and excitement:
"It's… angry… Karl. That's bad. Very, very bad."
Karl's lips curved into a faint grin as he readied the next move: more rails, more ricochets, more blades. The demon's rage would become their stage, and Blueprint Overdrive was about to turn the mountainside into a cathedral of lethal motion.