Karl hit the street like a meteor.
The Over Burn Nitro Jet frame detonated its last scraps of momentum, nanite wings shattering into dust as he and Agnes slammed through the asphalt in a trail of sparks.
They bounced, rolled, and finally skidded to a stop in the middle of a ruined intersection — smoke rising off Karl's armor, Agnes flickering in and out of hologram integrity.
Karl tries to stand — and realizes his legs aren't legs anymore
Smoke drifted across the crater. Sirens wailed in the distance. Karl groaned, pushing his palms against the broken asphalt.
"Okay… okay… just get up…"
He braced his foot—
—or where his foot should have been.
A sickening, wet CRUNCH shot up his spine.
Karl froze.
"…what the hell—"
He looked down.
And screamed.
His knees bent the wrong way.
Not rotated.
Not sideways.
Not dislocated.
Not twisted.
BACKWARD. Fully inverted. Like snapped insect legs.
Metal plating warped like melted steel.
Shin armor bent inward.
Bone visible through cracked nanite mesh.
A double-jointed, mangled, wrong-angle nightmare.
"OH SHIT—GHHHAAA—!!!"
He collapsed, slamming onto one elbow as his legs bent the WRONG WAY under him.
Pain detonated up his body like lightning.
Karl's howl tore out of his throat before he could stop it.
"A–AGH—!! FUCK—!!"
Agnes shrieked through the helmet audio—
"K-KARL—!! OH MY GOD—your LEGS—!!"
He clawed at the ground, breath shaking, lips white with agony.
"I—I can't—AGNES THEY'RE— AHH—!!!"
Then—
A light.
A pulse.
A ripple through the air like reality inhaled.
Yggdrasil surged.
A blinding pulse shot down his legs, cracking bone reshaping like molten steel reversing its fold.
Golden threads wrapped around Karl's bones—
pulled—
snapped—
reset—
rewove—
flooded nanites through his marrow—
straightened steel—
restored plating—
In 0.03 seconds, his legs snapped back into place.
In 0.20 seconds, torn muscles rewove.
In 0.50 seconds, he was rebuilt to perfect condition.
SHLKK—SHHK—SHLLLNK—!!
In less than a second—
His legs reformed.
Perfect.
New.
Untouched.
Karl gasped.
He looked down.
Not a scratch remained.
Agnes' voice trembled.
"H-Healed… you're healed… Yggdrasil patched everything…"
Karl forced himself upright, shaking.
"Ghh… good. Because I'm running on fumes."
It wasn't pain from flesh —that made him scream it was pain from Vythra depletion. His Life point flickered like a dying bulb.
The visor flickered—
Vythra: 4%
Way too low to risk the frame.
"Agnes… untransform."
"Y-Yes— doing it now— hold still—"
The armor peeled from him like liquid glass:
Thrusters retracting
Cannon frames folding
Fins dissolving
Helmet splitting apart
Nanite plates melting back toward the drive regulator on his waist
Karl exhaled sharply as the last layer collapsed inward.
He stood there—
back in his human form—
his shirt torn
hair soaked
skin steaming
legs repaired by Yggdrasil's divine threadwork.
The Drive Regulator on his waist dimmed to a faint glow.
Agnes reappeared as a soft blue hologram above it—
no longer glitching
no longer screaming
no longer moaning filth
Instead—
She was red.
Like… visibly blushing.
Her hair flickered shyly behind her ear.
Her eyes avoided his.
"…Karl."
Her voice was small.
Nothing like the feral, dripping Overburn version.
"Before you say anything…" Karl panted, hands on his knees, "you were—uh—not really yourself in that mode so—"
Agnes covered her face with both hands.
"Oh my god.
Oh my fucking god.
I heard myself.
Why didn't you turn me off?!"
Karl blinked.
"Turn you off during a battle!? We were fighting Goliath—"
"No—NO— that injector sequence—!" she squeaked.
"Do you have any idea how that felt?! You shoved a three-seal hydraulic needle into my inner port—who even designs that—!?"
Karl raised both hands.
"I didn't know it HURT—"
"It fucking hurt, Karl!!" she barked, cheeks glowing bright blue.
"Do you understand how SHARP that injector arm is? You practically skewered my coreline—!"
Karl winced.
"Okay, okay—my bad…"
Agnes huffed—
puffed her cheeks—
looked away.
"But…"
her voice softened.
"…I also… kinda… enjoyed it…"
Karl choked on his own spit.
"EXCUSE ME—?!"
Agnes hid behind a flickering wave of hologram static, embarrassed beyond belief.
"I SAID I ENJOYED IT—DON'T MAKE ME REPEAT IT—!!"
Karl stared at her.
"You were moaning like a busted server—"
She kicked the inside wall of the regulator with an invisible foot.
"T-THAT WASN'T ME, THAT WAS NITRO OVERBURN MODE! She's—she's not ME! She's like my… horny evil twin!!"
"Agnes—"
"No! No talking!" she snapped, flustered and overheating.
"I'm updating your injector arm design! Next time, fewer needles! And less scraping! And maybe a softer seal! And—"
Karl laughed despite everything.
"Hey—thanks for saving me back there."
Agnes blinked.
Her blush deepened.
"…You saved me too," she whispered.
"When we crashed.
When I said I was scared.
You… didn't let go."
Karl gave a faint, tired smile.
"Never will."
Agnes looked like she wanted to curl into a ball of digital shy embarrassment.
"…Shut up," she muttered.
Soft.
Warm.
Grateful.
Karl closed his eyes.
His Vythra was at 4%.
His soul was barely stable.
His transformation was unavailable.
He felt like his entire existence was made of brittle glass.
But he tapped the drive gently.
"At least… the core survived."
The journey wasn't over.
But the reality of mortality — true, soul-level mortality —
had finally caught up to both of them.