The "Performance Review" had secured the funding, but the cost was high: the Spire was now a lightning rod for every Iron-Circle saboteur in the city.

  Kaito sat in the center of the completed Tier 4 Array. The lead-lined floor-grid was pulsing with a rhythmic, low-frequency light. Around him, the three women were positioned at the nodes of a perfect diamond. Era and Vesper were already connected, but Xenia was the bottleneck.

  "The standard silver leads are melting against your skin, Xenia," Kaito said, his eyes glowing with a faint blue tint. He was looking at her forearm, where the conductive wire had turned into a bckened smear. "Human and Elven skin have a low-resistance threshold. But your Hobgoblin dermal-armor is effectively an organic insutor. It’s blocking the resonance."

  Xenia looked at the bckened wire, her amber eyes fshing with a mix of frustration and physical heat. "My people were built for the Pits, human. Our skin doesn't 'bleed' mana; it traps it. That’s why we don't get 'congested' like the High-Born. We just burn until we explode."

  "Which is why I have to bypass the dermal yer," Kaito said. He picked up a jar of the high-viscosity blue gel, but this batch was spiked with crushed iron-filings. "I’m not just applying a lubricant. I’m building a bridge through your scales."

  [Monster Girl Diagnostic: Hobgoblin Thermal-Reactor Skin]

  [Warning: Bypassing Dermal-Armor increases pain-threshold by 40%]

  Kaito stepped toward her, his movements clinical and steady. He didn't just rub the gel on; he used a high-frequency vibrating tool to force the metallic particles into the microscopic gaps of her ste-grey skin.

  Xenia let out a low, guttural growl, her muscles corded and rigid. "It feels like... like being fyed with needles, Kaito."

  "It’s a forced handshake," Kaito noted, his fingers moving over the heavy ridge of her shoulder. He could feel the volcanic heat trapped beneath the surface—a biological reactor running at 110% capacity. "If I don't anchor the leads directly into your primary meridians, the Tier 4 surge will bounce off your skin and ignite the atmosphere. Hold still."

  He moved to her thighs, applying the heavy, metallic gel to the thick muscle groups that acted as her primary grounding rails. The physical contrast was vivid—Kaito’s pale, thin fingers pressing into the dark, armor-pted limbs of the Hobgoblin.

  "Kaito..." Xenia hissed, her pupils slitting into thin lines. Her body wasn't reacting like Era’s; there was no "melting." Instead, her skin began to glow a dull, furnace-red. "The 'bridge'... I can feel the machine now. It’s like drinking liquid lead."

  "That’s the Neural Singurity," Kaito said. He stepped back to the center of the array and picked up the final silver probe—the one designed for his own sternum.

  [Objective: Stabilize the Neural Singurity]

  [Risk: 34% Neural Dissolution]

  "I've optimized the grounding," Kaito said. "Xenia, you are the thermal balst. Your dermal-armor is the only thing that can contain the feedback from the other three nodes. If you break the circuit, the Spire becomes a crater."

  He pressed the final probe into his own chest.

  The world ceased to be physical. Kaito’s consciousness was forcibly expanded. He wasn't sitting in a chair; he was the chair. He felt the cold void of Vesper’s presence, the crystalline order of Era’s mind, and then he hit the Hobgoblin Wall.

  Xenia’s presence was a roar of white noise and raw, kinetic pressure. It wasn't "intent"; it was combustion.

  "Flow rate... 500%!" Kaito shouted, his voice echoing from every speaker. Through the Neural Singurity, the sensory overp was a secondary data-point to the sheer sensation of Xenia’s biological furnace. He felt her dermal-armor begin to soften, the metallic gel glowing white-hot as she absorbed the excess intent from Era and Vesper.

  The tactile overp was catastrophic. Kaito felt the slickness of the gel, the heat of Xenia’s skin, and the rhythmic, pounding heartbeat of the Hobgoblin as if it were his own pulse. It was a total, neural union—the engineer and the machine becoming one.

  [Tier 4 Resonance: STABILIZED]

  The mana-storm died down. Kaito slumped back, the probes hissing. He looked at Xenia. Her skin was still glowing, the blue gel turned into a fine, aromatic mist. She looked at her hands—the metallic particles had fused temporarily into her scales, giving her a shimmering, armored appearance.

  "You... you were inside my blood, Xenia whispered, her voice a low rasp. She stood up, her movements fluid and powerful. She didn't look exhausted like Era; she looked **overcharged**. "I’ve never felt the machine like that. It’s like you gave the fire a direction."

  "I gave it a circuit," Kaito corrected, adjusting his cracked spectacles. "The Iron-Circle has no idea what happens when a system is properly grounded."

  He looked at his HUD. The 600 Data Points were already being spent.

  "System," Kaito whispered. "Begin the 'Territorial Defense' protocol. We have a boratory to protect."