They were standing on the palm of a god.
The Titan's hand was not mere ancient bone; it was a landscape of weathered ivory and layers of translucent, throbbing amethyst. It was warm—unnaturally warm—radiating a heat that made Corvin's own heart struggle to maintain its rhythm. Each tectonic thrum from the Titan's core vibrated through the soles of their boots, making Corvin's dead left arm twitch with violent, phantom pain.
Maren was sobbing, clutching her daughter against the gale-force winds whipping across the giant's fingers. Kael stood at the very edge of a colossal, stone-like nail, looking out at the Shattered Plains miles below. His hair didn't flow with the wind; it rose like a river of silver mercury, reaching up to commune with the raw resonance bleeding from the Titan's skin.
"It's not angry, Corvin," Kael whispered, his voice a low vibration that bypassed ears and spoke directly to the skull. "It's... lonely. It woke up to find a world trying to tear it apart."
BOOM.
The second step.
The entire world tilted. From their height, they could see the Cogwork Alliance in the far distance; the massive city-spires were swaying like reeds in a hurricane. Millions were likely screaming below, but from here, there was only the sound of grinding tectonic plates and the shriek of overstretched matter.
"We have to get off," Maren wheezed, her daughter coughing up blue, viscous dust. "The Resonance here is too pure... it's starting to crystallize our blood."
"Kael, we need to go!" Corvin commanded, his broken frame swaying.
But Kael didn't move. He turned his head, and for a second, Corvin saw brass gears spinning in place of pupils. "The King is coming, Corvin. Valerius was right about one thing: The King of the Gaps has heard the call, and he isn't coming to save us. He's coming to harvest."
Suddenly, the sky turned to absolute black.
It wasn't clouds. It was a swarm of millions of Void-Stalkers. Valerius had emptied the Synod's entire arsenal. They weren't just after the boy anymore; they were going to execute the Titan itself.
"They're going to use the Sun-Lance," Maren gasped, pointing at the lead airship. A massive, golden cannon was beginning to glow with a blinding, terrifying heat—a temperature that threatened to liquefy the very air.
"They'll kill everyone in the Dregs!" Corvin gritted his teeth, the metallic tang of blood filling his mouth. "Kael, we have to stop that cannon!"
Kael looked at the sky, and then at Corvin. He reached out and pressed his small hand against Corvin's chest, right over his failing heart. "I can't stop it, Corvin. But you can. You just need to stop being a man... and start being a Shaper."
As Kael spoke, Corvin felt his skin freeze. It wasn't ordinary cold; it was a metallic shriek vibrating through his pores. His flesh began to crack and overwrite itself into cold, silver steel. It wasn't magic—it was a horrific, molecular restructuring. He felt his bones melt into chrome alloys, his blood becoming liquid resonance that burned through his veins like molten lead.
The pain was absolute. Corvin roared, but the sound emerged as a hiss of pressurized steam from a metallic throat. He stood as a statue of burning silver, his fractured blade now fused to his right hand, glowing with a light the world hadn't seen since the age of the First Titans.