A Race Toward the Brink

Stroheim tests the mechanical body built to outmatch Santana in a clash with Kars, driving the Pillar Man back with the machine gun set into his torso. Kars answers by unleashing the full strength of his Light Mode, reshaping his blades into whirring chainsaws that slice the incoming bullets apart and cut Stroheim clean in two. He grabs the Super Aja, but a UV beam from Stroheim's eye forces him to let go, and the stone begins sliding toward a cliff. Kars and Joseph both bolt after it as Lisa Lisa, Caesar, and Messina arrive to watch.

Untroubled by the drop below, Kars maintains his pace and catches the stone with his foot, only for Joseph to fling snow into his eyes and snatch the Aja away. Kars then hooks him with his ankle blades and drags him over the edge alongside him. Because Kars wants the gem unbroken, Joseph is able to use it as a shield, and he fashions a rope from falling icicles that Caesar finishes off, keeping both the stone and his life. Kars cushions his own landing to spare a flower beneath him, laughs wildly, and chooses to let Joseph keep the Red Stone a while longer.

The following day the group spots the ruins of a hotel, a likely hiding place for Kars. Caesar wants to strike before Wamuu can join him, but Joseph resists the idea of fighting on the enemy's chosen ground. When the two invoke the ancestors who fought to destroy the Stone Mask, their differing views boil over: Caesar punches Joseph and storms off alone, driven by a sense of obligation to his grandfather Will Zeppeli. Messina is sent to shadow him, while Lisa Lisa hints to Joseph that Caesar carries a painful past.

Stroheim battles Kars with his new cyborg body but is cut in half after Kars activates his full Light Mode. The Super Aja slides toward a cliff, triggering a desperate chase, and Joseph secures it during a shared plunge over the edge, saved by an icicle rope completed by Caesar. Kars spares a flower, laughs, and lets Joseph keep the stone for now. The group locates a ruined hotel as Kars's likely hideout, and a heated argument over strategy ends with Caesar striking Joseph and leaving on his own, with Lisa Lisa alluding to Caesar's hidden past.

Broadcast on February 16, 2013, the episode was written by Shinichi Inotsume and adapts chapters 85 through 88. It opens with BLOODY STREAM and closes on Roundabout. The installment gives Kars his first real showcase after long lurking in the background, spotlighting his Light Mode blades, and it sets up Caesar's solo departure that leads directly into the exploration of his backstory.