Despite everything else that's going on, the underlying military reality of this situation is surprisingly straightforwards. This is recon by fire. Making moves and seeing what shoots back and with what.

And Lord Death Despoil's last move has been to walk into an enemy trench line.

Positive sides first. This is going a long way to confirming his theories about the Furnace Knight's power and capabilities. Specifically, he is not a spellcaster per se - he is a divine agent. His power does not come from infused mana or spell abilities, it comes from serving as the direct conduit for a major divinity. This means that he has unique advantages - and different pressures - compared to a more rational, controlled approach to magic.

Specifically, the Furnace Knight is bound with oaths. He has a network of ideals he has committed to that bring him into alignment with his divinity. The closer he is engaged with the substance of these oaths the more pure and direct his connection is and the more he can tap into that unlimited font of power. It's similar in theory to the clerical divine spellcasting more common in your part of the galaxy, but blended with the continuous at-will nature of a Warlock's infernal patronage and the more advanced and complex righteous oaths a Paladin might commit to. This all implies a fundamentally different relationship to the Divine than happens elsewhere. You expect that the Furnace Knight is not a singular paragon in this respect - his techniques are too developed. This approach to magic no doubt runs through their entire society. 

The Furnace Knight, despite being an expert in this form of conduit magic, does not seem to have any emotional attachment to it. He is completely capable of performing dishonourable acts and all it will cost him is the strength of his divine connection. This may or may not be worthwhile depending on the situation.

This is all extremely useful to have learned. Being able to calculate an opponent's magic system from first principles while under fire will no doubt be pivotal in coming conflicts.

(Something the [i]Crippling Glare[/i] would note later, comparing the data logs to Death Despoil's experiences later, is that this conduit has some sort of direct connection to the star. The gravitic distortions and solar flares intensified significantly once the Furnace Knight was engaged in battle. There is also no response from the alien ships to the active scan - increasingly they seem genuinely blind.)

But what it means [i]right now[/i] is that Lord Death Despoil just made a terrible mistake. By attacking vulnerable noncombatants, threatening to unleash the catastrophe of an uncontrolled KPI outbreak, the Furnace Knight was given an opportunity to act in perfect harmony with his patron god. 

With impossible speed, the Furnace Knight intercepts the fireball in flight and [i]eats [/i]it. Snapping serpent jaws clamp down on the deadly sphere of power and its spell matrix unravels in his jaws, infusing the Furnace Knight with a massive surge of mana. So empowered he lunges through the dark directly at Lord Death Despoil at the same time as he targets him with a massive gravity spike that draws the Lichemaster closer to his waiting blade.

As an unusual little note, while the Furnace Knight doesn't seem to have the ability to see in the dark, he seems to have a huge amount of experience fighting without relying on his senses at all. A combination of hearing, scent and predictive guidance from his patron covers the gap - not unexpected, but it's notable how familiar this is to him. Like he doesn't expect to fight in any other way.