Julius shoved his arm into the narrowing gap. The hatch clamped down, stopping dead against his forearm.
"Agh!"
Pain rippled through him as the pressure crushed bone and muscle. He felt the agonizing sensation of his arm on the verge of being torn free.
His vision swam.
Then Julius snarled and forced the blade forward.
Clang——!
Steel wedged into the seam. With a heave, he pried the hatch apart. The mechanism buckled at once.
The seal snapped back open just enough for him to rip his arm free. And with it, he grabbed Joachim.
With a heavy pull, he ripped Joachim out of the pod and hurled him down. Joachim's body slammed against the floor below as crystal fragments scattered across the ground.
The next moment, Julius slipped into the Knightframe and activated it at once. Systems flashed to life around him as his vision flooded with data.
His crimson pupils shifted to a deep azure glow the moment SIBYL came online, overlaying every status readout across the suit's interior.
