Bang!

Caught off guard, Julius was sent flying. The Knightframe tore through the testing facility's outer wall, smashing through layers upon layers of steel before bursting out into the halls beyond.

"...!"

He skidded across the floor. Before he could fully recover, the corridor ahead imploded.

Joachim burst through the wreckage in pursuit.

Julius rolled aside just as Joachim's strike came down, the blow pulverizing the floor where he had been a second earlier. The shockwave rattled the hallway.

Julius planted a foot, twisted his body, and drove his fist forward.

The Knightframe's punch connected squarely with Joachim's torso, the impact detonating in a burst of shattered crystal and flesh as the fight spilled fully into the halls of Zima-12.

"Shit—"

The anomalies gave him no room to breathe either. They swarmed the Knightframe like vermin, clinging and clawing as they tried to tear it down by sheer numbers.

Julius seized one of the creatures crawling along the Knightframe's shoulder like a spider and ripped it free.

He slammed it straight into Joachim.

Bang——!

The anomaly shattered against Joachim's body.

Behind them, the fire surged.

What had begun in the testing facility spilled outward into the halls. Heat rolled through the corridors in waves as Zima-12 burned from the inside out.

Coughing echoed from somewhere deeper in the halls. The smoke was spreading fast. It was probably already reaching the researchers huddled near the sealed exit, trapped together with nowhere to run.

"What?" Joachim sneered. "Feeling pity for those Soviet bastards now? The Directorate would drop you the moment they find out. Haha!"

"Nah," Julius replied. "Just wondering what happens to us if they decide to nuke this place."

Joachim's laughter paused.

The flames crept closer, crawling along the ceiling like living things.

"You think they'd really do that?" Joachim asked.

"They already contained us," Julius said. "If this turns into a nationwide anomaly outbreak, this facility becomes expendable."

Joachim shoved forward, forcing distance between them.

"Then why don't we call a truce?" Joachim said. "I have people. They can get us out of this god forsaken country. You return to Germany and go about your life."

Julius didn't answer and leapt upward.

The Knightframe twisted midair. The servomechanism screamed as Julius spun and drove a kick straight into Joachim's torso. The impact detonated through the corridor, hurling Joachim backward.

"No thanks," Julius said.

Fire roared behind them. Anomalies shrieked as collapsing walls buried some and freed others. The hallway shook as lights burst one after another.

Julius advanced again.

Steel met crystal. The collision thundered through the corridor. He paid no heed to the anomalies tearing away at the Knightframe's limbs in a frenzy.

The suit was built for war. At best, they left shallow marks on its paint.

Julius drove his fist forward.

Bang——!

The Knightframe's arm spun like a drill. The blow tore into Joachim's crystalline armor, ripping out fractures through the growths that shielded his body. Crystal detonated outward in shards and dust.

Joachim was hurled back, smashing through one wall, then another, until the corridor behind him collapsed into rubble.

Blood trickled down Julius's brow from the inevitable shockwaves from their exchanges.

Then the screaming started.

"Ah, shit."

The suppression fields had been damaged during the clash.

Anomalies that had been lurking in the shadows began to move.

——Ahhhhh!

——Help! Help! Hel—Akhh!

Screams resounded throughout the halls as researchers were mauled one by one.

Julius took a step forward, then stopped.

"...."

…By no means were they innocent.

They had kept the Glasshearts detained. They had experimented on them. They had pushed and cut and broke them down, turning them into the same creatures now tearing into human flesh.

Perhaps it had been for war. Perhaps for leverage. Julius couldn't know. Whenever he asked, he was told to focus on his assignment and nothing more.

The same applied to the rest.

They were only doing their jobs without asking questions. Knowing full well how generous the incentives were for working in the restricted zone. Knowing what they were being paid to stay silent about.

Not just from the public, but from colleagues who were never granted access to this place.

Julius watched as blood stained the floor.

The price of silence had finally come due.

Perhaps, if no accident had ever occurred in Zima-12, they would have eventually gained the means to control all of Europe with these creatures alone.

They might not have been Germans. They might not have been his family.

——Dimitri!

…But they weren't Glasshearts either.

The Knightframe thrust forward as Julius moved. Each step crushed glass under its weight as the machine forced its way toward the sound of her voice.

"Miss Yuliya."

The scream came again.

Julius pushed the Knightframe harder. Walls gave way under its charge. Flames sparked in the corridors, painting everything in orange and red, while shadows twisted and fled from the advancing machine.

Then he saw her.

Yuliya was backed against a collapsed bulkhead. Blood streaked her sleeve where debris had grazed her arm. An anomaly with a malformed body dragged itself forward, looming before her.

"...."

The Knightframe moved.

At first, Yuliya Tatiana Artyamov had been nothing more than a means to an end.

An irritating woman who kept sticking to him like glue and refusing to budge. Yet she was undeniably useful due to her name, status, and connections.

She was a Soviet Russian who took pride in her country and her work. Stern to others, uncompromising when mistakes were made, and unafraid to reprimand her colleagues without batting an eye.

Yet with him, she was softer, sweeter.

"...."

She wasn't a bad person by any measure.

It was simply unfortunate that she had been born in the USSR.

The Knightframe surged forward, closing the distance between them.

Then the world distorted.

The peripheral feed dissolved into static. Warnings flooded across the interface.

Julius felt the impact before he could process it, something blunt and overwhelming slamming into the Knightframe's side.

Crash——!

The machine was hurled away, stopping only after smashing through a reinforced wall several meters away from Yuliya.

"Dimitri—"

Her voice cut off as smoke and debris swallowed the space between them.

Julius gritted his teeth as the Knightframe struggled to stabilize. He forced the controls back online, just in time to see a familiar silhouette standing where he had been moments ago.

"...Joachim."

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