Editing City Series:Volume3b Chapter 8 (section)

===Part 9===

Akira did not know what had happened to her.

As soon as she had stabbed Wild Königin into the ground to bear with the shaking, she and the stone-pavement had been carried into the sky.

While hanging down from Wild Königin’s hilt, she had been carried to the edge of a pure-white glowing cliff, but then she heard a great roar.

Just as she thought her inner ears had been destroyed, she and Wild Königin were thrown out into the empty air at 1.5 kilometers above the ground.

That was when she had realized what had looked like a pure-white wall had been part of the Earth Serpent.

But that was all.

She could see the typhoon’s storm clouds in the night sky.

She could move her body, but the previous noise had left her without a sense of direction or even a sense of up and down.

She could not read the wind and the position and direction of her center of gravity felt vague, like the core of her body was asleep.

She fell backwards.

“A Nein Engel isn’t supposed to die from a fall.”

A voice seemed to answer that comment.

…''Akira!

It was Gunmal’s voice.

“!?”

She expressed her confusion and the voice continued.

…''Why are you falling!? Aren’t you supposed to do something about that Earth Serpent!?

His voice came from Wild Königin in her right hand.

Wild König and Wild Königin were resonating and he was using that to send his Live to her.

…''C’mon, you activate your own dragons! We need to start with the Earth Burns of wood, earth, and water!

“H-how!?”

Gunmal’s Live answered.

…''Remember the Tuning you wanted to use! You’ve done enough of the basics now, haven’t you!? Let Hong Kong ring in your own way! Or have you still not realized how much I’ve been pushing you around!?

“Y-you idiot! Why would you say something like that now!?”

…''Shut up. I’ll prepare the elements of wood, earth, and water. Fire can come later! I’m busy, so I need to hang up.

“Hang up…? Hey! This isn’t a cellphone!”

There was no response.

“~!”

Akira gave a voiceless shout and glanced behind her.

She was only five hundred meters from the ground.

…''At this rate, I really will die.

That was when she noticed something odd on the ground.

“!”

She saw intense destruction.

The city shook in every direction around Central.

She could not see Lives at the moment, but she could see that.

The Bust strikes continued for more than two kilometers with a width of at least five hundred meters.

There were a total of ten and they all occurred in an instant.

The steel-colored barrage created a great roar and something like a pale mist covered Hong Kong Island and the edge of the Kowloon Peninsula.

…''So that’s what Busting looks like when you can’t see Lives.

But those attacks did not bring absolute destruction. They simply disturbed the Lives.

If they were not Tuned soon, they would return to normal.

“Honestly, you’re rushing me too much!”

As soon as she shouted down at him, she heard a roar from the Earth Serpent.

“!?”

Her eyes widened as the Earth Serpent looked down at her with the heavens behind it.

Its giant face was growing even larger.

…''It’s charging toward me!?

“You’re kidding!!”

Once she saw its fangs, she remembered when the red dragon had chased her.

She remembered the damage and injury to her wings, the brief meeting with the boy, and the people’s screams covering the city.

In an instantaneous chain reaction, it all resurrected in her memories.

…''I can’t let that happen again!

She raised Wild Königin and sharpened her mind.

She linked all of her body’s senses directly to her heart.

The floating feeling of falling, the sound of the splitting air, and the sensation of Wild Königin in her hands all flashed through her mind and overcame her fear of the Earth Serpent.

She Tuned the Live of fear and opened her eyes.

“!”

A sudden change reached her.

…''The Lives!?

She could now see and hear the Lives of the wind.

She reflexively spread her wings wide and flapped them.

Her wings and feathers groaned under the strain of her rapid fall, but that only lasted an instant.

Instead of falling, she flew forward as if she had been kicked.

She took a course out from under the descending Earth Serpent and recalled what she needed to do.

Gunmal had told her what that was.

…''How did I want to Tune long ago?

She had not wanted to use the Wind Up that she had used ever since her mother had taught it to her.

She soon found the answer.

She had told Gunmal about it in the graveyard before the dragons had flown.

“This is how I used to want to Tune, isn’t it?”

She breathed in.

“…”

After a moment of silence, she opened her mouth and produced a song.

“彼街通天地 

“墜朝地仰雲 

“昇夜空謳月 

“惟望再笑君”

It was the Flight Song.

She placed her Live on that song and sang.

It was not a forced method like the Over Up and it was not a summoning like the Wind Up. She simply sang the Flight Song so the surrounding Lives could hear.

Then, she swung Wild Königin.

She sent out the Messages for three Earth Burns.

She had closed her eyes, so she did not know if Wild Königin’s blade had sent out her Live.

She did not know what had happened, but her feet landed on the concrete ground of the wharf.

She opened her eyes and flapped her wings.

Her forward-moving force had negated the downward force of her fall.

She ran, she raced, and she accelerated.

She extended her wings at a sharp angle to catch the wind.

She saw some blue Lives.

They were the Lives of the wind.

She adjusted the angle of her wings to catch the front of that current.

Wings produced more lift the more powerfully they resisted the wind.

She kicked off the ground and floated up.

Her final two footsteps sounded much louder.

Finally, she flew up into the night sky.