Editing City Series:Volume3a Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 2===

Lights of fishing boats could be seen in the distance.

The ocean wind carried the sounds of waves from far below.

Repeated splashes could be heard from below as well.

While soaking his feet in those sounds, Kouga walked alone through the moonlit night.

His voice joined the sounds of the waves and wind.

“Yeah, I’m on Lamma Island right now. I can really see the lights of Hong Kong Island since I’m up on a mountain.”

The wind quickly swept away his voice as he spoke into his cellphone.

The wind carried the saltiness of the ocean below.

Lamma Island was just over three kilometers long and its tallest mountain was three hundred fifty meters. The powerful ocean wind flew over the forest and raced up the mountain ridge.

Not even the locals approached this place.

“But it’s strange. Why was the blood of Archs RDC’s president spilled here? Do you have any idea? …Yeah, I still have to visit Tsing Yi Island and Beaufort Island.”

Meanwhile, a small form rode the wind and flew down through the darkness.

The moonlight illuminated its two wings.

It was a bat.

When Kouga casually reached out his right hand, it landed on his white fingertips and vanished.

It had combined with him.

He gently swung his right hand and brushed it through his pompadour.

“I’m almost at the peak. I’m gonna start some real investigation, so I’ve gotta hang up. …Right. I’ll be careful.”

He ended the call and put the phone in his pocket.

He continued up the steep slope without getting out of breath and the slope suddenly vanished.

A flat space about the size of a small park appeared.

This was the peak.

Some volcanic rock protruded out of it, but it was relatively level and as flat as a stage. Perhaps due to the powerful wind, there were no trees to obstruct one’s view.

“You could probably land a helicopter here.”

Kouga looked around. As a vampire and human mix, he could see in the dark. The darkness of the night was not an obstacle for him. It was his ally.

“The north and south sides are sheer cliffs. I can see why the locals never approach the place.”

He looked back to the bottom of the trail he had climbed. The forest below resembled the kind of jungles unique to the tropics.

Past the forest were a sandy beach and the dark ocean.

The giant mass of light on the ocean was Hong Kong Island and the smaller lights were the other islands.

“That must be Beaufort Island. The scent is stronger over there, so it may be what I’m looking for.”

His nose detected the scent of blood his familiar had found.

That same scent filled this place.

Just as Akira and Gunmal could see Lives, Kouga could see the scent of blood.

The scent before his eyes here was thick and high quality.

It floated around the area with the density of a light mist.

…''Why can I smell so much blood? Did someone perform a Demon Summoning or something?

The scent of blood was strongest two or three steps ahead.

“?”

In the very center of the small peak, he saw traces of a large amount of blood.

The traces seemed to glow before Kouga’s eyes.

“It’s filled with the power of Yang. There’s no mistaking it now.”

This blood belonged to Huang Daquan, an Archs.

As he approached, the bloodstains became evident.

“But that Nein Engel committed suicide in his home, so why is his blood here? …Ah!”

He immediately found his answer.

He saw countless glowing words written there.

The words formed emblems.

Many different emblems made of Chinese characters were joined together into a circle on the volcanic rock ground.

It was six or seven meters across and no one but Kouga would have been able to see it.

“A Tune Emblem. And a huge one at that. …Is this one of the Death Technos lost during the Fifth Divine Punishment War?”

A Tune Emblem was like sheet music that encoded a Live’s Word Color and Tempo in writing.

It was arranged in a circle, it was activated by striking a point in the center called the Baton, and it would Tune the surrounding space according to what was written in it.

“If it’s Death Techno, the General would probably know what it does at first glance.”

Kouga spotted the Baton in the center and noticed it had already been struck.

This emblem had already been activated.

He pulled a Discord Bomb from his pocket and looked at it. A close inspection of the pencil-sized bomb showed it had an emblem drawn on it too.

That small Discord Bomb would destroy the Lives within five meters when it detonated, but the Tune Emblem in front of him was many times larger.

“When you make it this big… Well, the effective Octave of a Tune Emblem is equal to ten thousand times four to the power of how many meters it is, right? This thing has a radius of about six meters, so…”

…''Four to the sixth times ten thousand is an Octave of…40,960,000!?

That was a massive Octave.

Akira was the most powerful Tuner that Kouga knew and even she could only control an Octave of 1,280,000. Rin was called a genius for her 320,000 and a normal person did well to control 80,000.

What could be created or destroyed from controlling an Octave in the tens of millions?

Kouga wanted to call it insane, but he recalled a certain fact.

“There aren’t others like this on Beaufort Island and Tsing Yi Island, are there?”

“Well done. The ADs Device has already reached the depths of the ley line.”

“!”

Kouga turned toward the sudden voice just as his right arm vanished at the shoulder.

“What!?”

The attack had been too intense to feel any pain. Losing his arm threw off his balance and he fell to his knee. He held his right shoulder and found his hand was touching bone.

The ocean wind blew across the peak and onto his exposed bone. It felt hard, but even more…

…''It feels cold.

As soon as he thought that, blood spewed from his shoulder. It was too much to contain with his left hand.

A normal person would have died of blood loss from it all, but Kouga’s eyes remained strong as they faced forward through his sunglasses.

Two men stood before him.

One was a six-winged Seraph wearing a white combat coat. He held a Device-like sword, so he had likely been the one to sever Kouga’s arm.

The other wore a black combat outfit over a Custom Body. A closer look showed his Custom Body swelling out tightly around the neck and shoulders.

…''He had a lot of alterations done around the neck and back? Does that mean…?

Kouga had his thoughts cut off.

“Yes, only a winged-race would need to modify that area. That is what happens when you remove your wings.”

“!?”

The Seraph had read his thoughts.

Before he could ask how, the Seraph smiled and spoke.

“It would be best not to think. I can read your Live quite easily.”

That told him who this was, but if this Seraph could read his Live…

“Ha! So you know Akira. I see, so the Yard has already made it this far in pursuing Huang Daquan’s death, have they?”

The Seraph read Kouga’s thoughts again and stepped forward.

Kouga shuddered at his unhesitating movement.

He held his right shoulder, stood up, and backed away, but the Seraph only smiled.

“I can’t have you viewing me on the same level as Akira. I am not a mere child playing around with Tuning Lives into small animals.”

The Seraph stopped and lightly raised his Device toward the night sky.

“The moon is nice tonight,” he whispered.

He gave a short and simple call to the surrounding Lives using an Over Up.

“Word Accel! Oh, you Lives of 160,000 Octaves.”

The wind immediately produced a shape. It was a leopard colored the blue of the wind.

“That was fast!”

Normally, Tuning took some time.

To transform a Live, one had to learn the target object’s Live, have the Live hear you, and fuse it with your own Message.

Kouga remembered it taking five or six seconds for Akira to create a dog or a cat.

But this Seraph had created a leopard in under a second.

…''This isn’t good.

Kouga let go of his shoulder and let it bleed as he dug through his pocket.

He pulled out his handgun: a Webley & Scott 6-round revolver.

While backing away, he pressed down the hammer.

He heard the metal locking into place.

At the same time, the leopard began to run. And it did so along the wind in midair.

Its roar sounded just like the roar of the wind.

He stopped and held up his Webley & Scott in one hand. He stiffened his entire body to brace against the recoil of the .45 caliber round.

He fired and the blast cut through the wind.

The recoil hit him hard. The blood must have loosened his grip because his arm flew upwards and the Webley & Scott slipped from his hand.

But the shot had been accurate.

The bullet flew straight and light wrapped around it in midair.

Just like the Discord Bomb, it had an emblem drawn on it.

The light trailed behind it like a comet and transformed into a spear.

This was a German anti-demon round.

“!”

The Seraph gave a gasp of surprise.

The leopard stopped, but it could not evade. The spear hit it right in the face.

The weapon stabbed in up to the base.

The leopard rolled along a nonexistent midair ground and roared.

However, that cry ended it.

The floating leopard quickly expanded and burst.

It made a “sh” sound as it did so.

Only the spear of light remained and it fell. When it reached the volcanic rock, it stabbed in with a white sound.

Kouga stared forward while shaking the fingers he had hurt when the gun had slipped from his grasp.

The Seraph still held his Device in the same place as before.

“I see. I suppose you ''are'' part of the Yard that protects Hong Kong. That was quite the strange bullet.”

“But unlike the ones used by our forces, it had not been refined.”

There was no inflection to the cyborg Galgallin’s voice. He must have eliminated his emotions when altering his body.

Kouga sighed and realized the blood flowing from his shoulder was slowing, so he brought his hand back to it.

“What are Nein Engels doing here?”

“We detected someone investigating our ceremony, so we stopped by to…eliminate them.”

“Your ceremony?”

That would be the Tune Emblem drawn on the ground here.

…''That big an emblem is a ceremony?

He suddenly remembered something.

“The General mentioned rumors of an Earth Serpent out at sea.”

“An Earth Serpent?” asked the Seraph.

Kouga frowned and the Seraph continued.

“People thought ''that'' was an Earth Serpent? A ceremony that small can only awaken an Earth Wyvern. …Then again, I am the only one that can create something even at that level.”

The other Nein Engel tapped the Seraph on the shoulder.

He seemed to be saying not to say anything more.

“I know, Fei,” answered the Seraph.

Kouga reacted to that name.

“Fei!? You mean Fei the Galgallin!?”

That was the man Rin was searching for.

The man referred to as Fei turned toward Kouga. His false eyes glowed red behind his mirrorshades. It was a cold, emotionless light.

Kouga instinctually put up his guard just as Fei charged in.

He was fast. He immediately covered the ten step distance.

Kouga immediately made a counterattack.

“Headbutt!”

He did exactly as his shout suggested.

…''It hit!

With that realization, a great shock reached him.

His body was blown away and his bones cried out. Instead of simply breaking, they were smashed to pieces.

…''!?

For just an instant, he saw Fei standing next to him despite having charged in straight ahead.

Only then did Kouga realize he had been kicked.

He saw the sky and the moon and stars filled that night sky.

The only thing he felt was his body falling. He fell from top to bottom and from back to stomach.

To his left was a rising cliff face, so he had apparently fallen from the cliff.

For a few seconds, he felt like he was floating, but he soon completed the nearly one hundred meter drop and his back slammed into the ground.

The ground below was the bare volcanic rock of the mountainside.

His body burst like a melon and his vision went dark.