Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter6 (section)

===Part 1===

The first attack, arriving before the aerial bombing, was the light of a Babel Kanone flying in from the north.

The bombing fleet managed to survive that and sent destruction raining down on the city of Cologne.

In response, searchlights illuminated the night sky and antiaircraft guns began firing.

Cologne, which stretched north to south with the Rhine to its east, was primarily a riverside industrial city. The bombing was meant to cover everything from north to south, which meant obliterating the entire city.

An exchange of attacks from the sky above and the ground below began a test of endurance.

Deep booms and roars shook the air, the bombs whistled down, antiaircraft gunfire burst from the ground, and the third alarm blared.

Searchlight beams sliced apart the night and crimson flames blossomed on the ground.

The crimson covered the city, factories, and homes of Cologne from north to south.

Gradually, a heated wind whipped up and blew into the sky.

There were no more clouds in the sky.

Even the smoke was swept away by the air currents thinning out the clouds.

Aircraft could be seen slowly flying beyond those vanishing clouds. Dozens of four-engine bombers traveled south, led by a few aerial warships.

The heat and wind drove the people of Cologne from north to south.

The people seemed to follow the current of the Rhine while they screamed and shouted instructions.

The shelters were meaningless at this point. The only way to escape the north-to-south bombing line was to move east or west, but east was cut off by the Rhine.

West was their only option, but Cologne was divided by several broad waterways flowing in from the Rhine. The bridges were quickly clogged with evacuees and congestion packed the center of the city where the city hall was located.

The din of the bombing approached from the north.

Firebombs cascaded down toward the two tall spires of Cologne Cathedral in central Cologne.

<The Requiem is played by people.>

The downpour of incendiary bombs stopped.

The people rushing to evacuate were puzzled by the slight silence that surrounded them.

Their questions were answered by the wind that blew down from the sky.

They all saw the giant umbrella floating in Cologne’s sky.

“––––!?”

The umbrella floating about a mile above the surface was more than half a mile long and was painted a pitch black. It was the massive aerial warship that had remained a mystery for them all. The warship had launched a powerful beam of light to the north before the bombing began, but it had supposedly remained motionless since.

The ship’s mere presence shook the atmosphere and it launched fighters from its port and starboard sides.

The top of the ship lit up at the same time.

The beams of Drache Kanone swept through the sky like several swinging threads.

Eight aerial warships’ worth of antiair fire tore into the sky and shot down the enemy.

And all the people on the surface saw a girl standing at the end of the largest cannon sticking out from the front of the giant ship.