Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter8 (section)

===Part 1===

Darkness filled a large corridor.

The lights were out.

The metal walls were torn in places and pieces of the walls and bundles of cables were strewn across the floor.

A transport vehicle lay on its side in the center of the corridor. The vehicle’s front surface was four yards tall and wide, yet there was still plenty of space in the corroder.

The corridor was designed for giants.

Suddenly, that vehicle was shoved over to the side.

A giant made of metal appeared behind it.

The giant was the silver Grösse Panzer named Silber Löwe.

But it was no longer just silver.

Silber Löwe had lost its right arm and left side and oil soaked it like blood. Its Panzer Kleid had torn away, revealing that even its limbs were spewing smoke and trembling.

The tip of the sword in its left hand scraped along the floor, making a distorted sound.

But it was still walking. It took a step at a time, moving forward.

The walking Panzer had a white light glowing atop its left collarbone.

That was Rose.

The transparent girl sat on the silver lion’s shoulder.

“Bigger brother…”

She reached out and stroked the silver Panzer’s cheek with her intangible hand. Then she bowed.

“I’m sorry. If I wasn’t here, the city wouldn’t have been attacked and you wouldn’t have been hurt.”

“It is a double-edged sword. The city was attacked because of our presence, but we did manage to protect some small part of it.”

A pipe-like component about 2 feet long dangled from Silber Löwe’s side and then fell away.

He didn’t even look down at it. Instead he faced the right wall in a fighting stance.

Rose nodded.

“I will be waiting.”

Before she was even done speaking, Silber Löwe attacked the wall with the force of a tackle. The sword easily sliced through the wall, but it broke just as the full circle was complete.

The snapping sound echoed down the corridor.

Silber Löwe tossed aside the broken sword and slammed his right side into the wall with the sword’s blade still embedded in it.

The wall broke apart with a sound like tearing fibers.

The bent metal wall collapsed into the space beyond.

Silber Löwe parted the white smoke bursting from the wall and stepped through to a room far too small for a Grösse Panzer.

“This is my room.”

A flower with mechanical petals blossomed at the center of the small, 6-yard room.

This was the central room that controlled the Requiem’s will. This was the ceiling of the deep pit located directly above the observation room at the bottom of the ship.

There was a hole in the center and the domed barrier wall that had plugged the hole now sat open. The hole contained plenty of cables and cushioning, but it was all spewing white smoke at the moment.

A small red gem was suspended from the cables at the center.

“All of the coolant has been removed, so I have a really bad fever and I’m feeling chilled.”

Silber Löwe reached toward the center of the smoking flower.

He touched his sister’s body. Countless cables extended from the bottom of the red gem which was far smaller than the Panzer’s fingertips, branching out and connecting to everything else.

When Silber Löwe touched the gem, the Rose on his collarbone blurred.

When Silber Löwe pulled his hand back, Rose smiled.

“Don’t worry. Grab that cable you were touching. Yes, that red one. And slowly pull it out along with the root block. I will last a little while as long as that block remains.”

Silber Löwe did as instructed. He moved all the non-red cables out of the way with one hand’s fingers.

“Once you have it out, connect me to your copilot cockpit. There isn’t much to do after that since I have already completed all the preparations, so…” She took a breath. “I have one last selfish request. Take me outside. I want to see the sunrise.”

“Understood.”

Once Silber Löwe pulled the 2 yard red cable from the base of the structure along with its connection block, Rose disappeared.

Shortly afterwards, the lights gently illuminating the room vanished.

“Emergency. Activating Panzer Emblem Sturm Drache based on final instructions. Opening radio on all bands. All surviving units will now be commanded by HMS-083S Silber Löwe.”

Silber Löwe stood back up and left the room.

Back out in the corridor, he removed the cover at the bottom of the copilot cockpit on his back.

The removed cover revealed a few plugs and a fuel port. Silber Löwe took the block at the end of the red cable and attached it to the leftmost plug.

“…”

He walked forward in silence.

His legs were unsteady, but he walked toward the outside.

On the way, he tore away the Panzer Kleid remaining over his chest and stabbed his left hand’s claws into his left chest’s armor.

“!!”

He tore the external armor away, destroying it.

He jammed his hand into the hole in his torn left side and tore the hole open wider. More and more armor fell to the floor and bounced as he walked.

The exposed interior of his chest contained Grösse Panzer materials and a heart device. There were metal blood vessels resembling a water clock, a cooling device, and a primary engine that sent power across his body. They heated up when exposed to the outside.

Silber Löwe placed the red gem inside his chest.

“I will take you outside, my sister. I will grant you your final selfish request.”

He walked.

A white light reappeared above his left collarbone. It was Rose. She had faded so much she was barely visible, but her voice echoed down the ship’s corridor.

Her voice seemed to rule over that dark and silent space.

“After that, it will be your turn, bigger brother.”

“So it would seem.”

His voice also came from the corridor’s speakers. He was already indirectly controlling the Requiem as an intermediary for Rose.

Rose stroked his cheek and smiled.

“What do you think, bigger brother?”

“About what?”

“Did I do the right thing? Or should I have focused on defeating the enemy over protecting Cologne? Should I have prioritized your idea of a Neue Kavalier’s spirit over protecting the lives of the people like big brother does? If I had, Cologne would only have been bombed.”

“Whatever the result, you still tried to protect Cologne.”

Rose shut her eyes.

“My surviving exterior sight devices tell me I barely managed to protect any of the city. Despite taking so much damage. It tells me a lot more was lost due to my presence.”

“Rose.”

“Yes?”

“Why is it so difficult to protect things even with great power?” asked Silber Löwe, still walking.

Rose thought about that one for a bit before answering.

“Well…probably because wielding power makes it difficult to leave things as they are.”

“Then what is the Messiah’s power? What is the power of the Messiah who chose something as poorly defined as destiny?” He paused. “Is it different from the power held by our older generation? Is it something new held by the younger generation?”

The silver Grösse Panzer was finished talking, but he continued to walk.

Each step destroyed him further, but he continued to move outside.

And finally, he spoke again.

“Opening radio on all bands. Silber Löwe to all of Germany.”

After a beat, the surviving communication equipment inside the Requiem activated and a burst of static came over the ship’s internal line.

But that was all. Everything was connected. Rose nodded with a smile and Silber Löwe nodded back.

And he spoke.

“I have a message for all Neue Kavaliers still living in Germany.”