Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter2 (section)

===Part 1===

Light crept into the sky as dawn approached.

That sky hung over a forest enshrouded in shadow.

The hills and mountains were all covered with green trees.

The only areas of ground devoid of trees were near the several rivers running through the lower part of the forest.

There was a single point in the forest where those rivers gathered together.

The dirt ground was exposed over a wide region there. There was a large hole in the middle of that land. The bowl-shaped hole was filled with the water flowing in from the rivers.

With a diameter of a mile and a half, it qualified as a large lake.

Something like a tower jutted up from the center of the lake.

The morning light revealed the tower to be a giant barrel.

The barrel rose from what looked like a metal island.

The barrel was jet black, as was the large metal island. Both were terribly cracked and split, revealing a metal frame that resembled ribs.

The morning sun appeared over the horizon.

Its light illuminated the tower and island from behind.

The tower’s shadow stretched westward across the water, climbed the slope that formed the edge of the hole, and reached the land beyond.

A slender woman stood at the far end of the shadow.

Her long frayed brown hair blew in the wind. She wore a Geheimnis Agency Navy Division coat, but she wore a blue dress below that.

Her left shoulder supported a harp that curved forward from there. The harp was a yard long, but it did not overbalance her.

She was motionless.

The shallow wrinkles of her face were not smiling.

The breaths leaving her mouth were made white by the early morning chill.

Her breaths formed a beat.

She let out a longer white breath to mark a change.

After a second, third, and fourth beat, the change revealed itself.

Her breathing grew subtly quicker and subtly stronger.

The individual breaths joined together to form their beat and her eyes suddenly moved.

She looked up into the sky.

The colors of night still lingered there. The morning wind blew the thin clouds from east to west, fluffing them up thicker and whiter.

A white circle floated up in the center of the morning sky. That was the morning moon.

The moon left behind traces of the early morning light as it looked down on the woman.

Sound left the harp resting on her left shoulder.

It produced sound without her needing to strum it.

A single loud, clear tone dyed the morning air.

The note raced out and the surface of the lake rippled.

Another note rang out.

Then another. And another. More and more notes played, but they were all the same note. This did not qualify as music.

Altogether…

“Ober Text: 6.4 million Tons!” shouted the woman.

She looked down at the many ripples running along the surface of the water, crashing into each other, and creating more waves. The size and intensity of the ripples was changed by the notes being played.

She watched that motion and opened her mouth to say more.

<The Moonlit Night never wakes.>

The waves grew.

<The Moonlit Night allows a different power to dance.>

The waves grew even more.

<The Moonlit Night seeks a different power.>

The waves swelled up like a tower. Eight waves sucked up the water from the large hole to grow tall.

The weight towers of water trapped air within them and curved up into the sky while maintaining a thickness of around a dozen yards. They reached a height of more than 300 yards with water audibly spraying from them.

And they roared.

The high-pitched cry of a wild animal erupted from the ends of the eight water currents. Animal faces had formed there. They opened mouths like protruding beaks, bared watery fangs, and grew two 
long horns behind their heads.

These were dragons.

The eight dragons danced wildly.

<The Moonlit Night cannot be stopped.>

Just as it looked like the dragons were twisting around, they crashed into the edge of the large hole one after another.

They crashed into the mouth of a river flowing into the hole.

The dragons destroyed and broke the land there to fill in the river mouth.

With the sound of breaking rock, the water pressure attacks tore apart the ground and carried rock.

Roars rang out with an eight-beat tempo. They whipped up the wind, sent spray into the air, and shook the forest sky with the sounds of impact, scaring the morning forest birds into flight. The birds’ chirping protests were drowned out by bestial roars. One corner of the forest morning was ruled by those animalistic movements.

A great boulder shattered.

The large pieces rolled into the hole and fully blocked up the mouth connecting the river to the hole.

The dragons stopped there.

<The Moonlit Night leaves by setting in the west.>

With those words and a note from the harp, the dragons twisted toward the woman. All eight raised their heads and looked down at her.

She looked each of the eight in the eye and without warning…

“…”

She silently held a hand out toward them.

The wind moved in response. So did the dragons. The rightmost of the eight blew out the air bubbles inside it and moved its snout toward the offered hand.

The dragon’s breath smelled like cold water.

Its beak-like mouth opened and revealed a forked tongue as big around as an arm.

The tongue moved like it had a mind of its own and licked the woman’s hand.

The tongue passed above her hand, producing some spray, and a small fish landed in her hand.

The woman looked surprised.

“Oh, dear. You need to take this one with you.”

The dragon nodded, stuck out its tongue, scooped up the fish, and brought the fish into its watery body.

Then the dragons whipped up the wind while turning toward the river.

They flew in arcs that crossed the border of the hole, diving into the river. They produced the roar of eight waterfalls and a mist flew into the air.

But that only lasted a moment.

By the time the waterfall roar was gone, so were the dragons. All that remained was the mist they had produced.

“…”

The woman sighed.

She heard a flapping sound behind her like someone was rapidly flipping through a book.

She gasped and looked back.

There was movement in the forest. Some bushes were rustling.