Editing City Series:Volume3b Opening (section)

===Part 3===

Hong Kong’s destruction was approaching its climax.

The black earth dragon, the green wood dragon, and the blue water dragon were already flying about high in the night sky and the Nein Engels decorated their surroundings like stars.

Where they had left the earth, the surface had torn away and muddy seawater was filling the great holes left behind.

There were no more Lives rising from those places.

The red dragon alone had yet to ascend. It calmly floated over the land of Hung Hom. It smashed the earth, swallowed the greenery and wind, and restored its torn body.

Its prey was Akira.

In a single word, she was exhausted.

She had removed her uniform’s coat and all she could do was run and jump.

Even when running at full speed, the great dragon could fill the gap with the slightest of actions.

A few times, it had caught up to her and just about crushed her or devoured her.

However, she was much too small for the dragon. It would misjudge the distance and bite at the wrong spot or drop its maw in the wrong area.

“But I still can’t take much more of this,” she sighed while weakly running along.

She had tripped and slammed against the ground or rocky walls so often that she could no longer feel the pain in her right wing.

…''Have I knocked myself silly?

As she had that overly carefree thought, she heard a heavy Live behind her.

She looked back and saw the red dragon’s face.

“!”

The Live of its gaze pierced into her body and she escaped it by moving to the right.

She ran and a giant red wall burst through the spot she had just vacated.

The dragon bent its neck while practically lying on the ground.

It turned its head toward Akira.

“…!?”

The yellow light of its eyes faced Akira and the Live racing from it was no longer one of curiosity.

This intense red Word Color and low rumbling Tempo belonged to a Live of fury.

And she had no weapon with which to deflect that Live.

She felt a squeezing in her heart as her own Live was crushed and nearly broken by that fury.

If it broke, this was all over. That would mean her Live had been Busted.

Her voice escaped her throat, but it did not reach the level of a scream.

“You have to be kidding me!”

It was only a small shout, but it helped her regain a grip on her own Live.

…''Calm down.

Instead of calming her Live with Tuning, she created the rhythm of a song.

This was the Flight Song that she had known for a very long time and it flowed through her heart.

“彼街通天地

“墜朝地仰雲

“昇夜空謳月

“惟望再笑君”

As she sang, strength returned to her gaze and she used that strength to force back the dragon’s gaze.

Her feet had nearly stopped, but they began moving again.

The dragon reacted to her movement.

It released a furious protest at the recovery of its nearly defeated prey. It opened its fang-lined mouth and released a voice of pure attack rather than words or breath.

It was a roar.

“!”

The great noise nearly blew Akira away.

“…Kh!”

But she held her ground.

She sensed a presence behind her.

“What!?”

She turned only her head and saw an earthen wall that had not been there before.

Called by the dragon’s cry, it had risen from the ground as if by springs.

By the time she noticed, it was too late.

Shock and pain ran through her back and wings, but it did not end there.

She did her best to not lose her balance, but the rising earth proved too much for her.

A cylindrical pillar of earth jutted up with the speed of an elevator.

Akira lost to that inertia and collapsed onto her back.

“Ow!”

For a winged Nein Engel, falling onto her back was filled with only pain and fear. She felt instinctual fear at having her defenseless stomach turned toward the nearly empty night sky.

She raised her head in a frantic attempt to get up and she saw the red dragon’s face.

She had been raised from the ground by a few meters, so there was nothing to obstruct the dragon’s gaze.

[[Image:City_v03b_035.jpg|thumb]]

From the dragon’s point of view, she was nothing but an offering.

…''Oh, no.

The dragon must have noticed what she was thinking because it smiled.

An unpleasant chill ran down her back and she trembled.

She felt a reflexive urge to run, but her body would not move.

Her arms, legs, and torso seemed pinned to the ground.

…''Eh?

Her will responded to her question, but her body did not.

She was exhausted and her body had given up, regardless of her will.

She gasped at this unexpected betrayal and looked to the enemy.

It raised its head and opened its maw with the other three dragons and the Nein Engels flying in the night sky behind it.

And it rushed toward her.

“!”

She could not even scream.

Her voice refused to come out.

Only her thoughts raced through her heart.

The wordless thoughts powerfully raced into the sky in pure Live form.

Only one person in the entire world heard that rushing Live.

And he responded.

He responded by blowing the dragon away from the side.

She heard a great rumbling.

“…!?”

When the great dragon’s face was only around a dozen meters from her, a gust of wind struck it from the side. Instead of a light impact, that wind was enough of an attack to knock it onto its side.

And something much more crucial reached her a moment later: a distinctive Live.

It rang in her gut, had a low Tempo with a wave-like motion, and was colored a metallic gray.

It had blown the red dragon away.

…''It can’t be.

She glanced around, but before she found anything, she felt something solid touching her back and below the knees.

A moment later, she was lifted up from those points.

“Eh?”

“Don’t act so confused.”

She looked up and saw Gunmal’s face before her eyes.