Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter6 (section)

===Part 2===

Rose smiled.

She was joined by wind, heat, and light.

A downpour of bombs fell atop the Requiem’s deck around her, bursting and burning. But they did not even scratch the black-scorched armor.

“I’m so glad you brought me enough noise and heat to soak into the very core of my body.”

She faced forward.

More and more black shapes pushed in from the sky like a series of waves.

The ground was burning red and the northern searchlights were no longer piercing the sky. The initial divine spell bombs had taken out most of the interception equipment.

Rose smiled amid the raining destruction.

The final lights flew forward from the bottom of the ship’s port and starboard sides. Those were the fighters kept inside this aircraft carrier. The last one on the left tilted to the left to avoid the incendiary bombs and then waggled its wings side to side.

That was its way of saying goodbye.

“We are fighting on the front line, not just providing antiair fire,” said Rose, spreading her arms wide.

<The Requiem dislikes the rain.>

The bombs above the Requiem itself and in the sky around it began to shatter like they had hit an invisible ground.

In exchange, the Requiem came to a stop.

“I could protect a wider range if the ship’s inertial spells could be spread out along a plane.”

“Can you take this much of a beating, Rose?”

An enormous figure dropped down onto the cannon behind Rose.

She quickly looked back.

“Bigger brother!?”

She saw a silver Grösse Panzer with six wings on its back.

That one could handle aerial combat without an Ober Emblem. That was the Silber Löwe, which had been used along with the Schwarz Löwe as the foundation for developing the Kaiser.

Rose clenched her fists and raised her eyebrows.

“I thought you evacuated with the other Grösse Panzers back on the ground!?”

“Only the prophet girl can command me.”

Rose’s head drooped and an incendiary bomb pierced through her body. The large warhead burst open from the impact and scattered its six fuel bombs while inside her body.

“Oh, how indecent.”

Rose quickly took a few steps back. A moment later, a pillar of fire shot skyward from the spot she had vacated.

Brother and sister exchanged a glance with the crimson flames between them.

That lasted a few seconds.

Rose finally turned her back on her brother, crossed her arms, and faced forward.

The fires were starting to spread below. She asked a question over the continuing roar.

“Bigger brother? I hear the Messiah has appeared in Germany again, just like Lowenzahn prophesied. And I heard before taking off that Jeanne has joined Lowenzahn and deployed some special forces.” She took a breath. “The prophesies are coming true again, just like Lowenzahn said they would. But…what are we supposed to do if what she said to us comes true?”

Silence.

The intense explosive downpour was at odds with the girl’s silence.

First, a manly voice called her name with enough force to drown out that din.

“Rose.”

“Yes?”

“The Geheimnis Agency does not belong to us. But do you know how all the others feel about this?”

“You’re right…”

She thought about that and then her face lit up.

“You’re right!”

She looked back to see Silber Löwe had drawn the sword from its hip and pointed it her way.

“!?”

She needlessly ducked as the white blade came to a stop about a yard over her head.

Then an explosion thundered overhead and the blade rattled.

The wreckage of a bomb fell past the blade.

Rose looked up at it all with her head ducked down a little.

“Thank you, bigger brother.”

“Heiliger asked me to look after you.”

“Big brother does always treat me like a child… I received a transmission from Lillie in the north. She says the moonlight proofing for big brother’s ship is complete, so he was ordered out to fight. He’s apparently headed here as fast as he can with Sir Alfred in the lead.”

“You sure are popular.”

Rose sighed, watching the sword slowly pull away from overhead.

“They’re all such fools. After all, this bombing looks like it will last another four hours.”

“Can you last that long?”

“The areas with thinner armor are a concern. And I bet the cannons will be destroyed. But I doubt I will be sunk. My Babel Kanone will be reloaded in three hours, so I just have to hold on until then. I only have one other concern.”

Rose looked down to the right.

The city there was full of houses, apartments, schools, and parks.

“Did I make the wrong choice, bigger brother? As part of a Neue Kavalier family, should I have focused on defeating the enemy to protect our country over protecting the people?”

“A Kavalier’s decisions are always based in chivalry. No matter what they might be.”

“So anything I decide as a Neue Kavalier is a Kavalier’s decision? That’s silly,” she laughed. “You’ve used a lot more obvious sophistry since you got the Psyche Outer device installed.”

She looked up to view the sky instead of her brother.

“I will protect this city with my life. The Kavaliers of this Borderson land are watching from among the people down there. To determine what kind of Kavaliers we are.”

A shot from behind blew away and scattered the falling incendiary bombs.

She closed her eyes in a smile under the protection of Silber Löwe.

More explosions were reaching the deck behind her now.

And a beam of light pierced the Gard-class from the sky above.

“!”

That was a Drache Kanone from one of the warships accompanying the bombers.

Heat enveloped the deck and white smoke rose from it. The sensations coming from the ship gave Rose a more serious expression without opening her eyes. But…

“That is not enough to burn me,” she stated, undaunted. She raised her arms like a conductor. “Let us show those future Kavaliers what it is we are trying to do here, bigger brother.”

She slowly lowered her arms before twirling around.

<The Requiem’s master dislikes the chilly night.>

And she raised them again. The Requiem’s firepower was unleashed toward the ceiling above in time with the movements of her skinny arms.

The visible attacks were the Drache Kanone, the Pseudo-Drach Kanone, the scattershot Drache Kanone on the rear deck, and the heavy Drache Kanone.

The invisible attacks were the antiair guns and machineguns fired without tracer rounds.

They filled the night with so much noise that all sound seemed to vanish.

The sky burst open and flames scattered.

Below it all, the girl standing on the end of the long cannon slowly opened her eyes.

“–––––!”

She smiled.