Editing City Series:Volume6e Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

Light carved a diagonal line through the darkness.

That light came from the floor. A stairway covered in anti-slip strips and green glow panels continued ever downward. However, the faint green light was only enough to indicate the location of the steps, not to illuminate the entire stairway space.

Two people descended those series of faint lights.

The two sets of footsteps were very different.

One was loud and hesitant and the other was light and unwavering.

The hesitant set hung back a bit and asked a question in a deep voice.

“How far are we descending, Bermark? We have been doing this for nearly an hour now.”

“Until the old HQ is satisfied. Yes, I may be more than a century old, but that makes me a newcomer compared to this place’s millennium of history. When anyone other than its leader, emperor, or commander attempts to approach, it will make us go through a lot of trouble.”

“Could I shorten the space using my Der Held power?”

“I am afraid to say Germany’s millennium has featured several barrier masters with the Titel of Schallmauer Zerstörer. Do you really think such a common power could affect the true nature of this place, Captain Schweitzer?” Bermark took a breath. “And do consider what I told you on the way here about Germany’s destiny tonight.”

“The Nibelung, you mean? You said it is all connected to that. Which I find hard to believe.”

“Believe it or not, the Allies will launch their ACBS at Germania tonight and the fräulein will state her Ober Beweisen from within Tristan. Everything is falling into place.”

“Everything you say has to be painfully accurate, doesn’t it?”

“That is how it has always been.”

Schweitzer’s footsteps and presence changed when he heard that.

His footsteps grew louder and his presence grew as solid as a rock.

“If so, then all of this must be correct just as it always has been, Bermark.”

“Indeed it is.”

“But then where did Lowenzahn’s prophecies come from?”

“She told me to tell you that she can prophesy without relying on an Eingeweide device.”

Bermark’s response was answered by the solid crash of metal slamming into the unseen wall.

The footsteps stopped, the metal reverberated, a few beats passed, and Bermark finally asked a question.

“Have you calmed down now? Where does this impatience come from? Why not trust the message the fräulein left for you? She is a Sofort Leser, so she followed her own prophecies.”

“Just like Stimmers and Busters, Sofort Lesers can read someone’s Tons by touching them. And if they want to, they can pass their own Tons on to the other person.”

“What about it?”

Schweitzer took one step down the stairs as he answered.

“But whenever she had something truly important to convey, she was always extremely talkative.”

“That is very flimsy reasoning.”

“But it’s that talkative Lowenzahn I believe in. If her prophecies really did come from someone else, then I must determine whether or not she really wanted to go through with them. I must know what is truly accurate there.”

“Do you now?” Bermark nodded in the darkness. “It is true none of this world’s mistakes ever really go away. They merely grow more concentrated as the cycle continues. Just like you, my only desire is to add just one new accurate fact to the all the previous ones.”

Schweitzer’s footsteps took one more step down and then stopped.

His powerful presence stopped moving down the stairs and the skinnier presence ahead of him stopped as well.

“Is something wrong, Captain Schweitzer?”

“That’s my line, Bermark. Look ahead.”

The skinny presence made another footstep and a rustling of cloth.

The green lights leading down had ended.

The stairs didn’t go down any further. Instead, a pair of green glow panels decorated a double door. Bermark viewed it with the faint green light illuminating him.

He looked across the square landing with each side the width of the door.

“The castle has already accepted you? That is a surprise.”

‘You don’t sound surprised.”

A heavier footstep descended onto the landing.

The green light revealed a large man with a large prosthetic arm. It was Schweitzer.

“Maybe it decided I wasn’t worth tricking since I’m prepared to check over everything so carefully.”

“I have no will of my own, so I can never reach this place on my own. Just like my brother needs the Eisen Ritter Project to use an Ober Emblem, I can only use an incomplete Beweisen and Ober Beweisen.”

Schweitzer sighed at that and raised his prosthetic right arm.

“You are correct that it is your will that rules this place – not your strength.” He looked to his aide just once before viewing his prosthetic arm. “Thank you for earlier. I was getting impatient and I nearly relied on the Titel I inherited.”

“So what will you do now? Your Titel of Schallmauer Zerstörer means nothing from here on in. You have been following the same path as before, so I do not see how you can change anything with your strength or will.”

“Bermark.”

Schweitzer cut off his aide.

And he viewed Bermark while smiling with only his eyes.

“Why not just come out and say it? You’re asking if I intend to complete in a few hours all the work that Hazel Mirildorf put into changing her own destiny.”

He smiled bitterly and reached into his pocket.

He pulled out a small key.

“Lowenzahn left this with me. Did you know that?”

“I was the one she left her clothing with when she entered Tristan. I had my guesses when the key was not with her things.”

“Good grief.” Schweitzer inserted the key in the keyhole at the seam between the two sides of the double door. “A woman who tells you to believe her lies yet gives you the key to the truth and a Sein Frau who obeys that woman while simultaneously defying her.”

He turned the key, heard a click, and saw the door shake a bit.

Instead of pulling out the key, he pushed open the left side.

The right side opened with it. And quickly at that.

Nothing but white light spread out before his eyes.