Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter7 (section)

===Part 6===

While the Grösse Panzers loudly fought, the pile of rubble on one end of the shipyard barrier began to stir.

The large concrete chunks were pushed up from below and rolled onto their sides until a black form appeared below.

It was Berger.

He was in bad shape. His hair was wet and matted with blood, his black coat was torn, and his blood-slick boots made a wet sound when he stood up.

He managed to get up on unsteady feet, but there was no strength in the eyes behind his sunglasses and his complexion was poor.

He silently took a step forward while taking a look at himself.

He was bleeding from where the sacred wood had been driven into him. The five stakes had pierced out his back thanks to the sword pressure attack, so he would recover quickly as long as he stopped the bleeding.

He held a hand near his heart – where one of the Panzer Reinigungs should have pierced him.

“Did this protect me?”

He pulled out a pendant. A woman’s pendant adorned with a red jewel.

“The old lady at that night shop said it was originally the Messiah’s. Now, that’s a blatant lie, but its protection was real.”

He opened the locket and found the photo inside was stained with blood.

The weight of the blood pulled the photo away from the locket and it fell toward the barrier.

“––––––”

It slipped past his outstretched fingers and landed on the barrier.

It shrank a bit and then scorched on the heated metal.

Before he could stop it, it set on fire and burned away.

His face clouded over, but only for a moment.

“Saving me twice is more than enough, Eryngium.”

He smiled bitterly and resumed walking across the metal that gave off a shimmering thanks to the great heat below it. He walked toward the Grösse Panzer hangar.

He could hear combat at the distant airfield.

“Firing as they escape? …The AIF’s Panzer Kavaliers aren’t half bad. When retreating anyway.”

He cut across the barrier. The edge was a yard higher above him, so he placed his hands on that and climbed up like he was doing a pull up.

Once out on the road, the ground shook beneath him. The tremor came from underground.

He fell, making a sound like a wet rag slapping against the ground.

Gelegenheit tumbled out from his torn black coat. The Eingeweide sword had a golden decoration resembling a woman’s hair and he reached out his right hand to stop it from rolling further.

He grasped Gelegenheit in his hand and used it as a crutch to stand up. His gentle movements gradually gained more strength and he accelerated his standing by pushing down hard with Gelegenheit.

He took a breath, seeing the road from the main entrance to the command building in front of him. Strength filled his gaze and he looked around to see a change coming over the battlefield.

The AIF was fighting to escape instead of to get in. They used the buildings and wrecked armored trucks for cover as they moved to and fro. Their mission was complete.

Berger caught his breath below the roadside trees swaying in the wind. Another tremor came from belowground.

“Is that the Vaterland?”

The Vaterland was burning. Fire erupted from the white tower and its walls were being scorched by smoke as they crumbled. The outer layer of the 120-yard structure was falling away, revealing the internal structure.

Especially large flames erupted skyward.

At the same time, explosive flames burst out in every direction from about halfway up the Vaterland.

The ground shook from the blast and Berger leaned against the tree behind him for support.

The top of the Vaterland was imploding. The outer walls were falling toward the internal acceleration reactor.

“Was that Bermark Nein’s gunfire? He shot right through the internal walls.”

The 120-yard tower was collapsing and falling. It barely felt real from this distance.

Berger looked to the shipyard barrier and found it was still heating up. However…

“If the Vaterland is destroyed, the Ton reaction within will weaken. If the barrier is destroyed after that, the Tons will be released and the Gard-class might not be fully destroyed.”

He heard more gunfire in the distance, but it was soon followed by an explosion.

He pulled himself from the tree and walked forward.

“Damn, I’ve lost too much blood. If only I could lose just the Heidengeist blood.”

Strength filled his legs and he started to run forward, toward the Grösse Panzer hangar.

The up-down movement of running caused more blood to spurt out and fall to the ground.

That blood gave off steam before vaporizing. Even the ground was overheated.

“Just a little more and the Gard-class will be sunk and the others can escape before the base is blown away from below. …The only way to hold off that colorful trio is to dig out one of the hangar’s Grösse Panzers, isn’t it?”

Berger looked across the base as he ran and he noticed something.

“The truck on the mountain over there is gone?”

But he did not have time to worry about it now. He already knew where he needed to go: the Grösse Panzer hangar.

The ground shook below his feet again. It shook vertically, making it noticeably different from an earthquake. The space between the tremors was shrinking, like the pulse of some new life being born.

Berger listened to the sounds and shaking and kept Gelegenheit in his right hand.

Suddenly, strength faded from his legs and he collapsed.

But he was spared falling when someone reached below his arms to catch him.

“––––?”

He looked back to see a girl with blonde hair cut short.

It was Hazel. She supported him and smiled with some stiffness left on her face.

“I finally found you. Are you okay, Mr. Berger? Um, you see, uh…”

She tried to find the right thing to say while holding out an old envelope.

Berger spoke the German word for it.

“A Verlsten Brief!? Hazel, where did you get that?”

“The addressee has faded a lot, but it definitely says ‘Wild Hunt’ Dog Berger. My teacher asked that I deliver it to you.” She smiled bitterly. “It’s apparently some kind of prophecy.”