Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter8 (section)

===Part 6===

When leaving the Geheimnis Agency HQ building and walking south, if you turned east instead of toward the western runway, you would find the army hangar. The large building was primarily used for repairs.

The internal space could contain around 10 Grösse Panzers and it was currently wrapped in an unusual stillness.

There were noises, however. From outside, there was the blowing wind and the forest noises.

On the inside, there were the distinctive noises of Grösse Panzers in standby mode and of people talking.

The lights were kept off, so some people were speaking in the darkness.

The slender figure standing near the entrance was Lowenzahn.

“Almost everyone has left the #8 Base now. …Can I assume everyone here already knows the truth?”

She turned toward the shadows to her right.

The enormous, broad-shouldered figure there was Graham. Rose was clinging to him with her hands on his shoulder.

A woman in a blue dress stood next to them: Naval Division Chief Lillie.

She gave a quick bow without opening her eyes.

“I learned it all from the previous Sofort Leser, Lady Frobel. At the time I assumed she was joking because it seemed crazy to think you could be so important or that history would progress like this.”

“And my mom did love making jokes with a straight face.”

Lowenzahn gave a pure smile and then moved her eyes to someone else.

The skinny figure standing to Lillie’s left was Bermark Vier.

“Please look after Captain Hellard while I am away,” she said to him.

“Understood.”

“No matter what might happen to me and even if the Panzerpolis Project causes another disaster in ’43, he still saved me…saved me twice.”

Bermark nodded and Lillie tilted her head.

“Twice? I thought it was just the once three years ago.”

She turned toward Graham after asking.

Graham did not nod and simply returned her gaze for a few seconds.

Then he turned his eyes toward something like a wall next to Lillie.

But it was not actually a wall. What looked like a steel cube at least 3 yards tall was actually a foot.

Everyone turned to view the thing the enormous foot belonged to.

It was a Panzer, but it could not be called a Grösse Panzer. It was so large it made the massive hangar look cramped. Even while crouched down with its hips to the floor, its head nearly touched the ceiling.

The green of its Panzer Kleid and the metallic gray and nearly ocher brass color of the Panzer itself glowed dully in the darkness.

It would tower over 25 yards tall when standing up.

The colossal Grösse Panzer had large, thick limbs and two Drache Kanone on its back. The plentiful armor placed over its Panzer Kleid was honeycombed with warship buoyancy emblem panels.

Two lights appeared in the darkness far above. The colossal Grösse Panzer’s sight devices had lit up. They were cold red lights.

Its gaze was directed toward the group gathered below.

A voice spoke from the external speaker on the Panzer’s chest. A male voice.

“Yes…it was twice, wasn’t it? Commander, I am glad you remembered what I told you.”

“Army Division Chief Karl Schmitt is well known for his strictly accurate stories,” said Lowenzahn. “Is that because you can extract just the facts from your memory? That may be one advantage to the Eisen Ritter Project.”

Lillie looked back in surprise.

“Are you saying something else happened with that air force captain?”

The response came from Rose.

“All sorts of stuff! I doubt he remembers, but it was so important for Lowenzahn and for me as well. It’s a sad story, so I can’t get into the details…but let’s just say Lowenzahn and I can never thank the Schweitzer family enough. Especially Der Held.”

“Der Held…hm?” Lillie nodded. “That’s an Eingeweide device that rewrites a portion of this world, just like my Mondnacht and Lady Rose’s Requiem.”

“With Heiliger’s Tragisch, the Kaiser, the Vaterlands, and so much more, we really are gathering them together, aren’t we?” Lowenzahn gave a fearless smile. “But, Rose, I’m sorry to say I think the Gard-class Eingeweide aerial warship – the Requiem – was destroyed, so you’ll have to go back to sleep for a while longer. We can reconstruct that one piece of the composite ship in another year.”

“Yes, but I can’t stand to wait much longer! I don’t think I could bear seeing my bigger brother get any balder!”

Rose’s reply caused Lowenzahn’s smile to grow. Lowenzahn took a step back and placed a hand on her left chest.

“Only those of us here are aware that all of the prophecies end in ’43. …I apologize for leaving Jeanne out of it, Karl.”

“It was best to let her rush out to the #8 Base like she wanted.”

“Some things are better not known and some people are more able to stand being lied to,” said Lillie, looking away from Graham.

Lowenzahn nodded.

“I should really be telling them about my Eingeweide too.”

“Do you think Captain Schweitzer realized what was happening three years ago?” asked Bermark.

“That I was at Neuschwanstein’s hospital to be implanted with an Eingeweide organ? No, there is no way he realized that.”

“…”

“Anyone who learns the Sofort Leser Naylor girl has an Eingeweide organ is bound to assume its Ober Beweisen is used to make her prophecies…even though that isn’t accurate in the slightest,” she said.

“It is an unfortunate thing, commander, but it is understandable since the Karlsruhe bloodline has a shortened lifespan due to their inherited Words Warn disease. You too have inherited a disease. That is all this means.”

“But mine won’t kill me.” Lowenzahn took a step back. “The lie I live is what will kill me. And it is Heiliger who will do it.”

She leaned back against the edge of the container for the hangar’s opened sliding door and looked outside.

“In ’43…I will let Heiliger know about the lie – about the true form of this world, the true meaning of Germany, and the true reason for the Panzerpolis Project.”

“And he will still do it?” asked Lillie.

“He once fought over my mother with my father, with Bertecht, and – sorry, Lillie – with Graham there.” Lowenzahn’s shoulders shook a little as she looked outside. “So even if he forgives me for it, he cannot let me live. Once he learns the truth of my lie, why Graham chose to abandon his emotions and memories, and whose prophecies these are, I know for certain he will…choose my death.”

“And the Messiah, Destiny, and the Hero cannot save you?”

“I have my hands full simply bringing this world back into order…and they are the gears of the Nibelung needed to do that.” Lowenzahn turned back toward them with a smile. “Sorry for dragging you into this complicated destiny business. But this is an age of darkness and chaos for the world. New cultures are rising, the old ones are falling apart, and the Tons are disturbed on a global scale.” She took a breath. “The Sofort Lesers around the world should start panicking next year. And that will explode into complete ruin come ’43…but we and the Panzerpolis Project are both the cause and solution to that.”

“The Millennium is ending, isn’t it?” said Bermark. “The former Messiah subjugated Germany in the year 962. It would be wrong to assume the world revolves around Germany, but this must be the end of the promised millennium of peace. Germany is the only part of this world containing that Existence Ton, so we are destined to be envied and destroyed by the hostile Tons of the those without it.”

“You’re saying the Great War was part of that peace?” asked Graham.

“I am.” Bermark bowed. “I believe the next war will lead to unprecedented levels of inhumanity.”

“That’s where the Panzerpolis Project comes in. We must work with the machines to make up for all of that. …And that will require my death. That is the only way to activate the Ober Beweisen of what I carry in my chest.” Lowenzahn hesitated but shut her eyes. “Of the Eingeweide heart Neue Erde.”

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