Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter6 (section)

===Part 7===

…''What were those words just now!?

Hazel stopped running when pain threatened to shred the nerves deep in her head.

Her knees went weak like a strong thread had snapped.

“What’s wrong?” asked Berger, but his voice was muffled like she was hearing it underwater.

She fell to her knees, the shaking of the impact seeming to rattle her head directly.

The next thing she knew, she had collapsed to the ground, her right cheek pressed against the sandy schoolyard ground.

She could see her right eye reflected in the blade of the S-41G she had dropped in front of her.

…''The Messiah has deactivated.

Her right eye had lost its red coloration, returning to its usual blue.

Its power had been forcibly removed without warning. Just like she would do to others.

She saw Bermark collect his magazine and slide it back into his gun and she could hear Berger and Schweitzer’s battle continuing behind her. She heard the firing of Jeanne’s gun and the roar of Pale’s prosthetics from the direction her feet were pointing.

“This is so much like my nightmares.”

Hazel sat up, still feeling woozy.

She found a scene just like her dreams.

A woman in a green men’s suit appeared from behind Bermark.

She stopped about 3 yards away from Hazel had collapsed and crossed her arms. She didn’t seem concerned about the surrounding sounds of combat or about Bermark standing nearby.

She simply looked indifferently down at Hazel.

[[Image:City_v06c_267.jpg|thumb]]

After one, two, and three breaths, she breathed a sigh of resignation and spoke.

“I never introduced myself in the Village of Pardons, did I?”

“Ah…”

Hazel tried to say something, but the words wouldn’t come. Her head was still ringing.

The woman didn’t seem to care.

“I am Lowenzahn Naylor, commander of the Geheimnis Agency.”

“!?”

Lowenzahn smiled a little at Hazel’s surprise.

She nodded as if to be reassuring and then looked behind Hazel.

Two men were fighting there, but…

<The New World cannot be touched by destiny.>

She spoke some Aerial Words. Or an Erklärung as the Germans called them.

Hazel frantically twisted around to look back.

Schweitzer’s metal fist swung true and caught Berger in the gut.

The light vanished from Berger’s Gelegenheit.

The blade disappeared, causing Gelegenheit’s attack to miss and Berger to take the solid blow.

The impact rang loud in Hazel’s ears.

“!”

Berger was launched toward her.

The man in a black coat ended up lying face down a few paces away from her.

He still held Gelegenheit in his right hand, but both he and it were entirely motionless.

Hazel knew what must have happened.

Gelegenheit had been forcibly deactivated.

“B-Berger!!”

She scooted over toward him on her knees and lifted his upper body in her arms.

He still wasn’t moving.

She could only sense his heavy breathing and the tension filling his entire body. The powerful blow had left him in shock.

Behind her, she heard Lowenzahn speaking through some somewhat heavy breathing.

“Do you see now, Messiah? Your Beweisen isn’t exclusive to you.”

“Eh?”

“The Eingeweides belonging to the Geheimnis Agency’s master and commander both have the same Beweisen, but they have different Ober Beweisens. That is where the hierarchy comes into play. …Not that you would know since we left you to your own devices.”

Hazel rubbed Berger’s back while listening to Lowenzahn.

She might have been able to tune him back to health if she were a Tuner, but…

…''I…

She was still unsure.

She wanted to choose, but she couldn’t seem to.

A line from her nightmares seemed to strike right at that indecision.

“Now, it is time to say goodbye to your free destiny. We have started down the path that leads to my death. You are just like us, Messiah. You fight only for the present.”

Her mind leaped at those words she had heard so many times before.

Lowenzahn had more to say.

“You cannot see where this fight leads either, can you? Or what it is you want to do once it is all over. …But that is fine.” She took a breath. “For you are only a tool for us. You are the Messiah who keeps the Nibelung turning.”

Everything she said was the truth.

Hazel’s face screwed up and she felt like she would cry.

And…

“Hey, are you just gonna let her say that, Hazel?”

She heard a quiet, trembling voice from right next to her.

It was Berger.

“Ber…ger?”

She looked up in surprise.

Immediately, Lowenzahn barked a command with panic in her voice.

“Bermark! Shoot him!”

“If I must.”

Before the response was even complete, Hazel heard three gunshots that were not Aerial Words.

…''He’s shooting at us.

But she shut her eyes and did what she needed to do.

She placed herself on top of Berger to hide him from the bullets. However…

“Are you stupid?”

After an exasperated comment tinged with happiness, she heard some shouted Aerial Words.

<Destiny protects the Messiah.>

Gelegenheit drained a new Phlogiston Tank and rewrote reality with its own words.