Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter6 (section)

===Part 7===

The first in the forest clearing to react to the approaching threat was Schwarz Löwe.

It was kneeling and something like a pulse began to sound from its stomach.

The next reaction came before the first mechanical heartbeat was over.

A white light appeared in its sight devices.

By then, Berger had noticed something was up while Hazel threw small rocks and such at him.

“Hey, Haz- gwoh!?”

A larger rock hit him in the jaw and he nearly fell over.

Then Hazel also noticed something was odd about Schwarz Löwe, so she dropped the rock she held.

“Ah! L-look, Berger. Schwarz Löwe is doing something.”

He clearly wanted to say something to her, but they didn’t have time.

He turned toward Schwarz Löwe and directed his gaze toward the metal stomach the pulse was coming from.

“It’s reacting. The experimental Eingeweide device installed in it is reacting to its original owner’s approach.”

He was proven right when something dropped from the sky.

With a blast of wind, a deafening roar, and the color white, something was now standing on the field.

“Neue Kaiser!?”

Hazel’s words were answered by the pressurized wind of its landing racing across the field.

A white Grösse Panzer now stood on the field.

Its metal body produced a wind. That wind carried the scent of the summer grass and night dew, the chill of the night, and the smell of metal and oil.

It all raced past Hazel and hit the forest.

The trees shook, the leaves rustled, and the sleeping birds and other animals took flight, began running, and made lots of noise.

Hazel wasn’t sure how to react, so she turned toward Berger. However…

“Berger?”

He was gone. She frantically looked left and right, hoping to find him.

“Where are you looking? I’m up here.”

He was up on Schwarz Löwe’s secondary cockpit. He had just opened the hatch and he was glaring at Neue Kaiser.

She followed his gaze to view Neue Kaiser as well.

The large Grösse Panzer had six wings on its back and held a sword. It remained entirely motionless with its Panzer Kleid blowing in its own wind. The moonlight palely shined on the movable white armor installed over its armored clothing.

Someone stood on the shoulder armor.

Berger looked up at the person and asked a question.

“Why are you here, Alfred?”

“For answers. About 8 years ago and about the Messiah’s purpose.”

The wind carried his scratchy artificial voice over the long distance between them.

He slowly raised his left hand in front of his chest, placed his right hand over that, and pulled the red-stoned ring off of his left hand’s middle finger.

Then he slowly held his right hand out to the side and tossed the ring away with a flick of his wrist.

He threw it toward Hazel.

The red gleam flew in straight line and hit the edge of the stump she had been sitting on earlier. It bounced up about 2 yards with a light clink.

But it landed back down on the stump. The red gleam settled down near the very center of the tree rings.

“You too, Berger,” said Alfred.

Hazel looked to Berger.

He gave Alfred a furious look but then nodded.

He removed the red pendant from his neck, the chain making a quiet jangling.

With the pendant in his hand now, he did not hesitate to throw it toward Hazel.

She frantically held out her hands and caught it.

…''So…

She wasn’t sure what to do, so she tried saying something.

“Um.”

“Don’t move.”

“Just watch.”

She was cut off by a pair of responses. After some hesitation, she sat back down on the stump. Then Berger called out to her.

“Hazel.”

“Y-yes?”

“What will you do? 8 years ago, I tried to let Eryngium run away and I lost her.”

After the shortest of moments, she shook her head.

“You should know my answer. It hasn’t changed.” She took a breath and placed a hand on her chest. “I don’t want to run away.”

“That’s what I thought.” He narrowed his eyes and then turned back toward Alfred. “Alfred, do you want to see the answer we reach?”

Alfred did not respond.

That silence bothered Hazel, so she turned to observe him.

She found him looking at her.

…''Eh?

But after her reaction of surprise, he looked away.

He narrowed his eyes, turned back toward Berger, and asked a single question.

“Have you been training?”

After a pause, Berger answered the simple question.

“I have.”

“I see.”

Alfred nodded, shut his eyes, and descended toward the secondary cockpit. He intended to Schreiben into the Panzer.

Berger slipped into his own secondary cockpit and his voice reached Hazel from beyond the hatch.

“Don’t worry, Hazel Mirildorf. 8 years ago, I thought I was the best in the world at everything.”

After the span of a few breaths, Schwarz Löwe raised Gelegenheit and Neue Kaiser spread its wings and raised its sword Werkzeug.

The two Panzers stood at opposite ends of the battlefield and drew lines in the ground behind them with their weapons.

“Between these lines, the past 8 years never happened,” said Neue Kaiser.

They would not fight in a way that would cross those lines.

“Let’s get to it then,” said Schwarz Löwe.

The two of them took the first step of a full-speed sprint at the exact same moment.

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