Editing City Series:Volume5b Chapter22 (section)

===Rosetta’s Recréa: Entry in Lourd de Marionnette Protected Empress’s Memory Bank===

“The current Recréa reaction speed has been set to approximately x100.”

It all happens in an instant. Fortunately, I dismantled a simple gun and inspected how it worked earlier today.

The Liberator was crudely made, but it came in handy.

When the flame spear hit him, he lost the entirety of his right arm, but he still refused to fall.

He had lost some momentum, but at the instant he crashed into the ground, he kicked off with his right leg. He adjusted his positioning without giving any thought to the recoil that would hit his limbs and frame.

The wind whipped up and he somehow managed to avoid falling.

<He slides approximately 30 yards along the garden and comes to stop while down on one knee.

His Excède Emblème has vanished and heat shimmers from the radiator on his back.>

Two minutes have passed like that.

But I have not removed my Excède Emblème. I am waiting. Waiting for him to stand up.

<His right shoulder is missing all the way to his chest and his remaining limbs were nearly torn off as well.>

What does that matter?

We still have not found an answer. We still have not discovered what it means to be the strongest.

<His body begins to tremble.>

Is this it?

<The black Appareil stands up as if to answer me.

His body strains and he falls to his hands and knees, but he still tries to get up.>

He just fell again.

<But he has not given up.

Oil flows from him like blood, his armor has split, and his frame is exposed, but he still tries to stand.

He lifts his left knee, places his left hand on it, and stands up.

Slowly. So very slowly.>

The wind is blowing through. The pleasant morning air arrives through the brick city.

<The wind washes over that male Lourd de Marionnette said to be the strongest while he shakes as if convulsing and he pushes himself up with just his left leg. His left hand restrains the shaking of the leg and he leans forward while trying to somehow get his trembling right leg underneath him as well.>

Can he stand?

<The black Lourd de Marionnette nods as if he could see my thought.

He places his trembling right foot on the ground and removes his left hand from his left leg.

He straightens his back and tries to stand tall in the morning air as he looks my way.>

Our eyes meet.

<The dew on his sight devices makes it look like he is crying.

And just as our eyes met, he suddenly collapses.

He is falling.>

Yes, I know exactly what to do when that happens.

I catch him in my arms.

<Metal and ether crash together with a sound like a metal wind instrument, but Marianne successfully supports that broken and weary Lourd de Marionnette. I hold him close as if burying his face in my chest.>

It’s okay. Everything will be okay.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> hear something like a breath from his speech device which is so close to my ear.

But he is not breathing. It is a song sung with a set rhythm.>

I believe he is speaking German, but I recognize the rhythm. It is the final section of the song Lady Beretta taught me:

''So that no one would grieve again.

''That which is endless and cannot be grasped.

''That which is vast and cannot be held.

''I am with thee.

Yes, yes. Your grief and everything else are over now.

I heard what you had to say, so rest now. So that you may stand back up someday.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> lay him down in the patch of the garden with the most four o’clock flowers. The flowers scatter like feathers and land atop the Lourd de Marionnette as if to decorate him.>

It is now over.