Editing City Series:Volume6e Chapter5 (section)

===Part 1===

Tristan’s cross-like shape was partially due to the launch pad sticking out from its side. That enormous space was 100 yards wide and 300 yards long.

The top was built into a shallow depression to keep the wind off and the entire structure was constantly shaking from the wind.

It had become a battlefield made of pitch black metal.

A great bluish-white bird flew above that battlefield.

A woman ran below, her shoulders heaving. That was Hazel.

Several people were collapsed around her – all Geheimnis Agency soldiers.

Her eyes were on the Tristan tower 200 yards ahead.

A giant door was shut tight on its massive cylindrical surface.

That was used to let Heavy Barrels and transport ships in and out.

She was out of breath, but she kept her eyes on that door.

…''Neue Erde is through there!

Witzmann had told her that. If she entered from this launch pad and continued straight, breaking through any doors that got in her way, she would arrive at the base of Tristan’s central Babel Gun.

“Neue Erde is waiting there.”

She swung Rein König to the right.

The prosthetic left fist swinging toward her was sliced through horizontally.

With the sound of metal being cut, several fingers flew from the fist. However…

<The opponent ignores his injury.>

She heard Aerial Words.

Her opponent reached his prosthetic right arm toward her chest which was wide open after swinging her sword to the right.

She remained calm. She confirmed his action and then looked behind him.

Another soldier was rushing in with sword raised.

The prosthetic arms man was meant to hold her in place so the sword strike could hit.

She dodged the incoming prosthetic arm by circling to his right.

She stepped right as if pulling her body toward Rein König.

She arrived next to his right shoulder, but she did not stop there. She continued to slip behind him.

She moved further right and confirmed that his hand had grazed her chest before snatching at the empty air.

<The opponent’s left arm – the one sliced by the sword earlier – moves.>

“Nh!” grunted the one man as his fingerless metal fist thrust out in front of her as she tried to circle behind him.

But instead of dodging the fist, she stopped her running feet.

The metal fist passed rapidly from left to right in her suddenly-stopped vision. She even felt the wind on her cheek.

“Sorry,” she said, sticking out her left hand and lifting his outstretched right elbow from below.

She placed the base of his prosthetic arm in the path of the sword coming from behind him.

And…

<The two of them suddenly disappear.>

Hazel gasped in surprise.

The hand holding the prosthetic arm now held empty air. The two enemies were gone.

<The two Neue Kavaliers have circled behind the Messiah.>

Hazel did not look back. It would be too late by the time she did.

So she took off running. She spun herself around while running and kept running backwards after turning.

<But they are behind her again.>

She stabbed Rein König below her arm and behind her.

<They are not there.>

She could not see the enemy. The Aerial Words were rewriting their location.

As she avoided them and ran, her foot caught on an obstacle. She stumbled on the leg of a Geheimnis Agency soldier she had defeated previously. Her heel hit the military boot while moving backwards.

She cried out and fell back onto her rear.

Her momentum caused her to bounce twice and topple onto her back. She saw the enemy in the air.

The two men rushed toward her, preparing to leap. One directed his metal arm toward her throat.

The other swung his sword tip down toward her hips as if to pin her in place.

She felt the instinctual animal fear of being on her back, but she still managed to move.

Instead of dodging, she opened her mouth and spoke a single word.

“Come!”

Before the word was even complete, power raced through the sky.

A great bird’s wings released a gust of wind.

The falcon wings captured the approaching soldiers and blasted them away instantly.

The wind and the impact rang loud and only the night sky through the dome remained in Hazel’s view.

She took a breath, stood up, and viewed the great bird flying away again as she got back to running.

She took a look around while running backwards with a hopping motion.

Men in black uniforms formed a circle around her at a distance of 20 yards.

“You still aren’t through?” she asked, jogging away.

They did not answer.

She smiled just a bit and turned to face the door into Tristan.

She was a bit more than 150 yards away.

She raised Rein König in front of her and muttered “let’s do this”.

Just then, a drum-like beat passed right through her body. It came from…

“Inside Tristan?”

After another beat, she was certain it came from the other side of that door in the distance. No, it came from even further in than that.

Another beat. The Neue Kavaliers around her were also looking up and toward the door.

Another beat. She could see the bluish-black Lives of confusion coming from them all.

When they realized they had no idea what this sound meant, tension filled their faces.

“Is Tristan overloading!?” she shouted, staring at the door.

They reacted to her voice by retaking their fighting stances.

But she ignored them. She crouched low and took off running while the beats continued.

“Please move out of the way! Don’t you understand what this means!?”

None of them obeyed. They only directed crimson killer intent her way.

She groaned and kicked off the metal ground to accelerate.

That ground kicked back without warning.

She cried out in confusion and tumbled to the ground.

She rolled to the side and noticed the continuing beat was growing louder and more intense.

The deep pulse reminded her of an enveloping heartbeat and it was now coming from the floor as well as through the door. It started weak, but by the fifth one, it was like a pounding impact.

…''Is Neue Erde beginning its Ober Beweisen?

Hazel listened to that preparatory pulse as she got back up and viewed the closed door.

“Give me a path!” she shouted.

She was answered by a power from the sky.

The bluish-white wind falcon closed its wings to form its assault form and began to glide.

It was aimed nearly identically to Hazel’s eyes – toward the door that would lead her into Tristan.

The great bird opened its beak just once and let out a piercing screech as it approached the door.

<The door is open.>

There was no warning at all.

“Eh?”

Hazel was more astonished than surprised.

The door the enemy should have been defending to the bitter end had been thrown open, revealing the dark space beyond.

That shadowy space looked entirely empty from here.

But just as the falcon was about to fly inside, a giant blade stabbed out from the darkness. It was 20 yards along and made of glowing white light.

No, there were two swords stabbing out from the darkness in perfect unison.

They struck the approaching wind.

The falcon shattered and became an explosion of wind.

The air shook and briefly drowned out Tristan’s pulse.

Then the blades slowly emerged from the door. Including their wielder.

Hazel recognized it from the Geheimnis Agency’s Hamburg base a month ago.

A black aerial warship emerged from the darkness. It was shaped like a 30-yard blade.

She knew its name, so she came to a stop and spoke it aloud.

“Erlkönig!”

Erlkönig had the number 01 on its belly and it hovered above the ground as it advanced.

Its full body was soon across the threshold.

Hazel knew what the unmanned aerial warship had to be using in place of its own will.

…''Neue Erde’s request.

That was proven by the Aerial Words coming from the sky.

<The Elf King rules the new world.>

Lights began to shine across Erlkönig.

The lights ran through the emblem patterns carved into its wings and surface armor and then ran through them again.

It was using two Power Points on the front to produce the pair of glowing swords.

Hazel faced Erlkönig from head on and exhaled with Rein König at the ready.

Her breath was white.

The Geheimnis Agency Neue Kavaliers standing between her and Erlkönig cleared a path for Erlkönig.

At the same time, she heard some straining metal.

She frowned in confusion and noticed the door closing behind Erlkönig. Unlike when the metal door opened, the double doors were closing gently but with increasing speed.

She moved forward.

<The Elf King makes its move.>

Erlkönig launched an attack from the right.

It struck Hazel.

“!?”

The attack had been too fast for her to perceive.

But her catlike reflexes had sent Rein König to the right.

Her blade stopped the 20-yard sword of solidified light.

However, the weight differential was too great.

Her feet left the ground and Rein König’s rear blade dug into her right shoulder. It sliced through the shoulder armor hidden below her clothing and stabbed into her right shoulder blade.

The bone creaked and she flew 11 yards before losing speed and tumbling along the metal ground.

She let out a breath and stood up, but her thoughts couldn’t keep up. She had acted purely on reflex, so she didn’t know where the attack had come from or how she had managed to defend against it.

She only knew that she had been hit by an attack, that she had been thrown backwards, and…

…''That I’m alright.

Pain ran through her shoulder and she looked to the right to see blood on Rein König’s blade.

She looked forward to see Erlkönig’s glowing sword floating within arm’s reach.

“A single attack did all that?”

<The Elf King does not desire the Messiah.>

She gasped and looked up to see the black aerial warship gliding her way.

Its left sword was pulled back in preparation to swing.

She saw the attack this time. The silver arc swung low, aiming for her legs.

She gathered strength in her unsteady arms and attempted to get Rein König in place. But…

“Kh.”

The pain in her right shoulder loosened her grip on Rein König.

The giant slash did not care about her pain or anything else.

It simply continued along its arcing path.

In that instant, something flew into view.

It was a giant white wing.