Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter8 (section)

===Part 1===

Hamburg was burning.

The bombers released chaff to hinder any counterattack and they focused on taking out the antiair guns and interception bases around Hamburg as they bombed a long strip through the city.

It was a big city. It was dotted with factories that produced bearings and other parts, so not even a bombing group of 1000 could destroy the entire place in a single night.

The first night was meant to clear a route for the later bombing groups to reach the city. The bombers’ payloads were mostly divine spell bombs intended to destroy the buildings on the interception bases, so they had few incendiary bombs too.

The bombs whistled down and shattered the city.

The downpour of bombs literally blasted holes in the old, stone city.

Fires burned across the city, smoke marred the sky, and sirens blared.

The entire city screamed into the sky.

Some were in a position that let them hear that scream and see the disaster.

They were on the Geheimnis Agency’s Hamburg base in the dark forest on the outskirts of the city. Bombs did fall on that base too, but if Hamburg was considered the star of the show, then the base was being treated like a bit part.

The aboveground portions of the base’s buildings were hammered by the bombs, but the underground portions weren’t so easily damaged.

The Geheimnis Agents had already removed all the supplies from the main facilities and temporarily placed it in the underground areas before they left to evacuate and assist the people of Hamburg.

The Hamburg base only had a small runway for emergencies, so they could not launch their interceptors. An antiair group led by Karl and his Drache Kanonen were firing from the surface and trucks were being sent out after being transported from below by elevators.

But two men faced each other at one point of the base, neither one evacuating or attacking.

They were Heiliger and Alfred.

Several armored transport trucks were lined up behind Heiliger.

Only Neue Kaiser and its broken chest armor was behind Alfred.

The base’s main gate was behind Neue Kaiser.

Heiliger stared at the white Grösse Panzer and its pilot and he spoke without forgetting about the bombs falling from the sky.

“Lieutenant, I will only say this once: clear the way. We must evacuate Hamburg’s citizens.”

Alfred said nothing. He only spread his legs a bit and stared at Heiliger.

Heiliger frowned and a bomb landed to his left. With a sound like a cracking whip, something on the ground ruptured and rubble flew into the sky.

Heiliger glanced over at it.

“Have you forgotten what we learned at-?”

“At Cologne last year?”

Alfred stared straight at Heiliger, sighed, and looked behind the other man.

A few Geheimnis Agents got out of the armored trucks lined up there. They were clearly worried about the falling bombs, but they walked in unison to gather behind Heiliger.

Alfred kept his unreadable expression, but he did glance over toward Hamburg.

The city, with its river appearing black in the night, had smoke rising from it as it burned.

“This is Cologne all over again. And from what I heard earlier, this bombing will last nearly a week.”

Someone else shouted over at Alfred, as if to drown out his voice.

“Alfred!”

It was Schweitzer. The large man parted the crowd to move out front.

His prosthetic arm moved the people in the front row and his enormous body followed.

He gave Heiliger a momentary look before stepping out in front of him too.

“Where is the Messiah!?”

“Our battle isn’t over yet. But it has shifted from the past to the present.”

Alfred did not even look at Schweitzer when he answered.

Schweitzer took a few more steps to reach Alfred’s right side and grabbed Alfred’s collar with his left hand.

He pulled him in close and started to say something with eyebrows raised.

“Forgive me,” said Alfred.

Alfred seemed to spin quickly to the left and then he swung his right fist with all his might. Schweitzer couldn’t block the blow with his left hand on Alfred’s collar, so it hit him hard.

After a pause, Schweitzer fell to his knees.

“…!”

He let go of Alfred’s collar, but his hand managed to grab the man’s shoulder instead.

Alfred brushed off that hand and looked only at Heiliger.

“What did Graham say at Cologne? It sounded to me like he said we should protect the people.”

“Lieutenant, those very people are dying in Hamburg as we speak.”

“If we rush there now, we can only save a handful of them. Is that all you can do? Is this your idea of atonement after failing to lift a finger when your own wife and daughter – two more of Germany’s people – were taken to the Heidenheim?”

“Lieutenant!”

Alfred brushed off that shout with a laugh.

“If you don’t like that idea, then how about this one? You’re treating all of us like fragile dolls as atonement for losing Graham and Rose at Cologne. You refuse to do anything that might risk injury or death in battle.”

“Do you have a problem with that!?”

That shout coincided with a bomb landing on Neue Kaiser’s left shoulder. Hot shrapnel flew out and poured down on them all like a red firework.

Alfred snatched a shard of red-hot metal out of the air as it fell in front of him.

He squeezed the smoking fragment in his hand.

“A Neue Kavalier is wasted if they cannot take any risks.”

And…

“A Neue Kavalier should protect the people and slay their enemy no matter the risk.”

“But what good are they dead? A dead man protects no one!”

Heiliger took a step forward.

Alfred spread his arms in response. The scorched and smoking piece of metal rested in his hand.

He met Heiliger’s gaze head on and spoke with absolute conviction.

“You hope this fight will kill you, don’t you?”

Then he looked to the Geheimnis Agents standing behind Heiliger.

“You’re all too afraid to fight. Is that because we’ve done nothing but chase after the Messiah? You think it takes a special chosen one to protect the world, don’t you? You think the world will end without that chosen one to protect us, don’t you?”

None of them answered. His questions were met by silence and stillness.

He ignored that and looked to the sky where the deadly rain continued to fall.

“Neue Kavaliers who don’t see death as one possible outcome deserve to be abandoned by the Messiah. We are supposed to become her power, not fear it.”

He looked back down, his blue eyes staring straight into Heiliger’s brown eyes.

He threw the piece of metal at Heiliger.

Heiliger’s Tragisch instantly moved, catching the metal in his right hand.

“Lieutenant, what do you hope to accomplish here?”

“I will destroy the enemy flagship. That should confuse their chain of command long enough for you to evacuate the people far from the city.”

“Is that your way?”

Alfred said nothing.

Heiliger looked to the metal in his hand and then sighed.

“Lieutenant.”

“Yes?”

“Why do you fight?”

“Sir. Last year, it felt to me like your brother and sister were asking if any of us Neue Kavaliers really possess the strength to fight and protect the weak without letting any harm come to them.”

Heiliger looked up at the uncharacteristic formality of Alfred calling him “sir”.

Alfred smiled.

“I’m going to show the Messiah that we don’t need her to protect our country. But…”

He looked to the others.

“I also want to show her that we still want her with us to help us save the world.”

Alfred turned his back on them.

He looked up at Neue Kaiser just once and then at the large man kneeling next to him.

“Schweitzer.”

“…?”

“I will be back.”

“!”

Schweitzer tried to get up but grimaced in pain and doubled over.

Alfred began walking away and Schweitzer’s Der Held reached out toward him.

“––––––”

But it couldn’t reach.

Alfred kept walking and a few other footsteps joined him. Hearing that, he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. The folded paper contained a golden ear of wheat.

“One day.”

His smile grew when he saw the wheat and he spoke too quietly for anyone else to hear.

“Once day. I swear it.”