Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter8 (section)

===Part 2===

Hazel heard Berger’s voice from the speaking tube in the small, inertia-reduced secondary cockpit.

“Sorry, Hazel, but can you do me a favor?”

“Wh-what kind of favor?”

“Let’s have a nice chat to distract me. I’d forgotten how badly injured I am. This Barrel feels weirdly heavy in the gut and I accidentally wrote the pain from that attack into its memory.”

“Um, you don’t sound in pain.”

She heard a loud crash from outside. The wind could move through the ventilation pipe and reach her dimly-lit secondary cockpit.

As could the Erklärungs.

<The Emperor is a conqueror.

He always advances and always conquers.>

The wind moved thrice in quick succession.

A great gale blew into the secondary cockpit, but not a natural one. This was an artificial destructive wind created by movement and tremors. The tone color was a piercingly sharp light blue. The tempo was large and deep but only lasted a moment.

…''That’s nothing like Sylphide.

“Mr. Berger.”

“What is it, Hazel? I’m a bit busy dodging right now. Stay quiet.”

“You just told me to talk with you.”

<Destiny clears the way forward.>

<The Emperor never backs down.>

The wind blew through and the secondary cockpit shook and swung around unpredictably.

“––––!?”

Her confusion was answered by the enemy’s voice.

“See, that’s what happens when our Erklärungs collide. In the Geheimnis Agency, we have trained for this and learned the advantages and disadvantages. You cannot catch up to us.”

“Don’t brag about having an unfair advantage!”

“Says the loser who can never win!”

<The Emperor allows no enemy to stand before him.>

A slight vibration through her seat told her the Schwarz Löwe was backing up.

Wind blew through the ventilation pipe at the same time, so she could see the wind’s tone color.

…''This is coming from the right, not up ahead?

“Escape to the left!!”

She shouted on reflex and the secondary cockpit briefly came to a stop. She felt like she was floating, and then…

…''To the left.

A great pressure tugged the entire secondary cockpit to the right.

Even in the inertial negation of the cockpit, her hair was tugged over and she nearly fell over. The clothing Berger had stripped off when Write Bringing was pulled from the floor at her feet and splatted against the right wall with the blood soaking it. However…

“You dodged that!?”

The enemy’s voice arrived from the right, along with the sandy explosion of rubble.

She looked out through the viewport on the side and saw the fire-illuminated crimson smoke created by the enemy’s attack.

“Hazel.” Berger’s voice reached her through the speaking tube, along with somewhat elevated breathing. “Hazel, how did you predict that attack?”

“Eh?”

The next one came before she could ask what he meant.

<The Emperor allows no enemy to stand before him.>

She again saw the wind blowing in through the ventilation pipe.

She calmly reached a hand out to touch the wind Tons floating in her cockpit.

“From the left this time.”

The Schwarz Löwe took rapid evasive action. It moved back and spun just a bit to the right.

The light blue Tons in her hand burst and vanished.

A beat later, she heard an impact from the left. They had dodged it.

…''I know what this must be.

“M-Mr. Berger.”

“Can you see it, Hazel?”

“Y-yes, I can see the wind dancing!”

“Then I might just be able to dodge these attacks even with a Barrel so heavy. …Keep reading the wind for me.”

“O-okay!”

Her heart pounded as she answered him.

The wind danced again, oblivious to how she felt.

She reached a hand toward what she saw.

“Move right.”

He dodged.

“Move left.”

He spun.

“Move back.”

He evaded.

“Move forward!”

<Destiny always advances.>

A solid sound rang out as one of his attacks finally landed. Their opponent took his first hit.

Her heart skipped a beat when she realized what this meant. And…

“Mr. Berger! I want to get out so I can see the wind better!”

It took two full seconds for him to reply, but reply he did.

“Then get out, Hazel. I asked you to read the wind, didn’t I!?”

“Of course!”

She opened the hatch and emerged.

While the Schwarz Löwe fell back to buy time and with the inertia nearly flinging her away, she placed herself in the gap between the secondary cockpit and the head. She held the frame between her legs to steady herself.

The wind blew all around her. It was so much more vivid and plentiful than inside her cockpit.

“If you blackout, I’ll begin our escape. If you don’t, then read the wind for me! Even 10 seconds will give me a chance to attack.”

Schwarz Löwe raised Gelegenheit before he was even done speaking.

Kaiser took a defensive stance in return.

“Is that the Messiah girl?”

Hazel leaned against Schwarz Löwe’s head and placed her hands on it as she nodded.

Their opponent shook his head once to reject this idea.

“Get down. You can’t win. …Predicting some of my movements is not enough. That Grösse Panzer belongs to me and it was meant as a prototype for the Kaiser, so it contains several functions Berger can’t use.”

“Is that why it feels so heavy in the gut? I’m betting it has a prototype for the Kaiser’s Eingeweide component. Did I guess right, Alfred?”

“Yes. Which is why that Panzer will never do what you want it to.”

“Sounds like a fair handicap to me, Kaiser. Meanwhile, I’ve got the Messiah who can predict your movements. Let’s see who comes out on top.”

“Prepare yourself. Our commander made a prophecy 2 weeks ago that she said would trigger the return of the Messiah once fulfilled. But, Berger, that prophecy makes no reference to the one armed man with the divine name.”

''In the deep darkness of the Black Forest

''Born from the abyss

''The wheel emerges

:''It whips up the wind and speaks with the dragon

:''It reads the wind and weeps

:''It carries power in its hand and hesitates

“This is the end for you, Berger – man with the divine name.”

“Divine name?” repeated Hazel.

She looked to Schwarz Löwe’s face, but Berger said nothing. The Kaiser, however, did.

“You hadn’t noticed, Messiah girl? His name is Dog Berger. Reverse the first name and you get the name for England’s god.”

“!?”

She gasped when she realized what that meant.

“Th-then when Mr. Berger fulfilled the prophecy two years ago…”

Berger’s voice left Schwarz Löwe with a tone of resignation.

“The symbolism lined up by coincidence. But…” He took a breath. “I will reject this destiny. Wild Hund is enough for me. More than enough.”

“So you rely on Gelegenheit and the Messiah!?” The Kaiser suddenly raced forward. “What kind of man needs a woman’s help to fight!?”

The wind moved and its tone color reached Hazel’s eyes.

The wind danced.

The powerful inertia nearly threw her from the Heavy Barrel’s shoulder as she viewed the wind.

The white Kaiser created a powerful gale rushing in toward her.

The black Schwarz Löwe created a pleasant wind that surrounded her.

Both winds were dancing.

The gale produced by the Kaiser was primarily caused by its propulsion devices. It whipped up the wind along a straight line as it charged in, breaking through the wall of air standing in its way.

The wind blew out for just an instant and broke, sending out the straight-line gale.

<The Emperor always advances.>

It was the pleasant wind’s job to redirect that wind away.

The pleasant wind was weak. It was caught in the gale and nearly broken, but Hazel guided it.

She spoke the words needed to send it on its proper course as the two winds were entangled.

“Move forward.”

Schwarz Löwe skillfully took the shortest path possible. Anything else would mean defeat against this opponent. The Schwarz Löwe contained a device that only Alfred could use.

Berger had identified it as a High Organ prototype and Hazel thought on that now.

…''It does seem to be holding him back.

She was here to negate that handicap, so she read the wind. That was the only thing she could do.

“Move forward.”

She had him step forward and chose the wind current that gave them the fastest possible movement.

The faster they moved, the more chance they had to fight back against the powerful gale. The pleasant wind was mostly swept aside by that wind, so they needed to take control of a wind more capable of fighting it.

She viewed her surroundings while tossed about by the inertia.

The sky was crimson, the wind was loud, and the rumble of Heavy Barrel operation was incessant.

The scenery spun around her as the Heavy Barrel made a turn. Flames rose from the destroyed base and the collapsed Vaterland tower was visible further back.

The wind was growing stronger.

For a brief moment, the wind grew red.

…''A scorching wind?

As soon as the thought reached her, the barrier at the center of the base was blown away from below.

A great roar burst out, followed by a shockwave. The 50-yard metal door was blasted into the night sky in four pieces.

The gray rectangles looked so small as they hovered in the distant sky, but…

“!”

They began their descent in the very center of her vision.

The wind buffeted them, altering their descent, but they fell all the same.

One piece fell like a leaf fluttering into the Black Forest, felling several trees.

One piece fell straight down, bisecting the command tower.

One piece spun down into the airfield, its corners gouging holes like a sewing machine as it rolled.

One piece gained a gentle twist as it fell toward the two Heavy Barrels below. Schwarz Löwe used everything it had to leap backwards.

The Kaiser used its leg propulsion devices to slide right and behind the metal panel.

The giant metal panel stabbed into the ground like a wall between the two Barrels.

The asphalt meant nothing against that 50-yard blade.

Schwarz Löwe took repeated evasive actions to avoid the resultant wind and rubble pieces, but its movements were wild. It was a disjointed series of reflexive evasions, not a flowing series of movements.

“That idiot! How tightly did he set this thing!?”

Schwarz Löwe’s movements fell apart and its wind scattered. Hazel panicked.

“Mr. Berger!? The wind is-!”

The enemy took action before she could complete her warning.

The powerful gale blew in from above. The white Heavy Barrel had jumped over the metal panel and now dropped down from 50 yards overhead. Wind blew from the wings on its back as it charged straight toward Schwarz Löwe.

Schwarz Löwe took evasive action, but it was too slow.

Hazel realized the attack was aimed for Schwarz Löwe’s head.

The scattered wind was partially to blame for their delay.

…''That and he still hasn’t gotten the hang of using this Barrel.

She was reminded of a similar situation from two years ago.

…''The Sylphide tried to protect me over the North Sea, but it was still incomplete.

“I was only a guest – a component…but I couldn’t do anything.”

She looked up. A thought broke her mind out of the past and she spoke in the present.

“I…”

The enemy’s white blade was approaching. In that instant, she shouted the words she had used to say goodbye to Sylphide.

“I will use this power as it’s meant to be used!!”

At the same time, an Erklärung rewrote that space.

But this Erklärung did not belong to Gelegenheit or the Kaiser.

<The Messiah…>

It was a simple statement.

<The Messiah seeks the power meant for her.>