Editing City Series:Volume3a Chapter 10 (section)

===Part 4===

Akira flew.

She arrived above the twenty meter reactor in the span of a breath and then continued forward.

The floor of the concrete reactor’s rooftop released a strangely thick Live of heat and produced a visual shimmering.

…''This region is producing the fire element Earth Burn, isn’t it?

With that on her mind, she spun her Device around and gathered Lives of wind and heat.

“Oh, you Lives floating in the 1,280,000 Octaves around me. You roars of wind and proclamations of heat. Can you hear my Live?”

She cleared the reactor’s rooftop with a single step and gathered quite a few Lives in the process.

The wind was blue and the heat red. She gathered those Lives around her like heavenly raiment and descended from the rooftop.

She saw a small park-like space lit by mercury lamps from all sides.

A Tune Emblem was drawn in the center and someone holding a sword Device stood at the center of the large Tune Emblem.

“Brother!”

Double Lee looked up at her voice.

A look of slight surprise appeared on his face.

…''This doesn’t look like the start of an emotional reunion.

She put up her guard and he nodded. He had read her Live.

“So you are finally here, Akira.”

He looked up at the night sky.

The moon was visible as the Nein Engels danced.

“Such a lovely moon. Perfect for a reunion of siblings.”

He then asked Akira a question.

“But why are you here?”

She landed and held her spear at the ready as she answered.

“Why? To stop you of course.”

“Are you serious?”

“What do you mean?”

Double Lee laughed when she answered him with another question.

“Interesting. So you didn’t notice on your own?”

His deep laugh continued but suddenly stopped.

After that moment of silence, he spoke directly to her.

“Are you kidding me?”

“!?”

“Do you really think you have any chance against me?”

She tensed up, but only for a moment. She soon squeezed her Device and spoke.

“Stop this. …Can’t you just turn yourself in?”

And…

“Please, brother.”

The brother frowned at his sister’s words.

“You want me to stop this? But this is what father, mother, and Master Huang wanted. …No, not only that. This is what the two of us wanted as well.”

“Stop!” she shouted. “A lot of lives will be lost if you destroy Hong Kong! Don’t you get that!?”

“I do. That is reality. …Did you not think about that when you used to talk about creating a dragon?”

“!?”

“If you wish to stop me, then do it by force. I am a criminal at the moment.”

“Then…take this!”

Akira Tasked herself.

She Tuned the Live residing in her Device.

“La.”

The Tempo was powerful and long. The color was red. The Message in her mind was strong.

After a short time lag, the Live transformed. She felt it happening.

…''This will work!

She created something large indeed.

It was a dragon.

The crimson-scaled dragon wrapped around her spear was about ten meters long.

It would be classified as a Lesser Dragon, but it still had proper fangs and horns.

…''Okay!

She let Double Lee see her thought and raised her spear.

He looked a bit surprised to see her Lesser Dragon and she did not hold back.

She suddenly swung down her spear.

“Go!”

The Lesser Dragon roared as it was released from the spear.

It shook the air as it flew toward Double Lee.

It was fast.

It raced through the air with the speed of something sliding down an icy slope and it raised its head.

It opened its mouth and roared again.

Its red eyes were focused on Double Lee’s right arm which held his Device.

He remained silent.

He stared straight at the charging Lesser Dragon and made no attempt to run.

“I see.”

All he did was quickly tilt his body and raise his empty left hand.

The Lesser Dragon must not have known how to react because it tried to latch its jaws onto his left arm.

“!”

…''Not that arm!

And just as Akira tried to say something…

“Word Accel, you Live with an Octave of 1,280,000.”

He spoke quietly and the Lesser Dragon burst.

“What!?”

The tearing sound drowned out Akira’s shout of protest.

The Lesser Dragon came apart from head to tail and released the original Lives.

The sound of the dragon’s destruction continued as the red and blue Lives scattered into the air.

It took the span of only three breaths for the Lesser Dragon to completely vanish.

Red and black Lives flew and Double Lee remained unscathed. His left arm was still raised overhead as if nothing had happened.

“Targeting my dominant arm? You always were naive.”

He slowly lowered his left hand and spread it out before his face.

He wore Device rings on the middle and index fingers.

“I can destroy your Lesser Dragon with Devices this small.”

“…”

Akira said nothing, but he must have read her Live because he smiled bitterly.

“What’s wrong? I had heard you and the rest of Hong Kong saw you as the city’s #1 Tuner.”

As he spoke, the scattering Lives of the Lesser Dragon wrapped around him and stayed in place. He intended to Tune the Lesser Dragon he had destroyed.

…''Is it coming?

She raised her guard.

“Word Accel, you Live with an Octave of 2,080,000!”

It suddenly appeared above his head.

“The Vermilion Bird!?”

It was a large bird with a burning red Word Color.

He had placed his Message inside the Lives of heat, wind, and the night.

As if flapping its wings, it throbbed with a refreshing yet heavy and deep Tempo and it did nothing else.

“I suppose you wouldn’t be able to pull off a trick like this. …Not if you haven’t changed in the last three years.”

The Vermilion Bird responded to him with a cry.

It was a high-pitched voice.

It then spread its wings.

The vermilion wings were over twenty meters across, so it was more than enough to outdo Akira’s Lesser Dragon.

Some yellow and black feathers were mixed in as decorations and the coloration gave a sense of heat and pressure as soon as one looked at it.

The wings moved and produced a sound of flight.

The Vermilion Bird flew toward Akira.

“!?”

It flapped its wings once, glided just off the ground, and prepared its beak. It targeted her torso and would crush her with its wings if she dodged.

…''Will I make it in time!?

She did not have time to answer her own question.

She flew while throwing pencil-like Discord Bombs so that they would not scatter.

She flew upwards.

She moved her white wings to fly up the reactor wall behind her.

The Vermilion Bird raised its head and slammed its red wings on the ground to flap them. Its body was small for the size of its wings, so it was launched upwards.

It was not going to let her escape, but then the Discord Bombs exploded.

The Vermilion Bird’s body, shoulders, wings, and tail were blown away with the Lives composing them.

The cry that escaped its beak sounded like a scream.

“Did I get it!?”

She looked down from halfway up the reactor.

“!”

The Vermilion Bird was not dead. It moved its wings even harder, broke through the Lives that had scattered from itself, and ascended.

It pursued Akira as if crawling up the reactor wall.

…''Not good!

The only place left to escape was the sky, but the bird would be faster than a Nein Engel there. It would catch up and attack her.

So she gave up on escaping.

She reversed her grip on her Device to point it straight down.

Without averting her gaze, she targeted the spot where a Discord Bomb had hit the bird’s right shoulder.

That was where its Live was most shaken.

…''Its Octave should be lower there!

The contact lasted an instant. It was only long enough for her to take three running steps.

Her spear accurately pierced the enemy’s weak point.

She auto-reversed the Live in her Device to read the Vermilion Bird’s Live.

She was searching for a Live she knew very well: her brother’s Wild Name.

…''Leed Lee!

Her heart shouted that Wild Name, which was the key to an individual’s Live.

“Oh, you Live with an Octave of 1,480,000…directly in front of me! You shout of heat, roar of wind, and Live of a name with an eternal form!”

It reacted to her call.

The Vermilion Bird’s Live lost its balance. The bird gave a small scream during the quick pause.

“Can you hear my Live!?”

That settled it.

“La.”

She released her Live and the Vermilion Bird crumbled.

The resistance reaching her spear weakened, she twisted her body, and she passed the bird by.

…''I did it!

Just as she was certain of her victory, the Vermilion Bird noisily exploded.