Editing City Series:Volume3b Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 4===

Akira ran between two nearly collapsed buildings.

Her wings felt heavy on her back, but she still felt no desire to fly.

…''Why does it have to be now that I can’t read the wind properly?

“Now I’m just a human with wings.”

She gathered strength in her legs.

The great sounds of battle had continued for more than thirty seconds now.

The last roar had brought an intense wind with it, and silence had followed.

The battle was over.

Akira silently mouthed a man’s name.

She repeated the name a second and third time and nodded.

“It’s okay.”

She faced forward.

The alley came to an end and a road opened up. The sun shined down there, so it was a little bright.

She charged out into that light.

“!”

She found a street covered in rubble.

But these were not ruins.

She found scorched earth.

A few buildings and the ground had been melted and vaporized by heat, leaving nothing behind.

Akira recognized the scene.

That destruction had been turned her way before.

“That’s the mortar of that Galgallin named Fei.”

Her running feet came to a quick stop.

She could feel the heat through the soles of her shoes.

A closer look showed bluish-white smoke and shimmering heat rising all over the place.

“It’s so hot…”

With that obvious observation, she looked around again.

The scorching blast had cut across the road in an elliptical shape.

The ellipse had been fifty meters across at the widest and twenty meters at the narrowest. The ellipse’s curve grew larger to the left because it had been fired a bit downwards from above on the right.

A pile of concrete had been blown away in the center of the road.

The heat had been so great that the concrete’s surface had turned to white ash, everything had bent, and some things had fused together.

They all gave off intense shimmering heat to make their presence known.

“…”

Akira remained silent.

But not because she was so focused on the shimmering heat coming from the concrete.

Her eyes were turned toward the top of the pile.

A single Device was stabbed into the concrete pillar there.

It was Nein König.

That blade-less Device had suited Gunmal perfectly.

Amid the rippling shimmers, its color remained unchanged, but its hilt was missing.

Its owner was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re kidding…”

Akira took a step back.

She looked around but found no one.

“Gunmal…”

No one answered her.

She looked up into the sky.

“Is my brother not here either!?”

The surrounding scenery gave her a clear response: silence.

Akira fell to her knees.

The heated asphalt surrounded her with shimmering heat.

“Gunmal…”

She called that man’s name.

“Gunmal! Aren’t you supposed to show up when I call your name!? Gunmal!”

As soon as she gave that shout, she heard what sounded like rock being struck.

It was the sound of a Live being destroyed.

She looked up in surprise and saw a man in the sky.

“…!?”

Before she could ask anything, the man fell down to her feet.

She heard a dull sound and a wet sound.

“Blood!?”

The dark red substance spreading on the road produced white smoke as it contacted the heated surface.

She ran over to him.

“Gunmal!?”

She called the Urban Name used by Busters and Tuners and she lifted him in her arms.

She realized his coat had burned away from his right shoulder on down and his prosthetic hand was exposed.

The hand’s fingers had been crushed and slightly fused.

She gasped.

“You idiot! Why…why are you about to die!?”

He did not answer her question.

He only breathed weakly yet deeply with half his face dyed from the blood flowing down his forehead.

She looked around.

There was no one there, but she still shouted out.

“Is anyone there!?”

Her voice lost to the heat and did not travel far.

The surrounding heat enveloped them and stagnated. They were surrounded by silence and the presence of time seemed to vanish entirely.

It was a still place.

“…”

Akira felt sweat on her skin.

She lifted her head a little.

She opened her mouth and tears spilled from her eyes, perhaps due to the heat.

“…!”

Her first cry did not even produce a voice. Nor did it form a Live.

She held Gunmal in her arms.

Finally, she managed to produce just one word.

“Someone…!”

And…

“I can’t! I can’t do it myself!”

The only one listening was Nein König which had broken in two.

It took quite a long time for the surrounding heat to cool.