Editing City Series:Volume6e Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

Dragons and people fought on a battlefield created from the split mist.

Two minutes had already passed since the battle began.

The ground was cracked and the air shaken while some scattered mist hung in it.

One person remained entirely motionless: Lillie Telmetz on the edge of the cliff. She had not moved a step and simply played the Mondnacht resting on her left shoulder. She played several high string notes.

<The moonlit night prefers a decorated sky.>

New dragons appeared from the lake, splashing water as they stretched up into the sky. There were already 6 of them in all.

Motionless Lillie and the dancing dragons were opposed by the most active part of the battlefield: Hazel. She sliced the air with Rein König. She had lost her poncho and was soaked with rain as she used a Wind Up to create spears and arrows that shot out in front of her. She was only 30 yards from Lillie, but…

“I can’t get any closer!”

The water dragons might as well have been a moving wall.

She had to focus all of the spears and arrows created from the air in order to break just one of the dragons.

Meanwhile Lillie only had to strum Mondnacht once more to produce another dragon.

Hazel watched the dragons being produced before her eyes while she moved. Her thoughts were racing as much as her body.

The two of them could use the same octave. The difference was their speed and how good they were at expanding and contracting the Lives.

…''It comes down to our skill as Tuners.

She felt something akin to panic as she ran forward.

She could not use the wind to break the dragons in quick succession. She needed a large quantity of some denser Lives.

She tried to figure out what to do while taking a few steps forward and transferring her sword slash to the air.

White curved blades of wind appeared over her head and flew toward the pair of dragons breaking through the mist on either side with fangs bared.

She slashed them.

The dragons’ faces split and broke apart at just 5 yards over her head.

White spray scattered as the dragons ruptured into no more than water.

She heard the wet splash and wiped the spray from her cheek with her left hand, noting that this smelled of river water, not of mist or rain. The dragons were made from the lake’s water.

With that realization, she nodded once and ran ahead.

A new dragon was already approaching from dead ahead.

She viewed the murderous look in their eyes and slowly held Rein König low.

“320 thousand Lives floating in the wind – the many cries of the racing air. Can you hear my Lives!?”

The dragon was still coming. Hazel’s Tuning wasn’t going to make it in time.

…''But it doesn’t have to!

When the dragon twisted its head to the side and opened its jaws to the left and right, she made her move.

She ducked low and threw herself to the ground.

With a roar of wind, the dragon passed above her. Its jaws snapped shut.

Its fangs struck each other with the sound of colliding ice.

Hazel’s back trembled as the dragon’s powerful wind pressure felt like it would crush her.

But she was not done yet.

She had lowered Rein König just before the water dragon’s face passed above her and now she swung it upwards. She lifted herself from the ground a bit to help send it straight up.

She raised her voice and activated her Tune attack to create a wind blade.

In a single slash, the wind blade extending from below split the water dragon’s body.

But it only lasted an instant. A moment later, the blade became wind once more and the dragon was returning to water, but Hazel was already on the move again. She followed Rein König’s upwards swinging curve to stand up and turned the sword around with her wrists to hold it overhead ready to strike.

She was surrounded by…

…''The wind from the blade and the water from the dragon.

“4 million Lives floating on the battlefield – the war cries of the soaring wind and the chorus of blessed rain! Can you hear my Lives!?”

The message she sent was no longer a physical form.

She asked for the power to reach her opponent and the penetrative power to break through any wall of water, land, or wind.

She raised her voice and swung Rein König down as hard as she could. The tip of the blade did not stop at the ground and sliced into the dirt on her right side. She used just her right hand to stop it after it had swung around behind her.

A brief moment of silence followed.

That was broken by a tremor in the air.

The water surrounding her shook, rumbled, and bent forward.

Then the wind blew in from behind her.

[[Image:City_v06e_085.jpg|thumb]]

It whipped at her red clothing and blonde hair while dancing in the empty sky of the night.

She looked up in that wind with Rein König still held behind her on the right.

She turned toward Lillie with her left hand held forward.

“Break through!”

A great power answered her will and shot forward.

The mist was rapidly blown away and the air sliced through. A blade made of wind and water briefly appeared, but as it accelerated, it transformed into an invisible field of pure power.

The unseen power tore a straight line into the ground and raced forward.

It produced the sounds of blowing wind and breaking earth.

The three remaining dragons flew in to stop the piercing power.

It was no use. One’s face, another’s body, and the last one’s entire self were broken and reverted to water.

The penetrative power spread out just a bit as it flew toward Lillie, but she was a Tuner.

…''She can neutralize this power.

Hazel pulled Rein König in from behind her and prepared to launch a second strike.

But she saw something strange floating in front of her.

It was a thumb-sized drop of water.

“Eh?”

That brief confusion removed the tension from her vision and let her see her surroundings.

For some reason, all the puddles had disappeared from the ground around her.

Instead, drops of water were floating in the air.

…''The water.

Before her thoughts could progress any further, she heard a voice coming from the target of her destructive power.

The voice ignored the roar of the wind and the breaking of the earth. Aerial Words rang loud in the air.

“Eingeweide Harfe Mondnacht – Over Beweisen.”

It happened as soon as the words had been spoken.

Everything that had been water was blown high into the sky by a new wind.

The mist, the water, the moisture, and the power Hazel had launched were all flung skyward.

“––––!?”

A powerful wind had appeared out of nowhere. Hazel herself was thrown several yards back where she landed on her butt.

Her backpack bounced a moment later, causing her to lose her balance and collapse onto her back.

She quickly covered her stomach and got up to see the mist had vanished entirely. The floating drops of water were nowhere to be found either.

The shadows of the night surrounded her now. Coat-wearing Lillie stood 30 yards away in those faintly bluish shadows.

That was all Hazel could see anymore. There was no mist and no rain.

She felt a chill on her back and quickly stood up. She also heard the harp playing.

<Time and people.>

Mondnacht played without Lillie’s assistance.

<Water and dreams.>

Lillie’s Aerial Words sounded without her opening her mouth.

<Two things watch over all that tries to change.>

Lillie raised her right shoulder, the one Mondnacht was not resting on.

<The sun and the day.>

Her right hand slowly, slowly rose.

<The night and the moon.>

The hand stopped with its open palm directed heavenward.

Hazel saw the rainclouds had vanished from the sky above this area.

<The Moonlit Night contains all that tries to change in the night.>

The moon shined down from the hole in the sky. It was nearly but not quite full.

Lillie lowered her hand and Hazel lowered her gaze.

Lillie put her right hand in her pocket and ignored how Hazel took a fighting stance. She leisurely pulled her hand out with a wine bottle in its grasp.

She swiftly bit the cork and jerked her head to pull it out.

It audibly popped out.

She spat the cork to the ground and then threw the bottle behind her, toward the lake.

The bottle spun through the moonlight, its contents scattering through the night air. The wine looked dark in the night’s colors, but the moonlight caused all of its drops to shine bright.

The bottle dropped over the edge of the cliff, disappearing. Lillie stuck both hands in her coat pockets and turned to face Hazel. She still had her head lowered.

“This is goodbye, Messiah.”

Hazel sensed a presence when she heard those words.

A moment later, a massive wall of water appeared out of nowhere.

It roared.

“…!?”

The overwhelming quantity of water that rose from below the cliff behind Lillie would put a tsunami to shame. The reverse waterfall stretched from one side of Hazel’s vision to the other.

…''What is this!?

Surprise ruled her senses. She intellectually knew it was the great roar rattling her body and the tremor in the ground shaking her legs, but her senses couldn’t keep up.

Her eyes were fixed on the wall of water behind Lillie that continued to grow into the sky.

She gasped as sweat poured from her and her senses rapidly returned.

The ground was shaking below her, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.

…''The sky.

The colossal pillar of water was on its way to the white moon.

It seemed to wrap around the moon as it took the form of a great beast.

Clear water created a serpent with a pointed face.

It was a great water dragon. It glowed bluish-white in the moonlight and it had to be more than 2 miles long.

Hazel simply gulped as she looked up at it.

“What do I do?” she mouthed before repeating it out loud.

The dragon was slowly circling in the sky above.

It pushed the air out of the way and produced a deep, muffled noise.

That noise grew to a tangling groan that dropped to her from the sky.

The dragon was satisfied with just one rotation through the sky. Its face was already directed at her.

Its giant bestial eyes gave it a wide range of view, but its gaze was soon directed on her alone.

…''I sense killer intent.

The dragon slowly descended as if to confirm that for her.

The wind blew and it opened its maw to show off its fangs.

It roared.

The sound shook both the air and the ground and it didn’t stop.

The roar continued and the great water dragon seemed to wriggle through the sky as it flew toward her.

A face 200 yards wide accelerated toward her, but then she realized something.

…''What about the Naval Division Chief? Does she plan to die with me!?

She tried to look down but found her body wouldn’t move. She was too nervous.

She forced her chin back to face forward with great effort.

Lillie stood in front of the waterless lake looking into the sky, just like before.

“My people are waiting outside of this attack’s range. You and I are the only two who will die.”

Before Hazel could ask why, the roar from the sky pressed down on her back and shoulders.

The approach of that overwhelming power kept her from moving.

“Ah…”

A noise escaped her throat as that massive sound pressed down on her shoulders. A single inexplicable tear dripped down her cheek.

But even that tear floated up into the air before it could reach the bottom of her cheek.

In her frozen field of vision, the tear ascended toward the dragon in the sky.

Her tear had been stolen.

She clenched her teeth at that fact.

“Kh.”

She forced her caught voice from her throat.

The ground quaked below her feet, a great pressure bore down on her shoulders, and the dragon’s killer intent and roar combined to rattle her entire body.

But despite all that weight and shaking, she chose to walk forward. She started by sinking down a bit.

She threw off the center of gravity of the force bearing down on her, shifting it forward. It was a lot like rolling forward.

She took a first step.

She used that as a starting point and used her willpower and movements to keep herself from actually falling over.

She pushed forward a knee that had lost all feeling, slamming it against her skirt’s lining.

…''I can move.

She told herself that and took a second step.

…''I can move!

She started to run. She opened her mouth and raised her voice to drive the roar from her body.

“––––!”

She entered a full-speed sprint on the second step. She stomped at the dirt and kicked stones behind her as she propelled herself forward.

She ran across the broken ground, twisting her body and swinging Rein König forward from the right shoulder.

But she still felt heavy, so she opened her mouth even wider to break free of that weight.

“I will stop you!”

She gathered strength in her body and shattered the killer intent binding her.

She sped up.

She aimed for Lillie’s Mondnacht. Break that and the great water dragon would lose its support and possibly stop.

…''I can’t guarantee it, but I have to try!”

This was her only option, so she pushed her body forward and extended it in a dash.

Meanwhile, Lillie raised her head to view Hazel.

Their eyes met. Hazel ignored the great pressure from the dragon and asked a question.

“Why!?”

“Because you have sinned. You stood by and let so many die because you placed too much faith in destiny.”

The talk of letting people die reminded Hazel of the Glossolalians of Borderson.

…''If we change the world, then all of us and all of them will be changed too.

She shook her head to shake the thought out of her mind.

…''No.

She rejected the idea, but she couldn’t put to words why. She carried that frustration in her heart as she continued forward.

The pressure from the sky was moving quickly too. She would only have an instant in which to act.

She twisted her upper body and slightly relaxed the hand holding Rein König.

She kicked hard off of the ground and untwisted her body. She gripped Rein König’s hilt hard in that moment. The twisting of her body traveled through her shoulder to her arm and swung Rein König like a whip.

“Ah!”

At the same time, Lillie pulled her right hand from her coat pocket.

She held a handgun in it. A handgun Hazel recognized.

…''That’s the one she shot me with yesterday.

The red tone color of killer intent left the muzzle before Hazel could even feel the panic.

A moment later, she heard Lillie’s voice.

“That gem!”

Lillie’s eyes were on Hazel’s chest where she wore…

…''The pendant with the gem Eryngium gave me.

After Hazel confirmed what it was she had, she saw Lillie’s face distort.

Then that face dropped below Hazel’s field of view.

By the time Hazel realized Lillie had fallen to her knees, Rein König had already swished through empty air.

“Oh, no!”

She had failed to destroy Mondnacht.

She looked to the sky where the dragon looked so close she could reach out and touch it.

The great water dragon was falling toward her.

“––––!”

In that instant, Hazel heard a voice. She recognized the Aerial Words.

They were spoken in a calm voice.

<Destiny says the dragon’s fangs never reach the Messiah.>

All of a sudden, all the water above Hazel burst.