Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter5 (section)

===Part 6===

[[Image:City_v06d_225.jpg|thumb]]
Neue Kaiser suddenly fell to its knees. Like its power had been switched off.

The white Heavy Barrel was no longer under the Messiah’s control.

Hazel immediately realized why.

“Alfred Maldrick.”

“Do not defile my true name with your Heidengeist lips.”

A scratchy artificial voice arrived from dead ahead.

Someone stood in front of the large Heavy Barrel half buried in a building.

The slender man wore his long hair tied back and carried a white sword Device.

Alfred walked toward her. Slowly and without rushing.

Her reflexes told her to run the other way. The 10 yards between them was about the same as her distance from the bridge behind her.

…''He’ll catch up if I try to run.

She cast her eyes in every other direction and saw truck lights gathering on the other side of the bridge behind her.

Soldiers wielding submachineguns and capture nets were waiting behind the storehouses and other buildings to the left and right.

And Alfred walked toward her from the front.

A few trucks drove up from the smaller roads on the left and right and quickly lined up behind him.

But he did not even look back.

Hazel saw Heiliger, Müller, Schweitzer, and Lowenzahn step out of the trucks.

She saw Lowenzahn take a step toward her with the hem of her uniform whipping in the wind. Lowenzahn’s eyes were on Alfred, not on Hazel.

“Stop, lieutenant! The Erlkönig has been sent from Germania to deal with the approaching enemy craft! Isn’t preventing the Messiah’s rescue more important than killing her!?”

“And how long will it take for the Erlkönig to arrive?” He twisted his head around to look up in the sky. “Destiny is gradually moving beyond your predictions.”

He viewed Neue Zinnober and Neue Blau hovering in the air.

They silently deactivated their Ober Emblems. Bluish-white ether light scattered from them and then they landed and kneeled behind Alfred.

The asphalt audibly broke below them, but Alfred did not rush.

He continued his leisurely pace.

“This is the perfect timing. Everyone should be realizing the truth right about now – realizing that there is something wrong with a world so weak it can be saved by a single individual.”

He opened his mouth and sang in the scratchy voice of his artificial vocal cords.

''The wind blows, the night blows, the dragon awakes, the people move, the dragon roars

''The wind arrives from the north / A path arrives from the north

''The knight descends as a knight / The dragon soars high as a dragon

''All is a path to the north star / All is a story of an insurmountable wall

“The report from the North Sea says an Allied bombing fleet is crossing the North Sea to arrive here in Hamburg. This country will suffer a severe wound while we are preoccupied with this Messiah.” He took a breath. “What did Sir Graham want from us? Did he want us to be led astray by such…trivialities?”

With that final word, he stopped and took a fighting stance.

…''Here it comes!

Hazel jumped, but a certain sound pushed her onward.

The sirens were all the proof she needed that someone was approaching the base.

She nodded at that fact, regathered her strength, and took off running. With all her might.

She trampled the glass shards and chunks of asphalt scattered across the road.

She looked back to see Alfred take his first step.

He crouched low as if bending his body in two and took a slow but powerful first step.

“Do you still claim you don’t wish to run away!? Then prove it, Messiah!”

Once his foot touched the ground again, he took his second step. With the third step, he broke into a swift run like he was trying to run up the wall. His footsteps rang loud.

…''He’s going to catch up!?

Hazel swallowed the scream threatening to escape her throat.

Then her right foot’s bandage caught hard on the ground. The blood soaking it had increased its friction, making it catch on the asphalt.

Before she could even cry out, the bandage attached itself to the ground and her blood-soaked toe slipped within it.

She tripped.

To protect herself from the glass shards on the ground, she twisted around to land on her right shoulder.

“Ow.”

The pain hit her and her momentum slid her along the ground some, but she planted her hands on the ground soon enough.

She tried to stand when crimson Lives pierced her from behind.

A murderous gaze approached, carrying the Lives of killer intent.

…''I need to get up.

She could tell the wound on her toe was tearing wider. As much as her mind told her to stand up, her foot felt numb.

Her body couldn’t keep up with her will.

That fact scared her and she collapsed back down before she managed to get on her feet.

She planted her hands on the ground again and reflexively looked back.

Alfred was there. He was still 10 yards away, but that distance was meaningless.

“Ah.”

A single tone rang from his voice and a Bust attack instantly filled the space between them.

White light loudly swung down toward her.

But Hazel did not shut her eyes or avert her gaze.

She simply stood up and ran, albeit while looking back.

…''I won’t give up.

The sirens rang in her ears, that one thought filled her mind, and the white explosion hit her.

The road was engulfed in light.

At the same moment, something dropped from the sky.