Editing City Series:Volume6d Prologue (section)

===Part 4===

The train rushed out from the cliff-like edge of the inner wall and into the empty space beyond. It continued across the great hole with only the elevated track to support it. Hazel’s eyes were turned toward the back of the train. She saw it all play out from that direction.

Still fallen on the container roof, she saw Germania’s surrounding wall growing more distant.

Germania’s inner wall had been cut away like a cliff face and it was covered in cement and metal.

But the approaching enemy did not give her a chance to get a better look.

There were two of them.

She pulled her knees together to prepare for them.

…''My skirt.

It was still caught in the container’s hatch.

The enemy was approaching fast, their solid footsteps sounding loud.

…''I need to do something!

When looking up at them, she saw her savior illuminated by the scarlet lights in Germania’s night sky.

The metal birds flew there. Since she had Tuned the flock, they didn’t want to stray far from her and remained overhead.

“Come to me!” she shouted, swinging her Device in mere moments.

The only way to get her voice to the flying birds was to strike the wind Lives.

At the same time, the wind roared in the sky.

A shadow fell toward the roof where Hazel sat. It was dark enough to blot out Germania’s scarlet lights.

Something had appeared overhead.

The approaching men glanced up at the shadow falling toward them.

“–––––!?”

They stopped to look up at it.

An entire freight container hung in the sky above.

That was the 7th container Hazel had Tuned earlier. The Tuning had been removed, so the birds had returned to their original form.

Gravitational acceleration pulled the heavy object straight down.

In less than a second, the train car dropped between Hazel and the two men, erasing them from her view. The great pressure of the impact was enough to break through the train’s roof and the rest of the car too.

“Kyah!”

The train car below Hazel was broken in two.

She heard a chorus of breaking and bending metal as the roof below her was launched high into the air.

She clung to the roof to ensure she wasn’t stripped from it.

The front half of the car landed again.

It bounced a bit, but the wheels found the track again.

With a sound like a brass instrument being kicked over, the freight train corrected its position and resumed moving.

Moving forward.

Hazel saw the 7th car stabbing into the elevated track like a stake. It blocked the way like a gravestone and it grew smaller in her vision as the freight train left it behind.

…''Now they can’t continue pursuit.

She started to work at getting her skirt untangled from the container hatch, but she was interrupted when the 7th car suddenly ruptured down the center.

“Eh?”

Hazel saw a powerful blow strike the 7th car from the other side, blasting a hole in it and knocking it away. And it didn’t stop there.

She heard a series of heavy bursting sounds that felt like they were hitting her in the gut.

This was artillery fire.

The vertical 7th car was utterly destroyed.

The wreckage was swept out of the way to reveal only a voice at first.

The voice belonged to “Standhaft” Herbert Müller.

“Next.”

After pushing away the wreckage of the 7th car, the armored truck traveled slowly but surely forward on nothing but inertia. Müller and the 6 Hounds stood atop it. As did…

“A Grösse Panzer!”

Behind Müller, the 2nd container’s roof split in half and opened to the sides.

A gray Panzer stood up from within. The long shaft it held was a single-shot 75mm Grösse Panzer anti-tank cannon measuring more than 8 yards long.

The cannon fired without warning.

A crimson bullet encased in shimmering heat flew toward Hazel who was still seated on her train’s roof.

She didn’t even have time to scream.

Accelerated by the long barrel, the bullet pierced not her but the freight train below her.