Editing City Series:Volume6d Prologue (section)

===Part 2===

At that speed, it would crash into her in less than thirty seconds.

The armored train’s silhouette was sharp and low. It even had what looked like a ram.

Someone was visible atop the light on the front of the train.

It was a fat elderly man. The black coat of the Geheimnis Agency Air Force Division looked about to burst on him and he pulled a handkerchief from the breast pocket to wipe the sweat from his brow.

From a distance of only about 100 yards, the smiling eyes behind his round glasses met with hers.

“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Geheimnis Agency Air Force Division Chief Herbert Müller.”

Müller bowed like he was bending his body at the hips. But when he straightened back up, he lost his balance in the strong wind and nearly toppled backwards.

The woman cried out and nearly took a step forward on the instinctual urge to help him.

But he regained his balance at the last moment, planted his feet firmly atop the light, and held out both hands to stop her.

“Your concern is unwarranted, Hazel Mirildorf, our Messiah.”

“Is it? Then goodbye.”

She smiled and bowed before turning around and starting to run. She heard a sound behind her after a few steps.

The pursuing train had blown its whistle, but she ignored that long, high-pitched tone and pumped her arms to continue running.

…''They’re planning to ram me!

She pushed through the wind to step on the rivets and gain a few more steps.

She heard a loud crash behind her and the train shook back and forth below her.

A moment later, the train shook up and down.

The pursuing train had crashed into hers.

But what she heard next was not just that. The sounds of splitting metal, tearing steel, and popping screws and rivets never seemed to end. The symphony of destruction played without rest.

Hazel continued running but looked back toward that music to see the armored train breaking through the freight container to pursue her.

“They can do that!?”

She kept running. It was a race between her legs running atop the containers and the armored train breaking through the containers.

The din of breaking metal crashed into her back.

She sprinted with her feet clanging loud against the container roofs.

She crossed the 14th, 13th, and 12th cars with the night wind fighting her the entire way.

One after another, she heard those three cars torn to pieces behind her.

She looked around her and saw the forest and ground rushing by.

Confirming that she could not jump off of the train, she ran across the 11th, 10th, and 9th cars.

The din behind her accelerated. The armored train was getting closer.

She pumped her arms harder and accelerated. She jumped from the 8th car to the 7th, whipping up the wind as she soared between them.

As soon as she was off the 8th car, its rear was tossed upwards by the armored train’s ram.

It broke down the center with the sound of shattering glass.

Hazel’s feet landed on the 7th car’s roof and she immediately resumed running.

At the same time, the 8th car’s link with the 7th was torn apart and it was thrown from the tracks.

It landed in the forest to the left.

That was so loud Hazel actually looked back in time to see the armored train’s snout covered in container wreckage.

She reached into her coat’s inner pocket to find something while running.

Her fingers touched an envelope and a plastic container similar to a pencil case. That and the Wheel of Destiny card. The case was engraved with the words “A.L.A. Case-A”.

…''That’s the ampule needed to heal Berger’s Lives disease.

“He’s supposed to be in a safehouse located in the central library of Germania’s surface section.”

She left the case in her pocket.

“I left the spare in my luggage at Potsdam Station. I need to get this one to him.”

She sped up her pace, leaping to the 6th car.

“…!”

She jumped high, her skirt fluttering around her legs while she took a look around her and gripped her sword in both hands.

She saw blue Lives in the wind blowing at her hair.

She pierced them with her sword and listened to the train’s sound reaching her from the containers.

She heard the sound of the wheels, of the creaking and straining frame, and of the exterior slicing through the wind.

She also saw the containers’ Lives.

Their tempo was a quick staccato similar to the wheels on the track. Their tone color was the gray of metal and weight.

A Tuner could use their Device to access the message carried by Lives and transform the object itself.

And Hazel Mirildorf was a Tuner.

So she raised her voice, providing the Up used when tuning.

“300,000 Lives racing below my feet and 120,000 Lives traversing the sky – you are the powerful voices that carry so much weight and the charming voices that dance and play. Can you hear the voice of my Lives!?”

When she landed on the 6th car, she jabbed her toes down and twirled to the left to face backwards.

There she saw the armored train preparing to devour the 7th car.

She readied herself juts as 6 empty Phlogiston cartridges were ejected from her sword Device.

“Ah,” sang the blade as its tip aimed toward the 7th car’s container.

She performed a Tune strike.

The transformation only took an instant. She sliced through the freight container with a tense sound and its Lives were given the message provided by her Device.

The freight container’s Lives were rewritten, instantly turning it into a giant spear.

That mass of piercing force was made of steel and wind and it was at least 8 yards long.

As soon as the spear was born, it launched forward with the sound of blowing wind.

The angled armor covering the front surface of the armored train could not deflect it.

With a single sound of breaking metal, the spear broke through the black metal and used its gale-like thrust to pierced the engine.

The spear underwent a further change inside the train.

It became birds.

The Live transformation given to the wind Lives was released after a time delay.

Steel birds carrying the will of the wind took flight in search of the outside.

Unable to contain the scattering birds within it, the locomotive swelled out like a balloon.

Finally, its armor could no longer handle the inner pressure and it exploded before Hazel’s eyes.

The ultra-heavy locomotive sent the force of its explosion in every direction, leaving very little of it left afterwards.

Several hundred metal-gray birds took flight among that destruction.

The flock of birds flew into the sky, closely followed by the roar of mechanical destruction.

Only the lower chassis and the frame that had supported the upper armor remained.

Müller had been on the locomotive, but he had jumped back to the roof of the next car.

The train exited the forest.