City Series:Volume6d Prologue

Panzerpolis Berlin 4 1943

I keep having this dream.

It starts with the five poems and tells their story.

A different version of me plays the main role each time, but it always ends the same.

I know it always has a sad ending, but I see it through to the end each time. Because I no longer think of this as a nightmare.

I can tell by the fact that I hear a sixth poem when the dream ends.

Unlike the five that tell the story of the dream, this one imagines what comes next. It feels like someone shouting from behind a distant wall, trying to tell us something. It is a poem meant to break free of that tearful night.

That poem is what tells me this dream is not a nightmare.

Opening Quote

“Prince, what you are, you are through chance and birth; what I am, I am through my own labor. There are many princes and there will continue to be thousands more, but there is only one Beethoven.”

-Beethoven’s words upon leaving the home of his patron, Prince Lichnowsky

Prologue: The Ruin Prepares

7/23/1943 23:43 – 23:57

With a crash

I’m off to Germania!

Germania

Germania is Berlin reborn as a sturdy fortress city with a six-level structure.

The surface is the Old City Level. The greenery, historical structures, and surface military facilities remain there.

The 1st level down is the Primary Factory Level. It contains civilian production factories to meet the city’s industrial demands.

The 2nd level down is the Civilian Residential Level. Most of old Berlin’s citizens were moved here.

The 3rd level down is the Warehouse Level. Excess civilian and military products are brought here. The railroad and other transportation facilities are mostly found here, so it also acts as Germania’s connection to the outside world.

The 4th level down is the Military Factory Level. The widest and most spacious level. It also contains the central control for the ventilation equipment that sends the stale air up to the surface.

The 5th and final level down is the Government and Military Base Level. It only contains the command equipment needed to manage all the government and military bases across Germany, a minimal residential space, and a shelter for VIPs.

These underground levels and Tristan on the surface are known as Panzerpolis Germania.

Part 1

The northern stars were scattered through the sky.

Below, a shadowy forest covered the ground.

Pale scarlet lights sat on the border between heaven and earth.

Those were city lights.

A massive structure stretched skywards past those lights.

It was a cross. A giant cross that seemed to pierce the sky. It stood in the darkness found past the scarlet lights, but the white umbrella of clouds surrounding the top of the cross was visible even in that darkness.

Those clouds were suddenly blown away by a whirlwind whipped up by something within.

It came with a sound.

A high-pitched metallic sound rang from the cross and spread in every direction.

That sound reached the forest, where it was answered by the stirring of the birds.

That stirring was followed by a change in the sky near the cross.

An umbrella of faint scarlet light appeared there.

The hemisphere sat at the top of the cross like an upside-down bowl and it grew from there.

After only a moment, the umbrella had grown into a dome large enough to cover the sky. The cross and the city lights in front of it were both contained below the umbrella.

The noise from the cross stopped, but a noise came from the umbrella instead.

The blowing wind crashed into the umbrella, producing a loud noise.

The umbrella did not even budge and the low, quiet, muffled noise continued without end.

The deep noise resembled a groan of agony as it filled the surrounding forest.

The shadowy trees accepted that noise.

But there was one part of the forest that ignored the noise and the shadows.

Scarlet lights ensured the trees cast no shadows on that part of the forest.

It was a long, straight clearing that contained several railroad tracks.

The trains traveling those tracks were always producing rhythmic metallic sounds.

A train whistle sounded as a train arrived on the leftmost track.

The forest shadows were eliminated by the train’s light.

Its light and noise were directed toward the lights of the city.

The train racing through the forest was a large plain steam engine freight train. The very front was equipped with somewhat sharpened black steel and it was pulling 15 cars loaded with freight containers.

The conductor’s compartment was empty and the wreckage of armored trucks was caught around the bottom of the train. That was the result of breaking through an inspection point.

The conductorless train’s power continued to increase, adding on more speed.

Meanwhile, someone was climbing onto the roof of the very last car.

After moving from the metal ladder on the side to the roof itself, the city lights illuminated her.

The woman stood up and faced the city.

She was skinny and colored red, black, and gold.

Her coat and skirt fluttering in the wind were the red and black. Her long hair dancing in the wind was the gold.

She added a new color to the mix with the scarlet lights and black sky behind her.

That was the gray of the sword Device she had drawn in her right hand.

She walked forward with the sword hanging at her side and she viewed the city. She brushed back her golden hair and directed her eyes dead ahead. The left eye was a brown feline one and the right one was a blue human one.

She narrowed her eyes to sharpen her gaze and observe the city more carefully.

“I managed to steal this Germania-bound train after I was found in Potsdam, but I had to leave my luggage behind in the station locker.”

The locker’s small key was attached to the choker she wore around her neck.

She stared forward.

As the train drew closer, she started to get a better view of the city sitting below the glowing umbrella.

The shape of the city came into view at the end of the straight-line railroad. As did the giant cross standing beyond the city.

She looked up at that umbrella opened in the sky.

“The Panzerpolis Project turned Berlin into Germania to fight the ruin said to be arriving in August.”

She lowered her gaze and viewed the cross through the racing wind.

“That cross is the new Geheimnis Agency HQ and the generator for that dome. It is called Tristan and it is actually a massive word accelerator that provides remote pressurization for the Vaterlands built in their allied countries.”

Her gaze continued to lower until it pierced the city at the cross’s feet.

The dark city’s shape could be made out from the position of the slowly approaching scarlet lights, but that shape was unusual. There were areas where the shadows cast by the buildings were nowhere to be found.

She shut her eyes when she noticed those empty areas.

“My school and our home don’t exist anymore, do they?”

Her words were swept away by the wind and answered by a noise behind her.

It was a whistle.

“Pursuit!?”

She turned back and her feline eye spotted a light. A train’s light.

A train was racing toward her along the exact same track.

It was a military armored train painted black.

It was fast.

“It’s catching up!”

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.

Part 3

They entered a field with the scarlet lights of Germania shining in behind it.

Hazel kept her back on that pale light, readied her sword, and took a breath. She faced Müller.

Müller’s train had nothing to propel it anymore, so the gap between it and Hazel’s freight train started to grow.

But Hazel did not take her eyes off of him.

There was no concern on his face.

As if to answer her gaze, he raised his right hand, twisted the fingers, and snapped them.

“Next.”

A great roar descended from the sky. The scream-like roar belonged to a propulsion device tearing through the air.

…An aircraft this near the dome!?

Germania sat behind her. The light of the dome was about a mile tall, starting from an altitude of about 30 yards, and it was a solid enough barrier to withstand an aerial bombing.

And after leaving the forest, Hazel’s train was crossing the field between the forest and Germania. She was less than half a mile from the city.

An aircraft was approaching the train while so close to the dome.

“That’s crazy.”

Hazel looked up to see said craziness.

Not just one but four fighters were approaching in the night sky behind Müller where the Tuned birds still flew.

They were rapidly descending like falcons swooping down at her.

The roar reached her for just a moment.

The four fighters took a curving touch-and-go course where they immediately scattered and ascended again.

But they dropped something from their wings while sending a blast of wind down at her.

There were eight in all.

They were people. The dropping silhouettes wore the combat uniforms of Geheimnis Agency Air Force Division paratroopers and all four of their limbs were prosthetic. They held long hexagonal rods as weapons. Hazel knew who they had to be.

“Hounds!?”

“Indeed,” replied Müller. “They are a rapid response team meant to combat the Allied Heidengeist special forces.”

The Hounds had descended at the midpoint between the two trains.

The eight of them landed near simultaneously and made a gentle leap forward with their very first step.

But from there, they began to sprint. They ducked low and kicked off the ground to pick up speed.

Their running speed soon matched the velocity of Hazel’s train and then surpassed it.

She gulped.

Her instinct to get away from them made her look back over her shoulder.

She saw a city there.

Germania.

If she traveled with the wind for just a few more hundred yards, she would pass the 10-yard-wide defensive trench surrounding the city, which doubled as a ventilation band around Germania, and she would enter the city from the southeast.

But past the shimmering heat rising from that trench, she saw a hole.

The massive hole looked like a vast cliff.

The hole was about 3 miles wide. The city dropped off into a precipice there and more city could be faintly seen through the haze on the distant other side of the hole.

…Is the southeastern part of old Berlin just gone? That used to be Schöneberg.

For Germania’s layered structure, all the movable structures had been moved underground. The primarily residential 3-mile borough of Schöneberg and several other boroughs had been sent underground.

…That must be why parts of the city looked empty from a distance.

The track next to hers began to slowly descend. That one went to Germania’s 1st underground level.

Her own track would cross the hole supported by wires and pillars and reach Germania’s surface level.

Once on the elevated portion across the hole, she would have nowhere to run.

The tops of the containers would be the only space available to her.

She knew she had to hurry, so she muttered a man’s name and turned her body toward the front of the train.

Just then, she saw a metal hand circle in from behind her.

“What!?”

She rolled forward, hopped back to her feet, and looked back to see one of the Hounds had gotten on the train’s roof at some point. He had tried to grab her from behind just now.

He advanced without letting the momentum of his arm affect his balance.

Hazel moved away and then ran toward the front of the train while still looking behind her.

She checked on the enemy. She saw the armored train on the elevated railway and six Hounds chasing after her train.

…Six!?

She immediately lowered her hips.

Something grazed the top of her head. It was a metal right hand that had swooped in from behind.

Another one had arrived from behind her.

“Quit sneaking up on me!”

She hurriedly moved to the right.

Then she leaped backwards, flying past the man who had attacked her from behind, and leaped again.

The two men were already pursuing her a moment later.

They each held their hexagonal rod with the hand opposite their partner. They were ready to jab with those if she tried to jump down.

She sprinted while looking back. She kept her center of gravity low so she could attack at a moment’s notice.

…I don’t have time for this.

She wanted to deliver that envelope and ampule as soon as possible.

Her impatience shifted her focus away from her feet, so her right boot caught on a rivet in the top of the container. It shifted the angle of her heel just a bit.

The stumble wouldn’t normally have mattered, but here…

“Oh.”

The one leg crumbled below her. She staggered for a few steps, the hem of her skirt caught on the corner of a hatch on top of the container, and she fell.

At the same moment, the train arrived below the dome and entered the city.

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.

Part 5

The bullet passed through the center of the train and its shockwave caused the train’s sides to rupture outwards.

This wasn’t just the 6th car Hazel sat atop of. She gasped and looked back to see the 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st cars spewing smoke from their ruptured sides doors.

“The locomotive too!?”

Her question was immediately answered by the locomotive rupturing after its steam engine was pierced through from behind.

The explosion blew away the side of the elevated track, sending concrete rubble scattering into the abyss.

Steam smoke erupted out, creating a boiling sound and some mist. Metal shards flew through the mist.

But Hazel’s ears picked up a strange sound among the many destructive sounds.

It sounded like the strumming of a string instrument.

“It can’t be.”

She looked up while still down on the roof. She could see the pillars supporting the elevated track and the array of metal wires more than a foot thick that extended from those.

The thick wire the train had just passed by had snapped along with its support wires.

As the train continued along the track, the wires supporting that track snapped from the base one by one.

They each produced an unbearable sound in turn.

“This can’t be happening.”

Sensing danger, Hazel looked to the enemy. The armored train carrying the Grösse Panzer had finally come to a stop and the six soldiers were running toward her along the track.

She started to move in response.

“Oops.”

But her skirt was still stuck and she ended up tripping.

“Really?” she complained, tearing the hem of her skirt with her sword Device and freeing herself.

Meanwhile, the first of the six enemies caught up and leaped toward her.

Seeing him use the power of his prosthetic legs to jump high, she made a hasty retreat.

He landed in the spot she had just vacated and immediately continued forward.

Hazel threw herself toward him shoulder first.

Tearing her skirt let her move her leg out much further than before. It felt indecent to her, but it let her deliver a sword strike to the enemy right as he landed and started forward.

He must have expected her to run away because he quickly tried to use an evasion Erklärung.

<Our->

But he stopped himself.

…Eh?

He ended his rewriting of this space, which confused Hazel.

…Why? Did he give up on dodging?

But Hazel didn’t let her doubt stop her from attacking with the back of her blade.

She frowned after the blow landed and knocked him from the running train.

“Why did he stop his Erklärung?”

Then she noticed something strange about the entire battle. She realized something had been missing all this time.

…None of them have used an Erklärung.

The Panzerpolis Project was complete and Germania was the center of its Erklärung power.

“But it’s more like they’re trying to test me- !?”

All of a sudden, her vision tilted to the left.

The support wires were snapping mostly on one side, so the elevated railroad had started tilting.

The wires continued to snap as the train advanced and the remaining 5 enemies rushed toward the tilting train.

In the short time before they arrived, Hazel looked around. From atop the leftward tilting roof, the hole leading underground was to her left and the dome supported by the giant cross was to her right.

Everything was so large here.

After a brief look at the cross to her right, she looked down toward the underground levels.

Each consecutive level was about 100 yards thick and there was a 300 yard gap between each one.

The second level was a factory district covered by gray roofs. That level had holes in it as well, providing glimpses of the residential district on the third level. The wind contained a slight smoky scent.

“…”

Hazel silently looked to the shaking and snapping wires overhead.

Then she heard another artillery blast.

It was aimed at the locomotive that was coasting on inertia even after its boiler was destroyed.

The shell hit the bottom of the locomotive, toppling it to the right.

The link to the next car did not break, so the 1st container car rolled onto its side on the elevated railroad.

The rolling propagated back, taking the 2nd and 3rd cars with it.

The container below Hazel was affected too, so it tilted below her.

In that moment, Hazel saw the swaying wire overhead and made up her mind.

…There’s only one way to escape this.

She leaped.

Leftward. Off of the elevated railroad.

Part 6

“––––––!?”

The five pursuing men shouted in confusion when Hazel leaped.

But she ignored them. She twisted around, opened her left hand, and stretched it upwards while soaring through empty air.

One of the wires supporting the railroad was there. It dangled from one of the massive pillars supporting the side of Germania’s 1st level and it was 400 yards long and an inch thick.

Those thinner wires were used to support the main wires that were a few feet thick. At the moment, several of them were swaying rapidly over the 3mile hole that was once Schöneberg.

One of them was swaying like a pendulum thanks to the inertial force of its snapping tension and she managed to grab it like it was a solid branch.

Then the wire’s inertial force tugged her away.

Its pull sent her flying through the wind.

The wind shook the locker key attached to her choker, tickling her throat.

The wire swung rapidly in a somewhat elliptical path. Extrapolating out the rest of the pendulum-like path, she could tell this arc would bring her right up alongside the interior wall.

…I can either leave or go to Kreuzberg.

Kreuzberg was located east of the hole that was once Schöneberg and it had been left intact since Tempelhof Airbase was located there. Her best bet was to switch to another wire that took her there.

She squeezed the wire in her left hand.

There was nothing below her. If she fell from this long swing, she would die.

She understood that as she looked to the enemy.

Back atop the elevated railroad 200 yards away and growing, the 5 men threw out their hexagonal rods and drew the rifles on their backs. The guns were of unusually large caliber, so they likely fired nets for capturing a target.

Her wire had nearly reached a 45 degree angle on its approach toward Germania’s inner wall.

Once she reached that wall, she would only be able to move in a straight line to the side, which would make her a nice target for snipers.

Sensing an updraft as she approached that wall, Hazel searched for the next wire.

She found it.

A few dozen yards to the east, a long wire was grazing the inner wall as it swung eastward. If she jumped to that one, she could reach Kreuzberg.

But her inertia was in the wrong direction and it was a long way away. If she mistimed her jump, she would fall and die. But before that, she also had to avoid the sniper fire.

…What do I do?

Her doubts were interrupted by five gunshots from the elevated railroad.

When she saw five white nets expanding in the air out of the corner of her eye, she made up her mind.

She tensed her left arm a little and gathered the inertial force inside her.

She was nearly to the wall and the wire had grown taut. She chose that moment to let go.

She felt a floating sensation before her feet forcefully landed on the inner wall.

She stood and ran along the wall.

Her body was tilted 45 degrees, but she used the inertial force pressing her against the wall to run along the wall. She crouched low and ran like a cat. She extended her ducking body and swung her arms to accelerate.

“–––––!”

She felt a heavy sensation, like she was peeling herself from the wall to run.

She ran forward to reach the wire that was swinging toward Kreuzberg too quickly to easily see.

The nets were about to reach her from behind.

All five of them were approaching, so she swung her sword outwards with both hands.

She sliced through the nets before they could capture her and they hit the wall behind her instead.

She kept running.

The wire she wanted was approaching fast.

But the wire ended its approach toward the wall and began to move away.

Meanwhile, she was slowly slipping away from the wall. She was losing her inertial force.

She had to hurry or she would miss it and then fall.

Her refusal to let that happen pushed her feet even faster.

The time had come to use every last ounce of strength.

She planted her feet on the slight uneven parts of the wall and raced forward.

And she leaped.

She reached her hand out and her left hand’s fingers touched the bottom of the wire.

She grabbed it and it snatched her away into the empty air.

But her grip was weak. She only had it in her thumb, index finger, and middle finger.

If she didn’t hold it in her palm, the inertia of the swing would tear it from her hand.

Three fingers weren’t enough to support her weight and the wind resistance on her clothing.

She didn’t hesitate. She stuck her right hand – which still held her sword – into her coat’s inner pocket, grabbed the ampule case, the envelope, and the Wheel of Destiny card, and placed them in her mouth.

Then she inserted the blade tip in through her collar and down the arm hole toward the left hand holding the wire.

…Hurry!

The inertial weight on her fingers was growing.

She felt the panic growing with it, but her right hand moved slowly and calmly to sweep the sword outwards from within her left sleeve. With a tearing of cloth, her coat and blouse’s split left sleeve fell to her side.

Her left arm was now bare from hand to armpit.

She felt the chill of the wind on it while she looked down.

There was nothing there.

If she fell, she would die. She openly accepted that thought.

A moment later, she began to Alter. She let the convection of steam surround her while gathering all her strength in her left arm to pull herself up.

Then the air exploded at the bottom of the wire.

Two things burst from the white smoke and steam explosion.

One was a collection of falling objects: Hazel’s clothing and her sword Device.

The other was the wire continuing to swing like a pendulum. Hazel was no longer there at the bottom. Instead, a cat was clinging to it.

The cat’s left eye was a brown feline eye and the right one was a blue human eye. She wore a choker with a key attached and she held an ampule case and an envelope in her mouth.

The wire swung to the east, carrying the cat and the cat’s baggage with it.

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