City Series:Volume6e Chapter2

Chapter 2: The Promise Begins

8/23/1943 14:56 – 18:32

Why do we fight?

To make amends for the past?

Or…

Part 1

The giant metal sheet floating in the sky had two long rails attached.

The metal sheet spanning the rails had the letters USIF written in white.

It was an aerial aircraft carrier belonging to the US branch of the AIF.

At the base of the runway, a preparation crew of around a dozen was moving around the flight deck and a single catapult platform was about to be launched.

A black-winged Heavy Barrel stood atop the metal platform.

The sleeves of its pitch black armored clothing bore the AIF’s world map emblem and its shoulder armor bore a drawing of a black lion.

That was Neue Schwarz. It had a more angular shape than its predecessor Schwarz Löwe and its two wings were longer and larger.

The weapon from which Heavy Barrels got their name had been attached as well.

A long barrel and an extra tank had been attached to the exterior of the secondary cockpit.

The barrel was around 4 yards long. It was attached at the center of the secondary cockpit and it stuck out past the right side of the head to help balance with the rear magazine.

Both the barrel and the magazine had their inertial control emblem panels activated and they were making several small metallic noises.

Similarly, shimmering heat was rising from the wings and the thrusters within them.

Its entire black form looked ready to take flight at any moment.

It was kneeled in preparation for launch and a woman stood to its right.

The large middle-aged woman looked up at the glowing sight device she could see from her side.

“They explained how that Word Rifle works, I hope? It will take four hours and an extra tank to negate the inertial weight. The bullet takes an entire extra tank per shot. You have four tanks, but the barrel probably won’t survive the second shot.”

“It’s an unboosted miniature Babel Cannon, right? Can’t I break through the dome or Tristan with this?”

“Didn’t they explain that? That thing applies damage to a single point, but the dome distributes that across the entire surface. And Tristan isn’t just the framework used to support that stupidly tall structure – it has a defense barrier similar to the dome set up along its surface. Your job is to blast all the enemies that might stop the others, Berger.”

“So I’m just there to set the stage, huh?” said Neue Schwarz in Berger’s voice. “But, Corelle, everyone keeps secrets these days. That idiot Hazel said she took my blood to have a prosthetic arm made for me…but when was this made?”

“The AIF helped dismantle and work on Schwarz Löwe in Germany at the end of ’39. Hazel was only trying to get you an arm made initially, but one day she went to M. Schrier with a different request.”

“And he had this made? He spoils her.”

“Isn’t it a lovely present? All the steel was made with your blood mixed in and the design was reworked from the ground up. Also, Schwarz Löwe’s memories of the battle against Neue Kaiser were included along with Schwarz Löwe’s High Organ prototype device.”

“Wait, what? Why don’t people tell me these things? That explains why the stomach feels kind of heavy. Y’know, mechanic teams aren’t supposed to modify people’s gear without permission.”

“If they weren’t that way, they never would have made an experimental Heavy Barrel on some girl’s request. Oh, and she paid for the development fees and everything else with a long-term loan. I believe she only has around 800 monthly payments left now.”

“Hah. It’s true what they say about war being an economic activity. I see. So everything about it is top class: power, reaction, and the debt behind it. Why’d she have to give me the best when I’d prefer second best?”

Corelle gave a toothy bitter smile and kicked Neue Schwarz’s right knee.

“Your heart’s not in your bitching today, Berger. Is it that disease’s fault? I mean, you even volunteered to join the fight.”

“I just want off this damn carrier. Before the new captain knocks out my back tooth on the other side this time.”

“This mission is being led by Pale and our new captain – Oscar Mirildorf, a man who put together a plan that sends his own daughter to the front lines.”

“He’s just a doting dad. A guy like him? Sees the front lines as center stage, right under the spotlight.”

Part of the crew checked the time and waved to Corelle. She checked her own watch.

“Three more minutes. Time for the final route check.”

“I fly too high for their radar to see me and then I drop straight down on the target. I land in the rain before they can even notice me. The same technique you’ll be using tonight. …What about you? Can you handle it?”

“Except for Coolers, our select team is already over there. That just leaves half of the people here to descend near some other cities as a diversion.” Corelle put her hands on her hips and breathed from the corner of her mouth. The ends of her eyebrows rose slightly. “Make sure you get Hazel from Borderson to Germania. You owe her at least that much after she healed your right leg.”

“Yeah, but I’ve gotten the short end of the stick more often than not.” Before Corelle could say anything more, Berger continued in a disinterested voice. “Corelle. Did Hazel read my Lives when she healed my leg?”

“I told her to, but she said it would be wrong without your permission. You know how she is.”

“That explains it. And it’s moving so well now. How many times do I have to tell her second best is good enough for me?”

His right knee shifted a bit on the catapult, making a metallic scraping noise.

“Hey. If we do stop the Wheel of Destiny, then the world will be remade to not include the Messiah at 4:42 tomorrow morning. But what do you think she would do if she knew there was a way to avoid that?”

“Eh?” said Corelle, her eyebrows rising somewhat. “What do you mean? Pale and the others have accepted that the world will be completely remade.”

“There is a way to stop the Wheel but keep the Messiah around. It sounds like a joke, though.” He kept his voice low. “And it’s a dumb joke I doubt would actually work.”

The black Heavy Barrel raised its head somewhat to face dead ahead.

Corelle started to say something, but took a few steps back instead.

A launch crewmember in the center of the runway waved a flag down.

That wave was the signal to go.

“I’m off.”

With that, the wind blew.

In an instant, the two-winged black Heavy Barrel raced across the steel runway floating in the sky.

Divine spell gunpower burst to provide the initial acceleration, producing smoke and bursting sounds behind it.

The dark ocean reflected the afternoon sun below the runway. Thin clouds blew in the wind of the blue sky above.

An Allied high-speed aerial bombing fleet was spread out to either side.

The Barrel slid forward in a crouching start position and it silently waved back to the crewmembers waving up from the runway, but then it looked to the right where the fleet’s flagship flew somewhat further back from the rest.

The long, white, streamlined shape of an ACBS was attached to the belly of the flagship.

That unmanned ship had no windows or bridge.

It had small wings, rocket nozzles for attitude control and thrust, and noticeable power points across its hull.

It was only marked with its numeric designation: ACBS-M0-001.

The black Heavy Barrel faced forward after its sight devices caught the letters ACBS.

Then it arrived at the launch point and the runaway abruptly ended.

Only the sky lay ahead.

So it spread its wings with a roar of splitting air and flapped them.

Those two simple actions propelled the nearly 40ton mass of metal through the sky.

It used another flap to accelerate beyond the initial acceleration that launched it into the sky.

Water vapor exploded around it while it rolled to the right and then took a somewhat rightward ascending trajectory.

The tips of the wings briefly drew out lines of cloud, but the clouds vanished once it altered the angles.

By then, the entire fleet had been left far behind and below it.

It used its wings to further accelerate. A black band was visible at the horizon ahead.

Those were the rainclouds hanging over Europe. Its destination was below the dark rainclouds of northern Germany.

The black Heavy Barrel said nothing. It only began its ascent along a ballistic trajectory to achieve the altitude it needed.

It accelerated.

It accelerated in order to pierce the sky.

Part 2

Hazel stood below the darkening sky.

She wore a rain poncho over her head and stood motionless on the mountain road running through the forest.

She held Rein König wrapped in a white cloth under her arm. She only wore a backpack on her back.

She could hear the raindrops hitting the poncho.

She shifted just her eyes to view Rein König while listening to the wet pitter-patter.

“I knew this would be a challenge, but the backpack is kind of heavy too.”

…Maybe Eryngium packed a bit too much in that lunch she gave me.

“But I can’t worry about that now. I need to get to the Essen railroad.”

She tensed her eyebrows and focused on her ears to listen to the rain.

A single stray thought about tonight intruded on her focus.

…Will the world end tonight?

If they stopped the Wheel of Destiny, the world would change at 4:42 AM.

She had been worrying over that ever since leaving Borderson.

“I can blame that on the peace I found in the Village of Pardons.”

She told herself those things would simply change, not be lost, and she shook her head.

She focused again, concentrating on clearing her hearing. She heard something other than the rain mixed in with all the noise.

She heard creaking metal from the forest to her left. That was the sound of a railroad shaking below a train.

She nearly ran toward the rhythmic sound of steel.

“…”

But she stopped. She heard a whistle through the trees, but she bit her lower lip and let it go.

She had heard something other than the train. Something she couldn’t afford to ignore.

…Footsteps carrying killer intent.

She heard the whistle fading into the distance as she shut her eyes and moved her mouth.

“Why not come out? Isn’t it cold in the forest?”

She directed her question toward the entire forest and rain, but someone did respond.

A slender woman stepped out from the forest on the left with her hands in her coat pockets.

Hazel recognized her silhouette.

…She’s the one who shot me at Borderson.

The woman spied on that thought and responded to it.

“Yes, and I don’t know how you managed to survive that. Not that it matters.”

Hazel prepared to fight.

“You can read Tons?”

“You can tell? I am Geheimnis Agency Naval Division Chief ‘Wasser Meister’ Lillie Telmetz. I am the descendant of second-rate nobility that served under Borderson and Karlsruhe by making wine for the imperial family. …I am also a Stimmer.”

Hazel looked to her face.

Her faintly wrinkled face was not at all wet from the rain.

Hazel looked up to find the rain split above Lillie’s head and flowed to either side.

“It’s not an unusual technique. It’s just another form of Tuning.”

Lillie pulled her right hand from her coat pocket and Hazel knew what the ring on her right middle finger had to be.

“A Werkzeug.”

She gulped.

…She’s only using a Werkzeug? She isn’t using an Up and she isn’t even transforming the rain into something else.

“Yes, unlike the highly formalized Tuning and Busting your Allies use, German Tuning and Busting is all about releasing your own will in its purest form. Using a formalized Up makes it a lot easier and ensures anyone can learn how, but there are other, more powerful, methods.”

Lillie raised her right hand.

A dove alighted on her hand. A dove made from rainwater.

She stroked the dove’s wings just once and then released it back into the sky.

“I was ordered to capture you alive…but there are many in our ranks who disagree with that decision.”

“Like you?”

“Yes, unfortunately. This is our last chance to see whether or not the Messiah will be lost.”

Lillie stopped speaking there.

She pulled her left hand from her coat pocket and raised it in front of her eyes. She viewed the military wristwatch she wore there.

“Look behind you.”

Hazel did not comply. She kept her eyes on Lillie.

Then she heard a deep sound like a thunderclap behind her.

“Eh?”

It sounded like the sky was shaking and a massive throat was gulping.

Hazel reflexively turned toward the noise.

She looked west toward the Borderson Village of Pardons.

Past the forest, the village was about two hours away by foot.

A single color was rising into the gray sky from there.

That color was black.

The black of smoke. A single line of smoke rose slowly but thickly into the rainy sky.

…There has to be a considerable fire to produce that much smoke.

“It can’t be!?”

“Yes, it can. You are watching the ultimate fate of the Borderson village.”

Panicking, Hazel turned back toward Lillie.

“Why? The Village of Pardons was the only place in Germany where Heidengeists could live!”

“That was no more than a verbal promise. Just like in ’35, the government and military need a scapegoat for the people’s frustrations. Burning down a city of Heidengeists who support the Allies sounds like a good decision to me.”

Hazel heard another thunderclap-like sound behind her.

The deep boom reverberated through her and sweat poured from her body.

Then she heard new noises joining the falling rain and distant explosion. They came from the road ahead of and behind her.

She heard the rumbling of engines through the rain.

She soon realized what was causing it: armored trucks.

Their large silhouettes came into view down the mountain road behind Lillie.

The same had to be coming from behind her.

She saw them switch on their headlights. Lillie’s silhouette was outlined in the rain, showing she was faintly smiling.

The smile splitting her face asked a question of Hazel.

“Now, how about we hurry this up?”

Part 3

Schweitzer still stood in the light.

The journal resting on his prosthetic arm was opened to the final page.

His eyes were still staring down at the journal, but he suddenly lowered his head.

A drop of sweat dripped from his forehead to his cheek before reaching his chin and falling to the floor.

And once it did…

“Bermark.”

“Do you need something?”

“I will omit any unnecessary questions. Does this journal describe our entire truth?”

“Yes, that is everything we are now. The past comes from a thousand years of history, but the present comes from the twenty years of history that began with Lady Frobel’s journal.”

“So this journal is the borderline between the past and the present.”

Schweitzer flipped through the pages. Old German written in sharp, hurried handwriting had been rewritten in places while describing the events in chronological order.

“It even includes me suggesting the Gard-class’s 2nd ship be used to build Tristan.”

“Lady Frobel and Sir Lowenheit were both skilled Sofort Lesers.”

“And they left this journal with Lowenzahn. So she could fulfill her role as our commander. Did she know her mother’s maiden name was Ilfheim?”

“No. Lady Frobel came from a family that managed the Naylor knowledge stockpile, but that was recorded as a Naylor branch family. Sirs Graham, Heiliger, and Bertecht kept her secret and sent the fräulein to a rural home after Lady Frobel’s death so the information would not get out.” Bermark took a breath. “But as fate would have it, she happened to see a distant relative at Borderson last year.”

“She was very insistent after learning of the wedding. She may have had her suspicions.”

Schweitzer wrinkled his brow even deeper and flipped another page. He kept flipping.

The sound of turning pages filled the space and they produced small gusts of wind as they turned.

“Bermark, did anyone other than you know of these prophecies?”

“Originally, it was only those of us who were close to Lady Frobel before World War One and were involved in the creation of the Geheimnis Agency: Sir Graham, Lady Rose, Sir Karl, and me. Later on, Lady Lillie who was taken in by Sir Graham…and then Sir Heiliger heard it from the fräulein herself a month ago. Also…”

“Marsch?”

“Because some excerpts from the prophecies were installed as plates in the underground knowledge stockpile.”

“I see.” Schweitzer continued flipping pages. “The final page.”

There was nothing beyond this page.

“This isn’t a prophecy.”

A short passage was confidently written across the two pages. There were none of the previous diagrams or explanatory notes. Simply a confident statement meant to convey something.

When skimming through it, the words “war”, “Nibelung”, “’43”, and “sin” jumped out at him. When his eyes reached the end of the page, he noticed the final words.

Unlike the rest, the last bit was scribbled out in a hurry. A date and a postscript were added below.

“January 16, 1919. PS. I will be emblemizing this text and placing it underground.”

“Do you recognize that date, Captain Schweitzer?”

Schweitzer looked up for just a moment.

“One week before my father died.”

Then he looked back down at the hurried text.

As soon as he read it, he shut the journal with enough force to make Bermark tilt his head.

“Why not read it more carefully?”

“I want to read that final page after I have calmed down some. Can I take this from here?”

“If you wish. I am sure Lady Frobel would be delighted for it to be in the hands of someone the fräulein entrusted with the key.”

Schweitzer grabbed the journal in his biological hand and stuck it in his coat pocket.

Afterwards, he slowly lowered his prosthetic arm. It produced a mechanical noise as he rotated the elbow halfway around and lowered the shoulder. He kept his eyes on that arm.

“Has anyone other than Lowenzahn read this?”

“You already know the answer to that, don’t you? A portion of the prophecies and that final page were carved into a plate in 1919 and placed below Munich’s central hospital. The man who decoded it ordered to have it carved away so no one else would know what it had said.”

“Did Frobel Naylor – no, Frobel Ilfheim – know that Marsch would be the one to read it?”

“Yes. When the plate was embedded there, she knew everything – including that the people would rebel and that your father Bertecht would die protecting the hospital.”

“I can’t believe this.” Schweitzer let the words fall to the floor. “To be honest, I feel some anger toward the way this journal views the world. And at what Lowenzahn did. But I also feel like there was nothing I could have done if that was what she wanted.” He took a breath, shut his eyes, and shook his head. “I don’t understand that final sentence.”

“You have a heart of your own and you still do not understand it?”

“It may be that heart that keeps me from understanding. If she was going to use her own daughter as a component in a machine then how could she also send that daughter to us for-”

He stopped there, gasping and spinning around to look to the right.

Some Unreif Germane reliefs were embedded in the wall there.

One of the brick reliefs was glowing.

The one depicting the knights battling a black dragon was emitting a bright light.

He lowered himself to a fighting stance as the black dragon relief reacted.

It vanished. No, it fell away into the wall.

“What?”

He watched as all the other reliefs fell into the wall and vanished too.

After around 30 of them had fallen, a 3yd diameter hole appeared there.

There shouldn’t have been anything but a wall there, but it instead opened out onto a different place altogether.

There was a black forest inside.

But that wasn’t all.

Two things toppled into the room like felled trees.

Except these were people not trees. One was short and the other tall.

The short one wore a cloak stained brown and the tall one wore a suit of amor straight out of a medieval painting.

The brown cloak made a rustling sound as it fell to the floor and the armor made a metallic sound as it clattered to the floor.

Both men were old. Schweitzer recognized them both and opened his mouth to speak.

But Bermark spoke up before he could.

“These are Intelligence Division Chief Witzmann and Development Division Chief Elrich.”

And he casually added one more thing.

“They appear to enjoy dressing up as medieval knights.”

Part 4

The armored truck dropped Hazel off in the middle of the rainy forest.

She was walking down the misty mountain road all on her own now.

No one had spoken to her or even looked her way aboard the truck. She had sat in a corner of the passenger area for about two hours, staying perfectly still. They hadn’t even said anything when dropping her off.

“It’s understandable, at least.”

She spoke out loud to feel some slight release after the silence of the truck. She sighed, pulled up the hood of her poncho, and looked around.

She only saw the piercing mist and rain hanging in the darkness of dusk.

…Where is she?

Lillie had gone ahead in the command vehicle and Hazel couldn’t sense her anywhere.

“I just have to deal with it,” she concluded, drawing Rein König as she walked.

She untied and unfurled the cloth surrounding it, revealing the white blade.

She wrapped the cloth around her right hand, gripped the hilt, and held the blade out in front of her so it reflected her surroundings. The reflection gave her a glimpse of the right side of the forest through a gap in the mist.

This was a brighter green forest, with a subtly different distribution of trees compared to Borderson’s black forest.

…We traveled two hours toward Germania.

That would put her near Hamburg. And since it was a forested area, probably around 20 miles from Hamburg. She was within about 80 miles of Germania.

She used her left hand’s fingers to calculate out the time and distance. She didn’t have a watch, so she had to rely on her gut to judge the current time. That was far from exact, but…

“Maybe I can catch a train somewhere. I doubt they’ll take me in their truck if I win.”

She shook her head and mouthed a man’s name. She thought it was a little sad how that actually helped calm her a little, but then she pulled a certain color from her pocket.

She pulled out the pendent that now contained the red gem Eryngium had given her.

She intentionally rattled the chain louder than necessary while loosening the neck of her poncho with the hand holding the pendant. She placed the chain around her neck below the hood.

The chill and weight of the chain was nice in how it contrasted with her choker.

She tugged down on the chain just once to really feel the pendant’s presence.

A moment later, she heard a woman’s voice in her left ear.

“Hurry up. The battlefield is right over there.”

Her heart raced in surprise and she reflexively brushed her left hand through her hair.

But she only felt her damp hair and the mist.

…Did she make the mist talk? Using her Tuning?

She took a few hurried steps forward, which helped calm her. She looked down at herself.

The sound of the rain falling on her plastic poncho seemed to reverberate through her entire body. That sound confirmed that her body was there. She calmed her breathing and began walking again.

The air around her had changed. At some point, the mist had grown stationary and thinner.

…Am I in a wider area?

She looked around and saw a world steeped in a dim but white mist.

A dark shape to her right contrasted that white world. She recognized the boxy silhouette in the mist.

…The armored truck. The Naval Division Chief should be nearby.

The battle was imminent.

She understood that, so she slowed her pace and then stopped. She took a deep breath that came out white.

She faced forward. She focused her eyes.

Her sharpened vision and spotted the enemy.

A slender silhouette stood beyond the mist in the darkening air.

It was about 30 yards away. Once the enemy was in view, her mind sharpened her other senses too.

Her ears heard a river – the deep sound of a river flowing through the forest.

A great quantity of water was gulping down the air and carrying all sorts of things downstream.

Suddenly, another sound joined that deep one.

This one was much higher. A note from a string instrument rang loud and clear.

It was joined by a voice. Lillie’s voice.

“Now, perhaps I should start with something so basic even you would understand.”

“Eh?”

Hazel looked up just in time to hear a shout pierce the mist.

“Ober Text! Tons of the air with an octave of 3.2 million!”

Hazel trembled in response.

…An Over Up? What is she doing?

Her question was soon answered.

The mist cleared away to let her see.

It only lasted a few seconds, but the mist split apart, creating a straight path 20 yards wide.

The split was only on the flat surface. The mist still covered the sky, but that sky already carried the darkness of night.

Hazel saw a slender woman standing 30 yards ahead of her.

Lillie Telmetz held a yard-long harp on her left shoulder.

“Eingeweide Harfe – Mondnacht. This is my first time using it to kill a Heidengeist.”

Before she was even done speaking, the mist behind her split as well.

There was no ground there.

…A cliff?

But that broad cliff did not simply lead to an abyss. A great body of water was visible past its edge.

Lillie stood in front of a lake. Loud watery sounds shook the air as water dragons broke the misty walls to move this way and that. They were playing in the lake despite the mist.

Hazel stared at Lillie. For the first time, she noticed the other woman’s head was lowered.

Then the mist around Hazel began to shake.

…Is it synced with the controller’s Lives? With her trembling will?

Lillie spoke quietly, as if to confirm Hazel’s speculation.

“I will teach you there are things that were lost because of you.”

With that, the mist fully cleared away behind Lillie.

The view opened up. The mist vanished from the lake, revealing a small island in the center.

The island was dark and angular in a way no natural land formation would be.

Hazel recognized the thick cylinder jutting up from the island.

“A Babel Cannon.”

Lillie nodded and raised her head. The lake behind her was now clear of mist, four water dragons roared and frolicked on the surface, and a crashed aerial warship acted as the lake’s centerpiece.

With all of that behind her, Lillie bowed and spoke to Hazel.

“Welcome to the battlefield of vengeance.”

Part 5

Two old men sat in front of Schweitzer.

The forest beyond them had disappeared. The wall reliefs had moved back into place, covering the hole.

The old men were busy removing the armor and whatnot they were wearing.

Witzmann held a removed breastplate and looked up at Schweitzer.

“Something must have happened if the son of Schweitzer is here at the old HQ.”

Bermark opted to answer.

“You should know what that is now that you have seen the past. Things are underway to ensure that past happens. All in the name of the Nibelung.”

“Oh?” replied Elrich, undoing the strap on Witzmann’s back. The chest of the armor dropped down to Witzmann’s stomach. Witzmann caught the falling breastplate.

“The world has started to go wrong, hasn’t it? Then I’m guessing today is August 23.”

“I would expect no less of the man with the Titel of Hellsehen.”

“Don’t give me that crap, Bermark. You fully intended for us to die in there.”

“If you had, it would simply mean you lacked the necessary skill.”

Schweitzer’s cheeks tensed at that cold statement.

Witzmann smiled bitterly and Elrich stretched his legs.

The two old men looked to the large man in the center of the room – toward Schweitzer.

He looked down at the two of them.

“So I take it you two saw the past in there?”

“A much denser version of it than you saw. That Sein Frau there set us up. Still, it was a fascinating experience. But I would like to confirm something with that Sein Frau and with you…Captain Schweitzer is it now?”

“What is it?”

Witzmann looked to Elrich.

Elrich hesitated before hardening his expression, shutting his eyes, and nodding.

Witzmann nodded back and looked to Bermark and Schweitzer again.

“Are we correct in concluding that the Messiah is Hazel Mirildorf after being sent to the past in a Ton explosion on August 23?”

“Yes, that is indeed correct.”

“And does your presence here mean something happened to our commander?”

“Yes. She entered Tristan to use herself as a component of Neue Erde. Her Ober Beweisen extracts the Spacetime Tons and boosts Tristan. The Messiah’s Ober Beweisen lets her view all Tons, so-”

“You don’t need to explain every little detail to the man known as the Hellsehen. Our commander’s actions were linked to all of this, weren’t they? Including giving the Allies plans to our Wort Bombe and the Allies building their ACBS based on that.”

Bermark continued from there.

“The Messiah will lead an attack on Germania late tonight. She cannot break the Spacetime Tons extracted by the fräulein since she is a Stimmer, so the destructive power of the ACBS is needed to trigger the Nibelung. The fräulein hopes to-”

“To control the Messiah with her Beweisen and forcibly draw out the Messiah eye’s Ober Beweisen to crash the ACBS into the Spacetime Tons she extracted, right?”

“Correct,” confirmed Bermark.

Schweitzer nodded between the two of them and then asked Bermark a question really directed at all of them. His coat swished a bit as he turned to face his aide.

“What do we do about this?”

“The fräulein has always sought to trigger the Nibelung as the Geheimnis Agency Commander and Sir Heiliger is working toward the same thing now. The Nibelung is the one way for the Neue Kavaliers to protect Germany as its knights. If the Messiah chooses to lead us, then we must show her a willpower and strength worthy of being led.”

“I see,” said Witzmann with a sigh. “So Heiliger chose to follow the Naylor girl.”

Schweitzer turned toward him.

His gaze poured down on Witzmann’s bald head as the old man continued.

“The two of us saw the Messiah in the past. It was a valuable experience and it allowed us to make a number of decisions. But what about you two? Will you place your trust in Neue Erde or in the Messiah?”

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.

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.

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.

Part 7

Ether scattered with a sound like a waterfall exploding, but it vanished after only three seconds.

Hazel was still looking up into the briefly mist-covered sky.

…I’m alive?

She could see. That meant she was still alive.

Rainclouds covered the night sky, so she could no longer see the moon.

The rainclouds were entirely black now, telling her night had truly fallen now.

She looked down to see a dark mist floating and producing waves.

A drop of water landed on her nose.

It was raining.

The sound of the rain drew her gaze toward the ground where she saw someone sitting on the ground with shoulders drooping.

It was Lillie. She hung her head and remained entirely motionless.

Only Hazel slowly took a breath.

Her shoulders rose and fell as she filled her lungs with air and then she turned around.

A large black shape stood there. Its hips were lowered and its right foot swept backwards in a fighting stance.

Its outthrust arms held a long hilt modeled after hair.

“Gelegenheit and…Neue Schwarz.”

The rain fell on the armor, adding a sheen to its matte black color.

Hazel breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the Heavy Barrel’s rain-wet skin.

She could tell her eyebrows were drooping.

She tried to take a step forward, but then she heard a voice from behind. It was weak and joined by the rustling of cloth as someone stood up.

“Messiah. This isn’t over yet.”

She heard a quiet metallic sound from behind her. Realizing what it was, she asked a question.

“Is a Neue Kavalier and one of the Fünf Leithammel really willing to shoot someone in the back, even if it is for revenge?”

“Are you saying you have no reason to keep fighting? I burned down the Borderson village.”

She said nothing more because a somewhat raised male voice interrupted.

“Enough. You were never cut out to be a villain, Lillie Telmetz.”

Hazel looked up at the voice.

A dark figure hopped down from Neue Schwartz’s back.

The man was wrapped in a black coat with his eyes half hidden by sunglasses.

Hazel wasn’t even surprised to see him. She only shut her eyes with a sigh of relief.

Lillie’s voice reached her from behind.

“Stay back! I’ll shoot!”

“Will you? We both know you’re more interested in complaining than shooting, Lillie Telmetz.”

Berger spat the words out in disinterest and Lillie gasped.

Hazel tried to get a look at the woman behind her, but Berger arrived in front of her before she could move.

She looked up at him.

The black coloration in front of her suddenly approached further and hugged her.

Her rain-soaked body received the warmth of his dry coat and his body heat.

His biological right arm and mechanical left arm briefly but firmly squeezed at her back.

“Oh.”

She sank into his chest. That chest shook and she heard his voice from overhead.

“You got ahead of yourself there, silly Hazel. You too, Lillie Telmetz.”

The comment to Lillie made Hazel look up in confusion.

“The Borderson village isn’t dead. How do you think I knew to come here, Hazel?”

“Well…”

Now that he mentioned it, she realized she was in the middle of the woods with nothing but the mountain road around.

“When I arrived in Borderson after you, I found the village burned to the ground. But the mayor was still there and he told me everything.” He took a breath. “Lillie Telmetz, you told the mayor you would be burning the Village of Pardons for the sake of your reputation, but you let all the residents escape and told him to return and rebuild if that was what they wanted.”

“Lies!” shouted Lillie.

Berger’s right arm immediately moved.

Hazel realized he had reached into his black coat.

And when he pulled his hand back out…

“The mayor gave me this wine. He gave it to me along with a certain question, but is it not enough proof for you?”

“What question?” asked Lillie, her voice barely a whisper. “One-armed young man, what did the mayor say to you?”

“I hadn’t seen him in a few years, but out of nowhere, he asked me if I had ever made a promise with a certain Ilfheim woman. When I said yes, he gave me this. To be honest, I don’t really know what it all means.”

Bright lights split the mist behind Berger.

They were the headlights of the armored truck waiting back there.

They were blocked by Neue Schwarz and Berger, but they still illuminated Lillie.

Hazel saw Lillie turn toward the lights, her head lowered in the rain.

She still held the gun but did nothing at all with it.

After a few breaths, she lowered the gun.

Hazel breathed a sigh of relief.

…I don’t sense any killer intent.

Then she realized Lillie’s mostly closed eyes were directed toward her.

“Um…do you need something?”

“Yes. I apologize, but, uh.”

Lillie held a hand to her mouth in hesitation but finally…

“If you don’t mind, could I see that pendant?”

Hazel stepped away from Berger.

After confirming he had taken a step back in response, she grabbed the chain around her neck.

She slowly lifted the red gem locket.

Lillie took a step closer and crouched.

She viewed the red gem for a few seconds before her shoulders slumped and she let out a long sigh.

“So I was wasn’t mistaken.”

She nodded and looked back over her shoulder.

She looked to the Requiem that was now hidden by the mist.

Hazel didn’t understand what any of this meant. But…

…This must have been important to her.

So she held the pendant out toward Lillie and waited without speaking a word.

Lillie groaned just once and then slowly looked up into the sky.

Her exposed white throat trembled and then she sobbed once.

No actual words left her lips along with her breaths, but they did mouth two names.

“You two were already in the Messiah’s care?”

Hazel watched as Lillie directed her words and her face toward the sky.

The rain fell to the corners of her eyes, wet her cheeks, and dripped down to her chin.

After a few breaths of silence, she lowered her head.

She quietly cleared her throat, straightened her back, and viewed the pendant again.

“I should have been the one to present this to you.”

She smiled with a note of resignation in her voice.

Hazel saw the tone color of her Lives in that smile.

The bluish-white color and weak tempo was not quite that of happiness.

But her smile remained, so Hazel didn’t comment.

Hazel felt a small push on her back and Berger’s voice whispered in her ear.

“Hey, what’s this about? Isn’t that mine?”

“Sorry. When I was shot yesterday, it took the bullet for me and broke.”

“When you were what?”

She shrugged and didn’t explain further. Lillie laughed quietly.

“Something similar would have happened regardless. You heard everything from our commander, didn’t you? When you travel to the past, you are supposed to give that pendant to a girl. And then…”

“Hold on. I bought this pendant at a festival shop,” said Berger.

“I don’t know if that really is the same pendant passed down through the ages, but that isn’t what matters.”

Hazel gripped the pendant and nodded at Lillie’s statement.

…Yes, I understand.

Lillie smiled and nodded back.

Then she glanced toward the lights shining on her.

“This is as far as I can go, Messiah. However…”

Hazel tilted her head and Lillie narrowed her eyes and continued.

“But if you wish for an undivided destiny and attempt to reach it, I promise you the moon shall assist you. And for that…” Lillie placed a hand on her chest. “You must seek out your own Text.”

That was the end of it. Lillie glanced over at Berger, bowed, and walked away. She walked toward the obscuring mist to reach the light that had been shining on her for a while now.

Left behind, Hazel leaned into Berger’s chest.

Then she saw the lights move. They illuminated the mist as they turned around.

The armored truck was leaving. The moving light vanished and the rumble of an engine reached them.

Only the damp air and dark night remained.

Part 8

Hazel breathed a sigh of relief within the shadows and the rain.

Berger also sighed and wrapped his arms around the front of her body.

She let him hold her and the contents of her backpack shifted position.

She recalled something important.

“Um, Berger.”

“Hm?”

“Do you want to eat somewhere? I was given some food at Borderson.”

“Have you forgotten we need to hurry to Germania? We’re supposed to be at the rendezvous point in 5 hours.”

“Were you planning to take 5 hours to reach Germania?” She lowered her head further and felt his heat while he held her. “We just have to make the trip faster. I was thinking we could head there right away and then use what time we have leftover to-”

She stopped talking when he squeezed her in his arms.

Then he forcibly turned her around in his arms.

She gasped and then found her face buried in his chest.

The tension drained from her right arm, so Rein König and the white cloth wrapped around that hand fell away.

Rein König’s hilt landed on the little toe of Berger’s right foot.

Part 9

Schweitzer watched as Witzmann repeated his question while picking up the breastplate.

“Will you place your trust in Neue Erde or in the Messiah?”

Schweitzer softly clenched his teeth.

Bermark was watching him and he nodded with no expression of his own.

“So what will it be? Will you let the Messiah do as she wishes? Will you ask the Messiah what it is she wishes to do? The fräulein is no longer in any condition to answer such questions. But if you value her more…”

“You always use your lack of a heart to shield yourself from criticism, but this is pushing it. You’re siding with Lowenzahn, aren’t you? Everything you’ve done today helps her in the end.”

“If you say so.”

Bermark bowed deep with a hand on his chest and Schweitzer sighed.

“So what does my aide say I can do to protect our country?”

“You should focus on simply protecting it instead of on your position as the Schallmauer Zerstörer. Just like when you have twice protected the fräulein in the past.”

Schweitzer frowned at that.

Witzmann questioned Bermark’s comment with a hand on his chin.

“Twice? I know about the dragon attack at Neuschwanstein, but what’s the other one?”

“I doubt Captain Schweitzer remembers the first time either. When Frobel Naylor once visited that chamber below Munich, Sir Bertecht-”

“He protected the hospital from rioters and died,” continued Witzmann.

Schweitzer briefly looked up and frowned.

“What does that have to do with this, Bermark?”

“He initially hesitated to go assist in Munich, but then his young son told him that a Neue Kavalier is supposed to protect the things they care about.”

When Bermark finished speaking, silence hung over them all.

But then Schweitzer suppressed a groan and clenched his teeth hard.

Bermark looked and spoke to him with no readable emotion on his face or in his voice.

“Frobel Naylor was pregnant at the time and she apparently spent around 12 hours down there with Lady Rose. They discussed her unborn child to distract themselves from the anxiety.”

“Enough,” rumbled Schweitzer. He removed the scarf from his shirt’s collar and loosened the collar. He took a breath and twisted his head once. “I will oppose the Messiah. I will trust in Lowenzahn and protect her. To keep my promise to the Ilfheim bloodline she may not have known she belonged to.”

“Protection is not always the correct choice. Sir Graham and Lady Rose learned the hard way that protecting people can lead to greater harm in the end. And If the Messiah is right…”

“Then I lose. But as a nameless fighter, not as the Schallmauer Zerstörer.”

Schweitzer smiled bitterly. He saluted the two old men and turned his back.

He walked away, toward the door up to the surface.

“I am leaving, Bermark. Take care of those two.”

“Wait, wait. We haven’t made our own choice.”

“Then be quick about it. I am in a hurry.”

Elrich sighed, got up, removed his brown cloak, and put on a white coat instead.

“I am going to Germania. If this comes down to a battle between Neue Erde and the Messiah, Neue Erde has an unfair advantage. She already knows where destiny is headed, after all.”

Elrich began to walk, but after a few steps, he looked back at Witzmann who was still seated on the floor.

“What about you, youngster?”

“Oh, I will be joining the AIF.”

Schweitzer frowned at that one.

He turned back at the door to see Elrich giving him an exaggerated shrug and Bermark as expressionless as ever.

Schweitzer scratched his head and then gave a quick disheartened comment.

“You really are young.”

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