City Series:Volume6e Chapter4
Chapter 4: The Promise Races[edit]
8/24/1943 00:02 – 02:40
The battle begins.
Part 1[edit]
The rainclouds began to pull away, revealing a palely-glowing sea.
The vast sea was created from the fog and the light. It was colored a pale red and had to be at least 40 miles across.
A great cross jutted toward the sky at the center of the light.
The cross produced no light, remaining dark as it loomed over the glowing fog sea below.
The glow came from the city below the fog.
The city of Germania.
The layered city had six underground levels and the lights of each level combined in the large holes before they were released into the sky. The lights shined on the fog from below, creating the glowing sea.
At one point of the sea, small lights were constantly on the move.
That was Tempelhof Airport at the south end of Germania.
A few shapes were moving within the fog over the airport.
The crafts in the standby zone bore a wyvern emblem on their dark, oblong sides.
No one could be seen in their canopies.
However, a large man in a black coat and a short man in a white coat stood next to them. A Grösse Panzer standing more than 20 yards tall towered into the fog across from them.
The Grösse Panzer’s sight devices glowed red in the fog to view the white coat man.
“Once the Himmelschild dome is in place, every Geheimnis Agency military division will take up defensive positions south of Tristan. The military’s main nine armies will be positioned outside the Himmelschild to the north and west of Tristan to form a defensive line fortified with heavy AA guns to prepare against the bombing. The field artillery and armored units will be positioned to the east.”
“Do you think the bombers are coming?”
“No. The AIF is coming. A small and highly mobile elite force will attempt to pass through Germania and reach Tristan. But I have also set up the military along a wide defensive line just in case. That should take time to break through. See, the AIF isn’t interested in how many of our forces they take out – they need to break in and break in fast.”
And…
“An abnormal number of aircraft and monsters have been detected entering Germany over the past two weeks. We managed to intercept 80% of them, but not all.”
“And the AIF is like us,” said Elrich. “One of them is worth as much as an ordinary army. If the AIF has sent in all their forces, then that 20% will attempt to break into Germania.”
Schweitzer nodded.
“Chief Elrich, we need to hurry. I don’t even know if there are still any posts left for us.”
“True. Okay, Karl, this might be the last time we see each other. Try to get along with that wife of yours.”
“I would have done that regardless.” Karl slowly turned to face the east. His vocal device asked one last question as he turned his back. “What happened to Witzmann?”
“He went to snap a photo of the Messiah.”
Karl’s artificial voice made a “?” noise but then he continued, sounding satisfied.
“Hah. So you know everything now. That could be trouble.”
Karl completed his turn, facing east to reach his post.
He disturbed the fog around him before fading into a shadow.
Elrich watched the mountainous shadow rapidly leave through the fog.
“Okay, let’s get to Tristan, youngster.”
“What do you intend to do there?” asked Schweitzer.
“Set everything up so I can see the truth.”
“What truth?”
“I trust our commander. I trust the Messiah too. But I trust the truth most of all. And at the moment, everything is working for the commander. The truth can only be found when no one has stacked the deck and all options are on the table.” Elrich looked back over his shoulder at Schweitzer and tilted his head. “I do not recommend aging. It makes you talk too much.”
Schweitzer laughed bitterly.
“That just shows how young you still are.”
Elrich laughed bitterly too and slapped Schweitzer’s shoulder.
That was when a wind blew through overhead.
The giant cross visible in the fog had begun to produce a glowing umbrella.
Part 2[edit]
A rebuilt inn had a parking lot bordering the forest behind it.
It was a small parking lot with room for only four cars. It wasn’t even paved. But it was made to be hidden from the front of the inn. Germania and its dome were already visible in the northern sky.
A camouflaging sheet hung from the inn’s roof to cover the parking lot.
The sheet was made to look like a grassy field when viewed from above and it was even set up to work in this fog.
Below the sheet, around 40 people sat holding their weapons.
They all wore the gray uniforms of the AIF.
One man stood in the center of them.
He was a large man with two prosthetic arms.
He had gray hair and only one eye and he currently viewed them all with a few documents in hand.
“That concludes our review of Operation Glossolalia. The biggest change is Hazel using her Tuning to revive Neue Erde and use that to stop Tristan. Our time limit is 3 AM. At that time, the Allies will begin their ley line reversal in earnest and push Neue Erde to its limits. They will also launch their ACBS. That means our job is to stop Tristan by then. If we do, the Allies will not launch their ACBS and we can stop the Wheel of Destiny.” He took a breath. “If we do stop Tristan, this world’s history will connect to a new history at 4:42 AM. The destiny created by the Wheel of Destiny will be replaced by an unseen true history, which will erase the Messiah’s legend and revolutionize the world. So if this goes well, try to get along with them until the change hits.”
They all fell silent, but they did nod with just their eyes.
After that one nod, they all looked up at Pale again.
Undaunted, he looked back at all of them, accepting their gazes equally. He checked his documents before continuing.
“That about covers it. All the company commanders and higher have their new orders, right? We need to split up, so pay careful attention. And use of Moon Ash is forbidden since our enemy will include Hounds. …Corelle?”
“What is it?”
One of the seated soldiers raised her hand. Corelle did not look pleased. Pale looked to her.
“Maybe it’s a little late to be asking this, but can you fly that big old transport ship through the gap in the dome?”
“I can get it through a 30-yard gap if you need me to. I’m more worried about the RB arriving from the border in time. Coolers was part of the main unit, but he was apparently late to arrive.”
“Well, we’ll destroy the roads with just enough left over to use as a runway, so the rest is up to you.”
Corelle crossed her arms, pulled a card from her pocket, and viewed it.
“Looks like you can relax. The card is still Strength. This should work.”
“It should, huh? We’re a boring bunch, aren’t we?”
“You can say that again,” said a male voice. “Only 20% of us managed to get here. And it was questionable if we could get an entire battalion’s worth to begin with.”
That was Berger who sat with his back against the inn wall.
He calmly accepted all the eyes gathered on him and stared at Gelegenheit held up in front of him.
“Just take it easy, everyone. If Hazel dies, we’ll wish we still had the Wheel of Destiny option left. So if that happens, you might as well go on a suicidal rampage of revenge.”
“Your damn pessimism is not what we need right now. Do I need to drown you in the spring out back?” asked Pale.
Berger laughed.
“C’mon, we were all thinking it. In a way, we’re the ones fighting to destroy the current world. Only the Wheel of Destiny is holding our world together and here we are trying to- ow ow ow!”
He yelped in pain and everyone’s eyes focused on the person next to him.
A much brighter color sat by the inn wall there.
The blonde woman in a women’s AIF combat uniform was Hazel.
Her left arm wore a military watch and held a white sword and her right arm was pinching Berger’s left ear.
“Why. Must. You. Be. So. Cynical. About. Everything?”
“Ow ow ow! Hey, hey, hey! Why are you in such a bad mood?”
“Hmph.”
She turned away from him and let go of his ear.
She was comparing his current comments to the “joke” he had told a few hours prior.
…He can’t open up around other people and he hides behind a wall of cynicism and sarcasm.
She sighed.
…Our new orders have us on different routes, but he hasn’t said a thing about it.
Berger’s Neue Schwarz was key to their attack on Germania.
He would go east and Pale would go west. Once those diversions were in place, Hazel would be using the elevated railroad to enter Germania from the south. She would rendezvous with the RB-21 there and fly up to the top of Tristan.
The original plan had been to break in by force, but they had been forced to change that after seeing how many people had actually shown up.
…It’s a shame our plans had to change. And…
She narrowed her eyes and viewed the AIF members lined up in front of her.
“I hate all of you.”
Pale alone tilted his head at that and looked to Corelle.
“What’s with her?”
“Oh, we all spied on her afterwards.”
“After what?”
“You don’t have to tell him!” shouted Hazel, blushing.
Then she noticed Berger had turned the other way and lowered his head. But his shoulders gave him away.
“Why are you laughing, Berger?”
“Because of you, Hazel. You really are – how should I put it? – the most serious person in the world when it comes to yourself.”
“B-but it was my first time and then they did that!”
She raised her voice in protest and everyone else asked a straight-faced question.
“Your first time?”
“Oh.” Her shoulders shrank down and she looked away.
Pale, Corelle, and everyone else stared at her without even blinking.
“Oops,” she muttered under her breath and turned to Berger, hoping for some help.
He still had his back turned and his shoulders shaking.
Realizing he wouldn’t be any help, she faced forward again. Everyone was still staring at her.
Corelle raised her forearm and asked a question on the group’s behalf.
“What is this about, Hazel? Don’t worry. If you anger me, I won’t do anything worse than kill you.”
“B-but, um, uh.”
Hazel’s voice and body shrank down and she clutched Rein König in both hands just in case.
Then she heard a voice speaking from the foggy forest behind all of them.
“Yes, I imagine it was your first time. The rest of you have a lot to learn when it comes to observing people.”
Everyone turned toward the unfamiliar elderly voice coming from the fog obscuring the forest.
They readied their weapons, but they remained seated and showed no killer intent.
“Not bad,” said the voice in the fog as it approached them.
The white curtain of fog parted and an old man appeared. He had a bald head and wore a three-piece suit.
He stopped just outside the forest with his hand in his pockets.
“Most of you won’t know who I am. I am Geheimnis Agency Intelligence Division Chief-”
“Galue Witzmann!” shouted Berger.
A moment later, everyone truly readied to fight.
But a voice stopped them.
It came from Witzmann himself. He spread his empty hands to show them off.
“Calm down, why don’t you? If I was your enemy, you would all be dead by now. Isn’t that right?”
Pale tilted his head.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Mr. Witzmann? You aren’t making any sense.”
“Maybe not.” Witzmann nodded deeply and pulled an album from his pocket. He flipped through it and showed off a few photos of Hazel. “You see, based on the intelligence division’s superb observation records, that would indeed have been the Messiah’s first time.”
“Not about that.”
“I’m only kidding.” Witzmann put the album away. “Destiny has gone off the rails and taken so many things with it. The Neue Erde has altered many things to oppose the Messiah and swapped out the mechanical gears to fortify her position.” He looked to the others. “You, on the other hand, are at severe disadvantage due to your ignorance. This battle deserves to be fought on equal ground. No one can complain about or resent the result then.”
“So the intelligence division chief himself is going to leak intel to us?” asked Pale.
Witzmann shook his head.
“I never said that.”
He turned toward Hazel and she bowed toward his narrow, smiling eyes.
He nodded back.
“To be cryptic about it, let’s just say I am ensuring this will be a fair fight.”
Part 3[edit]
The top floor of Tristan provided a view of the glowing ocean and umbrella that covered Germania.
That space doubled as a viewing platform and a large meeting room.
The southern wall was a window of blast-resistant glass. The lights were currently off and the thick glass bent the outside light a bit as it provided a view of the scenery below.
Two people stood next to the window.
The man on the left was tall and had two prosthetic arms.
The man on the right was short and plump.
They were both lowering their heads to look down from the window.
The fog covered Germania, its nearby forest park, and the river.
Germania’s lights made the fog look like a faint white film and it rippled from the wind and the city’s movement.
The fog on the surface below was mirrored by the dome above.
The shorter of the men spoke in the light from above and below.
“Sir Heiliger, the Allies have begun their reversal of the ley lines into Tristan. All of the world’s anxiety Tons are being sent to Germany and the management team has already detected a powerful reaction.”
“It will grow even more powerful before long. We must increase Tristan’s output to push back the anxiety.”
“According to the control team, the current pace will shift control authority to Neue Erde at 2:30 AM.”
“Then our commander must protect it all with her own power.” Heiliger looked to the right, viewing the short man in profile. “I am sorry about this, Müller. I know Lowenzahn was your daughter for a time.”
“It couldn’t be helped.” Müller sighed. “I still understand so little of this, but I do know that she wanted this herself.”
“Is that why you did not give the Schallmauer Zerstörer his usual company and assigned him to guard Lowenzahn after he failed to show up at the appointed time? Was it out of sympathy for her?”
Müller raised his expressionless head at that.
But he did not look to Heiliger. He looked into the sky where some rainclouds still lingered.
“I really hope the AIF does not show up.”
“You never were any good at changing the subject.”
“That is my answer to all of this. After all, most of this fog below us was likely created by an AIF divine spell team.” Müller stared at the fog and smiled a little. “But it is a shame,” he said. “Captain Hellard is the son of your former aide Bertecht. That former Schallmauer Zerstörer protected everything he held dear, but he lost his life in the end.”
“I wonder if his son is a knight in the same vein,” said Heiliger. “If he is, he will attempt something similar tonight. The question is: can he protect Lowenzahn?”
“What do you think?”
“I live in the name of a promise I made – in the name of Tragisch.”
That response wiped the smile from Müller’s face. His eyebrows rose a little as he looked to Heiliger.
Heiliger was already looking at him.
They exchanged a look between their very different heights and Heiliger spoke.
“Of course, people are not bound by their names and their roles. But some people do fulfill their name or their role like they are fulfilling an inaccurate prophecy.”
“Do you…”
Müller started to say something, but his eyes flitted over to Heiliger’s shoulder.
From his perspective it was the right shoulder. The armor there had to Phlogiston Plattes installed.
Müller shut his mouth and swallowed his words.
His silence was answered by the wind rattling the blast-resistant glass. It sounded like the strum of a string instrument and shook the floor below their feet as well.
Eventually, Müller faced forward. He viewed the sky and then lowered his gaze to Germania.
“I want to redo so many things once this war is over.”
“Everything will be redone before long. Just not in the way you think. However…”
Heiliger let out a bitter laugh and Müller turned to look at him.
Müller saw Heiliger’s eyebrows drooping slightly.
“There is one thing I would love to do if this war were to end. Even it can no longer happen.”
“What is that?” asked Müller, his eyes on the two Phlogiston Plattes, but Heiliger did not answer.
Instead he changed the subject with his eyes shut and his expression blank.
“It is time to go see the predetermined answer. And to make a decision in the name of Tragisch.”
He turned around, the bottom of his black coat fluttering around him, causing the light from the window to waver for just a moment.
Müller frantically turned away from Germania’s nightscape.
He saw that enormous back continuing to walk away and heard the loud footsteps refusing to stop.
Past the large man, chairs were scattered across the meeting room and the north wall had an elevator leading down.
It was all dark. The light from the window did not reach that far, so the red emergency lights were the only source of light.
But the back walking away from Müller approached those red lights with no hesitation whatsoever.
“I will send out Silber Löwe – my brother’s Panzer. It should protect this city well.”
He continued walking even as he spoke.
Part 4[edit]
August 24, 1:55 AM.
Flames from what was thought to be a civilian riot burned on the eastern outskirts of foggy Germania.
It occurred on the border between the Geheimnis Agency division and the military division sent to defend against the coming bombing, so confusion over who was responsible delayed the response and the Geheimnis Agency got things started by making the first move.
At 1:57, the military groups defending the north, east, and west of Tristan heard gun and artillery fire from the fog around Germania and saw some people moving rapidly outside the warning line.
But the military did not respond. They doubted a small ground force was a real threat and they were the foundation of Germania’s defenses.
At 1:59, some of Germania’s defenders made their move a few minutes earlier than usual.
The Geheimnis Agency moved through the fog, quickly set up a front line, and began a battle in a region only they could enter.
Part 5[edit]
The battle started to the east.
The Spree river ran east to west through Germania and violent sounds came from along that river in the Treptow borough located outside of Germania.
The muffled, repeated sounds came from the fog.
They were technically inside Germania, but still outside the dome.
Germania’s eastern defensive line could best hear the sounds of combat.
That line was set up at the confluence of the Spree on the eastern end of Tiergarten.
Above the fog hanging over the river, they could see Tristan’s hazy silhouette in the sky and a giant figure standing on the ground.
That figure was Karl Schmitt, a Grösse Panzer with a pair of Drache Kanone on his back.
He stood on some elevated ground looking up at the edge of Berlin’s protective umbrella.
He was near the end of the bridge on the eastern end of Tiergarten.
The dome shined above him, with its edge covering the city beyond the bridge.
The Spree flowed north to south in front of him.
The river was over 200 yards wide at this point and the bridge spanning it was large enough for a four lane road.
At his end of the bridge, they had set up a pair of 75mm field guns and four 20mm machineguns aiming vertically out from Germania.
Karl turned his head to view the roads stretching left and right from the bridge.
The soldiers manning the machineguns and field guns were generally from the military. They were dressed differently from the Geheimnis Agents, wearing ordinary uniforms. The black of the Geheimnis Agency Army Division was nowhere to be found here.
Karl silently faced forward again.
Five layers of low fence barricades had been set up along the bridge.
They were simple metal fences that would let bullets through but not people.
After one or two fence layers, the bridge faded away into the fog.
The other end of the bridge could only be seen as a pale brightness with two large silhouettes standing in it.
When Karl’s vision focused on those silhouettes, a woman’s voice rang in his ear.
“Neue Blau and Neue Zinnobar are itching to fight.”
Karl used the compound eye device installed on the side of his face to view the slim person standing on his right shoulder.
It was Jeanne. She fixed the collar of her combat uniform as she continued.
“How far do you think they will get? It’s been 20 minutes since an unusually small group broke through the MPs in east Treptow. Are the AIF’s elites really as powerful as we are?”
“Let us pray those soldiers are unharmed. Remember, those men were civilians just a few years ago. They don’t have as strong a motive to fight as we or the AIF do.”
“This isn’t looking good. The end of the war is only just beginning, but a ground unit has already made it into our capital. Tactics change with every new war. The previous war primarily came down to group battles that questioned the need for the Panzers building our foundation, but this war is more focused on aerial bombings and blitzkrieg.”
“Yes, and if the AIF manages to take Tristan tonight, they will have proven the effectiveness of a new tactic – assault warfare using individuals with outstanding skills and using high-speed Grösse Panzers.”
“In a way, that’s how we fight. Those are the tactics of Neue Kavaliers, not of ordinary soldiers.”
Meanwhile, sounds like shattering stone reached them from the fog.
The enemy was close.
So Karl and Jeanne both looked to the other end of the bridge.
Several people were rushing in from the foggy roads to the left and right of that end of the bridge.
The people fled behind the legs of the two Panzers standing there and then ran along the river bank.
“Pretending to flee while actually fortifying the sides of the bridge and directing the enemy along a single route?”
“Excited to be fighting again, Jeanne? You are smiling.”
“So are you.” Jeanne reached out and slapped Karl’s face armor a few times. “It isn’t just the military out there in the fog. One of our Grösse Panzer units is there too.”
“To break through that, the enemy must include a Neue Kavalier of equal or greater skill. And since Treptow is full of rivers, it would also require a weapon well suited for breaking through fortified bridges. They couldn’t have gotten any tanks in here, so my guess is a flight-capable Panzer. Either a French one or…”
“Dog Berger in Schwarz Löwe. The world’s second best Panzer Kavalier who survived two run-ins with Kaiser and even fought Silber Löwe.”
“If only the military had sent Rot Löwe to the east.”
The wind blew and the fog across the river began to shift.
The rippling fog showed a change beginning in Neue Blau and Neue Zinnobar.
They were activating their Ober Emblems.
“Incredible that the Eisen Ritter Project allows a Sein Frau to activate an Ober Emblem by linking his mind directly to a Panzer,” said Jeanne.
“We need to join the fight soon,” said Karl.
Jeanne nodded and turned toward the large secondary cockpit on his back. The cockpit contained weapon controls and two female aides poked their heads out.
They looked worried, so she gave them a reassuring nod and looked behind her just once.
The two Panzers were no longer visible in the fog across the river.
But the metallic noises of combat could be heard through the fog.
Part 6[edit]
The western defensive line had pushed the enemy back outside of Germania.
The Geheimnis Agency there was led by a Hound unit comprised primarily of Air Force Fallschirmjäger.
But in front of that unit was a unit of 12 Grösse Panzers.
The military’s tanks were stationed across the urban area facing west. When the enemy moved in, they would fire and fall back. If the enemy withdrew, they would move forward and fire. Their role was to blockade the roads.
The only usable road was the wide-open major thoroughfare.
The AIF group was a Heidengeist unit led by Pale. They hid behind or on top of the buildings lining the road as they fought.
The battle had reached a standstill.
In the borough of Charlottenburg, several Grösse Panzers fired machineguns on the surface.
The shapes moving quickly down the road were attempting to slip past the Grösse Panzers and below the dome.
But they couldn’t manage it thanks to the Hounds and the barricades set up behind the Grösse Panzers.
The AIF front line was led by Pale Horse, a man with two prosthetic arms.
The silver-haired one-eyed man refused to fall back with a male Grösse Panzer in front of him.
The Grösse Panzer was the same color as his hair. It was covered by old-style silver armor.
Its name was Neue Silber.
Pale moved right to dodge the silver Panzer’s sword as it jabbed just off the ground.
The sword shifted to the side to pursue him.
“Oh!” he roared while raising his left prosthetic arm.
The metal arm had an extra-large hand that slammed into the thick blade, producing sparks.
With the sound of scraping metal, Pale was lifted from the ground.
His large body was launched back into the sky. But he used his Hard Wolf reflexes to twist around in midair. He punched his right fist against the sidewalk curbstone at the end of the road to spin himself around and land on the ground.
His boots slammed hard into the ground. And with a breath, he rolled forward.
The massive sword flew over his head before crashing into the first floor of the building behind him.
Air-splitting pressure exploded within the building.
Dust and wind broke through the windows, pursuing rolling Pale as a wave.
He kicked off the ground to stand back up.
He ran forward, toward the feet of the silver Panzer.
He kept his legs moving and his boots sounding loud on the road as he moved just his eyes to observe his surroundings.
Grösse Panzer legs grew from the road like a scattering of great trees, but these trees were on the move.
Past them, his subordinates had split into even smaller teams to obstruct the path of the Grösse Panzers.
“Didn’t think we’d make it this far this fast! Our balanced division of troops threw you off, didn’t it, Heiliger Karlsruhe? Your brother’s Silber Löwe looks good on you.”
About 20 yards in front of him, Neue Silber held a sword at the ready.
Pale didn’t slow his run as he pulled both his fists back.
His boots pounded on the hard road while his arms made sounds of breaking metal.
His fists were transforming. The panels that had formed his upper arm armor had split into three side-by-side panels.
The middle panel rotated inward toward his thumb. The other two rotated toward his little and middle fingers with their ends sticking out like a ram.
The usual fingers were tightly clenched, sinking into the giant palm.
The two three-fingered hands of metal jabbed sharply up into the sky just once.
Then the new metal fingers formed their own fists.
This created a pair of even bigger fists.
He ran, holding his arms down at his hips and building up his strength.
Looking forward, he saw a Grösse Panzer move between him and Neue Silber.
The black Panzer looked down on Pale’s path forward and raised its giant right leg.
It intended to stomp him.
Pale looked up at that metal foot and opened his mouth, baring his canine teeth.
“Outta the way!” he shouted, swinging his left fist.
The arm shot diagonally out from his hip and steam burst from the elbow to accelerate it further.
The metal fist split the air.
And not just once. It accelerated thrice as it flew.
It produced three roars before slamming into the sole of the dropping Panzer foot.
The sound and power broke through in an instant.
Pale pulled the fist back as soon as it hit and the impact sent the foot flying backwards.
The leg swung backwards like the Panzer had thrown a reverse kick and its upper body lost its balance.
It toppled over.
The 8-yard metal warrior collapsed toward Pale on the road.
Pale was already spinning.
He had used the force of the impact to pull his left fist back and used the rotational energy to swing his right fist overhead.
He twisted his body to the left while accelerating his right fist.
His boots cracked and shattered the asphalt below him.
But he didn’t care.
He stretched his body out like a stick and his right fist shot out at the top of that.
The metal fist accelerated thrice in midair, catching the collapsing Panzer on the jaw.
The simple impact had a simple result.
With the crash of demolished metal, the large figure was lifted from the road.
Below the airborne Panzer, Pale Horse lowered his hips with his legs embedded shin deep in the road.
The Panzer’s shadow slowly flew back behind him and his own shadow was cast on the road by the dome’s light. His gray hair was a mess, his fists were pulled back behind him, and his upper body was bent over and emitting hot steam.
But his eyes were directed dead ahead. He bared his teeth in a smile.
“Okay, let’s do this, Heiliger. In the name of our pasts and in the name of what we’ve both lost.”
He was answered by the Panzer crashing to the ground behind him.
The sound of breaking metal joined the sound of breaking asphalt. However…
“I am much too old to fall for your silly provocation,” said Neue Silber’s vocal device.
“Coward! You would run away!?”
The silver Panzer fell back before answering Pale’s question.
Two other Panzers identical to the earlier one stepped between them.
That was when a great noise reached them from the mist to the south.
Pale briefly glanced in that direction, seeing a small red light rising into the sky through the mist.
“What is that?”
Pale was answered by Neue Silber while it took another step back.
“A flare from our southern vanguard. It means they have located the Messiah.” The silver Panzer turned around. “You sent most of your forces to the east and west to divide our forces while you sent a small assault team down the center to Tristan. Using the railroad, most likely. Anyone could have predicted such a simple plan.”
“Then you knew but still came here to lure us in?”
“Our primary forces remain within Tristan. We had no way of knowing which railroad you would use, but once inside Germania, there is only one track leading to Tristan. The solution was simple: keep our cool, lure you into that singular route, and send a defense unit there.”
A deep roar of straining metal came from the northeast. That was the sound of several transport vehicles loaded down with cargo.
Neue Silber walked toward that noise.
“We will capture the Messiah. Because that is what Neue Erde desires.”
With those parting words, Neue Silber stared to walk into the fog.
Pale walked toward the two Panzers left to stop him.
He pulled his feet from the ground to take his first step.
But his eyes remained on the silver Panzer vanishing into the fog.
Toward his true opponent who was attempting to leave with the fog enveloping him.
He bared his teeth and let out a deep sigh.
“That overconfidence is going to get you in trouble.” He sounded disinterested. “I have one warning for you.”
Still showing off his teeth, he pointed a giant metal finger toward the departing silver Panzer.
“A Neue Kavalier is supposed to clear the way for the Messiah. Lose sight of that and you are in for a rude awakening, Kommandieren.”
Part 7[edit]
Hazel ran along an elevated railroad.
She was surrounded by fog. The dome already covered the sky above and she could see wide gap of Tempelhof Airport through the fog past the east wall of the railroad.
Her running feet took her toward a German military truck collapsed with its belly toward her. The two trucks used by the vanguard had rolled on their sides, blocking the way ahead.
The people hiding behind the truck barricade were firing into the fog.
…I thought it was odd things were going so smoothly.
She kept running, hearing the elderly unit commander’s voice from behind her.
“They lured us in. Everyone, we need to join the vanguard. Are you ready?”
She looked back to see the 20 soldiers who had been riding the third truck.
Seeing them all spread out across a decent distance, she nodded. She checked side to side and viewed the sides of the elevated railroad. Due to the proximity of the airport, the railroad was built about 15 yards high to allow cargo trucks and Heavy Barrels to pass underneath.
…I can see armored trucks and special vehicles gathering below.
She saw the metal Lives moving around below them.
“Enemy soldiers will be climbing the support pillars soon.”
Before that warning from behind her was even done, they arrived at the two trucks blocking the way.
A few dozen soldiers were hiding behind them. Those were the four platoons who had ridden those two trucks.
A few were injured and being healed by the Tuners assigned to their unit.
“Situation report?” asked the elderly commander.
The man firing from behind the truck didn’t even look back as he replied.
“This is all of us now and they’re gathering over there. What about the rest? Were they taken out?”
Hazel looked behind them and realized she couldn’t hear the fourth truck anymore. A woman pulled headphones from her backpack and put them on, but she shook her head after a bit.
Gunfire and shattering glass could be heard from the other side of the trucks.
Bullets would not stop hitting the trucks.
Hazel sighed and then spoke her thoughts aloud.
“I need to do something.”
Her voice came out louder than intended and everyone turned toward her.
The gunfire suddenly stopped at the same time.
…Eh?
She gasped and focused on her ears.
All sound had vanished from direction of Tristan. As had the killer intent.
She waited for three breaths.
But even then, she didn’t hear a single bullet hit the trucks or even whizz past them overhead.
The man who had been firing from behind the trucks tried firing into the mist.
Still no response. He crouched down and peered out.
“What’s going on?”
Then a somewhat higher-pitched male voice spoke from the fog.
“Is that you, Messiah?”
Hazel recognized the voice.
“Geheimnis Agency Air Force Division Chief Herbert Müller?”
“Indeed. I would much prefer you did not playfully bring down the railroad this time. We only ask one thing: to take the Messiah into our custody.”
<The view along the railroad is clear.>
The fog vanished from the railroad. As did the trucks Hazel’s unit was using as cover.
“An Erklärung!?”
“You are within Germania now, so this is a simple task for us.”
That voice came from atop the now-fogless elevated railroad.
A black wall stood about 50 yards away.
It was formed by armored trucks and black-clad Geheimnis Agency Neue Kavaliers.
They all carried swords or spears and their bodies were heavily customized with prosthetics.
The short, elderly man named Müller stood out in front of them.
“I borrowed some of the army division’s best troops for my vanguard unit. Our comrades are already closing in on you from behind and the rest of our forces should have left Tristan by now. And…”
He used his right hand to push up the glasses covering his squinty eyes.
Then he raised that hand skyward and snapped his fingers.
“Once your situation sinks in, I do believe you will accept defeat.”
Black figures instantly lined up along the concrete walls on either side of the railroad.
They were all Geheimnis Agency Neue Kavaliers. They all held weapons and directed their gazes down toward Hazel’s unit, but there was no emotion there.
Hazel gasped.
…I thought they were still down below.
“I assure you this is no Erklärung,” said Müller.
Hazel responded while ignoring the walls of Neue Kavaliers to instead look dead ahead.
“If I surrender to you, will you let the rest of my unit leave unharmed?”
“If those are your terms.”
Hazel gave a satisfied nod and smiled with just her eyes.
“Everyone.” She took a deep breath and spoke to the group behind her. “I intend to fight, so that I can accomplish something. Do you have the will to fight as well?”
They didn’t respond, but the commanders of the three platoons there did slowly move.
The elderly man, the man who had been firing earlier, and a woman holding a Device walked out in front of Hazel. Then the rest of the unit formed up next to and behind her.
Tension filled the air. Müller and the Neue Kavaliers in front of them and the Neue Kavalirs on the walls crouched down a bit as they prepared to fight.
But the gunner man in front of Hazel ignored that killer intent and spoke quietly while still facing forward.
“The knight near the support pillar on the left has a sloppy stance. Focus on him.”
The Device woman to Hazel’s right nodded and whispered back.
“What’s the plan after we get down to the surface?”
The elderly man to Hazel’s left held his empty fists by his hips and answered.
“One of my men is from Tempelhof. We let him lead the way. But…no one here is going to say they don’t have the skills to jump down from this height, are they?”
Everyone’s bitter laughter was all the answer anyone needed. Hazel could see the yellow Lives of tension in that laughter, but she also saw the warm crimson they all formed.
The elderly commander pulled out a pocket watch.
“2:28. Another 7 minutes until the artillery and RB-21 arrive.”
“Another 32 minutes until the ACBS launches.”
“And about another 2 hours until the world changes.”
Hazel saw a brightness other than confidence in the three commanders’ voices. There was a calm composure there.
…We can manage this, can’t we?
Hazel gripped Rein König in both hands and Müller asked her a question from up ahead.
“Is this your answer, Messiah?”
“No.” She looked him in the eye. “It’s our answer.”
“In that case,” said Müller, raising his arm and snapping his fingers.
Killer intent formed and grew from the front and both sides.
Part 8[edit]
Neue Schwarz moved as quickly as it could through the foggy city.
It had not yet activated its Ober Emblem.
It raced through the dark city with extra tanks on its back and a Word Rifle on its shoulder.
It faced a four-lane road with the city’s buildings on either side.
Its right hand held Gelegenheit and its left hand held a white sword. It had just raised the white sword to strike.
“You still alive back there!?” shouted Neue Schwarz, receiving responses from a few men inside the secondary cockpit on its back.
It had taken in five AIF soldiers to protect them from the high-speed combat. It looked out ahead after hearing their voices.
“Then we can leave the rest to the others while we make the second biggest commotion in the world!”
Two Heavy Barrels burst through the fog floating about 500 yards ahead.
After seeing their blue and red coloration, Neue Schwarz ran forward.
The two Barrels also moved closer.
A Heavy Barrel’s forward propulsion could easily surpass 50mph on the very first step.
They approached each other in a flash, tearing up the asphalt below their feet.
The red one moved out front with a shield at the ready and the blue one stayed behind with a rifle at the ready.
The black one responded by rushing straight toward them. Once they were less than 100 yards apart, it flapped its wings just once. The thrusters contained on those wings launched air backwards.
The explosion of air accelerated it forward. The blue one’s rifle fired along the path of its speed.
An 88mm bullet flew out, grazing the red one’s head on the way.
The black one swung its black sword as it ran.
<My Destiny has not yet reached its demise.>
The bullet passed by with a velocity of more than half a mile per second.
At a distance of about 30 yards, the black one had crouched low, placing the red one between it and the blue one’s line of fire.
As they got closer, the red one pulled a knife from behind its large shield.
Both sides continued forward, speeding up as they did.
Without warning, Neue Schwarz swung its white sword up from the bottom left.
“Nh!”
The red and blue ones both grunted and gently braked. The sword failed to find its mark and swished through empty air.
Neue Zinnobar moved in after the sword strike missed. It swung its knife diagonally up from its left in a mirror of the path the white sword had taken.
Neue Schwarz chose that moment to let go of the sword.
The thick double-edge blade drew an arc as it rotated toward the red Barrel’s neck. The large shield could not be moved into place in time.
“Kh,” groaned the blue and red Barrels before the blue one raised its voice. “Is that all you have!?”
Its rifle fired.
The bullet traveled over Neue Zinnobar’s head and struck the approaching sword.
With a clang like a bell breaking, the sword sliced through the foggy air and flew off into the sky.
Below the airborne white blade, Neue Blau fired its rifle some more.
Gunfire sounded repeatedly, but Neue Schwarz kept the momentum of its rightward sword strike to collapse its upper body to the right. It used its right toes as a pivot point to swing its left leg upwards.
Its black toes kicked up at the red shield.
The shield lifted upwards and one of the rifle bullets hit it on the inside.
The shield survived, but it triggered a shockwave on the back of the shield. The pressure first smashed Neue Zinnobar’s right arm and the primary armor on its torso and then it spread out as a white explosion.
A gut-shaking boom raced along the street, shattering the windows of all the buildings.
The glass shards sounded like spraying water as they scattered through the fog.
But all of that was launched skyward a moment later.
Powerful wind swept across the road, but just one thing was unaffected: Neue Schwarz which was crouched low directly below the shield at the center of the blast.
The shockwave inside the shield failed to hit the Heavy Barrel directly on the other side.
It slowly raised its wings within the rapid wind.
Then it flapped them.
“Ah,” it shouted while pouring all of its forward thrust into the left shoulder crashing into the red shield.
With a crash, Neue Zinnobar was pushed from the ground by its own shield and the knife fell from its left hand.
The defense field emitted by the red shield instantly reacted to the extreme mass slamming into it. Steam burst from the bottom of the shield, its surface grew red, and it emitted a launching force.
Neue Schwarz’s left shoulder armor groaned for a brief moment and then began to break away.
Behind airborne Neue Zinnobar, Neue Blau moved to support its red back.
The two-against-one contest was evenly matched while the shield’s red glow grew. The black shoulder armor briefly bent and gave one final resistance before shattering, but Neue Schwarz did not stop.
“You’re only the opening act, you third rates!”
Neue Scwharz flapped its wings.
The wind produced behind it was more like an explosion of heat and all three Barrels briefly came to a stop.
The equilibrium broke almost instantly, creating new movement.
“!?”
With confused shouts, the blue and red Heavy Barrels were blasted backwards.
The black one pursued them.
The red one held its shield up in a defensive stance.
Neue Scwharz did not stop.
It had already moved too close to swing Gelegenheit.
It raised its fists and threw a flurry of punches.
It took aim, swung its body, and started by targeting the head. Then the right shoulder, left shoulder, the thighs, and the center of the shield.
The red lion’s armor shattered, its Panzer Kleid shredded, and it pushed the blue one back.
The blue lion planted its feet firm while holding onto the red one.
Its feet tore through the asphalt as it tried to stop their movement.
It wasn’t enough. The black lion kept running and slammed its supersonic fist into the center of the shield.
It didn’t end there. The barrage continued, pushing further and further forward.
The shield’s glow had passed red, reached yellow, and was approaching white.
The steam coming from the bottom of the shield had lost its color, simply emitting a shimmering heat.
Neue Schwarz’s right knee tore through that shimmering to slam into the shield.
The striking ram extending from the top of the shin practically stabbed into the shield’s center, bending the shield.
Wind blew out and the blue and red Barrels were pushed even further back. Their sight devices focused on the black one’s right arm. It had opened the fist and pointed the open hand toward the sky.
Something fell into that black hand.
It was the sword Neue Blau had launched skyward with its earlier gunshot. The white sword spun on its way down and the black hand swung sideways to snatch its hilt out of the air and then swing the sword in a sweeping horizontal arc.
The thick blade sliced through the air and slashed the shield.
The destruction only took an instant.
With a loud clash of metal on metal, the sword completed its swing.
Neue Schwarz let the sword’s weight propel it into a spin. Once the inertial force had weakened enough, it attached the sword to its hip latch.
It fully opened its wings and dug its feet into the asphalt in preparation to leap.
The red and blue Heavy Barrels landed at the same time.
They smashed the pavement as their feet hit the ground and the red one’s shield had lost its light.
The shield had been split in two by a horizontal line down the center.
Neue Schwarz raised its wings while viewing the top half of the shield slide away along the cut.
“Consider it a favor I’m using your master’s sword. I’m not accepting any complaints.”
With that, its wings blasted air behind it.
It shot forward.
The blue and red Barrels turned around, trying to catch up.
It ignored them. The road was a straightaway and the bridge it needed to cross was just up ahead, so it only needed to face forward.
Neue Schwarz ran.
Part 9[edit]
Just as Hazel’s group prepared to face the killer intent, a deep voice reached them from behind.
“Our answer? Well said, fellow werecat!”
A stream of motion raced forward, instantly splitting through the killer intent on the left and right.
At first, she could only see the flashes of several blades moving quickly.
A moment later, a tearing sound passed by either side of Hazel’s group from behind.
A moment after that, the Neue Kavaliers on the walls were knocked back into the open air.
Seven on the right and five on the left were launched from the wall.
They all had holes in the chest of their uniform and the breastplate within was shattered.
“––––!?”
They shouted in confusion and looked to a point on the elevated railroad before they started to fall.
Everyone was looking to a point in front of Hazel’s group.
Four AIF soldiers stood between Hazel and Müller and at the center of the remaining Neue Kavaliers. They took combat stances in the center of the whipping wind and the man leading them looked back Hazel’s way.
He had short blond hair and a scar on his cheek. He had green feline eyes.
“Good to see you again. We met on Commander Corelle’s ship back in ’39.” He smiled with his eyes. “We got delayed trying to enter Germany, but I am AIF Army Anti-Hound Assault Battalion Commander Major Robert E. Coolers. Commander Corelle carried us here, so I hope we were in time to save the day.”
Hazel nodded.
“We can use all the help we can get right now.”
“Perfect.”
He faced forward while a light shined in from behind her. She knew what that light was.
…The other truck.
She heard Coolers’s voice.
“I shamelessly survived after our humiliating defeat to the Gard-class in ’42, but after a year of grueling battle, it’s time to settle the score. I’m sure you’ll take issue with being matched up with an opening act kind of guy like me, but you’ll just have to deal.”
A gunshot burst from up ahead.
Coolers twisted his body to dodge the bullet.
Hazel faced forward.
Müller was aiming his handgun their way.
“Such foolish resistance. Reinforcements are coming from Tristan as we speak. It will be too late to complain once they arrive.”
“Once they arrive? You had better hope it isn’t already over by then. We’re already on the move, after all.”
Coolers leaned forward with his feet spread somewhat apart.
He shrank down and lowered his head to let his next line fall to the cement ground.
“Hazel Mirildorf. We still have 5 minutes until the artillery fire from the east and west and my commander’s arrival. We will guide the way until then.”
She nodded and watched him and his three men crouch even lower.
Then the truck headlights behind her came to a stop. She heard footsteps kicking off the ground and several uniformed people gathered behind Coolers and around Hazel’s group.
“Follow me, everyone, and don’t look back,” said Coolers. “The major will clear as long a path as he can manage.”
Before he was even done, he took off running like the wind. Hazel’s group ran forward along with him. Killer intent exploded around them and grew into a torrent that attempted to surround the wind.
The two sides clashed.
Part 10[edit]
Neue Schwarz sprinted forward.
It used the force of its wings to race down the road and slip through the 30-yard gap at the edge of the dome.
It soon reached the western end of Treptow. Its movement could have been interpreted as low-altitude flight or a gliding across the surface. Its wind crashed into the buildings around it and its destination came into view after only 7 seconds.
That destination was a bridge.
The bridge over the foggy Spree was covered by a glowing roof.
Neue Schwarz spread its wings to brake. A few lights flew in from straight ahead.
Before identifying them as red-hot shells, it leaped to the left.
High-speed shimmering heat tore through the air and passed by the black Heavy Barrel’s right side.
Neue Schwarz raised its right arm, grabbed the Word Rifle sticking out from the right of its back, and swung it down.
The forcible action bent the barrel, but it fixed the gun in place with its right arm and faced forward.
The muzzle could see the enemy. It aimed along a straight line to the bridge, but it had to see beyond that as well.
It had to look to Tiergarten located across the bridge and below the dome.
“Tiergarten has a flat structure stretching east to west. An attack from the east will clear a path to the west!”
The front and back of the weapon were boosted with anti-inertial weight emblems. A loud bursting sound rang out.
The black lion’s wings opened wide and expelled a great heat behind it.
Its forward-viewing compound eyes changed color from blue to red.
A moment later, the fog split on the other side of the bridge.
The two 75mm cannons on that side had opened fire.
Neue Scwharz crouched and stayed put.
It stared at the battlefield across the bridge, ignoring the metal shells passing by it on either side.
Its vocal device spoke through the lingering reverberation.
“Operation Glossolalia Phase 2 complete.”
Its own weapon audibly split the air.
While a Babel Cannon boosted a large quantity of Words and converted them into a great mass, the Word Rifle accelerated a small quantity of Words and increased the size of their mass. There was only one accelerator within the barrel, but the metal Words emitted from the magazine were passed through the barrel repeatedly using the linked transporter spaces situated in the front and rear of the barrel.
The bullet made approximately 130 million loops of the 4-yard barrel in just two seconds, passing through the accelerator once each time.
Finally, a great penetrative power was launched.
Part 11[edit]
It took only a moment before the unboosted metal Words were scattered through the air.
They traveled a much shorter distance than the projectile fired by a Babel Cannon. Only about 20 miles.
But the Lives of the air, trees, mist, wind, ground, and everything else along that 20-mile path were pierced by the ultra-high-speed bullet.
The bullet flew into the forest park, piercing the trees and ground, raced down a major road, and passed through the giant Brandenburg Gate in western Tiergarten.
From there, it scattered. The bullet began to adapt to the surrounding Lives as it grazed the roads of Charlottenburg, passed below the edge of the dome, and vanished into the sky.
All of this happened in less than a ten-thousandth of a second.
It hadn’t even produced any kind of noise yet. It moved too quickly for anything else to keep up.
It was only observable as a lightning-like flash racing through Germania from east to west.
A line of shimmering heat followed after the light a moment later.
After a few seconds, the air suddenly distorted and produced an indistinct but loud noise.
Then the air exploded.
The air explosion and the metallic impact produced by the metal Words covered the 20-mile line at the same time.
An attack of that speed did not race out like a wave – it caused everything to burst in an instant.
The Lives of the air and land had been converted into a metallic impact, so they seemed to have been struck by a hammer after the shockwave ran through and a 30-yard-wide rip created a 20-mile path.
The troops and tanks waiting in front of Tiergarten, the Brandenburg Gate, and the Grösse Panzers battling on the roads of west Charlottenburg were all blown away by the impact.
The Geheimnis Agency’s main force had been gathering near the Brandenburg Gate after leaving Tristan, so the collapse of the gate damaged them just as much.
The 20-yard-tall stone gate could not withstand the shockwave passing through it, so its inner walls burst into flames while they were blown away by the scattershot hitting it at the center.
Rubble sprayed out, instantly forming a shockwave from east to west.
The air within the dome was split and the shockwave blasted that air skyward. The pressure of that air on the interior of the dome caused electrification that made the interior glow a bluish-white.
A great roar and the crackling of ionization rang loud.
The floating moisture within the dome gathered together and formed rain.
A short but sudden downpour fell within the dome.
A damp wind whipped up and blew across Germania. The wind and rain reached the underground portion of the city too, hitting the cross-sections of the different layers and producing a loud, whistling noise.
It took less than 40 seconds for that noise to fade.
By then, the destruction had left its mark on the ground, buildings, and weapons swept away over 20 miles. Only a powerful wind remained.
The mist was gone and the night sky was visible past the dome.
A nearly full moon floated in that sky.
Part 12[edit]
Hazel’s group up on the elevated railroad saw the blast racing from east to west.
They were in between Tempelhof and Kreuzberg.
They were just starting to descend at the next station when everyone caught up to them.
The view opened up in front of Hazel and she saw the dark forest stretching east to west in the distant fog.
…That’s Tiergarten’s forest park.
Then a line through the park exploded.
First, the fog covering the forest appeared to be split between the north and south. Then the gray of dust and the white of a water vapor explosion shot high into the sky above the forest. It almost looked like a massive wall.
It took a moment longer before the sound and the wind arrived.
It was a powerful gust.
“––––!”
Everyone there on both sides ducked down to keep their footing in the wind.
The AIF’s divine spell users and Greenhorners set up a defense field and their charm user used a windshield charm to deflect the wind.
Hazel was protected by several layers of defenses, but she still had to hold her hair down and narrow her eyes against the strength of the wind.
…I know this was part of the plan, but still!
The wind was more powerful than she had expected.
It hit her like a blast of sound, drowning out all the surrounding voices and trying to blow away everything here.
The Neue Kavaliers near the railroad’s walls were swept away in an instant. Of course, that wouldn’t be enough to kill such well-trained warriors.
…Still, I’m worried.
Hazel held a hand to her chest just once.
She confirmed the Wheel of Destiny card was still in her breast pocket and then looked around.
Only a few seconds had passed since the explosion and she could tell the wind had weakened just slightly.
So she stepped out from behind the protective layers.
Coolers and the other unit commanders turned toward her while crouching low.
Coolers gave a firm nod in the wind.
She nodded back, said thank you, and let the wind push her as she ran.
She made her way to the left wall.
She staggered in the wind, but viewed the wind’s tone color and listened to its tempo to keep it from sweeping her away.
Her Live-viewing eyes could see the wind swirling within the dome.
This wind was blowing outwards from the blast.
That included an updraft from the explosion.
That updraft was drawing out an arc along the inside of the dome, causing it to spread outwards.
All of a sudden, Hazel could hear her own footsteps as she ran.
The wind had vanished.
The wind traveling outwards and the wind arcing downwards from above were colliding at the edge of the dome, which caused this still air. It was only for a brief moment while the powers of the two winds were in equilibrium and they canceled each other out.
Then large raindrops fell from the sky.
Hazel ducked away from the rain striking her skin, but she kept running.
She looked around to see everyone looking up at the rain falling inside the great growing umbrella.
They were all silent and motionless. She was the only one running toward the edge of the elevated railroad.
She arrived at the concrete wall.
With a single loud footstep, she climbed atop the wall damp with rain.
She heard a deep rumbling of thunder that sounded like a metal drum rolling along the ground.
…The wind is breaking apart and canceling itself out.
She had a clear view in all 360 degrees, so she saw white smoke appearing along the entire edge of the dome.
Then she heard a voice from the railroad below. A few of the Geheimnis Agents were looking her way.
“Hey!”
They were telling the others to get moving because the Messiah was running away.
But it was too late.
…Now, then.
Hazel gave a quick bow behind her and then jumped out from the wall.
She briefly floated in the air 25 yards above the ground.
She looked back before the floating sensation vanished.
A shape passed below the rupturing cascade of wind at the distant edge of the dome and flew toward her.
It forcibly slipped through the 30-yard gap between the dome and the surface.
“Corelle!”
That was the RB-21 two-hull transport ship. The larger ship kept its stability in the wind and accelerated without shaking.
It approached in the blink of an eye.
It enveloped Hazel in its defense field before passing her by.
She felt a wall of wind for just a moment.
But once she passed through it, she landed on the roof of the container tween the two hulls.
The flaps on the sides of the ship made minute adjustments to keep the ship from stalling while flying at such a low speed.
The bow pointed somewhat higher than horizontal to remain stable.
Then it flew away from the elevated railroad crawling with Neue Kavaliers.
The slightly upwards angle of its propulsion kept the heavy ship from falling before its powerful acceleration could begin.
Hazel crouched low and held Rein König under her arm while grabbing ahold of a seam in the container with her empty right hand. The ship’s angle gradually increased until she could only see the back of the container and the moonlit sky.
The defense field weakened the wind, but Hazel’s rain-wet hair still blew behind her, quickly drying out.
After 5 seconds, the RB-21 suddenly tilted downwards to direct itself forward instead of upward.
The remaining Gs of the ascending acceleration pinned Hazel to the floor when she would have flown off.
Her wristwatch said it was 2:37 AM.
…Another 23 minutes!
They pulled out into the open air.
They were surrounded by a great emptiness.
Her view had been restricted to the moon and the container, but now it opened up. She could see the dome above and…
“Tristan!”
With that exclamation, an umbrella of white water vapor formed around the RB-21’s nose.
With a roar of speed, the RB-21’s flaps caught the wind and its wings harnessed its lift.
The two-hull ship took an arcing path as it broke through a wall of air and continued on ahead.
Its wings sliced through the wind to reach the top of the giant cross.
Part 13[edit]
Neue Schwarz saw the white trail stretching toward the cross.
All the grass had been blasted from the riverbank to either side of the bridge.
The 30-yard-wide rut torn in Tiergarten was visible on the other side of the bridge.
Neue Schwarz spread its wings.
“I can leave the ground troops to the others while I get to the sky.”
That muttered comment received an unexpected response.
“Fly and I will shoot you down.”
A large green Heavy Barrel seemed to be straddling the path of destruction through the forest.
The two towers attached to its back were dragon breath cannons.
The pair of cannons were slowly aiming toward Neue Schwarz.
The sounds of metal coils showed the cannons were operating.
The green Heavy Barrel also aimed the Power Points installed in its forearms.
“I had everyone take shelter after I sensed an extreme ether discharge, but it was not enough.”
Tanks and AA guns were strewn about the forest.
The green Heavy Barrel was crouched in front of them. The coffin-shaped secondary cockpit on its back had risen up and its lower armor had opened up, revealing a collection of microphone-like holes.
The black Heavy Barrel recognized that.
“A multi dragon breath cannon? You really are a mobile fortress, ‘Eisen Panzer’ Karl Schmitt.”
“I challenge you.”
“Do you have to?” sighed the black Heavy Barrel while slowly taking a fighting stance. Karl nodded.
“I will fire on you until you reach me. If you make it through that, then I will leave you be. I will resist no further. However.”
“You’re asking for an awful lot here. What more do you want?”
“I will choose the battlefield. Because I must confirm whether or not you are what you claim to be.”
“Aerial Words, huh?” whispered Neue Schwarz after hearing that.
Then it nodded.
“Fine. If that’s what you want.”
Immediately, a pair of winds rushed in from above and behind.
It was a red and a blue Heavy Barrel. Their armor had been destroyed, but their Ober Emblem remained intact as they flew over the black one’s head. They landed on either side of the green one.
“Allow us to handle-”
They were silenced by a single look from Karl.
They exchanged a glance and nodded.
They cleared the way and kneeled, but the blue one held up its rifle in both hands.
“Please take this.”
Karl responded by looking to Neue Schwarz.
“Is that alright with you?”
“With a monster like you, one more gun isn’t going to make any real difference.”
The green one laughed at that and took the rifle from the blue one.
That MP42 Heavy Barrel autocannon could perform full-auto fire of 88mm armor-piercing rounds, but even that looked like a mere handgun when held by a Heavy Barrel measuring over 20 yards tall.
Karl held the grip with the hidden arm below his right forearm and held the barrel with his usual hand.
The hand latched on with a metallic clang and the blue and red Heavy Barrels withdrew into the forest.
“Good luck.”
Karl nodded and lowered his hips.
His 20-yard-high vision had been directed straight ahead the entire time.
The black Heavy Barrel also lowered its hips a bit.
“Didn’t expect a one-on-one battle with a knight here. My second shot was supposed to be for Tristan.”
The bolt attaching the Word Rifle to the top of the secondary cockpit was released with a divine spell explosive.
The 4-yard gun briefly floated up and the extra tank on the Heavy Barrel’s back fell away.
The unneeded weapon fell to the ground behind it with a metallic clatter.
The reduction in weight on the right caused Neue Schwarz to list to the left just a bit.
But only for a moment. It spread its feet to shoulder width and adjusted its weight.
The loss of that excess weight allowed it to stand taller.
It lowered its hips and reached for the weapons at its hips.
But after a moment’s hesitation, Neue Scwharz chose only Gelegenheit on the right.
Karl nodded at the choice. Then the sounds of metal fitting together came from all over his body. It sounded like several clocks operating at once, but it was actually the many bullets being loaded.
The sounds ended after two seconds. The last one to be loaded was the 75mm cannon at the chest.
Silence followed.
The only sound was the wind blowing by overhead.
The green Heavy Barrel unintentionally leaned forward in anticipation, but then it looked to the sky.
The wind was blowing there, but past that it saw the dome and the moon.
It stared at the moon as it spoke.
“Geheimnis Agency Army Division Chief ‘Eisen Panzer’ Karl Schmitt.”
Neue Scwharz held Gelegenheit to the right with both hands.
“AIF…‘Wild Hund’ Dog Berger.”
With those words, a black blade emerged from Gelegenheit.
The black power stopped at a length of 5 yards and sliced through the wind.
Neue Schwarz didn’t even look to its blade as its vocal device spoke.
“You’re on.”
Part 14[edit]
With those words, the pair of black wings rose sharply toward heaven.
Then they swung down and back, sending an explosion of air behind the black Heavy Barrel and propelling it forward.
Light flew toward it from dead ahead.
All the sounds arrived after the fact.
The lights were dragon breaths and a barrage of physical artillery.
The physical projectiles flew straight in while the homing rounds drew out arcs to circle in from the outside.
Neue Schwarz swung Gelegenheit while running.
<My Destiny has not yet reached its demise.>
The barrage passed behind it.
But more was already on its way.
“That was fast!”
With that expression of surprise, it prepared Gelegenheit for another swing.
Just as it was going to swing the sword up into the incoming attack, it heard some Aerial Words.
<The sky…>
Aerial Words spoken in a deep voice made a request of this space.
<The sky is here.>
Part 15[edit]
The Aerial Words continued.
<The sky contains the colors of morning, a chilly wind, and the fresh air.>
<The artificial sky cannot be severed by destiny.>
Gelegenheit’s blade caught on the empty air, bent, and broke.
Neue Schwarz immediately flapped its wings.
The ground had disappeared below its feet, replaced by a white sea of clouds.
It was surrounded by the morning sky colored a light purple.
The thrusters in its wings gave a blast to propel it forward with sufficient initial velocity. Neue Schwarz shouted in recognition of a sky it had once flown in as Schwarz Löwe.
“Kaiser’s sky!”
The second barrage was incoming. And unlike the first volley, this one had no homing rounds.
The lights of a third barrage were visible past this one.
Its opponent was not found past that third one. He had disappeared.
“Did he already shoot enough!?”
That man had said to make it through what he fired.
Not to dodge it.
So Neue Schwarz roared. It slammed its wings into the air behind it to start forward with a loud boom.
It left behind the white smoke of bursting air as it raced forward through the sky. It flew toward the space behind the two incoming barrages – toward where Karl Schmitt had withdrawn.
Its wings’ thrusters sucked in more wind and created powerful turbulence behind it.
A roar briefly exploded behind it.
Then all sound in front of it vanished.
Its head, the center of its torso, and its shoulders broke through a barrier of air.
It had broken the sound barrier.
The barrages were coming.
The physical projectiles distorted the air as they flew in.
But the racing black Heavy Barrel did not hesitate to charge in shoulder first.
It closed its wings and flew with its legs behind it. The leading bullet grazed the right side of its head.
It used its neck to absorb and correct for the impact. It had entered the barrage.
It opened its wings just enough to soar through the destructive rain.
It spun right, up, left, and then left again. And it never forgot to be moving ever forward.
Just one shot was on a collision course for its left chest. There was no dodging it.
So it swung its left fist out in front and struck the shell’s extrapolated course before the shell actually arrived
The punch created a shockwave that collided with the shell.
With a roar of air and a crash of metal, the shell was diverted off course.
Neue Schwarz made it through.
The Heavy Barrel and the barrage intersected over a distance of about 400 yards, but it took less than half a second.
However, the next barrage – the third one – was already incoming.
There was nothing past it.
Distance-wise, passing through this barrage would mean reaching Karl’s previous position.
So Neue Schwarz flapped its wings to fly forward.
The color black accelerated through the artificial emptiness of the dawning fictional sky.
It advanced.
Then it caught sight of a shape flying in even closer than the barrage.
It was hard to notice with the bright lights of the thick barrage spread out behind it, but that was definitely a single physical bullet.
It was an 88mm armor-piercing round. It flew in like a black arrow surrounded by distorted air and it must have been fired by Neue Blau’s rifle.
The entire barrage behind it had been camouflage for this one shot.
“That was your plan!?”
Part 16[edit]
The bullet was about to hit.
Neue Schwarz tried to lower the left fist it had swung upwards to hit the shell earlier, but it was no use.
The bullet would hit before the fist was in position.
And Gelegenheit in its right hand was still without its light.
Nothing it could do would be fast enough.
It only had time to determine where the 88mm armor-piercing round would hit: the center of the chest. That was the hardest location to dodge.
Neue Schwarz made up its mind.
Its answer was to raise its voice. The black Heavy Barrel surrounded itself in wind and roared into the sky.
“Fully open all weapons and abilities to respond to the enemy threat. Begin full drive!”
A pair of wings spread in the purple sky.
But these were not black.
They were white.
The Ober Emblem seemed directly dyed by bluish-white ether as it instantly covered Neue Schwarz. The armor was a nearly-blue white and the joints were black, creating a dual colored armored warrior in the sky.
“Ober Emblem Weiss König – activate!”
It pulled its left arm back against its side.
The 88mm armor-piercing round struck the fictional armor still being formed from ether light.
The Ober Emblem armor shattered.
But the original black armor below survived with only a single crack.
Its left arm strained under the force of the impact and its white body was covered by new ether armor.
At the same time, it counteracted the backwards vector with a flap of its wings.
The explosion of wind behind it was far greater than ever before.
It shot out like it had been kicked forward.
Weiss König’s metal body groaned as it flapped its wings again and reaccelerated.
The third barrage was up ahead.
The impact on its left side was still affecting it, but it didn’t care.
Seeing the sea of clouds below, it tilted its body forward and moved its wings all the more forcefully.
The power of its wings and its forward-tilting attitude caused it to tumble forwards.
Its left hand stretched downwards and scratched at the clouds.
It seemed to bounce from there and flew forwards.
It all happened in an instant.
It was practically flipping forward as it broke through its inertia and the air resistance. As soon as it was nearly upside down, its wings fully opened in the direction it was flying.
Each wing worked independently. Their individual feathers blew out their own winds, accelerating the rotation.
The eruption from the wings rotated the Barrel.
It completed its flip and its feet were directed downwards again.
The white Heavy Barrel landed on the cloudy ground with its hips somewhat lowered. Then it flapped its wings to accelerate again.
It raced forward in its standing position.
Its speed was so great it erased all sound.
The thrusters on its legs and hips maintained its attitude while the power of its wings made it glide along the clouds. It twisted around as if sliding to the side and blew away the clouds behind it.
The barrage reached it just as it released the white sword from its left hip.
Nearly a hundred destructive projectiles attacked it from the left, right, and above. Each and every one of those winds could destroy the Weiss König.
The white Heavy Barrel soared and swung its white sword within those many winds.
It twisted its body toward the winds coming from the left, swung its blade toward the winds coming from the right, and ducked below the winds coming from above. It maintained its forward speed the entire time.
The winds collided, beginning an explosive chain reaction.
The Weiss König left light, smoke, and flames in its wake as it gracefully spun and advanced.
It raised an arm, tilted its head, stepped on the clouds, and scattered those clouds while sliding along them.
“I will make it through.”
It did.
After one more flap of its wings, it was past the last of the barrage. A giant explosion erupted behind it.
But Weiss König continued gliding across the clouds, leaving the range of the blast in an instant.
The pursuing smoke, flames, and even sound could not keep up.
It was unscathed.
But this was not over yet.
Weiss König put away its white sword, readied Gelegenheit in its right hand, and shouted its Aerial Words.
<Destiny is a testimony to the past.>
It sliced through the sky.
The green Heavy Barrel was visible up ahead.
Part 17[edit]
The white Heavy Barrel glided across the ground and accelerated with its Ober Emblem wings.
Dirt was blasted behind it and the Tiergarten forest’s ground was thrown into the sky.
It roared in, arriving less than 100 yards from Karl Schmitt.
But Karl did nothing. His arms were at his sides and his cannons aimed upwards. Only his sight devices were directed right at Weiss König.
“Do as you wish.”
Weiss König responded with a nod.
It approached, readied Gelegenheit in its right arm, and prepared to strike.
But at the same time, its sight devices caught a certain truth and a certain movement.
The truth was located behind Karl. Only after approaching this far could it see the green colors on the torn ground behind him.
They were the military’s soldiers.
All the injured soldiers from the overturned armored trucks and tanks were hidden behind Karl.
The movement Weiss König saw was on Karl’s shoulder.
A woman in a black combat uniform was standing there.
She was Army Division Deputy Chief Jeanne Schmitt.
She ran from his shoulder to his head and spread her arms out toward Weiss König.
Her eyebrows were raised, her eyes were glaring directly at Weiss König, and her mouth was open.
She was shouting.
Weiss König was moving too quickly to hear her. It only had the visual information to work with.
It saw the woman standing in front of Karl to protect him and Karl standing in front of the soldiers to protect them. That was all.
So Weiss König ended it all with just one action.
It slammed its wings into the air.
With a roar and an explosion of wind on the ground, the Heavy Barrel soared high into the sky.
It passed between the pair of cannons above Karl and flew toward the pitch black cross jutting up into the sky.
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