Chapter 1
Burn it all to the ground!
And, with those words, the massacre began. My sword, moving swiftly through the air, took the lives of our comrades, our countrymen, leaving no soul standing on this battlefield. It was as if my weapon, this shining Thrud Wälkure, was a hungry demon, seeking its nourishment without rest, completely possessed by gluttony. After all, wasn't that what we had become, mere demons? Yes, we had the shape of men, no doubt about that, but those days of old when we could consider us kin to the rest of the world, to mankind as a whole, are long gone.
And what better way to show our true colors than this monument to death? The demise of all of Berlin, perpetrated just to fulfill our own ambitions. What was I doing? Had I really sunk this low? I was not only killing my countrymen, I was soaking my own birthplace in blood, tainting my very honor with it. Are knights supposed to behave like man eating monsters?
What am I fighting for in the first place? Knights have their cause to fight, they always do. Be it their loved ones, their country, or just matters of honor. For me, it is loyalty. Not to a liege, king or warlord, but to a single woman, to my commander. A simple matter of authority? It definitely wasn't. She was really an exceptional individual, one combining all virtues a knight desires above all others: strength, honor, loyalty and fiery will. Those were the characteristics which defined her superior, and her friend, Major Eleonore von Wittenburg.
-Leave no man alive. Fight and kill, leave no prisoners. This way, the path to Valhalla will be closer than ever. Feed the Swastikas, sacrifice their essence to Lord Heydrich! Let our new world, our Dies Irae, become closer to us than ever before! Power has been granted to us for that very purpose. Now go! Sieg Heil! Viktoria!
Sieg Heil.
Viktoria.
Major von Wittenburg… her passion, similar to the cosmic flames radiating from stars, shone through her voice, as powerful as ever. Yet, she wasn't the same anymore. The woman I knew wouldn't do this. She wouldn't order the deaths of her comrades, she wouldn't partake in such a bloodbath. She is a knight, for Hell's sake. And knights do not slaughter the weak and defenseless. Is this all for… Lord Heydrich, really? Have you fallen for that man that much? Is this all really worth it? I see… You are like them, after all. Relentlessly chasing after your own desires.
No! I refuse! How can I accept this? How can someone like her turn her back on her ideals? All for what? To chase after a man, of all things. Someone so pure, so… So full of life and passion. Someone who, like a star, shines with a light of her own. Now she was something different altogether, as one of the Golden Beast's Einherjar, his warriors in Valhalla. Samiel Zentaur, that was my superior's demon name. A huntress who, after making a pact with the devil, in pretty much the same way Faust did with Mephistopheles, gained bullets that wouldn't miss its target, no matter what. That was who Major von Wittenburg was, a relentless existence at the service of her liege. As all of us were, eventually, supposed to be.
-Isn't this scenery beautiful, Beast?- Said that petulant voice, always aloft, indicating his superiority over all of us.
-Indeed. After, it is just natural. How would I love to be down there right now! I want them to rejoice in my love, throw them into tasting battle to the fullest. But it's the time for my claws and teeth to shine, after all. Once the battle at the Eastern Shamballa is over, my time will come. After all, Karl, won't I receive war and fights to spare after all of this? So, what is a little more waiting to me?- Said, with his usual tone, Lord Heydrich, the Golden Beast.
The battle was, soon over. Berlin had burned, as the Major had ordered. Down to its very foundations. The city wasn't able to withstand the fury of our Black Round Table's upper echelons, who had reduced most of it to rubble. In comparison, we only managed to kill some civilians and soldiers. Lord Heydrich's act was terrifying. So terrifying you couldn't help but consider it to be magnificent. Maybe that is what draws Major von Wittenburg in so much, this man's (if he can be called that) charisma is incredible. I dare say he is the most charismatic man in the whole universe, even. A man, no, a god so charismatic that he can cause the suicide of a whole city, full of terrified humans. Was it the promise to join his undying Legion, to be wrapped by the light of Mephistopheles, what drew them into action? That, I'm afraid, I don't know.
And then, we were left alone upon the surface of this cursed world, this Ghetto. As Lord Heydrich and his chosen ones, those fit to play a main role in his return, departed to territories unknown, I was able to catch a glimpse of Major von Wittenburg's, who was among them, smile. Finally, she'd be able to close that distance. She had become one with him, and now he had recognized her worth. She was now his trusted lieutenant, his Einherjar Rubedo, taken into his Demonic Castle, his Valhalla, to fight for eternity. And she would spend her days fighting, forever. With, of course, a little period of pause, the time when Lord Heydrich makes his return to this Earth. When compared with eternity it is, of course, just an insignificant moment.
That is when I, Beatrice Waltrud von Kirscheisen, decided what was my reason to fight. I've lost everything, my family, my friends, my country… now I am an outcast, a monster in a world full of men. The only thing I've got left is my loyalty to that woman, whose hair matches the color of her fiery passion. I'll save you, Eleonore von Wittenburg. One day, I will get into that Castle, and rescue you from your captivity. Lord Heydrich will be no more.