Elizabeth relished the feel of the rigging as it meshed with her mind, cradling her small form in its six hundred and fifty kilograms of clanking steel. Created as a prototype in the days where Wisdom Cubes were still new and misunderstood, this particular piece of technology was so archaic and complex that it almost had a personality of its own, the self-filtering neural link not enough to block out all of the machine's pseudo-whispers.

Kill her, kill her, kill her.

Elizabeth stroked her rigging with one finger and she swore she heard it purr dangerously. "Not yet, my little one. Not yet."

Who are you? How do you know my name?

Elizabeth smiled faintly. "Do you not remember me, Bismarck?" She hefted the staff in her hand.

Ah. Yes, you. The Traitor Queen that sits on the throne that rightfully belongs to the Volk.

"There's nothing wrong with our sovereignty, you little-"

You know that your people descended from ours. The least you could have done was roll over and die when we came to reclaim our heritage.

Elizabeth smirked. "Someone hasn't gotten over her sinking."

Why you-!

A gigantic purple beam carved towards her like a reaper's scythe.

That's hot. If I get hit by that it's no good.

The monarch leapt out of the way, barely avoiding the sizzling spear of light. It passed within several metres of her and she felt the sparse strands of hair on her right arm flash-burn in the heat.

What is that thing? Norfolk told me that she used a purple beam that melted right through Hood's armour, but that thing can't be less than five metres in diameter…how has this battleship gotten so strong?!

The lance of light was fast but not agile, Bismarck making no attempt to correct its course as it fizzled out, leaving deep, bleeding scores in the melted ground. Eager not to allow such a weapon to be fired again, Elizabeth leapt onto the sloped surface of the Memorial and began to run up the incline, closing distance with the Iron Chancellor before she could fire the ranged… whatever it was.

"Go! Quickly! Take Sheffield, make for the outskirts of the city!"

Warspite shook her head, panting from the exertion of running across half the city while carrying a KAN-SEN. "I can't...just leave you here."

Elizabeth grabbed Warspite by the shoulders. "Listen, Warspite. There is a large probability that not all of us make it out alive. It won't change if you stay-look at that thing! You think you can hurt it?"

The floating figure was gone, having been struck down by a second blur jumping from the ruined cityscape. However, apocalyptic bolts of lightning still coruscated around the dim silhouette of the Memorial, writhing like broken fingers trying to grasp the sky and tear it down.

"By doing this, at least we know the maximum amount of loss is one."

"I still-"

"Warspite." Valiant was gazing at the battleship's heated protest with cold, calm eyes. "She's talking sense."

"But-"

"Even if you don't like it, this is the way things are. This is triage-surely you saw it at Narvik? Sometimes the damage we take is all we can control. We can't save everyone."

Warspite still protested, refusing to acknowledge her sister's words. Valiant meanwhile fixed the Queen with a level, determined gaze. "I'll stay. You go."

"No. If she's what Warspite says she is, you'll last three minutes against that thing-"

"And you'll last six at most."

Elizabeth contrasted the cool eyes of the strategist with her own, filled with fire and determined brimstone. "That's three minutes more that the city doesn't get absolutely flattened with you in it. I've made up my mind, Valiant. This is an order. I'm sounding a retreat."

"The Royal Navy-"

"Do not tell me what the Royal Navy needs-I am its leader! I am your queen-now obey me and go!"

Countless emotions warred on Valiant's face for a moment of eternity until resignation finally won.

"Fine. We'll go. But we will not abandon the crown. Once we have evacuated Sheffield, we're coming back."

"No way in hell. If Bismarck doesn't kill you I will."

I need to incapacitate her. At the very least, I need to distract her long enough for Sheffield and the rest to escape… there's no chance they'll be able to survive this thing if she decides to go berserk.

I don't even know if I will.

"Man hath no greater love… than to give his life up for his friends."

Elizabeth was face to face with Bismarck now, and at this distance she recognised the Iron Chancellor almost intimately. How many nights had she lain sleepless, the hateful face of this murderer in her mind? How many times had she vowed to avenge her people on the blood of this traitor?

Elizabeth grabbed Bismarck's waist and flung the larger battleship into the floor, grinding her body against the hard steel. Only then did she notice the unmoving body of a girl with red and white hair dressed in military uniform, crumpled on the ground.

Bloody hell-why is there an Ironblood here too?

Elizabeth grabbed the unconscious girl lying next to Bismarck and leapt off the Memorial, falling a hundred metres to the ground below. As she plunged through the air, her rigging disintegrated into a storm of blue light, swirling upwards to form a glittering azure cloud high above Bismarck's location.

Landing on the ground with a sound akin to a gunshot, Elizabeth dropped the Ironblood unceremoniously on the ground and turned to face the Memorial. Bismarck was slowly getting up from being body-slammed into the ground, casting a hateful glare around to search for Elizabeth. Before Bismarck could notice her, Elizabeth sent a mental command to her rigging, flying in a million blue fragments in the air, and smiled.

Checkmate.

The glowing azure fragments came together in a bright burst of light, and all thirty-two and a half thousand tons of the HMS Queen Elizabeth came plunging, bow down, towards the Iron Chancellor three hundred metres below.

The warship, accelerated to terminal velocity by the drop, slammed into the Memorial at forty-seven metres per second, obliterating it. Chunks of black metal flew in every direction as the Memorial came apart, dismantled by the terrifying force.

All right!

Elizabeth turned to the Ironblood girl, still unconscious, and picked her up by the collar of her shirt as her rigging reformed on her back. Time to-

Where are you going?

Elizabeth turned around to see Bismarck standing no more than fifteen metres behind her, wreathed in a cloak of lightning, gray eyes radiating pure rage.

"Oh, what the-" Elizabeth's guns clicked as she loaded a round into them, preparing to fire them point-blank at-

But she didn't get the chance.

Bismarck crossed the distance between them in a single flying lunge, and the next thing the queen knew she was spinning through the air, the load on her shoulder lessening as her rigging simply came apart. She slammed into something hard, several somethings, finally coming to rest in a pile of rubble, her leg twisted at a strange angle. Something was trickling down her right side and she couldn't find her mace-

Looking for this?

Standing a couple dozen metres away was Bismarck, having thrown the queen through metres of concrete rubble, as evidenced by the trough that had been scored in the ground. In one hand the battleship clutched a right hand, which was in turn curled around a mace tipped with a crown.

It's not my weapon that's gone...my entire right hand-

Dimly she realised that the bleeding wasn't stopping. Her broken leg wasn't mending either. She was defenceless as the Iron Chancellor stepped towards her predatorily, her footsteps melting the ground below into lava.

Looks like this is the end of the line for me.

Bismarck grabbed her by the throat.

I hope the rest are safe.

The battleship lifted her into the air and Elizabeth's vision blurred as her air supply was cut off.

I do not feel rage towards you, Royal Navy battleship. You and I are both of the same breed-stronger, faster, wiser than any human. You and I both are creatures of battle, destined to destroy each other so that humankind may not destroy itself. By the dint of our shared suffering and duty, we are sisters, and so I invite you to join me, Royal Navy battleship, as I remake this world anew. You are strong. You are wise. You do not need to die.

Elizabeth's breath hissed out of her crushed throat in a barely-audible gasp. "Go...fuck yourself."

Bismarck's eyes narrowed.

Fine.

She dropped the queen to the ground.

If you will not dedicate all of yourself to me willingly, I will take what I want from you and discard the rest. Every outcome is identical. The only difference is how much pain you will suffer.

Bismarck walked over to the Ironblood girl. Grasping the KAN-SEN by the hair, Elizabeth watched in horror as the two began rising into the air, as if pulled by an invisible puppet-string. The sky, already painted orange by the flames, grew a deep, blood-red as an otherworldly whine sounded through the air, like the death cry of some ancient, primordial god. And in the middle of it all, a sphere of pure blackness began growing, expanding until dwarfed the two small figures still rising towards it. Elizabeth felt the gravitational pull of the globe and immediately understood what it was.

I will take this one first. And then I will come back for you.

Immobilised within a shattered and unresponsive body, the Queen of the Royal Navy could only stare impotently, vision rapidly fading, breath quickly shallowing, as every shattered, smashed piece of Wilhelmshaven began floating slowly, inexorably upwards.