Soul of Burning Steel

To the south of the imperial capital, bordering on the desert wasteland.

The scorching wind swept through the sparse vegetation in the wasteland, causing the already withered yellow grass leaves to curl up. Under the sunlight, the river in the distance was like a silk ribbon exuding silver light. A small town, and then went straight into the end of the line of sight.

At the end of the field of vision is the endless desert, which is a silent sandy land that separates the central area of ​​the empire from the southern fortress area. Because of the blocking of the mountains, the humid air from the south cannot reach the small plain, and the changes in the underground water veins, The fertile plain thousands of years ago has become a silent wasteland today.

Above the wilderness, a huge steel structure moved across the sky smoothly, casting a long and narrow shadow on the ground.

On the deck of the Gale, Joshua stood at the forefront of the ship, silently staring into the distance, the oncoming strong wind blew the soldiers' clothes and hair back, and this wind also swept the huge The flags on both sides of the ship made it flutter.

On that flag, the five-star ring sun and the coat of arms of the sword-holding hand are so conspicuous, attracting everyone's attention.

"It's a floating battleship, thanks to the emperor's words."

Feeling the hot wind flowing beside him, Joshua couldn't help laughing when he recalled the scene not long ago: "Israel Diamond, this kind of courage is indeed the spirit of an emperor."

Of course, everyone knew that it was impossible for someone to send a new cutting-edge floating warship to others for no reason—the soldier was not a fool, so he naturally knew the emperor's intentions.

According to Master Nostradamus, the Holy Mountain of the Far Sea asked the empire for help just to use the power of order in him to break through certain areas blocked by evil forces—but it’s okay if the empire didn’t agree, Now that he agreed, it was absolutely impossible to let him go alone.

However, sending an army across most of the world to go to the Far South on the other side of the continent to fight the dragon beasts is the worst choice, both from a practical point of view and from a morale point of view. Even the most elite troops of the five major legions may not Can help this matter, so Israel thought of a good idea.

Send out the floating battleship 'Gale', which is still in the experimental stage.

For the great mages of the Eastern Plains, sky magic towers, floating islands, and even floating cities are nothing new. After all, magic furnaces were originally born in their laboratories, but floating battleships , but it is not such a simple thing, what it needs is not pure buoyancy, but a stable and lasting power.

To make a behemoth suspend in the air, any archmage can easily do it after preparation, but to make a behemoth fly in the air is a completely different problem, compared to being unable to move, or moving very Slow floating islands, the mana cores of floating battleships must be miniaturized and stabilized, and in order to be able to be mass-produced in the future and facilitate popularization, their production materials must be as cheap as possible.

Before the Gale, the empire had designed many types of floating warships, and many small airships were also manufactured, but due to the imperfect power system, most of them were sealed up. Until today, through long-term experiments and calculations , the mages finished debugging the Gale.

Sending this experimental floating battleship to aid the Church of the Seven Gods, even the most demanding people on the mainland cannot say that the empire is indifferent to this matter, and with the power of this battleship, it will definitely help the church resist the mad dragon. At the same time, it can also collect actual combat data and show its technical strength in front of other countries.

As for why he gave this battleship to himself so simply——Joshua thought that Israel probably felt that this battleship must have crashed in the battle with the mad dragon, but as long as the data can be collected, there is no need for those who are eager to continue There is no loss for the empire to improve technology. Anyway, according to the agreement between the major forces, the wreckage of the battleship will definitely be sent back to the empire, and with the character of a soldier, these things will definitely not be wanted.

"But just ignore him."

Standing on the deck of the Gale, feeling the strong wind brought by the rapid flight of the floating battleship, Joshua looked down at the clouds below him, he laughed out loud, and was too lazy to think about those meaningless things.

But how to say, now this giant steel ship belongs to him! The battle group of soldiers in the previous life also had its own floating fortress, but it was jointly built by all members of the group. Now, the Gale belongs to him alone!

What a luxury it is for one person to own a floating warship!

【Floating Battleship Gale】

[Super-large composite surgery construct, with extraordinary quality]

[Average hardness of the outer armor: 72, with abilities: floating, magic energy boost, magic energy shield, physical damage reduction, high element immunity, ignore corrosion, magic energy surge, gale charge (self-explosion)]

[Subsidiary techniques and plug-in structures: five large-scale magic energy focusing cannons, forty regular alchemy cannons, nine acceleration circles, twelve floating magic circles, positioning traction and transmission, furnace core melting (self-explosion)]

[Explanation: This is a large-scale floating battleship jointly developed by the Imperial Royal Mages Association and Guantian White Tower. It has a total length of 167 meters and has good maneuverability. The cost of the battleship Gale is relatively low, but its combat capability is more than inferior, and its power is greatly exceeded. The only defect is that due to the structure of the double magic furnace core, the energy cycle has certain defects, and it cannot be used for too long. Full load operation mode, otherwise it is very likely to automatically launch abilities such as 'gale charge' or 'melting the heart'. 】

[Wait, I haven't adjusted the energy system of this thing... what? This is an advantage? 】

【by——a designer who does not want to be named】

"Bang bang bang—"

While Joshua was still enjoying the strong wind on the deck, hurried footsteps came from behind him.

Joshua, who already knew who was coming, turned his head and looked behind him, and as expected, the figure of the silver-haired girl appeared in front of his eyes.

Just after the Gale was sent from the secret laboratory of the Empire to the Aden Fortress, Nostradamus also sent Hotaru, Rin and Hei together. After discussing the Gale with the soldiers, Israel and the others, the old mage simply sent Joshua and his party to the floating battleship and set off directly.

As a special type of airship, Gale has the ability to respond to teleportation. Strictly speaking, this airship cannot actually teleport. It can only be located by a large teleportation array that meets the conditions like a summoning object. Traction' in the past, and this traction ability has a distance limit.

There is a magic circle around the imperial capital that restricts teleportation, and only the three major fortresses can not be affected, but the three major fortresses cannot communicate with the next teleportation point, so the Gale can only be as far away from the imperial capital as possible, and then respond to the southern fortress of the empire The teleportation array passed through many kingdoms in the Western Mountains and the fortresses on the far southern border, and then arrived at the Holy Mountain in the Far Sea. This road was not long because of the teleportation, but it was very cumbersome.

The silver-haired girl who seemed to be trotting all the way ran to Joshua's side, and then said in a somewhat unstable tone: "Master, the Gale has left the teleportation area of ​​the Imperial Capital, and is about to start teleportation. Mr. Captain would like to ask you to Back to the hull."

"Okay, I'll go back right away."

Nodding his head, the soldier noticed that Yingying's expression looked a little bad, and he looked a little uncomfortable. He frowned, and asked with some surprise and concern: "What's the matter, Yingying, you look a little uncomfortable... Could it be seasickness? ?"

"No, I'm not dizzy..." Miss Shenji frowned slightly, hesitated for a moment, but then curled her lips and said with some headache: "But, Hei... Hei is seasick."

Speaking of this, Yingying looked a little angry, she held the soldier's clothes and frowned: "At first, Hei was very quiet in the cargo hold, and he didn't move at all. My brother thought it liked it here, but I ended up talking to Hei. It was only when we were chatting that I realized that it had completely passed out!"

"...Whether it is a ground dragon or a sea dragon, it is unlikely that they have experienced flying. This guy Hei may be the first sea dragon to come to the sky."

Quickly finding out the reason, Joshua silently touched the silver-haired girl's little head, he didn't know whether to laugh or to be serious: "For Hei, this journey was indeed quite painful, but Yingying, why do you have such a somber expression?" So ugly? Could it be black vomiting?"

"That's not true, but it subconsciously licked me while it was in a coma!" Shaking her head first, Yingying denied the soldier's guess, but then she complained dissatisfiedly: "Besides, it radiated heat there after it was unconscious. , the vicinity of the cargo hold is completely inaccessible.”

"Wait, cargo bay?"

Hearing this word, Joshua suddenly felt a little strange. He turned his head and stared at the silver-haired girl, and Yingying was also a little flustered by the stare: "What...what's the matter, master..."

"I said... didn't you black out the Changing Pendant?"

This time it's the soldier's turn to have a headache: "I gave you and Rin the shape-changing pendant when we boarded the ship. Hei is so big, if he wants to move freely, he must make it smaller... Now it's still in the cargo hold..."

Shaking his head, Joshua didn't know what to say, and the silver-haired girl's face turned red quickly. It was obvious that she had indeed forgotten to blacken the Shape-changing Pendant.

But even so, the soldier couldn't blame Hotaru, because he himself had forgotten about it and had no position at all.

It's just that he was suffering from darkness, not to mention seasickness, and he couldn't move freely, so he could only stay in the narrow cargo hold.

"Forget it." With a sigh, Joshua could only make this decision: "I'll go and see it."