XVIII

——***——***——***——***

In the early morning of August 9, 1666 (MDay+130), Lenny East 4th arrondissement

——***——***——***——***

As expected, the entire Imperial Army in the Eastern Third Region collapsed. Whether the troops were directly attacked or not, as long as they heard the never-ending sound of horses' hooves, even the bravest soldiers could not help but think of the terrifying magical bombardment. The rest of the Sea of Stars followed behind Anne Sefir, shooting around from time to time, scattering all those who dared to attack.

The horse stepped on the trail of blood and rushed out of the East Third District.

When the two of them rushed out of the shadow of the third gate, the eastern sky was already white.

Captain Naymen Soleton clamped his legs to the horse's belly, hooked the stirrups with his toes, and pressed his hands on his gun belt. He looked up and glanced at the glimmer of light that had just appeared.

"Is it a reserve, cut. ”

Naimon heard the horse's female rider whining in a low voice, and then he heard the sound of gunshots.

"Stop!" for His Majesty the Emperor, stop!" the Imperial officer shouted hysterically.

Naimon pulled out his pistol, hooked his toe to the harness, and shot sideways forward.

The first time the hindrance appeared in front of them, there was probably a platoon. The enemies of the Fourth District are no longer so disorganized. Just like the Free Army, the elite Imperial Army that invaded Lenny was also trying to regroup the army from the rout.

With the gun in both hands, Naimon flicked his wrist and poured out all six bullets as fast as he could, and then began to prepare his magic. He didn't have the confidence to use aiming magic on horseback, so he chose self-guided magic.

He handed the gun to his left hand, drew the line of effect in the air with his right hand, and whispered the incantation: "Magic Missile Ready...... Huh?"

There was no response, and there was no feedback from the magic. It's like being in the middle of an anti-magic circle.

Naimon was not reconciled, and chanted the incantation again, but the result was still the same. He noticed that the enemy magic officer was also rubbing his hands anxiously, as if he wanted to use some magic, but he couldn't.

"Don't bother," said the knightess, smiling at the officer, "your magic is useless. ”

Who laid it? There is no need to ask that question in the first place. Only one man could do this: Lieutenant Anne Seffer, a Free Army, who single-handedly routed the men of the Elite Army.

Proof of this was that dozens of magic arrows were emerging from the void beside her.

The Imperial officer's expression changed dramatically, and he drew his sword in a panic, and pointed with a trembling hand at the horse he was riding with her.

Anne didn't even use the new spell, she just hooked her fingers. A blue flash popped out of her arm, the embers of the sea of stars. With a flick of his wrist, the strongest magician summoned some hexagonal green floating magic shields, blocking the bullets.

There is no suspense about the outcome of the battle. Her magic was capable of crushing all the Imperial troops on the main road, and a mere platoon would be no problem.

She was the most powerful magician he had ever known. She was the most powerful magician he had ever heard. She was the most powerful magician he could imagine. That overwhelming power and beauty can almost rule the world.

Naimon knew she didn't need his help at all - that little bit of his magic might just add to the chaos, right?

But he still couldn't help but speak.

"I want to use magic too, Annie. What is the principle?"

Anne pulled the reins and stopped the horse's hooves.

The small group of Imperial soldiers was not dead, but as soon as she stopped the horses' hooves, they all scattered and fled, leaving behind not only the bodies of their comrades, but also the wounded ones.

"Ah, this is the magic web. How so...... It's a bit complicated. Do you want to use magic right now?"

Not now, Naimon thought. If he had been the rational Free Army staff officer he had been last night, he shouldn't have asked that question. Now it's time for him to seize every second and use Anne's powerful magic to capture the Emperor, kill him, and then join her as a hero to save the free nation.

But Naimon nodded slightly.

"Yes. I'm wondering right now. ”

Now, seize this opportunity, there is a voice speaking to himself. It is enough to be mentally controlled once, and he never wants to be controlled by others again.

Improvisation, experience and ambition are not enough. It is not enough to have the honor imposed on him by others. Far from enough. It was the Emperor who told him that he was standing on a sand made of false luck and ingenuity, and that the beach would crumble at any moment and engulf him from which he could never recover.

Anne turned her head sideways, a nonchalant smile on her face, as if she had been waiting for this question for a long time.

"Let me think about where to start. It shouldn't be difficult for you to understand......" her voice gradually lowered, almost into a whisper, "...... Anyway, this was originally the idea of the Deretic Empire School. ”

"The Deran Imperial School?" "Nemen paused, nervously searching for the name in his mind, "I've read the Imperial Arcane Journal, they have the Classical School, the Spirit School, and the Eastern Yi School, and they don't seem to have ......"

"Ah, it's nothing, don't care. In the simplest terms, it's because I've changed the rules of magic. Annie's tone was lighthearted, "Within the confines of Lennie's temporary net, the rules for using magic are no longer the same. ”

Naimon's mouth opened wide and he couldn't close it for a long time.

Changed the rules of magic! Can this kind of thing be done? Is this really human power? He almost felt the urge to kneel.

"That'...... What is this rule?"

"As long as you learn the rules, everyone can use the magic web. Anne replied, "The rule is simple, we call it a 'handshake.'" The Magic Web Theory begins with the statement that with just three handshakes, we can change the whole world. ”

"Three handshakes?"

"A handshake is just ...... Where to start? It's not too complicated anyway, so I'll just summarize it. ”

When he heard Anne's words, Naimon had a sense of foreboding. Every paper that no one understands usually begins with a similar statement.

"First of all, let's make it clear who is the 'handshake'. Magic is the technology that uses beliefs to change reality, and scholars in the era of the Elven Empire believed that the source of the power of this technology was human beings, and modern experiments have refuted this theory. Changing reality is grossly out of the law, and the food you eat is far less powerful than magic can produce. According to the theory of the Teresan Empire, the moment we use magic, we actually abstract reality into two, a static reality where reality is supposed to be the way it should be, and a dynamic reality where I want to change the goal. The process by which dynamic reality interferes with static reality is magic, and the understanding of magic by all people constitutes dynamic reality itself. The New World School, which advocates idealistic philosophy, refers to these two as 'objective reality' and 'subjective reality', but in fact they are only some philosophical differences, and the specific experimental effects have not changed much. The difference between dynamic reality and static reality is that the former is what we magicians know about the world, and the latter is the world itself. The theory of 'dynamic reality' was tested in the Thomas Intervention experiment, and then under the auspices of the Imperial School, the temporary magic net technology was completed, which was widely used in warfare. After the end of the war, the New World School completed the integration of the magic web, and the current Lenny temporary magic net was built on the theoretical basis of that magic web. Model, renormalize, and model static and dynamic realities to build a magic web that surpasses the rough primitive dynamic reality. This web is the sum total of the worldviews of all intelligent beings around us. The magic web contains all the thoughts, it is completely fictional, but it only admits the facts. If everything in this world is included in this magic net, it is possible to integrate objective reality with human knowledge, and integrate all the magic around it to reconstruct all the spellcasting laws. In order to establish this reality, the web will make a request to you, and you will give it a response, and he will reward you with the knowledge and power you expect according to a certain law, which is the 'three handshakes'. Got it?"

Naimon considers himself a good learner. Using the materials in the library, he taught himself many spells that even his teachers had not mastered, and he often read the Imperial Arcane Journal and the Independent Mage Guild Abstracts. But Anne's words—every sentence is clear, but they are all connected like a heavenly book.

"I don't understand. Completely incomprehensible. ”

Anne stretched out her hand and shook it in front of his eyes, "You can see that the magic net is shaking hands for the first time." Responding to it, presenting your thoughts, is a second handshake. Then it will reward you, and you will be able to use magic. If you meditate, you can see the blue lines that I control, right?"

"Absolutely. ”

Naimon looked up and squinted at the blue threads. These lines float in the air, as if they were nothing, connecting almost all the objects around them. These blue lines are very thin, as thin as spider silk, and you can't see them when you relax your mind a little.

Anne continued, "Imagine yourself accepting its request and using it to use your magic. If you're proficient, you don't need to make any gestures or spells, just use the spell you're used to. ”

"So?"

Naimon tried to grasp the nearest blue silk thread, gesturing as usual, and chanting the incantation: "Magic Missile!"

No response.

Anne comforted, "That'...... Try it out with the experience method and rethink how you felt when you first used magic. Focus, feel the changes around you, feel that net, and give yourself to it. ”

Naimon gave up gestures and spells. He closed his eyes and began to think back to how he felt when he used his first spell. He concentrated, wanting to regain confidence in his own power.

Still unresponsive. No matter how much he tried to concentrate, the huge blue net didn't shake in the slightest.

"Still won't work?" Anne, who had never taught anyone magic before, clutched her hair in annoyance, "There must be something you haven't understood yet." The world is not only material, but also spiritual. Everything you see is the sum total of human knowledge. It's still hard to understand, right? Ah, these definitions also need to be supported by premise theory. Do you want to start with epistemology...... Forget it, I'll take apart the steps of the magic net and demonstrate it once. ”

Anne stretched out her hand, hooked it casually, and grabbed a blue silk thread.

"First handshake. It's a web that connects all of Lennie's magical, if not magical, things. ”

She clenched her fists, and the threads trembled.

"A second handshake. What I want is to recreate the sea of stars. It knows how the magic is supposed to work, and I just need to tell it again. ”

Blue light began to emerge. It was the same process as last night, but now Naimon can see it more clearly.

Light blue magic flows along the blue web, condensing into dew.

The dew condenses into droplets, and the droplets turn into mist. The mist gradually brightened, like the stars in the sky. The light and the afterglow of the morning star shine together.

"Third handshake. The magic net will reward you for your efforts and efforts. The amount of magic that magicians can wield is directly related to their own magic and their contribution to the web. Some people who have not contributed enough can mobilize the magic power through the magic net is not even as high as their own magic potential. But this temporary web was built by me, and its world is mine, so almost all the magic on it can be controlled by me. ”

The blue stars gathered into a star cluster, and the star cluster gathered into a bright moon, resting on Anne's severed arm.

"It's called, 'Sea of Stars'. Why, you understand, right? With your talent for magic theory, you should be able to understand it quickly. ”

Looking at Anne's confident gaze, Naimon had no choice but to pretend to understand and nodded: "It should be...... Let me try. ”

Who is she talking about?

Naimon shook his head, dispelling the jumbled associations, and reached out as well, following Anne's example, and hooked his finger on a filament of the magic web.

"First handshake...... Huh?"

The blue thread leaked through his fingers.

"Not true. Give yourself to the magic net and acknowledge his power. First handshake...... Pregnant. ”

After another attempt, my fingertips felt the touch of a magic net like an electric shock. He felt it. That's the flow of magic. Isn't it gestures and mantras?

Naimon hurriedly shook his head, banishing this purely hallucinatory touch from his mind, in case he developed bad operating habits. He reached out and tried to apply to the net.

"Second handshake...... Magic Arrow!"

His fists clenched, but the blue threads slid slyly from his palms. There is no magic flowing out. Naimon grew nervous, and he took a deep breath to try a third time.

Just then, both she and he heard the tearing sound of a cannonball cutting through the air.

The two of them glanced at each other, and they both knew that it was no longer time to delay here.

"Is this magic too big? Anne turned her head and grabbed the reins, "Let's not talk about it, we'll have to dodge." Hold me tight, Naimon!"

"What?!" Naimon's arm shook and he snapped open his eyes, "This... Embrace... Hold..."

The lieutenant in red shook the reins of her horse, and the spur of her right foot kicked heavily on the horse's flank.

"Hold on, the enemy artillery can detect my magic, they may have mastered the operation of the magic net, and we are going to assault!

Gravitation）！”

"This ...... Newton's magic?"

Namen's words were drowned out by the explosion of magically guided projectiles.

The Sea of Stars is too much of a magic spell, not to mention that it's almost the only major magic at work in the city right now. All the artillery the Empire could control was aimed at the street, ready to destroy the greatest threat with absolute brute force.

Naimon hesitated for a moment, then hugged Anne's waist tightly, for the horse had already begun to step on the nearby wall. Although the direction of gravity has changed, the tremendous acceleration caused by the moment of change is still likely to throw the person out.

To his surprise, what his fingers touched was not the warm fragrance of nephrite as he imagined, but the hard and cold glass-like crystals. Through the military uniform and close-fitting soft leather armor, he could also feel the hard feel and the flow of magic.

Naimon knows this magic. Substitute organs, life-sustaining magic developed by the top mages of the Dark Ages. For top mages, prolonging life is a perpetual challenge. From the use of prosthetic limbs, substitute organs, and attempts to back up the body, a variety of magical techniques have been completed to prevent death.

"Organ magic, you should go to a priest, Annie!"

The horse's hooves stepped over the vertical walls and climbed up to the roof. Shells whizzed and smashed on houses and streets, making a deafening sound.

"Not the time!" replied Anne cried, "where is there such a high priest!"

"How long can your magic last so many organs and prosthetics!"

"There's no need!" Annie's left hand, which was made purely of magical energy, flew like a whip in the air at high speed, intercepting the other two magic cannonballs with tracking magic, "For high-level mages, the body is just a consumable!"

As Anne used her magic, Naimon's fingertips suddenly felt a slight numbness. It's the magic that's flowing—no, it's the web that's flowing.

He concentrated, staring around. The blue lines gathered and scattered at a rapid pace.

The magic in Anne's body is also boiling, and these boiling magic powers affect the surrounding magic web, resulting in a beautiful abstract picture. The blue threads gathered into pigment and different grid shapes, from which waves of air were generated, some of which were blocked in the flight path of the cannonballs, and some were paved between the roofs of the houses, forming their path.

Anne uses magic, and she doesn't need those ritualized spells and gestures. She just needs to act, and the magic net will follow her and start acting. It was a sight that was unusually beautiful to the eyes of the magicians.

"Her own magic and the magic of the magic net are in ...... Resonating with the same rhythm, but how is this different from what I do?"

He subconsciously closed his eyes and hugged Anne's waist tightly, feeling her magic and imagining the logic of how it worked. The surrogate organ itself is maintained by magic, and it is connected to Anne's body by magic wires, and his fingers involuntarily follow those magic wires.

The owner of the graceful waist couldn't sit still, and writhed in the cramped saddle: "Hey, it's itchy." ”

But the sound of the cannon was still loud, and the smoke and wind drowned out her subtle voice. The only arm was grasping the reins of the horse, and the other hand was busy casting colorful magic, and there was really no time to deal with the passengers behind him. She was starting to regret it a little now: the leather armor she had chosen was too close-fitting......

"Forget it, he'll stop when he gets to the place anyway...... Poof, and sensed the flow of my magic! This, this kind of talent is really not low, isn't it?"

Anne held back a well-chuckled laugh, and continued to mutter to herself in a voice that no one could hear, and rode on, leaping from street to street, dodging wave after wave of shelling, until all the shelling stopped.

This means that they have already reached the front of the enemy army.

"Alright, let's stop, we're here. ”

Anne struck the reins, stopped her horse, and looked ahead.

Naimon finally realized what he was doing. His face was flushed, and he hurriedly let go of his hand, jumped off his horse, and looked ahead.

The whole city burned, the yellow light of the flames intertwined with the blue light of the temporary magic net. Houses on both sides of the road were toppled down to form makeshift bunkers crisscrossing her, and within these bunkers, the last of the Empire's reserves lined up in the densest triple array, with no end in sight in front of her and him.

"It seems that the Empire still has soldiers to fight. Anne exclaimed, "Five thousand...... No, maybe 10,000 or 15,000?"

Naimon frowned and nervously made a troop estimate. "Seven to eight thousand, if you don't take into account the reserves. I'm afraid the last reserves of the empire are here. Even if you use your magic to bombard it head-on, I'm afraid you won't be able to penetrate this dense formation. One or two magic missiles can't make a soldier ineffective. ”

The array of the Imperial Army was almost crowded, shoulder to shoulder, muzzle to muzzle. With a formation of this magnitude, the opponent obviously has no intention of reloading, and all battles will be decided in that single shot.

There are already some marksmen trying to shoot at them. Anne stretched and called out three sets of protective magic against stray bullets, thousands of pieces of porcelain floating in front of her, him, and her horse.

"Gustav the Great was a wise and resolute commander. ”

At the end of the lineup, which stretched for half of the fourth district, was the golden-armored man standing on the castle tower. His armor is engraved with the royal coat of arms of the Holy Koman Empire, and the "power" in his hands is clearly visible.

"If you want to rely on more people to disperse the damage, then you don't need the Sea of Stars. Anne stared for a long time, then pursed her lips slightly, "Can you use magic, Naimon?"

Naimon's fingers trembled, but the magic net still didn't react in the slightest.

Sorry to disappoint you. I'm not a genius. I can't grasp such a complex theory......

But all the words condensed into one word: "I'm sorry." ”

"I'm not in a hurry. Anne shrugged her shoulders and dismounted, "Then let's divide the work." I'll go kill the Emperor, Soleton, and you'll be in charge of keeping an eye on the horses. ”

"What? look...... Look at the horses?"

Naimon wondered if he had misheard. When she said "kill the emperor", her tone was as indifferent as saying "I'll cook tonight, and you wash the dishes".

"This horse has a lot of magic on it, and it's quite troublesome to strengthen another one. ”

Anne looked at the dawn in the east and took a step. As soon as she took a few steps, she suddenly remembered something, and turned around and added: "Also, it's time for you to sit in front on the way back!"

——***——***——***——***

August 9, 1666 (MDay+130) Dawn of the Imperial Position in the East 4th District

——***——***——***——***

"Stop the shelling! All units are in position!"

"Stop shelling!"

The sound of command echoed above the entire reserve.

The shelling stopped, and everyone gasped. The all-out artillery bombardment was also unsuccessful, and the few remaining high-level mages were fighting in two strands—the huge magic group was still there.

"The enemy's magic is still working!"

"The goal is still on track!"

"The Knights of the Medicary are in place!"

"The Knights of the Guards are in place!"

"The largest dense formation! Even if you use human lives to fill it, you have to fill her here!"

The concentration of exclamation points in conversations between Imperial officers was noticeably more than ten times higher than on a normal day. HQ didn't plan for this situation, as no one could have imagined that the Empire's vaunted group of elite spellcasters would fall into a situation where they lacked mana.

"Build an enchantment! Refuse the other party's mana absorption!"

"Your Excellency, the reserves are not strong enough in magic! Two-thirds of our magic forces are fighting against López on the northern front, and the rest have suffered heavy losses in the previous battles, and they can't guarantee basic magical support!"

"We're probably going to get rid of all the low-level mages, but the magic items seem to be working. ”

"Let the logistics side not count the seizures, if there are any magic items, send them over immediately!"

Since the First Freedom War, the Empire's troika of mages, clerics, and nobles, though not very commanded and orderly, has steadily overwhelmed the Free Army in terms of magical warfare.

In order to combat the difference in magical combat power by more than ten times, the southern countries successively established military academies, public libraries, and manufacturing contractor systems, but they only barely narrowed the gap to one to three, that is, "the casters of the entire free country can achieve a temporary suppressive advantage over the imperial army on a local battlefield."

However, Lenny's offensive and defensive battles are clearly not among them. Even after a few divisions, with only a third of the casters of the main legion remaining, they still maintained a solid magical advantage over the defenders.

Until tonight.

The witches of the Free Army suppressed them all by themselves. Suppressed to the point where there were only a few dozen high-level mages left in the entire legion, and this number was decreasing every minute.

Not to mention the wide-area artillery spell that could subvert many magical theories, the corrosive spell she wielded alone made every caster's heart tremble. The blue line, which represents erosion, is spreading so quickly that the danger has never been greater.

"What the hell is that blue line that covers the sky like a net!"

"Reconstruct the formation with the High Mage as the center!Don't surrender to the Blue Line!"

"Measure the mana flow and give me the flow data!"

"The enemy-controlled Blue Zone is expanding at a rapid rate! Be... More than 5,000 units?!"

"Is the other party's erosion magic automatic? What kind of perverted spell is this!"

"The enemy relies on the power of the new super magic! Don't be nervous, super magic is not scary! Concentrate on defense, we can win!"

But the enemy will not give them any more time. Everyone saw that the woman in the red uniform had jumped off the horse.

Horses neigh.

"It's coming. Many people are suppressing their fears and subconsciously repeating, "It's finally here." ”

The Imperial soldiers, who looked at each other as if they were at home, nodded to each other and began a volley. If even scattered formations and concealment can't fight against the Sea of Stars, then only flesh and blood can be used to fight it.

To their surprise, the huge mass of magic did not fall down as before.

Instead, there was a one-man march.

"It's not a magic attack! Be careful that she breaks through with continuous teleportation! Don't mess with yourself!"

In charge of the first line of defense was the court mage Peter Riley, one of the few who could still maintain his conviction to use magic.

After discovering that the opponent's magical combat power was beyond imagination, the command system of the Imperial Army was quickly handed over to the mages and priests who accompanied the army. The remaining less than twenty high-level mages were each in charge of a defensive line, concentrating all magic weapons and anti-magic guns behind the flesh defensive line.

Tactics such as "high-level mage breakthrough by one" were originally the exclusive tactics of the Imperial Army, and the defense system against this tactic was put into actual combat for the first time today. The high-level mages led sniper squads, hiding in the ruins of houses and streets, keeping an eye on the battle line.

But Anne Seffel didn't use continuous teleportation. She didn't feel the need to do such superfluous calculations.

"Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!"

Porcelain shavings flew, and bullets fired by Imperial soldiers smashed into pieces of ceramics. Probably the bad taste of the spellcaster, all the porcelain pieces are blue and white with blue and white background, the best oriental goods.

The blonde female officer raised her left hand, which was made purely of magic, and drew a charming sketch in the air. Riley thought he should be among the best 100 mages in the world, but even he couldn't see the magic of its variety and speed. Whether it's ranged or melee, sniper or area-of-effect magic, no attack threatens her.

As the commander, Riley could see clearly only the broken line of defense.

The horror of that scene is difficult to describe in words, and it is a hundred times more tragic than the previous battle that was attacked by the "Sea of Stars". Each of the wounded was subjected to a completely different magical attack, and their horrific appearance was different, like hell.

In the face of such a scene, he did not let his sniper team attack in the end. He didn't dare give that order.

He was not the only one who thought so, and the commanders of the second and third lines of defense did not take any action. The Honourable Thomas Hobbes, who was in charge of the Fourth Line of Defense, barely launched the attack, leaving traces that could no longer be said to be corpses - were painted on the wall of a ruined house next to him.

"No...... Our assumptions are all wrong. She's not the kind of magician who 'relies on big magic' at all. With this skill and efficiency in using ordinary magic alone, she is better than all of us. She uses big magic just because...... Just because ...... It's just lazy. ”

Thinking of this, Riley began to tremble involuntarily. If using that kind of big magic is lazy...... What would she be like if she wasn't lazy?

Then, he saw Anne stop in front of the fifth line of defense and reach out to the line. She said, "Do you need me to repeat what I did before?"

The language seemed magical. No, it must have magical powers, but the court mages couldn't recognize the magic either.

Because then, the entire line of defense was split from the center. The most elite Imperial soldiers were turned into walls of the "Seffir Corridor".

Those valiant Imperial soldiers, like their comrades-in-arms, lost the will to fight in the face of this power that transcended humanity. They silently lowered their guns and stood silently, watching the terrible witch pass through them. Fighting such an enemy without any magical support is tantamount to death.

Some aristocrats couldn't hold back their tears. They knew they would never forget their failures here for the rest of their lives.

Riley, who was also a court painter, couldn't help but pull out his sketchbook and draw this shocking scene on the sketchbook. Next to the sketch, Peter Riley wrote, "Magic is like a part of her body, and Lennie is like her world." ”

And on the outer wall of Lenny at the end of the road, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Army of Golden Armor, the Minister of War, Duke Figota, was also watching this scene. The corridor stretched from where Anne was, to the gates at his feet.

"Let the staff retreat, the combat effectiveness of the other side is far beyond estimates. However, it is not beyond what we can handle. ”

"Do you want to use that, Lord Duke?" asked a staff officer, "...... sacrifice like that?"

Duke von Figota replied, "It won't be worse than the First Defense Zone." She's trying to break the backbone of our Imperial Army. ”

"Well, allow us to see the end. We are also very confident in the defense of that area and will not lose to her ......"

Hearing the request of the staff officers, the scepter called "Might" in the duke's hand slammed heavily on the ground: "No, you must leave. Your war is not over. That's an order. ”

The old duke is holding the "might" in his hands, and the command sword at his waist is the "mercy" of the Count of Eagle Wing. This means that he currently has command over all subjects of the empire. The staff officers did not dare to disobey, and left the top of the city wall after saluting.

"And I will see the last moment, or I will be sorry for these weapons that Your Majesty and the Foreign Secretary have entrusted to me. ”

The Duke muttered to himself, looking at the thirty twenty-four-pounder guns deployed behind the line. These heavy artillery, which was originally intended for siege purposes, had been filled with demon-breaking bullets and double-shot shells, and were his last line of defense.

And that terrible witch is walking into the firing zone of the last line of defense. Looking at her steps, the Duke finally went through the plan in his mind, nodded in satisfaction, and lowered the covering of his helmet.

"If the winner of a battle can be determined by the level of magic alone, humans don't need magic. ”

As Anne walked out of the last barricade, all thirty heavy cannons roared, and the whole of Lenny shook. Even the Liberty Bell on the roof of the 1st District Council building shook and rang incessantly with the sound of the shelling.

In the midst of the smoke, the girl whispered the incantation: "SuperElectromagneticField"!

Her left arm, which was made entirely of magic, suddenly began to change. Sparks of lightning flashed from near the magic arm, and the magic arm itself turned into countless filaments, netting all the shotguns and magic breakers fired from the front. Magicians have known for a long time that they can use magnetic fields against the bombardment of iron and sand weapons, and they have also known that they can use magic repulsion fields against magic metals. But it wasn't until Faraday that they had an electromagnetic field shield that was universal to all metals.

This is unheard of knowledge for the mages of the Empire. They had never heard of a mage who could withstand the simultaneous bombardment of thirty shotguns of different materials.

But the blonde lieutenant rushed out of the hail of bullets head-on—with a left arm made purely of hot metal projectiles and electric sparks!

She was so fast that the gunners hadn't even had time to reload a second time. Her left arm was like a demon of death, easily slaughtering the Empire's best artillery units.

Looking at this tragic scene, Duke Figota's face did not change at all, but his eyes were slightly moist.

"You helped me make the hardest decision. He jerked out his command sword "Mercy" and ordered, "Ignite the artillery position!"

The last two High Mages hurled high-temperature javelins made of pure flame at the artillery position.

Sensing this sudden magic, Anne looked down and found that behind the artillery position, there was a mountain of wooden barrels. She also realized what was in the barrels.

That's obviously gunpowder. The Imperial Army actually gave up their entire heavy artillery force to use as bait!

There is only time left to use one spell. It is impossible for her to protect herself and get out of the danger zone at the same time.

Anne gritted her teeth and made a decision in an instant-

The powder kegs of the entire artillery position exploded. The Imperial Reserve moved the entire regiment's stockpile of gunpowder, which amounted to tens of thousands of pounds.

It was a big explosion that was enough to blow up half a street, and black smoke rose in the air, looking like giant black mushrooms. Except for the slowly falling clouds of smoke, the entire battlefield was silent, and the only sounds of splinters, masonry, and metal particles raining down on the ground and rolling could be heard.

Then they noticed that the huge, star-like mass of magic seemed to be getting smaller.

"Did you win?" the Imperial soldiers began to whisper to each other, and the voices grew louder and louder.

I don't know who shouted first: "Kill the witch! Long live the emperor! Long live the Holy Empire!"

The cheer spread ten, ten, hundreds, until all the remaining living began to cheer. The wounded soldiers cheered in weak voices, and the seriously wounded took their last breath with relieved smiles.

Only two people did not join the chorus of cheers.

On the westernmost side of the battlefield, the young Free Army captain fell to his knees with his legs limp.

"No...... No way. Annie...... Annie...... I...... I ......"

Naymen Soleton repeated the meaningless babble over and over again, his fingers digging hard at the cracks in the bricks on the ground. His nails were cracked out, and his flesh was a blur of flesh.

And on the easternmost side of the battlefield, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Army could not laugh.

For he heard a beautiful female voice, merrily repeating the slogan.

"Long live His Majesty the Emperor~, right?"

The old Duke von Figota looked up sharply, and saw Anne Seffir slowly falling from mid-air with a smile on her face, and her right hand was placed near her forehead with a very non-standard imperial military salute.

"That scepter is might...... It is a pleasure to meet you, His Majesty the Emperor. ”

His eyes widened. Even if this is an arrangement...... Can't you defeat this witch?

"Very exciting arrangement, Your Majesty, but enough is enough. Our world needs peace. ”

She landed not far in front of the Duke. The Duke noticed that the pants of her military uniform were torn, and the black enchanted leather armor inside was embedded with shrapnel and shotgun projectiles.

The seasoned duke immediately understood Anne's way to get out of the trap: at that moment, she used her flying spell and controlled the electromagnetic field to abandon her heavy left arm, in exchange for a huge muzzle velocity enough to take her into the sky and avoid the storm.

She's not a violent mage who relies only on powerful magic powers—she's a true top-notch mage. If she tried to use teleportation, flight, or protection magic with her last spell, she would probably have lost her life, but she wisely forfeited her protection.

Almost at the same time, the old Duke of Figota also realized that the other party had mistaken him for Emperor Gustav.

"Witches are not omnipotent, and she sometimes makes mistakes. ”

The duke did not answer her, but said so to himself in his heart.

He threw down the "benevolence" in his hand, pulled out the "power", and stroked the magic circuit above it with his fingers. The sharpest sword in the world plunged directly into the wall bricks, revealing only two-thirds of the sword on the outside.

Anne wiped her face and her expression became serious: "It seems that Your Majesty doesn't want to talk about it." In that case, let's just end the war right here. ”

The jewel at the top of "might" lit up as an answer.

BTW: Actually...... The full version of one of the above sentences should be "( Welcome to the majority of book friends to come and read, the latest, fastest, and hottest serialized works are all here!