Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1234 Was the explosion successful?

As usual, Andre, a sentry of the Lostra Town Guard, stood guard at his post, bored and watching everything that happened under the moonlight. The wind blew through the desolate rocky mountains, and the exposed cliffs were emitting a pale cold light. For many years, the miners had been hammering underground, making the rock structure of this land extremely fragile. The gravel was eroded and peeled off by the wind, and the town was always sinking year after year, as if it was being devoured by a monster hidden in the abyss.

This reminded Andre of his hometown, a beautiful city once known as the "City Surrounded by the Sea", which was later always shrouded by the whistling of mining machinery and the huge haze of iron smelting blast furnaces. The East and West continents are separated by the sea, and their history and culture have their own origins, but the two towns seem to be heading towards the same fate.

However, what does this have to do with an ordinary soldier of lowly status like me?

No matter how bad Lostra became due to mining development, he would not have much sympathy for it; and no matter how ugly Rothdana became due to industrial pollution, it could not stop him from having an irresistible urge to miss his hometown. Emotions always have tendencies. When boarding the troop transport ship to a foreign land, the young soldier had already made his own choice. He would cruelly hurt some people he didn't know in exchange for the good life of his relatives in his hometown.

After serving in the army for many years, the money he sent back home was enough for his family to renovate the house, buy one or two good fields, and hire some help, so that they don't have to work in the fields themselves and get injured. Or simply move to a big city, let his sister find a decent job, let his nephews go to church schools to study hard, and hire a maid to do the housework. His elderly parents only need to go to the park and watch a play every day, and the family can live like the most respectable middle class. That is Andre's ideal life.

In a few years, in a few years, I will have enough experience and apply to my superiors for transfer back to my home country. It is said that the country has always treated soldiers returning from overseas with favor and given priority to their dispatch needs. By then, I may be able to wear the medal of a lieutenant, return home in glory, and reunite with my family. In the eyes of the sentinel, this future is so within reach, as if he had just slept, closed his eyes, and opened them again, he was already standing on familiar land, with the people he had been thinking about day and night in front of him.

For the soldiers stationed in the rear, time is always so dull, and every day is just an ordinary and boring one. Although the rebels have been very powerful during this period and have attacked many villages and towns and convoys transporting supplies, no matter how arrogant they are, they will never dare to attack Lostra Town. This is one of the most heavily defended areas in the entire Ansers region, and the defense force is as strong as a rock. If the enemy does not want to seek death, the best choice is to pick on the weak as in the past.

In Andre's opinion, although his job was boring, it was safe enough, so safe that he could still think about the future while on duty, and never doubt whether it would come. At this moment, he only hoped that the time for the shift change would come sooner, and the person in charge of the next shift would not procrastinate. He felt a little cold in the night wind, and just wanted to go back to warm himself by the fire and sleep early.

Just as he sleepily raised his hand and was about to yawn, the sky suddenly darkened and the sentry could no longer see the moonlight. The rugged and sharp cliffs suddenly turned into terrifying beasts, showing their fangs and claws in the dark and demonstrating to him.

At first Andre thought that dark clouds had covered the moon, but he just looked up and froze in place, because not only was the moon gone, but the entire night sky was submerged in darkness. It was like a mighty tide, flooding over the mountains and the land, rushing towards the town of Lostra.

Enemy attack! ?
The sentry shouted a warning, but he was horrified to find that he did not make any sound at all. Instead, he felt a wet sensation in his throat, as if some sticky liquid was flowing out of his throat. He knew it was his blood, but he could not smell it, nor could he feel its warmth, and he did not even feel the pain of his throat being cut by a sharp weapon.

It is the ability of a supernatural being!

When he realized this, the sentinel had lost the strength to struggle and his body fell limply, but his mind was clearer than ever. He suddenly remembered a person who had attracted great attention within the 17th Legion: the leader of the rebels, a man named Carson Borg.

It is said that he is a high-sequence transcendent who possesses a transcendent ability called [Shadow Kingdom]. In his hands, shadows will devour the bright world like a beast, and people shrouded in darkness will lose their perception of themselves and the outside world. He has repeatedly used this ability to sneak attack the coalition strongholds and succeeded repeatedly. The commander of the 17th Legion has repeatedly warned his subordinates to be more vigilant against the rebel leaders and rebel teams, and not to ignore his precautions at any time.

However, Andre had never witnessed this kind of power. This soldier from the Western Continent was too far away from the front battlefield and had no idea what the so-called "superhumans" and "superhuman abilities" were. He always thought that they were just tricks used by the natives of the Eastern Continent to play tricks, like the wizards and witchcraft of the Moryas.

At the last moment of his life, the young sentinel might regret his negligence, or feel guilty towards his family far away in the Western Continent, or perhaps the last bit of responsibility from his military duty made him desperately want to convey something and warn his comrades behind him. But while the [Shadow Kingdom] deprived him of his five senses, it also delayed his premonition of death, so that after he fell to the ground, he could still clearly hear the sound of his heart gradually stopping, and the sound of other comrades who were standing guard falling down in the distance.

Then there were more footsteps. There was more than one enemy... an army.

"Start... Start quickly..."

Finally, he heard the captain of the security team shout, "Anti-magic...defense stance..."

It has nothing to do with me anymore.

He thought and closed his eyes drowsily.

This war has nothing to do with him anymore.

……

Since the outbreak of the colonial war, how to contain the enemy's extraordinary power has always been an enduring issue between the Axis and the Allies. For the Allies, the threat comes from the organized armed magic army and its attached chariots, constructed mechas and even constructed mechas. This war torrent driven by magic has almost overwhelming dominance when facing the old-style army; and for the Axis, the biggest threat is undoubtedly those extraordinary people who act recklessly under the banner of gods and put themselves above mortals. They are usually unruly and difficult to integrate into the military system, but because of their too strong individual strength, they have the confidence to compete with the army, and are even more threatening than the army at times. The Allies' defense countermeasures against the magic system can be summarized as learning and imitation. They seized the enemy's magic weapons and used them to arm their own army, and dismantled their internal structures, trying to combine them with local alchemy to create a system that is more adapted to the social environment of the East Continent and more universal than extraordinary people and magicians, to improve the overall combat effectiveness of the army.

For humans, learning and imitating are not difficult things, and have even become their instincts. Even children like Mitch and Kadora, as long as they have magic power and a certain learning ability, can still pick up magic weapons and become a qualified warrior.

However, the Axis powers' defense measures against supernatural beings and magicians are far more complicated than this. Due to some well-known reasons, it is almost impossible for them to learn and imitate this traditional supernatural power. The United Churches even openly declared that the supernatural system that will only lead to madness and the magic system that is only suitable for the elite groups are all backward products of the old era. The joint scientific research departments of the Churches, headed by the Night Roost and the Scourge Mission, provided the Axis powers with a full-range magic defense system based on the new era theory, among which position defense is the core of positional warfare.

The complex [Ether Optical Stand] and [Magic Blockade Stand] were created to deal with the extraordinary powers of demigods and above. The simplified [Magic Protection Stand] and [Magic Repulsion Stand] are suitable for large-scale battles with weaker power levels but more frequency and waves. In addition, there are [Magic Absorption Devices] used in small and medium-scale battles, and [Magic Conversion Stand] used in counterattacks. The status of these stand devices in wars beyond human standards is almost equivalent to the status of gunpowder in modern warfare.

As the key defense area of ​​the 17th Legion in the Ansers region, although the town of Lostra is not large in scale, it has also deployed corresponding stand devices, which together with the mechanized troops and tank troops stationed nearby form the so-called "anti-magic defense system."

The commander of the Lostra Town Guard reacted quickly and activated the corresponding strategy almost immediately after the attack. The huge field generator in the center of the town began to operate under the operation of the technicians. The blue crystal wall field rose from the ground and expanded outward at a very fast speed, soon covering the entire town in a semicircular anti-magic protection layer. This field device called [Magic Repulsion Field] can weaken the magic energy level to a certain extent, whether it is released or absorbed. Its disadvantage is that it cannot distinguish between enemies and friends. Therefore, when the enemy's attack is weakened, people within the field protection range cannot launch timely and effective attacks.

Therefore, the strategic deployment of Lostra Town is basically based on defense, and the two fortresses, tank units and mecha units with real offensive capabilities are deployed outside the town, occupying commanding heights or areas where the enemy cannot launch effective attacks. The most simple strategy in this tactical system is to rely on the town's fortifications to resist enemy attacks, use the large-scale killing weapons in the two fortresses to annihilate the enemy's living forces, and finally dispatch tanks and mechas to finish off.

But the person who formulated this strategy may not realize that he made the biggest mistake, which was to exclude the mines to which Lostra Town depended from this defense system. Perhaps in his mind, the enemy could launch an attack from any direction, except the mines, because the dark and complex environment there was not suitable for organizing a large-scale offensive.

This unintentional or deliberate design mistake created an opportunity for the Liberators' Front.

When Regina witnessed with her own eyes the huge dark blue crystal wall rising from the ground, followed by the endless sound of gunfire and fighting, and the flames from the artillery and gun muzzles almost reignited half of the night sky, she realized that the moment she had been waiting for for so long had finally arrived.

"Boss Giovanni!" she shouted anxiously, "We can prepare for the explosion..."

"Do it."

Giovanni's reaction was faster and calmer than hers, and he uttered two words calmly. The old miners who were responsible for the blasting mission looked at each other, and a smile of "we were ready" appeared on their faces. They waved their hands to drive the irrelevant people to a safe distance, even the anxious Regina was no exception. Only Giovanni could stay where he was. He was the boss of the miners, so he naturally wanted to witness this scene with his own eyes.

"Prepare for blasting. Three, two, one... start!"

As soon as the words fell, a calloused hand hit the start button of the improvised detonator without hesitation, and a huge amount of energy was transmitted through the fuse to the engineering explosives that had been arranged long ago, triggering the tremendous energy accumulated in them. Accompanied by a roar that almost burst the eardrums and billowing smoke and dust, the entire tunnel began to shake, and the ground beneath the feet wailed and trembled. This earth-shaking scene even made people mistakenly think that the mine was collapsing and the tunnel was about to be swallowed up.

This was not a noise that could be caused by a single explosion. In fact, at the same time, engineering explosives in other blasting areas were also detonated. Giovanni and his old friends carefully surveyed and selected multiple blasting sites for this operation, and the old miners who were skilled in blasting had carefully considered and calculated the equivalent of explosives beforehand, and even conducted several experimental blasts. Perhaps in the past, gunpowder blasting was regarded as the most dangerous task in the mine. Even if they were fully prepared, no one could guarantee that they would not fail. But at least this time, they can tell you without a doubt: it will succeed.

Because this is an action that has no other way to go except success.

Sure enough, when the smoke and dust dissipated and the tunnel and the ground gradually returned to calm, Giovanni saw that a hideous hole had been torn in the originally hard and rugged rock layer. The radiating and diffuse scars looked as if they had been ravaged by the fists of the legendary God of Destruction.

“Hahaha!” He also heard an old friend burst into laughter: “As expected of the alchemist’s stuff, it’s purer than what we used before!”

A smile appeared on his face, but he quickly restrained it and turned back to Regina who was coughing and said, "The explosion was successful."

"Notify the personnel outside and prepare to carry out the mission."

Give me some meow