A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 142 The Time Dimension
In 1432, the first arcane-powered airship catapult in Temüller was built.

Its name is "Grindelwald's Eye".

Prior to this, airships had existed for over four hundred years. These cargo balloons, powered by high-pressure steam and coal-fired boilers, were weapons of war invented by the Empire. Their main purpose was to replace ships that were easily intercepted by the navy for long-distance ocean transport, enabling transcontinental warfare.

Later, the airship's levitation technology was dismantled by the Eastern Kingdom. The Clock Tower and the Eastern Kingdom's conglomerates developed a more advanced arcane-powered airship. The flight time required to cross the continent was shortened from five months to three months. Moreover, because the fuel was changed from kerosene to arcane matrix energy storage, it was no longer necessary to vacate half of the ship's cabin to store kerosene, greatly increasing the carrying capacity. This technology was also gradually made available for civilian use.

Even after three or four hundred years, airships were not widespread. The main reason was that their speed was not much faster than that of a train, and the cost of flying across continents was far higher than that of a ship ticket. Therefore, airships were only available to the wealthy and upper classes, until the appearance of Grindelwald's Eye.

It only takes one day to travel from the Southern Continent to the Eastern Islands, so is the price of an airship ticket, which is three or four times that of a ship ticket, considered expensive?

Airship transport towers certainly don't just have simple catapult functions. If simply using immense force to launch a brick could accelerate an airship, then countries would have already installed various high-energy thrusters at the tail of their airships to achieve aerospace technology. This also involves whether the airship's fuselage can withstand such high acceleration loads. If, like a train, all-metal construction is used to increase fuselage strength, takeoff and propulsion would become problematic.
In any civilization, materials science has always been a major bottleneck limiting its development.

Airships capable of withstanding high acceleration loads certainly exist, but those fall into the category of arcane artifacts, and their cost would be so high that they would have no practical value.

"Currently, there are two main methods of protection in the arcane world—"

Ankuya chewed on a nicotine gum and said, "Use arcane magic to create a physical barrier, or a spatial barrier."

"In earlier years, high-speed airships all used the first method, which involved filling the airship with various reinforcement matrices and using alchemical materials to build the frame without regard to cost. It is said that the Imperial Arcane Academy and the Clock Tower both built experimental high-speed airships. Once the arcane barrier was opened, it could withstand an acceleration of nearly 1,500 kilometers per hour, and it would only take 15 hours to fly from the Northern Continent to the Southern Continent."

"However, it was later discovered that the cost of such a flight was higher than using a teleportation array. These highly integrated airships needed maintenance after only a couple of flights, so the matter was dropped. The prototype of the Clock Tower was sold to a collector in the Southern Continent, while the Empire turned to researching something more powerful—the internal combustion engine? They researched it for a couple hundred years without any breakthroughs; the technology had reached a bottleneck."

Quinn's eyes flickered slightly when he heard the word "internal combustion engine".

Yes
The sense of alienation he felt from civilization in this world was related to technological development.

Although filled with supernatural phenomena, the mysteries related to the extraordinary were firmly covered up by the religion and the government. Arcane magic was more academic, and arcane magicians were very different from the Western magicians that Quinn stereotyped. They were more open and rigorous, and welcomed invention and development, which theoretically would promote scientific progress.

With a sufficient population, conservatism and feudalism are not prevalent in society, capitalism is flourishing, there is an arms race-level confrontation between the North and South continents, and there is also the threat of the Demon King's army that comes once every few centuries.
However, the technological level of Tamiune was as if it had been stuck in the steam civilization for hundreds of years, and Eswell was just a super-enlarged version of London in the second half of the 19th century.

Logically, once the steam engine appeared, the internal combustion engine should have been invented soon after, and physical chemistry would have been forced to develop by materials science.
Quinn, however, saw no trace of modern technology. There were lamps for lighting, but they were gas lamps; there were cameras for photography, but they were purely mechanical black-and-white film cameras; flintlock muskets had existed for centuries, yet there were still no semi-automatic rifles or missiles.
It's definitely not because the people in this world are stupid. While Quinn isn't particularly interested in engineering, as a top student with a modern education, he has a certain understanding of engineering. From some of the mechanical structures in this world, such as clocks, factory production lines, and even some mechanical prosthetics—the complexity of these machines, driven purely by gears and springs, is in no way inferior to Earth's technology. So why can't they develop inventions as simple yet in such high demand as semi-automatic triggers?

Ankuya continued, "Grindelwald's Eye is the second option—space protection."

"Space. Protection?"

Although Quinn's level of arcane theory has improved rapidly in recent times, he still can't figure out things like spatial magic, which have no logic and rely on so-called "imagination".

"simply put--"

He raised his wand and drew a circle in the air, and the drawing projected onto the ceiling by the astronomical instrument gained an extra circle, enclosing something like a dome.

"The principle of the teleportation tower is to envelop the airship in a temporary space, then accelerate this space and shoot it away."

"Like a slingshot?" Quinn used his imagination.

"Pretty much. The airship inside the space is actually stationary. Once the space is worn down and cracks open, the airship will be carried out by the inertia of the incoming airship. Through rigorous calculations, it can glide directly to its destination."

"So," Quinn suddenly realized, "this is a spatial magic artifact?"

Ankua nodded.

"Besides the Eye of Grindelwald, there is one in the Third New Tokyo City of the Eastern Kingdom and one in the Imperial Capital of the Empire."

Quinn remained calm upon hearing "Third New Tokyo City," where Nene Amamiya's grandmother lived.

"However, those two are replicas, and they cannot compare to Grindelwald's Eye in terms of energy efficiency and speed. Only the AirWill aviation hub can be commercially deployed at low cost."

"The Eye of Grindelwald was not originally an airship teleportation tower, but rather an idea of ​​Merlin's—an annihilation cannon for the Demon King's castle."

When Ankua said this, his tone was somewhat sarcastic, as if he were mocking the unrealistic ideas of the second hero from a thousand years ago.

"Anti-Demon Castle Annihilation Cannon?" Quinn was filled with awe, recalling the design of Grindelwald's Eye, a fountain defense tower.

"Didn't you ask me where His Majesty and the demons are?"

Quinn sat up straight and listened attentively.

Are you guessing that they exist in different spatial dimensions, such as academies?

Ankua remotely retrieved a bottle of whiskey and poured a glass for Quinn as he spoke.

"The world inhabited by the demons is exactly the same place as Temuran."

He poured himself another glass, saying casually, "It's just a different dimension of time."

"Different time dimensions?" Quinn pondered the question.

time?

“You can think of it as two Temurians.” Ankuya took a sip of his drink. “The demons are on the losing side, while humans are… well, on the winning side.”

When the word "success" came up, he gave a sarcastic laugh.

"What do you mean?" Quinn was dumbfounded. "Aren't demons just another kind of human? Holy crap, what kind of twisted 'enemy and friend from the same source' is this?"

“No.” Ankuya looked at him with a stern face: “Demons and humans are not the same kind of beings. When I take you back, don’t bring up this kind of issue in front of His Majesty. Using ‘humans’ to describe demons is a form of pollution.”

"Tsk tsk, Heavenly Dragon Demon, is it?"

Quinn drank his wine without a care in the world.

Since becoming Sequence 8, his alcohol tolerance has increased significantly, and ordinary alcohol no longer makes him feel drunk.

"So what if you're not? Why the long face? Aren't you human?"

He suddenly realized a possibility and asked in shock, "Holy crap, Aqua, you're not a half-blood, are you? Your mother was killed by the evil Spirit Church, turned into a 100,000-year spirit ring to sacrifice to your father, and then took you to a small village to hide your identity and prepare for revenge and resurrect your lover—"

Ankuya's face darkened further. "Demons and humans cannot reproduce. Isn't that stated in the textbooks of the Reproductive Isolation Academy?"

He didn't want to be interrupted by Quinn any longer and got back to the main topic.

"The Academy's Research and Development Department was initially established to develop an annihilation cannon for the Demon King's castle. Merlin's idea was to build a device that could transcend the dimension of time, sending humanity's top combat power to the Demon Realm to kill the Demon King while he was still in his infancy."

"Childhood?"

Quinn looked at him curiously.

But Ankua didn't stop, seemingly having said the wrong thing and unwilling to explain what "the Demon King's infancy" meant. "Transcending time dimensions involves the fundamental laws of the world, something even gods cannot accomplish. Arcane magic has its limits; after a thousand years of research, the academy abandoned this impossible concept, especially since the war is almost over."

“And the Eye of Grindelwald is an unexpected byproduct of the Demon King's Castle Annihilation Cannon. Except for its inability to traverse the dimension of time, it is exactly the same as the weapon conceived by Merlin.” Ankuya slowed his speech, no longer so sarcastic, a sign of his respect as an arcanist for the pinnacle of wisdom: “It can achieve spatial travel, possesses manned capabilities far exceeding the scale of teleportation arrays, and even delivers a near-forbidden-spell-level explosion upon arrival.”

"Explosion?" Quinn had never heard of Grindelwald's Eye having that function.

"The one displayed in the city is a simplified version," Ankuya stated succinctly. "The prototype of Grindelwald's Eye requires an astronomical amount of mana to activate, making commercial use impractical. This airship teleportation tower has omitted its spatial teleportation and explosive functions."

"Then how do we kill Lin?" Quinn asked instinctively.

“Although its functions have been crippled, it’s still the same thing at its core.” He said calmly, “As long as the core matrix formula of the teleportation tower is overwritten, the weapon’s functions can be restored.”

"The teleportation tower's cannons will lock the space, at which point Lin will be absolutely unable to teleport, and then we can fire the cannons."

Quinn listened, stunned.

"Bro, how do we rewrite the spell formula? Should we go to the R&D department and kidnap someone to do the work?"

"I've got it sorted out."

Ankuya raised his glass nonchalantly: "Do you think I've been going to the Bransons' house these days just to investigate Elon? They're the airport operator that maintains the teleportation towers."

The wine cabinet had several more bottles of fine wines than when Quinn last visited, all of them rare gems similar to those from Saint-Vivant. Although Ancouya's salary was not low, it was far from enough to afford such extravagant spending.

It's obvious where it came from.

Quinn clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Awesome!"

After killing the hero, Ancusa received the MVP award with a score of 13.0 after the match, while Quinn was just an easy win!
“Using the Eye of Grindelwald as a cannon, while not as powerful as the original, is still enough to reach the level of a ninth-order arcane spell. It would be enough to blast open the academy gates, and killing Lin would not be a problem.”

Quinn nodded slightly.

“However, there’s a problem—” Ankuya pointed to the energy storage array section of the teleportation tower on the blueprint: “The Eye of Grindelwald is underpowered and needs at least two hours to recharge and reach overload status before the spell can be activated.”

"Besides that, we don't have much time left to escape."

Quinn's brow furrowed sharply.

"If we escape back to the Demon King's castle, will we also have to travel through time dimensions?"

"Correct."

"Holy crap, General Kua, you've got this all sorted out?"

"No, His Majesty will come to pick us up."

"The Demon King?"

Ankuya nodded, his tone somewhat helpless: "The last time we sent you here, the Holy See is now on high alert. If we want His Majesty's power to descend, we need to stay away from the sun. The farther away, the better."

"What exactly should be done?"

The blueprints in the sky have been replaced by maps.

“We’ll make our move at night. The sun should be moving toward the northern continent then, and we need to escape to the opposite side of the sun—” Ankua’s wand pointed to the other side of the northern continent, to a port city at the southernmost tip of the Kingdom of Ron: “Akenet, the place farthest from the night sun.”

Quinn was slightly stunned.

"This is."

“That’s right, Amamiya Nene’s hometown.”

Ankua has taken all possibilities into account.

“We only have an hour at most to escape. Normally, it would be impossible to escape thousands of kilometers away in an hour, but the academy happens to have a teleportation array that connects to Aknets. That teleportation array is in the principal’s workshop and can teleport you to the basement of the Cavendish family’s house.”

"You mean, after we kill the hero, we're going back to the academy?"

Ankuya nodded again.

"This matter cannot be kept secret from the academy; it cannot withstand investigation. Therefore, we need a scapegoat to distract the academy's investigation. Even if it's only for half an hour, it will be enough."

Quinn instantly thought of an organization that Ankuya had kept quiet until today and had a reasonable motive.

"You don't want Golden Wind to be the scapegoat, do you?"

Ankua smiled gently.

"What does this have to do with me? On the night of July 1st, Congressman Elon gave a speech in front of Grindelwald's Eye, and the Golden Winds of Seville's mob happened to learn that he had uncovered the mastermind behind the robbery, so he became enraged."

"This can't be done? How can a gang control the Eye of Grindelwald?"

“How would I know?” Ankuya said innocently, “But they ‘just happened’ to have the Academy’s secret box in their hands, and they ran away as soon as the Academy people appeared. The Eye of Grindelwald shot Elon, but it just so happened that an innocent student was caught in the crossfire.”

"That secret box you mentioned that just happened to appear, could it contain the Star Flower?"

Ankuya smiled slightly.

"I will submit a full report on the robbery the day before the operation begins, and then hint that Golden Wind might target Elon. That way, when the Eye of Grindelwald explodes, even if the school leaders don't believe it, they will subconsciously try to arrest Golden Wind. And they can hide for half an hour, plus the interrogation time, which will be enough for us to evacuate."

Quinn remained silent for a long time.

"What if"

"What should we do if Grindelwald's Eye didn't kill Lynn?"

"I'll go kill her. If I can't, you'll have to figure it out yourself later."

"If you go and kill her, how will you escape?"

Ankuya put down his glass, his eyes calm as if he were talking about something trivial.

"I'll stay; you just need to escape."

(End of this chapter)