The story of the black silk female knight

"My pieces have already started moving."

Tia then removed her hand from the projected map and looked back at the large screen, watching the live feed transmitted from the spy satellite:

"What will you do next?"

. . . . .

About three hours later, the formation of the main fleet of the Central Continent Empire suddenly changed.

As Tia had predicted, the fleet split into two parts. Eleven mechanical behemoths, including Xuanwu, led more than 200 warships and the fleet away, heading straight for the Sage's Tower.

Less than half an hour later, the three mechanical behemoths, along with more than 50 lanternfish warships, broke away from the fleet and headed directly towards the east of the Witch's Forest.

"Are they really trying to force their way through this treacherous terrain?"

Tia raised an eyebrow at this, but wasn't worried at all.

While the Mountain Witch has already passed, the more important issue is that the natural barrier to the east of the Witch's Forest is truly difficult to cross.

The Witch Forest has a very special terrain. Its main area is located 4000 meters below sea level, making it a super basin. This is why the Witch Forest has a high concentration of magic and is home to a large number of high-level monsters.

The mountain range that connects the Witch's Forest to the sea to the east is very majestic, with the lowest point exceeding 2000 meters in elevation. It surrounds the Witch's Forest like a city wall, isolating it from the sea.

If it were just an ordinary mountain, it would hardly be considered a natural barrier... Many of the powerful experts at the Radiant Rank can literally split mountains and cleave peaks, completely breaking a gap in the mountain range and letting the seawater flow into the Witch's Forest to submerge everything.

But in fact, this is impossible, because the mountain range surrounding the Witch Forest is not only high and dangerous, but also very thick... even the thinnest part is more than 10 kilometers long. The hard and heavy mountain body is not something that can be broken through or destroyed by human power, and even Xiao Yu cannot do it.

Therefore, it is unlikely that the Central Continent Empire will be able to send Xuanwu directly into the Witch's Forest or destroy the mountains to flood the Witch's Forest.

Those towering and treacherous mountains are too difficult for ordinary soldiers to navigate... At most, the Central Continent Empire can only send in some elites and strongmen.

However, the Witch Forest was originally a place where the most powerful human cultivators gathered, and with the help of the dragon and elf races who had officially joined the alliance, plus the monster lords who had good relations with the witches... Unless Xiao Yu personally led the team to attack, no matter how many strong people the Central Continent Empire sent to launch a strong attack on the Witch Forest from the sea, it would be a waste.

The same is true.

The Central Continent Empire initially genuinely intended to flood the Witch's Forest. After the three mechanical behemoths, Xuanwu, and more than 50 lantern ships approached the Witch's Forest, they showed no intention of landing and launching a powerful magical bombardment of the mountain.

The magical artillery barrage was extremely powerful; if it were an ordinary mountain peak that was only a few hundred meters thick, it would probably have been blasted down and broken long ago.

However, the mountains along the eastern coast of the Witch Forest are all over 10,000 meters thick. Even though the magical bombardment of the mechanical behemoth can blast holes a hundred meters deep into the mountains with each strike, it is difficult to shake this natural barrier.

So after bombarding for about an hour, the three mechanical behemoths Xuanwu and more than 50 lanternfish warships abandoned their direct attack on the Witch's Forest and instead continued south along the continental coast. After reaching the southeast corner, they turned west and attacked the southern coast of Fran.

The main fleet, which had previously sailed south instead of approaching the Witch's Forest, is now nearing the waters of Fran, about 500 kilometers from the easternmost island of the Four Islands Alliance.

They finally entered the effective combat range of the ship girls.

"Let the ship girls do it."

Seeing this, Tia smiled decisively at Valensa:

"This is the first time your ship girls have made their debut, it should be quite spectacular... How about a grand fireworks display?"

"Just to my liking."

Valensa chuckled softly, then picked up her phone again and put it to her lips.

"Pass on my order: nuclear strike...begin!"

Chapter 67 The Ship Girls' Long-Range Nuclear Strike

In the sea southeast of the continent of Frenoia, a massive fleet consisting of 17 huge mobile fortresses and more than 600 warships is sailing at a speed of about 100 knots.

Both inside the fortress and on the warships, there were large numbers of imperial soldiers clad in armor and armed with weapons, as well as imperial generals wearing even more advanced armor and wielding different weapons.

Having traversed tens of thousands of kilometers of ocean, the impending attack on the invading target greatly excited most of the imperial soldiers and generals, who were in high spirits, while only a small number remained somewhat apathetic.

But they had no idea that what awaited them was the grandest fireworks display on the continent of Frenoia since the new era.

On another sea area 2000 kilometers to the west, another fleet had also completed its assembly.

There were 23 metal warships with a style very different from this world. There were no soldiers on any of the warships, but all the weapons on the ships could move on their own.

With no one in the cockpit, the jet-powered carrier-based aircraft took off from the deck repeatedly, defying the laws of physics. All the vertical launch units of the carrier-based missiles were also fully activated, ready to unleash a fierce barrage of firepower on the enemy at any moment.

"Sisters, cheer up!"

In the ship girls' public communication channel, Crimson No. 1, the eldest sister, sounded extremely excited:

"This is our first official appearance as the commander's private army. We must show the spirit we once had as a natural disaster! Let the enemy feel pain and fear!"

"Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb it all into a world where the Commander can live happily ever after!"

"Feel the pain, you cowards!"

"Ula!"

The other ship girls also excitedly responded.

"Hmm? The commander has sent a new message."

Crimson One's words instantly silenced the public communication channel. All the ship girls who were ready for battle were waiting for that command.

The orders relayed by Crimson No. 1 did not disappoint the sisters.

"Fire!"

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

The first to respond were the vertical launch units of the missile destroyer ship girls.

Missiles, trailing fiery trails, rose from the deck and shot into the sky at an altitude of 7 meters in the blink of an eye. After adjusting their direction, they flew toward the enemy under the precise guidance of spy satellites, maintaining a speed of more than seven times the speed of sound.

Next up are the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier girls.

The real-time manufacturing capabilities of nano-mist technology allow aircraft carriers to carry far more carrier-based aircraft than the normal limit.

More than 2000 carrier-based aircraft have already gathered in the skies above less than 10 aircraft carriers, and carrier-based aircraft are still being created by the carrier girls and taken off from the deck.

The same applies to the missiles on those missile destroyers... Normally, each missile vertical launch unit will only have one missile, and after one launch, it will need to be reloaded before it can be launched again.

But the destroyer ship girls' missiles seemed endless, shooting into the sky wave after wave like fireworks during a festival.

2000 kilometers is definitely not a short distance, but it's not far for a hypersonic missile either.

In just over ten minutes, the first wave of missiles arrived over the Central Continent Empire's fleet, whistling as they hurtled down upon it.

"Enemy attack!!!"

The army of the Central Continent Empire was indeed of extremely high quality. Even though they had never seen a hypersonic missile before, they still reacted immediately.

All the snake heads at the tails of the mechanical behemoth Xuanwu spewed out a large amount of misty breath, which enveloped the entire mechanical behemoth Xuanwu within a few seconds. It should be some kind of special protective spell.

At the same time, thousands of sword beams shot out from the fleet, forming a very dense anti-aircraft fire network in an attempt to intercept the missiles.

Only a small portion of those who unleashed the sword light were disciples of the Sword Pavilion in the Imperial Fleet; the vast majority were metal boxes resembling coffins on the surface of Xuanwu and on its warships.

This is a sword case with a turret base, capable of firing flying swords at high speed, and is also a weapon that can be used for both high-altitude and low-altitude operations.

Each flying sword fired from this sword box has a power similar to that of an electromagnetic cannon shell. Its rate of fire is certainly not as high as that of a close-in weapon system that fires tens of thousands of rounds per minute, but its overall power is definitely not much different.

The first wave of missiles, originally intended to penetrate the enemy fleet's hulls before detonating, was actually intercepted by this flying sword-like firepower network, with quite a few being intercepted.

Even if a few lucky missiles manage to penetrate the interception of the flying sword fire network, a Radiant-rank expert from the Central Continent Empire will immediately take to the skies to fill any gaps.

The first wave of missile attacks seemed to have little effect... those powerful nuclear warheads were destroyed before they could even detonate.

But it doesn't matter, the ship girls' nano-mist technology has long since allowed Valensa to achieve complete freedom in technological weaponry.

As long as there is water, the ship girls can quickly produce any kind of weapon. Valensa has even stopped mining nuclear ore in North Blade Bay of Sword Island a long time ago.

So the second wave of missiles struck again in less than 20 seconds, and this time the ship girls changed their tactics.

The Central Continent Empire fleet's turret-style sword cases have powerful firepower, but their range is only average, with an effective range of only about 1500 meters.

So the ship girls chose to detonate the nuclear bomb directly in the air at an altitude of about 1500 meters... In this way, although the high temperature and shock wave at the center of the explosion could not cause devastating damage, the heat radiation generated by the airburst was still very deadly to the soldiers of the Central Continent Empire, and the shock wave was enough to destroy the warship.

The same is true.

The Central Continent Empire fleet, which had successfully defended against the first wave of missiles, was stunned by the aerial detonation of the second wave of missiles before it could even celebrate.

Huge fireballs with temperatures exceeding 6000 degrees Celsius exploded above the fleet, and powerful shockwaves crashed onto the sea like mountains.

Many lanternfish warships, tens of meters long, were instantly torn apart by the shockwave. The imperial soldiers on board were vaporized by the ensuing high temperature, and before they could even scream, their ambitions vanished into nothingness.

The deafening roar continued, and the shockwaves could be felt on coastlines and islands hundreds of kilometers away. The water temperature in the entire sea area rose significantly due to the grand fireworks display.

The Allied officers who witnessed this scene via spy satellite broadcast all had complex expressions, as did the sages and witches.

Although they had known for a long time that Valensa possessed a technological weapon with power comparable to a forbidden spell, none of them expected it to have this effect.

Forbidden spells can also destroy a city in one blow, and many forbidden spells are even more powerful than nuclear bombs.

However, to use forbidden magic, at least a Star-level spellcaster needs to concentrate and cast continuously for more than 10 minutes, and there is a high probability that they will run out of magic power after casting only two or three spells.

And what about the ship girls' nuclear missiles?

Before the old wave of explosions had subsided, a new wave had already roared in. This kind of continuous destructive attack was something that no magic could do, not even the Witch Forest and the Sage's Tower combined.

Of course, nuclear bombs also have obvious drawbacks compared to forbidden spells; they cannot lock onto a target with the caster's mental power like magic.

The blazing fireballs that kept exploding above the Central Continent Empire's fleet did indeed kill hundreds of thousands of imperial soldiers in an instant, but almost all of them were ordinary soldiers.

None of the Imperial generals whose strength reached the Shining Rank have died in the nuclear explosion so far, and the Imperial soldiers on the mechanical behemoth Xuanwu are also safe and sound.

The protective array resembling a misty aura on the surface of Xuanwu is quite formidable; a nuclear bomb exploding 1500 meters away cannot be broken through by high temperature and shockwave alone.

Radiant-rank cultivators possess exceptional survivability; unless caught off guard by a nuclear explosion at its epicenter, they are unlikely to be killed directly by the blast.

This nuclear strike failed to destroy the core strength of the Central Continent Empire's fleet, but it did cause heavy losses to the Lanternfish warships.

Almost all Lanternfish warships without Radiant-rank generals were torn apart by the shockwave during the initial nuclear airburst.

Valensa and Tia remained calm and unsurprised by the situation.

The enemy is, after all, a powerful empire that has integrated the resources of the entire continent and developed over hundreds of years; it cannot be easily defeated by a single nuclear strike.

This was merely a welcoming gift to announce the start of the war, allowing the ship girls to establish their reputation and, incidentally, to probe the enemy's trump cards.

Let's test the defense limit of the mechanical behemoth Xuanwu and see how many nuclear attacks it can withstand.

Let's also test how many Radiant-Rank experts are in the enemy fleet, and what their combat strength and fighting style are.

As expected, the Central Continent Empire fleet would not stand idly by and watch all the lanternfish warships be wiped out. After being bombarded by nuclear missiles three times, the Radiant-rank powerhouses in the fleet took action.

These powerful figures at the Radiant Rank clearly had made a detailed plan before taking action, with each person's specific task clearly defined.

First, more than a dozen extremely fast sword lights flew out of the fleet, forming a flowing sword array and flying at high speed towards the direction from which the missiles were coming, clearly intending to directly counterattack the missile launcher.

Dozens of other figures took to the air, all reaching an altitude of over 5000 meters. Each of them was surrounded by hundreds of flying swords, forming their own sword formations to intercept the incoming missiles, either shooting them down in advance or forcing them to explode at a greater distance from the fleet.

Despite the Lanternfish warships being blown to pieces, the Central Continent Empire did not give up and dispatched a large number of search and rescue teams from the mechanical behemoth Xuanwu to rescue the survivors.

Ship-based missiles carrying nuclear warheads continued to strike, and even the powerful elites who tried to intercept them at high altitudes were still injured.

Unlike the wild beasts that would panic and flee after being injured by a nuclear bomb, the elites of the Central Continent Empire are highly disciplined.

Those with minor injuries were treated with a few pills and then continued fighting. Those with serious injuries were also withdrawn from the front line in an orderly manner, and after handing over to the replacements in the rear, they rested and received treatment to ensure that there were no gaps in the defense network.

Among these elite warriors of the Central Continent Empire, there were quite a few powerful individuals. The methods many of them used to intercept missiles shocked the allied forces watching the live stream. They secretly rejoiced that they had known about it in advance, otherwise they might have been killed on their first encounter with these enemies on the battlefield.

The performance of one of the strong individuals even made Tia, who had maintained a calm expression throughout, frown. Valensa even took out her notebook to record the person's information, intending to find an opportunity to eliminate him first.

He was an old man wearing a Taoist robe, with completely white hair and beard, holding a whisk in his left hand and a divination plate in his right. He looked quite ordinary.

He did not take the initiative to search for the missile launcher, nor did he deploy his sword formation after takeoff to intercept the nuclear attack. Instead, he followed the rescue team and mostly just watched.

Until a missile successfully broke through the sword formation defense of the high-level experts in the sky and landed in the center of the rescue team, it was about to turn the rescue team and the wounded they rescued into ashes.

In fact, the missile had already exploded, and a huge, scorching fireball had appeared, turning many soldiers of the Central Continent Empire to ashes.

But the old man in the Taoist robe also made a move.

He waved his whisk a few times and then slapped it onto the divination board, the effect of which even made many people in the Allied Forces' meeting room stand up in surprise.

Within an area of ​​approximately 200 meters centered on the divination plate, it resembles a movie playing in reverse.

The missile, which had exploded into a blazing fireball, retracted again, and the Imperial soldiers who had been reduced to ashes in the flames were reborn... Everything returned to what it was before the nuclear bomb exploded.

"...Is it a time spell?"

The first to break the silence in the Allied Forces meeting room was Valensa, who looked at Tia, who had officially received the title of Witch of Time, as she asked a question.

"It's a time spell."

Tia nodded very seriously:

“His methods of interfering with time are completely different from mine, and I don’t even understand the principles behind them, but it is definitely a kind of time magic.”