Release that Witch

On the Ark of Peace, Eagle Face, who held the sluice gates tightly and was prepared to pull it up, retracted his hand.

“In which direction?”

“Nine degrees east. They are headed for the smoke pillar!”

“Instructor, what do we do next?” the chief pilot turned his head and asked.

With the Deity of Gods’s mass, it was impossible to avoid a bombardment from the air even if it moved. What’s more, the magic barrier had been dispelled. As long as the second Glory of the Sun landed near the Blackstone pyramid, there was a nontrivial chance that the obelisk would be destroyed. To the fleet, this was no doubt the safest choice.

However, he had not boarded this plane out of concerns for safety.

The pilots of the two bombers were picked from excellent trainees. Only the aircraft commander was helmed by an instructor. The goal was obvious. The former was key to flying the plane well, while the latter was the guarantee that the mission would be completed.

A nontrivial chance of success implied that there was still a chance of failure.

And what he wanted was to lose the parts that relied on destiny, pushing what he could control to the maximum.

Regarding the possibility that the Deity of Gods would move in between the two assaults, to the point of it moving right from the beginning, the General Staff had discussed the matter numerous times. There was only one solution—exchange height for a successful hit. This could happen until the enemy had no way of dodging the strike.

“Descend by 2,000 meters. Recalculate the drop trajectory.” Eagle Face did not hesitate to give the order. “We will follow them wherever they go!”

…

At this moment, the Devilbeasts had already “collided” with the fleet.

Good could feel the sky darkening more than a shade. It felt as though the dawn which had just happened was once again swallowed by the night sky. No matter where he looked, there would be enemies all around him.

The only thing that eased his heart was the glaring stream of light which the Fury of Heaven’s autocannons spewed. Aiming, or simply firing straight ahead would tear any Devilbeast that blocked the way to pieces. Technique of each individual was of little meaning in a battle of this scale. Even if one had eyes all around, it was impossible to discover every enemy that charged at him.

If not for his squadron mates protecting him along the way, he would have long been struck by the bone spears that flew everywhere.

After three firing sweeps, Good felt the scene before him light up. He realized that he had already torn through the hordes of Devilbeasts. When turning his head back, no enemy was pursuing his tail.

“What are the demons doing? Their attention doesn’t not seem to be on us.” Finkin, who had always been by his flank, also noticed this.

As Good steered his plane to pull open a distance, he instantly felt something amiss. Taking in the combat situation as a whole, only a small number of the dense horde of Devilbeasts in the sky was entangling themselves with the Aerial Knights. The rest were trying their best to fly higher.

Logically speaking, the demons should not have been able to discover the bomber that was above the clouds.

The facts also proved that they had yet to discover their target.

Although they were climbing higher into the sky, the trajectories they took were utterly chaotic. It felt like they were barging around aimlessly.

“Darn it, the demons are trying to find the Ark of Peace!” Good roared into the transmitter.

“Isn’t that good?” Finkin whistled. “At their flying speed, it won’t be easy for them to catch up to the bomber. We can also take the opportunity to eliminate a few of them. We can reduce the pressure placed on Her Highness.”

Although that was the case, Good still felt uneasy.

“Another group of enemies are charging at us!” a squadron mate warned. “Let’s head to the clouds. It’s more suitable for a battle of attrition. When at an elevation above four thousand meters, the Devilbeasts would find it exhausting just to flap their wings. We can then shave off the vanguards one layer at a time.”

“That sounds like a good plan!”

“I’ll first head on up!”

More than ten biplanes raised their noses and flew for higher heights.

However, Good did not follow.

He adjusted his transmitter to the squadron’s channel and said individually to Finkin, “Let’s stay in this area.”

“What? Stay here? What if the enemy suddenly abandons the search. The first to bear the brunt would be us!” His old partner immediately voiced his doubts. “Besides, aren’t we letting the rest take all the credit by not seizing the opportunity to make more confirmed kills?”

“That’s not what’s important. What’s important is the actions of the demons!” Good explained as he stared at the battlefield intently. “Think about it. Since they can guess at the existence of the bomber, would they not discover that the strike was, in fact, a result of an inconspicuous bomb?”

“No way… The demons do not know of the existence of the Glory of the Sun project at all. They did not discover our attack ahead of time either. How is it possible that they figured out so much just minutes after the first bomb strike?”

“I’m not sure, but I feel that the floating city’s movement towards the smoke column is probably not a coincidence,” Good muttered. Typically, that’s a dust cloud formed by the explosive material. They would be eager to dodge it, so why would they deliberately approach it. If it’s a deliberate move by the demons, it means the period of time when the bomb drops is the final moment they can counterattack.”

“Alright.” After a moment of silence, Finkin replied helplessly, “I’ll believe you this once if you say so. However, if we lose out on achieving meritorious deeds, you will have to compensate me.”

“How’s a month of Chaos Drinks?”

“There’s no need. Just introduce me to your younger sister.”

“Buzz—” The receiver produced the cutting off sound of the communications.

Finkin smiled and turned his head to fly towards Good.

…

Darn it. These bastard is really a nuisance!

Undeserved controlled a flying magic stone, frantically dodging the barrage of bullets. According to Mask, being hit by these tiny objects was no different from being directly struck by a hammer. The magic shields were unable to last long either. Even Silent Disaster had suffered under the humans’ firearms, so he naturally had no plans on experiencing it for himself.

With his abilities, it would have been easy to interfere with the humans’ senses. Even if they wore God’s Stones of Retaliation, he was still able to influence them to a certain extent. Unfortunately, he was targeted by a Witch.

To Undeserved’s dismay, the Witch had no intention to use magic to clinch victory. She rode on a blood-red iron bird and would never enter a radius of nine hundred feet from him. Despite fleeing after every strike, she was agile and her aim was good. It caused him to enter a passive state of being unable to catch up to her or shake her off his tail.

For a magic power user to not rely on her magic but on an external object for combat was an insult to him!

Furthermore, there appeared to be more than one of such bastards.

For example, God’s Stone bullets shot out from the clouds from time to time, clearly from a Witch. If not for his upgrade, making him especially sensitive to enemy intent, he would have long been struck by the sneak attack.

It was meant to be a pursuit of the humans, but they ended up being hounded by their prey. This threw Undeserved into a dilemma and he never felt so peeved before. At the end of the day, the only one who could be as agile in the sky as on the ground was Hackzord who was known as Sky Lord. Despite all his abilities, all he could do was dodge with the help of the flying magic stone. It’s all Nassaupelle’s fault. If we were allowed to use the Bogle Beast army to engage the enemy in battle, would I be chased by this unbridled red iron bird?

What main attacking force that’s hiding high in the sky. He speaks of it like he has seen it for himself!

Undeserved dodged another attack of the Witch and turned to look upwards, only to feel stunned.

He saw a massive, pitch-black iron bird swoop out of the pillar of smoke. Its frame was thicker than the biggest Bogle Beasts. Its wings had four propulsion installations, completely incomparable to the other double-winged iron birds!

Without a doubt, this was the “abnormality” which Mask was referring to.

To think he actually got it right.

The other Bogle Beasts troops also noticed this. They chased after the new target based on the commands originally issued. Although the humans attempted to stop them, their numbers were puny in comparison. All they could do was stall for time; downing the gigantic iron bird was only a matter of time.

“Fine. You got it right.” Undeserved used a sigil to send the message. “My troops have discovered your so-called main force. I believe it will soon be resolved.”

However, Mask’s voice did not have a tinge of relief. “What does it look like? Tell me, quick!”

Undeserved frowned, but he said frankly, “It looks like an even bigger artificial iron bird.”

“What’s below its belly? Is there something hanging from it?”

At that moment, the Witch came attacking again.

Is there no end to this! Once I finish off the big one, all of you will be next! After Undeserved dodged, he finally had the time to take a careful look.

“It has nothing underneath it. What exactly do you wish to say?”

“Nothing?” Mask repeated in a rare instance.

“That’s right,” Undeserved said impatiently. “Apart from a huge hole, I don’t see anything.”