Although it was quite comfortable to stay in the Forest of Dreams and enjoy its beautiful scenery, this place was only a rare beautiful dream, as its name suggested.When I exited the forest, I saw the endless battlefield just like before.
Over the previous few days, the eastern battlefront had been relatively "peaceful" since the masters of the Forest of Dreams, the wood spirit residents, had yet to receive orders to attack in full force from their Creator G.o.ddess Amelia.
The main force fighting right now was the wood spirits" standard army as well as the Contract Heroes" battle squadrons. Although they had good attack power, their attack patterns were far more geared towards guerilla warfare than regular warfare. Maybe such an allied army could obtain decent combat results, but it would be impossible for them to gain an overall strategic advantage without anyone commanding them.
But, two days ago, a fleet arrived at the Forest of Dreams from the sea. This was Auland"s navy which even started firing its cannons from the sh.o.r.eline towards the inland battlefront. Their magic cannons had been leveled up many times already, so the cannon shots rained down like meteors and spread large swaths of AOE destruction.
Their firing range even surpa.s.sed the frontlines. In fact, the cannons could shoot at places more than 30 kilometers away. For the cannons to reach such a distance, it was the result of divination magic rather than high-level science.
Auland showed off its new ace in this war. The cannons on their s.h.i.+ps were a.s.sisted by diviners and enchanter mages as they constantly made micro-adjustments for the meglong distance barrages.
Maybe people from my original world would think that having long-robed wizards and witches dancing in front of cannons to enchant them with additional damage, fire magic, accuracy, and range was something rather comical, but this was considered quite normal to the people of Eich.
Ever since the day that magical engineering was born, it was destined that magical engineering would always be the combination of magic and science.
Auland"s foundational technology was much weaker than Bardi"s as the latter did their very best to keep up with the times. Auland wasn"t as strong due to being a younger country, and thus it didn"t have powerful troop types from ancient times. However, Auland had always been at the top in industry, business, engineering, and alchemy. 10 years after the start of the magical engineering revolution, Auland was now taking an unusual path of war machines.
Numerous s.h.i.+ps had anch.o.r.ed themselves in the sea. The s.h.i.+ps" decks began to transform and reveal the cannons stored underneath, and they all simultaneously activated at this time.
Every s.h.i.+p was equipped with several hundred cannons. This fleet containing 22 s.h.i.+ps, big and small, fired simultaneously and caused the entire land to reverberate.
Cannon fire streaked through the air like meteors. The beautiful firestorm brought only destruction and explosions to the battlefield.
Maybe there were far too many high-level devils on the battlefield, but domains of flame and corrosion were really commonplace. The observers would see districts suddenly turning red or green. Such districts would immediately become the main target for the Auland cannons.
Red, blue, green, and various other colors stained the battlefield, indicating the forbidden zones for living beings. These places would have either fatally poisonous air or fiery explosions.
It was likely that this scene would go down in history. Although the scale wasn"t that large, this was indeed the first appearance of a fully mature magical engineering squadron on the battlefield. They were fighting against the devil army, a top-level fighting force from ancient times.
The tremendous difference in shooting range made the devils unable to do anything but suffer attacks. The devils would have to try and break through the Forest of Dreams first before they could do anything about the fleet.
Most flying devils chose to go around the forest, but the wood spirits" floating magical plants and Auland airs.h.i.+ps awaited them. The archmages from the Mage Country were already aboard these airs.h.i.+ps.
The flying devils were shot down in large swaths. They were unable to threaten the sea fleet whatsoever. Auland"s fleet obtained a victory in this early stage of battle thanks to geographical and technological advantage.
However, Auland didn"t have the time to be proud. They split their fleet in two; half the fleet remained near the Forest of Dreams and continued to send covering fire towards the battlefield. However, the fleet"s achievements would likely keep decreasing. All that the fleet could do was stabilize the frontline"s location as the Auland s.h.i.+ps" maximum range would be figured out soon enough as the battle kept going.
Of course, some of Auland"s s.h.i.+ps also had the ability to fly, but when considering how dangerous the frontline was, leaving water would mean giving up on the wood spirits" protection. Any normal captain would never venture forth by themselves.
Yet, supporting the Forest of Dreams" frontline of battle was only the secondary mission given to the Auland fleet. The other half of the fleet that left was protecting their transport s.h.i.+ps. They were about to do something even more damaging to the devils" defenses.
Perhaps my readers had forgotten already, but Bardi and the Mage Country were separated only by a sea channel. In fact, the Forest of Dreams was also located at Port Victoria, which had originally been the largest port in eastern Eich.
Over the past few years, although the Forest of Dreams and the undead city Asolivis had suddenly appeared in this area, which forcefully cut off the direct connection between Bardi and the Mage Country, that didn"t mean that the geography had changed.
Currently, the transport s.h.i.+ps were crossing the sea channel. The mages of the Mage Country were ready to board these s.h.i.+ps. The world"s strongest (and only) fully established mage combat squadron would finally enter the battlefield.
As for why Auland"s gigantic transport s.h.i.+ps were chosen to bring the mages over? That was because the mages wouldn"t be coming alone. They would bring their enormous war puppets, magic puppets, summoned creatures, elemental creatures from other planes, and so on as part of their army. Such beings would be the mages" most trusted vanguard.
The current combat situation was quite obvious. The Mage Country, Bardi, and Auland were now going all out against the Lord of Tyranny"s devil army.
The eastern battlefront was given over to Bardi, the local force. The western battlefront was left to the alliance of Auland, the Mage Country, and the wood spirits. They were gradually pressuring the undead and devils" main base, Asolivis.
This time, the alliance had made up its mind to eliminate this major menace.
The Auland fleet would clear out all the devils and undead along the sh.o.r.e, which would then allow the Mage Country"s vanguard to disembark. At that time, the three-way alliance would start attacking Asolivis from the west, while Bardi would keep tangling with the enemy forces in the east.
In such a large-scale battle, individual strength would be of limited use. Powerful individuals would be saved to deal with enemy powerful individuals. It seemed that both sides of this battle were still observing this unwritten rule of the battlefield.
As the battle progressed, powerful individuals would naturally appear to come suppress the ordinary soldiers. That would be the time for the powerful individuals on both sides to appear. Of course, I was the type who was an exception to the rules.
"Actually, won"t this all end if I cast Ice Aeon here?"
I was actually quite hesitant. The enemy"s base was at a fixed location, which made me really want to blow it up with Ice Aeon.
If I incanted my forbidden spell from the Forest of Dreams, it would definitely be almost impossible for the enemy to be able to stop me. Even if they could prepare defenses or escape, clearing this entire battlefield and making way for our alliance"s army was also an acceptable combat result.
"And then you"ll be bedridden on a s.h.i.+p for two months again?"
"That won"t happen again. I"ve reached Level 4 and I have more experience now… I"ll probably recover from being bedridden after just one week."
"One week? At such a time? Do you think that he would let go of such an excellent opportunity with the current situation?"
"If I was him, I definitely wouldn"t let such a great chance pa.s.s by…"
However, I was worried that a certain someone would take advantage of the situation if I was weakened after casting a forbidden spell, which made things a bit difficult for me.
At this moment, the human alliance"s command center contacted me and gave me a highly difficult task. As I was also a member of the alliance, I really couldn"t refuse, especially as others were shedding blood and sweat.