After entering the heart of the plains, the days on the Eleanor floating island gradually became more uniform. Most people only knew they were moving, but didn't know where they were going.
Only the high-ranking officials in the command center knew that they were gradually narrowing the distance to their target—the trajectory curve marked on the map clearly showed this. Every twelve hours, the floating island would adjust its direction eastward; according to the information returned by the expedition, their route would intersect with that of the New God-Making God in at most eighteen days.
However, the calm did not last until that day.
Fourteen days after the official departure, the unchanging days were broken.
The first to discover the enemy was an old Skyfire—it belonged to the air cavalry reconnaissance squadron and was one of the few models that retained two seats. The rear seat no longer had a machine gun position, but was replaced with a Spark telegraph and radio, which was a special modification dedicated to reconnaissance.
"One hundred and fifty kilometers away, a team of Terror Beasts is approaching us!"
According to the regulations, the crew first sent the information via telegraph, and then repeated it over the walkie-talkie. The former was to inform the floating island, and the latter was to warn their companions in the nearby airspace.
Due to the excellent electromagnetic environment, the receiver quickly received the telegram and translated it.
When he relayed the message with the paper in his hand, the atmosphere in the staff room froze, and then instantly boiled.
"Quickly confirm the identity and location of the crew!"
"Sound the alarm and get the engineering team back!"
"Hello, this is the staff department, please prepare for battle immediately!"
"Ground crew report, elevators five and eleven are malfunctioning and are being repaired."
"At this time? Tell them to hurry!"
Roland, who received the notification, also rushed to the command center as soon as possible. "What's the situation now?"
"The enemy is still more than two hours away from us." Edith reported with a stack of documents, "Northeast direction, more than thirty in number. The reconnaissance plane has escaped the pursuit, but they don't seem to have changed their original route."
"You mean the demons have discovered the existence of the floating island?" Iron Axe asked.
"Not yet, otherwise they wouldn't have sent so few people. But the demons must have noticed something, that's why the route is so clear."
"That's not surprising." Roland calmly replied. No matter how small the floating island is, it's still a floating mountain. It's almost impossible to completely hide a target of this size. Just like Lightning and the others discovered the God-Making God, as long as the distance between the two continues to decrease, the enemy will notice this uninvited guest sooner or later. "Sylvie's magic eye is more focused on the sky. It's normal for a team of demons on the ground to accidentally run into us."
Northend Pearl nodded, "Their main purpose is most likely to verify the information, and the air knights should be able to wipe out this number of Terror Beasts."
"Whether they are wiped out or a few escape, it won't affect the result." Roland has already realized this—it is impossible for the Eleanor floating island to avoid the Terror Beasts at its speed. In a sense, the floating island's exposure is a foregone conclusion. "The key is how to minimize the cost."
The scale of the air knights has been steadily growing. Since the Battle of the Broken Peaks, the total number of first-generation Skyfires and second-generation Skywraths has exceeded two hundred, which is about the number of two regiments. But the problem is that the enemy is out in full force, and neither their strength nor their logistics are restricted. No matter how good the exchange ratio is, the planes will inevitably suffer losses.
Roland didn't expect his side to gain air supremacy during the final battle. He only hoped to cover the bombers to complete the bombing smoothly—this undoubtedly required the deployment of all aircraft. If the air knights suffered significant losses in the early stage, the entire plan would be dragged down later.
"You mean, adopt 'Plan B' to meet them?" Tilly raised an eyebrow.
"That's right, and we can also test the witches' results." Roland no longer hesitated, "Let your people enter the vault."
……
Two hours later, the enemy discovered the traces of the floating island.
As Edith said, they were indeed here for reconnaissance, but what surprised everyone a little was that the Terror Beasts stopped advancing forty or fifty kilometers away. The leader used a telescope-like device to observe from a distance for a moment, and then turned around and returned directly, without any intention of trying to probe.
"It seems the demons have learned a lot from Mask." Northend Pearl raised the corner of her mouth, "Now they finally know how to respect their opponents."
"The enemy will never surrender." Iron Axe stared at the sky and said, "The next few days should not be as calm as before."
"Of course," Edith's voice was as cold as the ice and snow of the Northern Region, "and this is a good opportunity to weaken their strength!"
……
That afternoon, the first wave of demons appeared on the horizon.
They didn't even seem willing to wait a day.
Of course, the army had been prepared for battle more than an hour ago. All the gates of the external passages were closed, and the biplanes that were not part of the reconnaissance squadron had also descended to the underground hangar. The entire surface of the floating island was empty. Even the bridge transformed from the summit of the North Slope had its portholes sealed. At this moment, the Eleanor floating island was almost as airtight as a huge stone mountain.
The high-level officials gathered directly in the command center to observe the outside situation through the screen projection created by the magic core.
There were more than two hundred Terror Beasts in this wave. When they formed a horizontal line and rushed towards the floating island, even the sky seemed to dim a bit.
"Tsk, quite a few of them came..." Tilly frowned.
Roland nodded, "This is probably just the vanguard." In any case, the troops following the demon king's city were the entire strength of the Black Stone Domain. Since the Mad Demons were expected to be as many as ten million, the Terror Beasts would not be too few.
I'm afraid this is the last peace of their trip.
"There are enough numbers, but what can they do with a mountain?" Suddenly a voice interrupted everyone's thoughts. The gentle tone was slightly lazy, making it unforgettable once heard.
The speaker was Eleanor.
Roland smiled.
This was the most impeccable point of this tactic—indeed, humans didn't have many ways to deal with a God-Making God, but conversely, the demons were the same.
"I'll leave the rest to you."
"Don't worry, this is revenge after more than four hundred years." Eleanor replied.
In her vision, an invisible net was slowly unfolding, and the Terror Beasts moving on this net were all transformed into strings of numbers.
Mathematics is really interesting...
She injected magic power into the tentacles, and then transmitted it to the entire floating island. Nearly a hundred activated micro-cores bloomed with blue light, and the mechanical devices connected to them also started to operate.
The machine gun towers distributed on the edge of the island turned to the direction of the enemy's attack, and the gun barrels extended from the firing holes until they reached the sky.
The moment the Terror Beasts entered the firing range, countless streams of light burst out, turning the invisible net into a shining light curtain visible to the naked eye!