Gude gripped the control stick tightly, his eyes fixed on the front of the cockpit.
It's really... too dark.
Sky, clouds, ground—he couldn't see anything except those fixed lights. He had been staring at them for so long that even the tail lights seemed to become illusory.
Was he really moving?
Or were they still stuck in the same place?
Gude took off his goggles and rubbed his sore eyes—only then did he notice that his gloves were covered in a sticky film.
He was sweating...
When was the last time this happened? He'd have to go back to watching the Magic Shadow...
He took a few deep breaths, while silently reciting His Majesty's words.
The darkest hour is just before dawn...
Just before dawn...
"Let's chat, or I feel like I'm going to go crazy."
For a moment, Gude thought he heard his own inner voice. But he quickly realized that it was Finken sending a message on the squadron channel!
"Hey, using the radio to chat is against the rules!" Another familiar voice rang out—it was Heinz.
"His Highness stipulated that the radio cannot be used for chatting during combat, because it may interfere with important information. We haven't entered the battlefield yet. Terror Beasts can't fly at night," Finken replied. "Besides, I'm using the squadron channel, it won't reach His Highness's ears."
"..." There was a brief silence in the headset.
"Okay, I have to admit, it's good to hear someone talking." Another person joined in, "Guys, what do you want to talk about?"
"Anything, or everyone can count how many planes' tail lights they can see? Honestly, I can't tell which are the lights and which are the stars."
"That's right, just say anything."
"I can see six big ones here."
"I have four."
"Then you should be on the flank of the squadron, be careful not to get lost."
Soon the channel became lively, obviously this kind of flight where they didn't know where they were or where they were going was very stressful for everyone—at least last time when traveling through the clouds, they could see the oncoming mist, and even if they deviated, they could return on their own. But this time, not only was it difficult to detect their own movement, but once they left the team, it would be impossible to find the Eleanor Floating Island in the night with the naked eye.
Listening to the chatter of his teammates, Gude unconsciously relaxed a lot.
"How is it, does chatting like this make you feel more relaxed?"
Suddenly, Her Royal Highness's voice cut in, and almost instantly, the channel became silent.
Undoubtedly, someone had reported the situation in the channel to Her Highness.
"Uh, Your Highness, this is all my fault—" Gude said with a stiff upper lip.
"No, I mean, if it's effective, I can chat with you for a while too." Tilly had no intention of blaming them at all. "But don't forget to keep an eye on your teammates, and don't cause trouble for Lightning and Macy."
Everyone was slightly stunned, and then cheered.
"Yes, Your Highness, I promise not to lose sight of the target!"
"Your Highness, don't worry, I feel like my eyes have become brighter!"
"Come on, you have to speak Graycastle law when flattering, do you think you are an owl?"
Amidst the laughter, even the bomber group joined the channel.
"Your Highness, this is Kunpeng, can I ask you a question?"
"Hmm."
"Is what's in our bomb bay the Sunshine Splendor? But why is it different from the one next door? They look big and round, while ours looks like a bucket."
Gude realized that this was definitely a question that would go down in history.
"Because yours was rushed out by the Engineering Department, using a simpler configuration. In terms of power, although it is not as good as the one next door, it is enough to break through the enemy's first layer of defense." Tilly explained, "But speaking of which, His Majesty Roland seems surprisingly satisfied with this result, and said it was a historical coincidence or something..."
"Your Highness, I don't quite understand..."
"You're not supposed to understand." The Princess's voice suddenly became very gentle. "He's just such a quirky person."
The flow of time seemed to speed up.
Even the boundless darkness in front of him was no longer as unbearable as before.
After an unknown amount of time, a surprised voice drowned out everyone's conversation, "Look to your right!"
Gude looked in the direction, and after a moment he realized that there was a gray patch in the chaos—it was mixed between the inky blacks, and it was difficult for the average person to see the difference. But its appearance was like a spreading dye, changing the unchanging night sky. Affected by this gray area, the edge of the sky showed a hint of purple-blue.
That was the sign of dawn.
"Focus your minds!" Tilly shouted, "We're almost there."
...
Meanwhile, inside the Seagull.
Sylvie had already captured the approximate location of the God's Creation through the darkness.
In order to avoid being discovered by the Thousand-Eyed demons in advance, she had limited the range of her ability to high altitude all the way, only paying attention to whether the route of the fleet had deviated. It wasn't until the time was close to dawn that she carefully turned her gaze to the ground.
The facts proved that whether it was the early route calculation or the later implementation stage, everyone had completed their tasks extremely well. In just less than a quarter of an hour, she felt the amazing magic power released by the God's Creation outside her field of vision.
As the distance continued to close, the giant fortress completely surrounded by black stone walls finally entered her observation range.
At this moment, the huge prism floating in mid-air was in a static state—probably to save magic power, it was only a few tens of meters above the ground. Behind it, there were densely packed troops stationed, with a length of several kilometers.
A godsend opportunity.
She realized that perhaps in order to allow the ground troops to keep up, the God's Creation would also stop advancing after nightfall. When such a huge target was completely stationary, it was almost impossible to miss the bombs. More importantly, it was still not dawn at this moment, and there were almost no Terror Beasts patrolling the outer circle, which meant that their first round of attacks would have the upper hand!
Sylvie picked up the microphone, informed the bomber group of the target data, and continued to observe the enemy formation. Under her wide spherical vision, the overall situation of the battlefield gradually revealed itself: at the top, seven kilometers above, were two bombers, an airspace that Terror Beasts would take a very long time to climb to. In the middle, at an altitude of 2,500 to 3,000 meters, was the biplane squadron, which would construct an impenetrable barrier. And the God's Creation was less than ten kilometers away from the fleet, and at most in a few minutes, the Kunpeng could carry out its first bomb drop.
But at this moment, a strange high-level demon broke into her vision—despite the distance, the two locked eyes, and the demon suddenly stopped moving and stood upright in the air.
"It's an Eye Demon, it saw us!" Sylvie's heart skipped a beat. Although she had known for a long time that when the demons migrated en masse, the number of Eye Demons on alert would definitely be a large number, and being discovered was only a matter of time, but when this moment really came, she still felt her heartbeat slow down by half a beat.
"It's too late to find out at this time." Andrea drove the Listening Sigil and sent a message to Tilly, "The bomber is about to enter the bomb release position, pay attention to avoidance."
"Received."
"By the way, the demons have also noticed the fleet." She casually instructed.
"Is that so, I've been waiting for a long time." Tilly immediately opened the whole team channel after speaking, "Attention everyone, now turn ten degrees to the right wing, prepare to meet the impact."
The mighty biplane fleet immediately began to turn, and at this time the gray in the sky had gradually turned white, and the tone of the entire dome was still very deep, but at least it was no longer pitch black, but a deep blue that was almost black. The stars were getting dimmer and dimmer, and the lights on the wings were becoming more and more obvious.
The only one that did not turn was the Kunpeng, it had to remain stable at all times before dropping bombs.
Unlike the Fury, which also served as a dive bomber, the Kunpeng and Harmony Ark were specially designed aircraft for bombing from the very beginning, with all kinds of equipment such as bomb sights, and the cabin also had a pressurization function, which made its flight altitude far greater than that of ordinary biplanes.
Although the visibility was extremely poor at night, and there were thin clouds below, the observation became less important under the precise data provided by Sylvie. The bombardier simply calculated the route and gave the captain a gesture that he could drop the bombs.
"Open the bay, release!"
As the control lever was pulled up, there was a muffled sound from below the fuselage—that was the sound of the heavy bomb separating from the pylon. When this behemoth weighing four tons fell, the bomber suddenly lifted upwards, shook twice, and then returned to stability.
And the bomb had now turned into an inconspicuous black spot, accelerating towards the God's Creation under the pull of gravity.