Iron Powder and Spellcaster

At nightfall on the day Roster Layton executed the prisoners at the stakes, Winters attended a secret meeting in the camp.

The location of the secret meeting was in the legion's treasury. The legion's treasury, like the headquarters, was located in the center of the field camp and was one of the most important buildings in the field camp. The semi-underground structure has the best sound insulation effect, so I chose to hold the meeting here.

There were no record-keepers, no orderlies, and even the guards were placed five meters away.

In addition to the two legion commanders, the attendees all had two identities: Antonio and Layton's most trusted officers, and senior spellcasters.

Ordinarily, Winters is not qualified to participate in such a high-level meeting - everyone else in the vault is at least a major, so it is his turn to have a junior warrant officer attend the meeting.

But he still had to come. Because...he is the most critical party, witness and witness.

The atmosphere of the meeting was quite solemn. Antonio warned with a straight face: "I don't need to say more about the principle of confidentiality. Being called here means that you are the people that Rost and I trust the most. This time I want to say The matter is so important that even when I talk in my sleep, I will keep it a secret."

Several school officer spellcasters attending the meeting waited in silence for the general to continue.

Antonio and Layton looked at each other: "Then let's get started... Warrant Officer Montagne!"

"Here!" Winters stood up reflexively.

"Retell the battle between you and the 'suspected magic user' on the night when the Legion of San Marco attacked Red Sulfur Port."

Antonio's wording was vague and did not make it clear. But the officers sitting here are all elites of the Veneta army, and it is impossible that they cannot understand the subtext of the major general.

Suspected magic user? Have you ever fought with us?

The problem here is huge.

There may be magicians in other distant foreign lands, but unless their brains are rotten, they will only come all the way to this small island to fight for Tanilao when they are full.

Therefore, the only magic users who can appear on this island, apart from the alliance spellcasters here... are the emperor's court mages.

And no matter which one of the two is helping the Tanilao on the island, the deeper meaning behind it goes far beyond the fact that the defenders have a few more magicians.

So after hearing the words "suspected magic user" and "fighting", Winters saw several school officer spellcasters attending the meeting immediately becoming uneasy: turning their collars, touching their noses, and shifting their weight to The small subconscious movements on the other leg revealed the ups and downs in their hearts.

Winters realized that several generals and colonels were very anxious, so he organized his words and briefly told the story of his encounter with the mysterious man wearing a mask during the second raid on the Red Sulfur Bay fort.

This time he did not directly say "I seem to have killed a court mage" as he did when he told Antonio. He only objectively described the situation where the other party was suspected of using magic abilities, and the ancient saying that seemed to be a spell chanting "Gather the flames for the purpose." inflammation".

After Antoine's improvement, all alliance spellcasters use hand gestures to cast spells silently. Because there is no need to "chant" at all, Winters doesn't know what spell chanting is.

But before killing the old shaman Hestas, the enemy chanted the phrase "Gathering flames into fire" which left an indelible impression on Winters.

It wasn't a roar or a scream. Instead, he chanted without emotion and rhythmically, and in ancient Chinese.

Winters had read in a book: During the Sovereignty War, the soldiers who survived the massacre by the court mages reported after the war that the devil was killing people on the battlefield while singing praises to the Lord of Hell.

The officers called this act of "singing hymns" "spell chanting" because they knew it was not the devil, but the most ferocious henchman of Mad Richard - the court wizard.

Whenever the court mage attacks, there will be a similar report after the battle. Therefore, "spell chanting" is considered by the coalition military officers to be a necessary prerequisite for court mages to use magic.

Based on this understanding, the coalition forces in the sovereignty war tried various tactics intended to interrupt the enemy's singing, such as using noise to drown out the enemy's voice, devout believers singing hymns in unison, etc., but of course they all failed in the end.

However, after personally fighting the masked man who was suspected of being a court mage, Winters discovered that rather than saying that the enemy was "chanting", it was better to say that the enemy was "reciting a spell."

Imagine this: For the coalition soldiers thirty years ago, they could not understand the ancient language. This kind of rhythmic chanting of incantations was to their ears "singing hymns in the language of the devil."

Therefore, Winters reasonably speculates that the enemy's phrase "gathering flames into fire [ancient language]" is the so-called magic chant, and it is also the so-called "spell."

Although he didn't say it clearly in the end, the only one who sang and cast spells was... the emperor's court mage in the north.

After Winters finished speaking a few simple words, some people immediately became unable to sit still.

Lieutenant Colonel Mager coughed twice and looked at Winters with a frown: "Warrant Officer Montagne, you mean... you killed a court mage?"

After experiencing these recent events, Winters began to feel that "maybe I am really not suitable to be a professional officer." He even sometimes couldn't help but wonder, "Is it really my wish to become a professional officer?"

So he doesn't covet the credit, but he also doesn't want others to think he's covetous.

Winters replied rigorously: "No, I'm not sure whether the other party is a court mage."

"Then let me put it another way." Lieutenant Colonel Mager touched his nose: "Did you kill a suspected magic user who was chanting and casting spells?"

"No, this person was killed by Hed Shaman Hestas, other soldiers present, and me." Winters did not want to exaggerate his role. He knew that if Hestas hadn't interfered with the opponent in time, he would have died.

"Then let me ask another question." Lieutenant Colonel Mager said with some displeasure without asking the actual question: "How did the suspected magic user die?"

Winters couldn't avoid it and replied solemnly: "I hit him in the head with the flying arrow technique."

Lieutenant Colonel Mag snorted coldly and stopped asking questions. He leaned back and leaned on the back of the chair.

"Warrant Officer Montagne, do you know that after the Sovereignty War has been going on for more than ten years, we have not been able to kill or capture any court mage?" Another participant, Colonel Bryce, couldn't help but remind him. .

"I know." Winters replied simply and forcefully.

"But you killed one?" Colonel Bryce continued.

"I'm not sure whether that person is the court mage."

"Are there any other witnesses present?"

"Warrant Officer Budd was fighting alongside me."

"Warrant Officer Bader... Warrant Officer? Is he your colleague?"

"yes."

"Then you must be very close, right?"

"Yes." Although Winters' tone did not change, there was some anger deep inside.

Colonel Bryce wanted to continue asking questions, but Antonio did not speak. However, Layton could not restrain his temper. He slapped the table and cursed: "You are soldiers, just say what you want to say! You are so arrogant! Why are you bullying a child? ? Are you jealous when you see someone doing meritorious service? Is this what I called you here to talk about? [spitting expletive]!"

Layton would add an expletive at the end of each sentence, spitting from one side of the table to the other. The others were silent, and only Layton's furious curses echoed in the vault.

Colonel Bryce was so scolded that he swallowed back everything he wanted to ask Winters. Lieutenant Colonel Mager's body, leaning on the back of his chair, bounced up as if he had been struck by a nail. The other school officials were also shaken by the scolding.

All the caster officers were sitting and being scolded like freshmen who had just entered the military academy, which made Winters feel relieved. However, he did not dare to show any expression on his face. Like all the school officials, he sat solemnly with his eyes on his nose, his nose on his mouth, and his mouth on his heart.

After cursing, Layton put his hands on his knees, his chest heaving violently and breathing heavily. After all, I am in my forties, and swearing without repeating or taking a breath is also a strenuous task.

Antonio knocked on the table and said calmly: "Warrant Officer Bader has confirmed the statement of Warrant Officer Montagne. I accept the testimony of both of them. However, after all, there is a lack of direct evidence, so Major General Leighton and I decided this This battle will not be recorded as killing a court mage. Warrant Officer Montagne, do you have any objection?"

"No!" Winters replied hastily, he couldn't ask for more.

"But Major General Leighton and I did not call you here for a meeting to discuss Warrant Officer Montagne's victory determination." Antonio changed the subject: "Last night's attack on the artillery position confirmed a worry I have always had. ."

He softly uttered something that shocked everyone: "The Tanirians have a second magic user... or even a third or fourth."

…

…

"Everyone from the adjacent artillery position dozens of meters away died in a bloody battle, but why didn't I hear any sound?"

After waking up from the coma, Winters has been thinking about this problem, but he can't figure it out.

After getting the prisoner's confession, he suddenly had a bold idea: If magic can amplify the sound, can magic make the sound disappear?

All spells in the alliance's caster system are based on the basic principle of "inputting energy", including acceleration, fire, and amplification.

But Winters, who was exposed to Antoine Laurent's subversive theory, has surpassed the cognition of ordinary spellcasters. Antoine Laurent's new theory believes that the essence of magic is to change the state of material energy.

If inputting energy is changing the energy state... what about extracting energy?

Isn’t pulling out energy also changing the energy state?

If energy can be extracted, then in theory, magic can achieve a "silencing" effect.

Since the essence of sound is vibration, the propagation of sound can be cut off by smoothing out the vibrations of the air.

This is why those prisoners confessed that they "can't hear other people's voices, but they can hear their own voices, but it sounds a bit strange." Because when people hear themselves speaking, in addition to air conduction, there is also bone conduction.

Winters didn't realize that he had opened a new door. He just couldn't help but wonder: "If the vibration spell can be performed in the reverse direction, can the fire spell be reversed? If the direction of the fire spell is reversed, then what? …Isn’t that the ice spell that the Alliance has not been able to achieve so far?”

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but start to take the initiative to try. However, after struggling for a long time, Winters felt Axel's feelings for the first time.

What are colors to a man born blind?

For a person who lives in three dimensions, what is the fourth dimension?

How can a spellcaster who has never used "Ice Spell" find the feeling of using "Ice Spell"?

Because the essence of using magic is feeling.

The first thing a beginning spellcaster has to do is to find the feeling of using magic, and then become proficient in using it again and again, and become able to find that feeling easily.

Winters found that he had no idea what it was like to use "Ice Spell", and he didn't know how to enter that state. It was like walking on a path without a "path".

After staring for ten minutes, he couldn't turn the dripping water into solid ice.

"It definitely won't work like this... You have to start from the easiest place..." Winters thought to himself as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

But he has more important things to do now and has no time to think about how to "reverse the spell".

He had to tell Antonio that there might be another spellcaster in the tower, or even more than one.

That night, Antonio and Layton summoned all the trusted senior officers and senior spellcasters within the legion for a secret meeting.

…

…

"There are other magicians in the city. Is there any evidence?" Lieutenant Colonel Field, who had been silent, asked.

Lieutenant Colonel Field and Major Moritz were now in the Legion vault.

There were only a few spellcasters in the San Marco Legion, so Layton simply called them all. Layton's statement was: "Although this boy Field has a bad mouth, he is a good soldier and can be trusted... Call his little follower here too."

Is there any evidence of other magicians?

The evidence was actually in front of everyone all along, but no one thought in this direction at the time.

On the day the Great Veneta Legion attacked Red Sulfur Port, the huge wave that rolled back from the dock and hit the Veneta people was the best evidence.

The huge wave, several meters high, capsized all of Veneta's boats, and even a large galley that was turning capsized.

What kind of huge waves will hit the sea from the coast? That was by no means a natural wave.

Only magic can explain the unexplainable.

So, if the essence of sound is a vibration, is the essence of ocean waves also a vibration? If you tap the wall of a water glass, won't the water in the glass form small ripples?

Perhaps using another term, wave, is it a wave?

If a wave is a wave, it can be amplified through magic.

"This is too... too ridiculous." Field's face turned red, and he even forgot that he was talking to a general: "Do you know how much magic it takes to set off a huge wave that can overturn a warship?! Don't It’s me, I’ve searched all over the republics but I can’t find such a powerful spell caster! The power of magic has limits! Because spell casters have limits! No magician can match the power of nature! If you can’t do it, you can’t do it. ! What you said is so ridiculous!"

"Field!" Layton picked up the cup and hit Field hard: "You bastard! You're so presumptuous!"

Antonio was not angry, and asked calmly: "Then do you think... how powerful a spell caster can be to silence an artillery position of hundreds of square meters?

I finally figured out why the input method's vocabulary was cleared. Today Bad Cat pressed the power button again to force the computer to shut down, and then turned it on again and the vocabulary was cleared again. Never keep a cat in a case with the power button facing up! Lessons of blood and tears.

I try to make every plot reasonable, so if some plots are unreasonable, it means that there will be holes to be filled in later...such as the huge wave that almost drowned Comrade Winters.

Thank you to the book friends who have voted for recommendations before, and to the book friends Writersblock, Douqi Storm, Ami, Yuan Hongjian, and Black Computer Accessories for their recommendation votes. thank you all.