The phantom walker

This is an era of transition from the old to the new.

The old overlord who had dominated the continent for hundreds of years had shown signs of aging and decadence, but a young empire had risen in just a few decades. Like all young people full of vigor and ambition, he began to challenge the authority of the old overlord and compete for hegemony over the continent.

At the same time, theocracy that had bound human thought for nearly a thousand years had long since declined. Although most people still believed in the existence of God, the Holy See had lost its previous lofty status. At this moment, the glory of the Holy See could only illuminate the Vatican City, which was only 3,000 square kilometers.

At the beginning, the people who were most excited about this were the kings of various countries, but they soon discovered that with the decline of theocracy, the crowns bestowed by God on their heads began to fade.

The rise of the middle class foreshadowed the emergence of a new force on the political stage. In just over a decade, hundreds of revolutions broke out across the mainland.

What gave the middle class the courage to take up arms was one thing: gunpowder. This invention, which came out of the alchemist's laboratory, completely changed the face of war.

It is also because of the success of gunpowder that the world has seen the dawn of magic being used by ordinary people. How many people hope that magic is no longer exclusive to magicians.

Therefore, in the more than a century after gunpowder was widely used, more and more results from magicians' laboratories were unearthed.

The first place where all the achievements were applied was definitely war. These magical and powerful weapons completely changed the way war had been carried out for thousands of years.

New weapons and new warfare modes have also further strengthened the ambitions of the new overlord of the continent.

The war between the old and new hegemons inevitably occurred.

At the beginning of the war, people predicted that the war would last for several years or even longer, but what was incredible was that in less than half a month, the old overlord of the continent, the Franco-Asian Empire, which had been glorious for more than six centuries, was defeated.

On the mountain road from Tres to the Songnen Plain, a long, endless army was moving slowly and listlessly forward.

This was the army of the Afro-Asian Empire that had just been defeated at the front line. There were a total of sixteen corps, totaling nearly ninety thousand men.

Like all defeated armies, these soldiers marching along the mountain road looked extremely miserable. Their eyes were dull and their heads were dejected. Many of them even used their rifles as crutches. The horse-drawn carriages on the road carried soldiers with broken legs and arms, and even their groans sounded weak.

The sound of horse hooves came from afar. The person riding on the horse was a worried-looking young lieutenant. Because of his full beard, he looked to be around thirty years old. His uniform did not have the same dust and blood stains as the soldiers.

The young lieutenant's name was Reichel, and he was much luckier than those ordinary soldiers.

Although he was just an inconspicuous military officer, he was able to ride a warhorse, a right that many officers of higher rank than him could not enjoy.

The Military Affairs Office where he worked was a very lucrative department. Although Military Affairs Officers could not make large sums of money by "eating" military supplies like Quartermaster Officers did, they also had their own ways of making money.

In the Military Affairs Office, Lieutenant Hull was not rich, and of course he was by no means as innocent as a baby. He was just not as blatant as other military officers. Hull always regarded himself as a truly smart man, and a smart man must basically be a cautious person.

People like him usually live a very comfortable life, but at this moment he is a little worried.

Hull was not worried about the loss of the war. In fact, he had predicted the collapse of the empire before the war broke out. Just by looking at what his colleagues were doing, he knew that the war could not be won.

What really worried him at the moment was that this morning, a secret order suddenly came to transfer him to the headquarters.

He couldn't help but think carefully about what this meant.

He would have thought a purge was about to begin if his more greedy colleagues had not shown any signs of being scrutinized.

Just as Lieutenant Hull was walking on his way with his head full of confusion, suddenly, there was a loud noise behind him, followed by a burst of sporadic gunfire.

Not only were there gunshots, but even the sound of cannons gradually began to be heard. It was the roar of a 200mm mortar.

Although the shelling was far away, the sound rolling in from the mountains still startled Lieutenant Hull. He immediately urged his horse to gallop towards the hillside next to him. He was too familiar with this situation. It was the alarm of an enemy air raid.

Just as Lieutenant Hull had expected, when he rode up the hill and entered a sparse woods, a dull roar suddenly sounded behind him.

A heat wave swept in from behind, and the lieutenant felt himself being pushed forward by it. Fortunately, the heat wave quickly weakened after entering the woods.

After entering the woods, the lieutenant did not stop, because this was still not the safest place, and those sparse trees could not effectively block attacks from the air. He continued to ride forward until he reached a huge rock and stopped.

Lieutenant Hull jumped off his horse and quickly hid behind a rock. When the enemy attacked from the air, riding on a horse was extremely dangerous, as it would undoubtedly lure the enemy's air cavalry to attack, especially officers, who were very valuable targets.

Hiding behind a rock and watching secretly, I saw more than a dozen black shadows flying and circling in the sky. These black shadows with huge wings emitted an extremely dazzling flash of light from time to time.

After the flash, a fireball fell from the sky. Once it hit the ground, it exploded with a dull roar. The explosion range of the fireball was very large, and the edge even extended into the depths of the woods.

The worst were the wounded soldiers in the carriages, who were undoubtedly the most conspicuous targets. A long line of carriages turned to ashes in the roar, and those wounded soldiers who were not attacked did not care about their injuries and tried desperately to jump off the carriages.

The soldiers had already hidden in the woods. They kept shooting at the sky through the sparse gaps in the treetops, but the lieutenant knew very well that it was completely futile. Even if the enemy's air cavalry were stationary, hitting them at a distance of more than 400 meters would only be a matter of luck.

Although the lieutenant also drew his gun, he did not shoot. He did not intend to do anything meaningless, and he did not want to actively invite danger.

For him, the only thing he could do at this moment was to wait, wait for his own air cavalry to come to the rescue, or wait until these guys in the sky lost interest. For an infantry regiment without any air defense capability, this was the only way.

Among the enemy's air cavalry that launched the surprise attack, four were confirmed to be magic air knights, and eleven light magic mechas.

Just as the lieutenant was concentrating on the fierce battle in the air, suddenly, a magic mecha swooped down towards him. With a flash of red light, a scorching fireball came closer and closer.

With a loud "bang", the fireball hit the rock and exploded, and the surrounding trees were broken and flew everywhere. However, what frightened Hull even more was the fire that was caused.

With a neigh, the warhorse broke free from the reins and charged forward. This reckless action immediately cost it its life. With another low roar, the fireball fired by the magic mecha exploded above its head.

The sight of blood and flesh flying everywhere made Lieutenant Hull secretly glad that he was not riding on a horse. However, Hull did not have much time to care about these things at the moment. The fire around him was spreading rapidly, and there was no other obstacle nearby that could be used for hiding except this rock.

Lieutenant Hull cursed in his heart while drawing his sword and slashing hard, trying to cut a firebreak.

At this moment, he was startled by a gust of strong wind coming from above his head. Looking up, he saw the magic mecha passing quickly over his head.

At that moment, the lieutenant saw the appearance of this terrible weapon. To be honest, this thing was really ugly. It had a pair of huge wings at least six meters long, a hump on its back, two folded long egret-like legs under its body, and a fan-like tail spread out behind it. This thing had no head, but had a walnut-sized eye that kept rotating, and at this moment this eye was staring at him.

The worst thing was that this thing refused to let him go. After circling, it turned back. This made Hull extremely frightened and puzzled at the same time. He really couldn't figure out how he could have such an "honor" to be stared at by a magic mecha.

Although filled with fear, Hull's hand naturally raised up. He had a gun in his hand with a bullet in the chamber. Almost at the same time, a gunshot rang out from the woods below.

Lieutenant Hull's shooting skills were not good. He was a military officer and had no need to go to the front line. His shooting skills were the result of a short period of training when he was just drafted into the army. In total, he fired less than a hundred rounds.

So, when he saw the fan-like tail of the attacking magic machine being blown apart and fragments flying all over its chest, he had no idea whether his shot was responsible for it.

However, he immediately realized that this was definitely not the time to think about this matter, because he saw the fatal flash again.

The lieutenant didn't even have time to react before he felt himself being smashed into the mud by a powerful force. The violent impact made his eyes go black.

When the lieutenant came to, he saw two soldiers grabbing his hands and pulling him out. Many broken branches were pressing down on his body and he was almost buried alive.

Sporadic gunshots were still heard from time to time, and the lieutenant guessed that an enemy air knight must have been shot down, so the soldiers were searching all over the mountains.

But for the lieutenant, all this had nothing to do with him. Having just escaped death, he knew the preciousness of life better than anyone else.

The only thing the lieutenant was interested in was the magic mecha that almost took his life. After delivering a fatal blow, the thing crashed into the woods, only a dozen meters away from him, and most of the wreckage was caught on the branches of a tree.

It can be clearly seen from below that there are clear bullet marks on the wings and body of the magic mecha. The bullet not only shattered the tail wing, but also shattered the metal baffle on the chest. At this moment, the gap is still emitting pungent dark red smoke.

This made the lieutenant think directly of the lit fuse and the gunpowder barrel that was about to explode. He always valued his life and quickly stepped back a distance.

Looking at the wreckage from a distance, except for a not-too-thick metal baffle on the chest, the rest of the structure is made of a layer of wood, a layer of fine steel mesh and a layer of canvas glued together. It looks quite light and strong enough, but it cannot defend against bullets.

The lieutenant secretly thanked his lucky stars that the protective ability of this thing was insufficient, otherwise his life might be in danger today.

He also mourned the heroic sacrifice of the warhorse. Although the horse was stubborn, difficult to control and easily frightened, it had been with him for two years after all, so he had some feelings for it.

Lieutenant Hull came out of the field hospital camp in embarrassment. He was quite disappointed that he could not get a certificate of casualty from the medical officer.

According to the practice of the Imperial Army, many charges would not be pursued for those who were heroically wounded in battle, and this was exactly what he needed at the moment.

He borrowed a horse from the military doctor that was originally used to pull carts. The animal couldn't run fast, but it was better than walking on two legs.

Riding on this slow horse, the lieutenant finally arrived at the headquarters stationed in the small town ahead before nightfall.

The name of the town is Da'an. It is a fairly large town with more than a hundred households.

A rather thick wall was built with millstone-sized rocks at the entrance of the town. Behind the wall, there were small-caliber field artillery and large-caliber mortars. In the square behind the artillery camp, there stood a row of silver-white mechas. They looked very similar to the mechas of the downed enemies, except that they were a little bigger.

There was also an infantry regiment guarding outside the town. As it was already night, the soldiers had already set up their tents on the side of the mountain road. At a glance, the long mountain road was lined with tents on both sides.

Separated by a wall, the scenes inside and outside the town are completely different. The mountain road outside is quiet, and the soldiers who have been rushing on the mountain road for a day have already gone into the tents to rest, but the town seems unusually lively because it is still early.

A special pass is required to enter the town. Fortunately, Hull's transfer order can be regarded as a pass. The military officer on duty in the town arranged accommodation for Lieutenant Hull.

It turned out to be a hotel. The big bed in the guest room had been thrown somewhere and replaced with two folding military beds. There was a sign on the wall at the head of the bed.

A batch of nails that can be used to hang clothes.

Although the lieutenant was very tired, he could not sleep at all. On the one hand, it was because he had something on his mind, and on the other hand, it was because the hotel lobby was very noisy.

The lieutenant put the things he had just received from the quartermaster's office on the bedside and walked straight out the door. He had to find someone.

The man he was looking for was called Borowin Hardings. They were classmates in the short-term non-commissioned officer training course. Although the short-term non-commissioned officer training course lasted only three months, it was enough for people with like-minded interests to become friends.

After graduating from the training class, Hull was lucky enough to enter the Military Affairs Department of the 21st Corps, but Hardings was luckier than him and went directly to the general headquarters.

The advantage of the Military Affairs Office is that there is lucrative money, and the adv