Release that Witch

“It’s really ugly.” Tilly curled her lips.

Roland laughed out in embarrassment—if the written language of the Four Kingdoms were considered to look like distorted earthworms, then the demonic language was more complicated, some of their characters even resembled witchcraft symbols. Adding that Roland had relied completely on memory to copy it down, with his strokes and lines not proficient, it made the entire feel of the language look even more messy. Who knew if Hackzord would ever make out what he had written.

He had raised his doubts to Valkries, but received a harsh retort from her.

Valkries believed in the feasibility of a human copying the demonic characters, since it proved that she was not lost in the Realm of Mind and also reveal her own predicament by being able to pass information through Roland. If they had used her handwriting instead, it could easily spook the cautious Hackzord—if she could send letters, why not just leave the Realm of Mind directly?

“What does the letter say?”

“It is to get the Sky Lord to try his best to avoid engaging in all out war, so I need the General Staff to think of a way to send this to the demons.”

“Brother, are you alright?” Tilly looked at him in shock. “How is it possible for the senior lord of the enemy to listen to your words?”

“In any case, trying it out will not require too much time or effort…” Roland feigned an indifferent expression. “What if it succeeds?”

In fact, Roland had posed the exact question to the Nightmare Lord. Her reply was that a Senior Demon’s lifespan often exceeded several hundred years, where their habits and traits would go through countless changes; therefore, their written words would leave behind their individual prints. These prints were far more reliable than any coat of arms or insignias.

To Roland’s understanding, the general idea was about the same as immediately associating Internet slang to the youngsters born after the 90s.

“Alright.” Tilly put the letter away helplessly. “Since it’s your request.”

Right as she was prepared to leave, the North Slope Lab phone on the office desk suddenly rang.

Roland picked up the received. It was Anna.

After listening to her, Roland revealed a smile and said to Tilly, “Don’t rush back today. Stay the night in the castle. Coincidentally, I have something new to pass to you.”

…

In the workshop, Tilly saw the ‘revolutionary’ new product mentioned by Roland—two square-shaped wooden boxes.

Calling them boxes was not an exaggeration; not only were there obvious lids and openings to the boxes, the entire thing was about 30 cm long and could be carried in one hand. The dimensions of the two boxes were far from all the revolutionary machines that caused the public to exclaim in admiration, and even lacked the grandeur to be hailed as ‘revolutionary.’

The only difference between the two boxes and other boxes was that their front side were riddled with rows of bright and metal-plated buttons and knobs.

“This is…”

“It is a mobile and wireless transmission device,” Anna explained. “It is the equivalent to a shrunken iron cable tower, the advantage of it is that it can directly receive sound and of course, its larger distance capability.”

“I see… Wait a minute.” Tilly was stunned as she looked at Roland. “Is this the new communication device you mentioned previously?”

Although he had long prepared her for it, she never expected for the final product to be so elaborated! She had anticipated the device to occupy a large part of space when equipped on a plane. After all, the massive size of the iron tower project had been exhibited, to shrink it to the size of a ‘Fire of Heaven’ was already an inconceivable idea.

Roland saw her doubts and opened the lid of the box.

Crisscrossing wires and components appeared before her. Although she did not understand the box at all, Tilly realized that the box was completely different from the past machineries created.

“It can be considered the world’s first real electronic equipment. Although the electric motors, lights, telephone, and telegraph before this uses electricity currents, they are in essence using simplified electrical energy transformation to work,” Roland explained. “But this possesses an independent electric circuit system and uses electric currents to work. This is equivalent to replacing the gears, screws, and bearings with electric components. This size is also considered relatively large.”

“Are you blaming my craftsmanship for not being up to standard?” Anna gave him a look.

“Ahem… Of course not.” Roland immediately coughed twice. “It’s the Design Bureau who produced design plans which aren’t exquisite enough.”

“It was all thanks to Sister Anna for working late nights daily, for the prototype to be created so quickly,” added the assistant, Lucia. “Primarily, the vacuum tubes require the vacuums to be maintained and many components needed to be stuffed in. It would had been impossible without the help of her Blackfire.”

The core of the transmitter-receiver was the vacuum tube that was capable of amplifying, detecting, and vibrating. It was also the mark of humanity entering the Electronic Age, and Roland naturally knew how difficult it was to attain it. The shiny scrap metal that piled up outside the North Slope lab was proof. Furthermore, he could hardly guide them in matters of electrical engineering as he did before. A large part of the project relied on Anna to slowly proceed by trial and error herself.

The fact proved that his previous concept of the shortwave transmitter-receiver delegated to the team was only a beautiful fantasy. In the future, Anna would be concentrating her efforts on the large bombers. Being able to find the time to create the vacuum tubes for the Aerial Knights was already considered a miracle.

“Can I try it out?” Tilly asked impatiently.

“Of course you can.” Anna laughed and nodded.

Not long later, the three separated themselves to the inside and outside of the experimental lab and talked. Instantly, the room was filled with a lighthearted atmosphere.

Under the extremely clean electromagnetic surroundings in this era, the scope of the transmitter-receiver prototype easily surpassed two kilometers, and that number rose even higher in the air. Although the transmitter-receiver would suffer from disturbance when the spark-gap transmitter was used to relay messages, aside from extremely urgent information, the messengers could choose to send out telegrams at fixed time intervals. By staggering it with the Aerial Knights’ movements, the chances of conflict between the two remained nonexistent.

In Roland’s eyes, the success of the wireless transmitter-receiver was far more important compared to the new 20mm autocannons—real time communications substantially broadened and allowed for coordination between the pilots to execute aerial tactics. With precise coordination, the fleet’s fighting strength was basically being enhanced by a notch. It could also be said that only when the Aerial Knights become capable of accomplishing this would they be hailed as a real air force.

Tilly obviously saw this point and after ending the experiment somewhat unwillingly, she urged for her special plane to be equipped with even more wireless transmitter-receivers.

Early next morning, she carried the two prototypes and boarded the Phoenix.

When the scarlet figure disappears into the white horizon, the rays of dawn suddenly penetrated through the scattered clouds, dispersing millions of gentle and warm light.

The Month of the Demons that had persisted for close to four months was finally over.

At the same time, the Bloody Moon perched at the top of the sky disappeared without a trace, as though it had never existed.

But Roland knew that the war was not over.

Several hundred years ago, the demons grasped the opportunity when the Bloody Moon shone on the lands to build their obelisks, quietly awaiting for the pillars to grow into towering monuments. Only after stabilizing their foothold did they officially begin their assault.

A battle of destiny would typically reveal its ferocity only at that moment.

Now, humanity was once again standing at the same precipice.

But this time, they were completely different.

He believed that this time, history would not repeat itself.