"I'm sorry to disappoint you this time, Her Majesty Lucia... I will look for other candidates." The Pope shook his head and sighed. It was not so easy to find this candidate. Faith and talent were the key, but not all.
In the past ten years, the only qualified person has been Edwell.
Unfortunately...
As the Pope was thinking, the Chief Judge Joshua stepped forward, looked at the Holy Lady of the Holy See, and saluted respectfully. "Your Highness Lucia!"
Saint Lucia put the dragon fruit she had taken a few bites of back on the altar and whispered that they should try a different tribute next time. Then she looked at Joshua and said nonchalantly, "It seems that even you have failed."
Joshua seemed to have not noticed the saint's offensive act of putting the dragon fruit back on the altar. He knelt on one knee and repeated the results of the war like a monotonous machine. "The Imperial Fleet lost a total of 143 warships and did not achieve any substantial results..."
Listening to Joshua's report, Lucia's beautiful green eyes narrowed, and her tone became extremely cold. "Tell me, what exactly is going on... As far as I know, most of the powerful wizards have already gone to the kingdom, and now the defense of the wizard land should be unprecedentedly empty..."
The entire First Fleet of the Empire has more than 300 warships, all of which are the latest sailing ships. They are equipped with more than 80,000 elite troops of the Empire and a corps of nearly 1,000 priests. It should not be difficult to raz the unprotected wizard land!
And what does it mean to have no results? So many people died, and half of the entire imperial fleet was destroyed, so it is impossible that the enemy is still safe and sound, right?
Even if you use a stupid camel as commander, you can't achieve such a result!
Joshua began to recount his experience at sea. "In fact, we encountered a barrier on the foggy sea before we even reached the wizard's land. Those wizards developed a new type of steel warship, which is conservatively estimated to weigh at least a thousand tons and can sail at sea more than three times faster than a sailing warship..."
"Wait... a steel warship weighing thousands of tons is floating on the sea? It can also run very fast. Are you sure you are not seeing things? Isn't that some kind of visual illusion?" The Pope frowned and could not help but interrupt Joshua's words. He couldn't help but wonder if the other party was telling an absurd story.
How could a ship made of steel float on the sea and run several times faster than a sailing warship? This doesn't conform to the laws of the world! "I'm sure!" Joshua said firmly, and recounted the entire battle in detail.
Especially the peculiar beyond-visual-range tactics used by the enemy. Relying on a cruising speed more than three times faster than them, they always kept about one kilometer away from them, and then used powerful firepower to continuously suppress them, leaving them no chance to get close or escape.
This is why the fleet suffered heavy losses but gained nothing.
"They are simply a group of cunning hyenas!" the Pope said coldly. However, he tried to put himself in Joshua's situation and could not think of a good way to break the impasse for a while.
Joshua had tried to use powerful legendary magic, but the ships ran away in a flash and he could not hit them at all. Within half an hour, the steel ships would emerge from the fog again and continue to suppress them with artillery fire.
It is not a good idea to let the flying cardinals chase, because they are not as fast as the steel warships, and their divine energy will be consumed by rounds of bombardment.
Of course, the First Fleet would not be suppressed so badly. The barrier of the Sea of Fog was also very important. If there was no fog covering the entire sea area, the situation would have been much better.
"After that, I designed a plan to encircle the wizards' fleet at the cost of thirty ships, but their reinforcements came too fast..." Joshua said with regret. That was his only chance to severely damage the Iron Fleet.
This is undoubtedly a losing business...
"It seems that we have all underestimated these wizards." Lucia snorted.
In her eyes before, the wizards hiding on that broken island were just a minor infestation, a group of rats that had burrowed into a hole. They would not pose a threat to the overall situation. As long as they dared to show up, she could easily wipe them out.
Only those evil gods and demons outside the time and space gate are the real enemies of the Church...
So this time, after learning that those wizards had captured the kingdom, the empire sent out two punitive armies in succession, attacking from two fronts in order to eliminate this threat in one go!
But I didn't expect to suffer such a disastrous defeat...
These novel weapons made Lucia extremely curious. She remembered that when Cosimo reported to her a few years ago, he did not mention this kind of steel warship. The alchemical creation called the airship was said to have a speed of only 20 to 30 kilometers per hour.
Now this number has increased five or six times.
All the new weapons seem to have suddenly appeared recently...
"Most of the God's Punishment Army is still fighting those evil demons in foreign lands. Do we need to withdraw them?" The Pope suggested. The threat posed by the wizards has reached a point where they must be dealt with with all their strength. They must gather their forces and completely eliminate this threat! "No!" Lucia shook her head. "Those wizards do have some tricks in group battles. Don't waste our accumulated elite forces."
"Didn't the Empire discover a tribe of giants during its conquest of the Western Territory two years ago? Since they don't have any talent for divine arts, we can just treat them as consumables in this war." Lucia said after some hesitation.
The giant has thick skin and flesh and is extremely strong. With the blessing of divine power and equipped with special iron armor, he should be able to withstand the attack of artillery fire and smash those iron boxes that can run away.
I just ate too much and the logistical pressure was quite high…
"I'll do it myself this time!" Lucia straightened her face and said solemnly.
“Your Highness Lucia, those wizards may be difficult to deal with, but not to the extent that…” Joshua advised. It was undoubtedly a sign of their incompetence and dereliction of duty to let the Holy Maiden of the Holy See go into battle.
"It doesn't matter. This body has reached its limit. It's a good time to make use of it." Lucia said casually, and a cold light as if seeing prey appeared in her star-like eyes.
(End of this chapter)
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