Silent Crown

At the same time, it was noisy in the Royal Institute of Research.

From the sixth floor underground all the way up to the tenth floor, countless people were rushing about. The six elevators were running at full power, but the staircases were still full of people running up and down, sweating profusely.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the freight elevator, a group of people almost started hitting each other while fighting over a position.

“Give way! Give way! Let the spare interface allocator go up first!”

“Get lost! I still have six units of codes of notes to upload!”

“Friends from the management division, do me a favor, let me move the music theory relay distribution valve up first, I’m almost late!”

“If you’re late, go take the stairs!”

“The stairway has been blocked by the storage crystal from the third laboratory! It’s even more jammed than the situation here!”

“It’s too late! Open a hole in the floor first! Send the things down, and leave two people here to help me repair the floor!”

As one of the researchers said so, a rumble sounded.

The group of research musicians who would usually hide in the labs, never stepping out of the doors, had begun demolishing the building. In order to put the spare equipment in place, the group of researchers was already going crazy.

The building could be rebuilt anytime, but at the moment, if the equipment were to be delayed for five minutes, they would probably be trampled to death by an angry boss? Among the shrill cue tone, the atmosphere was solemn in the central control room, and hot sweat seeped out from all the musicians’ foreheads.

“What are you dumbly waiting for? Check every single step again, I will hold you all responsible if any problems occur!” Newton rolled up his sleeves and revealed two hairy arms, like an old monkey jumping up and down due to being agitated by the heat.

Meanwhile, beside him, the burly prelate was silent, his eyes closed. But contrary to expectations, when they saw him acting this way, the remaining Chainsaw clergy all became more and more diligent, not daring to slack in the slightest bit, like they were under high pressure.

Unlike the Royal Institute of Research, which implemented a loose management system, the Chainsaw Fraternity had always been governed under classical canon law, and it was the cruelest version even. Such was the foundation that enabled the Fraternity to continue existing for centuries in the southern desert region. In other words, making a blunder at such a critical juncture was definitely not something that could be resolved by taking thirty lashes.

To put it bluntly, a barking dog doesn’t bite. Blundering as an employee of the Institute of Research would at most result in a fine or being fired, or worse comes to worst, a prison sentence. But if a clergy of the Fraternity was to mess up, sorry…

Thinking of the blades hanging threateningly behind their heads, everyone immediately moved rapidly.

“The connection of the Net of Aether is free of problems.”

“The third level of authority has been granted!”

“The Royal Musicians are already in place!”

“The download application has been uploaded! The outer layer of the Net of Aether is operating. The aether quota for 4,000 official musicians is ready to be issued, and the sixth, eighth and ninth pools of aether are already in place!”

“The second verification is complete!”

Noisy reports sounded constantly.

The complicated processes advanced rapidly until no more sound was produced in the end. In the silence, Newton sat in his chair, sweat dripping from his forehead. Even though the preparations made were sufficient to the max, and none of the aspects posed any problem, he still couldn’t dispel the panic and anxiety in his heart.

“Your Excellency, I remember that you qualify as a priest?” Newton looked at the giant beside him. “Can you accept my prayers in place of God?”

“You may pray, but God won’t listen.” The priest raised the signet ring containing a holy emblem on his finger and said calmly, “We follow the will of destiny. As for the rest. It will suffice to just accept God’s arrangement.”

Newton was stunned for a long time, then laughed self-mockingly. “Then, I hope that He will arrange a good outcome for us.”

…

Amid the bangs that sounded one after another, Galahad’s armor was the first to break through the three-layer wall. According to the map drawn by the musicians of the school of revelation, she advanced towards the base of the Frost Giants.

Against several Frost Giant Knights who had already reacted and were here to intercept the Anglo knights, the thin and short Galahad dodged their attacks in a manner that could almost be considered dexterous. The sword whistled as it struck, moving through the gap of the armor, and chopped off an arm.

Light armor was created with speed being its focus right from the start, and after removing the heavy layer of outer suspension armor, the speed was incredibly quick.

“Galahad! You are moving too fast! You have left the team! It’s too dangerous! Come back!” Disregarding the orders of Geraint behind her, Galahad accelerated again, once again smashing through a layer of wall and broke into the armor workshop. Coming towards her were two Frost Knights who had just finished wearing their armor, but more were fixed on workbenches, having their armor put on them for the emergency with the help of several engineers!

In the rumble, Galahad jumped up, stepping on the shoulder of the Frost Giants and the walls, and pounced towards the workbenches at the back.

Against Galahad’s double swords striking down, the Frost Giant Knights. in the process of wearing their armor, were unable to fight back. They were slaughtered like chicks and suffered heavy losses immediately.

But more and more people rushed towards her, disregarding their own lives to slow her down and buying more time for the ones at the back…

Finally, in the loud noises, the knights had finished wearing their heavy power armor and surrounded her. In the short span of five minutes, the Knights of the Round Table could no longer be at ease.

In an instant, the tables were turned.

“The coat of arms is the emblem of the Head of the Knights of the Round Table. It seems that I have caught a big fish.” In the rumble of steel colliding, the Frost Giant Knight lifted the powered halberd and aimed it at Galahad’s face. “Now, it’s time to pay the price!”

Thunder and lightning erupted from the top of the halberd. In the forlorn whistle, it broke through the air.

Christine took a step back, and the two swords spread like eagle wings. Against the enemy’s attack, she took a step forward. Moving like thunder, she rushed forward, targeting the vital parts of the power furnace at the chest and the knight’s face.

The Frost Giant snickered, and totally disregarded the attack. An attack of such a level couldn’t even break through his outer armor.

When fighting against a knight wearing heavy power armor, a knight in light armor with no outer suspension armor at all was no match at all. But then, in the whistling sound, dozens of steel cabinets descended from the sky, falling apart upon landing. Only the huge cone-shaped instruments of harmonious melody were nailed into the earth.

Back when they were in the air, the instruments of harmonious melody were burned red due to overloading. And when they landed on the ground, they wedged into the earth like meteorites.

And as the rest of the armored knights destroyed the Asgardians’ alchemy array, the enchantment enveloping the outer layer of the base finally collapsed.

At the very moment, a torrent of aether descended from the sky.

All the Knights of the Round Table heard a cold voice in their ears, overlapping together. The voice was so swift, yet so clear as if it was reverberating in their consciousness.

[Coherence achieved]

[Completion of connection agreement]

[First, second, and third handshakes successful]

[Net of Aether done connected]

[User identity code identified: Knights of the Round Table, interface allocation completed]

[Virtual array simulated]

[Installation of Vacuum Sun, the power source, completed]

[May God bless the kingdom and my emperor protect me!]

At the very moment, the mighty melody sounded from the sky and resounded through the stars.

Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1!

In the sonorous melody, the brilliance of the Chapter of the Golden Victory descended from the sky, turning into Firebird, and covered every armored knight.

In the blink of an eye, armors of Firebird were constructed, and the fiery flow of aether flow surged in the virtual alchemy circuit. Under the full coverage of the Net of Aether, every Knight of the Round Table was connected to the port and enveloped in the exterior armor formed by Firebird.

Boom! Among the brilliance of Firebird, the hurricane burst forth.

The iron-gray hurricane lingered on Galahad’s armor, and the power halberd broke with a rumble and turned into metallic gravel. Countless pieces of shattered thunder leaped, but they couldn’t seep into the hurricane defense of Galahad.

In just a moment of crossfire, the huge Frost Giant had been thoroughly pierced through, decomposed by the two blazing swords. The power furnace shattered with a rumble, the shock waves blew the giant’s chest up, and blood spewed out.

It was like a dream.

Despite obviously being a power skeleton without any special features, it suddenly turned into a Round Table Armor that was even more powerful than an Archangel Armor.

Moreover, it was the famous hurricane of the iron wall—Galahad!

Was God kidding the Asgardians? Not only the Asgardians, but even the Knights of the Round Table themselves had not expected that they could be strengthened with Firebird.

The aether furnaces were upgraded to Vacuum Suns powered by the collision of music theory, and even the outer skeletons of the armors that had no protection were transformed into expensive Archangel Armors!

Not to mention the weapons in their hands that were transformed into alchemy weapons by the virtual array! No one would believe it if you were to tell them!

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of light-armored knights that were not even equipped with external suspension armor had become heavy-armored knights covered in Firebird armor!

No, it was even more incredible than that. Firebird was, in essence, a phenomenon formed by forcefully using one’s tenacity to interfere with aether. It was visible yet incorporeal, and had no weight at all.

They were a group of armored knights with the defenses of heavy cavalry, yet their speed far exceeded that of light cavalry…

The Asgardians seemed to have seen a nightmare come true.

The fruit of the research the Royal Institute of Research of Anglo and the Chainsaw Fraternity did around the core layer of the Net of Aether in the past few months had finally been uploaded onto the Net of Aether at the moment, opening the ports to all the knights.

Mass-produced Knights of the Round Table!

“May my emperor protect me!” Under Geraint’s roar, a rumble erupted from the mighty Firebird.

The armors of the Knights of the Round Table were completely changed. Covered by Firebird, the 320 Archangel Knights and the six Head Knights of the Round Table had no more weakness.

Right at the moment, right here, the sound of steel roaring burst forth.

Asgard’s Frost Giant Corps collided with Anglo’s Knights of the Round Table, and the long-awaited fight between the two sides finally began!

…

The sea was collapsing.

A huge depression appeared in the raging ocean before anyone realized it. Innumerable sharp cracks continue to burst forth from it, whirlpools fading in and out of existence. Some were fleeting, but some grew rapidly, swallowing the other whirlpools, and loud bangs constantly sounded, turning into a roar.

Water was the best medium.

Under the permeation of the realm of aether and the huge gravitational pull of music theory, the entire battlefield had been completely distorted by both sides. If not for the forceful suppression of the Stronghold on Sea, the sea region would probably have completely turned into a foreign realm.

On the other hand, it was why the Asgardians dared to constantly activate war movements. No matter how much the environment was distorted, it could not affect the warship’s wholeness.

Meanwhile, the Royal Fleet was already damaged at the moment.

In the fourth minute after the war started, Ramillies, the slowest ship, fell apart under the strike of the huge sword of the flame. At the tenth minute of the battle, the shield of the Resolution was completely destroyed as well. At the moment, the ship was riddled with holes, and could only maintain its form barely by relying on the alchemy array.

The glow from the Royal Pride was fleeting and dim, like a candle in the wind.

At the moment, it was not the defenses that determined whether the Royal Fleet could survive, but speed. Regardless of how powerful they were, shields and defenses could not resist the overwhelming attack of the Asgardian Navy. Only by attempting to dodge the attacks with their fastest speed could the fleet survive, albeit barely.

Even so, the continuous shock waves riddled the entire fleet with holes.

With a loud bang, the Revenge that forcefully advanced in the face of countless attacks completely fell apart after slamming into and sinking a battleship. It turned into pieces, once again sinking into the sea.

More than half of the first-generation Royal Fleet had been damaged.

Despite fighting against enemies who were several times their number and even facing such a horrible monster like the Stronghold on Sea, the Royal Fleet still achieved plenty.

Paying the price of being reduced to less than half of their numbers, the Anglo fleet dealt immense damage to the second formation of Asgard. Although they couldn’t fight directly with the Stronghold on Sea, the tactics used by the Royal Fleet at the moment made them seem like a group of barbarian rangers on sea.

Under Storm Protection, the terrifying effect that was automatically activated after the Royal Fleet was in resonance, the fleet sacrificed most of its defense capabilities in exchange for a terrifying speed. They made their way back and forth about the battlefield, not engaging in frontal combat with the enemy at all, but constantly used their weapons to harass the Asgardians, and used cannon fire to consume the peripheral forces of the Stronghold on Sea.

Dealing with a monster like the Stronghold on Sea indeed gave them a sense of pain and helplessness, like mice trying to pull a turtle [1] and having no clue where to start. But the effect of the tactic was amazing when dealing with the warships at the periphery of the stronghold.

After the mass bombs made of alloy, which had been stored for centuries, were exhausted, the Royal Fleet enabled the reserve arrays to continuously extract seawater and conduct nature interference on it, transforming it into special bombs with steel properties. Depending on the different arrays, seawater could be reprocessed to make it shockingly corrosive or flammable.

Unlike the characteristics of the Asgardian warships, the first-generation Royal Fleet was alchemy warships forged centuries ago with Leviathan’s flesh and blood and the music theory of catastrophes. Although their designs and models were outdated and their frontal combat power had become relatively weak after hundreds of years of technology advancement, the special effects carried by its warships were still irreplaceable.

Be it the Storm Protection effect that could increase the speed of the warships significantly by several times and ensure that they always occupied the upwind position, or the Tide Protection effect that could manipulate the sea water and form layers of iron-like water walls to weaken and offset the enemy’s attack, all of them were God-level auxiliary effects.

They could maximize the protection of the fleet and weaken the enemies.

It was a pity that Avalon’s Kingdom of Heaven on Earth could not be used freely as it had to be on the lookout for the Asgardians’ Gungnir. Otherwise, under the Empress’ will, Her Majesty would become one with the country, and the entire territorial waters of Anglo would be the territory of Leviathan. Under the strengthening of the catastrophe, the entire ocean would be Asgard’s enemy.

The sort of national-level interference ability was a defense built by centuries of construction, and even saints would be no match here. Otherwise, why would the situation deteriorate to the present extent?

Amid the alarm warning against battle damage, Sylvaine gritted his teeth. Hearing the rumble from afar, his expression could not help but convulse.

In the Stronghold on Sea, the sword of the flames struck again, splitting innumerable curtains of water and storms apart, and it turned the whole whirlpool into ashes together with the Royal Oak.

The entire first-generation Royal Fleet only had six boats left!

The thought of the Royal Fleet that had been passed down for centuries had been damaged so badly in his hands that only less than one-third of it was left pained Sylvaine’s heart. It was a legend that countless youngsters of Anglo had dreamed about from a young age, their motivation to join the navy.

Presently, the brilliance was no longer, and the blood of glory was dim.

Even though he was not the person who made the decision, as a commander, Sylvaine had the impulse to drink poison as an apology for his sin.

“Damn…” He gritted his teeth, and in the harsh alarm, roared furiously.

Boom! A violent shaking hit the ships again, the hull whined forlornly, and the alarm sounded once more. The bottom layer of the armor of the Royal Pride was completely shattered, and seawater surged into wheel room no. 3.

Even though the steel floodgate was lowered and the seawater was blocked from flowing in some more, the speed of the Royal Pride had dropped by 30 percent.

In the violent turmoil, the chief signal officer fell to the ground, his head bloody from the wounds cut by the sharp corners. Holding on to the table, he climbed up and looked at Sylvaine. “Sir, the communication channel with Ramillies is silent!”

Boom! A loud noise came from afar.

Ramillies, on the verge of its limit, rushed into the battlefield and detonated its own aether furnace, meeting its end together with the enemy.

The remaining warships also sent warnings.

“What are you all standing there for!” Selvin was enraged and roared hoarsely, “Attack! Attack! Attack! Our enemies are still on the battlefield! We must not stop!” He held the commanding knife, his knuckles protruding.

Anglo hopes for its people to fulfill their duties to the very end…

However, how long has the long-suffering been ongoing?

Three hours? Four hours?

Almost 80 percent of the first-generation Royal Fleet had been sacrificed in exchange for taking down enemies more than several times the number. Under the desperate attack of the Ramillies just now, a big hole was even blown open in the side armor of the Stronghold on Sea.

But somehow, a voice sounded in Sylvaine’s ear. It was telling him that this was the end.

Your duties are coming to an end.

Sylvaine looked up and gazed at the ceiling of the bridge. He had never prayed so piously, praying for God to bestow a miracle upon him. But his eyes were stung by the glow of lightning.

In the projection on the ceiling, the night sky lit by the fire of war was torn apart. Strong lights that seemed like meteors falling galloped across the night sky, one, two, three…

It was like a rainstorm.

The thunder and lighting that were like torrential rains cut the night sky apart into complicated parts, leaving trajectories that refused to dissipate for a long time.

The group of meteors traveled across the battlefield and flew towards Avalon.

“Sir,” the chief signal officer, who was also responsible as a lookout, was pale, “the Asgardians have launched a general offensive on Anglo, they activated Gungnir…”

Sylvaine smiled miserably.

God had responded to his prayers.

But He was not standing on Sylvaine’s side.

“Do we still have wine?” He looked at the first officer who had an arm blown off by the wheel.

The first officer shook his head bitterly. “We ran out a long time ago, I only brought a little, really.”

“For the first time in my life, I hate that you guys brought too little alcohol on board the ship.” Sylvaine laughed, but he couldn’t resist the urge to cry and choke. “Everyone, it has been my honor to work with you all. You all… have lived up to the blood of glory and your glory as nobles.”

The first officer and the crew exchanged glances and suddenly laughed. Like magic, he took out a metal case from his pocket. “Although we have no more wine, I also brought along a box of cigars, it’s top notch! Sir, do you want some?”

“F*ck, what do you think military laws are! I want to hang you! Give it to me!” Wiping his tears, Sylvaine grabbed the metal case from his hand, and took a cigar from the copper tube. He had no time to elegantly smoke and savor it as he had in the past. He bit one end off violently and threw it to the first officer, then took out another one for himself.

“Give me one too.” The meticulous second officer who had always adhered to aristocratic manners also walked forward. He took the metal case and distributed the cigars. The chief signal officer ignited a wisp of flame and lit everyone’s cigars in turn.

The group of old men opened their uniform collars and took off their hats. Disregarding the stinging in their lungs, they took in deep breathes forcefully, swallowed and breathed out thick smoke. Looking at the tears and blood on each other’s faces, they couldn’t help laughing.

“It’s time, everyone.” Sylvaine leaned back in his chair and found a comfortable position. “It’s time for us to fulfill our duty.”

“Yep.” The first officer grinned. “God bless the kingdom.”

“God bless the kingdom!”

“God bless the kingdom…”

May God bless the kingdom, they hoped for nothing else other than that.

“All, attack!”

Sylvaine laughed loudly and gave the final order, “Let the group of Asgardian barbarians see the strength of character of Anglo!”

So, in the rumble, the engines of the whole fleet were overloaded.

Brilliant colors burst forth from the Royal Pride, and the remaining ships of the first-generation fleet assembled, following the lead of the flagship closely. Against the brilliance of countless canon balls, they rushed at the Stronghold on Sea.

With their final glory, the Anglo Fleet played a dirge!

However, in such a tragic moment, an untimely voice rang out in the communication channel, “Hey! I say, everyone, have you all forgotten the latter half to the sentence ‘God bless the kingdom’?”

[1] A Chinese proverb.