End of the Magic Era

A month later, Lin Yun led a fleet of magic battleships towards the spatial coordinates that he had set on The Intrepid.

The Intrepid and the three magic battleships had accelerated for 10 days. Observing from the warships, one could see nothing but streaks of light. It was because they were too fast. Their routes were already set, and they all carried energy shields, so they weren't afraid of asteroids on the way at all.

After a half month of voyage, they finally approached an area of space that seemed very desolate. However, the moment they emerged from the darkness that couldn't be illuminated by light, they saw five iron warships 1,000 meters long in their way.

The five iron warships floated in the void 1,000 kilometers away from Lin Yun. That distance was basically the warship's attack range.

Seeing the five iron warships and the marks on their surfaces, Lin Yun frowned.

The mark was a thorny crown, which was a simple pattern. However, Lin Yun didn't look well after he saw that.

The Thorny Crown was a mysterious organization with a complicated list of members. It didn't have a lot of official members, but all of them were excellent in one particular aspect. They were different from normal mage organizations, and were more like the Starry Sky College.

The Shadow Tower and the Ring of Roses both belonged to the Thorny Crown. After meeting Emmy, Lin Yun knew that the headquarters she mentioned were the Thorny Crown. Lin Yun was never worried, because the Thorny Crown was never interested in fighting. They pursued the truth of magic.

If the Thorny Crown learned that Emmy tried to summon a devil overlord, they would only punish the Ring of Roses for bringing trouble to the Thorny Crown. Anything that exposed the Thorny Crown to the public was a violation of the rules.

That was why Lin Yun wasn't too bothered by the incident with the Ring of Roses. This was the age of the Thorny Crown's early development. It had various sorts of members, such as the mages in the Ring of Roses who had transplanted other bloodlines, and the shadow mages of the Shadow Tower who performed assassinations with the power of shadows…

All in all, not many people liked them. They had been surrounded and attacked countless times. Everybody thought that they were annihilated, but a few years later, they would rise again.

They would certainly not retaliate against Lin Yun at the risk of exposing themselves. Lin Yun was quite positive of that.

He didn't expect to see the Thorny Crown's iron warships defending the safest entrance in here. Remembering the information that Lord Shawn collected last time, Lin Yun was greatly enlightened.

No wonder the Thorny Crown would stop hiding in 1,000 years. By then, they would be powerful, rich, and skilled enough for them to walk in the sunlight.

In history, this special plane was discovered exactly in this age. He simply didn't know that it was the Thorny Crown which had discovered it.

The more important thing that they referred to was probably the exploration of this plane.

However, they would have to wait for 1,000 years before they dared to walk in the sunlight, so their development of this plane couldn't be easy…

Lin Yun was considering these things. Without his order, the other people on the battleships didn't dare to attack. While Lin Yun waited, the Thorny Crown's five warships changed their direction, and aimed their weapons at him.

Energy cannonballs were thrown towards The Intrepid over a distance of 1,000 kilometers. Those balls of light were so dense that they seemed to be drifting towards the targets.

Seeing the scene, Lord Shawn grinned and laughed crazily.

"Oh my God, what have I seen? Are they planning to destroy The Intrepid with such attacks? Are they trying to drown us with those energy balls?"

"It will take at least 15 minutes before they hit us, right?"

Lord Shawn tilted its head and glanced at Pinocchio, who sneered in disdain and nodded.

"Considering the speed of their Mana Crystal Cannons, it will take 15 minutes before they hit our battleships."

"Sir Merlin, should we dodge?"

Lin Yun was almost amused. Did those people think that the battles in the boundless void were the same as those in Noscent? They were using the Mana Crystal Cannons, which were for city defenses in Noscent, in the void…

It was quite remarkable that the energy cannonballs remained intact after crossing 1,000 kilometers. However, they didn't have a lot of momentum left. Even the newly made magic battleships couldn't be damaged by them, not to mention The Intrepid.

Lin Yun's group had been flying so fast on their way that any meteoroid they hit was much more powerful than those energy balls. However, none of the meteoroids was able to penetrate the magic battleships' energy shields.

"Magic Battleship No. 1, listen to my order. Destroy those five pieces of garbage."

It would've been a waste to use The Intrepid against those people…

On the left side of The Intrepid, a magic battleship had openings on its two sides and bottom. Barrels that were almost 10 meters long extended from the battleships.

Immediately, a red streak of light crossed 1,000 kilometers almost in the blink of an eye, and hit one of the iron warships, followed by dozens more. They riddled the iron warship with holes in no more than 10 seconds. It was burning, and its reaction furnace was penetrated. It exploded, turning into flames.

Then, the laser cannons were aimed at the second iron warship, which was destroyed in no more than 10 seconds again.

Seeing that, the people of the Thorny Crown were dumbfounded. Their enemy had destroyed two of their iron warships in 20 seconds with the smallest ship…

The other three iron warships accelerated and fled crazily, but in only half a minute, another two of them were destroyed.

The last iron warship was fleeing at full speed with the remains of the two iron warships as cover.

The laser cannons were very fast, but they could not attack any longer in such a situation. Their power would be weakened by the remains. Also, if the distance was too long, their precision wouldn't be good enough.

"Adjust the laser cannons' perspective, and try the electromagnetic energy cannon."

Lin Yun was quite satisfied with the result.

It had only been a couple of months. The weapons were already powerful enough.

After Lin Yun gave the order, an opening appeared on the top of Magic Battleship No. 1. A thick barrel that was 300 meters long surfaced. As mana was injected, the barrel glittered, and electricity flowed on the cannon like snakes, and gathered in front of the barrel. In no more than three seconds, they formed an energy barrel that was 1,000 meters long.

A cannonball that was only seven meters long was accelerated in the barrels, and thrown forth from the end of the electricity barrel quickly. The cannonball was so astonishingly fast that it appeared hundreds of kilometers away in only one second. At the end of the barrel, spatial ripples were spreading out. Tiny spatial cracks extended for dozens of kilometers.

A few seconds later, the remains of the two iron warships exploded, as if they had been torn into halves by a beast. The last iron warship that escaped was deformed. It was suddenly shortened by more than 100 meters, and a huge hole appeared in its end, but it was the front half of the battleship that exploded like a blooming metal flower.

"S-so powerful. That attack could definitely compare to the full-strength strike of a level-5, no, level-6 Heaven Rank expert. Their attack range is not so long.

"No, it cannot compare to a level-6 Heaven Rank expert…"

Fantexi was quite terrified of the power of the electromagnetic energy cannon's attack. He knew that the cannon was controlled by a few Archmages. None of them were in the Heaven Rank…

They didn't know what the magic battleships meant until they saw the real performance.

The iron warships were the best products that the big organizations could make. Also, it was believed that the bigger they were, the better. The iron warships were like moving continents where one's every need could be satisfied. To sail in the boundless void and search for more planes and resources, the iron warships could sail for decades, if not hundreds of years at one time.

This age was the beginning of colonization. Besides the Planar Paths that were in Noscent, and those that could be found in the planes that they led to, one had to look for new Planar Paths in order to get to new planes, or the spatial barriers of the new planes.

Only if they found the barriers of a plane could they expect to break in. Nobody could tell what kind of plane it was until they entered it. They could only make speculations based on the hardness of the barriers.

If the barriers were as powerful as Noscent's, then they had to be protecting a world with complete laws, and likely ferocious creatures.

The Planar Paths were miracles of planes anyway. The natural Planar Paths were even rarer. They could all be developed regardless of their size.

Most planes had to be searched for like needles that were on the bottom of an ocean. A lot of time would have to be wasted…

Even the best warships in this age were quite slow. When they sailed in the void, they were like floating asteroids. Every adventure would take at least 10 years.

Because of the iron warships' limitations, they could only exist for several decades. If they encountered any accident in the boundless void, they might turn into garbage in only 20 years.

That was an important reason behind the slow development at the beginning of the colonization age. How could they conquer and colonize without discovering planes?

The age of colonization didn't really reach its heyday until the magic battleships were invented and manufactured on a large scale.

Everybody was already shocked when they saw the magic battleships' horrifying speed at the beginning. They were even more shocked when they saw the magic battleship's outburst, even though the three magic battleships had all been created by them in person…

Fantexi's face turned red, and he was completely excited.

"So terrifying. The magic battleships will definitely change the paradigm of Noscent. They are just the most beginner-level magic battleships that we've created in our first attempt. They're not nearly as good as the magic battleships that Sir Merlin imagines."

"I always thought that I couldn't see Sir Merlin's designs come to reality by the end of my life. But they're even more powerful than I thought…"

"They're not magic tools, not alchemy puppets, just a congregation of alchemy devices without using the power of laws. Yet, they're as powerful as a Heaven Rank expert…"

Pinocchio, at the same time, had started calculating crazily. He recorded the data of the weapon system, and ran deductions with bloodshot eyes.

They weren't too excited about the speed, but the destructiveness meant a whole different thing.

Creating 1,000 such magic battleships meant having hundreds of level-5 Heaven Rank experts, which was enough to conquer any plane. They didn't have to approach any target. They only needed to send a fleet of magic battleships, which could easily destroy anything in a radius of hundreds of kilometers.

Even the most powerful iron warships in this age didn't receive too much attention, mainly because they were walking targets to any Heaven Rank expert, and would become enormous iron coffins. They could only serve as vehicles that made the explorations in the boundless void more comfortable.

If the iron warships could be better than regular level-1 Heaven Rank experts in terms of speed, defense, and offense, then everybody would invest into relevant research.

Unfortunately, nobody paid much attention to it at this moment. Or rather, they wouldn't devote a lot of resources to it even if they did…

Everybody looked at the remains of the iron warships that were drifting away in the void. None of them showed any reaction. They were so shocked that their heads went blank.

Standing in the captain room, Lin Yun looked at the incoming energy balls. Those were the attacks that the five iron warships had launched at first. They would hit The Intrepid and the three magic battleships in more than 10 minutes.

Fantexi was the first to calm down. He looked at the dense spots of light in the distance, and casually asked, "Sir Merlin, should we dodge the attacks?"

It was like a huge number of fireflies had appeared in the void, flying towards the warships. Because they were very slow, the magic battleships could easily dodge them. They could even destroy the iron warships first.

"That's unnecessary. Unfold the energy shields and move onward."

On the surfaces of the three magic battleships, a membrane of light surfaced, and enshrouded them. The Intrepid and the three magic battleships continued sailing.

A few minutes later, The Intrepid and the magic battleships collided with the hundreds of energy balls. When the latter hit The Intrepid, they blossomed on the surface of the vessel like fireworks, but couldn't leave any mark on it.

When the energy balls hit the magic battleships, there were blooming fireworks too. Ripples spread out on the surfaces of the magic battleships. All the attacks were like pebbles that were thrown into a lake. They caused nothing but some ripples, which soon disappeared.

Without changing their direction at all, the magic battleships had passed through all the attacks. Nobody on the magic battleships felt anything. The attacks that could've destroyed a city didn't damage the magic battleships' energy protection at all. They increased the energy core's consumption a little bit, but nothing more…

After passing through the attacks that were launched a dozen minutes earlier, Pinocchio screamed a bunch of data as if he had gone mad.

"Magic Battleship No. 1's energy protection was weakened by 0.3%, which was restored in three seconds. Its energy consumption was increased by 0.1%…"

"Damn it, in such a case, even 10,000 Archmages won't be able to tear apart the magic battleship's energy protection. At least a level-4 Heaven Rank expert is required to tear apart the protection with extraordinary power. But it won't last long. The opening will be restored in only a few seconds."

"Are those magic battleships really our work?"

Pinocchio read the data before his eyes in a trance. According to his calculation, the magic battleships he created had the energy level of a level-4 Heaven Rank mage, or a level-3 Heaven Rank mage in their peak state.

However, the battleships contained 1,000 times as much mana as a level-3 Heaven Rank mage had, and provided a range of protection 1,000 times greater than that of a level-3 Heaven Rank mage did too.

The only people who posed a threat to the magic battleships were level-5 Heaven Rank mages, who could make use of the extraordinary power of laws, and tear apart the magic battleships' protection so that they could shatter the magic battleships.