Chapter 331 - Arcane Tech

To boost the morale of the Magicians, Ace decided to accompany them with their flagship, the Excellence. 

Only two spacecraft would be engaging against the Empire's forces but they are not underestimating them at all…

There's a total of 31 Spacecraft from the Meredith Empire and all of them were bigger than Excellence and Providence.

One could just imagine the number of Mech Frames, Destroyers, Marauders, and Enhanced Soldiers inside one of the spacecraft.

However, they at least have some weaknesses that Escanor has pointed out. Of course, Ace was also aware of this but the former decided to create an ideal plan out of it.

First, the Empire is not familiar with this territory. They have to be wary as they might encounter unknown entities or other enemies aside from the Magicians, especially after encountering the block of mana when they used a wormhole to enter this star system.

They must have a very strong army but their systems might take some time to gather all the information they needed within a hundred A.U.

Escanor and his team learned a lot after being together with Freya and Avalon.

Another one of their weakness was their inability to respond or detect the Mana Artifacts.

Unless they are being attacked, they should be able to detect the Mana-Based Observers that they have. 

It should be similar to the Arians when Ace attacked the Omen IV.

Finally, the Empire is not aware of Wallace and Avalon's existence yet… 

It means that they are clueless that Wallace has already influenced their objective planet and even created a space fleet to welcome them.

They will be able to give them a surprise as long as they planned their attack carefully. 

'There's two Mech Knights Division with a total of 30 pilots… We also have another 20 Mech Frames under Avalon's control. The number is extremely small compared to the enemies. But we have tons of space mines planted and 5th Gen Mana Artifacts… If Escanor is right, this set of Magic should enough to at least damage several spacecraft and clear up any Mech Frames they'll bring out…'

Ace pondered as he entered the bridge… He made several checks about their operation and didn't find any problems with it.

As long as the Empire's firepower is within the limit of their calculations, their Mana Artifacts would certainly play a big role.

That's right, the key to the success of their offensive operation is not the Mech Knight Division, the Particle Beam Cannon, or even the powerful Sattelite-Class Canon installed in their spacesh.i.p.s… The key to this was the set of 5th Generation Mana Artifacts that would give them destructive power…

These Mana Artifacts that they've prepared are those 'One-Time-Use Artifact' that are extremely expensive and banned in the market… Of course, Ace was no longer a person that would be intimidated by money and he also has Veda's wide network of information to help him out to connect with the black market.

"Avalon…" Ace called. 

[ Everything is prepared. ] 

"Very well… Commence Launch Sequence!"

Ace commanded as the Excellence and Providence started their engine…

[ Starting Launch Sequence ] 

[ Main Power: Online ] 

[ Conduit Activation… Relaying Power to Acc.u.mulator… Connection Confirmed. ] 

[ Output Flow: Stable ] 

…

[ All Excellence's Systems: Online ] 

[ Sealing airtight bulkheads. ] 

[ Preparation for launch: Complete ]

"Alright, Avalon… Launch the Excellence…"

Ace gave his command as the Excellence went out first from the Moon Base followed by the Providence.

He glanced at the Transcendence hovering above the Moon Base as it was left behind… 

It will be the main battle spaceship that will protect this territory while they're gone. It is accompanied by several smaller spacecraft as they remained in battle stations.

Now that the Empire is getting closer, they have to be alert at all times.

"Avalon, how's the condition of our pilots?"

[ They made a report that they are at the peak of their condition. ] 

"Is that so? Inform them to have a rest whenever they have the time. We will alert them once we're close to the enemy fleet and once that happened, they would no longer have time to take a rest… So tell them it's an important order…"

[ Affirmative. ] 

***

Escanor and his colleagues were left at the command center watching the two Transatmospheric Battlesh.i.p.s taking off.

As soon as they exited the Moon Base's spherical protection array, their boosters immediately activated as they went to the path of the enemy fleet.

"It's beautiful…"

"I wish I could've joined them…"

"You'll just hinder Sir Wallace… I'm sure that he'll be successful even without your help..."

"Ha! I did command a spaceship from Dorssia Empire several times… I might be useful…"

They all laughed at this as they did their best to improve the mood within the room.

Their battle plan to fight them head-on may sound ludicrous to others if they considered the number of enemies… But having a Magic is completely different and Escanor wanted to just show them how threatening the magicians can be…

If they pulled this off perfectly, they will create a mysterious and also powerful impression on the minds of the imperial army.

As Ace shared with them, the Empire doesn't know their Magic Skills and was barely aware of anything about this planet. 

'Haaa~ But I might be wrong… If the Empire's forces are stronger than I expected, I just hope that Wallace won't be blaming me…' Escanor silently prayed as he saw two small dots of light in his monitor. The sh.i.p.s are getting further away and there is no turning back in this mission.

Thanks to Avalon, Escanor knows a lot about the empire… However, he was still reminded that there might have been a lot of changes considering the sheer power of the empire.

"Alright… There's no time to waste. It's time to work…"

Escanor urged his colleagues to start the task that Ace has left for them. 

Apparently, the young man wanted them to work on one of the Lost Arcane Technology to create another layer of defense for their base.

It is the Optical Phenomena Manipulation technology that Wallace has received from Pathfinder! It is now time to use this so-called Lost Technology.