Miss Witch doesn't want to be a diva!.

Chapter 676: The spaceship that crashed hundreds of years ago

The former city was burning, and the flames spread from the mountaintops in the night to the city walls and the fields in the distance.

Dark red ashes remained in the harvested wheat fields. The stink bug-shaped machines traveling on the top of the city walls made strange noises from time to time. The spiral mouthparts extending from their chests and abdomens kept stabbing out, piercing through the closed thick wooden door, and then rushing into it.

The sounds of swords clashing and roars rang out in the tower, and then a mouse-eared knight in knight armor was pierced through the wall by a spear. The spiral spear pierced through his chest, protruded out from his back, and then spun again, bringing up splattered blood and flesh, and then the mouse-eared knight slipped from the tip of the spear and fell into the ashes and debris below.

Buzzing cockroaches formed formations and patrolled back and forth in the city. They spewed flames and set fire to various wooden buildings along the way. Many burning houses slowly fell down in the flames, raising a large amount of sparks and gray smoke.

At the end of the dark night, a team arrived at the city in the pre-dawn hours.

The black steel knight armor had a snow-cracked flower emblem on it, and on one side of their waists under their cloaks hung a long sword and shield, and on the other side a long lance. They were the Iron Rat Kingdom's Royal Guard Knights, directly under the royal family, and were the Iron Rat Kingdom's most elite soldiers.

When this elite cavalry of hundreds of people arrived, they stood on the top of the hill and did not rush into the city immediately. Instead, they looked into the distance at the city in flames.

Half an hour later, groups of figures climbed up the hill one after another and appeared on the hill. They wore thick coats, carried square backpacks like boxes, and wore helmets specially designed to expose their ears. Each of them held the standard musket of the Iron Rat Kingdom in his hand. Such soldiers formed a huge crescent arc outside the city, surrounding the fallen city.

These are all the remaining fighting forces of the Iron Rat Kingdom. They were summoned from various strongholds and towns, and rushed from all over the place, and finally gathered here.

"Everyone, check ammunition and prepare to reload!"

A mounted Mouse-eared knight stepped out from the cavalry. He held a sword in his hand and rode his horse back and forth in front of the formation, passing orders to every soldier standing on the ridge.

In silence, everyone began to move. Various rustling noises were heard, mixed with the sound of pulling the bolt from time to time.

When these mouse-eared creatures gathered, the mechanical bodies that were performing the cleaning and harvesting tasks in the city gradually reacted. They took off again and looked down at the formation below from the air. Then, rockets shot out from the chest and abdomen of the cockroaches, passing through the cold air and rushing towards the mouse-eared creatures below.

"Iron crossbow, fire!"

There were urgent roars coming from the Mouse-Eared Tribe's formation, followed by bursts of tense catapulting sounds coming from the back of the formation.

Several large crossbow arrows were fired out as powerfully as spears, piercing through the cockroaches in the night sky. The rockets were blocked by a barrier erected under the spell of a group of mouse-eared priests, and exploded in mid-air, breaking into countless sparks.

While they were fighting with the flying cockroaches in the air, the originally closed city wall slowly fell down, and a huge mechanical beetle crawled out. It was as tall as the city wall, covered with layered circular armor, and its lower body was covered with dense thousand-legged claws. It kept crawling, pushing its entire body forward.

When this large mechanical beetle appeared, the array on the hilltop began concentrated fire under the commander's order. Dense bullets hit the armor, making a continuous clanging of sparks. Then the double-barreled gun in the middle of the mechanical beetle poked out, a deep blue light flashed, and powerful electromagnetic bullets were fired, penetrating the mouse-ear tribe in the array.

Such an electromagnetic bullet penetrated seven mouse-ear tribesmen with just one shot, creating a cloud of blood mist. After a gap appeared in the front line, the reserve personnel filled it and opened fire again.

"Get ready to throw stones!"

"emission!"

The heavy black stone was thrown high up, and then smashed towards the mechanical beetle at the city gate, and then exploded violently, and the silver powder inside was ignited, bursting out with violent sparks that were almost incandescent. The fierce burning sparks melted the shell of the mechanical beetle, and the molten metal liquid seeped into the inside, making a sizzling sound and white smoke.

"emission!"

Several more black stones were thrown up and landed around the giant mechanical beetle. Some burned through and corroded the armor on its back, while others fell into the city gate, exploding with boiling white flames to block the various mechanical bodies rushing out of the city.

After several shots, the originally extremely oppressive mechanical beetle stopped working and fell to the ground. Its body stopped working and stood still in place, with various other small mechanical units shuttling in and out beside it.

Although they were far smaller than the fallen mechanical beetles, their numbers were particularly large, and when they swarmed out, the buzzing sound made people's scalps tingle.

The sound of intensive gunfire rang out in the Mouse Ear Tribe's formation, and the flickering flames almost formed a line in the wilderness. Many individuals in the opposite mechanical unit array also stopped shooting, but the firepower was far less orderly and intensive than that of the Mouse Ear Tribe.

Soon, the mechanical units in the front line approached the Mouse-Ear Clan's line. The Mouse-Ear Clan, who had just finished firing, were forced to engage in close combat. Panic began to spread. Many of the recruited Mouse-Ear Clan were not familiar with close combat, and the opponents were mechanical life forms with steel bodies.

In order to stabilize the front line that was about to collapse, the Knight Guards on the hill walked out from the separated formation. They were all extraordinary people above Sequence 3, holding large lances specially used to deal with mechanical bodies, and began to accelerate continuously.

Circular patterns appeared on the surface of a large conical lance, and bursts of cold light appeared at the tip of the lance. When it accelerated to a certain degree, it was like twinkling cold stars floating in the fire. Then these flashing lance tips slammed into the mechanical bodies along the way, piercing through the solid alloy shell, penetrating the electronic components inside, and disintegrating these mechanical bodies in the exploding sparks.

Because of the charge of these Knight Guards, the Mouse-Eared soldiers on the front line finally got a chance to catch their breath. They began to retreat and reorganize their front line, while some shield-bearing soldiers wearing full melee steel armor stepped forward.

These short Mouse-Eared Tribe members formed a shield line that stretched for a thousand meters. Soon, with the sound of wheels rolling, large iron crossbows were transported to the top of the mountain. Under the command of the Mouse-Eared Tribe's engineers, these iron crossbows lowered their crosshairs and aimed at the densely packed mechanical bodies below. More than a dozen engineers at the back began to turn the winch to wind the crossbows.

A specially made silver-iron crossbow arrow was pressed into the crossbow string, and then the trigger was pulled, shooting out rapidly, setting off a field of mechanical autonomous units on the ground.

At this time, the mechanical bodies in front of the battle line gradually changed their previous swarming battle strategy. The units among them that were capable of long-range shooting began to climb the city walls and fired continuously. The powerful individuals among them unfolded their gun barrels like honeycombs, and the surging flames submerged their bodies.

The large amount of bullets fired caused the barrier built above the Mouse Ear Tribe's line to quickly shatter and dissipate. After losing their protection, the line began to suffer heavy casualties. At this time, the commander of the Mouse Ear Tribe had to order the entire line to retreat to the shady side of the mountain and use the slope of the mountain to block the enemy's shooting.

The messengers rushed across the front line, shouting for everyone to retreat in an orderly manner, and then re-formed the front line. Long spears were raised and pointed diagonally upwards into the sky. When the mechanical bodies climbed over the hill, they would face this forest of spears.

For mechanical bodies, these spears cannot cause much damage to them, but if they cannot break through the forest of guns, they will become targets of the dense musket line behind them.

The muskets filled with special gunpowder kept firing. At this time, the front line slowly entered a stalemate. Both sides were consuming each other. Members in the front kept falling down, and were replenished by those in the back. If they were soldiers of other races, they would have panicked and fled because of the casualties. However, the reason why the Mouse-Eared Tribe was able to establish a country on this land was because they had unique characteristics.

If they were alone, the mouse-eared mice would probably be as timid as ordinary mice, but when they form a group, their courage and willpower will be strengthened, and it seems that dying together with everyone is worthwhile and acceptable.

Such characteristics made it easy for the Mouse-Eared Tribe to unite and become stronger in this land, and eventually defeat other local races to form their own kingdom.

"Sir, all the melee shield guards in front are killed." The mouse-eared messenger with blood all over his face came to the commander and reported.

At this time, due to the fierce fighting, the shield-bearing soldiers responsible for maintaining the front line were almost completely lost, while there were still many mechanical autonomous units climbing over the mountain.

"Let the second reserve move forward!" the commander ordered.

Then, teams of Mouse-Eared soldiers removed the bullets from their muskets, inserted their bayonets, and stepped forward at the command. There were both men and women among them, but the gender characteristics of the Mouse-Eared people were not obvious and they all looked very similar. At this time, their eyes passed through the space under the brims of their helmets, breathing heavily as they watched the mechanical bodies that kept rushing towards them.

Of the nearly 10,000-strong team that arrived at dawn, only half are left. The hillside is littered with fallen corpses and broken mechanical bodies, and the air is filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder smoke.

Replacing the shattered front line, this team armed with muskets and bayonets fought against the mechanical bodies that rushed forward, while the sound of musket fire continued from the rear.

Because they were not equipped with steel armor and shields, their battles against mechanical bodies were far less easy than those of the previous soldiers. Almost as soon as they came into contact, various casualties occurred, and the sharp mechanical sickles reaped these fragile creatures.

"Fire! Fire!"

Faced with such a situation, the commander also became anxious. He knew that they could not hold out for long relying on such a reserve force alone. If they could not kill a large number of enemies in this precious time, the consequences would be disastrous.

But at this time, there were not many people in the Mouse-Eared Clan who could fill in the line for support. There were only a few elite knights left who had charged before, and they were all fighting on dismount, maintaining the most dangerous and intense central front.

Originally, with the strength of the Iron Rat Kingdom, it should have been able to mobilize more troops and combat forces, but the internal strife a month ago caused a lot of manpower to be consumed. Then the mechanical bodies dormant in the ruins awakened, which allowed both sides to put aside their past grudges and work together again.

"Is it too late?" Seeing the breach in the front line, Hyacinth, the commander, clenched his fingers on the hilt of the sword. Even if there were reinforcements in the rear, they would not be able to prevent the breach from collapsing.

She could only try her best, she made up her mind, and then raised the cross sword in her hand high, with dazzling light flashing on the sword.

"Members of the Knights, follow me and charge!" At this moment, there were only more than thirty Mouse-ear Knights left behind her.

They gathered behind Hyacinth, forming a solid triangular sharp arrow, and drew out their two-handed swords at the same time, holding them in their hands, and began to follow Hyacinth.

This team of thirty people charged in the opposite direction and crashed into a dense cluster of mechanical bodies, hoping to disrupt the opponent's offensive rhythm and ease the pressure on the front line.

In the early stage, they kept swinging their two-handed swords, tearing apart the mechanical bodies along the way, giving everyone hope. However, as the battle continued, the number of knights around Hyacinth became fewer and fewer. The visor of the knight's helmet was covered by red-hot metal fragments, and the armor on his body was covered with all kinds of blood stains. As he chopped down one enemy after another, Hyacinth's consciousness became more and more blurred. If it weren't for her well-trained body maintaining reaction movements, she would have fallen in the swarming mechanical cluster.

Even though she had tried her best, there was still no end in sight for the endless stream of enemies. Finally, her consciousness faded step by step, until one moment she could no longer withstand the dizziness caused by blood loss and physical exhaustion.

Her world darkened.

……

……

A few days later, a small plane flew across the sky, overlooking the ruined battlefield below. There were piles of corpses everywhere, some of the Mouse-eared tribe, and some mechanical ones. Broken muskets and bayonets were stuck diagonally on the ground. A few flies and flying insects kept flying up and down, gnawing at the rotten flesh.

After the last manpower of the Iron Rat Kingdom was defeated, the mechanical swarm began to spread unstoppably in the kingdom. They passed through villages and towns like locusts, destroying everything in their path.

"This is the sixteenth town we have passed." Tilan muttered to herself as she looked at the deserted town that had become ruins below.

"There seems to be a faint sign of life below." Loloria, flying in the air, came to the cabin.

"Is there anyone alive? Let's go down and take a look." Tilan felt a sense of joy. Although she had no relatives or friends with these mouse-eared people, she was still relieved to see survivors in this tragic scene.

The plane circled and slowly descended. Celitia flew out directly, and only Ores and Tilan walked down.

Ores was a little uncomfortable with the environment here. She leaned behind Tilan, holding Tilan's sleeve and walked slowly forward, covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve. However, she still looked around curiously. Even though there were many corpses here, she was not afraid. Perhaps she did not understand the sadness.

Tilan carefully walked over the wreckage on the ground and came to the hill where corpses and mechanical fragments were piled up. After thinking for a while, she raised her hand and made the piled things float up one by one, revealing the buried figure below. It was a mouse-eared creature whose life signal was almost endangered. Judging from the armor on her body, she should be a knight of a high rank.

Tilan made it slowly fall to the open space in front of him, bent down, carefully checked her condition, and began to treat her, while Celitia watched curiously from the side, very interested in Tilan's treatment methods.

Just like that, about 20 minutes later, some clean water flowed down from the air and fell onto the face of the weak Mouse-eared Clan, some of it seeping into her mouth, and she slowly opened her eyes.

The blue sky...

Looking at the blue sky above her head, after a few seconds, she regained some consciousness and recalled what happened before she fell into a coma.

She was surprised that she was still alive and wanted to move, but the aches and numbness in every part of her body told her that she couldn't do it. Even her consciousness was extremely weak and she was thinking much slower than before.

With tired eyes, she tried her best to move her eyes and looked at the people around her. One of them seemed to see what she was thinking, helped her up carefully and handed her a glass of water.

Just like that, as the clean water slowly poured into her throat, she felt her consciousness become a little clearer.

"I am the leader of the Royal Guards Knights, Hyacinth, who are you?"

"We are travelers from afar. We saw a lot of ruins along the way, but we found that you are still alive." The black-haired girl behind her said, and handed her another glass of water.

The weak Hyacinth looked up at the other winged woman next to her and the girl with silver hair and pointed ears opposite her, thinking about the races with such appearance.

"Thank you. Can you tell me what you saw along the way?"

Tilan thought about it and decided to tell her the truth.

"The situation along the way is not very good. Everywhere there are ruins left by the ravages of mechanical bodies. The remaining settlements have begun to migrate to other places."

"It's good that we can migrate out." Hearing this, she seemed a little relieved.

"Phew, I probably don't have much time left, so just ask whatever you want to ask." She didn't think these people saved her just to give her water.

"Well...can you tell me what you found in the ruins?" Celitia asked.

"For the ruins? It seems so." Hyacinthus sighed and then slowly began to tell the story.

"...I was not one of the first people to know the news, but the Queen did ask me to lead people to the ruins and seal it off."

"The location where the ruins were excavated is in the Mulan Manor Territory. There are several large ranch owners around there. They have many clansmen and subordinates, and they also have their own combat teams. They are very dissatisfied with the people sent by the queen to seize the ruins."

"The conflict was not intense at first. They just wanted Her Majesty the Queen to give them more compensation, such as 100 sets of knight armor and weapons. These are all within the acceptable range."

"But as the excavation progressed, more and more astonishing things emerged. Not only was there an intact spacecraft, but also electronic equipment preserved inside, and some electromagnetic weapons were also usable."

"These things caused divisions within the excavation team. Some greedy members wanted to steal them for themselves, and then internal fighting broke out because of the uneven distribution."

"Later, the news leaked out, and the local ranch lord also learned about the amazing treasures inside the ruins. He began to be dissatisfied with the gift from Her Majesty the Queen, so he led people to surround the ruins and wanted to take out the treasures directly."

"This led to a conflict with our stationed personnel, and then it escalated until it finally awakened the sleeping machine inside..."

"What happened next was a disaster. The machines began to kill any living creatures they saw and began to send out signals to summon more mechanical life."

"Seeing that the situation was out of control, the two sides who were originally fighting had to put aside their disputes and start to deal with the attacks of the mechanical bodies. Then I led the assembled troops to this place to blockade and fight a decisive battle."

"As you can see, I failed in the end." She looked at the scene that stretched for several kilometers below the hillside and sighed silently.

"No, no." At this time, Loloria, who had been silent, jumped out.

"These mechanical bodies are extremely outdated models. They are not at all left behind by the spacecraft that landed on the planet thousands of years ago." She had come here with Lady Olivia, and was very familiar with the mechanical bodies under her command.

“If it was a machine from that era, there wouldn’t be such a fierce battle. It would be a one-sided massacre.” She pointed out the loophole.

The nomadic mechanical tribes on the planet today are all inferior and crude products that have degenerated several versions. In order to replicate production, many weapons and accessories have been reduced, and the alloy materials used are far inferior to those in the past.

Otherwise, the sturdy metal armor of the machines made by the Mechanical Council of that era would not be able to be penetrated and destroyed by these mice.

"I don't know about that." Hyacinth shook her head. The information she knew was limited.

Looking at Loloria talking beside her, Celitia's eyes flickered, as if she was thinking about something. Then a few people helped Hyacinth, who had recovered a little, up and sent her to the plane.

"Our temporary camp is just a few dozen kilometers away. There are also people of your fellow mouse-eared tribe there who should be able to take good care of you." Tilan told Hyacinthus and left a handwritten letter on the plane.

"Have some sleep first, the plane will take you there soon." Then the unmanned plane slowly rose and returned, sending the hyacinth inside to a distant place.

Watching the small plane slowly disappear in the sky, Tilan continued to think about the information she had just received.

If it was not a troop transport ship from thousands of years ago, then it must be a spaceship built in a later era. This means that hundreds of years later, there were still high-level personnel left in the Mechanical Council and they tried to leave the planet by spaceship, but failed in the end. The spaceship crashed and was unable to leave.

Recalling that the Rose Federation had conducted a search throughout the Milky Way and monitored countless silent galaxies, it did not discover the existence of this planet. This shows that this planet must have special concealment methods, otherwise it would have been discovered by the Rose Federation long ago.

In other words, even if a spaceship could be built, it might not be possible to fly out of the planet, she vaguely came to this conclusion.

The situation is not good, but it is too early to worry about it now. Let's go to the excavation site first. We should be able to find something there.

(End of this chapter)