After crossing the Cage Mountain, the trio turned west and headed towards the Impassable Mountain Range.
In less than half an hour, Maggie was the first to be defeated.
At an altitude of 1500 meters, the Phoenix easily flew at a speed of 400 kilometers per hour with its two engines. Although Maggie's petrel form could also reach this speed, she could only maintain it for a short while. Against the tireless 14-cylinder engine, it was only a matter of time before she was left behind.
"How is it?" Tilly covered her mouth.
[… I, I can still fly … Chirp!] On the other side, Maggie was already gasping for breath.
[You've done your best. Let me do the rest.] []
Lightning pulled her partner, who was unwilling to admit defeat, into her arms and took over the second stage of the competition.
A human and a plane began a new pursuit in the dusky sky.
The scenery under her feet became smaller and smaller, and the mountain range that separated the human kingdoms gradually became a winding ink line. Tilly could see the Red Mist slowly flowing down from the ridge of the continent and above the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart, like a turbid barrier. The land within the barrier was undoubtedly filled with scarlet, but as long as they could soar into the sky, they would be able to see the true appearance of the world.
[Is this your limit?] Lightning's voice sounded. [I can fly much faster than this!] []
Just in terms of flying speed, her ability was indeed unparalleled. Even Sky Lord, who possessed the ability to teleport, had suffered under her hands.
But to Tilly, victory or defeat was not the most important thing.
Piloting this enormous yet agile machine and maximizing its performance was already a form of enjoyment.
She retracted her gaze and smiled. Pulling the nose of the plane, she flew towards a higher altitude.
Lightning followed suit and maintained a position of about a hundred meters in front of the plane.
According to the introduction in the manual, the Phoenix had received technological improvements from the Dream World, and the key parts were personally processed by Anna. It possessed a basic quality that far exceeded that of the Fire of Heaven. It could fly at a maximum speed of 550 kilometers per hour, and its maximum range exceeded 1,500 kilometers. The dual star-shaped engines were also equipped with a turbine system, allowing it to fly at altitudes of more than 3,000 meters without losing much of its performance. This was something that the mass-produced models could not achieve.
But that was not the Phoenix's greatest characteristic.
Its body structure had been jointly strengthened by Candle and Doris, and its strength and durability could be said to be above the material itself. It could be regarded as the first aircraft that combined industrial technology and magic power.
Tilly knew that the propeller was most efficient at low speed, and as the speed increased, its propulsive efficiency would rapidly decrease. So it was almost impossible to catch up to Lightning's back with its own power.
She needed the help of other forces.
After rising to a high altitude, Tilly pushed the accelerator to the maximum and pressed down hard on the joystick.
The engine immediately let out a loud roar!
The Phoenix made a sharp turn and entered a dive.
To ensure that she was always at the front, Lightning adjusted her direction and rapidly descended. But to prevent any mutual influence, she pulled the horizontal distance to about a kilometer, while maintaining a vertical distance of a hundred meters. At this height and speed, the 'light membrane' of magic power was extremely obvious. Dazzling ripples formed a protective layer around her, preventing her from being affected by the cold winds and low pressure.
There was no doubt that Lightning's magic power consumption in this state was much greater than when she was flying normally.
During the ability test, Roland had mentioned that the reason why Lightning could not fly at supersonic speed for long periods of time was not because of the large amount of magic power required to fly, but because the consumption of magic power would greatly increase when the body was in an extremely short environment.
Thus, she would rarely enter supersonic speed during her patrols.
To a witch, casually exhausting her magic power was an extremely dangerous matter.
Of course, Tilly was not feeling well either. The thin air at high altitudes made it extremely difficult for her to breathe, and with the engine operating at full speed and the strong winds blowing against her, the cabin was filled with noise and tremors. Without the protection of magic power, she could only rely on her body to endure.
According to the airspeed indicator, the Phoenix was already approaching 800 kilometers per hour.
This had greatly exceeded the upper limit of its extreme speed.
Although Lightning was still maintaining a stable position in front of the plane, she did not have the time to use the Sigil of Listening to communicate with her.
That's right, Tilly was borrowing the power of gravity.
Previously when piloting the biplane, she had discovered that when she converted the accumulated altitude into speed, she could easily break through the limits of the plane.
But the risk of such excessive speed could not be ignored. If it was light, she would not be able to pull the plane up again, and if it was heavy, she would disintegrate in midair.
If not for her ability to sense that critical point, she would definitely not have boldly used a dive to increase her speed during the test flight.
But even so, the chances of catching up to Lightning were minuscule.
She remembered Roland mentioning that due to the limitations of the propeller, a piston plane had to pay a huge price to exceed the speed of sound. In other words, the gains did not make up for the losses, to the point that propellers were quickly replaced by jet engines. But Lightning could break through the sound barrier at any time, and the difference between the two was not on the same level.
Thus, she still needed the help of other things.
As the altitude rapidly descended, the dense dark clouds occupying an altitude of 2,500 meters crashed towards the two of them.
The Phoenix roared as it charged into the dark clouds, causing a 'fog pillar' to splash out from the clouds!
At this moment, the plane's speed had exceeded 900 kilometers per hour, and tremors began to spread from the plane to the wings. She could feel the wings cutting through the viscous airflow like a blade, and the high speed friction caused the air to no longer be an illusory object, but a thick and solid wall.
Lightning disappeared from her vision.
Tilly knew that her chance had arrived.
She focused all her attention on the control of the plane. At this speed, the propeller's thrust was equivalent to the resistance, and an ordinary person should be thinking of how to pull the plane back up, and not make it dive even faster. Only Tilly was able to maintain precise control under such violent tremors, and use the rudder to further increase the speed.
Although the increase in speed was not large, it was enough to close the gap with the leader.
When the Phoenix reached its limit, she charged out of the cloud layer!
The vast and boundless land once again appeared before her eyes.
At the same time, Lightning also appeared. Compared to her previous stable lead of a hundred meters, she was now at the same level as the new plane. Realizing this, the latter instantly entered the speed of sound, but quickly decelerated and turned to the cockpit.
"As expected of Her Royal Highness," Lightning's expression didn't show much frustration, but rather admiration. "You can even take the clouds into consideration. "
"If it was any thinner, I wouldn't be able to catch up to you." Tilly flattened the plane and replied with a smile.
From the start, her plan was to use the natural dive to allow Lightning to adapt to the stable acceleration, and finally overtake under the cover of the dark clouds. Even though it was only for an instant, the Phoenix had managed to close the gap.
"Wait a minute, where are we flying to, coo?" Maggie popped her head out from Lightning's bosom.
"Uh …" Tilly turned to look, only to discover an unfamiliar scenery below them, and the Impassable Mountain Range had already been left far behind them. She was too engrossed in the chase and did not notice how far they had flown towards the northwest. "This should be a part of the Fertile Plains?"
"It shouldn't be wrong." Lightning took out a telescope. "But this is the Fertile Plains that we have never set foot on before. If we follow the route, our east should be the border between the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter, and right in front of us is the ridge of the continent — "
At this point, she suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?"
Tilly looked in the direction she pointed, and then froze in place.
The mountain range hidden in the clouds was faintly discernible, and it was much taller and grander than the Impassable Mountain Range. But as she had heard of its existence from Agatha and the Exploration Group, she was not too surprised to see it for the first time.
What shocked her was above the mountain range.
A gloomy and oppressive layer of dark red clouds occupied the peak of the mountain. Countless lightning bolts flickered within, as though it was a storm made of fresh blood.
Without a doubt, it was not a natural phenomenon.
The red clouds gave her an extremely uneasy feeling.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
