The hot air balloon flew at an altitude of over two thousand meters, a distance measured by Lightning's vertical flight.

Just by looking up, she could see the clouds close at hand, like loose clumps of cotton. But to actually touch them, they would have to fly several hundred meters higher.

The entire hot air balloon was painted with alternating blue and white blocks, making it look just like the sky from a distance. And she was also wearing camouflage clothing, as was "Dongfeng One." At His Highness's request, the raid had to be sudden and concealed, so the First Army disembarked before reaching Silverlight City Wharf and walked to the back of the nearby mountains.

Under Sylvie's surveillance, the team's route avoided all eyes, and no one noticed them from beginning to end. After the camp was set up, the Farseeing gently ascended into the sky the next day to carry out its dropping mission.

Including the week spent on the road, today was exactly the beginning of Mid-Autumn Month.

The white shadow flying in front of the balloon was Maggie. Because observation was inconvenient inside the basket, she took on the task of guiding and scouting. After transforming into a White-tailed Eagle, even at high altitude, she could quickly distinguish the roads connecting towns and the carriages running on the roads – in this respect, an eagle's eye was much better than a telescope.

Fortunately, the enemy could not correct the bomb's landing point, Lightning thought to herself, otherwise she would really have nothing to do.

"Are you tired?" Anna asked, leaning against the edge of the basket. "Come in and rest for a while. There won't be any devils here anyway."

The little girl shook her head. "I can fly at this speed all day long."

"Are you a little nervous?" Wendy also came over.

"Of course not," she pouted. "I've practiced many times. Besides, the palace is so big, it's impossible to miss."

"Is that so?" Wendy smiled. "Anyway, don't push yourself too hard. His Highness said that safety is the most important thing. And… what happened when you went to scout the devil's camp wasn't your fault."

"What, I…"

The other party said in a gentle tone, "Everyone can see your frustration these days, but you're not afraid of fighting, you're just not good at it. If I had gone, I wouldn't necessarily have done better than you."

"Indeed, Nightingale's reactions and skills are not possessed by most witches," Anna also comforted her. "You should come in and rest for a while. It takes a lot of magic power to adjust the bomb's landing point later."

Seeing both of them say this, Lightning hummed softly from her nose and flew into the basket with her head drooping. Before she landed, Wendy hugged her into her arms. "No one will blame you, so you don't need to blame yourself, you know?"

"Mm…"

…

After flying for a morning, Maggie flapped her wings and returned to the Farseeing, reporting to the three of them: "The King's City of Graycastle is just ahead. We're almost there, chirp."

Lightning flew out of the basket and raised her telescope – just as Prince Roland had said, the magnificent walls of the King's City were clearly visible even at high altitude. It was like a thin cyan line, crookedly outlining the city's perimeter. In the center of the gray patches, nail-sized white spots stood out.

According to the plan, they should first drop leaflets and then drop Dongfeng One. However, several test drops revealed that the direction of the paper could not be controlled at an altitude of two thousand meters, even with additional weight. If they lowered the altitude to drop them, it would be easy for people to discover the target. After all, the Farseeing was huge, and with paper constantly falling from the sky, it would be difficult to hide themselves under everyone's gaze.

Therefore, His Highness the Prince finally canceled the leaflet part and instead handed it over to Tassaa to spread the news. They only needed to drop the bomb above the palace.

Wendy manipulated the airflow to keep the basket steady above the King's City.

"Ready?"

"Pull the valve," Lightning nodded.

Then she only heard a buzzing sound, and the heavy warhead had left the basket and fell straight down. Due to the sudden decrease in weight, the hot air balloon suddenly rose a bit.

She already knew the next steps by heart.

The drag parachute at the tail of Dongfeng One was opened by the airflow, and Lightning quickly caught up with the bomb and began to correct its trajectory little by little.

The King's City was no stranger to the witches of the Cooperation Association. On their journey to find the Holy Mountain in the Barren Land, they had hidden in the slums of this city for several months. One was to collect food, and the other was to recruit new blood. Soraya and Echo joined the Cooperation Association during this period. Although Lightning had not personally experienced these things, she often heard them mention that the capture of witches in the King's City was very strict compared to other cities. On the stepped square in the outer city, witches were executed almost every month. Therefore, they stayed here for the shortest amount of time, because every extra day they stayed, they had to endure more pain from the loss of their sisters.

Lightning had no good feelings for this prosperous capital. If she could throw the bomb on Timothy's head and completely end his rule, she would be happy to do so. If Roland governed the Graycastle Kingdom, these tragedies would probably not happen, right?

She now had a chance to correct the mistake.

The wind whistled in her ears, and the ground scene continued to expand, and the details of the inner city palace were gradually revealed to Lightning.

Compared to the low houses inhabited by civilians, the palace buildings were much larger – its main body consisted of a domed hall, a banquet building, and a tall castle tower, with auxiliary buildings such as stables, barracks, and warehouses. Considering that the castle's walls were steep and the roof structure was complex, making it difficult to trigger the fuse, His Highness finally chose the palace hall as the target.

As the altitude dropped sharply, the drag parachute soon reached the separation point. Lightning pulled the mechanism to release the parachute canopy from the warhead, and at the same time picked it up and quickly climbed upwards.

Before leaving, His Highness the Prince repeatedly urged her to rise to a high enough safe position before the bomb landed, and never look back at the explosion, but the little girl couldn't resist her curiosity and couldn't help but lower her head –

She saw a dazzling flash of light on the top of the hall, and quickly expanded.

The incandescent light turned into a bright orange-red, and then disappeared into the rolling smoke and dust. This process lasted for less than a breath, and then a deafening explosion suddenly rang in her ears, almost causing her to lose her balance.

Lightning had seen battlefields with artillery fire, but compared to those terrifying weapons that fired iron balls, the roar of Dongfeng One was ten times louder than all of them combined!

Smoke spewed out from the pillars and windows around the hall, engulfing the surrounding gardens and corridors. After a while, several cracks appeared in the circular dome, centered on the bomb's landing point.

Lightning couldn't help but stop and stared at the last moment of the hall.

These black lines were like ink flowing wantonly, instantly covering the entire roof, and then the roof could no longer support itself, and collapsed with a bang, raising a more intense smoke.

Under the astonishing power of Dongfeng One, the palace hall collapsed. (。)