Chapter 286: Pure Hextech
Another two weeks passed quietly.
The forest outside the capital of Demacia is the base of the Ionian expeditionary corps.
After several weeks of discussion, research, decision-making, domestic mobilization, and war preparations, the Demacia expeditionary force to aid Ionia has finally been formed and is ready to march to the front lines.
Because Demacia has always pursued an elite route with a lean organization, extraordinary warriors, and elite equipment, the number of people in this Ionian expeditionary force is actually not that large.
The first batch of troops to aid Ai numbered only 3,000 people, but almost all of them were backbones drawn from the major legions of Germany. They had considerable battlefield experience and were extraordinary and quasi-extraordinary warriors equipped with expensive rune steel equipment.
Although its combat effectiveness is not as good as that of the Fearless Vanguard, the strongest legion in Demacia, it can still be regarded as one of the strongest armies in the current Demacia Kingdom.
"Your Majesty has invested a lot this time."
General Garen sighed to his good friend, Prince Jarvan.
"Your Majesty, isn't your trust in us too much to hand over such an important elite army to us?" Garen was a little unconfident.
Although he is the heir of the Mianwei family, he has also experienced several years of training on the front line and has accumulated some merits.
But he is still young after all.
He was awarded the title of general at a young age and was given the important responsibility of deputy commander of the expeditionary army. This was both a supreme favor bestowed on him by the king and an overly heavy responsibility placed on the shoulders of the young general.
Galen thought he was still young and not yet capable of taking on such responsibility.
"Jiawen, can the two of us really do this?"
"What?" Prince Jarvan smiled and said, "Garen, do you look down on me as the legion commander?"
"Don't worry!" He patted Garen's broad shoulders carelessly: "With me leading you, we will definitely win a great victory in Ionia!"
"Tsk!" In front of his best friend who grew up with him, Garen had no sense of superiority or inferiority at all.
He complained naturally: "Jia Wen, you have not fought as many battles as I have! His Majesty let the two of us take charge of such an important military task right away. Aren't you afraid that we will lead the legion into trouble?"
"Don't worry, Galen. Have some confidence, and have some confidence in me. With so many experienced officers assisting us, are you still afraid that you can't control a mere 3,000 people?"
There was still a sunny smile on Jarvan's face.
But a sadness that he had never felt before was already welling up in his heart.
Actually, Galen was right.
He joined the army later than Garen and had never fought in any major battles before. Logically, he was not qualified to be the legion commander.
But his father said that it was precisely because he had too little experience in the army that he should be given an opportunity to go to the battlefield, so that he could seize the time to accumulate military exploits, develop personal connections, and build up prestige on the front line, and build his own team of officers in the war.
In Demacia, or in the entire Runeterra, there is no such saying as "the son of a wealthy family cannot sit in the hall."
In this extraordinary world, the relationship between power and force becomes more direct and absolute.
No matter they are kings in civilized lands or tribal chieftains in wild lands, if they want to keep their power, they must rely on their personal strength or military strategies on the battlefield to gain respectable prestige.
Otherwise, don’t blame everyone for “the emperor takes turns, it’s my turn next year”.
That's why Jarvan III hoped that the prince would be the commander of the legion.
He is old and needs the prince to grow up quickly.
"Oh, connections, prestige, power..." Prince Jarvan felt a headache when he thought about these.
He used to think that succession was as simple as taking over. As long as he accepted the scepter left by his father, the throne would belong to him completely. Unexpectedly, there were so many twists and turns behind this matter.
Jiawen felt that the world had become complicated.
"Are you worried about something?" Galen seemed to have noticed something.
"No..." Jarvan denied helplessly. He couldn't say those words to Garen. The kind of life where he could be honest with his brothers no longer belonged to him.
and……
Jarvan looked at Garen, a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes and a square face, who seemed even more foolish than him... Even if I told him those things, he probably wouldn't understand, right?
"Garen." Jarvan had to change the subject abruptly: "Let's go and see the Hextech flying gate that the Zaun people built. It should have been set up."
That's right, Hexgate.
In order to facilitate military expeditions, the Wind Leader directly installed Hexgate, which was actually powered by magic, in the magic-forbidden country of Demacia.
The expeditionary corps has limited personnel, and bulk supplies can be supplied locally in Ionia. However, Demacia is thousands of miles away from Zaun and Ionia...
As a result, the Hextech Flying Gate, which was originally extremely expensive, became the most suitable means of transportation for the expeditionary force .
What's more, Ionia is now completely dominated by Noxus.
If they did not use the Hexgate, Zaun and Demacia would have to cross thousands of miles of ocean first, and then have a head-on battle with the Noxian Imperial Navy on the sea, and only after achieving complete success could they land in Ionia.
After landing in Ionia, how to break through the Noxian defenses and join forces with the local resistance forces in Ionia is another difficult problem.
This plan obviously requires an even more unacceptable cost in terms of personnel, materials, and time, and the huge action is likely to alert the enemy, causing the initiative of the war to fall into the hands of Noxus.
To ensure the implementation of this plan, sending an expeditionary force of only 3,000 people may not be enough, 30,000 people is about right.
But Demacia is still at war with Noxus. How could they possibly send so many elite warriors to support Ionia thousands of miles away?
so……
Facing this heavy objective reality, facing the common enemy of Noxus...
The nobles of Demacia, including the radical anti-magic nobles represented by the Demon Hunters, had to temporarily put aside Demacia's political correctness.
After internal "rigorous scientific argumentation", they finally reached a consensus:
Hextech isn't magic, it's just pure technology.
Hextech equipment is a tool that everyone can use. It is not an individual ability and is not as dangerous as magic.
With such theoretical guidance, Demacia turned a blind eye and temporarily allowed the Wind Leader to set up Hexgate in Demacia.
Of course, this flying door cannot be set up randomly, otherwise when it is turned on, the people of Demacia will also see the blue magical light all over the sky.
After careful site selection, the Hexgate was finally built outside the Demacia capital, in a remote mountain forest.
The expeditionary force led by Jarvan and Garen was stationed here to wait for the construction of this Hexgate to be completed.
And today is the date it is scheduled to be completed.
"Has it been set up?"
Garen and Jarvan arrived at the construction site together and saw the huge circular flying door, which was driven by the Hextech engine and slowly emitted a bright blue light.
At first, the light was like the aurora reflected on the sky, illusory and vague.
Later it was like the sun hanging high in the sky, solid and shining.
In short, the magic light became brighter and brighter, and the expressions of the soldiers present became more and more strange and weird.
Although everyone knew a little about Hextech beforehand, now that we see it with our own eyes, we know...
This light and energy seemed to be completely different from what they had seen on the battlefield before.
"Technology, cough cough... these are all technology!" Prince Jarvan promptly reiterated the guiding theory, implemented the spirit , and grasped political correctness.
Everyone was sensible and kept silent.
Soon, the blue magic light, relying on the floating ring of the flying gate, condensed into a space door.
There were ripples on the door, like waves on a lake.
"Is there someone coming from Zaun?" Everyone looked up curiously.
Two girls appeared from the other side of the door and slowly landed on the ground under the support of the magical energy of the flying door.
They are...
"Lux, Sona?" Jarvan and Garen both opened their eyes wide in surprise.
They were first surprised that Lux would return to Demacia in this way, and then, the next second...
"Lacus——"
"Come here!"
Garen completely forgot the current occasion and rushed to his sister with a grim look on his face.
He has long wanted to have a good talk with Lux.
"Lux, tell me, what's going on with you?" Garen started with a tone of accusation.
"What's going on?" Lux was not afraid of her brother at all, she just asked with innocent blinking eyes.
Garen looked down at his petite sister, whose height did not even reach his chest, and his expression became even more anxious: "Lux, what are you doing?"
"You? Just you? The commander of the Mage Penal Army?"
"Are you still going to Ionia?" Garen was so anxious that he blurted out the swear words he learned in the army.
Because Jiawen had been training on the front line recently, he hadn't seen Lux for more than a year, so he didn't know what level Lux was at now.
Other nobles in Xiongdu who knew even less about Lux, after hearing about the heroic deeds of Miss Laxana of the Crown Guard family who volunteered to go to the battlefield at the age of 13, they all exclaimed that the young people of the Crown Guard family were formidable and shouted "If I had a daughter, I would have Lux."
But Galen is Lux's biological brother.
How could he not know how powerful this girl is?
What young heroine... Just over a month ago, when Lux left Demacia, she was still a little girl who would cry at home at any time!
What is the difficulty of Ionia Battlegrounds?
Lux and others are all acting as army leaders, can you be one? No, I don't have the ability, you know!
"Are you going to die, Lux?" Garen lowered his voice and said to his sister anxiously, "Who came up with this idea? Was it mother, or did you do it on your own? Lux, I advise you to calm down..."
"Stop talking, brother." Lux interrupted her calmly.
"You..." Garen was choked.
He felt... after not seeing his sister for just over a month, she seemed to have really become different.
Although her body was still as petite, her cheeks still as tender, and her skin as white as a porcelain doll, her eyes had become more mature and determined.
It makes people feel inexplicably...very reliable.
"Reliable as hell!" Garen suddenly came back to his senses.
He looked at Lux's slender arm, which was not even as thick as the hilt of his sword, and couldn't help but shout impatiently: "Lux, have you ever fought in a war? Have you ever seen what a real battlefield looks like? With your mediocre martial arts that I can't even defeat you with one hand, can you beat the Noxians?"
"There's no need for Noxians. With your limited strength, can you control the group of people under you..."
Garen fired off a barrage of questions, shouting out all the anxiety that had been suppressed for days.
If he knew how to teleport, he would have already TPed to Zaun to stop his sister who was going crazy and wanted to die on the battlefield.
"I understand..." Lux sighed slightly.
She didn't explain in words, but just turned to look at Sona:
"Sona?" Give him the whole job.
Miss Sona immediately understood.
She held the ancient zither that she never left in her arms, stretched out a slender white finger, and gently plucked the strings.
"Duang~"
Two balls of azure magic energy bloomed from the piano along with the melody.
They flew up into the sky in different directions and crashed into the distant mountains, causing two loud magical explosions.
Galen: “…”
Jiawen: “…”
The air was silent for a moment.
The soldiers present widened their eyes in disbelief:
"Magic?!"
"That...that's the young lady of the Bouvier family...she, she's using magic?"
It's not that the soldiers had never seen magic before, but they had never seen anyone dare to be so arrogant and use magic in front of so many Demacia soldiers in Demacia.
"Aba Aba..." Sona remained calm.
"This is not magic." Lux helped her translate.
"This is Hextech."
As she spoke, Lux pointed to the ancient zither in Sona's arms, as well as the Hextech RGB light strip that was additionally installed on the zither.
"Look, this is Hextech, right?"
"It's just that the cannon is made to look like a piano, don't be nervous."
Garen, Jarvan: "..."
"This..." The Demacians were completely helpless with this trick.
But there is no way. As we have just argued above, Hextech is not magic.
"But, she..." Galen couldn't help but question.
Lux unsheathed the sword from behind and took out a...
A staff with a Hextech RGB light strip installed.
"No, this is not a staff."
Lux said calmly:
"This is a Hextech high-energy laser cannon."
As soon as she finished speaking, she raised the mechanical staff.
The staff's mechanical structure automatically unfolds and changes shape, eventually rapidly expanding into a Hextech cannon with a cool RGB light bar exterior and a huge barrel caliber.
As Lux's magic power continued to be released, this so-called high-energy laser cannon, which only served as a decorative light bar...
It really condensed into a dazzling laser.
“Hex—”
"Ultimate Flash!"
There was a flash of light.
Half of the hill in the distance was blown away.
Galen: “…”
There was another silence.
He glanced at his sister with complicated eyes.
"Hai, Hai, Hai..." Then, Garen was the first to stand up with a big face: "Hextech is really amazing!"
