Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 21 Fire Tornado

   There is no time, no space, no matter, no fluctuations, just endless darkness... No, here, even the concept of darkness itself does not exist, this is pure "nothingness". After an unknown amount of time, a spark suddenly appeared in this "nothing" - Winters regained consciousness.

  The first thing he recovered was hearing: what was the noise around him? Then came back the sense of touch: as if I was lying down, was it on the bed? Seems like a very hard bed? Finally, vision began to return, and Winters first felt the light, and then he struggled to open his eyes, but his vision was blurry and there was no way to focus.

After    regained consciousness of the body, severe pain followed. This kind of pain is not pain in the normal sense, but is similar to the pain when using magic. The pain does not come from any part of Winters' body, but it is really tormenting him.

   Winters wanted to scream in pain, but he just opened his mouth weakly, and no sound came from his vocal cords. He tried to lift his arm, but there was no response. It seems to restore body consciousness, but not muscle control.

  For Winters, it all seemed like a sudden deep sleep, and he couldn't even remember when he lost consciousness. There is no memory, no concept of time, not even a dream.

   In a memorable moment, he was still putting out fires in Guitucheng. Closing his eyes and opening them again, he lost control of his body, and was tormented by lying on a hard bed that he didn't know where he was.

   "Wake up! Wake up!" Winters heard someone shout excitedly.

   "Who? Where am I? What's wrong with me?" Winters' consciousness was still dull, and thinking had become a laborious thing for him. His eyes were still out of focus, and his field of vision seemed to be dark brown.

   A bit of warm liquid dripped into his mouth. It didn't seem to be water, but it had a bitter taste. The swallowing reflex made Winters drink the liquid subconsciously. It turned out that someone slightly lifted his upper body and fed him little by little with a spoon. Seeing that Winters could swallow, he continued to feed Winters spoonful after spoonful.

After    had been fed, Winters was put back in place, in a lying position. His consciousness began to blur, and he soon fell into a drowsy sleep.

   closed his eyes and opened them again. Still no memory, no concept of time, not even a dream.

   But when he woke up again, Winters felt significantly better. Although the pain still didn't go away, it wasn't as painful as before, and it was tolerable.

   That's right, for Winters the last time he woke up was "just now". He had no real sense of the passage of time at all, only that he regained consciousness as soon as he closed his eyes and opened them.

   This time, Winters' eyes were finally able to focus. He carefully identified the environment he was in: the ceiling was so close, it felt like he could reach out and touch it, and the material seemed to be... wood? ?

   His limbs can also move, so he quickly reached out of the bed and touched it. There is a wall beside him, and the material seems to be... wood? ?

Winters couldn't lie down any longer. He sat up with a force on his waist and abdomen. He tried to distinguish the surrounding environment: a cramped and dark wooden room, a lot of ropes, the whole room was swinging regularly... He seemed to be in the cabin. inside?

What? I'm on a boat? ? Winters was taken aback.

   "Hey?! Are you awake?" A voice like Hong Zhong came from Winters' ears, and the loud voice shook Winters' ears: "Go and report to the major general! Someone is awake!"

   As soon as he heard the iconic loud voice, Winters could recognize who it was with just his ears. The only person who can speak so loudly without amplification is Winters' compatriot Andrea Cellini in the cavalry department, who is usually called Andrea.

   Winters' own character is not very good, so his friends are very tolerant. Andre's character is completely poured out of the same mold as Winters, both of them are typical violent Veneta people. Similar personalities often repel each other, so although the two are from the Hailan Republic, they are not too close at ordinary times.

   But for Winters, who had just woken up from a deep coma, Andre's loud voice gave him a sense of peace of mind.

   Winters looked around and found that there were several comatose classmates beside him, and the bed under him was not just a boat board with something padded. He was eager to understand his environment: "Am I on a boat?"

   "Yes, on the boat." Andrei gave a positive answer.

   "Why am I on the boat?" Winters was still puzzled.

   "You were carried up. You all passed out, and you couldn't wake up. Everyone carried you to the boat." Andre's perspective on this issue is somewhat clear.

   "I'm asking me... What are we going to do on the boat now?" Winters asked again in an unambiguous way.

   "Go home by boat, back to Veneta (Sea Blue)."

   "Shouldn't we go back by land?" Winters was even more confused.

"It was said that the road was not easy this year, so a ship was sent to pick us up." After explaining the current situation to Winters, Andre asked a strange question: "Do you remember what you did? ?"

   "What did I do?" Winters felt that the question was inexplicable.

  Andre asked again tentatively: "Did you really forget?"

   "What do you want me to remember?" Winters was at a loss now, he struggled to stand up, and Andre quickly reached out to support Winters.

   "You burned Guitucheng! Burn it! Don't you remember?" Andre's words hit Winters like a cannonball.

"Burn? What's burned?" Winters' hair stood on end when he heard this, and the last trace of drowsiness in his mind disappeared. He asked in horror, "Aren't we fighting the fire? What did we burn Guitucheng? ?"

"Yeah, it was originally fighting the fire, and the minister ordered us to demolish the house. Then all of you spellcasters were called away, and as soon as you used magic, a fire storm was summoned." Andre said nothing. Realizing the impact of what he said on Winters: "After the fire storm, the fire got stronger. The isolation belt was useless, and we all evacuated. The people went crazy when we left in the boat, It was the magician of the military academy who summoned the fire of **** to burn down the city of Guitu."

   "How could it be? We're going to put out the fire! What firestorm?" Winters didn't expect things to turn out like this, he suddenly remembered the last scene he remembered: a flaming python rising into the sky.

   "Tell me, what's that firestorm like?" Winters wanted to know too much now, he had to ask the key points first. Standing and saying that he was too tired, he sat back on the cot again.

"I think...it's like a rope that connects the sky and the earth." Andre tried to use his limited words to describe the situation after Winters lost consciousness as much as possible: "A swirling Flame rope...a flame tornado!"

  Andrei, satisfied with the metaphor he came up with, repeated: "A flaming tornado!"

   Recalling the last scene he saw, Winters realized that this fire tornado might really have something to do with him... no, it had something to do with all the spellcasters who were using Wind Ride at the time.

   "How is Guitucheng now?" Winters eagerly wanted to know the consequences.

   "Half the city was burnt. If it weren't for the heavy rain, I'm afraid the whole city would be burnt to the ground." Andre hesitated and asked his doubts: "Is it really the fire tornado you summoned?"

"I don't know either... I really don't know..." The severe pain hit Winters again, he curled up and replied in pain, he really didn't know what Andre said about the fire tornado and the casters Does it matter.

"It's okay, it's okay, don't care too much." Seeing Winters' painful expression, Andre thought he was guilty of burning Guitucheng, and Andre hurriedly comforted Winters: "Anyway, they are the union province. People's territory, if it burns, it will burn. It's none of our Hailan people's business if it burns out! Anyway, we're going home."

  Andre, who was born in the Ocean Blue Republic, obviously did not feel the same way about the disaster in the capital of the province.

Winters can't say it now: I didn't admit that I burned it... I just said I'm not sure, and I'm really not sure if it has anything to do with the caster... Besides, I didn't set the initial fire, either. Why does it sound like I'm a surefire arsonist?

   There was a quick crash of military boots and the deck, and two men in officer uniforms entered the small cabin. Winters gritted his teeth and stood up and Andre stood at attention and saluted.

   "It's good to wake up!" One of the two officers in the general's uniform spoke first. This middle-aged general was handsome, tall and had a well-groomed moustache on his lips. Even without this military uniform, it is impossible to mistake his occupation, because his military temperament is too obvious.

   The general ended the chat with a sentence, and he asked Winters bluntly: "I need to ask you one thing, you must tell the truth. Did the Military Academy deliberately cause your coma?"

   Winters quickly analyzed the situation. This senior officer was probably the "major general" that Andre just said. He cheered up and answered honestly, "Report to the general, I don't know!"

   After listening to Winters, the major general frowned: "Then tell me what you know."

Winters recalled the situation that night: "At that time, the instructor gathered all the spellcasters and asked us to use Wind Ride together to change the direction of the fire. I only remember that I used Wind Ride, and I didn't have the rest. Memory, wake up and come here."

   "You said it was all spellcasters, right? All, not just Hailan spellcasters, but also Union-provincial spellcasters?" The Major General keenly grasped the key information he wanted and kept asking.

   "That's right, all spellcasters, including union-province spell-casters." Winters really concentrated all the spell-casters in his impression. He didn't deliberately select who went and who didn't. Naturally, there were also union-province students.

The major general got the answer, but his expression showed that he was very dissatisfied with the answer, he did not continue to ask, obviously he had lost interest in Winters: "Okay, I understand, take a good rest and think of other things. Tell me immediately."

   ended the conversation perfunctorily, and the Major General turned and left the small cabin.

   Winters also vaguely felt a little bit of context: it seems that the major general hopes that the Interprovincial military will take responsibility for his coma.

After the Major General left, the officer who came with the Major General spoke. This is a smiling handsome young man. Compared with the school officer's uniform on him, his face seemed a little too young. There was a casual ease in his smile, as if to say that he didn't care much about anything.

   "Sit, sit, don't stand." The school official waved his hand kindly, motioning Winters to sit down.

   Superior, please be polite, Winters dare not sit down. He just nodded, but his body didn't move.

   "Okay, then I'll sit first." The colonel didn't put on airs, sat down on the ground generously, and found a deck for himself to lean on comfortably.

Seeing that Winters and Andre still didn't dare to move, he smiled and persuaded them: "Take it easy, we are alumni, I'm just a senior a few years higher than you, don't be bound by rank. You stand, I'm tired of talking to you with my head up."

   Hearing the alumni in front of them, Winters and Andre let go a little and sat on the ground, but their backs were still stretched straight.

"You are now a warrant officer, and you have entered the officer class. We are only a few years apart in military age." The two students were still a little cautious, but the officer was not reluctant. He first introduced himself: "The one just now is Lei. Major General Dun, I'm Major Moritz. You can call me Moritz, you can call me senior, you can call me major, you can call me whatever you want. By the way, what's your name?"

   "Hello, senior! I'm Winters Montagne."

   "Hello, senior! I'm Andrea Cellini."

  The waves and the pattering rain beat against the hull, and the hull swayed rhythmically back and forth like a pendulum amid the sound of wind, rain and waves. There was only a small half-open ventilation window in the hull, and the light in the small cabin was very dim.

   "Winters, how are you feeling now?" Major Moritz asked Andrei's baffling question.

   "What?" Winters didn't understand.

   "Feel, how you feel right now."

   Winters knew what Major Moritz was asking: "Pure pain, but still barely endurable. The last time I woke up, the pain was unbearable."

   Winters said to himself: I feel like I still haven't left the spellcasting state. But this Major Moritz in front of him did not wear the badge of the 35th Association, and was obviously not a spellcaster. So even if Winters told him, he couldn't understand what the casting state was, so Winters chose to describe it in a way that ordinary people could understand.

   After listening to Winters' words, Major Moritz took out a small silver coin and played with it, and fell into thinking.

   (end of this chapter)