The black sun hangs high

Chapter 116 White Frost
Humans are actually very arrogant.

Any cautious and calm person, when faced with life "below humankind", will more or less show some contempt or disdain. However, sometimes this attitude will manifest as love and compassion, and sometimes as tyranny and cruelty.

Now, Vera realizes that her understanding of these rat populations is ultimately insufficient.

She underestimated these ugly, deformed little things.

Faced with the deadly threat posed by the raging flames, these blind and maimed rodents still made the right choice in the shortest amount of time.

They ignored their kind who were swallowed up the moment the flames erupted, but they did not give up their resistance and struggle. When the flames came, they decisively gathered together and instinctively formed this strange ball of flesh.

As the flames scorched the rats, those on the outermost edge were instantly reduced to a light mist. However, as more and more rats disappeared, the magical mist formed from their bodies grew thicker and thicker. Eventually, this condensed mist formed a rough barrier, keeping the ever-surging flames at bay.

Perhaps, for these kinds of creatures, the instinct to survive is a special kind of wisdom.

There were still some pages left in the magic book arranged in the first section of the corridor, so under Verin's command, the "Shock Blade," which was specially designed to break through metal shields and heavy armor, was activated first. With a piercing buzz, a semi-transparent blade like a scimitar formed out of thin air amidst the flickering flames. It trembled continuously, like a high-frequency sound wave, and as it flew forward, both the dancing flames and the billowing smoke around it disintegrated and separated on their own.

The mist enveloping the giant "rat ball" was naturally unable to withstand magic of this level. In the face of that resonant sound wave, all the magical mist was easily separated, and then the sharp blade nimbly and swiftly cut into the very center of the giant rat ball.

It was as if a blazing knife was slicing through a snowball. All the rats that stood in the way of the magical blade vanished into nothingness. They didn't even have a chance to dissipate before being pulverized by the high-speed vibrations of the sound waves.

The blind mice, who were originally intertwined and embracing each other, had no idea what was happening around them. They could only feel that an unusually strong magic swept past them, and a large number of their kind disappeared on the spot, and the sphere they had formed began to sway precariously.

At this moment, a new swarm of rats began to flood into the corridor. Violet waited quietly for about ten seconds until the rats had filled up half of the corridor again, and then the last spell set in the wall immediately took effect.

A bone-chilling cold began to emerge, and white frost, enough to freeze magic and freeze flesh, began to spread rapidly. In just a few breaths, the pale color covered the entire corridor. The terrifying low temperature extinguished all the previous flames. In this space, all the power began to transform into the cold mist. This magic was the personal magic that Vilin created when she participated in the assessment of the lake-level mage - "Pool of Cold".

Normally, using this magic would inevitably involve enormous risks. Although the "Frosty Pool" was already engraved in Vilin's memory and spirit, this did not change the harsh conditions under which this magic could be used.

However, once it is successfully imprinted into the pages of the magic book, neither the time required for casting spells nor the external risks involved in outputting magic power are any longer issues.

Virin could even forcibly accelerate the spread and freezing of the white frost by injecting excessive amounts of magic.

The power of lake-level magic naturally far surpasses that of other magic. When the magic's effectiveness is fully unleashed, the entire corridor is devoid of any color other than its pristine white.

The ground was teeming with rats, the walls bore the mottled marks of various spells, and even the magical mist that had previously drifted in the air—all of it was transformed into snowflakes and ice sculptures by the "Frozen Pool." The door that led to the spiral staircase was now completely sealed with solid ice.

Having successfully guided and released the magic, Violet couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

She tossed aside the high-quality magic crystal in her hand, which had been completely drained of its magic, and then took out a new crystal, beginning to continuously absorb its magic.

At the same time, the mage's hand lifted up two spellbooks, and more pages were torn out and began to be rearranged in the corridor.

Having experienced the two waves of attacks launched by the rat swarm, Violet now has a deeper understanding of the enemy she is facing.

Magic continuously flowed into Verine's body from the magic crystal, but it was quickly consumed again along the pages of the magic book and the arrangement of the magic threads. Feeling the change in the amount of magic in her body, Verine couldn't help but turn her head to look at the tightly closed door of room 508.

"I hope you can hurry..."

……

At this moment, Hugh's "dream" continues.

After experiencing that long war and "dying" in it, Hughes discovered that all the images in the dream had disappeared.

Waves, battlefields, giant beasts, corpses... all of these things turned into a pitch-black void. Hugh couldn't feel his body at all, but his consciousness and spirit were incredibly clear.

This feeling is like experiencing a nightmare, and it's extremely uncomfortable.

Fortunately, this oppressive darkness did not last long.

Gradually, Hughes caught a glimmer of light in this pitch-black world.

At first, the point of light was so far away that it was almost impossible to identify.

But as time passed, the light began to slowly approach him, and as the distance between them shortened, the light gradually became brighter and clearer.

Finally, it came close to Hugh.

Hugh was surprised by the light before him. He had thought he would see bright lights and wake up completely from his dream, but now he realized that it was really just a point of light, a point of light floating in the vast darkness.

He carefully examined the light spot so close to him, feeling as if it were slowly changing its outline, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not make out the specific shape of the light spot.

"What exactly is this?"

He asked himself the question in his mind, but the next moment, something even more surprising happened.

He saw the point of light flicker suddenly, and then an extremely surprised, aged voice entered Hugh's mind: "Hmm? Who are you?"

Hugh was also startled, and as his emotions fluctuated, the distance between him and the point of light immediately increased.

Seeing this, Hugh seemed to understand something, so he calmed himself down and once again moved closer to the point of light.

After reattaching it next to the light spot, Hugh tried saying his name in his mind: "I am Hugh, Hugh Ernst." "Ha, it's you!"

The owner of the aged voice clearly recognized the name, and then Hugh heard him say, "I was just wondering when we had such a young member among us..."

"you are?"

"Jacob Ernst".

The light trembled slightly, then announced its name.

"really……"

Hughes breathed a slight sigh of relief. He had just guessed that he was currently in a continuation of a dream, except that the dream was constructed by the wills of many members of the Ernst family, which was why this strange situation had occurred.

He remembered that "Jacob Ernst" was old Zeke's grandfather, and according to the generational naming conventions he was familiar with, he should have addressed him as "great-great-grandfather"... However, Hugh was not very familiar with the aristocratic rules on the Lovi Plateau, so at this moment he chose the safest way of addressing him.

"Mr. Jacob, what's going on here?"

"This is our dream... the dream that we have all come together to form."

Jacob slowly explained, “In the past, every time we were affected by the rites, we would have similar dreams. In the dreams, sometimes we would become those rat soldiers, sometimes we would become the soldiers’ mounts, and occasionally we could even be priests… But we usually couldn’t stay in those dreams for too long, because the battlefield was just too intense.”

A point of light flickered in the darkness, followed by Jacob's voice: "The longer you persist in the dream, the faster you can wake up... Ha, young people are so much more energetic than us old folks. You've only just touched the power of the arcane ritual, yet you've managed to wake up so quickly..."

"So, we have to wait for the others to wake up now?"

"Yes."

Jacob responded, “In order to make the messages and revelations we receive from the esoteric arts clearer, we have no choice but to use this method. Otherwise, based solely on our individual memories, you probably won’t see anything useful at all.”

As they were talking, more points of light appeared in the darkness. One of the points of light quickly approached, and Hugh heard General Bernhardt's rough voice: "Damn it, I thought we could hold out longer than before, but it's getting worse and worse."

"You're getting old."

Jacob said calmly, "Unlike this young man, who has already achieved far more than us on his first encounter with dreams."

Hearing the two old men talking like this, Hugh asked, "What happens if you fail too quickly in a dream?"

"The faster you fail, the longer it takes to wake up from the dream."

Bernhardt explained, "If this happens a few more times, I'm afraid I won't be able to distinguish between dreams and reality. At that point, I'll probably become like Ludwig, completely lost in the power of the rites, having the same dream over and over again, never able to escape."

Just then, more faint lights appeared in this void of darkness. Hugh roughly counted them and found that there were nearly twenty lights. This meant that there were probably quite a few family members who had successfully escaped from the Black Sun Society's secret ritual and retreated to the fifth underground level. Moreover, this was after a round of internal purges. If the losses over the years were excluded, there would probably be even more family members gathered here.

Alexandra's gentle voice drifted slowly from afar, and at that moment, the legendary countess's voice trembled slightly.

"Little Christina couldn't hold on... she went out."

As Alexandra spoke, Hugh saw a faint light in the far distance gradually dim and eventually disappear into the deep darkness.

"Then we need to finish this quickly, her rat swarm will go berserk, we need to deal with it immediately."

Bernhardt's tone was frighteningly calm, clearly indicating that he was already used to the loss of his kin. For a moment, Hugh even thought that even if this old man himself were trapped in the dream of the Mystic Ritual, he would calmly accept the "treatment" he received from others.

"Ah."

Alexandra responded softly, then turned to Hugh and asked, "So? Any results?"

"Yes, and I gained a lot."

Hughes nodded: "But I need some more time to understand them."

"That's good."

Alexandra sighed, and the points of light representing the soul around her began to flicker at a specific frequency. These points of light gradually merged into one, dispelling the void of darkness and enveloping Hugh's consciousness within it.

With a slight stinging sensation, Hugh woke up from his dream. As soon as he opened his eyes, he heard tearing and wrestling sounds coming from the room. He saw a group of rats writhing in a corner, some of which had already been mercilessly strangled by their own kind.

Clearly, that "Christina" has now been completely eliminated.

After dealing with the matters in the room, the rats that housed the will of the Ernst family members did not linger. As if they had received a unified command, they quickly disappeared into the corner of the room. Immediately afterwards, Hugh heard a series of soft noises coming from the corridor outside room 508.

Clearly, at this moment, the swarm of rats attacking the fifth underground floor had already pressed into the latter half of the corridor, and Hugh could even feel the violent fluctuations caused by the constant collision of various magical traces in the air.

"It seems we'll have to deal with everything later... For now, let's clean up these five underground levels."

Hughes sighed, and the metal disc in his mental world accelerated slightly. As his spirit was invigorated, a strangely styled revolver appeared in his palm. As if sensing the scent of prey, the dark patterns on the revolver faintly emitted the growl of a hunting dog. The terrifying intimidation made Alexandra, who was sitting in the room, tremble involuntarily.

(End of this chapter)