The black sun hangs high

Chapter 122: Can the Mind Conquer Things?

At this moment, Hugh was unaware that the "machine gun" he had been longing for had officially roared in this world.

He had no idea that his adoptive grandfather had personally shot his adoptive father to death, and even ordered the mage Klaus to use his corpse as a one-time alchemical bomb.

He was now following the swarm of rats, which were under the command of the running rats, as they descended deeper into the spiral staircase that had been subjected to a permanent extension ritual.

On the surface, Hugh and Verine were having a casual conversation about the setup of conventional magical rituals, but their inner world was a complete mess.

To be precise, Sniggy's rat hole was in complete chaos.

Hughes realized that he had underestimated the allure of the "embracing the new era" proposition for this group of top seniors with an average age of over 150.

What do you mean by "I've had enough of living"? What do you mean by "I've persisted until now only for the Ernst family"? What do you mean by "I want to maintain my human form and dignity"?

It's all fake, it's all fucking fake!
Hugh felt he should have realized it sooner. Every member of the Ernst family who could become a core figure among the core nobles and be sent here was an exceptionally shrewd person, and those who had persevered to this day were the most determined among them.

It seems unrealistic to expect such a group of people to give up hope of survival when they are "close to victory".

Before allowing these "elders" who had once managed and led the entire Ernst family to inhabit his spiritual world, Hughes conducted a serious and comprehensive examination of his own beliefs, emotions, and attitudes.

As a very typical case of a "stranger from a foreign land", he did not have any specific attitude towards the Ernst family, and all his knowledge came from the memories of the original owner of this body.

However, these fragments of memory are destined to be one-sided. Because of Yerevan, the former Hugh Ernst had almost no experience of contacting other members of the Ernst family. Whether it was the internal struggles of the family or the changes and struggles for power, none of it had any direct connection with the concept of "illegitimate child". Moreover, most of the past experiences of this body were woven together under the deliberate arrangement of someone with ulterior motives.

Based on this, it would be virtually impossible for Hugh Ernst to gain a concrete and objective understanding of the vast family group to which he nominally belonged.

It is precisely for this reason that Hugh did not have much resistance or opposition to "receiving" a batch of souls that once belonged to the Ernst family.

In fact, having received the memories brought by the offspring of the Dark Abyss, Hugh has now developed a stronger interest in the "experiences of predecessors." He is eager to obtain some truly useful information and guidance from Alexandra and Bernhardt, who were once high-ranking figures.

However, he couldn't explain these thoughts and plans to Snicket, who was now very dissatisfied as the nominal owner of the "rat hole" in the metal disc.

With its current intelligence, it is not enough to understand why these rats, who should be its "servants," seem to be more like its masters than it is. They even started dividing up the territory immediately after "moving in," completely disregarding it!

After Snichdi sent countless "help" signals to Hugh, Hugh finally turned his consciousness into his mental world and coughed lightly twice towards the mouse hole.

Immediately, a large group of blind rats emerged and densely filled the entire metal groove, creating a scene that was both bizarre and spectacular.

"Everyone, we haven't achieved our final goal yet... Aren't you celebrating a little too soon?"

"Hey, I have faith in you!"

This carefree tone belonged to General Bernhardt, who said with a smile, "Nothing is worse for us than it was before, but all the progress from now on will make us better off than we are now!"

"Don't listen to his nonsense..."

Alexandra clearly disliked Bernhardt's tone. Although she had transformed back into her rat form, her voice remained gentle: "Everyone is well aware of the current situation, but upon seeing... upon seeing the shelter you have provided, everyone is somewhat surprised, so they may be a bit excited."

"Don't worry, child. We know there's still a long way to go before we succeed. We will do everything we can to help you overcome all difficulties, even if it costs us."

"okay, I get it."

Hugh didn't say anything more. He withdrew his consciousness from the mental world and looked up ahead.

The swarm of rats left outside were gathering in the darkness ahead—this was the bottom of the spiral staircase. Beside her, Virin held up a magic orb for illumination, looking worriedly at the dark stairwell above. What had happened before had left her with some psychological trauma, and she was now very worried that it would "rain" from above again.

"This should be the ground floor... If I'm right, the area outside should be the 'underground garden' we saw in room 203 before."

"Yes, based on the information provided by Ms. Alexandra, the movement of the rat swarm, and the standard setup method for large-scale rituals, this should be the location where the Black Sun Society set up its rituals."

Vera reached out and pressed the wall bricks beside her. She sensed the flow of magic and then judged, "At least for now, most of the magic circuits I can touch and sense lead here. Let's find the exit."

Hugh nodded, and then, like Vera, he summoned a magic orb for illumination and began searching at the bottom of the spiral stairwell.

Meanwhile, the rats that originally belonged to this underground mansion continued to search and advance along the walls.

Strangely, although they set off from here under the control of the secret ritual, they are now all lost and have no way of finding a usable exit or passage.

Hugh and Vera's search also quickly came to a standstill, as they soon discovered that the bottom of the wide stairwell was spotless, with nothing but ancient and smooth brickwork at a glance.

These huge stone bricks are joined together so tightly that even water cannot get through the gaps between them.

“It’s not just the rats that have come to the fifth underground level, but also those who have been mutated by the secret ritual and have physical bodies… Therefore, the passage where they gather here must not be a magic circuit buried in the wall.”

Vera carefully avoided the rats that were eager to find their way home. She pressed her palm against the wall and tried to infuse it with her magic. She judged, "It seems that the previous setback or the changes caused by your summoned creatures triggered some pre-set extra protective measures. I can feel the traces of magic. They are still very new and should have disappeared not long ago."

Hughes nodded, and the magical mist of the Mirror Messenger immediately clouded his eyes.

Given that the two had already exchanged further opinions, Hugh did not deliberately turn his back to hide this part of his ability this time, but generously let Vera see the strange phenomenon in his eyes.

He understood that limited honesty is the foundation of close collaboration.

Just as Verine had always shown in her attitude towards lost sorcery and magic, she didn't appear too surprised at this moment. Her face showed more curiosity; she was genuinely curious about this wondrous power that seemed to be able to be cast directly without needing to construct runes or magical models. Hugh, however, had no time to cooperate with Verine's "academic pursuits." With the aid of the Mirror Messenger's power, his gaze quickly swept over every corner of the enclosed space. Soon, using Sniggy's power, he commanded the swarm of rats gathered on one side of the stairwell to disperse, and a very peculiar door appeared before him.

He was in a daze.

Because it was a huge iron gate hidden by extremely chaotic magic, and the style and size of this iron gate were extremely similar to the two gates he had seen in the dream sanctuary.

However, the door was not engraved with the Ship of Theseus, nor was it sealed off by the black script unique to the Dream Sanctuary.

What Hughes saw on the door was a pattern that was both unfamiliar and familiar.

That's a skull, a rodent's skull.

On either side of this skull, curved horns extend out.

The structure of these horns is similar to that of the horns of the highland blue sheep; they first turn around and then point upwards.

The horns of the highland blue sheep have always been a symbol of peace and stability, but when combined with such a skull, they exude an extremely wild, primitive, and strange feeling.

Based on the information he already had, Hugh immediately made a judgment about the pattern.

This is clearly the mark of the Earth Mother Goddess. In the dream provided by the ratmen, the bone helmets worn by the rat-man priests and the fleeting image of the Earth Mother Goddess revealed through the sacrificial ritual before the battle broke out are all related to this image.

Of course, Hugh knew that the image of Mother Earth was not actually that of a rat.

She, or rather, Her form is more like a collection of mammals among countless Brahmins, with rats being only a part of her appearance. Perhaps this is why she is called the Mother Goddess of the Earth, rather than the "Goddess of Rats".

"I've found it... but how do I open it?"

Hughes stood before the wall where the door was hidden, raised his hand, and tentatively reached it forward.

He had examined and touched this wall before, but this time, when his fingers touched the wall in front of him, he no longer felt the rough stone, but the cold and smooth metal.

"It could be a magical disguise based on cognition. There are scholars in Merlinle and the Academy who specialize in studying these things... but I don't know the specific principles."

"Cognition?"

Hughes frowned: "You mean, the magic set up here will directly affect our perception of the environment? Making what was originally a door appear as a wall?"

"That's one way to understand it, but what you're saying is only part of the story."

Vera walked over to Hugh's side. She also raised her hand and tapped it lightly twice with her fingernail next to the wall that Hugh had touched. Hugh then realized that her action did not produce the sound of striking metal, but rather a slight sound like tapping stone.

“Look… Even though you’ve told me there’s a door here, in my eyes, what I see is an incredibly hard wall that has undergone countless magical reinforcement rituals. So no matter if I knock on it or cast spells directly at it, I can’t produce the correct result.”

Upon hearing Vera's description, a phrase popped into Hugh's memory, so he asked, "The mind triumphs over material things?"

Veraine paused for a moment, but then nodded: "An interesting summary, but still inaccurate... because in fact, the door does exist here. This kind of magic applied to the cognitive level can only interfere with our judgment within a certain range. If we are powerful enough to completely destroy this wall, then the cognitive barrier will naturally no longer exist."

Hughes nodded: "Good idea."

"What's good?"

Vilin couldn't help but laugh: "The spellcasters who were responsible for setting up these rituals in the past must have been elites at the lake and valley level or above, and it's even possible that deep-sea level mages were involved. Otherwise, it's impossible for it to still play such a stable role after hundreds of years! Trying to break it with brute force is unrealistic."

"Just try and you will find out."

After saying that, Hugh took a few steps back and "dragged" Verine back. Then he waved his hand to disperse the rats that were "watching" nearby. A stinging sensation came from his right wrist again. The power from the "Dark Abyss Court" once again gathered in his palm and formed the pistol that shimmered with a strange light.

Inside the metal disc, the ancient hound, which had just had a "full meal," slowly stood up in its groove. It already knew what Hugh was going to do, so it didn't show much enthusiasm.

After all, this time, its task was not to hunt, but to dig.

The roar rang out again, and with each bullet's impact, the wall that concealed the gate to the Earth Mother Goddess immediately began to disintegrate against all reason under the power of the Dark Abyss and the Hounds.

The circuits within the wall were rapidly twisted and destroyed. The solid stone wall crumbled into fine powder as if it had been devoured by some invisible monster. The cognitive magic that was originally attached to it and connected to the magic circuits immediately became ineffective, and a huge door was revealed.

The hound's special power continued to push forward. Although it couldn't destroy the special door, the wall that housed it was completely destroyed by its erosion. Without the support of the wall, the door, which was engraved with the image of the Earth Mother Goddess, immediately fell backward and crashed heavily into the darkness.

"See, isn't this enough?"

...

There will be more later~
I didn't get home until one or two in the morning, and then I found that the home internet was down.

After having a repairman inspect it, they learned that the main power line in the low-voltage wiring shaft had been disconnected sometime during the incident...

I'm confused.

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(End of this chapter)