The black sun hangs high

Chapter 126 Altar
Alexandra and the others who had once "attacked" this place are now silent.

Or perhaps they were simply overwhelmed by the sights before them and the conclusions that Hugh and his companion had reached.

In fact, whether in Vain hundreds of years ago or in the world today, the dominant position of mankind has never been shaken in the slightest. Merliner and the Legal Committee do not even need to expend any energy to maintain this idea, because this view has long been deeply imprinted in everyone's thinking habits.

In other words, the exalted status of humankind needs no further explanation.

It was under the support of this deeply ingrained belief that these human elites in the Ernst family were able to persevere through the terrible experiences of the past. They all believed that as human beings, human will and dignity were powerful and noble, and any act of altering or offending them was a desecration of the human race.

During their last attack, they had no time to learn about the place, but now, as "vassals of vassals" of Hugh, they are able to see and hear everything through Hugh's vision.

However, all of this has had a considerable impact on their past beliefs and ideas.

Hughes subtly sensed the "emotional fluctuations" of Alexandra and the others, and he expressed his understanding of it.

It's important to understand that in his past world, until the moment he died from overwork, countless people still believed that the earth was flat, or that birds had long been extinct, etc. These "older players" were only extremely shocked, and did not immediately jump up and express their emotions, which was already very rational.

Cases like Wei Lin's are ultimately rare.

After all, as a professional magic scholar, she had long since pushed her limits to tolerate all sorts of unfamiliar and new things in order to acquire knowledge and pursue her studies.

In other words, since they've already started researching those lost magics, what else is unacceptable?

Such a discovery would only make her more excited and joyful, but it probably wouldn't be enough to shake her mind.

"Be careful, I can't see anything in front of me at all."

Hugh dispelled the fog surrounding the Mirror Messenger. In the open door ahead, there seemed to be a special black veil that fundamentally "shielded" all prying eyes. Even the power from the Dark Abyss Palace could not penetrate it.

Hugh slowly moved forward, arriving at the edge of the door. However, the darkness remained, showing no signs of weakening despite the shortening distance. Hugh frowned, picked up a pebble from the side, and flicked it towards the darkness ahead. It vanished instantly, as if swallowed up. But soon, Hugh heard a soft sound—the pebble had landed. This indicated that what lay behind this layer of darkness was not a bottomless abyss, but rather a downward staircase.

Hughes didn't rush inside. He gestured for Weilin to wait a moment, then asked the Ernst family members, "Was it the same when you arrived here?"

"No, absolutely not!"

Bernhardt's answer was very certain: "There should be an extremely long staircase leading down to the core of the ritual. We don't recognize it, but it looks like some kind of altar. We were limited in our abilities at the time and only managed to damage a part of it."

"That part connecting the fourth and fifth underground floors?"

"That should be correct, and they have never been able to complete the repair, but the specific reasons are unclear."

After listening to Bernhardt's account, Hughes nodded and relayed this information to Veraine. The two then immediately began a cautious experiment.

Soon, they roughly confirmed the characteristics of this dark barrier. It seemed to be a ritual field built on the basis of the Earth Mother's mystic arts. Its function was basically similar to those ritual fields in major cities that could block city walls and access passages. Things like stones, bullets, and tattered clothing could easily pass through it, but when Vilin tried to touch it with her hands or magic, she would encounter resistance.

Hugh also tried using the Touch of Calron and the Mirror Messenger's Mist, but neither worked. Attempts at brute force also failed. It seemed that passing through this barrier required a special qualification from a certain element.

Thinking back to the Black Sun Society spellcasters who had mutated into rats, Hugh had a guess. He snapped his fingers, summoning the scurrying rat that was busy "paying homage" to the traces of its ancestors. He then picked it up, and under Hugh's command, the blessing of the Earth Mother that it had previously absorbed and plundered began to operate rapidly. Dark yellow light and shadow gradually spread from its body along the magical connection between the two and gradually covered Hugh's body.

He reached out his hand.

This time, he successfully reached his hand into the darkness.

Seeing this, Weilin sighed somewhat dejectedly, but she didn't say anything more.

She opened her spellbook, deftly tore off a few pages, and stuffed them directly into Hugh's arms. Then, as before, she cast several enhancement spells on him.

"Don't linger too long. If things don't look right, evacuate immediately... I won't perform the protective ritual for you, as that might cause unnecessary interference and disruption."

She calmly gave a word of advice, then turned and walked to the mural beside her, beginning to try to use magic to record these images onto paper, without giving Hugh a chance to say thank you.

"Ok."

Seeing this, Hugh had no choice but to go forward alone.

As he passed through the barrier, Hugh felt as if he had squeezed into a soft sponge. After overcoming the slight resistance, he successfully arrived at the space behind the barrier, which was the staircase leading to the core of the ritual.

There are magic lamps here, but the light is very dim—they are set on the surrounding stone walls, and in the very center is the huge altar that Bernhardt described. The entire altar looks like a large stone pit, with a large number of stone statues and steles standing around it, but Hugh cannot see what is in the pit in the center of the altar.

An unpleasant odor permeated the air, smelling like damp earth after a heavy rain, only many times stronger, to the point that it made one want to frown.

The frantic rat, which had been agitated by the strange sensation in its head, finally calmed down. It jumped from Hugh's arms to the ground, curiously looked around, and then took the lead in running down the stairs.

Hugh followed closely, and soon he stepped onto the huge stone altar.

A strange magical fluctuation began to emanate from it, similar to the power felt in the walls of the manor hotel, but now it was incredibly clear. The flowing power was like the roots of a plant, or the blood vessels of an animal, with vibrant life constantly surging and pulsating within, giving people a feeling of joy and happiness.

However, the stone statues and monuments surrounding the altar, as well as the patterns on the ground, offered no solace. Unlike the sculptures and murals outside that depicted creatures' reverence and longing for the Earth Mother Goddess, what was etched here were mostly scenes of "sacrifice" and "slaughter." The creatures used as sacrifices were incredibly diverse; larger ones were specially made into statues, while smaller ones were carved directly onto the walls and monuments. Among them were the deep-sea beasts that Hugh had seen in the rats' dreams, as well as the land creatures that had appeared in the murals before.

"It seems that when war broke out, the civilization of that time would choose to sacrifice 'prisoners of war', but in peacetime, other lives who were also believers in the Earth Mother Goddess were also within the scope of the sacrifices..."

Hugh looked at the headless stone statue in front of him. Although it had no head, judging from its body structure and the tail trailing behind it, it should be a strong ratman warrior or knight.

Clearly, the racial requirements for sacrifices by believers are very broad, or perhaps self-sacrifice itself is a form of honor.

Sniggy made a soft cry, and Hugh went over, then froze.

He saw a particularly small stone statue, which looked rather pitiful because it was sandwiched between two giant beast statues, but Hugh immediately recognized the species of the statue.

This is a human being.

He was dressed in rough clothes and armor, and his hands were bound.

The human statue's head is the only one that is intact, which makes it stand out, as if all the sacrifices were accepted, but the human was excluded...

"Judging from the carving time and the traces of magic, these stone statues and the murals outside should be from the same period. In other words, this altar and everything here were actually 'moved' from some lost ruins by the Black Sun Society through certain means."

"So humans did exist at that time, but they were incredibly weak among all living beings and their families, so their presence was extremely minimal?"

As Hughes pondered this, he couldn't help but recall the figure he had seen at the end of the rats' dream.

If his judgment was correct, the figure capable of wielding near-magical power seemed to be standing against the Earth Mother Goddess.

Ocean, magic, seemingly human, female...

Hugh instinctively connected these clues, and the resulting conjecture sent a chill down his spine.

But this was just speculation, without concrete evidence, and it didn't help with the current situation, so Hugh put it aside for the time being and continued to investigate.

Soon, he saw the signs of destruction that Bernhardt had mentioned. At that moment, Hugh couldn't help but be shocked by the rebellious will and power that the members of the Ernst family had displayed. He also finally understood why the members of the Black Sun Society had been unable to complete the repair of the ritual.

In a corner previously obscured by stone tablets and walls, he saw a massive, collapsed slope—a horrific wound gnawed out by rats with their claws and teeth. The magical circuits that had been set up within it were completely destroyed, with a significant portion even falling into a deep pit near the rock wall…

It's hard to imagine how large the rat population was involved in that work, and how few of these family rats survived afterward, which is enough to prove how fierce the resistance was.

"The Black Sun Society has transformed this slope into a makeshift staircase that appears to lead directly to the large pit at the very center of the altar?"

Hugh nimbly vaulted over two broken statues blocking his way and arrived at the staircase paved with a lot of rubble. Through his magical perception, he was fairly certain that the center of the entire arcane circuit was located below this collapsed slope.

Just as he was about to continue downwards, Alexandra's voice suddenly came from below.

"Shug, something's not right with us."

Alexandra's tone was somewhat hurried: "Beneath this deep pit, there seems to be something... familiar, yet strange."

"You mean, all those family members who went missing during the attack on the altar are here?"

"It is indeed their aura, but it's not quite right!"

Alexandra emphasized, "It was extremely chaotic, extremely violent and painful, as if countless people were crying out."

The countess's tone became weak and flustered. Clearly, her words were not exaggerated; the emotions transmitted through the same source of magic had already had a considerable impact on her.

Hugh hesitated, unsure what lay beneath the pit that could elicit such a assessment from Alexandra. However, at that moment, the summoned raging rat seemed possessed, urgently conveying its needs and desires to Hugh—it wanted to go down, immediately, even if it meant rolling down!

It seems there's something there that has a fatal attraction for it.

"hiss."

Hugh frowned. He didn't move forward immediately. Instead, he quickly checked his magic and power to make sure that his magic was functioning normally and that his important combat abilities, such as Kalron's Touch and Hound's Fang, were not affected by the altar. Then, he began to descend the simple staircase.

That somber darkness reappeared, but this time it did not form a black barrier to obscure and block vision; instead, it drifted like a thick fog beneath the light of the magic lamps and illumination tricks.

When Hughes reached the middle of the slope, he saw what was hidden deep in the altar pit.

Sniggy, the rat that had been running down the pit with great enthusiasm, stopped in its tracks. It stood beside Hugh, and the two stared blankly at the enormous shadow lying in the center of the pit.

If Hugh could describe the Dark Abyss Spawns in Seren City as an amorphous mass of mud before, then what he saw this time presented a completely new challenge to his language abilities...

(End of this chapter)