The black sun hangs high

Chapter 202 The Wonderful Journey of the Messenger in the Mirror

Having accumulated a great deal of experience in the past, Hugh had become accustomed to such bizarre dream images.

When he realized he was falling, he didn't feel panicked at all. Instead, he felt a little excited about the secret he was about to discover. He was curious about what kind of messages this strange mask, which was closely related to the Messenger in the Mirror and the Dark Abyss Court, could convey to him.

The icy seawater caused Hughes considerable discomfort, and he had no way to maintain his balance in the raging current.

At this very moment, a fierce storm was raging on the sea, while beneath the surface, dark currents surged. In this dim water, Hugh felt his body being tightly enveloped by a force that resembled magic but was even more chaotic and disordered.

They were like nets and ropes, and Hugh felt like he was a fish bound by them...

Strangely, Hugh found that he didn't seem to suffocate as a result—or rather, he didn't need to breathe at all. Although he had almost no control over his body, he didn't die from it.

This is destined to be an extremely long storm.

In this surging tide that Hugh couldn't escape, he felt himself being bombarded by wave after wave of chaotic information. The constantly surging undercurrents seemed to carry the thoughts and consciousness of countless different individuals and groups. Every moment, it was as if several or even dozens of languages ​​and ideas that Hugh couldn't understand were being poured into his brain.

This kind of mental impact is more tormenting than the disturbance and entanglement brought about by the undercurrents.

In this dream, Hugh had no concept of time. He only knew that the impact lasted for a very long time, but at a certain moment, it suddenly disappeared—the fierce waves threw Hugh out of the water, and the enormous force sent his body and consciousness away from the cold and boundless water at the same time.

Hugh's "body" crashed heavily onto a beach, and at the same time, he regained control of his body once again.

Hughes was utterly bewildered by this somewhat incoherent dream. He raised his hands and looked at his body.

He was immediately surprised to discover that he did not actually have a physical body. His limbs and torso were made of thick black mist. On the surface of this mist, a strange light kept flashing. The regular patterns shining through these lights seemed to be weaving a "clothing" for this body.

"Am I... the messenger from the mirror?"

Based on the existing intelligence and information, Hugh quickly reached this conclusion.

Just like last time when he played a rat-man warrior who worshipped the Earth Mother Goddess in the rat swarm's dream, this time, Hugh quickly adapted to his "new identity" and immersed himself in this strange body.

He really wanted to see what information this dream would reveal to him, and what secrets his identity as the "messenger in the mirror" in this dream concealed.

Hugh slowly rose from the beach. He first looked up at the sky, and as he expected, a huge black celestial body was floating in the sky above him.

That black sun, that passage connecting the "Dark Abyss Palace" with this world, seemed so real that Hugh felt he could even see the constantly rotating patterns within that enormous shadow, and the dark images flowing in from another world.

Under the illumination of this black sun, power is constantly recovering. Soon, the misty body of the "Mirror Messenger" becomes more solid and concrete, and the "clothing" that had become thin due to the impact of the ocean's power gradually becomes clear again.

Hughes was surprised to discover that the clothes worn by the messenger in the mirror were actually a very peculiar and ancient-looking robe.

It's unclear whether this is actually a "uniform" worn by the Dark Abyss Palace.

Hugh was confused, and the Mirror Messenger, who was the vessel for Hugh's consciousness, was equally confused. It seemed not to understand why it had come here. Its memories were disordered, it had no clear goal, and it had no task to complete. So it stood blankly on the beach, sometimes gazing at the surging sea in the distance, and sometimes looking up at the black sun in the sky.

Time passed little by little.

The Mirror Messenger finally took another action. It left the beach and began to wander aimlessly into the depths of the land. This was destined to be an extremely long journey, but for Hugh, who was just an observer, the journey was not boring, because he was able to take this opportunity to carefully observe this world from a distant era.

In the era when the Black Sun ruled Vaan, there was no such thing as "sunrise and sunset" as people know it today. Although the brightness of the sky would still change, the terrifying Black Sun always ruled the sky. Therefore, Hugh had no way of judging the passage of time in this dream.

All he knew was that the bewildered messenger in the mirror had traveled a very, very long way.

This humanoid figure formed from mist is like a curious traveler; it traverses jungles, plains and hills, endures storms and torrential rains, and even visits the ruins of a city left behind by a fallen civilization...

Perhaps because he had taken a detour in the process, Hugh smelled the sea breeze again. However, the Mirror Messenger had now arrived at the side of a towering cliff, and in the distance ahead, the shadows of buildings could be vaguely seen. The wisps of smoke drifting from them proved that it was not a ruin or relic, but a large settlement of some intelligent race.

The mirror image was naturally drawn to the distant view, so it spontaneously headed in that direction.

Not long after, Hughes saw a procession approaching through its "eyes".

This is a large and very complex team.

The reason it is considered complex is that Hughes saw many familiar races in it.

With pointed ears and flowing hair, the elves have skin that is either as gray as rock or has a texture like trees, suggesting that they are very likely ancestors of mountain elves or forest elves.

Next were the goblins. At that time, their ears weren't as big, and their bodies were more powerful. Although their skin still had a strange color, they looked somewhat similar to the dwarves beside them.

Besides that, Hugh also saw ogres, though at that time, they probably didn't have this name... and these big guys seemed very easygoing, even letting goblins or dwarves ride on their shoulders and telling them jokes. Of course, there were also humans in the group.

The people of that era didn't seem much different from those of today. They wore simple clothing, some wore armor made of some unknown material, and held all sorts of weapons...

The appearance of the Mirror Messenger was immediately noticed by the patrolmen in the group. The vigilant elven patrolmen immediately raised their weapons, giving the Mirror Messenger no chance to explain. These people seemed to believe that only an enemy could have such an appearance, so a dense barrage of arrows immediately came flying. Hugh saw that these arrows were mixed with some strange color and luster, which seemed to be some kind of power that was extremely similar to magic.

However, this Mirror Messenger seemed to be a special case. It was not injured by this level of attack. All the arrows passed directly through its body, and it did not make any counterattack. It just stood there blankly, observing these creatures that were so different from itself and full of hostility.

The language they spoke seemed somewhat similar to the common language of Vaan today, but it was virtually impossible to understand. However, judging from their expressions and actions, Hugh believed that what they were saying was either questioning or threatening.

However, the messenger in the mirror did not react.

The team then became somewhat helpless. They stopped probing and attacking, and instead surrounded the strange "intruder." Then, some of them quickly left, seemingly to find someone who could make the appropriate decision.

After a while, the crowd gradually dispersed, making way for a figure who walked briskly along the path.

Hugh looked over curiously, and then he was surprised to find that the person walking in this direction was a human woman.

A light and shadow, like a pale blue veil, enveloped her figure and face; it was a phantom woven with magic.

Despite being in a dream, Hugh still felt a brief buzzing in his brain—he realized that the figure being rushed over by people seemed to be the same figure he had seen in the rat swarm dream, fighting alongside the sea monsters.

Because now, Hugh could fully sense the familiar aura emanating from the other party.

The Mirror Messenger seemed to sense the special aura emanating from the human woman. It seemed to want to react, but before it could act, the human woman, whose face was obscured, suddenly raised her hand, and extremely complex magical runes appeared. In an instant, a magical cage made of cold water was formed and bound the Mirror Messenger's body tightly.

The moment the magical cage took effect, the dream abruptly ended.

A faint, muffled magical sound echoed in the darkness. Cracks appeared on the black mask covering Hugh's face, and then it shattered into its original form of dark abyss mist. Hugh's face reappeared, and he opened his eyes, his expression filled with surprise and displeasure.

"Tsk..."

He smacked his lips in annoyance.

This feeling is like being interrupted at the most exciting part of a novel, or having an annoying commercial forcibly inserted into a movie or TV show...

The information contained in this dream was too special and too important. Although it seemed somewhat incoherent, Hugh's intuition told him that the dream was revealing to him an important moment in that distant era.

"It seems that this is not the experience of an ordinary Mirror Messenger at all... According to the information obtained when the Mirror Messenger was acquired, they should just be ordinary servants in the Dark Abyss Palace, with limited power and status. So why would a Mirror Messenger come to the land and start its 'journey' in such a daze? What exactly did it experience?"

Hughes let out a deep breath in the darkness. He felt a rare shiver, and even small goosebumps appeared on the surface of his skin.

When the human woman in his dream appeared, Hugh realized that the figure of this woman, shrouded in a pale blue magical veil, seemed to match another image in his memory.

That is the goddess of magic who exists as a universally worshipped and supreme deity in present-day Vain.

"So... could this be a coincidence?"

Hugh pursed his lips: "Theseus and I just had a discussion about the goddess of magic, and now I'm actually able to glimpse memories related to her through the Mirror Messenger's abilities... In addition, Theseus's attitude towards this goddess of magic seems rather subtle... What kind of connection exists between them?"

Hugh's mind was always active, so in an instant, countless conjectures had already rushed through his mind, including some bold and outrageous ideas.

But conjecture is just conjecture. Hugh is well aware that he currently lacks crucial supporting evidence, and even if his conjecture is meticulous, it is unlikely to provide effective guidance.

So Hugh had no choice but to refocus his attention on the Abyss Mask, which was an extension of the Mirror Messenger.

As Hugh's thoughts and magic shifted, the mask reappeared in his palm. As Hugh brought the mask to his face, it adhered to his face once more and merged with his body.

The Mirror Messenger's mist uncontrollably surged out of Hugh's body at this moment, and then, one face after another flashed rapidly through Hugh's mind.

These faces seemed somewhat unfamiliar, but when Hugh looked closely, he felt a strong sense of familiarity. Then, he realized the origin of these faces—without exception, they all belonged to the victims who had been devoured by the offspring of the Dark Abyss.

Now, the faces of these dead have been forcibly extracted from the power and memory essence of those Dark Abyss offspring. Under the effect of this mask, they have formed one specific and vivid "template" after another, just waiting for Hugh to select and use them.

"This is going to be interesting..."

(End of this chapter)