The black sun hangs high

Chapter 210 Long and Short Swords
The bottom line is a very interesting concept.

In the world that Hugh had lived in, it was often said that there was only the first time or countless times when the bottom line was crossed or trampled.

Many people believe that once someone's bottom line is crossed in a single act, it becomes very difficult for them to set a new moral threshold for themselves.

Hughes certainly didn't think that what he did to that Black Sun Society mage had crossed his bottom line. He had already killed too many people with his own hands, and he didn't need to kill one more.

Ultimately, as Hugh himself said, what truly made him feel awkward and disgusted was the act of feeding his own kind to those monsters.

But in any case, Hugh did it anyway.

He did not intend to trust the testimony of any Black Sun Society member. Rather than wasting time interrogating and torturing them, he would rather choose this process directly to obtain that part of the intelligence and secrets thoroughly and clearly.

In the perception of the Dark Abyss offspring, an immobilized mage was naturally an excellent food source. Soon, a large number of writhing, viscous shadows crawled out from the nearby building ruins. The strong temptation of the "food" made them ignore the dappled sunlight and rush towards their target.

Surrounded by the offspring of the Dark Abyss, the Black Sun Society mage, whose vitality was extremely tenacious, slowly awoke. When he opened his weak eyes, he was met with a despair as overwhelming as a tsunami.

The destructive magic was cast with great difficulty, and blazing magical flames bloomed around the mage as the runes were constructed. In the flickering firelight, the Dark Abyss Spawns, which had been surging forward, came to a halt. Countless green eyes of all sizes emerged from their continuous black figures, and the firelight reflected in these eyes, revealing an extremely intense and primal greed.

"This is betrayal!"

Surrounded by the offspring of the Dark Abyss, the Society mage roared in despair, desperately calling for more flames while turning his head to try and find Hugh's figure.

Then he saw the young figure leaning on a cane standing quietly on a pile of ruins not too far away from him. His dark coat fluttered gently in the cold wind, and his fair, thin face showed no emotion whatsoever.

He was like an emotionless statue, silently waiting for the moment of slaughter and feasting to arrive.

"Yes, this is betrayal... but unfortunately, you have no right to condemn my actions. After all, you are Vaan's biggest traitors, aren't you?"

Hugh opened his mouth slightly, and his not-so-loud voice carried on the wind under the influence of magic.

In the despairing gaze of the sorcerer, Hugh raised his right hand, and magical runes flashed rapidly at his fingertips. In an instant, a "brain spike" was formed and flew towards the sorcerer.

This time, without the protection of the magical ritual, he could no longer resist Hugh's brain spike technique. Under the intense mental impact, the Society Mage's mind came to a standstill, and the magical flames that had been barely maintained were extinguished on the spot.

As a result, the Dark Abyss offspring surrounding him immediately surged forward, and before the sorcerer could recover from the mental shock, the viscous black gel had completely engulfed him.

In an instant, the body missing a leg was enveloped in murky colors, just like all the victims who were swallowed up by the Dark Abyss's offspring. The Society Mage's face and expression were frozen in the last second before being enveloped.

Immediately afterwards, the Dark Abyss offspring demonstrated to Hugh their extremely high feeding efficiency.

After successfully enveloping their prey, countless swaying, sharp limbs immediately sprouted from the inside of the slime. They swiftly sliced ​​and shredded the mage's body, and the severed human remains immediately began to tumble in the black, murky slime.

The slime, like a strong acid, began to decompose and melt the human remains at an alarming rate. The remaining power, as well as the memories and knowledge left in the soul and brain, were absorbed and divided by these assembled Dark Abyss offspring.

After a significant meal, the Dark Abyss Spawns' movement rate began to decrease noticeably. In order to digest their prey as quickly as possible, these gathered Dark Abyss Spawns formed a new unit.

They quickly avoided the sunlight, lazily moved in one direction, and finally managed to hide in the shadow of a ruin.

As the person most familiar with and knowledgeable about these incomplete Dark Abyss creations, Hugh neither left nor rushed to find and kill these Dark Abyss offspring. Instead, he patiently waited in place.

As the only living being standing in these ruins, he naturally attracted the attention of many Dark Abyss offspring. However, the Mirror Messenger mist that occasionally flashed across Hugh successfully confused and intimidated these greedy and ferocious monsters.

After several groups of Dark Abyss offspring who dared to approach Hugh were cut up and devoured on the spot, the remaining Dark Abyss offspring decisively regarded the area around Hugh as a forbidden zone. As for this strange and terrifying human, they regarded him as some kind of terrifying predator that was extremely similar to themselves.

Hugh didn't care how these monsters viewed him. He sat down on the ruins, his eyes slightly closed, his mind and senses fixed on the Dark Abyss Spawn that was absorbing the souls and memories of the Society's mages.

While waiting for the Dark Abyss Spawn to devour and absorb the souls and memories of the Society mages, Hugh turned a significant portion of his attention to his "gains" in Iris Street—the Iris Guard who had been completely transformed into a "Spawn Form" after consuming some substance had also provided Hugh with a ball of power essence after being successfully devoured by the Mirror Messenger Mist.

Compared to the ordinary offspring of the Dark Abyss, the essence provided by the Iris Guard was much weaker, but in Hugh's view, the memories and information contained in this essence were very rich, and the structure of these contents was very regular, so much so that he did not need to do any extra classification or sorting.

Hugh easily extracted this vast amount of information. Just as he was about to deal with the remaining essence of power, the usually indifferent and weakly power-hungry Kaljun's tentacles became unusually active. Hugh saw these black tentacles, which had been with him the longest, actively extend from the groove of the metal disc and gently sway towards him. He could clearly sense the pleading and appeasement within them.

Hughes naturally favored the Touch of Calron, a "workhorse" that was always quiet and performed exceptionally well. Therefore, he immediately abandoned the idea of ​​throwing the ball of power essence to the messenger in the mirror and instead handed it to the swaying black tentacles.

Hugh originally thought that this extremely ordinary concentration of power essence could only be used as a snack for the guests of his disc, and that the Call of Karron's Touch was merely a "temporary craving".

However, as the writhing black shadow fell into the "nest" of the Touch of Calron, changes that Hugh had not anticipated immediately began to occur.

The Karron's Tentacles within the groove of the metal disc began to stir. In just two breaths, the still struggling essence of power was completely torn apart. The black keratin on the Karron's Tentacles gradually faded, and the "suction cups" that originally belonged to these cold tentacles reappeared. At this moment, they transformed into eating mouthparts, devouring the fragments of power at an astonishing speed.

A slight vibration was transmitted from inside the disk.

The dark green crystal and the Forest of Walking patterns embedded in the very center of the disc shimmered at the same time, and the fine lines spreading across the disc were quickly illuminated. The groove that originally marked the path of the transformation of the Touch of Karron and carried the light and shadow of the limbs and scythes began to flicker continuously.

A somewhat dim, faint curve extended from this groove, slowly crawling along the surface of the disk, and finally barely reaching another groove next to it.

Then, amidst a series of rapid metallic clanging sounds, the transformation of the disc that Hugh was most familiar with and most looking forward to arrived. In the new groove, two extremely simple black patterns appeared—looking like two intersecting sword blades, one long and one short!

Hugh immediately recognized the origin of the pattern. Clearly, this time, the Touch of Calron was not imitating a specific biological feature, but rather successfully simulating the long and short swords provided to the Iris Guard by the Delan royal family through the essence of power originating from the Iris Guard!
Hugh even saw two rather unusual magical patterns on the hilts of the two swords—they were not the iris decorations he was familiar with, but two strange lights and shadows that seemed to blend into the hilts. They appeared to be some kind of soft-bodied creature swimming in the deep ocean, looking more like some kind of peculiar octopus, except that the octopus's head was extremely blurry, and its extended tentacles had mouths and sharp teeth like a sea snake.

Unfortunately, the essence of power from the Iris Guard was ultimately too weak. With the help of this power, Karron's Touch only managed to "light up" a new groove and outline the pattern within it.

Once the power of that essence was completely exhausted, the change in the new groove on the metal disc also stopped.

Finally, a unique pattern of crossed swords was successfully engraved in the groove of this new disc. Unfortunately, due to a lack of "materials," it presented a very stark contrast to the other two grooves of the Touch of Calron.

Both the Touch of Calron itself and the magical pattern that carries the transformation of the limbs and scythe are clearer and more concrete than the two crossed swords of different lengths.

Filled with curiosity and doubt, Hugh summoned the Touch of Karron. As he focused his mind, the ends of the black tentacles that coiled and floated around Hugh's body immediately began to change. The sharp and ferocious insect segments disappeared, replaced by black blades of varying lengths, but all equally sharp.

The tips of these blades were tightly bound to the Touch of Karron, so that it looked as if countless black ropes and ribbons were manipulating these ominous, sharp blades.

When Hugh tried to give the blades the command to attack, a large number of instinctive memories from the Iris Guard immediately surged forth. Under the sensitive manipulation of the black tentacles, these long and short blades, which were modeled after the Iris Twin Swords from the Guard's memories, immediately began to swing and thrust at an astonishing speed. They did not interfere with each other and their speed of movement was extremely amazing. Every attack and retreat showed characteristics that were very similar to swordsmanship.

This cunning and ruthless method of attack stands in stark contrast to the brutal attack orders that Hugh had previously issued.

"Interesting... It seems these tentacles can not only learn and imitate biological characteristics, but also simulate weapons based on the memories they absorb, and reproduce how to use the weapons?"

As Hughes thought this, he pointed to a huge piece of building stone and gave the order to attack.

After a brief pause, the "sword-wielding" Kalron's Touch immediately began to swing up and down at an astonishing speed. The long and short swords, simulated by hard carapaces and keratin, left a series of marks on the stone like sharp and tough carving knives. They even "carved" the stone directly into a simple human figure according to the ideas in Hugh's mind!

After testing the usability of the Karron Touch ability, Hugh raised his hand, and the familiar black keratin once again covered his palm. But this time, instead of forming sharp, black claws, it formed a black longsword radiating chaotic light in Hugh's palm.

Following the memory and instinct from the Iris Guard, Hugh stood up and gently shook the special weapon that extended from the Touch of Karl. Unconsciously, he had already assumed an extremely professional swordsmanship preparation posture.

If anyone familiar with the Iris Guard were present, they would surely notice that this young man, who has never received systematic swordsmanship training, now exudes an aura that is almost indistinguishable from that of the incredibly experienced swordsmen of the Delan royal family.

The magical light emanating from that jet-black sword added to its chilling aura, making people want to stay away.

"Okay, I admit... I've been neglecting you for a while."

Hugh looked at the black sword in his hand, which clearly still had considerable room for improvement, and shook his head with a smile. Then he earnestly warned Karl's Touch, "Remember, if you ever need anything in the future, be sure to tell me immediately... just like the other two guys, understand?"

Then the black tentacles twitched slightly, as if to ask for praise, or perhaps to nod in response.

(End of this chapter)