The black sun hangs high

Chapter 239 Despairing Illusion
At this moment, this sanctuary that exists only in dreams remains utterly peaceful.

Hugh stood quietly in the middle of the passage he knew so well, his right hand still gripping his gun, while his left hand was loosely clenched. It seemed that all of Hugh's movements had frozen at the moment of "preparing for battle".

His gaze was vacant, and although his expression was solemn, it seemed utterly empty. There was no protection whatsoever on his body.

In fact, the moment Hugh offered up those putrid dragon fluids as a sacrifice, he had already been dragged into a half-real, half-illusionary state—the changes in the “roots of fate” before his eyes were incredibly real; they were indeed writhing their bodies and constantly trying to get closer to Hugh, but all the responses and preparations Hugh had made were just fleeting illusions in his mind.

“Kacha…Kacha…”

In the dimly lit dream sanctuary, strange sounds emanating from the "Roots of Fate" mingled with the faint friction of their writhing movements, making the psychedelic scene even more terrifying and bizarre.

As these "roots of fate" began to further threaten Hugh's safety, on the other side of the shelter, the faceless, chaotic humanoid was still slowly operating the computer in front of him, even humming some strange tune.

It seems that this deity doesn't care much about what Hugh experienced in the Dream Sanctuary.

Or perhaps he felt he didn't need to care at all?
Ugly and ferocious "roots of fate" coiled around Hugh, these ancient creations, clearly possessing high intelligence and being both cunning and insidious, constantly testing the attitude of the master of this dream sanctuary.

Finally, with Theseus's tacit approval, these bizarre beings, twisted together from yellow and green, could no longer contain themselves. They stretched out their strange limbs, their disproportionate "hands" slowly reaching towards Hugh, while their mouthparts, covered in spiraling serrations, began to turn outwards as they rotated, and a nauseating long tongue emerged from their cavity. On this long tongue were eyeballs used to spy on their prey.

Disrupt the prey's mind and thoughts, plunging it into despair. After carefully savoring its emotions, it slowly and meticulously gnaws at the prey and corrodes it with terrifying acid, turning it into fragments and liquid...

This is how the "Roots of Destiny" hunt.

Through this process, they can not only make the most of the "nutrients" of their prey, but also store the power of their prey in their own organs to ensure the operation of the entire group and provide special nourishment for the other newborn individuals.

Yes, they not only possess high intelligence, but also have concepts of society and ethnicity.

Within the Roots, a race based on shared organs, they can share power, concepts, and knowledge. They can even communicate and discuss with their fellow Roots through spirit at all times.

In that long-gone era, these strange and powerful life forms once occupied many corners of the world. Their thriving populations could even completely dominate an entire swamp or lake. Although they could indeed communicate with each other through mental means, when discussing the despair of the victims, they would still choose to make that unique "kaka" sound, as if they were laughing collectively.

Now, they are making joyful noises while extending their eye-filled tongues in all directions, and although the sanctuary owners seem to have tacitly approved of their actions, they have no intention of killing their prey.

While the shelters saved these roots from extinction along with their species, for these intelligent and emotional beings, barely surviving in the shelters was no different from being imprisoned.

Therefore, they must savor this rare "feast" slowly.

At this moment, as the roots continue to release their power, Hugh, who is in a hallucination, begins to see more "branchings of fate" based on his own experiences.

He found himself wearing the uniform of an officer from the Kingdom of Delan, with a River Valley-level mage certificate issued by the Legal Committee hanging on his chest. However, diagonally above him, an enormous Wotel magic airship was slowly rolling in. The next instant, countless crystal cannons mounted on the airship roared, and he and his position were instantly annihilated in the devastating barrage.

However, this death is not the end.

In a daze, Hugh found himself standing in the middle of the dilapidated streets of Seren. Looking around, he saw black tides surging in from all directions like a tsunami. It was daytime, but the sky was incredibly dark and oppressive. He slowly looked up and saw a huge black shadow hanging above his head. It was a black sun, and also a cold gaze cast from the Dark Abyss Palace.

Another shift in colors followed, and the dilapidated buildings and the hordes of Dark Abyss offspring vanished, replaced by straight streets, drifting snowflakes, and a slowly moving crowd.

Hughes saw himself walking forward with many other people. Although he was in the background, the people in the group were all thinly dressed, and some of them had even been taken away from their shoes.

Everyone was bound by the Demon-Suppressing Silver Shackles, including Hugh himself. He could even see many familiar figures and faces around him. Directly in front of him, a figure that looked rather short and had thinning hair was walking firmly forward with his companion.

Under the watchful eyes of countless armed soldiers, this silent procession of prisoners moved like a line of silent stone statues, step by step toward the distance, which seemed to be the execution ground for prisoners.

The roots became even more excited. The one that clearly held the position of "leader" sensed Hugh's rapidly fluctuating emotions and felt delighted and satisfied. So it quickly swung its limbs to drive away those of its kind who were already impatient and wanted to gnaw at Hugh's body with their spiral serrations.

More than simply eating, they now need these intense emotions. Only this despair and pain, originating from intelligent beings, can truly provide their species with ample nourishment once again.

After driving away the troublesome individuals, the thickest root emerged from the cavity with its long tongue. The eyes on the tongue all closed up, and then the disgusting tongue gently rested on Hugh's shoulder.

This is a right enjoyed by the leader of a group.

When the victim's despair reaches its peak, the leader of the roots will connect with them spiritually, taking their place in the victim's perspective and personally experiencing their despair in order to gain maximum enjoyment and satisfaction.

Soon, the root leader successfully gained Shug's "vision".

……

Crowded.

Hugh stood quietly at the edge of the crowd in the square. He was somewhat numb. The successive visions of despair had left him extremely exhausted. Although the fragments and images seemed disjointed, they all brought him the most direct negative emotions.

They were so real, and seemed to be the very outcomes of the choices he made in his destiny. With a sliver of remaining ability to think, Hugh was even able to deduce the true meaning behind those desperate scenes.

And now, this last scene he was seeing was more real than any of the previous ones.

The enormous black sun still hung in the sky, clearer than in the previous scenes. When Hugh looked up to "meet" it, he could even see the flowing light and shadow inside this huge black celestial body.

This makes it look more like the pupil of some enormous being.

However, the core theme of this illusion was clearly not in the sky. Hugh lowered his gaze and looked once again at the gathered crowd.

This is a small town. Judging from the architectural style, it seems to belong to a highland principality located slightly to the north. In the center of the square, there are two tall statues, one of which has been destroyed. Hugh can only see the two legs of the statue remaining on the base.

Next to it, another stone statue is relatively intact.

Hugh stared blankly at the statue.

He recognized the face of the statue, but compared to the original, the statue was now sculpted to be a bit too tall, and the face seemed to have become more imposing. This was not exactly the same as the Frey Meyer in Hugh's memory.

Most of the people gathered in the square were wearing dark cloaks with patterns resembling the black sun in the sky.

They were excitedly discussing something, but Hugh couldn't understand a word. Then, the crowd parted, and a group came to the statue. Hugh noticed that these people seemed to be carrying all sorts of tools: hammers, chisels, and even alchemical bombs used for quarrying stone.

"..."

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He could only watch as these people swung their tools and began smashing the sculptures amidst the excited shouts of the onlookers. Not only the statue of Meyer, but even the broken sculpture with only two legs left was being destroyed at the same time.

However, the quality of these sculptures was clearly very high, and those who had begun to believe in the Black Sun could not easily dismantle them. Therefore, they began to drive away the surrounding crowd and began to fix the alchemical bombs they carried to the base of the sculptures.

Hugh followed the crowd to a distance, and he sighed silently.

For some reason, what was happening before his eyes did not have a great emotional impact on him. This absurd scene that seemed familiar instead awakened more rationality in Hugh's heart, and a trace of anger that transcended despair and pain sprouted at this moment.

As his emotions shifted, his magical perception, which had been blocked by the illusion, began to recover. So, Hugh slowly turned around and looked at a silent shadow standing behind him.

This person didn't look much different from the others in the square, except that he kept his head down, so his face couldn't be seen.

However, his intuition, and the rapidly resurgent magical perception in his spiritual world, told him that this figure was the source of these painful illusions.

Hugh didn't speak. He slowly raised his right hand. The Touch of Karron, which had been forcibly isolated and weakened in the illusion, finally responded to Hugh's call. Supported by magic, a dark shadow surged out from in front of Hugh's palm. Sharp swords and dissimilar limbs, carrying intense magical energy, crushed fiercely towards the figure.

An invisible force instantly destroyed the clothing disguise on the figure, revealing the twisted roots hidden beneath. The murky, strange yellowish-green color writhed, accompanied by a horrifying shriek, and the illusion that had been haunting Hugh's mind finally began to crumble.

At the same moment, Hugh heard the sound of the alchemical bomb being detonated in the center of the plaza behind him.

But he didn't turn around to look.

For him now, such a scene means nothing.

Hugh, who had been standing motionless in the middle of the shelter's corridor, opened his eyes. He quickly raised his left hand, and black keratin instantly covered his palm. His hideous black claws grabbed the ugly long tongue that hadn't had time to retract. As the black claws forcefully closed, the tongue with countless eyeballs was instantly cut into countless pieces.

The remaining Fate Roots successfully shared the excruciating pain from their leader, and they immediately took action. At that moment, they broke free from the "jars" they depended on for survival, their wings connected to their limbs quickly opened, and their long, thin bodies flew directly into the air.

Immediately afterwards, acidic liquid with a terrifying stench and sharp claws emerging from their palms fell on Hugh's body from different angles.

"A bunch of trash who survived the old era by sheer luck... You're really giving me a hard time."

The pent-up anger in Hugh's chest transformed into a faint curse. A surge of Karron's Touch erupted, forming a solid fortress around Hugh. Then, an extremely stern command was directly poured into the head of the running rat. The giant rat's figure immediately appeared, its three agile and powerful tails quickly coiling up and forcibly pulling down several Destiny Roots that were hovering in the air. Then, Snitch bared its teeth and leaped up, using its weight to crush them on the spot.

The acid from the roots of fate was clearly extraordinary. Even the keratinized tentacles of Kalron could not withstand their direct corrosion. But the moment the tentacles protecting Shug fell off, he had already summoned the Fang of the Hounds again, and the howl of the court hounds could be faintly heard from the muzzle of the gun.

Hughes aimed ahead, where the water dispenser had become an "organ" of destiny.

He looked at the swirling, twisting figures and said coldly, "Behave yourselves. Your power may be of some help to me, but that doesn't mean I need you... Do you understand what I mean?"

(End of this chapter)