The black sun hangs high

Chapter 248 Memory Rewriting
At this moment, the Dark Abyss offspring had entered the "awakened state" that Justina had described.

Everyone who faces the Dark Abyss Offspring in this state will inevitably be on high alert.

Except for Hughes.

He had seen this state of the Dark Abyss offspring far too many times and had become completely numb to it.

Moreover, most of the time, he is the predator.

He didn't even dare to put too much pressure on the Dark Abyss Spawn now, lest he scare it back to its original form. In his magical vision, the Dark Abyss Spawn's magic was indeed changing in a chaotic direction, but it was still quite a distance away from entering its final "mimicry state".

Faced with Malena, the perfect prey that best suited its hunting needs, the Dark Abyss Spawn, which had been imprisoned for a long time, displayed an unprecedented predatory impulse. It kept ramming into the transparent magical cage constructed by the mages, its twisted body constantly deforming due to the violent impacts, and its ferocious and sharp claws kept pounding on the transparent wall in front of it. Such close contact startled Malena, who was standing next to Justina, and she instinctively wanted to retreat.

This was clearly a pre-arranged script.

Faced with the Dark Abyss Offspring, whose overall mindset is closer to that of a child and who always follows their instincts, Justina and the others deliberately staged this elaborate show in order to gain its trust and response.

Faced with the fear and retreat shown by the girl beside her, Justina revealed a cold smile. She pursed her lips, grabbed the girl's wrist, forcibly dragged her back to her side, and pulled her directly to the front of the magic cage.

Sensing the approach of its prey, the Dark Abyss offspring became even more active, their mouthparts, originating from different life forms, constantly gnawing at the air. The disgusting scene caused Malena, who was supposed to play along, to reveal a genuine expression of terror.

The girl's natural reaction was noticed by the Dark Abyss Spawn, which more aggressively rammed into the magical cage in front of it, but always fell back to the original position due to its weak individual strength. After trying countless times, this irritable Dark Abyss Spawn finally realized the key to the problem. It retracted its limbs and mouthparts, and only a few eerie green eyes remained in its flowing body.

Hugh closely monitored the changes in the Dark Abyss offspring. Soon, he saw the magical lines within the target's body begin to unfurl. As those eyeballs continued to move, these fine magical lines began to exhibit a new state—they were still disordered, but the frequency of their tremors began to increase. Gradually, their frequency seemed to reach a consensus with the magical tremors in the surrounding environment.

At that very moment, the "mimicry" that Justine and the others had been longing for finally began to take shape.

As the pitch-black chaos continued to writhe, a "mouth" began to slowly form. However, this Dark Abyss offspring was clearly weak. It was unable to transform itself into a humanoid form like the individuals that Hugh had seen before. Instead, it could only wriggle its eyes and mouth within its body with difficulty.

Finally, a chaotic and low sound emanated from within the flowing gel.

"Hungry……"

Like an infant who can only express its desires simply, it uttered simple words composed of a mixture of various vocal tones.

Justina narrowed her eyes slightly, grabbed Malena, and asked sincerely, "You're very hungry and want food, right?"

"It's...food."

Perhaps due to the rather chaotic nature of the absorbed memories, the voice emitted by this individual Dark Abyss offspring even carried a very distinct plains accent. It was easy to guess that this accent was provided by the residents of Seren City who had Delan blood.

Justine then grabbed Malena's wrist and, amidst the girl's feigned struggle, forcibly pushed her hand forward until it was pressed tightly against the magic cage before finally stopping.

"Look, the food is very close. Answer the question and you'll get to eat."

With Justina's deliberate manipulation and the tempting "delicious food" within reach, the Dark Abyss offspring's simple thinking began to waver. After a moment of silence, it gave an affirmative answer in its strange voice.

"it is good……"

But at that very moment, Hugh, who had been monitoring the condition of the Dark Abyss offspring, turned slightly and made a gesture to the spellcasters who were in charge of the spiritual interrogation ritual.

The mages who received the signal immediately took action, and Justina, who was also in the ritual field and felt the magical fluctuations, reacted quickly. She stood up and, just as the ritual was about to take effect, she and the girl beside her retreated. Before the Dark Abyss offspring could react, the interrogation ritual, which was a form of torture for all intelligent beings, began.

Ordinary spiritual interrogations don't require so many mages to preside over them, but faced with such an important experiment, these mages from the Magic Committee have shown their utmost sincerity. Thus, the entire ritual site was instantly filled with magic power. The magic cage originally used to bind the Dark Abyss offspring was immediately released, and the "liberated" Dark Abyss offspring crashed to the ground with a "thud." But before it could take any further action, a powerful shock aimed directly at its spirit was forcefully poured into its body.

Now, even ordinary people who lack knowledge of magic can directly see the effects of the ritual.

As the spiritual interrogation was initiated, all the organs floating in that dark shadow were torn apart in an instant. The previously calm dark fluid began to convulse violently. Under the continuous impact of magic, all the memories and knowledge accumulated in the Dark Abyss offspring were thoroughly cleansed.

The mages performing the ritual didn't need to get any information from the target; they were focused solely on destroying the mind. So, in just a few dozen seconds, the entire ritual was completed. In the open space in the center of the laboratory, the once menacing Dark Abyss offspring had now completely transformed into a black liquid mass that seemed to have life but could only twitch slowly.

At this moment, in Hugh's eyes, the originally chaotic magical lines of the Dark Abyss Offspring had been completely reduced to zero—those fine lines that originally represented its chaotic thoughts had now been completely obliterated, with only a few remaining.

Hugh immediately nodded to Justina: "It's almost done, it's nearly tortured to death."

The surging magic stopped instantly, and the magical light dancing in the laboratory quickly dissipated.

Although Malena, who was playing a minor role, was mentally prepared, she was still quite frightened by the infamous magic in front of her. Taking advantage of Justina's inattention, she broke free from her wrist and went straight to Hugh's side, grabbing his sleeve to gain some sense of security.

Seeing the monster she once feared turn into a pile of "mud" under the influence of the "Spiritual Interrogation" ritual, the psychological shock that Malena is now experiencing is even more ferocious than facing the Dark Abyss Spawn itself.

Hugh found it somewhat amusing. After confirming that the Dark Abyss offspring had been forcibly "restored" to its original state, he immediately led Malena to a corner and asked in a low voice, "When did you arrive? Does Felix know?" "Of course he knows!"

Facing Hugh, Malena finally smiled again and said, "It was Mr. Felix who agreed to let me come... The mages said they needed a child to help with an experiment here. At first, Mr. Felix disagreed, but when he heard that you were here, he was relieved."

"So you were the one they chose in the end?"

"No, I asked for it!"

Malena shook her head: "The other children are too young, Felix is ​​worried about them, and they're also easily frightened..."

"Clever little devil."

Hughes chuckled and gently flicked Malena's forehead. He liked this intelligent and responsible girl very much. In a hell like Seren City, Malena's existence was enough to motivate many people to persevere.

For the next experiment, Malena's participation was temporarily no longer needed, so Hugh handed Malena over to the enthusiastic female mage from before, asking her to take Malena to eat canned fruit. He then focused his attention back on the ongoing experimental process.

Within the legal system and regulations, the reason why the magic "spiritual interrogation" is used as a severe punishment is not simply because it causes permanent damage to an individual's psyche.

"Cleansing" and "damaging" are only the first steps.

When faced with a mind that has been wiped clean, a spellcaster with in-depth knowledge of memory and mind can often perform more bizarre and "malicious" operations. The most typical of these is to reshape the victim's memory and mind, making them forget their past and accept a different life.

When he heard these secrets from his magic teacher, Verin, a word immediately popped out from the depths of Hugh's memory—"brainwashing".

Yes, for intelligent races such as humans and elves, this kind of magical behavior based on "spiritual interrogation" is the real "brainwashing". According to Vilin, during some special dark periods in the past of the Legal Committee, there were even cases of capturing wild mages being directly transformed into magical servants. Of course, this behavior was later completely banned by the Legal Committee.

And now, this is what Justina and the others are preparing to do to that Dark Abyss offspring.

It sounds crazy, but in Vain, mages are people who seek miracles even in madness, and no one objects to the current predicament.

Justina walked over and stood beside Hugh, giving him a careful look before saying, "Instilling a whole set of memories and ideas is a very troublesome thing... My teacher used to do similar experiments on shapeshifters in Merlinler."

"Did it succeed?"

"No... the shapeshifters are still too fragile. Even if their minds are malleable, magic like psychic interrogation can easily cause them irreversible and massive damage. And once the magic power in their bodies collapses, their bodies will shatter directly."

Ahead, the Dharma Master from the Committee in charge of the memory manipulation was already in the zone, wearing heavy metal ritual implements, making him appear solemn and dignified.

Justina continued, "To ensure it could become what we wanted, we fabricated a whole set of memories... birth, childhood, growth... awakening magic and becoming a member of the Law Committee, then being ambushed by evil magic, and finally becoming like this."

Hughes sighed: "But even so, he still possesses humanity and is unwilling to harm other members of his own kind?"

Justina hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Mr. Ernst, you seem to have some reservations about our preparations? It's just a fabricated memory."

Hughes pondered for a few seconds, then stared at the Dark Abyss Spawn trembling slightly during the magical ritual before asking, "Based on the memories you've prepared, it should have faith in the Goddess Mel, right?"

"Yes, it will be a faithful follower of the goddess Mel."

"I don't think it's a good idea to instill the concept of faith into it."

Justina asked, somewhat puzzled, "Do you think it can't understand?"

Hugh shook his head and said, "No, I just think that this might lead to some...unexpected results. Anyway, go ahead and try it. If anything unexpected happens, I will find a way to solve it. I will also continue to help you complete the experimental samples."

After receiving Hugh's affirmation, Justina breathed a slight sigh of relief. She was now very curious and in awe of the young man beside her. She could always feel an aura about Hugh that was almost the same as that of Mellinger, officials, and senior scholars. This feeling had become even more pronounced since last night. When Hugh showed some doubt, she even had the urge to call off the experiment!

Time passed slowly, and after the magical ritual had been running for about an hour and a half, Hugh successfully detected a new change in the experimental sample through his magical vision—the fine magical threads within its body were rapidly and orderly reorganizing, and as the woven pure memories were fully injected into the Dark Abyss offspring, its originally extremely weak magical state began to gradually recover.

"Almost done!"

Justina was somewhat excited. Although she did not possess the ability of Hugh to see through the flow of magic, she could still sense the changes in the monster. Now, its disordered and chaotic feeling had completely faded away, replaced by a controllable and stable magic frequency!
The mage in charge of the ritual also sensed the approaching victory. He gritted his teeth and prepared to use his remaining magic to infuse the last piece of memory into the body.

But at that moment, Hugh saw that the already unconventional magic lines suddenly began to tremble at a high frequency. They looked like buildings that had been hit by an earthquake, as if they were about to collapse completely at any moment!
"Stop!"

He shouted, and the mage's hand immediately appeared, forcibly pulling the mage who was performing the ritual backward.

Almost at the same time, numerous broken cracks emerged from the black pus that had been lying on the ground. Then, extremely piercing screams filled with pain and despair poured out from these cracks!

(End of this chapter)