The black sun hangs high

Chapter 253 Lair
Six days?

Felix's eyes widened, and his voice rose considerably: "Are you serious?"

Hugh shook his head: "You don't think I came here just to joke with you, do you? Especially not on this kind of issue."

"No, of course not."

Felix's expression turned serious: "Six days is too short. It's not enough time for us to gather all the survivors from the western part of Seren City. Are we going to abandon them all?"

Faced with Felix's question, Hugh remained remarkably calm. He exchanged a glance with Felix and then added, "This is already a generous assessment. If we were to adopt the most conservative approach, I would expect everyone to be ready to evacuate within three days."

“Too nervous.”

“I know, but there’s nothing we can do about it… We’re chasing time, not the other way around.”

Hugh's words were chillingly cold. Felix knew very well that he probably wouldn't be able to gain any leverage in the face of Hugh's attitude, so he asked, "This time... was it calculated based on the orders of the Emergency Committee?"

"No."

Hugh shook his head: "The Emergency Committee won't tell us the exact time. They want to solve the problem of the entire city of Seren, not just the problem of the survivors within the city. The difference between the two is too great. Therefore, we must bring forward our previous plan. Six days, only six days... Before that, everyone within our control area must undergo strict screening and move to the vicinity of the south city gate, ready to escape through the reopened gates of Seren at any time."

Felix looked troubled, but he eventually gritted his teeth and nodded.

After experiencing so much, he was no longer the mild-mannered leader of the mutual aid society he once was. The various events that occurred in Seren and Felix's work during this period made him understand an important truth—in the face of intense conflict and life-or-death situations, he had to abandon his original mild attitude and instead use some seemingly more ruthless and cold-blooded methods.

Apart from General Boots, very few people knew that Felix had recently personally led a group to deal with several Black Sun Society members who were trying to infiltrate Iris Street.

The review process was swift, and the handling of the situation was naturally decisive.

Felix knew very well that he could not leave unnecessary food for the monsters in Seren, so he did not even leave intact corpses for the believers who were bewitched by the Black Sun Society.

"I will do my best to arrange these things well. Fortunately, I now have Rudolf and the others to help me, so I am no longer running around all by myself."

Seeing that Felix had accepted his words, Hugh breathed a slight sigh of relief. He raised his hand and patted the other man on the shoulder: "Be careful, don't fall in the darkness before dawn."

"The darkness before dawn..."

Felix slowly pondered the words, then looked sharply at Hugh: "But, is dawn really about to arrive?"

Hughes raised an eyebrow; he hadn't expected Felix to ask that question so suddenly.

Seeing that Hugh was looking at him, Felix explained, “What I mean is… you mentioned before that this ‘six days’ was a time you calculated yourself, but since the Emergency Committee didn’t give us any relevant hints, I think that what would make you come up with such a hasty timetable must be some kind of imminent threat… and it must be a threat that would make even a powerful mage like you feel fear and unease.”

Felix gritted his teeth: "Am I right...?"

Hughes looked at Felix's serious face, sighed helplessly, and then leaned back in his chair.

At the same time, a Delan commemorative coin placed on the table to hold down the form leaped into his fingers through the power of magic. Then, the coin began to flip and bounce nimbly as Hugh's fingers shook.

"You guessed right, but there are some things you probably can't understand right now."

The commemorative coin that had been dancing between Hugh's fingers came to a stop. Hugh looked up slightly and glanced at the sky above: "For the vast majority of people in this world, it will be a disaster, and we may not have any way to avoid it."

Felix's expression turned strange, because Hugh's current behavior reminded him of the Black Sun Society members who seemed to be mentally unstable, but his words and the powerless tone in them forced him to believe them.

So he cautiously pressed further, "The disaster you speak of, compared to the current state of this city..."

"They are not the same concept at all."

Hugh smiled at Felix: "Felix, compared to the impending disaster, what is happening in Seren is merely a trivial prelude."

Upon hearing these words, Felix stood up abruptly. He circled the desk twice, then grabbed the form he had shown Hugh earlier and was about to turn and walk out.

Hughes was surprised by Felix's reaction, so he quickly asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Of course, we need to solve these problems as soon as possible!"

Felix shook the form in his hand forcefully, then turned to look at Hugh: "I don't think you would lie to us, so I will now do my best to complete these tasks within the timeframe you have given me."

"I thought you would ask for details about the disaster."

"That's your job, my friend! I trust you as much as you trust me!"

After saying that, Felix lifted his foot and walked towards the outside. At that moment, a mesmerizing magical light flashed in Hugh's eyes once again, and Felix, who was walking towards the outside, immediately transformed into another appearance in the future illusion revealed by the roots of fate.

Hugh saw that Felix in the illusion had transformed from a young man into a middle-aged man in his fifties. He looked very weathered, his somewhat thin figure wrapped in a rather large trench coat. He resembled a stubborn rock that had been eroded and hammered by time, and his bearded face was adorned with two tired but incredibly calm and wise eyes. In his hand, he held a cane.

The illusion of fate vanished completely as Felix walked out of the office. Hugh stared at the office door that Felix had closed, lingering in his seat for several seconds before slowly coming back to his senses.

Hughes once again experienced the deceptive and uncertain nature of the ability of the illusion of fate.

Because he was certain that the cane Felix held in the illusion was the same Black Sun Scepter that he was currently carrying.

……

The entire Iris Street became bustling with activity.

All the survivors who had moved here were mobilized under the orders of General Butz and Felix. Although the southern area of ​​Seren was not very safe at the moment, they had to move the survivors to the area near the south gate in an orderly manner in order to prepare for the possible evacuation operation that could begin at any time.

This action has a very wide scope.

The transfer of supplies, the guarantee of regional security, the selection of personnel, and the secrecy of the overall operation... these are all enormous tests for the survivors.

The relocation of personnel must be kept sufficiently secret, not only to avoid potentially threatening bandit gangs, but also to evade the Dark Abyss Clan scattered throughout the city of Seren.

As the magical forces of the environment begin to shift, the activity patterns of the Dark Abyss Offspring are also undergoing drastic changes. Their aggression is constantly increasing, and their activity time is also continuously expanding. Consequently, the time available for the survivors to act safely is being further compressed.

"The relocation of personnel must be carried out in an orderly and quiet manner. Once those monsters realize that we are moving south of the city, we will likely attract their large-scale encirclement and annihilation. Moreover, once they choose to act in groups, the sunlight will be much less effective against these monsters, and at that time, we will have nowhere to escape!"

"The expansion and consolidation of the settlement near the south gate cannot be rushed. We must use protective rituals in a limited manner... Monsters are very sensitive to changes in magic power. If they have enough intelligence, they will be able to detect anomalies by sensing changes in magic power!"

"In any situation, if a lone monster senses your presence, you must eliminate it immediately. Do not give it any opportunity to communicate or interact with its own kind or its pack. They are like ants; if one runs away, a whole swarm will return..."

Under Hugh's instructions, a large amount of important information related to this evacuation operation began to be circulated among the managers of Iris Street.

To raise the awareness of the officers and mages, Hughes bluntly explained to everyone the serious consequences that could result from a mistake in the operation.

After completing this series of arrangements, the man who was now the de facto "administrator" of Seren City left the Delan Embassy alone. He refused the protection of the Iris Street soldiers, left the safe neighborhood directly, and summoned Sniggy, the rat who had been suffocating inside the metal disc for several days, in a deserted corner.

"You'll have to work hard from now on."

Hughes raised his hand and gently patted the large rat's horns twice, then vigorously rubbed the fine fur on its head.

Sniggy seemed to enjoy the caress and let out a soft croak in response to Hugh's words.

In the following operations, Hugh himself also carried an extremely important task. In order to ensure the smooth transfer of the Iris Street and the Legal Committee's headquarters, he had to ensure that the entire Dark Abyss Clan in Seren City would move towards the north and east of Seren City.

There are many ways to "move" these greedy monsters, but only Hugh himself can attract almost all of the Dark Abyss offspring to a certain area at once.

Hugh rode the Rampage Mouse around the streets away from Iris Street twice before quickly choosing a suitable spot.

It was a severely collapsed theater. At the intersection next to the theater, there were death warning signs left by Iris Street soldiers and other survivors, indicating that a large number of Dark Abyss offspring were hiding in the collapsed theater, and they may have made the theater their nest!
This collapsed building, which conceals countless offspring of the Dark Abyss, would be deadly to any survivor, but for Hugh, it was the perfect place to carry out his plan.

Under the cover of the dark abyss's magic, Hugh, leaning on his cane, walked through the empty doors of the theater. He traversed the dark corridors, bypassed the collapsed walls, and finally passed through a huge gap, entering the theater's lobby.

A suffocating, horrible odor filled the air.

In this dark hall, faint, writhing sounds emanated from every dark corner. Hugh stopped in his tracks, the mist of the Mirror Messenger swirling in his eyes. Then, all the distorted outlines hidden in the shadows began to appear.

The theater, once used for musicals, has now become a terrifying lair for the Dark Abyss' offspring. Seats, banners, sculptures, and decorations... everything bears the traces left by the Dark Abyss' offspring. Hugh saw a large amount of skeletal remains piled up in a corner of the theater's hall. These were the "garbage" produced after the Dark Abyss' offspring had eaten, and also the last evidence left by the victims in the city.

A large number of soft shadows gathered at the other end, far from the garbage. It was noon, and the offspring of the Dark Abyss were not out hunting. They gathered together, and dim magical light and shadow flashed from time to time within their bodies, which meant that they were constantly digesting and understanding those complex memories and knowledge.

Hugh breathed a slight sigh of relief, then sank into his own mental world and summoned the leader of the Fate Roots tribe.

The next moment, clusters of roots of destiny appeared in response to Hugh's call. These translucent creations without definite color slowly "grew" from the floor of the theater hall like plants, and soon occupied the central part of the hall.

Hugh knew very well that since his previous direct conflict with the main body of the Dark Abyss Offspring, that being, which had become quite intelligent, would no longer easily launch a large-scale pursuit against him. Therefore, he now needed to restore the abandoned theater to its original function.

He planned to use the Roots of Fate's ability to create massive illusions to put on a grand show that would deceive the monsters.

The disturbed magic inevitably startled the dormant Dark Abyss offspring, who awoke and sent warning messages to their kind.

It was at this moment that Hugh gave his orders to the roots of fate.

"Start setting the scene!"

(End of this chapter)