The black sun hangs high

Chapter 267 is all brought forward!

"Everyone move forward, don't stop, don't rest, now is not the time to rest... Come on, put him on my back, don't dawdle, hurry up."

On a street not far from Iris Street, a sizable group was rapidly advancing toward the south gate of the city.

Felix adjusted his posture and steadily carried the boy with the injured leg on his back, then quickly walked to the front of the group.

It was not yet fully dawn, and the deep darkness of night had not yet faded. The panic caused by the magical anomalies and turmoil of the night was still written on everyone's face. Last night, many instruments in Iris Street and the headquarters of the Legal Committee, as well as the protective rituals and secret rites in operation, were affected to varying degrees, which caused considerable commotion.

Fortunately, neither of these places had enough crystal ore warehouses to trigger an explosion. The items transported into the city were processed and finished magic crystals and new steam weapons with relatively low magic content. Therefore, although the survivors were forced to work for most of the night due to the turmoil, there were no significant losses.

However, the earthquake, which seemed limited in scale but was extremely strange, and the magical changes in the environment that could already be clearly perceived, made Felix, who was in charge of personnel mobilization and relocation, extremely vigilant and nervous.

As someone who had received a warning from Hugh, Felix was extremely sensitive to these subtle changes. He immediately organized a team and, risking an attack by the Dark Abyss Spawns, conducted a rapid reconnaissance of the southern city at night.

After confirming that everything was normal in the southern city and that there were no Dark Abyss Spawns active on the streets at night, Felix immediately informed General Boots and the Gent Hermit of the discovery. Subsequently, after an extremely difficult meeting, the original personnel transfer plan was changed, and all mission arrangements were brought forward.

In this matter, the sword-wielding hermit Genet firmly stood by Felix's side.

As a spellcaster, Genet was well aware of the serious consequences that changes in the concentration and stability of magic in the environment could cause. The unknown cause of this anomaly terrified him, so he decisively mobilized the survivors and some soldiers in the Law Council's base to fully support Felix's mobilization plan.

Perhaps the Dark Abyss offspring had truly given up on these "ordinary foods," or perhaps luck had finally been on the survivors' side this time. Although many steam vehicles were damaged during the magical disturbances at night, Felix ultimately succeeded in ensuring the transfer of both groups thanks to the combined manpower and magical assistance.

The new encampment, which had been set up in advance next to the south city gate, successfully received the transferred survivors and the supplies they brought.

By the time Felix finally got a chance to drink water and eat, it was already quite bright outside.

Although traces of the chaos from last night's earthquake still lingered in the encampment built on the southern city wall and the south gate, everything had returned to normal. Amidst the warm greetings of many people, Felix slowly walked forward, a piece of hard bread dangling from his mouth. He wasn't deliberately accepting the respect and goodwill of others, but rather fulfilling his duty.

This area, which runs along the edge of the city gate and the ceremonial ground, will soon be connected to the checkpoints and strongholds built by the Seren City Emergency Committee.

Now, everyone who has arrived here has a gleam in their eyes, because they know that they will soon have the chance to escape from this terrible hell on earth!

As he walked, Felix arrived at the south gate of the city.

He was already very familiar with this place. In the past, it was thanks to the supplies that the Legal Committee monk Valery kept sending in from outside the city that he and the children survived.

Looking at the established defensive line and the crowds constantly moving supplies, a look of disbelief flashed across Felix's face.

On the day of the armistice celebration, this south gate was the beginning of all the disaster, yet now it has become everyone's hope for survival... This made Felix's feelings complicated.

Felix stuffed the remaining piece of bread into his mouth, and then he saw several unfamiliar figures standing beside the city gate, directing some soldiers to organize and put away some items piled up beside the city gate.

"Hmm? A mage?"

Felix's eyebrows twitched slightly. He noticed that these spellcasters did not seem to be members of the city's Legal Committee. Although they were also wearing the Legal Committee's uniform, the cleanliness of their clothes and their overall mental state were much better than those of the city's mages. They did not show any signs of having gone through a long period of hardship.

"Did they come in from outside the city? At this time? Risking their lives to come in?"

Felix was filled with doubt, and just as he was walking toward these people, one of the male mages, of medium build and with a somewhat plain appearance, suddenly turned around and looked at Felix. He gave Felix a bright smile, then raised his hand and greeted him in a very friendly and cordial manner.

"Is this Mr. Felix?"

His tone was incredibly friendly and humble, almost unlike that of a monk.

Felix was a little stunned. Before he could react, the mage from outside Seren City had already walked towards him: "It's me, Valery... You didn't expect that we would meet so early, did you?"

Valery?

Felix was somewhat stunned. He raised his hand and brushed away two crumbs of dry bread stuck to his mouth, then immediately stepped forward: "Is it Master Valery? Why are you... here?"

As he spoke, his gaze drifted toward the city gate to the side, where the massive ritual site that sealed off the city of Seren was still in operation. However, the turmoil of the previous night had clearly caused some damage to the ritual site. Felix could see that the semi-transparent 'wall' was now flickering at a slow frequency.

"Of course I came in from outside, right in the early hours of the morning!"

Felix couldn't muster the same caution and respect he usually showed other mages towards this somewhat unfamiliar but undeniably helpful mage who had once aided countless survivors in the city. He asked anxiously, "Mage Valery, did the Emergency Committee let you in? At a time like this?"

Valery raised his hand and gently patted Felix on the shoulder twice. He glanced at the figures moving around the camp and then sighed, "The Emergency Committee didn't send me; I requested to come... You probably know what happened last night; it was a complete mess."

"The emergency committee was worried about new situations arising in the city and also worried that the ceremonial site in Seren might suddenly collapse, so it organized a group of volunteers to come in."

As he spoke, he pointed to the monks of varying ages, all busily working: "There are over thirty of them in total, not many... but it's enough to complete the committee's basic work." "Basic work, what do you mean?"

"We need to stabilize the ceremony site from within, investigate the specific situation within the city, and also conduct the first round of screening of those who are about to leave Seren."

Valery said in a low voice, "The Emergency Committee will not allow any monster to escape from the city, so this work must be carried out strictly... This is the bottom line for everyone, including the countries of the plateau and the plains, and everyone has reached a consensus on this point."

"Okay, so you'll be in charge of these things?"

"No, not me..."

Valery shook his head: "It's a young, lake-level female mage. She's a member of the Ernst family and only arrived in the early hours of the morning. She submitted her application immediately afterward... Now she's in charge of everything for our temporary team..."

As they were talking, Valery's body suddenly trembled. The young female mage he was talking to suddenly looked in their direction, and a rather cold aura immediately enveloped the two of them. Felix secretly glanced at her and felt that although her eyes behind her glasses looked somewhat tired, they were unusually sharp, like two deadly ice blades.

She walked over quickly, her gaze sweeping over the two of them before finally settling on Felix's face.

Overwhelmed by the oppressive atmosphere, Felix swallowed hard and then gave a brief self-introduction. Upon hearing that Felix was currently in charge of the transfer and relocation of people within the city, Verin Ernst immediately stepped forward and asked, "You're in charge of the personnel transfer? Well, do you know a mage named Hugh Ernst?"

"Uh, of course I know him."

A light seemed to flicker in the female mage's eyes: "Where is he?"

However, Felix was somewhat speechless. He hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth, and said, "If the plan hasn't changed, then Mr. Hugh is probably in the north of Seren City right now... He's with those monsters."

Upon hearing this, Wei Lin's expression froze instantly. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she looked down at the ground.

After a moment of thought, Vilin raised her eyes again, a look of helplessness flashing across her tired eyes. However, before she could ask any more questions, an exceptionally dazzling bright red magical light suddenly rose from the northern district of Seren City. It soared into the sky and exploded continuously in mid-air, forming a series of huge circles.

"It's not a universal magical signal..."

Vera's gaze lingered on the strange magical symbols for a moment, then she immediately turned to ask, "You must have developed your own set of signal usage rules, what does this mean?"

Felix, also staring at the sky, licked his dry lips and replied, "In Mr. Hugh's impromptu usage, the red circles represent the mutations of the monsters; the more numerous they are, the more intense their mutations..."

He counted the number of red circles in the sky, his voice trembling slightly: "In short, before he left, he instructed us that once we saw these signals, all matters within the city must be handled as soon as possible, because it meant that the 'silt' was changing in some unpredictable direction!"

……

Hughes also had an extremely difficult night.

However, the situation he faced was far more extreme than what most people experience.

The complete change in the magical state of the environment not only caused disorder in various magical crystals and products, but also caused rapid or subtle changes in all magical creatures in Vaan who benefited from the magic itself.

The changes within the Dark Abyss descendants, who are closely connected to the Dark Abyss court, are even more astonishing.

Hugh's rest at night lasted only two hours before being completely interrupted. The reason was that after being stimulated by the magic, the Dark Abyss offspring in the city began to actively change their strategy. With the continuous mobilization of the main will, they no longer scattered, but emerged from all corners of the northern city and began to gather and combine.

Their intelligence has clearly reached a new level.

Now, the Dark Abyss Spawns are no longer fixated on the pipes, crevices, and underground waterways that are inaccessible to ordinary people. They have focused all their attention on the buildings. Perhaps realizing that Hugh might use some kind of magic or ritual to conceal his whereabouts, the Dark Abyss Spawns have adopted an extremely brutal but very effective strategy—destruction.

This means launching the most thorough and violent attack on all buildings, large and small, within sight.

The building chosen by Hugh as a hiding place suffered this fate. Hugh witnessed these Dark Abyss offspring gather into a small black mountain. Then, mimicking the insects and beasts he had once devoured, they developed scales and keratin as hard as rocks on their bodies. Afterward, they directly crushed into the building itself.

In this situation, even protective rituals and the illusions created by the Roots of Fate could not guarantee the safety of the hiding place.

Seeing Hugh forced to reveal himself, the Dark Abyss offspring were overjoyed. On the constantly writhing black hill, one after another, humanoid figures that they had once devoured and digested appeared. They called out to Hugh, invited him, and even begged him in various voices. Their language became more and more fluent, and the vocabulary they used became more and more complex.

Hughes and his endless pursuers fled until dawn.

He then discovered that the bright sunlight no longer seemed to have any effect on these creatures. Moreover, they finally, through their ever-growing intelligence, completely understood Hugh's intentions.

Faced with the Dark Abyss Clan, which had begun to show clear signs of splitting and was preparing to move in other directions from Seren City, Hughes had no choice but to send out the most serious warning signal into the air.

He only hoped that the survivors in the city and the emergency committee outside the city could expedite the evacuation plan...

(End of this chapter)