The black sun hangs high

Chapter 268 "Evolution"

Regardless of what the rest of Vaan and the rest of Seren are like now, Hugh himself has already fallen into yet another round of trouble.

The magical beasts of the past, who possessed power but did not know how to use it, are far inferior to the Dark Abyss offspring who rely on their own wisdom, effectively utilize various means, and actively leverage their advantages.

For a few moments, Hugh even felt as if he were not fighting against some lost magical creation, but rather against a strange army.

With the outbreak of magical mutation, the vast power and knowledge accumulated within the Dark Abyss offspring finally underwent a significant transformation.

For them, the changes that occur at night symbolize the approaching crisis, but at the same time, the restless magic also opens the door to a new world for these flawed beings who are constantly learning and growing.

The "mountains" covered in hard shells that could destroy fragile buildings at night were just the beginning.

Soon, the same desperate situation that Hugh had experienced in the sewers of Seren City reappeared, and this time, it was even more ferocious and more difficult to deal with.

Numerous instructions were transmitted outward from the main will of the Dark Abyss Offspring. At the same time, countless pieces of knowledge and memories, which had been categorized and organized by that main will, were also distributed, and thus a clearer division of labor began to emerge.

Hugh originally intended to break through from the front once again using his magical abilities. However, when Hugh rode the mad rat Sniggy and charged forward under the cover of Karron's Touch and numerous fire spells, the Dark Abyss Spawns finally brought some small, surprising changes to Hugh.

This time, it was Hugh himself who uttered the strange sentiment that "times have changed."

Heaven knows what the Dark Abyss offspring's main will actually retrieved from those mountains of memories and knowledge. Perhaps they successfully found some memories belonging to the soldiers of Seren City and the accompanying mages, or perhaps they successfully gathered all the content and knowledge related to battle and war. In any case, these "sludge" who in the past only knew how to rely on their own strength and numerical advantage to rush forward and try to completely submerge Shug have shown extremely astonishing discipline and division of labor this time.

Faced with the rampaging rats that charged like steel chariots, they first constructed an extremely solid defensive line. The offspring that formed this black wall were deprived of all offensive capabilities. Large amounts of black slime were rapidly consumed and directly formed extremely hard keratin, which looked exactly the same as the carapace on the touch of Hugh Karl.

The Dark Abyss offspring, who should have shrunk and disappeared rapidly under the scorching magical flames, became resilient this time. Although the black shells that formed the defensive line still could not stop the spread of the flames, Hugh could no longer create an escape route for himself with a series of fire spells as he had in the past.

What surprised Hugh even more was the resistance these Dark Abyss offspring showed to the mist of the Mirror Messenger.

The anomaly of magic seems to have not only made them "smarter," but also gradually led them out of the ranks of "imperfect creations."

Ever since Hugh acquired the Mirror Messenger Mist, he had been using it to hunt the Dark Abyss offspring. Faced with the orthodox power of the Dark Abyss court, the offspring's flawed nature made them utterly powerless against the mist. But now things were different. When Sniggy, shrouded in dense mist, crashed into the obstacle blocking his path, the slime that should have been instantly pulverized and extracted into Dark Abyss essence by the Mirror Messenger Mist began to self-destruct under the coercive command of the massive swarm's consciousness.

Yes, they would rather completely abandon a portion of their power in the process of hindering Hugh's progress than allow Hugh to successfully seize even half of it.

Left with no other choice, Hugh had to change direction and try to break through through other passages in Lovi Square. However, at that moment, an even more shocking scene appeared – a road that was originally relatively clear was instantly filled with many dark, slimy individuals. They were basically humanoid, but part of their bodies showed the state of other creatures.

Hugh then felt a violent tremor of magical energy.

As a spellcaster, he was already familiar with this change; it was a normal occurrence when magic was actively invoked and began to construct a magical model. However, now, it was not Hughes who was constructing the magical model, but rather the Dark Abyss offspring who were trying to block his way.

The worst-case scenario that Hugh had envisioned had finally come to pass: they not only began to imitate and use those complex strategies, but also mastered the power that the inhabitants of Vaan had relied on most for the long years to come.

Hughes reacted swiftly. While the dense crowd was still constructing their magical models, he tore a page from the book. With the infusion of magic and the waving of the Touch of Karron, "Resonance Dance," powerful enough to halt the construction of magic over a vast area, was sent to the center of the crowd. As this magic took effect, the magic that had been in a well-ordered state was instantly disrupted, and the forms of the Dark Abyss offspring collapsed and deformed under the intense mental shock.

But their bodies are actually a mass of mucus.

The individuals responsible for casting spells are only a tiny, insignificant part of the race.

Seeing more humanoids begin to recombine, Hugh immediately unleashed his power. With a roar of "Hound's Fang," the court hounds, which had been restless for a long time, burst out from the ground depressions that had seemingly "evaporated." As a professional hunter, the hounds could no longer regard their targets as uninteresting prey. They moved like phantoms through the dissipating slime, easily crushing countless newly reconstituted humanoid offspring. The hounds' unique power directly stripped the life force from the slime, preventing them from ever reassembling.

At the same time, a large number of Karron's Touches were unleashed under Hugh's control. Sharp scythes and long and short swords swept through the defensive line like a storm, just like the scenes in those old heroic novels in Vaan—powerful sword mages charging into the enemy ranks and annihilating all enemies with pleasing swordsmanship and strange magic.

Amidst the chaos, the Dark Abyss Offspring, whose magic was still reassembled, successfully constructed a new structure.

These humanoid figures were hidden in the buildings on both sides of the street, using the buildings as cover, and launched a surprise attack.

The number of mages devoured by the Dark Abyss Spawns was not small. These victims were mainly concentrated at the beginning of the disaster and in the subsequent actions of the Law Committee branches. However, those who were ultimately devoured and completely "digested" were mostly Stream-level mages and ordinary mage apprentices, which made the magic mastered by the Dark Abyss Spawns relatively common and ordinary.

Acid, fireballs, lightning, and magically conjured blades and arrows hurtled towards Hugh from all directions. The normally functioning magic, transformed and distorted by the Dark Abyss Offspring themselves, had become the very thing the members of the Dark Abyss Historian Society within the Black Sun Society dreamed of. These mutated spells, crafted from Dark Abyss magic, left countless oppressive, dark trails in the air. Surrounded by them, Hugh even felt the surrounding temperature plummeting. "It seems magic and magical power are indeed not our exclusive tools, nor are they the authority bestowed upon the inhabitants of Vaan by the Goddess Mel… at least, she wouldn't protect these monsters."

Hugh sighed inwardly, then quickly retracted the outward-expanding Kalron's Touch, constructing several layers of temporary cover around him. After the violent tremors and the destruction of multiple layers of protective magic, the first batch of offspring's magical bombardment came to an end, and the Running Rat had already carried Hugh through the area where the enemy was most concentrated.

There were no more troublesome roadblocks ahead, so the sprinting rat once again unleashed its true speed. Hugh took the opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief, but before he could catch his breath, the rotation speed inside the metal disc suddenly increased. Driven by instinct and intuition, Hugh directly used his magic connection to take over Sniggy's movements. Then, the agile three-tailed giant rat suddenly changed direction, carrying Hugh to jump out at an extremely awkward angle.

Almost at the same instant, a loud roar came from the end of the street. Immediately afterwards, a bright flame erupted from where Sniggy had just stood. A violent shockwave swept across, violently throwing the running rat carrying Hugh away. The two layers of protective magic that Hugh had hastily erected were torn to shreds in an instant.

With his quick reflexes, Hugh transformed his body into a humanoid mist the instant the magic explosion occurred. Although the sweeping impact caused him to lose a lot of magic power, it ultimately failed to cause direct damage to his body.

"what?"

However, Hugh's head was buzzing as he escaped the calamity. He cursed silently, only to see a massive, two-story-high Dark Abyss offspring slowly wriggling towards him at the end of the street.

Its body was now tightly wrapped around an old-fashioned crystal cannon that had been dismantled from somewhere. However, the metal base that was originally meant to be equipped with magic crystals to power the magic ritual had been replaced by the constantly flowing bodies of its offspring. Beside this cannon barrel, which had somehow successfully combined with living things, humanoid figures made of slime were constantly moving. Under Hugh's horrified gaze, they actually cooperated to "move" out a crystal cannonball stored inside the slime and load it into the cannon.

What Hughes didn't know was that, in the past period of time, as the Dark Abyss offspring continued to absorb and learn from the memories of the victims, they not only successfully understood human emotions, but also further perceived the source of these emotions.

Among these memories, the series of artillery bombardments launched by the Votel army, and the trails of shells flying across the sky, are so vivid.

Weapons, magic, tools...

The Dark Abyss descendants are very willing to try everything possible to improve themselves.

Hugh never expected that he would be able to withstand the bombardment within the city of Seren, and he certainly never expected that the initiator of the bombardment would be a mass of gathered dark abyssal slime.

The new crystal cannonballs were ready, and fine magical patterns appeared on the surface of the hideous black slime. These were magical circuits extracted from the memories of the victims. As the magic was activated, a considerable portion of the slime's life force was permanently consumed by the heavy weapon fixed within the offspring race. Then, with another roar, the classic-looking but incredibly powerful crystal cannonballs crashed into the center of the street, the violent explosion and magical light and shadow tearing everything around them apart.

They also seemed to envelop Hugh, who was frozen in place.

……

The cannon fire from within Seren turned into a strange and long muffled thud after passing through the obstruction of the ceremonial ground.

The people busy at the Emergency Committee’s headquarters looked up in surprise. There should be no artillery fire since it was a ceasefire. However, after looking for a while, they couldn’t find any noteworthy traces in the sky, so they lowered their heads again and went back to their work.

Compared to the bustling activity elsewhere, the laboratory where Weilin had previously worked seemed unusually quiet.

Those who occasionally enter or leave the laboratory are always fully armed. They wear protective magical artifacts, have top-of-the-line magical metal helmets that cover their entire heads, and are covered in heavy magical fabric lab coats. All of these things serve only one purpose: to isolate magic.

Inside the laboratory, all the hospital beds that had been there had been removed and replaced by one after another metal magical containers.

Inside the container, strange figures were soaking in a large amount of alchemical liquid.

Several high-level magic scholars stood in the laboratory, looking at the bodies that seemed to retain a certain amount of life force while being immersed in alchemical elixir, but they couldn't utter a single word.

The figures inside these newly added jars were not the third batch of volunteers who entered the rift; they were the resident mages who had remained in the rift camp to monitor the ritual instruments and the situation within the rift.

Even the senior scholars within the Legal Committee did not expect that with the outbreak of magical anomalies, the strange power that originally existed only beneath the cracks had completely come to the surface. Overnight, all the spellcasters who remained in the camp were wiped out. The more abundant the magical power, the higher the degree of crystallization.

Now, the jars in front of them even contain two Valley-level mages and a sword-wielding hermit.

Their unwavering faith in the goddess Mel did not save them from disaster.

(End of this chapter)