The black sun hangs high

Chapter 272 Farewell Under the Dark Clouds
"squeak!"

With a soft cry, Hugh awoke from his brief sleep.

In the illusion created by the roots of fate, he slowly propped himself up, casually removed the magical mouse that had been perched on his chest and waking him up, and coughed lightly twice.

During the bombardment launched by the Dark Abyss Spawns, Hughes inevitably suffered some damage. Although he eventually managed to escape from the encirclement using the large illusion created by the Roots of Fate, the depletion of his magic and mental energy was still quite severe, so he had to find another place to rest.

He was currently hiding in an inconspicuous building ruin, with the Dark Abyss Spawns operating just a wall away from him.

Hugh adjusted his posture, then looked past the collapsed low wall beside him and up at the distant sky.

"Ok?"

The moment Hughes saw the colors in the sky, his brows furrowed. He discovered that there wasn't just one magical signal floating in the distance; upon closer inspection, he realized that more than four different signals were floating simultaneously. One of them, probably due to a shorter preparation time and stronger magical disturbances, had a very faint color despite its limited altitude. The other three signals were very stable, clearly released by a professional mage.

A few seconds later, Hugh quickly identified the signals.

The faintest signal, which could vanish into thin air at any moment, came from the central region near the city of Seren. Judging from its location, it was an outpost of the Brotherhood of Three Colors. The magical signal was dark purple and clearly contained traces of dark abyssal magic. The caster was obviously a member of the Black Sun Society. Judging from the style of the signal and the panicked state of the signal, the outpost was probably already in grave danger, or even destroyed by now.

Hughes didn't believe that these bandits and thugs, hastily organized by the Brotherhood of Three Colors, were capable of building a defense line that could effectively stop the Dark Abyss Spawns.

Especially since they are now facing the offspring of the Dark Abyss.

Hugh could even imagine the terror on these guys' faces when they saw the bizarre, black, slimy army approaching them and beginning to unleash dark abyss magic.

However, his emotions did not fluctuate much, which was a plan he had made when he first took control of this group of people as the Black Sun Society and the mage Borgia.

A plan that seemed rather cruel, but which Hugh thought was reasonable.

Through a series of means, the survivors in Seren City were completely divided into two groups. One group was naturally the people centered around Iris Street and the Legal Committee branch, while the other group was the bandits mainly composed of the Three Colors Brotherhood. Hugh had no goodwill towards the latter from the beginning, even though some of these people did choose to compromise for survival or due to circumstances.

But in such a hellish environment, once a choice has been made, there is naturally little room for turning back or arguing.

Faced with the predicament in Seren, Hughes naturally followed a set of simple and direct principles that may not be entirely correct. He reasoned that since those people had survived by persecuting and plundering other survivors in the past, they should now make sacrifices and ensure the survival of more people.

The only thing that worried Hugh in this plan was that, in the final period, the members of the Brotherhood of Three Colors might move towards or attack the camps of other survivors. However, the establishment of the Emergency Committee and the weapons transported in from outside the city had already eliminated this risk.

The real source of danger within Seren City now lies with the Dark Abyss offspring, who are rapidly evolving under the impetus of crisis and mutated magic.

Aside from the magical signal emitted from the Brotherhood of Three Colors outpost, the other signals were located much further away.

Two of the signals rose near the south gate of Seren. One was bright yellow and formed a neat straight line, symbolizing that the relocation of people was basically completed. The other was a standard signal set by the Legal Committee to indicate that "everything is ready."

The two signals remained in the air for a while before dissipating, and Hugh breathed a slight sigh of relief. If the former symbolized the successful completion of the first phase of the evacuation operation, then the latter clearly meant that the members of the Emergency Committee had begun to take over the camp. Although Hugh had doubts about the abilities and attitudes of these people, this at least showed that the Emergency Committee had not given up on Seren City, and that their previously prepared evacuation plan was indeed progressing.

This is definitely good news.

The last magical signal was the most special and the most complex.

It floated slowly near the headquarters of the Legal Committee. The dark green line moved slowly through the air, its trajectory first forming an irregular ripple, and then drawing a circle. Due to the constant fluctuations of magic in the environment, the trace of this magical signal was slightly distorted, but Hugh was still able to recognize its specific meaning.

Hughes frowned, because the mark was clearly formed by a combination of two signals with different meanings.

The first half indicates that an unexpected situation occurred during the experiment.

However, the latter part indicates that the results have been verified, the scope of the experiment is being expanded, and it will be put into final use.

Based on the signals sent from the Legal Committee's headquarters last time, Hugh can easily conclude that Justine's experiment did indeed continue, but it clearly went in an unpredictable direction, that is, an unexpected incident occurred.

Ultimately, perhaps due to the bold risks that yielded results, or perhaps due to luck, the experiment, which should have been terminated, eventually produced an effect. In other words, Justina and other scholars concluded that the final result of this experiment could be used to influence and control the Dark Abyss offspring.

"In the end, I still hate variables... but there are variables everywhere now."

Hugh shook his head helplessly.

He found that he still preferred dealing with guys like Felix, who was like a meticulous and sharp machine when executing orders and pursuing targets, and was also flexible enough, as evidenced by the transfer plan that was completed ahead of schedule.

Yet, such a person is always able to be kind to others, and while achieving their goals, they do not arbitrarily abandon others or treat them as bargaining chips or costs.

In contrast, scholars like Justina are more like powerful but extremely unstable alchemical bombs.

It does work, but holding it in your hand is truly terrifying.

Even with the power of the Roots of Destiny to assist and guide him, the process was still fraught with risks. Just as Hugh was contemplating which direction he should take next, he suddenly heard the shouts of "humans" coming from not far away, and the voices were calling out his own name.

In the city of Seren now, only the descendants of the Dark Abyss have the right to shout freely in the streets.

Hugh cautiously peeked out from the ruins, and then he saw, a dozen steps away, several humanoid figures made of slime slowly moving forward. Compared to the past, the outlines of these figures were much clearer. These Dark Abyss offspring had even imitated the details of the bodies and clothing, the habits of walking, the tone of voice when calling Hugh's name, and even the specific differences in accents, based on the memories of the victims...

For a moment, Hugh genuinely believed that many real people were calling his name.

The leader of the Fate Roots, responsible for maintaining the illusion's cover, said at this moment: "Master, their growth rate is still accelerating, but they still cannot see through the illusions we have created, and therefore cannot confirm your location."

"How long have they been doing this?"

"It's only just begun... They've likely already determined that you're nearby, which is why they've chosen to use this method to get your attention."

The Root of Fate spoke in a wise tone: “We believe that these ‘defectives’ probably want to talk and communicate with you. They think that simply running away and chasing cannot solve their current predicament... Otherwise, with their sheer numbers, they could completely cover this entire area.”

"Besides this, we cannot draw any further conclusions at the moment; this is the most likely possibility."

As if to confirm the accuracy of the words of the roots of fate, in the next instant, Hugh witnessed an even more "shocking" scene.

The figures moving about were constantly differentiating themselves, and one individual stood out from the swaying figures.

It was a curvaceous female figure, the flowing dark abyss slime even mimicking her swaying long hair. The moment Hugh saw this figure, he couldn't help but frown, and when the humanoid spoke, the sense of familiarity immediately became even stronger.

“Shug Ernst, Mr. Ernst! You’re around here, aren’t you? Please come out, stop hiding from me…”

At that moment, Hugh felt his temples throb twice.

He recognized the voice. It was Miss Qili, the clerk who used to work at the Peace Newspaper, had some feelings for him, and always tried to "hint" at him. It seemed that this lady, who came from a good family and lived a relatively wealthy life, had also failed to survive the disaster in Seren City. Everything she had now belonged to the Dark Abyss offspring.

Of course, Hugh couldn't possibly show his face. Thinking about it, it's kind of funny. In this world, Miss Kiri successfully became the first case where Hugh couldn't help but avoid her, both in life and after death.

After a while, "Miss Qili" started walking in another direction, but she didn't go far before she turned around and came back, continuing to call out to Hugh. Her appearance reminded Hugh of a "bitter woman" who had been abandoned by her partner.

This call, which made Hugh very uncomfortable, lasted for a while. As if it felt that it could not get a response from Hugh in its current form, the Dark Abyss offspring that had transformed into Miss Qili returned to its original form. But then, the black slime began to recombine once again.

Gradually, the silhouette of a young man came into Hugh's view.

"Shug, you can hear me, right?"

A familiar voice echoed from not far away: "We haven't seen each other for a long time. Don't you want to say a few words to me?"

At this moment, Hugh's gaze and expression turned gloomy.

Hughes certainly recognized the outline and the voice.

He truly hadn't expected to see his "old friend" again in this way within the city of Seren.

Even Putrin himself probably never imagined that after he participated in the assassination of Prince Havid and died as a result, his body left in the street still could not escape the Dark Abyss Spawns sweeping forward along the street.

Now, these incomplete creations from the Dark Abyss Palace have become the vessel for his last trace.

"You know what, it's kind of ironic."

Hugh stared at the figure swaying on the ruined street for two seconds, then smiled silently. Once his turbulent emotions subsided, he slowly walked out of the ruins under the shroud of the illusion's power.

The walking offspring could not see through the false illusion surrounding Hugh. In their perception and in their vision formed by imitating humans, Hugh's location was always empty. Therefore, Hugh slowly moved among these dangerous humanoids. After bypassing several figures blocking his way, he came to the "Putrin".

Hugh stopped in his tracks. He quietly watched the familiar figure before him, which was still trying to call out to him, but he did not attack. For the Dark Abyss descendants now, erasing individual victims was meaningless. The traces of the deceased had been permanently preserved in the Dark Abyss descendants' vast memory warehouse, which, in a sense, was their true graveyard.

"It seems even so-called fate wants me to say goodbye to you here... What kind of boring screenwriter likes to write this kind of plot? I really want to shoot him in the head."

At this moment, all the magical signal colors in the sky had completely faded.

It was a depressing and gloomy late winter. The sunlight faded so early. Beneath the endless rolling clouds, Hugh brushed past the phantom of the past. He ignored the incessant calls behind him and resolutely headed south towards the city of Seren.

With the mission involving the Dark Abyss offspring now complete, he needs to head to the camp that holds the hopes of countless survivors.

That place will become the most important battlefield in his absurd journey.

(End of this chapter)