The black sun hangs high

Chapter 286 A new beginning

"Messenger of the Black Sun, what... what brings you here?"

Gentle words are like a pebble thrown into stagnant water; when they fall into the spiritual world of the messenger in the mirror, they cause ripples and waves.

The bewildered, misty humanoid figure trembled slightly as it stared blankly at the human woman before it. The mist that formed its face trembled gently, as if it were pondering and trying to understand the meaning of her words.

The woman was very patient; she stood quietly in front of the cage, waiting for the other party's response.

During this process, the consciousness of Hugh Ernst began to gradually awaken. Hugh then realized that he had obviously fallen into a deep sleep or coma, and in this situation, he once again touched the dream of the Mirror Messenger.

As the person who takes the place of the "protagonist" in the dream, Hugh can't actually do anything, but he can clearly sense the state of the messenger in the mirror.

Its spiritual world is empty, devoid of both memory and knowledge. These vital "fillers" seem to have been completely destroyed and erased for some reason. Although it can understand the messages conveyed by the human woman in front of it through magic, it is unable to respond accordingly.

Now, it looks just like a blank sheet of paper.

Or perhaps, it is a child who is learning and understanding everything around them.

As Hugh was trying to understand what was happening, the human woman in front of him seemed to realize it through her own power. She looked somewhat surprised, as if she didn't quite understand why such a strange case would occur.

After a moment's thought, she raised her hand again. As complex magical patterns began to appear, a pale blue, flowing light and shadow wrapped around the messenger in the mirror.

Faced with this unfamiliar power, the Mirror Messenger felt only immense curiosity. It even raised its irregularly shaped hand and gently touched the soft colors.

However, as the mirror messenger made this movement, the stream of water formed by magical energy naturally wrapped around its arms and fingers and began to seep rapidly into its body. In just a few seconds, the color had completely entered the mirror messenger's body.

In that instant, even the empty spiritual world of the Mirror Messenger gained a touch of something different.

It's like blue starlight emerging from the deep darkness of night.

Although faint, it was incredibly dazzling.

The Mirror Messenger stood there, stunned. All its attention was drawn to the light bestowed upon it. As it tried to explore this special gift within its own spiritual world, the blue starlight suddenly burst forth, casting even more radiance into the deep, dark corners.

At this moment, countless tiny sounds, patterns, and lines unfolded in this empty, void world.

These are things that the Messenger in the Mirror has never encountered before.

It became engrossed in it, and its body, composed of pitch-black mist, even began to change violently as its thoughts surged.

Its body began to show more colors, and its face changed with those scattered memories and knowledge...

Seeing that the messenger in the mirror had accepted her "gift," the mysterious woman let out a melodious chuckle. Then she gently flicked her fingers, and the thick stone slabs that made up the enclosed basement immediately showed a faint luster. Without lingering, she turned and walked out, closing the basement door behind her.

At this time, Hugh is also able to "see" or "read" these strange memories that have been instilled in him.

He first heard many sounds.

Initially, there were the abundant sounds of nature, and then the sounds produced by the activities of various groups.

Lighting campfires, hunting wild animals, logging and building, fighting and strife...

Then comes language.

These languages ​​are completely different from the common language and some regional dialects that Hugh knows, and they clearly come from different races. Hugh can easily distinguish the somewhat clumsy, lisping syllables of the ogres and the trilled tongues of the elves.

After the sound, the words and images began to appear.

Hugh first saw the cold sun hanging in the sky above the earth. He saw the ocean and land changing due to all sorts of strange forces, saw the boundless, enormous forest moving slowly under a special will, and saw countless races being born or dying in conflict. Among them were those ferocious and twisted sea beasts, as well as the rodents that Hugh had seen before.

Finally, many familiar figures of Hugh appeared in the scene.

Races such as humans, elves, and goblins, which were labeled as "inferior races" or "lower races," began to appear frequently. Initially, they, like other races, engaged in fierce battles and conflicts over food, territory, or other resources.

They, too, depend on those powerful beings for survival. They serve them like servants, and sacrifice their own people for their power...

These images from ancient times captivated Hugh, but just as he was about to read further with the messenger in the mirror, a sudden noise interrupted his thoughts.

The sound was crisp, rapid, and noisy.

When it reached Hugh's ears, his stable dream was severely disturbed. The once clear ancient images began to blur, and the connection between Hugh and the messenger in the mirror was forcibly severed.

Finally, the dream ended, and Hugh opened his eyes in annoyance.

He was very familiar with the sound that was disturbing his dream; it was the high-frequency sound of a keyboard, and it was even a blue switch keyboard.

It's absolutely crazy.

He turned his head and looked around, realizing that he was indeed in the Dream Sanctuary. He immediately stood up from the office chair he had been lying on and looked toward the source of the keyboard typing sound not far away.

Then he saw a figure sitting behind that familiar computer.

She was slender and had long hair.

"You're finally awake! I thought you were going to keep sleeping."

What entered the ears was Theseus's unique voice, which, although sounding feminine, was still composed of countless different voices.

Hughes frowned as he approached Theseus. He pulled out a chair, but before he could sit down, he caught a glimpse of something unusual out of the corner of his eye.

He turned to look at the end of the area, only to find that the deep fog that had previously blocked the way like a wall had thinned considerably. Even from a distance, he could still see further through the fog. Upon realizing this, Hugh immediately went to the window, but the world outside remained pitch black, and he couldn't see anything.

After observing for a while, Hugh returned to Theseus's side and asked, "What's going on?"

Theseus tapped lightly on the keyboard. This time, she wasn't playing those games that seemed to have special meanings, but was editing a document. However, when Hugh tried to see the contents of the document, he found that the text had turned into strange lines that were completely indistinguishable.

Upon hearing Hugh's question, Theseus gently clicked the save button on the document. Then she turned around and replied, "As I said before, this sanctuary is a special place I use to preserve those remnants of ancient times... Part of its power is inherently connected to the Dark Abyss Court."

"That black sun has reappeared. Although it is still very weak and will take a long time to fully stabilize, it is already enough to have an impact here."

Theseus gave a strange smile, pointed to the black mist at the end of the corridor, and said in a teasing and seductive tone, "Curious, aren't you? Want to go take a look? I support you."

Hugh's eyebrows twitched, and he asked, "What's in there?"

"Although power itself is essentially invisible, it can also serve as a channel and a carrier."

Theseus said slowly, "In order to maintain the existence of the sanctuary, I slightly... well, borrowed a little bit of the power from the Dark Abyss Palace. Really, just a little bit. After all, this will make the sanctuary more stable and more comfortable here. It's not easy to support such a large group of survivors, don't you think?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Hugh fell into a brief silence before saying, "You mean, if I enter these previously isolated areas, I'm very likely to step into the sphere of influence of the Dark Abyss Court?"

"That's not the case."

Theseus quickly shook his head: "Don't think of it that way. After all, as I said, the authority I borrowed was only a tiny bit..."

Hugh looked at the other person expressionlessly: "What you just said was power, not authority."

"Then I was wrong."

Theseus very "frankly" spread his hands, and a "sweating soybean" popped up on his face, making Hugh's blood pressure rise: "In short, if you want to smuggle yourself into the Dark Abyss Palace through a place like this, you probably don't have much of a chance... But if you wander around, you might have a chance to run into some of the Dark Abyss Palace's, uh, natives?"

"Aborigines?"

“Yes, the indigenous people are… lovely, interesting and friendly. You’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future. You already have a hunting dog, don’t you? Just go further in and you’ll easily see more.”

Upon hearing this, Hugh immediately abandoned his idea of ​​exploring those areas.

He remembered very clearly that when he first obtained the Hound's Fang, a strange proverb popped into his mind.

"The court hounds roam the courtyards, their pursuit never ceasing, their hunt never ending... This is your boundless hunting ground, praise be to the great, invisible wolf!"

He didn't want to become the target of a pack of eerie hounds, much less attract the so-called "invisible wolf" behind them.

After finishing their conversation, Hugh pulled up a chair and sat down. He looked at Theseus and said, "If you hadn't woken me up, I probably could have gotten more useful information from that dream... Were you doing this on purpose?"

Don't think like that.

Theseus's voice became languid as she leaned back in her chair, crossed her legs, and struck a pose that would normally inspire much speculation: "You woke up simply because the dream ended here... When the time is right, you will naturally know what happened next."

Hugh glanced at Theseus and then said, "This Mirror Messenger that carries the dream seems to be special. It seems to have experienced some kind of accident, and all traces related to the Dark Abyss Court have been erased. Can something like the Mirror Messenger also experience this?"

"This is normal."

Theseus explained: “Although the forms and ways of existence of the Families are different, in order to maintain contact with their gods, they all have their own spirit and will... And since they have spirit and will, they may become an ‘empty shell’ in certain extreme situations.”

"Extreme situations?"

"Well, for example, forcibly crossing the gap between the Dark Abyss Palace and the physical world. In this case, the non-physical Familias are easily severely damaged by the 'storm' sweeping through the gap."

At this point, Theseus paused suddenly, then let out a long, incredibly human sigh, her voice softening: "Perhaps that's why she didn't get rid of me back then... After all, the 'messenger of the black sun' only represents a new round of disaster and sacrifice in the eyes of any race."

Upon hearing this, Hugh couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Although Hugh had guessed it countless times before, he was still incredibly shocked and surprised when Theseus admitted it to him.

"So, this is Mel... no, this is the first time you met that leader?"

Hugh almost blurted out the title "Goddess Mel," but he quickly corrected himself.

Theseus was quite satisfied with Hugh's reaction. She nodded and said, "Yes, that's what happened when we met. To be honest, I really didn't want you to see these things. In your terms, this kind of content should be considered my privacy."

Hugh stared at the other person: "So...why?"

"Because it's important, or rather, I think it's important."

Theseus straightened up. Although there was no further change or expression on his face, Hugh clearly felt the other's gaze and the immense pressure that followed.

He felt as if he had returned to the moment when he first spoke with Theseus.

"The efforts you made before the black sun rose... were not bad, although they did not completely exceed my expectations, but from now on, I will no longer see you as an 'actor'."

For some reason, Hugh suddenly felt that Theseus's voice sounded somewhat similar to Mel's in his dream.

He heard Theseus say with a laugh, "There are still many things that need your participation. Do your best."

(End of this chapter)