The black sun hangs high

Chapter 326 "Reef"?
"Check the containers and the ritual details; make sure nothing is missed!"

"Non-responsible personnel, evacuate immediately! No matter who they are, anyone unrelated, get them out of here right now!"

"Prepare the protective and isolation equipment!"

After witnessing the psychedelic colors floating in the tank, Gerald, who had officially assumed important responsibilities, immediately made a decision.

Although he was neither a cleric nor a professional scholar, he possessed a wealth of practical experience in alchemy. In addition, the disasters in Seren and his past complex experiences gave Gerald a level of caution and judgment far beyond that of ordinary people.

Over the past period of time, he had been keeping a close eye on the strange parrotfish that had been imprisoned. As a survivor who had successfully escaped from the hunt for the Dark Abyss Spawns, Gerald was extremely sensitive to these beings that were closely related to ancient creations.

"Any unexpected situation that arises must be dealt with using the strictest methods!"

This is the principle that Gerald set for himself.

Soon, the important figures who had just arrived at the laboratory were brought to a relatively safe location under the protection and "driving" of the soldiers. Then, a huge and sturdy protective magic was quickly formed under the operation of the secret instrument and completely enveloped the laboratory.

Meyer and the others were not angry about being treated this way. On the contrary, they all sensed a clear sense of crisis and tension from Gerald's attitude of being on high alert.

Darthwell was the first to leave, believing that this anomaly was a very bad sign. The soldiers on duty and patrolling in the port needed to be alerted, and ships such as the Aurora Borealis anchored in the port needed to be prepared.

Subsequently, Felix and several other core members of the Dawnblade also left one after another. They could not determine whether this ongoing anomaly was related to the Black Sun Society, but in any case, they needed to prepare a contingency plan in advance.

Therefore, when Gerard arrived at the open space with heavy steps, only Meyer and a few other Dawn Society scholars were waiting for him.

“Professor, I would suggest you step back a little further, or...would you consider leaving the port first?”

"Alright, Gerald, you know I won't agree."

Meyer calmly shook his head, his hand gripping his hat, his gaze as deep as the sea outside the harbor: "Tell me, what exactly is the situation now?"

"The will residing within that giant fish has awakened... or rather, it has finally ended its previous state of silence and decided to expend its limited power to do something else."

"Other things? What do you mean?"

“I’m sorry, Professor, we don’t know enough about it yet, but through the changes in the ritual, we can confirm that the will is trying to send its power outward… Its power is very special; although our ritual can work, it can only intercept a portion of it.”

Gerald raised his hand and made a gesture as if covering his mouth: "It's like trying to cover someone's mouth; you can only prevent him from shouting, but you can't stop him from making a sound."

"You mean it's sending a message outwards? Calling for its companions?"

"We cannot confirm this, but we did indeed handle it according to this procedure."

The massive, half-human ogre said in a muffled voice, "This was Mr. Hugh's advice to me before he left. He said that if we encounter any incomprehensible situations while studying that fish, then we should prioritize conservatism and prudence..."

He raised his hand and made a "slashing" motion in the air: "The ritual is starting, Professor... We are going to completely destroy everything in the tank. No matter what that will is or what it intends to do, we will not allow it to continue to exist."

Hearing these words, Mayer turned his gaze to the laboratory in the distance. He saw that the magical light shrouding the laboratory was emitting strange radiance as if it had been subjected to some kind of impact and interference. Clearly, even now, that strange will was still constantly impacting the Dawn Society's measures.

"Alright, let's proceed according to your plan. I'm not a professional in this area, so it's best if I say less."

Mayer nodded very consciously. He was about to ask something else when he heard hurried footsteps coming from not far away. He turned his head and saw a beautiful head of blond hair running towards him under the light.

Sally had run too fast, so she was slightly out of breath, but she didn't have time to rest. She immediately raised her hand and handed a brand new magical letter to Mayer.

"It came from the Windless, and was directly signed by Miss Veraine."

Sally hurriedly said a few words, then calmed her breathing slightly and quickly said, "Some complicated new situations have arisen on the Windless... It is now basically confirmed that the will and power residing in the bodies of deformed fish or shrimp and crabs are extremely dangerous."

“Mr. Hugh believes that the giant fish we captured was merely an accident. The impact of similar forces in the ocean is likely already incredibly exaggerated. If these wills suddenly awaken and begin to act unexpectedly, they should be 'destroyed' immediately, and preparations should be made to deal with the impact!”

While Sally succinctly summarized the contents of the magical letter, Meyer had already scanned through it at lightning speed.

He sighed, looked up, and said, "The good news is that we are indeed doing that... Darswell has passed the orders down, and everyone is on high alert."

Gerrard's fat face scrunched up in a very unpleasant way: "So, the bad news is?"

"The bad news is that the Windless is probably in great danger now... Our comrades are adrift at sea, and they have no way to fight against those unknown beings on land."

Mayer slammed the magical letter onto Gerald's large hand: "And I'm pretty sure that 'Mr. Ghost' on the ship is probably the primary target of those powers and wills, more so than we are here."

After saying that, he looked at Sally: "Have you tried replying to the letters?"

"I tried twice, but both times I failed."

Sally's face was filled with worry and anxiety: "The communication between the cipher machines has been severely disrupted and is now completely cut off. We have no way of confirming the situation on the Windless, and we can't contact anyone..."

……

Mayer's judgment was entirely correct.

Currently, the Windless and all its escort ships are in a similar state.

The fleet continued its journey, but now all the mages in charge of the rituals discovered that the communication and liaison systems they had been meticulously maintaining were now completely useless.

The entire fleet seemed to be trapped in an invisible, sealed cage—powerful interference stood like a barrier on the nearby sea, completely blocking magical messages transmitted based on magic.

When the crew members on these ships tried to observe the sea, they were surprised to find that their fleet had been "surrounded" without their knowledge.

Yes, surrounded... When they used their telescopes to search the seemingly empty, calm sea in the distance, an incredibly beautiful and unusual color appeared in their field of vision.

Just as a rainbow in the sky inexplicably fell into the sea, this color formed an enormous circle on the sea surface surrounding the fleet. Under the cover of night, this magnificent circle seemed to have a life of its own, moving forward with the entire fleet.

Regardless of how turbulent the sea was, or what speed the ships like the Windless were traveling at, this huge circle always existed and maintained this strange encircling posture.

"The wind and waves outside are quite strong, and we have already increased our speed to the maximum... but they have always managed to keep us in the center."

The monk from the Legal Affairs Committee shook his head incredulously, then handed over the binoculars: "I'm starting to doubt my own eyes."

Hugh took the binoculars and looked out at the distant sea. Then, at the edge of his vision, he saw a line that was constantly surging with the waves on the dark sea.

A line radiating a dazzling and unusual light.

It was too far from the Windless One, so even with his ample magic power and powerful magic perception, Hugh was unable to reach this strange "encirclement".

As for the detection devices on board the ship, although they were working correctly, they were unable to provide any clear feedback on this strange phenomenon.

Hugh stared at the familiar, strange colors for a while, then put down his binoculars and said, "It seems that, in the current state, they are not ready to 'go to war' with us... Encirclement and confinement are their primary objectives."

"Encirclement and restriction?"

The monk standing nearby was puzzled: "But if this is the only situation, it will not cause us any real harm. Even if we are unable to use the secret instrument to communicate with the outside world now, we can still maintain our speed until we reach the port."

"But this is just the beginning."

Hughes glanced at him, then turned his gaze back to the sea.

Without the aid of telescopes, the area under their sight turned pitch black again. After nightfall, the wind and waves seemed to grow stronger once more, with surging waves rolling endlessly, as if trying to spread an invisible panic to the fleet that was moving along.

Just as Hugh was about to end his observation of the sea and return to his cabin for further preparations, a sailor officer on the other side, who was observing the distant sea with binoculars, suddenly made a surprised sound.

"Ok?"

Hugh turned his head and saw the officer put down his binoculars with a puzzled look on his face, rub his eyes hard, and then look in the same direction again.

This time, his reaction was even stronger.

"Um???"

The sound was like that of an angler who had been unable to catch a fish for years suddenly finding that his fishing rod was caught on some extremely unusual heavy object.

The Legislative Affairs Commission official present frowned and asked, "What's going on?"

"I……"

The officer seemed speechless for a moment; his expression shifted dramatically, his lips trembled slightly, and then, raising his binoculars, he said in an extremely uncertain tone, "Northwest, right to the northwest... I saw a huge dark shadow. Why aren't our detection devices reacting?!"

Upon hearing this, Hugh immediately went to the officer's side. He looked in the direction the sailor officer was pointing, and soon, Hugh successfully spotted the shadow the officer had mentioned in the darkness.

The dark shape wasn't too far from the Windless; in fact, it was located in the area between the Windless and the escort armored ship Silver Shield.

It looked like a huge reef covered with some glowing algae. Although the sea was dark at the time, Hugh and the others were still able to make out its outline by the glowing algae.

A loud alarm sounded from afar; it was a warning from the Silver Shield, indicating that the sailors on the armored ship had also noticed something amiss.

A faint sound came from Hugh's mental world; it was the sound of the metal disc starting to accelerate.

As the alarm sounded on the Silver Shield, the huge crystal lamps installed on the ship emitted a blinding light. As the crystal lamps rotated, two huge beams of light shone towards the sea surface where the anomaly had been detected.

In just over ten seconds, the bright beam of light successfully illuminated the target sea surface, and the true appearance of the shadow was finally revealed to Hugh and the others.

Sea reef?

Bullshit reefs!
The moment Hugh saw the shadowy face clearly, he couldn't help but curse out loud.

The "sea reef" mentioned by the sailor officer had an extremely strange appearance. It did not have the hard outline that a reef should have. Instead, it was round and smooth like a huge man-made mound of earth. Under the illumination of the crystallizing lamp, it revealed a gloomy dark green color.

It is clearly alive.

Under the stimulation of the light, the shadow underwent a new change. Hugh saw it tremble slightly and then rotate slightly in the seawater.

The glowing, damp algae reflected an unusual light, and after this light and shadow flashed by, an even more bizarre sight came into view.

He saw two rows of vertically arranged points of light.

Those are eyes.

They grew right in the center of that shadow, reflecting a light in the lamplight that was remarkably similar to the "color of life."

The same vast sea, the same waves...

And then there are these things that bear distinctly ancient characteristics...

At that moment, Hugh felt as if his previous dreams about the ocean and giant ships had merged with the reality before him.

(End of this chapter)