The black sun hangs high

Chapter 332 "Good News"

While the exterior of the St. Steel Royal Palace has undergone relatively limited changes, its interior furnishings, like the streets, have changed dramatically in a short period of time.

The messenger, who arrived on the "Asaru," quickly passed the guards' inspection. He promptly handed over all the defensive weapons and magic books he was carrying, and then walked into the spacious, huge corridor.

The St. Steel Royal Palace covers a large area, but he was not heading to the residence of the royal family members, but rather to the large lecture hall closer to the entrance.

The walls on both sides of the corridor were covered with a thick layer of velvet. This dark blue velvet had undergone some kind of special magical treatment, which made its color exceptionally deep, as if it could directly absorb all the light.

The statues of the Knights of St. Steel, which should have been on both sides of the corridor, have now been replaced by strange shadows.

The outlines of these shadows are so blurry, combined with the dark blue velvet on the wall, that it is impossible to observe them in detail with the naked eye.

Those who walk through this place for the first time often only think that the shadows are human-shaped statues. However, when they get closer and observe carefully, they will find that these shadows actually seem to be living things, but they change very slowly and most of the time remain hunched over, just like old people with bent backs and drooping hands and heads.

The messenger's gaze swept quickly over the strange shadows. He had heard others in the society mention that these shadows would secretly change their posture or try to move freely when no one was watching.

Members qualified to ride the "Asharu" and deliver important messages to the society are often spellcasters, and this messenger is no exception. According to his own understanding, these shadows are actually some kind of divine servants summoned by some powerful members of the society through a special sacrificial ritual.

However, due to the limitations of the ritual's completeness, these familiars have not truly achieved the expected results from the members of the society. They cannot currently stray too far from the ritual site and can only exist as guardians of the society's core territory, rather than being dispatched to actual battlefields.

For the members of the society responsible for these matters, the challenge they must face is how to quickly transform the blessings and power derived from the real deities into effective assistance.

However, today, the important message from the eastern part of the Goddess Plains is enough to open a new gap for the Black Sun Society.

Although the messenger did not actually read the contents, he saw a great deal of joy on the face of his companion who was responsible for delivering the message. It was obvious that the society's attempts on the southern coast of the plains had yielded initial results!
Soon, the messenger passed through the mysterious corridor and entered the main lecture hall under the watchful eyes of two silent guards.

The large lecture hall, originally used by the Life Cult to hold annual speeches and promote the doctrine of the Fire of Life, has now been transformed into an important meeting place for the Black Sun Society. Here, all decorations and sculptures related to the God of Life and the goddess Mel have been violently removed. A tall Black Sun Ritual stands in the center of the lecture hall, and the emblems and flags of the various societies within the Black Sun Society are hung on the four walls of the lecture hall.

Today is the day for the core members of the various societies within the association to gather.

The messenger controlled his emotions and quietly walked into the large lecture hall.

On the stage not far away, he saw a figure leaning on a cane—it was Herbert Galton, the second head of the society. As always, he was wearing a crisp, clean professor's uniform, his face calm. However, compared to the past, his serious face had an eye-catching "decoration".

It was a metal eyepatch inlaid with magical crystals, covering one of his eyes.

The messenger had also heard about the reasons behind this matter.

It is said that Professor Herbert suffered a serious betrayal at a previous gathering, in which he lost an eye. Although as a mage he could have easily used healing magic to recover from the injury, Professor Herbert left the wound permanently to show how seriously he took the incident.

Of course, some people say that this is a punishment given to Professor Herbert by the person in charge, because his mistake caused important things in the society to be lost, which could have a great impact on the society's future plans.

Herbert turned around, his gaze lingering for a moment on the messenger's clothing before his gentle voice came through: "Thank you for your trouble. Where is this message from?"

“It was sent from Branch No. 8 and then relayed to the border via secret procedures from Branches No. 6, No. 43, and No. 29.”

The messenger stepped forward, extended his hands, and handed the important letter to Herbert. He then added, "Branch Eight lost contact after successfully sending this letter. Our initial guess is that the branch may have been exposed and destroyed."

Herbert nodded slightly. He did not express any opinion on the situation of the Society's branch members, but instead directly removed the protective ritual placed on the letter and sent it to the Black Sun Ritual.

Upon seeing this action, the members of the society who were discussing certain issues fell silent. The next moment, as the magical letter was delivered to the Black Sun Ritual, a thick mist immediately emerged from the enormous, blasphemous sculpture.

The iron chains connecting the enormous black sun phantom trembled violently, and then the surging mist was rapidly woven together as if it were sentient threads. In the blink of an eye, these deep threads wove together a huge picture.

All eyes turned to them.

Thus, the surging light and shadow drew into the minds of those present, and in the next instant, they saw clear images within it.

It was a port where many ships were anchored, the headquarters of the Dawn Society. Strange, psychedelic colors shimmered on the distant sea, and among these colors, many bizarre figures kept emerging.

These clans, closely connected to ancient beings, are attempting to breach the defenses of the Akatsuki.

The next second, the image distorted again, and an even more horrific battlefield appeared before everyone's eyes. In the image, the core members of the Black Sun Society saw the figure of the Palace Hound. They saw that this beast, which should have stood with them and served the great god together, was wantonly slaughtering the sea beasts from the colony.

On the deck of another ship, they spotted a familiar figure. The young man, carrying the Black Sun Scepter and using his power and various weapons to slaughter sea monsters, seemed to sense an external gaze. As the focus of the image shifted to him, the young man suddenly glanced in their direction.

Although it was just an unconscious act, the mist hidden in the young man's eyes was too thick, so the observer's gaze ended there, and the scene displayed by the Black Sun Ritual also came to an end.

"Oh!"

With a soft sound, the image woven by the esoteric ritual gently exploded, transforming back into swirling clouds and mist.

Many of the people present were familiar faces to Hugh, having participated in the Black Sun Society gathering. Therefore, their expressions became subtle the moment Hugh's face appeared, and some even felt nervous – after all, the number one "victim" of this series of events related to Hugh was right next to the Ritualist, and they were worried that Professor Herbert would take his anger out on others.

Surprisingly, after witnessing these scenes, Herbert did not show any anger; instead, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

As the light and shadow emitted by the cryptic instrument gradually dissipated, Herbert returned to his podium. He tapped his cane heavily on the wooden floor twice before speaking, "I know what you are worried about. You feel that these images transmitted from the Eighth Branch of the Duchy of Burt are full of information that is detrimental to us, don't you?"

Of course, no one answered, and Herbert didn't care. He smiled and shook his head: "The relevant matters will be handled by our colleagues at the Poseidon Society. Come on... let Mr. Frank tell everyone whether these images meet your expectations?"

As Herbert spoke, a figure stood up on the right side of the main lecture hall.

Frank, like the other members of the Sea God Society, wore relatively revealing clothing. Even in this cold northern land, he only wore an extra windproof coat, as if he were completely unaware of the cold.

He nodded to the members of the society around him, and then said, "What you see is our long-planned new project... Praise be to the Lord of the Ocean, Calron. The Sea God Society has successfully found the gifts left behind by him along the coast of the Kingdom of Hein, which are the enchanting colors you see in the picture."

"Yes, we saw it."

A member of the society, whose coat bore the insignia of the Dark Abyss History Society, spoke up: "But if I may be so bold, neither along the coast of the Dawn Society's base nor on the vast ocean seem to have been able to inflict any truly effective damage on our enemies... especially that traitor, who has become more powerful and more unpredictable than ever before."

"Hehe, what you're saying is just the surface."

Frank smiled and shook his head: "You should know that the invisible great ocean lord is also the embodiment of life in that sacred era. In those splendid colors, there exists not only power, but also endless wisdom... They are not the defective products that we restore with our humble strength and arrogant thoughts, but truly complete divine servants with sufficient potential."

Upon hearing this, the members of the Dark Abyss History Society immediately turned pale.

Frank's words were indeed rather harsh.

Anyone with a brain could tell that the "humble power and arrogant thoughts" he was referring to were the Dark Abyss Historians, and the "defective products" were naturally the failed creations in the city of Seren.

"What we are doing now is just the beginning... Their numbers are vast, hidden in the boundless ocean, and no one can remove them from that deep sea. And now they have begun to make contact with the vile ones."

Frank spread his hands, his voice rising considerably: "This time, they have successfully won a humble victory with those weapons, but these losses are insignificant to the vast community. With each contact, they can gain enough knowledge and nourishment... The ocean will eventually return to its true master, and how can those despicable ones waiting to be settled withstand attacks from different directions at the same time?"

……

“This time, Felix and his team did a great job, much better than I expected.”

At the Dawn Order's headquarters, Meyer, holding a report, found Darthwell, who was vigorously wiping his face with a towel. Hearing Meyer's words, Darthwell put down the towel. The soot on his face was not completely wiped off, making him look slightly comical.

However, Darthwell never cared about such things. He wiped the remaining water droplets from his face with his sleeve and then asked, "How exactly? I heard that those lads successfully destroyed a Black Sun Society stronghold?"

"It's not just a stronghold, it's more like a branch."

Meyer waved to someone not far away, and soon Sally, who was busy organizing documents, quickly handed several selected reports to her teacher.

Mayer handed the documents forward, took a sip of water, and then said, "Our previous judgment was correct. Before we can officially establish a foothold, we should make sure that the land beneath our feet is clean enough... Heh, even in the Duchy of Bult, the Black Sun Society is well hidden, and the size of this branch has exceeded our expectations."

Darthwell quickly glanced through the report before him, then frowned: "The entire Goblin Guild of Blue Algae Harbor? It's come to this?"

"Yes, after receiving the letter from the Windless, Felix immediately sent people there and also notified the mages of the Law Committee... Unfortunately, the Black Sun Society members reacted very quickly. When our young man kicked down their door, the high-ranking members of the Chamber of Commerce were busy destroying records and destroying the secret rituals."

Meyer exclaimed, “They’ve been here for so long, it’s unbelievable… These guys started developing there long before Blue Algae Harbor was renamed. I strongly suspect that they were behind the series of bloody conflicts that happened at the port and the so-called dye monopoly.”

“Felix told me he wants to uproot these guys, ha, I think that’s going to be quite a challenge.”

(End of this chapter)