The black sun hangs high

Chapter 375 Filling the Void
After listening to Baron Fiorlando's words, Tatiana, who had previously harbored many doubts about the Rock Lake Mine, finally put aside her doubts.

Everything that happened in this mine seemed perfectly reasonable.

The magic emanating from the air cannot be faked, the corpses being sorted and piled up cannot be faked, the few timid miners being controlled to the side are strong evidence, and Baron Feorlando's entire performance and statements are flawless.

Moreover, what he just said is already extremely serious within the Black Sun Society.

The so-called "confrontation before the Black Sun Ritual" is actually equivalent to tacitly allowing the ritual to conduct a spiritual interrogation of oneself. Only someone who is absolutely loyal to the association and their own faith and has no fear in the slightest would dare to say such a thing.

After all, the most one can do insane, insane, or dead is the interrogation of the psychic, but before the Black Sun Ritual, any concealment could result in the most severe punishment—anyone, regardless of their identity, once judged "guilty" by the Black Sun Ritual, will have their ruthless hunters sent by the distant Abyss to that sinner.

In this situation, even if the sinner is not killed on the spot, he will be subjected to endless pursuit until he is torn to shreds by his hunters, and his will and soul will be absorbed by the Dark Abyss in the process.

“Calm down, Fiolando. Nobody here wants you to swear an oath before the arcane.”

Tatiana's tone softened slightly. She looked at the severely damaged cryptic sculpture before her, sighed heavily, and then stepped forward to examine the scattered fragments.

After carefully examining the scattered sculpture fragments, Tatiana basically accepted Fiorlando's judgment.

On this destroyed Black Sun Ritual, she could not find any trace of any other magic or magical power; all she could sense was the familiar aura of the Dark Abyss.

This means that the destruction of the ritual likely started from within—some important parts of the ritual had been maliciously damaged beforehand, and only in this case could a stable and powerful ritual collapse on its own.

After examining the remains of the Black Sun Ritual, Tatiana stood up and turned to the Baron, saying, "I need a prisoner."

Baron Fiolando shrugged. "Suit yourself, there are plenty there... but I should warn you, these miners haven't joined the riot; they've remained in their own camp."

"It's alright, let me see what they're thinking."

As she spoke, Tatiana waved her hand, and an exceptionally large hand made of black mist appeared out of thin air. It quickly reached out towards the miners' group and, amidst a chorus of exclamations, grabbed a middle-aged miner on the spot.

The next instant, the dark magic transformed into sharp needles, which pierced heavily towards the middle-aged miner's head.

Immediately afterwards, the long needle used to seize the target's thoughts and memories began to violently stir within the middle-aged miner's brain.

A moment later, Tatiana casually tossed the miner, who had collapsed into a limp heap, aside. In the brutal investigation just now, the miner had received a terrible treatment no different from being interrogated by a psychic. His will had been destroyed in the process, and his spirit had been shattered into chaotic fragments.

In the miner's memory, Tatiana got everything she needed.

She witnessed Baron Fiorento's contact with the Black Sun Ritual during the day, during which the ritual helped the Baron complete an ancient ceremony that was clearly quite difficult.

Then, in those memories, she saw the miners preparing for a riot. She saw a large group of people rapidly gathering inside the mine, armed with weapons...

Having obtained this crucial information and evidence, Tatiana turned to him and said seriously, "Fiorlando, I have a general understanding of the situation."

"So, what are you planning to do?"

"We'll take care of the investigation from now on, and I'll report all the details to headquarters... As for you, just focus on cleaning up this mine!"

The baron's expression turned grim: "Sounds like you're planning to make me a laborer?"

"Being a laborer now will do you a lot of good."

Tatiana calmly replied, "This situation is indeed very sudden. The main responsibility does not lie with you, but you still made some oversights... If your archer battalion had been able to accompany us, the scene tonight might have been much more interesting."

At this point, Tatiana casually took out a thin, brittle piece of black crystal. With a slight squeeze of her fingers, she snapped the piece in two. Then, a special magical signal rose up, drawing a huge black sun in the night sky.

"You seem to have lost quite a few soldiers. We will send some reinforcements to fill your gaps. Don't worry, they will definitely be better than the ones we had in the mine."

Tatiana waved to the giant bird Yasharu, which was huddled in the distance. Once it was closer, she turned to it and said, "The mine still needs to keep operating. You'll have to figure out how to deal with the miners yourself."

After saying that, Tatiana flipped over and mounted the back of the giant bird Yasharu, and a few seconds later she flew into the sky.

Hugh raised his head and quietly looked at the sky, watching the giant bird of Ashar flap its wings until it completely disappeared into the deep night before slowly lowering his head.

He went to the unfortunate miner, quickly checked his condition, and then shook his head helplessly.

He is beyond help.

Despite his choice to join the Black Sun Society, the Black Sun Society showed no mercy whatsoever because of his decision.

Now, the miner's mental world has been completely destroyed. His will, thoughts, and memories are beyond repair, and he is even unable to respond appropriately to external stimuli.

"..."

After Hugh finished his investigation of the miners, he did not rush to dispel the vast illusion covering the rock lake mine. Instead, he slowly issued new orders to the soldiers.

The vast majority of soldiers were still sorting the bodies, while a small number broke away to bring the miners, who were surrounded by panic and despair, back to the camp.

An "officer" approached Hugh, clearly having some opinions on the current situation. However, after only a few words, the temperamental baron lost his temper again. He cursed a couple of times, then shoved the officer to the ground and began punching and kicking him.

In the gloomy night sky, a figure that had previously disappeared reappeared. It flashed past beneath the thick clouds, finally escaping the range of Hugh's magical perception, and disappeared into the distance.

At that moment, the baron, who had been busy beating the officer, finally stopped. He quickly bent down, helped the officer, who was rolling around with his head in his hands, up, and helped pat the dust off his body.

“Sorry, I might have used a bit too much force.” “It’s nothing special, Mr. Ernst. I was captured by them when I was working undercover in Waterloo. The beatings I got back then were really bad. This is just a massage.”

"Okay, I understand. I'll add the magic next time... Go ahead, tell the others to come back quickly. It's time to start the next step of the work."

With that, Hughes snapped his fingers lightly, and the enormous magical illusion that had enveloped the mine began to dissipate rapidly.

The corpses were still corpses, but they no longer looked like miners; instead, they were "dressed" in the clothes of soldiers and overseers.

Through a series of plans, Hughes finally succeeded in achieving his first major goal after entering this dangerous country.

Through his planning and abilities, he successfully created a huge vacancy on his roster.

Now, it is time for these infiltrators to freely fill this void.

……

"sweet wine."

"Dried French fries".

"A burnt chicken."

"The pork chop is grilled to perfection."

Inside a large building at the Dawn Society's temporary headquarters, a long string of strange words was transcribed from a communication device by several clerks. When these words were reported to two professional mages, their arrangement and combination changed dramatically.

Among these busy people were not only the official members of the Dawnblade, but also some people dressed in different clothes and wearing different insignia. They came from different countries and organizations, including professional magical spies from Walter, armed agents from the Iris Guard of Delan, and of course, sword wielders with very special figures and temperaments.

Mayer and several other core leaders of the Dawn Society bypassed the busy intelligence personnel; this was their first formal "inspection" of the place since the Dawn Sword was officially established.

Darthwell looked at the strange words with interest, and when he saw the word "rotten salmon," he couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Hey, I know it's a method of encryption, but why did you decide to use these words, all of them related to food?"

"Not entirely, at least 'rotten salmon' and 'burnt chicken' don't look very appetizing."

Mayer chuckled and joked, "If you want to know the secret, you'll probably have to ask Felix... If you beg him, he'll probably tell you."

"forget it."

Darthwell shook his head: "That kid's been really hot lately. He said before that anyone who wants to find out about these things only has two choices: either be dealt with or join the Dawn Sword... I dare not mess with him."

"In that case, let's not disturb the professionals' work here."

One of the Dharma Committee monks who was with us smiled and said, “Please follow me, everyone. We’ll wait in the next room for a moment. Professor Vekka will be here soon. Before he arrives, we’ll have a chance to learn more about the latest news.”

After saying that, he led everyone out of the busy house and into the next room.

Just as the mage had said, a simple and neat report was soon presented to everyone. With the help of the mages, its contents were displayed directly in mid-air as magical images.

"The 'Hidden Staircase' plan has officially begun implementation and no support is needed for the time being."

"Temporarily halting infiltration operations against 'Target Five' is too risky."

"Numbers sixteen, seventeen, and forty-eight are extremely vulnerable; number two and numbers four through nine are relatively dangerous."

"The fishing village is safe and peaceful for the time being..."

Even after initial translation and organization, the messages sent from Saint-St. still appeared somewhat vague and disorganized, with special codes used for terms related to specific plans, objectives, regions, and locations.

This was a plan jointly decided upon by Hugh and the others before they set off, together with the officially established Dawnblade.

Although this plan is likely to emotionally damage the newly formed alliance, the Black Sun Society's infiltration and influence should not be underestimated. Hugh, Felix, and others would rather add some extra steps to the process than have their intelligence work leaked due to the betrayal or wavering of a few individuals within the team.

If that happens, the consequences could be devastating, and no one can afford to bear the consequences.

Therefore, even when showing the "results" to Meyer and other core members of the Scions of the Dawn, they did not actually reveal the true content of this important intelligence. After all, although the Dawnblade was nominally affiliated with the Scions of the Dawn, it had already begun to provide support for the actions of many countries and organizations at the same time. This caused the Dawnblade's status to soar in a short period of time. After all, no one wanted to take action without intelligence support, as such an action was tantamount to suicide.

"Alright, before Professor Vika arrives, let me carefully try to decipher the specific meaning of these messages..."

Meyer clapped his hands lightly, made a joke, and then leaned closer to the messages. After carefully scanning these important and confidential contents twice, his expression turned to delight.

Darthwell knew his old friend best, so he asked, "So, what have you figured out?"

"Hmm... Although I don't know what these code names specifically refer to, from this intelligence, I can tell that our comrades who are active in enemy territory seem to have made some good progress. At least they are now able to find out which places are dangerous and which places are weakly defended, and they are also able to continue to carry out the original plans on this basis."

Meyer stroked his beard: "Of course, more importantly, I didn't see any sacrifices or deaths in these messages that we should grieve over. For a group of people venturing into dangerous places, this is the best news we can get."

“You’re right, Professor Frey Meyer.”

An elderly mage stepped into the meeting room at just the right moment. He smiled at Mayer, who was looking at him, and echoed, "They are a group of warriors, a group of true warriors... I do not agree with putting too much pressure on such a group of brave people who risk their lives. I would prefer that they create more miracles while ensuring their own safety."

(End of this chapter)