The black sun hangs high

Chapter 425 I hope everything is alright

An eerie shadow constantly moved forward through the boundless, dark wasteland.

Enveloped and protected by the dense fog, and supported by the inexhaustible magical power of Hugh, the mad rat, which had completely changed its faith and the source of its power, carried its master and continued to move towards the towering, strange shadow at the edge of its vision.

Now Hugh finally truly understands the real meaning of the saying "looking at a mountain makes a horse run itself to death."

Although he was not riding a regular horse and the mountains in the distance were not normal, this long journey in unfamiliar surroundings brought Hughes a very real and special experience.

Loneliness, exhaustion, and confusion are the main colors of Hugh's current mood.

At first, Hugh would constantly observe his surroundings, guarding against potential attackers and unexpected events from other spatial regions and time segments, or observing and analyzing the various strange phenomena in this world.

However, as the scurrying rats continued to advance, Hugh gradually realized that his behavior was not actually very meaningful—they were so chaotic and disorderly that Hugh couldn't even glean much useful experience from them.

In most cases, what Hughes had to face was merely the desolate plain before him, filled with a dark and chaotic atmosphere, and the distant mountain range that seemed completely unchanged.

If it weren't for the fact that the surrounding environment and reference points were actually changing, Hugh would even doubt that he had been standing still all along.

Faced with such a situation, even with his abundant magic and resilient spirit, Hugh would inevitably become depressed. The dark abyss creatures that appeared from time to time in his field of vision, as well as the bizarre hills, ravines, pits, and plains of bones, would only constantly remind Hugh that in this world, he was destined to have no chance of finding anyone similar to himself.

The Dark Abyss is not hospitable. Any creature that comes here from another world is destined not to receive good treatment. Here, the concept of "guest from a foreign land" simply does not exist.

Hughes looked up and gazed at the "sky" once more.

Strangely enough, in this world where the concepts of space and time are weak, the so-called land and sky still exist.

Inside the Abyss, chaotic Abyssal magic spontaneously condenses, often attracting the active Abyssal creations, or attaching to and accumulating in the remnants and fragments that retain the will of despair.

Thus, the condensed magic enveloped all sorts of debris and fragments, transforming them into tangible entities that could be touched and altered. These ever-growing entities further attracted more Dark Abyss creations and magic.

Under this special flow trend, another part of the Dark Abyss inevitably became a void with thin power. As the polarization became more and more obvious, these voids gradually merged and converged. They were like oil floating on the surface of water, forming two distinct regions.

This is how the Dark Abyss divides the concepts of sky and land.

It differs greatly from the laws of the material world as understood by Hugh, but there are some similarities. However, whenever Hugh looks up now, he can't help but think of ancient theories about "turbid air descending and pure air rising".

Such random thoughts, along with constantly studying and reviewing the memories accumulated in his mind, are the only forms of leisure that Hugh currently has.

He had never had so much free time.

After commanding the running rat to use its tail to secure himself to its back, Hugh even had enough time to conduct in-depth research and analysis of the "Poem of the Night" and the lost magic within the Black Sun Society.

When Hughes began to examine once again the bizarre writings left by the mad poet Aziv, he suddenly realized that Aziv's "Poems of the Night" could, on some level, be considered the starting point of his journey in Vain.

It can at least be regarded as an important component of the starting point.

"squeak……"

The scurrying rat let out a hiss, and Hugh turned his head, following its indication, and looked toward the "skyline".

As the line of sight extends, on the oblique side of that distant mountain range, a "cloud" composed of thin, dark mist is constantly churning. It seems that something is slowly moving forward deep within this "cloud."

Not long after, the being hiding inside the clouds broke through the clouds and revealed its true form.

"There are actually fish in the Dark Abyss too."

Hugh remembered Theseus saying those words before, but when he saw what the thing looked like with his own eyes, he couldn't help but show a strange expression.

At first glance, Hugh thought he saw a black "rag" slowly floating in the sky. However, when he looked closely, he found that the "rag" was actually an enormous flounder, or rather, some strange monster with an appearance quite similar to a flounder.

Its abdomen is very clean and smooth, looking like some kind of gray-black crystalline mirror, while in the position corresponding to its "head", there is a very obvious crack, which should be its mouth.

Behind its body grows a disproportionate "tail" that is constantly wagging, which is the main reason for the churning of the Dark Abyss Mist.

On the other side of this flounder, there were two unusually bright shadows. Hugh couldn't tell whether they were its eyes or not, because many tiny "threads" hung down from the edge of its body, and at the ends of these "threads" grew many points of light.

They look like both some kind of light-emitting organ and countless eyes used to observe the outside world.

As the flounder twists its body, the strange light is reflected off its mirror-like belly, illuminating the entire wasteland.

These lights were extremely conspicuous in the wasteland, but what surprised Hugh even more was that strange shadows and shapes would occasionally appear inside these lights—judging from their appearance, the outlines of these shadows and shapes should belong to other worlds.

This was clearly its hunting method, because soon Hughes saw some small hunters that had been hiding deep in the wasteland cautiously emerge from their hiding places. Attracted by the light and shadow, they quickly began to hunt down these phantoms.

The "threads" used to project light were incredibly flexible. As they twisted and adjusted, the various light spots and illusions active on the ground also changed accordingly. They skillfully and meticulously reproduced the appearance of the poor prey fleeing in panic, and lured the pursuers behind them to run in a specific direction.

Before long, these creatures of the Dark Abyss, which resembled felines in appearance, followed the spots of light to a hill. Their attention was entirely focused on their "prey" and they were completely unaware that the strange shadow had already reached above them.

The next instant, Hugh saw the tear in the belly of the giant "rag" rapidly widen, splitting the "flounder's" body in two, revealing countless sharp, ferocious fangs. The light spot that served as bait disappeared, and the hunters below instantly became pathetic prey. They realized what was happening and tried to scatter and escape, but in the next instant, the enormous shadow crashed down on the hill below with terrifying speed. Its flat, thick, massive body completely enveloped the entire hill and all the unfortunate creatures that had been attracted there, and the huge tear that served as its mouth began to chew violently.

The flounder finished feeding quickly and floated back into the sky, its exaggerated slit in its abdomen trembling as it vomited out the useless remains it had accidentally swallowed.

After completing this process, the ugly cracks disappeared without a trace, and the abdominal mirror used to reflect light reappeared. However, this time, it was clearly no longer satisfied with the previous rations. More light spots burst out from the ends of those "threads," and after reflection, these lights directly enveloped a large area of ​​the wasteland.

"It's not easy to travel with this guy watching us. Let's take a rest first."

Hugh sat up and patted the running rat twice on the back. The rat immediately understood what Hugh meant, turned around and jumped into a ditch next to it, and then led Hugh through the crisscrossing tunnels.

Before long, under the terrifying pressure brought by the "Flounder", the running rat successfully found a cave where Hugh could hide. The cave was severely collapsed, but it could still be used as a temporary hiding place.

Hughes wasn't picky. Drawing on his previous experience, he quickly used a very small amount of Dark Abyss magic to construct a protective ritual to hide and conceal himself, and then curled up inside it.

The strange light continued to sweep across the area. While observing the outside world, Hugh continued his research work, which had been interrupted by the "flounder".

As his thoughts turned, passages from "Poems of the Night" emerged from the depths of Hughes's spiritual ocean.

"It all began with a dream."

"Everything ends because of lucidity."

"What I have written down is not a poem, but the captivating reality of the scene..."

In the first volume of "Poems of the Night," the mad poet Aziv begins with these words, and he names this chapter "Sinarhai."

In the past, when Hughes read "The Poems of the Night" a few times, he had doubts about the mad poet's writing ability. In his opinion, Aziv's descriptions of those bizarre and strange events and scenes were too outrageous and abstract, which made them seem abnormal and empty. As a result, the words lost their original meaning and beauty.

However, now, after combining his own experiences with what he saw and heard in the Abyss, Hugh had to admit that Aziv did indeed have a unique talent for writing.

At least Hughes could be certain that those seemingly disordered sentences were perhaps not bizarre fantasies at all, but rather his detailed retelling of a series of real scenes.

Hugh recalled these strange words bit by bit, but when he finished reviewing the first volume of "The Poems of the Night," what appeared in his mind was a calm face.

"..."

Hugh's expression froze for a moment, but in the end he could only smile helplessly and let out a long sigh.

"I wonder how they are now... I hope they are all alright."

……

Under the dim light, the pen tip glided across the paper, making a soft scratching sound.

“Yesterday afternoon, Alyosha went to town and helped old Peter sell all the game he had hunted: three long-feathered pheasants and two foxes.”

"The fox pelts are in very good condition, so we made an extra profit... Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on old Peter and make sure he doesn't use the money to buy alcohol."

"Because of the control issues, Alyosha was unable to buy new ammunition... It's too strict now, and I'm afraid it won't be long before we have to consider hunting with bows and arrows."

"Fortunately, there seem to be more prey in the mountains lately than in previous years. They're probably scared off by the gunfire! Hunting isn't difficult!"

"..."

“Darling, you haven’t written back to us in a long time. Everyone is very worried. Promise me that you will send us some news after you receive our letter.”

I hope everything will be alright.

“Your love, Daya.”

After writing the last word, Weilin took the paper in her hand, carefully checked it several times, and after confirming that there were no problems, she walked out of the room and handed the paper to a mage spy guarding the door.

"That's all for the letter. Send it out tomorrow morning. Before that, remember to have someone rewrite it... Make more spelling mistakes, don't choose the best stationery, and adjust your handwriting and word choice as well."

The agent nodded: "Don't worry, ma'am, I'll bring it to you for a look before it's officially sent out. We'll also replace some of the words with the local dialect."

"That's for the best. Thank you for your hard work."

"You've worked so hard, ma'am."

Soon, the spy left with the special letter, while Violet returned to the house. She closed the door, and as usual, rechecked the protective rituals in the room. After confirming that everything was in order, she finally finished her work and gradually relaxed.

Then, she forced a smile, used her mage's hand to pull a wooden box from under the bed, and opened it.

Then, Verine took out a few shimmering magic crystals from her pocket and waved them cheerfully in the wooden box: "Sorry, I've been busy for a long time today... You must be starving, right?"

(End of this chapter)