The black sun hangs high

Chapter 428 Signal
At dawn, magical signals of different colors streaked across the sky, their dazzling light dispelling the darkness that shrouded the muddy plains.

This has happened many times in the past ten days or so, and the Black Sun Society members stationed in the hidden outposts were already on guard—whatever these signals meant, as defenders, they should have cleared them out immediately.

This task is not difficult; it can be accomplished with a few specific types of destructive magic.

Two spellcasters bearing the insignia of the Black Sun emerged from their concealed trenches. They glanced at the magical signals slowly moving across the sky, uttering foul curses in extreme impatience. At the same time, they swiftly began casting spells, and several extremely well-hidden magical arrows, almost blending into the dim morning light, shot into the sky and quickly struck their targets.

They weren't the only ones carrying out this task.

In several other concealed outposts, spellcasters were also carrying out similar tasks.

This kind of work is boring and tedious.

They had no idea what the specific meaning of these magical signals released by the Dawn Society was—they appeared every day, sometimes even many times a day.

Logically, these magical signals should always be accompanied by large-scale attacks and bombardments, or at least used to transmit specific messages, but the Akatsuki army used them extremely casually, sometimes even giving the impression that they were just fooling around.

The two Black Sun Society mages in the trench looked up at the sky. After confirming that the beams of light they had targeted had dissipated, they lowered their eyes in boredom. One of them yawned: "Alright, I'm going back to sleep for a while... Let those soldiers keep an eye on things for us. They don't have anything to do anyway."

The other man nodded, then pulled a crumpled cigarette case from his coat and invited his companion, "Um, sure, want a cigarette?"

The monk, who had been yawning, perked up immediately upon hearing this. He turned around, his eyes filled with surprise: "Cigarettes? Where did you get them?"

“A few days ago, didn’t we capture a spy? I remember he was a Voltel, and he was eventually taken to the Spirit Intelligence for questioning… Heh, the credit goes to them, and the cigarettes are naturally mine.”

As they spoke, the two of them had already lit their cigarettes with magic and started puffing away in the trenches.

The cigarettes were a little damp, but the cigarettes from the Voltel soldiers were always of guaranteed quality, so the two sorcerers quickly became immersed in the momentary peace brought by the tobacco. One of them even placed his palm on his Black Sun emblem, narrowed his eyes, and began to pray silently to the ancient god he believed in.

The brief prayer ended quickly, and the monk opened his eyes, slowly exhaling a cloud of smoke that had been trapped inside his body.

At that moment, a soldier walked over from the other end of the trench. He was a thin young man with slight frostbite marks on his face. He was a mixed-race of the Water and Saint Steel, which gave him black hair.

The young soldier glanced timidly at the two mages who were smoking, then climbed onto the edge of the trench, carefully observed the surroundings, and after confirming that there was no problem, he cautiously slipped out.

It was obvious that he was looking for a place to relieve himself.

"Hey, if this guy dares to poop or pee next to us, I'll make him eat his own excrement!"

The member of the society, holding a cigarette case, scoffed dismissively, then turned and asked, "By the way, when do you think those guys will attack?"

"You mean the Dawn Society? I think they'll most likely keep stalling."

The mage, who had just finished praying, shook his head: "They are neither the army of any country nor any particularly influential orthodox society. They might be good at infiltration and harassment, but do they have the capability for a large-scale attack?"

“I’ve heard that the Saint Steeles in the Dawn Society are all shouting for the ‘liberation’ of their homeland.”

"A bunch of idiots, shouting this and that all day long. Although their voices are not quiet, they can't do anything except send out magic signals."

The two Black Sun Society mages looked down on their enemies. One of them laughed and said, "Ha, do these guys really think they're 'Shug Ernst'? They're just a bunch of cowardly cowards. Not only are they weak, but they're also incredibly stupid. If you ask me, their ideas and beliefs are even more elusive than the beliefs of those false gods!"

"That's right. If I could catch a few live members of the Dawn Society, I would definitely tie them up to the lab table and see what's wrong with their brains... Maybe that would suit the tastes of some of the great families!"

"That's how it should be, that's how it should be, haha."

Amidst their laughter and banter, the cigarette finally burned out, and the young soldier who had run outside the trench to relieve himself returned to the trench.

The mage who had previously said he was going back to sleep and rest immediately raised his hand and beckoned to the timid half-blood youth. As he approached, he instructed, "Soldier, listen... we're going to rest for a while. You and the others keep a close watch on the surroundings. If anything happens, sound the magic alarm. Understand?"

The young soldier seemed a little confused. He nodded and said, "I...I understand."

"Speak louder! How can we trust you if you're speaking so softly?"

Faced with the mages' reprimands, the young soldier jolted awake, immediately straightened up, and raised his voice: "Yes, I understand!!"

Seeing this, the two clerics nodded in satisfaction. Then they turned and walked toward the temporary room for resting deep in the trench. There they set up several magical rituals to keep warm. Although the overall conditions were still very difficult and rudimentary, it was much more comfortable to rest there than for ordinary soldiers.

However, they had only taken two steps when a slight, unusual sound suddenly came, followed by two silver spheres, each the size of a pebble, rolling towards them from behind.
Before the two could react, the two silver spheres suddenly split open in the narrow trench, and two thick clouds of silver mist quickly spread and merged, completely enveloping the figures of the two Black Sun Society mages.

One of the two mages had been a member of Merlinle and the Law Council, and he was very familiar with this strange silver mist. However, before he could utter the dangerous word "Demon Silver," a figure pounced on him from behind.

In the chaos, an incredibly sharp silver dagger pierced through from an extremely tricky angle, tearing apart the protective ritual covering the mage's body with several strikes. The attacker was none other than the previously timid young soldier.

However, this thin young man was like a different person now. His face, marked with frostbite, was filled with decisiveness and ruthlessness. With his extremely skillful fighting techniques, he slammed the Black Sun Society mage hard against the side of the trench. His specially made slender Demon-Slaying Silver Dagger swiftly slashed across the other man's neck, immediately creating a glaring bloody mark.

At this moment, the mage in front finally reacted. He rushed forward several steps and barely managed to break out of the magic-disrupting silver mist. He couldn't wait for his condition to fully recover, so he immediately tore off a page of a book engraved with lost magic and poured his still chaotic magic into it.

However, the young soldier who was the attacker reacted even faster. He suddenly flung his hand and threw the blood-stained Demon-Slaying Silver Dagger directly. The blade, which had a natural restraining and interfering effect on magic, slammed into the opponent's protective ritual, causing a violent shockwave.

Although the throw failed to harm the opponent, it did ultimately have some effect on hindering the operation of magic.

In this brief and precious break, the young soldier had already grasped an old-fashioned crystal gun in his hand. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger toward his target and fired the specially loaded bullet.

The sound produced by the old-fashioned crystal gun should have been extremely loud, but the hidden patterns secretly engraved on the barrel played a role at this moment, turning the originally deafening sound into a muffled thud.

The results, specially developed by the Vaan Magic Academy and provided to members of special organizations such as the Sword Hermitage and the Dawnblade, came into play at this moment. This special bullet, made of a mixture of high-concentration Magisterium powder and a small amount of magic crystals, was a weapon specifically designed for special combat personnel and snipers.

They are dangerous ideas extracted from the "mage archer" concept within the Voltel army, expensive consumables specifically designed for sniping and assassinating Black Sun Society spellcasters.

As the soldier pulled the trigger, the magical page engraved with ancient patterns began to take effect.

Those deadly and chilling black shadows and sharp limbs emerged from the patterns in the center of the pages, about to pierce the young soldier's body. However, as the bullet arrived, the structure of these black magical shadows was severely disrupted, and the silver bullet successfully passed through these terrible barriers, tore apart the magical pages that served as their foundation, and then pierced the body standing behind them.

The damp, cold morning air carried an added stench of blood.

Smelling the scent, the young soldier, who had just accomplished his objective, became alert. He took two steps and began to search the bodies of the two Black Sun Society mages who could have easily killed him.

Soon, he took out his sidearm, spellbook, crystal ore, and other items.

Footsteps came from the other side of the trench, and the young man immediately stood up and pointed his gun in the direction from which the sound came.

"It's me, Richard! Don't shoot, it's me!"

Hearing the other party's shout, the young man called Richard relaxed a little. He let out a heavy sigh of relief, but he couldn't put down his weapon. Instead, he kept aiming until the other party came into full view.

There were at least a dozen people in the trenches. Besides several familiar faces from within the Dawn Sword, there were nearly ten soldiers who looked somewhat panicked. They were all soldiers from the Kingdom of Saint Steel in this stronghold.

After nearly ten days of repeated contact, these soldiers, who had long been dissatisfied with the Black Sun Society, finally chose to cooperate with the Dawn Society.

After confirming that the person who had arrived was his comrade, Richard lowered his gun and nodded to him: "This side is taken care of... What about the other targets?"

"It's almost over, but there are two places where things might have gone wrong. I just heard intense gunfire coming from the southeast, so the situation might not be good."

Richard frowned upon hearing this.

The young agent, who had previously studied under Hugh for a period of time, had become extremely decisive. After a moment's thought, he made up his mind and said to his comrade, "If most of the objectives have been achieved, then proceed according to the original plan, prepare for the rendezvous, have the soldiers remove the crystal bombs targeting the vehicles and the hidden roadblocks, and send out the attack signal!"

Then, about twenty minutes later, another magical signal flew into the sky.

It looks like a common signal used within the Black Sun Society, except that the pattern it forms high in the sky is noticeably distorted—this is actually quite common; if the caster makes a mistake or is interfered with when sending the signal, it is difficult to maintain an accurate pattern.

As if trying to correct its own mistake, the distorted magical graphic was quickly removed and replaced by another general symbol, which read: "Suspect found and eliminated."

Richard stood in the trench, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, the cigarette still stained with blood.

This was what he found on the enemy he had killed. The cigarettes inside the Waterl army's stronghold did indeed smell very good, which made him feel extremely satisfied after lurking in the enemy's stronghold for some time.

Amidst the rising smoke, a muffled sound could be heard in the distance.

Immediately afterwards, the trajectories of the crystallized shells, symbolizing the judgment, streaked across the sky, utterly shattering the silence of the morning and rushing fervently toward their respective targets.

Soon, accompanied by a deafening roar, a blinding explosion of magical light erupted across the land. The thawing plain resembled a block of frost-covered jelly, trembling in the dim light. Then, the magical signals that had been destroyed countless times before reappeared in the sky—yellow, green, and a blinding red…

Such rays of light created a strange scene, in which the slender trees standing on the plains and hills cast their own dry shadows.

They were fortunate enough to witness this battle.

(End of this chapter)