The black sun hangs high

Chapter 431 "Hiccup"

The dense queue moved forward with disordered footsteps.

The debris and remains were broken apart by the high frequency of trampling and crushing, and then merged into an indistinguishable whole.

Soon, the group came into contact with their target, and a fierce battle ensued.

Hugh stood beside a giant rock at the foot of a hill, completely concealing himself in its hollow. He gazed silently into the distance, observing the strange and absurd battle.

The scene that Hugh was witnessing was completely different from any of the predation and fighting between the creatures of the Dark Abyss that he had ever seen before, because the two sides involved in this battle seemed to be completely different from the Dark Abyss creatures he had seen before.

If we broadly categorize the bizarre creations that permeate this world as entities formed from a high concentration of dark abyssal mist and power, then these writhing shadows are more like a pitiful, incomplete, and unfinished product.

They are even more incomplete than the Dark Abyss offspring that destroyed the city of Seren. With his magical vision and perception, Hugh could clearly sense the fragility and instability within these shadows. They are like newborns in this world, or like fragments from some behemoth. Every simple movement, every collision or contact could bring about serious changes or even collapse.

Even so, the aggressive desire of these shadows has not diminished in the slightest.

Hughes watched as these shadows, clearly divided into two "camps," clashed violently together. Their fighting style was as crude and simple as they were; there was no manipulation of magic or any skill involved. They were simply using their precarious strength to collide.

The battle had only been raging for a few seconds when a large amount of dark abyss mist began to drift across this "battlefield," swirling in the air as if trying to continue their unfinished fight.

"If nothing unexpected happens, Vaan should be at war right now."

Theseus's voice rang out in Hugh's mind at just the right moment: "You're quite lucky to have encountered... Look, what you see are actually one of the forms of 'prey' and 'food' captured by the Dark Abyss, or you can directly regard them as fragments of souls and wills, only they are extremely thin and fragile."

"You mean, hounds and similar creatures are hunting in Vaan right now?"

"The Dark Abyss Court has a great many methods for capturing prey and replenishing its own strength, and the 'Great Hunt' that we always talk about is just the most grand form of it."

Theseus explained, “Actually, the mere gaze and illumination of the black sun is enough to draw in and attract the souls of the dead… If I’m not mistaken, there should be a war going on inside Vaan right now, and it’s not small-scale; it might even be a full-scale attack.”

"How do you judge?"

"Of course, it's determined by the number of these fragments."

Theseus's tone rarely revealed seriousness and rigor: "The fragments of souls forcibly absorbed by the Black Sun are not concentrated in one place in the Abyss; they are always scattered throughout the Abyss, presenting an overall uniform distribution..."

"So, what I saw was only a part of those fragments of souls?"

"To be precise, it's a very, very, very small portion."

Theseus used "rarely" three times in a row to emphasize his tone, and then he continued: "The 'nutritional value' of these fragments cannot be compared with the spoils of the 'Great Hunt,' but in any case, it is a kind of nourishment for the Dark Abyss... I'm afraid it won't be long before all the Dark Abyss creatures hidden nearby are attracted by this food."

"So I should leave early, right?"

"What are you in a hurry for?"

Theseus laughed and said, "Rather than leave this food to those scourges, we should strike first."

Hearing this, Hugh paused slightly, then asked uncertainly, "You mean..."

"Just like you did back in Seren City, you devoured all the power and memories that came to you... While eating scraps and crumbs might be a bit disgusting, inside the Dark Abyss, this is the most important way to increase your own strength."

At this point, Theseus added, "Although these absorbed fragments are very broken, they ultimately originate from a complete soul and will. Therefore, you might be able to find some memories within them, which will help you understand Vaan's current situation."

Upon hearing this, Hugh immediately perked up.

Although he was currently trapped in the Dark Abyss, he was extremely concerned and worried about the situation around Watchtower City, since the organizations and people he cared about were gathered around Watchtower City at this time.

Logically speaking, that was the most likely place to become the main battlefield.

"Okay, so what should I do? Just go up and attack them?"

"No need for that complicated process. These fragments haven't been completely assimilated by the Dark Abyss yet, and they will still follow the basic rules of magic... You just need to relax your body, clear your mind, expose your position, and then accept them as you would accept normal magic."

Hugh nodded, then stepped out of his hiding place. After observing his surroundings and confirming that there were no other Dark Abyss creatures active nearby, he immediately followed Theseus's instructions, removing all the Dark Abyss mist that enveloped his body and quickly entering a state close to "meditation".

The impact of this move is enormous.

The moment Hugh removed his defenses, the tangled shadows became aware of it, and their fighting and confrontation ceased. As Hugh entered a state of heightened awareness, the mist floating above these shadows was immediately drawn in, surging towards Hugh as if flowing through a bottomless pit.

A chilling sensation enveloped Hugh's body and consciousness in an instant. This feeling was very uncomfortable, reminding Hugh of his terrifying experience when he was first attacked by the Dark Abyss Spawns. However, he quickly overcame this discomfort. Just as Theseus had said, these powers were incomplete and disordered. Although their total amount was considerable, they were very easy to deal with without unified command. With just a little guidance, he successfully absorbed these foreign, cold magical energies into his own magical circuits, followed by rapid assimilation and fusion.

At that moment, Hughes inexplicably felt a sense of fullness.

It was as if he were drawing magic directly from a huge underground crystal mine.

As magic surged in, fragmented images and sounds were projected into Hugh's mind.

Theseus's judgment was very accurate. Most of these fragmented memories were related to the war. In these memory fragments, Hugh could see the clouds and mist produced by the magic explosion, hear the dense machine gun fire, and even hear people shouting and the miserable sounds of bodies being cut and pierced by shrapnel.

It is clear that these fragments of souls and wills absorbed by the black sun mostly belong to the soldiers who died on the battlefield.

Unfortunately, Hughes currently has no way to immediately sort and organize these chaotic and fragmented messages. Faced with the cold magic that keeps flooding into his body, he can only adopt an old strategy he used to use in the past—that is, to carve out an area in his mental ocean and put all these chaotic messages into it.

Hugh had used this strategy many times before when dealing with the Dark Abyss offspring.

With the experience he had accumulated in the past, he was fully capable of separating out the messy information mixed in with magic with extremely high efficiency.

As more and more magical mist was drawn to Hugh, the entangled shadows began to change further. They began to collapse and disintegrate on their own, exploding into clumps of dark mist. Before long, the strange and chaotic "battlefield" was gone, leaving only the mist containing rich power still drifting and lingering there.

Such mist held an overwhelming attraction for the creatures of the Dark Abyss, and soon, the first predator appeared.

It was an "old acquaintance" of Hugh's, a massive, robust Dark Abyss Spider with two enormous pincers. Its attention was entirely focused on these incredibly precious "foods," so the moment it appeared, it recklessly pounced on the mist, opened its mouthparts, and began to eat almost frantically.

Immediately afterwards, several more Dark Abyss creatures that Shug had seen on his journey appeared, most of them being "natives" of this wasteland.

Unlike typical hunters like the Dark Abyss Spider, these creatures are mostly humble "scavengers" who survive on the remnants of their souls and wills. Although they are extremely greedy for the delicious "food" in front of them, their instinctive caution also makes them only dare to stay at the edge of the misty area to draw power.

Soon, more creatures revealed themselves, including several Dark Abyss Hounds traveling together. They were small in size, and their eyes on both sides of their long, narrow heads were mostly closed. This meant that they were actually "young members" who had left the Dark Abyss Palace and their own kind to go out on their own. It was precisely because of this that these hounds did not immediately clash with the spiders on the other side.

This scenario is bizarre, yet also reasonable.

At this delicate moment, the oppressive Dark Abyss and the bright Vaan surprisingly resembled each other—distorted creatures gathered beside the drifting magical clouds to draw power, just as on the Vaan plains, ferocious carnivores and docile herbivores shared a pond.

Unfortunately, this brief tranquility was soon violently shattered.

The creatures of the Dark Abyss, who were seizing the opportunity to nourish themselves, suddenly discovered that the precious food that should have been enough for them to enjoy for a very long time was decreasing at an extremely exaggerated rate. Upon realizing this, the violent hunters, who had finally shown a calm demeanor, immediately became restless again. They either began to let out threatening roars or began to look around, trying to find the culprit who had broken the tacit agreement and attempted to seize the food.

Soon, they successfully pinpointed the approximate location of their target using the flow of magic.

At the same time, Hugh's absorption of this magic power reached its peak. The metal disc, which served as the carrier of power, also began to rotate. The invisible power seeped into the intricate gears and structures like lubricating grease, making the rotation of the metal disc exceptionally smooth and increasing the speed at which it absorbed power from the surroundings.

Before the creatures of the Dark Abyss could react, the last remaining magical mist in that "battlefield" was as if it had been siphoned away, surging towards the direction where Hugh was. Before they could react further, it completely disappeared from their perception.

As it turns out, even these dark creations, composed of pure negative emotions and the mists of the abyss, will fall into a state of stagnation when faced with such a sudden change. However, after a brief period of stagnation, their purest nature will emerge.

The massive, robust spider was the first to erupt.

The reason it ventured far from its own kind was to obtain as much prey as possible. This was the key to its breaking through its own limitations and becoming a new pillar of the group. However, now, the precious opportunity that was right in front of it has vanished, which is enough to make this quite intelligent creature indignant.

Using its senses, the spider finally located its target, which made it ecstatic. It suddenly realized that the creature that dared to break the rules and steal its food was itself a "delicious" food in this wasteland.

A strong sense of hunger surged up, and it couldn't wait to extend its pincers, tear open the darkness before it, and leap into it.

The next instant, the space in front of Hugh was violently torn open, and then the ferocious body of the Dark Abyss Spider emerged from it, its blade-like limbs raised high, about to pierce through Hugh's head and body.

However, as if he had foreseen it, Hugh suddenly opened his closed eyes at this moment, and several black tentacles made of pure dark abyssal magic suddenly appeared beside him. They twisted together and, like huge spears, pierced forward fiercely, completely penetrating the body covered by the hard carapace of the dark abyssal spider before its limbs could fall.

"Click..."

With a crisp sound, the "rift" closed, and the Dark Abyss Spider's body split in two. The Dark Abyss Mist that escaped from it was absorbed by Xiuge.

"Uh……"

Under the watchful eyes of countless ferocious creatures, Hugh let out a somewhat uncomfortable burp.

He accidentally ate too much.

(End of this chapter)