The black sun hangs high

Chapter 193 Times Change

Countless facts have proven that well-intentioned advice is not always effective.

Especially when the person in question is already somewhat abnormal, the act of persuasion becomes even more meaningless.

Even before the disaster, the members of the Tricolor Brotherhood were no longer considered "normal people," especially the core members, whose backgrounds and pasts were not pure. Although some of them were praised as "romantic thieves" by the poor, ultimately, they did things that went beyond the law and rules, and in the process, offenses to the safety of others occurred frequently.

The chaos in Seren City has allowed the nature and instincts of these tomb raiders, thieves, robbers, and assassins to be unleashed to their fullest extent.

Judging from their tracking, ambushes, and the weapons they carried, these guys have probably tried to ambush spellcasters more than once.

These guys even carried a rather inferior secret device. Although the device was rudimentary, it could conceal their aura to some extent. Even Hugh almost didn't notice their presence. However, Hugh's detection methods were not limited to magic perception. The scattered swarms of magical rats monitored almost the entire area around him.

These Brotherhood of Tricolor ambushers probably had no idea that while they were setting up their ambush in the store, a few rats had been watching them for ages.

In their eyes, although the magic was incredibly powerful, the identity of the spellcaster was clearly not enough to deter them. Therefore, when Hugh's threatening voice came, they immediately raised their crystal guns and pulled the triggers in Hugh's direction.

"Boom!"

Hugh, who was closely watching the movements of these ambushers, forcefully slammed his metal cane into the ground the instant they made a firing motion. With a crisp sound, the Stream-class "Magic Arrow Refraction" was instantly constructed.

This is a spell that Hugh practiced intensively before going to the battlefield. Its prototype was actually a general protective spell researched by Merlinler and the Wizarding Society. However, with the adjustments and improvements made by the pragmatic Voltel people, this spell became more suitable for complex battlefield environments and could provide very effective protection against crystal bullets that posed a deadly threat to the caster. At close range, the magic power of the ritual itself was even enough to deflect or even reverse incoming magic bullets.

The magic that the council had developed for the war had never disappointed Hugh.

This time is no exception.

The crystal bullets that flew out from the dark shop passed through the swirling flames, but just as they were about to hit Hugh's body, they were successfully interfered with and deflected by the constantly operating ritual. Some of the bullets exploded on the spot because their internal magic had fallen into a disordered and chaotic state, while the rest flew out randomly in other directions and crashed into the walls of the street and other buildings.

After two rounds of firing, an alchemical bomb was suddenly thrown from the side. It exploded in mid-air, creating a large cloud of thick magical smoke. In the next instant, several extremely ruthless and highly experienced assassins decisively rushed over through the smoke. Without exception, they all held blades made of grimace silver, and the one in front even held a grimace silver shield.

Their choice greatly surprised Hugh.

These people were clearly very familiar with magic and spellcasters. Even though I had revealed my identity as a mage of the Stream level or above, I still couldn't intimidate them in the slightest. They even overcame their fear and panic when facing magic in a very short time and boldly began their hunting operation.

Sensing the dense footsteps echoing through the smoke, Hugh felt a strange sense of melancholy.

When he last faced an attack from the Brotherhood of Three Colors, he had only recently mastered magic, and at that time, Ernst's old mansion hadn't even been burned down yet...

"It's different now..."

He murmured a sigh.

These enemies in front of him had clearly targeted the wrong target. This kind of sudden attack, which would be very effective against an ordinary spellcaster, was destined to have no effect on him.

In fact, in the entire Vaan today, apart from outliers like the sword-wielding hermit, Shug is already one of the mages with the highest frequency of close combat.

With a snap of his fingers, a surge of air erupted from the magic runes on Hugh's fingertips. Supported by ample magic power, the small magic spell that could only create a gentle breeze expanded into a fierce whirlwind. The magical smoke surrounding Hugh was immediately blown away, exposing all enemies who attempted to charge at him.

Facing the guy who was charging ahead and trying to use the Demon-Slaying Silver Shield to draw fire for his companions, Hughes raised his hand and unleashed a "Brain Spike".

This kind of universal magic, which is enough to impact the caster's mind, is even more effective on ordinary people. The strong man who was holding a shield dropped his silver shield the moment he was hit by the invisible magic and fell to the ground clutching his head.

The next instant, a perfectly executed "limb destruction spell" was completed. Semi-transparent arms appeared beside the burly man, and in front of everyone, they lifted him up. Then, these arms gripped the man's limbs tightly and twisted them in different directions.

With a series of cracking sounds, his strong limbs were snapped on the spot, and the incapacitated body was carelessly abandoned on the ground, left to writhe and howl in agony.

At that moment, a villain wielding a short-barreled crystal gun and a silver sword had arrived at Hugh's flank. He pulled the trigger forcefully at Hugh, and without checking whether the bullet hit, he raised his sword and thrust it forward.

Faced with this attack, Hugh did not use any of the abilities from the Dream Sanctuary. He did not even continue to construct the protective ritual. Instead, relying on his instinct, which had been transformed from his memories, he took a step back and avoided the thrusting blade.

At the same time, Hugh's mage hand, imbued with potent poison, suddenly appeared, blocking the other person's path. Before the other could react, the dark green magic hand swiftly reached out and pressed directly onto their face, unleashing its terrifying corrosive power.

Hugh didn't even bother to glance at the outcome on the other side. With a flick of his wrist, the cold Black Sun Scepter instantly transformed into a blunt weapon in his hand, deflecting the incoming sword on the spot. Then, as his body spun, he forcefully smashed the metal scepter, striking the nose of the villain wielding the sword. Hugh could even hear the sound of the other man's nasal bone shattering with the impact.

The dull yet realistic impact feedback made Hugh feel happy.

"That should be enough."

Hughes silently calculated in his mind, then vigorously shook the cold staff stained with a little blood. A series of magic runes immediately took shape, and two more limb destruction spells, which seemed extremely cruel to onlookers, took effect.

In the blink of an eye, two more gruesome human figures lay on the ground, their limbs twisted and howling in agony. Inside the shop, two more members of the Tricolor Brotherhood attempted to fire, but this time, Hugh showed them no mercy. In the slowly dissipating magical smoke, two long whips made of flames coiled out like venomous snakes, precisely wrapping around the bodies and necks of the two men.

Thus, all those who were still alive witnessed an extremely horrific torture.

Hugh, who had instantly decided the fate of the two men with magical flames, appeared extremely calm at this moment.

Having already fought on the battlefield and personally taken countless lives, he can now face everything before him with the utmost composure.

Soon, all the Brotherhood of Three Colors who had originally intended to ambush Hugh gave up resistance in the face of this unavoidable threat of death. They came to the street trembling and, as Hugh had asked, threw down all their weapons and stood obediently in a row.

The Brotherhood member responsible for carrying the cryptex was clearly not being honest; he hid it in his clothes, seemingly hoping to evade Hugh's screening. However, Hugh had already located the guy using his swarm of magical rats.

The mage's hand immediately flew over, directly lifting his coat and forcibly removing the secret ritual that the Brotherhood members used to conceal their aura and presence.

Amidst the continuous wails and groans, Hugh took the occult artifact, crafted into the shape of a pocket watch, from the mage's hand and held it before him. He immediately discovered that the object was actually quite crude. Although it could indeed conceal magical perception, it was merely a cleverly crafted device that had been disassembled from some alchemical instrument and fixed to this pocket watch along with several magical crystals.

In other words, it cannot be considered a secret ritual at all.

At most, it's just an alchemical component that can barely isolate magic under the supply of magic. Such components are common in those sophisticated alchemical tools and are generally used to protect some relatively fragile alchemical materials from being contaminated by other magic.

Having discerned the true nature of the pocket watch, Hughes lifted it up and gently shook it in front of the Brotherhood members: "Where did this come from?"

"..."

When Hugh asked his question, the others all gave him a look that said, "Don't ask me, I don't know." But then, they all turned their attention to the man who had attacked Hugh with the Demon-Slaying Silver Sword. He was still lying on the ground, the pain of his limbs being broken was tormenting his nerves, and his cries were already weak.

Seeing this, Hugh snapped his fingers and cast the "Limb Restoration Spell," which corresponds to the "Limb Destruction Spell." A green healing light immediately enveloped the man, and a moment later, amidst a series of teeth-grinding cracking sounds, the man's twisted limbs returned to their original state.

Before Hugh could ask another question, the man, who was already tortured to the point of near death, shouted his answer to Hugh's question.

"We bought it! We bought it!"

Because of the blunt force trauma and intense pain, the man's voice was completely distorted, and coupled with his heavy accent from the area around Seren, Hugh almost couldn't understand him.

However, this answer was not satisfactory. After hearing his words, Hugh slowly walked up to the man, raised his blood-stained metal cane, pointed it directly at the face of the man who had not yet gotten up, and said slowly, "You mean... members of the Tricolor Brotherhood are buying things in the current city of Seren?"

As if to make sure the other person could hear what he was saying, Hugh deliberately slowed down his speech, but every word that came out of his mouth was like a brick being smashed on the other person's head.

As he asked his question, the terrifying metal cane continued to dangle in front of his face, its sharp, nail-like tip constantly grazing the man's face, eyes, and his broken, deformed nose with each of Hugh's movements.

"No...it's not free! It's an exchange, it's an exchange!"

Under that invisible pressure, the man could barely control his bladder. While dodging the cane that could pierce his eye socket at any moment, he hissed as he replied, "It's the owner of an alchemy shop, a big ogre! He has a big appetite and wants to eat a lot. We traded two whole cans of food for this!"

"An alchemy shop? Ogres?"

The moment he heard those words, Hugh's expression became complicated.

There are quite a few alchemy shops in Seren, but if you were to ask which shop owner could be associated with the word "ogre," it would probably be the "alchemy thief" shop that Sally had introduced to her before.

Suddenly hearing the name of an acquaintance he had crossed paths with before, Hugh couldn't help but raise his eyebrows: "Are you talking about Boss Gerald?"

"Yes, yes... that's him!"

The man answered hastily, so excited that he accidentally spat out a mouthful of blood, which was extremely disgusting.

Hugh quickly moved his cane aside a little, then asked, "Well, where is this Mr. Gerald now? He can't still be in his shop, can he?"

"He... he's sided with General Boots and is working for Iris Street and those soldiers... Now that he has a powerful backer, it's not so easy for ordinary people to find him."

Seeing that Hugh's attitude seemed to have softened, a quick-witted Brotherhood member immediately chimed in, "Moreover, General Butts and his men took almost all the stock from the alchemy shops in the city. Now Iris Street has practically everything!"

"Oh? They have everything? That sounds good."

Upon hearing this, Hughes grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth.

(End of this chapter)