The black sun hangs high

Chapter 296 Passing on a Message
Pustules, haphazardly growing lumps of flesh, serpentine tendrils that writhe constantly, and unformed, twisted limbs...

At that moment, Hugh felt as if the deep-sea creatures he had seen in his dreams had successfully crossed the boundaries of time and space and were now truly before him.

The nauseating smell became extremely strong, and even the fishermen who lived by the sea all year round couldn't help but gag, because this was not the smell that normal marine life should have, but rather the stench of a rotting corpse.

As the giant fish leaped out of the water, the fishing nets that were originally submerged were also pulled by the enormous force. Several sailors who were trying to control the nets could not stop and fell on the dock. One of them even fell into the water because he could not control his balance.

The specially treated net remained sturdy, but the wooden pegs used to secure it on the dock finally gave way under the weight and snapped with a sharp crack.

Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, Hugh and Veraine, who had already gone ashore, immediately took action.

Caution and prudence have always been important principles for Vilin. Therefore, even though she was extremely curious about these mutated biological samples, she still chose the safest approach in this emergency.

Ice-blue magical light and shadow erupted in front of her in an instant, and dense and complex magical lines formed in the blink of an eye. The cold magic imprinted in her memory was perfectly executed at an astonishing speed. The extreme cold spread rapidly forward along the wooden dock and the nearby sea surface, and the clean white frost turned into sharp knives, rushing straight towards the ferocious figure in mid-air.

On the other side, as Hugh's cane struck the ground, several dark gaps were immediately torn open in the space around him by an invisible force, and then the Touch of Karljun surged out from inside the gaps.

Hugh did not want to reveal the most ferocious aspect of his power to these soldiers and civilians, so he deliberately used the Dark Abyss Mist to completely cover his Karron Touch.

Therefore, in the eyes of the onlookers in the distance, the young male mage seemed to have used magic to summon several "snakes" made of shadows. They swiftly swept towards the panicked Dawn Soldier sailors, easily bringing them to safety. The unfortunate man who had accidentally fallen into the water was also rescued at the same time—two Kallon's Tentacles precisely wrapped around his body in the cold seawater and quickly pulled him onto the dock.

The deformed giant fish that had leaped into the air had already fallen, but the water beneath its body was already frozen solid. With a muffled thud, its entire body crashed onto the newly formed ice surface. However, its astonishing weight did not completely break through the ice, but only created a series of cracks.

Seeing that Hugh had successfully rescued the panicked sailors, Vera's strategy immediately changed. The frost that had been deliberately avoiding the sailors suddenly erupted, and the "Frosty Pool" instantly turned the waters at the edge of the dock into a world of ice and frost. A large number of sharp ice spikes gathered together, forming a semi-open cage that trapped the large fish that was struggling and writhing on the ice in the center.

However, in the next instant, this deformed fish demonstrated to everyone present its behavior, which was completely different from that of ordinary fish.

Several huge abscesses on its body suddenly burst open, and then a large number of fleshy tendrils of varying thickness emerged from these openings. They intertwined with each other and forcibly formed temporary limbs, supporting the monster fish's enormous body off the ice.

However, the ice surface, stained with seawater, was extremely slippery, and the strange fish was unable to move freely for a while. It struggled desperately in place, but the sharp ice spikes summoned by Virin could not penetrate its flesh at all. In the extremely violent impact and struggle of the strange fish, these gathered ice spikes broke one after another, and the coldness that tried to climb onto the body of the strange fish was quickly melted away by the strange mucus that was constantly secreted by its body.

For a moment, Veraine was unable to use her "Frosty Pool" to bind and restrict her target.

Hugh stared at the struggling, strange figure for a moment, then walked over to Veraine's side and asked in a low voice, "Should we take it alive?"

"most."

Having received an affirmative answer, Hugh immediately took action. As the Black Sun Scepter swayed, more of the Touch of Calron appeared. Under Hugh's deliberate control, sharp blades of varying lengths extended from their ends and stabbed down rapidly from different angles.

Hugh's target was very clear. Karron's Touch was not aimed at the strange fish's body, but at the fleshy tendrils that were helping it gain control of its body. With extremely rapid slashes and hacks, these twisted tissues were cut off one by one, and foul-smelling bodily fluids flowed from the cuts. The giant fish fell back onto the ice and began a new round of struggle.

Veraine reacted just as quickly.

After seeing that Hugh had successfully contained the giant fish's struggles, she immediately began to mobilize the frost in the "Frosty Pool" and caused these extremely cold ice crystals to begin to shrink towards the center. This time, instead of forming sharp ice spikes and blades, they overlapped with each other, forming four incredibly solid walls.

Faced with the predicament, the giant fish did not give up struggling. It seemed to have infinite strength and continued to fight against the surrounding Karron Touch. During this process, Hugh noticed that this strange fish, whose body length had exceeded that of a normal adult, was actually a parrotfish!

It is a very famous ornamental fish among the Vaal fish, especially popular in the Water Plateau. Many nobles or big merchants like to keep parrotfish, and generally, people consider bright red parrotfish to be the best.

However, parrotfish are supposed to live in warm waters with coral reefs. While the coast of the Principality of Burt is not exactly cold, it is certainly not warm either. Their hard beaks, which they use to nibble on shrimp, crabs, shellfish, and corals like parrots, could not possibly sever the hard, keratinized tentacles of Calron so easily.

Then, two semi-transparent roots of destiny appeared inside the ice wall constructed by Virin. In the next instant, a strange illusion directly targeting perception and spirit was immediately applied to this mutated parrotfish, enveloping and covering all its senses.

However, this time, the roots of fate, which had never made a mistake before, seemed to have lost their effectiveness.

They couldn't even hide themselves from the parrotfish. Just two seconds after the illusion was successfully constructed, the extremely ferocious and violent deformed fish sensed their presence. As it twisted its body, a row of sharp spines derived from its fins swept out. Hugh felt a slight stinging pain in his brain, and the Destiny Roots he had just summoned were instantly split in two.

After that, more pustules on the parrotfish's body surface began to burst, and new barbels and twisted limbs grew out. This time, they had undergone a new change; they began to have the characteristics of sharp claws and tried to use them to fix their bodies in place.

Unfortunately, despite the astonishing nature of this evolution, the parrotfish's power ultimately failed to break through the limits of those ferocious magical creatures. With the rapid cutting of Karron's Touch and the continuous shrinking of Virin's cold cage, the parrotfish's range of movement was finally compressed to its limit. As Virin clenched her fist, the ice and snow gathered nearby surged upwards.

Having witnessed the strange fish's incredible resilience, she decided to seal this important specimen directly inside the cold ice and snow to prevent any further mishaps. As the temperature continued to drop, the parrotfish's struggles began to weaken noticeably. Just as the frost was about to completely seal the entire "cage," it began a new round of mutations.

Several extremely gruesome cracks suddenly appeared on the parrotfish's body surface, from which foul-smelling pus and blood flowed continuously. As these cracks opened and closed, Hugh, who was standing on the wooden dock, suddenly felt a buzzing in his mind. The metal disc that had been rotating at a constant speed seemed to get stuck and stopped for the first time.

In that brief moment of distraction, a twisted and eerie pattern slowly appeared before Hugh's eyes.

He had seen similar “words” countless times in the dream sanctuary.

This is exactly the kind of living texture that looks like it was created by randomly splashing and twisting ink.

Hugh didn't recognize the characters, but when the twisting patterns "fixed," a clear sentence that Hugh could understand emerged from the depths of his consciousness.

It seemed to be a question, constructed in a somber and oppressive tone, carrying extremely strong and distorted emotions.

However, before Hugh could fully comprehend the sentence, he suddenly felt someone shake his body forcefully.

The hallucinatory visions quickly faded, and Hughes snapped out of his daze. The ethereal and strange sounds disappeared from his ears, replaced by cheers and shouts from the soldiers and fishermen who had gathered nearby.

"what happened to you?"

Hugh's gaze lowered slightly, and then he saw that Vera was standing in front of him, her brows furrowed, one hand on her shoulder, nervously observing Hugh's eyes.

"Thank goodness... I'm alright."

Hugh twitched the corner of his mouth and breathed a slight sigh of relief. He shifted his gaze slightly and saw that more Dawn Society mages had arrived. With the help of the sailors, they were slowly lifting the giant fish that had been frozen into an ice block by Virin. Before long, the fish would be sent to the temporary laboratory next door so that the mages and scholars could observe and dissect it.

Hugh's observation of the strange fish didn't last long, as Verin blocked his way. The female mage clearly didn't believe what Hugh had just said. She squinted and looked Hugh up and down before asking, "You were clearly in a daze just now. You suffered a mental shock, didn't you?"

Just as Hugh was about to explain, Vera loosened her grip, took a step back, and sighed, "Never mind, I guess it's related to your secrets again, right?"

This time, however, Hugh did not intend to hide anything. He thought for a moment and then said, "Before you completely froze it, it seemed to use magic or some other method to convey some words to me... Unfortunately, I didn't have time to understand them."

"what?"

Hearing Hugh say that, Vera raised an eyebrow in surprise: "Well, I thought you'd just make up some excuse like before..."

Hughes was speechless.

Perhaps because Hugh himself had explained the whole story, Vera didn't delve too deeply into it this time: "Alright, let's continue our discussion once you understand what the fish was saying."

As she spoke, she pointed to the giant fish being transported to the other side of the dock and said, "Let's follow them and ask those soldiers what happened... I never expected to see a monster this size at the dock. In my opinion, Darswell will probably have to move those heavy machine guns closer to the coastline."

So the two left the dock one after the other. As they passed by the fishermen who had gathered to watch, they were greeted with cheers. It seemed that the scene of the two young mages working together to deal with the giant fish had given the fishermen, who were in a state of panic, some encouragement.

However, Hugh had no time to enjoy the praise and cheers of others. He waved his hand hastily, gave a brief response to the fishermen, and warned them not to go out to sea as much as possible. Then, Hugh caught up with Vera and shook his head vigorously.

Deep in his mind, those eerie words still lingered.

During a break in his journey, Hughes diverted some of his attention and once again immersed himself in his mental world.

He saw that the twisted, strange patterns were floating in the void above the metal disc, and the Karron's Touches, which usually liked to hide in their own grooves, seemed to sense something this time and emerged from their dwellings, gathering around the patterns.

As Hugh's attention continued to focus, the patterns once again began to change in relation to the sound.

Finally, the gloomy and strange sound echoed in Hugh's ears once again.

Like a victim's angry curse and declaration of revenge, the voice slowly addressed Hugh: "Despicable ants hiding in the conspiracy... are you prepared to betray us a second time?"

(End of this chapter)