Chapter 76 I Am His Accomplice

"...Why do you want to do this?"

Salvatore lowered his gaze.

His voice seemed a little choked: "Even... I will still follow your path, Teacher."

In the blazing sea of ​​flames, Salvatore felt his chest tightened by an invisible force, and his nose felt a little sour.

He deeply felt his own powerlessness.

At that moment, he seemed to have returned to his childhood.

He stood in front of his grandfather's hospital bed, watching his grandfather die gradually in bewilderment, but he couldn't do anything.

He has no way to relieve his grandfather's pain, nor can he cure his grandfather's disease. He can only try his best to wipe his grandfather with a wet towel, other than that, all he can do is accompany.

Quietly watch death come, don't hide, don't run away.

Just watched quietly, the fire of life gradually extinguished...

It's not a sudden switch between "life" and "death" like when you are attacked or killed by someone.

Death is like layers of veils, falling from the sky and gradually enveloping people. I don't know when, I was shocked to realize that the body had already turned into a temperatureless, empty chrysalis shell.

Salvatore didn't even know the exact time of his grandfather's death—his grandfather was nearly unconscious in the early morning. But he is still not dead.

Because even his own fingers became cold from constant contact with the water... He couldn't realize when Grandpa's body started to cool down.

In the end, when the sunset was setting, when the dim yellow sunset light shone on Grandpa's bloodless face, he realized belatedly that... at some point, Grandpa had already died.

At that time, Salvatore was not yet ten years old, and he did not understand what death meant.

But he deeply remembered the feeling of being powerless in the face of other people's pain.

This is the initial impetus that pushed Salvatore to embark on the path of a wizard.

"If I just watch you die like this and do nothing...it will violate my deepest desire. I think this will definitely hinder me when I advance to gold...You must not want to ?”

Salvatore said softly: "So, can you tell me? I just want to know-why do you want to do this?"

Even if it is death.

However, even the soul is ignited, the body is cracked by the high temperature, and flames emerge from the cracks...and dying peacefully surrounded by everyone are two completely different situations.

——In the most sober situation, watching myself being burned to ashes alive.

The vitality of a golden-rank transcendent can keep him from dying immediately even if half of his body is burned. He can still have a clear mind and the ability to cast spells-and he obviously has a way to stop his pain.

Whether it is to end one's own life immediately, or to put out the fire, it can be done.

But just watching the flames slowly burn him to death... This is undoubtedly the most painful punishment.

If there is hell in this world, it is the torture that only the sinners can bear.

But Hugo is a great kind person.

Since Hugo was a teenager, he devoted all his talents and energy to helping others.

Even for a villain like Bernardino, Hugo can wholeheartedly help him out of his predicament and become friends with him. During the period when Hugo became the master of the tower, he did not know how many inventions he created and optimized, which brought great convenience to people and greatly improved the lives of millions of mortals.

And he himself has taught many excellent students, and they all try their best to help others in their respective fields. If this can also be regarded as Hugo's achievements, Hugo can be said to be the "best person" in the world.

...But why does such a good person suffer such pain at the end of his life?

"—Sarl."

Hugo, which has collapsed in half, is still not dead.

His right arm collapsed from his shoulder, and the face of the young man who was originally full of youth became old due to dehydration, and the head with the right eye as the center collapsed inward.

Inside was a faint red flame, and the sunken face had turned into ashes.

"When I was young, I saw two old gentlemen who I probably knew well in the streets of the United Kingdom. I don't know why they started a duel."

He looked at Salvatore with that broken and asymmetrical body, and without moving his lips, he made an unusually dry and rough voice: "They are all extraordinary... although their rank is not high. , are all Bronze Rank, but they are indeed all Transcendents."

Bronze-rank transcendents, if the erosion rate is not so high, their bodies are much better than ordinary people of the same age. Because their physiques are different from ordinary people after all.

"At that time, they were probably really angry—they tried their best to raise their swords and attack each other with the sword skills they used to be good at.

"But because their bodies have become bloated and aging, they haven't touched weapons for a long time, and their movements are deformed to a funny level. Because the swordsmanship is too ugly, not only can't attack the enemy correctly, but they almost cut them several times Myself... Even if it is a person who has never used a sword, just slashing or even slapping with a sword is much more useful than this kind of gaudy and ugly swordsmanship.

"In the end, the two old men were stopped by their children before they could decide the outcome. One of them sprained his waist, and the other was paralyzed. The people around were laughing at their antics and watched with relish.

"But I feel sad for them. I can see that they were indeed masters of swordsmanship-or at least they have learned swordsmanship seriously. However, it is not for the elderly to prepare swordsmanship, after their bodies become old. At that time, these experiences harmed them instead.

"Who is wrong in the end? I think that swordsmanship and people should be right, but the problem is also not 'aging', but because of ignorance - the wrong experience is even more deadly than the lack of this experience. Only the deadliest of mistakes can break their old self-confidence and wake them up... Times have changed, not the same as they used to be.

"But how much will it cost? How many misjudgments will there be in the middle?"

Hugo calmly narrated the scene he saw when he was young.

For his wonderful life as a wizard tower master and a golden-rank transcendent... this should have been just a very short episode.

But Hugo remembered it all his life.

"I have known since then that the experience brought by the years is not completely beneficial. When I am out of the front line, it means that the judgment I use on the old experience may be wrong at any time.

"I thought that Bernardino would not do anything outrageous to Zedi Heita because of my friendship with him...so I let him in.

"But I was wrong. I'm still wrong."

Hugo sighed.

Just by making that movement, his jaw fell off.

It ignited in the air and turned into a smear of ashes.

The red-and-black boy is like a burnt firewood... from the outside to the gray-white embers.

"I thought... I was wary enough of this. I've been wary of having wrong, old experiences from a long time ago. But I still fail."

"Your classmates, mentors...they died because of my wrong judgment."

After the old black tower was destroyed, although Hugo didn't say anything. But he has always regarded it as his responsibility in his heart.

"It was I who rescued Bernardino from the Tower of Black Glory... I was the one who taught him spells and the principles of life; it was I who let him go and let him pursue the freedom of life; , finally put him back.

"This is indeed Bernardino's crime...but I am his accomplice."

At this time, Hugo's face had become extremely old.

He had lost his eyes, their pupils burning dimly like jewels. His skin was dry from dehydration, and his face had more and deeper wrinkles than Bernardino's.

Hugo, who had turned into an old man, made a dry and hoarse voice that was the same as Bernardino's voice: "I... can't forget.

"I'll never forget it."