Chapter 77: 0 Good and 1 Sin

"I have done a hundred good deeds in my life and saved one sin. At the end of my life, I committed an unforgivable crime. I would rather die before that... only for this sin to suffer the fire of my soul, That's what I'm really hoping for.

"It's true that I can't atone for my sins, let alone Bernardino's sins...but I don't have much left in my life. I can only give you everything I have.

"My intellect, my experience, my knowledge, my elements...my everything.

"This is not 'love' for you, but my...'final confession' for myself.

"If you don't have a strong enough will, follow my dreams... If you have your own dreams, do your best for that goal.

"—do it for me, Salvatore Heta."

Hugo's voice gradually became lower: "I have burned out...and you are about to burn up."

After he finished speaking, he lowered his head and remained motionless.

The surrounding fire, like the bright fire inside a casting furnace, is no longer so scorching.

Although he had closed his mouth, Salvatore still stood there, motionless.

As if he had turned into a stake, he lost his expression, his smile... even his eyes lost their light.

It's not like a river of knowledge flowing into the brain.

Instead, turn yourself into flames, into embers...and forge pig iron into steel.

No reservations.

Under the reflection of the firelight, Salvatore's aura became more and more serious. "Vatore" gradually took off the devil's shell... The ferocious devil's face gradually became delicate, and the sharp claws also lost their hard horniness, and became like a girl.

Not so much a demon, but more like a horned girl with a bit of magic.

Her overwhelming demonic nature and malice were firmly burned away by this selfless fire.

—no one can sustain the old self in a forge of that size.

The position between Salvatore and his shadow reversed.

The original Salvatore was just a "devil's egg". The ultimate pure goodwill is just the nourishment for the most evil depravity.

But now, with Hugo's utterly selfless support, the fragile egg cases that were meant to hatch demons have been forged into fine steel.

Compared with the unborn embryo inside, the ootheca itself becomes the main body.

Although it was still weak, the majestic aura had already permeated Salvatore's eyes.

When Salvatore regained consciousness, his pupils shrank suddenly.

Under the background of the faint fire like the setting sun around him, the old man who stood motionless and turned into grayish white... overlapped almost exactly with the scene when his grandfather died.

The fire in Hugo's eyes had dissipated at some point.

Salvatore subconsciously stretched out his hand, trying to hold Hugo.

But the moment he touched "Hugo", the old man's gray-white body of ashes collapsed and flew away without a sound.

That is what is burnt and not combustible.

However, before the ashes fall back to the earth, it can still fly in the air for a while...

"teacher……"

Salvatore murmured.

He reached out, trying to hold a handful of ashes.

But when his hand approached, those flying ashes seemed to be intelligent, avoided his fingertips, and emerged from his fingertips.

But at this moment.

The black and red runes overlapping into a ring emerged in front of Salvatore's fingertips and spread into a head-sized ring.

The ashes that were floating in the air gathered back together as if time had flowed backwards.

In the blink of an eye, these "ashes" of Hugo were refined into a crystal clear diamond ring by Salvatore.

The inside of the diamond ring is solidified with flame-like characters, with Hugo's name written on it.

It was an instinctive high-speed refinement.

This should be the skill that Hugo is good at... Salvatore is famous for his clumsiness, and he knows that he can't do it so quickly.

Salvatore froze in place, looked down at the diamond ring in his palm, and stretched out his thumb to stroke it gently. He felt uncomfortable with the transformation spell that he had suddenly become proficient in.

At this moment, he suddenly felt a gust of cool wind blowing from behind.

Even at this moment, he just realized that his back was soaked at some point.

Salvatore clenched his ring vigilantly, and then turned around to find that Annan and Isaac were ascending from below in the "elevator".

He immediately relaxed.

"Annan..."

When Salvatore spoke, he realized that his voice was still choked.

Because he couldn't speak clearly like this, he quickly covered his mouth.

He was taken aback suddenly.

At this moment, Salvatore realized that there were tears on his face.

The temperature here before was enough to dry the tears on his face. He didn't even know when he cried...or he was crying all the time.

Annan stepped forward, stood on tiptoes, and quietly helped Salvatore wipe away the tears.

"...I'm really useless, Annan."

Salvatore said in a very soft and slightly hoarse voice: "I am already in my thirties...but I still keep crying."

"It's over, Thrall."

Annan said softly.

When Annan said this, new tears welled up in Salvatore's eyes. Then it was wiped off again by Annan.

Annan looked at Sal seriously: "I thought you would make trouble."

"...I am no longer a young man, and I have no room for self-will. I know that you are doing it for my own good... From the very beginning, I realized that you were a partner to lure me here. Otherwise, I would I'm sure I won't be able to get away with it... I really lack something."

As Salvatore said, he turned his head slightly and shook off Annan's fingertips.

He turned his back and wiped his eyes vigorously until he wiped away the tears.

Then he turned around and took a deep breath. As if to remember Hugo's last breath... It's just that he was a little surprised that the smell was so obvious.

"I will... forever remember the teacher's last wish."

Salvatore closed his eyes tightly, and said in a low voice: "I will never embarrass the teacher—even if the crime is ten times heavier than that, I will clean it up with my own hands to repay the teacher's kindness."

"That's not necessary."

Annan said solemnly: "Whoever is guilty will pay for it with his own hands. You can't pay off Hugo's debt."

Salvatore widened his eyes and tried to defend Hugo: "But the teacher has..."

He was only halfway through speaking when he saw Isaac, who had lowered his eyes, suddenly opened his eyes wide, looking behind him in astonishment and even fear.

Salvatore's heart skipped a beat.

Unlike past sluggishness.

He turned his head back immediately, and opened the black and red rune circle with his right hand again—that was a new power capable of disintegrating and reconstructing everything.

But the rune ring on his fingertips was casually slapped away by a somewhat familiar hand.

Hugo, who was about sixteen or seventeen years old, stood naked in the ashes and looked at the three with complicated expressions.

The only difference from the past is that the same silver sun spell pattern as Annan appeared on his chest.

His left hand touched his face tentatively, as if to confirm something... and his right hand used reverse transformation, easily countering Salvatore's spell.

"……Hey?"

Salvatore froze.

He looked at Hugo, who had come back from the dead, and then looked back at the smiling Annan and the astonished Isaac. His brain that was down made a puzzled voice: "Huh?"

He looked again at the ring he was holding in his hand, made of Hugo's ashes.

He raised his head and looked at the young man whose soul was completely burned out.

"……Hey??"

Salvatore, whose mind was blank, could only utter one syllable.