His voice seemed to be choked: "Even...I will still follow your path, teacher."
In the blazing sea of fire, Salvatore felt his chest being tightened by an invisible force and his nose felt a little sore.
He deeply felt his powerlessness.
At that moment, he seemed to be back to his childhood again.
He stood in front of his grandfather's hospital bed, helplessly watching his grandfather gradually die, but could do nothing.
He had no way to relieve his grandfather's pain, and there was no way to cure his grandfather's disease. He could only try his best to wipe his grandfather's sweat with a wet towel. Other than that, all he could do was to accompany him.
Watch death quietly as it comes, don't avoid it, don't run away.
Just watching quietly, the fire of life gradually extinguished...
It was not a sudden transition between "life" and "death" like when you were attacked or killed.
Death is like layer after layer of gauze, falling from the sky, gradually shrouding people. I don't know when, I will be shocked to realize that the body has long been transformed into a hollow pupa shell without temperature.
Salvatore didn't even know the specific time of his grandfather's death - his grandfather had almost lost consciousness in the early morning. But he was still not dead yet.
Because even his own fingers became cold due to constant contact with water... He couldn't realize when his grandfather's body started to get cold.
In the end, it was when the sun set, and when the dim yellow light shone on his grandfather's bloodless face, he realized belatedly...that his grandfather had died before he knew it.
Salvatore was less than ten years old at that time, and he still didn't understand what death meant.
But he deeply remembered the feeling of being helpless in the face of other people's pain.
This was the initial motivation that drove Salvatore to embark on the path of being a wizard.
"If I just watch you die like this without doing anything... then it will violate my deepest desire. I think this will definitely hinder me when I advance to gold... You must not want to do that either, right?
?”
Salvatore said softly: "So, can you tell me? I just want to know - why do you have to do this?"
Even if it is death.
However, even the soul was ignited, the body cracked due to the high temperature, and flames emerged from the cracks... and dying peacefully and peacefully surrounded by everyone are two completely different situations.
——In the most sober situation, watching himself being burned to ashes alive.
The vitality of a gold-level transcendental person can prevent 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 clearly has a way to stop his own pain.
Whether it is to end one's life immediately or to extinguish the fire, it can be done.
However, watching the flames slowly burn him to death... this is undoubtedly the most painful punishment.
If there really is a hell in this world, this is a torture that only the guilty can endure.
But Hugo was a very kind man.
Since his youth, Hugo has devoted all his talents and energy to helping others.
Even for a villain like Bernardino, Hugo could wholeheartedly help him get out of trouble and become friends with him. During the time when Hugo became the master of the tower, he didn't know how many inventions he created and optimized.
It has brought great convenience to people and greatly improved the lives of millions of mortals.
And he himself taught many outstanding students, who all tried their best to help others in their respective fields. If this can be regarded as Hugo's achievement, Hugo can be said to be the "best person" in the world.
.
...But why should such a good person suffer such pain at the end of his life?
"——Sal."
Hugo, who had collapsed in half, was still not dead.
His right arm collapsed from his shoulder, the youthful face that was originally full of youth became old and dehydrated, and his head centered on his right eye collapsed inward.
There was a looming dark red fire inside, and the sunken face had turned into gray-white ashes.
"When I was young, I once saw two old gentlemen whom I probably knew well on the streets of the United Kingdom. They started a duel for some reason."
He looked at Salvatore with his broken and asymmetrical body, and without moving his lips, he uttered an unusually hoarse and rough voice: "They are all extraordinary people... although their ranks are not high.
, are all bronze-level, but they are indeed extraordinary."
If the corrosion rate of Bronze-level extraordinary beings is not so high, their bodies will be much better than those of ordinary people of the same age. Because after all, their physiques are different from those of ordinary people.
"They were probably really angry at that time - they used all their strength, raised their swords, and attacked each other with the swordsmanship they were once good at.
"But because their bodies have become bloated and aged, and they have not touched weapons for a long time, their movements have deformed to a comical level. Because the sword skills are so ugly, not only can they not attack the enemy correctly, but they have almost cut them several times.
I... Even if I am a person who has never used a sword, just slashing or even shooting with a sword is much more effective than this fancy and ugly sword technique.
"In the end, before the two old men could decide the winner, they were stopped by their respective children. One of them sprained his waist and the other lost his breath. The people around them were laughing at their antics and watching with gusto.
"But I feel sad for them. I can see that they were indeed masters of swordsmanship - or that they at least learned swordsmanship seriously. However, that is not swordsmanship prepared for the elderly. As their bodies become old,
However, these experiences actually harmed them.
"Who is at fault? I think there is nothing wrong with swordsmanship or people, but the problem is also not 'aging', but because of ignorance - wrong experience is even more fatal than the lack of this experience.
Only the most fatal mistakes can break their old self-confidence and wake them up... Times have changed and they are different from the past.
"But how much will this cost? How many misjudgments will there be in the process?"
Hugo calmly recounted a scene he saw when he was young.
For his exciting life as the master of the wizard tower and a gold-level transcendent... this was originally supposed to be just a very short interlude.
But Hugo remembered it throughout his life.
"I have known since then that the experience brought by time is not entirely beneficial. When I leave the front line, it means that the judgments I use based on old experience may be wrong at any time.
"I thought Bernardino would not do anything extraordinary to the Zedi Black Tower because of our friendship with him... so I let him in.
"But I was wrong. I'm still wrong."
Hugo sighed.
Just by making this move, his jaw fell off.
It ignited in the air and turned into ashes.
The red and black boy was like burnt firewood...turning into gray-white embers from the outside and inside.
"I thought... I was already wary enough about this. I have been wary of having wrong and old experiences since a long time ago. But I still failed."
"Your classmates, tutors... they died precisely because of my wrong judgment."
After the old Black Tower was destroyed, although Hugo didn't say anything, he always regarded it as his responsibility in his heart.
"I was the one who rescued Bernardino from the Tower of Black Glory...it was also me who taught him spells and the principles of life; it was me who let him go and let him pursue the freedom of life; it was also me who missed old feelings.
, and 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 lost his eyes, and there was a dim fire like a gem burning in the depths of his pupils. His skin was dry due to loss of water, and the wrinkles on his face were more numerous and deeper than Bernardino's.
Hugo, who had turned into an old man, made a dry and hoarse voice that was no different from that of the spiritual monk Bernardino: "I...can't forget it.