The Righteous Player(s) Chapter 76: I am his accomplice
"...Why do you have to do this?"
Salvatore lowered his gaze.
His voice seemed to be choked: "Even...I will still follow your path, teacher."
In the midst of 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 own 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 has no way to relieve his grandfather's pain, and there is 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 accompany him.
Quietly watch the arrival of death, do not avoid or 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 layers of gauze, falling from the sky and gradually covering people. I don't know when I will be shocked to realize that the body has long been transformed into a temperatureless, empty pupa shell.
Salvatore didn't even know the exact time of his grandfather's death - his grandfather had almost lost consciousness in the early morning. But he is 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 sunset was setting, 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.
At that time, Salvatore was less than ten years old and he did not 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... it will violate my deepest desire. I think this will definitely hinder me when I advance to gold... and you will too. You don’t want to?”
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 being ignited, the body cracking due to the high temperature, and flames emerging from the cracks... and dying peacefully and 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 gold-level transcendent can prevent him from dying immediately even if half of his body is burned off. 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 **** in this world, this is a torture that only the guilty can endure.
But Hugo was a great philanthropist.
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 that Hugo became the master of the tower, he created and optimized countless inventions, which brought great convenience to people and greatly improved the lives of millions of mortals.
And he himself has taught many outstanding students, who all try 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?
"——Thall."
Hugo, who had half collapsed, was still not dead.
His right arm collapsed from his shoulder, the originally youthful boy's face 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 dry and rough voice: "They are all extraordinary people... although they are of different levels. Their positions are not high, they are all bronze-level, but they are indeed extraordinary."
If the corrosion rate of a bronze-level transcendent is not so high, his body will be much better than that 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 to raise their swords and attack each other with the swordsmanship they were once good at.
"But because their bodies have become bloated and aged, they have not touched weapons for a long time, and their movements have been deformed to a comical degree. Because the swordsmanship is so ugly, not only can they not attack the enemy correctly, but they have been injured several times. He almost cut himself... Even for 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 funnyness and watching with gusto.
"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, that is not swordsmanship prepared for the elderly. In their bodies When they become old and decrepit, these experiences harm them.
"Who is at fault? I think there should be nothing wrong with swordsmanship and people, but the problem is also not 'aging', but because of ignorance - wrong experience is even worse than the lack of this experience Even more deadly. 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 described 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 should have been just a very short episode.
But Hugo remembered it throughout his life.
"I have known since that time that the experience brought by the years 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 my friendship with him...so I let him in.
"But I was wrong. ~IndoMTL.com~ I was 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 is like a 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 and instructors... they died because of my wrong judgment."
After the old black tower was destroyed, although Hugo didn't say anything. But he always regarded it as his responsibility in his heart.
"It was me 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 I missed my old relationship and finally let 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 from dehydration, 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 indistinguishable from Bernardino: "I...can't forget it."
"I will never forget it."