The teardrop passed through the protective barrier before Dago, sending a faint ripple across the membrane of light before striking him squarely in the chest.
It happened too fast for Dago to react. He could only close his eyes and await death's judgment. After a while, he felt perfectly fine. Nothing had happened.
Only then did he slowly open his eyes and touch his chest. There was no wound, only a mole the size of a teardrop where he had been struck.
Dago had no time to care about such strange things. As long as he was unharmed, that was enough.
He snapped his fingers, and Vissel's frozen corpse instantly shattered into pieces finer than minced meat, leaving only a head on the ground.
Among the shattered ice, he found two rings and a wand. There was no joy in his gains, only endless grief over Mariko's death.
The two of them had come all the way through the forest together. They had been teacher and friend, practically family.
He had intended to put all three magical items into his storage pouch, but one of the rings would not go in. It was set with a pigeon-blood ruby the size of a pigeon egg, so translucent that he could make out the incomparably intricate runes within.
Dago immediately knew it was high-end goods: a storage ring. He held it in his hand and examined it carefully.
The ring's surface was not smooth but carved with intricate cloud patterns. The lines were as fine as hair, yet every stroke was forceful and clean. Amid the curling clouds was what looked like an inconspicuous family crest.
He put the ring on his middle finger, picked up Vissel's frozen head, and, to the young wizard's stunned disbelief, placed it before Mariko's corpse as an offering to his departed spirit.
Dago knelt and kowtowed three times. The young wizard walked over, knelt before Mariko's corpse as well, and followed Dago in kowtowing three times.
He said to Dago, "I won't betray you. I understand what you did. The team leader was truly a good man. Even at the very end, he was sacrificing himself to save others. He'll live in our hearts forever."
Dago said nothing. Perhaps I'll be joining him soon.
Before dying, Vissel had activated the communication crystal. The academy's mobile patrol would arrive soon, and news that he had killed Vissel, the academy's genius wizard, would likely spread throughout the academy.
Then he would face a full-scale bounty hunt by the Wizard Alliance and be plunged into endless pursuit.
Perhaps he would become one of the Black-Robed Wizards.
But he would regret none of it. For his family, he was willing to give everything.
After thinking for a moment, Dago told him, "You should leave first. I'll explain everything here to the patrol when they arrive. If they don't believe me, we may have to fight."
After he finished speaking, the young wizard rose to his feet and looked at Dago with determined eyes. "One day, I'll become as strong as you. I won't let the world manipulate me anymore."
Dago smiled at him and made an encouraging gesture.
The young wizard returned a wizard's salute, then slowly headed toward town.
Dago still had to wait for Selena. Otherwise, Vissel's death would implicate her as well.
Before long, the three members of Selena's group and the two members of Dago's group arrived at the small wooden house, which was about to burn down and collapse, panting for breath.
When Selena saw the scene, she froze as though her soul had been ripped away. All strength drained from her body in an instant, and her legs gave out beneath her as she fell to the ground.
Her gaze clung tightly to that familiar body. The light in her eyes gradually died out, like a candle abruptly snuffed by a violent wind.
Tears fell like beads from a broken string, striking the ground without her noticing. She only stared blankly, as though one more look might make him suddenly sit up and smile at her.
"No..." At last, she forced out a single word. It was so hoarse it barely sounded like her voice, trembling with broken anguish, like glass ground into shards.
She walked over and knelt before Mariko's corpse like Dago, preparing to see him off on his final journey.
Her disheveled hair clung to her tear-soaked face. Her eyes were swollen red like walnuts and filled with blood vessels, yet tears continued to stream down as though she would shed every tear of her life in this moment.
When the other hired wizards saw Vissel's frozen head, they looked as though they had seen a ghost and stared at Dago in terror.
Not knowing the truth, all they saw was Dago killing a comrade. That was a grave crime, an especially heinous one.
The four hired wizards scattered in panic like frightened birds, terrified that they would be silenced the next second.
Just as they had run little more than ten meters, fireballs the size of human heads flew toward them one after another in rapid succession, burning them to ashes.
The last two fireballs flew toward Dago and Selena at incredible speed. Dago instantly activated the protective ring in his hand, generating a barrier of light.
The two fireballs struck the protective barrier one after another and exploded with a roar.
The runes within the protective ring flickered erratically, emitting a strained hum as though they were about to fail.
Dago saw two blossoms of flame burst in the air, turning into a rain of fire that fell from the sky. At the center where the barrier had collided with the fireballs, two glaring orange-red spots had already appeared, as though the barrier would melt through at any moment.
The fire rain struck Mariko's corpse and Vissel's head on the ground, igniting a sea of flames.
His pupils suddenly contracted. He grabbed Selena, who was still dazed, and swiftly ran in the opposite direction from where the fireballs had come.
As he ran, Dago activated the Detection Technique and looked toward the outskirts of town.
The fireballs had come from that direction, and an incomparably massive wave of spiritual power washed over him.
Its spiritual power was several times stronger than his, both in quality and quantity.
Dago shouted to Selena, "You have to run far away this time. The enemy is extremely powerful. Don't take risks like last time."
Selena nodded gravely and ran alone into the dark fields.
Dago drew the Ice Crystal Wand. Rings of light swirled in his eyes as he murmured the incantation for the Ice Crystal Technique, and a blue energy sphere rapidly gathered before the pearl at the tip of the wand.
Energy began flickering across his pale skin as his body entered a half-activated state.
In the distance, a hooded figure in a black robe slowly emerged, holding an enormous red fireball in his hand.
He said to Dago, "I helped you deal with those troublesome people. Aren't you going to thank me?"
"What you wanted was to deal with everyone present."
"Oh, right. On my way here, I also took care of a young Apprentice Wizard, a wizard with dreams. How wonderful. He was exactly like me when I was young."
Dago's heart sank. This wizard intended to wipe out everyone in their patrol, and even that young wizard from earlier had fallen victim to him.
"What exactly do you want? Why did you have to be so ruthless?"
"My purpose is simple. Hand over the storage ring you got from Vissel."
The hooded figure's eyes were fixed intently on Dago, giving him a deep sense of familiarity.
"It's you, isn't it, Raymond?"
Dago stared at the hooded figure. "Why are you doing this? You had plenty of chances to take the ring from him."
The hooded figure slowly pulled back his hood with his free hand. It was indeed Raymond, Vissel's mentor.
"I wanted to. Do you know about Hyram's Tear? When a member of the Hyram Family dies, a teardrop-like substance condenses at the instant of death and attaches itself to the person who killed them. Anyone below the level of a Formal Wizard is guaranteed to be hit."
Dago was deeply shocked. So he had fallen victim to Hyram's Tear.
"This is a curse embedded in the bloodline of the Hailam Wizard Family. Unless you reach the level of a Formal Wizard, don't even think of breaking it."
"Vissel's father is a Formal Wizard. He gave Vissel an inheritance from a Formal Wizard."
"I kept arranging for the two of you to take missions together. I've been waiting for this very day. My dream of becoming a Formal Wizard is about to come true, and this little play should come to an end."
"The communication crystal Vissel activated before dying was linked to me. You don't need to worry about today's events being exposed. Only the two of us will know about this."
"You're a smart man, Dago. You know what choice to make. You don't have much time left."
Before you continue