The teardrop passed through Dago's protective shield, causing a ripple on the light membrane, and then directly struck Dago's chest.
This happened too fast for Dago to react. He could only close his eyes, awaiting the verdict of death. After a while, he felt fine; nothing had happened.
He slowly opened his eyes, touched his chest, and found no wound, only a teardrop-sized mole where he had been struck.
Dago didn't care about these strange things, as long as he was unharmed.
He snapped his fingers, and Viser's Ice Sculpture of death instantly shattered into pieces, leaving only his head on the ground.
Among the scattered ice shards, he found two rings and a magic wand. There was no joy of discovery, only endless sorrow for Old Marico's death.
He and Old Marico had journeyed together from the forest, a relationship of both mentor and friend, almost like family.
He had intended to put all three magical artifacts into his storage pouch, but one of them, a ring with a pigeon's blood ruby the size of a pigeon's egg, yet so transparent that the incredibly complex runes within were clearly visible, could not be absorbed by the storage pouch.
Dago immediately knew this was a high-grade item, a Storage Ring. He held it in his hand and examined it carefully.
The ring's surface was not flat but carved with intricate cloud patterns, the lines as fine as hair, yet each stroke was strong and sharp, resembling an almost imperceptible family crest amidst the swirling clouds.
He put this ring on his middle finger, picked up Viser's frozen head, and, to the young wizard's astonishment, placed it before Old Marico's corpse to honor his spirit.
Dago knelt down and kowtowed three times. The young wizard walked over, also knelt before Old Marico's corpse, and kowtowed three times, just like Dago.
He said to Dago, "I won't betray you. I understand what you did. The leader was truly a good person. Until the very end, he sacrificed himself to save others. He will live in our hearts forever."
Dago remained silent, thinking, "Perhaps I'll be joining him soon."
Before Viser died, he activated the communication crystal. Soon, the academy's mobile patrol team would arrive, and the news of him killing Viser, the academy's genius wizard, would spread throughout the entire academy.
By then, he would face a full-scale bounty hunt from the Wizard Alliance, plunging into endless pursuit.
Perhaps he would become a Black Robe Wizard.
But he would not regret any of this; for his family, he could give everything.
Dago thought for a moment and said to him, "You go first. I'll explain everything here to the patrol team when they arrive. If they don't believe me, we might have a fight."
After he finished speaking, the young wizard stood up, looked at Dago with resolute eyes, and said, "I will become as strong as you in the future, no longer letting the world dictate my path."
Dago smiled at him and made a gesture of encouragement.
The young wizard returned a wizard's salute and slowly walked towards the Town.
Dago still had to wait for Serena here, otherwise Viser's death would implicate her.
Before long, Serena's group of three and Dago's group of two arrived, panting, at the small wooden house that was about to burn down and collapse.
Serena saw the scene and stood there motionless, as if her soul had been drained, all her strength instantly gone, her legs giving way as she fell to the ground.
Her gaze was fixed on that familiar body, the light in her pupils extinguishing little by little, like a candle flame suddenly blown out by a strong wind.
Tears streamed down her face like broken pearls, hitting the ground, but she was oblivious, just staring intently, as if one more look would make the person suddenly sit up and smile at her.
"No..." Finally, a single word escaped, hoarse and unlike her voice, with a broken tremor, like glass crushed into shards.
She walked over and, like Dago, knelt before Old Marico's corpse, preparing to send him off on his final journey.
Her hair was disheveled and stuck to her tear-streaked face, her eyes swollen red like walnuts, bloodshot, yet still continuously weeping, as if to shed all the tears of a lifetime in this one moment.
The other mercenary wizards looked at Viser's ice-sculpted head as if they had seen a ghost, staring at Dago in horror.
Unaware of the truth, they saw the fact that Dago had killed a fellow comrade, which was a grave crime, and a very heinous one at that.
These four mercenary wizards scattered and fled in panic like birds and beasts, fearing that they would be silenced the next second.
Just as they had run less than ten meters, human-head-sized fireballs flew towards them one by one in a short time, burning them to ashes.
Finally, two fireballs flew towards him and Serena, moving extremely fast. Dago instantly activated the protective ring in his hand, generating a protective light shield.
The two fireballs struck the protective light shield one after another, exploding with a roar.
The runes within the protective ring in his hand flickered erratically, emitting a humming sound of unbearable strain.
Dago saw two fiery blossoms scatter in the air, transforming into a sky full of fiery rain falling. In the center where the shield met the fireballs, it was already scorched to a dazzling orange-red, as if it would melt through in the next second.
The fiery rain crashed to the ground, igniting Old Marico's corpse and Viser's head into a sea of flames.
His pupils sharply constricted. He pulled Serena, who was still in a daze, and quickly ran in the opposite direction from where the fireballs had come.
Dago activated Detection Art as he ran, looking towards the outskirts of the Town.
Because the fireballs had shot from that direction, he sensed an incredibly vast mental energy fluctuation.
It was several times stronger than his own mental energy, both in quality and quantity.
Dago shouted to Serena, "You must run far away this time. The enemy coming is very powerful. Don't take risks like last time."
Serena nodded with a solemn expression and ran alone into the dark fields.
Dago drew his Ice Crystal Magic Wand, the halo in his eyes swirling, and whispered the Ice Crystal Technique incantation. A blue energy sphere rapidly gathered at the pearl on the tip of his wand.
The pristine white skin on his body began to flash with energy, in a semi-activated state.
In the distance, a figure in a hooded Black Robe slowly emerged, holding a massive red fireball in his hand.
He said to Dago, "I've taken care of those troublesome guys for you. Aren't you going to thank me?"
"You intended to get rid of everyone here."
"Oh, by the way, on my way here, I also dealt with a young Apprentice Wizard, a wizard with dreams. How wonderful, just like me when I was young."
Dago's heart sank. This wizard intended to wipe out their entire patrol team. Even the young wizard from before had fallen victim.
"What is your purpose, and why were your methods so cruel?"
"My purpose is simple: hand over the Storage Ring you got from Viser, and that's all."
The hooded Black Robe's eyes were fixed on Dago, giving Dago a deep sense of familiarity.
"It's you, isn't it, Raymond?"
Dago looked at the hooded Black Robe, "Why are you doing this? You had plenty of opportunities to take the ring from him."
The hooded Black Robe slowly pulled down his hood with his free hand, and it was indeed Viser's mentor, Wizard Raymond.
"I wanted to, too. Do you know about the Tear of Hailam? When a member of the Hailam Family dies, a tear-shaped substance condenses at the moment of death and will cling to the person who killed him. Anyone below a Formal Wizard is bound to be hit."
Dago's heart was greatly shaken. It seemed he had fallen victim to the Tear of Hailam.
"This is a curse that exists in the Hailam Wizard Family's bloodline. You can't break it until you reach the Formal Wizard stage."
"Viser's father was a Formal Wizard and gave Viser a Formal Wizard's inheritance."
"I constantly encouraged you two to do missions together, waiting for this very day. My dream of becoming a Formal Wizard is about to be realized, and this play should come to an end."
"The communication crystal Viser activated before his death led to me. You don't have 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 to choose. You don't have much time left."
