Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

Now, more than a year has passed since Hector's death, and with the investigation making no progress, the family has gradually stopped paying attention.

Before, they might have been afraid that the Black Ring Crown would make a comeback.

But now that the Golden Ring Crown has made a big move, the Four Ring Families must follow their example and contribute to the investigation of the Blood Domain's underground.

With Hector's death, it was no longer worth the resources.

The only one still persisting in the investigation is his brother, Zoroark.

While Zoroark held a high position, he was not a core member.

Otherwise, the two brothers wouldn't have traveled all the way to the Variant Tower in the Magdia region to study.

Therefore, the Heruno family has only granted Zoroark some additional permissions for the investigation regarding his brother's death.

This is the result he has been striving for.

Even so, to this day, there is still no trace of Hector's body or even his remaining spirit.

"Hughes, Hughes... You absolutely couldn't have been conducting experiments during that time! I always had a feeling that Hector's death was related to you."

Zoroark stared out the window, muttering to himself.

"But how exactly did you get out of the Myriad Spire during this time?"

——!

As he was speaking, a sudden, sharp pain shot through his heart, forcing him to abruptly squat down.

"Damn it! It's starting again!! And it's happening more and more frequently..."

He struggled to pull a vial of magic potion from his storage bag, then gritted his teeth and plunged it into his heart.

"laugh--!"

Finally, under the effect of the medicine, the excruciating pain in his heart subsided.

"No...no matter what..."

Zoroark leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

Even if you destroy Hector's body, I absolutely refuse to believe—you won't take his Lava Heart!

Does brotherhood truly exist in the wizarding world?

There may be occasional exceptions, but this kind of friendship will never be seen between Zoroark and Hector.

To be more precise, it was in Zoroark's mind.

Over the years, his meticulous care and dedication to his younger brother Hector may have been seen by outsiders as a rare and genuine brotherly bond.

Even Hector thought so.

But from beginning to end, Zoroark's entire purpose was simply to cultivate that powerful Lava Heart.

At the heart of the Herunor family are "lava" and "heart".

With frequent casting of [Heart of Lava], the caster's heart will be subtly transformed into a heart with lava properties under the influence of this sorcery.

Their control over lava will only grow stronger.

Ironically, Zoroark, who came from such an ancient family, was born with a severe heart defect.

If he had been born into another family, this defect might not have been a big deal.

Unfortunately, he was born into the Heruno family, a family that required children to train their hearts from a young age.

This is precisely why Zoroark's appearance and mind were not heavily tainted by the fire element—his flaws prevented him from enduring lava for an extended period.

Fortunately, his younger brother Hector was born a few years later.

Despite sharing the same bloodline as the Herunor family, Hector's heart is exceptionally powerful, making it a perfect lava container.

For this reason, Zoroark placed all his obsessions on his younger brother.

He patiently lay low, waiting for the day when the fruit would be fully ripe.

By obtaining Hector's heart, he could overcome his own flaws, break free from the shackles of his body, and completely control the lava power of the Heruno family.

The brotherly affection and respect that others saw was nothing more than a carefully crafted drama.

All that care and tolerance had nothing to do with kinship or blood ties; it was simply a long hunt...

Unfortunately, he was just a hair's breadth away from success.

Hector, however, died under mysterious circumstances.

His disguise, his scheming, and the "fruits" he cultivated with countless resources and effort all vanished in vain.

Most importantly, his hope of a "new life" was completely extinguished at that moment.

"..."

"Knock knock..."

But just then, a slow knocking sound came from outside the door.

"Who?"

Zoroark frowned, stood up, and slowly walked towards the door.

Seeing that no one responded, he pushed the door open himself.

"Creak—"

Strangely, the huge corridor outside the door was completely empty.

This is clearly a strange thing.

Just as Zoroark was about to use his mental energy to sense the area, a tiny point of light suddenly appeared in his room.

"Buzzing..."

To be precise, it was a scarlet, blood-red dot of light.

"This is……"

"call out--!"

Before Zoroark could react, the point of light flashed and quickly entered his mind.

——!

He was suddenly startled, but just as he was about to expel it, a series of clear images flooded into his mind.

These images were clearly those of his brother Hector at the time of his death!

It was a masked man who had easily killed his carefully trained younger brother with just an inconspicuous dagger.

"Hector!!"

Upon seeing this, a surge of boundless rage erupted within him.

"Who is this?! Who?!"

He roared, but this rage was clearly not because of his brother's death.

As if hearing his roar, the images suddenly faded away, transforming in the blink of an eye into several blood-red Common Language characters:

Hughes Craig.

……

Meanwhile, inside the Vulture Peak, Hughes was completely unaware of what was happening in another region.

He had just finished participating in Nora's promotion celebration and was slowly flying towards his dormitory.

"Whoosh..."

—Buzz

Halfway through the flight, in a daze, he suddenly realized that the scene around him was shrouded in a thick black fog.

"A teleportation trap?"

Hughes frowned, and after sensing the spatial coordinates, he realized that he was actually in the sky outside the academy.

And coincidentally, this is the very place where he fought the two brothers from the Black Pact Nest.

But he had no time to think about it, because the black mist had already quietly wrapped around his body.

Although it did not cause him any real harm, it blinded him, making him unable to see anything and only seeing darkness in front of him.

Hughes tried to mobilize his mental energy, but found that even his mental energy was like hitting a "steel plate" and could not penetrate, and he could not perceive anything around him.

He has lost consciousness.