"Jerald, I need you to come here right now," Shang said to his Communication Crystal.
"Did something happen?" Jerald asked with a serious voice.
"Yes, something serious has happened. Come to the Caves," Shang answered.
"Are you in danger?" Jerald asked.
"No."
"I will be there in five minutes," Jerald said before cutting the connection.
For the next five minutes, Shang only waited in the middle of the cave. The spear had already told Sword about everything that happened, and Sword had told Shang.
The day Shang had feared for many reasons had finally arrived.
He had lost one of his friends, and he knew that there was nothing he could do about it right now.
When Shang had fought Mervin in the trial, he had come to the realization that one day, one of his friends would die, and he would be forced to stand by and only watch.
Shang had put his power before everything else, and this was the sacrifice he had chosen to make.
The Council very likely already had preparations in place in case news got out, and someone came to take revenge.
Either an even more powerful Mage would wait near the killer, or the Council had prepared some kind of surveillance Magic Circle to record Shang's act of killing a High Mage of their Kingdom.
In both cases, Shang would die.
As Shang waited in the darkness, his memories of George played in his mind.
He remembered when George had invited him to his office.
Back then, Shang hated George.
George seemed so cold and brutal in his eyes.
Yet, as more time passed, Shang realized that George had actually sacrificed a lot for the warriors. Without him, the warriors would still be the Mages' dogs.
There would be no Bloodline Infusion.
There would be no True Path Stage warriors.
There would be no basic training techniques for the Caterpillar Class.
And without George, Shang would have never achieved that many points in his trials, effectively making the rewards Shang had already given the world also one of George's accomplishments.
He had blazed a trail for the warrior's Path.
Even when George had already reached 160 years of age, he had still been willing to start anew.
He had gone through the terrible shattering of his Path and had managed to create an even better one.
He had also been the first warrior to kill a High Mage.
George had been a legend.
He had been the progenitor of all warriors.
And the way he had died had been pitiful.
A Poison Early High Mage had staged an ambush in Empress Cobra Zone.
From time to time, George had left the Storm Eagle Zone to fight against different beasts in the Empress Cobra Zone, and that was where the High Mage had prepared everything.
As soon as George arrived near the High Mage, she activated a huge Magic Circle that isolated the surroundings, essentially trapping George in a gigantic cage.
Then, she used millions of Poison Mana Crystals to fill the entire area with poison.
George had aggressively attacked the barrier, destroying an insane amount of Mana Crystals that were used to power it.
However, there had been just too much Mana.
The amount of money expended by using these Mana Crystals probably came to around ten True Path Stage beast corpses.
In the end, the poison consumed all of George's life energy and turned him into a desecrated corpse.
According to the spear, George looked very similar to Kiva Orvis' corpse after Shang had drowned him in poison.
After that, George's corpse was stored in a Space Ring, and the High Mage left.
That was when the spear made its escape.
Before George died, he transmitted his last words to his spear, and the spear buried itself into the ground as George died.
The spear continued digging through the ground until it entered the Caves. As it flew through the Caves, the beasts completely ignored it. To them, the spear was only a flying stone.
And that was how the spear came to Shang.
There were three parts to George's last message.
The first part was for his spear.
He had thanked it for being his companion through these many years.
The second part was for Shang and Jerald.
"Thank you for being my friends in this hostile world. I always missed Earth and wanted to return, but thanks to you two, I managed to find a home in this place."
"Today, I will die not to power but to wealth."
"As my last wish, I want you to kill every single member of the Council and all the Dukes!"
He didn't have much time for his last words, which was why he had left this brief and simple message.
George hadn't wanted to die.
George died angry and aggrieved, and his last message showed that very well.
Instead of wishing only the best for his friends, his entire mind was focused on revenge.
He could only think about revenge in the last moments of his life.
Understandable, considering the circumstances of his death.
The third and last part of George's last message was a technique for warriors.
It was something that he had been developing for a while, and it was nearly done.
It only needed a bit more work.
It was actually ironic.
If the technique had been completed already, George might not have died.
The technique would allow someone to remotely control their weapon with the force of their Path. The power wouldn't be very strong, and it wouldn't be very fast.
However, by using some clever tricks, the technique could put more lift on the weapon than the warrior and the weapon weighed.
George had created a technique to allow someone to fly by standing on their weapon, but they had to be at the True Path Stage first.
The only drawback was that the warrior couldn't fight while in the air since all their power was focused on keeping their weapon in the air.
If George had had the complete version of the technique, the High Mage probably wouldn't have noticed him. After all, he wouldn't have walked to the Empress Cobra Zone but fly there.
Sadly, there were no ifs in the world.
George was dead, and there was nothing Shang or Jerald could do.
Shang could only clench his fist in frustration and rage.
He couldn't do anything right now.
The Council would be prepared if he tried to do anything, and Shang would die.
If Shang had decided to take an easier Path, he would already be at the True Path Stage and would be powerful enough to make a difference.
However, Shang had chosen his Path.
He knew that he would spend untold amounts of time in his Stages since he wanted to always reach the peak of his foundation.
Shang wanted to do nothing more but charge right at the killer, kill them, kill the Dukes, and kill the Council.
But there was nothing he could do right now.
"Shang?"
Shang felt Jerald's Spirit Sense.
Shang didn't answer.
A couple of seconds later, Jerald arrived, and he saw the lonely spear.
Jerald took a deep breath.
"Is he…?"
Shang nodded.
Jerald closed his eyes for several seconds.
"Who did it?!"
Shang could feel Jerald's suppressed rage and hatred in his voice.
