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  Caesar chased Cudius as he fell from the skies with a massive wound that went through one of his shoulders all the way to his chest and even hips; blood and innards could be seen, most of his ribs broken.

  His healing golden aura enpassed his body, but the wounds were ied by an energy that couldn’t be purified by the light, an internal energy within Caesar that he had left to rot his brother’s wounds.

  A form of Curse-type Ki that Dark Sorcerers and Poison Masters of Murim used, which Bing Xue had taught him to jure on every one of his attacks.

  “The worlds of the Tower are vast; if there’s something I’ve noticed is that everyone and their mother have regeion abilities, it’s Murim all ain, but worse. Therefore, you must learn to iheir wounds with a dark, muddy essehat’ll get in the way of their regeion. It’s a nasty tactic, yes. But you would prefer that than fighting the same enemy again after you’ve inflicted an apparently lethal wound on them, right?”

  After having learned how to use this power and also Mastering the First Stage of the Soul Bde Arts Bing Xue had taught him, Caesar had bee a new man altogether, his Body already Cultivating to the level of an Immortal in a matter of weeks.

  “Kuugh…! Y-You bastard, what did you put into my body?! A curse? Impossible, it should have already been sed!” Cudius screamed, blood ing out of his mouth stantly.

  He was over the rui behind by the castle golem being slowly destroyed; he was uo move, and his golden aura was weakening, ing around him defensively.

  Caesar slowly walked towards him, fag his brother with his bde on hand, his eyes filled… a slight amount ret, perhaps even of sorrow.

  “Why do things have to be this way, Cudius?”

  “What?!”

  Cudius gred at Caesar with an angry face, uing of his beautiful face.

  “Why do we have to fight so fervently? To kill each other for power aory? We are siblings; we are reted by blood. Don’t you remember our childhood?”

  “Hah… Hahahah…”

  Cudius only ughed at Caesar’s words, his golden eyes mog his younger brother.

  “Childhood? Did you think I cared for you, Caesar?”

  “You didn’t? Despite how genuine I remember these feelings, these memories.”

  “You…”

  These feelings that Caesar felt for his family, especially for his older brother Cudius, the feelings of warmth and love of the many times Cudius took care of him, cooked him meals, taught him feng, and more.

  “Yetting almost there, little brother, but your feng is still way too wild; you’ve got to focus a little more on your target instead of charging like a little wolf.”

  “Okay, big brother… I will do my best…!”

  His carefree ughter and smile, and of the many gifts he gave to him.

  “Happy birthday, Caesar! I brought you a little gift—your first sword!”

  “Wooow! My first real sword?! No way! Thank you, brother!”

  Those memories they had as family—what happeo them?

  “What do you want to do when you grow up, Caesar?”

  “I want to bee a swordsman and protect the kingdom Papa gives to me…!”

  “I see…”

  Of the many memories they had as a family, siblings and their various mothers—even their cold father—gathered together sometimes.

  To have a pii the Empire’s beautiful grassnds.

  “You ’t catch me, hahaha!”

  “It’s not fair, brother! You’re flying with yic!”

  And of the st memories they had together.

  “I’m going then; Father has called me for me to aplish my duties, Caesar. I will quer nd, give it to him, and bee a King myself.”

  “G-Good luck, brother… I hope one day we meet again!”

  “Of course we’ll do! And you’ll be old enough for us to drink together, haha! So keep w hard, little brother.”

  “Y-Yes…!”

  These memories, these ses, all these words.

  Did they mean nothing now?

  Was it all just worthless?

  Was their childhood, their friendship, and family bonds…

  Just nothing?

  Cudius’ eyes widened, notig that Caesar’s ruthless eyes were now repced by those full of sorrret, and pity.

  “You ’t be serious… After getting to this point, you’re…?!”

  “I’m no monster, brother. I am not a mae either… I am a human like you.”

  “Hah… You’re ridiculous.”

  “I am not ridiculous… I am just being myself! Why do you pretend to be someone you aren’t?!”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, little brother…”

  Cudius slowly stood up, barely, his Aura overflowing with light.

  His soldiers quickly desded, proteg him with shields and ons poi Caesar.

  “I am not pretending. I’ve decided to walk this path on my own accord. And I will… not hesitate nret my decisions. It’s a promise I made to myself.”

  “So that’s… how it is… All for power, huh…”

  “Indeed. All for power. Because being born in this family is nothing but a curse. A curse I’m willing to devour! I’m going to eat everything, Caesar…! Until nothing remains other than me!”

  “You’re insane…”

  “Insane?! You call me whatever you want! Now Atticus, e and protect me, you traitorous dog.”

  RUMBLE!

  A giant with long bck hair and sharp emerald eyes desded from the skies, falling in front of Cudius and pointing his spear at his former lord.

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Atticus!”

  Caesar was once more shaken by what he was seeing, taking a step back. The knight that had helped him and raised him since he was a child was in front of him, havirayed him to fight for his brother and for him.

  “You swore you would be by my side until your death,” Caesar muttered, his face dist in both grief and anger. “That you were my knight! Why, Atticus, why?!”

  “Because… You stopped being the lord I wao protect!” Atticus rushed forward, attag Caesar.

  The Golden Aura given to him by Cudius made him powerful and fast; his attacks released shockwaves of holy light; his spear became quicker and more dexterous, as Caesar ushed back the more he tried not to fight.

  “I stopped being the person I always was?! What in the world are you talking about?!”

  Caesar roared like a furious dragon, his aura surging tremendously as he swung his sword forward, g against Atticus and pushing him away with an explosion of flig energies.

  CRAAASH!

  “Ugh…!”

  Atticus grasped the floor with his spear, managing not to fall on his own face, as he quickly stood back up again, his Aura growing stroo face his lord.

  “You’ve bee softer than ever before. You let that woma you and take away all your pride! You lowered yourself to bee her disciple!”

  “You’re talking about Bing Xue? I would’ve died if it wasn’t for her mercy. I have a wife, a daughter, and a try to protect. Did you expect me to kill myself in shame rather than swallow my pride and live for those I love?! The only ohat has ged here is you, Atticus!”

  “T-That’s…!”

  Atticus suddenly felt a strange sensation inside his head—a small fuzzy feeling that hurt him a bit.

  “That’s nht!”

  He quickly faced Caesar again, bde and spear g against one another. He rapidly sneaked several blows at Caesar, aiming for his ned face the most.

  CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

  However, his former King moved dexterously as well, using his giant bde as a shield to protect his vital areas while also stepping forward, using the pressure of his Aura to push his foe back.

  “That wasn’t everything, you…! You became so le, so passive, so meek! Even when I went to ask you to allow me to use more of our forces to take down these otherworldly vilins wreaking havoc around the try, the only thing you did was tell me that we had nht to hurt those from other worlds.”

  “Wha…?”

  Caesar was shocked. As Atticus' spear came towards his left eye, the King evaded it by a hair before infusing energies into his right fist and...

  BAAAM!

  Pung his retainer in the face, sending him flying into the air, and then making him fall right into the ground once more.

  “Ungh…! The powers of that witch have made you stronger, my… my former lord,” Atticus gasped for air, slowly standing up once more. “But at the cost of everything that made you who you were before…”

  “You’re talking nonsense, lies!” Caesar said. “I never said any of the things you just said before, Atticus!”

  “What? Have you fallen to the point where you’re denying your own words?! You sure have lost all your shame!” Atticus roared furiously.

  “What in the world are you talking about?!” Caesar asked, his aura and his voice being louder and mightier. “You never came to me to ask me anything these st days! The vilins that appeared from the Gray Gates are being hunted in cooperation with Bing Xue’s Sect members. I never said that they didn’t deserve to be killed or anything like that! You’re now putting words in my mouth?! Atticus! You’ve grown insane!”

  “W-What?! No…! I am sure that I asked you that!” Atticus roared furiously. “Y-You’re trying to deny it?! How dare you! There’s no shame in you! No pride!”

  “Silence!” Caesar had enough, rushing towards Atticus and pung his face again several times in a row.

  BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!

  The other soldiers were only watched by Cudius orders; even Cudius himself watched the se with a slight amount of disbelief; he didn’t even know what they were even talking about.

  “Who is in the right ?” he wondered. “This is both eaining and ridiculous, but it’s giviime to recover.”

  Caesar took away the spear from Atticus and threw it away, lifting his former retainer from the neck, his fapletely swollen from all the punches.

  “W-Why are you… lying…?” Atticus muttered, barely breathing.

  “I never lied, and I promise you that I didn’t,” said Caesar. “There’s something wrong with your head. We alked about those subjects before! Why don’t you believe me?! Tell me now, what happened before you supposedly went to talk with me? Did you meet someone suspicious?”

  “I-I…!” Atticus coughed blood as his memories of that time became fuzzier, stranger. “I… I don’t… Uh… Why are my memories- Ugh!”

  Atticus suddenly dropped to the flrabbing his head in agony.

  “Aaargh!”

  “Atticus?!”

  As Atticus screamed, Caesar quickly tried to heal him using an elixir, however…

  “I killed someone…”

  “Huh?”

  “One of those… psychopaths…! A —no, a jester! A jester with… a mask.”

  “What? A jester with a mask? You killed someone like this and then your memories…?”

  “I think there’s… something wrong with me! I… What happeo my head?! Ugh…!”

  Atticus started g as he felt his very memories twist and around, rapidly deteriorating.

  “Aaaaggh…! Aaahh…! Haaahh….!”

  “Atticus!”

  The King quickly tried using an elixir on him, only for a flying golden sword from Cudius to hit his hand, making the elixir fall into the ground and sptter into the dirt.

  “Cudius, you bastard!”

  “I’m sorry, little brother, but I ’t let you heal him now… Whatever that jester did to him, he’s helping me so…”

  “Hahahah…”

  “Hm?”

  “Huh?”

  The two siblings suddenly heard a weird ughter—a very high-pitched ughter.

  And it came from…

  “A-Atticus?”

  “Ahahaha…”

  The man he called his retainer was ughing while g.

  “Heheh… Hahahaha!”

  And he tinued ughing, loudly and loudly!

  “What’s wrong with him?!”

  Cudius gred at Atticus, his head suddenly beginning to spin.

  “Ugh…!”

  Caesar stepped back, feeling that there was something wrong with Atticus.

  Something very wrong.

  “Heheheh… HAHAHAHAHA!”

  Atticus tinued ughing, slowly standing up, gring at Caesar with a big, wide smile.

  His face was suddenly painted white.

  “A-Atticus…?”

  Caesar’s eyebrows twitched; he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  Atticus’ nose had bee a big red nose, his lips were painted red up to his ears, and his eyes were painted blue.

  “Heheheheh… HAHAHAHA!”

  And as he ughed, his tongue became longer, and there were even as sharp fangs as his teeth!

  “He’s transf? Ugh! What is this pain in my head?!”

  “You feel it too?”

  Cudius gred at Caesar; both brothers were pletely fbbergasted.

  And then…

  “Hehehe…”

  “Hahaha…”

  “Ohohoho!”

  Their eyes quickly were directed to Cudius soldiers; all of them started to ugh.

  It was a very tagious ughter; those uo resist, like Caesar and Cudius, succumbed to the ughter.

  “Hahahaha!”

  “Gahahahaha!”

  “Eheheheheh!”

  “Guaahahahah!”

  Suddenly, dozens of men, both from each party, started to ugh like maniacs.

  And the ughter simply never ended.

  “What is wrong with all of you bastards?! Get your shit together!” Cudius roared furiously, swinging his sword at his soldiers. “Or else I'll—Ugh?!”

  Before he could stop them, however, the ughter stopped.

  And his own soldiers, whose faces had been painted like those of s, gred at him as well.

  With eyes stantly spinning around.

  “GYAHAHAH!”

  They ughed manically, rushing towards Cudius and pointing their ons at their lord!

  “Cudius!”

  Caesar rushed to help his brother, as he saw his own soldiers attag him from every angle.

  His Golden Divine Aura protected him, but the attacks were rapidly weakening it.

  “What…! What kind of strategy is this, Caesar?!”

  Cudius thought it was Caesar’s plot.

  However…

  Caesar was also being attacked by his own men!

  “I am not doing this! Something’s wrong with everyone, with Atticus! He… he somehow ied everyoh ughter, and they turned into… s?!”

  “This is ridiculous! And my head keeps hurting! It's some kind of mental attack, something strahat magily stop!”

  “We have to get out of here, brother!”

  “What?! We were just fighting to the death!”

  “But this is a problem that goes beyond our battle!”

  “Dammit, you bastard…! Don’t look down on me!”

  Cudius used his bde, cutting through his own soldiers and slig them to pieces.

  “You think I’ll fall for your trick?!” He screamed angrily. “I’ll kill you; this territory shall be mine!”

  “Stop it already, Cudius!” Caesar cshed against his brother, even as they were being surrounded by crazed soldiers aiming for their lives.

  Atticus stood there, gng from afar, drooling, as if he had bee nothing but a mindless drone.

  And through his spinning eyes, someone else was gng at the se.

  Giggling.

  “Hehehe… HAHAHAHA!” A masked jester giggled. “This is hirious! I ’t believe it! It works so well! So this is the power of Skills! Incredible! Hehehe! Now spread more! More! Everyone has to ugh! This way, the world will bee a better pce! SMILE!”

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  Pach