Janus made another sigh before resuming his tale.
"We have been studying magic for a very long ti. We, magicians, can be said to be the ones who are most accustod to understanding mana. After learning the truth, we started delving deeper into the fabric of this universe. We started to better see the truth. We found many flaws. Now that we know this world is created by imperfect creatures instead of a perfect God, it makes more sense.
"While we were studying, the leader of the Alchemist Union ca to visit. Our two factions always have a good relationship. Half of our mbers are also alchemists when they are not dabbling in magic. When the Alchemist Union's leader stood near us, we could sense sothing in him. Sothing similar to us. He possessed the sa essence as us. An essence we know we can take.
"At that ti, sothing clicked within us. We have always held so kind of resentnt inside our hearts. Our teacher abandoned us. The persecution from other factions who think we are playing too much with the fabric of this world. The wariness against ambitious followers who wish to replace us. All this resentnt burst like a dam breaking. Part of us wanted to take the essence from the Alchemist Union's leader, no matter the cost. Part of us didn't want him to get hurt.
"In the end, we split."
"Uh… Split…?" Jack couldn't help but ask. He couldn't understand what Janus ant.
"You are aware we have many clones, aren't you?" Janus asked.
"Yes…"
"We created those clones using a modified technique. Not a spell, hence they have no cooldown. It happens by accident actually, because we are tempering with reality when we try to understand the ti magic. It was an effort to beco a Ti Sage by ourselves when our teacher abandoned us. Anyway, these clones were like a variation of us from different tilines which we forced to exist in ours. They were the inferior versions, though, because they could be said to be just copies of those other tiline existences."
"Do you get this?" Jack asked Peniel, who shrugged in response.
"Anyway, the sa thing happened then," Janus continued. "Two of us. One who decided to not succumb to the temptation, and one who decided to no longer play by the rule of this world, ca into being at the sa ti. We split. I carry most of the good emotions while he took with him all the baggage of our resentnt, insecurity, and fear. Different than before. The two of us are not copies of other tilines. We are both entities of this existence. Hence, both of us are real, not clones."
"I see your grade and level is lower than when I brought the Eye of Illios," Jack said. "I suppose during your split. He took most of the power?"
"He was weaker than that when we split. But yes, he took most of the power. His level was reduced to level 80 but his grade remained mythical, while I was downgraded to level 80 rare elite."
"What about the leader of the Alchemist Union? He was there when you split, wasn't he?"
"He was… My other self wasted no ti to carry out his intention. He assaulted our unsuspecting friend. The leader of the Alchemist Union was just a level 70 rare elite. He also didn't have much experience in combat. Thus, he was quickly defeated."
"You just stood and watched?" Jack asked.
"…"
Janus' silence gave Jack his answer.
"… I might have inherited our good emotions, but it turned out it was not enough to spring into action. I was horrified, but I was also intrigued about what might happen. When the leader of the Alchemist Union fell, I saw my other self reach into him. I was as if… he was leeching the dead body. I knew then, there was a way for us to increase our grades. This is the way, by stealing the essence of others who have the sa 'codes' as us. By accumulating these essences into our own, we will finally beco an eternal being. And perhaps one day, becoming divine.
"I should be happy. I should be elated with this revelation. But seeing the dead body of who used to be my friend lying there while my other self reveled in naked contentnt on his fill, I realized then what a terrible mistake I had committed. I should have stopped him. If he was given free rein, he would beco a monster that ends us all. I can't have this on my conscience.
"I attacked him then, but he was stronger than . Even stronger after he absorbed the essence from the Alchemist Union leader's essence. In the end, he overpowered and locked inside here. Since then, he had gone around, murdering the other league faction leaders who had the sa 'codes'. He picked off the weak ones first. He had grown much stronger since then."
"Yeah, no shit," Jack said. The evil Janus had returned to his original level, which was level 90. Not to ntion, there was a frickin plus sign next to his mythical grade description. He supposed that ant he was halfway or more than halfway to the eternal grade already. In other words, he was stronger than the average mythical grade being.
"I believe it will be harder for him to act from now on. The murders should have drawn the attention of the other league factions. It won't be as easy as when he was still catching them off guard. This is also the reason you are here, isn't it? Because people start to pay heed to these incidents."
"That's right, but everyone is still unsure about what they are dealing with," Jack said. "Do you know how many more kills he needs to get to the eternal grade?" Jack asked.
"I can't tell for sure," Janus answered. "But I reckon if he absorbed essences from strong leaders, I suppose maybe two or three more."
"Which ans we don't have much ti… Oh, f*ck…," Jack uttered.
"What's wrong?" Janus and Peniel asked at the sa ti.
'Sothing is very wrong,' Jack thought while sitting down weakly. He wasn't going to be able to attend the Outworlders Convention.
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