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Chapter 122 - Tok

Pax quickly got to his feet, moving with the stealth Lume had taught him. With a precise leap, he lunged at Aresus. However, sensing something approaching, Aresus adjusted his helmet in a swift defensive motion. The impact of the attack cleanly split it in half, the metallic pieces clattering to the ground with a dull thud.

As the helmet came apart, it revealed a familiar yet terrifying face. Pax and Paltio froze, stunned and horrified by the sight before them. It was Mok's face—but distorted by a cold, merciless expression that didn't belong to the kind butler they knew.

"It can't be… Are you…? Are you Mok?" Paltio asked, his voice trembling as he wrestled with a mix of anger, anxiety, and fear. The man holding him captive around the waist gripped him like a bear trap, preventing any movement.

"Me? Mok? Fools, I am not Mok," Aresus replied with a mocking smile, his eyes gleaming cruelly under the dim light.

"Of course, you're not him," Pax interjected, regaining his composure and pointing his sword at Aresus. "We just saw you throw him into the jaws of that creature. Tell me, why do you have his face?"

Aresus let out a deep, resonant laugh before responding:

"Of course, I'm not him, you pair of fools. Can't you see he was devoured by the Agamenonte? But since you insist so much…"

Paltio interrupted urgently:

"But why do you look exactly like him!"

Aresus paused, as if savoring the moment, and finally answered:

"I am… well, I was his twin brother, Tok. But no longer."

"You're lying!" Paltio shouted, enraged. "Mok never told me he had a twin brother! It's impossible! This must be some kind of magic… You're definitely lying!"

"Release the boy," Pax commanded, charging forward with determination. His sword flew directly toward Tok, who effortlessly blocked it with his free hand. With a quick motion, he shattered the blade into a thousand pieces and then delivered a devastating kick to Pax's stomach, sending him crashing against one of the walls. Pax's body slumped to the ground, unconscious instantly. Lume, watching from afar, scrambled to check his vital signs.

Tok turned back to Paltio, his expression hardening.

"Good, now that there are no interruptions… That fool Mok… How could he hide me?! It's more than an insult!" he roared, his voice heavy with rage and pain. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, and continued:

"You said you wanted to know why I'm doing this, didn't you? Well, it wouldn't make sense to tell you, but I'll do it anyway."

He paused dramatically, staring intently at Paltio before beginning:

"A long time ago, two children lived on the streets of Reedalia. Two small boys were abandoned by their parents because having twins was seen as an act of witchcraft—or something evil. Their own parents didn't want to be marked by the kingdom's laws.

One stormy night, a woman found us. She saw us alone, crying under the torrential rain, hidden inside a box. Though she feared all the rumors about twins, she felt pity for us. She decided to take us in, to protect us."

"Two newborns couldn't survive long alone on the streets. That's why they left us to our fate, abandoned in that alleyway to die. But a woman found us that stormy night. She took us into her humble home and taught us a few things. However, we were never allowed to leave the house together. Whenever someone came to visit, she had to hide one of us so no one would suspect there were two identical people. That's how we took turns—one day he'd go out, the next it was me."

Time passed, and we kept using the same trick over and over again. But to our misfortune, one day the woman we called mother fell gravely ill and then passed away. Once again, Mok and I were left alone. We were only ten years old.

"Mok was always the weaker of the two. So I took care of everything necessary to get food or anything else we needed, since we had to leave that house after her death. We decided to start stealing from anyone who passed through our alley—the place where we'd grown up since we were infants and which we called home."

To avoid being discovered as twins, I wore a mask that hid my face, while Mok didn't. I was always his shadow, protecting him, covering for him.

"But then came that fateful day when they caught him. I decided Mok had to escape because I knew life in prison would be an even worse hell for him. In the process, I ended up killing a guard. I thought Mok would come back for me at some point. I saw him hiding in a corner outside the cells, though he was never very good at staying out of sight. But I told him we shouldn't see each other anymore. If anyone found out we were twins, they'd kill us both. So, with that, he left."

Later, I learned he had left the realm with the promise of a golden man, like you, Tok said, shooting a resentful glance at Paltio. "At first, I thought it was fine… though I began to wonder if maybe it was some kind of sorcery they'd done to my brother. Over time, I saw how he became a foolish goody-two-shoes, part of the servant class as a butler, living a life full of luxuries and riches that didn't belong to him."

He once came back to find me while I rotted in prison. Again, he used his trick of hiding and watching me from a corner without guards. But I repeated the same thing: forget about me and don't come back. Exactly what I'd told him before.

I have no brother. Leave. "You're dead to me," I said, those words so no one could associate him with me. But the truth is… I was envious. Deep, corrosive envy. How could he live a life full of luxury while I only knew prison after prison, punishment after punishment? Tok paused, his voice heavy with resentment, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white. I began to fill myself with hatred. A hatred that consumed me completely, until there was nothing left inside me.

One day, an explosion occurred in the prison. My entire body was covered in severe wounds, burns, and deep cuts. Still, I managed to escape by dragging myself, leaving a trail of blood behind me. I got as far away as I could until my strength finally gave out.

It was then that hooded figures appeared before me. They offered me a solution: they would heal me, but only if I swore eternal loyalty to their god, called Urugas. I accepted without hesitation. I was willing to do anything to free myself from my suffering.

What came next was unimaginable agony. My flesh was useless, shredded by the wounds. The figures replaced parts of my body with metallic components, fusing them together with a dark energy that pulsed with every connection. The pain was so intense that I lost consciousness multiple times during the process. When I awoke, I felt an overwhelming power coursing through my veins. I was no longer the same weak, unfortunate man I had been before. I decided to become the fervent servant of the shadows, and with that decision, my hatred for my brother grew immensely.

"That day, I was reborn," Tok said in a cold, distant voice, as if reliving every moment in his mind. "They gave me a new name, one that reflected who I had become. Instead of being the useless Tok, I became Aresus, a name that means 'hate' in the dark tongue."

The echo of his voice reverberated through the space, heavy with bitterness and disdain for his former self. It was as though, with this new title, he had completely erased the weak, abandoned child he once was.

But Paltio interrupted Tok's story, his voice firm, though laden with emotion:

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe Mok didn't tell me about you because losing you was too traumatic for him?"

Tok let out a bitter, dismissive laugh.

"Nonsense. If he had truly wanted to find me, he wouldn't have stopped until he did."

At that moment, a familiar voice rang out behind them:

"And how can you be so sure of that?"

Paltio looked up, tears filling his eyes as a smile of hope lit up his face.

"Mok!"

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