The surrounding environment in the senate hall turned somber and the air was filled with dread as well as horror as Marcus Brutus, the 7th Hero of Nature met an unexpected and painfully forgotten relic of his past.
A gray-haired old man in a long purple gown made for n.o.blemen, who seemed to be in his mid-50s appeared in front of the Necromancer Hero.
"You were my friend, Brutus. You fought beside me from time to time." the old man with short gray hair spoke in a resentful and grim voice.
"I trusted you. I thought of you as a comrade-in-arms who would face any foe with me.
I even granted you amnesty when you sided with my enemy, Pompey. All that trust and kindness that I have shown you… You repaid it with a knife in my chest right inside Curia Julia where we stand now." declared Julius Ceasar.
Only after a few minutes of absorbing and recovering from this shocking turn of events, did Brutus speak in an incredulous tone.
"You were losing your mind, Julius! I stood by your side when the entire Senate of Rome was against you. I fought by your side even when Rome treated you as a madman during the Civil War. I repaid the kindness you gave me multiple times!" rebuked Marcus in a furious voice.
"But what did you do?
Your ambition was so high that you became a tyrant rather than a ruler chosen by the people!" revealed the 7th Hero. "And that is why I joined with the other Liberatores (Liberators); to stop you from destroying the laws of the empire!" he exclaimed in a determined tone, carrying no sense of remorse on his countenance.
"Hmph! Such nonsense." scoffed Ceasar as he looked at Brutus with a disappointed gaze.
"The elites, whether they were n.o.bles or the politicians of the empire… instigated you and shamed you into believing that you were destined to follow your ancestors' glory and put an end to my rising power.
You were just a p.a.w.n in their scheme to remove me, Brutus. And despite all that knowledge and experience you had as a literate man, a general and as my friend… you still fell for it and led the a.s.sa.s.sination by yourself." revealed Ceasar, the former dictator of the Roman Empire.
"In the end, they wanted their own ambitions to prevail and I was a thorn in their sight. You just couldn't see how the snakes used you to kill your own friend." declared Ceasar as he kept looking at Brutus with eyes filled with disgust.
That is a lie! Said Brutus.
"You wished to become the Dictator of Rome for life! It would have broken all of our ancestral laws and liberty of Rome under your reign!
I was simply the spearhead who brought down a man who was acting like a G.o.d instead of the servant of the people." declared Brutus in a resolute voice, firm in his own conviction.
"Is that so?" asked Ceasar in a mocking tone.
"Then what happened to you after my death?
Did you take the command of Rome and make it a better place than I ever did?" his haughty voice echoed in the senate hall.
"Did you expand our empire, did you acquire more lands and resources for our people to flourish?" his loud voice reverberated through every wall, pillar and the floor of the hall.
To this, Brutus turned silent as if he recounted another horrifying memory.
"No, you didn't do any of that.
Instead, you hid like a coward for 2 years and then fled from Rome just to keep your head on your shoulders." spoke Ceasar in an admonishing tone.
"My adopted son, Octavian, declared you and all the other Liberators as Traitors of the Roman Empire.
You fought his forces in Philippi and when you lost… You took your own life." said Ceasar as he openly taunted Brutus.
"What would you know?! I was a hero who fought for justice and rights for the people of Rome.
And I refused to die as a prisoner of war.
Even if you might think of it as a disgrace, I call it taking control of my own fate where I decided to that my last moments will be of honor and dignity." retorted Brutus with eyes full of anger.
Just his reb.u.t.tals was enough to raise the temperature of the entire surrounding.
But suddenly, a realization dawned on the Necromancer Hero.
"You… how do you know that about my death?
You were already dead for years by then." his voice faltered with shock.
And just as he asked the most important question…
The domineering figure of Julius Ceasar started transforming on its own.
The body suddenly turned taller, broader, and the facial features completely changed along with the color of the hair.
The Legendary Rank dark gray longcoat remained just as majestic as before but now the stature was more domineering than before.
Julius Ceasar had now turned into Kahn, in his real human appearance.
Stunned!
"Who are you?!" asked Brutus loudly as he was stunned on the spot.
His great friend whom he a.s.sa.s.sinated had suddenly turned into a completely different person.
"I'm someone from Earth just like you. The only difference is that I was born more than 2 thousand years later than your time." spoke Kahn who was now bigger, buffier and had long black hair at the age of 30 years.
Even his voice had turned more manlier and deep compared to before as if he had evolved into a different person.
"And let me tell you something.
Even after your death and the fall of the Roman Empire… history remembers you differently than you think." he declared to Marcus Brutus who was still bewildered by this situation.
"You were not praised or t.i.tled as some Liberator and neither were you hailed as the Hero of the Romans.
No, even to this day… the world thinks of Julius Ceasar as one of the greatest generals to live." revealed Kahn as he mentioned the truth of the history from present times on earth. "They sing praises of his accolades and treat his name with respect. You, on the other hand, history remembers you simply as…" said Kahn as he declared the moniker that history remembered the 7th Hero of Nature, Marcus Brutus, in his home world.
"Brutus, the Coward."