In an instant, Alba could feel the extremely tense atmosphere in the air, and it had occurred the moment Dame had entered the room.
'I almost forgot that all of these are from the same clan, and not even just the same clan—they're from the same blood!' Alba thought.
It was quite common in the larger and more famous clans for sibling rivalry to occur.
Often the descendants would be the ones to take over the clan, but when there were many descendants, it became an intense competition among them.
It was quite normal for families to even facilitate competition between each other, and oftentimes it would incur death.
Yet, it wasn't a problem for the father and mother, for they had many descendants to choose from, and their favorites would be the strongest ones.
In the Demonic Faction clans, that was even more true. It was part of the reason Alba had become a wanderer, making her own clan.
One with rules far away from all of that.
"We have been ordered by father to be here," Fing claimed, drinking from his gourd. "We have a right to be here, but you don't. Why don't you run away and flee, it's what you do best, right?"
Dame tensed his fist as he moved closer to where Raze was.
"I have no right? You know nothing about the relationship between me and Raze. You knew nothing about him until you met him today."
"Just because you bore witness to his power, now suddenly you are willing to call him brother?"
"Someone strong like him is much more worthy of being called a brother than a slacker like you."
Fing's response had visibly angered Dame, whose lips raised, revealing his clenched teeth.
"Stop it. I don't want to be involved in a useless fight," Han said. "And you, Dame, should be more honest with yourself. If you didn't know about the Dark Magus's power, then you too wouldn't have stayed by his side."
Dame's anger subsided slightly as a feeling of guilt entered the pit of his stomach.
It was true. Dame saw great use in the Dark Magus, and that's why he originally approached him, but it wasn't like that anymore.
Whenever Dame thought back to the times he had spent with Raze, he couldn't help but smile.
Even when their lives were in danger, a bond had been growing within him from everything they had done together.
And Dame realized that most when he had joined the Martial Arts Tournament with the aim of helping the others.
Although Dame had the goal of impressing his family and father through his own legacy, he wanted to be part of this legacy.
"None of you have earned any right," Dame said, "to call him or me your brother. The things you did growing up."
"I had already told both of you that I didn't care for the Neverfall Clan anymore, yet both of you took every chance you could to shove me down."
"Throwing me into the pit of a descending spiral, forcing me to even hurt those who got close to me so no one could get close. Luckily, I still found some people I cared for."
"Whereas you two, you just found each other because you're as sick as the other."
Rayna was holding in her pain and sorrow. She remembered the number of times she had seen Dame crying, lost and alone.
Although she hadn't taken part in any of the abuse, she hadn't comforted or helped Dame either.
"Those were just childish things," Han said. "I can't believe you're still a child holding onto things that happened when we were kids."
"If anything, you should be thanking us. Everything we did to you was to prepare you for the world out there."
"Right!" Fing said, nodding. "Being a descendant, there is a lot expected of you, but we could see you were soft."
"The moment you trained with others or went to the academy, they would have eaten you alive, and you would have never been able to progress."
"Sure, you're nothing like us two, but without us, you wouldn't have even survived and would've taken your own life!"
"Just childish play. I deserved all that for what, because I was the youngest child?" Dame said, his mind incredibly conflicted.
He couldn't believe the reason his brothers were giving for having done such things.
"So, even injuring my dantian before entering the academy—that was all for my sake?" Dame shouted.
Rayna almost gasped. She wasn't even aware of this happening. When Dame entered the academy, he wouldn't have been a child anymore.
Not only that, but Dame's performance was subpar to what was expected, at least from what Belil had expected.
In turn, large punishments were received from their father, and after that, the relationship looked like it would never be fixed.
When Rayna looked back on it, she realized that was when Dame had started to change drastically.
No longer caring at all for his training, frequently visiting brothels, and essentially being known as the failure within the family.
It was then that Rayna realized the hardships had never stopped from her brothers and could have very well stunted Dame's growth.
"If you had overcome that, you'd be stronger than you are today," Han commented.
At that moment, a smile appeared on Dame's face, and tears rolled down the sides of his cheeks.
"Thank you, thank you. I'm glad now I understand—you two were never my brothers... and you don't deserve to call Raze your brother!"
Dame transformed, his face changing and his arms breaking out from his back. Shooting out from his mouth, the strange webbing wrapped around Han and his flute.
"STOP IT!" Rayna screamed.
She didn't want to see this, especially something happening to Dame, and her being unable to stop it.
Sure, Dame had grown leaps and bounds due to his Hybrid form, but to take on both of his brothers was an impossible task.
The Qi in the room had risen, and the webbing had broken from Han's hand.
"Wrong move, you're not a child anymore. And you're no longer part of the clan. These actions are courting death," Han claimed.
He raised his flute to his mouth and blew down, but when he did, no sound was made. A familiar feeling overcame Han, sending shivers down his spine.
"Don't touch him… don't touch my friend."