As Corey hovered at the line between life and death, he heard everything the Clown said.

Normally, he would have been completely interested in the Clown's words, but his mind was mainly on his life.

He was dying.

And he knew it.

Despite not keeping anything hidden because he wanted to kill and torture the Pope, the Clown had found a way to pierce through his passive defenses and stab him both in his neck and his heart.

'The dagger.'

Although Corey was on the verge of death, his greatest and most frightening asset when it came down to it was his mind.

Even when he was dying and his body should not be moving, his Stars of Consciousness were able to think for him and they could also move his body even when it was not meant to move.

As long as his Stars of Consciousness were not damaged, Corey's body could move like that of a puppet being controlled, and it was extremely frightening to behold.

However, despite the attempts of the Stars of Consciousness to heal his body and prevent his death, they could not prevent his death.

'That dagger.'

A portion of his Stars of Consciousness focused on the dagger and its mysteries because it was truly the dagger that caused Corey's death... not the Clown himself.

Corey was fairly certain that the Clown could not have destroyed his passive defenses so easily, especially when part of his passive defenses in his current state distorted both space and time.

If the Clown had been an Immortal, it would have been a different case. But he was not.

And the dagger was what truly bothered Corey.

To Corey, it was like the dagger had a skill that negated all defenses and caused one to die no matter what.

If it was a normal dagger without such strange abilities, Corey's chances of survival would drastically increase despite having his neck and heart stabbed multiple times.

He was just that abnormal.

'Damn it. Don't tell me I'm about to die when I just found out that my sister was right in front of me the whole time? I refuse to go out like this.'

Just as Corey had this thought and was about to get up on his feet despite his severe injuries, a foot appeared on his back and pushed him back to the ground with visible force.

Corey groaned as blood poured out from his heart and neck in copious amount, causing the already large pool of blood beneath him to increase.

"Why don't you just die in peace for real? What's the big deal? I'm actually being nice over here, it's not like I'm torturing you or anything you know."

The Clown's familiar voice drifted into his ears from above, and Corey was stunned.

That should not be possible.

He's... 'He's meant to be in front of Pamela.'

Despite the pain, Corey forced himself to look up, and then he saw that the Clown was still in front of Pamela.

But Pamela herself had a stunned expression.

'Then who's behind me?'

He tried to turn, but the foot on his back along with his severe injuries made it difficult to turn.

"What the fuck? A clone?"

Pamela cursed out loud, and Corey frowned... or at least he tried to, but his frown was just rather...ugly.

Corey's mind went through a thousand thoughts, questions, and speculations at once, showing just how calm and determined he was to survive.

But in the next moment, his eyes widened when he saw ripples appearing in Pamela's shadow, and then three identical clones of the Clown surrounded her from her shadow.

"The hell? You can create shadow clones?"

Pamela scoffed with a calm but calculating expression.

She looked at the Clown with a frown. "Surely you don't believe that mere clones would be able to defeat me? Are you looking down on me that much?"

The Clown nonchalantly shrugged. "I guess we'll have to find out wouldn't we?"

Pamela frowned at the Clown's nonchalant behavior, finding it rather disturbing.

It was well known that a clone, no matter how well made would always have weaker stats than the main body.

Which is why Pamela found it strange that the Clown would choose to attack him with just three clones who were clearly weaker than his main body.

However...

"What in the world?"

When she curiously checked the stats of the clones, she was shocked to find out that the clones had the same stats of the main body.

"What kind of bullshit is this? How does a clone have the same stats as the main body? That's an overpowered and a bloody forbidden skill. That should not exist at all."

Pamela who was an avid researcher and creator of skills, even a few forbidden ones had a stunned and truly shaken expression on her face when she noticed this.

If not for the strange behavior of the Clown, she would not have bothered to check the stats of the clones, but now that she did, her mind was completely on the broken skill, ability, power, or technique that allowed such a thing to happen.

It defied every single thing she knew.

Meanwhile, Corey was also having the same thoughts as Pamela, and if this was not an illusion, the Clown was far more dangerous than he ever thought.

"You know, Corey. You were one of the very few people that caught interest and entered my list of potential troublemakers, but I'm highly disappointed in you."

The Clown stepping on him spoke, and Corey gritted his teeth as the Clown increased the force on his back.

"All that power. All that talent. All that intelligence. And you have a very glaring weak point?"

The Clown crouched and dragged Corey up by the hair, forcing him to look in the direction of the original Clown.

"Your sister? Why in the world would you have such a glaring weak point? If you have such a weak point, I cannot play any of my games with you because it would be so boring!"

The Clown slammed Corey's face into the ground with force as he shouted in rage and frustration.

Corey wheezed as he felt immense pain throughout his body, but the Clown did not allow him to rest.

He pulled him up by his hair once again, and then Corey saw a scene that made freeze on the spot.

Before the original Clown was Tessa. She was chained by a mixture of shadows and blood, and Corey could see the absentminded expression on her face as she looked at the Clown.

Noticing his gaze, she looked at him and at first, there was no sign of emotion in her eyes. But a second later, that changed.

Corey saw it. He saw them.

The eyes that his little sister used to have. The gaze of affection, love, and care. The gaze that always seemed to treat everything with childish arrogance.

She forced a smile at him.

"I've missed you, brother."

Corey's heart stopped beating.

And then... the Clown pierced her heart with his claws made out of blood.

He pulled out her heart, and drank her blood from her heart.

"Hmm. More delicious than I thought." The Clown said with a smile of ecstasy.

And the world shattered in front of Corey.

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