When King Cassius arrived in Frosinone after defeating Naples, he was pleasantly shocked. It was army of Florence, his dear son in law. He smirked thinking about poor Augustus as soldiers were laying dead smudged in red liquid.

' Did any one of the small neighborhouring state killed half of his army? '

Crown of Rome started shimmering in his mind. He was thrilled by it and his army men paraded further with relaxed attitude but oh man! How wrong they were!

( P. S. - chapter 63 Madder root strategy)

In the middle of everything, Sicilians didn't understand what actually happened but as they were crossing the sea of dead bodies, they started falling down. A deep, deadly cut was made on their legs while they tried to march towards their opponent army. Whom they considered as dead were soon on their toes and before they could recover from the leg pain, they were killed.

The ones who were directed to go into tunnel by king Cassius were stunned to see enemy soldiers already inside it.

' What do they do now? '

It felt as if they were trapped from all the side and they had no where to go.

The tunnel was watershed where they planned to send their armymen to rest and store extra troops in order to sustain themselves but it turned out quite shallow.

What they thought as Achilles hills of Florence, turned out to be their own weakness. When King Cassius came to know about it, he wanted to rip off his hair. He put his daughter's life at stake to get a map of a tunnel. Now, it pierced daggers into his heart looking at this.

Eagles were already worn out with exhaustion of fighting sea battles and Naples and on top of it, Augustus had planned everything so precisely that they were soon on their knees.

Frosinone was submerged into blood within an hour since the war started. Debris of soldiers were scattered all across making it a gore sight.

King Cassius wondered, both the kingdoms had to fight same amount of battles, still, Florence had enthusiasm while Sicilians were tired. They had around same amount of armymen, still, his soldiers were dying.

' What changed? '

He wasn't aware of the fact that Augustus had divided his army in two parts. One part, consisting of his father and brothers, was dealing with trifle, yet important kingdoms while, he himself was leading the other part to barricade their best enemy.

Augutstus was ready with his sword and spade at the last phase of phalanx but his tactics were so effective that he didn't need to kill even a single enemy soldier. As a bonus coin, reconnoitre done by Aurelius was just up to the mark.

While Augustus was harvesting his hard work, Cassius was in trouble due to his own poisonous crops which he ploughed.

A proud smile lingered on his face seeing his trained soldiers take on the opponent so effectively. All this while, Aurelius stood side by side with him and kept him distracted from shocking news of Valentina being alive.

Within two days, Florence had upper hand in the war. Their unusual phalanx's first set was enough to destroy the remaining shreds of Sicily while King Cassius was held as hostage to present him infront of Augustus.

Augustus and Aurelius were in their tent laughing at their victory.

" We did it Amigo, within two days without losing many of our comrades. " Aurelius chirped in making Augustus nod. Though he was smiling from ear to ear still, Valentina's betrayal was poking his heart.

Just then, they saw their soldiers with King Cassius who was handcuffed. His raging ,defeated crumbled and angry expressions were so satisfying for Augustus. This old cunning man was throwing curse at his newborn son while he and his daughter conspired everything.

He was thrown down on the ground near Augustus's legs.

' How humiliating it would be for this old man? '

Augustus picked him up from the collar and held his jaws firmly in his hands. " Cassius, who is the bad omen now? Seems like it is you for Sicily. "

Cassius glared at him and wanted to throw a punch but his hands were tied. He had lost everything but his ego was burning with this insult. He smirked, " At least my people were loyal to me. It's disheartening that you got betrayed by your own people. "

Augustus's eyes went stoic on the old man while his grip tightened on his jaws. " It was your daughter who did sham. My people were with me. "

Amusement danced in Cassius's eyes looking at naive Augustus. He wriggled his jaws and teased him , " You think that my daughter did all of it alone. What about your brother Marcus? Are you certain that he wasn't involved in the conspiracy? "

Augustus shook with fury listening his younger brother's name being dragged here. He left Cassius's jaw only to slap him hard across the face.

" How dare you utter my brother's name? "

Cassius's face tilted in other direction dud to impact of the slap but he was in no way capable to retort back. He clenched his jaws at his helpneness but his cunning mind had something cooking in it.

He knew that if he succeeds in agitating Augutsus more, maybe, maybe he would do something stupid. He pulled out his last card of psychological dominance over him.

" Oh poor Augustus! My heart goes out for you. Here, you're defending your dear brother and it just took one false promise to turn him against you. "

Blue eyes of Augustus darkened while he took out his sword to finish scum old man as he wasn't having his crass rant anymore. He was about to insert it in middle of Cassius's chest but he couldn't move listening to his upcoming words, " It was your brother who drew paintings of Eagles in letters you recieved. How big of a fool you were to not notice it!"

Now this was a very big blow for Augustus because the love he had for Marcus couldn't be measured. The sword which was about to pierce Cassius, felt down with a ting.

" Your brother was highly involved in all the wrong happenings in palace of Florence. After Valentina left, he was the one who lead my soldiers. He knew that it wasn't your mother who tried to poison Atticus. "

A buzzing sound was all Augustus could hear. He stumbled back while his world turned upside down. He hated his mother for being vicious and after her death, he is suddenly hearing this. Had it not been Aurelius to hold, he would have fallen down.

He somehow held his guts together after revelation of Valentina's betrayal because it was not his fault but if Cassius is speaking the truth, then he is doomed for life because he was the one who threw her down in the dungeon. His mother pleas were swirling like conundrum in his head while his hands started shivering.

Aurelius knew that bloody Cassius was trying to provoke his friend by taking his mother's name. He asked Augustus, " Don't listen to him. Kill him. "

Only if it was as easy as it seemed! In war, he made perfect strategies but in life, he had succumbed himself to vicious creatures. His understanding towards world was on stake while his eyes forgot the natural process of blinking.

Cassius further added with a smirk, " you're the reason your mother killed herself. Do justice to her by picking up that sword and killing yourself. You're a dirt in the name of son and so is your brother. "