The looting and the fighting in the city of Rome lasted an entire night.
The intervention of the clone army brought as a consequence more chaos and blood to the city of Rome.
Septimus took advantage of the chaos of the city to accumulate a large amount of wealth and female slaves.
Pillars of gray smoke rose over the city of Rome, leaving as evidence the previous fires that occurred during the looting.
The air of the city of Rome was filled with ash, and the corpses could be seen every few meters.
The clone army confronted Sulla's army in small groups, causing the streets to also have corpses of legionaries with black and red armor.
The chaos of the battle in the city culminated with the arrival of the first rays of sunlight at dawn.
The clone army withdrew to the camp outside the city with all its looted spoils and captured female slaves.
On the other hand, Sulla's legions positioned themselves in the city of Rome, taking control of the streets.
The centurions patrolled the city of Rome, clearing the corpses or killing anyone who caused problems.
"The city of Rome is under Martial Law!" shouted the centurion loudly as he marched in formation with a dozen soldiers following him.
In a luxurious house on top of a hill, the soldiers were removing corpses and piling them onto wooden carts pulled by donkeys.
The residence was full of bloodstains, and the slaves carrying wooden buckets with water and cloths struggled to wipe the blood from the walls and the floor.
In the hall of the residence was General Sulla in his armor, sitting on a piece of furniture while drinking a cup of wine.
"General Sulla, we must take measures against that bastard Septimus," said a general named Lucius Marcius Philippus with an angry expression.
The legionaries of Lucius Marcius were attacked by Septimus while they were trying to loot houses of wealthy elites, and many perished in the chaos of the city.
"We lost almost half a legion of soldiers," said another general named Appius Claudius Pulcher, grinding his teeth.
Sulla drank his cup of wine with a calm expression, but inside he was also furious.
Septimus's army had taken advantage of the chaos and had attacked his soldiers.
"It is not the ideal moment for us to confront each other," said Sulla with a calm expression.
The half dozen generals who were in the hall were indignant at the actions of Septimus and demanded reprisals.
"We must focus on finishing the war as soon as possible," said Sulla with a serious gaze directed at all the generals in the hall.
The generals lowered their gaze and accepted the decision of General Sulla.
All the generals present knew that several central figures who were staunch enemies of Sulla had managed to escape.
Sertorius, taking advantage of the chaos at the beginning, was the first to leave the city with a handful of loyal soldiers.
The consul Norbanus also escaped from the city through a secret passage.
Marius the Younger disguised himself as a slave and escaped from the city when the chaos was at its peak.
On the other hand, the consul Carbo committed suicide by ingesting poison.
The general Gaius Carrinas tried to escape by disguising himself as a soldier, but he had bad luck and was killed by the clone soldiers.
Three central figures of the old regime and staunch enemies of Sulla had managed to escape from the city of Rome.
Sulla would not make the same mistake twice, and this time he would dedicate his efforts to obtaining the heads of Sertorius, Marius the Younger, and Norbanus.
"Pompey and Lucullus will be in charge of subduing the cities of Italy; our current task is to send them reinforcements and maintain control of Rome," expressed Sulla seriously to the generals after dismissing them.
The hall quickly became half empty, and the only two people left were Sulla and Metellus.
"Septimus's army has proven to be a threat that we cannot underestimate," said Metellus seriously.
"I understand, but Rome cannot continue enduring more bloodshed," replied Sulla calmly as he leaned back on the furniture.
"Will we let him go unpunished for his crimes?" said Metellus in an insistent tone of voice.
"No, we will use a reasonable pretext to make him dissolve his army, and afterward it will be easier to deal with a simple young man without influence or friends," replied Sulla, his eyes revealing cunning.
The Roman upper class had very complex and close family relationships.
On the other hand, the majority of Roman citizens who achieve prominence and manage to climb the social class dedicate a large part of their wealth to trying to ingratiate themselves with the circle of the Roman upper class.
Having money and neglecting connections with the circle of the upper class results in a tragic end.
In comparison, Septimus rose in social class like a black sheep who defied the tacit rules from the beginning and showed disdain toward the idea of interacting with nobles or elites.
The extremist and almost rebellious actions of Septimus caused him to be marginalized by the circle of the upper class of Capua and also in the city of Rome.
Regardless of the enormous wealth or the number of legions, the vast majority of nobles and elites of Rome feel an instinctive rejection toward Septimus.
While Sulla and Metellus discussed plans to deal with Septimus.
In the military camp of the clone army, the situation was more orderly.
The losses of the clone army totaled 14,533 soldiers dead.
Almost three legions were lost during the fall of the city of Rome. The vast majority of casualties were caused while attacking the city wall.
The clone army took advantage of the first rays of the sun to collect all their corpses and incinerate them while collecting the weapons and armor.
The advantage of the clone army became more evident in a war. The clone soldiers could recover the number of fallen soldiers every week and face another war with the same intensity without much psychological pressure.
On the other hand, any army that faced the clone army would have to fight fiercely for hours, and if they were lucky enough to survive, they would have to tolerate the pressure of watching their former companions turned into corpses.
The infamy of the clone army was earned with the blood of thousands of enemies and their disregard for their own life.
Septimus was sitting on a chair on top of the wall of the military camp, while observing the clone soldiers pile up mountains of corpses and set them on fire.
From afar, the screams of dozens of nobles or elites being tortured could be heard.
The large noble and influential families were like mice when creating burrows; they had several hiding places to store their wealth.
Torture was necessary in order to locate the hiding place of their wealth.
Septimus also desired a cloak made of human skin from his enemies.
Creating a cloak of human skin would require great skill in skinning, processing, and crafting the skin to create an excellent cloak that contained a malevolent and pleasing aesthetic.
Septimus's whim to create a cloak with human skin caused the clones to capture many prisoners with the excuse of interrogating them, to be skinned alive with the purpose of gaining experience.
The human skin cloak that Septimus wanted to manufacture had to be made from the human skin of his enemies. A garment that would be used as a family relic and would represent the cruelty of the Septimus family and the fate of all their enemies.