Hero of Rome

Smallpox, ever the overachiever, slips past Valerius's vaccine, giving Maximus an easy win over Tadodaho but earning Rome a reputation for spreading plagues instead of peace.

“Imperator,” Lucius said, entering into my tent. His face contorted with concern as he looked at me washing my face.

“How many?” I said, afraid of the answer.

“All of them. Not a single one is free from smallpox. Even those we have captured have it.”

I cursed under my breath. This was not supposed to be happening. I went out of my way with Valerius to make sure the natives would not perish as they did when the conquistadors arrived after Columbus. And here I was, repeating the same mistake. It would be pointless to turn back now if the disease already spread with how quickly it had moved.

“It is likely they blame us, and now seek to destroy us,” Lucius continued. “Tadodaho will not be the last if this disease continues. They have no way of understanding us, and I fear the rest of the four tribes of the Iroquois will unite to crush us.”

There it was, the central problem that fed into the rest of this mess: lack of communication. If we could speak to their leaders and reassure them of our good intentions and help with the disease, we could mitigate this unfolding disaster. I had seen a possibility like this, of what could be had I earned the translation gift from Fors Fortuna. Only, in every single variation of that particular future, Fortuna would drag me through the historical mud in punishment for cheating her last time. Most of them included impossible odds like surviving against a raid from various native empires and being hacked to pieces. There was a fraction of the futures where I survived through her challenge. If I died, my soul would leave my body for the Underworld, where presumably Pluto and Persephone would be waiting eagerly.

The goddess really, really wanted to kill me for tricking her. It looked like embracing death would be the only way forward here.

“Thank you, Lucius. Double the scouts for tonight and keep on high alert. Monitor those captives in isolation. Also, send all of the tobacco as a peace offering. I will have a means of communicating with them by tonight. The gods have told me they will want a collective meeting in the morning and will be here by dawn to discuss.”

“At once, imperator,” Lucius said before ducking out of my tent.

It was extremely tempting to reset my Historical Insight to look at everything from a fresh perspective. However, it was unclear if that would be a dangerous waste given how unreliable they had been. I might cripple my health only for another tribe to try killing us before the meeting while we slept, even though I didn’t see it happen. I still had a couple of days until I could reset it.

If this vaccine was causing these issues, I would need some clarity from Valerius as to when I could reliably use it.

First things first, let’s learn how to talk to them, I thought, making my way to the statue of Fors Fortuna on my wooden table. If I can know the specifics, then Valerius will be better informed for working on a solution. I would also need a victim to bring back so he can work on a cure.

Unless it was his fault that led to the spread.

No, I can’t believe that.

Valerius had been all too willing to create a protection for the natives. He worked tirelessly to give us what we needed to prevent the disease. And it worked for the first month. No, something or someone else might have tampered with it. Once we figured out the damage, hopefully securing a native to bring back for Valerius to heal, then all could be well.

“Cleopatra, I love you,” I said, remembering her tender love for me. I would endure whatever sacrifice was necessary to save her. I would save her. Everything that I did was now for her and our children. It was amazing how marriage and parenthood completely changed one’s motivations.

“Alright Fortuna,” I said. “You know what I want.”

The world disappeared from me. A slight, ethereal and malevolent chuckle sounded in the atmosphere as I was brought back to the ancient past of the Americas.

The first thing I noticed was the overwhelming smell of copper. It was unmistakably blood.

Then, my eyes opened up to a nightmare.

Location Discovered: Templo Mayor

Fortuna’s Favorite Sacrifice: Amidst the ritual atop the Great Temple, free yourself from the sacrificial altar before the obsidian blade descends. Navigate through the trap-laden jungle and outwit the Aztec priests and warriors determined to see the ritual completed.

Optional: Rescue Xochitl, a terrified slave girl bound for human sacrifice. She’s a nobody, but a somebody to somebody.

Reward: Request one enchantment from Fortuna.

Oh my god, I thought, lifting my head upon the horrifying Great Temple of the Aztecs. The twin temples joined together stood like a monumental dual pyramid over the ancient city, each with their own set of steep stairs. A singular, flat surface ran down the middle of the two stairs. Blood completely covered it, coming down the middle like a steady stream. The source came from the Aztec priest at the top, who was holding a beating heart in his hand to the sky while his victim bled out before him on a stone slab. A line of slaves marching up one set of stairs to the altar stretched before me, while the sacrificed slaves were thrown down the other.

All of us were stripped down to barely a loincloth. Thousands of Aztecs surrounded us, cheering for our blood to spill.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, stunned. Out of all of the native events in antiquity, this one was the one she chose? Why not a battle in which I defended them or worked with them to solve a problem? Why human sacrifice?

“You already know, worm,” Fors Fortuna sneered. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

One of the Aztec warriors herding us yelled at me. I turned to see the man, dressed in jaguar pelts, feathers on his arms, and his face painted black with red stripes. He shoved a flask into my mouth and tilted my head back. I tried to stop him but my hands were bound by rope. The muscular warrior and his friends laughed as I choked on the revolting drink.

Immediately, my head swam like I was very drunk. The drums and shouts of joy from the commoners surrounding us became even louder, the warriors pushing us forward grew taller, and the world moved like water, making my feet unstable. As they pushed me forward, my muscles struggled against the drug, feeling weak and heavy.

The smell of urine, presumably from one of the slaves, slammed into my nose. I shook my head to try to regain focus, but my mind was so loopy it was hard to focus. Whatever they gave me only got worse.

The faces of the warriors around me started to smoke, with the tendrils draping around them like dark cloaks. Their laughs became deeper, dripping with malevolence.

I’m actually tripping, I thought with horror. My hands were bound tightly behind my back. I tried summoning my Pilum of Mars, but my grip was nonexistent and it slipped through my hands as it appeared. One of the shadowed warriors punched me in the face for trying, forcing me to drink even more as we kept moving. Now, some of the crowds’ faces morphed into dark canines with ruby eyes.

Keep it together, I thought, my breathing rapid and shallow as we began hiking up the tall temple.

The girl behind me, similarly lacking clothing, looked at me with concern when I turned around. She had greasy and stringy black hair, unwashed like I was. But her eyes were clear, as if she was not enduring a bad trip like I was.

“Who are you and what’s going on?” I yelled over the conundrum of the crowds as another slave was sacrificed.

“Xochitl,” she said, her voice shaking. Tears cleansed her muddied face. “We… we prepare to please Huitzilopochtli, god of the sun.”

She could understand me!

“Why aren’t you drugged?” I said, my words slurring.

Xochitl shook her head. “They must have forgotten after the ritual.” Her words lacked vigor, as if she’d been seriously depressed.

Xochitl didn’t need to specify what kind of ritual she endured. All that mattered was that she was lucid.

“I have a s-spear,” I said, struggling to get the words out. “I can’t grab it. N-need you to kill the priest.”

We were at the top now. Blood covered almost every inch of the surface surrounding the altar, boiling from the summer sun.

The priests wore striking red and black robes with green-feathered headdresses towering above us. The one by the altar wielded an obsidian spear dripping with blood. He nodded to the slave in front of me, who tried to run away but was dragged kicking and screaming to the altar. I had to look away as the priest ripped the young man’s heart out, still beating, and held it up high to the sun god.

I was next.

Her eyes were shaking with fear, mirroring mine. There was no way she could do it.

So, this was how I was going to die. A bloody sacrifice to the Aztec sun god. I was so drugged up that I couldn’t even cry.

The main priest doing the sacrificing stepped back and allowed for the other priests to toss the latest corpse down the stairs. Then he looked at me. I wished he hadn’t. The priest’s eyes suddenly began to smoke while his skin turned blue. He pointed at me with his obsidian knife and smiled.

Please grab it, I thought, summoning the Pilum of Mars behind me which instantly slipped through my hand. I couldn’t see if she grabbed it or not as the Aztec warriors shoved me forward. The towering priest made quick work of throwing me onto the bloody and hot stone slab. The other priests, after cutting the rope around my hands, wrestled me down on either side while my feet kicked uselessly.

The priest smiled, reminding me of Elagabalus before he had me emasculated. With both hands he raised his obsidian knife to the sky, directly over my bare chest. My heart almost exploded from how fast it beat in fear.

“Great Huitzilopochtli, accept this heart as a sign of our—”

A feral scream cut him off, just as my golden-red pilum burst through his chest. At once the mystical image of the priest evaporated, returning to his normal state as he collapsed from the sudden fatal blow. Xochitl fell on top of him, pilum in hand.

For a moment, the drums, the chanting, even the singing stopped from what occurred. Then, all hell broke loose.

Priests and warriors rushed to apprehend Xochitl. There was no time to lose.

The distraction gave me time to summon my pilum again in my right hand which had been shifted closer to the priest pinning me down. It appeared through him, ending his life. With my right hand free, I threw my heavy arm randomly at the one on the left, summoning it again and striking his neck. Even though I couldn’t grab it, the summoning ability made it deadly on its own.

“This way!” Xochitl said, dragging me off the altar to escape.

Only, we were cornered. While a good number of the warriors were too busy brawling with the slaves to keep them from running, one of them unconscious next to us from the fight, we were outnumbered with nowhere to turn. They would kill us in seconds.

“What now?” Xochitl said, trembling beside me.

There was no time to think. If we lightning bolted out of here, I wouldn’t be able to prevent her from dying from the fall damage. My Boots of Mercury, along with all of my gear save my eternal pilum, did not come with me to this memory. The only way out was down.

“S-shield!” I said, fumbling to point at the one shield from the fallen warrior beside us. Thankfully, Xochitl didn’t question my sanity. She seized the shield and threw us both on it like a sled down the bloody slope between the stairs. Blood splashed in our faces as we tore down the temple pyramid. It was one of the grossest things I had ever done.

“More!” Xochitl screamed, pointing to the rapidly approaching warriors awaiting us at the bottom. Arrows zipped past us while a row of spears awaited to skewer us. Normally, if I wasn’t drugged, I could have effortlessly leaped over them and made haste with my Jupiter blessing. But I could barely move my muscles, let alone jump with them.

That left me with no choice, one that I dreaded to make.

“Pilum!” I shouted, summoning it. Xochitl grasped it as it appeared, helping me hold it. As soon as my hands touched it, I activated Lightning Pilum.

Lightning tore through the sunny sky to strike my pilum. The moment it connected, I threw my slab of meat that was my hand onto the bolt.

It was a good thing Xochitl held on tight.

We missed the spears of the warriors by inches as we launched at the speed of light to the skies. Xochitl screamed, rightfully so, as we flew higher than eagles, far away from the barbaric sacrifices of the Aztecs.

Only, there would still be more death to come.

Water, presumably from the ocean, became our only view as we barreled at breakneck speed towards it. The best that I could, I turned my back to the water so I could receive most of the impact, feebly holding Xochitl in front of me.

“C-close your eyes,” I said, my eyes burning with tears from what was about to happen. The native girl looked at me one last time before she did, her eyes full of trust. She reminded me so much of the Roman girl I had saved from Mount Vesuvius. Only, this story would end on a sad note.

The clear blue water exploded around us as we crashed into it. Although I was immune to the fall damage, Xochitl slammed fatally into the water, my grip unable to keep her from doing so. As the ocean consumed me, Xochitl drifted lifelessly next to me, her face one of peace as she descended to her water grave.

Only then did the spectral, heavenly glowing white figure of Fors Fortuna arrive underwater. Even after this, she still took my breath away with her godly beauty.

“You cannot cheat the gods, Maximus,” she said, her tone chiding but sincere. “Fate cannot be altered. Now, tell me what you desire.”