Hero of Rome

Tossed about by the winds of lust, Cleopatra and Antinous tumble into Medusa’s blood, turning to stone in a rather unfortunate pose. Now petrified, Cleopatra fumes—she’s never been this close to a man she doesn’t want, a man who can’t stand being with someone who isn’t Hadrian.

“Dead like the rest of us!” Nero shouted with glee, just before being bucked off his golden hill by several other greedy men shoving their boulders into him. The former emperor tumbled down the burning golden denarii, his flesh steaming as he cooked.

Cerberus howled closer behind us, closing in on the pursuit.

“Let’s go!” Camilla said, taking the first steps onto the fiery gold.

As soon as my feet touched the denarii they began to burn. I had to grind my teeth together to keep from screaming as we started sprinting across the molten hot hills of money.

Thousands of greedy souls were too consumed by protecting or fighting for their golden hills to chase after us. They clashed violently with each other, smashing one another to pieces with their giant boulders. Their militant focus for more or to take from someone else gave us fewer enemies to worry about as Cerberus emerged in a dead sprint behind us into the fourth ring.

Though we had a lead, running on piles of money was like running on a sandy beach. Very little traction, and very, very hot.

“Dang that hurts,” I shouted, my feet becoming numb from the constant pain as Cerberus pounded after us.

“Join us Maximus!” Nero yelled after us. A quick look behind me revealed he was eager to crush us with his giant boulder. The crazed emperor laughed like an insane person as he barreled after us with his rolling rock.

“Take the high ground!” I said, leading us to a nearby golden hill where a thin and wretched man scowled at us at the top.

“None shall take from Crassus!” he screamed, throwing his boulder down at us.

I pushed Camilla out of the way just in time. The boulder rolled past us, smacking into Nero’s and exploding. Wanting to save Medusa’s head for Cerberus, I shanked Crassus in the stomach as we reached the top and kept on running with Camilla.

Nero laughed behind us. “Bring Sporus to—”

Nero’s erratic cry was cut off when presumably Cerberus devoured him with its three mouths.

“Where do we go?” Camilla said, her voice betraying exhaustion as we bolted down the golden hill.

A river glimmered ahead of us as we weaved past hundreds of more greedy souls fighting for gold. I couldn’t remember which one it was, but anything to get us away from here. I had a feeling if I stopped to try and petrify Cerberus, we would probably be crushed by any of the random boulders flying around in this pinball ring of hell. Maybe if we reached the river I could catch the Hounds of Pluto there.

Camilla in hand, I made a break for the river, not slowing to explain. My intuition proved right when we saw a small golden boat taking off from the denarii hills. To my surprise, a man dressed in golden attire from head to toe was waving us forward desperately. In his boat were naked souls grateful to escape the eternal competition, though each of them carried dozens of denarii in their hands as they sat around him.

“Come friends, hurry!” he exclaimed, rowing with a golden oar. “You must jump!”

Like with Charon, there was only one way to avoid becoming dog food. We ran for our lives, almost falling down the last golden hill from our speed, causing denarii to fly everywhere. I activated my Historical Insight to determine the best jump possible. With a heave of strength, we both leaped from the denarii river bank onto the gold boat, smashing into several of the men and women huddled over their coins. We were not fast enough. Cerberus managed to sheer Camilla’s calf with one of its jaws. She cried out in pain, seizing her leg as it bled everywhere.

As soon as I could stand on my feet, I tore out Medusa’s head to petrify Cerberus. Cerberus plowed to a stop on the shore, sending coins into the river. The beast immediately looked away, closing all six eyes.

“Come on!” I yelled in frustration, taunting him.

Something like the sound of a laugh barked from its three mouths before turning into sinister smiles. Fire leaked out of its lips. Cerberus turned and ran back up the denarii hill, disappearing as we floated away.

Location Discovered: River Acheron (5/9)

“I think I’m done for,” Camilla cried, writhing in pain as blood poured from leg.

Those we crashed into began to complain but instantly ceased when I turned around with Medusa’s head in hand.

“Move!” I yelled at them. The naked men and women complied. Our golden boatman looked at us with concern as I lowered myself to Camilla.

“You should just kill me,” Camilla whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Right, like that’s a good idea.”

“Max, I’m serious.”

“Out of the question.”

“I’m only going to slow you down. There’s no way I can outrun Cerberus now. Let me respawn and catch up to you.”

“That’s too dangerous. Did you see the way it smiled at us? Cerberus will be waiting for you to respawn.”

“Not if you do it quickly. Throw me in the river if you need to. It’ll be quick.”

The screams from the fighting men around us increased as if to prove her point. I had to look away from the men thrashing around, drowning and fighting each other simultaneously. It was a disturbing sight.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “There has to be another way. Let me take a look.”

Since the other passengers cleared away from us and were busy kicking at anyone trying to climb in from the river, I had room to cradle Camilla in my arms as I inspected her leg. One look at the wound confirmed what I already feared. She was bleeding out fast, and the lacerations from Cerberus were too great to stop. If I had my lightning pilum, I could potentially cauterize the wound. But, to my chagrin, she was right. Even if the bleeding stopped, she wouldn’t be able to fight, let alone run.

“May I?” the golden boatman said. He had stopped rowing so he could approach us. I did nothing as he dropped down to one knee. “My daughter, Marigold, was a great comfort to me. I can perhaps stem the bleeding.”

His words clicked in my mind just as his hands touched her bleeding calf.

“NO!” I screamed, ramming my femur sword into his face.

I was too late.

The second that this man, Midas, touched Camilla’s calf, it indeed stopped the bleeding, for her calf turned to gold. But it didn’t stop there. The rest of her body transformed to gold in a flash, her eyes looking at me with fear.

King Midas stumbled back from the bone jammed in his face. Every greedy soul he bumped into suffered the same fate. Even though his touch was clearly fatal, seeing the man’s ability to turn everything to gold resulted in everyone piling onto him in hopes of becoming gold as well.

I was so sickened by what happened that all I could do was weakly throw Medusa’s head into the mix, willing for him to receive the justice he deserved.

King Midas’s scream cut short when he turned to stone underneath the now golden hill of souls on the other side of the boat. Medusa’s head was lost beneath the golden hill, but it had served a vindictive purpose at least.

And just like that, I was completely alone on the river. Camilla, my only friend and companion, lay completely petrified in gold in my arms.

I never had anger issues growing up. Sure I had seen my parents fight occasionally, been teased at school in my awkward teenage years, the usual. I had felt anger many times in my adventures here in Antiquitus from being emasculated, fighting the tetrarchy, and numerous betrayals. But never had I felt such white-hot rage billowing in my chest.

The sight of a golden, lifeless Camilla set it off. The unfairness of it was beyond comprehension. Nero and the other wicked emperors had been punished in the end, but not to this extreme. And they were evil, not Camilla. She was the least deserving of this frozen fate, doomed to be still for eternity as a golden statue.

Holding her in my arms reminded me so much of Cleopatra, who the Fates had also cruelly targeted. She, like Camilla, deserved a joyful life, not an agonizing end. To think of Nero’s triumphant smile in seeing me join him in death inflamed that anger, so much so that I could hardly breathe.

Cleopatra and Camilla, both undeserving of death, were destined to die. And there was nothing I could do about it.

Failure, I thought, the word inescapable. Their deaths were on my hands.

It was Commodus’s face lifting above the boat’s lip that ignited the explosion of violence within me.

“Just as weak as my father,” Commodus sneered as he pulled himself up, his face soaked in blood. “I always knew—”

There was no way I was letting him finish. An unnatural strength from my rage propelled me to launch one of the golden passengers at him. I threw the petrified man so hard that it launched Commodus far away from the boat back into the water, where he disappeared rapidly from the statue’s heavy weight.

Commodus was not alone.

Dozens of other hands crawled onto the sides of the boat as I huffed with rage.

Without thinking, for my mind ached with anger, I snatched the golden oar from the boat’s oarlock.

Item: Golden Oar of Midas (Rare)

Description: Forged from pure gold by King Midas himself, this oar once ferried him across the treacherous waters of the River Acheron. It gleams with a haunting brilliance, and despite being gold, it is impossibly light to wield. The oar is cold to the touch, its surface polished to perfection, but it carries the curse of Midas—anything it strikes turns to gold for a short time.

Damage: 25

Durability: 85/85

Weight: 3.8 kg

Special Effect: Strikes have a 100% chance to turn an enemy’s struck body part into solid gold for 5 seconds. If used repeatedly, the golden effect can spread, causing permanent petrification of their limbs (15% chance after three consecutive strikes).

Worth: 4,500 Denarii

“Go back to hell!” I snarled, whacking the souls who tried to escape their boiling punishment by climbing onto my boat. There was no rhyme or reason to the way I attacked them. I simply slammed the oar down wherever I saw movement, turning faces, hands, and torsos into solid gold. If they somehow remained, I shoved them off with a shoulder check.

Caligula’s young, hawkish face emerged from the river, his eyes just as manic as before. Apparently he thought all of this was funny. I fended off the other souls to allow him time to board.

“We meet again!” he shouted between laughs. “See how nothing mattered in the end? Isn’t it grand?”

I kept my mouth shut as I bashed his with the golden oar, turning his entire head into gold. He crashed into the golden King Midas behind him. Caligula’s face started to return to normal, but that was not how his story was going to end. I followed up with my attack, slamming the oar into his face with so much force and repetition that I feared the gold would break. Finally, as my stamina emptied after three strikes. All of Caligula glittered with solid gold.

Though I was empty, I heaved his golden body off of the boat, throwing him back into the river so he could sink to the bottom and remain for eternity. There had to be some sliver of justice in this cruel world.

My performance made the other thrashing souls in the river avoid us. All was relatively quiet as I returned to Camilla’s silent golden body and knelt before it.

“I’m so sorry,” I could barely say, my hands shaking from the battering and the cooling rage.

I was so lost in my anger that I hardly noticed the boat stopping sometime later. Our boat had driven up a muddy bank. Oddly, I didn’t receive a notification telling me we had arrived in the sixth ring. Instead, looking up I found another river flowing next to us, disappearing behind a small island in between the two. This new river had a dark, glassy look to it. And on the little muddy island were two faces I wished I would never have to see again.