Hero of Rome

Loading Underworld…

Analyzing subject…

Determining spawnpoint…

For the second time in my short life, I had an outer body experience. This time, however, I saw my body, bleeding and lifeless, before I descended into the ground.

The shock was too strong to even formulate a response.

Darkness consumed me. Something like a chain wrapped around my soul and yanked me with blinding speed downwards. If I wasn’t so freaked out by my death, I would have screamed.

Down and down I went. My descent into presumably the Underworld felt like hours. For a moment I thought this was going to be my fate, that I would just be dragged endlessly down into nothingness.

And then I smacked into something very hard, rattling my soul.

When I came to, all I could see above me was pure darkness. Penetrating that for a brief moment was a red lettered notification, confirming what I feared.

Location Discovered: Underworld (0/9)

“Oh my god, I really am dead,” I said.

Sitting up, I could see that I was in what looked like the shattered ruins of a giant Roman temple. I was not alone. Periodically, another unfortunate soul like myself would emerge. A majority of them fumbled around in shock, not knowing how to respond to eternal damnation. Most, if not all of the new dead arriving, were Romans and Greeks. There wasn’t a hint of Vikings, of King Arthur’s Knights, Egyptians, or any other culture.

The ceiling around the spawn point for the dead was completely gone, only the mounds of pillars remained. Standing to my feet, I could see that this ruined temple stood atop some sort of dark mountain. Far below glittered an eerie river that I had once swam in: the River Styx. There was little light around it. Only a line of the dead awaited at the river bank.

System Message: “Maximus! Oh how the mighty have fallen! I promised you, didn’t I, that there were real world consequences here in Antiquitus. You’re dead now for not listening to me.”

I was too stunned to react properly. The System deserved a good pilum to the face, if it had one. Thinking of that made me reflexively try to summon the Pilum of Mars. When it didn’t appear in my hands, I looked down. There was nothing there. Not only that, but I was also very unclothed. The only thing that I had on me was my Cleopatra’s Figurine of Eternal Bond, which lay tightly in my left hand.

System Message: “Ah yes, that is the only thing that came with you, I’m afraid. Nothing else allowed in the Underworld, save for last minute magical items that your friend made. Good thing you grasped it before you did. Otherwise, you would just be naked and without a tie to the world of the living. Horrid!”

Thinking of Cleopatra brought a tsunami wave of grief. Not only was I dead, but Cleopatra was sure to die, either by Julius Caesar or from birth, whichever came first. I had failed her. I failed my sons, my friends, and Rome, but Cleopatra first of all.

System Message: “Er, not that this helps, and this is surely awful timing considering the grief you must be experiencing, but all of your hard earned gear, skills, and stats are gone now too. Forever. The only thing you have is your Historical Insight, which, since you are favored, still remains in you. However, it’s only for one meager second.”

I fell to my knees at the overwhelming weight of everything that I was processing. Losing everything I had earned was hard enough. Losing my sole reason for happiness, Cleopatra and our children, was the killing blow.

All was lost. All became nothing. I was nothing.

Even my health and stamina, which had been so strong before, was the default setting I had received in my first days here.

Health: 50/50

Stamina: 50/50

I stared at the spectral River Styx for what felt like an eternity. Deep in the recesses of my mind, a realization occurred.

“System?” I whispered, voice hoarse.

System Message: “Yes, slain one?”

“The location of the Underworld says zero out of nine. Are there nine rings of the Underworld?”

System Message: “Bravo! You retained your wisdom from your previous life. I wasn’t sure if you could still count.”

“Am I correct to assume that it correlates with the nine rings from Dante’s Inferno?"

System Message: “... Look, it’s a favorite classic of mine, and I can build the Underworld however I like.”

The smallest flicker of hope, of defiance, burned inside me at the confirmation. If this was like Dante’s Inferno, that meant at the end of the nine rings, presumably Tartarus, there would be a way out of here. Like Dante, there was an exit behind Satan, in this case, Pluto.

“Pluto is in Tartarus, the ninth circle, is he not?” I said.

System Message: “Yes… but you won’t be able to reach it. You have no idea how dang—”

That was all I needed.

I stood to my shaky feet. Death didn’t have to be permanent. I could defy death. Cleopatra would live. She would not die, and neither would I.

“System?” I said, my tone bold and laced with anger.

System Message: “What do you want?”

“I challenge you to a quest.”

System Message: “Hahaha! That’s not how it works you—”

“If I prove my might and defeat death, I want all of my gear, my stats, my everything back the moment I return to the overworld. Are we clear?”

The System seemed to choke in response.

System Message: “Well, since you are so bold, and since it is entirely impossible, then yes, I grant you this quest. Here you are, Maximus. Good luck, I guess. You continue to provide me with some much needed entertainment.”

New Quest: Maximus’s Inferno

"Descend into the depths of Tartarus and face Pluto himself. Navigate through the nine rings of hell, each more treacherous than the last, all for the slim chance of reclaiming your pitiful life. If you somehow manage to defeat the Lord of the Underworld, you'll be granted your stats, gear, abilities, and, as a token of Pluto's 'respect,' a few pieces of god-tier equipment. No pressure, of course."

Rewards:

Your Pathetic Life: Congratulations, you get to live again. Try not to waste it this time.

Phantom Shroud: A ghostly cape that allows you to slip between the physical plane and the spirit world—perfect for avoiding betrayals, like assassination attempts.

“Perfect. I accept.”

System Message: “Good! Oh, and you should probably start running now. Charon over there takes denarii for payment to cross the river. You don’t have any, so it looks like you’ll have to wait 100 years, or unless… well, you’ll see them soon enough. Anyway, those friendly faces coming to kill you don’t know that you’re broke.”

“Hey, it’s that bandit!” a man shouted.

I turned to see three men clamoring their way to reach me up the temple stairs. Two were unclothed as I was, but the one who called my name had wispy garments on his person. All them were wielding bones as clubs. I had to blink to make sure I was seeing correctly. The Roman man who shouted my name looked awfully familiar.

“He’s the one that killed me at the Senator’s estate!” the young man said to his buddies.

Uh oh. There was no mistaking him. The young man with short cropped hair had the same eyes. I remembered them clearly when I took my first life during my first raid with Bulla’s bandits. I did not murder him out of hate or malice. It was necessary to escape once we were caught. Although, I doubt the Roman guard cared about my confliction.

Time to go.

Before they could reach the top, I took one deep breath and launched myself over them. Only, instead of propelling far above them with my Jupiter blessings, I barely cleared them. My foot clipped the Roman soldier in the face whom I had killed long ago. While he cursed, hitting him in the face didn’t do me any favors. Instead, it cut my jump short, leading me to fall headfirst into a dizzying row of stairs.

Something in my head broke as I hit the first step, then the next, again and again. My neck must have broken at least seven times as I tumbled violently down the stairs. My health, which was already low, dropped precipitously until it flashed and everything became bright red.

The stairs were replaced by the ruined floor of the temple when the red disappeared.

“Oh god!” I screamed, hitting the floor again. A quick internal glimpse at my health revealed it had recharged.

“You’re going to love that new feature!” the Roman soldier sneered. I barely had time to turn my head to see his bone-club smash into my face. The other Romans around him, presumably from the senator’s house, joined in on the fun of beating me to death.

There was no escape as I died, respawned, died again, and so on. No one even asked me if I had any denarii. It was pure, unbridled revenge with no end in sight.

It was hard to concentrate with my head bashing in every couple of seconds or so. But, the Romans needed a break with beating me to death to let their stamina recharge. The moment I didn’t receive a bone to the face or back, I activated my one second of Historical Insight. I did not want to die for the millionth time. It was jarring looking at only one very brief second of possible futures. I was so used to entire days worth of possibilities.

Honestly, it was a lot easier this way. Simpler.

I thought of different strategies to get out of this mess. Facing off against three Romans should have been an easy task. In fact, it would be nonsensically easy with all of my power. But now, I would have to be more tactical, more cunning to win.

Just like my first days in Antiquitus, when I wasn’t a god-like emperor. Perhaps my overreliance on strength had been my folly.

In the futures, these Romans were just as weak as I was, assuming they were naturally stripped of any advantages they had. For the singular second I could see, a look of exhaustion dragged on their faces. That I could exploit.

It would be wiser to take down the man I had first killed. The others were stronger and didn’t act as surprised when I attacked them. It was impossible to see the full course of that fight, so I would have to go with my gut. When I pivoted to seize the bone in the leader’s hand, he would stumble, almost trip over me from his fatigue and my sudden movement. I was thankful that at least he was somewhat clothed, though the others were not. This was so weird.

Screw it. Let’s do it.

Reality resumed as I snatched the bone from his hand. As foreseen, he fell forward, still panting. Bone in hand, channeled it up into his clean shaven face. The force of my blow wasn’t as strong as it used to be, but it was enough to send him tumbling down the ashy mountain instead of the stairs. I rolled out of the way from the other two guards. Using a newly spawned dead person as a springboard, I jumped after the guard I had first killed.

I had no idea if this was going to work or not. The guard who was busy rolling helplessly down the dark mountain was further surprised when I landed on him.

“I’m so sorry, but this is way faster,” I yelled, using the unfortunate Roman for a makeshift sled while holding onto my new weapon. His curses didn’t register to me as his mouth filled repeatedly with the black ash from the ground.

The dead waiting in line for Charon turned around to watch us with apathy. One of them strode boldly from the crowd.

“It’s you,” the man growled as I came to a stop, my sled apparently dead again as the guard disappeared out from underneath me. Standing to my feet, I almost couldn’t believe who I was seeing. An arrow protruded through his thick skull. A mop of greasy black hair hung down on either side. He also lacked clothes, again, something I did not want to see.

Horatius seethed with anger, his eyes twitching. The bandit who had tried to rape a servant girl on my first raid before Camilla killed him. But not just Horatius turned to look at me with anger. Everyone waiting in line glared at me. All of them were Romans. There were countless of them, men that I had killed in my adventures and conquests.

All of them would take immense joy in killing me again and again forever in this hell.

“No one to protect you now,” Horatius said, his face twisting with malice as he and the others advanced on me.

Then, a soft, effeminate voice rang in the shadows near the river.

“You can’t do that.”