Hero of Rome

Location Discovered: Tartarus (9/9)

A bitter chill swept over us as Cetus tore through the icy prison of Tartarus. Being shirtless, goosebumps peppered my skin as the freezing wind consumed me.

If I didn’t know we were in hell, I would have thought we were flying over Antarctica. Instead of lava lakes and endless fires, we flew over an endless frozen lake. The clouds above us were dark and swirling with snow. The only light down here was a dark, depressing blue that seemed to glow from the ice beneath us. Behemoth chains, each link the size of a house, lay all across the wasteland. They no longer served any purpose except for reminding the souls sprinkled on the ground of their eternal bondage. Breaking up the eerie sight were snowy mountains every so often. Several times Cetus had to maneuver around the towering mountains scattered throughout Tartarus.

“Those aren’t mountains,” Camilla said. Upon a second look, I realized with shock she was correct. The “mountains” were colossal titans completely frozen in various tortured positions. They dwarfed Cacus and Caca, whom I could see gnawing on the legs of some frozen souls down below. The titans could have eaten those giants as if they were mere appetizers. I shuddered to think of what it would look like to face them.

I was immensely grateful that we had a dragon to help us cross this place. Facing even the little giants now without a majority of my powers would have been a nightmare.

The piercing howls of Cerberus behind us was another reminder of how grateful I was for the skeletal dragon. Cacus and Caca both looked up from their meal, glowering at us.

“Do you know where to go?” I asked, my fingers frozen holding onto his rib cage.

“No,” he growled, flapping his bone wings rhythmically. “Pluto’s palace can be anywhere down here.”

“Octavia is down here too,” Camilla said, looking at me with hope in her eyes. “We have to free her.”

“Land us on the top of that titan over there,” I said, longing to be far away from the surface. Cetus obeyed and landed on the huge skull of a former titan. Ice had covered its head completely, making for a slippery dismounting.

“It will take us an eternity to search for your sister and Pluto’s palace,” Bulla said, voicing my fear as we looked over the endless wasteland.

Marcus chuckled. “It’s a good thing we have an eternity.”

I shook my head. “Cerberus knows we will be after both of those locations. If we don’t get to Octavia first, he can kill Octavia, sending her back to the beginning. All this time will only result in more of our friends dying above from Caesar, like Decimus.”

Cetus turned his creepy skeletal face to stare at me. “You really do believe you can defeat death, can’t you?”

“Yes,” I said, though my voice lacked confidence.

“Even if you do pull this off, how in Neptune’s name do you plan to overcome an empire all by yourself? You had your friends to help kill me. You will have nothing in the coming conflict.”

I sighed. The odds were very overwhelming. Perhaps I was a fool, living in denial of death. But to embrace death and defeat was suicide. “Because that is what a real man would do. A man does not back down from a fight, even with death itself and impossible odds. I have to try.”

Marcus and Bulla nodded in approval. Camilla smiled, encouraged by my optimism.

“It seems I was wrong about you, Maximus,” Cetus said, something I was not expecting to hear from him. The skeletal dragon opened his mouth all the way, revealing what looked like a ruby hearthstone at the back of his throat. With his mouth still open, he spoke. “Take my hearthstone, Maximus. You have proven to be a greater man, far above the perverted Elagabalus whom I curse to this day. May you find my soul of use for you in the final fight to come.”

Cetus kept his mouth open as I entered his jaws. For a moment, I had a terrible feeling that he would slam his mouth down on me in revenge. I even tested out this future from a brief Historical Insight. I was astonished that the dragon had spoken true.

Reaching the hearthstone, I plucked the pulsing, heart-shaped gem out of the dragon’s throat.

Item: Cetus' Heartstone (Legendary)

Description: This ruby heart-shaped gem, carved from the very essence of Cetus, throbs with ancient power. It emanates a primal, oceanic force, as if the soul of the sea dragon still lingers within. Warm to the touch and glowing with a deep red light, the heartstone beckons to those seeking ultimate power, but with a dire price.

Enchantment Effect: If consumed, the bearer undergoes a permanent transformation into Cetus, becoming a colossal sea dragon with immense power over water and storms. The transformation grants the ability to fly, breathe underwater, and summon massive tidal waves, but forfeits their original form forever.

Weight: 2.8 kg

Worth: 1,000,000 Denarii

I stumbled out of the dragon’s mouth which snapped shut behind me. “Th-thank you,” I said, holding Cetus' Heartstone with awe. To my surprise and relief, it was hot, like it had been resting on an open flame. The contrast to the biting winds was immense.

“No need. Now, let us find this female of yours. Be careful not to eat this now, if you want to remain human for the battle.”

My eyes caught Camilla’s. To turn into a fully formed dragon would be awesome, but that was not a power or gift I ever expected to receive. Would that be the way I took down Caesar? As a dragon? As awesome as that would be, I wanted to be human. To be with Cleopatra was my greatest desire. I had a feeling we would not be as close if I were a full on dragon. I tucked the Cetus' Heartstone in a makeshift pocket of my ghostly subligaculum. I would find a use for it later.

Looking over the frozen horizon which stretched endlessly in every direction, I activated my Historical Insight. I braced myself for the mentally taxing exercise of imagining me guiding Cetus to fly over every inch of Tartarus in searching for Octavia. However, this would be the only way to get there on time. Millions of alternative futures played out in my mind. It would have taken us years to search for her had I not had this power. After an endless time of searching, I started to lose hope until I scoured over the area where Cacus and Caca were. Both of the bumbling giants were sprinting to a secluded spot of the frozen lake. In this future, I had Cetus fly me over for a closer look.

“He’s gonna free her!” Cacus roared, thundering across the ice and sending cracks along the surface.

“You let ‘em,” Caca laughed. “He’ll see what ‘appens.”

“I ain’t getting punished again,” Cacus said, punching his sister’s beefy arm.

The two giants stopped before a little patch of frozen lake where Octavia was. Although, she was not on top of the lake, but frozen still beneath the thick surface, her eyes wide with shock.

Hopelessness found its way in my heart again as the futures shifted. This time, the rest of the crew came along as we raced the giants. Cerberus, having seen us from afar, howled in the distance. I kept my Historical Insight active so I could see what the danger was in freeing Octavia.

“Does your fire still work?” I shouted as we surpassed the giants.

Another grinding laugh sounded from the dragon. That was a no.

Cetus dropped us off where Octavia was trapped. The giants would be on us in seconds, and Cerberus in less than a minute. And we had no way of freeing her.

“What do we do, Max?” Camilla said, her voice desperate for a solution.

Thousands of futures played out in my strange, temporal reality. I could see mostly failure from what we faced. There was just no way to stand against three Underworld monsters with just some basic weapons, even with a skeletal dragon. We would have to be strategic, use their own strengths against them.

All I could think of were the cracks spreading from each heavy footstep of the giants. They were large enough that with a little more pressure, the ice could break through.

The futures shifted again, focusing on this decision I could make. This time I remained in Cetus’s ribcage as we set the others down.

“Stand on either side of her!” I commanded. If they stood together, they would all die. “We need to divide their attack and break the ice. Leap out of the way when they strike.”

Bulla stepped to the left of Octavia’s position with Marcus further behind him, both wielding their Wailing Branch of the Forsaken. Camilla hustled to the opposite side, glaring at the oncoming giants and raising her Dual Fangs.

Only the futures would tell if this would work.

I told Cetus to pretend to fly away as if we were abandoning our friends. The giants taunted us but did not pay us any more attention as they prepared to crush our friends.

“Now!” I said.

Cetus swirled in the freezing air and bolted back down. Cacus and Caca both smashed their fists into the ice on either side of Octavia. While Camilla jumped out of the way in time to avoid Caca, Bulla sidestepped Cacus’s attack and smacked the giant’s hand, causing it to have profuse bleeding.

“Ow!” Cacus screamed as Bulla danced away.

The distraction lasted long enough for Cetus to snatch Cacus by the hair with his claws and throw him down into the ice cracks he had made. The cold water gushing from the opening sprayed me as Cetus raised back up to tackle Caca into her fractured ice. Both giants went down hard into the freezing waters thanks to the dragon.

“Use my heart to break the ice!” Cetus roared, struggling to keep Caca in the water who tried to swim out.

“Bulla, Marcus, keep Cacus at bay. Camilla, help me!”

Camilla and I sprinted to where Octavia lay trapped beneath ice. The damage from the two giants had crisscrossed deep cracks upon the ice. My hands fumbled with the hot Heartstone as the giants drowned to death on either side. Camilla’s hands found mine and together we pressed the scalding hot dragon heart into the cracked ice. The heat caused the ice to melt at a fast rate, resulting in steam rising to our faces.

Cerberus howled again. He was less than ten seconds away now. If I didn’t intervene, Cerberus would tear Camilla and I into bloody pieces.

“Cetus!” I yelled, who turned his skeletal face to look at me while he drowned Caca. “Cerberus!”

Unlike Cacus, who was gravely harmed by Cetus’s initial dive and was kept mostly at bay by Marcus and Bulla, Caca still had a fight within her. If Cetus tried to fly away, she would reach out and drag him underneath, getting us all killed.

I would have to intervene.

“Free your sister,” I said, sprinting as best as I could across the ice to help Cetus.

Five seconds.

“Go!” I shouted, swatting Caca’s raising hand as she tried to snatch the fleeing dragon. Though it was nowhere near as powerful as my Pilum of Mars, it was enough to shock the ugly giantess.

“You again!” she screamed through rotting, black teeth. She was so close to me that I could see all of the bones and gore wedged between her molars. I almost puked from the stench. “It’s time I feasted upon—”

A sudden whelp came from behind me. I turned to see Cetus tackling Cerberus who came charging in like a bull. The two of them collided into the ice, sliding towards us faster than a train.

Caca looked at me for a fraction of a second, sheer terror in her yellow eyes at the oncoming collision.

The only reason why I did not change this future is because of an ice cold hand that suddenly grabbed my wrist and yanked me out of the way.

Cetus, roaring with excitement, sent Cerberus and Caca down into the watery grave, sending a giant icy wave of water crashing down onto me.