Hero of Rome

Socrates finds Remus tangled forever in Arachne’s web. Remus thrashes, but Socrates calmly asks, "What is freedom, truly?" as the webs tighten around him, dooming him to an eternal philosophical inquiry.

The spider lady moved freakishly fast. As soon as Camilla screamed, spiderwoman was on the move.

The thump, thump, thump of her legs piercing the ground was the only sound I could hear as we turned and ran for our lives, or what was left of it. With how long her legs were, the little advantage we had in the beginning quickly disappeared. She didn’t seem to be hindered by any of the webs as she crashed through them. But running through a dark forest polluted with web proved a lot harder when you were being chased by a crazed spider monster.

“On the bright side, I have a feeling she won’t kill us!” I said as we dodged and ducked past the thick webs containing scores of souls. The people trapped in her webs whispered things like “Kill us” or murmured nonsensically to themselves as if they had lost their minds. Which, if they had been trapped here for eons, that was probably the case.

“Arachne has no desire to kill you!” the spiderwoman said, gaining on us with each stab of her long legs. “I am not as malicious as Minerva. You will be part of my beautiful tapestries instead!”

“Wonderful!” I mocked.

“And become your imprisoned food for eternity,” Camilla said, hopping over a cluster of webs. As we ran, I could see what she meant. With a closer look at the numerous victims, two dark holes were visible in each of their necks. Fear ran down my spine at the sight.

“I would rather not be spider food for my eternity,” I said, snatching Camilla’s arm to keep her from touching a thin web.

“Thanks,” she said.

“No pr—”

A crunching sound snapped by my ear.

Arachne hissed as she missed my face by inches. Instinct took over and I whacked her in the face with my femur weapon. To my surprise, a rattling sounded as soon as I smacked her.

“Curse you!” she screamed.

We had only one second. It was barely enough time for me to grab Camilla’s hand and make a run for it. All of those training runs with heavy stones with Bulla Felix were paying off now as Arachne resumed her chase. If I had been any weaker, I would have become spider food in the first leg of the run.

Only, we weren’t going to make it at this pace. Arachne moved too quickly. It was a relief then when the trees started to reduce in number and the dead grass we ran on slowly became more rocky.

“There!” I said, pointing to the cliff up ahead.

We were so close. It was impossible to tell how far of a drop it was. Maybe if we could trick Arachne to falling off of it, or if she wouldn’t pursue us past this point, we could make it.

The snapping sound of Arachne’s teeth was getting closer. Just before we reached the edge of the webbed forest, I risked one more look behind me to make sure my neck wasn’t going to have any surprise nibbling.

That proved to be a huge mistake. It turned out we had some room between us. But in looking back, I tripped over the cable-like web that lay close to the rocky ground. I fell hard onto the rock, scraping my hands just as we reached the edge of the forest. Camilla stopped, her eyes opening wide with horror. I tried desperately to get back up, but my foot didn’t budge, instead, it only burned the more I pulled. I glanced at it to see why: the web gripped my ankle, proving to be more powerful than an iron shackle.

A ferocious and victorious laugh sounded from Arachne who was seconds from being on us.

Camilla grabbed my hand and pulled with all of her might. No movement. Even with me pushing off of a nearby dark tree with my other leg, we made very little progress. It felt like gorilla glue had sealed my flesh to the web. No matter how much we pulled, nothing was going to separate me from the web.

I guess spider food would be my fate.

Arachne frothed at the mouth as she drew near. There was nothing more I could do.

“Don’t look!” Camilla warned, squatting and slashing her fragmented bone sword against my ankle. White hot pain seared the top of my ankle where the web had connected.

Health: 40/50

With one final pull, Camilla yanked me off of the ground where Arachne pounced on less than a second later. However, the sudden pull threw us both off balance, leaving us unprepared for the violent wind that smacked into us the second we left the densely webbed forest.

“Hold on!” I screamed, making my hand have a death grip on hers as the wind knocked us off the edge.

I had no time to see where we were going or how far of a drop it was. The world spun violently around me. I could see occasional glimpses of a rocky slope that looked uncomfortably far away.

This was going to hurt.

Seconds later, I smacked headfirst into the slope, still holding onto Camilla’s hand.

Health: 30/50

The wind continued to berate us as we tumbled down the rocky cliff. It was so loud that it sounded like it was howling at us. For at least a full minute we continued to roll given its steep decline, all the while my health continued to dwindle.

Health: 29/50

Health: 28/50

Health: 27/50

It wasn’t until my health got to the low twenties that our rolling stopped.

Health: 21/50

It felt like I had been tossed into a dryer.

“Gah,” I said, pushing myself up slowly. Everything ached.

Camilla coughed out dirt as she pushed herself up. “We lived,” she said, looking at me with astonishment.

We both looked up to the impossibly tall cliff above us where we had fallen from. It was a miracle we survived. Thankfully, Arachne called it quits and did not pursue us.

“I hate, hate spiders,” Camilla admitted, looking back at me.

“I totally get it.”

“I’m going to have nightmares from this.”

“Good thing the dead don’t sleep.”

Camilla rolled her eyes as we stood to our feet, both of us being careful to not be knocked over by the violent wind that swirled around us. The wind was so strong that we couldn’t stand still. At the same time, we both turned to look at the rocky and windy plains we found ourselves in.

Location Discovered: Fields of Mourning (2/9)

There were no trees to this second ring. The incredibly powerful wind must have seen to that. Instead, there were only loose rock formations stretching out across the descending horizons. And sprinkled throughout the rocky fields, millions of souls howled with longing for one another. Though they tried to get close, reaching out with their hands in the hopes of touching someone else, the wind would blast right through them and separate them. There was a look of hysterical desperation on their faces.

How long must they have gone without embracing someone, even a stranger? The thought of it was crushing to imagine.

Oddly, my soul began to mourn for human touch now that we were here. Camilla’s eyes met mine at the same moment, as if we both had the same thought. We looked down to see our hands were still held together. Neither of us let go. In that moment, heat swelled within me, a burning desire that made it almost impossible to think. Before it could consume me, I shook my head and spoke.

“We need to clear this one fast,” I said, beginning our trek and slightly dragging her.

Camilla’s face was similarly flushed with heat but she nodded, following my lead.

The further we descended the rocky fields, the more the winds tried to blow us apart. The scores of lonely and wailing souls we passed by looked at us with awe at first, then very suddenly, a violent envy. All at once, the people started to charge at us with such desperation that I feared what would happen if they were to catch us.

“Is the wind slowing down?” Camilla said, now running with me.

“Feels like it,” I said, breaking into a full sprint to weave through a less dense section of the herd. I tried not to think about the lovers that were shouted out in agony from those who were forever apart from them.

“Antony!”

“Hadrian!”

“Paris!”

I recognized a few of them as they screamed with desire. Cleopatra, Antonius, Helen. All of them had the same crazed look in their eyes. They look like they had been tormented for eons. A few times I had to smack them in the faces to keep them at bay.

When our stamina ran low, which wasn’t too long into the ring, we finally reached a slight rock cropping that stood elevated from the sloping fields. Before we made a run for it, I took Camilla around a longer bend to throw off our pursuers.

“Here!” I said, stealing Camilla behind the boulders, my lungs burning from exhaustion. From the way Camilla panted for air, I assumed she was similarly drained of stamina.

The seconds bled by as we recovered our breath. For a moment, I waited anxiously to hear over my heart which should be thundering from how much we ran. But, after several minutes which confirmed we were not followed by the lustful horde, I realized my heart refused to beat. I placed my freehand over it just to be sure.

Nothing. Not a sound.

Weird, I thought.

Although worn out from running, Camilla’s eyes repeatedly flashed to look at me while we recovered. The familiar heat from before returned, this time like a blazing inferno. It became impossible not to stare back.

Her hand found mine, lacing with my fingers as we both moved closer together. If my heart could pump, it would be exploding from my barren chest which she was oftly fond of looking at.

“Camilla—” I began, failing to find the words as her pale lips became a breath away from me. My mind screamed at me to stop, to pull away, to abandon the path I was falling into. This was wrong, immoral, dangerous. My hand belonged to Cleopatra, yet my flesh yearned for Camilla. Could it be the tempest spirits that drove everyone here crazy with lust? Even though we were sheltered from it for the moment, did it infect my mind?

I had to look away. I knew I would regret this if I didn’t.

Against my will, my Historical Insight activated to see what could be. In the second where I chose to give in, Camilla would seize my chest and lock her lips with mine in a passionate, heated embrace. I didn’t have to have any more seconds than what I had to know what that would lead to. Even though this was only a temporal future, I could still feel everything as if it were real. Guilt and pleasure riddled my body at just the possibility.

But the pleasure immediately evaporated when I saw the futures where I looked away. I had no aim to my actions in these, only the feeble desire to look elsewhere and avoid the immoral path I had begun. But the only place to look was at the rock formations we leaned against for shelter. Only, it was no ordinary rocks that we leaned against.

In these futures, I came face to face with what looked to be a weathered stone face of a person. The man’s mouth stood agape as if caught in a scream. He looked strikingly real even with the worn look, like he was a life-like statue of Michelangelo. At the tail end of that second I heard a familiar sound above us that I wished to never hear again.

The hissing sounds of angry snakes.

Reality returned and I shielded one hand over Camilla’s eyes and with the other slashed above her head where I heard the snake sound. My eyes were closed the entire time, and thank goodness for that.

The dying, surprised scream from Medusa filled the air as soon as my bone weapon cut through her neck.

“Curse you Maximus!” she screamed.

There was no time to think. Medusa would not be slain from one meager blow. Instead, I derobed and lunged blindly into the monstrous woman. Using my kilt, I wrapped her snake hair and shoved the back of her head into the rocky ground, forcing the femur across her throat. Dozens of bites tried to break through as I pinned her down. Medusa could not protest as I squeezed out her life. The intensity of how hard I pushed against her throat suddenly gave away as the bone pressed through her flesh and into the ground, decapitating the gorgon once again.