The night was exceptionally dark. In the distance a storm was brewing. We saw flashes of lightning far across the sky as if there was a battle high above the heavens that was slowly approaching us. The wind was getting stronger by the moment, and we could hear the distant sounds of thunder roaring far away.

They kept the majority of the slaves near a large temple that worshiped the same multi-armed goddess we had previously seen before. This temple was guarded like a fortress, and was its own private section in the walled off city. Only those who truly worshiped were allowed to enter those tainted halls. A large small number of guards patrolled the walls high above at the top of the walls. In the cover of darkness, we arrived. We avoided wearing our armor so that we could be lighter and not make a sound. Instead, Cao Tzu dressed me in dark clothes to hide my features. Simple robes that would allow me to move freely unencumbered.

Brutus used his great strength to throw a makeshift grappling hook we made out of rope and a pickaxe. The one made from the fangs of the great cat. I can only imagine the guard who came to inspect the strange sight of a pickaxe wedged on the wall. Curiosity got the better of him as he walked over and peered downward. All that he saw was my blade running through his face, killing him before he fell to the ground. Reaching the top, I gestured for Cao Tzu to climb up next as I kept guard. I tossed the body over the side, warning Brutus to step away just before. Brutus’s weight made his climb difficult, but not impossible. We were worried that the rope would break, but it held true.

Though the rope was far from our concern. Brutus’s fingers slipped and he slid down the rope, burning his hands in the process. I gestured for him to wait, and I would open the way for him. He was dissatisfied, but what other choice did he have? Cao Tzu and I crept silently along the battle ramparts. We moved as quietly as possible and our weapons were drawn. I with my sword and Cao Tzu with her spear.

We came upon a patrol of two guards. They hadn’t noticed us, so we hid behind the archway where they were coming from. As soon as they passed us, Cao Tzu and I attacked at the same time. She speared her target in the back of the neck while I grabbed the other one and wrapped my arm around his throat. After a short struggle, I twisted my arms and broke the guard’s neck. They were heavily armored, but even the best defenses have their weaknesses.

We reached the main gate. The outside was guarded as we peered from the ramparts prior. We scaled down the walls down a small flight of stairs. Cao Tzu knocked on the door to the guards door in the gate itself. Curious, one of the guards opened the door to see what was going on. They must have assumed that we were there to change their shift. What the guard didn’t expect was a swift swinging strike at his head, separating it from his body while Cao Tzu rolled out from the door and then thrusted her spear in the man’s throat before he could call for backup. She then signaled for Brutus to come over. With his entrance secured we hid the bodies and continued along our mission.

Our goal was to discover where the slaves were being kept and free them. When we searched, we found that the interior of the temple had lights in the windows and was guarded. I told Brutus to search for the other slaves while Cao Tzu and I ventured into the temple. Perhaps there were more slaves inside, and that tonight held some sort of sacrifice to the multi-armed goddess. We came upon the side of the temple and waited for a patrol to pass before we used our grappling hook to scale the wall and climb into an opened window.

We could hear chanting from inside. My assumption seemed to be correct. We journeyed further down the temple, silently killing guards and hiding their bodies as we crept along further into the unholy tabernacle.

Meanwhile, Brutus was locating where exactly the slaves were. He found them in a large walled off area that was essentially a ghetto. He found that the slaves were kept there where multiple families of slaves were boarded up in a single room under extremely packed environments. The slaves were kept in two large categories. There were the worker slaves who were subjected to brutal beatings and forced to do backbreaking work, and the sacrificial slaves who were kept like racehorses in peak condition. One must not give the Goddess a paltry sacrifice it seemed.

He learned all this from one of the slaves he rescued after prying the gate open with his great strength. A proper slave revolt would begin, but not before Brutus told them when. Brutus was waiting for my signal.

Cao Tzu and I continued to make progress as we journeyed deeper into the temple. As we made our way into the inner sanctum, we heard the ever present chanting growing louder. We hid in the shadows like rats darting from pillar to pillar as we witnessed a ceremony.

The participants in the ritual had gathered many slaves. The sacrifices had no chains around them, but did not run away. They were in some sort of trance as the head priest of this temple continued to speak in a language I could not understand at the statue of the multi-armed goddess. This statue was far larger than the one in the camp that we saw, towering high into the ceiling that reached several feet up. The priest’s chants echoed loudly as music was being played. Several young girls wore only a long silk loincloth that covered their sex. Their chests were painted in a shining gold and were painted all along their bodies. They spun around as the white silk waved in the air, in a hypnotic way. They all wore a golden mask in the image of their goddess. A golden cat with a third eye.

The head priest was on his knees with his hands placed together, looking up to the statue. His eyes never left its gaze and remained unblinking throughout the ceremony. His robes were white, including a tall hood that bore a mask much like the girls, save for one difference. The third eye placed at the forehead had a shining red jewel rather than the orb being simply painted blue like the masks on the girls.

The music that played was ethereal in origin. Those that were playing it seemed to be lost in their own world. It was as if the music was playing them instead of the other way around. Then we saw the first sacrifice.

A young man was in a trance. His body had many strange symbols all over it that glowed bright green. He stepped forward and had his robes taken off of him, stripping him completely nude. He was lured onto an altar and laid down. The priest spoke louder. The eyes of the statue began to glow bright blue. Several different shapes appeared out of the eyes like sentient smoke. It slowly came to the young man and took the form of a woman made of the blue smoke. It mounted the young man and engaged in carnal desires. It moaned loudly. It leaned down to kiss him and the young man was fully awake and out of his trance. He began to scream in her embrace as his youthful vigor was being drained. His skin turned pale and his strong muscles vanished, leaving behind a skeletal frame. His once youthful full blond hair turned white and fell out.

His life force was being drained before our very eyes. It didn’t stop until the flesh turned to dust and all that remained was a skeleton that crumbled away, vanishing into smoke. The blue figure vanished and danced around in the air as it waited for its next victim. It was the slave I saw before: the Northman who was under the same trance as the previous victim. I looked at Cao Tzu and she at me. We gave each other a knowing nod. I took my blade in my hands and I stabbed it through a large banner and used it to break my fall. Yet before I could separate the priest’s head from his body, he cast a vile spell at me. Without even looking at me, he waved his hand in a single gesture and I found myself unable to move of my own will. I felt like a puppet on a string. The priest looked at me. He must have thought I would have made a good sacrifice, but before he could throw his plans into action, Cao Tzu’s spear found his chest and pierced him all the way through.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

At the moment of his death, the blue figure screamed and vanished into nothingness. The sacrificial slaves snapped out of their trance and began to attack the captors. Now free from my bondage, I slew several of the cultists and guards. One drew out his dagger and charged at me.

“Unbeliever!!!”

He tried to stab me in the back, but his cries alerted me. I thrusted my sword into his chest, using his momentum to throw him over my head and into a large brazier where his robes caught on fire. Already dead, he couldn’t escape the flame even if he had enough life left in him to try and crawl out. Cao Tzu grabbed a banner and slid down to aid me in my fight. The Northman from before picked up a dagger from a fallen cultist and aided me. He struck down a cultist as I cut through more. Those that were able and willing to fight would give no quarter to our enemy. Their united fury was felt within the walls as men and women alike who were to be sacrificed unleashed their hatred on the cult.

I used my strength to throw a brazier over which caused one of the tapestries to catch fire. This started a chain reaction that would see the temple turned into smoking embers. We burst out of the temple and the revolt had well and truly begun. As the temple began to glow with flames, Brutus took that as a signal and began to charge with his detachment of slaves. While the security was distracted, They saw too late that Brutus and his people bashed against them. The children were taken to safety while Brutus unleashed his strength on the guards, flinging them around as if they were nothing more than childrens toys.

We joined up with Brutus and engaged in glorious combat. Ile Sathak must have dined well on that night. Unfortunately, our engagement was cut short after one of the cultists rang an alarm bell. We knew that the entire city would be in an uproar. I looked at the Northman and yelled at him.

“Get your people out of the city! Now!”

His eyes burned with fury at the enemy, but regarded me with a sense of respect. As I said before, when I first looked into his eyes, they showed an absence of something, yet at that precise moment I saw a fire reignited. We burst down the gate of the temple and the slaves fled into the night. In the confusion: Brutus, Cao Tzu and I vanished into the crowd of people and hid in the alley ways. Some of the slaves were not fortunate, but the majority had escaped with their new freedom. We watched the flames of the temple rise once we reached the balcony of the inn.

That night I realized that the cultists were weak. Whoever their lord was and however they achieved their power, then this paltry legion of sickly soft children in bath robes was not their main force. They were in Akari to establish a rule of fear, otherwise the citizens would have revolted against them long ago. It made me wonder who this enemy was: why they held such a strong rule over people; what dark powers were I not privy to; and exactly what awaited me in the darkness ahead of me? I had no idea who their leader was, but I did know this: they were dangerous, and I couldn’t afford to do another grand stunt like that. At least not so soon.

Two nights after the revolt, we had a trio of visitors ask for us at the inn. At first we thought that perhaps, we were found out by some means, but no. It was the Northman and two other companions with him. They wanted to speak with me, and I obliged on the condition that it would be private.

We went into our room with Brutus guarding the door to make sure there were no evesdroppers listening in to our conversation. The Northman lowered his hood, and his companions followed suit. The one on the right was a younger man. He had light dark skin with short hair and brown eyes. At first I saw him as only that, but I could sense a type of untapped potential within him. He had been in captivity for most of his life, and now had a taste of that elusive concoction of freedom.

The other man was older than myself. His hair was peppered white and black and his full beard matched. He bore many scars across his body. He bore the visage of a man who had seen much conflict in his life. Even at his age he was in peak physical condition. Looking at him gave me hope that I too could maintain my body’s strength at his age.

The Northman looked at me with something on his mind, yet he didn’t speak right away. There was some hesitation on his part. I raised my eyebrow and waited for him to speak after a long moment of silence.

“Are you not going to speak?”

He stammered for a moment. “F-Forgive me. I do not know how to properly… thank you for what you did.”

“I would imagine not, but you are most welcome.”

The Northman cut his eyes to the man on his left and gestured to him.

“This is Mil’Tuk. He is the youngest of us. He was a hunter of his people until he was captured by the cult of Ys’tar. Now he finds himself here. And this is Straden. He’s an old gladiator who found himself in the sacrificial pits.”

Ys’tar. That was the name of the multi-armed goddess. Now I had a name for that creature, and knew who to curse. I tilted my head at the Northman and smirked.

“You told me their names, but not yours.”

He stammered for a moment before looking down in shame.

“I…have no name. I have been a slave for so long, I had forgotten my real name.”

“Well then, would you like me to give you a new name?”

He was taken aback for a moment.

“I’m sorry?”

“Would you like a new name?” I reiterated in a stern voice as I crossed my arms. “You must have a name, and I can give you one that will make your enemies quake with fear.”

He lowered his head and looked aside. He swallowed hard, the prospect of a new name overwhelming him. This man had been denied his freedom and basic human dignity his entire life, and now he would know true freedom starting with a new name. He only nodded for a moment as an answer.

I thought of many names for him, but one felt just right.

“Gallus… From now on, your name is Octavian Gallus.”

This would mark another historic moment for my legion. When one joins the legion, their old life is over, and they will have a brand new identity. A new name and a new purpose.

Octavian smiled and knelt down before me. Mil’Tuk and Straden looked at each other and knelt down beside Octavian. Octavian kept his head lowered as he addressed me.

“Thank you, my lord.”

“My lord?” I thought to myself. I rather liked the sound of that. I gestured for them to rise up to their feet.

“Brothers. Today marks a new day for you. Today, you are free men, and you have no masters but yourselves. This is a glorious day for the Blasted Lands, for we will make a name for ourselves in due time. Now, We must keep our eyes on the future.”

I walked over to the window of the tavern and smiled, looking out at the city. I had big things planned for Akari. Little did I know that —as before— I was being watched. Those violet eyes had not left me for a moment. She knew what I had done, and could act at any point. However, she didn’t. She continued to study me and wait. The lady who watched me had plans of her own.