* System Message: “Error: Unable to report world status. Error: Unable to report world status. Error: Unable to report world status…”

Umbra gagged at the first bite of the glowing, red heart of Cetus, coughing up a chunk.

Nope, not gonna work, the ashy Pegasus thought telepathically to mine and Cleopatra’s mind. I’ll stick to being a one wing Pegasus.

“Umbra, you must,” I whispered harshly. We were hiding in the vast, golden grain field alongside a Roman villa. The thick stalks provided cover for now, but we would soon be discovered. “There are several teams of cavalry searching for us. Even if we survive the first wave, there are more coming and you won’t be able to outrun them.”

Umbra shivered, trying again. The small bite he took made him almost throw up again, but this time he swallowed it. Though much more remained, his equine body started to shiver, some of his fur transforming into red scales.

“You’ll thank me after,” I said, pleased to see it was working as he tried another bite. I looked at Cleopatra, whose face was stricken with worry. “Stay right here and make sure he both eats it and is quiet. I’ll take care of the cavalry.”

Cleopatra smiled despite the worry. “You better not die.”

I couldn’t help reflecting her humor. “I don’t feel like dying again.”

Cleopatra gave me a quick kiss before I advanced in the direction of the closest cavalry, disappearing from them in the grain field.

The thundering of hooves grew closer as I weaved quietly through the swaying fields. There were at least ten cavalry approaching us from what I could see. One of them, more than likely the leader, called out to the others that I was hiding in the fields and to be careful. I cursed under my breath. He must have had Phoebus’s curse which allowed him to see an accurate vision of the impending danger (me), though his men were bound not to believe him. Though they would soon enough when I began to attack. That was not good.

Making matters worse, although I was back to life, I still wore the same ghostly subligaculum around my waist. That was it.

Item: Ghostly Subligaculum (Common)

* Description: These ethereal undergarments appear to be made of translucent fabric, flickering in and out of existence (leaving the wearer sometimes exposed). They carry the faint chill of the underworld, offering minimal protection but slight supernatural benefits.

* Armor Rating: 5

* Durability: 15/25

* Effect: Increases the wearer’s stealth by 5% due to the garment’s ghostly nature.

* Weight: 0.2 kg

* Worth: 300 Denarii

As I reflected on it, it flickered briefly out of existence. I sighed. It was most awkward, but I was getting used to the whole nudity thing in Rome.

All of my other gear was presumably under lock and key with Caesar. Cleopatra had said Titus hid everything, which meant that it must be somewhere in Rome.

For a weapon, all I had was Achilles’ Spear. It would never miss and could bypass any defense, making more a near instant kill if thrown at a critical spot, but it could not be magically retrieved like my Pilum of Mars. I even tried summoning it just to see if it would come, but it did not. There were only two reasons for this: either the link had broken in death, or it belonged to someone else now like Caesar.

Regardless, we would need Umbra to become a dragon so we could survive. There was only one way to know how to defeat these cavalry.

Historical Insight.

As much as I feared becoming stuck in a time loop in which I would have to make a random decision to escape, I couldn’t risk death again. With only a spear and ghostly underwear, I would need some extra help to win this fight.

Here it goes, I thought, the futures unfolding before me. As always, the futures were a dizzying display, especially after drinking the Tears of Mnemosyne in the Underworld. Those tears made it so that when I looked across the vast horizon of future possibilities dependent on any decision I could make, I could focus on any one path and live through it in real time. If I needed to rewind the future path or change it, I could. I wouldn’t have to worry about memorizing the best fighting techniques because I could see every possible decision with perfect clarity in my mind as the future unfolded.

The only problem was if a Chrono Loop occurred, forcing me through that singular path like a tunnel, where the only way through was a random, chaotic choice. On the other side would be the web of futures again that I could experiment with using my perfect foresight. It was rare, but enough to kill me if I chose poorly. These were unpredictable.

Of all the futures, a majority showed Umbra taking at least five minutes to devour the heart and fully transform. The other futures showed him, Cleopatra, and myself dying if I failed.

Only five minutes, I thought, readying myself in a crouched position with the dark spear. The horses were seconds away from being on top of me. From what I could see of the coming battle, each of them were blessed by different gods. Four men would have Mars, enhancing their melee attacks. Two would be blessed by Ceres, healing the group if I struck anyone down, though they would be easiest to kill since their powers were weaker in the fall and winter. Another two would be extremely fast on foot once dismounted thanks to Mercury. That left an invisible one via Pluto and the leader blessed by Phoebus with the blinding light and prophetic ability.

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Ten versus one. Should be fun.

Oddly, in all of the futures, I only fought with my spear, never my diving powers. It wasn’t until I followed through one of the futures at the beginning that the painful realization hit.

Divine Blessing: Inactive (choose a patron god)

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, closing my eyes in frustration. I would have to find a shrine to restore my Jupiter lightning powers. It looked like I would have to fight them the old fashioned way.

Let’s take out the leader first, I thought, the futures dilating to this decision. I could see over a week into the future, but I decided to keep my focus just on this battle. It was an even split on surviving the next few minutes from what I could see. I would have to be precise to survive.

If I didn’t take out the leader first, it would be impossible to keep the element of surprise if the leader continued shouting my upcoming attacks, even if no one believed him. He would blind me with his blessing almost immediately, leaving me vulnerable for a gladius swipe against my neck followed by a fatal trampling of hooves.

Though my patron blessings were inactive, I still was maxed out with my pilum throwing abilities. Just as the leader was about to blindly run me over, I raised above the golden field, activated my Chain Lightning and Piercing Rain pilum ability, and threw it directly at his face. The stealth attack, plus the high damage output from the pilum and my skills wiped him out immediately. Not only did the spear fly through his helmet and face because of the weapon’s enchantment of never missing and breaking through barriers, but my pilum split into three as it flew, all three receiving a chain lightning bolt from the sky. The two men nearest him also died immediately with the perfect throw to their faces. The added lightning strikes shot out from the three initial targets and zapped the entire cavalry like an electrical grid. As fast as lightning, three men died instantly, and the other seven had flown off their horses, disarmed from the lightning and drained a third of their health.

Stamina: 120/190

Strength (+30): lvl 24 (240/250)

Glory (+90): 5,430

Level (+1): 55 (10/570)

Skill Points (+1): 1

Wow, that felt really good! It had felt like forever since I had such power. Being in the Underworld felt emasculating. I had to hide and avoid combat because of how weak I was. Now, in just a single strike, I had taken out three men and disarmed the rest.

The seven surviving cavalrymen struggled to rise to their feet since their stamina had been wiped out and their horses fled from the lightning. I would need to finish them off quickly before—

A flash of warm light interrupted my thoughts. One of the Ceres-blessed restored the health and stamina of the survivors, though it was only half because of the autumn month.

Need to take those out next, I thought as they all stood up and scrambled for their weapons which had blown away from the lightning. I reflexively attempted to summon my pilum from the leader’s burnt face, but nothing appeared. I cringed. This was not the Pilum of Mars. I would have to retrieve the Spear of Achilles manually.

The delay in my attack proved my misfortune. In this future, two Mercury-blessed took advantage of my attempted summoning and zoomed over to attack me. Their enhanced speed caught me off guard. The first one tackled me to the ground in surprise, his momentum knocking out my breath, while the other retrieved my black spear from the leader and rammed it between my ribs. The pain was shocking, stealing my breath, and my life.

This future rewinded back to when I had made my first throw. In my mind as I corrected this path, I could see and remember every alteration of this future. I would have to be very careful as I worked out the best solution. Instead of trying to summon my spear, I bolted towards the fallen corpse of the leader. The man’s face had burned away from the attack. I yanked the spear out and threw it at the nearest Ceres-blessed, activating Thunder Strike which completely took him out.

Stamina: 90/190

Strength (+10): lvl 25 (0/260)

Glory (+60): 5,490

Level: 55 (70/570)

Need to be careful, I thought, regarding my stamina. It drained so quickly.

During the altercation, the Pluto-blessed disappeared and the two Mercury-blessed charged. In their wisdom, they decided not to chance grabbing their weapons but to overwhelm me with their sudden speed. Both of them crashed into me, sending me to the ground.

“Hold him down!” one of them shouted, vibrating with speed. I kicked and scrambled beneath his weight to no avail. The other recovered a gladius and was back in a flash. The other two Mars-blessed were making their way over to me, swords in hand, along with the Ceres-blessed.

Unfortunately for the Roman pinning me down, his unpredictable teleportation curse kicked in. He blinked out of existence to somewhere far away from the battlefield, allowing me to roll out of the way just in time to avoid the gladius strike from the other one.

I aimed to retrieve my spear, but it suddenly plucked itself up out of the leader’s face before disappearing. The Pluto-blessed retrieved it.

Dang it, I thought, perfectly evading the impossibly fast attack from the Mercury-blessed. I danced out of his way and the invisible Roman, rolling between the two Mars-blessed to retrieve a gladius from a dead Roman. The Mercury-blessed caught up to me and I barely parried his blow, weaving between his attacks that I had foresight of. The fast Roman growled with anger from my prophetic insight. If we were alone, I would simply wait out his minute of enhanced speed and then strike. But I didn’t have time. The futures showed I would be overwhelmed soon if I didn’t focus on the Pluto-blessed next who could strike from anywhere.

Seeing his next series of attacks, I jumped out of the way before jumping back to tackle him, seeing no other option. The man grunted at we fell to the ground. With a quick punch to the throat he was hindered from attacking. I rolled out of the way just in time for the Pluto-blessed to accidentally spear the Mercury-blessed instead of me, killing him.

“There you are!” I shouted, swiping his Achilles heels ironically. The invisible Roman cried, and seeing from the futures, I aimed my next strike with precision into the small of his least protected back.

Stamina: 75/190

Strength (+10): lvl 25 (10/260)

Glory (+30): 5,520

Level: 55 (100/570)

I plucked my now visible spear from his invisible hands.

The four remaining Romans advanced on me, with the two Mars-blessed approaching first. The remaining Ceres-blessed healed everyone again. The two Mars-blessed silently charged as soon as they were healed. It would have been an easy attack to take them all out with my recharged lightning abilities. Except, after I blew them to pieces, the event repeated itself endlessly.

I was stuck in a Chrono Loop.