Claudius gathered his last bit of strength to push the fallen stones. A cloud of smoke and dust arose as his eyes wandered among the rubble. Weeping and wailing shrouded his hearing. He blinked many times, but specks of dust kept finding their way into his eyes. Terror crept into the back of his mind, but he remained strangely calm, as if walking through a dream.

Slowly, his eyes adapted, and he looked around. At first, part of his mind tricked him into believing he had awoken in a different place. Then, he assured himself that he was dreaming. But there was no denying, as reality entered his mind, as he glanced at the crushed pillars, the bygone roof, the walls, the multi-storied residential buildings torn in half. Red tiles and collapsed bricks now covered the streets. He crawled out from under the wall that had almost crushed him, the bricks that had fallen on his back. He limped, although he did not think any of his bones had been broken. He felt as if he had been beaten up by a gang of bandits with iron boots, his body left covered in bruises, especially on his legs and back.

Then, a horrid thought entered his mind.

"Lukrezia!" he screamed and climbed the piles of bricks that now covered the city. He could see things below the dust, painting the landscape before him. Legs and arms were interred by the weight of their homes. Weeping children desperate to find their parents. He rushed down the road, crawling and climbing through the rubble, heading to the main plaza where hundreds of bodies had been assembled to be cremated. Many people stood on the sides, most with their clothes torn, their bodies covered in ash and dust. From there, he could see that even the lower districts of the city had been attacked. He had seen it—two demons ravaging the capital. A cyclops and another being. Before, he had thought monsters like those were myths, dreams, and symbols conjured by ancient philosophers. But seeing them made him shake to the core.

His heart hammered inside as he rushed through the gloomy streets, looking from side to side. He stopped short of the entrance to his home and fell to his knees.

"Damn you, demons!" he shouted, while he stared at what he had worked hard to build and provide. The entire structure of his villa had collapsed under the fallen pillars. The roof had fallen. Some of the quarters remained standing, but most of the walls had been crushed, as if the giants had stepped right through them.What should he do? He remained on his knees, clasping his fists tight. He had to go in; there was a chance that they were still alive. If he did not find them at all, they had survived and were somewhere else in the city. He rushed through the garden toward the door. The main hallway was still intact, but as soon as he crossed to the inner garden, he glanced at the fallen walls that covered it entirely. Where could they be? He passed through, inspecting the lower section, and he entered his room. He saw a human arm sticking out from a pile of rubble, and his heart jumped. He rushed to grab it and pulled. Impossible; it had been crushed by a lot of weight. He leaned in and did what he could to lift the rock that covered it, but when he saw the crushed skull of his servant, he let go and sighed. Tursan had been loyal and noble for years. Now he could not go back to his family in the village. His sick mother was probably waiting for him to go back, as usual, at the end of the year. Not to see him again.

Cladius swallowed, looking around, wishing in the depths of his soul that his wife and children were not there, that they had survived. He walked into the main living room, all crushed and destroyed, and rushed to his children's quarters. There, the walls had collapsed entirely, and he frantically started pulling fallen bricks and broken segments of the collapsed wall.

"Can anyone hear me? Is anybody there?"

Half of the wall was still assembled; the other half had collapsed on the side. He jumped down, grabbed it from beneath, tried to push it up with his legs and shoulders. He clenched his teeth and growled as he struggled to make it stand. There, he saw a hand he recognized, small, palms up. Cladius screamed as he pushed with all his strength, and the wall finally stood. He pushed it to the side, and it collapsed in the other end of the room. He rushed to move the stones away.

"Lukrezia, love, please, please." He lifted a cluster of bricks. Her face, although covered in dust, had been preserved by the angle of the table where she had hidden. But as he lifted the rocks off her chest, he discovered something horrid. Lana and Heracles were still holding onto her body. They were also intact. Maybe they had suffocated below the rubble and concrete.

Cladius knelt over the hard stones and caressed the face of his beloved. Her curly red hair now whitened by the dust and sand.

"Why couldn't I be here for you?" he said, as tears descended freely. "Why? I beg you, forgive me… Please…" His hands lowered, and he touched the hair of his children. Heracles had died. His son, his pride had died so young. Lenna, his sweet girl.

"P… Papa?" he heard a soft voice on his side.

"Lenna?" He lifted his head. "Lenna, is it you?" He jumped down.

"Papa, please help me?"

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"Lenna, tell me where you are?"

"Papa, I'm scared."

"I'm here, sweetie, I'm here for you. Daddy's here, where are you?"

"Under my bed…" "Under the bed, under the bed…" He lifted his head, scanning through the rubble.

"I can't get out."

"Hold on, I'll be there for you."

"Where's mommy…" she asked, and Cladius couldn't help but look back at what he had uncovered. That would be too much for her to take.

"I'm here, sweetie," he moved to the other corner and lifted the rocks. It was hard, so he used another brick as a lever to help him lift the bed. The bed had collapsed on one side, and Lenna had remained cornered against the wall.

"Daddy."

"I'm almost there," he said.

"Daddy!"

"I'll get you out of there." He grasped one of the logs of the bed and pulled with all his strength. It disassembled the bed and he collapsed on his own back, but his daughter could now look through it.

He looked at her; she had stayed there by chance, or rather, by a miracle, healthy and intact.

"Daddy, why are you crying?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter, Lenna," he said, pulling another log out of the bed to make way for her to escape. Then he extended his hands and pulled her out, he turned her around and embraced her, her soft warm body was intact, unharmed by the wicked giant.

"I'm so glad I found you," he said, holding her tight.

"Where is mommy, where are they? I heard them, daddy, I heard them."

"We'll see her later, Lenna. Now, let's go to the city."

"Daddy, why was everything falling? Everything."

"It's alright, I'll explain later, please hold me tight and no matter what, don't look back. I won't let anything else happen to you."

***

A man and a little girl walked through what once had been the glory of the kingdoms. Now, half the people they knew were gone. Cladius avoided the main square, as he knew hundreds of bodies had been taken there for cremation. But what could he do?

He carried his daughter in his arms, the long-legged rag doll he brought for her cupped carefully in hers.

"Daddy, why is everything grey?"

He sighed before voicing it.

"There was an attack."

Cladius did not want to scare her more.

"Who?"

"It doesn't matter. It's gone. A very bad person."

"Heracles went out, he told me about a monster. Was it the monster?"

"Yes, sweetie, there were very bad people who came, but they're gone now, they can't hurt you anymore."

"Do you think mommy is with them?"

"Your mommy is fine where she is now," he said, only hoping that her soul found rest.

Cladius scanned the horizon, looking for a part of the city that had not been damaged, but from up on the Hill of Jupiter, he could see that the creatures had intentionally tried to tear the city down, as most of the monuments had been crushed, most of the temples, and very few districts seemed untouched by their rage. As he went down, heading towards the Southern district, he encountered hundreds of people marching in that direction. From afar, it seemed like the least affected area.

"What are the authorities saying?" he asked a man in a patrician's toga. "Authorities? Didn't you see? The Senate was destroyed with most of the senators inside. In the midst of a meeting. The consuls are dead. We've seen three senators close to the city center, one of them had the idea to find the bodies, but it seems like they don't have any idea how to deal with the situation. Some centurions are trying to organize the people, but it's all a mess. No one knows what to do."

"So everybody is heading south now."

"It's the only normal place. Everything else was turned upside down."

"Daddy, is mommy at the place where we're going?" Lenna asked.

"We'll see her later," he said, unable to tell the truth but feeling his heart ache every time he felt forced to lie for her child not to know. How could he deal with that? He had never thought his wife would die so soon and had never thought about what he would tell his child in that case.

Claudius soon reached the southern district of the city, it was dirtier and more humble. A temple for the Goddess of Crops was built close to a large circular plaza with an ancient obelisk in the middle. He glanced at a centurion directing groups of people, the setting up of military tents, and people sitting on their hunches on the corners.

Claudius rushed towards the man, who glanced at him.

"Sire," Claudius rushed toward him.

"What is it, foreigner?" the centurion asked with slight mistrust on his face.

"Sorry to come across this way, I am a senator who just came from an official journey in the west, these are traditional clothes. I'm your compatriot."

"I am no compatriot of yours, brown scum."

Claudius took a deep breath. He hated having to deal with that attitude, especially when he was around his wife. He couldn't believe he had lost her. He reached for the necklace and pulled it out, revealing the scroll with his credentials.

"Claudius Duodecimus, patrician. Senator," he said and emphasized the latter word.

The centurion growled.

"What do you need, sir?" the centurion muttered.

"I would like to address these people."

The soldier turned toward the multitude and clapped his hands.

"Attention, please," the centurion shouted from the center, his voice amplified by the acoustics. "The gentleman here is a senator."

He gently put his daughter on the ground, holding her by the hand, he walked to the center, while people stared at him with wide eyes. He did not look like the typical native Itruschian, and yet, he hoped a few of them would notice.

"Fellow citizens and subjects of our Holy Empire, listen to me!"

The people observed him with curiosity, some bewildered at his looks, but most cooperative, some begging, some crying, but they all were attentive. A good thing came out of the rigid social dynamics of the Empire."I am a Senator of the Empire. I, like you, was present when it happened. I was coming back from a trip to the East for which I missed the senatorial meeting. Please let me know if other members of the Senate are alive. I, like you, have lost many loved ones in this horrible attack. However, no matter what, our great Empire lives and fights back. I see that you are setting up tents, but many people have called for sustenance. I propose something. If your family stowage is still intact, let us gather together, donate at least part of it, and we will feed the ones who need it. Let us show restraint and discipline in this crisis. It is the only way our community may survive."