Kardin doesn’t remember any of his past save the brutal murder of his parents just before he was sold into slavery. Now he has been given a chance to earn his freedom by fighting as a gladiator in the coliseum but doing so will make his cruel master unbelievably wealthy. Will he survive and earn his freedom giving a man he hates all the wealth in the world or will he die by the sword?  Laiya Praetor is a young girl, raised far away from the homeland of her people, her mother is queen of renegades, people who ran away from persecution and death of their home nation. She has been captured and forced to fight in the coliseum where the legendary gladiator had given his life for their people to escape. Laiya now is the only thing standing between the empire and their tiny renegade nation, will she triumph or will she be made into a monster like so many other gladiators before her? A legionnaire of the First legion, elite killers, efficient machines of the empire. Leon is a simple soldier in the First, intelligent, diligent and obedient, he is an exceptional legionnaire, but not noteworthy as all the first are exceptional, but when chance and political machinations lead to him in charge on campaign beyond the empire’s borders. It is up to Leon to determine the fate of his people, and his loyalty to his men or his emperor. His legate or the centurions, a man always obedient must now choose and lead his men to death and glory. He is the monster, humanity destroyed, once he had earned his freedom but now he is forced to fight once again in the coliseum. Disfigured and full of hate, he weeps as he kills for it is not his foes whom he fights but those unfortunate to have displeased the emperor. He only fights to live a little longer for the false hope of freedom, knowing he will never earn it for they fear the monster they have created. But what happens when he is given something, someone to live for, a reason to do more than just survive. Can the monster become human again? All of them will change the fate of the empire, for better or for worse. Men and women will die, society will shudder, powers left sleeping will be awoken once again.