“Give way!!!”

A loud trumpet from the city gate sounded.

It was a familiar trumpet sound.

“The Empress of Rome has arrived!”

The city gates opened, chariots and soldiers of Rome entered Eretria. The Eretrians made a way for the empress’s entourage, as they were all awed by their majestic entrance.

Arete and the team were shocked, it was out of what they had expected. It reminded Arete of the day when the Romans entered Syracuse. A revulsion of feeling that led to her deep anger towards the empress.

“What a pleasant surprise! The great empress is here just in time for my Inauguration!” Heracle welcomed Sporus with a big smile.

Chlorus came out from the carriage, holding the door open for empress Sporus.

“Chlorus! He… he is still alive! After that day in Syracuse, I thought he went back to save my father… I thought he must have failed, and my father died because of that… Why, why is he still alive? Why is he still with Sporus? Why… why… HE MUST HAVE BETRAYED MY FATHER!”

She whimpered but stayed on her ground, hiding under her golden face mask, her clenched fist was the only outward sign of her anger.

“Arete! What should we do now?” Pryne asked with her head peek out from the hidden compartment. She was wearing the same outfit and face mask as Arete.

“Heracle of Eretria. We brought you great presents from Rome,” said one of the three elders. The soldiers carried chests of gold, and jewels to the platform. And then, they brought in cages of roaring animals…

“What's that?!!”... “Are those… Chimeras?” Everyone was shocked.

The animals were huge and there were about 30 cages of them. They all had the body of a lion and on their heads, there were horns like goats.

“Gold, jewels and exotic animals, we are here to propose to your Teleios, the most beautiful Lady of Eretria… for her hands to our Emperor, to become Caesar Nero’s concubine,” Sporus said.

All of a sudden, the crowd gazed at Arete. The Eretrians were all confused. Even though they were a sovereign city-state, the military and trade power of Rome was unbeatable. They knew about how Rome had taken down all other nearby city-states that attempted to go against them. If their Teleios is to be brought to Rome and become Nero's concubine, it means they had to surrender to her.

"Oh... haha, please your royal highness, Empress Sporus, what flattery to my sister! But all of us know that Empress Sporus is far more graceful and elegant than her..." Heracle tried to swivel around to place himself on the favourable position.

"What! I'm not his sister! We do not have any sort of bloodline relationship at all!" Pryne argued, when she was about to jump out from the hidden compartment, Arete stopped her.

She took a deep breath, calmed herself and gracefully walked down to the centre of the temple hall.

“How generous of you, Empress Sporus,” Arete shouted.

“But I, the Teleios of Eretria, prefer to become THE EMPRESS!”

Arete was staring at Chlorus in anger, and he was stunned, recognizing that familiar voice.

As Sporus and others never encountered Arete before, they didn’t suspect her. Sporus was agitated by her request about taking over her position.

“Teleios of Eretria, the legend says that your beauty is beyond description.”

“Wherever you touch, flowers grow.”

“Every man falls in love when they see your face.”

“Wherever you go, THE ANIMALS FOLLOW YOU!”

Sporus raised her hand, given a signal to the soldiers to release the chimeras.

“PROVE TO ME THAT YOU’RE REALLY IMMORTAL!” Sporus shouted.

The lions charged towards Arete. People started to scream in fear when the chimeras mauled some of them alive.

Matea threw a spear with a wooden pole to Arete and she grabbed one for herself. Those spears were hung on the temple wall as decorations. Agave ran and jumped from the high floor, she held a rope, as her weight pulled the large curtain down with her, uncovering the chryselephantine statue of Heracle that was placed behind the curtain wall. Thick dusk fell from the curtain and the bright sun shone in, people were stunned by the reflected lights from the statue!

"The demigod Heracle will save us!" a man shouted, pointing at the statue. In the next second, he was lacerated by the fierce animal into pieces.

"AAAAAHHHH!!!" People started to scream and run around in panic. A chimera charged at Heracle, he panicked and pushed a lady next to him towards the beast, but its head was hit by a thyrsus with the sharp mace-like head. Agave did not trigger the sharp wires, her weapon could not differentiate human and beast. She grabbed Heracle by his tunic and shouted “Use your demigod strength to kill them! You idiot! Aren’t you defeated the Nemean lion?”

Another Chimera came to attack her. Heracle took the opportunity to run away while Agave swung her thyrsus to hit the beast.

While the area was in complete chaos, Arete was not targeting the chimeras.

“YOU TRAITOR!” she jumped and ran towards Chlorus with her spear pointing at him.

Chlorus dodged her attacks. As he pulled out his sword and waved it towards her. His sword cut away her mask, revealing her eyes full of anger.

“WHY ARE YOU STILL SERVING NERO’S WIFE? WHY DIDN’T YOU SAVED MY FATHER!!!”

Arete shouted at Chlorus. In a rage, she attacked him again and again. He dodged but got stabbed in his arm. Arete pulled out the spear and aimed at his head. He used his shield to block that deadly stab. He still held his sword close to himself.

“Listen to me, Arete!” said Chlorus.

“DON’T GIVE ME EXCUSES! I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE!”

“Your father sent me to Rome for the sake of your future! It is all about the reformation of the empire!”

“I DON’T NEED BULLSHIT REFORMATION! I WANT REVOLUTION!”

“Have you forgotten how Athens and Sparta had fallen? Those who revolted against Rome, had been crushed by Rome! You’ll have to pay for the price of it, by blood!”

Arete burst into tears while flashes of memories flooded her mind. Lord Amiran always taught her about reformation. The core value she held strong, even when she was brought to Eretria, she was the one who went against Pryne’s idea of taking Heracle down.

"AND THIS STUPID REFORMATION WAS PAID BY THE BLOOD OF MY FATHER!"

Pryne ran while the chimeras were after her. Matea stabbed a chimera through its head, and she swiftly pulled out the spear again, and threw it at another chimera, straight to its head. “Arrhgg!!” arrows hit Pryne and she caught two of them on her arm. Matea realized Sporus was targeting Pryne from the ground floor.

“The animals will target the real Teleios of Eretria…” Noticing that most of the Chimeras headed towards the masked lady. Sporus had identified the real Teleios within the panicking crowd.

Matea jumped down to the ground and ran towards Sporus, she threw the spear at Sporus, but Sporus dodged it and the spear flew and landed further away. While she approached Sporus, Sporus dropped her bow and pulled out a sword. Matea realized her misstep, she jumped over Sporus to dodge her sword and to retrieve her spear.

“You’re not a real cupbearer!” said Sporus, as Matea was in a cupbearer costume.

“And I know you were a real one!” Matea replied and wielded the spear towards Sporus.

Sporus realized that familiar face, and she understood what Matea meant. Sporus was a cupbearer for Nero, her secret had been revealed since their last encounter.

Sporus wielded the sword and charged towards her, while using her spear to block the sword, it cut the spear pole in half. Sporus smiled as she was more confident with her attacks this time for she had a sword while Matea’s spear pole was merely a piece of wood. She slashed towards Matea again. With two pieces of shorter staff, Matea locked the sword blade and twisted the blade back to Sporus. Sporus was forced to let go of her sword to avoid it hitting herself. The sword flew away, but the spear blade was already pointing behind Sporus’s neck.

Sporus: “You sure you don’t want to torture me before you kill, Spartan?”

Matea was startled again, then she stabbed, Sporus had enough time to bend down to avoid that fatal strike. But when she bent, another sharp edge of the broken spear stabbed through her shoulder.

“As you wish, your highness!” Matea pulled out that broken spear handle through Sporus’s shoulder from the other end. Blood burst out from her wound.

“Argh!!!” as Sporus screamed in pain on the floor, Matea stabbed the spear blade to the ground near Sporus’s face, she stepped on her head and slowly pushed her face towards the sharp edge of the blade.

“SOLDIERS! RETREAT NOW!” The elder shouted, and three of them were on the carriage. The troops and the other horses moved out of the temple area, Sporus heard the order and kicked Matea away, she held her bleeding shoulder and ran towards the carriage. The soldiers grabbed Chlorus and pulled him together, they ran towards the elders’ carriage.

They slowly opened up a huge fully enclosed metal cage with some tiny holes. After they opened half of it, they then quickly retreated with the elders.

“What on earth… is this…” Heracle couldn’t believe his eyes.

A monster with a dragon heads burst out of that huge metal cage! It was a hydra!

Agave: “OH MY DIONYSUS! Sweet mother of lizards!”

“Not ‘AGAIN’!” Pryne pulled out the two arrows on her body.

Agave: “’Again’ what?”

“They're gonna swallow me and poop me out AGAIN!” Pryne shouted nervously.

Agave was confused. “Wait… WHAT?!!!”

to be continued...