Chapter Summaries

Kirk fought Grebo’s elite guards, drove Grebo from his mansion, and rescued Illyria. With Grebo’s men pursuing them and Rome City’s gates closed, Kirk carried the unconscious Illyria to a secluded red-light district.

• Kirk approached Grebo’s mansion after hearing Grebo threaten Illyria, but two First Legion Centurions ambushed him.
• Kirk fought the Centurions, crippled one with Wolverine’s Claws, and killed both after using his Replica Magic Ring to strike from behind.
• Grebo appeared at the window, and Kirk slashed his face before turning back to finish the remaining Centurion.
• Kirk found Illyria alone and sobbing, carried her from the mansion, and escaped as Grebo gathered men to pursue them.
• With Rome City’s gates closed, Kirk took Illyria to a secluded red-light district and paid the madam for a room.

Kirk reunited with Illyria, rescued her from Grebo, and arranged for her to hide safely while giving her money. He then accompanied Antony to the Senate, where political tensions erupted into a riot, forcing Kirk and the others to flee Rome with the injured Warrenus.

• Kirk carried Illyria to safety, and she tearfully reunited with him before they spent the night together.
• Kirk promised to take Illyria with him eventually, gave her 10,000 aurei to hide with her father's allies, and received the [Diligence of the Goddess of Household Affairs] glove from her.
• Kirk discovered that the new glove completed the [Gift of the Major God] set and strengthened its equipment effects and set skill.
• Kirk accompanied Antony to the Senate, where Antony argued against Pompey and Pompey proposed that Caesar return to Rome for trial.
• A riot broke out inside and outside the Senate; Warrenus was struck unconscious, and Kirk fought through the crowds with him.
• Kirk, Antony, and their companions escaped Rome on horseback while Pompey was caught up in the fighting.

Antony persuaded Caesar’s generals that Pompey planned to seize their wealth and positions, winning their support for Caesar’s march on Rome. Caesar’s forces advanced rapidly, while Warrenus led a vanguard toward an apparently undefended Rome with Octavian accompanying him.

• Antony returned to Gaul with the wounded Warrenus and told the generals that Pompey’s proclamation would confiscate their Gallic spoils, turning their anger against the Senate and Pompey.
• Caesar offered to surrender his wealth and submit to trial, but the generals rallied behind him and declared their allegiance before the assembled legions.
• Caesar called for a march on Rome, and his legions advanced swiftly, forcing Pompey and the Senate to flee to Greece.
• Antony sent Warrenus and Plo ahead with Ubii warriors to scout Rome and deliver a proclamation, while warning them not to loot or harm anyone.
• Caesar allowed Octavian to join Warrenus’s vanguard under the protection of Kirk and other guards, and the group rode toward Rome without meeting resistance.

Warrenus, Plo, Octavian, and Kirk led the vanguard toward Rome, but a devastating ambush by Grebo’s Roman First Legion destroyed the Ubii cavalry and badly hurt Warrenus’s Roman cavalry. The First Legion advanced in force, leaving Kirk to find a way to protect Octavian and save his companions.

• Warrenus told Plo that he planned to retire after the war and become a wine merchant, while Plo said he cared only about women, money, and fighting.
• Warrenus warned Octavian that Rome’s easy surrender seemed suspicious, just before ballistae and volleys of arrows struck the troops crossing the Tiber.
• Kirk used Mass Teleport to move himself and Octavian to shelter and shielded Octavian as the attack killed all three hundred Ubii cavalrymen and caused heavy casualties among Warrenus’s cavalry.
• Grebo appeared and revealed that his Roman First Legion had ambushed the vanguard beside the Tiber.
• Six thousand infantry, archers, ballistae, and about eight hundred cavalry emerged, while Warrenus recognized the First Legion’s strength.

Kirk and his allies faced the six thousand elite soldiers of the First Legion, whose overwhelming strength and numbers made their defeat or escape seem inevitable. Grebo confronted Kirk, intent on taking his head and avenge their bitter personal history.

• Kirk scanned a First Legion soldier and discovered the legionnaires had elite stats, powerful skills, and 2,000 Health Points each.
• Kirk and the wounded survivors realized that their fewer than one hundred fighters were trapped against six thousand fresh soldiers and eight hundred cavalry, with no viable way to flee.
• The First Legion advanced to within a few dozen meters of Kirk's group and stopped.
• Grebo announced that he had laid an ambush for Caesar and planned to kill Kirk's group, interrogate them, and take their heads to bless the standards.
• Grebo fixated on Kirk, remembering Kirk's affair with Illyria, his repeated schemes, and Kirk's recent attack and abduction of her.

Spartacus emerged from Kirk’s Soulstone with a Demigod Body and charged the First Legion to avenge Sura and confront Grebo. Kirk and his allies joined the desperate assault, while Octavian was sent to safety, and the chapter ended with Grebo laughing at the warriors Kirk summoned among the Roman ranged troops.

• Grebo threatened Kirk, Wang Han, and Illyria before Spartacus’s Soulstone glowed and Spartacus appeared, transformed by his Demigod Body.
• Spartacus charged Grebo and the First Legion, vowing to avenge Sura and his murdered kinsmen.
• Kirk decided to join the attack, and Wang Han, Little Fatty, Warrenus, and Plo chose to fight while Kirk arranged for Octavian to escape with an invisibility ring.
• Kirk summoned Katherine, Meg, Night Blade, Dream Demon, and Mei Wa into the Roman formation’s rear ranks to disrupt its ranged troops.
• Katherine split into four forms and armed herself with primitive weapons, prompting Grebo and the Roman soldiers to laugh at the summoned women.

Wang Han and her team unleashed their strongest abilities against the Roman First Legion, and Spartacus broke through its shield wall as Kirk and his companions charged toward Grebo. Kirk found himself surrounded by Roman heavy infantry and realized the team could be wiped out before it could inflict enough damage.

• Katherine and Spartacus's weapons activated [God of Hunting], covering the Roman First Legion in snow and weakening its soldiers.
• Wang Han summoned three High Demons, while Little Fatty summoned three Hellhounds and charged with the team.
• Spartacus hurled nine lightning-fast javelins through the Roman shield wall, then leaped into the legion and cut down its soldiers.
• Sheptchenko used [Sharpshooter's Gift] to grievously wound Grebo's adjutant, and Kirk and Little Fatty pushed through the breach toward Grebo.
• Kirk killed a shield-bearer after enduring a coordinated assault, then realized the Roman heavy infantry could overwhelm the team before it killed many legionaries.

Kirk’s team used illusions and divine apparitions to disrupt the Roman First Legion, then launched a brutal assault that killed many soldiers. The legion recovered its discipline and began grinding down the attackers as Kirk fought on with summoned wolf spirits.

• Kirk ordered Wang Han, Katherine, and Dream Demon to cast a battlefield-wide illusion that made the First Legion soldiers attack one another.
• Spartacus, Kirk, Little Fatty, the 13th Legion, and their allies charged through the confused ranks, while the witches and demons attacked the legion’s ranged fighters.
• Kirk revealed Absolution of the Dawn Goddess, whose projections of five Roman gods and a dawn strike shook the legion, stunned soldiers, and enabled the attackers to kill many of its troops.
• Grebo ordered his deputy and enforcers to execute more than a hundred priests and devout soldiers, helping the First Legion recover its resolve and resume fighting.
• The First Legion’s disciplined shield wall slowed Kirk’s assault and inflicted mounting casualties, while Kirk summoned Ancient Hunters from his claws and continued fighting despite his wounds.

Kirk’s strike team fought its way through the Roman First Legion’s defenses, using Little Green’s Giant Dragon form to devastate the ranks. With Grebo fleeing and the legion closing in again, Wang Han prepared to unleash three level 8 Meteor Fury scrolls at once.

• Kirk and his wounded strike team battled through the Roman First Legion’s third shield formation while Spartacus and the Katherines’ forces helped keep them alive.
• Kirk revealed his fourth trump card as Little Green transformed into a Giant Dragon and burned a wide path through the First Legion, causing Grebo to flee.
• Little Green returned to breathe fire again, killing hundreds of Roman soldiers before its wounds forced it to shrink and fall near the battlefield.
• Kirk led another charge, but a Tribune reorganized the First Legion and surrounded the exhausted strike team once more.
• Kirk signaled Wang Han, who used her enhanced magic to attempt to summon three Meteor Fury spells at once as the team became trapped on a small rise.

Kirk and his allies defeated the Roman First Legion after surviving its ambush and overcoming its final thousand elite soldiers. Kirk woke at sunset to learn the team had earned a hidden title and reward, while Warrenus confirmed the legion was wiped out and presented its standard.

• Kirk transformed into Wolverine form and attacked the Roman ranks to buy Wang Han time to summon four meteors, which devastated the First Legion.
• About a thousand Roman soldiers survived and regrouped, so Kirk led his wounded allies into another charge while Wang Han struck with Chain Lightning.
• Kirk's team outlasted the First Legion through their Vampiric Aura and Wang Han's spells, killing the Tribune and the remaining soldiers as several allies were badly wounded.
• Kirk collapsed from exhaustion after the battle, then woke at sunset to find Antony and Octavian had returned and Octavian had promised to praise the team's deeds to Caesar.
• Wang Han told Kirk the team had earned the hidden title "Ten Thousand Enemies" and a reward of +3 to all attributes and +1 World Legend.
• Warrenus confirmed the First Legion had been completely wiped out, and Plo brought Kirk its Golden Eagle Standard.

Kirk led his surviving cavalry into undefended Rome, then pursued Pompey’s stolen treasury and recovered valuable treasure, including a piece of the [Gift of the Major God] set. The team continued searching the haul after finding a rare pair of golden plot armor leggings.

• Kirk rejected Warrenus’s suggestion to wait for Caesar’s army and led the exhausted survivors onward to Rome.
• Kirk’s cavalry rode through Rome’s open gates, confirmed Pompey had fled, and took control of the undefended city.
• Kirk sent Warrenus, Plo, and Octavian to announce Caesar’s occupation while he pursued Pompey with Wang Han, Little Fatty, and Sheva.
• Kirk’s group caught Appius transporting stolen gold and rescued Eirene, while Sheptchenko killed Appius during the confrontation.
• Kirk found a statue of Venus and the [Goddess of Wisdom's Grace] necklace among the treasury’s cargo, strengthening the [Gift of the Major God] set.
• Little Fatty discovered a rare pair of golden plot armor leggings as the team continued searching the treasure chests.

Kirk and his team returned the recovered Roman treasury to Caesar, who honored them with a triumphal ceremony and rewarded Kirk for his victories. As Rome settled, Lord Quintus learned from an abducted scout that Minerva's necklace was now in Kirk's possession.

• Little Fatty accepted the gold-grade [Will of Saint George] greaves, while the team found another bag of [Soul Crystals] and woke Eirene.
• Kirk's team turned the treasury cart back toward Rome, where Warrenus and Plo caught up with them.
• Caesar welcomed Kirk and his team beneath the triumphal arch, placed laurel wreaths on them, and praised Kirk for defeating the First Legion, capturing Rome, and recovering the gold.
• Kirk received Caesar's rewards and a 40-point increase in Favorability with Caesar's faction, while Warrenus and Plo resigned to pursue lives outside the army.
• Roman soldiers captured and interrogated a 13th Legion scout, then Lord Quintus learned that Minerva's necklace was with a scout named Kirk.

Quintus learned that Kirk had taken Minerva’s sacred necklace and planned to use it to rally Roman support against Caesar. In Rome, Kirk reunited with Illyria, who feared for his safety after his battle with Grebo, and the chapter ended with the lovers together in her hidden apartment.

• Quintus ordered preparations to recover Minerva’s necklace, recruiting skilled fighters, assassins, and priests for the mission.
• Quintus explained that his father, Pompey, intended to use the necklace in a sacrificial ceremony to strengthen the Roman Legions and turn the people against Caesar.
• Kirk visited Illyria in her hidden apartment, where she worried that Grebo’s attack had happened because of her.
• Kirk told Illyria that Grebo had disappeared after his defeat and asked whether she was in danger.
• Illyria said her hiding place was secure, and Kirk stayed with her while they shared an intimate evening together.

At Octavian’s banquet for Caesar, an assassination attempt began while Caesar suffered an epileptic seizure in the attic. Kirk’s group prepared to defend Caesar and Octavian as sleeping gas overcame the household.

• Atia welcomed Kirk and his companions to the banquet and praised Kirk for protecting Octavian.
• Caesar arrived with Calpurnia and later went upstairs during an epileptic seizure, followed by Octavian, who treated him in secret.
• Atia mistakenly believed Caesar and Octavian were having sex and ordered the guards to keep people away from the attic.
• Kirk and his companions noticed the estate had grown unnaturally quiet, and Wang Han detected assassins.
• Assassins released sleeping gas throughout the house, incapacitating the guards and guests.
• Kirk sent Little Fatty and Wang Han to protect Caesar and Octavian while he and Sheva guarded the stairs.

Wang Han killed an assassin targeting Caesar, but Pompey's forces attacked the villa from multiple directions. Kirk and his allies fought the deadly assassins, leaving Kirk badly poisoned and wounded as Sheptchenko and Kirk struck back.

• Wang Han pulled Little Fatty away from the skylight and killed the assassin outside with [Death Finger].
• Little Fatty kicked away the smoke pellets thrown through the skylights while Pompey's soldiers and assassins advanced on Kirk and Sheva's position.
• Kirk fought a serpent-blade assassin, who poisoned him, made him bleed, and slowed his movements before Kirk pierced the assassin's heart with [Wolverine's Claws].
• A crossbow assassin shot Kirk with a poisoned bolt, but Sheptchenko killed him with a headshot using a skill that never missed.
• The serpent-blade assassin wounded Kirk again, and Kirk killed him by piercing his head with both claws.

Kirk and his allies fought off a Pompeian assassination attempt at Atia’s house while protecting Caesar and Octavian, then escaped as Antony’s troops arrived. After the attackers were defeated, Caesar recognized their captured leader as Quintus, Pompey’s son, who claimed his father had no part in the attack.

• Kirk used [Absolution of the Dawn Goddess] to stun the attackers on the stairs, then summoned allies to defeat the assassins and soldiers.
• Assassins broke into the attic, where Little Fatty raised a signal flare and Wang Han fought to protect Caesar and Octavian.
• Kirk rescued Wang Han from an assassin, recalled the badly wounded Spartacus, and teleported his group away as the attackers set fires.
• Antony arrived with Caesar’s cavalry and the 13th Legion, and Caesar stopped pretending to be incapacitated once he was safe.
• Antony’s forces defeated the attackers and captured Quintus, whom Caesar identified as Pompey’s son.

Caesar released Quintus with a peace proposal for Pompey, while Octavian explained how the offer could divide Pompey’s followers. Kirk and his companions investigated the likely source of the virus and then went to the Hall of Gods to help Caesar secure divine legitimacy, where Malphona noticed Kirk’s six-piece equipment set.

• Caesar spared Quintus, gave him a hundred aurei and a letter proposing a truce, and sent him to Pompey.
• Octavian told Kirk that Pompey would lose his followers whether he rejected Caesar’s generous offer or accepted a subordinate position.
• Kirk and Wang Han suspected Pompey or Grebo of being the virus after realizing that the ambush by the Tiber River had exceeded the space’s stated difficulty limits.
• Caesar asked Kirk to arrange a public divine summoning within three days so he could establish himself as Rome’s god-chosen ruler.
• Kirk brought Wang Han, Little Fatty, and Sheva to the Hall of Gods, where his six-piece Gift of the Major God set glowed and Malphona appeared.
• Malphona remarked that Kirk’s equipment had been blessed by six Major Gods but that he had never received their true blessing.

Kirk confronted the Roman Major Gods after they threatened to revoke the blessings on his equipment, then learned they wanted him to destroy a dangerous force in Rome. He suspected it might be the Space virus and asked why the gods had chosen an outsider like him.

• Kirk discovered that only he could see and hear the Roman Major Gods, who judged him unworthy of their protection and threatened to take back the blessings on his equipment.
• Kirk challenged the gods’ judgment, arguing that his victories and the Roman principles of strength gave him a right to the blessings.
• Valkyrie appeared and defended Kirk, then provoked a heated argument with Juno, Minerva, Venus, and Vesta over the Norse and Roman gods.
• Apollo explained that the Twelve Major Gods’ equipment needed genuine blessings to reach its full power and that a destructive force had appeared in Rome.
• Juno offered to teach Kirk to use the equipment if he destroyed the force, and Kirk asked why the gods had chosen him and what the force was.

Kirk learned that the Roman gods had secretly helped him defeat the First Legion and that his six equipment pieces could unlock a second set skill. He secured a divine blessing for Caesar and discovered Pompey’s location, then prepared to lure out Grebo while the gods restored the Lucky Bracelet.

• Minerva explained that outsiders like Kirk were needed to destroy the alien virus, and Mars admitted that the gods had withdrawn the First Legion’s protection during the battle by the Tiber River.
• Venus and the other gods revealed that every three equipment pieces unlocked a set skill, and Juno let Kirk choose one of six gods as the primary deity for his second skill.
• Kirk asked the gods to withdraw their protection from Pompey and bless Caesar, and Juno promised to bless Caesar publicly in three days.
• Vesta found Pompey in Brindisi but could not locate Grebo, while Mars suspected Grebo had become the Space virus.
• Kirk said he would lure Grebo out alone and asked the gods to repair his Lucky Necklace; the six Main Gods restored its power through Malphona, warning that it could not be repaired again if damaged.

Kirk secured the Roman gods’ promise to activate his second set bonus skill after he eliminated the Space virus, then learned more about Grebo’s altered behavior and planned to lure him out with Illyria. The chapter ended with Rome declaring Grebo an Enemy of the Fatherland and placing a huge bounty on him.

• Kirk left the Hall of Gods with the restored [Lucky Bracelet], while Juno promised divine help if he eliminated the Space virus.
• Caesar agreed to help the gods defeat Grebo and arranged for Juno to bless him in three days; Kirk’s team received faction Favorability and collected [Soul Crystals] from Caesar’s vault.
• Kirk explained his plan to lure Grebo out by appearing publicly with Illyria, who described Grebo’s increasingly murderous behavior and the dismissal of his confidants.
• Kirk concluded that Grebo’s jealousy and hatred could draw him into a trap before the virus fully controlled him or transferred to another host.
• Rome announced Grebo’s defeat by the Tiber River, branded him an Enemy of the Fatherland, and offered up to 100,000 Aureus coins for his capture or death.