Chapter 30: chapter 30 : Tumour
In the stable square, tension was at its height. Orion faced the rebels protecting their leaders.
There were several of them drawing their weapons to defend Crixus and Naevia who were going to face a monster because of a Roman and uncontrolled words in the heat of the moment.
Among those who intervened were Mira, Lugo, Sura, Segovax and several other rebels, the majority of whom were Gallic.
Spartacus, Oenomaus and Gannicus tried as best they could to reason with Orion, deciding to teach them a lesson in blood.
Saxa: There's no need to go that far! The real culprit of this trouble has already been found, for what Crixus said, I believe he understood never to do it again. Why go to extremes because of a problem caused by a Roman?!
Orion: Like your rebel friends, you seem really difficult to understand. I don't care if he is Roman, Germanic, Greek or Gallic, I warned to kill anyone who was going to attack a protégé of the celestials and he also offended my deceased friend. Attacking him was tantamount to attacking us and disrespecting us, Naevia must die and Crixus as well for each taking my group for child's play. If you want to defend your comrades, now is the time to find them Saxa but neither you, nor Spartacus or anyone will prevent my sword from stealing their lives.
He saw Saxa sigh before sadly joining the rebel camp, she sighed as she took out her two daggers to face the celestials under the mocking gaze of Galatae, Salma and the other celestial women.
Orion without even a single fluctuation of emotion looked at the rebel group determined to protect the couple before speaking.
"You honestly believe that your number will change anything?! You will only add more deaths to your ranks, but if you care so much then you will go with them as good brothers in arms. » he said coldly before suddenly charging at them.
The rebels were confident in their numbers because Orion was alone against them, no matter how strong a person was, they could do nothing against a well-prepared numerical superiority.
That's what these poor people believed, they were dealing with a normal person but they were going to learn that monsters do indeed exist in this world.
Orion began to kill the rebels in front of him without holding back his sword, the victims didn't even know how he could touch them so easily.
Orion's brain processed information even faster than a computer, his brain automatically calculated the movements made by several people at the same time and he killed them by hitting open areas, it was even like a game for him.
He dodged, deflected the rebels' attacks without any problem while fighting back lethally, they were much weaker than the celestials so slaughtering these people was just a walk in the park.
Naevia saw their comrades being killed in front of them and tears began to fall from her eyes.
Orion faced Mira who also tried to defend her friends and she attacked him. Without even hesitating, before she even attacked, he slit her throat. This poor girl died stupidly after living this far.
When the others saw this, they also threw themselves into battle except Spartacus, Varro, Oenomaus and Gannicus who this time desperately tried to stop the massacre.
Mira was Sura's student and when the latter saw her being killed so mercilessly by Orion, she was devastated.
Orion continued to collect lives when both Lugo and Duro attacked him at the same time. Duro didn't care much about the Crixus couple but he was deeply jealous of Orion because of Saxa, when the opportunity to fight him came, he didn't hesitate to take it.
Agron, who did not even know how his brother had ended up there, did not have time to realize the situation before seeing him and Lugo also killed. Rage, anger, sadness and shock assaulted his mind all at once.
"DUROOOOO!!!" he shouted as he charged towards Orion but was knocked unconscious by Donar before going any further.
Crixus and Naevia immediately understood what they had caused and the price their friends were now paying because of them.
They didn't know how it had escalated to this point, but on the other hand they had understood at great cost that the celestials were not people with whom one should say or do anything.
Very soon the rebels began to feel fear and could no longer attack, Orion was a real monster and they understood that now.
This man was going to kill every person who dared to stand in his way. Fear had paralyzed even the bravest among them.
Suddenly, in front of Orion, Spartacus came to intervene but not by attacking, he only put himself between Orion and the rebels , he understood that Orion could only kill those who attacked him.
Spartacus: You wanted blood and you got it! Today, many of my comrades have fallen under your wrath and we have completely learned the lesson.
Orion: No, these fools did not die under my anger but under their own stupidity, I had no resentment for them. Their death is only suicide, I only wanted to take two lives but they stupidly offered themselves to my blade.
Gannicus: Enough, our real enemy is the Roman Republic, we are allies and yet we kill each other.
Orion: No, the dead are only in your camp and this will continue until those concerned come to me.
Spartacus: Orion, what happened to you?! Since when have you been so ruthless and heartless?! You need to stop this madness immediately!!
Orion: I can't! How would it be right now to let them live when innocent people are now dead because of their madness ?
He was about to charge again before an arrow lodged in Naevia's chest, Crixus barely had time to realize what had just happened when another arrow pierced his throat.
A silence reigned before everyone turned towards The place where the arrows were coming from to see Galatea with her bow in hand with a cold expression on her face.
Galatea : Big brother, the two idiots are dead, we must stop this unnecessary massacre here and now.
Orion gave her a smile before turning back to Spartacus and the others with an even brighter smile.
The rebels looked at him with visceral fear in their eyes, this man had just killed several of their own a few minutes ago and now he was smiling at them as innocently and friendly as possible.
Orion: Well, those who were supposed to die are dead. I didn't want to come to that but the message had to get across and I hope that you, like me, don't want something like that to happen again. Tomorrow, I will leave with my men and our collaboration will end there. Gentlemen, I wish you good luck for the future.
He immediately turned around to leave but stopped for a few seconds to look at Laeta, smiling, she was looking at him with immense terror in her eyes.
Orion, when no one expected it, threw the sword of Apollos towards her and it lodged in the chest of Laeta who was dying on the ground in disbelief.
Orion came and removed the sword from the woman's chest before wiping the blood stains on the weapon with the dress of his still dying victim. He looked at the rebels again and said.
"The real culprit of this unfortunate event has been properly punished now you can move forward in peace."
He definitely left after this sentence with his men behind him, Galatea came to catch up with him to talk to him about his murderous madness but what she saw shocked her.
Looking at Orion's face, she saw the same indifferent face from earlier but there were tears flowing profusely from his eyes.
The young girl remained silent before this and didn't want to say anything more. Behind, some celestials were discussing recent events and their lord.
Some were happy that their leader was protecting their integrity and others were now showing fear for him. Among them, Enesie was chatting with Yrdanis, another younger celestial.
Yrdanis: So this is the legendary murderous madness of the master?! He's truly ruthless when someone looks down on us. It's a bit extreme, isn't it ?!
Enesie: You are wrong.
Yrdanis: Huh?!
Enesie: What you saw wasn't his killing spree. The boss was indeed in his right mind earlier. What he did, the other commanders also did whenever someone looked down on us! Why do you think we are so feared everywhere we go ?
Yrdanis: Ozias had told me that the master had really gone on a killing spree once.
Enesie: Ozias talks too much but he told you the truth. One day, a rich man scorned one of us in front of the leader, "The women of your group would make better prostitutes in my bed than stupid mercenaries for you. I am ready to buy this girl from you for whatever price you like." he said before laughing with his sons and friends.
Yrdanis:…
Enesie: I was there that day and this man was supposed to be our next client for an escort mission. Orion in front of us, however, showed no negative emotions when he took a golden knife from the rich man's table and killed the man in cold blood.
We were surprised but not shocked, the shock came when he also started killing this man's sons, even the youngest did not escape the wrath of the master that day. We believe it was also over when he also started killing this man's wives.
After doing this, the master's face that was completely indifferent immediately changed to show terror, not for anyone in particular but for what he had done.
When we later spoke about this with him, he told us that by depriving himself of his emotions sometimes, they come back in an exacerbated way and a simple anger could lead him to a murderous madness.
Yrdanis: Has he already discussed this with you ? Just like that ?!
Enesie: That's how he is with all of us. The boss sometimes confides his problems to us, he has never treated us as his subordinates but as his close friends and he proves this by working with each of us without any barriers. He cares about us very much and that is why he does not allow anyone to insult us.
"Boss…" Yrdanis whispered with eyes growing wet. Even after bringing them out of their suffering to make them who they are today, their lord still wanted to protect them so much.
Yrdanis: I too will not let anyone despise us and especially despise the master. I will kill anyone who dares to attack us.
Enesie: That's the spirit (she said smiling)
Orion returned to the villa and Salma stayed with him. Just like Galatea , she had also seen tears falling from his eyes and it worried her. For Orion himself, he knew he had done something terrible to protect his group's image, what he did was extreme and violent in the short term but educational in the long term.
He had just killed people he had known for a long time to protect the image of his men and despite the lack of emotion during the act, the repercussions were terribly heavy.
Even though it was Galatea's arrows that killed them, he was the one who wanted to take Crixus and Naevia's lives.
Yet he had not only done it for his men but also for the rebels.
Indeed, the couple's madness was beginning to spread among the rebels and this would have ended up dividing their camp sooner or later.
Crixus had command of the Gauls but mentally he was too unstable and influenced by his obsession with Naevia.
Sooner or later, he would have faced Spartacus to take control of the rebellion under the whispers of his wife or would have left with his men, thus dividing their camp and making them more vulnerable.
He needed the rebels to stay united to face Crassus and make his plan work.
Now that they not only had to be wary of the Romans but also the Celestials, the rebels will be more United than ever for their own good and what's more, he knew that the rest of the Gauls will now be under the orders of Segovax who was much calmer than Crixus (He was not influenced by Ilithya like in the series).
Orion's night was quite agitated for him mentally, he felt like he was losing his mind and had a huge fever. Salma looked after him for much of the night with great concern.
For several months now, he felt like he had a split personality but that wasn't the only problem, he was plagued by severe headaches, hallucinations and nasal hemorrhages. Orion didn't know it but he was suffering from a brain tumor.
Unbeknownst to him, during that same night, Agron attempted to attack Him with Donar and Nemetes to avenge Duro and Lugo.
However, the vengeful trio had not even entered the villa yet when they had long since been spotted and stopped by two celestial sentinels.
The three Germans tried to fight but were easily overpowered and then imprisoned. They didn't kill them because they wanted their leaders' advice before doing that.
The next day, Orion thanked Salma for taking care of him and he humbly asked her forgiveness for pushing her away because of her mistake.
Salma told him that it was okay that he made mistakes too, it even reassured her because it proved that he was as human and vulnerable to certain things as she was. But she had to make him understand something.
Salma: I know that somehow you've managed to keep your emotions quiet to avoid being vulnerable to certain things like us.
Orion: Have you known that for a long time?! I-(interrupted)
Salma: Please let me finish. You need to stop this immediately and face your emotions instead of hiding from them like a coward. You may be able to beat us physically but do you realize that of all the celestials the emotionally weakest is you?! You need to get your act together, you need to stop this.
Orion was being scolded like a child and knew she was right. He just lowered his head, nodding gently.
He went to take his bath and came to eat breakfast made by Salma. While eating, some celestials came to give him a report on the little vendetta organized against him at night.
When he was informed of this, he thanked these men before leading the avengers back to Spartacus himself and explained the facts to him.
He didn't kill them because feeling anger over something as cruel as he did was normal just like he did over Glaber's actions.
He bid farewell to Spartacus then looked at everyone there before very calmly declaring
"I took no pleasure in doing what I did yesterday, my memory is good unfortunately for me so I will have their faces engraved in my mind for a long time but if I had to do it again for the same reasons, I would will do it again. I will not tolerate anyone on this earth to despise my people as long as I have the strength to defend them"
He then left leaving the rebels behind with mixed emotions, Saxa knew he was leaving the city and wanted to leave with him but simply couldn't do anything, she had chosen her side the day before.
Agron: After what he did to our friends, you're going to let him go like that?! AFTER WHAT HE DID TO DURO ?
Gannicus: Your brother attacked him yesterday for no reason and knowingly, he didn't like Crixus and didn't care about Naevia so he had no reason to fight with Orion if it wasn't because of his jealousy .
Oenomaus: Stop it now, we have wounds to heal and dead people to bury. If we weaken further, Rome will not fail to benefit.
Varro: He's telling the truth.
Nemetes: Is he telling the truth? Why is a Roman in our ranks?! Who's to say he's not one of their spies, uh ?
Sura: Because a spy would take his wife and son with him near his enemies? Are you stupid or are you trying to be?
Spartacus: Enough, more than ever we must remain strong and united.
Nemetes spat in front of them before going out and later, he had his throat cut by Saxa to prevent him from causing harm because like everyone else, she felt that he was going to become an element of trouble.
Agron was too young and impulsive so she later took command of the Germans within the rebellion.
Orion finally left the city with the Romans under his protection and returned to Baya later that afternoon.
Once in his city, he was greeted with wonderful news, four celestial women were pregnant.
It was huge news for him as for everyone else and a big party was given for it.
Because of the good news, in a better mood, Orion finally released Senator Octavius and even gave him a horse so that he could return to Rome in peace, the latter having sworn to renounce his post to join his family as far as possible from Baiae.
Orion welcomed the four pregnant women and their partners under his villa to thank them, they were a big family and if one of them had a child, he would be protected and loved by all.
The next generation of celestials was beginning to emerge and that really made him happy.
The next day, Orion watched the training of the former slaves of the city with satisfaction, his men trained them very effectively and knew that they no longer needed him for this sort of thing.
In the following days, Orion had been informed of another important thing, Vayline was pregnant.
The news was of the same type but for Orion it was a different thing as for each member of their starting band.
It was shocking news that made him cry profusely and he didn't even try to suppress his emotions.
Ajax had a permanent and proud smile since he knew his wife was pregnant, Demiclas had even let him win their drinking contest.
At the moment, they were drinking and eating in the villa when Galatea entered with Phobos and her look was serious.
"It has started, Crassus is on his way to Sinuessa Phobos returns from his rounds. » she said as she had everyone's attention.
Demiclas: The way you communicate with that bird always intrigues me.
Orion was shocked by the news, Crassus had indeed moved faster than he expected but that was also a good thing because he wanted to put an end to this as quickly as possible.
"We're leaving for Sinuessa in two hours with half our force and the former slaves, it's time they earned their freedom. Vayline and Ajax, you stay here to take care of the others just in case."
Vayline: What?! We want to fight too, my pregnancy is only in its early stages and I'm not embarrassed to-(interrupted)
Orion : I know but I don't want to take any risks. If only you know how precious you are to me now and I need to know you are safe!!
They looked at his expression and were surprised at what they saw; their leader was worried, he was stressing about their safety. Since they met him, they had never seen him worried about anything but now it was different.
Vayline just nodded in understanding and they made their preparations to go and fight.
Several Celestials wanted to come but Orion refused because a significant number of their force needed to stay to protect the city. Orion had left more than was necessary to defend the city and also to go and confront Crassus.
A good amount of Vulcan's blood had been brought for this battle as well as other surprises; he had clearly explained to Galatea and the archers the strategy to adopt before launching into a melee and they were all prepared.
Salma while Orion was in his bath getting ready came to find him there completely naked, she had never stopped trying to come back to him and always insisted.
This time she didn't try to say anything but she directly rushed to kiss him and he didn't reject her.
Orion knew he was sick but didn't tell the others, he knew it was coming from his head but didn't want to worry the others. That's why he didn't want to push her away anymore, he didn't want to lose an opportunity for happiness with those who love him .
The fact that Vayline and other women in his ranks were getting pregnant made him realize that he had to start doing it too.
His Instinct was strong enough to know that he won't have as long a life as he thought so he had to enjoy every precious moment.
They made love for the first time in months and Salma was crying, she kept repeating in her moans that she was sorry and that she loved him but as for Orion for the first time too, Orion told a woman.
" I love you too "
Weekly Power Status
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