//------------------------------//
// Augustus Rises. 
// Story: The Shadowbolts' Adventures: The Glory and Legend of Eternal City 
// by Daxn 
//------------------------------//

The marble walls were white with gray-blue veining of the likes common to the finest kinds of the stone; its engravings went from the poplar and oak forest framing the scene – a river and a tiny marshy inlet containing rushes and inhabited by three herons and the legendary twins holding tightly on a drinking bull’s back –  on the back of the small temple, to the depictions of two winged Nikes with long flowing robes laying a fastoon made of an oxen skull encased in a wreath of myrtle, olive and laurel branches on top of the entrance’s tympanum supported by two Corinthian-style columns, and the left side’s low reliefs represented Ever Increaser in an armour –  which itself depicted a battle –  as a young naked lady and an old woman in military garbs laid a crown of laurels on his head, and as his hands held onto long chains tied to the collars of a prone tall and long-bearded nude man, a bald and rather short man wearing several pieces of jewelry – depicting wild animals and blooming flowers, and in themselves contained more detail than Sunny could think it was possible to fit on such a small space – over a tunic, and a short-haired man on his knees with his hands jointed in a dramatic plea covered only by a loincloth. The inside was a small room, decorated on the upper part of the wall with more festoons kept together by canine and ox skulls – all of this masterfully sculpted and preserved with nary a scratch – guarding a smooth, simple white marble rectangle-shaped altar with a bronze brazier decorated with embossed swords, spears and shields, plus a curved black granite kneeling-stool right in front of the altar.

“Wow…” Sunny Flare said, instinctively extending her hand forward towards Ever increaser’s simulacrum. “It’s… so lifelike…”

“Well, the armour’s very detailed, that’s pretty cool actually, I’ll give you that.” Indigo Zap mused.

“Ugh… why?” Was Lemon Zest’s comment, so Sunny Flare snapped her head around and glared at her, and Zest shrugged.

“What you’re seeing is Ever Increaser’s triumph over the Parthians, the Numidians and the Gauls. This is a low relief that you can see, albeit in a much smaller size, sculptured on his sarcophagus in the mausoleum, located right outside of here, proper.” Monda said, stopping the two girls dead in their tracks and forcing them to turn around to listen. “However, if you are superstitious, the other one may be much more interesting, because there’s the rumor that, if you touch, in order, Victory, Peace and Ever Increaser’s heads, it will bring you good luck to your business or to your studies.”

“If that is so, where can I find it?” A boy from the crowd asked. “It may be my only hope to pa--”

Principal Cinch cleared her throat very loudly, covering up his words, a reaction that was too late for avoid the rest of the group – Sunny and company included – to giggle and laugh.

“Pay no attention to him, miss.” She said. “And, please, skip over such silly things.”

Monda nodded and rose her head again.

“Anyways, what I wanted to say was, this larger version of the engraving…”

Sighing at Cinch’s interruption, Sunny Flare stopped paying attention to look at Lemon, Indigo and Sugarcoat.

“Shall we go there and try if that’s where we are supposed to go?” Sunny asked whispering, to which Lemon Zest answered with a nod, Indigo with a thumbs-up and Sugarcoat with a “Possibly.” 





When the visit was over and when Monda had disbanded the group with Cicnh’s permission, the four girls walked their way towards the mausoleum, a circular bare brick-and-mortar structure with moss and grass growing everywhere inside and around it, aside from the pebbled paths that lead to the entrance and the most-visited parts of the building.

“For being the most powerful man in the most powerful empire of Antiquity, the guy sure was bad at designing his tomb.” Indigo Zap commented, passing underneath the scrawny brick arch atop of a massive wall made of the same material. “In fact, is this really his mausoleum?”

“Being stripped down of valuable building materials will do that to you.” Sugarcoat said.

“Indeed. Mind you, I do like the bronze canopy made out of the statues stolen from here,” Sunny said with a deep sigh. “But it’s undeniable we have lost a lot by melting them. I’m sure that, at its peak, it would’ve been very majestic and impressive to look at.”

“Quod non fecerunt barbari…” Sugarcoat added with a small sigh. 

“I don’t know about you, but this looks pretty cool on its own, just imagine having a concert here, or make a skate park, or… I don’t know, something!” Lemon Zest let out a small moan. “Oh, such a sight would be…”

Shaking her head, Sunny Flare made her first step inside the mausoleum proper, with a brown sign with white letters reading “Ever Increaser’s Burial Chamber” affixed on a wooden pole by the entrance.

A short flight of stairs made in the dim light later, the girls entered inside the aforementioned chamber. Save for the white engraved sarcophagus, everything else was barren, from the walls made out of red stone to the floor, composed by sand and gravel. The only sources of light were two mining lights attached at opposite corners of the room, creating a suffused overall lighting, and a mere red velvet cordone separated the sarcophagus from the rest of the room.

“Everything here looks… almost fake.” Indigo commented a little surprised. “Must be the lights.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever.” Lemon said as she hopped over the cordone. “Sunny… uuhh… do you remember which gal was which, and in which order should I touch the heads?”

“Victory, Peace and Ever Increaser’s, in this order.” Sunny said, pointing at each figure. “Victory is the clothed woman, Peace is the naked one and Ever Increaser is… well, the man.”

Lemon Zest turned around and, using her middle and annular finger, she brushed against each figure’s forehead, producing a slight harp sound and causing a green glow to come from the sarcophagus’ splints. Lemon jumped back and everyone else recoiled.

“W-what happened? W-what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure, but… I think it’s working.” Sunny stared at the increasingly strong  light, a moment before hearing a booming sound followed by a flash of green light.

“Acta repetitur? Mehercule, mihi credere non possum!” An echoing, otherworldly and croaking voice spoke during the flash. “At princeps imperii Eternorum fuit, et civitati remeo in discrimines promisi. Loquimini, puellae.”

As he spoke so, the air filled with the smell of incense and roses, while the ground and walls shook as if during an earthquake, which made Sunny jump down on the floor and duck, to then quickly realize – much to her surprise – that the dust was gone, replaced by the  familiar feeling of cold ceramic.

Gurgling, she fluttered her eyes open, seeing that she was was prone on a black and  white mosaic floor, that the walls were covered in frescos depicting urban perspectives on the sarcophagus’ sides and a fresco of a horde of crying women just behind the aforementioned.

In front of his own tomb, Ever Increaser, appearing as a green-tinted spirit clad in purple and white robes and a golden laurel crown, was standing tall and proud like a statue of himself.

All she could do was stare in slack-jawed wonder, then quickly faint.