CHAPTER 354: 350 - PREPARE FOR TROUBLE

The air hung heavy that morning.

It was too still for summer.

The breeze that usually swept through the city’s hills had vanished, and with it came an oppressive heat that settled over the rooftops like a smothering cloth.

Julius stood on the marble balcony of the Domus Aurea, staring down into the cityscape of ancient Rome.

The illusion was flawless — every cobbled street, every rooftop tile.

He’d lived this simulation before in Imperator, but never like this, only ever seeing the scene through his monitor but now he was seeing it quite literally in person.

This was his breath misting against the stone.

His eyes watching the horizon.

And his stomach sinking as a column of smoke, thin and black, rose beyond the Aventine Hill.

It had begun.

He turned sharply.

"Summon the Urban Cohorts. All of them. And fetch the governor of the Vigiles immediately."

The slaves bowed and scattered, and Julius strode back inside, where the interface of the System flickered at the edge of his vision — a ghost only he could see.

Legacy Event Imminent

Rome will burn.

7 Districts Affected

Civil Unrest: Rising

Faith Influence: Fragmented

With his body released and control returned to the ’player’ Julius as Nero began to move.

He had no intention of watching history repeat itself.

Nor was he ready to allow Nero’s name to go down in infamy especially if he was the one to control him.

Two Hours Later — The Aventine District

Julius arrived with the second cohort of Vigiles, his face hidden behind a silver-masked helm.

He waded into chaos without announcement.

The fire had already leapt from tenements to bakeries, then to oil stores.

Screaming citizens ran barefoot over cracked stones slick with ash and blood.

Children sobbed beside collapsed walls.

Women wailed over smoldering bodies.

The flames moved like a living thing — coiling through alleyways, laughing in crackling tongues as it devoured the city from within.

But Julius did not freeze.

"Pull the cisterns! Build breaks at the market square! Collapse the narrow row between the smiths and the shrine — do it now or lose the entire ward!"

His voice rang with command, clear and absolute.

Even in Nero’s body — fragile, pampered, theatrical — he spoke with the presence of an emperor born to war.

Some of his legion quickly set off to obey his commands while others wavered before setting off choosing to obey rather than face his wrath.

Slaves and citizens hesitated only a heartbeat before joining in as Nero’s reputation was already well and truely known across the breadth of the empire.

And the fire resisted them.

Every bucket thrown barely mattered.

Every wall torn down only slowed it.

But inch by inch, they held.

Until the wind shifted.

And with it, so did the fire’s wrath.

Six Hours After Outbreak — Subura Slums

A shout rose from the hill.

"New fire! In Subura! It jumped the forum!"

Impossible.

The distance was too great.

It wasn’t the same flame.

It was another.

Julius’s eyes narrowed.

Arson.

He turned to the Tribune beside him.

"Station half the cohort here. With me — to the slums."

They rode hard through streets choked with embers and fleeing crowds.

The deeper they went, the more signs he saw:

Barrels of pitch already broken.

Linen-soaked ropes.

Lamps unshattered but placed deliberately along corners.

Not one fire.

Not one accident.

Several.

Planned.

And worse all his efforts to fight the fires were only fanning the peoples belief that it was in fact their mad emperor who was the one to set them off, since he was sighted to be present all over the city but only where fires had been lit.

Nightfall — The Palatine Hill

From the high balconies of the imperial palace, Rome looked like a constellation turned to ruin.

A city of stars falling.

Julius stood beside the maps spread across a table of bronze and ivory, surrounded by advisors drenched in soot and sweat.

"The fire’s been lit in six districts. The seventh is under siege from flame and looters alike. The Tiber’s edge is packed with thousands. The temples are crammed."

"Supplies?"

Julius asked.

"Gone,"

the steward said.

"We’ll run out of grain in three days. Water by morning."

Julius’s jaw tightened.

He turned and scribbled out an order on a wax tablet.

Imperial Edict 9: All imperial grain stores are to be opened.

Workers of any class or creed aiding in fire suppression will be compensated in silver and bread.

Criminal records to be temporarily suspended for those offering aid.

Temples to all gods, foreign or native, shall open doors to shelter displaced citizens.

He pressed his seal to the order.

"Send runners to the forum, to every gatehouse. This law is now Rome."

"But the senators—"

"Can debate after we put the city out."

He turned away, his hand clenched over Nero’s golden ring.

Dawn — The Ashen Silence

It took a full night and another day before the fires were contained.

Seven districts lost.

Thousand dead.

Tens of thousands homeless.

Julius had walked the streets himself, mask off, skin blackened by smoke.

He had lifted beams.

Carried children.

Swung tools.

He was not seen as Nero in those moments.

He was seen as Rome.

And yet... the damage had been done, Rome had survived the great fire, and though the damage was massive compared to history the current state was minimal in comparison.

Two Days Later — Temple of Vesta

The people began to murmur.

Too many had lost everything.

Too many had seen their homes burn while the palaces survived.

It didn’t matter that Julius had saved lives.

People didn’t want strategy.

They wanted blame.

And slowly, voices found a target.

They remembered strange congregations that worshipped a god without a face.

Who refused to bow before Jupiter.

Who didn’t burn incense to the emperor.

"They refused to help."

"They said it was a punishment from their god."

"They watched while our homes burned."

In the alleyways, in the temples, in the forums — whispers gained weight.

And at last, in the Senate...

A name was spoken.

"The Christians."

Julius sat silent.

The system did not speak.

The test was not over.

Now he had saved the city.

But could he save its soul?

Or would he go the easy route and take the same path as Nero?