Nova Roma

A man was walking through an endless darkness, he did not know where north or south was because there was only darkness with endless silence, it was not possible to perceive time.

The man despaired because he did not understand what was currently happening. He asked himself, Was this what happens after death?

"Where are Heaven and Hell? or is it that after death there is only this endless darkness and we are destined to remain in nothingness with our thoughts. If it is so, then death is truly horrible.", the man said to himself.

At that moment he saw light shining through the darkness. The man covered his eyes to protect them from the sudden light.

"Finally, I can escape from this darkness"

The man immediately ran towards the light. After running for some time, he could see a worn-out temple whose torches were still lit with flames.

The temple seems to be not maintained for a long time, In the middle of the temple, he could see a large statue of a naked man holding a harp with his hands.

Under the statues was a cauldron with blue flames. The flames were not very dazzling but were still very striking and majestic.

The man walked towards the center of the temple towards the flame, thinking that maybe he could find answers to where he was. As he approached the fire, he could see in greater detail, the greek marble columns which adorned the worn-out temple. When he arrived near the fire he could see an old man with a white beard.

The man could see that the years had not been kind to the old man. With a sad face and visibly emaciated body, the old man was sitting on the floor, near the dimly lit light of the blue flames.

"Excuse me, Sir, Could you tell me where this place is?", he asked the old man.

The old man, raised his face and observed the face of the young man and said with a sad look in his eyes, "What you see here young one, is what happens when people forget those who cared for them. One day you are a God, and the next day you are a Pagan to them."

"Are you telling me that you are a God?", asked the young man as he placed his hands on his chin taking a thinking posture.

"They knew me by the name of Apollo, but that was from many years ago. Now tell me, young man, What are you doing in my temple?. I have not received any visits from any mortals for a very long time."

"I would like to know that myself. The last thing I remember is that the plane I was traveling had turbulence and crashed after that there was nothing but darkness and silence."

"I have seen many mortals but you are the first one who seems not to be affected by the fact that he died and is now speaking to a God", Laughed Apollo.

"It is not that I don’t care," said the young man

"As you said, I am just a mortal. I did not have the power to stop the accident, so I guess you can only blame my fate on bad luck. Although I am surprised to be speaking with a god, like you, in the end

I am still dead and I don’t have much to do, if I did not find your temple when I did, I think I would have been destined for a rather cruel Hell. I would be walking in eternal darkness with complete silence, which would have ended up leading me to insanity and I would have ended up by being assimilated by darkness."

Apollo was amused by the young man’s words "Hahaha!!, I like you mortal, you have a nice sense of humour" said Apollo as he slowly rose from sitting on the ground.

"Even I am unable to find the reason that you are in my temple. Generally, all the fates of the people are decided by the deity they trust, I believe in your case, it must be Mr. Christ or something like that. By the way young man, What is your name? " asked Apollo.

"My name was or is Armando Medina. Whatever, I will keep the name, if my conscience exists, then that means I exist and if I exist the name still has some meaning" said Armando

"Ha, the way you talk reminds me of those Greek philosophers. Good, Young mortal, you have cheered me up. I will grant you 2 wishes, One because you are the first mortal to visit in centuries, and another because I like the way you speak. So tell me what are your wishes"

"Interesting, I guess I’m lucky today. Can I ask to be revived?"

"You can, but I am afraid I cannot interfere now As your death is controlled by Mr. Christ, I can only send you to a time before Constantine was destroyed."

"Wait, that’s too far back," said Armando

"I’m sorry that’s all I can do," Apollo said while leaning on the cauldron of blue flames.

"Well, If I travel back in time, I can change it. The last thing I want now is to live with limitations placed upon me" said Armando

"You truly amaze me, young mortal. But bear in mind, for the flow of faith in the future will be dominated by the cross, and since you will be reborn with my power, being reborn would result in your soul simply vanishing into nothingness. It would be similar to your curious concept of hell."

"Wow, so what you’re telling me is that if I cannot change the flow of faith, regardless of whether my soul is dead, it will be destroyed because of my time travel."

"Indeed, in your time there should be a phrase that says ’There is no free lunch in this world’"

"FUCK, there must be is some way to avoid it. The last thing I want is for my soul to disappear. My body is one thing, but if my soul disappears..."

"But that being said, there might be a way to avoid it. There is a continent called Abya Yala, or better known as America. If you manage to bring the Greek pantheon there, it may prevent the faith of the cross from completely exterminating us, the gods of Olympus. This will prevent your soul from being lost forever."

"Excellent, so all I need to do is to travel to the past to prevent the cross from destroying the religion of Olympus. Well, I guess as a god you will give me some help; I don’t think you will let me go without any blessings."

"The 2 wishes I will grant you is all the help I can give. Unfortunately, I am the only god of Olympus left alive and my strength is weak. In this timeline, the cross won

Once you travel to the past and successfully claim America, it will create another timeline and with it, the gods will be reborn. From there you can receive some blessings from them. In the end, you will have to guide your descendants to prevent the cross from winning in that timeline too. "

"But as I understand that I have no other choice. Very well, if I have to choose the time, I would say that in the middle reign of Emperor Augustus is the best

The Roman empire was in a period of relative peace, and it will allow me to gather enough people and as resources to launch an invasion on the Americas."

"Very Well I like that you have accepted your fate. To help you, I will allow you to reincarnate as someone with a certain amount of power, and tell me what your two wishes will be."

"My first wish is to be a God. I wouldn’t want to be reborn and then die in the cradle because of some weird roman intrigue, My second wish is to knowledge in all areas of life. What a tragedy it would be If I have no way to earn money and afford the invasion"

"I can make you a god, but remember my power of faith is weak. You can probably survive death a few times, but as long as you do not settle in the Americas your power will be very limited, the same is said for the knowledge you will have.

Well, I wish you a good journey, Armando. I hope for the sake of yours and mine that you can fulfill your goals, do not forget that the temples can give...."

"What....!"

"Faith....."

and suddenly everything was dark again for Armando

Edit by: Chroniclemale