Chapter 233 Resistance and Struggle

"You, what are you doing?"

Thermitius could no longer pretend to be a man who had experienced many hardships. His voice was trembling and his expression was panic. Behind him, Luca had red and swollen eyes, like a desperate beast.

Everyone was afraid that such a nearly collapsed guy would do anything that he couldn't control, especially gently pulling the blade. Although there were many people, "Andrew, did you bring the horn?" Luca recalled that Andrew was always responsible for assembling the army, so a bull horn was a treasure he carried with him.

"I brought it!" Andrew said, and hurriedly took out the horn hidden under his cloak. Now the tent was torn to pieces and trampled under the feet of the soldiers. If Andrew blew the horn, the entire Ninth Legion plus an auxiliary legion with a force of nearly 10,000 people would surround this place. Then we would see who can have the final say in this military camp! "Woo, woo..." Andrew mustered up his strength to blow the assembly horn. The loud horn sounded throughout the camp. Such a huge sound would definitely make the entire legion move.

"Come on, my legion!" Luga gritted his teeth and roared in a low voice, "You want to kill me? No way, no way. None of you can escape today, traitors, cowards, beasts!"

But after the horn sounded for a long time, there was no sound in the camp. The entire camp was like dead without any memory. After a long time, Luca didn't even hear any footsteps coming here.

"What's going on? What's going on? Where are the people? Where are my people? Legion, my legion!" Suddenly, Luga was a little panicked, but he didn't dare to relax for a moment, for fear that the soldiers who were eyeing him from all sides would seize the opportunity of his slackness, and then he would have no more cards in his hand.

"Luga, what's going on?" Andrew let go of the horn. His face was pale and he was panicked. He turned his back to Luga and looked around at the soldiers who were pointing their swords at each other.

"Hahaha, give up, Orius Luca!" Themitius was no longer afraid. Even the iron sword that could kill him at any moment buried its sharp blade in his thick neck flesh. "Your legion has abandoned you, Orius Luca. They chose to compromise in the face of power. This is normal. You are just a small, nameless legion commander. Augustus's adopted son? Ha, just a tool!"

Thermitius said a lot of discouraging words, but Luca didn't listen to a word. He was thinking hard about the passive situation now. The soldiers around him were all Aetius's men. Luca didn't know the attitude of Thermitius, because when he saw Thermitius being held hostage, Aetius' eyes didn't show even a little uneasiness, and even made Luca feel that Thermitius's anger would not affect Aetius at all. Why? Aren't they good "comrades-in-arms" who are in the same boat? Why is this so? Is the seemingly indestructible alliance so vulnerable? Luca didn't know what Aetius was thinking. Did he really not take the life of Thermitius, who felt that his words were the final word, seriously? Or did he already know the danger of Thermitius, a cunning political animal, so he wanted to get rid of this scourge with Luca's hand?

"Give up, Luca." Aetius said slowly, "I dispatched your troops out of the camp before dawn." Aetius waved the scepter in his hand, facing Luca, and said with a smile, "See, this is power. Everyone must obey, even you, the adopted son of Augustus."

He called him an adopted son. Although being adopted by Augustus was a blessing that he had cultivated for eight lifetimes, because that would allow him to soar to the sky and step into the life of the upper echelons of the empire, as everyone can see, Luca has never had a peaceful day here. He had no time to avenge his hatred and fulfill his wishes before he encountered an unprecedented predicament, the calculations of the elite nobles.

"You really put a lot of effort into it, Lord Aetius, no, Marshal Aetius, my dear sir!" Luca hid behind the fat body of Thermitius. He no longer concealed his feelings towards Aetius.

"You..." Aetius paused for a moment and finally chose to remain silent.

"Oh, you still stand firmly behind the traitor." Luca looked lonely. He lowered his head, pondered for a moment, and suddenly raised the iron sword and stabbed it hard into Thermitius' thigh! "Ah!!!"

Thermitius screamed, and that piercing scream instantly pierced everyone's heart, causing everyone's shoulders to tremble. But they didn't move forward, but watched coldly. The right leg of Thermitius was bleeding, and his facial expression was twisted in pain. He wanted to kneel down, but Luca held him up and didn't allow him to have a moment of comfort. He could only squat, enduring the pain without saying a word.

"Really? Are you also heartbroken?" Luka smiled bitterly and questioned the soldiers around him, "Victory was right in front of us, but we lost it, lost it! Do you know how much it cost me?"

They were silent and listened quietly, even Aetius, who slowly sat down and handed the scepter in his hand back to the captain of the guards behind him, because now it was just a golden stick.

"Syracuse, in order to save the city, my soldiers dyed the sea red! What about you! Where are you? Under your feet, yes, right under your feet. More than a thousand people died a few months ago. We used blood and flesh to stop the Vandals, but what about you? Where are you?" Luca cried and tore off the scarf around his neck. There was a circle of horrible scars on his neck, and the skin and flesh were twisted together, which made the soldiers who saw it gasp.

"Everything I have today is the result of my life, all thanks to you, my dear commander, Sir Aetius!" Luca stared at Aetius, swearing out his name word by word through gritted teeth.

"He was originally a subordinate of the Marshal."

"Oh my god, the marshal actually betrayed his old subordinates."

"Will he abandon us like this?"

Facing the soldiers who were talking around him, Aetius remained silent. He sat upright on the stool, silently enduring the criticism from all sides. He struggled in his heart, asking himself again and again, was he loving his country or himself? What came to his mind was the conversation last night that had troubled him but had to be taken seriously.

"Theodosius II wants to return to Rome, and they have absolute strength." Last night, Themitius turned his back to him, and the topic he talked about was indeed heavy.

"Aetius, don't forget that the Theodosian Code has been fully implemented in the Eastern Empire, and Augusta Placidia is also making every effort to promote the implementation of the code in the Western Empire, using the Eastern Empire's code to constrain the subjects of the Western Empire. By then, the Romans will only recognize Theodosius, not you, Aetius."

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"Think about Luca's legions. Has he ever commanded a war? But look at his hands. Three legions. What does this mean? Theodosius is really generous. Three legions. Aren't you clear enough about the strength of the Eastern Empire now?"

"As long as the Eastern Empire marches westward under the banner of clearing the court of evil, not only will Ravenna be unable to bear it, but the Luca Legion in Sicily will surely march north to control Rome. What do you have? Your Gallic Legion? If you march eastward, the Goths will surely follow closely behind you. By then, the more steps you take forward, the more land you will lose behind you!"

"Olius Luca? Ha, have you forgotten how you betrayed him? And how did he appear at the most critical moment? Every time you defeat him, he will become stronger. When you can't deal with him anymore, who in the empire or even the world can deal with him? He will be the next Caesar, the next Constantius! And you are nothing! Nothing!"

"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!" The words of Thermitius echoed in Aetius's head over and over again, torturing him and making him restless, not knowing what to do. "Who is righteous and who is evil? Who should I believe in? Who should I believe in!"

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(End of this chapter)