The Phoinix: Age of Demigods

by S. L. Mancuso

  Chapter 15

  The Twins of War

  The memory picked back up with the fire image Mars created extinguishing. Mars stood up, looking at his children and spoke without a hint of his usual smugness, “Now you know how you were born. Created from love and secrecy, but hatred and fear secured your destiny.”

  “Love? You used our mother and let her suffer at the hands of the Amulius. You see how he rules the kingdom. He starves, over taxes, and murders his subjects for unjust laws, yet you let him live,” Romulus shouted.

  “You only wanted children that would be war bound,” Remus stood next to his brother.

  “Yes, I used your mother so the world can witness true soldiers. You come from a long line of my blood. Your ancestor, Aeneas, married a daughter of mine. However, with your mother, I added extra power to the already divine blood in her veins. Despite her usefulness to get what I wanted, I did care for her. She was one of my greatest conquests. As for Amulius, his fate depends on your decision now.”

  In unison the twins asked, “What decision?”

  “You are demigods in the House of War, full of rage. You and your blood will be behind some of the greatest wars in history. Fulfill your destiny and claim what is yours, just as your Great-uncle Amulius did, by the end of a sword,” Mars said, his words trailing off as he faded into the silver moonlight.

  Mars left the twins fuming, but this was his intention. He wanted to awaken the raw rage that belonged to his bloodline. That rage coursed through their bodies. It itched for a fight and made them stronger.

  Romulus clenched his shaking fists as he said, “My hatred for him is only outweighed by my hatred for Amulius.”

  Remus sighed and nodded his head as he ran his hand through his hair, a usual sign he was piecing together a plan. “Then what are we waiting for, brother? It’s a four hour march to Alba Longa.”

  With that mentality, Lupa’s pack and the twins marched day and night to reach the kingdom. They would not rest until they reclaimed what rightfully belonged to them. They vowed to find their mother, even if that meant traveling to the realm of Pluto and battling the God himself to retrieve her.

  By the next day, the three children of Mars had their plan to take the city. They waited until the cover of darkness to attack. Lupa’s pack followed her lead, no questions asked. She ordered them to surround the palace and not let anyone escape, by any means necessary.

  Lupa and the twins weaved in and out of the shadows of the moonlight, evading the guards. They would take city without fighting their way through it. Despite their anger, they did not want to kill recklessly. When they reached the throne room, they saw the wooden throne their grandfather once sat in and the hole where Amulius threw his dagger.

  The creak of a door opening sounded in the back of the room. The twins hid behind a pillar while Lupa slumped into the shadows. A guard, an older man, walked through. When he walked past the pillar the twins hid behind, Romulus jumped in front of him while Remus crept up behind him. Remus drew his dagger and pressed it to the guard’s throat to prevent him from fighting.

  Romulus placed a finger over his own mouth, a signal for the guard not to make a sound. He smiled wickedly at the restrained guard and winked at his brother.

  “I guess we are children of Mars,” Romulus chuckled.

  “Easy boys, this isn’t over yet,” Lupa reminded them.

  “Children of Mars?” the guard asked impatiently. “Is your mother Rhea?”

  Remus dug his dagger deeper into the guard’s throat, drawing blood and causing the guard to wince. “How do you know this?”

  “Because I am the guard who took care of her after your death. She grieves still.”

  The twins looked at each other fervently; to their relief, their mother was alive.

  “Where is she?” Lupa demanded.

  “She is in the small building next to the temple. Amulius thought it fitting for her to live next to the temple she was supposed to devote chastity to.”

  The guard pointed to a structure with no walls. Pillars with torches held up the roof. In the middle stood a giant statue of Juno, the patron goddess of stately affairs. Ironically, Juno was the mother of Mars.

  Lupa snarled, “Grandmother is not going to like me in there. Go find Amulius. I will get your mother.”

  Remus contemplated ignoring Lupa and running to his mother.

  “You heard Lupa, Remmy. There’s no time to waste. We have a king to overthrow.” Romulus smiled as he dragged his brother behind him.

  “I know where he is,” the guard stopped them before they left. “If you spare my family, I will take you to him.”

  “We have no quarrel with you or your family. We have no fight with anyone here but Amulius,” Remus said honorably.

  Romulus interjected impatiently, “Now that we’ve established we’re not going to kill everyone, can we leave now?”

  The guard ran ahead of the twins guiding them through different rooms of the palace. When they reached the bedchambers of Amulius, the guard bowed to his future kings and left them to deal with their great-uncle.

  Their anger towards Amulius sent a wave of pure rage that warmed and charged every muscle in their bodies. The twins kicked open the door, busting it off its hinges. The wood split in two before it hit the floor.

  Amulius jumped out of bed, reaching for his sword faster than the twins expected an old man to move. Then again, they had never been in an actual fight before today. Remus went right and Romulus left, circling Amulius.

  Amulius watched the twins carefully then recognized who they were. “Only the children of Mars can move like that. Sons of Rhea, I see you have come to claim your throne. However, there can be only one king. Which one of you wants it more?” taunted Amulius.

  Romulus had always been impulsive with a terrible temper. He lunged with his sword and swung at Amulius’ head. Somehow, Amulius evaded his attack and thrust his own dagger into Romulus’ side. Romulus howled in pain, stumbling backwards. Remus ran to help his brother, but Amulius stepped in his path, slashing his sword at Remus’ stomach. Remus jumped out of the way, but tripped over an end table. Falling face first, he turned over just in time to see Amulius jab his sword down towards his stomach. He rolled out of the way then sprung back to his feet as Amulius’ sword shattered the tile floor he had previously lain on.

  Amulius charged Remus again, but Remus deflected the sword with his own, sending Amulius stumbling behind him. Remus countered the attack by swinging his sword upward and sliced Amulius’ back, staining his bedclothes with blood. The king cried out and fell into the wall, smashing his head against the stone. He flipped around and raised his sword to attack Remus, but instead met Romulus sword, swinging downward, diagonally across his chest.

  Together, the twins thrust their swords into the abdomen of their great-uncle. Romulus smiled as Amulius slid down the wall and slumped over. Amulius sat with his sword resting in the palm of his open hand, no longer able to maintain a firm grip. His breaths were staggered as he looked up at the twins in defeat.

  He spoke through shallow breaths, “I dare say that you are the children of Mars,” Amulius breathed a laugh, “but even the blood of Mars can perish. We have only one life to live and one to die. The offspring of Mars will always bleed and suffer violence.”

  Romulus laughed at the dying king and looked down at his side. What was once a bloody wound, was a ripped tunic with a small red mark on his rippled abdomen. “We are demigods, the immortal warriors of the divine. Combine that with Mars’ favor and it will take an army to bleed us to death.”

  Remus was worried about Amulius’ prophetic words. He knew demigods are only immortal if they are not mortally wounded. They are warriors now. Warriors never die in peace.

  There was a gasp behind them and the twins twisted around to see a woman standing about five feet tall with brown hair tightly pinned up and golden-brown eyes. She was dressed in a white robe fastened with gold buckles. She could not have bee
n older than forty. The twins sheathed their bloody swords as the woman ran towards them with her arms open.

  “My babies!” she cried as she grasped the twins in a tight hug. She barely came up to their chests.

  The twins were startled but each wrapped one arm around her, circling her in a giant hug. “Mother?” They asked the woman clinging to their waist.

  “Of course I am! I prayed to the gods to let me see you once more and finally they have answered my plea,” she pulled them down by the collar of their tunics and kissed both their cheeks.

  Rhea’s tears of joy ran down her face as she turned back towards Lupa to embrace the wolf who brought back her children. Behind Lupa appeared a soldier dressed in all black with a gold three-headed dog on his breastplate. Rhea stopped walking when she saw the soldier. She turned on the spot to face her children and smiled.

  “At least I got to see you one last time,” she said as she touched the side of their faces and looked behind them at Amulius.

  Somehow, Amulius got to his feet while the twins were distracted and now teetered behind them with his dagger. With the rest of his strength, he pushed the startled twins out of his way and grabbed Rhea by the shoulder. He drove the dagger deep into her stomach, smiling victoriously.

  Romulus whipped his sword out while Remus caught their mother as she fell backwards. A loud crash knocked Romulus off his feet and a booming voice yelled out, “He’s mine!”

  Mars stood seven feet tall swinging his sword through the air. The black metal of the sword glistened in the torch light with Bellipotens etched in red down the middle of the blade. The hilt was gold with the handle wrapped in red leather.

  “You have done enough damage to my family, Amulius! Twice you have tried to kill my children and now you slay my woman!” In sudden alarm, Mars turned to Rhea. He pointed a finger at the soldier now standing over Rhea. “Touch her, Pluto, and so help me I will storm the gates of the underworld to fetch her myself.”

  The twins hadn’t noticed the soldier standing behind Remus bending over to touch Rhea’s hand. Remus flinched and covered his mother’s body with his own, protecting her from the soldier. He attempted to inch his mother away from Pluto while Romulus scrambled to his feet to help. Pluto clenched his fist and the boys writhed in pain.

  “Enough! They are not to be touched!” roared Mars.

  “No one is beyond my touch, Mars,” Pluto said in an eerily calm voice. “Do not challenge me, nephew. I am the eldest of the three Godly Kings in our pantheon. Your father, Jupiter, is the youngest of us three. I will put you both down if I must.”

  Amulius fell to his knees, no longer able bear his weight. Mars was outraged by his uncle’s scolding. He reached down to pick Amulius up with such ferocity his neck snapped back, making him look like a ragdoll.

  “You don’t get to die that easily, Amulius,” Mars growled.

  Mars held him in the air with one hand and slowly pushed his other fist deep into Amulius’ chest. The dying king howled in pain as his ribs cracked one by one from Mars’ grisly attack. Despite how angry the twins had been with their uncle, they felt sorry for what their father was doing.

  Pluto heaved a sigh, “Mars, you really must learn to control your temper. It does not matter to me who I take first, but I will take them both. You, of all gods, should know how a battle ends.”

  Pluto glided over to Amulius and touched his shoulder. Amulius stopped screaming and fell limp. Mars flung Amulius’ lifeless body off his fist, revealing a gold ball of light in his clenched hand.

  Just as Pluto bent down to touch Rhea’s hand, Mars threw the ball of light into her chest, making her entire body shimmer gold. The light grew brighter until the twins could no longer bear to look at their mother.

  When the light faded, Rhea stood with her hair flowing down past her shoulders, dressed in a crimson toga with black braids wrapped around her body, emphasizing her curves. No longer five feet tall, she now matched Mars’ height. She walked over to Mars and looped her arm around his, gently rubbing his bicep with her thumb. She smiled down at her children as they looked at her in amazement. She was a goddess.

  “Try to take her now, Uncle,” Mars confronted Pluto arrogantly.

  Pluto sighed heavily and looked upon Rhea pitifully. “She does not deserve an immortal life full of misery. She has suffered enough in her lifetime at the hands of Amulius.” Pluto said in a cool tone, “You have condemned her to an eternity of war and death. I would have placed her in the Elysian Fields with her father. Now you have made her a Patron of Soldiers.”

  Pluto shook his head disappointedly at his nephew and turned towards the door. He stopped just before the threshold. “Forgive my rudeness,” he said turning back to Rhea, “I believe congratulations are in order. It is your wedding day. Allow me to give you a present.”

  He opened his arms and slammed them shut creating a gust of wind that pushed the twins backwards. The twins checked their bodies for anything unusual; tails, wings, another set of arms, or horns. There was nothing visible but they felt different. Silver light expanded out from their chests and engulfed them. After a few seconds, the light faded and the twins gawked at Mars and Pluto, frightened about what happened.

  Mars howled with laughter at Pluto’s ‘present’.

  Pluto addressed Rhea. He spoke with a hint of warning combined with pity, “Your children have been blessed with the essence of the River Styx. They remain immortal, but they are each other’s weakness and can only be killed by the other. This is meant as a comfort for you, but a regretful punishment for my nephew.”

  Pluto shook his head disapprovingly once more then vanished in a puff of silver smoke.

  Mars clapped his hands and two golden crowns appeared on top of the twins’ heads, “You are the Twin Kings of Alba Longa.” He laughed loudly as he and Rhea shrank down to their children’s height.

  Mars was still laughing as Rhea hugged her children. She held them both and rested her head on their shoulders as she squeezed them. She whispered in their ears, “Rule justly like your grandfather. He was a good man. You were destined to be here.”

  Rhea blew them a kiss then vanished with Mars.