Cassian thought the Ape Titan was simply Rome’s newest arena monster.
Another creature dragged from some distant land.
Another spectacle for people who had grown bored watching ordinary gladiators fight ordinary men.
That was what Governor Varro wanted everyone to believe.
The Titan had been brought into the amphitheater beneath enormous black canvas.
Sixteen soldiers escorted the cage.
Iron chains wrapped around its wrists.
Bronze armor covered parts of its shoulders and chest.
And when the canvas finally dropped, forty thousand spectators rose at once.
The creature was enormous.
Black fur.
Massive arms.
Old scars crossing its body.
Broken bronze restraints hanging beneath its wrists.
Cassian had fought lions.
Bears.
Armed men twice his size.
Nothing had prepared him for this.
Varro stood above the arena beneath the imperial awning.
“Give Rome a fight worth remembering!”
The gates closed.
Cassian raised his shield.
The Titan charged.
Its first blow almost tore the shield from his arm.
Cassian rolled across the sand.
The crowd screamed.
He came up on one knee.
The Titan swung again.
Cassian ducked.
Its fist struck a wooden barrier and shattered half of it.
Cassian backed away.
“Wonderful.”
He glanced toward Livia.
She stood on a raised platform at the eastern end of the arena, wrists chained to a bronze railing.
Varro had made the terms simple.
Cassian survived.
Livia lived.
Cassian died.
Varro would decide what happened to her next.
That was why Cassian kept getting up.
The Titan charged again.
Cassian sidestepped and struck at the bronze armor across its shoulder.
His blade hit metal.
A section cracked.
The creature roared.
Cassian was thrown backward by the force of its arm.
He landed hard.
His sword disappeared into the sand.
Then something else landed near him.
A broken piece of bronze armor.
Cassian reached for it instinctively.
At first, he saw only scratches.
Then he wiped away the sand.
A symbol appeared.
An eagle.
But not the standard imperial eagle.
This one had a broken spear beneath its wings.
Cassian froze.
He knew that symbol.
Every Roman soldier knew it.
Or rather, they knew they were not supposed to know it.
The insignia belonged to the Ninth Frontier Legion.
Legio IX Terminus.
A legion Rome officially claimed had never existed.
Cassian stared at the bronze fragment.
“No.”
Twenty years earlier, rumors had spread through military camps about an entire legion disappearing beyond the northern provinces.
Five thousand soldiers.
Engineers.
Scouts.
Supply wagons.
Gone.
Official records later claimed the unit had been reorganized.
Then the documents vanished completely.
Veterans who asked questions were told they remembered the wrong designation.
By the time Cassian entered military service, the Ninth Frontier Legion had become something soldiers mentioned only after too much wine.
A ghost legion.
A story.
But the insignia in Cassian’s hand was real.
He looked toward the Titan.
The same symbol appeared on another section of its armor.
Then Varro saw what Cassian was holding.
His face changed instantly.
“ARCHERS!”
Cassian looked up.
Varro pointed toward the bronze fragment.
“Destroy that!”
The crowd murmured.
Why would a governor care about broken armor?
Cassian stood.
Varro shouted again.
“NOW!”
Several archers along the upper wall raised their bows.
Cassian moved behind his damaged shield.
The first arrow struck the sand.
The second hit bronze.
The third nearly caught his leg.
“Cassian!” Livia shouted.
He ran toward a fallen section of the arena wall.
The Ape Titan turned.
For one strange moment, Cassian expected the creature to attack him again.
Instead, it looked toward Varro.
Then it saw something.
The clasp holding Varro’s crimson cloak.
Cassian followed its gaze.
His stomach tightened.
The same insignia.
The broken spear beneath the eagle.
Almost hidden beneath an ornamental gold plate.
The Ape Titan stopped moving.
Its entire posture changed.
It stared at Varro.
Then it roared.
Not toward Cassian.
Toward the governor.
Varro immediately covered the clasp with one hand.
Too late.
Cassian had seen it.
So had Livia.
“You were with them!” Cassian shouted.
Varro’s face hardened.
“You know nothing.”
“The Ninth Legion.”
The crowd began murmuring louder.
Older soldiers in the stands looked at one another.
Varro shouted:
“There was no Ninth Frontier Legion!”
Cassian held up the bronze fragment.
“Then explain this.”
Varro signaled the guards.
The western gate opened.
A dozen soldiers entered the arena.
Not to attack the Titan.
To take the evidence.
Cassian backed away.
The Ape Titan moved beside him.
The soldiers stopped.
Cassian looked up at the creature.
“You know that symbol.”
The Titan struck its chest.
Once.
Then pointed toward Varro.
Livia shouted:
“It recognizes him!”
Varro’s voice became sharp.
“Kill the creature!”
Nobody moved.
The Titan roared again.
Cassian looked at the broken plate more carefully.
There was writing along the lower edge.
Not Latin.
A series of military markings.
Unit number.
Campaign date.
And beneath them, one word scratched by hand.
MORRAN.
Cassian knew that name too.
General Titus Morran.
Commander of the legion that officially never existed.
He had disappeared twenty years earlier.
Cassian looked toward Varro.
“You served under Morran.”
Varro’s face became unreadable.
“Give me the plate.”
“No.”
“You have no idea what you’re holding.”
“Then explain it.”
Varro stepped closer to the balcony edge.
“Some histories are buried for a reason.”
The Titan suddenly struck the ground.
Sand exploded.
Then it moved toward a tunnel beneath Varro’s platform.
Varro panicked.
“Close that gate!”
Two guards ran toward the entrance.
Cassian understood immediately.
Whatever the Titan remembered was below the arena.
He sprinted after it.
“Cassian!” Livia shouted.
He looked back.
She pointed toward the bronze fragment.
“Take it!”
Cassian shoved it inside his belt.
The Titan reached the tunnel.
One guard lowered a spear.
The creature swept it aside.
Another jumped back.
Cassian followed.
The tunnel was narrow.
Torchlight flickered along stone walls.
The Titan did not hesitate.
Left.
Right.
Down a ramp.
Then through another passage.
Cassian realized something.
“It’s been here before.”
The creature knew the route.
It stopped in front of a heavy iron door.
The same legion insignia had been carved into the stone beside it.
Cassian touched the symbol.
“Twenty years.”
The Titan hit the door.
Once.
Metal bent.
Again.
The hinges broke.
Behind it was a storage chamber.
Cassian stepped inside.
His breath caught.
Roman shields lined the walls.
Dozens.
All marked with the Ninth Legion symbol.
Helmets.
Armor.
Standards.
Weapons.
This was not a small collection.
Someone had preserved the equipment of an entire military unit beneath the arena.
Livia’s voice came from behind him.
“Cassian.”
He spun around.
She had somehow escaped one wrist chain and followed with a short length still attached.
“How did you—”
“Later.”
She stared at the chamber.
“What is this?”
“The legion.”
Cassian walked deeper inside.
At the rear stood several enormous iron cages.
The bars had been bent outward.
Black fur remained trapped around one hinge.
Livia touched it.
“This is where they kept the Titan.”
Cassian found a wooden chest.
He opened it.
Scrolls.
Military reports.
Letters bearing imperial seals.
He unrolled the first.
ORDER OF TRANSFER.
LEGIO IX TERMINUS.
MISSION: NORTHERN EXPEDITION.
OBJECTIVE: ACQUIRE LIVING SPECIMENS.
Cassian looked at Livia.
“Specimens.”
She looked toward the Ape Titan.
“They weren’t sent to fight a war.”
Cassian opened another record.
Five thousand soldiers had been sent north.
But the orders did not describe an enemy army.
They described animals.
Habitats.
Capture zones.
Breeding groups.
Varro appeared in the doorway.
His sword was drawn.
Cassian turned.
“You sent an entire legion to capture these creatures.”
Varro looked toward the Titan.
“The emperor wanted weapons.”
Livia stared at him.
“You turned living creatures into military experiments.”
“We were building something Rome had never possessed.”
Cassian held up the records.
“What happened to the legion?”
Varro said nothing.
Cassian stepped closer.
“Five thousand men disappeared.”
“They failed.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Varro’s eyes moved toward the documents.
“They refused the final order.”
“What order?”
Varro’s jaw tightened.
“To destroy every surviving specimen.”
The Titan made a deep sound.
Cassian felt cold.
“The legion refused?”
“Morran refused.”
“Why?”
“Because he became sentimental.”
Livia looked at the cages.
“He realized what you were doing.”
Varro laughed.
“He forgot what Rome required.”
Cassian unrolled another report.
The handwriting was different.
Morran’s.
WE WERE TOLD THESE CREATURES WERE HOSTILE.
THEY ARE NOT.
THEY PROTECT THEIR YOUNG.
THEY RESPOND TO LANGUAGE.
THEY REMEMBER KINDNESS.
Cassian looked at the Titan.
Then continued.
VARRO HAS ORDERED THEIR EXTINCTION.
I WILL NOT OBEY.
Cassian raised his eyes.
“You were there.”
Varro said nothing.
“You gave the order.”
“I followed Rome.”
“And when Morran refused?”
Varro stepped forward.
“He became a traitor.”
Cassian found the final report.
The page was damaged.
But enough remained.
Morran had ordered the Ninth Legion to release the surviving creatures.
Varro had responded by summoning loyal auxiliary troops.
A battle had followed.
Not Romans against barbarians.
Romans against Romans.
The Ninth Legion had been destroyed.
Then erased.
Cassian whispered:
“You killed them.”
Varro’s expression stayed cold.
“I corrected an embarrassment.”
Livia stared at him.
“Five thousand soldiers?”
“History does not count men who lose.”
The Ape Titan roared.
Varro raised his sword.
“Especially monsters.”
The creature charged.
Cassian stepped between them.
“Wait!”
The Titan stopped inches away.
Cassian looked at the bronze fragment again.
Something on the inside caught his attention.
A name.
Not Morran.
Not Varro.
A smaller inscription.
PROPERTY OF LEGIO IX.
GUARDIAN UNIT ONE.
Cassian stared.
“Guardian?”
Livia leaned closer.
“The legion wasn’t only protecting the creatures.”
Cassian opened another scroll.
His face changed.
Morran’s final message.
IF THIS RECORD SURVIVES, KNOW THIS:
THE CREATURES WERE NEVER THE WEAPON.
THEY WERE GUARDING ONE.
Cassian looked toward Varro.
The governor’s face lost color.
Livia saw it.
“What were they guarding?”
Varro stepped backward.
“No.”
Cassian moved toward the final chest.
“Don’t open that.”
He stopped.
Varro had commanded thousands of soldiers.
Ordered executions.
Sent Cassian into an arena against a giant beast.
Yet now his voice was shaking.
Cassian opened the chest.
Inside was a map.
The northern provinces.
A mountain valley had been circled.
Beside it stood the Ninth Legion insignia.
And underneath, in Morran’s handwriting:
VARRO MUST NEVER RETURN HERE.
The Ape Titan saw the map.
It immediately struck its chest.
Then pointed toward the mountains.
Cassian understood.
The Titan had not recognized Varro because he had once been its handler.
It recognized him because Varro had been present when the Ninth Legion was destroyed.
When its own kind had been hunted.
And apparently Varro had been searching ever since for whatever Morran had refused to surrender.
Cassian folded the map.
Varro reached for his sword.
“You leave that chamber with those records and Rome will hunt you to the edge of the world.”
Cassian looked at Livia.
Then at the Titan.
“Rome already put me in an arena.”
He faced Varro again.
“You’re going to need a better threat.”
Above them, the crowd began chanting.
They had seen the legion insignia.
Rumors were already spreading through the amphitheater.
Varro heard it too.
NINTH.
NINTH.
NINTH.
The history Rome had erased for twenty years was returning one voice at a time.
But Cassian now knew the lost legion was only the beginning.
Five thousand soldiers had not vanished because they lost a battle.
They had been destroyed because they discovered the Ape Titan and its kind were guarding something Varro desperately wanted.
Something dangerous enough for Rome to erase an entire legion from history.
Cassian looked at the map one final time.
Then at the Titan.
“You remember the way back, don’t you?”
The creature stared toward the north.
And slowly nodded.
Tap the link below the comment to discover what happened to the lost Ninth Legion—and what Varro was willing to destroy five thousand Roman soldiers to keep hidden.
