The party slowly approached the main gate of Turpilia, rain coming down hard and wetting the stone roads. I had switched the cloaks that Luna was using to cover herself, giving her my own cloak and giving Julius his in return. We kept walking through the outskirts, noticing how empty the city seemed to be. Looking around, I saw several posters with warnings on them. I continued walking, keeping the pace of our group moving as some of the gate guards stared at us.
We walked past themain gate and moving through the dark city, getting a lot of stares from not only civilians, but also soldiers. All these eyes on us were making me uneasy, and I prepared myself, revealing my crimson gemmed guantlet. Once my guantlet was visible, people began to scatter, running into buildings and away from the team.
As people ran, the croud was replaced by soldiers, all wearing the royal purple of the Empire. The party slowed down as we soon became surrounded, swords drawn and ready to cut us down if need be.
The three of us circled Luna and became defensive, not pulling out any weapons, but protecting the child we saved. The soldiers closed the distance and completely surrounded us, shields raised and their weapons at the ready. When they were ten steps away from us, however, they stopped, keeping us within the area and making sure that we couldn't slip through any possible gaps.
As we stood there, I heard two people approaching us, their foot steps significantly different to the regular soldiers. Looking up I saw two larger soldiers, both with helmets similar to Julius. One mask was that of a thinned man with a distorted mouth, the othermask was a rough and damaged face, with one of the eyes closed shut. These two men slowly broke through the group and stood between us and the soldiers.
"Gauntlet hero..." The man with the rough mask spoke, his voice gargled and rough like his mask. He sounded as if he was sick. "I am Centurion Toxicus...." He then gestures to the other man. " and this is Centurion Ravus. We have been informed that you may have committed a crime against this empire. What say you, hero." He asked, a hint of disgust as he said hero.
Looking at the man's one good eye, I stood tall, puffing out my chest to appear confident. "If stopping a rogue soldier from killing innocent people is considered a crime here, then I suppose I have committed this crime."
There was no visible reaction from the Centurions, but I could see a faint twitch in Ravus' eyes. "You killed the Empire's soldiers in cold blood. These... creatures...are not civilians of the Empire. They are slaves! Nothing less that ants beneath our boot!"
Toxicus raised his arm and Ravus seemed to calm down instantly. "Whether or not the person you saved was a citizen or not, the fact is you killed soldiers of the Empire, and you must answer for that. Come with me, hero. Your party shall remain-"
"No deal, we go together or not at all." I blurted out, my hand transforming into the Slime Gauntlet, gelatinous liquid dripping to the stone floor and damaging it.
Toxicus stared at me with his eye and chuckled, raising his hand and bringing it down. The soldiers all then lowered their weapons and shields. "If you and your party can follow us." Toxicus and Ravus began walking towards the palace, the army of soldiers parting for them. Seeing that I had gotten my way, my gauntlet returned to normal and our group began to follow.
The journey through the town was much more awkward with the hundreds of soldiers staring at us and blocking the path behind us. They were not keeping us from moving, but they were making sure we were going where they wanted us to. I looked towards the palace, seeing the other heroes and their parties near the entrance. As we grew closer, the civilians returned, but not in any sort of happy manner. They cursed us, threw food at us, yelled and so on. The other heroes stared at us as we entered; Klaus, Killian and Richard gave me looks of disgust, while Nasha and Akenamo were giving me a concerned expression. Anlong was the only one of the heroes who seemed calm.
We walked through the courtyard, the statue glaring down at us. Once they had appeared to be steadfast guardians, protecting the palace from any malice that could enter the city, but now they looked down at us with hatred and anger as if they were going to come to life and strike us down right there before we entered the palace. I shuddered as we entered the main doors, walking back though the once warm halls of the palace towards the throne room. The halls were now cold and dead; no brazer was lit and nolight filled the halls. Toxicus and Ravus continued leading my group as several soldiers closed in around us. The other heroes and their parties followed us in. The first to try and interact with us was Klaus.
"How could you murder our fellow soldier?!?!" He asked, being held back by the shields of the guards around us. I didn't bother looking I the direction of this guy. His attitude was starting to get on my nerves.
"We're supposed to be heroes, not villains." Richard added, his bow scraping against the shield of the guard holding him back.
The other four heroes remained quiet, simply following the group. Anlong walked up and spoke softly. "William, I'm certain you did what you did for the right reason. Remain calm and speak clearly." William looked up to the monk and nodded, the Staff Hero backing away as they approached the throne room.
The doors to the chamber opened up and already it was filled with a plethora of people. Court magicians, scholars and other nobles that were loyal to the Emperor. In his throne sat the Emperor himself, looking disheveled and disturbed, as if he had not gotten any sleep. Galerius looked up and I could see the expression of shock on his face. "Gauntlet hero, come forward."