Chapter 197: I will bear your madness, for I am also Rome
What mattered most to Caligula?
Rome.
His family.
Yes. For the young ruler of the Roman Empire, even after madness swallowed him whole, he still loved Rome and he still loved those bound to him by blood.
But he was mad.
So the shape of his love twisted into something unrecognizable.
To grant them death.
To force them into eternal rest.
And because of that, there was one thing Caligula could not endure being defiled.
His ancestors.
The founders of Rome. The hands that built this nation of freedom, passion, and beauty.
So when the invisible whisper struck, Caligula's mind snapped cleanly into rage. He roared. He howled at the sky.
'Moon Cell detected a permission request.'
'Scepter of Kingship manifested.'
'Approved.'
The moonlight wrapped around the Roman Palace spread, slow and inexorable. In a blink, an invisible pressure descended like a slab of iron dropped from the heavens.
Mars's massive crimson machina body shifted back half a step.
Nero pressed her lips together, her flawless face tight with tension.
Even Rowe felt it.
The presence that fell from the sky carried a weight that reminded him of an old sensation, back when he faced Chaos in Greece. That same heavy certainty, as if the world itself had decided which side would be crushed.
Of course, in terms of scale, Moon Cell was still beneath Chaos.
Chaos was a true stellar life form. Its range exceeded a star. Its influence was not limited to a single system adrift in the sea of stars.
Moon Cell observed the Solar System. It did not include the brightest and most violent star at its center. Its scope stopped at the Solar System.
And yet.
It was still beyond Rowe.
Even if what descended was only a partial manifestation, even if it was only a gaze rather than the whole machine, the pressure alone made Rowe's body register strain.
"Hahaha. You have arrived, Caligula."
"Roar… Rome!"
A figure emerged from the shadows of the Roman Palace, bathed in moonlight.
Mars rotated his crimson body, voice low.
"He is here."
Then he looked to Rowe.
"Sage Rowe, I am the guardian god of Rome. I cannot assist you."
Rome was the nation Mars had personally founded. He had sworn never to harm a Roman. That was his principle. His justice, crude as it could be.
He would not, and could not, take Rowe's side.
"Umu!"
Nero stepped forward instead.
The girl in red placed her hand on the hilt of her Roman sword and forced a smile through fear.
"Though I am weak, I will not stand idle."
"Because my passion is infinite."
"Go stand somewhere safe," Rowe said, and tapped her forehead.
"This is not a battlefield you belong on."
"Umu… ow!"
Nero clutched her head and crouched, offended and embarrassed at once.
Rowe only smiled and walked forward.
Whether he could or could not, whether he wanted to or not, he simply would not allow anyone to interfere with his battlefield.
He faced danger with his own body.
He extracted death, or profit, from it.
He would become stronger with a smile, or die with one.
One or the other.
"Caligula," Rowe said, eyes fixed on the man stepping out of shadow. "That is your name."
The man was tall. His dark blue hair stuck up like straw, a jagged crown of neglect. His face was hard, shadowed, and sharp with the kind of strain that never truly left. Gold armor clung to him. A black battle skirt hung heavy at his waist. His build was robust, and his eyes were a sick blend of black and red.
Caligula.
The young consul once praised by both the People and the Senate.
Now, there was only madness.
He saw Rowe and roared again, voice raw.
"Rome… my… Rome…"
"Rome is at your feet," Rowe said, smiling as if speaking to a child who had stolen a toy. "But this Rome is not yours."
"Cruel. Tyrannical. Your madness and your existence can only bring pain to Rome."
"So today, in the name of the People of Rome, I will…"
Rowe's smile thinned.
"Kill you."
"Roar!"
Killing intent detonated what little restraint remained in Caligula.
Rowe's words, his claim to represent the People, stabbed deeper than any blade. In Caligula's fractured mind, it meant only one thing.
Rome denied him.
Rome denied its emperor.
Even without reason, the madman understood that point.
"Kill you. Kill you. Kill you."
Anger became killing intent.
Killing intent became power.
Authority from Moon Cell answered, and immense magical energy surged around Caligula. It did not merely ripple. It thickened until it felt physical, a depth like staring into an abyss.
"God level… no."
Mars's eyes flickered like fire as calculations ran.
"In an instant he crossed god level and reached the boundary of a chief deity."
And it still was not the peak.
Caligula's power continued to expand.
Rowe moved.
He would not allow Caligula to fully consolidate Moon Cell's Authority. This was no longer the same as seeking death. This was taking control of the battlefield.
So he stepped forward.
His robe flared, and the Gate of Babylon opened.
Noble Phantasms poured out like a flood.
As expected.
In the Western world, compared to the Emperor's Treasury anchored in a chaos core, the Gate of Babylon was cleaner. Faster. More compliant with the rules of the greater Foundation.
Blades flashed. Spirals erupted. Golden ripples opened like wounds in the air, and a rain of shining weapons surged toward Caligula from every direction at once.
"Roar!"
Caligula's roar became a storm.
Magical energy, abyss like and condensed, swept outward and scattered the Noble Phantasms as if they were leaves thrown into a gale.
Rowe advanced anyway.
He seized one of the flying weapons, a sword, caught the hilt with perfect timing, and closed the distance.
One step.
One slash.
A cold arc of light cut straight for Caligula's throat.
Clang.
Caligula raised his arm and blocked with his bracer, the edge of the Noble Phantasm biting against armor.
Rowe did not pause.
His foot struck the ground, and his body launched upward.
From below to above, like a dragon rising, the sword swept toward Caligula's chin with a force that could overturn mountains.
The edge caught.
Pain flared.
Caligula jerked his head back, but blood still sprang from a cut beneath his jaw.
He stumbled half a step, regained his footing, and Rowe, still suspended from the upward motion, turned the blade and brought it down.
The air detonated.
Overlapping shockwaves screamed past the ears like the roar of some unseen beast.
The strike aimed for Caligula's forehead.
A tyrant's crown breaking blow.
Mars watched, brow drawn tight. Nero stared, lips parted, surprise and dread mingling.
She did not want Rowe harmed.
But she did not want Caligula dead either.
He was her uncle.
A bond that did not dissolve just because a mind broke.
"Roar!"
Violent magical energy condensed above Caligula's head and formed an abyss like barrier.
Rowe's descending blade struck it.
Crack.
It held for an instant.
Then shattered.
Rowe broke through.
In that same instant, Caligula spread his arms wide, muscles bulging, hands snapping inward from both sides.
Clap.
He trapped the blade between his palms and forced it to a halt with monstrous strength.
"Rome. I am Rome!"
Obsession poured out through the roar.
Rowe frowned.
"So much magical energy."
Caligula's level had already surpassed the boundary of a chief deity. It climbed toward something higher, unstable but real.
Even if Mars acted now, he might not be able to suppress him completely.
Humans favored by Moon Cell were that terrifying.
But.
"Caligula," Rowe said, voice low. "Is this power truly what you desire?"
He released the sword.
His feet sank. He grounded his stance.
Caligula still held the blade up with his arms spread, leaving his chest and abdomen exposed beneath them.
Rowe punched forward.
Thud.
Caligula's face twisted, pain and ferocity tearing across his features. Even madmen feared pain. More importantly, Rowe's fist struck his core.
His heart.
Red markings shone there.
Information authentication.
The interface Moon Cell used to pour data into him and draw it out.
Rowe's punch shattered the flowing light.
And with it, shattered the dense magical energy surrounding Caligula.
The signal broke.
The line went dead.
The cable was ripped free.
Without Moon Cell's support, Caligula was only a mortal.
He staggered back, body curling as blood and sweat scattered. His eyes dulled. The red glow receded, leaving pale white in its place.
The madness loosened.
For a moment, he was awake.
"Hahaha."
His breath came hard, and the laugh sounded wrong, as if he were mocking himself.
"Have I woken up? What a… nightmare."
"Uncle!"
Nero tried to move.
Rowe stopped her with a hand.
"He is not stable. Do not go near."
Caligula shook his head violently as if trying to fling thoughts out of his skull.
"Yes. I am not stable. I cannot become stable."
His eyes were calm, yet his face still carried distortions that would not fade. Moon Cell's influence could not be erased completely. Even Rowe could only block it, not purify it.
Caligula's gaze snapped to Nero.
"Nero. My niece."
His voice softened, strained and honest.
"I can feel you have integrated Moon Cell's Authority too. Only a fragment. That is good."
"Whatever you do, do not follow my path."
"Path?" Rowe asked, watching him closely.
Caligula paused.
"It was wrong."
Then his voice turned heavy.
"And it was not wrong."
Rowe already understood.
With what he had seen, with what he had heard, the shape of the truth assembled itself. Leaving aside his own immense computation as a machina god, Athena's Blessing of Wisdom, now effective again in the Western world, let him infer the whole from the fragment.
Caligula had not been forced.
He had chosen.
"The cold Moon Cell gazes upon the earth," Caligula said, each word scraped out like it cost him. "Someone must stand in its way. Someone must bear it."
He lifted his head.
"And I… am the ruler of this nation. The king of this land."
"I am Rome."
"Who else but me could do it?"
Moon Cell, at its core, was an eye that recorded the world.
Those it gazed upon rarely ended well.
It was Rome, this land, that had been under its attention.
So Caligula, as emperor, had taken it all onto himself.
Just as he said.
He loved Rome.
"This is the madness I must bear."
"Then you are mistaken," Rowe said.
He stepped closer.
He had stopped Nero because she was too weak to stand near a man who could fall back into madness at any moment.
Rowe did not share that weakness.
He approached.
He extended his hand slowly.
"This is not madness you can bear, Caligula."
"This madness should be mine."
Caligula stared at him.
A strange closeness rose from somewhere deep, something that did not belong to reason. A longing that had no business existing here.
Bloodline.
He opened his mouth.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Rowe."
Sage Rowe.
Patriarch Rowe.
And the one who could truthfully say, without metaphor, that he was also Rome.
"I am also Rome."
Because of that, your madness should be borne by me.
Caligula's breathing hitched.
Rowe's voice remained level.
"You are deeply contaminated by Moon Cell. Even I cannot remove this curse."
"You will die."
"But at the end…"
Rowe's hand remained offered, steady as an oath.
"I will let you die as a human."
"As a human. As the emperor who protected Rome."
Rowe's gaze sharpened, and his tone became formal, almost ceremonial.
"Emperor. What is your answer?"
Slaughter did not solve everything.
A wise monarch who had fallen into madness for his homeland still deserved dignity.
Caligula's throat worked.
He nodded once, slow.
"I have one request."
"Shed the shell of chaotic madness."
"Wear your crown, and enter the Underworld with splendor."
"The ruler of the Underworld has prepared the highest ceremony for you."
This was the final dignity granted to an exalted emperor.
A king's end, not a mad dog's execution.
.....
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