The Arcade Series

I looked on as the ancient founder of Rome looked down upon the young scared child that was out of her depth, both literally and metaphorically. “Who and what are you, child? Why are you here?” Romulus asked and I could feel the mental weight of his words bearing down on me through the telepathic connection the people’s speech formed, though not unkindly and with an intense curiosity.

The young girl was scared. I see it on her face. But not of the old god or the ancient roman people of the depths. “My people… The Merpeople need aid, great ones! We are massacred daily for sport by the other tribes of our people… My mother and father are dead…” I could hear her cries through the psychic communication and I could feel my jaw tighten just as I could see the humongous romans and the god before me do the same despite the physical differences between us. I could hear the chatter of voices coming from the seats that were filled with people watching this meeting.

But the Emperor God of Rome said nothing as the people who I suspected were counselors beside the emperor whispered amongst themselves. Then Romulus raised a hand and the palace fell silent. “The Kraken people are not heartless. We must in good conscience help those weaker than ourselves… We thought we were alone with the mind of a person in the oceans, but now we know of another like us, who is in need. We cannot stand by in their time of need, else we would be no better than the monsters of the deeps!” Romulus said with fervor, but as I looked around I could see that there were some among the court that were not convinced.

The Emperor noticed this too however, and as he looked around between the people I could see that he was disappointed. “We are Roman! Would you not use the power we have to save any one of our people? I can see in the heart of this child before us, we are the same! We must take action now, or become all the lesser than what I strove for us to be over the millennia. Have heart, men. Have heart and listen to the plea of a child in need.” The man said, almost pleading with those in the court to listen to his words. I could see a fervor in the Kraken's eyes that made my respect for him grow a thousandfold by the second.

I could see that his words made all the difference in the minds of the people who had doubts about what they should do, and I could hear their agreements as the god fell silent.

I don't know how, but in that moment I could see that the man sitting on the gargantuan throne who used to be that little boy who united the people under his banner was truly a god. I could feel the power flowing off of him and his dedication was pure. He was truly the Emperor God of Rome and war and of family. Oldest of the Ancients and destined to be the first Ascended God of Oridon.

Though I didn't know what those words meant, I could feel their importance. What are the Ancients?

My thoughts of the weird impressions I had were wiped away very quickly however as I could see time speed up once more before me. The talks between the Emperor and the council about how to take action became blurred as I could feel my perspective start to move again as my focus was somewhere else. I recognized it after a moment. I was back at the same reef that the little orphaned girl came from, the Merpeople swimming close to each other while crying could be heard and the people comforted each other in their suffering.

Though there were no bodies in sight, I could see that there were a number of people missing from their small tribe. This must be only a little while after the other tribe of Merpeople attacked. I moved closer to the sorry group of people and I could see sons without fathers, sons and daughters without mothers, husbands without wifes, wifes without husbands.

As I looked out on the small families that were torn apart by the savage Merpeople invaders, I heard the people close to the edge of the coral reef start to go quiet. Then I could hear singing. It came from beyond the reef and from below the underwater cliff that led into the depths of the ocean that the little girl had fled down not so long ago.

Instruments couldn't work very well underwater, but that just led to the ancient Kraken and Merpeople developing using their telepathy to replace the parts where instruments would normally be with their own voices. It was hauntingly sweet. Smooth and unifying, the song pulled me alongside the rest of the Merpeople audience to find where the sounds were coming from. It sounded like it was asking for unity, peace, but also determination and perseverance. The music of the deeps was emotion conveyed to the mind in more ways than one due to the natural telepathic ability of the Krakens and Merpeople.

The singing was like telepathy and empath abilities harmonized and combined into a unity of emotion and sound. Nothing on Earth could ever hope to replicate the singing of the Kraken people as they floated below the cliff the reef was situated on, letting the Merpeople look down to them in wonder. Romulus at the forefront of the ten other soldiers he was singing with. I could feel that the singing of the Romans was akin to a greeting. It was a ritual almost, exchanging the emotions of the people before they talked among each other. It was a beautiful piece of the warrior’s culture that had been practiced among the people for centuries and promoted by Romulus to develop his people beyond the battlefield.

I could understand why they did this as the Merpeople swam over to the edge of the cliff to look down on the Roman embassies as they greeted the people, letting the people forget there grief in exchange for wonder as they looked on and watched the strange giant people singing below them with joy and with such unity that they sounded as though they were one.

It was beautiful to see such an open and peaceful greeting as the people all collectively looked out from their position on the cliff.

Then as I looked on I could see the small figure of a young girl among the giant Kraken men start to swim forwards between the singing figures and in front of the Roman Emperor before swimming forwards with speed with a cry of joy as she spotted a figure that I could recognize as her father. He was still miraculously alive as he floated weakly by the cliff face with a strap of seaweed tied on his arm as a bandage and he straightened up with a look of wonder and then incredible joy as he saw his daughter swimming forward and into his chest, swimming to meet her and holding her tight as he laughed and cried in equal measure at her embrace, the little girl's emotions all coming out as she hugged her father tight.

I could feel my heart being pulled by the sight as the music came to a close, pettering off with a last hopeful note by the contingent of Romans as they started to swim forwards to meet with the raggedy group of primitive Merpeople.

The God Emperor of Rome swam ahead of his men before they all came to a halt at eye level with the cliff face. Romulus looked out at the little girl's father as they hugged each other, their arms and many tentacle legs entangling each other in their joy just a small distance from the cliff where the rest of the couscous and curious Merpeople stayed, keeping distance from the strange in-human giants. “Your child is very brave. You must be very proud to have raised such a wonderful young girl.” The millenia old god said with a twinkle of happiness in his eye as he looked on at the pure sight that was taking place before him.

“Proud as I could ever be.” The injured father said to the giant Kraken with a joyous smile as he looked down at the small frail figure of his daughter before he turned to the god before him. “May I ask, who might you be? Your appearance is… strange. Where do you hail from?” He asked, speaking for his people as they watched warily from the cliff.

“I am Romulus, God Emperor of the Roman Empire, ruler of the Kraken people, hailing from the depths of the sea below.” The man responded with pride for his people in his voice, “Your daughter has told us of the state of your people and your repressers, and we have answered your call for help.”

The lone father looked out at the giant figure who was resting at his comparatively tiny body’s level and his face broke into a quiet smile of relief as he heard the words of the kind Kraken Emperor.

“Thank you.” Was all he could say in response to the god’s words and time seemed to speed up once more, though I was used to that by now. Things around me started moving quickly, the people talking with one another and I could see the Romans sharing a small amount of their food between the Merpeople, though it was an incredible amount for the smaller Merpeople that they ate hungrily, while some others set up gigantic tents of some kind of processed plant fabric for the night.

Soon enough it was the next day and I could see that after the sun came up once again, the Kraken people were ready to be more proactive in their approach to helping the people by getting ready to explore the surroundings in hopes of finding the others in the surroundings. I believe that there was more than just the original group and the attacking group of Merpeople around the area, though I suspected that unless this group was an outlier the other groups were most likely not in a much better condition than this one.

I watched over the course of the next few minutes as they got ready to go, and then they departed alongside a group of Merpeople who volunteered to join the search. But as they started swimming to begin the exploration, a problem popped up very soon after. The Merpeople just couldn't keep up. The Kraken people were bigger, which caused more drag in the water when swimming, but due to their size they also had much more muscle mass in their tentacles. Add to the fact that the Krakens had more tentacles then the Merpeople and it became very clear that they were much faster. The fact that over the course of the Empire the Kraken people had started studying and learning to be more efficient in moving their bodies and developing different techniques to swim…

The Merpeople were basically outclassed in every way.

They got around the problem by letting the Merpeople ride on the shoulders of the Romans and using the suction cups on their tentacles to keep a hold against the water pushing against them, which looked kind of funny and was definitely awkward for them but it is what it is.

But with them arranged like that, they took off and started to search the area for anybody around. The Kraken’s wanted to arrange for the Merpeople to start to grow on their own, with help and aid from the Roman Empire of course. They wanted to have the Merpeople form their own kingdom that they would help and have strong ties to, to both expand their claim and resources. That was the official reason, anyway. Romulus suggested it for a few more less political reasons of course. The size difference really didn't allow for very good mixed species cities, buildings or whatever, and the Emperor also wanted to avoid speciesism. So he wanted them to grow a civilization of their own.

The exchange of knowledge would be important when setting up a civilization of their own of course, but for right now the most important thing… was simply to help unite the people. Just like what Romulus did, the Romans and the tribe of Merpeople would do. This was all just words until they actually found another tribe or other group of Merpeople however.

That was taken care of quickly enough as they found another, bigger reef nearby. I could see them approach each other with the very same song of greeting after seeing a family by the outskirts of the reef, the Merpeople with them even trying to join in despite not really learning how. It was just as beautiful as it was the first time.

However, when the song came to a halt… their reactions were quite different. The Merpeople came out of the reef after a moment and I recognized several of them from the attack against the tribe in the smaller reef. This was the home of the attackers, and they became really scared as they saw the giant Kraken people and they got their weapons.

The fight lasted only a minute, but it was brutal. The Krakens swept the ocean floor with the fighters. It was a challenge not to obliterate the way smaller, weaker, less trained and less armed attackers. Though the Kraken people didn't kill any of the people, just knocked them around a bit until finally one of the less stupid people surrendered and causing everyone else to follow suit.

So the first tribe was then brought back to the smaller reef as slaves under the rules of the Roman Empire to work for the good of the people. They would be the ones to build the first building and the houses of the Merpeoples first city.

So with workers the strength of the Merpeople judged, the Roman Emperor left alongside nine of the Romans he brought with him, leaving one to defend and search out for other Merpeople tribes to unite the land.

I could see he was honoured even as they left him behind, I could feel that he liked his new duties. So with that, time started to speed up once again. I could see the Kraken soldier bringing in more and more Merpeople while buildings were being built from stone as the first city of the Merkingdom was constructed.

I could feel my attention being bought somewhere else again and I rose above the surface of the ocean again, flying across the sea and towards a continent in the distance where I could feel something happening.