Rome must fall.

Chapter 413: The Oracle of the Goddess Danu (I)

After hearing these words, Lurios was filled with emotion.

"Come on, let's go inside and talk." Vercingetorix enthusiastically took Lurios' arm, took him into the living room, and then waved away the others.

When they were the only two left in the hall, Lurios coughed and said, "That day your uncle led his troops to raid the camp and I was captured by them. Your uncle persuaded me to surrender, but after I refused, he sold me and other captured tribesmen to Roman slave traders.

We were taken to Roman Gaul (the province of northern Italy) and sold at a slave market in a town called Ravenna. A few days later, I was bought by a merchant who claimed to be from the Roman province of Illyria...

The merchant used a pack cart to carry dozens of compatriots including me and headed east, getting farther and farther away from our home. I thought about escaping, but there were more than a dozen fully armed guards guarding the entire team. I was hungry and had no chance to escape...

After the team crossed the Adriatic Bay and entered the territory of the Illyrian province, the guards did not take us into any coastal towns controlled by the Romans, but directly took us over the mountains in the east...

It was only then that they told us that they were not citizens of the province under Roman jurisdiction, but came from the Nix tribe in the mountains. They bought us to prevent us from being enslaved by the Romans and to gain our freedom so that we could become members of their tribe—"

Vercingetorix, who was listening attentively, couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "What race is this Nix tribe?"

"At that time, they told us that the Nyx tribe was a mixed tribe composed of Illyrians, Celts, and a few other ethnic groups that had been enslaved by Rome. Although their leader Maximus was an Illyrian, he was the reincarnation of the offspring of the goddess Danu and was deeply blessed by the goddess—"

Vercingetorix interrupted him in surprise: "Wait, what did you say?! The leader of that tribe is the descendant of the goddess Danu?! Are you sure you are talking about the goddess Danu that we Gauls are familiar with?!"

"It's the goddess Danu we believe in!" Lulios said with emphasis, "We were also surprised when we heard this, and they also said that it was because the goddess Danu gave their leader Maximus an oracle, asking him to do his best to save the Gauls enslaved by the Romans, that Maximus asked them to pretend to be merchants from the Illyrian province and use the money they earned with great effort to buy a large number of our Gaul compatriots in the slave market of Inner Gaul...

We didn’t completely believe what they said at the time, but we knew that we were far away from home now. Even if we managed to escape, it would be difficult for us to return home because of the powerful Romans and other strange tribes in between. Instead, we would be more likely to fall into the hands of the Romans again and be subjected to more cruel punishment—”

As Lurios said this, his left hand stroked a prominent scar on his right shoulder, which was covered with the marks of a slave.

"…We began to cross the mountains with the guards. Although the mountain road was long and difficult to walk, they had obviously prepared in advance. There was a camp every few sections of the mountain road, so we could rest and replenish water in time. Therefore, basically no one fell ill or collapsed due to excessive fatigue.

After about ten days, we crossed the mountains and entered the territory of an Illyrian tribe called Ardei, which was an ally of the Nix tribe.

Later I learned that the Ardei tribe had actually become completely dependent on the Nix tribe due to the huge difference in strength. So we had unimpeded passage in the Ardei tribe’s territory and were very well received. Soon we boarded a boat and sailed northward into the territory of the Nix tribe. After sailing for a few days, we entered a wider river. After sailing for a few more days, we entered another larger and wider river…Finally we arrived at the central town of the Nix tribe – Yelipoli (meaning the Sacred City, on the northern bank of the middle reaches of the Drao River).

During the voyage, we passed many Nix towns, which looked very lively and prosperous. I also saw that there were mostly flat and vast lands on both sides of the river, which were all turned into farmland, and the people there used cattle and horses to plow the fields; the roads on the shore were very similar to the Roman roads, very wide, flat and solid; there were many pedestrians on the roads, oh, by the way, they also built many bridges on the river, the kind of bridges that towered over the river and allowed ships to pass underneath...

So I once thought that the guards were lying to us, and that this so-called Nix tribe was actually a land under the control of the Romans. But later I realized that I was wrong. Not only did the Nix tribe not belong to Rome, it even had a grudge against Rome! ——"

Vercingetorix was shocked and couldn't help asking, "Lurius, are you saying that such a powerful and wealthy...Nix tribe has a grudge against the Romans?!"

Instead of answering directly, Lurios asked: "Vercingetorix, do you know when the Nix tribe was established?" "How could I know? I just heard the name of the Nix tribe from you." Vercingetorix thought Lurios' question was a little funny.

"Eighteen years ago!" Lulios emphasized, and said in a deep voice: "Eighteen years ago, Chief Maximus and his men established the Nix tribe with the help of the Ardi people. Then in these eighteen years, the Nix tribe defeated the Pannoni tribal alliance that almost destroyed the Ardi tribe, and completely occupied their land. Then they defeated the Boyi, who were even more powerful than the Pannoni, and the Taurisi, and also annexed their land.

They also defeated the Germans who frightened us Gauls. Now the territory of the Nichos tribe is much larger than the entire southern Gaul region. It is precisely because of the strength of the Nichos tribe that other tribes around it have made friends with it, and even the powerful Dacians have formed an alliance with Nichos..."

Vercingetorix was stunned as he listened. If it wasn't for Lurios who was speaking, he would have thought that the other person was bragging.

Vercingetorix had seen extremely powerful forces before. It took Caesar only a few years to make the entire Gaul region surrender, but behind Caesar was the continuous support of the entire Roman world. But according to Lurios, this Nix tribe was established with the help of the Ardae who were about to be wiped out by the Pannoni. What could it rely on?

Thinking of this, Vercingetorix asked directly: "How did the Nix tribe defeat these powerful enemies?"

Lulios expected Vercingetorix to ask this question. He stared at him with a nervous and expectant look in his eyes, but he spoke slowly so that every word he uttered could be clearly heard by the other party: "How did the Nix tribe defeat so many powerful enemies in just a dozen years? When I was commissioned by Chief Maximus to come to you, he told me a secret that the Nix tribe had hidden for many years, and asked me to swear to the goddess Danu that I would not tell anyone except you! -"

"Don't worry! I also promise you that I will not tell this secret to anyone!" At this time, Vercingetorix seemed to understand why Lurios wanted to talk to him alone, and he immediately made a solemn promise.

After receiving the response he deserved, Lurios said in a deep voice: "Captain Maximus told me that he was once a slave of the Romans. Because he was unwilling to be enslaved, he followed Spartacus and the gladiators to start a riot in the Campania region of Rome, organizing other slaves and poor people to fight against the Romans-"

"Ah? Spartacus!" Vercingetorix exclaimed.

The Arverni often traded with the Romans, and of course he had heard of the Spartacus rebellion that disrupted the entire Italy. He even thought of it from time to time to encourage himself during this period. However, he did not expect that one of the parties involved was actually the leader of the Nix tribe. This made him more interested in what Lurios said next.

"…Captain Maximus led a team alone and followed Spartacus to defeat the Romans many times. However, because Spartacus and others were unwilling to leave Italy, he had to lead his team over the mountains alone, entered the territory of the Ardae, and finally established the Nix tribe.

At that time, he had more than 10,000 men under his command, most of whom were strong warriors. These warriors were wearing weapons and armor captured from the Romans. They were able to skillfully use Roman tactics and had rich combat experience and strict discipline...

The Pannonians did not understand them at all and thought that it would be as easy to deal with them as it was with the Ardi people, so they were careless and suffered a series of defeats, allowing the Nixen to gain a foothold..."

Vercingetorix's expression became a little gloomy, because he thought that the situation of the war between the Gauls and the Romans in recent years was quite similar to what Lurios said.

"...After the Nix tribe gained a firm foothold, it was able to continuously defeat other powerful tribes. In just over a decade, the tribe expanded to become one of the most powerful forces in that extremely vast river plain. There is another more important reason -"

Lulios' voice suddenly rose: "That is the blessing of the goddess Danu! Because Chief Maximus is the offspring of the goddess Danu, the goddess Danu has always blessed the entire Nix tribe!
He constantly imparted knowledge that did not exist in our world to Chief Maximus in his dreams, allowing the people of the Nix tribe to use this knowledge, so that their fields could harvest much more food than ours, their workshops could produce more, cheaper, and better goods, and their craftsmen could make some weapons that we had never seen before but were extremely terrifying...

Therefore, the Nix army is extremely powerful and the people are very wealthy. Even if other tribes there have more people and larger territories than the Nix, they cannot be its opponents! ..."

(End of this chapter)