Outside the gates of Europa, west of the city of Rome.

The king of the Vandals, Gesarric, was standing on his chariot with a blood-stained cross scepter, and the tall Roman walls were crowded across from him, and the panicked militiamen were standing at the head of the city with various weapons, staring at the oncoming Vandal army with wide eyes and horror.

The breeze blew and gently raised the banner held by the Vandals, and the huge army was lined up in a huge phalanx and poured towards the Roman walls, one by one.

"Quick, take up arms! Take up arms! ”

On the ramparts, the officers defending the city shouted and ordered the soldiers who were in a hurry to prepare, and the hurried fellows climbed up the walls at the orders of the commander, and at each battlement they were armed with bows and arrows.

There are also soldiers who are panicking to set up trebuchets and transport stones on them, ready to fight.

Everyone was toiling under the orders of their respective officers, and even though they were exhausted, they did not grit their teeth and continue to work when they looked at the approaching Vandals.

Looking at the busy Roman soldiers on the city walls, Gaissaric was not in a hurry to attack, but instead commanded his soldiers to camp outside the city of Rome.

Such audacity is rare, but it is not surprising, after all, the barbarians have discovered the secrets of this vast empire more than a hundred years ago.

The mighty Roman legions were stationed on the borders of the empire, and they were an invincible force and an impenetrable border wall in front of the barbarians.

But such a powerful nation is like a giant tortoise, passing through its sturdy shell, and all that remains is deliciously soft entrails.

The heart of a so-called empire like the Eternal City is even more fragile, after all, the arrogant Roman rulers would not have thought that these barbarians would have crossed the impregnable shield of the Imperial Legions.

The barbarians gathered into a super-legion to invade on a large scale was unprecedented, just like every Roman king, all of them showed a look of disdain and a tone of ridicule about this matter, but it was the Germanic people who they had never thought to be too much to worry about became the henchmen of the later empires, and they were just outside the city.

Gaisaric led his soldiers to cut down trees and set up camps, and his cavalry rode around the city of Rome.

Wielding their Germanic swords, they plundered village after village, brutally killing those villagers who did not have time to escape, leaving them with booty, food from those villages, and women.

I saw women tied to horses and crying, and the heart-rending voices could be heard clearly even from afar on the city walls.

In order to show their exploits, these hateful Vandals deliberately carried these poor women out of the range of the soldiers of the Roman city to show off their might, torturing every Roman soldier present who witnessed it with their cries of these women.

The cries of women and the lewd laughter of the Vandals filled Leo's ears, and he closed his eyes tightly to avoid the sins of life in broad daylight.

Leo's left hand clutched a cross and gestured it to his chest, chanting words that roughly meant praying to God for mercy on the women who had been taken as trophies.

At the moment, Leo can only do this, and the others are powerless, saying that they want to believe in God, and many times it is nothing more than praying in times of greatest danger or making excuses for themselves when they are powerless.

Luga stood beside Leo and turned his head to look at Leo praying, and he could understand what kind of torture the Pope was enduring at this time.

"Look at them, these Arians, the real heretics, not even God can make them shed their barbaric skin, they are all beasts, beasts with brains." Luga said unhurriedly, he was a battle-hardened veteran, and naturally understood Gaisarric's intentions, and he said this to Leo only to comfort this poor fellow who was tormented by the tragic situation in front of him.

"Gaisaric is a smart guy." At this time, I saw Leo stop praying, slowly open his eyes, look ahead, and say: "He is torturing each of us with his means, he just wants to provoke our fear, make us hesitate, hesitate, and spare our lives, so driven by fear, the Romans are easy to agree to any request from their enemies, as long as they can keep themselves alive, anything can be satisfied, this is what Gaisaric wants." ”

"So you're ready to negotiate with these barbarians." Luga replied coldly: "If you get out of this wall, then all the bishops who believe in God will see your jokes, the heretics of Arius are waiting for this moment, and Gaisaric wants to be treated like Attila." ”

"The One-Sex sect does have a lot of problems in it, and they are too extreme." Leo nodded slightly and said, "Although we have avoided suppressing them, they have always been able to resurrect. But the gap between us is too great at the moment, and we can't guarantee that the Roman walls will be able to stop them from attacking. ”

"Maybe you'll end up negotiating with them." Luga bowed his head and was silent for a long time before he said slowly, "That was also when they broke through the walls of Rome and approached the door of the church, and there was nothing I could do. ”

Hearing Luga say this, Leo raised his head to look at Luga, and said with a puzzled expression: "Could it be that Caesar, you don't have absolute faith either?" I've never seen such solemnity on your face. ”

"Yes, yes!" Luga nodded repeatedly, "The first time was in Carthage, where I watched the fruits of my best efforts go down the drain, the second time was in Gaul, when I faced Attila, I don't know how long I was able to hold on to the battlefield at that time, but I know that that the battle made both us and Attila shed blood, and the third time was here, in the city of Rome, I was like a lion who was too old to stand, and I no longer had the sharp eyes and inexhaustible strength that I had at the beginning. If I do fail, I ask you, Your Excellency, to save the last of Rome's dignity. ”

With that, Luga then looked into the distance, and Leo could see a very weak helplessness in his gaze at this time. In the blood-red light of the sunset at dusk, Luga mixed with the lion skin he wore on his body, giving Leo the illusion that Luga was really a lion.

If Luga is an aging lion, then Gaisaric is an equally senile hyena, but behind Luga stands a herd of shivering sheep, and behind Gaisaric stands a large group of young and powerful hyenas, grinning and bleeding from their mouths.

Leo took a deep breath and gestured solemnly at Luga's back, solemnly gesturing the cross on his chest, as if he understood something, and seemed to fall into a new confusion.

Which side is God on? Even he, who thought he was closest to God, could not know even a single thing.