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Pheidon rushed to Taurania to bring the remaining Rhegian soldiers to Medma and participate in the siege. At the same time, Hielos sent a brigade to build a simple wooden outpost to block the mountain path leading to Locri and sent a scouting team to monitor the Locrians’ movements to prevent them from sneak attacking their rear once the joint army attacked Medma.

While Hielos led his army to implement his siege plan unhurriedly and methodical, the Locrian soldiers who came back did not immediately head to the northern border to repel the invading Caulonians.

With Theophantes getting caught, the Locrian army needed a new supreme commander. Thus, Demodokas appointed one of his men. However, the council members opposed him because Locri was now facing a crisis, so they urgently needed someone with military skills to lead the soldiers to defend Locri. But Demodokas’ candidate didn’t have war experience or prestige in the army, making it hard for him to order the soldiers effectively. So they must be careful because once defeated, they will lose their only remaining army!

Demodokas felt cold as the Council refuted his proposal for the second time in just two days. Still, he held back his anger and watched them unanimously elect the elderly Megaris. He led the army to fight Crotone many times more than ten years ago and won numerous victories, but had to stand down because of Demodokas’ pressure.

But with the strong demands of everyone, Demodokas could only agree to Megaris’ appointment and let his political enemy serve as the commander.

Megaris immediately reorganised his team and led more than 6,000 men to attack the enemy.

However, after the Caulonian army burned a village, they did not face the enemy head-on. Instead, they quickly retreated to the borders near their territory and built a camp to deter Locri.

The cautious Megaris became worried that this was the Caulonian’s trap, so he did not attack as he was afraid of an ambush. And like the Caulonians, they just stood still at the border and formed a confrontation between the two sides.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Early in the morning, the people of Rhegium rushed to the port to see off not only the Theonian fleet and the first legion but also the nearly 1,000 soldiers and family members who had joined the expedition to Sicily.

Most of them were fugitives from the Sicilian city-states conquered by Syracuse, such as Catania and Naxos. Back then, Rhegium built a city for them to oppose the two new city-states(Messina and Tyndaris) that the Syracusans had built across the strait. But they didn’t expect the Syracusan army to act quickly and soon destroy the new city: Some were killed, some fled into the mountains, and some were saved by the Rhegians and went to Rhegium by boat.

The people of Rhegium now prayed that this army could smoothly go to Sicily and not repeat their mistakes.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Theonian fleet and dozens of Rhegian ships sailed out of the port together: At the forefront of the fleet was Seclian’s ship with its young navarch standing at the ship’s starboard, gazing at the other side with a trace of regret in his eyes. He then pointed forward and said to Antonios, the legatus of the first legion, who was also in his ship, “Messina is not far ahead. Why don’t we capture it first?! Its closeness to Rhegium would allow us to receive the Rhegian’s support easily, and after we take it, we can block the strait and eliminate the enemy ship in their port!”

Antonios squinted at Seclian, realising that this young man was radical and arrogant in his actions. If Amintas were here instead, he would have shouted at him and said, “What right do you, navy, have to tell the legion what to do?!”

Fortunately, Antonios would not do that. In fact, his initial thought when Davos asked for his opinion was to land between Tyndaris and Messina* because the two newly built city-states were not too strong and far from Syracuse, allowing them to take it as their forward base in Sicily easily. (The Carthaginian commander Himilco had captured and destroyed the city of Messina when they attacked Syracuse and was later rebuilt by Dionysius when he led his army to expel the Carthaginians from the north coast).

“That’s what I previously thought as well. However, his majesty opposed it.” Antonios tactfully said.

“Oh, why?” As soon as Seclian heard the word “His majesty”, most of his dissatisfaction disappeared.

“Time.” Antonios spout out a word. Then continued, “‘It would take us a few days to take down Messina, which would allow Syracuse to find out about our attack on Sicily in those few days. So once we attack the south, they would certainly be ready to defend, increasing the difficulties we encounter. Moreover, due to Messina’s distance from Syracuse, its fall will not affect Syracuse’s sphere of influence too much. So instead, it would be much better to take advantage of Syracuse’s lack of defence to raid the city-states near it, causing panic and chaos in the areas they control, which would give us more opportunities…’ Those are his majesty’s exact words.”

Seclian listened carefully and sighed, “It’s still his majesty who thought things thoroughly. But with that, our risk would become greater!”

Antonios smiled and said, “Are you afraid of hardship?”

Seclian arrogantly said, “I just hope we could lure the Syracusan fleet out of their port so that my fleet can defeat them and let the Theonian Navy completely become the master of the sea here!”

Then the two laughed with confidence.

As the fleet headed southward along the east coast of Sicily, they met many merchant ships along the way. The merchants were shocked when they saw this massive-scale mixed fleet, especially when they noticed the symbol painted on the sails, giving them a hunch that something big would happen: Although some hurried to retreat, there were others who turned around and increased their speed southward(it was obvious that they were going back to report).

With the fleet sailing at its top speed and their destination at hand, Seclian just sat on the flagship without moving. While Antonios just kept watching the coast from the ship’s starboard: Due to never coming to Sicily before, what he saw on the map was completely different from what he could see.

Davos had once told him that from Messina heading south to Tauromenium, the only land route was a narrow road near the coast, and this road was 15-20 kilometres long.

That seems true because they had been sailing for nearly three hours since departing Rhegium’s port, but the layers after layers of mountains on the other sides remained continuous. Its soothing contour was pleasant to the eye, just like a painting. But Antonios knew that this was because they were 2-3 kilometres away, and from his experience, these peaks are no less than a thousand metres high, making them really difficult to climb.

“Lord Antonios, that’s Tauromenium.” A middle-aged man nearby pointed and said.

This man, named Ladician, was a former noble of Naxos who fled inland to Sicily, near Aeolian Island. It is where the other city-state’s exiles gathered and gradually formed a larger village. However, the constant invasion of Syracuse’s allies and the hatred of the Sikeloi made their life quite difficult. But when he later heard that Rhegium was going to build a new city for them, the exiles gladly went there. Yet who knew that the Syracusans would swiftly respond and destroy their newly built city, killing some of his relatives and forcing him to flee to Rhegium.

Despite the twists and turns, his determination to rebuild his home hasn’t changed but rather strengthened. So when he heard that Theonia was going to attack Sicily, he took the initiative to find Antonios with the rest of his relatives, asking him to join.

After hearing him, Antonios looked at it intently and saw a towering city on the high ground near the coast, but the oddest thing was that it was a twin stone fortress. And the two stone fortresses clamped down this narrow and long coastal passage, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.

“I heard the Carthaginians built this city for the Sikeloi?” Antonios asked with uncertainty as he recalled some of the sketchy information he had learned about the city.

“Yes, Carthage’s strategos Himilco built Tauromenium to gather the Sikeloi and make these natives join his side when Carthage attacked Syracuse…” Then Ladician gloatingly said, “So when the tyrant of Syracuse attacked Tauromenium, he failed to capture it because of the steep terrain that made siege engines unusable. But in the end, the Sikeloi surrendered voluntarily. Now, the owner of this city is those abominable Campanian mercenaries!”

Antonios looked at Tauromenium in a daze as he listened to his explanation: If he had chosen to attack Messina first and succeeded, he would not have been able to break through Tauromenium by land. Only through the sea could he enter the core area controlled by Syracuse… Moreover, King Davos suggested that the Sikeloi were the force he could reach out to…

“…when attacking Sicily, you have to remember that ‘three parts depend on the military, seven parts depend on diplomacy.’…” Antonios recalled Davos’ serious reminder before his departure.

As the fleet continued to move forward, Antonios’ field of vision opened up: Rolling hills had replaced the mountains that made them sleepy and the further south they went, the lower the terrain became…

Antonios’ gaze was drawn to something further: It was a majestic mountain. Even though it was nearly 10 kilometres away, he could still clearly see its towering size with its trapezoid shape as it shot straight into the sky as if it was a pillar standing upright. But the strangest thing was that the other peaks are emerald green, while it is grey and appear ancient and mysterious. That is the legendary furnace of Hephaestus he used to forge divine weapons – Sicily’s Mount Etna.

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