Lygia said a prayer that God would grant her courage and calm as the guards ushered her through the Hypogeum. The maze of corridors and chambers left her utterly confused. The labyrinth was all the more terrifying because she could hear the lions roaring and the crowd cheering as more Christians met their fate in the arena above her. She wondered if she would be thrown to the lions, burned at the stake, or crucified just as the Romans had just crucified Peter. She prayed that if crucifixion were to be her fate, her executioners would honor a request to be crucified upside down just as Peter had requested so as to not dishonor Christ. She felt God's peace upon her as she contemplated the prospect of crucifixion in the coliseum.
As the dozen guards led Lygia through the warren, she noticed that they all wore the imperial purple and distinctive armor that marked them as Praetorians rather than common legionnaires much less the armed thugs who normally presided over the Hypogeum. Emperor Nero had witnessed what even an unarmed Ursus had done to General Marcus Vinicius and his armed retainers. It was also rumored that Vinicius had summoned General Galba who had already crossed the Rubicon with his legion in defiance of Roman law. It was claimed that Galba was less than a days march from Rome. By nightfall tomorrow, Nero the insane tyrant would be overthrown. Unfortunately; General Galba would arrive too late to save Lygia.
As someone who had accepted the Christ as God, Ursus had been remorseful about killing those armed soldiers. However; Ursus had been Lygia's body guard since she could barely walk. He had tossed many would be assassins into their grass. Perhaps the only thing that might provoke Ursus to kill yet again was protecting his beloved princess. Unfortunately; Ursus had been captured along with Lygia and her groom during the purge of Christians.
Any hope that Ursus might miraculously come to her rescue was lost when the guards led Lygia past the cell where the gentle giant was being prepared for his own fate in the Coliseum. Ursus was nude except for the chains that restrained him, surrounded by nude slave girls who were rubbing his towering, massively muscled body with precious oils. Although Lygia's father had encouraged Ursus to breed many slave girls and he had even been seduced by patrician women of Rome, his massive penis remained flaccid as the nubile young women tended to him. Lygia was able to meet his gaze for only a moment before she was led onward to her fate.
Eventually; the guards led Lygia to a cell where an enormous aurochs was chained to an iron stanchion. The bull bellowed and snorted, but it was bound securely. One of the guards grinned salaciously as he reached for the bodice of Lygia's wedding gown. He rended the fabric until it fell to the floor, leaving her nude in front of her dozen. captors.
Lygia resigned herself to being gang raped, but Nero had not been content to condemn her to such a plebian fate. The guards lifted her nude body to place her so that she was reclined on the back of the enraged bull. Lygia could smell as well as feel the sweat that soaked the hairy beast. Two guards restrained her by gripping her breasts and another restrained her by roughly grabbing her womanhood while two others chained her wrists to the enormous horns of the bull. She struggled to endure the pain as two guards viciously squeezed her breasts while the third guard pulled on her pubic hair and plunged his calloused fingers into her. When the two guards that were securing her hands were finished, they moved to grasp her breasts so that those guards could chain her ankles to the chain around the bull's flanks. Lastly, a chain that was attached to the chain around the Auroch's chest just behind his shoulders, was secured around Lygia's chest, just below her breasts.
Lygia found herself reclined on the aurochs' back, with her legs spread wide. She knew that her sex was exposed and utterly vulnerable. However; it was the symbolism that distressed her. She was being crucified on the back of an enraged bull!
Lygia was blinded by sunlight as the floor above her opened then she felt the platform rising. The stanchion that restrained the bull with her chained upon it was lifted up to the arena. Lygia was humiliated by the knowledge that her nude body was being displayed to the lustful gazes of the vengeful crowd.
No doubt! it was God who drew Lygia's attention to Emperor Nero's box where General Vinicius was chained to a post. In spite of the roar of the crowd, Lygia could actually hear her groom crying out to her. The prospect that her husband would be compelled to witness whatever sadistic debauchery that Nero had decreed for her provoked more anguish than any speculations about her own fate.
Some mechanism enabled the guards to unleash the Aurochs from the iron stanchion. The bull immediately began to run around the arena, snorting and bucking in an effort to dislodge Lygia. She could feel the chain around her chest biting into her breasts.
The Aurochs paused when Lygia heard a gate opening. She watched as the lattice of iron bars rose up to reveal a giant. It was Ursus! Lygia was hopeful for only a moment. The rippling muscles of the Aurochs' broad back attested to the immense power of the beast. Not even Ursus could hope to overpower this monster without weapons.