The Tyrant Riot: A Greco-Roman Cultivation Epic (Virtuous Sons Book 2)

THE TYRANT RIOT Virtuous Sons Book 2 Y.B. STRIKER First published by Timeless Wind Publishing LLC 2023 Copyright © 2023 by Y. B. Striker All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. Y.B. Striker asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. First edition Editing by Silas Sontag and Lorne Ryburn Cover art by Macarious. Typography by Christian Bentulan For my ravings ones Contents Recap of Book 1 Prologue: The Little Kyrios Act 1: Closed Door Cultivation Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Act 2: The Brothers Aetos Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Act 3: The Orphic House Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Afterword About the Author About Timeless Wind Publishing Groups Recap of Book 1 Lio “Griffon” Aetos is the young heir to the Rosy Dawn Cult, where he provokes his teachers and other initiates out of boredom. His father, Damon Aetos, a cultivator of the fourth—Tyrannic—Realm, rules the Scarlet City with an iron fist. Things change when Griffon meets Sol, a slave from the lost city of Rome, who makes him question everything he thought he knew about the outside world. When Griffon’s cousin Nikolas returns to the cult having ascended to the Heroic Realm, his jealousy and bitterness over his obligations only grows. Griffon and Sol goad one another into casting off their respective shackles and escape the Scarlet City together. Griffon’s younger cousins attempt to stop them, along with the elder Philosophers of the cult, but they fail. Griffon ascends to the second realm, joining Sol in the Realm of Philosophers, and they sail away on the Eos, his family’s ship. Griffon and Sol reach the sanctuary city of Olympia, home to the Raging Heaven Cult, where they find the city in mourning over the death of the Raging Heaven’s kyrios. They meet six Heroic cultivators and are soon drawn into the brewing crisis of succession as the Tyrannic elders of the cult make shadow plays for power using assassins known as Crows. Griffon and Sol fight back and defeat several of the Crows, consuming the starlight marrow of the assassins. They manage to steal some power from the Tyrants behind the Crows, nearly dying in the process. Donning their stolen shadows, Griffon and Sol become Ravens, resolving to stand against the Crows and the Tyrants behind them. Their circle of Heroes can’t believe that Griffon and Sol would do something so dangerous, and begin to suspect the duo are hiding their true powers and motives. Griffon and Sol try to recruit the Heroes to their cause, with varying degrees of success. Among the Heroes that join them are Kyno, the Heroic Huntsman who wears peculiar crocodile coat; Jason, the Hero of the Alabaster Isles who lost his crew and ship to the same demonic cultivators that destroyed Rome; Elissa, the quick-tempered and scar-laced Sword Song Heroine; and Anastasia, a mysterious marble beauty and healer with her own hidden past. The two Heroes that don’t join them are Scythas and Lefteris. Scythas is called upon by Aleuas, the Tyrant of the Howling Wind Cult, who orders Scythas to capture Griffon and Sol for killing his Crows, threatening Scythas’ family if he does not comply. Meanwhile, Lefteris is the guardian of two young boys with a cursed past, whom he has sworn to protect and does not wish to put in danger. Their actions are noticed by the Tyrant elders, and also by the late kyrios’ closest confidant—the Gadfly, Socrates. Socrates admonishes them for meddling with affairs above their station. They try to stand against the old Philosopher, but the man exhibits powers and abilities that exceed his realm. Socrates throws Griffon into the Storm That Never Ceases above Olympia, where he encounters the statues of the oracles and is pursued by lightning hounds. He faces tribulation and refines his virtue of Justice, ascending to the second rank of the Sophic Realm. Meanwhile, Socrates realizes that Sol is the student of his own student—Aristotle. The old Philosopher decides to take on Sol and finish his student’s work. He takes Sol into the late kyrios’ private quarters, where Sol finds Selene, the young Heroic Oracle and daughter of Polyzalus, the Tyrant of the Burning Dusk. Viewing the language-shifting shard of Babylon, Sol discovers he has split foundations, part Roman and part Greek. Socrates visits the Tyrant Polyzalus in his domain, where the elder is caring for his unconscious wife. The Tyrant wants to kill Griffon and Sol for meddling with his schemes, but Socrates tells him they are under his tutelage and protection. Scythas sneaks into the late kyrios’ quarters, but instead of killing Sol, he confesses to his part in the Tyrant’s plans. He pledges to stand with Sol against the Tyrants. Meanwhile, Griffon returns from the immortal storm crown, to the Heroes’ incredulity. He asks Anastasia to instruct him in the art of