He Setting Sun Over the Rhine

As the Hun's horses' hooves shattered the ice of the Rhine, the 16-year-old Roman farmer Marcus knew only two things: run, and revenge. On the day his village burned to the ground, his parents' blood soaked his sandals, his sister's cries were swallowed by the barbarians' wild laughter. From a slave in the army to a blood-soaked centurion, he grasped the old centurion's sword and tore his way through the corrupt legions: officers fed the barbarians with rations, the emperor watched the flames of Rome drunkenly, and even the swords of Gothic mercenaries were sharper than Roman standards. When the Vandals sacked the Eternal City, he dragged his dying sister out of the pile of corpses, but his only response was "Don't let Rome rot completely." In 476, the last Western Roman emperor stepped down from the throne. Marcus stood among the broken pillars, the rust on his sword redder than the setting sun. The empire was dead, but the smoke from cooking stoves crushed by iron hooves, the sighs of dying veterans, the faded word "Rome" on the pages of books—he wanted to let them breathe a little longer in the setting sun. This is not an epic about saving the world, but a story about a small person who uses his life to protect a spark of light in an era of collapse.