As soon as the words left Abaddon’s mouth, a suffocating feeling of fear washed over everyone present.
“Show me that you can still fight while you are broken.”
“Even when your conditions are undesirable and all you have is yourself, show me that you are capable of struggling on!”
“I only want warriors who are capable of moving on in the face of FEAR!”
The dreadful feeling being emitted by Abaddon increased in intensity, and the vampires immediately felt the effects.
Most immediately lost consciousness, while a few fell to the ground sobbing and trembling like twigs in the wind. 𝒪𝚟xt.𝒞𝗈
“Please help me!! Someone help me!”
“W-What is this!? Dear goddess, make it stop!”
“Kill me kill me kill me!!”
Everyone present was a warrior who had seen their fair share of life or death experiences.
As such, they should have been a bit more used to this feeling or at least had better reactions.
But Abaddon’s fear was unlike anything they had experienced before.
It was primal, unrelenting, and it filled them with a feeling of despair that they believed there was no way for them to come out of this ordeal alive.
Some had already begun to crack, and showed signs of slipping into an inescapable madness.
“Is this the limit of your resolve? I am rather disappointed, I expected a bit more.”
Abaddon’s words were like salt rubbed in an already grievous wound, and the soldiers felt their faces twist into even more pitiful expressions.
The last thing any of them wanted to do was disappoint their king.
And hearing that he was disappointed with their performance meant that he initially believed them to be capable of more.
So if he believed in them, did that not mean that they should also believe in themselves?
‘Was this too much after all?’ Abaddon wondered.
In his attempt to push his subordinates to the absolute limit, he seemed to have accidentally pushed them well past it and broke them instead.
Even though he had dialed back the use of his aura of dread quite a bit, it still seemed to have been too much.
It was regrettable, but he would repair those whose minds were broken and end this exercise here for today.
“Hm?”
Just as Abaddon prepared to undo the effects of his fear, he sensed movement coming from behind him.
Shakily rising to her feet was a vampire with red hair and a lithe figure.
Next to her, another man with dark black hair and tattoos was picking himself up off the ground with the utmost difficulty and coming to his feet.
These two set off a chain reaction and one by one more soldiers began to get back up.
Out of the original three hundred or so, only fifty were standing on their feet and overcoming their sense of overwhelming fear.
“So… it seems as though only you all are able to continue on.” Abaddon muttered, seemingly deep in thought.
“I-I will not give up under any circumstances!”
“N-Nor will I!”
“I refuse to disappoint the king!”
The dark desert was suddenly filled with the shaky yet resolute cries of the remaining members of the army.
Even though they were currently experiencing a worse sense of dread than any could imagine, they were still able to rise to their feet and continue fighting.
For the first time, Abaddon showed a full smile to those who were not his family.
“Well done. You all pass.”
The vampire king retracted his aura and returned back to his normal unfairly charming appearance.
With that suffocatingly depressing aura no longer weighing on their spirits, the vampires were now able to breathe much easier and no longer felt like they were going to die at any second.
“Approach me.”
All fifty soldiers willed their legs that currently felt like they were made of jelly to come before their king take a respectful knee.
“I believe I may be more satisfied with this result if I am honest.” Abaddon said.
The warriors kneeling at his feet believed that they must have misheard.
Why would he be more pleased with this outcome?
Over half the participants had failed the trial!
They believed they were about to get berated for being so weak!
Abaddon seemingly understood their skepticism and further explained his thought process. “I always was a firm believer in the phrase that less is more, and now I have an army to embody that belief.”
“I will raise the fifty of you to be the most horrifying army within all of creation. In one night, you will be able to fell a nation. And within a week, an entire hemisphere will be little more than rubble beneath your boots.”
The eyes of the vampires burned with a renewed intensity, as if they could literally see the future that their king was speaking of with their very own eyes.
It was exciting, liberating, but more than that it was glorious.
Among those who were kneeling, one woman shakily raised her hand to ask a previously unthought of question.
“My king… Who is to be your second in command?”
A few pairs of eyes darted towards Kristina and she merely shook her head in denial.
Even if she’d taken the time to select potential recruits for Abaddon’s army, she did so out of necessity.
Her job as grand marshal kept her busy enough, so she did not have the time to do something this taxing.
Abaddon brought a hand to his chin as he thought about who would be a good fit for the position.
It didn’t take him very long to come up with an answer, and found a perfect way to test his new soldiers even further.
“You all will sort that out among yourselves. “
“P-Pardon?”
“Is he serious?”
“It would seem so, I have never seen the king tell a joke.”
“Do you believe my decision to be irresponsible? You may speak freely.” Abaddon asked the group.
The woman who had initially asked the question shook her head so hard Abaddon thought it would fall off. “N-No, my king. I suppose we are all just a bit…surprised?”
The dragon nodded in understanding. “I could see that, as this is a bit of an unorthodox method. But my goal is to find out which one of you has the respect and acknowledgement of the rest of your brothers and sisters.
Seeing what kind of leader you will choose will allow me to better understand all of your hearts and minds as well as the limits of your ambition.”
Suddenly, Abaddon’s eyes glowed brightly as if to signal how serious his next words were. “But to whoever is elected, I will warn you of this….”
“I expect those underneath you to come for your position. You will help teach them, cultivate them, and keep them in line, and they will use everything that you have taught them in the hopes of overthrowing you.”
Suddenly, eyes filled with skepticism and mistrust began to dart all across the sand.
Knowing that they were surrounded by potential competition had sown seeds of mistrust and anxiety.
“Stop.” Abaddon commanded.
“There is no need for all of you to begin mistrusting one another over a simple competition. This is simply a way to ensure that all of you do not become rusty and are continually striving for better.
One day one you might be on top, and the next day it could be someone else. The only thing that matters is that you never stop clawing to reach the top and stay there.”
Nearby, Kristina nodded silently in approval.
Abaddon was trying to strike the perfect balance between a brotherhood of warriors and an endless fierce competition.
If the soldiers were going to be constantly suspicious of one another, then their coordination and efficiency as a unit would suffer, and this was something that could absolutely not be tolerated if they were going to uphold their king’s vision.
Suddenly, the soldiers that had fallen unconscious during the test began to stir, and slowly sat up on the ground.
When their eyes landed on the fifty who were kneeled in front of Abaddon, they knew immediately that they were the only ones to pass the trial.
The hearts of all who failed began to fill with resentment and self loathing.
Abaddon could naturally hear all of their disappointed voices and quickly put an end to such nonsense.”I can assure you, there is no need for those useless thoughts.”
Moving past his soldiers, he walked through the crowd of people that had failed the challenge and gave them some much needed hope.
“We will return to this very spot in exactly one year. Sharpen your bodies, minds, and souls and come and take my test again. But be warned that the difficulty next year will double that of today. Even so, are you prepared to accept my challenge and join the men you see here?”
Without exception, all two hundred plus vampires rose to their feet and held their fists triumphantly in the sky.
“I will return in one year, my king!”
“Today may not have been my day but I will not fail again!”
“To give us a second chance after our failure… The king is truly great.”
Soon the air was filled with the sounds of vampires singing the praises of the king, not only did he not berate them for their failure but he even promised them another chance to redeem themselves.
So what if he upped the difficulty!?
Even if it was ten- no a hundred times more difficult, it would not make any difference!
They would rather die than waste this opportunity a second time!
Amidst the cheers of the people, Kristina came to stand beside Abaddon and returned his crown to him.
While he accepted it, the vampire could not help but notice that her king seemed to be rather… exhausted?
“Is everything alright, my king?” She asked worriedly.
“Everything is fine, Kristina. There is no need to worry.” He lied.
Despite his status as a ruler and an influential man, Abaddon was an extremely introverted individual.
While it was for a good cause, giving all of these speeches tonight had truly exhausted him and he had only one thing on his mind to recover his energy.
‘I want to go home and have sex…’
He already knew that he would not be letting his wives sleep tonight, he just wished that he’d had time to practice his spatial magic so that he could kidnap Seras and fill her as well.
Deciding that it was time to wrap things up, Abaddon made his way towards his kneeling army.
He wanted these 50 men and women to be the best of the best, the most elite troops imaginable.
As such, their current level of power was not going to cut it.
But there were always methods to fix things like that.
Abaddon bit his finger and a small dot of blood trickled from the wound.
‘I haven’t done this in quite a while… ‘ He thought as he recalled fond memories with his family.
Reaching out, he began to draw strange symbols on the foreheads of the soldier closest to him.
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Huge thank you to Nick_Tindall for sending me a massage chair and sponsoring this bonus chapter!