They didn’t like the sound of that. Training should be made for strengthening, not to kill. But this is a Hound outpost; anything goes.

Kael gestured at the portal. "Once you go in, you can’t come out until you’ve either completed the training or died. And it’s made only for one-time training."

"One-time training? That doesn’t sound good to Azaroth. Then again, when does anything do?"

"Yes. In five years’ time, the training crypt will collapse."

There was silence. They digested it and then they began shouting. Everyone. Even Catena. Only Azaroth remained silent; they would ask what he wanted to know.

"What are you talking about?"

"If you want to kill us that badly, why not use your knives? You don’t have to pass through corners!"

"Is everything here designed to kill us?"

"You can’t be serious! You want us dead!"

Kael waited until everyone was done, then he began talking. "Yes, everything here is designed to kill you. I want you dead if you can’t complete the training in five years."

Kael lowered his voice. "It’s better to be dead than weak. If you want to last long in the Legion, then strength is a must, or you’ll be dead in a blink."

"Actually, if you are weak, then you are not useful weapons. Those types of weapons are only useful for practice. You’ll be dogs given to other dogs to sharpen their fangs on."

What Kael said chilled them. He spoke flatly, not as if to convince them, but he spoke it as it is. And Azaroth knew what others don’t.

The mask will force them to do what they don’t want. If they were weak, then they would be preyed on. And as Azaroth looked at Kael, he knew they had little choice in the matter of training.

Their sponsor must have already decided to put them in this training crypt, and all Kael was doing was giving them a measure of choice. A facade of it.

"Do we actually have a choice of declining?" Azaroth asked. He wanted to know if they would be given a choice or it has all been planned out.

"No," Kael focused on him. "It’s all been arranged. You will do as you are told. You will do the training?"

"So it’s all been planned? Why are you asking us then as if our choice would change your mind?" Stallus asked furiously.

Kael tapped his mask. "Don’t you think it’ll be better if you think you have a measure of control over your life? But that’s a lie I was willing to shield you from. But it has come to this; I will tell you now. From the day you entered this outpost, your life stopped being yours."

"No need to pretend anymore. So this training has been planned from the very beginning. From the time you came under me!"

Silence followed Kael’s words, but Azaroth was glad that the man came clean of his motives. It makes things easier. Stallus and the rest looked sick, as if something they didn’t want to believe had been shoved down their throat.

Azaroth ignored them and focused on Kael. "And how do you intend to stop us from coming out of this crypt before five years are done? We might even escape before the crypt collapses."

Kael gestured to the dark portal. "When I injected you with essence weeks back, I also added an enchantment into your blood. It will activate the moment you step into the crypt. The enchantment is keyed with the training crypt, and so you won’t be able to leave until you complete it."

Azaroth sucked in a startled breath. He was right, too right. Kael and Commander Apex and whoever their sponsor was had been planning this more than Azaroth even thought possible.

To think they were already thinking so far ahead as to inject them with enchantments. Azaroth shivered, what else might they have injected him with?

He clenched his hands into fists as anger rolled through his veins. But he clamped it down as fast as he could, not now. Not yet. He turned the anger into cold fury and added it to the ones already in him.

He is too weak to feel angry now. But someday, he vowed silently to himself. His anger will swallow the world. Burn it down. For now, he would keep his head down.

"That... it... it’s wrong." Stallus whispered. She shuddered, as if she could remove her blood and separate the enchantments from it. Her blue eyes were cold now. A chill, from the depth of the coldest sea.

Kael shrugged. "It is how the world works."

"But should it be?" Stallus asked.

Kael’s voice turned hard. "This is the apocalypse. We, Awakeners, are the last protectors of the human race. We must be strong or we perish. The weak will only drag us down with them."

Azaroth agreed with him. The world is now that of dog-eat-dog. Either you are the top dog, or you are the underdog and you get eaten.

There’s nothing for the patient dog here. Only the strongest dog takes the fattest bones, then it shits on the rest. That’s the difference, weak dogs wait for bones. Strong dogs take them.

And Azaroth knew the type of dog he wanted to be.

"The weak can be useful too," Stallus insisted. "They can gather food. Build. Create. There’s a lot that could be done by them. They don’t have to fight!"

"Normal humans do that. Awakeners are warriors. Strength is the only thing that matters. The only rule. That’s why East Heaven existed, because the strong were able to protect it."

"The reason you are here now as Hounds-to-be is because your parents are weak and can’t protect you. A world of advice, kids. The world has changed. There’s a new rule. Bend to it or be forever broken."

Stallus stiffened. They all did. But they knew the captain was right. The world has indeed changed.