In the few brief seconds before Monica and Hajun collided, Kirina had a horribly anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Like their daughter, the old dragon had a bad habit of losing himself in a lust for battle when he was aptly provoked.
When he abandoned his armor and weapons so that he could both feel and inflict all harm with his own body, he was already too far gone.
And honestly, Kirina was torn over whether or not she should have stopped him.
In this sort of state he was just as destructive as Helios was, and there was a real chance that Monica could get hurt.
However…
…Kirina really, really wanted to see her husband like this again!
It had been absolutely ages since she had last witnessed this sort of behavior from him; dating way back to the war between the dragons and the vampires in Dola.
The effect was so pronounced on her mind that it never failed to move her heart and her underwear every ti.
… After all, five kids don't just happen, you know?
Several deliciously painful and heavenly weeks were taken to conceive each one of them!
She hadn't even realized it, but she had begun to rub her stomach absentmindedly as she fondly rembered the feeling of her cervix being bruised.
For human won, such a thing was a painful nightmare, but to dragons in heterosexual relationships it was a requirent.
At a certain point, Kirina noticed that her hair was blowing rather fiercely and her cheek had actually been cut by a fearso wind pressure.
When her eyes (and her mind) refocused, she was staring at a miraculous sight.
Sohow, Monica was matching her husband in a contest of strength.
Like sumo wrestlers, the two of them were trying to move each other with their admittedly starkly contrasting bodies.
The crater created underneath their feet cracked even further as they tried to dig their heels in and move the other.
And both seed to be giving it their absolute all.
Monica was being pushed back, but it was at a slow pace and it was clear that Hajun was having trouble moving her as he would have liked.
Kirina was dumbstruck.
Among all the heads of the seven legions, her husband was physically the strongest.
For Monica to even remotely be able to contest with him in terms of raw power was nothing short of remarkable.
'How is she doing this...Oh..!'
The secret to Monica's surging power was in her god-like glow.
Currently, her body was concentrating the power of her raging inner fire into her muscles; fueling her to a height that was normally unreachable.
Kirina had never seen a fire spirit pull out this level of power before, and she didn't know how sustainable it was in the long run.
But a quick look deeper would reveal her answer.
Monica was losing more and more ground quicker and quicker.
By now, Hajun was having a much easier ti moving her along like a football player pushing a sled.
And because he was experiencing less of a challenge, it could be said that he was just a little bit irate.
"Co on now, lass! Show the full extent of your resolve! What will you do when your power fails you!?
How will you overco the odds when the enemy in front of you is mightier than you!?
If you cannot answer these questions, then you cannot beco one of Abaddon's chosen!"
Hajun's booming voice echoed in Monica's mind like rolling thunder.
Her strength was fading almost as fast as it had co, so she had to think even more quickly and be smart about the ti she had left.
And at that mont, she had a revelation.
For the longest ti, she had been trying to beat the dragons around her at their own ga to prove that she deserved a place among them.
But she wasn't a dragon, she was a fire spirit.
Albeit a special one, but still.
Perhaps… she would see the greatest success in just being herself and freeing her mind from overthinking.
With that single thought in mind, Monica's body suddenly felt a whole lot lighter.
A soft smile had even ford on her lips.
Allowing herself to go with her instincts, she dropped her center of gravity so that she was almost underneath the seven foot tall Hajun.
With quick and agile movent, she hoisted the large man over her shoulders in a firen's carry before tossing him off with the last of her strength.
Hajun had a faintly impressed look as he seed to move in slow motion.
'Not a bad change… a pity that it was not enough.'
Unsurprisingly, Hajun flipped in the air to land on his feet behind Monica without suffering any damage.
To make matters worse, the thick dark brown tail swinging from behind his back wrapped around Monica's waist like a vice.
Since one good action deserves another, he raised Monica over his head and flexed his tail to hurl her with all his strength as she had done him.
*Doot-Doot-Doot-Doot!*
"Ah, ti's up, honey bunches. Put her down." Kirina pulled out her phone and stopped the tir she had set from going off any longer.
Hajun stopped dead in his tracks with Monica hanging on for dear life just above his horns.
He slowly lowered the young woman to the ground and gave her a consolatory pat on the head.
"A fine job, little lass. You're doing your family quite proud." He smiled.
Monica forced a smile onto her face as her body practically went limp.
The flas atop her head that resembled hair were extinguished in an instant as she took several seconds to catch her breath.
'I… survived.' She was so exhausted that had she been thrown and struck so much as a cotton swab, she would have needed atleast an hour to crack open her eyes again.
And even then she still wouldn't have been able to move.
She had never used so much power before in her entire life, and now that she had, she was most certainly feeling the consequences.
"You burnt yourself out, didn't you?" Hajun laughed as he placed her on the ground.
"Y-Yea…"
'Burn outs' occur in fire spirits who use too much power in too short of a tifra.
Put simply, they completely lose all of their firepower for a period of ti.
Sotis it's a few hours, or maybe even a couple of days depending on how strenuous they were with themselves.
But sothing told Monica that she was looking at nothing less than a week's recovery ti, maybe two.
She might be able to speed up the process through the eating of wood, coal, or even the consumption of oil, but doing so would only shave a few hours off at most.
"I do admire your drive, but I wouldn't exactly call your decisions the smartest. You are in a precarious situation right now, kiddo." Hajun shook his head.
"Doesn't really matter…" Monica replied as she waived her hand uncaringly. "Job's not done."
Hajun had only heard comnts like that once before, and of course they ca from the mouth of his very own nutcas- I an; daughter.
That mont more than any other confird for Hajun that Monica had what it took to make it through this entire examination, co hell or high-water.
Fiery determination is nice and all, but a cavalier attitude in the face of adversity is preferred.
An 'It is what it is' mindset, if you will.
No matter the curveballs or traps thrown in the way of the Euphrates, they are all expected to continue on as normal.
If one way doesn't work, find another.
If you lose your weapon, use your body.
If the job's not done, get it done.
In an empire like Tehom where 96% of the soldiers and civilians are unkillable, more is required to stand out.
Because the important part is not about being unbeatable, but about being unstoppable.
Inevitable, if you will.
Just like The End of All Things they serve under.
It was why the standards to be accepted were so rigorous this year.
Abaddon wanted the foot soldiers who serve directly at his side to rise closer to his level.
And because Monica understood that, complaining about her circumstances never crossed her mind for even a second.
…She did really want a nap though.
When a second shadow passed over her sitting figure, Monica found Kirina standing over her with a sad look on her face.
"I owe you… quite the large apology, my dear. I said so things in order to test your resolve and I fear they may have been too cruel. I beg your forgiveness, sweetie."
Disbelief shone in Monica's eyes. "You don't… think I'm 'just a fire spirit'?"
"No, darling. You are our family. You are no less capable than any of us, and we have always known that. Erica especially."
Though exhausted, Monica bead with pride.
Erica was Monica's idol.
To know that she had her full confidence was more rewarding than winning a lottery with the loose change from your car.
She was so moved by this that she let a few small tears fall from her eyes without bothering to stop it.
Kirina knew that she wasn't supposed to be showing favoritism to any of the participants but just this once, she couldn't help it.
Wiping away Monica's tears, Kirina kneeled down and pulled the young woman into her arms in a hug that was incomparably warm.
"Know that we're all waiting for you back at ho, sweet girl. And when you erge victorious, we'll throw you the grandest celebration we can. You have my word."
In that mont, Monica felt so excited and fulfilled that she could hardly stand it.
With all of this support she had at her back, how could she possibly fail?
Even if the fates tried to deprive her of the future that was rightfully hers, she would travel to their doorstep and snatch it right back.
Even the roaring of the abyss walkers she could hear approaching her position no longer bothered her in the slightest.
It was just another step she had to climb up to get to the mont of her dreams.
And when that mont was at hand… there was one person she found herself wanting to celebrate it with more than anyone else.
'I hope you're still watching like you said you would, little man… After all, I have more to show you.'
-
Abaddon opened his eyes as he finally pulled his remote vision away from Monica's examination.
'As I thought… living here seems to be altering the spirits' compositions and causing them to develop new adaptations to their elents in response to environntal stress..!'
"Honey~"
Spurred from his thoughts, Abaddon looked up at the sight of Ayaana in a tight fitting black dress with her arms and back exposed.
The wives' beautiful eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses with golden rims and their thick lips were coated in a thin layer of clear gloss.
Underneath the bright mid-day sky, they looked even more radiant and gorgeous than normal.
They rested their head on his shoulder and tried to spoon feed him more frozen yogurt.
"What is the purpose of coming on a date if you're only going to focus on work? We had a deal." She pouted.
"You're right, I apologize. I just wanted to see how Monica's test would go."
Erica: "…And?"
Abaddon smiled as he kissed her. "Of course she passed. Did you ever have any doubt?"
The girls shook their head in unison.
"I want one of those…"
"I wish you eleven would be more considerate of other people…"
At that mont, a vein bulged near Abaddon's third eye as he rembered that he and his wives were not alone at this restaurant table.
"I'm sorry… why the fuck are you two here again?"
Nyx : "Because we're friends!"
Sif: "Because you kidnapped ."
*Sigh*
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