10 Survive or Die

Listen up, maggots. From this day forward, you are Agoge," Eden snarled with a menacing voice. His eyes glared with contempt, and his hands crackled with magical energy. "You will train until you drop. You will march until your feet bleed. And if you cry, I will make sure you never cry again."

(Two Weeks Later)

Eden prowled around the young trainees, his maddening eyes scrutinizing their every move. "Get up, you pathetic excuse for a soldier. Do you want to die?" he roared. "And you, raise your weapons higher."

A boy stumbled, unable to keep his shield up. Eden's voice echoed across the training ground. "Pathetic. You're as good as dead," he rasped. The boy hastily picked up his shield, his face flushed with both shame and fear. "Yes, sir," he choked out, his eyes betraying the deep-seated dread he felt.

(One Month Later)

"General Nyx, they are ready," General Jack reported to Eden.

"They are not ready," Eden hissed. "But I have a solution. Send them to the mountain. Only the strongest will surpass this challenge."

(Leonidas' POV)

Leonidas and the other Agoges had been in the mountains for only a week, and already, some had died. But then, Leonidas remembered a question General Nyx had asked that nobody had answered. "What is an army?"

Leonidas took a deep, ragged breath. "Stand up, you weaklings. Are you not Sparta?" he howled, his eyes bulging with anger. "Then why are you lying on the ground like a bunch of cowardly dogs?" Leonidas demanded, his glare igniting a flame of terror in the Agoge's eyes. "As General Nyx said, a Spartan never surrenders."

The Agoge who stood up followed Leonidas, their leader and protector. They survived as a unit, hunting together, marching together, and sacrificing the weakest among them. When they returned from the mountains, they were rewarded with a mere day of rest, for the real test was yet to come.

(Eden's POV)

"I am not proud of your return," Eden smirked as the years passed, and the Agoges grew into ruthless killers. They trained day and night, until their bodies were broken beyond repair, and their souls were as black as the night. And through it all, Eden was there, cackling in delight, pushing them beyond their limits, discarding the weakest, and slaughtering their enemies with merciless brutality.

Twenty years had passed, and Eden was no longer a man - he was the devil, reveling in the suffering he had inflicted upon his own kind.