CHAPTER 483: BURN THE BOY, BIRTH THE MAN

The sun hung at the top of the sky.

Sunlight pierced the surroundings but the Ashen Crucible felt no effect of the heat. The ground swallows everything thrown towards it. Even if it was nature itself throwing it.

Four groups of soldiers stood on the ground and all of them had their particular groups of enemies.

One such group belonged to Pablo and the soldiers of this group were eagerly and patiently waiting for their Commander to say his words to them. As they all knew, his words would decide how they would fight in the war.

Pablo stood in front of them with his hands behind his back and his eyes locked to every soldier present ahead of him.

He cleared his throat and all the soldiers stood straight.

"My name is Pablo Castillo." He said, finally starting the talk.

The heartbeats of the soldiers rose and Pablo heard all of them clearly. And he would make sure by the time he was done, these hearts would be set ablaze.

"You all already know me. But you all don’t know me at the same time."

He roamed his eyes around the soldiers.

"I won’t say shit like I was a weak man before. I had a white Ego. I came from poverty and became someone worthy of being a Marshal of the Abyssal Butchers. I won’t say any of this shit. Not because I find them boring. But because they simply don’t matter right now. The only thing that matters right now is..."

Pablo brought his hand forward and pointed at himself.

"My desire."

The soldiers held their breaths.

"They say a man without purpose is a dead man. And I am sure you all have a purpose in your lives. A grand purpose. A majestic purpose. A virtuous purpose. But here’s the thing..."

Pablo peered in the soldier’s eyes.

"Those purposes of yours mean shit today."

The soldiers stayed silent.

"But without any purpose, you all will die in this war anyway. So you do need a purpose. But not something like staying alive so you can go to your beautiful wife and fuck her. So you can play with your cute little adorable kids. So you can sleep in the lap of your dear mother. These purposes have no meaning under my command.

I also cannot have you all having different purposes from each other. So starting now, each one of you shall have only one goal, wish, desire, irk or purpose or whatever you want to call it I don’t give a fuck. From this point on, your only purpose, your only meaning of life shall be nothing but..."

Pablo slammed his leg on the ashes.

"My victory."

The soldiers slammed their legs as well.

"You all have had training, drills, fights, murders, all of that was for this moment. Remember all of that. Throw away all the morality your heart begs you to have. Your enemies aren’t people. They are things. They are an existence created to be slaughtered. If you happen to die by their hands, then you didn’t deserve to be alive in the first place."

The soldier slammed their weapons on the ground.

"The moment the siren or horn or whatever the signal that tells that the war has begun rings, I want all of you to run towards them. Kill anyone who comes in sight. Don’t hold back anything. You all are under me and I won’t tolerate if you sully my name by dying. If they cut your hands, kick them. If they cut your legs, slam them. If they cut down your head, hold it in your hands and keep fighting. Just never stop attacking for a second."

The soldiers slammed their weapons on the ground again.

"As soon as the war starts, there is no retreat. I don’t care if night arrives, if rain happens or if the whole fucking sun descends down on the battlefield. The war shall keep going. They shall stop but we shall not. Centuries ago, this Crucible witnessed a war so horrific that this land itself died. But today, make it forget that war. If that war killed this ground and then this war shall do its fucking last rites!"

The soldiers slammed their weapons twice. And not only Pablo’s soldiers, even Harlia’s soldiers were swept away by Pablo’s words. Harlia had stopped talking to them as her soldiers found their voice coming out of Pablo’s mouth.

"Lastly, get this straight through your skulls. All of you, including me, shall fight non-stop. We shall not take any breather. If the enemies stopped and threw their weapons, fuck chivalry and kill them right there and then. Drink the blood of the Vampires. Eat the flesh of the Cannibals. Just don’t stop for even a moment.

There is no need to maintain the command of honor, there is no need to maintain a fighter’s spirit. Cheat all you want. Use deception. Use lies. Use your own dead comrades as a meat shield. Just hand me the fucking victory today.

There is no safe space for you. There is no mother’s lap for you in this battlefield. There is only blood. The only way is forward. And to make all of you sure of this..."

Pablo looked at Sera.

"Girl, burn all the tents of all my soldiers. Burn them to the ground!"

Sera nodded right away and with no second thoughts, she snapped her fingers.

WHISHH!

Instantly, all the tents that belonged to each soldier of Pablo burned to ashes and Pablo watched all the soldiers.

All of them showed no regret for that and Pablo couldn’t have liked it better.

"Like this, there is no retreat for you. There is no place for you to rest anymore. The only rest you all will get during the war is the rest in peace. Your only option is to fight or die. I want no bitches today. I want no babies today. I want no children today. I want no boys today.

My soldiers! Hear me out for this one last time. Burn this right to the depths of your soul. Right now...

Kill the boy. Kill the boy, soldiers. Kill the boy and let..."

Pablo clenched his fist and while raising it in the air, he boomed in the loudest voice possible.

"The Man Be Born!"

"Yeahhhhhhhh!!"

"Anghhhhhhhhh!!"

"Bloooddd!!"

"Victoryyyyy!!"

"Killlll!!"

"Deathhhh!!"

The soldiers, now, were successfully, ready to die.