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Chapter 558 It’s Time to Play The Game…

Perhaps that was because she was hardly able to get any sleep last night at all.

After all, today was the day.

She wasted no time climbing out of bed and stretching.

Now that she was fully awake, the flames adorning the top of her head sparked back to life and illuminated the still dark room.

She washed up, got dressed, and made her bed all in complete silence.

When she was done, she grabbed only her favorite weapon and said a small prayer before opening the door.

Surprisingly, there were two individuals outside already waiting for her.

One was a very intimidating woman with deep black skin and abs as defined as canyons.

She was a little over 6\'8 in height and had bloody red hair that was indicative of her position in dragon society.

The other dragon gave off a much more \'unsafe\' feeling.

With the appearance of a sixteen year old, she was very charming and would clearly grow into a very charming young woman one day.

She was relatively short for a Nevi\'im; standing at only 6\'1.

But perhaps she would grow a little more in the future.

Her skin was a soft cinnamon brown and her silky hair was raven colored with icy silver ends.

Her red eyes with black sclera were particularly unnerving; and her smile full of sharp teeth didn\'t exactly help either.

…Neither did the large icy dagger she was currently using to sharpen her claws.

"This… feels a bit like special treatment." Monica smiled. "Any chance you ladies have come here to tell me I passed without needing an examination?"

Mira smiled as she balanced the point of her blade on her fingertip.

"\'Fraid not, Mon. Daddy is being realllly strict about admissions this year. We\'re not even allowed to tell you what the test will be."

Monica smiled wryly; already knowing this.

Applicants hoping to take the Euphrates exam were given a simple set of instructions.

1. Show up at your assigned base at 4:00 sharp.

2. The only thing you were allowed to bring was one weapon and one set of armor.

3. Prepare not to be home for a little while.

The number of officials who knew what the test would consist of was so small you could count it on three hands.

And absolutely none of them were stupid enough to go against Abaddon when he had made such a serious decree.

Mira couldn\'t even be bribed with a whole batch of peanut butter cookies fresh out of the oven.

And that was saying something.

"Any advice that you can give me?" Monica asked helplessly.

Kanami and Mira glanced at each other momentarily before shrugging.

"Not really. Just don\'t be nervous, try your best, and don\'t let yourself be psyched out by the competition."

"I-I wouldn\'t-"

"Monica…"

The fire spirit clutched her fists and lowered her head.

For reasons that made sense to her at the time, she had declined Abaddon\'s offer to turn her into a dragon on multiple occasions.

It wasn\'t as though she was ungrateful for the opportunity or didn\'t understand it\'s significance, but Monica had something that she wanted to prove to herself.

Since meeting the tenth empress on that fateful day, she felt as though she had been constantly receiving goodwill that she was unworthy of.

She lived in the home of the emperor, she was betrothed to the third prince, and she got to train, drink, and laugh with the best warriors in Tehom at any given moment.

She wanted to do something without feeling like she was being carried along by her.. friends? Her family? She didn\'t even know what to call them anymore.

So she would be going into this exam as a single fire spirit, contesting against the might of unkillable, world destroying dragons.

And the closer that she came to the time of her examination, the worse she began to feel about her decision.

"I… thanks for the pep talk, guys." Monica said sincerely. "I should get going now so that I don\'t miss check-in time."

Monica all but ran away from the two Nevi\'im and left them behind in the barely illuminated hallway.

Mira watched her go with a relatively unnerving smirk on her face as she finally put away her knife.

"It\'s all up to you now, baby bro.\'

-

Surprisingly, Monica found that there was one more person standing in her path to leaving the house.

And it was her betrothed; Straga.

"I thought Tathamet dragons didn\'t do early mornings." Monica chuckled.

It took every ounce of willpower in Straga\'s body not to have a physical reaction to the sweet laughter of the woman he loved.

But meeting her gaze directly proved difficult, so he resigned himself to simply staring at her feet.

"Y-Yea, well… I just wanted to wish you luck and tell you that I will be watching you the whole time. You have my full confidence."

Monica smiled and her flaming hair seemed to shine just a little brighter.

"Aww, thanks little man! I gotta say that actually made me feel a whole lot better!" She patted him on the cheek affectionately just as she had always done.

However, this time Straga did not just sit by and giggle incoherently while she rubbed his cheek.

Before he knew what he was doing, he had placed his hand on her waist and kissed her.

It was a simple display, not really worthy of any \'oohs\' or \'ahs\' or even a \'goddamn\'.

It was the kind of kiss that two middle schoolers might share for the first time.

But even still, it left Monica stunned.

Straga pulled away nearly as quickly as he leaned in.

His bronze cheeks were as red as could be, and even he himself seemed not to really understand what he had done until he\'d did it.

However, he quickly regained control of himself and didn\'t let the situation cause him to panic.

"When your exams are over… I would like it if we could find some time to talk, just the two of us. I hope you won\'t turn me down."

While Monica was trying to process the full sum of the events that had just unfolded, Straga left her behind after capturing another long glance at her from behind.

She was so out of it, she only barely made it to check-in on time.

-

Abaddon considered himself to be a man who understood that sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, even if it is unpleasant.

He believed that complaining changed nothing, and neither did wishing that things were different.

Though in addition to this mindset, he was famously not a morning person.

…Or a wake up anytime before he\'s ready kind of person.

Due to these conflicting personality traits, the dragon who fully understood the meaning of responsibilities only had two words to say when Erica shook him awake.

"Kill me…"

Erica fully expected this reaction as soon as she heard the Euphrates examination would begin at 4:00 a.m.

So while she wasn\'t surprised, she was amused.

"Why would I ever do that? I love you too much."

"For the same reason that people put down pets when they develop tumors…"

"Are you seriously comparing having to wake up early once to needing to be euthanized?"

"Uh-huh."

Erica rolled her eyes as she held all three of Abaddon\'s eyes open. "Get up, honey. Opening ceremony starts in two minutes."

Abaddon realized that he was grateful that his loving wife had woken him up at the last possible minute so that he could maximize his rest.

He kissed and fondled her for a split second before he finally sat up and remembered their bedmate.

Courtney still had her arms wrapped around Abaddon\'s neck and didn\'t even release her iron grip when he sat upright.

Of course the youngest Tathamet already had a bedroom to call her own, but sleeping in it was a bit hard for her at the moment.

Being alone reminded her of the years she spent in the hospital by herself being poked, prodded, and monitored.

So for now at least, she needed a bit of extra attention from her parents and a little TLC to get her to a better place.

"Can you take her?" Abaddon asked with a small smile.

Using her Herculean strength, Erica was able to free her husband from the mighty grip of the six year old.

Abaddon kissed all of his sleeping wives once before literally destroying his own body.

Not two seconds later, he reappeared standing at the foot of the bed; clean, dressed, and looking like a 100 billion bucks.

…But secretly he was still sleep deprived.

"Da…"

Courtney woke up despite being in a deep slumber mere moments ago and she instinctively reached out for her father.

"Sorry, kiddo. Dad\'s gotta go to work for a little bit."

"Take with…" Courtney held out her arms even though her eyes were almost shut.

…It created too cute of a visual for Abaddon to refuse!

Erica didn\'t seem to mind, and just laid back down in bed with the rest of the girls as she enjoyed not having to be up at this un-dragonly hour.

"We\'ll come join the two of you in the morning… after breakfast and some coffee." She waived.

Abaddon felt his brow twitch uncontrollably.

He held out one of his fingers and shot a bolt of red and black lightning right at Erica\'s butt.

"Kyaa! A-Abaddon Avernus Tathamet!"

"Tell mommy bye-bye, Courtney."

"Buh-bye…"

Chuckling to himself, Abaddon disappeared with his youngest daughter in tow, and left Erica rubbing her behind as she tried to get back to sleep.

In the midst of this, she suddenly felt a terrible pressure descend on her shoulders.

A deep, throaty growl suddenly came from the mouth of a sleep deprived tiangou dragon.

Bekka: "Erica… Are you trying to make me kill you…?"

*Audible gulp.*

-

On one of Abaddon\'s barren worlds, over 3,000 dragons were suddenly teleported into the middle of a plane en masse.

Monica was among them, still wearing a somewhat dazed expression on her face as she tried to push the innocent, but heartfelt kiss shared with Straga out of her mind.

"They come!"

No one knew who said it first, but in unison all 3,221 soldiers dropped to one knee and bowed their heads as deeply as possible.

From out of nowhere, nine different portals appeared.

The first to arrive were the seven generals.

Though this was no surprise, since in order to be admitted into the exam in the first place they had to personally sign off on it and write a recommendation.

The biggest surprise in all of this was the fact that General Belphegor had actually gotten out of bed this early.

Though he hadn\'t bothered to change out of his pajama set…

Above the generals, a large portal opened up and out poured a mass of the most frightening and powerful dragons in Tehom.

The Euphrates.

These were bonefied celebrities, dragons with tremendous influence and deep connections.

It was the dream of a great many men and women to sleep with one of them just once.

Finally, the last portal was one of the smallest, but it was the one that the applicants were most aware of.

The first to emerge from its deapths was the famed leader of the Euphrates, along with the second princess; her right hand.

The next to show their faces were the awe inspiring princess Thea, and the rarely seen Prince Straga.

Finally, their all-powerful emperor arrived, but he looked a lot different from how most remembered him.

A lot different…

Only a few were able to tear their gazes away from his indescribably alluring face and body; and when they did they noticed the new addition he was holding onto.

A small human girl with short, messy black hair and rose-

colored red eyes.

"Woah… lots of dragons." She muttered.

"Uh-huh, but that\'s not all. You\'re sure you\'re not scared of monsters, right little miss?" Abaddon checked.

"No, daddy, I\'m not afraid."

"That\'s good… because you\'re definitely going to see a lot today."