“Hear me, Lord of Agony.”

“I, Jessica, hereby swear my allegiance to you. I shall heed your command. I shall execute your will. I shall act in your best interest as I see fit. My life is yours. From this moment, till all of eternity.”

“May this world suffer in your name.”

“May Agony guide us.”

Following the final oath, a short woman became the newest Disciple of Agony. She was the last one on the site to be converted. Following her words, every single prisoner and non-prisoner in Darkbane Prison has been made into a Disciple of Agony. All of them could draw power from both experiencing and causing pain, and they could use this power as they saw fit.

The entire conversion process went smoothly in most cases, although more than a few of the converts endured a long period of torment without giving in. Still, their tormentors had all the time in the world, and eventually, all of them swore the oath and put an end to their suffering.

The completion of the conversion brought a lot of changes to the way the prison was run. For one thing, the prisoners no longer needed to be interrogated or incarcerated. Alexander, who had been experimenting with the psychic network for months now, put a few functions he discovered to use.

One of these functions involved assigning specific roles to certain individuals in the psychic hierarchy. Normally, the Disciples of Agony made up the bottom tier of the power pyramid while Alexander was on the top of the pyramid at least in this world. None of the Disciples had any control over each other. Most of the time, they have simply been acting on pre-existing ranks and authorities.

Now, Alexander was able to promote certain individuals to certain tiers on the pyramid. This allowed high-ranking individuals to issue direct commands to those below them, commands that those below couldn’t disobey unless they had an overriding order from someone even further above the chain of command. This ensured that Alexander could give some power and influence to individuals more capable than him and have them command operations in his behalf.

In this case, Warden Locke was one of such individuals. Alexander made Locke what he called an Apostle of Agony. At the same time, Alexander made Cara Allen another Apostle. Locke would lead the former Imperial prison personnel while Cara would command all the former prisoners.

A part of promoting Cara was Alexander’s way of apologizing for how he was going to use her family. Another reason was more practical. He didn't want the prisoners to work under the Warden as that would no doubt create some friction between the ranks. The prisoners couldn’t revolt, but they would obviously be worried about favoritism. Alexander hoped they would do better under a fellow inmate.

Following the orders of the two, the prisoners have been let out of their cells. For the sake of organization, Cara divided the 3,000 prisoners into 6 Battalions of the Regiment that she promptly called the 1st Darkbane Regiment. She also handed them weapons and ammunition and worked on putting them through military training with hopes of getting them as ready for combat as possible.

Warden Locke didn't have to establish a brand new organization. He simply used the old ones he had. The prison personnel didn't have the numbers of the prisoners, but Locke saw an opportunity to use these menpower ten times more efficiently than the prisoners.

For one thing, he directed a large portion of the prison personnel to request to be switched to other positions. Once these requests were accepted, these loyal Disciples would be able to leave the island and be put into other military or civil positions where they would be able to infiltrate all aspects of Valorian. Not only so, but this would also cause fresh personnel to be sent to Darkbane Prison, where they would be transformed into new Disciples.

Ideally, this cycle would repeat as frequently as possible. Unfortunately, the rotation cycle was once a year, which cut out a lot of possibilities.

Vice-Warden Stone was one of the personnel ordered by Locke to leave this prison. On one hand, he was basically useless on the island. At the same time, if he went home, he would be happy to put his family's influence to use and maybe get himself a good position in a fleet. Plus, Locke really didn't like the guy…

The two Apostles also assigned roles to their own officers and lieutenants, ensuring that the hierarchy would be expanded below them and everyone involved would be part of an efficient organization.

The entire time, Alexander mostly remained in either his quarters or at the Armory. He didn't have too much to say to the others, and honestly, he couldn’t quite bear to see the look on the faces of the Disciples, knowing that all of them hated him to the guts.

The young man spent most of the two weeks in the Armory where he grew familiar with a lot of the weapons. As capable as he was with melee, he would much prefer having a ranged weapon with him when dealing with a large number of enemies, which he would no doubt face outside the prison.

Another benefit of having thousands of Disciples was that they generated a lot of Essence of Agony for Alexander on a daily basis. Even as he sat back and did nothing, he could still feel energy taking form in his body, ready to move at his will. This abundance allowed him to experiment with new ways to use weapons in combat.

One afternoon, Alexander stepped into the Armory, marching past a squad of saluting Disciples sentries without a word. Most of the Darkbane Prison Security Forces used shotguns in their day-to-day duties. After all, no guard wanted to accidentally fire a round in a crowded hallway hoping to hit one prisoner only to mow down a dozen men in the process. The penetration power of gauss weapons made them a poor choice when it came to crowd control.

That being said, the prison’s armory did hold an abundance of weapons and ammunition in case the prison came under external attacks by established enemy units.

In the Armory, Alexander came across entire warehouses of Assaulter Gauss Rifles and Dominator Gauss Machine Guns. An entire warehouse was filled with crates of Ripper Shrapnel Grenades, which could take out an entire squad of unsuspecting infantry in seconds. He even came across a Company of 300 Indominated Power Armors designed for Knights. This was the first time he realized there was a Knight Company in the Darkbane Prison Security Forces.

Unfortunately for them, not a single one of them managed to get in their Power Armor before being ‘interrogated’. Now, both the Power Armors and their wearers belong to Alexander.

Alexander grabbed himself an Assaulter Gauss Rifle and a Tormentor Combat Knife and made his way to the shooting range attached to the Armory. He first set the rifle to the side and held the knife in his hand. Slowly, he closed his eyes and focused his energy on the hand holding the blade.

One of the ways Essence of Agony could be used was by applying it on objects, whether these objects were knives, rifles, power armors, or even vehicles and starships. The Essence of Agony could mutate these weapons. Transform them and grant them deadly attributes that would make them even more dangerous in combat than before.

Slowly, Alexander could feel the energy being applied to the blade. He could feel the blade being morphed by that power. Being evolved. A strange screeching sound came from the weapon. Somehow, Alexander had the absurd idea that this blade was in pain. That this inanimate object was screaming. Still, he tossed the thought aside and kept on pouring energy into the weapon.

Finally, when Alexander felt like the blade could no longer take anymore Essence of Agony, he opened his eyes and stopped the process. This was when he realized that the melee weapon was completely transformed from top to bottom. The standard Imperial combat blade looked a lot more different now. Alexander could see deep red engravings along the weapon, extending all the way from the handle to the tip. Its handle was no longer straight and easy to hold. Instead, it now contained some sharp edges which easily cut into Alexander’s hand, not that he really minded.

Slowly, Alexander sliced the blade along his left forearm and realized the modifications were far from pure aesthetics. The blade not only cut open his flesh, but it also left an intense burning pain at the wound. It was enough to send most people to their knees screaming. The cherry on top was that the burning remnants of the cut seemed to still be tearing the wound open more and more. It took Alexander a while before his wound could be healed.

If the blade had such an impact on a Lord of Agony, then Alexander shuddered to think what that would do to ordinary human soldiers.

Setting the mutated weapon aside, Alexander picked up the Assaulter Gauss Rifle. Much like the combat knife, the rifle was another standard issue weapon to Imperial troops across the Empire. The Imperial Army used it. Imperial Battlefleets used it. Planetary Security Forces used it. Even honor guards like Wolf Guards used modified versions of the weapon.

Once again, Alexander channeled his powers into the weapon and felt it grow and morph in his hands. Once again, when he opened his eyes and saw the result, he couldn’t help but stand there in awe. The Assaulter Rifle underwent even more changes than the Tormentor Knife. Its metallic barrel now radiated with red engravings, similar to what was on the blade of the army knife. The box magazine attached to the weapon had the same engravings. Alexander removed the magazine from the weapon and glanced at the rounds inside, only to realize that all of them were radiating an explosive red mist. Three long spikes extended out of the buttstock, posing quite the danger to the user of the weapon.

Within seconds, Alexander could feel painful sensations all over his body just from being in proximity with the mutated weapon. One second, he felt like someone lit up a fire in his chest. The next moment, he was almost convinced that someone just dumped him into an icy river. The type of agony was constantly changing, but one thing was certain. This rifle was as much a ranged weapon as it was a melee weapon, and if Alexander tried to give it to an ordinary human or even a lesser Disciple, well...things could get quite ugly.

Biting his lips a little to overcome the excruciating radiation from the weapon, Alexander turned his attention to one of the targets a distance away and tried his hand in firing a few shots. The results were more than impressive. Rounds fired from the mutated weapon blasted clean through the alloy plates, which was much more than the capabilities of ordinary gauss rifles. The mutated bullets clearly enhanced the power of the weapon.

Satisfied, Alexander turned his attention to the other weapons in the Armory. Namely, the Power Armors.