The Phoenix's Legion

It has been two weeks since the village in the mountains had been massacred, Ragna has just woken up, finding himself in a strange room full of old tools, weapons and ammunition. He stood from his bed and as he looked through a window he realized that he was moving, he began to remember a large armoured train arriving at the scene of his homes destruction and the warriors that saved his life. What Ragna saw outside was beyond shocking, the trees he saw were dead, there were no animals, not even a simple field of grass, just dead trees and pale weeds. The outside world was nothing like his home, the sight of the pale and dark world only made him further realize what he had lost. With his own eyes he saw a world of misery, every now and again the armoured train would pass a field of unmarked graves so large that it could be a damn farm, rusted armours laying on the ground and injured travellers. There was no end to this miserable world Ragna was seeing. The sky above was no different, by night it was a pitch black cloud with small rays of green light within it and by day it was a grey cloud with small rays of red light within it, a dark cloud that completely covered the skies.

Ragna: "why aren't they helping these travellers?"

Man in a white coat: "that's because their wounds prove that they would be useless to us."

Ragna: "you? Who are you?"

Man in a white coat: "well the idiots on this train call me Thomas Noble."

Ragna: "Noble? Don't you have a real name?"

Thomas Noble: "excuse me? Noble happens to be a very real name but I don't expect the mountain boy to be familiar with it."

Ragna: "my home…. It's gone, isn't it?"

Thomas Noble: "am sorry friend, we would have saved them had we arrived sooner but we only discovered that village by chance, we arrived too late to save your home."

Ragna: "how did you find my home? we had never received strangers, not without the aid of my father."

Thomas Noble: "well we were passing the mountain and then of the sudden we picked up an energy signature from the mountain, the energy signature came from your compass, where did you get that by the way?"

Ragna: "my compass!! My sword!! Where are they?"

Thomas Noble: "relax, there both under your bed."

Ragna: "am sorry they just mean a lot to me, they were my fathers, he said they would protect me from evil but I couldn't kill a single vampire, I was weak."

Thomas Noble: "what? Ragna those creatures weren't vampires."

Ragna: "what!!! What were they?"

Thomas Noble: "wow you really never have seen those creatures before, Kill-shot guessed it right, you are a newbie."

Ragna: "whose Kill-shot?"

Thomas Noble: "well I guess it's time to see the rest of our crew."

Thomas Noble had given a signal to stop the armoured train, the crew was about to set up camp for the night, it would be the perfect way to introduce Ragna to the whole crew. The crew members set up the camp and Noble escorted Ragna outside to introduce him to everyone. As they got outside Ragna saw the warriors that saved him, the sniper on the flying disc, the warrior who wielded the spear, the warrior in the purple armour and the archer. Thomas Noble sat Ragna by the fire and began to introduce him to the crew, although they didn't seem happy to see Ragna, they wore very serious faces, this made Ragna very uncomfortable but Thomas Noble kept a smile on his face to try and lighten everyone's mood.

Ragna: "wow!!! I never thought something like this was real, a train that was armoured like a tank and can move on solid land? Who made this thing."

Thomas Noble: "actually I made this master piece, none of these simple minded fools could craft something so... magnificent. It took me many years to bring this beast to life, out of all my creations it remains my absolute pride and joy."

Ragna: "I can tell, so where is the other warrior, the one with the great sword?"

Thomas Noble: "well, we were chased by those flying beasts as we were leaving the mountain, turns out there were millions of them underneath the mountain digging their way up top. Luke, the man with the great sword, jumped outside and held them back long enough for us to escape the mountain through the tunnel, he died so that we could escape. We destroyed the tunnel so that those creatures would keep following us, there probably still trapped in that mountain."

Ragna: "am sorry, I didn't know you…."

Sniper: "spare us the formalities, we lost a comrade we grieved and we moved on."

Ragna: "sure, sure, whatever you say."

Sniper: "well I guess we should clear a few things, they call me Kill-shot, white coat over there is Thomas Noble, my task force where slaughtered by a couple of shogun beasts, that's what we call the creatures that attacked your home and they come in many different forms. So me and Luke are at our backs and are pretty much getting ready to die one day, until suddenly this armoured vehicle charges straight towards us, shooting the shit out of the shoguns, Thomas over there came out saying he had discovered a new power source that could be used to kill shoguns. Only problem is there's a long list of professors who claim they can do the same thing, so me and Luke decided to help him by showing people what his weapons can do, killing as many shoguns as possible, you know, building a reputation. We hoped that eventually the royal family would take interest in us but unfortunately they don't really know we exist but we have been getting better, our three friends over there have been big contributors."

Ragna: "so you guys aren't with the legion?"

Kill-shot: "well me and Luke were but Thomas and my three colleagues over there are not, certain events forced me to leave the legion and become a mercenary, these three… sorry I forgot to introduce them, purple over there is called Vanessa, she's our scout, the archer next to her is her brother Johnathan, he thinks that he should be our sniper but my rifle shoots a lot better than his bow."

Johnathan: "hey!!! if ted could just make me a super bow or something, I could shoot circles around you. Don't worry lad, am the friendly one, you don't have to worry about me but my sister on the other hand isn't very social."

Kill-shot: "any way, red over there is kiva, she's our strongest fighter and our personal cook, she can make a gourmet meal out of beacon, beans and mushrooms, that's all we have to eat by the way. Together we form the hellboken crew, that also happens to be the name of Thomas's train."

Ragna: "the hellboken crew huh, well I owe you all my life."

Kill-shot: "well if you really are that grateful you should spread the word about the hellboken crew when we drop you off at red wood."

Ragna: "red wood?"

Kill-shot: "the town is a little rough compared to what your used to but there's a lot a strong boy like you can do, construction, mining you could build a life for yourself there."

Ragna: "no!!! I don't want to do manual labour, I want to do what you do, I want to kill shoguns!!!"

Kill-shot: "first of all, you don't have to do manual labour, secondly, I know you seek vengeance but you don't have the makings to kill shoguns. You have only seen one kind of shogun, there are shoguns far worse than the ones that killed your parents, you need to move…"

Ragna: "no!!! you can either teach me how to kill shoguns or I'll find someone who will, one way or another I will kill every shogun walking on Rovahn."

Vanessa: "that'll be the day."

Kill shot: "we saved you from those monsters, you can still live a safe life."

Ragna: "am I the only person who has lost their home to the shoguns? I want to fight them I… no, I want to wipe them off the face of the earth, every shogun, every vampire, all of them!!! I will free man from this dark world."

Vanessa: "hahaha!!!! You can't kill shoguns, you've never fought a vampire and now you want to free us all from the darkness, please!!! We don't need some long blond haired idiot with pointless dreams of freeing man, especially one who has hidden from the world his whole life."

Thomas: "I need a knight, we could train him and with the armour I have been designing, he could take the worst of beatings."

Kiva: "you may as well make him take the phoenix's oath Kill-shot, awaken the power of the titans with in him."

Vanessa: "of course you would, you haven't kept your eyes off of him since we saved him."

Jonathan: "well he does have a strong build not to mention some fighting skills, if we teach how to fight shoguns he could be an asset."

Kill-shot: "would you do that Ragna? would you take an oath that would forever chain you to the horrors of this world Ragna?"

Jonathan: "Kill-shot I was joking!!!"

Thomas: "well am not, unless you can wield a giant sword I need some muscle, besides, if he won't die with us he'll certainly die at red wood or something."

Kill-shot: "well Ragna would you? Before leaving the legion I became a lord, one trusted with the ability to recruit new warriors to the legion. It is a crime to do this without the king of Rovahns blessing but these are tough times and as you have already seen, no one among us is an ordinary human, not even Thomas."

Ragna: "if you allow me to join the legion I would do anything, I swear it!!!"

Kill-shot: "would you hold this oath till the day you die."

Ragna: "yes!!!"

Kill-shot: "... on your knees."

Ragna: "what?"

Kill-shot: "on your knees boy."

Vanessa: "Kill-shot don't you dare!!!!"

Kill-shot: "where there's d.e.s.i.r.e there is potential, you of all people should remember that. Besides were short on man power and that could prove to be fatal, now Ragna, get on your knees."

Vanessa: "Kill-shot what the hell are you trying to prove!!!"

Kill-shot: "if he becomes an asset to us then the world has one more good soldier fighting the good fight and if he dies then that's one less useless mouth to feed. Now Ragna, get on your knees, whatever chance you had to walk away from this life has vanished."

Ragna did what kill shot had commanded and got on his knees, kill shot had begun to pore oil around Ragna and set it on fire, the flames were so close that Ragna could barely breath.

Kill-shot: "Threant had used the sun to awaken the power of the titans within us, and by doing so, gave man the power to fight immortals. Ragna, surrounding you is the weapon of the legion, the flames that burns the enemy of man, to wield the flames you must swear by your very life, to forever be a defender of man, to fight those who would seek to destroy man. The flames will not except you if your word proves to be false Ragna, do you swear?"

Ragna: "I swear."

Kill-shot: "do you swear to give up all selfish d.e.s.i.r.es and pledge your life to the phoenix's legion, or be consumed by the very flames you wish to wield."

Ragna: "I swear!!!"

Kill-shot: "then look to the skies Ragna and breath in the air within the flames, let the burning air flow within you."

As Ragna began to breath in the hot air and look to the sky, he began to look through the dark cloud, for the first time in his whole life he saw the sky that the dark cloud hide, the endless cl.u.s.ter of stars, it was at that moment that he saw it, the brightest thing he had ever seen, the sun. Ragna could feel its warmth flowing through his body, it started to get closer and closer until the sun was the only thing he could see. Ragna began to see something in the sun, it was a lion whose body was completely made of gold, it roared at Ragna and the flame from the sun rushed through his body. The experience was so powerful that Ragna collapsed ad fell unconscious, when he woke up he was surrounded by this ring of ash, within the ring were symbols that he had never seen.

Ragna: "Kill-shot, I saw…"

Kill-shot: "what you saw was what man has been denied for centuries, you have just become the greatest enemy of the vampire race. Now I give you this warning, should another member of the legion find out how you joined the legion, you will be killed. Our mission is to use Thomas's creations to kill the vampire that has been slaughtering and taking men and women to be food for the vampires, welcome to the phoenix's legion, welcome to the hellboken."

Ragna: "what? I don't …."

Kill-shot: "your whole life you have hidden yourself from this worlds horrors, now you have chosen to face it. I will train you to the best of my ability and if you follow my instruction, you may not only gain the strength to kill shoguns but you may just have the power to grasp your vengeance against the vampire race, your nightmare boy has officially begun."

Ragna had done what he always wished for, to join the legion and begin his quest to free man from the darkness. Ragna and the hellboken crew set course for red wood to resupply and ready themselves for the horrors that await them, the hellboken crew will need all the strength they can summon to be ready for what awaits them at the caves of the silver hunters.

Thomas Noble: "so you actually went through with it."

Kill-shot: "the sword, the compass, we couldn't let him go, there's too much about that boy we don't know. He couldn't differentiate shogun from vampire yet he somehow knows the names of our modern weapons."

Thomas: "his father was a soldier, we didn't need to trick him into taking the oath, it's bad enough you have Jonathan and Vanessa to deal with, we can't keep doing this, the legion will kill them all."

Kill-shot: "if we accomplish all we have strived for the legion will have no choice but to acknowledge them, besides, the name sky has never even existed in the legion military, either this boy is playing us for fools or his been lied to his whole life."

Thomas: "now that's just crazy talk, how could they pull that off."

Kill-shot: "I don't know but something did come to my attention, I took photos of the two people he kept on looking at, the man and woman both wore bracelets that were identical to each other, the same one Ragna wears. This man and woman must have been his parents, why else would he put so much attention towards them considering all the hell that was around him."

Thomas: "ok, still not getting how that would bother you."

Kill-shot: "the man's hair was brown and the woman's hair black, how could their son's hair be blond."

Thomas: "that is odd, have you learnt anything about the sword and compass?"

Kill-shot: "that's why we're heading to the silver caves, their order is a lot older than the legion, if anyone can know about relic weapons its them. There is just way too much mystery about Ragna and his people."

Ragna's log: "I had a chance to become the man I have always wanted to be and I took it, I can still feel the fire flowing through my body. I know I have no chance of killing a vampire yet, but I am ready to do whatever it takes to kill those beasts, if only my mother where still alive. I remember all the stories she told me about the sun, it was brighter than anything I have ever seen, its warmth, its unmatched beauty… I will liberate man from the rule of the vampire. I will bleed, I will cry, and I will suffer, but I will never give up, not until I have killed every blood s.u.c.k.i.n.g beast walking the earth, I will free man from the darkness, the sun will shine upon everything once again and all will receive its warm embrace. This I vow, this I swear, Ragna of the hellboken crew signing out."