The Phoenix's Legion

The legion, creed and brotherhood are all ready for the coming battle but the silver hunters who have been recently brought to the fold have been secretly perusing their own d.e.s.i.r.es. The last kiva saw her mother was with Dracula, discomforted by the sight she rushed to her brother and father who to her surprise had been following Anabella. They all knew what she had been doing with the king but why? The three hunters followed their greatest elder to a cave that was hidden near the royal capital, something that none of them knew existed, in that moment of shock the three hunters had been struck by a glass which when broken released a gas that put all three of them to sleep.

When Gilgamesh, Kiva and Bellarabi woke they found themselves surrounded by fellow hunters, it was the thousands of hunters loyal to Anabella and the many hunters loyal to Catalina.

Catalina: "nice to see you join us my love."

Gilgamesh: "what are you up to woman? What is this place?"

Anabella: "it's a little hiding spot of mine, my mentor would bring me here to train, never thought a royal kingdom would be built near it."

Bellarabi: "my elder please do not do this, our oath is sacred, our long life is proof of that."

Anabella: "our long life is a curse, I remember killing the last of the Lycan's, my brethren rejoiced for days at our great victory, the rose slept and our power left us. We lived normal lives for a time as the silver kingdoms sunk to the ground, we aged and live until we could barely walk, one by one my generation died until only I was left of my generation. The love I found and the children I had brought me great joy but when I had come to an age where I could no longer hold you or barely speak to you, to see many of my children deny their own happiness so that they could take care of a woman who didn't know when to die."

Kiva: "I spoke with our grandparents, they never felt caged to you, they love you with all their hearts!!!"

Anabella: "and the more love they gave the more I grew to despise myself and our sacred rose and its cursed gift."

Gilgamesh: "my elder do not blaspheme in such a manner."

Catalina: "enough Gilgamesh!!! Did you not lose the ability to walk? Did your children not leave the hunters to join the legion?"

Bellarabi: "mother we were always hunters of the silver caves."

Anabella: "no you weren't, none of you are, Sonya, Bellarabi and Kiva are not of the silver hunters because you chose to fight for the legion, you may carry the long life and silver eyes but your armour and weapons have not turned to silver."

Bellarabi: "what?"

Anabella: "you have no knowledge of Lycan's but if you did you would know that there was very little time to forge armour and weapons so the rose aided us in this, any weapon or armour wielded by a hunter turns to silver and clearly your armours and weapons have not gone through this change."

Kiva: "so the silver rose disowned us?"

Anabella: "yes but do not despair my child, I observed your changes and thought, despite your separation from us you still maintained our long life but clearly lack our strength which you will need. Another interesting thing was your ability to drain a vampire's immortality, allowing you to maintain your youth. If we can harness the power of the legion whilst maintaining our gifts, we will have the ability to drain the vampire's immortality and end our little aging problem. We will kill all the Lycan's and still live youthful lives like the warriors of the legion."

Gilgamesh: "even if you did have your youth the power we have would leave us after the last beast is slayed, the silver kingdoms would sink again."

Catalina: "not if we gain the right to rule."

Bellarabi: "Titus and his bloodline carry that right, we cannot achieve this!!!"

Anabella: "I do believe it's time for you to join us my king."

From the shadows appeared prince Drago, why was he here? how did he fit into this plan? And what was about to happen?

Gilgamesh: "Drago? Why are you here my prince?"

Drago: "I did not wish for it to happen like this but I must consider the safety of my brother and my bloodline."

Kiva: "what the hell are you talking about?"

Drago: "my father may fall in this coming battle, he has seen it, my brother continues to slumber and we are both cursed by compulsion. My father charged me with caring for my family and this is it."

Anabella: "we will break his compulsion."

Gilgamesh: "how? His mother died attempting such a thing, she was only able to weaken it and wouldn't the king's child be enough."

Catalina: "you really are slow, what you saw was a silver clone that spent hours talking to the king about battle strategy, not even Threant noticed this, Tessa truly is gifted magi, I look forward to seeing what she will become when she returns to us."

Gilgamesh: "so you lured us in so that you could trap us, you need us here, why?"

Anabella: "the blood from my living kin, 150 sacrifices, each one representing Drago's years on this earth and finally the metamorphoses totem."

Kiva: "the what?"

Anabella: "it's a small statue of unknown origin, it carries a writing that shows how one could shed their former selves and be reborn as whatever they wished, so long as that individual had a piece of what they wanted to be."

Gilgamesh: "my elder this is blasphemy magic, it's a horrid thing that must never be used."

Anabella: "including this?"

Anabella pulled out a long ponytail with silver rings attached to it, it was the hair of an ancient witch of the silver hunters who thrived in blasphemy, in order for others to use her power she infused all of her power into her hair. When she passed the silver hunters shaved her corpse and braided her hair into one ponytail, the silver rings that surround it represented the hunters that used her power, on this day Anabella added her own ring and had the long ponytail attached to her hair, fusing her power with the witches' hair.

Bellarabi: "so you wish to reincarnate Drago as a hunter, that's why you need us, were the most powerful family of the silver hunters, if he had a peace of each of us he would be the most powerful hunter."

Anabella: "that's not all my child, Drago will merge with the silver rose and pour the might of the legion to all hunters, we will become enemies of the beast and cursed ones but we can't be enemies with all cursed ones for they carry ancient wisdom that may benefit all men, that's why we have chosen to side with Dracula's cause and have given him all the prisoners of the silver kingdoms."

Kiva: "you did what?"

Gilgamesh: "we have prisons full of bandits that number to the thousands and you gave all of them to that monster?"

Anabella: "your too young to understand my child but we are looking to the future and the marriage between myself and Drago will give rise to the mightiest king of Rovahn."

Bellarabi: "what did he give you? What did Dracula give you in exchange for the army you offered?"

Dracula: "a potion that was designed by Drayce to give a vampire Dragon eyes, strengthening his compulsion abilities, these hunters are making quite the monster."

Anabella: "enough explanations, it's time to begin the ritual, our rebirth awaits."

Dragon had been placed in the centre of a giant symbol shaped as a star holding the metamorphoses totem, a bright red glow begun to rise from the star symbol and s.u.c.k.e.d in the blood of the 150 sacrifices, the essence of Anabella's kin, this ritual should have killed the elder hunter but the witches' ponytail absorbed the harsh toll of the blasphemy magic, Anabella didn't feel a thing. Drag's entire body burnt to ash and was s.u.c.k.e.d onto the metamorphoses totem. The star symbol's light surrounded the metamorphoses totem and blasted to the sky, what the others were incapable of witnessing was Drago's essence fusing with the cosmic flow and eventually confronting the silver rose in its spiritual form, the young prince could feel the vampire compulsion fade away and slowly feel the might of the silver hunters, he then touched the silver rose and infused the legions oath into it, he had altered the ancient text and gave the silver hunters the means to maintain their youth. Drago's form slowly begun to turn to flesh once more and return to the earth but as he fell back to Rovahn he heard a dark laughter, he couldn't see who or what it was but there was a dark presence near him that left the prince a dark message, "soon I will claim the dream that my father and Alarmire had denied me".

Drago returned to the earth not as ash but as flesh, flesh freed from compulsion and carrying the compulsion eyes of an elder vampire infused with the silver hunters, the very first silver Dragon eyes.

Catalina: "I feel it, the fire of the legion, I feel it all, this is the power we had hoped for, we are now truly eternal and look, my children have returned to us, the silver of their armour is proof of this."

Anabella: "the power and youth is nothing compared to what we have created, the lions might shall live on, the lion with the eyes of a dragon baptized in silver, all hale the future king of Rovahn, all hale the silver eyed lion, Drago!!!"

Drago's log: "I do not fully understand what we have done."

Gilgamesh log: "I do not truly know what consequences my elder and wife have summoned."

Kiva's log: "but something truly evil has been done here despite the cause being noble and true."

Bellarabi's log: "what have we sacrificed for youth and power? What will the others think of this all? And what future will be forged from the action of my elder."

Dracula's log: "a powerful ally has been gained but many will be threatened by this marriage, they will no doubt keep todays actions secret, the humans desperation knows no bounds, humanity and all its limits has become so interesting."