Hellgate Unleashed

Chapter 1 The Ceremony

Adrenaline coursed through my veins. A fire roared inside me. I was finally going to do what I always dreamed of. I am gonna follow my father's footsteps and leave Black water Village for good.

The Heaven's Cross Army will be my home. The great General Julius will train me. I will become one of the strongest in the world. Then I will go out to slay the wretched demons who walk upon this earth.

The cobblestone roads were over  very crowded today. Possibly because today was the only day of the entire year something happened in this backwards little town. Anyone who was anyone wore their finest garments. While I on the other hand, only had the clothes I managed to find in trash or dark alleyways. 

A black torn cloak, red stained dress shirt, dark red pants, and dirty boots someone threw out a week ago was all I had. It was better than being naked, but not by much. Constantly smelling like garbage, and looking like garbage was a life full of torture. What is worse is that the clothes were not comfortable at all. Some were really baggy on me. Others were on the brink of ripping. To keep my head high, I would think it was because I was muscular and tall. But a look in a nearby puddle of black water reminded me that I was small in stature, and sickly skinny.

Another look in the puddle reminded me  how dirty my face was. I tried to wash myself up in a nearby creek but, I came out looking like a shadow. Since, you know, the town is named BLACK Water Village after all. My mind then drowned at the thought of how I appeared. With my short messy hair and feral appearance, they might as well of recruited a monkey for the ceremony.

As I was deep in worry,  pondering how many ways this day could go wrong, my face smacked into the side of a white horse. With a loud smacking noise, I focused my eyes. When I looked up I seen he was an imperial officer. The biggest douche bags in the city.

You might be asking, "Why would you say that about an officer? They are nice people!" Well these guys are not the nice officers people usually think of. The imperial officers  had been known to lock people up just for looking at them wrong. Once when I was little, I actually witnessed​ an officer take food from a little girl. So to extract vengeance, I threw dog poop at him. 

This man on the other hand, didn't strike me as the douche bag type; though he did look menacing. He had a silver suit of armor with spikes hanging off his shoulder pads. His chest, embellished the crest of the Celestial. A weird symbol it was, being an octagon with circles on the points and lines connecting to the middle.

I stared at the man deep in insecure thought, but the man cracked a small reassuring smile. His white beard flowed freely from his face, and his nose like a bird's beak. His age did not damage him, but rather gave him a look of respect and honor. He looked down at me, his bright ever expanding blue eyes focusing on me.

"Are you okay young peasant?" he asked in a gentle old tone.

Peasant. I always hated being called peasant, no matter who called me that. The man seemed so kind though, so I had to be kind back. Even if I wanted to fight him, he would most likely kick my butt so hard that I would of landed in the floating city of Segal.

"Yes sir," I said politely. "I just need to get to the coliseum quickly, and I don't want to be late."

His caring smile changed to an impressed expression. "Say no more young man, I will take you to the entrance of the ceremony, but that is as far as I can go. I have orders to be elsewhere."

Was I really this lucky? The only Imperial officer with any humanity left, offered me a ride to the coliseum. Either I am dreaming, or maybe I ate some really bad chicken that was somehow causing me to hallucinate.

"Thank you, sir," I responded. "What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

He pulled me up with one arm on to the horse and gave me a sharp look. "That is information that you do not need to know," He chuckled. "What I want to know is your name. You remind me of someone I use to know."