Just as Ash was beginning to wonder what was happening, there was a flash of bright yellow light in the sky. The size and intensity was almost the same as the sun on Earth! Ash, as well as the rest of the children were all blinded momentarily. After a few the seconds, the light slowly started to recede. By the time it had mostly faded away, Ash could make out the figure of what appeared to be a woman of the same species of the mysterious man.
"My name is Azarell." The woman spoke. "I imagine that very few of you know the reason for your being here. This place is called Purgatory. Those trained here who manage to survive are know as the Legion of the Damned. Emphasis on `survive`." She said. The woman named Azarell continued to explain a few more things about this place called Purgatory. Ash found out that only a few people were here by choice. The majority of those here were kidnapped from all over the Underworld. The next most common type were those here of there own free will. Either they had left to join on their own or their parents had made the choice for them. These people were either from weaker families that had no other choice for a chance at becoming powerful in the future or from the already strong families who sent their children who weren't in line for inheritance here. The least common type of being here were those like Ash. They were picked up as souls and given whatever body type that was on hand and sent here. Not all of those were as lucky as Ash to receive an ancient royal bloodline. An example was one unlucky kid that was given the body of a type of demonic crab. One thing all of these people had in common though was the strength of their soul.
In order to enter purgatory and train as a member of the legion of the damned, one had to have twice the strength of a normal soul by the age of ten. While Ash was processing the information, Azarell started to wind down her speech. "Status here is not determined by bloodline, nor by family. Every ounce of respect and power here must be earned by only the strength of yourselves. While in the training camp, you will all be divided into five ranks. You will all have the same starting ground and be named Bone Soldiers. Your legion commander will explain the other ranks to you and how to progress as well as what it means to be part of the Legion of the Damned itself." After she finished speaking, there was another flash of intense yellow light and then she was gone. The whole crowd of people burst out into near silent whispers. unfortunately with this many people, a quiet whisper turned into the roar of thunder!
A man walked out in front of the group of children from different races. He had skin the color of white coals and eyes to match. His hair was a deep green likened to poison that covered one half of his face. His most noticable feature had to be the enormous scar tracing from his right shoulder and down his bare chest going even deeper into his pants on his left leg. He was probably around four meters tall and had the build of a titan! Once he was in front of the children he simple waved his and and all of the whispers went silent. It wasn't because everyone noticed and stopped talking, but that they simply no longer had the ability! Once the whispering stopped, Ash tried to open his mouth and speak. No matter what he tried he simply couldn't force himself to speak! Most of the other children started to act panicked as well.
At this point the tall man started to speak. "In purgatory, those without a certain amount of power don't even have the right to speak. I've placed a voice dispelling formation over all of your souls. Before you are strong enough to break it, you will never make a sound again. You will each be given a number ranging from 1 to 10. Those of you with the same number will be in the same group. Each group has a captain who will be in charge of everything you do." After he finished speaking, he waved his hand again. This time, ten different creatures under the commander walked forward and started to give out numbers. When one of them who looked like a normal human got to Ash, he recieved the number one. It took about half an hour for everyone to receive their numbers. There were 10 groups total, each containing about 100 children. Ash started to gather towards the other people marked group 1. The group Ash was in was mostly filled with draconic humans. Beside that there were a mix of a few other races, a few shades that looked similar to him, and one ghost.
The captain was a species that didn't look like anything Ash had seen before. The top half of her body was that of a slim human female, while the bottom reminded Ash of a seahorse. He couldn't tell how she was even able to stand in place and keep her balance, but she moved around like she was under water. "Your first bit of training begins now!" She yelled. "You will each be given a map with a location marked on it! You have 3 days to reach the training camp which is a distance of 150 kilometers away! I don't care how you reach there, but those not there within 3 days will be hunted down and killed! The first person from each squad to reach the destination will be given special privileges. These are not gifted out often and definitely not without reason. Whoever is the last to reach the destination will be severely punished! Begin.... NOW!" After the captain finished up her speech, she took off in the very same direction that the children were heading in.
Ash suddenly felt something brush against his waist. Ash looked down and saw a small scroll appear at his waist. He opened it up quickly to reveal a map with a location 150 kilometers away that was marked as the training camp. It wasn't a very detailed map. Only having a few markers shown so you could tell the right direction. "I guess everything's up to us." Ash thought. Ash quickly stowed the scroll into a pocket on his robe and started to run forward. Ash could not help but thing about what might happen there and along the way. This place was much more different than anything he had ever imagined before. He thought that he might feel a range of different feelings including fear. Instead.... Ash kind of felt happy...