A vast desert under a blood red sunset. The sky is streaked with shooting stars and smoke trails from distant gunfire.
A single boy walks across the sand Reno Freehart, around 8 years old, dusty, curious, clutching a cracked compass.
Narrotor: "In the age when the stars fell to the frontier, men hunted relics… and relics hunted them back."
"And in the silence between gunfire and starlight… a demon was born."
Reno stands before a half-buried stone door, engraved with ancient markings that glow faintly. The storm behind him howls.
Reno thinks to himself,
"Grandpa said this place was cursed… but maybe there's treasure inside."
He pushes the door open ancient torches ignite with blue flame. Bones line the walls. Strange runes whisper his name.
A voice speaks,
"A child dares distrub my slumber…?"
Reno reaches a dark chamber in the center, a cracked obsidian coffin chained with melted metal. A faint heart like pulse beats from within.
He touches it.
THOOM!
The ground splits. Fire burst upward, forming a towering skeleton wreathed in flames - horns like curved blades, ribcage glowing with embers.
"You have spirit, boy. Enough to burn the world."
Infernas would say intensely.
"W-who are you..?"
Reno would ask.
Infernas would grin.
"Your end… or your beginning."
Infernas plunges a flaming claw into Reno's chest - instead of killing him, the flames spiral into his soul, etching a star shaped mark across his arm.
Panels flicker between Reno screaming and visions of ancient wars, falling stars, gods of fire - all consumbed by Inferna's flames.
"That day, a boy was swallowed by a god's curse… and the world forgot his name."
The ruins explode in a pillar of fire, visible for miles. The nearby town is engulfed in light.
The same desert, year later. A lone cowboy rides across the dunes - hat low, coat tattered, one glowing eye under the brim. Reno Freehart, riding his horse, now 16, calm but dungerous.
He stops at a bounty board in a dusty town called Sunset Ridge.
Reno would analyze the board.
"Bounty: Ghost Vultures. 10,000 star coins."
"Easy money"
As he hops off his horse and grabs the horses lead rope, as he walks away people whisper-
"That's the freehart boy… the one from the burned town."
"They say he made a deal with the devil."
Reno steps into the wasteland, senses the wind shift. Suddenly-
Monsterous skeletal vultures swoop down, wings of fire and bone.
Reno grins
"Guess word travel fast in hell"
He quickly pulls out his dual pistols spinning them into his hands.
SHHHHRRRKKKK - barrels spin, bullets glow with blue.
"Infernal Arsenal - Ignite."
Reno fires - Hellfire bullets tear through the vultures, exploding midair into burning constellations.
The last vulture screeches as Reno holsters his gun. Then… the mark on his arm flares.
"Your aim's improved, boy. Let me take the next one."
Infernas says in his head.
"Stay burried, old man. I'm not your puppet."
A faint echo of demonic laughter fades. Reno looks up at the sunset - a single shooting star streaks across the sky.
"Free Star… huh. Maybe one day, I'll be free for real."
Reno heads towards the horizon, a burning sigil glowing faintly under his sleeve, while unseen eyes watch from dunes…