The Phoenix Sword

**The Phoenix Sword** was a supernatural short-sword used by Rayna Cruz, a vampire hunter similar to The Five. It hosted the Phoenix Stone at its hilt and acted as its conduit that trapped the spirits of vampires when stabbed.

After the destruction of the Phoenix Stone, all vampires that were ever marked or stabbed by the sword are now free and are possessing corpses of recently deceased, all over the world.

Precious little is known about the history of the Phoenix Sword, and even fewer written accounts regarding the sword's creation and use as a weapon seems to be available on the subject, as none of the books Alaric sought out had any concrete information regarding the weapon.

The sword itself is very short, around one foot two inches, almost like a dagger. The blade seems to be made of a hard metal, possibly iron. The blade also has some kind of an X-shaped edge. At the pommel in the hilt there is a round, empty space, made of the same metal from the blade. The round empty space is where the phoenix stone fits in, completing the sword. It can then be used to stab a vampire in the heart to transfer the vampire's soul into the stone.

## History

The sword was originally owned by Vicente Cruz, a vampire hunter who was one of the Five. Since the sword was small in size, Vicente gave his sword to his young daughter, Rayna. She wanted to be a vampire hunter just like him, and so, Vicente trained his daughter in combat and swordsmanship for years. One day, after years of training, a vampire attacked their village.

The name of the vampire was Julian, and just as he was about to kill Vicente, Rayna told him that her father was one of the five, and that killing him will be his undoing. Julian then knew he had to get rid of Vicente, and so he made Rayna kill her father with her little sword. Heart broken and vengeful, Rayna sought out and found a group of shamans, who linked their life to her and her sword, and gave her the phoenix stone, before killing themselves, so that she could live longer.

## Throughout The Vampire Diaries Series

### Season Seven

In *Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (The Vampire Diaries)* , Lorenzo St. John used it against Julian in a sword fight for Lily's honor, thinking the sword itself was a weapon against Julian, but his attempt to kill Julian was unsuccessful, as the Phoenix Sword only catches a vampire in the Phoenix Stone, if it is in the sword's hilt.

In *Cold as Ice*, Julian completed the sword by inserting the Phoenix Stone, with the intent to kill the Salvatore brothers. As Julian blamed Damon and Stefan for the death of their mother Lily, Julian's one true love, he wanted to trap their souls in the stone as punishment. Julian explained that without the stone, the sword was powerless. He revealed that, when paired together, the sword, when stabbed in a vampire's heart, captures the vampire's soul inside the stone, where the stone would then use the vampire's sins to create a personal hell for the vampire to constantly live through while imprisoned. In a fight with the brothers, Julian successfully stabbed Damon in the heart with the complete sword, killing Damon and trapping his soul in The Phoenix Stone. He then left Stefan alive to suffer from his brother's death. Julian then gave the sword to Nora, who stabbed Stefan in the heart, killing him and trapping his soul in the stone as payback for kidnapping Mary Louise.

In *This Woman's Work*, Enzo, under Rayna's orders, blackmails Damon to bring him the sword from Bonnie. With Bonnie's life at stake, Damon was forced to return the sword back to Rayna. Later in the same episode, Rayna used her sword to hunt down and kill Beau, who was one of the targets she's been hunting since the 19th century.

In *Moonlight on the Bayou*, Rayna continues to chase Stefan all the way to New Orleans, hoping she would finally kill him with her sword. Unfortunately for her, Stefan allied with Klaus in order to protect himself. With werewolves hunting her down, Rayna was eventually defeated, after which Stefan returned back to Mystic Falls.

In *Days of Future Past*, Nora and Mary Louise sacrificed themselves in order to destroy the Phoenix Stone once and for all, casting a spell which caused a huge explosion, killing both of them in the process. It was later stated by Rayna that every single vampire who was ever marked or stabbed by the sword is now free to possess any lifeless body and use it as their own.

## Trivia

* According to Nora Hildegard, the Phoenix Sword was custom made just for Rayna Cruz.
* The sword can only work if the Phoenix Stone is attached to the hilt of the sword.
* Non fatal wounds inflicted by the sword do not heal and leaves an X-shape scar on the vampire. The scar reopens when in near proximity to the complete sword.
	+ Such power makes this sword the first known weapon that can do somewhat lasting damage to vampires who would typically heal from anything.
* The power of the sword was probably inspired by the Hunter's Curse due to Rayna's father being a member of the Brotherhood of the Five.
	+ The scar, left by the sword could have its signal masked with a rare anti-magic herb that witches like Freya and Valerie know about. However, now that the herb has been found and destroyed, it is unlikely any magic could hide the signal seeing when Valerie tried to siphon Stefan's scar after Damon killed Rayna Cruz, the scar didn't even began to disintegrate.
* The mark left behind from being impaled by the sword, alongside the connection to Rayna, can be transferred to another blood relative.
* After the Phoenix Stone, along with the sword itself, was destroyed by Nora and Mary Louise, every single vampire soul trapped inside of it had been released.