by Ryan Johnson
The voice snapped and the cloud burst into a great windy explosion it made the hybrid pushed to the ground as he felt a great rage from the cloud and made him shiver in a cold fear. The hybrid kneed his upper body to his legs as he felt a sudden explosion the light imploded from its floating body.
The explosion felt so painful with no sharp swords or daggers scarring him, but a feeling of a nostalgic feeling of something… alive. Something in his heart that went from feeling heavy like a heavy chain breaking him down was suddenly cut, and he felt light as a feather.
“Oh, Valverno, my son of the Mortal Realm,” said the voice, softer than a whisper of a weak wind. The light above the lake floated with many cloudlike arms toward the kneeling hybrid and lifted him from the ground. “You mustn’t live in fear of death, for it is neither a dead-end nor an end of all things, but a doorway to another life.”
The hybrid felt his body being weighed from the ground and into the air. His kneeling body was carried by the foggy light, and his hybrid eyes gazed into a vastness of a light space. What he saw as a light shining like the sun: bright, white light, which he was gazing in awe. He went from kneeling on the ground to being pulled into the air.
“Death is a doorway that leads to another Realm. A realm flowing with an endless ray of Light and love. Where death is forever, and for all eternity, prohibited.” Within the vastness of the space the hybrid felt himself being lifted into came another image but not of torment and torture but happiness and jeers.
Voices of happy children and their parents walking around. Humans, Pangaeans, creatures, and many lifeforms of many strange creatures the hybrid didn’t recognize walked about a valley of green grass overfilled with tall, bright flowers and roses and a clear, blue sky with a bright, colorful rainbow drifting over the valley filled with happy beings.
“For those who have done good deeds in the Mortal Realm are welcomed with open hearts and minds into the Realm of Paradise,” the voice continued. “This is the Realm, which all mortals of good deeds, is the balance the gods and I have made. And you are the Link Between All Realms. You have the power to open doorways between life and death themselves and go between the Realms, one of which that conceals the Devil King for all eternity.”
Before the eyes of the hybrid, a long spiraling cloud floated upward like a tornado rose up from the image that showed the hybrid of the apparent afterlife. And the topmost point spread out like a smoky eruption of a volcano.
“So stretch out your arms. Go back to whom you left behind. Take up the Holy Sword (of what you call the Crystal Sword) I gave you, attached the last armor of which your mother forged from her feathered wings, drink from the Pool of Light to balance out the power of Shadow you already consumed, unleash the power I have granted you, and smite those who all dare oppose the lives of all mortals. I shall be with you, your mother will be with you, all Pangaeans of the past will be with you, all the White Knights of the past will be with you, and there is one waiting for you… in the Mortal Realm; go to her and awaken her from her sleep with the symbol of your eternal, divine love you dared to confess to her!”
Then the cloud drifted away, and the hybrid found himself hanging mysteriously in the air and in a terrain of cubed-shaped mountains. It was the same terrain he did the training of jumping on sticks piled in a river.
In the air so sudden and no wings of flight, the hybrid fell!
He fell from a great height he closed his eyes in fright. I have strong belief in flight, he thought loudly enough he felt his brain would rip from his skull.
And suddenly, he stopped and opened his eyes; he saw the ground of sand just inches away from his face. He quickly took notice something was amiss: he was floating in the air instead of hitting the ground.
Shock came to his eyes; he had unleashed his divine power!
THE DEMIGOD AWAKENS
The hybrid saw his body floating above the ground, and he didn’t have the wings to fly. He only saw clouds swarming around his waist and covering his legs from his eye view. His hands shown human skin and no red scales; real human fingers with real fingernails were shown on his hands, but the color of his skin still looked like it was sunburnt red.
From one thought of “strong belief in flight”, the hybrid was doing it without flaw. He saw himself floating in the air without the use of his wings. His body stood horizontally, and he floated backward to a vertical position.
Smiling big as he discovered of finally unleashing his divine power, he looked and soared upward. He was flying through the crevices of the cubed-shaped mountains and sprung out with the clouds disappearing from the mountaintops, revealing white-blue colored scales on his legs and his tail. And his hair turned out longer and suddenly shorted hair sticking straight up. His eyes no longer had the crossbred of dragon and human and flickered a bright emerald color in the shape of a real human’s eyes; the sclera was white and the pupils were black with his irises being green. And the muscles of his arms stretched out longer, turning him into a human brute.
Cloudlike forms spewed from his back-shoulders, the gaps where his wings once stood. The clouds left behind a lineal trail as Valverno flew high into the sky. In the darkness of the sky, the scales of his now white-blue crystal legs lit the night sky bright as a star and as a small, flying firefly seen from below.
The wind gushing in his face and the rainy feeling of his flight through many clouds turned the hybrid’s form from a demonic, draconic figure to a human figure, and his crystalized dragon legs morphed into human feet. Two dragon traits, feet and hands, have transmuted into human traits.
The hybrid felt so iconic like a living god he could stretch out his hand and annliatle all the evils in the world with a snap of his finger, a whip of his tail, or a flap of a wing, which he doesn’t have. He soared high into the sky as his white-blue crystal scales lit the sky and descended downwind toward the settlement.
He wasn’t going to look down but fly in many different angles to get someone’s eye from below. He wanted to show them his divine power had awakened and showoff his flight that he was the demigod they all were hoping for him to be.
It was many minutes before he decided to move closer to and low high enough for someone to see him. As he drew down closer to the roofs of the tents, he scales shined brighter, and he felt many eyes from below started to look up so quickly and suddenly that eyes were stunned of seeing a wingless mortal flying in the air.
“THE DEMIGOD’S HERE!” shouted a child’s voice down below.
The hybrid flew lower and saw a hundred or so demihumans, Elves, Amazons, Tokagehebi and Dwarves gathering around in an area where tents were separated in a fair distance for him to swoop between and showoff his new form. He flew around from a diagonal position and barely touched the ground and sharply curved upwards, barely grazing the ground.
Many eyes shouted in cheer when they saw the hybrid swaying from the ground and suddenly drifting backward in the motion if he was swimming in the air. He floated a few feet from the ground with his front side of his body facing upward, and some of them touched his human hands he choose to raise outward.
Then the hybrid floated back up into the air and started moving his legs if he was running in the air. He motioned his body in many different angles to make him to look like he was either swimming, running, walking, or spinning nonstop, and he still would be flying without any wings.
He flew over the tents and saw hundreds and hundreds of the demihumans watching him with dozens of Elves, Dwarves, a few Amazons, and fifty Tokagehebi watch the hybrid fly in, out, between the army of tents.
And after many long minutes of showing-off his wingless flight, he flew toward the tent and landed by the same entrance he exited from. He saw his disabled wing, the ripped kimono robe, and the broken sapphire neckless in the same place he dropped them, and no one bothered of disposing them.
The hybrid grabbed and reattached his wing t
o his back and it suddenly snapped right on his healed gap. He felt a twinge when the wing magically snapped on his back and moved his wing softly. It was in good shape.
Seconds after placing the ripped wing back into his body, the structural formation of his wing and its color have all been crystalized. The color of white and blue flickered like real white crystals glimmering in a cave.
The hybrid tested his wing and moved it around to make sure it was back on the way it was before he ripped it earlier in the day. “This is better than before, and I can use more wing power than ever before.” Then he looked at the ripped kimono robe he torn up and the neckless of sapphires he snapped broken.
He raised his hand and a small glow emerged on his fingers. The ripped robe and the broken neckless floated into the air. The rips and cuts of the robe were sowed to make it wearable again, and the neckless was pieced into the form of a neckless again, making it suitable to wear around a person’s neck.
“Now I have fixed what I’ve destroyed,” said the hybrid.
“Is that all you need fixed?” asked Ganymede.
The hybrid turned and saw Monico, Ganymede, Freyya and her children: Querida and Gustavo, Halvdan, Alfhild, Okinawan and his trainee: Ívarr, and the few Amazons: Atalanta, Penthesilea, Lampedo, Marpesia, and Orithyia stood behind the hybrid; Monico gave a stare in shock and surprise to see the hybrid complete different than what he looked like. They all glared at him in seeing his new, profound form. His half human torso looked the same, but the colors of the scales and his wing were completely different to them.
“No,” answered the hybrid, motioning his hand for the neckless to wrap around his left wrist and the kimono robe to be hanged on a stand. “There are destroyed events that need to be fixed. The Demon Prince Vaeludar destroyed a lot of things, and I need to be the one to repair them.”
“So I ask again, ‘who are you’, hybrid?” asked Ganymede.
Valverno looked at everyone staring at him nervously, and he spoke directly to Monico, the White Knight of Trust, “I am Valverno; Demigod of the Mortal Realm, son of the Crystal Dragon and Celestreá la Mùne, and the Balancer of Mortal Realm. That is who I am, and I will not let my past become a burden on my shoulders. I will let it go and fly toward the future with the power of Light at my side.
“And I will fly now to rid those who desire to do harm to the Mortal Realm and repair the balance of which I have broken.”
Monico felt a sudden gush in his spine that made him drop to his knees. “I now believe; you are the Demigod.”
Valverno nodded and said, “You better stay here and heal up, White Knight of Trust. When you feel like your strength is been recuperated, join me where I’ll free Lusìvar’s prisoners and annliatle the Titans, which are no longer mortals but now Demons that serve the NEW Demon Prince: Demon Prince Lusìvar.
“And as for the rest of you, all the Pangaeans, it would be for the best if all of you stayed here. You’re all living your lives to the fullest. You’re all living and thriving for the past ten thousand years. It would be wrong for me to drag any of you into this war I’m going to be raging against Lusìvar. I can’t risk the lives of the last Pangaeans, the last of my kin, into a battle. There are capable warriors, but it would be the natural choice for the warriors to defend this land than to invade. This is a task I need to do alone. I was asked to carry out this task, and I will carry it out alone and for the rest of my life, for I am the Demigod of the Mortal Realm.”
With a flap of his single wing reattached to his right shoulder on his back, Valverno took off toward the southwest. He took off at from a kick of his leg and soared into the air like a feather being blown in the wind. On his flight, he gave a big sigh of relief as he saw himself on the winning side, with the Power of the Divine at his command and control.
He looked behind him and saw the Pangaeans, including Halvdan (the Pangaean always rude to the demigod) with a dim smile, waving at him, and he waved back as they sized smaller like ants as he went flying to the sky. Then he turned his eyes to look in the direction he went soaring across the sky in.
In the air and soaring through the sky like a bird, he sang out in a loud cheer:
My journey hasn’t come to an end
I will face the great dangers that lie ahead
For I am the demigod chosen by the gods
To beat all the impossible odds
I will face the dangers that lie ahead
And I will show I am not yet dead
For the dangers that lie ahead
I will slice through if they were bread
And no matter what dangers I’ll face
I’ll make them disappear without a trace
I will keep flying forward to tomorrow
And I will bring up a bright, new dawn
And, before of making a meeting with Lusìvar, Valverno headed in the direction toward the direction of the Siren he still loves was sleeping, and where the last armor artifact was being held: the Pool of Light.
A LOVE’S REKINDLED
Demigod Valverno flew back to the place where he knew the last armor artifact was. With his divine power, he flew faster than the power that flow through the air and made to the Pool of Light and the exploded tree in a matter of seconds.
He dived over the object still floating in the air; the last armor artifact was in the same spot Lusìvar left it, and the tree top still remained destroyed from Lusìvar’s large explosion.
Valverno’s divine power let him dive directly toward the last armor artifact, and the barrier created by the Shadow King no longer had any effect on the demigod, which made it easy for him to swoop right over and grab the artifact with ease.
In mere seconds of grapping the chest armor, Valverno placed it on his chest and it sank beneath his skin. He felt a powerful serge of energy flowing in his entire body: the same feeling when he placed the gauntlet on his wrist and the leg artifact. The third and final armor artifact had now been placed back on its owner, and he felt the great power coursing through him than ever before. However, his appearance didn’t change and still remained the same.
The power that was stolen by Lusìvar Valverno felt he was getting back. The mortal magic that once resided in the demigod has been restored, and he felt the power of Shadow growing as well. The power from two armor artifacts, power from the Pool of Shadows, his own moral power, and everything he felt that was sucked out of him was being recharged in his body.
Valverno quickly flew toward the edges of the destroyed tree where the Pool of Light dwells. He landed and his feet sank into the water. Then he bent his knees into the water thereafter and used his hands to make a cuplike curve and drank the pure water into his mouth.
A ray of Light poured through the Shadow that also circulated within his heart and mind, and there was a great powerful balance being maintained between the two elements. The power of Light and Shadow now resided in the demigod body. Now, Valverno had everything he needed: his divine power, his mortal magic power, and the two powers of Light and Shadow. He was now more powerful than he ever was before.
But one thing remained for him and that thing laid at the bottom of the Pool of Light. Valverno gazed deep into the Pool of Light and saw Marina’s body lying on the bottom of the Pool. He stopped breathing and submerged his body into the water and swam down.
He swam like a fish from the surface at a great speed, and he reached the bottom with ease. He gazed on Marina lying on the bottom watery floor; her naked body laid out if she was in an eternal sleep. Her hands lay upon her breasts, covering her heart. A large stab on her belly with three black dots around the cut was the stab Lusìvar did with his sword.
The clothes she once wore were all swept away, and her face looked in a great comparison of that of a human.
Valverno then placed his arms around the Siren’s body and headed back to the surface, exploding beneath the Pool�
�s surface with a giant splash.
Valverno heaved Marina’s naked body from the bottom of the Pool and carried her from the water. With his divine presence, Marina’s body was indeed dead but felt her Spirit still attached to her corpse. He also sensed the presence of three little, small Spirits lurking inside the Siren: his children!
The four mortals were dead, but their Spirits remained intact to their bodies.
Valverno was relieved in the greatest happiness he had bared. “Even in death, Marina still remains alive. The Pool of Light gives life to those who are dead. Thank the gods that Marina can still come alive, but not without a great cost of my own mortal life.”
Valverno laid Marina’s body on the ground away from the Pool. “For all this time, you have been somewhat alive. Being able to hold on to your mortal-self, even in death. And now, the time has come for you to awaken and be with me again. Let the three seeds blossom in the Mortal Realm, and let me the father they need me to be.”
Valverno raised his right hand while looking at Marina’s closed eyes. “Marina, what I do is what I do for you and our newborn children, and their children’s children’s children and for all future children for our children to bare!” He then thrusted his fingers dead center into his chest, and he growled in pain; he sunk his fingers and half of his hand’s palm into the skin.
With a hard pull, Valverno pulled out a glowing object, which made him growl loudly in more physical pain.
It was a faint blue shine, and it beat like a heartbeat. “The half of my organ heart, which represents of part of my mortality and divinity,” whispered Valverno, seeing how he did manage to rip out half his heart. Then he looked toward Marina’s face that made her look if she was asleep, waiting for her true love to come to awaken her from her everlasting sleep.
“NOW, MARINA, AWAKEN!”
Valverno raised his hands while both hands held the glowing, still-beating, half-cut heart and shoved it into Marina’s chest with a hard pound…