Twilight of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  “Valverno!” Sora shouted.

  Both girls had shouted two different names the hybrid could go by, but they paid no attention to what the other had said; they paid more attention of Valverno getting a slip.

  This force was powerful than Valverno couldn’t see through and saw being pulled over the edge, unlike the Leviathan being pushed over the edge. Valverno’s eyes had widened by this surprise as he slipped over the cliffs and fell toward the Pool of Shadows. He flapped his wings to fly away from the Pool, but the whip of what seemed to have been made from the Pool of Shadows was stronger than he was, much stronger.

  The pull of the whip made Valverno growl louder as he strongly struggled against the momentum pull, but his strength was just no match against something a strong black liquid that mysteriously appeared from the Pool of Shadows.

  Valverno looked in horror, as he was doused beneath the waves and sank into the black liquid of the Pool of Shadows.

  A TWILIGHT RISES

  Valverno found himself trapped in a vast place of darkness, from what his eyes could see. In this dark place, he couldn’t see or feel anything, just heavy waves of regular water swaying and swirling against his skin. Valverno couldn’t breathe at all; he felt himself suffocating somewhere in the Pool of Shadows. He no longer felt being pulled beneath the waves, but he did feel something else crawling up his mind.

  He could near voices of angry and hateful people echoing all around him. Voices of cries and yells and shouts perming in his ears. Howls of crying kids and war shouts of soldiers rattled in Valverno’s muscles. His skin was pacing with a great anxiety of a great feeling of fear: death.

  What would happen if I were to die now? Will I find out what happens to me after I die?

  These questions spurred his confused and dazed his mind. Valverno could feel different emotions of negativity of humanity as well as his half-godly stamina running through his mortal body simultaneously. This was causing him to lose balance of control over his half mortal and half god life, and his soul (if he has one since he is half god, and his beliefs are gods don’t have souls) falling into a great disarray.

  Then he felt himself drowning deeper into the depths of the blundering darkness and closing his eyes as he felt like there was no hope of surviving in the Pool of Shadows.

  It felt like the Pool was a powerful god not wanting for the demigod hybrid to go back and stop Lusìvar.

  Lusìvar!

  When the name of the Shadow King came to Valverno, he reopened his eyes and saw the body of the Leviathan sinking deeper than the demigod was. Being a demigod, Valverno stretched out a wing, an arm, and an open mind.

  The body of the Leviathan opened its torn eyes and started to move its mouth. It voice was being able to speak while underwater. “You don’t know why you were chosen? You don’t know what Lusìvar truly is or what I chose him to be, do you?”

  Valverno’s eyes closed as his mind would listen to what the Leviathan had to say. It seemed there is something more to the Dark Lord than being a tyrant who ruled the lands for thousands of years.

  “He is our Chosen One, unlike you were chosen by gods,” the Leviathan continued. “He is more than a Spirit of Shadow or a creature made by another creature from the beginning of the Second Generation of Living Life; he is a Titan!”

  Valverno gasped suddenly but didn’t inhale any water into his nose.

  “Yes, Lusìvar, and we, the Titans, chose him to be our Catalyst. Our deliver. Our prophet. Our Key into bringing back the Titans from their underworld, underground, underwater prison. We left him as an infant of an animal, to make sure the gods are deceived into thinking he was a creature young and cute to be spared. He is the one to bring the last seven Titans back to the Realm of the Living and to bring an eternal age darkness into the Third Generation.

  “And you have been chosen by the gods to counterattack against our Key. The one to trap the Key in his own prison so we Titans wouldn’t be able to escape our imprisoned domain. But now, I have brought you with me in this infinite abyss of darkness. When a creature goes into the Pool of Shadows, they can never return to the World of Light. But even if they do escape, their bodies become corrupt and evil.

  “If you escape, then you will become evil yourself. You’ll become a second version of Lusìvar. You’ll end up joining him more than you will be killing him. Face it, demigod; either way, you are have been defeated.

  “As for me, I’ve lived my days as King of the Titan, and I’d never thought I would go down in the Pool of Shadows by a small group of bugs. But now, it seems my time as past, and the time of Lusìvar to surpass me as… the King of the… Titans…”

  Then the Titan sank deeper and faster, seeing the Titan had died.

  The truth had been revealed to Valverno; Lusìvar is a child of the Titans, and he was the key into releasing them.

  This sudden truth caused a great wave of energy to suddenly spark in his body. His closed eyes opened up to see a light coming from the water surface. In a one quick stiffly flick of his wings, Valverno burst right out of the Pool of Shadows and back toward the ledge.

  Suddenly he dropped to the ground and feeling weak. His body crumbled to the ground, with his arms heaving his body from the ground.

  “Valverno!” shouted different voices.

  Valverno heard his name being called from twelve different voices at once. Around him was a blur and saw six shadowy figures surrounding him. He wondered if it was an illusion after sprouting out from the Pool of Shadow or his team looking funny and yet to regain his full vision.

  Then he turned his face to the ground and whipped his wings in a single, flashing flap. He suddenly felt his mind becoming full of energy again instead of filling empty and his eye vision had regained its ordinary view. But he found himself breathing for air hard and couldn’t feel any oxygen flowing through his lungs.

  “Valverno!” shouted Sora’s voice.

  Valverno slowly twisted his head and saw Sora jumping close to Valverno’s side, hearing his deep breathing for air. She saw the colors of his wings, legs, and the tail darkened.

  She had looked into the eyes of her brother and saw a demonic look to his face and eyes. She couldn’t recognize Valverno’s facial expression showing on his blankness, dragon-like, humanoid face. Not just she couldn’t tell what she was looking at but she saw some kind of sorrow rolling around those eyes.

  “Sora,” said Valverno, calmly and happily. His voice also sounded differently. It was more dementing, more demonic, more evil dragon-like than a kind-hearted human.

  After staring at Sora for seconds, Valverno got back up to his feet and saw Geraldus, Marina, and Flarefur standing beside the cliffs Valverno fell over.

  Marina’s eyes didn’t look horrified as Geraldus’s and Flarefur’s eyes were. She had a great expression of worriedness; she didn’t seem afraid or frightful. Unlike the love of first sight expression, Marina was worried of the plain sight of Valverno, worried for her husband’s sudden change in appearance.

  His body had changed. His hair was redder and longer, covering his hears while the horns stretch upward. Dragon scales grew around his waist and all around his back. A few sharp spikes pointed from his shoulders. His dragon legs, tail, and arms swirled with redness and blackness that swirled like a blaze of fire. His wings brewed with a dim violet and a small inkling of redness. His chest and human face had human skin but inked with pure greyness.

  Before the laboratory, he was a better looking, awfully attractive hybrid she fell in love with. Now she doesn’t know what she has fallen in love with. Everything seemed to have changed when they just had to enter through the laboratory where Valverno was a science experiment and he himself burnt to the ground.

  Geraldus slowly walked toward Valverno. The appearance of Valverno had made him fear Valverno or so. “Valverno? Are you still yourself?”

  Valverno turned to see Geraldus looking frightful of his appearance. Valverno saw through the eyes of Geraldus and Valverno could see
himself through Geraldus’s eyes. Valverno was surprised to see his body complete changed from what he looked like before he fell into the Pool of Shadows and even before he attached the first armor onto his hand.

  Valverno could understand why Geraldus was frightful and Marina being worried but not afraid: he was looking like a monstrous creature and he could feel the mix emotions Sora felt in her heart and mind. He looked Geraldus in the eye to make a direct statement: “I am what I am, Geraldus. I am Valverno, son of the Crystal Dragon, ruler of the gods. I am still in control of myself, and no darkness has taunted this hybrid or demigod.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Geraldus. His fearful turned into a sternly look. “Are you sure… demigod?”

  Valverno closer to Geraldus, eye-to-eye and plainly said, “Yes, I am still me.”

  Geraldus didn’t look convince, but he was going have to accept the hybrid’s word for what he. During his eye contact with Valverno, the demigod was telling the truth. He couldn’t any deceits in Valverno’s eyes.

  Valverno walked over to Sora and wrapped an arm around her back and pulled her closer to him. He knew Marina wasn’t going to accept him as he was; he did mention his appearance does match that of his current personality. He looked back at the group and said, “We have to get back to the capital city. There is more to Lusìvar than being an evil tyrant, even scarier than my mere appearance.”

  Then Valverno flapped his wings and flew toward the crevice above the buried city. Behind him, Marina walked and mounted on the Griffin who then followed after Valverno going through the dark, thin crevice.

  Geraldus floated into the air. He stopped while flying over the hole that goes to the Pool of Shadows. He wondered if Valverno will become another evil threat like the Shadow King already was. Only time will tell if Valverno would become evil since he had bathed in the Pool of Shadows by force.

  MANY THRUTHS

  Valverno flew through the crevice of what was dug some thousands of years ago. He could feel the power coursing through his veins after he came spurting out of the Pool of Shadows. He had an odd feeling dark thoughts and a dark power flowing through his half-mortal body had been greatly corrupted by the Pool of Shadows he fell into.

  Yet he could feel his other half, the godlike half of him, is resisting the dark power and thoughts flowing through his half mortal body; two different emotions of Shadow and Light was flowing through his heart, mind, and both god and mortal halves.

  Through the crevice, Valverno followed the thin, dark hole upwards until a long line of light had shown above him. The light grew brighter and wider, as Valverno came flying out of the hole and back into the light of the day and above the surface ground of the island of Shimabellia.

  Relieved to be back in the surface, Valverno inhaled the fresh air he breathed in and out. He looked back down and saw Geraldus, Sora, and Flarefur flying toward him. He saw a dim, blank sunrise covered by grey clouds, thunder weakly pulsating in the far distance. A large storm seemed to have formed overnight or the days they could have spent in the dark, dank underground city.

  The wind Valverno felt seemed to be cold as ice. A soft blow against his skin made him shiver by a weakly feeling of the blowing air. Once again, Valverno felt something in a sudden change in the weather that is unusual in the spring, making him feel Lusìvar’s power is growing faster than how a person could count sheep.

  Regrouping in the air, Valverno counted everyone who entering with him through the underground world and everyone was accounted when they came back up from the underground world. No one died and no one had become lost, and Valverno found another armor artifact and reattached it to his leg; a major victory for him and one step closer to withstanding Lusìvar and his rising power.

  From the distance, Valverno saw the burnt laboratory he burned down earlier. He puffed at the sight of it. Next he saw the statue of the dragon scientist, Ralenskrit, who took his own life for having experimented on a failed experiment that turned out of a surviving specimen.

  Valverno turned away from the ruined place he was reborn from, as it no longer had any meaning to him and a worthless place he never wants to remember again. He drew close to his flying companions, and they drew into a circle. “What should we discuss first?” he asked. “Geraldus as a White Knight? My new, current appearance? The real threat of Lusìvar? What do we want to talk about first?”

  “How about we get to the capital city?” asked Marina. She was holding tightly on the Griffin’s feathers while leaning forward so the Griffin could fly easier and maneuver in the air.

  “I agree,” said Geraldus. “There are many things and events to discuss and much to do. Since Valverno (or Vaeludar) has found two of three necessary items that do belong to him, let’s get a few days of rest, which gives all of us enough time to bring us all up to speed of the knowledge we are seeking. And seeing how we are flying in the air, it won’t be a good place for any of us to talk about anything. We would be sitting ducks and open targets for any wondering, nearby enemies.”

  Valverno nodded his head and agreed they go to the capital city. It would be the place where he would be able to tell them, and the king, the truth of Lusìvar, and he would have to tell them as soon as they reach the king’s castle, and he would have explain his sudden change of appearance.

  W

  The group had managed to make it back to the capital city without having to go through another firefight. Instead of flying toward the highest top level where Valverno and Marina had their wedding day and the place the throne room would be, the group went to a lower level right below the top level the of city. They aimed for one platform hanging from the caste’s walls with lots large Dragons flying entering and departing, seeing how there was much construction going on the top level of the capital city.

  Valverno, Flarefur, and Geraldus landed some lengths away from the Dragons, hoping to not drawn attention or look suspicious they would have looked like invaders coming to invade the city.

  Marina dismounted from the Griffin, and Sora walked away from Valverno to see the place he has brought her to. Sora wasn’t impressed to see the city; she saw it was smaller with lots of tight spaced than her buried, home city.

  “Let’s go,” said Valverno. Valverno took the first step forward and went ahead of the group. He paced his legs to make him go slightly a bit faster ordinary walking. “King Uragiru will need to know of the dire situation Lusìvar.”

  Once again, Valverno spent no time in waiting for someone to say “Hey, people, let’s go” and went on his own immediately; his ability in speed of almost everything (including focusing on the main point without his mind focusing on anything else) when he placed that armor on his foot, greatly increasing his speed in almost everything. The demigod wasn’t going to wait for Geraldus, Marina, or the Griffin to give him an invination to walk up to the throne room and give a knock to the host waiting for any visitors. He went with great haste without taking notice they saw him talking ahead of them without waiting for them to give some response.

  Sora followed closely behind Valverno’s pacing speed. With his nonstop speeding legs and an almost trip over his slivering tail, Sora easily strolled closely beside Valverno. They both walked through the entrance leading from the platform and into the city.

  Up through the alleys, Valverno led Sora into the city. Sora studied at all the people buying products and selling from carts and venders. This didn’t impress her at all; she had expected to see more people taller and clothes more stylish than she used to seeing. The buildings weren’t as tall or as decorative as her home she was in hours ago buried in the ground, and there weren’t any tall towers rising in the sky. Mostly she expected to see more magic-using than just plain hand-working people working with their hands.

  “People of this age build their homes within a city, but to big enough to house hundreds of millions of people,” she said. “Pangaea had more cities a hundred times bigger than this city, and it was very more active. And these humans are not using an
y magic at all. How can these species of this Generation live in such a small space?”

  “Pangaea was then, Sora; Shimabellia and Isla Maeli are now,” said Valverno. “They don’t wield any magic powers like the Pangaeans when they were alive. People here aren’t used to using any magic, so they build everything out of their hands. These people show such great discipline and how they can manage to they can live, without the use of magic. That is how they evolved from creatures living from caves: discipline, teamwork, and encouragement.

  “If it weren’t for us (you, me and the other White Knights), these people would have evolved on their own. They would still be stuck in their caves for another ten thousand years and I would have, maybe, awaken in another ten thousand years instead waking of seventeen years ago. ”

  Sora wasn’t circulating the math of years on her mind. She was confused by the years her brother was talking about and couldn’t calculate the number of years when he and her could have awaken for another ten thousand years. Number of theories and possibilities was never Sora’s greatest talent; she was trained as a warrior of war than a scientist of math. She had no talent in the world of mathematics.

  Valverno walked through crowded alleys where stone rubbles were still piled over and wounded people lying in the streets. Guards were posted on the unrumpled buildings that still standing tall. Several carts were packed with people buying and selling medicine.

  “Just what happened here?”

  “It was an ambush,” said Valverno. Valverno came to a stop at a fountain; the same fountain Marina sang her song the first time he came to the city. “It was on my wedding day a few days ago.” Valverno looked at the fountain, which was broken and the pillars that sprung the water from the hole had been destroyed. “Several monsters fell from the sky and a dark cloud. Lusìvar invaded while Marina and I were confessing our love in front of the eyes of these mortals and the gods. It was long and bloody. And you get the picture.”