by Ryan Johnson
Then the Centaur King and about two hundred Centaurs vastly appeared and charged toward around Valverno’s army. They charged with great speed as they shot with their bows and arrows at the bunch of Giants and lion-headed monsters. And another hundred Centaurs charged on from the other side of Valverno’s small army, and joining the fray.
As the Centaurs rode into battle, the black dragon bodyguards to the Dragon King flew into the sky. They met with the other Dragons head-on, grabbing with claws and biting with sharp teeth. And the Griffins clawed and bite on the Harpies’ feathers, causing those winged-humans to lose their grip on the Hobgoblins from the air.
Dozens of Unicorns trotted beside the besieged humans with glowing horns. The Unicorns used their horns not for healing but for enhancing each human’s muscle of strength and speed and less painful skin piercings.
Now both sides were fighting and killing each other. And both sides were losing fighters of great skill and brute strength.
Amidst the battle, Valverno’s nose caught the scent of a very familiar person he wanted dead. He could smell the scent of his most hated person coming from the sky. His eyes took him to see dozens of Dragons fighting other Dragons.
There was one pale, blue Dragon not fighting but drifting between the fighting Dragons. From his eyes, Valverno could see a woman standing on the dragon’s head, and he had assumed she was the leader of the army.
The leader of the invading party was no other than Belverda; she traveled a long way and assembled a small army in a short amount of time.
FACE OFF WITH A WITCH AND SHADOW GHOSTS
“Sora, take command of the fighting forces!” ordered Valverno. “I have someone I need to see off before she takes off from battle.”
Sora glimpsed at Valverno and clearly saw the expression of pure hatred; she knew the witch was there and Valverno was staring at her. “Don’t worry about me. I know how to take command of a small army. Go get her and kill her for what she has done to you.”
Valverno nodded and looked at her. “And don’t anything so rationally. I want to see you alive again before you ended up dying.”
Sora smiled and nodded before running off in the direction of the human army and she yelled loudly as she ran to take command. Sora does have the heart of a warrior as she gave a war cry and charged.
Valverno turned to see Belverda riding on the Dragon. His eyes enhanced his vision to see farther. She was standing on the Dragon’s head while holding metal reins, which were chains around the Dragon’s jaw.
The witch was wearing battle armor with a short emerald cape around a shoulder, waving in the wind. She wore an emerald helmet with two short goat-like horns. She held up high her staff, showing a puff of smoke from the jewel attached on the staff’s top.
Valverno flown from his stance to the witch and meet her head-on. While Sora would take charge as the new chain-in-command, Valverno could take out the opposing forces’ leader: Belverda. Not only would he get personal vengeance of what she tried to turn him into, but ending Belverda would be a blow against Lusìvar.
From Valverno’s perspective, Belverda was just a puppet unknowingly being used by the Shadow King for personal use. And, once that usefulness was done, Lusìvar would do away with the witch and then King Uragiru. Once Lusìvar had what his heart desired, he would cut the strings of his puppets, as he would not share his power with anyone else.
At his thundering flying speed, Valverno stopped in front of the blue Dragon Belverda was riding on, and the both exchanged staring glares at each other.
For all his life, Valverno thought of Belverda as a mother who couldn’t bear to have a child with many watchful eyes gazing on the hybrid, thinking his life would have been in danger. He’d always thought she may have loved him and didn’t have the power to protect her son from danger, even with a Dragon by her side. He thought he would have safer at a friend’s house than being in great danger.
But he was wrong of the seventeen years he’s been with Geraldus and his family. Belverda was never his mother to being with, as he was a demigod from ancient, destroyed land. Now he wanted blood retribution as he desired to have the witch dead beneath his feet.
“Belverda!” Valverno put his sword back its scabbard as he was going to intend to use his godly powers to fight Belverda and not with metal.
The Piper did a surprise attack on him and he ended up getting a scar since he was only thinking of killing Belverda. And he was assuming she had a few weapons made from the same metal the Piper had on his daggers, which one was being held by Geraldus in his village.
Valverno wanted to keep his distance from her in case if she had weapons made from the unknown metal that could cut his skin. He saw Belverda smiling at him.
“Valverno, or should I call you… Vaeludar.”
Valverno grunted at the name Vaeludar. The name he despises was the name given to him by her, the name of a science project. He wasn’t a science project to begin with; he was a demigod and he was going to act as the demigod he was chosen to be. His old name was a way to taught him into attacking the witch. Valverno wasn’t to attack Belverda quickly, and he was going to keep his distance until he knew it was the right time to attack.
“There is still time to crossover if you don’t want to fall like the rest of your army,” said Belverda.
Valverno shock his head in disgust and anger. He was chosen by the gods to have balance between Light and Shadow, not joining the Shadow or the Light. “You shove that monstrous offer up the Shadow King’s nose. He is the one who desires power, and he will not share it with anyone else.”
“You think the Shadow King is using me? King Uragiru? I think not. We’re using him as our weapon and our sources. How else would you think we have assembled this unit of monsters we have? After I tried to create you as a weapon, I shifted my focus of mind-controlling the monsters that could easily be controlled. These monsters I’ve assembled are a few of some small units of evil creatures of these: Banshees, Basilisks, Black Dogs, Chimeras, Cyclopes, Harpies, Manticores, and Minotaurs.
“I have placed mind-controlling spells over those monsters and spilt them into different army groups. And when the time was right and I had enough animals at each group, I would unleash them in a certain region, to dwell any human army that could dare stand against me and King Uragiru.
“I have no plans of being a servant of an ancient Shadow King. Uragiru and I are planning on using him as a weapon. Once he regains a physical form, we’re planning on turn against him and take over his Titan power he possesses and control the Titans ourselves.”
“Then you do know about the Titans? If the seven Titans escape, Lusìvar will use them under his power. No one, not even you, will be even to control them. The Titans will follow no one and will not listen to anyone, unless if you are one of the Titans. Lusìvar is the son the Leviathan, the King of the Titans. He is the only one of the Mortal Realm who could control the Titans, not you or Uragiru.”
“Don’t speak such nonsense to me. Uragiru and I have a fake alliance with him, and he thinks we have pledge our loyalty to him. When the time is right and the Spirit of Shadow isn’t looking, King Uragiru and I will stab Lusìvar in the back and take the power from him. The Titans will be under our control, when they are set free from the Harmonic Convergence.
“The Harmonic Convergence is going to happen in the next few years when the three moons align into one line. There, the three moons will align in the front of the sun and create the Black Sun and unleash a gravity airline that will lead directly to where the Titans are buried and imprisoned. Once that happens, Lusìvar will release the Titans. Once he releases them, Uragiru and I will end him and take his Titan power and spilt it between both of us.”
Valverno signed.
“For many years, I’d thought you were my mother. But now, you’re just a witch trying to stay young and prolong your youth. For many years, I’ve long wanted to be your son and be family with Ralenskrit. Nothing could be more humiliating than thinking such a chil
dish thought.”
“You are still a child! I’d never wanted such nonsense. Being a mother of such a weak, ugly hybrid from a dead land is very unsettling. Family is what makes us all weak. What do you have left from that world?”
“The one who survived with me: Sora, the first White Knight of Charity. The only three died and passed on into the next world. Now their power lies within a few different people and I found only two of them, which means I have found three of the four White Knights. When I find the last one, it will be you on the losing side.”
“On the contrary, it is you who will be on the losing side, hybrid! Now, my mindless beast, show what power you have been given from me and the Shadow King!”
The Dragon raised its head and its blankness eyes toward Valverno. Then it opened its mouth and saliva dripped from its black, gunky teeth. A red glow appeared from its opening mouth.
A red blaze blew from the dragon’s mouth like dragon fire.
Valverno blew a blue, plasma blaze of his own and banged into the dragon’s blazing blast. As he did, the demigod let out his white, glowing eyes and his god persona took over his mortal body. This added more power to his breathing power and his blaze shot through the dragon’s blaze and into his mouth.
Belverda quickly jumped out of the way, just two seconds away from Valverno’s blaze shooting through her Dragon’s head. She managed to land on another Dragon flying beneath Valverno and the defeated Dragon.
Belverda’s second Dragon dashed below Valverno’s feet and flew past him. Her new Dragon she mounted headed straight for the village.
Valverno followed after the witch mounted on her new Dragon. He used his hands to send out fireballs being fired at the Dragon.
Belverda took noticed of Valverno’s attacks coming behind her and counterattacked with her own, rivaling her magic power against Valverno’s divine fireballs. The witch seemed to have a power that could rival Valverno’s divine power he was placing in each fireball he was firing.
As she fired many fireballs, she threw some small throwing knives as her attacks, and she swung many of them.
Valverno could see the knives and use a wing to block Belverda’s throwing knives, as his eyes could detect they were made from the same metal used to forge on the Piper’s dagger. The throwing knives hit his wings, and his wings boomed from each throwing knife.
He saw through his wings the knives vaporizing once they touched his wings; his wings were immune to the knives, which meant his wings are being protected by his divine power. As long he had two thirds of his divinity restored, he could win against Belverda and King Uragiru. With one wing blocking the attacks and one wings flagging, Valverno was still flying behind Belverda and her winging Dragon.
After he could see the knives ceased, Valverno removed his wing and resumed flapping it. Once he removed his wing from his front torso, Belverda and her Dragon suddenly vanished. Seconds ago, they were ahead of him. Now they suddenly disappeared.
Then Valverno’s ears flickered; he turned face up to the sky and saw Belverda’s Dragon dropping down above him. The Dragon came swooping down upon him in the blink of an eye; it gave Valverno no time to counter against the big beast.
The dragon opened its mouth wide, intending of having a tasty treat. However, Valverno grabbed teeth from both top and bottom jaw. The Dragon’s massive weight pushed the hybrid down to the ground.
Holding the Dragon by its teeth on both top and bottom of its mouth, Valverno felt his feet plunging into the ground from the Dragon’s flying weight pushing in underground, and he held his breath as he didn’t want to smell the Dragon’s breathe.
Valverno’s legs were going deep underground, leaving behind two long trail lines of his legs drenching deep into the ground. He could no longer feel the strength of his legs and his divine persona was loosening from his mortal bod, so the last strength he had of his divine power he use his shoot out an icy beam into the mouth of the Dragon.
The Dragon froze into an ice sculpture-like. The Dragon didn’t move nor could it resume flying to a different direction.
Valverno flipped both his legs and pounded beneath the iced dragon’s chin, which burst into dust of snow. By doing this, Valverno had stopped his flying mobility and his lost his god side of his demigod body and had switch back to his mortal side.
After losing his divine power and switching back to his mortal persona, Valverno was caught in a blasting explosion after he crushed the iced Dragon with his legs and sent him rolling into the ground, along with the witch.
Both landed at the altar of the Crystal Dragon.
Valverno was the first to get up and Belverda got up three seconds later. Both were ready to fight again and with magic and brute force.
“You betrayed everyone!” said Valverno. “You betrayed humanity! You betrayed life! You betrayed everything you could have stood for. All my life, you and Ralenskrit had conducted experiments for the greater good of life, not just making weapons for a Shadow King to use and dispose. And in the end, you’d never represented any form of life. You shouldn’t be alive. You should have died at long ago as should have your four sisters.”
“My four sisters?” asked Belverda.
“You don’t know how they died?” Valverno walked over and placed his hand on the blood stained on the stone near the altar. “This place where you stand is the place the witches, your sisters, have died. My wife and I killed them.”
Belverda showed no sign of any anger to him or did she show any emotional reaction to him. By her current looks, she never cared for the other witches.
“So, you have a soft side after all, you do care about cute, young, innocent, little kids. Who would have known?”
“Children are so annoying and so underdeveloped they always neglect to listen to what their parents have to say,” said Belverda. The witch pulled out more throwing knives between all her fingers. “They never listen to their parents, as they only pay attention to their own fantasy worlds. Who would want to be a mother of mindless creatures? Yet, who would want to kill old, wrinkled women?”
Valverno smiled, not of anything sinister or vilely he smiled of sheer joy as his blue, glowing wings hovered his front body. “I would a father to those ‘mindless creatures’ than to toss them away, as you at tossed me away at Geraldus’s doorway. And I would kill any ‘old, wrinkled women’ who kills any child. Anyone who kills a young life who still doesn’t understand the meaning of life yet is a monster. Your sisters took many lives to keep themselves young, and I and Marina ended their lives before they would take more kids away from their fathers and mothers.”
“You are such a cold-hearted demigod!”
“As were the witches with their minion, the Piper, who gave me this scar on my face!”
Valverno wiped away some felt over dried dragon saliva over his eye. The scar burned brightly yellow-red across his right eye. He remembered the pain when he received the scar, and he did felt his skin being peeled off like a banana peel when he encountered the Piper dropping over him.
As Belverda held out a staff with both her arms, four black humanlike clouds appeared. They took forms of humans in armor and all carried different weapons: one carried two single-headed axes, one carried two swords, one carried a long scythe-axe spear, and one carried two heavily spiked maces. They wore armor and helmets with goat-like horns and a different animal face each helmet was carved from: a bear’s head, a wolf’s head, a lion’s head, and a tiger’s head.
Valverno looked at four different ghosts as they were ready to do battle with the witch. He has come face-to-face with the oldest, elite bodyguards of the Shadow King: the Shadow Men. They were armed with weapons and concealed their faces beneath the animal shaped helmets.
“You might as well give up the fight. The Shadow Men are here, and they were the ones who striped you of your divinity. You are in no match for five fighters.”
Valverno smiled. “You are sadly, gravely mistaken!” Valverno pulled heaved the Crystal Sword with both ha
nds.
With a single swipe, he pulled the one into two matching swords. He was armed with two swords, and not willing to stand down; he was going to fight the witch and the four ghosts that ripped away three artifacts from Valverno’s body.
“So be it. Shadow Men, do what you want to him. I’ve have to go back and tell King Uragiru our plans for the Northern Region has been put on a hiatus.” The witch was backing away from the altar and a Dragon landed on the ground when she began to depart.
“Cowering your way out?”
“No, I’m just retreating so I can live to fight another day. I can’t way the same for you though. You do have experience fighting the living, but no experience of dealing with Spirits of the Dead. The Shadow Men will surely make short work for you, once they kill you this time when they tried to do to you ten thousand years ago.”
Belverda ascended onto the Dragon’s head and the Dragon took to the sky. Swiftly, the Dragon quickly departed as soon as it came. Belverda gave Valverno one sinister smile before the Dragon going through a dark fog. Belverda and her Dragon flew into the black cloud and suddenly faded without a trace left.
Now Valverno was left with the Shadow Men, the ghostly minions and eternal servants of the Shadow King Lusìvar.
“Now you fight as you always do: alone,” said the Shadow Men in unison.
“What makes you think I fight alone?”
A metal screeching sound banged to the left of the Shadow Men; Sora arrived with her two knives in both hands. “My brother is done being alone!” she said with a fierce warrior voice.
“Well, well. If it is the White Knight of Charity!” said the Shadow Men. “It is time for the both of you to cross over to the next realm and leave the Mortal Realm to Lusìvar.”
“On the contrary, you ghosts should have the first ones to cross over before us mortals were born!” Valverno was the first flesh-and-blood mortal to place his foot forward while waving the two swords in hand.
Then the evil ghosts in ghostly armor and carrying ghostly weapons split into two teams of two: two went to Sora and two went to Valverno. Valverno easily bowled heavy waves of two flaming blades from his hands when he clashed against his two ghostly opponents.