by Ryan Johnson
After cutting Marina free from her bounds, she looked horrified to Valverno in a new form. Seeing him just after he came sprouting out of the Pool of Shadows was bad enough, but seeing him in a more vile, malicious state was traumatizing her. She couldn’t tell if this strange person was even the hybrid she fell in love with.
“Vaeludar?! Is that you?”
Before the demon-looking hybrid could put out an answer, arrows were shot close between their heads.
A group of five guards came charging on the stake with sharp spears and swords ready to cut down the two escaping convicts.
Valverno quickly punched a hand into the pillar, which erupted into a stick of fire. He flung the pillar of fire upon the guards coming his way and stormed off the stake. When he did, his black tail whipped the stake and fire burst back on the stake.
As he leaped off the burning stake, Valverno saw the crystal orb floating near King Uragiru and shot at it with a fireball he spat from his dark mouth.
The orb exploded upon impact, which sent King Uragiru and several of his bodyguards flying. Valverno made sure his arm was around Marina and squeezed her tightly. As he saw the old man come flying to him, Valverno spun and whipped his black smoking tail at the king. His tail wrapped on the king and flung him into the burning stake, the spot the king tried to execute Marina now will be put in her place.
“Valverno!” the king yelled from the burning stake.
Valverno ignored the king and flew off to the high castle walls. Just when he had the greatest chance to escape, something cringed on Valverno’s spinal cord. Valverno started to feel a cringing power breaking apart his spinal cord. This was making him unable to fly for much longer and he went gliding to the castle’s walls.
Gliding downward, Valverno japed his feet and his one free hand into the rock. He began to climb up the stone wall he came falling down on. After using one arm for climbing, he began to lift off and jump higher if he was a monkey climbing on tree branches. He managed to climb to the castle wall from the one-third of the city.
Once he got to the top, he hurled himself over a stone railing and landed on a walkway. From there, he jumped strong from the walkway and onto a roof of a building. After he landed on the roof, he jumped again to another roof’s building. He hopped to another building and to another very fast he could jump faster than a housefly could fly from a kitchen to a living room.
Valverno got to another part of the capital city’s walls of the climbed up the wall with great speed. He made sure Marina was hanging tightly to him, as he used both his legs, wings, and one arm to jump from place-to-place, building-to-building, and up high walls meant for defending a mighty fortress and not a playground for a hybrid to jump around.
As quickly he was on the second level of the capital city to save Marina, he was now again on the top level, in the courtyard they got married atop the capital city.
“Let me go! I don’t need to be rescued by a monster!” Marina shouted from the top of her lungs, as she wasn’t seeing the hybrid she was used to seeing. She was used to seeing a human dragon hybrid in front of her, but she was seeing more of a demon than a hybrid.
“Have you forgotten?” Valverno touched Marina’s head with one of his claws and showed her the strong memory of their wedding day. They gave their vows of everlasting love, they confessed their love in public and loudly. Valverno showed Marina he still loved her, despite his wretched form. “I may be different, but I may still the hybrid you love. I have unleashed the power from the Pool of Shadows.”
“You did what?”
“Have you also forgotten not to be deceived by appearances? The power I unleashed isn’t controlling me; I am controlling me.”
“How can I believe you? To see such a vile demon.”
Valverno walked up closed to Marina’s face and gazed into his eyes and had her look into his full red eyes. With a moment’s hesitation, he pulled her tightly and kissed her.
Marina wasn’t caught by surprise when she jerked to the lips of a stranger. She strongly resisted his motion of kissing her, but that resistance somehow turned into sheer joyfulness. After seconds of being forced to kiss, the wretched form turned into Valverno’s form: the form they first met when he went by the name Vaeludar. And of what Shadow there was suddenly became a surrounding horizon of bright light.
Was this an illusion she was seeing? Or was it the sight of their love wasn’t broken and showing his true personality? Or was it a dream she was in?
Marina couldn’t tell if she was died or alive, but this sight she saw before her sapphire eyes was becoming all too real. At first of gazing at this sight, she tried to close her eyes and convince herself it was a false image, an illusion. But when she would reopen her eyes the same image would be there: the same image he looked like on the night he proposed to marry him.
It was all so real; she believed the sight of Vaeludar, the hybrid whom she loved very dearly. It is you, Vaeludar, she thought in her mind.
Valverno heard her thoughts in his own mind and released her from him and the lightness there was and his angelic form turned back into the demon form he was possessed in. Truly on the outside he was a monster, and he was a kindred hybrid on the inside. His appearance changed but his personality is the same.
Suddenly, he walked passed Marina and stood in front of her. He placed himself in front of an old man in armor looking at the two lovers.
“So you have unleashed the power you were given from the Pool of Shadows?” said King Uragiru’s voice. “You know the Titans and my ancestor, Bors his name was, have bathed in the Pool of Shadows, and you will end up becoming evil as I am. You will end up a being servant of evil, as Lusìvar would try to control you since he was the one who created the Pool of Shadows. He and I do have some alliance, and the witch Belverda does seem to another perfect ally to have. But it is too much a shame my daughter Stephanie is merely adopted into my family as I did with Marina, but both are worthless to be my heirs to inherited my power.
“And when the Harmonic Convergence, which the three moons align in front of the sun, takes place on the Summer Solstice three years from now, Lusìvar will free his father’s brethren, the Titans, and Belverda and I will kill him and take control of the Titans. Before that happens, my secret army, which is composed of seventy thousand men, will hunt down Geraldus and his family in the Western Region within two weeks. Face it, hybrid you have lost. Your allies will all die before you can end up unite them under your name.”
Valverno smiled and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” asked the king. “Has the Pool of Shadows filled your mind with false information?”
“Congratulations, your False Highness!” Valverno’s tail came twirling behind him. It was carrying a crystal orb. Something similar to what King Uragiru used “You confessed your crimes to all of Shimabellia. Everyone on the island now knows of your true intentions. You. Joined. Lusìvar.
“And everyone knows of your intentions, and Geraldus also knows you will be invading his territory, and the Northern Clans will surely be uniting under one clan; the Snake Clan will surely be killed by the other clans. Face it, false king, it is you who have lost.”
Uragiru took great shock on his face. He didn’t know how Valverno gotten hold of the king’s personal orb, and Valverno was holding the king’s orb, which was destroyed by the demigod.
“Is that mine? You have destroyed it! Has… has everyone on this island heard me?”
Valverno nodded.
“Something that is destroyed I can recreate from my own flesh-and-bone. And yes: everywhere you sent a copy of this orb is everywhere on this island people have heard your voice and seen your face and your false allegiance to Lusìvar. He is now likely to kill you before you can kill him.
“And you are absolutely wrong of everything you just said about me. I may have bathed from the Pool of Shadows, but I control the power instead of the power controlling me. Such power will never consume over me. And I will not be a servant of
evil, as I am a demigod; a half mortal chosen by the gods to balance Light and Shadow in the Mortal Realm.”
The king was stumped. The entire island knew of his attentions and many of them would now either stand against him or stand aside or sail away from the island. Everything he seemed to have spent years of working went up in Valverno’s smoke, as the hybrid’s tail was still erupting black smoke. And the worst part of the king was he can read people’s minds and see if they were telling the truth or a lie: he could read Valverno’s mind and he saw the hybrid was telling the truth.
“I’ll be seeing you in two weeks, Uragiru. And good luck with your future, as I brought it to a smoking ruin. And good luck of trying to convince Lusìvar to not kill you. If your death happens, I want to make sure you fall from a cliff as your scream in horror, looking helplessly, with no hope, at a monster taking you take”
Valverno wrapped his arms around Marina and hugged her tightly. She gave King Uragiru an angry look. Then Valverno lifted off and flew in the direction of the Eastern Region, not before he reach out his arm and the Crystal Sword, which Uragiru stole from him, and came flying back to its master’s hand.
A GATHERING OF KNIGHTS
Valverno came flying down on the beaches near Geraldus’s village. Once he touched down on the soft, silky sands, he released Marina and made a mad dash into the ocean’s waters. She dived in and vanished beneath the waves. Valverno watched the Siren swim across the ocean’s surface like the back of a whale coming to the ocean’s surface.
After he watched Siren go swimming beneath the waves, he took a few moments to look at his new form. His wings had stopped puffing out the smoke as did everywhere on his dragon body. His face still retained the many dragon scales that suddenly grew on the skin. The many dragon scales weren’t just on his face, but his human body, which made him dragon whole instead of half. His new, long, red hair waved against the ocean’s winds.
His scar remained intact across his right eye and a dark purple flare sparked when he touched it softly with the knuckles of his fingers. He looked at his own reflection in each watery wave came floating to his feet on the sand. He softly signed of what he has become.
A month ago he was more human than he was a dragon, and he was wondering if Uragiru was right: being controlled by the Pool of Shadows or being manipulated by Lusìvar into thinking Valverno was indeed free and that the hybrid was the one controlling the dark power he’d unleashed. He knelt closer to see his reflection in each wave of water coming to his feet.
Now his appearance was more retched than he could ever look. He just may have sacrificed his humanity just to unleash the power to save one life. If had ever to do unleash a dark power, it would have been unleashing it against the Titans, if they were ever freed. It could be a matter of time before his freewill could be twisted by Lusìvar, by a single snap of his fingers.
He was going have to remain his distance from the people of the island. He knew when Uragiru’s crystal orb came to Valverno’s face: the entire island saw him. They saw his form and may now think he is serving an evil hybrid. But, in doing so, Valverno revealed to the island the true intentions of the island’s king.
Both he and the king were going to be under great suspicion from everyone around the island. He could see the island be united in a matter of days, but it would mean he would not be able to lead them. He would need someone else loyal to him to lead the islanders in the future, even if he does get rid of Uragiru and Belverda.
He knew Lusìvar and the Titans would be the next targets, but Uragiru said the Titans’ exact location wouldn’t be revealed until the Harmonic Convergence. What he knows from that was when the three moons that lit the night sky would point in front of the sun and make a solar eclipse.
In his lifetime, Valverno witnessed a few solar eclipses and it was always been one moon covering the sun. But he’d never seen two or three moons covering the sun.
Three years may seem like enough time for him to recover the third and last armor artifact that would restore his full, broken power and finally to be at odds with the Shadow King, but three years would be like three days going by. He was going to turn eighteen when the summer comes.
He was going to have a difficult time trying to find the last armor to reconnect to his body. The first two had monsters protecting them, which meant the third was going to have a monster protecting it. And since it was the last, he just had to assume the third was being guarded by no other than Lusìvar. Valverno’s power alone may not rival against the might of Lusìvar.
After Valverno saw enough of his reflection, he stood by back and gazed into the sky. It was cloudy and musky. It was ready to storm up a hurricane. There were so many clouds covering the blue sky and the blistering sunlight.
Dimmed lightening and soft thunder rattled through the storm clouds. There was a strong breeze in the air but not strong enough for a hurricane weather. It seemed like a regular rain storm was coming.
“Valverno!” cried a girl’s voice.
Valverno heard Sora’s loud cry while standing on the beach. Her cry was loud he could hear her crying scream from ten miles away.
He turned to see his sister running on the beach shores. Her running speed made her go ten times faster than a cheetah running at high speed running on the savanna. She ran with the greatest speed it could make Valverno’s speed look like a baby bird’s first flight. When she was close enough, she jumped on him.
Valverno caught Sora from jumping on him and they both fell into the sand. Valverno fell onto the sand while Sora remained atop of him.
“I knew you’d be back,” said Sora. “I was beginning to think you’d run off to join this fallen king and not kill him.”
“That’d you think would happen to a demigod who’d fought off an invasion with his sister and a small army of people in small clans?” asked Valverno.
“And I was beginning to think you would have died while trying to save Marina,” said Geraldus. The man who raised Valverno stood beside where Sora and Valverno who were lying on the sand. “And here I thought it would be Marina sitting on you.”
Valverno gave Geraldus a stare.
“Not to mention what Uragiru had shown us when he sent out these crystal orbs and showed us your new transformed form and I could tell by looking at you: you have unleash the power from the Pool of Shadows. Not only have you bathed and the black power changed your form, but you it contained and chained within your body.”
“I was completely powerless when I was chained through some magic barrier,” said Valverno. Valverno used his wings and pushed himself back to standing while he held onto Sora. “You should have heard me talking with Uragiru and his ancestor who bathed in the Pool of Shadows.”
Geraldus nodded.
“We all heard about his betrayal and the power flowing through his bloodline. Bors, who we heard was the ancestor of Uragiru, went into the Pool of Shadows and the power would go to be inherited into his bloodline. Now Uragiru is now in command of the Pool’s power, but more shockingly his daughter, Stephanie, is adopted. Now that gives Teutates more authority to the throne than ever.
“Other than Uragiru and his bloodline, I was beginning to think you could have been turned. It has been a week since any has seen you.”
Valverno raised his eyebrows; the time he and Marina spent in King Uragiru’s created dimension seemed very short it felt his real body was put to sleep for five minutes. However, Geraldus had said otherwise, it has been a week for him and Marina trapped in Uragiru’s throne room.
Valverno wasn’t going to question of how it has been a week. After all, both he and Marina were the ones trapped in the different dimension of illusions. He did hear Uragiru mentioned something about Time Control magic, which must have meant the few minutes he and Marina spent in a different dimension must have meant time clocking faster in the real world.
He could see how magic is becoming a nuisance to life. He was now beginning to think the time for using magic was over. He now t
hought humanity must use their hand and muscle to find work and not use magic as a tool. Valverno was clearly seeing magic was becoming a forbidden tool humans shouldn’t ever use, for it could corrupt them.
And Valverno learned the birthplace of the power of magic comes from the Pool of Shadows, according to Uragiru. It was where the Titans first bathed in, which would have made brainwashed them into rebelling against the gods, as he heard in the stories. And maybe it is where Lusìvar was banished to, during his fight with the Crystal Dragon.
If Valverno could destroy the Pool of Shadows, then his current form could disappear as well and all the magic in the world would disappear as well.
Then he would go to think of the creatures. The Dragons with their fire-breathing breathes. The horns of the Unicorns with their healing abilities. He thought were they magic powers and he had wondered if their abilities natural for the creatures to use or were they unnatural like a snail out of its shell or a bird without its feathers.
As his thought pondered what would happen for the consequences, Geraldus pulled out the dagger Valverno gave to him. “And I found about this dagger you gave me,” said Geraldus. “It is not made from any caves or volcanic rock nor is it a natural rock.”
Valverno looked at the dagger, which he knew was the one that gave him the scar on his right eye. Sora too looked at the dagger.
The dagger was shining black with a red-purple dim across the blade’s fuller. Both the blade and the hilt stretched about a foot long, seven inches for the blade and the hilt five inches.
“This blade is made by some magical power source, but I don’t know what from. The blade certainly looks like it was made from black glass, which could be from obsidian (volcanic rock). However, it is not obsidian. This must be a substance of Lusìvar’s making.”
“A substance I intend to get rid of,” said a man’s voice.