Dusk of a Hybrid

by Ryan Johnson

  And once they were dead, the Snake Clan would be leaderless. And when the Snake Clan was leaderless, the clan would have no one else to turn to. He strongly believed the Snake Clan thinks of the “strongest thrive and the weak die” belief. By killing the clans, the soldiers of the clan would swear their loyalty to him and reject the leaders as weak beings.

  Then after he landed of hitting the three soldiers while he was in the air, he flew with great haste to the tallest tower. At first, he did have a good chance of entering the tower. However, the metal material the fortress resisted Valverno’s magic power, unable to make a hole yet alone a dent on a wall.

  Valverno had never seen such an incredible metal that was able to resist against his magic power. He was powerful yet the fortress’s walls made him think this fortress wasn’t manmade at all. He through the fortress was built by a different species, and for some reason the fortress reminded him of his old country home of Pangaea.

  He remembered his own home city, which still lays buried beneath the surface of Shimabellia, having towers very, very similar in great comparison to the ruined fortress’s towers. He still had only a few memories restored of Pangaea, but he still remembered like it was yesterday.

  However, it wasn’t the time for him to remember anything. At the current moment, he was flying over a giant bridge that wasn’t scratched or dented from his powerful blasts piled with sleeping soldiers, and he was in enemy territory. He did take note the soldiers he’d put to sleep were only a few hundred and there would be thousands of more elsewhere.

  He didn’t want to waste any time of finding the entire army and put them all to sleep; his main objective was to find the Council of Three and end them. Valverno felt there some a magic power flowing through the soldiers like puppets tied to magical strings. He was sniffing it like how a hunting dog can sniff the scent of an animal and track it from miles away. Valverno had the same ability but to sniff out magic.

  His nose was leading him to the tallest tower, and he flew through an archway that led into the tower. Once inside, a tall dark room stretch out and big enough to fit ten farm houses. On the walls ascending high, saw a grand staircase leading upward within the tower’s interior walls. The staircase rose as high as Valverno’s eyes can see, which meant the stairs led all the way to the top.

  Torches lit with green and blue fire hung on the walls lighting the way to the top. No open window or holes were shown on the walls. It was like a large prison cell that reached to a high point where a dark hole was set at the top. It would be a nightmare to reach the top floor while running on the staircase. The person would get tired very quickly reaching the top.

  But Valverno had his wings, so he wouldn’t have to take the stairs. He could fly to the top. With a wing flap, Valverno soared at a great and steady speed.

  While he was flying, he saw about four flat, squared platforms floating in the air and slowed his flying speed. Each was a quarter of the size of the tower’s interior wide room. Flying out of the way of those were to prove difficult to pass them.

  He soared out of the way of the platforms coming down to him, and there were about a dozen or so soldiers baring a snake head on their armor. They shot arrows and spears at the flying demigod.

  Valverno covered his entire body with his wings when a hundred arrows and spears were flung at him. His white glowing wings weren’t pierced by the flying sharp-pointy weapons and made great for armor. Hard like metal steel armor and lighter than a feather, Valverno’s wings had the great ability to protect his human torso from harm.

  After that, he unfolded his wings and used his hands to cast a large gush of ice at two of the four floating platforms. Those were turned into large ice glaciers and he made a long icy branch to connect those glaciers to the tower’s walls so they wouldn’t fall and kill the soldiers. The ice wouldn’t kill the soldiers, but put them into a great hibernation and be trapped in those ice cubes until Valverno would release at a later time.

  Then he soared beneath a third floating platform and used his mouth to blow more ice and connect that to another wall.

  Just after he did that, several arrows from the forth platform almost scratched the cheeks of his face and one was close to going through his neck. If it wasn’t for his helmet, he would have choked on a small stick caught in his throat.

  Then Valverno opened a hand high and pushed his hand to them, if he was pushing a high-five to them. This sent a windy power to the soldiers and pushed them off the platform and pounded them hard against the walls. Each of them fell to the staircase.

  After he wind-pushed the soldiers, he air-jumped to the fourth and final platform pounded it with his feet. He saw the square shaped thing falling down some hundreds of feet before making a loud crashing sound.

  He snorted at the loud and turned his eyes toward the top. “I hope that is all I need all the ‘fighting the minions’ I have to do,” sighed Valverno. Once again, he was flying at a steady speed.

  Within a matter of twenty seconds, he saw a flat surface and he stopped a small distance away. He reached the top floor of the tower. He raised his hands and smoldered out fire from his mouth and hands at the ceiling he was looking at for thirty long seconds.

  After his dragon-blowing fire blown against the metal, Valverno ceased his firing and gaze upon the metal ceiling; there was no hole, scratch, or dent. Whatever this metal the tower was made of was immune to his power. He was going have to enter it by the old-fashion way, by walking through a door.

  Valverno reached for the staircase and ran up all the way to the top. When he reached the top, he was looking upon a large door carved with human figures with long staffs. Each staff had a different colored jewel crested at the staff’s top. These displayed humanlike figures with long hair, curved ears, or strange faces that were animal-like.

  Valverno had no doubt about it at all: these carvings he saw were Pangaeans. This fortress is very much like his home city: a surviving remnant from Pangaea. This was made a second place Valverno visited that was built from his ancient home country.

  But he had no time to gaze around; he still had three people to meet and deal with. With one hard push of his hands, the doors swung open with ease. This caught him by surprise. He’d expected the door to be heavy or bombarded with heavy logs or just locked. These thoughts now made him feel like a welcome home guest.

  He entered into the room the door was opening to. The room Valverno was entering had a green glowing light contained within a glass orb hanging from the ceiling. A heavy clouded fog raised a foot high covering the floor and part of Valverno’s legs. A blue haze sparkled the walls and ceiling. Around him were tables or overflowing on shelves full of glass jars, and many were filled with human bones, mostly skulls. Valverno looked at a spooky horizon reminding him all too much to the laboratory he found and where he was used as a tool to make zombielike monsters.

  Now he wondered if they Council of Three are learned the knowledge of experimentation from Belverda. But how could they have learned it? He burned the book of complete failed experiments that failed to meet two scientists’ expectations. The only way they would have learned the knowledge was from the witch herself.

  Well, whoever gave them the knowledge about some nasty business, Valverno was still going to kill the three clan leader. Belverda had been killed for the inhuman acts she’s did, and now it seemed the leaders of the Snake Clan needed killed as well.

  Then Valverno stopped when he smelt the scent of a snake’s scent, but he could smell like there were three snakes large as a human figure. He twirled his eyes around and saw three people standing in tight corner.

  Now, he’s made it to the top floor and he saw the three people he was looking for, and they seemed to be waiting for him: the Council of Three, the three leaders of the Snake Clan.

  BATTLE WITH CLAN LEADERS

  Valverno gazed at the leaders of the Snake Clan who are looking b
ack at him. The four people in the tower’s top level room all glared at each other. This would be a defining moment for Valverno; the leaders of the Snake Clan were in his grasp and they were the last remaining people loyal to King Uragiru. By ending the lives of these leaders, the last of the king’s loyalists would be exterminated and he can focus on the last two threats: Lusivar and Teutates.

  During their staring contest, Valverno was the first to move a limp, by drawing out his sword. He swung it out fast and quickly as he was ready to fight. He saw the three men’s faces covered in hoods. They slowly walked to an empty spot of another corner where there were three long staffs with different colored jewels.

  From the distance, Valverno’s hybrid eyes saw the three leaders’ eyes in the shape of snakes. Their faces were mutated with snake skin covered in hoods. Valverno was seeing people that were once human but now traded their humanity to become humanoid snakes. The demigod was going to deal with monsters, not human beings.

  He was going have to deal with three humanoid snakes than regular humans. Even though he has armor on him and since, he didn’t have the genetic cells that once made his skin like armor, completely impenetrable. He has the weakness of a real human and vulnerable skin.

  “Sssso, the ssservent of godsss and demonsss hasss arrived,” hissed the three people.

  “Sssservent of godsssss that issss, sssmall men,” scoffed Valverno.

  “You dare mock ussss!?”

  “Yessss, I daressss to mock you, sssnake people. I am a demigod child of the Crystal Dragon and of the Pangaean sorcerer Celestreá la Mùne, even though I am born to a mortal father I know nothing about. And I can see you have made this ancient fortress as your domain. An old fortress no doubt one hundred percent pure made by the ancient Pangaeans long before the old country fell.”

  Valverno walked to a table filled with empty jars and looked at each one carefully. He could tell some dust resting inside each jar, which would mean they were filled with something. Then he looked on the ground, but he couldn’t tell what the floor was made of because of the fog blocking his way.

  After staring at several of the items the clan leaders closed themselves in, he looked back at the three men who are within reach of getting the staffs. Valverno once again saw from the distance the staffs were Pangaean like the carvings he saw on the door and the one Belverda had. The staffs were inserted on slots holding them to the wall, and he quickly took his eyes to an empty slot next to the other three staffs.

  Now Valverno knew where Belverda got her own staff: right in this room where the clan leaders of the Snake Clan leaders are.

  “And I can tell this fortress is meant to be a castle used for wars, but not like any other I’ve seen in my youth. I remember Pangaea well, if it was only yesterday. Buildings made out of white marble stone and towers ascending to the sky of each household each family lived in. I remember the happy memoires of the city I lived in, and it was the same with every other city, and all cities were the same thing.

  “But this place is the complete opposite of the others; this fortress is black and is meant to be used for war. Or it was used as a temple to worship Lusìvar. After all, he did rule for a time. Whatever this was originally meant for, its purpose was that for evil. And you three are in the place I can see were used for experiments, like how I was used as an experimental tool to bring monsters to life.”

  “All thanksss to your mother’ssss methodssss of exxxxxperimentation. During the time Lusssssìvar ruled with five dragonssss in the Northern Region, sssshe gave usssss the knowledge of exxxxperimentation. We were the only onessssss freeeees from the Dragon Lord and used our ssshipsss to take us to this fortress our ancesssstorssss kept secret for sssso long.

  “Thisss fortress wassss ussssed asss a sssecond laboratory for exxxxperiments. Built by the Dark Pangaeanssss that the peoplesss of the Sssnake Clan are desssscended from. Even though we had everything we thought we had, we still had limited knowledge of what methods to use. Ssso it has been abandoned for ssssso long, until your mother Belverda came and gave usss the methodsssss to exxxxperiment.”

  “Belverda isn’t my mother, and she’d never had been,” shouted Valverno, swinging his sword wildly and breaking many empty glass jars. “And the dragon was never my father. I. AM. VALVERNO. A demigod.”

  “A demigod and a failed sccccience experiment that couldn’t fight back assss an embryo. Belverda and Ralensssskrit were the onessss were gave you back life, and it wasss they who gave you gave great power you foolisssshly fortified.”

  “Power that made me a demon and then I used to summon the God of Shadows and cast away all the unnatural magic from this world and send to the Pool of Shadows. The magical abilities and DNA I had inserted into me from Belverda and Ralenskrit from dead creatures. Magical abilities I will never need in my life.”

  “Magical abilitiessss that gave you sssstrong ssskin to resist a piercccing ssspear of the firssst Minotaur you killed or when rocksss were collapssssing on you in a cave? You are indeed foolisssh of getting rid of ssssuch raw power.”

  “Power that made me into a monster instead of a Pangaean. Pangaeans and humans are two different species, both separated by a mere ten thousand year period. Yet they both have one thing in common: they’d rather show love to others than love themselves. So, of this modern age of two islands, I’d choose to be human than a monster like Lusìvar.”

  “If you’re implying ussss working for the Dragon Lord, you’re wrong. Weeesss don’t ssserve the Dragon Lord; we ssserve King Uragiru and him we only ssserve. It is the king’s wissssh to ssstab the Dragon Lord and takesss control of the Titansss. Itsss the will of Kingssss Uragiru. And we do what he ordersss uss to do.”

  Valverno felt the need to shrug the entire room with great fire. These people he was seeing were serving a dead king and were still seeking to carry out the order of a dead king. “You don’t know, do you? King Uragiru and With Belverda are dead!” Valverno placed a finger to his forehead and summoned out a memory of his past.

  A small liquidly glow drooled over Valverno’s finger and snapped it out. The glow rose from his hands and formed into a big cloud. In the cloud, images of past events were shown to the Snake Clan leaders. The memories Valverno showed were the ones he saw as big victories he accomplished with no regrets: the deaths of the king and the witch.

  The king Uragiru falling into the Pool of Shadows and exploding upon impact dangling with an undead monster, and Belverda falling from a cliff and having a rock crushing upon her.

  Then Valverno swung away the memory cloud and looked at the three people staring endlessly. He could tell this placed a sort amount of fear on the snake people’s heads. “You’d better take your chances with me instead of Lusìvar. I’d made everyone hear the king’s words of how he was pretending to be Lusìvar’s ally and planning backstabbing him. The ‘Dragon Lord’ withdrew his support from the king and hunt down whatever allies he has with the king.

  “So given a chance, he’d would have come here and kill you all in the worse way as possible. And the worst way possible I can think of: being put to the rack, with hot coals beneath your feet, and a knife slowly inch-by-inch going around your neck. This would be how Lusìvar will do away with anyone who is planning on trying to stab him in the back. It is, without a doubt, he will do this torturous technique onto the entire Snake Clan.

  ”Because as of now, you people are the last remaining people loyal to King Uragiru. And it will be I who will break these people free from your magic of brainwashing, snake leaders.

  “And you three: you are not Pangaeans like your ancestors may claim. Pangaeans use their elements of magic for purity and Light, never for Shadow using like you three are. The Snake Clan ends today and your use of Dark Pangaean magic ends today and this moment. Prepare yourselves for the judgment of the gods.”

  Valverno removed his helmet and flung it backwards. Long red hair fell around t
he edges of his neck and cheeks. He gripped the hilt with his hands and pointed the blade’s tip toward the snake people. He was staring back at them with the eyes of a lion hunting eyes stalking an unwary zebra.

  He aligned his wings around the sides of his human torso. The shape of his wings was wide enough to cover his entire body and used them two full layers of protection. He would go to use them as shield and armor and use his tail to counterattack weapon any opponent. For this case, he was going have to deal with three people that wouldn’t have human capabilities. They would have some magic power they could unleash and it would have to be related to Pangaean magic.

  The time he summoned Origenes, the god swept away all black magic in the world. This would have caused a great rift in the balance of magic powers of the two islands and beyond. Valverno knew the difference between good, natural magic and evil, unnatural magic: good magic lives off human emotion such as love and hope and black magic eat blood cells and consume the mortal body, making age faster like turning from a three-year-old to a thirty-year-old in five months.

  By getting rid of all the black magic in the world, there would be no one who would be able to bypass the Living Life. The only thing that remained was the good, natural magic, which he knows Pangaean magic was; it feeds on hope, love, kindness, and a true human heart. It could also be used to evil and feed on hatred, greed, and anger and this could change a person’s appearance greatly.

  Valverno had to be ready for anything with the three humanoid snake people may throw at him. Even though all unnatural magic has been swept from the islands and beyond, magic still existed and these three had some magic aura flowing in them. And he sensed they were telling the truth they were descended from ancient Pangaeans but ones with evil hearts.