by Ryan Johnson
“What about the armor?” asked Valverno, grimly.
“I found no trace of anything; only piles of Sirens resting in their eternal sleep. For the briefest moment, I felt there was a magical presence, but it was a faint one. If the armor artifact was there, it is long gone by now. And thanks to the special power I’ve inherited from Mother, I’ve managed to detect of what happened: the armor was there not too long ago. I’ve missed it. Months at most. Maybe a year. I’m sorry, Elder Brother; I couldn’t find what belong to you.”
Valverno sighed. He was so close at the end he tripped at the finish line. And this news meant one thing: Lusìvar took it before Valverno could find it. Valverno had gotten distracted by his duties to protect his people on Shimabellia he could have taken the time to search for it, and this time there may have been no monster defending the last artifact and it was in the open to take.
“What is this place?” asked Sora.
Valverno took some time to explain it was a fortress that dated back to the days of Pangaea or the final days before Pangaea met its catastrophic end. He mentioned it was a fortress that was going to be used by the Snake Clan maybe to invade Shimabellia with a large fleet and weapons that the Crystal Sword couldn’t break.
Valverno finished his explanation that the Snake Clan was now the Lizard Clan, and how the soldiers were brainwashed slaves who now gave their loyalty to him. He sent the entire clan and the large fleet to guard the Seaport City. He goes to say they have another ally and that Lusìvar and Teutates remained the last opponents.
Sora smiled. She descended down to a mountaintop far from the fortress and Valverno followed after her. Sora walked over to sit on a boulder that was in the middle of a mountaintop. She motioned Valverno to come sit by her, and Valverno couldn’t refuse his younger sister’s motioning invitation and he folded his wings inward so they had room to sit on a narrow boulder.
Both siblings sat down next to each other and Sora’s rested her head over Valverno’s shoulder, which case he felt Sora was changing into the kind of girl Marina was to him.
“Do you remember the time Mother always took us out of the city?” asked Sora. “How many times we went on picnics? With all the delicious food that Mother made from her own power, not fruit from trees or bacon from pigs? Don’t you remember all those memories from when we were kids?”
“I remember those memories well, Sora,” said Valverno, motioning his hand over on Sora’s shoulder. “I can’t ever forget them. Mother. Your father, despite not being my blood-father. All our Pangaean friends. Comrades. And Pangaea itself. All those memories are still fresh, if they did happen yesterday.”
“And yesterday, we had everything we’d never needed. And today, there’s only… us. Sora, the White Knight of Charity. And Valverno, the Demigod of the Mortal Realm. The last two Pangaeans. Even though Flavius is descended from a Pangaean White Knight, he doesn’t carry the blood of a Pangaean but only the magic power.
“I miss Pangaea so much I want to roll back time and cast an everlasting spell that make by the same day happen again and again and again and on without end. The happiest day would have been the day before the birthday Pangaea met its end and all the people with it. What life would have been like to this day if it weren’t getting destroyed.”
Both Valverno and Sora remembered the peaceful days Pangaea had, and there was no violence anywhere to be seen. The day both half-siblings were remembering was a day they went was a special day; it was Sora’s birthday.
Valverno and Sora were considerable kids. Their age differences were greatly different than human age; Pangaeans could live up to thousands of years and humans less or slightly more than a century. Both of them would have been a few hundred years old. In human years, Valverno would have been sixteen and Sora would be ten or twelve.
Valverno, Sora, their Mother, and the Sora’s father (Valverno’s step father) were in their home city near a fountain. Valverno was giving Sora a cute little doll and dressed in a white robe. It was painted to look like a human figure, and Sora was relatively happy when she received her gift from her brother. The happy family spent the entire day by the fountain and wishing Sora the best on her birthday.
As the day spun from light to night, they went home and the kids were snuggling into bed. Then, at the dawn of the next day, there was an earthquake. Both siblings were awakened by the earthquake and their parents came running to them. They said there was no time to explain, seeing there was only seconds to certain death. Both parents used their magic and life force to make a magic bubble around them and lifted them into the sky.
Sora cried loudly as both she and Valverno saw their parents waving goodbye to them and tearing out of how good their kids were. Then the protection bubble soared into the sky to see the entire city crumpling into the ground. And they weren’t the only ones; three more Pangaean children came rising with them and the others below weren’t so lucky.
The five Pangaean children watched in horror as their home city being buried deep into the earth with lands of water and terraforming land emerging over to cover the entire land of Pangaea. After several minutes of watching the destruction of an old land and the birth of two islands and a large mass of sea, the protection bubbles floated down to a young, primitive state of Shimabellia where there were only a few plants, animals, and humans.
Pangaea’s destruction and the rise of two small islands all happened in just less than an hour, and the end of the Second Generation of Living Life and the beginning of the new Third Generation of Living Life.
And that was the day Valverno took charge as a Demigod and led his sister and their friends to a new age where they battled the Dark Pangaeans trying to get an advantage over ancient life. Now it was just Sora and Valverno sitting on a rock remembering the good, old time were the best of years than what was happening to them at the current present.
“You know, Sora; there are just times we need to let go of the past and look toward the future,” Valverno with a small smile. He pressed his hand tighter around Sora’s shoulder as a way to comfort of the last two days they spent in Pangaea: her birthday being the last day of family happiness and the next morning being dreadful.
“And today is a gift, which is why it is called the present. Even though tomorrow is a mystery, there is no telling what may happen. We still have a tough time ahead. Now let’s go back to the capital city and see how the queen is holding up. I want to make sure Marina isn’t feeling lonely.”
Sora lifted her head from Valverno’s shoulder and stood right back up. Valverno followed after, and he widened his wings from their folded position.
Sora had her own set of wings, a pair of white feathered wings not resembling anything like Valverno’s dragon, batlike wings. She widened them out and both were going to take off with each other.
“So happy to see the last two Pangaeans having their family bonding time together,” said a dementing voice.
Sora and Valverno halted suddenly before their feet could leave the ground from one inch. That voice they heard sounded too familiar to one certain specimen they were fighting to get rid of: Lusìvar.
They spun and drew out their weapons to see where the evil Spirit was lurking. Instead of seeing a floating black cloud, they saw a tall, board, dark grey skinned humanlike figure. Red hair stretched into a thin ponytail. Red veins that sparked like fire flowed across his grey skin. His face had a large nose, a large mouth with grunted teeth showing, and large ears. A small piece of armor with three white tusks was strapped to his left shoulder. He wore a golden pareos around his chest and a long drape that hung between his legs from the pareos’ center.
Valverno exhaled a heating steam from his mouth; it was Lusìvar in his true physical form!
THE ENEMY’S TRUE FORM
Lusìvar’s true form has been revealed to Valverno and Sora. Both Pangaeans were looking at the ancient Titan in his true, profound form.
He had the characteristics of a human, but his skin was as dark as the night sky. His appearance was much larger than they thought him to be.
Speak for one not to judge a book by its cover, Sora and Valverno could tell Lusìvar’s personality could be judged by his appearance.
“What a loving time you two were having, and how you were remembering how your home was destroyed,” said Lusìvar, smiling. “And thanks to you, demigod, I can now become King of the Titans. And thanks to you for summoning the God of Shadows, Origenes, to cast away all black magic back to the Pool of Shadows. I have managed to regain my physical form residing from the Pool of Shadow for so long.
“Thanks to you, Valverno; you have killed both the witch and the king planning to betray me. You managed to do everything for me. Trying to regain a new form, kill two traitors, have the ultimate power to rule over mortals small as ants, and be able to release the Titans from their prison they have been forever bound in.”
“Releasing the Titans?” scoffed Valverno. “I haven’t released them from their prison. And there is still time before the moons collide with the sun, making a solar eclipse or a Harmonic Convergence. And the time that would happen is on the Summer Solstice.
“This is still spring and summer isn’t for another few months. There is still enough time to find what I’m looking for and Teutates is going to be at the ends of his rope. Days are going to be limited for you and him, even if you’re going to be enemies or allies.”
“You think you have the advantage now?” asked Lusìvar. He gave a small laugh. “You are such a young fool. You may think you may be on your way to finding the last armor artifact, and that having four clans and an island on your side will be enough to stop me.”
The man stroked his chin with sheer delight. There was a facial lust appearing in his eyes, a great lust that craves the power Valverno has, a power given to him by the Crystal Dragon.
“You know about the armor and where it is!” exclaimed Sora. “Which is why I wasn’t able to find it. You stole it away and hid it somewhere else. You know where it is. You’re afraid, because while my brother was occupied with royal duties, you manage to go in front and steal it. You’re afraid that when Valverno caught the first two and got two-thirds of his power back.”
“Now, why would I be afraid, little girl?” asked Lusìvar. The large man walked a little closer to the two Pangaeans holding their weapons, which each blade had burst into a firelike energized waving cloud. “I am simply denying this hybrid’s ability to grow stronger than me. He and you had your time to be alive and lived your lives to the fullest. Now, it’s time for—”
“All three of us to die,” interrupted Valverno.
“What?”
“You heard me, Lusìvar, all three of us. You. Me. And Sora.”
“Brother! You said don’t mean that!”
“I do mean it! Pangaeans went extinct ten thousand years ago. Titans went extinct… who knows how long. Titans and Pangaeans, like us three, shouldn’t be alive; we should be dead. But why weren’t we dead? I don’t know. The will of the gods? Our own will? Our parents’ will to stay alive and help grow a new generation of life?
“It is quite mysterious how alive we ancient beings can be. Whosever will it is for us to live, whatever it be our parents or the gods will, we are living and breathing.”
Sora and Lusìvar were gazing at the demigod telling a pure, horror truth of their own existence. There was a small fracture of horror reflecting in Lusìvar’s evil eyes, and Sora wasn’t emotional when Valverno was speaking of the truth.
“Those born and created in the Mortal Realm are doomed to die. Titans and Pangaeans had their time in the Mortal Realm. Each was separated by a different Generation. Titans were the First Generation, and the Pangaeans were the Second Generation. Now, it’s the humans’ and the creatures’ turn to live, as part of the Third Generation.
“We three must die. Two Pangaeans and one Titan on the surface world must die. And when we three die, the imprisoned Titans will end up dying, for they are mortals as well. We had our chances to live. When the mortal dies, they are reincarnated into the next world. And the first that must go is the Titan.”
Valverno plunged his sword into the two halves he ended up holding in two hands. “Sora, head back to the capital city and protect Marina. Don’t let any harm come to her.”
“But Valverno, you’re still considered weak against him. No matter how many times you battled him, he couldn’t get a scratched.”
“Unlike previous times, my dear sister, he was a ghost. Now, he is back in his physical form; a form that can die. His body was in the Pool of Shadows of the longest of a long time. This is a great opportunity to finish him. And he won’t tell us where he hid the final artifact. Now go!”
Sora sighed. She lost her mother and father and millions of Pangaeans she remembered by their faces and names, and she didn’t want to lose her brother: her last family member. But she did find more family: Marina and Flavius. “Very well. Just promise me one thing.”
“What?” asked Valverno, keeping his eyes on Lusìvar.
“Survive!”
Then Valverno took the risk and turned his head to Sora and smiled. “I promise I’ll get back alive with a few scars or no scars.”
Sora smiled and nodded her head. Then her feathered wings widened out and soared into the air. With a speed that was half of Valverno’s flying speed, Sora drifted away.
“Watching family depart is so bittersweet it makes me want to cry,” said Lusìvar, with a vile smile.
“You had your greatest chance to attack me, Lusìvar. You didn’t attack. So you are not cold-hearted as I thought you are. For the briefest moment, I thought you were going to attack and kill me and Sora, but you didn’t. Without me in the way, the islands and the residents would have been yours to command at once, but you didn’t. You failed to take the many of what could have been an easy victory to you. If you were standing where I was and I would have been the Shadow King, I would have slain you the moment your head turned away. Some evil, vile, dementing, ruthless Shadow King you turned out to be, ‘Shadow King ‘Lusìvar.”
Lusìvar’s smiled faded into a maddening look. “Don’t you dare mock me, hybrid. My father was the Titan King.”
“And it was I who sent him crumbling down into the Pool of Shadows where he will never come out of. The Pool of Shadows is a deep, bottomless pit of everlasting black water. There is no bottom to the Pool, because it keeps going deeper and deeper and deeper without end. What more could I want with him while he drowns endlessly, at this current moment, in the Pool? Nothing! You’re my main goal. The gods gave me a sacred mission to do, and I will draw you into their Realm, and they will sentence you for the vile deed you have committed. I don’t need the third armor artifact; I only need to kill you and end the Titans once and for all.”
Valverno widened out his wings and spread out his swords. He moved his right leg diagonally from his left foot. He slivered his tail like rattlesnake.
Lusìvar gave soft “Hmph” sound and moved aside. Behind him, a human with two knives drawn. This man Valverno knew at first sight and the man who gave Valverno a scar on his eye: the Fluting Piper.
Valverno smiled to see an old opponent coming under the command of the true master the Piper was truly serving. Valverno saw the Piper didn’t change much, other than the scar he gave some many years ago when Valverno was still living in Geraldus’s village. He gave the Piper a scar, and the Piper gave a scar back to Valverno, so they were even.
Normally, Valverno would wanted to blow fire at sight or send out a strong wave of gushing wind to make the Piper fly into the air and let gravity to pull the Piper back to the ground. No, Valverno couldn’t do anything to the Piper.
Despite the Piper being an enemy, Valverno was highly respecting the Piper for how capable he can withstand against the hybrid. Both had been fighting
more than Valverno had been fighting Lusìvar. Valverno was respecting of how a warrior the Piper was, and both gave each other a scar for life.
At this sight, Valverno was pleased to see an enemy he could respect, even if the Piper had to use a flute to drag children away or serve different masters.
“You looked pleased to see an old enemy,” said Lusìvar.
“Yes, someone I can respect more than you, Lusìvar. I gave him a scar and he gave me one back. Anyone who ended up crossing my path ended up dying, expect you and him. Unlike you, I’d say he as the skill of stealthy and has a great reflex ability. I could respect him for having lived this long without dying by my skill and power.
“You, however, I just can’t find a way to respect you. You are always in your ghost form and drifting from one place to another like a cloud in the sky. But now maybe I can: you have your body. Now, let’s see if you deserve the respect of me, the respect of a demigod.”
“It will be my greatest pleasure to end your life,” said Lusìvar. The Shadow King pulled out a long scabbard with a glowing hilt shaped like a spider: four spikes on the pommel and four on the crossguard. Then Lusìvar grabbed hold of the hilt and pulled out a pull long red blade glowing like a bright ruby if it was made from active red-orange lava.
“Then let’s get this started,” shouted Valverno. The demigod was the first to move and he jumped off using his left foot. He slammed his sword directly on Lusìvar’s sword, which sent him backwards.
Lusìvar left behind two long dirt markings like trenches in the ground, which were made from his feet while standing on the ground.
The Fluting Piper rolled out of the way and charged toward Valverno. Valverno had two long swords and the Piper had two short knives slashing at each other. Valverno was on the defense swinging both swords in many angles at once to keep the small knives away. Valverno saw the Piper’s knives weren’t the same ones that had scarred his eye, but more normal knives not made from the Pool of Shadows or magically created.
