by Ryan Johnson
Galvin knelt on both his legs and bent his head down. “And you have my undying loyalty, Ruler of Shimabellia and Isla Maeli. From this day and until the day I die. No matter who claims to be another ruler or may deem themselves a king or queen, you are my ruler.”
Valverno stared at the bowing Galvin. The words Galvin pledged could have been the same words he said to King Uragiru when he was. But Valverno was not trusting the words of a man had already shown his loyalty to a dead king.
For what Valverno could know, Galvin was acting as a double agent. He could be working for Lusìvar or to King Uragiru, even though the king is dead.
“Well, Galvin,” said Valverno, stroking his chin. “I’ll have you under watch in this city, for the time being. For the moment, I’m not going to trust a word you say. So, I’m going to take a leap of faith of this event and make you a guard serving under this city. For the time being, you’re going to serve of a city guard to this city instead of a soldier fighting on the front lines of battle, since there are no more loyalists to King Uragiru. Stand up, city guard.”
Galvin quickly stood up and looked down at Valverno. From the height, Valverno saw Galvin was a foot shorter than Lusìvar but the man was still pretty tall and could take on a battalion of men.
“Get yourself some weapons and start guarding the city’s streets,” ordered Valverno.
“Yes, sir,” said Galvin. The big man left without saying another word.
Sora, Marina, and Valverno saw Galvin walking away and out of their sight. Marina gave Valverno a glare. “Is that okay?” asked Marina, sternly. “He makes me want to cringe, even if he did travel with you and me to the Northern Region.”
“But look at his size,” said Sora. “Executing a tall man like him would be wasteful. I’ve been around this island and haven’t seen anyone tall as him. That man, Galvin, may come in handy when war ever erupts. He could take on thousands of men at once.”
“It is rather a risk I’m taking with him,” said Valverno. “Time will tell if he will useful to me when it comes to fighting Lusìvar or Teutates. Or it will happen the other way around, which he would be useful to those two people and comes trying to kill to me.
“And before we get off track, there is something I must do,” Valverno moved the hilt of the Crystal Sword closer to his eyes. He turned to show Sora and Marina the blood drops he had from Lusìvar. “Behold, blood from Lusìvar.”
“What did you try to do?” asked Marina. “Try to smash his head with the hilt?”
“No, there are other ways to find something,” Valverno said. “There are other ways to find a lost item or play find-and-seek.”
“By drinking the blood of a victim?” asked Sora. “I knew I was right: you are becoming a blood-sucking Demon the gods have chosen you to be.”
Valverno dropped his arm while still hanging onto the sword without dropping it from his grip and stared at the two girls making fun of him. “No, Sora. No, Marina. I can access someone else’s memories and see what thing they have done in their entire lives. All I need is a blood sample or a drop of a single blood cell to see what memories they hide. All blood I touch can give me have access to the memoires of a person’s mind. I found blood can also carry memory cells from that individual.
“And this individual is none other than Lusìvar, who happens to be pretty much bigger than Galvin. Once I find the memory cells implanted in these few blood stains, I’ll be able to trace the memory of the last armor artifact to its new state of origin.
“And I’ll be able to reuse my divine power and use it against Lusìvar and finally end him once and for all. And the last seven surviving Titans will still be imprisoned and there will be no one to get them out. Victory looks like within an arm’s reach.”
Valverno once again placed the hilt in front of his eyes, holding it in his left hand. With his right hand, he used his index finger to touch one of the few blood drops stained on the hilt of the Crystal Sword.
In his mind, Valverno felt a crushing force of an evil darkness. Black clouds clapped with black thunder. Many chanting voices echoed in a language that wasn’t make sense.
There were a lot of things many inside a blood sample from a specimen. Lusìvar was right about something he did mention before: Titans seemed to have more power than Valverno ever thought possible.
Through his best efforts, Valverno tried to penetrate deep within the blood sample to access the memory cells. With this power, it was at most trying to penetrate through a wall made of pure solid metal instead of concreate rock. There was a powerful force trying to resist Valverno from trying to see where Lusìvar had hidden the last armor artifact.
It was if the blood itself was alive and fighting back to prevent Valverno from entering. Valverno’s power of his consciousness was overwhelming his mortal body it felt like his lungs were having internal bleeding.
After many long minutes of a great battle of consciousness, Valverno could see a fainted image of one of the islands: it was Isla Maeli. He had just left that island behind. A single dot was pointing at a northwestern point of the island and a shadowy image of a large, wide tree with thousands of braches. Then the image faded quickly and Valverno found himself back in reality.
He felt a sudden headache. One of his eyes had a blurred vision, and the other eye was unharmed. His hands shook vigorously he lost his grip of the Crystal Sword and dropped it. He legs were numb and couldn’t move them. He had never experienced such a battle from someone else’s consciousness, even if it was a just one drop of blood.
After a while, Valverno regained the vision on his blinded eye and saw Marina and Sora with worried faces.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen while I was out?”
“You looked like you were choking on a string of hair,” said Sora. “Are you alright? Your nose is bleeding.”
Valverno gulped and wiped his nose with his a finger of his hand. There was red blood he saw on his hand, and his nose was bleeding a lot of blood. Quickly, Valverno ripped a membrane of his wing off and rolled it like paper to cover his bleeding nose. He was breathing through the mouth to get the air he needed to stay while staying alive; he didn’t want to die suffocating.
“Well, other than having some soreness, I’m a bit on the living side,” Valverno said with a soggy voice. “Otherwise, I would have been lying on the ground dead as a doornail.”
Sora and Marina sighed with relief. Their darling demigod was okay, despite the fact they were seeing his head and body shaking a lot, if he was being possessed by a ghost.
“That’s a relief,” said Marina. “I wouldn’t want to lose you. I’m going to need help blossoming three planted seeds if they are to grow, with help from a little water and a little sunlight.”
Valverno blinked. “You planted three seeds? Did you start a surprise garden with only three seeds? But how can I help you when you said you only need sunlight and water to help them blossom? That’s what seeds need when growing from the dirt: sunlight and water. But if you need help starting a bigger garden, I’ll gladly help you make a bigger garden or Sora could help you.”
“I don’t mean by an outside garden with roses and plants,” argued Marina. “I meant I need your help to make three seeds within me to blossom if they are to breathe the air you and I breathe, my darling demigod husband.”
Valverno was now confused. A garden is an outside area where plants with green leaves and beautiful, colored flowers and roses grew. Seeds are what plants grow from, and Marina is saying she hasn’t made a garden but has three seeds within her.
“What do you mean ‘seeds within you’, Marina? Plants grow from seeds like how humans grow from babies. And to say you have seeds is like… saying…” Valverno paused for a moment, and a strange thought was occurring to him and his face went from confusion to great shock.
Before he could finish what he was saying, he looked at Marina wit
h a blank look. “Answer me this, are you… pregnant? With kids?”
“Your kids!” answered Marina, smiling very big.
Valverno’s wings had widened by this great surprise of what is considered a lifetime surprise: Valverno was going to be a father of three kids.
OVERWHELMING NEWS
Valverno felt his legs shaking he dropped to his knees. His hand holding the little paper-like membrane of his wing dropped, and the blood bleeding from his nose stopped. Of all the strangest, good, bad, odd news he has ever in his life, this news was very overwhelming for him: he was going to be the father of three kids. He couldn’t help but smile at this news; he was going to be a father and Marina was going to be a mother of triplets.
Sora gasped at the news. She was smiling with her mouth wide open. She was making gleefully noises and couldn’t stop making them.
“I am… going to be… a father… of triplets with a Siren,” Valverno gasped.
“And I am going to be an aunt of three kids,” said Sora.
After a while, Valverno managed to stand back up on his legs and brushed off any dirt that may have been. After he was done brushing off any dirt, Valverno picked up the Crystal Sword and placed it back in its scabbard. This was such wonderful news he has heard all his life.
The demigod was happy to hear about three newborn kids within Marina, but when he looked at Marina, she wasn’t showing any signs of being pregnant. Her belly was thin as thin could get. But no matter to Valverno; Marina was a Siren. Her anatomy would be completely different from a human.
“Oh, Marina, I don’t know what to say but I am rather proud of this news,” said Valverno. Valverno smiled with the greatest happiness he has have heard. Through his lifetime, he lost old faces of Pangaea. But with lost faces comes new faces. He has Marina and three new kids to come. Sora was with him, along with Flavius and his family.
He lost one family but gained a new family of a new age of a new Generation of Living Life.
“By the Three Gods,” said Sora. “I am starting to wish to have kids of my own. Little darling children everywhere. Hearing their loud screams. Seeing their cute, little innocent eyes. Watching them grow from small, crying babies to full grown kids. It would be the time of my life like how I spent time with Mother.”
Valverno could feel his sister’s heart starting to beat faster, if she was having a heart attack. Valverno could hear soft beating of hearts-pumping within Marina. His ears picked up the sounds of faint breathing coming from Marina. The demigod could use his eyes to see into Marina, but he thought that would be too spying and sensitive to do, so listening with his hybrid ears was going to be enough.
The demigod could feel the presence of three embryos growing within Marina. Now there was the future he was thinking of. How were the kids going to look? He was a hybrid of a dragon and a mortal Pangaean, and she was a Siren. The hybrid child of a two crosspieces had done crosspieces with a Siren, and those kids may turn up to be hybrids like Valverno. One may be a Siren, one a form like Valverno, or one may be half dragon and half Siren.
Valverno’s triplet children could be three different hybrids, and he may not know how to take care of them. He had thought their children could be Pangaeans like him and Sora, and not be hybrids at all.
However, he was going have to wait of what the children would look when it was time for Marina to give birth. For the not-so-distant future, there were still the threat of Lusìvar and Teutates. Valverno wouldn’t too worry about Teutates who was a human and wouldn’t ever think of using the power of the White Knight.
But Lusìvar would be more of a threat than a distant relative of the dead King Uragiru. Lusìvar was a Titan with formidable power like a deadly disease. The future would look dim, if Valverno’s triplet kids were born into the world of the living.
He remembered Lusìvar issuing a warning about when Valverno would find the last armor artifact something bad will happen that would make Valverno feel the sense of being useless and being driven into a great despair. Valverno hid a fearful thought from Marina and Sora, thinking Lusìvar must know of Valverno having kids and might try to do something to them.
Valverno wasn’t going to let that happen to his future kids. He was going to be the father his kids they needed him to be. He had never known his mortal father before he ended up becoming the new son of a god. And he wasn’t going away to leave his Siren wife alone to raise three kids. Valverno was going to properly raise his kids like a good, natural father and watch them grow up.
But he could do that, Lusìvar would need to be sent to the Realm of the Gods. And before he would forget, he coughed to get the girls’ attention. “Speaking of good news,” said Valverno, “I know where the last armor artifact is.”
“You do? Where?” said both girls, at once.
“It was difficult to retrieve but it is on the island of Isla Maeli. Somewhere in the far northwestern corner of that island. The armor is as good as mine, and Lusìvar is good as being buried deep into the sea. Victory is on the horizon of a great and beautiful dawn.”
“Then let’s go get it,” said Sora. “You and I can go get it right now.”
“Go and get it without the other White Knights?” asked Valverno. “I barely manage to escape Lusìvar, and he is going to be out of your league. Not to mention I saw him with the Fluting Piper, and he still has the four Shadow Men. I’m going to need the help of the two Knight Knights yet alone the one who is Strength. I don’t want to go rushing into without a proper plan than just you and me, Sora.”
“Then how do you propose we go then?” asked Sora. “You really don’t want to bring Marina into enemy territory, even if she does fight while being pregnant with three seeds. Flavius is in his hometown, and I believe Monico is there as well.
“We’ll both go and get the other two. We’ll charge right toward that spot you have found and attached the last armor artifact right on your chest and your divine power will be used once again.”
“We could but I would want to recommend caution while going there,” said Valverno, with a serious look.
“What the matter with you, Elder Brother? You always like go charging into battle without thinking, even when we were kids? What is making you look so gloomy?”
Valverno mentioned Lusìvar gave an ill warning about something dreadful that laid happen, and Valverno will have the feeling of becoming useless and get the dreadful feeling of taking his own life.
Marina and Sora looked glum of what Valverno said them so the same thing he was told by Lusìvar.
“Do you believe him of what he did say from his own mouth, dear?” asked Marina.
“I don’t know what he may have meant by that, but it is something evil and vile no doubt. Something vile and evil it would make the Five-Headed Dragon look like a giant toy. For the time being, let’s tell everyone in Flavius’s village about this wonderful news.”
“Just the village?” asked Sora.
“Just the village. This is a happy day and so let it be one. And the first thing we’ll do at dawn, I and the White Knights will fly to the spot Lusivar is hiding the last armor artifact and retrieve it. And that would mean, tomorrow will be the fateful day of not just our lives, but all lives on the island. Will I win and save this world from the Shadow King’s wrathful rule or will the Shadow King forever rule this place?
“Let today be a special day if it was the last good day of our lives and let tomorrow be the fateful day that will be day our future will be decided.”
“Alright then,” cheered Sora, with a big smile. The White Knight of Charity bloomed out her feathered wings and was ready to fly.
Valverno grabbed and held Marina in his arms, and she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck. With a small smile Marina gave, the demigod floated into the air and at a slow paste. He didn’t want to scare the little seeds in Marina. He wanted them to know what flight felt like a
nd not be scared of heights while growing from within a beautiful Siren.
“What’s with the slowness?” asked Marina.
“Just trying to make sure the little seeds don’t get scared from their first flight,” answered Valverno, kissing Marina on her forehead. “The kids might get scared, and this is their first flight. Just like newborn babies trying to take their first steps of trying to walk on their own two little feet, this flying needs to be a small step into the feeling of flight.”
“Good then. I wouldn’t want the three little seeds being scared of their first flight. And from what I’m feeling, they’re starting to like it. I’ll tell you when they get scared, and I can be sure their telling me they want their daddy to go fast than a fox running over seas and mountains.”
“If my kids want me to fly that badly, then I’ll give them the spend they want to feel.” Valverno inhaled first before exhaling through his mouth. He placed his helmet back on his head quickly. Then his eyes turned to the southwest and took off at a great speed.
Sora shook her head and followed after them. Her flight power was half the speed of Valverno’s speed.
BACK AT HOME
Valverno was slowing his speed when his home village came into view. His speed was really fast he could fly around the island ten times in a matter of fifteen minutes.
It was a sheer look when the village had come into their eyes. Valverno halted in the air while he saw the village’s people working out in the wheat fields. He could see life in this village still remained the same: the people doing their daily duties since the days he lived in the village when Geraldus was alive.
He was glad to see nothing has changed since the last time he was here. But he wondered how the twin boys were doing. The twin trouble makers, Arron and Nerio, would always be the reason why Valverno would never leave the village. He would always be the one to stop the boys and preventing them from doing something nasty.
