by Ryan Johnson
Valverno clapped his hands together and everything went silent.
Darkness stirred the underground world.
Then a small glimpse of light spurred from the ceiling covering the city from the surface world. White-blue rays of light glimmered through the crevasse. Natural light from the world above the buried city shined through the darkness and the city was shown again, without the use of magic-using or any manmade fire.
Most of the light was reflecting toward of what-would-be-the-northern side of the city.
“So let the fire die and let the light be reborn,” said Valverno.
“That’s good,” muttered Sora.
The hybrid shuddered his shoulders. “I don’t know, but I have a feeling we have entered a different dimension.”
“I am having the same feeling, too,” said Sora, “but it just maybe I’m just using my imagination.”
Valverno studied where how wide the lightness was glimmering and how far it spread. It looked like a river flowing from the ceiling of the underground city but without the water. Instead of a thin light pointing to a single spot, this was a far stretch light spreading out too long to locate the exact spot for the next armor artifact, but at least he knew where to go.
Looking ahead of them, Valverno took the first time in the right direction he where he would find the next armor artifact he would reattach to his body.
A howl echoed in the dimming lightness. Shivering and scary as an owl hooting under a blankness night, many howls roared across the city.
Then glittering eyes glaring like a lion preying in the night popped from the empty buildings. Hissing and whispering growls hurled and teeth were heard chopping and metals of manmade weapons banged through the ears of the people.
Just then the eyes grew from glow-in-the-dark floating like fireflies to full bodied, two-to-four legged, multihued-headed creatures. Each took a different form with different legs with horses’ legs on a Minotaur’s body or a Centaur with half a body of a horse and a bull. Or even Basilisks with the head of a chicken but the wings of a baby Pegasus and a snake tail with human’s hair at the pointy end.
Many different creatures had different body parts of different mythical creatures that appeared to have been sowed.
Valverno looked in horror as his gazed into the eyes of dozens to hundreds of these multi-bodied creatures. He just knew what these creatures were: the Soulless Beasts created by the two scientists that experimented on Valverno: Ralenskrit and Belverda. He wasn’t expecting to see these monsters coming out to greet them with warm smiles and kindred hearts.
““Now the welcoming party comes out to greet their house guests?” asked Sora. The young girl held her two kukri knives. Magically, white armor appeared on her body. Shoulder plated armor shined over her left shoulder and gauntlet worn over her bare hands. A short white cape draped over her right shoulder. Around her front was cuirass that was strapped with the shoulder armor. Sora’s legs had high leather boots. From her waist, she wore a pteruges, which is a skirt with leather fabrics cut into several straps. “This White Knight of Charity is ready to give some cutting presents to these bad monsters.”
Valverno was excited to see Sora in her White Knight uniform. If he had the other three, Strength, Loyalty, and Trust, then he and they would be able to plow right through this giant crowd surrounding the small group. He himself widened his arms and let a solar energy run on his spinal spikes: the same energy he used to kill his first Minotaur.
“Who would have thought these undead creatures would be crawling up to us?” said Geraldus. Geraldus pulled out his spear and pointed at the undead creatures.
The Griffin flickered his wings and hawked like a real eagle, and Marina readied her bow and pulled three arrows on the bow’s string.
Sora looked at Geraldus, who was armed with a spear. She saw him spinning the spear around a few times with such great skill. Then Sora looked at the Griffin, which she saw looked like a predator’s eyes on its next meal. Lastly, she saw her sister-in-law, Marina, getting ready to shoot three enemies with just three arrows. Having an idea in mind, Sora tipped a finger on Marina’s shoulder.
“What do you want right now?” asked Marina, feeling her shoulder being lightly touched. “Can’t you see we’re busy?” Marina had her eyes on the surrounding animals inching closer to her and her husband. Marina wasn’t going to risk the sister of Valverno to disrupt the Siren’s consecration.
“I can upgrade your bow with my power,” said Sora. “You’re arrows made from wood aren’t going to be enough.”
Valverno was hearing that another bitter argument was happening between Sora and Marina. This wasn’t something he needed since he was seeing so many of these experimented creatures coming toward the group. Needing to take necessary action, Valverno spoke to Marina, “Just give her your bow.”
“But, Vaeludar,” Marina tried to argue.
“I am your husband: just do it!” Valverno shouted at the disgusted name he never wanted to be named again. “Give Sora your bow quickly so she could upgrade it. After all, I am your husband and Sora is my sister. Start treating her if was your sister.”
Marina grunted and shook her head in disbelief. She unquivered her arrows and pointed her bow to Sora.
Sora quickly dropped one of her twin knives and grabbed Marina bow. With the weird looking bow in her hand, Sora tapped the other knife in her other hand on the bow thrice. With each tap, a light glazed on the bow suddenly.
In a matter of seconds, the bow went to a bow made from trees to a bow made from metal. The newly, transformed metal bow glowed bright like Sora’s armor.
Sora looked at the curved edges and saw them as fish heads holding the string in place. Sora was pleased with this magically transformation and handed it back to Marina. “There we go. Try this bow without using your arrows to put on the string. All you have to do is pull the string.”
Marina hesitantly looked at the prowling monsters and her bow, which she was thinking had been downgraded to a rusty old bow. Without a moment’s noticed, Marina took back her upgraded bow and pull back on the string like Sora instructed, without attaching any arrows on the string Marina was pulling back.
Suddenly, an spiky straight arrow, which was shimmered white as snow and yellow as the sun, appeared on Marina’s hand as soon she pulled the string back. To Marina’s surprise, it seemed Sora was right, but now the question was: will it work?
Marina released the arrow from her hand and let to fly out. The bright arrow went soaring straight ward and went through many creatures at once. A large energy was also unleashed from Marina’s hands, which when released the arrow. It was a magic ability created and sent many of these creatures flying into the air and into the surrounding buildings.
Marina looked shocked as she was surprised to see this bow had been upgraded, and it felt lighter than the wooden bow. With this bow, the Siren could show some female fish power when undead creatures would try to come crawling to her feet. She pulled the string again and shot two more arrows in two different directions.
The two arrows had appeared from thin air on Marina’s hand and the string she pulled back, released from the Siren’s hand, and launched toward the enemies that were brought from the dead using her husband’s blood. Every enemy the arrows shot through sent those creatures back to the buildings, plowing right through the large crowds.
All the creatures still standing growled and slowly began to pull away from this unexpected turn of events.
Valverno smiled, loosening the solar energy running on the spikes on his spinal cord of his back. “Now that is what I call female power. My sister shares some of her White Knight power to a bow, and my wife uses the bow without consuming any life energy. What a great family this is turning out to be. But come, I have a feeling they’ll be back. Let’s go.”
Valverno looked toward where the rays of light were shining and ran that way. If he only could fly, the hybrid would have to travel faster than just running on his legs and p
otentially would have the leg armor reattach to his leg by now.
As he ran off, Marina, Sora, Geraldus, and Flarefur trotted off to him. Valverno looked at the Griffin running with them. “Can’t you fly, unlike me?” Valverno asked the Griffin.
“Wish I could,” said Flarefur, “but for some reason I can’t. We Griffin’s aren’t built for running but flying. I don’t know how you earth dwellers can live like this.”
Neither do I, thought Valverno.
The group ran through walkways and narrow alleys. Valverno led the way with Marina right behind him and Geraldus and Flarefur behind the Siren. Sora stayed behind everyone else so that she could keep her eyes out to any creatures that may sneak from behind them like a predator chasing after its prey.
The light above began to shine brighter and Valverno started to wonder where that crevasse would lead up to. He would find out latter where it would lead, but hopefully the surface world would be up through the narrow crevasse.
For a long time they had run, and their stamina was high. But for the Griffin, Flarefur was starting to have problems with traveling again. His joints of his legs sounded like, to him, began to break and couldn’t bear to run away forward. He did mention Griffins are meant for flying not running.
Sora, being the White Knight of Charity, again shared small portions of her power to the Griffin. The power within her was being shared with a creature she never knew ten thousand years ago and don’t know the evolution of the Griffin, but she is what Valverno would say a representative of charity: the act of giving to the needy.
Flarefur was in need to keep running and thanks to Sora’s powerful generosity, the Griffin could be able to run on his legs and run like a lion would. After all, it is believed Griffins are half lions.
After having his joints receive magically enhancements, Flarefur was running like a lion was, but instead of chasing after its prey, the prey was chasing the predator. Very unusual for the hunter to become the hunted, and in Flarefur’s case, the Griffin was the prey and the undead animals were the hunters.
Again they sprinted fast and furious to get away from the oncoming creatures, which seemed to have no end. It wasn’t anything Valverno couldn’t handle, but he never held out against an entire army in the dark. With only a few floating torches around them lighting their way through the narrow alleys and walkways, Valverno and his running companions struggled to keep some distance.
Soon enough, Valverno start to notice the buildings were starting to get smaller and smaller and fewer towers shrunk in size. Crumbled buildings and smashed towers laid to ruins and the group were dashing downhill more than of an uphill slope.
In a large view, the buildings had ceased from view and the group had exited the city’s borders and went onto a flat field with no buildings or towers. They seemly entered in a dried up cornfield transformed into a field of concrete.
They came to an abrupt halt at a staggering cliff. They were about a half mile from the city’s closest buildings and they came to a large open, wide field stretching miles wide and long with a cliff about the same size, miles long and wide and big as the underground city itself.
Over the edge, strange black liquid poured through of a river of this. The river of strange water, if it was water had all, coursed through down below, away from the city and below the cliff’s edge.
Then behind the group the animals had stopped and stayed away from the group. The undead animals snarled and glared with their uneasy eyes, keeping their distance from the group somehow. At first they were chasing the group with sharp teeth, cross-legged, and claws. Then they came to a sudden halt without proceeding any further.
Valverno smiled big. He jumped forward, pulled out the Crystal Sword and pounded his wrists together and an electric shock boomed underground and a shockwave hurled beneath the ground and went toward the failed experimented animals like a mole digging near the ground surface.
The staring and growling animals were blown toward the inner parts of the city. The hybrid’s power rolling beneath the ground hurled the animals back toward the city and then a long rock wall emerged from the impacted city’s borders.
Marina was awe struck by Valverno’s ability to make a shockwave. “I didn’t know you do that.”
Valverno gave his wife a small comforting look. “Neither did I,” he said, returning the sword back to his back. Valverno walked closer to the edge and looked down to see the river of black liquid. He could see it was tainted by evilness, which meant the liquid natural water like from seas and lakes; it was something else.
“What is that?” asked the Griffin.
“It’s called the Pool of Shadows,” said Sora. “It is believed where the great powers of evil is born from. The Titans, Lusìvar, Lusìvar’s minions: Shadow Men. Those specific beings had bathed in the Pool of Shadows.
“Whoever so baths in it and comes out alive will have an evil, corrupted heart with no chance of redemption. You are doomed to the evil afterlife for all time to come
“But what happens if someone baths in it but doesn’t come out, they are doomed to be trapped in the Pool of Shadows forever, walking through an endless maze of eternal blackness. So either way, a person to jump into the Pool will face immediate doom.”
Flarefur looked at Valverno. “She has a vast variety of knowledge than you do. And to think you are the demigod Valverno, and she knows know about you than you know yourself.” The Griffin was trying to hold back on laughing that he mocked the hybrid of his younger sister, who seemed to have more knowledge than he does.
Marina was also trying to hold back a laugh. She turned her back to Valverno and concealing her hiding smile from her demigod husband who was less intelligent than Sora.
“Laugh it up, hairy wings and you fis… girl with fish scales,” said Valverno.
“Is that an insult or a complement?” asked Marina.
‘No comment,” said Valverno.
Valverno looked across the edge cliff and saw another platform about a hundred feet away from where he was standing. It looked impossible to get to. He couldn’t fly and he did have the ability to jump a distance to the other side.
Across the field, Valverno could see a bright light sparkling like a star in the night sky. It was surrounded by a canopy of pillars: the second armor artifact!
The second item Valverno was looking for was right there within an arm’s reach, if he could only fly across. He came this far down from the surface and he couldn’t give up that easily. One way or another Valverno needed to get to the other side and restore the power ripped form his body when he was transforming back into an embryo, according to Sora
With a long way down and a long wide cliffy terrain, Valverno seemed he was going have to glide all the way over to the other side, even it meant falling into the Pool of Shadows. He survived many battles that befell him, so he could survive sinking into the Pool of Shadows, but it would risk his personality becoming corrupted. He thought would be half possible for him to go half evil since he is a demigod. Valverno’s mind was coming with many theories of what will happen if he did fell in the Pool of Shadows.
The demigod backed away from the cliff fifty feet away so he could get a running start and see if he could glide to the other side. In a mad dash, Valverno took off. He legs kicked from the positon he was standing at and ran toward the cliff’s edge.
“Hey, stop,” shouted Sora.
Valverno came to an abrupt halt. He stopped a few inches away from the cliff’s edges. His feet impacted into the ground when Sora stomped in his way. “Care to explain what you’re doing?”
Sora pointed a finger to her left, which would be the right from Valverno’s view. A long, narrow bridge had hooked the two platforms together; Sora had saved her brother from doing something idiotic like falling into the Pool of Shadows.
Valverno was amused and annoyed of Sora’s decision to interrupt his own decision to glide across the craft. The demigod was going to have an easier time retrieving a missing leg. “
Ok, thanks for the heads up.”
“Don’t mention it. It felt like I was the older sibling for a moment,” said Sora.
“If I remember correctly, I’m older than you are, Sora.”
“Yes, but you were aged backwards: back to a baby. And I haven’t aged at all. So that makes me older than you, little brother.”
“But earlier, when we first met, you restored some of my aging process, making me older. So I’m still the older sibling here.”
“I’ve restored one-third of your aging process. About three out of the ten thousand years you’ve been asleep have awakened, plus the years I’ve spent with you before you went back into an embryo. So that’ll make you about… I don’t know… four thousand years?”
“If I also remember correctly, the word demigod is also a ranking, which outrank all royalties combined. From top to bottom of a royal pyramid, the word god comes first. Second, demigod comes after god and the last would be king or queen. So, Sora, as a Demigod and the son of a god, I outrank you. And by doing so, I’m the older sibling!”
“Pulling the god and royalty ranking on me?” asked Sora. “I’m your sister.”
“Half-sister,” said Valverno. “Same mother different fathers. Remember, I was chosen by the Crystal Dragon to be its right-hand half mortal being.”
Sora shook her head of their heating argument getting them nowhere. “Arguing over age, experience, and rankings? Why are we arguing about these subjects?”
Suddenly Valverno pulled Sora closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. “Because you are my little, baby, half-sister I haven’t seen you for ten thousand years and the feeling to seeing you again beings tears to my eyes.
“You’re all I have from our mother, and I did make a promise, I would look after you. And I promised you to be at your side in the darkness of times in the darkness of places, and I promise you when the last of the evildoers fall, we would do it together.” The demigod was showing Sora a deep affection that she was a great importance to him.
