“And you did the same thing yourself when you saw these old hags hearing gems they got from your brethren. You made no hesitation to do away with the first two. I made the decision myself to do away with the last two.”
“I guess you’re right. By the way, Vaeludar, Flavius wanted to talk to you about—”
“Vaeludar,” called out Flavius. “You better come here.”
Vaeludar heard Flavius’s voice, sheathed the Crystal Sword, and flew towards the spot he heard Flavius calling him. He saw a white tent and landed by the entrance. He entered through and Flavius standing beside Charity.
Flavius gave Vaeludar a frown and left immediately, only she and Vaeludar remained in the tent.
Charity was stripped of her armor and covered in bandages with deep bruises around her body. She was breathing softly and weakly.
“White Knight of Charity,” said Vaeludar.
“Let me guess: you killed the Dragon and burned down my former kingdom.”
“Yes to both.”
Charity smiled. “Finally, for the first time in a thousand years, I can finally come to peace. I can finally be free.”
“Free? Why do you want to be free?”
“I have lived for a thousand years as a prisoner longer than a princess or a White Knight. And finally, you came and rescued me from the Ice Dragon. You had freed me from the Mortal Realm I’ve been living in for a thousand years.”
“Then keep living for it. The Shadow King’s Spirit is broken but he still lives. And I could still use a White Knight to help me fight against him and his forces. I need the four White Knights.
“And, with their help, we’ll be able to beat against his Shadow.” Vaeludar placed glowing hands and her chest, but they were grabbed by Charity’s hands. He was about to heal her but her grip was showing otherwise.
“Don’t! It is over for me. I have played my part of the White Knight: help you destroy the Shadow King.”
“Why? He still lives, and I can’t be fighting him alone. I need you; I need a White Knight. I need all four to ultimately defeat him and whatever evil forces he may have in hiding.” Vaeludar glowing hands faded to bare hands. He was in shock when the dying White Knight was refusing to be healed.
“I heard what the Shadow King said: you’re the last, and I will not let you die. I need a White Knight’s help to help me not just fight him but his entire force. I still need you, White Knight of Charity.”
“Not my help,” she couched heavily. “There are other people wielding the ancient power of the White Knights, and someone you know and love is going to be the White Knight of Charity.”
“Marina?”
“Not the Siren. Another girl… from your past. A girl from your long-lost past will once again become the White Knight of Charity, and I can no longer bear being among the Realm of the Living.” Her eyes turned away from him and looked above her and saw something sparkling from the tent’s roof. “Mother… Father… I have come… ho…home… to you…”
Her breathing all of a sudden stopped. Her eyes were dimmed and her hands went cold. Her body glowed yellow like the rising sunrise. Her entire body glowed and sparks had dispersed into small specs like dust, floating out of the tent. The White Knight of Charity was gone and no longer part of the physical world.
Vaeludar sadly watched as her body vapored into the air. He had never known that a legendary White Knight of old tales would die in front of him. But that is what just happened. He saw a physical body disperse into little sparks that went up into the starry, nighty sky. Darkness had been cleansed in these lands.
The White Knight of Charity died and ascended into the next world far beyond the Realm of the Living.
“Be at peace, White Knight of Charity.”
“But peace won’t bring you hope, hybrid!” Lusìvar’s shadow, cloudy spirit spurred inside the tent where. “You may have won, but you will fall. The more you use your power against me the more powerful I will become. You and I are very much alike in ways you don’t understand. We were meant to be fighting since the beginning of time.”
“The beginning of time? What is that supposed to mean? What are you talking about? How are we the same? I fight for the Light, but you fight for the Shadows. We’re not alike.”
“On the contrary, Shadow and Light are a part of the same coin; one can’t exist without the other. When the time is right, you will find out who you are and what you truly were born from. HA! HA! HA! HA!”
Suddenly, Lusìvar vanished into thin air, with his laughter slowly fading thereafter.
Vaeludar had a confused look at what his foe meant of what he was. Was he really something from the past? Or something more to Vaeludar than it seemed. He could only wait and find out more to his past and see what happens. Right now, he feels like he needs to go back south and tell King Uragiru and Geraldus what was going on in the north, but first he needed to meet with his group and meet the villagers he had liberated from the Five-Headed Dragon.
A BRIGHTER FUTURE
V
aeludar exited the tent with great confusion; Lusìvar’s mention of Vaeludar being somewhere in the beginning of time and a dying Charity mentioning a girl from his long-lost past. The hybrid seemed to have more problems than he was trying to find the gauntlet and fighting the Five-Headed Dragon. His life was starting to feel like a Hydra when he would cut off one head but two more grow back.
But in this case, Vaeludar would deal with
