“What sssorcery is thisss?” exclaimed the Council of Three.
“Not sorcery, Council of Three, it is the power of a demigod, the hybrid chosen by the gods!”
Then Valverno folded his wings and walked forward, as the cloud disappeared into the ground. The Dragon King looked frightful for his life suddenly. His entire body felt like it melted into the ground, completely paralyzed by fear and by the sudden power that came from the hybrid standing in front of him.
“I’d never felt much raw, stable yet unstable power and coming from you,” said the Dragon King. The Dragon felt so hopeless he couldn’t signal to let his bodyguards to defend him, as they felt the power the hybrid unleashed before them. “Here, I thought you would be easy to subdue and sent to the king for condemnation. Here, when you showed your memoires to us, I thought it would be an illusion, a lie. But how could one, a single specimen, be this so powerful?”
“Who else could have equal godlike power compared to Lusìvar?” asked Valverno.
“There is no doubt about and it is no doubt eye in the eyes of a dragon; you are Valverno,” said the Dragon King.
The Centaur, Unicorn, Pegasus, and Fairy rulers were stunned by the Dragon King’s answer. They were standing in the presence of a demigod, an ancient being from an ancient world now forgotten. Told from countless generations as stories and legends, Valverno was standing before them.
“But your eyes and your body? What happened? You look so… evil,” said the Centaur King.
“I had bathed in the place where all evil is thought to have been born and I have it well balanced with my half divinity: the Pool of Shadows has changed my appearance.”
“The Pool of Shadows? You bathed and came out alive, but you’re not killing?” asked the Dragon King, horrified. “Whoever comes out of the Pool of Shadows comes out a reborn man as an evildoer.”
“But this evildoer from the Pool of Shadows controls the Shadow instead of the Shadow controlling me,” said Valverno, with a low slur in his voice. He held out a hand and a purple flame puffed out. “Such darkness could easily corrupt a person, but not to a demigod. I know how to balance my power and as I can balance my humanity and my divinity. My appearance may have changed but my personality of my humanity is still intact.”
Then Valverno signaled to his sister.
Sora walked forward with no fear. She stood next to her half-brother and her clothes had turned into the glowing white armor, signifying the White Knight of Charity she is. She proudly showed off her outfit of bright armor glowing brightly like the sun.
“This is my half-sister Sora. She is the Nameless Girl from the ancient stories you all have heard and she is the first and original White Knight of Charity. Geraldus is also a White Knight, descended of the White Knight of Loyalty.
“And I have just learned Teutates is a White Knight of Strength. Only the White Knight of Trust remains anonymous. And the power you all felt a few moments ago was my divinity calling out to nature: I ordered it to make a small quake.”
The creatures widened their eyes of the profound power they have felt, and they never felt such a ghostlike power crawling from the ground and into their feet, which made them suddenly all shiver like living in the winter snow.
“This is just a small fracture of my true godly power granted to me by the Crystal Dragon god, but it is not fully restored. Ten thousand years ago, I and the four White Knights were supposed to go into hibernation and wake up when Lusìvar was to return.
“However, our location was discovered and the White Knights have perished and my body was morphed into an embryo. The Shadow Men, the ancient followers of Lusìvar, found our hibernating place and destroyed it. Two White Knights made it alive: Charity did but was trapped in crystal glass and Loyalty had his memories erased. Strength and Trust died in the event.
“And I was unable to save them, my family and survivors from the destruction of Pangaea. Pangaea was the land I grew up in as did the four White Knights. My parents. Their parents gave up their great, holy powers to save our lives, so that I and the White Knights could prevent the Shadow King Lusìvar from conquering the two islands born from the remnants of Pangaea.
“I fight not for self-gain but for the Light. Those who oppose the Shadow King as I do are my allies. Those who support the Shadow King are my enemies. When it comes to battling an ancient spirit from the long-distant past, you can either get in line or step to the side, but don’t get in my way of my main goal: Lusìvar’s death. So what is it at this point: are you with me or are you against me?”
Valverno flew to the sky and drew out the Crystal Sword. The blade glowed a purple-blue color and it glittered like the starry night. The cloud swirling within was glowing brighter than ever before, even brighter than the sun.
“What do you say?” asked Valverno, pointing his sword at the clan leaders. They knelt quickly before the Demigod. Then he moved the sword to Sora, who knelt before him. And he moved it again to the Dragon, Centaur, Unicorn, Griffin, and Pegasus kings and the Fairy Queen. “What about you, creatures of Shimabellia? Allies or enemies?”
The Dragon King’s fear of Valverno’s power was swept away and he looked with great wonder at the soaring Demigod. “The Dragons hear and oblige to you, Demigod Valverno.”
The other rulers were shocked by the Dragon King swearing loyalty to the Demigod. They didn’t know what to do now: arrest the Demigod or do they join him? This was such a difficult situation for them, and they were
