Valverno got to another part of the capital city’s walls of the climbed up the wall with great speed. He made sure Marina was hanging tightly to him, as he used both his legs, wings, and one arm to jump from place-to-place, building-to-building, and up high walls meant for defending a mighty fortress and not a playground for a hybrid to jump around.
As quickly he was on the second level of the capital city to save Marina, he was now again on the top level, in the courtyard they got married atop the capital city.
“Let me go! I don’t need to be rescued by a monster!” Marina shouted from the top of her lungs, as she wasn’t seeing the hybrid she was used to seeing. She was used to seeing a human dragon hybrid in front of her, but she was seeing more of a demon than a hybrid.
“Have you forgotten?” Valverno touched Marina’s head with one of his claws and showed her the strong memory of their wedding day. They gave their vows of everlasting love, they confessed their love in public and loudly. Valverno showed Marina he still loved her, despite his wretched form. “I may be different, but I may still the hybrid you love. I have unleashed the power from the Pool of Shadows.”
“You did what?”
“Have you also forgotten not to be deceived by appearances? The power I unleashed isn’t controlling me; I am controlling me.”
“How can I believe you? To see such a vile demon.”
Valverno walked up closed to Marina’s face and gazed into his eyes and had her look into his full red eyes. With a moment’s hesitation, he pulled her tightly and kissed her.
Marina wasn’t caught by surprise when she jerked to the lips of a stranger. She strongly resisted his motion of kissing her, but that resistance somehow turned into sheer joyfulness. After seconds of being forced to kiss, the wretched form turned into Valverno’s form: the form they first met when he went by the name Vaeludar. And of what Shadow there was suddenly became a surrounding horizon of bright light.
Was this an illusion she was seeing? Or was it the sight of their love wasn’t broken and showing his true personality? Or was it a dream she was in?
Marina couldn’t tell if she was died or alive, but this sight she saw before her sapphire eyes was becoming all too real. At first of gazing at this sight, she tried to close her eyes and convince herself it was a false image, an illusion. But when she would reopen her eyes the same image would be there: the same image he looked like on the night he proposed to marry him.
It was all so real; she believed the sight of Vaeludar, the hybrid whom she loved very dearly. It is you, Vaeludar, she thought in her mind.
Valverno heard her thoughts in his own mind and released her from him and the lightness there was and his angelic form turned back into the demon form he was possessed in. Truly on the outside he was a monster, and he was a kindred hybrid on the inside. His appearance changed but his personality is the same.
Suddenly, he walked passed Marina and stood in front of her. He placed himself in front of an old man in armor looking at the two lovers.
“So you have unleashed the power you were given from the Pool of Shadows?” said King Uragiru’s voice. “You know the Titans and my ancestor, Bors his name was, have bathed in the Pool of Shadows, and you will end up becoming evil as I am. You will end up a being servant of evil, as Lusìvar would try to control you since he was the one who created the Pool of Shadows. He and I do have some alliance, and the witch Belverda does seem to another perfect ally to have. But it is too much a shame my daughter Stephanie is merely adopted into my family as I did with Marina, but both are worthless to be my heirs to inherited my power.
“And when the Harmonic Convergence, which the three moons align in front of the sun, takes place on the Summer Solstice three years from now, Lusìvar will free his father’s brethren, the Titans, and Belverda and I will kill him and take control of the Titans. Before that happens, my secret army, which is composed of seventy thousand men, will hunt down Geraldus and his family in the Western Region within two weeks. Face it, hybrid you have lost. Your allies will all die before you can end up unite them under your name.”
Valverno smiled and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” asked the king. “Has the Pool of Shadows filled your mind with false information?”
“Congratulations, your False Highness!” Valverno’s tail came twirling behind him. It was carrying a crystal orb. Something similar to what King Uragiru used “You confessed your crimes to all of Shimabellia. Everyone on the island now knows of your true intentions. You. Joined. Lusìvar.
“And everyone knows of your intentions, and Geraldus also knows you will be invading his territory, and the Northern Clans will surely be uniting under one clan; the Snake Clan will surely be killed by the other clans. Face it, false king, it is you who have lost.”
Uragiru took great shock on his face. He didn’t know how Valverno gotten hold of the king’s personal orb, and Valverno was holding the king’s orb, which was destroyed by the demigod.
“Is that mine? You have destroyed it! Has… has everyone on this island heard me?”
Valverno nodded.
“Something that is destroyed I can recreate from my own flesh-and-bone. And yes: everywhere you sent a copy of this orb is everywhere on this island people have heard your voice and seen your face and your false allegiance to Lusìvar. He is now likely to kill you before you can kill him.
“And you are
