During the time Valverno was spending with Geraldus and Teutates, the three of them were planning on their attack of the battle. There wasn’t a mighty fortress or a big-walled castle in the Western Region, so they had one option: to meet Uragiru’s forces head-on.
They had only thirty-five thousand soldiers going against seventy thousand, which was slightly more than half than of Uragiru’s forces. Valverno and Teutates had agreed they didn’t like the odds, but Geraldus said otherwise: they had a few small hills and trenches they could lead Uragiru’s army to where they were rockslides.
During their battle plans, a few messengers from the Dragons, Centaurs, Pegasi, and Griffins came to Geraldus: they were not going to be supporting Geraldus or Uragiru, for they too saw the form of Valverno. The creatures saw both sides corrupt and will not take sides.
After claiming neutrality, the messenger creatures went back to their homeland. This was going to put pressure on Geraldus, Teutates, and Valverno. If Uragiru had an army of evil creatures such Banshees or Manticores, the odds of surviving were going to be very slim.
Geraldus didn’t like it, but he saw the dark power Valverno wielded saw a means to survive. Both Valverno and Teutates were against the idea of Valverno using the Pool’s dark power in such a desperate means to survive.
But Geraldus said if Valverno was the one controlling the evil power crawling within him, Valverno should have nothing to fear. He was a demigod after all, the son of a god. His divine power he received from the dragon god, according to the old stories, Valverno received when he was walking alone at a lake. The divine power could balance his body, which Geraldus saw as an embodiment of a god’s divine pure power and the Pool of Shadow’s dark power.
Valverno was hesitant of the idea, but he was willing to go with it; if they didn’t have any possible means of surviving. Valverno sternly stated he wasn’t going to die in the battle or see any one loved ones dying before him.
Teutates was still against the idea of Valverno using such power. Geraldus and Teutates decided they were going to be the ones deciding of what to do while Valverno was going to stay out of it, since they had more battle experience and he had little experience leading an army.
During the time he wasn’t spending with the two men, Valverno kept his distance from the two twins of Geraldus: the twin boys, Arron and Nerio, and the twin girls, Naìra and Andrei. He was told by Geraldus the twin boys and twin girls saw him in the crystal orb that came to the Western Region, and Geraldus revealed he wiped their memories of him. As a father, he wanted to keep his children safe if they never remembered the evil form of Valverno, but the form of Vaeludar the four kids could call their brother.
Even though Valverno could hide himself from Geraldus’s four youngest kids, he couldn’t keep away from Eliana and Flavius. Geraldus’s two eldest children kept staring at Valverno and blamed him for Alaric’s death.
There was an instance Geraldus told Eliana and Flavius to let go of the past and focus on the future. He did tell them about Valverno’s confrontation with Uragiru, who had revealed his plans for obtaining power.
Valverno did regret the fact he did leave the Geraldus’s eldest child behind while he tried to go save the civilians from lingering danger. Valverno made the choice to sacrifice one life to save the lives of other people who needed it. To that end, Valverno learned Alaric die fighting to protect the twin girls, especially Naìra who turned up in the Northern Region after the witches and the Piper captured her.
W
At noon of the twelve day, Valverno was in the watch tower. He watched blacksmiths endlessly banging hammers on red-colored metals. Soldiers piled spears on wooden stacks and swords over swords.
Hundreds of tents were spread across the wheat fields with a small flag painted with an animal’s head. Each was big enough to fit two or three soldiers. There were a few hundred soldiers walking up and down the village. They were all carrying a few weapons and lifting heavy armor for the coming battle.
Valverno had never seen Geraldus’s village filled with so many soldiers. It was like his military had taken over instead of Geraldus being in control. He’d always seen the soldiers in the barracks, but he’d never thought he would see them walking with weapons or patrolling in the alleys.
He saw there were fewer children running through the streets or playing out in the fields. Valverno saw parents keeping their children close, as it was their first time seeing a lot of soldiers in the village and wanted to keep their children close to them as close as possible. Valverno knew the parents also saw his corrupted image and no longer thought Valverno as a hero.
He still remembers them seeing him as an outsider, but he could tell they now saw him as a monster waiting to catch when his prey who wasn’t looking or not keeping watch to their surroundings. He felt an outsider once again, but he doesn’t mind being the outsider again. And he won’t reveal himself to anyone until he could find a way to change his appearance.
“Keeping your distance as usual?” asked Flavius.
Valverno heard Flavius’s voice coming from the door in the ground that led to the watch tower’s top. Before he heard any voices, Valverno heard footsteps banging behind him. “Would someone want to be close to their sons or daughters at this time? War is coming. Geraldus and Teutates are planning of what to do. And I am stuck with a form that makes me look like monster.”
Flavius kept his distance from the demigod, and he didn’t want to look at
