Crossing the Universe
By brightcat135
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters such as Spyro, Flame, Ember, Elora, etc. They are copyrighted to their respective owners.
Prologue
Fluffy clouds drifted lazily through the star lit sky occasionally blotting out the moon's silver beams of light. Many in the Artisan home-world were sleeping unaware of the dragon standing on a large hill looking down at their little town. The dragon stood upright in a human like way. His dark blue scales glowed faint silver from the moon's light. His horns were smooth and long stretching backward while his spikes were a navy color. The dragon was old with grey eyes and faded black pupils barely visible. The old dragon had a long scruffy grey beard hanging from his chin. The dragon's wings were slightly tattered along the edges with a severe tear in his right wing. The dark blue dragon held a long staff in his right hand with a bronze dragon head on the top.
A young black dragon sat next to the elder his wild yellow eyes eager to get started with his task.
"It's still a little hard to believe that Red had been beaten by that young hero Spyro; he was the best rounded of us since he mastered the power of dark gems as well as ice magic." The dark blue dragon said.
"I won't fail as he did Blizzard." The young dragon said.
"I expect you won't." said the elder dragon. He turned and walked down the side of the hill leaving the young black dragon behind.
"I won't fail." said the black dragon to him self before he got up and walked away.
The sun was high in the sky over the land known as the Dragon Junkyard. It was filled with disused factories and buildings along with abandoned ship docks and warehouses. This land was taken over by Gnasty Gnorc, a villain who turned the entire population of the Dragon Realms, except for Spyro, into green statues. Spyro defeated the gnorc some years back returning all back to normal again.
The young black dragon flew through the air scanning the land below him. Now that it was day the dragon's features could be seen clearly now. The dragon was a quadruped with slightly short legs and large head. His snout was slightly pointed but short and his eyes were an intense wild yellow with orange around the pupils. His horns were spiraled and curved slightly like devil horns only larger. The dragon's underside was a rusty orange-yellow and his wings were blue. The spikes running down the young dragon's back were a deep indigo blue along with his sharp tail spike and short crest on his head. The dragon's name was Shadow and though he was young he could wield dark magic.
Shadow glided down to a disused warehouse where one of his gnorcs lived. Shadow didn't control all of the gnorcs the way Gnasty did, he just used a few. All the other gnorcs that still inhabited the Dragon Junkyard were his targets to practice his dark magic on. A short round green creature slowly hopped his way out of the warehouse to greet his master who landed in front of the building. The creature looked very much like an orc only with a gnome's attitude hence the name gnorc. Gnorcs spoke in a language of grunts and growls not really understood by anyone that wasn't a gnorc. Shadow fixed that with a spell he placed on the gnorc so that it could speak the universal language (English to humans).
"You're back soon." The gnorc said to Shadow. "How did your meeting with your mentor go?" Shadow gave a short sigh before glancing around idly a bit.
"Nothing new really, he just wants me to do a task for him… a big task."
"…Really?" The gnorc said looking up a Shadow.
"Yep and I'm going to need your help with this one." Without warning Shadow turned and slashed the gnorc with claws that glowed with dark-light. The little green creature fell backward screeching in pain as dark-light spread from the slash wound. The gnorc's eyes grew wide with fear as the dark-light began to encase him. Shadow watched with a small smirk as the gnorc was consumed by the dark-light and begin to grow in size. The gnorc grunted and growled in pain as his body grew rapidly in size turning him into a large muscle bound creature, but he still had a round belly. The now gigantic gnorc sat on the ground gasping for breath as the dark-light faded from his body. It took him a moment to realize why Shadow was so small all of a sudden.
"W-what did you do to me?" The gnorc's deep gravely tone shook with fear as he tried to regain his bearings.
"Well I made you a lot bigger and a lot stronger than you were. Come, we have to get you your armor." Shadow said as he turned to walk away. The gnorc stood up and saw that Shadow was just a little shorter than his shin, but he still held the fearful respect for the small dragon. The big gnorc followed Shadow obediently through forest.
Dawn was just breaking in the Cloud Temples city. The city floated on a large island high above Avalar, the planet next to the Dragon Realms. Cloud Temples was just one of the many lands accessed by portals that branched from the main land (or home-world as it's called by everyone) Winter Tundra, in the far north.
Cloud Temples was about to get a serious wakeup call; Shadow and his gnorc who now sported chain mail armor with a brown chest plate and spiked helmet teleported to the land appearing in a twist of dark-light. Shadow looked out at the city of red buildings and temples that resembled something China from with curved roofs and lots of bonsai trees.
Shadow really didn't need an army to take this city over; it really wasn't that big to begin with, but with what he had in mind he would need guards and soldiers for the gnorc to command. Shadow began his march towards the still sleeping city his eyes wild with excitement. Shadow's body began to glow with dark-light as he walked and his eyes began to blaze white. Pools of black shadows began to form around the young dragon. Soon at least fifty pools appeared while Shadow continued his march toward the city. Within the pools a pair of red eyes formed and slowly a draconic head sporting a single pair of horns and pointed snout rose from the black shadow pools as if lifted by a steady chain followed by a gnorc-like body and at last clawed feet attached to sturdy legs. The creatures continued to rise a few inches off the ground until the inky pools of black disappeared. The creatures seemed to be made from the shadows themselves; they didn't have any highlights making it hard to tell when the creature's arms were bunched up or if it had arms at all. The only other color on the creatures besides the red of their eyes was the silvery white of their talons and teeth. The legion of creatures followed Shadow into the city to fight.
A guard that sat at the city gates was dozing in the small tower on top of the large stone wall that encased the city. He opened his eyes to the sound of dozens marching toward the gate. The guard was a humanoid creature with pale white skin standing about four feet tall or so. He had a round head with small ears and no nose with a wide mouth. The guard had standard armor with steel plates and chain mail. He had a short sword attached to his side as well as a magic wand. The Cloud Temples people were magicians of various sorts. The militia was skilled with offensive magic and spells.
The young guard got up from his chair to look over the edge to see the mass of shadow creatures thundering toward the city. His eyes grew wide at the sight and fear pulsed through him. A shadow creature looked up and saw the guard in the tower and leapt into the air disappearing. The guard turned to run and ring the warning bell but he was stopped short as a shadow creature materialized in front of him. With a surprised yelp the guard tripped backward. His blood turned to ice as he saw the creature raise a clawed hand to strike. He regained some wit and drew his wand and cast a fast fire spell hoping to get the creature off him but the fire just passed through the creature as if it were made from air. The shadow beast slashed down claws shredding through the guards armor. A pained cry was drowned out by the stampeding shadow beasts charging into the city climbing over the stone gate, their claws leaving deep furrows in the rock. Shadow's gnorc burst through the stone gate with a shoulder charge. Shadow was the last to enter the city. Soon the once quiet city was alive with the surprised and scared screams of the inhabitants.
This was only the start though; things would get much worse from here. Within hours the city was captured and overrun by creatures that seemed invulnerable. Though some were killed most of the Cloud Temples people were placed in city's main temple in the second floor of the basement. They were all striped of their wands which were their main source of power and thrown into the makeshift dungeon.
"Pathetic." Shadow spat with disgust.
"They were too soft, that's why it was easy to beat them Master Shadow." The gnorc said as he looked at the empty city. Shadow snorted before teleporting to the top of the main temple. He could see the entire city and the edges of the island from where he stood.
"Now for the final part…" Shadow said as he dug his claws firmly into the roof to steady himself for the major spell he was going to cast. The black dragon took a steady breath before his body was slowly circled by dark-light. The dark-light swirled around the dragon faster and faster until it seemed that he was in the center of a tornado. Waves of negative energy radiated outwards in powerful blasts that shattered windows and cracked stone. It was hard to bear but the gnorc stood his ground with his arms up in an attempt to shield him self from the blasts. Shadow's eyes blazed an intense white again as he let the dark magic flow through his body. His gaze turned upward toward the sky before releasing a powerful beam of dark-light at the sky. His target was the magical barrier the surrounded the planet. The beam of dark-light smashed into the barrier puncturing through with a loud noised like breaking glass and crackling electric that was almost deafening. Shadow paid no heed to the loud noise. He directed the beam slowly moving it downward like a knife through a loaf of bread. The barrier seemed to scream as its inner workings of magic were severed and broken. While normally invisible the barrier around the giant gash became visible. It looked like a thick net of lightning woven together with magic creating the shield around the planet. It was tinged a dark purple color because of the negative energy from the dark-light beam.
At last the powerful beam faded slowly shrinking until it was gone. The dark-light around Shadow slowly faded as well leaving and exhausted dragon standing on the roof of the temple. The muscles in Shadow's body tensed suddenly then relaxed causing Shadow to stumble trying not to collapse. His mind was torn from the excessive amount of dark magic that was used.
The physical affects only included exhaustion when a large dark magic spell was used. One would even change color if the user is exposed to small amounts of dark magic over years of time. The mental damage was much greater when the user preformed a large spell they weren't ready to do. They could lose a part of themselves, and in severe cases revert back to a primal being in mind with nothing but basic survival instincts.
Shadow stumbled over the edge of the roof his senses numbed. He didn't even know that he was falling. His blank eyes watched the rush of ground come at him and then a sudden blur of green as his gnorc caught him in his large hands. Shadow lay there completely limp and unresponsive. Someone would have mistaken him for being dead if it wasn't for his rough breathing.
It didn't take that long for Shadow to recover from the dark magic spell. He left the gnorc in charge of guarding the barrier rip from any one that tried to close it. He also left around twenty shadow creatures from him to command. Shadow had teleported himself back to his warehouse in the Dragon Junkyard, but before he left Avalar he cast one more spell though it wasn't as dangerous as the last one. He connected the Dragon Realms and Avalar together with a small thread of magic. It was to make transportation between worlds easier. It was also large enough to let a small amount of Avalar's magic to slip through to aid in its draining.
Shadow walked around the in front of his warehouse in deep thought.. His mind was still fragile and injured from the spell he used to break the barrier back in Avalar. He wasn't quite the same anymore as his sanity was slipping. He wasn't thinking about what would happen if he cast another large dark magic spell. In reality all he wanted was to please his mentor and the rest of the council that Blizzard was part of. Shadow stopped walking as a dark grin spread across his face. He teleported to the top of his warehouse his eyes blazing white again with dark-light rippling across his body. He would set the final piece of the plan in place; he would break the Dragon Realms barrier.