Chapter 4

Spyro shivered and curled up closer to Cynder. He reflected on how weird and seemingly unneeded their presence here was. They had been trying to relax and enjoy their peaceful lives. Now they were traveling with a group of strange creatures that fought monsters for a living.

"Is something wrong?" Cynder asked as she was woken by Spyro's movement.

"No. I was just thinking," he answered while giving her a gentle nuzzle.

"About what?"

"About how strange it is that we got dragged along on an adventure in a different world when all we wanted was peace."

"Personally, I don't care."

"What?" Spyro asked with a puzzled look.

"As long as we're together, I don't care what happens. I'd happily fight all of Malefor's forces again so long as you're by my side," Cynder replied.

"Look this is touching and all, but some of us are trying to sleep," Dante said from his makeshift bed. The group had decided to make camp in the plains after several uneventful hours following their confrontation with the three armed creature.

Dante's remark was met with eight bullets, two fireballs, an orb of dark energy, a burst of venom and a katana to the chest. He promptly quit complaining and tried to resume sleeping.

Spyro's last thought before he drifted off was that this was his strangest adventure by far.

Cynder woke up to the sound of a sword being unsheathed followed by Dante groaning in pain. She jumped to her feet and looked around, expecting a fight. Instead she got Vergil sheathing his katana as he walked away from a bleeding Dante.

"Why do my companions cause me so much pain?!" he wailed as his wound regenerated.

"Which reason do you want? Because it's funny or because you refuse to get up early?" Lady supplied.

"I hate you guys," he grumbled while crawling over to the campfire where Adam was making breakfast. The group of heroes had recently spotted a mountain range in the distance. Adam had stated that the portal that they were heading to was at the summit of the highest mountain in this range. Everybody agreed that that was a bad sign of what was to come.

Cynder watched as Adam controlled the flames with his will to cook their food as quickly as possible. "For such a young child, he seemed to be unnaturally skilled at many things." she thought to herself. She immediately regretted thinking that as a the fire became a large fireball that engulfed him and Indy. When the fire died down, both were sitting there. Adam looked unimpressed while Indy was slightly singed.

"Thanks asshole. I thought you were like The Extreme Master Pyro," Indy said.

"I am! Otherwise that would have killed you."

"Then why blow it up in my face!"

"I didn't!"

"Then who did!"

That question was answered by a small figure leaping from the fire and sinking two blades into Indy's chest. He collapsed as flames overtook his body. The figure darted away. Cynder leaped into the air to follow it and was quickly joined by Spyro. Their assailant, all they could discern about it was that it wore a crimson cloak with black markings, was sprinting towards the mountain range. She shot a gale of wind at it, hoping that it would stumble. It disappeared in a burst of flames and reappeared several feat to the right. Spyro launched several icicles at it. It rolled sideways to avoid them and spun, launched a volley of fire darts at the pair. Spyro swooped in front of Cynder and used his Earth shot to knock them back. They all struck their new target, but none of them did any noticeable damage. The roar of the others motorcycles became audible as they followed the dragons in pursuit of the fiery assassin.

Vergil appeared in front of the figure and used his summon sword attack to create a small whirlwind of blades. It slid, keeping low to the ground to dodge the blades. While it was sliding, it buried a knife in Vergil's hamstring. He started to crumple as Trish skidded to a halt right in front of him. He landed on his stomach across the back seat and wrapped an arm around her. Trish gunned it and caught up with the others.

"How are we going to stop this thing? Nothing we do can even hit it," Cynder yelled to Spyro.

"I have an idea. Think it will like a Purple Dragon Fury?" he yelled back.

"Why don't we find out."

Spyro sped up. When he was a good distance in front of his prey, he flipped and dove towards it. Time slowed to a crawl as he closed in. The assassin tried to dodge, but couldn't due to the temporal distortion. Purple energy enveloped Spyro, forming an orb around him. With a mighty roar, the energy exploded into several phantasmal dragons that swarmed the figure. It screamed as it disintegrated from the raw energy. Dante pulled up with Lady and stared at the crater that Spyro was flying out of. Cynder grinned and flew down to him. She landed and gave him a nuzzle. He nuzzled her back and turned to the group.

"Can someone teach me how to cause giant explosions that annihilate annoying enemies?" Dante asked.

"Sorry. That's the special of the purple dragons. Only I can use it," Spyro answered.

Next to pull up was Trish and Vergil. Vergil's coat and pants were stained with blood.

"Whatever the hell that thing was, it came prepared. That dagger was dipped in some kind of acid so the wound won't regenerate as fast as it normally does," Vergil said.

"Don't you have any healing magic? Or any life gems?" Spyro asked.

"No. I almost never get hurt, and if I do it's trivial and heals within seconds," he replied.

"I think Adam has some green orbs. He asked us where to get them back in town," Trish said.

As if on cue, Adam pulled up with a patched up Indy. The latter opted to stay seated on the bike due to the severe wounds he had sustained.

"Damn. Whatever the hell he coated those blades with is quite the bitch. I used half the green orbs I got back at Devil May Cry and that only stopped it from being fatal. I'd try to make an Elixir of Life, but I suck at alchemy," Adam said.

"Speaking of, would you mind giving me some? I got hamstrung and I don't have anything to heal it with," Vergil asked from his position on Trish's bike.

"Sure," Adam walked up to him and pulled out a large green object. It looked like a deformed head. He crushed it with his hand and motioned to Vergil's wound. The orb turned to energy when crushed and floated to the open wound that was bleeding heavily. Most of it dissipated upon contact while the rest fixed up the wound.

"See what I mean? Almost didn't fix a novel wound," Adam said as Vergil tested his leg.

"What exactly are these "green orbs"?" Cynder asked.

"Don't know. All I know is that you pay for them in demon souls," he replied.

"What?" Spyro asked with a confused look on his face.

"It's simple. You find a Time God statue. You'll know you've found one because they're the only glowing statues of a really buff dude holding a giant hourglass. Then you think off what you need from it and if you have enough souls, they'll pour into it and whatever you needed will appear in front of you," Dante explained.

"Huh. All we had to do was defeat enemies or smash crystals to find some life crystals. The work like your green orbs," Cynder said.

"I think we should call it a day. What little travel we did wore Indy out. He needs rest. In the meantime, we can try and figure out what the hell that thing was," Adam supplied.

His only reply was Indy falling off of Adam's bike. Lady moved to get him while the others started setting up camp. Vergil and Trish used dark magic to cast protection spells that would protect the camp from minor threats. Adam started working on building a fire. Dante unpacked the food. Spyro sat down by the fire. Cynder padded up and joined him.

"These are easily the most puzzling people I have ever met. They shrug fatal wounds off as if they were nothing!" Cynder said to her mate.

"I know. I think I heard Adam say something about Dante and Vergil being half demon. That would explain how Vergil is so fast and how Dante is able to take all the punishment he receives. But what about Adam and Indy? I don't think the same case applies to them," was his response.

"I don't think we'll get an answer. They both seem very reserved about their pasts, especially Adam," Cynder replied.

"Regardless, I think we can trust them. I have a gut feeling that says we can," Spyro assured her.

Soon the fire was roaring and the others joined them save Indy, who was sleeping. They talked ito the night, swapping stories about first kills, biggest kills and the like.