Alright, here's the moment where everything goes to crap and the story really gets going. I'm really happy with the middle section of this chapter. Anyway, I don't have anything more to say, so on with the chapter.
"Darkness. Darkness. Darkness. Darkness."
The chants seemed to echo from all around her. Cynder was trapped in a dark void. Alone. No one around her but the endless echoing of the chants. Her head spun in confusion as to what this meant. It didn't feel like any of the other nightmares she had.
"Darkness. Darkness. Darkness. Darkness."
The chants sped up slowly and eerily as silhouettes slowly appeared in the darkness. Bloody and battered, limbs twisted and eyes blank and clouded. Dragons of every kind; those of fire, lightning, ice and earth, and even extinct dragons of the ancient ages: leech dragons, ice monoliths, red giants, magic serpents, water and air dragons, and many more that Cynder had never seen before.
"Darkness. Darkness. Darkness. Darkness."
As the loud chanting increased in speed and volume, slowly and disconcertingly, another silhouette, one with bright red eyes, appeared in front of Cynder. Without warning, the dark shadow lunged at her, and all of the chanting stopped, and Cynder saw nothing but black, and heard nothing but the ringing in her ears. But soon, even the ringing disappeared, and there was silence. She couldn't even hear her own heartbeat, her own breathing.
The red eyes appeared again, but this time, it wasn't just red eyes in the shadows. She saw pitch black scales that glistened in the red light given off by the glowing eyes. She saw a large snout with grotesque gargantuan fangs that shot out from the creature's jaws. The creature brought in a heavy breath, and spoke with a sinister, breathy, warped voice that struck fear into Cynder's heart. And it wasn't just one word that the creature spoke, it wasn't two, but it was a speech.
"Death. It is the only thing that will exist in this coming age. The lives of many dragons will be filled with torture, and trauma, and the burden of death. Rivers of blood will be spilled, and darkness will rule the land. However, I can assure you, this has not been something that has just been thought up on the spot; my betrayal has been planned for eleven years, so don't be surprised at how sudden this all is. Your enemies will be filled with bloodlust, looking for more to kill. And your story will unravel even more with a reunion or two. But be prepared for the War of Eternal Darkness. Or not. You've been trying to prepare, but you've been humorously unable to. I've loved seeing you scrabble around to decipher these wonderful dreams of the future, with no success. You're just… not smart enough to figure anything out. If you were smart, you would have been able to figure out who I am, but even then, that wouldn't have stopped me from doing what I need to do. So, before I return you to the waking world, I have one thing to tell you. THE WAR OF TRUE DARKNESS BEGINS NOOOOW!"
Cynder woke up with a gasp, breathing heavily as if she had been strangled, her windpipe struggling to let air in. The creature's dark, ominous voice still echoed in her head, despite her being awake in her own home. The voice was hideous, but when the creature raised its voice into a horrific roar, it struck fear unlike any other into Cynder's heart, and she had almost wanted to throw up from hearing the voice. She composed herself and sighed when she could breathe properly. Then a small voice beside her made her jump, and worry flooded her.
"Mummy, I'm scared."
It was Forzen. He was awake, huddling next to Cynder, shivering with fear. Cynder knew that she needed to calm him down, but she needed to be calm in order to do so. She tried her best to calm herself as she wrapped her tail around Forzen. "It's okay, Forzen. Everything's alright. Why are you scared?" she asked softly, stroking her son, her motherly instincts kicking in.
"I don't know." Forzen murmured, resting his head on Cynder's tail and sniffling.
"You don't need to be scared. If you're scared about me, I just had a bad dream. A scary dream." Cynder replied, trying to soothe her son down. "But it was just a dream. You don't have to worry."
"Or was it?" another voice piped up.
Cynder jumped with shock, wondering if the voice was in her head. It was the same one as the one in her dream. But it was real; Forzen had heard it too, and he started whimpering with fear, and Cynder's heart twisted upon hearing Forzen whimper, something the normally happy child didn't usually do, and the sound was foreign to her.
The voice spoke again. "Did I not just tell you that the War of Eternal Darkness has begun? You are a fool if you dismissed that as just a dream. You just figured out that you had future sight, and you dismiss something like that?!" the voice scolded, pausing as the voice laughed darkly, before continuing. "You're a hilarious fool, Cynder, and even more idiotic than I thought. It doesn't take much for you to break, I've noticed that. And that means you're going to have such a hard time in this coming age. But that's alright, isn't it? I will rise, filling the world with darkness, ready to accomplish what has been attempted by my ancestors. No one who resists me will last long! I have a job to do, and unlike my predecessors, I… will… SUCCEED!"
"Who are you?! Where are you?!" Cynder screamed, standing and stepping backwards, wrapping her tail protectively around Forzen and dragging him back with her as the little purple hatchling began to sob.
"Oh, dear Cynder, I'm right here!" the voice echoed, as the only body left in the room leapt up, turning his head threateningly in her direction, glowing red reptilian eyes staring into her soul from the body of the one she loved so much.
"What the f…?! Spyro?!" Cynder shrieked.
'Spyro' stood up, stalking eerily towards her, a dark aura protruding out of his body. "Before you try waking yourself up, please know that you can't. You are in the real world. This is all real!" the dark dragon in front of her said, chuckling darkly. "Isn't this all wonderful, Cynder? We can rise in darkness together, and rule the Dragon Realms!"
"I don't want that! I don't want any of that!" Cynder cried, tears brimming in her eyes as the Spyro she knew and loved was ripped away from her. "I just want a normal life! I gave up the dark path years ago! You know that!"
Spyro lunged at her, sending her slamming into the wall as her tail unwrapped, sending Forzen onto the ground with a thud. Spyro didn't take notice as he focused on Cynder, placing his claws forcefully around Cynder's neck, choking her. "Why are you doing this?!" Cynder croaked. "What… happened?!"
"Despite having been controlled by darkness in your past, you really don't know how it works, do you?" Spyro asked, throwing Cynder to the side.
Cynder landed on the ground with a thud, taking in a large, hoarse breath as her windpipe slowly opened, still struggling to take in breath. Suddenly, she heard a high-pitched squeal, and tears brimmed her ears and her heart lurched as she saw Spyro's tail disappear around the corner of the corridor, Forzen's tiny purple body gone from the room. No. No! He's stolen Forzen! Cynder thought as she pulled herself up off the ground and followed Spyro. How could this happen?!
Cynder cursed and broke into a sprint as she left her house, and saw Spyro flying up into the sky, Forzen's screams of fear echoing into the night vas he dangled from Spyro's forepaws. The sound was horrible. It grated against her ears, and it sent the tears flowing. Sure, Forzen had cried before, but pure terror edged the wails, and Forzen had never cried harder than he was now. She let out a determined howl as she leapt into the sky and flew after Spyro, not even caring if she woke up all of Warfang. She just wanted Forzen back. Spyro looked behind him and let out a growl as he saw Cynder flying after him.
Spyro turned around and fired a blinding purple beam of lightning at Cynder, which hit her point-blank in the chest. Crippled by the sheer intensity of the attack, her wings folded in on themselves as she was paralysed, electricity coursing through her body. She tried to move, but she was unable to, and she fell like a rock. She faintly heard Forzen scream out from the distance. "MUMMY!"
With a loud slam, Cynder fell through the front wall of the Warfang Temple, letting out a pained shriek as many bones shattered from the impact. Blood pooled down her face as a wild cut from the stone bricks slashed across her forehead.
With loud thudding footsteps, Terrador ran down the corridor towards the sound that woke him up, to find Cynder lying unconscious, with eyes open and blood spilling from her forehead onto the floor below her. "Volteer! Cyril! Get over here now!" Terrador roared down the hallway.
The two guardians ran down the hallway and stopped with a gasp to find Cynder's unconscious form in front of Terrador. "Terrador, what the hell happened here?" Cyril asked.
"I… I don't know. We'll ask Cynder when she wakes up." Terrador said, checking Cynder's pulse to make sure she was only unconscious and still alive.
At that exact moment, Cynder regained consciousness and, with a hoarse intake of breath, began to breathe again. Terrador sat down and lowered his body to her level. "Cynder. Cynder, what happened?" he asked, breathing heavy with concern as he gripped her shoulders.
Cynder didn't reply. Her breaths were rapid and hoarse, tears streaming down her face. Her lips moved in wordless mutters, as she tried to figure out what just happened. Terrador tried to ask Cynder again, but before he could speak, Cynder spoke, her voice hoarse and quiet. "It's begun. It's… begun. He's… He's gone."
"What's begun? Who's gone?" Volteer asked.
"The War of Eternal Darkness? Is that it?!" Cyril questioned, fear rising in his voice as he remembered what Cynder had shown him earlier today.
Cynder nodded as tears began to spill down her face. "I had… I had a nightmare." she said, slowly composing herself, her breaths softening. "The dark creature spoke to me. I don't remember… what exactly he said, but in his speech, he used every single one of the six words he muttered to me in my earlier dream."
"And?" Terrador pressed on.
"I woke up, and Forzen was freaking the hell out. He said he was scared, and I wasn't sure why. I thought it was because I scared him with my sudden movement as I woke from my nightmare, but there was something else that was wrong. Then Spyro got up and turned towards me, his eyes red, same as the shadowy creature. His voice was a match, too." Cynder said, her voice and breathing shuddering again as she recalled the horrific event.
Cynder saw the faces of the guardians fill with horror once she confirmed that Spyro was the shadow dragon that had been tormenting her for the past few weeks, and Cynder's emotional walls shattered as she broke down into a fit of tears. But Cynder had more to say. "And then he left, taking Forzen with him. He stole Forzen." she finished in amongst heavy sobs.
"Ancestors… why is this happening?" Cyril asked, his voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper. "What could have happened to make Spyro do this? Why did Spyro do this?" Cyril's voice grew dangerously into a distressed roar. "Why is he turning his back on everything he fought so damn hard for?! HE WAS A HERO!"
"I don't know, Cyril." Terrador said, standing up, his expression grave and voice quiet, eyes wide with fear. His eyes were wet and on the verge on spilling small tears, but the strong-willed earth guardian held them back. "But one thing's for sure, Spyro's not who he was. That explains his odd mood swings. But he'll be back, and we need to be prepared."
The fact that it was Spyro was probably fairly obvious, but it's not as big of a plot twist as what is in the rest of Demonised. Now that this is out of the way and Spyro's now gone bad means that I can talk about the inspiration behind my story. While I was writing Broken Perceptions, I got the idea as I was planning the Dark Spyro scenes of Demonised, which was meant to take Dark Spyro to the extreme, so lots of darkness and violence and blood and all that good stuff, and to make Spyro the main villain. It's not something I've seen happen a lot. Dark Spyro is done a lot, but you never really see it manifest into what seems to be the next Dark Master (although there are a few out there who have done that but I have my own different spin on it), so that's why I decided to do this. Originally it was meant to only be two parts, but I eventually expanded it to five. As for why the series as a whole is called Purple Legacy, given with what's happened to Spyro just now, it's all up to you, but it comes in a bit more at around the last half of Part 3 (so we've got a while to go until we get there). But yeah, now that I've got that out of the way, I hope you like it and stick around, and be sure to leave reviews. Speculate, leave your ideas, and if there's any mistakes, let me know. Leaving a review really helps me out, so please do so if you can.
Okay, onto responding to reviews now. To 'IllusionMaster17', Electrika suspected right. Bit more in that scene than just foreshadowing Spyro's betrayal. We'll also see the reasons behind Spyro's corruption later on as well (not going to say how much later it is; good to keep it a mystery). I'm glad that you liked the linking between an ancient book and the current events in the timeline (there's a lot more of that, too). As for war, well it's started. Spyro will be back.
Well, the aftermath of this night is next, and Cynder's not going to take any of this well. See you around, and I'm almost finished writing Demonised as well (for those that don't know, I started this in May 2017, so I'm about 40 chapters ahead – I'll begin Part 2 of Purple Legacy long before I finish uploading Demonised).
Bye.
