Chapter Ten: Descend to Darkness

(Twelve days prior to Spyro's death)

The early morning sun brought dew to the cold night grass as the careless bees flew through the blades of grass with little to no effort while the caterpillars and butterflies knew their days' time would come and go faster than a leaf setting on a river, moving to the flow of the current as seconds crept by. The gentle breeze which felt like a razor to Cynder's scales sent a chill of cold through her spine as she walked out from Flame and Ember's cave.

"I hope he's ok," Cynder said out loud as she smelled a small gathering of roses. "Please watch over him Hunter.

"He's a trained marksman and a compassionate friend," Ember said, joining Cynder in investigating the roses. "Hunter wouldn't allow him to get hurt. And besides, Spyro can take care of himself." The thought of Spyro's safety barely escaped Cynder's mind however as she wondered if Spyro was ok in the cave.

Spyro and Hunter stood before the badly beaten tarantula in victory as Spyro's eyes kept a firm lock onto the spider's eyes. The green body fluid emitting from the numerous wounds ranging from arrow bolts, burns, punctures, and blade lacerations combined with the swiftness of the two was simply too much for the spider to take as the tarantula finally fell under its own weight.

"Are you in one piece my friend?" Hunter asked as Spyro checked the massive spider's chamber for any more signs of life.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Spyro said as he shoved the tarantula's legs over the pit ledge, allowing the spider to fall down into the darkness of the pit. "Let's just go, Warfang still awaits our return."

"Spyro, I sense change in your behavior," Hunter said as the two walked along the ledge of the pit which was covered in cobwebs and rubble. "We should hurry; the demon might be tightening its grip on your wellbeing."

"I'm not being controlled!" Spyro snapped, realizing Hunter was right. The final tunnel which seemed to take hours to travel among was full of curves and twists which seemed to go in different directions until an orange hue seemed to line the walls, followed by a wave of heat.

"I smell lava, we must be getting close." Hunter said as Spyro was the first to view an enormous chamber which was surrounded by boiling lava. In the center of the chamber stood a large golden table with a large gold basin in the center of that. The lava casted large shadows of the miscellaneous rocks and Spyro and Hunter's bodies as they both observed the basin in wonder. A black, tar looking liquid with a silver tint seemed to churn and squirm as Spyro's paw drew near the solution.

"What is this pigment?" Spyro said as his paw hovered over the bowl, trembling as he readied himself for contact.

"Spyro don't," Hunter said as he swatted Spyro's hand away from the bowl. "This has to be the third creature Cynder was talking about."

"Are you sure, wouldn't it attack us like the other two?" Spyro asked as he turned his attention back to the basin, the solution was gone.

"This is not good," Hunter said, drawing three throwing knives between his fingers in his left hand while he wielded a ragged toothed combat knife in his right hand. "Keep your back to mine; it can only come into contact with one of u… I hope." The calmness in Hunter's words faded as quickly as they came as Spyro kept his eyes open and ready for a surprise attack from the third abomination.

"You should have stayed away from the basin." Spyro thought as the monster came into form behind the basin. Silence stretched on for quite some time until Hunter raised a throwing knife. As if Hunter caused a self-defense trigger to activate, the monster watched the black substance change into an exact duplicate of Hunter.

"This is truly remarkable," Hunter said, lowering his throwing knife, the clone copied the movement as well. "How could we not have known of such a being?" Hunter then began to raise his left and right hands in different intervals until the clone, just as swiftly, sheathed the throwing knife just as fast as Hunter did.

Suddenly, the clone reached for the sword on its belt at surprising speed, Hunter did the same as well.

"Spyro, get back from us, this one looks like it's mine." Hunter said while keeping his eyes locked onto his clone. Spyro nodded as he backed away, leaving Hunter to fight alone for the first time in their journey together. Hunter's ears flattened horizontally while he spread his legs and narrowed his eyes. His heart ceased to race, but kept a constant rate as he readjusted his grip on his sword.

In a slip second as if lighting had split the ground between the two, Hunter and the clone charged towards one another with swords drawn, ready to kill as Spyro stood by and watched helplessly. The shower sparks emitted from the swords clashing into each other repeatedly seemed to illuminate the chamber's dim shadows as Hunter struggled to keep his footing.

"Spyro, it's too strong," Hunter said with his teeth clenched tightly together just before he broke the stalemate between the two, giving him some distance to recover in. "Can you freeze this abomination?"

"I can't I might encase you to," Spyro yelled as he stepped forward. "Back away, let me fight it." Hunter sheathed his sword while the clone remained in a combat stance.

"Be careful my friend, it grows aware of your movements." Hunter said as he stepped away from Spyro. As the creature stood seemingly motionless, Spyro lowered his head, spread his legs, and bared his teeth as he slowly closed the distance between him and his opponent. Before Spyro's eyes could comprehend however, the creature morphed itself into an exact duplicate of Spyro.

"How can it do that, it never came into contact with neither of us to begin with." Spyro exclaimed in disbelief.

"Maybe it learned how to perform such abilities from being stuck in here for so long." Hunter said, loading an arrow into his bow. Though the creature never spoke once, the constant expression of anger told the two that the creature was a disturbed sort. Rearing back on his hind legs, Spyro blew a shroud of intense flames which surfaced over the creature with no effect.

As if the creature could draw power from the attacks, the clone suddenly unleashed its own powerful fire breath, causing Spyro to jump away from the inferno. Using every energy particle in his own body, Spyro tried a number of things to try and defeat his enemy. He tried encasing the creature with ice, only to watch the being break through the icy tomb as if it was made of egg shell. He tried spearing the creature with earth spikes which jetted from the floor to only watch the protrusions crumble against the body of the clone as if they were made of glass. He even tried a series of lightning strikes which only ricocheted like a pebble on ice.

The clone then dove towards Spyro, pinning him to the floor with a version of shackle-like projections which were made of stone which surfaced from the ground and wrapped around Spyro's wrists, ankles, and tail blade. The creature backed away and faced Hunter who aimed his bow at the creature's head. Spyro managed to wriggle and break his bonds by using his earth element against the shackles.

"Nothing can stop this thing, we've hit it with everything we got," Spyro said until he turned to the basin which looked as if it was radiating with black and red energy. "Unless the basin is what gives it life!"

"Spyro, I'll distract it, find a way to kill it quickly!" Hunter yelled, firing an arrow towards the clone who swiftly dodged the projectile, allowing it to tear across the surface of the gold covered basin. The creature suddenly flinched as if it was in pain. Spyro saw this action and came up with a solution. Using what very little strength remained in his body; Spyro managed to tear the basin and the table up from the ground and hurled it into the lava surrounding the arena.

As the bowl and table began to melt into a blood red and jet black paste in the lava, the creature suddenly began to melt as well into a hardened pile of mud-like glass, lifeless as Spyro breathed heavily in exhaustion.

"There, is it dead now?" Spyro chuckled in relief as he slammed his right fist into the puddle, smashing it into shards of glass as Hunter sighed in relief as well.

"Are you alright Spyro?" Hunter asked, jumping off of a nearby rock he was standing upon.

"I honestly hope I get hit in the head really hard when we get back, I sure don't want to remember any of this at all." Spyro joked as Hunter helped him to his feet.

"Let us venture on; the Water of Forgiveness awaits us." Hunter said as Spyro nodded, hoping the journey was about to end soon.