She groaned as she woke, pain filling her body as she looked around. She flinched when she saw that she was in the cave that she'd been lying in for the past few days while she recovered. She looked to her left and flinched again as the purple dragon beside her lifted his paws from her flank, holding a fading, blood-stained spirit gem in his right forepaw. Stained with her blood. He also had no façade up. He was completely purple as he had been when he first revealed his secret to her, and she let out a scowl. "Why am I here, and what are you doing?" Cynder scowled, her lips curling into a savage snarl.
"I'm helping you heal. What else would I be doing, Cynder?" the dragon replied softly, but Cynder wasn't buying it.
"Oh, cut the act, Malefor." Cynder scoffed scornfully, fed up with his lies and act to appear dumb and innocent. She knew who this dragon really was, and she couldn't… wouldn't… believe anything he said because of it. "I know you're up to something. Why the hell would you be healing me after all you did to me in the past? You tortured me, corrupted me, and forced me to commit countless crimes and take thousands of lives! As a child! You didn't give a damn if I returned to the Well of Souls or Concurrent Skies wounded and bleeding, and neither did Gaul! I WAS A CHILD, AND YOU COULDN'T BOTHER GIVING A DAMN ABOUT ME!"
"Look, I'm sorry, okay. And please call me Muras. That's my real name. I want nothing to do with that other name."
"Oh yeah? Like everything else you told me was real? You lied. You told me so much… stuff, but it was all nothing but lies, Muras." Cynder replied, spitting out the name with so much abhorrence that Muras flinched. "I don't know what is real, but I'm starting to think none of it was, not even the fact that you're trying to heal me! Do you have any secret motives? Are you trying to heal me up just so you can hurt me all over again? So you can go and kill me yourself, you damn sadist? What…?"
"I know, I know. I made up a fair bit of stuff, but in all honesty, quite a lot of what I told you was truth. I'm serious, Cynder. The only things I lied about was information that would give me away as being a purple dragon. As being… As being M… Mal… M-M-Malefor. I-I-I don't want to be a purple dragon anymore, Cynder; everything I did haunts me, and I hate myself for it. Just seeing the colour of my own scales reminds me of everything I did. Seeing the colour of your scales reminds me of the life I stole from you. Please, I know I did unspeakable things to you, to others, and to the whole world, but please give me a chance! I've changed."
"Do you expect me to believe that load of ape sh…?!"
"Don't you dare, Cynder!" Muras interrupted, raising his voice for once. A deadly scowl formed on Cynder's face, but Muras stood strong in the face of it. "You know out of anyone what it feels like to have done terrible things, only to change and turn a new leaf for no one to trust you!"
"The things I did back then only happened because of you! It was all your fault that my life was ruined! NOT MINE!"
"That doesn't matter! My point is, I know what you went through, and you know, to some extent, what I'm going through! I hid my true self because I didn't want to be shunned from society!"
"And yet you live out here, alone, in this damned rainforest."
"I pop into Urgussen quite often to buy things and to socialise. I have a lot of friends there. Urgussen's like a second home to me, but this cave is my home. My real home. It's the first place I could call home since Warfang. And yes, I used to live in Warfang."
Cynder glared at Muras, unblinking, breathing evenly and trying to appear calm, although her savage glare betrayed her boiling anger and distrust. Her emerald eyes pierced into his soul, her lips pulled back so that her gleaming fangs, as well as a decent amount of gum, was bared. What he'd just said put even more distrust into her, for now she knew that Muras used to live in her home, and that really disconcerted her. Muras groaned sadly. "What will it get you to trust me, Cynder?! I just want to start fresh!" he cried, tears starting to well up in his eyes. "I don't want any bad blood between us! I am so sorry, for everything I've done! I just want to make it up to you!"
"It'll take a long time for me to trust you, if I ever do, Muras. Especially after what you did to me. When I'm fully healed and ready to return to Warfang, you're coming with me. Someone with your past can't be trusted to be on their own. I want you where I can see you. I want you close. You can put up the façade back at Warfang if you want, but the fact of the matter is, I know who you really are, Muras, and that's all that damn well matters. You can hide all you want, but you will never hide from me. Because I want you to tell me everything. Absolutely everything, you monster. Tell me the truth of what you lied about, and the truth of who you really are. Who you were before your corruption, and what happened."
"Cynder, I really don't want to have to speak about my personal life like that! Some of the things that I went through seriously hurt me, and I don't want to share!"
"Do it, or I will sever your paw from your wrist so quick you won't even see it coming." Cynder threatened, her voice low and dark, her tail lashing angrily, the heavy metal blade scraping harshly against the ground. "If you want to even start to be trustworthy, to get on good terms with me, you need to tell me everything. No secrets."
"Fine! I'll tell you everything! I'll tell you of all the hell I've had to endure!"
"First, tell me about your powers and where they really came from. We can save your hellish biography 'til later."
"What?! Can't I just get it done and over with first?!"
"No. I want to get to the more complicated stuff last, which I know this definitely will be. Plus I want you to go through it and relive it all like I had to for years on end! I had nightmares almost every night for the first two years after the war, and I was reminded every day of what I did! I want you to hurt, just like I hurt! I want you to understand what I went through!" Cynder snarled, rage contorting her face, lips pulled back to reveal sharp fangs that longed to feast on the purple's ugly flesh. Muras wiped a stray tear away from his eye with a nod as infantile screams from the past tore relentlessly through his head, and Cynder barked with laughter, watching him finally pay for his sins. She smiled wickedly, before chirping with a sadistic tone to her voice, "Alright, go on."
"Okay. My… my powers are all ones I learned as a child and growing adult. A purple dragon's essence core is… well, it's pretty much limitless when at full capacity. A purple dragon can learn every element known to dragonkind, except for a few, which are only unlocked due to inheritance; those ones are dark elements and sinister elements. I'm not sure if you know of the sinister elements, so I can go over them for you if you want."
"A few of my friends explained them to me a few days ago. Now go on and stop trying to avoid this!"
"Alright, alright, no need to be so snappy! Anyway, my first few elements were fire, ice, wind, and water. My parents, and the guardians of the time, were shocked; they had heard of purple dragons and that they were among the most powerful species of dragon, but they thought that we had our own element, which is somewhat true due to the existence of convexity. When they found out that I wielded four elements, they were surprised beyond belief. And then I learned earth and lightning, as well as telekinesis and time. Then I learned the art of the matter shifters, as those ancient dragons were called; they could create portals and teleport. I was fifteen when I learned phantasm. One of my father's friends was a phantasmal dragon, so he taught me. The guardians taught me earth and lightning after I mastered my first four elements, mainly by myself but with their help also, but I learned telekinesis, time and matter-shifting completely by myself. So yeah, I'm not a mage, and neither was Father, as a matter of fact. He was just a plain old fire dragon with the biggest heart ever. He was a blacksmith."
"So none of your elements were replicated through sorcery."
"No, but it has been done; that much of what I said in that area was true. However, it is super hard to do so and very painful on your essence core. And like I said, only the supernatural elements could be replicated. Unfortunately, the mages didn't live long once they learned how to replicate elements. It eventually became an illegal practice, like I mentioned. All the stuff I said about the mages were truth apart from what I said about me and Father being one."
"Alright, I think that's most of your smaller lies covered up. Now come on, let me know who you are. Open yourself up to me. I need to know everything before I can even begin to trust you, given our past together. No secrets, no excuses."
"Do I have to?"
"Muras, you will tell me, or I will slice off your forepaw where you sit." Cynder scowled, raising her scythe-like tailblade over his appendage to prove her point.
"Alright, alright!" Muras exclaimed fearfully, pulling his paw away with immense speed. "Put that thing away, please!"
"Sure, whatever." Cynder said, chuckling at Muras' sudden fear and lowering her gleaming metal tailblade.
"Alright. I, uh… Where do I start?" Muras muttered, pausing to think. "Alright, from the start; the day I hatched. It was about… oh ancestors, one thousand years ago, I think."
"One thousand?!" Cynder asked with disbelief. "You're in your fifties! I can tell by reading your horns and back spines, so if this is another lie, I'm gonna…!"
"It's not a lie, Cynder!" Muras interrupted, wanting to avoid another angry outburst from Cynder. "I'll get to that in a moment. It'll be easier for me to tell you everything in order. Just… bear with me while I speak. Please.
"So, I was born a thousand years ago, and I… well, I was an only child. I think my parents were pretty content with me being their only child; Mother never laid another one before she died when I was twenty-nine. They loved me, even if my colouring was odd. They had heard of the prophecy of a purple egg being laid every ten generations – one thousand years. They were nervous about me, unsure what it meant to have the dragon of prophecy as their child, so they were in close contact with the guardians of the time because of my existence. Because of that, I spent a lot of time around the guardians, like you and Spyro did with the current guardians."
"Well, yeah you can say that, except they were all killed by Spyro a few weeks ago!" Cynder interrupted flatly.
Muras was speechless. He stammered for a while, before groaning and lowering his head. "Oh, ancestors. Eight years since my dark self's demise and now a new dark being has risen, greedy for blood and murder. I had heard about Spyro having been turned, but to hear that the guardians have died troubles me a-a-and confirms everything I had dismissed about Spyro." he mumbled.
"Enough with that and get on with it! No more getting side-tracked!" Cynder scowled angrily, cursing herself on the inside for getting side-tracked and preoccupied with other thoughts.
"Sorry, sorry!" Muras exclaimed, before he sighed and shook his head. "Well, I was a shy child, and although I was energetic, happy, and determined to learn, I didn't like other children of my age, and I didn't have any friends. Mother and Father tried to get me out to play with other younglings, but it took until I was six before I finally decided to try and make friends. Jorgustus Herling and Farill Terrim were my two best friends; Jorgustus was an earth dragon about my age, descended from a royal heritage of ancient earth dragon kings on his mother's side, and Farill was a water dragon orphan two years older than me, who didn't get out of the orphanage much. In fact, the orphanage he stayed at is still in use today, or so I've heard from talk of other dragons in Urgussen. Garfengel's Home for Orphaned Younglings, I think it's called. It was owned by a grumpy old ice dragoness in her eight-hundreds named Harlie Garfengel, and all of her descendants apparently took ownership of the place. She started it, and she turned it into a family business. Farill was always quite thin and malnourished, beaten up on the occasion because he was a big target of bullies, as well as Missus Garfengel herself, but when he was allowed outside to play, he always sought out me or Jorgustus, and we had a great time together. We actually ended up adopting him when I was twelve. No one else really wanted him, the poor, scrawny little kid. Mother and Father were kind enough to adopt him.
"Life was pretty cruisy for me until a few weeks after I turned ten, about two years before we adopted Farill. A group of dragons, a cult, as we found out later, had heard of my birth and had been in search of me for the previous ten years. They tried to beat me and kidnap me several times, but it took them eight tries to finally be successful. They grabbed me and took me away from Warfang. They apparently thought purple dragons were a curse unto the world, a mutated species created by the ancestors to leech off the wrongdoers of the world. This cult came from a place of mischief and crime, and with their beliefs and my existence, they wanted to be rid of me. So they took me to the Well of Souls, which contrary to popular belief, was a place that has been standing since the dawn of time; I did not create it. Anyway, the cult took me there to sacrifice me to the ancestors, but more importantly, to the fallen souls that slumbered in the Well. If that didn't work, they were hoping I would starve.
"Anyway, they dumped me into the Well of Souls, and they turned and left me down there. I was alone and stuck down there for days, weeks, before I made it out by my own accord. I was a mere ten-year-old, surviving on my own, with nothing to eat but the bugs that made it into the chasm, and nothing to drink but the foul, dirty waters that ran down there. I don't know how many days I had been in the Well of Souls for before I felt an unearthly presence around me, almost demonic, before I looked up and saw Adrano and Zella meeting. That was the Night of Eternal Darkness, which only happens once every five hundred years, I believe, although I could be wrong. I was… entranced by the energy surrounding me; I don't remember why I was entranced, what pulled me in, or even much of what happened during my trance. All I know was that I was moved by my trance towards the beam of darkness that had sprouted out of there. You might be able to guess what happened then; you were there when Spyro was caught in the Well of Souls.
"Unlike Spyro, who had been much more powerful than me when he was exposed to the Well's darkness, and who was two years older than me, I was never actually corrupted. My body almost fell apart, unable to handle the sheer power of the beam of darkness, and I lost consciousness before my body could physically corrupt like Spyro's. When I awoke, I was starving, and I gathered I had been out for at least a day; the sky was pink as the sun set. So again, I searched for a way out, climbing and feeding on nothing but tiny bugs for days, much like before."
Cynder scowled. "You should have stayed down there to starve and rot, you fiend!" she said with a growl. "The pain and suffering you brought on this world was unimaginable and unforgivable."
"And what about Spyro?"
"What about him?"
"Back then, all those eleven years ago, would you have wanted Spyro to stay down there to starve? To rot? A mere child?"
"Well, n-n-no. He was a child then. And I… I… I l-loved him back then." Cynder said, choking back a gag.
"Exactly. I was a child, too. Two years younger than Spyro was. I was young, immature, underdeveloped and weak compared to him." Muras replied, knowing that Spyro's power had surpassed his when he was a child, despite the fact that Spyro hadn't even known he was a dragon until the age of twelve. He swallowed, before continuing, "But I eventually managed to get out, and I wandered aimlessly for even longer. I managed to catch small mice and other animals to eat, but even they weren't enough for a young dragon like me, who was already thin and malnourished, ribs poking out of my chest and limbs scrawny and bony.
"About four days after I left the Well of Souls, I was found by a kind earth dragon. He took care of me and fed me well, and after two days of living in his care, I finally asked him if I could go home. When I told him I was from Warfang, he took me there after a shocked gasp. It was a five-day journey; I was ages away from Warfang, especially since after I left the Well of Souls, I had started wandering in the completely opposite direction to my home.
"But I was finally delivered home, and my parents were in tears as soon as they saw me. Apparently, I had been gone for two weeks and three days. I remember sleeping with my parents that night, too terrified to sleep in my own room. I slept with Mother and Father two or three nights after that night as well. Jorgustus and Farill were happy to see me, too, as well as a lot of other kids, who had a newfound respect for me after surviving just over two weeks on my own.
"The next few years got progressively worse for me. I had many days of anger, and everyone close to me, as well as myself, noticed how grumpy I was becoming. Not aggressive, no, but I was quite down in the dumps a lot. But everyone blamed my experience when I was ten. It was a horrible thing to be alone for two weeks without your parents or friends, to be stuck in a deep cave, starving. But it was only later when I realised it was much more than that.
"I then went through many more trials before I finally turned at the age of twenty-nine. The first few included most of those that were close to me losing their lives." Muras continued, before listing each of his trials one-by-one. "There were my great-great-grandparents' deaths, as well as both of my great-grandfathers; all of which passed before I turned fifteen. Two of my cousins died of internal infection too, after being silly with some really toxic plants and fungi, and one of my uncles died in a war with the naga that happened when I was eighteen; the war was short however, lasting for only five months, and the naga went into hiding.
"Jorgustus even fell into a heavy depression as he was dumped by two of his girlfriends and then found out that his third was cheating on him. He took his own life when he found his girlfriend was gravid with an egg that wasn't his, an egg that belonged to the other guy she had been meeting up with in secret. Jorgustus was so heartbroken it led him to death. The many days and weeks after Jorgustus' death was a really hard time for me and was equally as hard for Farill too. Jorgustus was my first ever friend, and he was a very happy, optimistic bloke. It was a shock to know that he had fallen so far to kill himself. We were both twenty-one when Jorgustus committed suicide.
"When I was twenty-three, a war broke out between Warfang and Wyaar, the capital city of the sentient wolf race, which, like many of the sentient canines, have all gone extinct, or have turned into feral beings, much like the titan wolves we fought yesterday; they were once smart and loyal wolves before they devolved into what they are now. Wyaar is nothing but an ancient city, abandoned, rotten and unused.
"I fought in the war for Warfang. I hated the thought of fighting, of taking innocent lives. I was actually asked to fight by the guardians; I only obliged because I thought it was a good thing to protect my home, and those around me, and because I thought I might be able to put a stop to the fighting.
"Apparently, the wolves were after me. The dragon race apparently had never thought much of the wolf race, and even though the wolves that fought us were residents of the wolf capital and had quite a lot of wealth, they were quite poor compared to Warfang, and were sick of the wealth difference and the dragons not paying any attention to them. Apparently, they had been trying to do trade with Warfang for many years, even since before I was born, but the guardians just ignored them. Since the wolves knew how much of a big deal I was to the dragon race, they had been out to get me ever since the war started. The guardians didn't know that, so the first time I left Warfang to fight, the wolves turned all their attention on me, and managed to take me hostage after they knocked me out. They placed a very heavy ransom price on me, and the guardians foolishly refused to pay them. It only made the bloodshed worse. My cousin died trying to rescue me during an invasion on Wyaar; he was so close to me, and then he was butchered right in front of my eyes. The wolves, as well as all the other canine tribes were all great swordsman. Swordfighting was the canines' thing, and archery was the felines' thing; it's always been that way, although the felines do normally learn a bit of swordplay in case they were reduced to close combat.
"The rescue mission was a failure, and I grieved hard for all the dragons who died to try and take me back, especially my cousin. I was the most depressed I ever had been, and it was then that I knew what Jorgustus felt like before he died." Muras murmured, the occasional tear dripping down his violet cheeks at the horrible memory of his grief and all those who had died to rescue him. "But I promised myself I would never fall that low to take my life, no matter how hard that may seem. I knew I still had others in Warfang who cared for me, so despite my struggle, I made sure I made it to the next day. And the next. And the next. I was in Wyaar for about three months before there was another rescue mission, and I finally made back to Warfang, malnourished once again, and utterly depressed. My parents and Farill were so happy to see me. I, uh… I was in a much worse place than I was when I returned to Warfang from the Well of Souls at the age of ten. I mean, it was three months instead of two weeks, and I'd just witnessed countless dragons die trying to save me. It wasn't great.
"I was excused from fighting until I recovered. I re-joined the army about eighteen months later, just before my twenty-fifth hatch-day. I never recovered fully from my shock and grief, and that resulted in the first time I had ever felt revenge for the merciless canines that took the lives of so many. I remember feeling so… angry. Hateful, bloodthirsty. I killed without feeling anything that day we invaded Wyaar. I… I-I-I m-murdered Rawwith, the wolf king of Wyaar. I tore him to pieces. And then the wolves scattered in fear, retreating to the wild or the minor wolf cities and towns, and the war was over. No sentient wolf dared cross our paths again.
"I… I was seen as a hero for my feat. I never thought of what I did, nor thought that it was wrong. I-I-I realise now how wrong it was, but… I… I loved the attention, and I loved being seen as a hero. The prophecy of the purple dragon stated that we were powerful creatures, and I believed that I was destined for greatness. I became so obsessed to fix problems, that there were a few times before I was caught at the age of twenty-seven that I actually caused the problems and tried to fix them myself. Just after I turned twenty-six, I decided I needed more dragons to help me cause the problems, so I found and hired a bunch of criminals who would do a crime and who would pretend scared and act like they were being beaten by me, as I would come in for the rescue in the nick of time. I would never hurt them that badly, though. I always let them go, so they could plan the next problem for me to fix. I paid them for it afterwards as well. But we made it look believable, and it took the guardians almost a year to figure out that I was the one organising this, and my parents were very unhappy about it.
"When I was found out, I was put in prison for a few months, as well as my recruits. I was cellmates with three of the five them. Working with them was one thing, but living with them was very unsavoury, especially when you were living with them in a prison cell. One of them was executed a few weeks into our sentence after he completely lost the plot and assaulted a few of the prisoners during one of our dinner hours, as well as two of the guards. One of the guards that he assaulted was wounded so badly he ended up in the infirmary for three days.
"I was almost twenty-eight when I was released, and I tried to do what was right after that. But my mind was deteriorating, fast, and I had no idea what was right or wrong at the time. I became a bully, and I said some real horrible stuff to Farill that almost caused him to commit suicide. My parents were quick to come to his side, and eventually, they seemed to forget about me altogether as they tried to help Farill make another day. I didn't make matters easier.
"It was my twenty-ninth hatch-day when things went completely downhill. I don't remember the whole story of what happened, but that day was when I turned into the Dark Master you knew so well, Cynder. Darkness took control of me, and I turned into a horrible monster. I wanted power, and I went to the guardians to get it. I attacked them, and they fought hard to stop me. I killed one of them – the ice guardian, Snowfang – and eventually they weakened me with a combined beam of elements. They threw me out into exile, and I returned to the Well of Souls. There I created the ape army and made my home there.
"When I next returned to Warfang, all of my family was gone, and I quickly learned why after I forced the truth out of the guardians. Farill had finally committed suicide; my parents were too shaken and shocked by my corruption that they were too busy dealing with their own grief to care about Farill.
"My father had fallen into a pit of despair after my fall and Farill's subsequent death, and he wanted nothing more but his own death, but he wasn't game enough to do it himself; the thought of spilling his own blood was unsavoury. So, to get what he wanted, he committed terrible things just so he could be killed by someone else. He literally hyped himself up at the thought of death and doing bad things so much for so damn long that he became a maniac, devoured by anxiety, but most importantly, extreme insanity. He murdered two dragons in public, and then downed a young dragoness and attempted to… to… to r…" Muras paused, sniffling as tears streamed down his face, shaking his head with shock as he voiced aloud what his father had done, and had attempted to do, just to achieve death. He took a deep breath and recomposed himself. "He… He was u-u-unsuccessful. The guardians caught h-h-him just before he could d-do s-s-s-so. In public. They threw him in prison, but barely two days after that, he had assaulted three more dragons, killing one of them, which was a guard, and managed to find a dragoness there who had been imprisoned for robbery. He was successful in what he tried to do the first time, and the guardians, as well as the prison guards, decided that enough was enough. He was beheaded in public the next day.
"Mother was devastated by what had happened to Father and all he had done. Just two days after his execution, she committed suicide too. Despite what you might have thought, I was heartbroken, even as the monster I was. It pushed me beyond my limits, and I suddenly had no feelings for anyone else who might have been close to me. When I invaded Warfang that day, I killed the rest of my cousins, and both of my remaining uncles, as well as my grandmother. I even found Jorgustus' cheating girlfriend, who had been mated to the dragon she had been dating in secret back when Jorgustus was still alive, and I murdered the both of them, too, as well as their seven-year-old son; I left the one-year-old daughter alive to suffer, to scream, to cry in fear and mourning, forced to watch as I spilled the blood of her family." Muras paused, taking in a shuddering breath and wiping tears from his eyes as he remembered that moment, the screaming kid bawling as she watched her family be slaughtered. "I shed so much blood that day, and it makes me sick to think about it all."
"Now you know how I felt every day of my life for the past eleven years. How I still feel." Cynder said. "Except that I have you to blame it on."
"Shut up! Please just shut up!" Muras snapped, his voice high-pitched and breaking with emotion. Cynder flinched at the sheer emotion in his voice and expression, his eyes red with tears, which were now freely flowing down his face. "I'm not finished my story yet! Just let me finish before you blame me and hurt me anymore! Although it's not like it's going to matter. I kind of deserve it; I've dealt enough harm and suffering in the many years of my existence that I deserve every piece of hell hurtled my way!"
Muras panted heavily after his furious outburst, and Cynder could only look at him in shock. She was so confused right now. She didn't know what to feel. He was clearly hurting, and hurting a lot, more than she ever had hurt. But he was a monster. He forced her to do all she did. But… what monster would be crying right now? What kind of monster would try to heal her essence core? Doubt filled her, and she felt a sick feeling rise through her stomach. She quickly realised what this feeling was. Regret. She had done this to him. She was making Muras relive his hellish memories. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him. No, Cynder, NO! she thought to herself angrily. He's the reason you're like this. A creature corrupted by darkness, forced to carry three extra elements, all dark elements, that caused your essence core to become so fragile it almost died. So fragile that you almost died when you were first learning your dark elements. It's all his fault, Cynder. You should not be feeling sorry for him!
She took a deep breath and swallowed, shutting out her doubt and feeling the hatred towards Muras burn in her chest once more. They stared at each other for a while, before Cynder growled at him, "Go on, Muras. I'm sure there's still more."
"FINE!" Muras snapped, wiping his eyes again, before he continued his story. "I… I-I-I only had a little bit of my true self left in me. I knew I-I-I wouldn't retain it any longer. So, ashamed of what I had done, and not wanting to associate my real name with what I had done to those who had brought me into the world, I changed my name. Ever since then, I went by Malefor instead of Muras, and then every existence of the original Muras was lost from the records, taken up by Malefor. Eventually, as Malefor, I destroyed a lot of the old records, especially those that contained me or my parents. Not much was known about me afterwards as an extra twenty years passed, all knowledge forgotten. Even the guardians, so focused on the war and training up a new ice guardian, had forgotten about my past. They tried to remember as much as they could from their perspective and memories as they could, and created the legend that the world now knows today of Malefor's birth and fall. They forgot everything about me, and my new home, the Well of Souls, in which the guardians then theorised that I had created it, which was not the case.
"The Chronicler would have explained that version of the legend to Spyro; there are things that not even the Chroniclers know. The sheer darkness of the magic I used to destroy old records actually carried over into the White Isle, the realm in which the Chronicler resides, closely linked to this world. And so, records were even destroyed in the White Isle, and were unable to be replaced.
"At the end of those twenty years, the guardians contacted the ancestors in an attempt to get them to help us. The one who answered was Aloelle, the first ever purple dragon, and known as the Giver of Elements. She is one of the most powerful spirits of this world, and she aided the guardians to imprison me into Convexity. It was a realm where the ancestors could watch over me, and a realm of emptiness where the energy of the purple dragons originates from. I was forty-nine when I was imprisoned in Convexity, and so I remained for another thousand years.
"Life was peaceful among the Dragon Realms as every city was repaired from my wrath. But even from my convexity prison, I still barely had the energy to connect to the real world to communicate with my dark army of apes. And so that is why apes used to attack dragon cities and towns on the odd occasion, trying to continue my goal of putting suffering and destruction on the world, as I tried to escape my prison.
"Then you came along. Gaul carried me inside crystallised convexity where I was able to see what was happening. I could sense the strength of each and every one of the unhatched younglings, and I assessed them on the energy of their essence core and their willpower, in high hopes that one of them would be able to free me. My original target was Spyro once I saw there was a purple egg there, but Ignitus was quick enough to take his egg and drop him in the Silver River, and I lost sight of him completely. That's why I had to go on a massive search to find one strong enough for what I had to give to them. I knew that my rescuer had to have the power of a purple to make it into Convexity, and I found you. Even inside your egg, you were strong and powerful, and your essence core was wild and lively. That's why I chose you, and when you hatched, I injected you with not only the power of darkness, but the power of a purple. That is the reason why we had to take training slowly for you, to get your core of one element, wind, used to becoming a core of a purple, wielding multiple elements, although it was only strong enough at its maximum to provide you with an extra three elements.
"You know most of what happened after, but I'm guessing your final request would be to know how I returned. As Muras, my true self. Who I was born to be. You may remember when you knocked me down that final time, I was woozy and disorientated. I didn't have much more in me; I don't know how long I would have made it. The ancestors came to my rescue. All spirits of purples long gone, they came and spirited me away to the afterlife, where I met with Aloelle. She had a stern talking with me, and I was petrified of her. Originally, still filled with the spirit of Malefor, I fought and struggled against her, making it hard for her to get to me. But slowly, slowly but surely, she ended up purifying me, and I was me again. Muras. The purple dragon of one thousand years ago.
"Aloelle said that she was sorry for everything that had happened to me. I felt bad hearing Aloelle, the purple dragon firstborn, expressing pity for me. But she gave me a task. The ancestors had more for me to do. I was to return as my true self and to wait until a confused, distressed soul came into my paws, and I was to look after them. And then I was told to wait even more, as the saying goes that every purple needs a mentor, and I was to mentor the next purple."
Cynder's eyes widened. "And that confused, distressed soul was me." she analysed, although slightly sceptical of the last bit of this story.
"Yes." Muras said, a smile creeping up onto his face for the first time all day.
"But… to mentor the next purple… that'll have to wait for a thousand years, won't it? I mean… There's still ten generations until the next purple is due to be born. And I doubt you'll ever mentor Spyro. Not now at least."
"Spyro isn't the only purple. Your son is still out there, Cynder. I believe he's the one I'm meant to mentor."
"Forzen's dead." Cynder snapped angrily. "That's the only thing I will ever believe now. Even if he's alive, he's with Spyro. He'll grow up knowing nothing but death and violence, and only thinking that it is right, and that peace is wrong. Forzen will never be the same. And so, I cannot believe that the real Forzen is still alive, Muras. I will never believe it."
"Never say never, Cynder. You may be surprised."
"I doubt it." Cynder scowled.
Muras murmured and lowered his head. He closed his eyes as he thought hard on everything he had said, tears threatening to spill from his closed eyes as he breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. He eventually did, before he let out a small scoff and a groan. "Eventually we established a spiritual connection, something every living dragon should strive to have with the ancestors. I can hear her voice sometimes. She really has helped me a lot as well. Every dragon will have an ancestral mentor, but most dragons don't have connections established with them and don't bother to listen, which is why many people complain that the ancestors don't answer their prayers. It's because they don't listen."
The purple dragon paused, before realising he'd gone off on a tangent. He scoffed again. "Anyway, now I'm just ranting. I've said enough. Goodnight." he muttered bitterly, before he turned and walked off, leaving Cynder alone to her thoughts.
Ancestors, she still didn't know what to think. It seemed like Muras was telling the truth. It seemed like he was truly hurting, truly regretting everything, but she didn't know if he was just a really good actor.
Yet he was healing her. A voice in her head snarled at her, saying that it was to give her a false sense of security, and to heal her so that Muras could do all the maiming and clawing and biting and bloodshed himself. What if he was still Malefor deep inside?
She might have softened up to him, but only a little; there was still a huge amount of trust to be made up between them. And the key word here was 'might'. She still wasn't sure yet. She was so confused at what to make of all of this. Muras had been through some terrible stuff… but so had she. His pain was worse… but hers was still bad. No one knew what it felt like to be controlled by an evil being beyond your own control, to be forced to commit murder after murder, torture after torture, genocide after genocide… She killed soldiers, kings, queens, rulers, politicians. Elders, parents, aunts, uncles. Children. Infants. Babies. She had done unspeakable things in Malefor's name, and Muras was to blame for it. But he had done terrible things too, and for much longer than she had. Hell, he had even led his own family to their death, and more importantly, he led his father into insanity, causing him to do terrible things too.
Hell, what was she to do? What was the right thing to do? What was the right thing to think about Muras? Is he still Malefor and trying to trick her, or has he really turned a new leaf?
Cynder lowered her head back down on the soft nest she had been lying in for the past few days and closed her eyes, before she fell asleep.
This... has been a long time waiting. It feels so good to finally have this chapter up. I remember this backstory for Malefor/Muras just popping in my head and I immediately knew I needed to include it. I'm really proud of this backstory, and I'm really interested to see what you all think of it.
Also, I'm not surprised at everyone's reaction to Muras being revealed to be Malefor. Even my beta was a bit surprised by it lol.
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Derick Lindsey: This twist has actually been teased at for a bit. I actually hid something pretty small a few chapters ago that actually said who Muras' identity was. Hopefully Muras' backstory was good and that you enjoyed it. And no I won't give Cynder a break haha.
AquillaPrime: Glad you liked the extra expansion in the nature of the world. And yes, Cynder has a lot of conflicting emotions, especially now after finding out that Muras is Malefor, and being told his whole backstory, which I also hope you like lol.
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Anyway, this was a fun chapter, and first chapter of 2020 as well. Happy new year to everyone (even though it's the second but meh)! I aim to get a chapter out each month, but don't hold me to that, especially with me starting uni this year. See ya all in the next chapter.