Rapidfire chapters, woooo!

Or at least rapid for me. Let's get the final chapter of prep out of the way before it's time for the big showdown. Darkmire can wait, Hope has to go down.

Cynder had a difficult time explaining what had occurred while she had been trapped in the prison cell with Darkmire. She tried to lay it out in order, starting with their conversation, then moving into how the space within the cell had started to change. How she'd been able to walk impossibly far in one direction, how she'd been submerged in a pool of blood, and how she'd travelled through a crack in the wall which had taken her miles deep into the mountain.

She noticed Malefor was looking at her like he was trying to decide if she was crazy or not. Spyro and Imperia were listening intently, but knowing that she was being judged disrupted her out of her explanation flow.

She reset and started to explain the general overview of the conversation, beginning with the fact that they'd quickly been taken into illusory worlds and changed location a dozen times during the confrontation.

This immediately derailed the conversation again, with Imperia eagerly starting to question the mechanics of how exactly it worked.

Cynder wrenched the conversation back on track and finished outlining what had happened in the order it happened; finally finishing her explanation with when Darkmire had retreated back and given Pleasure control again. The way that the other girl had been comatose at first, and that once she'd been jolted awake she'd been acting strangely. She ended by expressing her fear that Pleasure might have forgotten about her.

"That sounds like quite an ordeal." Malefor said.

Spyro scooted himself over from where he had been sitting, settling in next to Cynder and gently putting his wing over her. "It's going to be okay. She's still our friend and we'll make it work out. Don't beat yourself up over any of it. You did amazingly."

"She agreed to come in there with me, and now look at her." Cynder said, looking at where Pleasure was curled up asleep on the bed nearby. "Okay she looks kind of peaceful right at this exact second… but she was so brave coming with me and all she got was suffering…"

"But you were able to reach out to her somehow. That's huge Cynder. This new realisation about your fear element might be enough to save us both. Fear doesn't seem like the right name for it anymore though."

"The emotion element." Imperia suggested helpfully.

"You reached out to Pleasure with compassion." Spyro said with a smile, holding Cynder's paw. "Maybe it should be the compassion element? Or the love element."

"No." Cynder said, rolling her eyes. "I'm not being a love dragon."

"Love dragon? I think that's got a nice ring to it." Imperia said.

"No. Shut up." Cynder growled.

"Come on. It's great!" Spyro said brightly. "Cynder the love dragon."

"You guys are the worst." Cynder muttered. "Malefor, back me up here."

Malefor cleared his throat. "Well it's not technically accurate-"

"Exactly!"

"But it's also not incorrect. And from a branding perspective-"

"Urgh, not you too." Cynder said with a glare. "Fine. I discovered that I was a love dragon all along, then. Are you happy now?"

Imperia giggled delightedly. "Extremely!"

Spyro nodded in agreement.

"Maybe evil was the right choice all along." Cynder said grouchily.

"Aww…" Imperia's face fell dramatically to look sad.

"Anyway, this is a fascinating discovery." Malefor said after giving the others a few moments for their silliness. "So you've described in brief how this new understanding about your element allowed you to do two notable new things. Firstly is that you intentionally created a shared hallucination between yourself and your opponent. Secondly is that you created an additional shared hallucination between yourself and Pleasure, while cutting her dark side at least partially out of the connection."

"Like Spyro's mindscape thing. I think I might… maybe… be able to see inside there. We could fight Hope together in there."

Spyro winced a little bit as his dark side was named, but the look on his face was bright and optimistic. "That would be fantastic!"

"It does sound promising." Imperia nodded in agreement. "We did already guess that fear blasting Spyro would be helpful, but now you've not only gotten practice at it, and a proof of concept, but you've even figured out how it actually works."

"I'd rather be blasting Spyro with love instead of with fear."

Spyro laughed and hugged her. "I wouldn't have held it against you either way."

Cynder nodded. "I know. But still it feels a lot better. And it felt good to get a one up on you know who as well. The look on her face after I did it, she looked like she was really shaken. It felt encouraging."

Her expression grew serious.

"But I also felt her at full power. Or at least it felt like it might have been full power. I only felt the radiation from it really, rode the blast wave out of Pleasure's mind and into the real world. But it was big. I've never felt anything like it, not even from the Dark Master. I might have spent the entire time smacking her around, and I left with what I wanted but… she scares me."

"According to stories she was the one who blasted a great hole in the earth which became the Legacy Sea, scorching the entire old continent down until there was nothing remaining." Imperia said. "Who knows what she can really do. You might have been lucky to escape with your mind intact…" She looked over at Pleasure nervously.

"It was a big risk, I know. But like she's already said she's not interested in just taking us out. If she wanted to then Spyro and I would probably both be dead and she would be back in her cell with a hundred extra guards. No, she wants to make us suffer before she kills us. Yes I risked my mind by going in there with her, and I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if Pleasure was permanently wiped, to say nothing of how you would have felt if I'd been wiped, but it was a risk worth taking."

"If we can heal Pleasure from this state then no harm will have been done." Malefor said in agreement. "So as far as I'm concerned we have our objectives. Yourself and Spyro will stay here and try to help Pleasure recover. Imperia and myself will enter convexity to see if the battleground is secure enough to be viable. If it's not then we'll need to bring in expert moles and enchanters to reinforce it, which could take years. We'd be reinventing some very ancient magic and trying to improve it using our modern innovations without accidentally breaking it."

"Yep, sounds complex." Cynder said with a shrug. "We'll just be babysitting the self-destruct button of the entire universe out here."

"I thought you hated babysitting." Imperia laughed.

"I do, but these are exceptional circumstances. Besides in this case it's more like friendsitting anyway."

"I'd help if I could, but she doesn't trust me." Imperia said apologetically. "Besides I really do know a lot about symbols."

"Very well it's agreed then." Malefor said. "But we should wait for her to wake up before we divide our forces, just in case something bad happens."

"Honestly, when was the last time something bad happened?" Imperia laughed.

Cynder rolled her eyes. "A whole bunch of bad things happened to get us here."

"And a few good things too." Spyro offered.

"I guess." Cynder nodded. "I just hope Pleasure is going to be okay."

"Well when she wakes we shall find out." Malefor said. "Do we have food and water for her?"

Spyro nodded, getting to his feet and moving over to sit next to Pleasure, gently adjusting the blanket and making sure the waterskin was over half full. There were also small cubes of salted meat and dried fruit.

"How do we see if she's ready to wake up?" Malefor asked.

"Don't rush her. She deserves a rest. And also she could explode at any moment." Cynder said.

"I know something which might wake her, or at least make her less likely to explode." Spyro said, raising a paw and holding it over Pleasure's head. It started to glow softly with warmth.

The black dragoness didn't wake up, but she did shift slightly and leaned towards the warmth a bit. She looked much more comfortable now.

"Now we wait." Spyro said.

They made conversation for about fifteen minutes while they waited, at first Cynder started talking about her thoughts on her 'love' element; but before long Imperia bent the conversation towards food, starting with the salted meat available at Darkmire's Tomb and how it compared to other meats she'd had. Apparently it was slightly below average, although when Cynder had some she'd personally thought it was great.

Malefor had yet to eat many foods, and wasn't even sure what flavours he might like. Imperia was halfway through telling him exactly how great food was and giving him a long list of things he simply had to eat when Pleasure finally stirred.

She opened her eyes, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they were green. Slowly she raised her head, looking around, her oversized horns nearly hitting Spyro by accident. Spyro ducked the swung horn easily enough and Pleasure didn't even notice.

"Where… am I?" She asked, looking around. "Spyro…" Her gaze turned to Cynder and she hesitated in uncertainty. "And…"

Cynder gritted her teeth slightly, then gave Pleasure her calmest smile and stated her own name. "Cynder."

"You hit me." Pleasure said quietly, confused. "I don't… remember why…"

"Well that's something at least. I'm really really sorry I hit you."

Pleasure nodded slightly. "You're… very brave. I know that somehow." She smiled hesitantly.

"I, well, I guess so." Cynder nodded, her smile relaxing and becoming more genuine. She was deeply pissed off that Darkmire had tried to cut out memories of her from Pleasure's mind, even though the hero worship had been weirding her out she still hated that their friendship had been partly erased. And just typical that Darkmire had left the memory of Cynder punching her. What a spiteful creature.

"Cynder." Pleasure said slowly, testing the name and finding it familiar. "I forgive you, Cynder."

"Okay, I think we're safe to split up now." Imperia said, beckoning to Malefor. "I don't know how long I can handle being exposed to Convexity, so I may be back again pretty soon. You guys have fun without us, ok?"

"We'll try." Cynder said. "Don't get distracted."

Imperia giggled. "As if I ever would."

"You definitely would." Spyro said.

"Okay okay, I'll try not to be." Imperia said with a laugh as Malefor joined her outside in the corridor. "Take care, we'll see you soon."

"You too."

"Where are they going?" Pleasure asked as Malefor and Imperia walked a short distance away and then vanished.

"Into a place called Convexity." Spyro told her. "Imagine a door, which once you step through it doesn't just take you to a different room, but it takes you somewhere far far away. Well that's basically what's going on, this special door takes you to a huge open space where you float in the air. We call that space Convexity."

"Oh. I'd like to go far far away." Pleasure said wistfully.

"Someday soon you will. We'll go somewhere peaceful and beautiful, you can go alone or we can come with you." Spyro said brightly. "There will be sunlight, and trees, and water."

"Water? Like to drink? I'd like some water." Pleasure said in that same wistful tone, as if water was just as impossible a dream as escape from this dismal mountain cavern.

"Here." Spyro said, opening the top of the waterskin and offering it to her. She took it with difficulty, her unnaturally long claws making it a challenge for her, but she showed greatly improved strength compared to a few days ago, lifting it to her face with only mild difficulty and drinking deeply. Spyro offered her some cubes of meat once she was done, and she gratefully accepted those too.

"So where does all the water come from? It doesn't make sense to me."

"It comes from rainwater." Cynder said. "You know, like storms and rain."

"Rain… Like from clouds." Pleasure said thoughtfully. "I'd like to see clouds again."

"You'll like the sun even better I think." Spyro said.

"I like rain and sun both." Cynder said.

"The world sounds amazing. I wish to explore it someday."

"Someday soon." Spyro assured her. "We're not leaving until we make sure you can leave with us. Neither your dark side or mine will ever bother us again."

"That would be really nice." Pleasure said optimistically. "I can't thank you enough, either of you."

"No need to thank us until we've done it." Cynder said. "Even then you don't have to. You've earned it. And your dark side really sucks, so we'd take her down just because she deserves it."

Pleasure laughed slightly. "I guess so…"

Cynder thought it might have been the first time she'd heard Pleasure laugh, even if it was only a very faint one.

"You know what you need? You need to have your nails done." Cynder said. "I think there were some clippers here somewhere." She poked around the bedding until she found a pair of shears.

"Nails?" Pleasure eyed her excessively long claws. "That makes sense. I want claws like you have."

"They'll take a while to get like that, but I can make them short at least." Cynder said. Then she hesitated. "Actually Spyro, do you know how to use clippers? I… uh… don't."

Spyro snorted in amusement. "You've probably never needed them. Neither have I, honestly. Training is enough to keep them in a constant state. But I have seen clippers being used, so I can probably do it."

Pleasure held out a paw, then she gulped as she looked at the clippers. A pair of heavy blades on a hinge, easily large and strong enough to be used as hedge trimmers. Nothing less would get through the nails of an average dragon.

"I c-can't watch!" She squeaked, turning away and closing her eyes tightly.

She breathed heavily for a few moments, but no matter how closely Cynder listened she didn't hear Pleasure start to mutter names. Cynder gave Spyro a nod, giving him approval to begin the operation.

"Okay, you'll hear a noise and feel a weird tingling in your fingers, but it'll be fine."

"Okay…" Pleasure said, her nervousness gradually increasing.

Trying to perform a high pressure manicure was definitely not what Cynder had been expecting today, but she had to just roll with it now. "Don't waste time Spyro." She said.

Spyro nodded, realising that there might be a time limit looming. He selected a claw and a spot less than a quarter of the way down it, and then clipped it.

Pleasure yelped and flinched, but then stopped.

"Hey, you can open your eyes." Spyro said soothingly. "It's fine."

She did so, looking down at her paw and seeing one of her claws shortened. "Oh… That wasn't so bad."

"I said it would be ok. Your claws are unusually brittle, so they might crack a little. Lack of healthy food. They'll strengthen up eventually. Can I do the others?" Spyro asked.

Pleasure nodded, watching intently as Spyro carefully trimmed each of her claws, not going too far down the length. He knew that if he trimmed too far down the claws then they might start to bleed which could scare her, so he kept it cautious.

Pleasure seemed amazed, watching her nails get shorter. She still couldn't easily walk on them, but at least they were a little bit better and didn't hook back on themselves quite so far.

"Tomorrow I'll trim them shorter again if you like." Spyro told her.

Pleasure nodded excitedly. "Okay!"

"I'll do the others now as well then?" Spyro offered.

Pleasure nodded again. "That's so cool!"

Cynder raised an eyebrow in amusement. She wasn't going to criticise her for having fun though, even if it was for something as weird as getting a slightly wonky series of trims to her nails. She hoped that Malefor and Imperia were also doing well.

"I think I can bring you with me. I haven't done this before." Malefor said as he stepped around the corner with Imperia, the sounds of conversation fading away.

Imperia immediately scooted over to him and slithered her way up under his wing. "Well I'd better make sure I stick close then."

"I see you're in a playful mood."

"Heehee, just excited about getting to see a new and amazing place. A floating mountain with magic symbols and flying through the depths of space! That sounds fantastic. Besides, I'm always in a playful mood."

Malefor nodded. "Very well. I hope you'll find some time to do what we're there to do, but I'll forgive you if you want to spend the first little while just enjoying the view and playing around. Just don't interrupt my work, okay?"

Imperia laughed. "I would never! I'll be too busy checking out the view I hope. Will it live up to it's reputation? The world of pure energy, vast beyond imagining. Like seeing nothing but night sky in every direction, like flying above a still lake at night."

"You're about to find out. Provided we get there successfully."

Malefor reached up a claw and dragged it down through the air, creating a rift in space before them both. Imperia pressed a bit tighter to him, and then with a careful leap Malefor took them both through the portal.

Imperia's eyes widened with awe as she saw a flash of purple sky through the rip in space, leaning into it as they floated through.

The first thing she noticed was how bright it was. She hadn't been expecting something as bright as daylight, but in fact it was several degrees brighter than that. And no wonder, because when she looked up she had to rapidly look down again. There in the sky, ten times bigger than the sun she was familiar with, was a burning white sphere of a size that she couldn't even begin to calculate.

She couldn't look at it, couldn't estimate distance, but even the faintest glance at it told her that it was on a totally different scale to the world she knew. It was massive. Beyond her comprehension.

She looked away entirely, unable to even turn her head in it's direction. And it wasn't just radiating light at her, it was radiating power as well. It was like pure magic, elementless, and aimless. Just blasting out in every direction. It made her feel… surprisingly good. It was power, energy, rejuvenating to her energy stores. She felt like in the glow of this star she could pick up a mountain with ease and not even feel the drain. And yet at the same time she could also feel it threatening to sting her skin. If she stayed in it's light for too long then her body would burn.

Gravity was lighter than it should have been, and yet the rocky pyramid which filled up the sphere somehow was keeping them standing naturally enough on it's surface. It was like standing on a mountain inside of a giant fishbowl, in Imperia's opinion.

The dome which surrounded them was oily in appearance, like it was made of a transparent but slightly black tinted fluid, one which reflected light into rainbow iridescent ripples which were constantly moving and changing. It was lovely, although much less lovely was the rough black surface of stone under their feet, not to mention the burning sun in the sky.

"Are they always so… nasty? It feels like it's going to melt me, but that I'd be able to perform feats of magic I never would have imagined I could do if I was able to survive in it's blaze."

It was amazing. She felt like she could turn the whole mountain upside down. Like she could reach so far out with her wind she could track everyone in an entire city. It felt good, despite the burn.

Malefor shook his head. "I have never been so close to one before. I expected it to be much worse. This one feels strangely… friendly. Perhaps it is a smaller star, or just a less intense one."

"Usually it feels worse?" Imperia asked incredulously.

"How long can you stand?" Malefor asked with deadly seriousness. "Do we need to get you out of here and get you healed immediately?"

Imperia shook her head. "No. Trust me, I know my limits. I can handle about an hour of this and I'll shrug it off no problem."

"Are you sure? Myself, Spyro and Cynder are the only ones who can withstand prolonged exposure in this world. It might be effecting you ten times worse than it's effecting me."

"Probably." Imperia nodded. "But I'm telling you I can handle an hour." She smiled warmly. "Let's not waste it. You need to know the battlefield."

"Right." Malefor nodded. "Let me know if anything changes."

Imperia smiled encouragingly, heading to the side furthest away from the star and looking out into the vastness of space which surrounded them in every other direction.

"It's beautiful." She said softly, staring out at the purple and blueish sky, hints of pink like distant wispy clouds, and distant white stars. It was a lovely view, and having the mountain between her and the closest star was a definite improvement.

"Indeed it is." Malefor nodded. "This was all I saw during my imprisonment. And you know what? I never got tired of it. Not really. Especially not after I met you."

Imperia looked at him with a warm smile. He nodded, returning the smile slightly self consciously, then turning back and starting to examine the mountainside.

"I should check for caves."

"Okay. I'll get started on this barrier and it's symbols." Imperia said, scampering to the edge and starting to have a look at what they were dealing with here.

Malefor took his time examining the mountain, but there wasn't really much to examine. The stone was sheets of slate, treacherous to stand on, but not impossible. Pieces could crack off and fall at any moment, but provided they didn't the ground would be flat and stable. An air battle would definitely be preferable in this terrain.

There was only one peak, and it looked somewhat like that of the top part of the mountain in which Darkmire's Tomb was constructed. He placed his paws firmly on the ground and closed his eyes, reaching down and feeling what was going on. He quickly confirmed that there were no sizable caves of any kind. Nothing but occasional crevices.

One interesting thing was that some of the lower down stone was the reddish rock which made up normal convexity stone. A close examination revealed the stuff to be some kind of carbon lattice, not as tough as diamond, but somewhere comparable. It was manipulatable by earth magic, despite not existing anywhere in the normal dragon realms. The vast majority of the place was slate, a hard volcanic rock which was almost indestructible to fire, electrical and ice attacks, but which had natural lines of weakness which made it relatively easy to shatter if you knew where to hit it.

Slate did not occur naturally in convexity, which meant it had to have been brought here. Malefor wondered if this entire patch of mountainside had been pulled out of the real world, or if it had been transported here piece by piece.

Looking around the mountain revealed all sides to be equally bleached by sunlight, telling him that either the contents of the bubble, or the entire bubble, must either be spinning in place, orbiting the sun, or doing both at the same time.

He shattered some of the slate below his feet, sending a crack deep into the mountainside with his earth magic, then picked up a piece and examined it closely.

No symbols. Perfectly normal. A shield, then? Protecting something important in the centre? Something like a power source perhaps?

He looked again, extra closely this time. If there was a power crystal under this mountain then stopping Hope from digging to the middle of the mountain would be his highest priority. And yet there was none.

Once he'd considered the problem from several angles he concluded that this whole mountainside had been pulled here in a single go through one gigantic portal, and then blasted into shape. It must have been used as a working platform, or perhaps as a ready supply of writing material for crumbling up and using to inscribe symbols.

Confident that he had eliminated the mystery of the terrain he moved over to Imperia and joined her.

"Anything to report yet?" He asked.

"Whoever made this was a genius." Imperia said with a grin. "Also it's completely safe to touch."

"Did you touch it?"

"… no."

"You touched it, didn't you?"

"Okay, yes I did. But only after I was confident it was safe. Watch this."

She reached her paw straight out through the barrier and wiggled it around, then brought it back in.

"It's element proof. Not only that but it will absorb any magic which is fired through it and become even more powerful! Assuming that Darkmire and Hope are not physically able to walk through it, which seems likely but I'm not yet completely certain about, it should contain them regardless of power. It matches power to them!"

"I see." Malefor reached out and waved his paw through it as well, noticing the way the oily rainbow sheen rippled and parted around him. And he noticed even more interestingly that the shining ripples themselves turned into the symbols which maintained the dome.

"Brilliant, isn't it? It can't be overloaded!" Imperia grinned. "The bigger the hit the bigger the dome becomes, and the bigger the symbols become! It will expand in size while there is additional energy in it, and then shrink once it's burned off to return to equilibrium!"

"And the size it currently is comes from the energy of the stars." Malefor completed. "I can see the suitability of the label genius. It doesn't even need a power source, because as long as there are stars in the sky there will be ripples-"

"Which propagate the magic-"

"Which enlarges the surface area-"

"Which absorbs more energy to keep the dome going! It's unbreakable!" Imperia finished excitedly. "I can't say it enough, this is genius!"

Malefor nodded, grinning. "Okay, it's secure enough that even with my paranoia I feel a tiny bit comfortable about bringing even Darkmire into here. I think it might contain her."

"The real question is, if we put ourselves in her paws… how would we escape it?" Imperia mused. "Well I've got two plans already. You?"

"Two as well." Malefor said. "Firstly she could try moving the dome to an area with no stars. Secondly if that doesn't work she could try to return to the material world and try to land herself somewhere outside Darkmire's tomb."

Imperia's face tightened slightly with worry. "Huh. I had two completely different ones."

"Oh?"

"Firstly she could try using the stone to create a spear or tunnel or needle through the bubble and then fly out through that. Considering she can turn to smoke she would only need the tiniest of gaps. And secondly she could cover the outside of the dome with shadows in order to cut off all of it's power thereby making it wink out of existence completely. Honestly I think yours are more plausible."

"Really? I think yours are much more worrying. I wonder how much the energy of a star can get through, or if it would be possible to create shadows outside the dome from inside the dome. Would that be blocked?"

"Try making a flame outside the dome." Imperia suggested.

Malefor reached out and focused, attempting to do just that. After several seconds of focus he shook his head and a small burst of fire exploded on the inside of the dome and turned to ripples.

"I can't do it. It just seems too far away." He chuckled despite himself at the strangeness of the feeling. Imperia tried as well a moment later and got the same result.

"Huh. Well that's encouraging at least. Now we just need to make sure there are no sufficiently dark spots outside the dome that she might be able to jump to directly."

"We can have Cynder test that, although it shouldn't be an issue. There are not many natural shadows in Convexity… unless she throws all the slate out."

"Should we remove it entirely?"

"I'm not sure." Malefor admitted. "Maybe. Although even then I don't think she'd get a shadow. What if Cynder was standing outside the dome and Darkmire took over one of her already summoned shadows?"

"How about I go out of the dome and you try to take over one of my gusts of wind?" Imperia suggested.

Malefor nodded. "That sounds like a reasonable test before we fight Darkmire in here. But when it comes to Hope… I think I trust this space enough that I'm willing to risk it."

"It's still quite a risk." Imperia said thoughtfully. "So how about the moving the dome from inside?"

"Well the bubble does have some surface tension. I think if you moved the whole mountain and pressed it against one side of the dome and pushed then yes, you would be able to move it around. Perhaps that's why it was placed here to begin with, rather than having the bubble be entirely empty. But I've never heard of a place in Convexity with no stars, so I think we're safe on that count."

"How about teleporting back? Or what if we've miscalculated and it turns out Hope or Darkmire can walk in or out of here as easily as we can?"

"Well we haven't yet proved that we can walk in or out of here." Malefor reasoned.

Imperia jumped straight through the dome. "Like this?"

Malefor sighed heavily and joined her outside the dome. "I hate you."

"You love me."

He ignored her. "Well at least we can get through the dome." He beat his wings and floated back into it, feeling gravity take over again and bringing him back to standing.

Imperia did the same. "Flying here is so weird. Also what's with this gravity?"

"I presume it has to do with the natural stone formations here. Either they naturally gather in places with some level of gravity, or they create gravity in their local area. It's interesting, but hardly critical information for our intended mission here."

"Speaking of which I can still feel that radiation quite well through the entire mountain. I don't think Darkmire or Hope will be able to make a sun shield using it. The dome will still gain power and while it might shrink a bit I'm confident it would hold up."

"Truly a brilliant design." Malefor nodded in agreement. "We should write down all of the symbols we can find in order to make sure we understand it properly though."

"I think Cynder deserves a while to recover from what she went through with Darkmire. We should take this chance to test this dome's properties as much as we can."

"Indeed."

"Also it's just really cool and I want to geek out about it."

Malefor chuckled. "Indeed."

"Well we have another half hour or so. I'm still feeling comfortable for now."

Imperia looked towards the rainbow sheened surface with barely disguised eagerness.

"Lets get to work."

This chapter was really fun to write. Up until now I'd been trying to figure out the best way to put these things to words without making it too long and boring, and I think I've finally managed that. Between the encounter Cynder and Darkmire had, and giving our heroes a chance to chat and relax a little I think I've finally managed to adequately prepare the ground before the fight.

Next time will begin the first chapter of perhaps my longest fight scene yet. I hope you're looking forwards to it as much as I am!

Thanks for reading.

-4Dragons