Prologue

Storm clouds circled viciously around a mountain in the distance, wind blowing viciously and the earth rumbling beneath. Upon this mountain, an enormous battle raged on between the forces of light and dark. Forces of the great Draconic alliance and the fabricated forces of a dragon who just won't die. A Great roar echos and a bright purple beam flashes as Aether bounces into the sky.

Spyro lowers his convexity shield and dodges to the side as a fireball flies past him. He turns to glare at the undead dragon that has done nothing but tried to make his life a living hell.

"Why won't you just die! When will you get that you just won't win!"

Spyros comment was replied with an Aether beam which was once again deflected off of his Aether barrier, cutting into the mountain that once held the destroyer, but has long since been in slumber.

It has been 30 years since Malefor's first defeat, since then he has been resurrected two more times including this time. Each time he became more deranged and focused on making Spyro and Cynder's life hell, hell-bent on seeking revenge for his first death.

As Spyro put down his shield, a skeletal dragon grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the opposite side of the inactive volcano. With eyes burning with hatred and dark aether he lashed out another convexity beam. Spyro had only enough time to free his head from the crater before the beam was upon him. Fortunately for Spyro, a very familiar black dragoness swooped in front of him putting up her own aether barrier.

Spyro coughed blood into his paw "Took you long enough hun." he said as he finished exiting the small crater his body had left.

As Malefor's cut his Aether beam Cynder retaliated with one of her own sending him flying across and down into the cavern.

"Hey, it wasn't easy dealing with two golems ok, plus I freed up some help for us."

Just as Cynder said this, the guardians swooped into the cavern releasing a combination of earth, fire, ice, lightning, and wind and being handsomely rewarded by an ear-piercing roar from below.

The Fire guardian, also known as Flame, broke from the attack to check on the couple. "You two alright?" he asked as he evaluated the two war heroes, "We can finish up here if you two need medical attention."

Spyro picked himself up despite the extensive wounds and possible broken bones he had acquired during the fight. "I'll be fine, and in any case, we need to do this together, hopefully, we will kill him for good."

Cynder looked at him, she hated seeing him so broken and battered but what made it even worse was that she was used to seeing him like this. He would continuously put himself in harm's way even if it would save just one person from a terrible fate. Spyro turned his head and made eye contact with her and a wordless conversation ensued.

"I'll be careful Cynder, don't worry, I won't ever leave your side."

Cynders eyes softened "Good, because ill hunt you down if you do. And don't think dying down there will stop me either." she said with a smirk.

They both looked up to see another group of dragons gliding down to their position. Once they landed on the small outcropping Flame padded over to the one who possessed a satchel, said a few words, and relieved them of their satchel. He then turned and walked back over to the two.

"Here, I talked to the healer, and he gave me his satchel, if you two are going to continue to fight, then you will need to at least be capable" Flame tossed the satchel over to the two with it landing between them spilling out some green and red gems.

Once both of them were partially healed the three of them jumped down into the cavern below. Flashes of light and roars of fury and anger could be seen and heard echoing from the bottom. The further down they descended the more intense a familiar purple glow became. Once they reached the bottom they were greeted by a large, stray fireball flying in their direction. In one swift motion, Cynder flew in front of the small group and tossed the fireball aside with a gust of wind.

Once the smoke cleared they were greeted to a strange sight, before them was the monstrous skull of the great Destroyer of worlds, maw agape but dormant. Under the skull was the same massive crystal that Spyro and Cynder saved the world on, and Malefor's previous prison. Finally, there was an archway between the two that glowed an eerie purple with ancient ruins inscribed in it.

"I don't know what he's up to Spyro but we need to stop it now."

The trio charged down into the fight, catching Malefor off guard who had to dodge wildly to the side to avoid being slammed into the crystal by Cynder. He recovered quickly and readied an earth missile but was shut down by a clenched purple paw to the bottom of his jaw followed by earth shot to the chest sending him sprawling across the ginormous crystal. Spyro turned his head slightly to make sure Cynder was alright. A nod from her gave him his answer. Spyro returned on all fours and readied himself into a battle stance.

.Malefor slowly picked himself up and shook his head to get himself out of a daze. He looked at Spyro and snarled, internally cursing the dragon for continually ruining his plans, but this time would be different. Where before that accursed dragon would always show up and stop him in the most critical moment and succeed, this time Malefor's entire plan required him to arrive at one such moment...this very moment. With a confidant aura around him, he turned toward the archway and booked for the dark purple glow slowly getting larger with every bound he took.

Spyro's eyes grew wide as he started to realize what Malefor's plan was and immediately stopped time and moved to intercept. With each step, Spyro took he began to feel a strange draining sensation, not like when Malefor tried to steal his powers but a new sensation. Like it was being ripped from his very soul. He then began to notice that whenever he touched the crystal the area around his paw began to glow a blueish hue and would make its way to the archway. He then looked over to Malefor who was looking right at him, despite being just energy and bones Spyro just knew an evil grin would be on his face.

He fell right into Malefor's trap.

Spyro let go of his hold of time but it was too late, as soon as he did the ancient writing on the archway pulsed a blue hue and the once dark purple orb exploded into a swirling portal of blue and purple energy. Spyro skidded to a halt as he protected his eyes from the flash of light. As soon as he lowered his wing his eyes turned into saucers and his jaw dropped. Inside the archway, he saw a swamp with huge brown mushrooms extending as far as the eye can see, split by a river extending into the horizon. It was his old home before it got destroyed, and before he met Ignitus. He didn't have much time to react as a bony paw wrapped itself around his neck. He was then lifted up into the air and was turned by Malefor to face his fleshless head. Malefor began to chuckle as he watched Spyro gasp for air.

"You were always so predictable Spyro, always putting yourself in harm's way to save weaklings."

Malefor's chuckle turned into malicious laughter as he held out his left paw and a large dark crystal formed in it. Malefor then impaled Spyro through the abdomen with it. The crystal began to glow a bright purple and Spyro felt it begin to drain his essence.

"SPYRO!"

Malefor growled as he got blasted in the back with a dark Aether beam from Cynder. He releases his paw from the crystal embedded inside Spyros stomach and waved it backward sending a shockwave of both light and dark Aether at Cynder sending her flying back hitting Flame the Fire Guardian and sending them sprawling. The other Guardians either fell from the sky or met the same fate as Cynder and Flame. However, before Malefor could grab the crystal, Spyro summoned as much earth magic he could and channeled it into one fierce bite on Malefor's paw that was wrapped around his neck. There was a large snap followed by a furious and painful roar as Malefor's skeletal forepaw was snapped clean off. This caused Spyro to fall directly onto the crystal in his abdomen and further embed itself inside him causing it to puncture one of his lungs. Spyro felt blood flood the punctured lung and the pain that goes with it.

As Malefor staggered back on his hind legs, he looked at the missing forepaw and let out a menacing growl. His sight then shifted to the purple dragon on the ground coughing up large amounts of blood. He almost felt pity for the whelpling as he looked at his broken state, if only he would have joined him the first time all of this pain and suffering would have been avoided. He then noticed the crystal was too far embedded inside the adolescent dragon for him to continue to drain Spyro's power. It would also take too much time and energy to create another one so he will have to make use of the power he had. But first, he needed to finish what he started.

Malefor then used both Spyro's and his own power to create another forepaw made of pure Aether. He then dropped on all fours and walked over to Spyro.

"Always full of surprises whelpling, however, you don't know when to give up and recognize when you've lost. Just give up and let everyone die in peace instead of forcing them to live in fear and hope they can avoid total destruction."

With blood dripping out of his maw, Spyro lifted his head and stared Malefor in his lifeless eyes in defiance.

"As long as I have breath in my lungs and life in my body, I will never give up on fighting for what is right."

Malefor growled and stood up on his hind legs giving him an unholy and menacing appearance, even for Spyro.

"Then so be it."

Malefor raised both his paws now glowing with Convexity, reading for one final fatal strike. In a final attempt to survive Spyro lifted up his left-wing to try and absorb at least some of the blow, but Malefor was ready for this. His maw clamped down near the base of the wing and with the help of his own earth element, he tore Spyro's left-wing right off causing said dragon to roar in anguish. Malefor tossed the detached wing to the side and readied his Aether claw to strike the dragon one last time. But through tearful eyes, he raised his left paw and summoned his aether to form around his forearm and paw. As both aether paws clashed, the shard embedded in Spyro's stomach could no longer absorb any more power and exploded inside him, causing Spyro's defense to falter allowing Malefor's Aether paw to cut straight through Spyro's forepaw. Thankfully Spyro's momentary defense shifted the Aether paw's destination so it only glanced at his chest scales.

Malefor looked down at the now mutilated dragon in both anger and satisfaction. He did not intend to make the dragon suffer but enjoyed it all the same. He could not relish in his victory for long as a roar of anguish and anger erupted in the cavern that if he still had ears, they would have ruptured, followed by a decently sized beam of dark Aether that seemed to draw all the surrounding light into it. The beam only seemed to intensify as he was sent flying in the direction of the portal. After what seemed like an eternity to him the beam finally stopped and revealed a dark dragoness with tears pouring out of glowing white eyes charging him, maw wide, and charging another beam of Dark Aether. If he didn't enter that portal now he feared that this time, he would truly die. With that in mind, he put up another Aether barrier and turned and charged the portal.

Spyro watched on as he witnessed his mate and love of his life lose herself to anger and hatred, chasing after the dragon that did this to him now heading toward a time portal.

He had to destroy that portal.

For Warfang…

For the guardians..

For Cynder.

He silently prayed to any Ancestor watching to give him enough strength to complete this one last deed. As if answering him he felt the energy flow into him as the entire crystal began to glow. He began the excruciating task of lining his head up with the portal, and as soon as his head was lined up Malefor looked behind him and made eye contact with Spyro's defiant expression. Malefor's eyes widened and he leaped into the air to gain as much speed as he could.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Even while he was drowning in his own blood, with his guts spilling out into a pool of his own blood, Spyro would never give up on protecting those in need, even if it cost him his own life. So as he released a beam of light blue and purple, he knew that he would rest easy knowing everyone was safe for another day.

As the beam hit the top of the archway, the crystal embedded in it cracked and sparked for a moment and exploded into a wave of pure white engulfing the entire cavern.

Spyro heard a voice cut through the running of the explosion, he didn't know who the voice belonged to but it sounded soothing familiar.

"Never give up young dragon, always follow your heart and do what is right, even if it seems that the whole world is against you."

As the light died down Spyro noticed that everyone was gone and the cavern seemed to look even more dead than before. That didn't matter to him now though, he completed his mission, he gave everyone another chance. Spyro laid his head down for one last time, to finally have the peace he has always craved. Another tear added itself to the mixture of blood as it rolled down his snout.

'I'm sorry Cynder, I hope that someday you can forgive me for leaving you.'

As Spyro closed his eyes, he began to hear a number of voices speaking in an unknown language. As they began to get closer the voices increased in volume, probably because they noticed the state he was in.

As he began to drift into the black void, he gave one last prayer to the ancestors.

'Please watch over Cynder for me and keep her safe.'

As the voices seemed to be right on top of him he finally gave in to the black void and exhaled his last breath.